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Why did the Road Cross the San Andreas Fault? 22 Years of Geologic Change (a...
2002 I've been leading geology field studies trips to lots of places in the American West for 36 years and started to take digital pictures in 2001. I sometimes struggle to find new things to...
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What We All Think We Know: Myths and Misconceptions about California and...
Today is the Great Shake-Out in California: At 10:17 AM, around 10.5 MILLION people will participate in a statewide earthquake drill. This is also the 35th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake...
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In the Heart of the Devil: The Damning of Del Puerto Canyon
This beautiful canyon is under serious threatCalifornia geology is complicated. Unlike any other state, it is affected by the interactions of all three kinds of plate boundaries: divergent (the crust...
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The Simultaneous Seasons of California (and a peek at Half Dome)
It was a beautiful Christmas day here in the Central Valley, one of the prettiest I can recall. The storm that blew through yesterday was gone, and the winds were enough to prevent the fog from setting...
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About That Bucket List...What Would You Do To See These Places?
Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado RiverSo...about that bucket list of yours. Surely you have one. If you don't, what's keeping you from making one? Here's a version I promoted a few years back (I've made...
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Strange Doings in the Sky Today. What the Heck is a Circumzenithal Arc?
We live our lives never truly knowing when the day comes that something remarkable happens. I was doing totally normal errands today in the middle of town when I saw a sun dog, a common enough...
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An "Extinct" Fish Finds Life Again in a Parched Desert: The Saga of the...
The pupfish habitat at the springs in Shoshone, east of Death Valley National ParkOf all the things one might look for while exploring intense desert environments, what is the most unlikely form of...
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The First Lunar Eclipse of 2025
Interesting skies once again! Tonight was a lunar eclipse. The timing was great, with totality being reached before midnight here in the Pacific Time Zone. But we are in the midst of a powerful Pacific...
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The Most Extraordinary Landscape on Planet Earth: Geotripping on the Colorado...
Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado RiverNOTE: This is an updated and revised version of a post from December 28, 2024 So...about that bucket list of yours. Surely you have one. If you don't, what's keeping...
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Do You Think You Know the Highest Waterfall in Yosemite Valley? You Could Be...
Quick quiz: What is the name of this waterfall?What is the highest waterfall in Yosemite Valley? Depending on the parameters one can use to determine "height", your assumption may be wrong! Most...
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The Eruption of Mt. St. Helens at 45 years: Why it Still Matters and Why...
It is the 45th anniversary of the eruption of the St. Helens volcano and as I think of those days, I realize that even though a majority of the population wasn't even alive at the time, the volcano...
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The Coming Gigantic Crater in Arizona: The Supreme Court Fast-Tracks...
Sometimes issues keep coming up. I hadn't heard of updates of the Oak Flat Controversy in a couple of years, but with the new administration, the issue has arisen again as the Supreme Court fast-tracks...
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Journeys in the Back of Beyond: Adventures on the Colorado Plateau
Devils Garden in Arches National ParkWhat is an adventure anymore? I ask my students to describe the meaning in one of my offbeat assignments in my geology courses and I get all kinds of answers. Many...
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Journeys in the Back of Beyond: Starting Off With a Bang
The Granite Mountains adjacent to the Mojave National PreserveActually it was a great many bangs. I shall explain...Let's start with some basic statements. It's the Mojave Desert. It's almost summer....
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Journeys in the Back of Beyond: Simply Driving to the Bottom of the Grand...
Running a geology field studies course is nothing if not stressful. Right on the heels of the most intense storm I've experienced on one of these trips, it was morning and we were on the road to the...
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Journeys in the Back of Beyond: Wait, This is a National Park?
Pack up your stuff kids! We're going to a NATIONAL PARK!Cool! Does it have big mountains?No.Oh, does it have deep canyons?No.Can we go swimming in a lake or river?No.Oh, will rangers give an...
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What If an Earthquake was Predicted to Happen in Four Days? What Would You Do??
The Great Shakeout is planned for Oct. 16, 2025, at 10:16 AM. And why aren't you doing it now?!Art by ZeoNOTE: THIS IS HYPOTHETICAL, NOT A REAL PREDICTION!It is reported that there is a 50% chance...
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The Things We Don't Think About: The Aftermath of a Major Earthquake from a...
The Great Shakeout is planned for Oct. 16, 2025, at 10:16 AM. Source: U.S. Geological SurveyWe Californians live in earthquake country. The state is riddled with fault zones, and many of them are more...
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Why did the Road Cross the San Andreas Fault? 23 Years of Geologic Change (a...
2002 I've been leading geology field studies trips to lots of places in the American West for 37 years and started to take digital pictures in 2001. I sometimes struggle to find new things to...
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Revisiting the Wrightwood Mudflows of Ages Past: That Slope Won't Be a...
Like many others, I've been astonished by the storms of the last few days and the effects across all of California and the Pacific Northwest. It's not quite over, and if you are in one of the danger...
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I Got Up at 3am So You Wouldn't Have To: The Last Lunar Eclipse Before 2029
I didn't really feel like it, but lunar eclipses are dramatic, and this was the last one to take place until 2029, so I got up a few times between 2am and 4am to snap a few shots of the eventLunar...
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Explore the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains with Geotripper!...
Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming Be forewarned. This post is a TRAP! It is designed to draw you in, weaken your defenses, and cause you to do something different than everyday life. Warning given......
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One of California's Rarest Ecosystems: The Serpentine Soils of the Red Hills
The Red Hills are blooming right now, so I am posting an abridged version of my post from May 21, 2021 explaining the geological conditions that formed the unique landscape.Imagine a world turned...
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George Lucas Had It Wrong. A Day of Intense Pride at Modesto Junior College...
Going to hyperspace? Not exactly...George Lucas had it wrong. No, I'm not talking about the prequels to Star Wars! It was something much earlier. People could be forgiven for not knowing this, but Star...
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Geotripper Rates Hollywood Movie Geologists (AND, see "Tremors" at the State...
One of my earliest blog posts (in 2008) was a list of my favorite depictions of geologists in movies. I've revisited it once or twice. It came to mind as we prepare to offer a showing of "Tremors" as a...
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