O, the massive gabbros!
The ophiolitic sequence
Pillow lavas and sheeted dikes.
The Moho -
Peridotite in its original form
And if water has reached it it is serpentine.
The ocean lithosphere
Plutonic rock and
Cumulate crystals.
There is some gabbro in Elba,
But there are no sheeted-dike
Complexes in Italy.
Radiolarian chert!
An Ordovician intrusion
Pushing aside the geosynclines.
Marine-invertebrate families
Expand, decline, rise again
Across Phanerozoic time.
California was a mythic island
Ruled over by the black amazon queen Califa
“And there was no metal but gold”.
At Smartville, Sucker Flat, Poverty Hill
Rough and Ready, Angels Camp, You Bet
They washed away the auriferous gravels.
In the augite porphyrite
Formed at spreading centers,
They dug the gold and went home poor.
“You probably took the Guadalupe Box for granite” I said.
“No”, he said, “it’s gneiss”.
Geologists can be jokers too.
