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more bluestone in the geologic column
Sunday, February 22 2009
At various times today, I continued with my steady chipping away at the stone bottom of the greenhouse's new "cave hole." I had this idea that I would find fractured shale all the way down to the earth's mantle and that the main difficulty of digging would be to carry away the shards of broken stone. But after I'd dug down to a depth of six inches or so, the stone became considerably harder. At first I assumed that I'd cut through the surface layer of cracked shale and now there were no faults in the lower layers of bedrock. But then I examined a piece of this hard material and was astonished to find that it wasn't shale at all. It was bluestone, that is, dark fine-grained sandstone. It seems that the shale layer beneath the greenhouse is only about six inches deep before being replaced by a solid subfloor of bluestone, the emblematic rock of the Catskills. This came as a complete surprise to me. I knew that there was bluestone higher up the geologic column, at the elevation of the woodshed and parts of the driveway, but I'd assumed that beneath that layer the geologic column was entirely shale all the way down to the level of the Esopus Valley floor. This piece of bluestone from the hole in my greenhouse floor was the first solid evidence that there are at least two (and probably more) separate layers of bluestone in the geologic column. Indeed, terraces (such as the one followed by the Stick Trail) in the escarpment-rich landscape give a good indication of where those bluestone beds lie. It's important to note that the bluestone beds have a finite thickness and it wouldn't be impossible to break all the way through one to reach another weak bed of shale beneath. Bluestone would make an excellent ceiling for a series of hand-dug catacombs.
This evening Gretchen, the dogs, and I went over to Penny and David's place to see the Oscars. Our friend Deborah and her huge dog Juneau were there as well. Dinner was a stir fry and, as usual for that venue, there was much drinking of wine. The Oscars is something I would never even consider seeing if left on my own, but since we were all gathered there to see it, I watched and tried not to offer too much commentary. The whole time all I could think was, "What is so compelling about famous people congratulating themselves for the things that have already made them famous?" For me, the answer to this question is "nothing." But the population at large loves to watch famous people every chance they get. This is why nobody invites friends over to watch the Nobel Prizes being bestowed. I don't even think the Nobel Prizes are televised in Sweden.
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