Glacial Erratics. Good name for a band. And I really like the one YOU captured. Bet it put up a perty good fight, too. Mine did. Living in New England, I’m familiar with the term. But it seems often misused. Huge, lonely boulders in a field have often been called such. Incorrectimundo. A glacial erratic is any rock found in one of the moraines the glaciers either pushed forward or left behind, depending on your aspect. It is a rock not of its surrounding Host Rock. Brought in. Alien rock! Yes, the big ones get all the attention. *sigh* But seldom are they Glacial Erratics. I’ve encountered many thousands of white granite Boulders and Cobbles (another good name for a band) following excavations on the Connecticut and Rhode Island coasts. This plethora of small stonage was brought from New Hampshire’s White Mountains by the glaciers that retreated nineteen thousand years ago. That white granite rock isn’t native to this area and IS native to the White Mountains, and its rounded features show it to have been constantly rolled on its long journey here from the only place white granite of that sort occurs. North of here, from where the glaciers descended. Bringing all that rock. And so we have the masses of Long Island, Fisher’s Island, Block Island, What’s Left of Napatree after the 1938 Hurricane, and Martha’s Vineyard left to show the final extent of the glaciers. Their Terminal Moraine. The END of the Glacial Advance. Terminal Moraine. And though some areas are sandy, they are still underlain by many billions of tons of rounded boulders and cobbles that can indeed be called “Glacial Erratics.” All of them. YES!! ALL OF THEM!!!!!! It makes me crazy! So Crazy I know I’m going to kill someone… NO! NO! Not the NOOSE! Ack ghaaaa ugkhh Chkkkuhhh…
Several deep breaths later (and after dispatching those with torches and pitchforks).
Damn, it’s difficult, living in New England….
But the locals continue to call giant boulders twenty feet high “Glacial Erratics” because they stand out, and the vernacular of this part of Connecticut sounds better when you use the term “glacial erratic.” Makes you sound sort of educated. Not me. You. Or someone else. Many of those giant rocks are made of gneiss, or schist. Local rock. That which makes up The Ground around these parts. Not Erratic at all. But most locals call them that. They do not know that the hundreds of feet beneath Theirs contain so many Glacial Erratics that they would PUKE if they knew. EEEwwwww… But in geological understanding of the masses, we have conceded the few giant granite boulders we have to the Erratiphiles. Grok bless them. They’ll need all the help they can get once we rid this planet of your species. See how weird things can get? In the blink of an eye. Unlike the geological forces that cause
In questioning the authenticity of oft-claimed glacial erratics in general, you have cast aspersions on my own. I might challenge you to a duel, I say, a duel, sirrah, were it not for my newly hatched theory that mine is probably not, repeat NOT, a glacial erratic as well. He is but a poor soul who was run down in the prime of his life BY said glacial erratic, the actual alien erratic now long gone, as it were, and buried deep beneath the surface. Note the scour scratches. So rather than shoot you, I thank you for your scrupulously thorough diatribe on New England geology. It is duly noted.
Ah. Well, then, kind sirrah yourself, your point is well taken and understood. Had I but KNOWN that your erratic was so erratic as to be run down by one of our slow-moving erratics, I would have stood back to watch. But I haven't the time to do such a thing without taking out a mortgage on the ground on which I stand, so I can only say thank you for the evidence of such an encounter. Your guy sounds perty slow, I gotta admit.
Glacial Erratics. Good name for a band.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really like the one YOU captured. Bet it put up a perty good fight, too. Mine did.
Living in New England, I’m familiar with the term. But it seems often misused.
Huge, lonely boulders in a field have often been called such.
Incorrectimundo.
A glacial erratic is any rock found in one of the moraines the glaciers either pushed forward or left behind, depending on your aspect.
It is a rock not of its surrounding Host Rock.
Brought in.
Alien rock!
Yes, the big ones get all the attention. *sigh* But seldom are they Glacial Erratics.
I’ve encountered many thousands of white granite Boulders and Cobbles (another good name for a band) following excavations on the Connecticut and Rhode Island coasts. This plethora of small stonage was brought from New Hampshire’s White Mountains by the glaciers that retreated nineteen thousand years ago. That white granite rock isn’t native to this area and IS native to the White Mountains, and its rounded features show it to have been constantly rolled on its long journey here from the only place white granite of that sort occurs. North of here, from where the glaciers descended. Bringing all that rock.
And so we have the masses of Long Island, Fisher’s Island, Block Island, What’s Left of Napatree after the 1938 Hurricane, and Martha’s Vineyard left to show the final extent of the glaciers. Their Terminal Moraine.
The END of the Glacial Advance. Terminal Moraine.
And though some areas are sandy, they are still underlain by many billions of tons of rounded boulders and cobbles that can indeed be called “Glacial Erratics.” All of them. YES!! ALL OF THEM!!!!!!
It makes me crazy! So Crazy I know I’m going to kill someone… NO! NO! Not the NOOSE!
Ack ghaaaa ugkhh
Chkkkuhhh…
Several deep breaths later (and after dispatching those with torches and pitchforks).
Damn, it’s difficult, living in New England….
But the locals continue to call giant boulders twenty feet high “Glacial Erratics” because they stand out, and the vernacular of this part of Connecticut sounds better when you use the term “glacial erratic.” Makes you sound sort of educated. Not me.
You.
Or someone else.
Many of those giant rocks are made of gneiss, or schist. Local rock. That which makes up The Ground around these parts. Not Erratic at all. But most locals call them that.
They do not know that the hundreds of feet beneath Theirs contain so many Glacial Erratics that they would PUKE if they knew.
EEEwwwww…
But in geological understanding of the masses, we have conceded the few giant granite boulders we have to the Erratiphiles.
Grok bless them.
They’ll need all the help they can get once we rid this planet of your species.
See how weird things can get? In the blink of an eye.
Unlike the geological forces that cause
Glacial Erratics.
Playing in your town soon.
In questioning the authenticity of oft-claimed glacial erratics in general, you have cast aspersions on my own. I might challenge you to a duel, I say, a duel, sirrah, were it not for my newly hatched theory that mine is probably not, repeat NOT, a glacial erratic as well. He is but a poor soul who was run down in the prime of his life BY said glacial erratic, the actual alien erratic now long gone, as it were, and buried deep beneath the surface. Note the scour scratches. So rather than shoot you, I thank you for your scrupulously thorough diatribe on New England geology. It is duly noted.
ReplyDeleteAh. Well, then, kind sirrah yourself, your point is well taken and understood. Had I but KNOWN that your erratic was so erratic as to be run down by one of our slow-moving erratics, I would have stood back to watch. But I haven't the time to do such a thing without taking out a mortgage on the ground on which I stand, so I can only say thank you for the evidence of such an encounter. Your guy sounds perty slow, I gotta admit.
ReplyDeleteHe was. And is. Slower'n ever. Now.
ReplyDelete