A Look Back…50 years: Hypnotizing, Mesmerizing Percussion

In December 1963¹, as Frankie Valli² and the Four Seasons enjoyed a very special night, Donald Campbell excited JSP readers on percussion. Campbell’s study examined percussion marks, surficial crescentric cracks, on quartz grains from Cambrian and Cretaceous sandstones of central Texas. His results suggested that percussion marks are diagnostic of eolian transport. Unlike that special night (that ended much too soon), however, percussion marks are durable and can persist for several episodes of sediment recycling. As such, they alone are not indicative of deposition in an eolian environment.

PercussionMarks on Quartz Grains: Donald H. Campbell, Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 33, p. 855-859.

Footnotes by a loopy PaperClips editor:

¹ The song, describing a romantic encounter, actually came out in 1976, when it hit #1 in both the US and UK charts. A remix hit #14 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1994.  But hopefully PaperClips readers understand and appreciate the pop culture-savvy reference.

² Editor’s note: Valli was actually not the lead singer on this track, drummer Gerry Polci provided lead vocals. But by all accounts, Frankie was the leader of the group.