PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast

Dive into the fascinating world of Mammoth Cave with Dr. Jesse Reimink and Chris Bolhuis in this episode of Planet Geo. From understanding the types of passageways formed by ancient underground rivers to exploring the intricate and beautiful cave decorations like stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone, this episode provides a comprehensive and engaging look at one of the natural wonders of the world. Whether you’re preparing for a...

In this episode, Chris Bolhuis and Dr. Jesse Reimink dive into the complexities of Zircon grains from the Jack Hills conglomerate in Western Australia—some of the Earth's oldest fragments. They discuss the environmental conditions necessary for their formation and survival, the role of magma differentiation in creating intermediate to felsic rocks, and the geochemical analysis using oxygen and hafnium isotopes which indicate t...

In this episode of Planet Geo, Chris Bolhuis and Dr. Jesse Reimink dive deep into the geology of the Grand Teton National Park. They cover the park's ancient rock formations, from the Archean gneiss to the granites formed around 2.5 billion years ago. The discussion also explores significant geological events like the Severe and Laramide orogenies, the impact of the Yellowstone Hotspot Track, and the glacial activity that scul...

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On the app you can get tons of free content, exclusive images, and access to our Geology of National Parks series.
You can also learn the basics of geology at the college level in our FREE CampGeo content series - get learning now!

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This episode is Part 2 of our Mammoth Cave series - where we discuss the geological setup that enabled creation of the longest cave system in the world. 

The geology of the region, including the Green River, set the stage for the formation of Mammoth Cave, the largest cave system that has been mapped. 

Stay tuned for our third installment on Mammoth Cave, where we discuss the cave 'decorations' or minera...

Download the CampGeo app now at this link.

On the app you can get tons of free content, exclusive images, and access to our Geology of National Parks series.
You can also learn the basics of geology at the college level in our FREE CampGeo content series - get learning now!

Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating!

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This is the first episode in a series of 3 on the world's longest cave system - Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.  In this episode, Chris and Jesse talk a little about Mammoth and some of its impressive statistics.  The focus however, is more about the necessary ingredients for cave development in general.  We talk about the 4 general ingredients: suitable rock type, a solvent, hydraulic gradient, and time.  We also go into some detai...

In this episode, Jesse and Chris talk about the geology of Iceland - although we keep it at a high level.  We're going to come back to this - Iceland - later after Chris returns from his trip.  Then, we'll get into some of detail that makes Iceland so unique.  Here, we discuss how Iceland might be a prototype for the formation of continents and also talk a bit about the diversity of igneous rocks that make up the Island. ...

Hardpan!  Where did this idea for an episode come from?  Chris has  been doing a ton of yard work lately and it’s not uncommon come across a layer when digging a hole that is next to impossible to penetrate. He has to bust out my pick axe to get through it.  It's  Called Hardpan.

• Really dense layer that often occurs below the topsoil.  
• Problems:
  • Roots can’t penetrate into the hardpan (Hayden Valley in YNP).  Trees are ea...

Download the CampGeo app now at this link.

On the app you can get tons of free content, exclusive images, and access to our Geology of National Parks series.
You can also learn the basics of geology at the college level in our FREE CampGeo content series - get learning now!

Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating!

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Today we really go into the weeds.

Jesse and a colleague just published a paper in the journal Nature that proposes a new model for how continents became stable. Stable continents have all the granite at the surface, which contains all the heat producing elements like U and Th and K - elements that decay away.

Today, we discuss that paper in detail, and along the way learn a bit about the early Earth, what we kn...

Today, Chris and Jesse get into a discussion about Earth’s oldest material.  Earth is 4.568 Billion years old.  First of all, that’s amazing the geochronologists have refined this down to 3 decimal places.  How do we know this?  The oldest grains ever found are 4.38 billion years old.  If that’s the case, then how do we know the Earth is significantly older than that?  Join us as we answer that and many other important questions ab...

In this episode, we tackle a listener question regarding planning a geology trip for students.  Both Chris and Jesse have quite a bit of experience in planning and executing field excursions for students.  We believe that seeing geology in the field is one of the most powerful learning opportunities for students of all levels.  In our discussion, we talk about the difficulties in convincing the higher-ups that this is actually a go...

Download the CampGeo app now at this link.

On the app you can get tons of free content, exclusive images, and access to our Geology of National Parks series.
You can also learn the basics of geology at the college level in our FREE CampGeo content series - get learning now!

Like, Subscribe, and leave us a Rating!

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Instagram: @planetgeocast
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Join us as we have the honor of interviewing Dr. John Douglas.  Jesse and Chris have been following his research on how the Grand Canyon was actually formed for some time.  We have recently finished our audio-visual book on the Grand Canyon (Link above) and we have a chapter dedicated to the actual cutting of the Canyon.  The answer to this question has been elusive, but there are a few leading theories.  John has been leading the ...

The idea for this episode came from the comment section of a social media post.  It has it's roots in one of the biggest misconceptions in Geology and also Geochronology.  The comment was about radio-carbon dating and how it's been "proven" to be unreliable.  In this episode, Jesse and Chris have a discussion about the "toolbox" for geochronoligists and we also spend a lot of time talking about Uranium...

In charge of the Nations Rock Collection.  That's a pretty sweet job description.  Join us as we have the honor of interviewing Dr. Mike Ackerson.  In this episode, we certainly get into some detail about igneous petrology.  Mike and Jesse are good friends and have spent some time discussing things that introductory geology classes take for granted.  For instance, there are some questions on the formation of granite.  This mig...

Today, Jesse and Chris discuss the geology of Nickel - The Devil’s Metal.  Surprisingly, Earth’s core has a high percentage of Nickel - 10 to 20% of the core is nickel.  We allow ourselves the luxury of getting into the details on nickel and why the core has so much.  Of all the metals we’ve discussed on the podcast, the geology of nickel is the most complicated.  In addition to discussing the geologic settings that form or concent...

Today, we have the another great interview - Dr. Anji Shah.   She works for the USGS and has done a lot of work on heavy-mineral sands and critical elements.  In this discussion, we talk about the paleo-environment that could concentrate critical minerals in heavy sands.  Dr. Shah also tells us how "airborn geophysics" is important in looking for mineral deposits over huge areas that are often canopy covered.  We hope you...