Courageous people showed up in the rural red town of Dillon, MT to protest the celebration of 1/6 criminals returning home. Courage is needed now more than ever. Stand to the wind!

The Dillon,Montana community celebrating the pardon and release of convicted 1/6 criminals who beat up cops. Despicable…🤮

First, Sudanese children, then Kansas farmers. We all eat or nobody eats…

The Trump administration’s refusal to adhere to court rulings shows that we are no longer operating under the rule of law. As a result, I am seeking a university teaching position abroad. If you are interested or connected to those who might be, my email is: [email protected]

A fear-based buyout has been offered to all federal employees. The goal? Privatize all government services and replace the presidency with a national CEO, a “dictator.” It’s more efficient. Trump will ignore the courts. I hope all MAGA suffer like Jesus on the cross…

Deleted my Tik Tok account. They praised the dictator for solving the problem he created. Not ok, bye…

Yellowstone National Park, truly making America great…

All the best from the Ripley-Thomas family in 2025. I hope for less human chaos and more science-based decision making. May we be kind, yet vigilant of those who will not be so. Be well…Rob

Friends, Consider joining the Montana Geology Facebook group! Started in the spring of 2020, we now boast about 20K enthusiasts! We only hope to spark interest in Montana Geology! We shall continue down this path in the new year. All the best…Rob Thomas www.facebook.com/share/g/15TP...

The Stillwater Complex, a 2.7 billion year old ultramafic-mafic layered intrusion in Montana. Check it out. www.facebook.com/share/p/15V1...

Montana’s Oldest Rocks www.facebook.com/share/p/1AoV...?

Montana has seen many episodes of volcanic activity, but none more odd than shonkinitic rocks of central Montana. Some of the oldest and most well exposed can be found in the Adel Mountains east of Helena. Learn more at the Montana Geology Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/20045...?

Ringing Rocks, Montana is a boulder field with stones that ring like a bell. A combination of a very hard, fine-grained gabbro and the stacking pattern of the boulders with no matrix appears to cause the sound. A rock removed from the pile will not ring!

The Mission Range in Montana is a major extensional fault block exposing 1.4 billion year old sedimentary rocks of the Belt Supergroup. The parallel lines on the hills in the foreground are shoreline notches from Glacial Lake Missoula.

Alligator gar scale in the Paleocene Ft. Union Formation at Medicine Rocks State Park in eastern Montana. The sediments were deposited in an estuary entering the Western Interior Seaway. The sandstone weathers into pillars, arches, windows and other odd geomorphic shapes.

Tyrannosaurus teeth recently excavated from the famous Two Medicine Formation (Egg Mountain) in Montana. It’s being prepared at the museum in Bynum, Montana. Headed north to Glacier on the east side? Stop in the museum, it’s excellent!

Hunting season in Montana and the muley’s know how to avoid lead poisoning.

Camp Fortunate today. The place in 1805 where Lewis and Clark met with the Shoshone and transitioned to land. The rock in the foreground is Mississippian limestone (~350 million years), loaded with fossils of corals, crinoids, brachiopods and bryozoans. They were apparently missed by the expedition!

The Great Unconformity in Montana records a time when Himalayan-sized mountains were eroded to their core of gneiss and pegmatite (PCm) from 1.8 billion to 515 million years ago. The erosional surface was transgressed by a rising sea, depositing beach sand (Cf) loaded with shells of marine animals.

Some 780 million years ago, a massive, singular continent, Rodinia, was being torn apart by convective forces within the Earth. In Glacier National Park this tumultuous event is marked by a thin, dark igneous rock, squirted between layers of limestone, the Purcell Sill, adding favor to Mt. Gould.

The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is located at the geologists hand below the dark coal layer. This boundary marks the demise of non-avian dinosaurs and the beginning of the rise of mammals, including humans, including an early primate found at this location. Makoshika SP, Montana.

Kangtega, also known as The Snow Saddle, rises 6,782 metres (22,251 ft) in the Himalaya of Nepal. It is composed of Precambrian metamorphic rock, permeated by dikes of leucogranite injected during the collision of India and Asia. Viewed from above Phortse, Nepal (Thomas, 2015).

About 10 Ma, this ashy lahar flowed from the Yellowstone hot spot in Idaho down the ancestral Missouri River into Montana and Hudson Bay. All mountain ranges in its path started forming about 4.5 million years ago from crustal collapse as plate movement moved the stationary hotspot to the northeast.

Late Oligocene (~27 Ma) flying insect from the Ruby Flora in the Renova Formation, southwest Montana. Very fine-grained lake sediments formed paper shales that preserved an incredible array of insects and plants, some with exquisite details. The lakes formed in internally-drained extensional basins.

Friends, I am here for intellectual discourse with those who are passionate about science, particularly geology. Political discussion of science and education is welcome, but no science denial. If you are on FB and interested in Montana Geology, check out that group. Best…Rob

Hello, friends, I am a geology professor at a university in Montana. I’m the co-author of the second editions of Roadside Geology of Yellowstone Country and Roadside Geology of Montana. I wish to interact with people of intellect, kindness and inclusion. The MAGA can stay away. Best…Rob