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Vagabonding on Dangerous Ground: What's East of North (Cascades), A Brief...
Our vagabonding trip through the geologically hazardous territories influenced by the Cascadia Subduction Zone was mostly an unrushed affair as we meandered up the Pacific Coast through Northern...
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Vagabonding on Dangerous Ground: Playing Hide and Seek with a Sleeping Monster
Mt. Baker and Boulder Creek upstream of Baker Lake ReservoirThere's something about traveling through the Pacific Northwest that I may never become accustomed too: the deep, deep forests. As a child in...
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Whispers and Echoes from the Past, When Half My DNA Visited Yosemite National...
While my "Vagabonding on Dangerous Ground" journey took me far north of my usual haunts in the Sierra Nevada, I had an unexpected encounter with Yosemite National Park while I was gone. We had a brief...
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Vagabonding on Dangerous Ground: Danger Follows Us Home (As it does all of us)
Mt. St. Helens from Silver LakeWe have finally reached the last few days of our meandering journey through the lands influenced by the Cascadia Subduction Zone. We spent several weeks out there,...
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Vagabonding on Dangerous Ground: A Compendium of Posts
I've finished a new blog series on our exploration of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, so I've compiled all the posts in chronological order so you can get the story the correct sequence. Thanks for all...
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Exploring the Southern Cascade Range or Yosemite National Park for College...
Captain Jack's Stronghold, where the Modoc people held out for months against U.S. troops. The site is protected today as Lava Beds National Monument.This message is primarily for my readers in the...
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Can You See It? Seeking a Natural World in an Urban Setting
Can you see it? Look carefully, it's easy to miss...We have a drainage pond on our west campus at the edge of town. It's been a mostly neglected corner of the campus, used occasionally to graze sheep...
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Losing Humanity's Heritage by Fire, But Not From Burning
Mt. Konocti and Clear Lake, an archaeological treasure in Central CaliforniaI read this article by Madeleine Thomas in the Pacific Standard, and it was disturbing to say the least. It discusses the...
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Unusual Sunrise over the Sierra Nevada Today
Sometimes there are just unusual things. I was driving into work early this morning just before the sun broke out over the Sierra Nevada. From my vantage point on the floor of the Great Valley, the...
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Summer Ramblings: The Second Largest Natural Bridge in the United States
It doesn't look so big...yetAs we drift into the last day of Summer (and it's certainly holding on around here, 100 degrees a day ago), I started looking over some of my adventures. There was our...
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Total Lunar Eclipse, Blood Moon...and the World Didn't End
I had a nice perspective on the Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse tonight from my vantage point in the parking lot of the Olive Garden in Redding, California. Mrs. Geotripper tried to be patient when I got up...
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"There Can Be Other Occupants" Wait, What? Notes from the Volcano Underworld
Yeah, that's something you want to think about while stumbling around in a dark cave. And for a government sign, that is almost eloquent. I spent the weekend exploring the flanks of the largest volcano...
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A Little Rock Mystery for the Day
A little rock mystery for the day. What are we looking at, and why is it strange? The picture is about 16 inches across.
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Yesterday's Mystery Rock Explained (Sort of...)
Yesterday's mystery rock was strange. Had I not been standing on the flanks of the largest volcano in California (and possibly in the lower 48 states), I would have guessed that the rock had been...
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Running Circles Around California's Greatest Volcano
From the northwest, Shasta and Shastina are two prominent peaks. I'm going to get into rhetorical trouble for this. "Greatest" is a hugely subjective term, and there are going to be some disagreements....
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Time Heals All Wounds. Or Does it Just Hide Them? The Ghosts of Nelder Grove
It's a beautiful place, really. It was one of the most serene places I've been in my travels, away from busy roads, cities, tourist traps, and most of all, crowds. We were only 10 miles from Yosemite...
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Faulting, Volcanism, and Life in Northernmost California: the Tulelake Graben
Gillem's Bluff at Lava Beds National MonumentLava Beds National Monument at the extreme north end of California is a fascinating place. It preserves hundreds of lava tubes and lava flows only a few...
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Extraordinary Grouping of Planets this week
It was one of those incredibly busy weeks, planning for our campus club events, a "Wild Planet Day" fundraiser for our Great Valley Museum, a field trip to Yosemite, and all the regular stresses of an...
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And Mercury Makes Four. Beautiful Gathering in the Morning Sky
There is still a beautiful show in the sky in the early morning this month. When I realized I missed Mercury in my Friday morning picture, I went out again this morning for another try, and caught it...
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National Fossil Day is Tomorrow! Do You Know the Paleontological Heritage of...
A hadrosaur skull similar to Saurolophus, the first dinosaur ever found in CaliforniaTomorrow is National Fossil Day, which if anything, is of far greater interest than a holiday concerning an Italian...
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