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A Gallery of Sierra Nevada Scenes: Part I
Tufa towers on southwest shore of Mono LakeIf Geotripper has been quiet of late, there is a pretty good reason: I've been on the road and off the grid. I may have plenty to say about these scenes later...
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A Gallery of Sierra Nevada Scenes: Part II
Alabama Hills near Movie FlatsI picked out some more scenes from our recent field studies class in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley. Above, the Alabama Hills expose granitic rock essentially...
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Shaking Things Up in Mammoth Lakes: Hundreds of Earthquakes in 24 Hours
Source: http://www.data.scec.org/recenteqs/Maps/119-38.htmlThese things seem to happen whenever I have just left a place. I was in Mammoth Lakes only a week ago. There have been upwards of a thousand...
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Early Snow in the Sierra Nevada! During a field trip, of course.
Snow-capped peaks above Hope ValleyWhat a difference a week can make! Seven days ago I was in the Owens Valley and eastern Sierra Nevada, and though we got a bit of inclement weather, it was a warm...
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Northern Convergence: The Incredible Lakes and Glaciers of Banff National Park
Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. Beautiful, but crowded! It's tourist central, along with nearby Lake Louise.So...what do you get when you take incredibly thick layers of limestone, sandstone and...
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The Hazards of Field Work: Distraction by Cuteness
Okay, maybe this one wasn't cute...The perils of teaching in the field are paramount and legion: attacks by killer bees, mosquito bites, falling off cliffs, sunburn, and multitudes of other hazards....
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The Sequoia Underground: An Exploration of Crystal Cave
It's true that Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park can hardly be described as a wild cave. Since its discovery in 1918 and its development as a park attraction in 1940, the cave has been visited by...
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Lunar Eclipse of October 8: The "Blood Moon"
Somehow I woke up, managed to remember that a lunar eclipse was happening, and staggered outside to snap a large number of badly focused pictures, and caught just a few of this morning's lunar eclipse....
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Northern Convergence: Athabasca Glacier, at the Front Line of Climate Change
Athabasca Glacier and Sunwapta Lake in July 2014Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park is one of the few places in the world where one can drive to a glacier. It is also one of the most vivid places...
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Modesto Area Friends: Wild Planet Day at West Campus, MJC on October 11!
What a great way to begin Earth Science Week! For those of you within driving distance of Modesto Junior College, may I encourage you to check out our celebration of science this coming weekend! The...
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San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Established Today! A Wonderful Moment
Looking west from Cow Canyon Saddle into San Gabriel Canyon, the heart of the new monument.This is a big day for me, in the personal sense. The mountains I explored in my youth, the mountains where I...
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Science: Alive and Well in the Great Valley, Against the Odds
No, no enthusiasm here for science. None at all.We are close to or on the bottom of every list there is: worst place to live, most polluted air, highest crime rate, highest unemployment. To listen to...
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Civilization Exists By Geological Consent...So does life in the Great Valley
Sandhill Cranes at the San Luis NWRThe Sandhill Cranes are returning to their winter home in the Great Valley of California! In the next few weeks there will be 20,000 of them arriving at the Merced...
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Where'd Everyone Go? Why is it so Quiet? Dealing with Dinosaurs in Drumheller
We continued our Northern Convergence exploration of British Columbia and Alberta by heading over the Great Plains for several hours to reach Drumheller, the self-proclaimed (and fairly reasonably so)...
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For Modesto Area Friends: Celebrating the Art of Science at the Science...
If you are in the Modesto region, you are invited to a reception for the artists of the Science Community Center. We have a number of interesting works that are being celebrated tomorrow at 2:00 PM. I...
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Northern Convergence: We'll Call it "Rock": The Okotok Erratic
There is a big rock out on the high prairie near Calgary, Alberta. That all by itself is a bit of strangeness. It's even more strange because it is around a hundred miles (160 km) from the cliff in...
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Northern Convergence: Tragedy at Crowsnest Pass
Frank was a coal mining town of around 600 people in 1903. The coal seam ran along the base of Turtle Mountain, so the town was established there as well. The Canadian Pacific Railway also crossed the...
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The Sierra Nevada Underground: How does a newly discovered pristine cave...
There are caves and there are caves. Many of them were discovered long ago, and the easily accessible ones suffered grievous damage. In earlier days, cave decorations (speleothems) were broken off as...
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"Head Smashed In"... um, sounds like a great place to visit...
The High Plains have their quiet times. Sure, there are the vicious winter storms, the days when the wind blows hard, and the summer thunderstorms. But other times the wind may be just a light breeze...
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Northern Convergence: Leaving a Beautiful Country
How will we deal with the hordes of people from the U.S. trying to invade our borders?Our trip, the Northern Convergence tour, was not over, but the time had come to cross the border back into the...
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