Japan is a country that is blessed by the sea. The island nation, surrounded by ocean on every side, is famous worldwide for its picturesque markets full of fish street food and unique seafood delicacies. It is impossible not to imagine postcard panoramas of old fishing towns, small rocky coves, shrines and temples with red torii gates, standing out over the blue waters, and mountains in the background, when thinking about Japan. However, as soon as you reach the country, you immediately start to realize that the relationship of the Japanese with the sea looks more like a cold war. The coast ..read more

Joshua Tree is a place where geology reigns supreme. Visitors cannot help but feeling in awe with the majestic landscape around and ask themselves: what geological processes produced such beautiful rock formations? The over 3000 square kilometers [about 1200 square miles] of the park are sprinkled by piles of massive boulders of granite – rock formations known as tors – towering the surrounding sparsely vegetated hilly landscape . These formations vary in size from isolated groups of boulders to entire mountains. The origin of these rock formations has in part to do with the clim ..read more

If you remember my previous post, you will remember that I have left you with one question: what are the ‘dark balls’ in the granite? Granites are spectacular objects deriving from the crystallization of magma at depth. When we can finally see them, exposed by erosion and other processes on the surface of our planet, we see them as solid aggregates of crystals and we may erroneously think that there is no way anymore to understand the processes acting in the magma when it was still molten. Yet, you just need to look around to see many igneous structures formed in liquid magma, like the ‘dark b ..read more

I was a student the first time I visited the outcrops of Sant’Andrea in the far 2011. We must have looked really weird: a class of noisy people with hammers and yellow helmets! Nevertheless, this did not discouraged the people walking on the cliffs to aask us a very simple question about the curious-looking rocks that were all around us: “What are the white ‘stones’ in the rocks?” Sant’Andrea is an outcrop of the Monte Capanne monzogranite, a type of intrusive rock deriving from the solidification of magma at depth. Differently from lava erupted at surface by volcanoes, which cools down in s ..read more

Elba is a paradise for beach lovers and summer sports, with its delicate coastal sceneries and scented footpaths hidden by the Mediterranean scrub. Certainly, except if you have visited the island in December like me, a desert is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the island. Yet, this little island in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea has an ancient desert among its geological wonders. Spiaggia della Madonna, close to Madonna delle Grazie near Capoliveri, is, perhaps, the place with the best ‘mirages’ of this ancient desert. The beach lies in a small cove, hidden betwee ..read more

Today we venture in one of the most spectacular – yet lesser-known – places of Arizona: Walnut Canyon. Walnut canyon is a marvel of nature and one of the nicest examples of how ancient civilizations exploited the geology of their territory to their advantage. The canyon entrance is spectacular! You reach the canyon from the visitor center to the north, not too far away from Flagstaff, entering a meander of the Walnut Creek. The canyon rim stands 2040 (6690 ft) meters above sea level and about 105 meters (350 ft) over the canyon floor. The entrance of Walnut Canyon from the visitor center ..read more

When I was teaching with the course of Geology I in Pisa, I used to tell students: “the best way to learn how to recognize minerals is to start from big samples”. I think we are exaggerating here. Ascending the Moriglion di Penna mountain on windy May day. Some time ago, stressed by lockdowns, restrictions, and stuff, we went on a hike on the Moriglion di Penna, a mountain near Lucca that watches a metamorphosed carbonatic massif. While we were climbing to the top, something on the ground suddenly captured my attention… There is something else other than dirt on the ground. What is this ..read more

Rocks are not all equal. Before you call me a rock racist, what I mean is that different rocks have very different chemistry, which determines what chemical reactions can happen, for example when they are exposed to hot hydrothermal fluids. The result? Beautiful crystals which grow only where chemistry allows them to: The Norsi coast exposes a complex of limestones and shales of Cretaceous age, known as the Palombini shales, oceanic sediments deformed during subduction in the early Apennine belt. The Norsi coast showcases cliffs of shale and limestone with a turbulent past. These rocks where ..read more

Joshua Tree is a place where geology reigns supreme. Visitors cannot help but feeling in awe with the majestic landscape around and ask themselves: what geological processes produced such beautiful rock formations? The over 3000 square kilometers [about 1200 square miles] of the park are sprinkled by piles of massive boulders of granite – rock formations known as tors – towering the surrounding sparsely vegetated hilly landscape . These formations vary in size from isolated groups of boulders to entire mountains. The origin of these rock formations has in part to do with the clim ..read more

If you remember my previous post, you will remember that I have left you with one question: what are the ‘dark balls’ in the granite? Granites are spectacular objects deriving from the crystallization of magma at depth. When we can finally see them, exposed by erosion and other processes on the surface of our planet, we see them as solid aggregates of crystals and we may erroneously think that there is no way anymore to understand the processes acting in the magma when it was still molten. Yet, you just need to look around to see many igneous structures formed in liquid magma, like the ‘dark b ..read more