Comments on: Electoral and Geologic Boundaries

By: George Copenhaver

George Copenhaver — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:18:49 +0000

Can geologists in the “San Diego Corner” explore other areas (Arizona) outside their little domain…?! The batholiths around here are too young. I’d like to get across the River and experience Precambrian rocks for a change.

About 100 years ago, San Diego County extended all the way to the Colorado. But then the farmers got in the way, not being compatable with San Diego surfer types I guess…

At least I got to know Bill Rehrig, Bob Wilson and some others in my career!

By: BrianR

BrianR — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:42:08 +0000

Steve … wow, I hadn’t noticed the floodplain relationship … very interesting.

By: Steve Gough

Steve Gough — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:11:17 +0000

Interesting post! Arkansas, where I grew up, really stands out, doesn’t it? The reasons are complex, but racism plays a big role–at the end of the Civil War, former slaves outnumbered whites in much of the coastal plain and Mississippi floodplain in the southern and eastern parts of the state. Zoom in on Arkansas and Mississippi at the NY Times map to see the blue floodplain counties. To this day, the lower delta is very black and mountainous northwest Arkansas very, very white. And poor. Racial tension is still sadly high, and there’s a lot of geographic self-segregation. So geology/geomorphology DO affect the red/blue division, but mainly, I think, because of how they influenced agriculture and slavery.

By: Chris Rowan

Chris Rowan — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:49:22 +0000

Excess magnetic fields make you republican

So why was I feeling so happy on Wednesday morning?

By: Lab Lemming

Lab Lemming — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:40:12 +0000

Gee, I wonder where in the orogen the coal mines are located…

By: GeologyJoe

GeologyJoe — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:13:35 +0000

I was thinking it was geomagnetic effect of the New Madrid fault area.
Excess magnetic fields make you republican. or something silly like

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:36:09 +0000

When I saw that electoral map, I also immediately thought “hey, that’s the Appalachian-Ouachita belt!” It’s interesting that the Alleghenian-Ouachita orogeny is red, but the Taconian part of the Appalachians is more blue.