Accretionary Wedge 5 and 6

Late last week, the fifth and most recent installation of Accretionary Wedge was posted at Green Gabbro. The topic was Geologic mythconceptions. Go there to read about such foolish misunderstandings as: the mantle is molten, people sink in lava, or Ar/Ar is superior to U/Pb.

Next month’s plate scraping will occur here. The theme for Accretionary wedge number 6?

Things that make you go "hmmm."

I want to know what you want to know. What geological mystery intrigues you. What process or event in the history of terrestrial planets are you dying to find out?

This doesn’t have to be the focus of your research. It can be some big picture thang that nobody has any handle on (When did the inner core solidify? Whenever you wanted it to). It can be a broad question that is outside your field. Or it can be some tiny piece of minutiae that appeared to be totally trivial until somebody realized that it was crucially important for answering big questions.

Non-geologist lemming lab loungers are welcome to participate as well. Is there anything about this six billion billion billion gram peridot that you ever wanted to know? Have you heard of some Earth trivia that sounds impossible to scientifically prove? Do you own a grey, featureless rock that you’d like Chris from Highly Allochthonous to identify for you?

Post the targets of your curiosity on your own blog, and supply me with the link. Deadline is February 17 ± 2 (2 sigma, no decay constant error) of this (calendar) year.