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Who Needs Science Anyway?
Interesting creatures used to live here in our valley...Why go through the trouble of teaching science? Who's interested in it anyway? Everyone knows that the real money (and that's all that counts) is...
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Scenes from a Shield: Traversing California's Biggest Volcano
Continuing on with our late September exploration of the California Cascades, we prepared to leave Lava Beds National Monument. The main paved access is from the north at Tulelake, but our interests...
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Arrogant Politicians, Government Shutdowns, and our Underappreciated Public...
I am appalled at what has transpired over the last two weeks, and I can only describe the behavior of certain individuals in government as reprehensible. In a nutshell, a political party decided that a...
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Scenes from a Shield: Isn't This Supposed to be Basalt?
Medicine Lake Highland (from an earlier trip when it wasn't covered with storm clouds).Medicine Lake Highland at first glance sure looks like a classic version of a shield volcano. The gently sloping...
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It's Just a Damned Rock...or Stalactite...or Wolf...or National Park. Where...
The subject of today's post grew out of several news items from the past few weeks, and a walk underground that I took yesterday.I'm going to start with a bit of a mental exercise. Imagine a cavern in...
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Rivers Appearing Out of Nowhere: McArthur-Burney Falls State Park
Note: Sorry for the odd character of the photos. My hike was at dusk, and lighting was difficult!There's no doubt that McArthur-Burney Falls are absolutely spectacular, almost otherworldly. Burney...
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Chaos! The Jumbles and Crags of Lassen Volcanic National Park
Lassen Volcanic National Park is one of the lesser-known and less visited of the national parks in California. Many have heard of Lassen Peak, but the park is located in the northern reaches of the...
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The Volcano That Doesn't Exactly Look Like a Volcano: California's Lassen Peak
Lassen Peak is an odd one. Most people have a stereotypical view of what a volcano "should" look like, and to most people, Lassen doesn't fit the stereotype. Yes, it is an isolated peak from most...
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Duck Creates "Water Color" Art: Autumn in Yosemite Valley
You are welcome to call this my strangest blog post ever (and I've had plenty), but I was just captivated today. I live just two hours away from Yosemite Valley, and I visit every chance I get, and a...
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The Way it Was Yesterday: Yosemite Valley in Autumn
One of my greatest pleasures is the opportunity that I have of living only a two hour drive from Yosemite Valley. Many places in the world are on my bucket list, and I've managed to see a lot of them...
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The Mountain That No Climber Can Ever Summit: Mt. Tehama (the Brokeoff Volcano)
The gigantic boulder is a glacial erratic, left behind by sheets of ice that once covered the Lassen region.After being slightly distracted by ducks and the beautiful fall day in Yosemite, Geotripper...
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That Volcano is Dead Right? There's No More Hot Magma? Bumpass Hell at Lassen...
"Now, I don't know, I don't know where I'm a gonna go, when the volcano blow"Jimmy BuffettMt. Tehama is long gone, and Lassen Peak blew off all her accumulated stresses and frustrations with the...
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You Think Your Halloween Monsters are Scary? Imagine What Your Ancestors...
(Modified from my post of June 8, 2011)Happy or scary All Saint's Eve or Halloween, whatever your pleasure might be. As you cheer on the zombies and alien predators extorting candy from you, give a few...
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The Way it Was Today: Yosemite Valley in November
What a wonderful week! I had the privilege of visiting the most beautiful place in the world twice in the space of a few days. It's true I was taking a bunch of students with me, but we were learning...
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Seeking Geology Along the Most Beautiful Shoreline in the World: the Central...
Oh, I know that the title of this post is a bit of hyperbole...there are many beautiful coastlines in the world, and you are free to argue for your favorite in the comments. But I think that geology...
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Where the Sierra Nevada Rises from the Sea: The Big Sur Coast
Sierra: "A rugged range of mountains having an irregular or jagged profile, like a saw blade"Sierra Nevada: A mountain range in California with the shape of a tilted block, composed largely of granitic...
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"Another Earth" showing at the State Theatre, Modesto on Nov. 10
What happens if you meet yourself? What would you have to say? To all of my Modesto area readers: I want to let you know about a great film series going on at our historical State Theatre in the...
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Where the Sierra Nevada Rises from the Sea: Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park
Where the Sierra Nevada rises from the sea...in our last post, we found out how the Santa Lucia Range of the Big Sur Coast can be thought of as a part of the Sierra Nevada, being made of granitic and...
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Where the Sierra Nevada Rises From the Sea: Not the Easiest Beach to Find
A pleasant country road winds for a few miles through redwood forest and thickets of brush and poison oak to a secluded hidden beach. I've been through the region maybe a dozen times, but I never...
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It was the fault of no one, or maybe it's everyone's fault...the San Andreas...
Central California has a lot of faults. One of them is a proclivity for bad geology puns. But it also has a great many exposures of active faults available for viewing in the space of an afternoon. The...
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