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By Jay, on May 3rd, 2012% 
The Raleigh, North Carolina area is a peneplain. The area has been devoid of any mountain building events for quite some time so the land surface has very low relief. As a result, outcrops of exposed metamorphic bedrock across the Piedmont physiographic province are few and far between. Additionally, bedrock may be covered by a literal veneer of dense soil and/or saprolite which conceals the bedrock below by mere inches.
But fear not! I am a trained geologist and have become adept at finding these obscure bedrock outcrops. So for reference, and in case anyone wants to go and visit, lets start with a map that I cobbed together.
Site Location of Bedrock Outcrop along US-401 South, Raleigh, North Carolina – photo by J. Sents, 2012
I used the Wake County iMAPS GIS [Beta] for the base layers used to create the map above. The location presents itself as an unpaved, unmarked parking lot. Along the southern edge of the lot, a stand of trees and bushes conceals the exposed bedrock. So a few days after the initial identification of this site, I made first contact with my camera and compass.
Bedrock Outcrop Photograph facing South – photo . . . → Read More: Raleigh Bedrock Outcrop
By Jay, on November 29th, 2011% Well, I say quick, but not entirely. It took me 3 hours to hike up to this location. Then I saw this scene. I thought it looked pretty cool but knew it was going to be difficult to develop unless I went black & white.
The location shall remain unnamed for now. I’ll give you a hint though: I’ve been here before and posted some other photos from this place. It’s a long story that I hope to have cleared up in due time.
Enjoy this Day After Thanksgiving photograph:
The day after Thanksgiving – I think WordPress nerfed the image quality a little – photo by J. Sents, 2011
By Jay, on November 5th, 2011% Sunday November 6th, 2011 at 0200 hours [that's 2:00 a.m. to most], your clocks will have to “fall back” one hour. So 2 becomes 1. It would probably work just the same to set them back one hour before you go to bed Saturday night [tonight].
Now is an excellent time to check your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as other household battery-powered emergency alarm systems.
Finally, be sure to update the clocks in your automobiles. Be safe driving until you adjust to the light conditions, and enjoy sleeping in Sunday morning!
By Jay, on October 8th, 2011% 
The predecessor post to this one below lays out the story of the mystery fragment of copper I found at Kure Beach, North Carolina near Fort Fisher. So I gathered up some photographs and sent them along to the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology. Here is the reply verbatim:
It looks to me like an expansion ring from a 40mm Bofors machine gun/cannon projectile. The projectile was steel but the copper expansion ring was designed to catch the rifling in the barrel and often broke away when fired. The grooves that are visible in the “lighted relief” photo look like rifling marks. In the attached photo you can see one that remained on the projectile after firing–this one was found on Kure Beach also.
Kure Beach 40mm Bofors Round – photo by UAB of NC Office of State Archaeology, 2011
Anyway, that’s my best guess. We see dozens of those things every summer when people are out beachcombing. Kure Beach was an artillery training camp during WWII, focusing on anti-aircraft weapons practice. Evidence of this activity is all over the beach, primarily the result of beach renourishment where a dredge boat removes sediments . . . → Read More: Copper Fragment Update!
By Jay, on October 2nd, 2011% 
Earlier in the Summer on a trip to Kure Beach, North Carolina, I just happened to find a small piece of copper in the Coquina Rocks. In a nutshell, the Coquina Rocks are essentially a partially submerged outcrop of sedimentary rocks found near the southern end of Kure Beach near the Fort Fisher Recreational Area. More on Coquina Rocks later…
I was walking along, carefully maneuvering through the Coquina Rocks during during Maximum Ebb Tide this one day. Many people apparently scout the micro-lagoons formed in the cracks and crevasses of the rocks during Low Tide looking for sharks teeth. I really don’t care for sharks, let alone their teeth but these people do. I looked down and saw a gold-red glint with a hint of bright green. Below are some photographs of what I found:
The rule is for scale. It is a standard engineer rule with 1/10th-inch graduations. What is the green stuff? Well that would be considered a marine concretion. First, the environment here is [or has been] oxygenated enough that copper and copper alloys would corrode and oxidize. Chemically unweathered copper is a golden, reddish-brown in most cases. An oxidized copper surface is usually black . . . → Read More: Marine Concretion on a Copper Fragment
By Jay, on September 4th, 2011% ‘More stars in the north are seen not to set, while in the south certain stars are no longer seen to rise.‘ — Nicolaus Copernicus
By Jay, on August 23rd, 2011% I felt that one. I’ll give it a III-IV on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. My refrigerator would concur. Here are the preliminary technical details from the United States Geological Survey. Sheesh. Hurricanes. Earthquakes. The End is Nigh!
More to follow…
By Jay, on July 17th, 2011% I had never heard of Conquina Rocks until I took an impromptu visit to the Outer Banks of North Carolina last week. These rocks are very important to the community of Kure Beach. Kure is pronounced “Keer-Eee”. I’m going to delve into Coquina Rocks a little more as well as some other coastal processes sometime this week… hopefully. There’s a lot going on but with any luck, this rather cool photograph will suffice for now.
By Jay, on June 29th, 2011% Digital photography is like numerical computer modeling: It’s all one giant sensitivity analysis.
By Jay, on June 13th, 2011% There were a couple of small bug fixes that I just took care of on the page. I say small. However, stuff like no spaces after commas stand out to my eyes like blaze orange against lime green. Any way, it should be sorted now.
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