An eye for Soil
Caliche (a form of travertine that grows in soil in dry climates) on a base of Columbia River basalt, both from Sherman County. This piece was commissioned by the Oregon Chapter of the Association of Engineering Geologists as an award for longtime member and PSU professor Scott Burns.
When AEG asked me to make an award for Scott, I was thrilled at the opportunity to honor an old friend and great colleague. My goal was to make something that highlighted some of the Oregon geology that Scott is known for and so clearly loves. Hence, “An Eye for Soil”, recognizing Scott’s expertise and evangelism for understanding soil, in both the pedogenic and engineering sense, and his mission to bring geology to the masses, typified by “Cataclysms on the Columbia” his excellent book describing the Missoula Floods and Columbia River Flood Basalt.
This sculpture features a piece of caliche-cemented Missoula flood sediment on a base of Columbia River Basalt. The caliche was collected in the Columbia River gorge near Rufus. It is surprisingly dense and hard, and has complicated internal layering which I tried to reveal by carving out the “eye” and shaping and polishing the edges. The basalt comes from a quarry in Biggs Junction, excavated in an unusually thick flow of the Sand Hollow basalt of the Frenchman Springs Member of the Wanapum Basalt. The base of this hundred-meter-thick flow is dense, black, phonolitic, and breaks with a conchoidal fracture, producing interesting textures on the broken surface. When polished with a diamond brush, it takes on an almost vitreous luster.
HxWxD: 8", 12", 4"
Caliche 17,000 years old, basalt 16 million.
Not Available
When AEG asked me to make an award for Scott, I was thrilled at the opportunity to honor an old friend and great colleague. My goal was to make something that highlighted some of the Oregon geology that Scott is known for and so clearly loves. Hence, “An Eye for Soil”, recognizing Scott’s expertise and evangelism for understanding soil, in both the pedogenic and engineering sense, and his mission to bring geology to the masses, typified by “Cataclysms on the Columbia” his excellent book describing the Missoula Floods and Columbia River Flood Basalt.
This sculpture features a piece of caliche-cemented Missoula flood sediment on a base of Columbia River Basalt. The caliche was collected in the Columbia River gorge near Rufus. It is surprisingly dense and hard, and has complicated internal layering which I tried to reveal by carving out the “eye” and shaping and polishing the edges. The basalt comes from a quarry in Biggs Junction, excavated in an unusually thick flow of the Sand Hollow basalt of the Frenchman Springs Member of the Wanapum Basalt. The base of this hundred-meter-thick flow is dense, black, phonolitic, and breaks with a conchoidal fracture, producing interesting textures on the broken surface. When polished with a diamond brush, it takes on an almost vitreous luster.
HxWxD: 8", 12", 4"
Caliche 17,000 years old, basalt 16 million.
Not Available
