After an unexpected hiatus, hosts Jane and Ellen return with a down and dirty episode about soil. Jane reveals her childhood experiences with a DIY mud spa before digging into the agricultural and geological definitions for soil. They discuss the four main components of soil: inorganics, organics, water, and air or gas. They talk about how to identify soil texture and soil structure. They also discuss soil profile and soil horizons (which are similar to cake layers, but less delicious). They review the processes and factors that form soil. And finally, they explain the 12 basic soil orders used for soil taxonomy by USDA scientists. Note: this dirty, filthy episode is approved for audiences.

Our main source for this episode is: The Nature and Properties of Soils (14th ed.), Nyle C. Brady, and Ray R. Weil

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Hosts Jane and Ellen finish each other’s… sandwiches in this “Frozen” episode about glaciers. Glaciers are a body of moving ice that has been formed on land by the compaction and recrystallization of snow. They take forms like valley, ice sheet, or outlet, because, really, who’s going to tell them not to. Learn why glaciers are more likely to form at the equator than at 30 degrees latitude north and south, and find out how glacial budget has its pluses and minuses. Let it go and enjoy this frosty episode.

Our main source for this episode is Process geomorphology (5th ed.), Ritter, Kochel, & Miller.

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

We’re devoting this episode to the season’s most dreaded stocking stuffer, coal. Travel back in time to the Paleozoic era, where coal starts as rotten plants. Add heat, pressure, and time, and quick as a wink from old Saint Nick - you’ve got coal! And like Santa’s naughty or nice list, learn how coal is graded into four types: lignite, sub bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. Return to the present, where coal provides 38.5% of the world’s electrical power, and glimpse at the future of alternative fuels. BYO hot chocolate. 

Sources:
How is Steel Produced? by the World Coal Association: https://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-coal/how-steel-produced

Annual Energy Review by the US Energy Information Administration: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/ 

How Much Do You Consume? by the US Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov/articles/how-much-do-you-consume  

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

What’s big and deadly, and travels faster than a jet plane? It’s a tsunami. Hosts Jane and Ellen explain how ocean waves become tsunamis. They talk about the basic properties of waves, and the differences between tidal waves and tsunamis. They also talk about some famous tsunamis. (Spoiler alert - don’t expect a happy ending.)

Sources:

Introduction to Oceanology by Paul Webb, offered online by Roger Williams University
https://rwu.pressbooks.pub/webboceanography/chapter/chapter-10-waves/ 

Japan Revives a Sea Barrier That Failed to Hold by Norimitsu Onishi for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world/asia/japan-revives-a-sea-barrier-that-failed-to-hold.html 

Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 by Kenneth Pletcher for Encyclopedia Brittanica Online
https://www.britannica.com/event/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011

Tsunami alert twitter feeds from the US National Weather Service:

https://twitter.com/NWS_NTWC 

https://twitter.com/NWS_PTWC 

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Jane interrupts our scheduled discussion of tsunamis to take us on a Magic Schoolbus-like field trip to Missouri’s Elephant Rocks State Park. Along the way we learn a bit about Missouri’s history, and culture (mort importantly the three Bs of St. Louis: Beer, Blues, and Barbeque). We also learn cool stuff about the geology of this Gateway to the West state. Granite domes & tors abound! And in the immortal words of Miss Frizzle, “Seatbelts, everyone!”

Our sources for this episode are:

Process geomorphology (5th ed.), Ritter, Kochel, & Miller.

Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology (9th ed.), by Tarbuck & Lutgens

The Missouri State Parks page for elephant rocks state park: https://mostateparks.com/park/elephant-rocks-state-park

Field Trip No. 6: Rapakivi Granites and Related Rocks in the St. Francois Mountains Southeast Missouri by Kisvarsanyi and Hebrank

Geologic Wonders and Curiosities of Missouri, 2nd ed, revised by Vineyard

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

So you think you’ve got problems… imagine what happens when the earth’s crust is under stress and strain. Learn about the forces that cause earthquakes, and how structural geologists measure them. This episode is guaranteed to give you the shimmy shakes. (Guarantee not legally enforceable, but it’s still pretty cool.)

Our main source for this episode is Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology (9th ed.), by Tarbuck & Lutgens

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

In this episode, we learn that some rocks have more than a killer attitude — they’re actually deadly. Lock all the doors and turn down the lights as hosts Jane and Ellen tell spooktacular tales about the many horrible ways rocks can kill you. Whatever you do, don’t listen to this episode…alone! Bwahaha! ☠️

Our sources for this episode are:

Killer Clothing Was All the Rage in the 19th Century, by Becky Little for National Geographic

Arsenic Pills and Lead Foundation: The history of toxic Makeup, by Becky Little for National Geographic

Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals, by Chris Pellant

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

WARNING: In this episode, we talk about minerals that are dangerous to human health. If you choose to handle or experiment with them, you do so at your own risk. If you do, we recommend handling them in a lab setting under the supervision of a trained professional.

In this episode, we learn about all things volcano: where they’re found, how they’re formed, and even how volcanologists use them for cooking. We also learn that the Tectonic Plate struggle is real, and that volcanoes are some of the evidence. Crank up the A/C and get ready to go with the lava flow in this sizzling episode.

Our main source for this episode is Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology (9th ed.), by Tarbuck & Lutgens.

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.