UHP Hell
A song from the Greek Exhumation GSA Penrose Conference
Words by Stephen Reynolds and fellow conspirators
Sung to the Tune of Tweeter and the Monkey Man
by the Traveling Wilburys
(member Bob Dylan clearly wrote this one)
Verse 1
Uwe, Mark, and Lois
Took us all to Crete
To talk of exhumation
With the Orthodoxy Elite
We thought that we'd learn something
Jet-lagged through the talks
Or maybe see some blueschists
On our field-trip walk
Chorus
And the rocks went down
To UHP hell
And how they got back
No models here can tell
Verse 2
Numerical modeling
Of simple geodynamics
And analytical solutions
Disproving field antics
Rock or numbers
Numbers or rocks
We argued all night long
Simple geology, simpler models
Whose side are you on?
Chorus
(as above and after each verse below)
Verse 3
Do deep rocks get up
By tectonic denudation
Steady-state erosion
Or glacial exhumation
Are the rates really fast
Or just very slow....
Argon dates, fission tracks
Neither seem to show
Verse 4
What goes up, must come down
The eclogites require
PT paths to 10 kb
Yet avoiding Hades' fires
Diapirs, Subduction
And return-corner flow
And how important is climate
Landslides, rain, and snow
Verse 5
Lithospheric blobs and
Granulite mobilization
Does orogen evolution involve
Self-critical organization
Attainment of equilibrium
In rivers but not in rocks
Shove 'em down, barf 'em up
With transient thermal shocks
Verse 6
The field trips showed
Limestone from different levels
Tripolitza, Grecian ruins
And recent shoreline bevels
Rocky beaches, Cretan towns
And folds open and tight
High-P quartzite-phyllite but
WHAT THE HELL IS CARPHYLLITE?
Chorus
And the rocks went down
To UHP hell
And how they got back
No models here can tell
Page created by: S. Reynolds.