It’s snowing again… a good excuse for more wintertime reading and celebrating the bountiful winter conditions with the family.

I really appreciated the perspective John Slack (Boreal Agrominerals, Ontario, Canada) brought to this year’s Soil & Nutrition Conference.  His presentation on the “Agricultural Landscape:  The Geochemical Province” inspired a trip to the library to pick up James Skehan’s Roadside Geology of Massachusetts.  John is fond of testing soils well beyond the top 6” weak acid Morgan analysis… favoring a deep soil analysis, examining soils through the A, B, & C horizon using a stronger Aqua Regia extract to determine geochemistry; with a bit of help from US Geological Service – (USGS) Maps.  Really excited to learn that John Slack will be working with the Bionutrient Food Association to carryout a soils mapping project in the Northeast this April.

For those looking for a quick perspective of Massachusetts Geology – Check out the article by Barosh & Miller (.pdf) posted on the Environmental Engineering Geologists Website.  Of course there is always the Wikipedia perspective.

I found the Bedrock Geological Map of Massachusetts (published in 1983) on the USGS website and also their online maps quite helpful – check out their Digital Geological Maps by State, to learn about your state…  Learned something new, we’ve got Alaskite (an alkali granite) as the bedrock under the farm on Bakerville Road in Dartmouth.

MIT Open Courseware has an Introduction to Geology Course available for those looking to gain a basic introduction to the topic.

Enjoy the storm.