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Magnitude 6.5 Earthquake off Northern California (as recorded at MJC)
A large earthquake has shaken the ocean floor off the coast of Northern California. It took place about 100 miles west of Cape Mendocino (below) and the town of Ferndale. The 6.5 magnitude event took...
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A California "Snow" Storm: A Winter Miracle in the Great Valley
People don't usually hear a great many good reasons to visit Modesto and environs. Forbes and others often put our Great Valley towns on the "worst places to live", but I think they really miss...
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On NPR's Science Friday Tomorrow: Fellow Teacher of Earth Science (and former...
If you are a fan of NPR's Science Friday, that's great. If you aren't yet, tomorrow is a good day to start! Fellow earth science teacher and former Modesto Junior College geology student Ryan Hollister...
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What is Lagtime, and Why Should You Care? Checking out Dry Creek
Dry Creek at 9AM this morning, just a few cubic feet per secondI wonder how many Dry Creeks there are in the country? I know of two of them within a thirty mile radius of my home, including this one...
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Oh, To Be Working Here Again! It Could Be You: Santa Barbara City College
This might seem a bit of a long narrative describing a job opening in the earth sciences, but this one has a special resonance with me. To the extent that I have had any success as a teacher of...
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Gang at Geotripper
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all from the gang at Geotripper (that would be me and Mrs. Geotripper, and two cats)! As is our tradition, we offer up once again a very big Christmas tree, the...
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Lenticular Clouds on Mt. Rainier Today
Travel days aren't the best for carefully planned photography. The framing and staging that go into wonderful shots go out the window, because the pictures are being taken literally out the window of a...
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Two Magnitude 5.7 Earthquakes Strike Western Nevada, Felt over a Wide Region
Things are shaking back home, and of course I'm hundreds of miles away. Two moderate earthquakes, both magnitude 5.7, struck in the Basin and Range province east of the Sierra Nevada, north of the...
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Just a Beautiful Sunset, and Maybe a BIt of a Green Flash...
The gloom and the rain cleared out for our last night in Oregon, and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset. We had a clear horizon to the west, so as usual I tried to catch (maybe) a bit of the green...
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Bear's Ears Becomes a Reality! Now the Real Fight Must Begin
An incredible thing just happened, something I've always hoped for, but thought was well nigh impossible. The Bears Ears National Monument has become a reality! President Obama declared the monument...
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Seismic Records from the Nevada Earthquake Swarm, as Recorded at Modesto...
My Twitter feed and text messages went crazy the other night, early in the morning of December 28. For the first time in a number of years, an earthquake was felt widely in the Modesto area as a series...
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Coming California Storm is Reminescent of Flooding Events Past
Source: Washington PostWe are waiting for the arrival of two intense storms over the course of the next week, a pair of "atmospheric river storms". Strong low pressure cells originating in the Bay of...
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Coming Floods This Week May Rival 1997: Predictions at Yosemite Valley
National Park Service PhotographThis weekend's storm, if it lives up to predictions, may be one for the history books. Present projections are suggesting that the Merced River could rival the flows...
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Worried About Being Ready for the Big Storm? Let's Have a Practice Flood! The...
January 2016, one year agoOkay, this is a bit odd. There is a lot of news about the coming atmospheric storm that will strike California this weekend, with the possibility of some truly epic (in the...
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Before the Deluge: Last Sunlight on the Sierra Nevada
It was a beautiful day today in Central California. Sunny, but crisp and cool. I was tooling about campus between meetings in preparation for the new semester enjoying the sunshine, but I could not...
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Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Flood in a Decade, Part One
See updates at end of post... BTW, if you are on the scene in places like Yosemite Valley, please send photos or updates! I will gladly post them here.Printable PDF of current conditions can be found...
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Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Flood in a Decade, Part Two
Check back for updates at the end of this blog...First off, let me emphasize that I am writing almost exclusively about the central Sierra Nevada and adjacent Great Valley, particularly the drainage of...
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Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Flood in a Decade, Part...
Pictures are emerging from Yosemite Valley! See the update below. NPS Webcam Photo from Happy Isles at upper end of Yosemite ValleyThe flood on the Merced River in Yosemite Valley has crested at 12.7...
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Check out some newly "discovered" footage from the floods of 1997! We've been following developments on the Stanislaus, Merced, and Tuolumne Rivers as the biggest atmospheric storm in a decade or more...
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Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Storm in a Decade, Part...
We finally got a taste of some of the kinds of squalls that are leading to flooding across much of Northern California. Luckily it was brief, and we have not had problems in our immediate vicinity. The...
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