Recently ran across this photo of Utah’s Mt. Timpanogos in the snow. You can see how majestic the mountain is dressed in white, and how its glory can bring awe and joy to people in the valley.
Photo found on Wikipedia, from January 2008.
Timpanogos dressed in snow
November 27, 2019
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Geography - Physical, geology, Mount Timpanogos, photography, Travel, Utah | Tagged: geography, geology, Mt. Timpanogos, photography, Travel, Utah | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Remembering Darwin’s death, April 19, 1882, and his legacy in 2016
April 19, 2016We shouldn’t pass April 19 — a day marked by significant historic events through the past couple hundred years — without remembering that it is also the anniversary of the death of Darwin.
Charles Darwin in 1881, portrait by John Collier; after a Collier painting hanging in the Royal Society
Immortality? Regardless Darwin’s religious beliefs (I’ll argue he remained Christian, thank you, if you wish to argue), he achieved immortality solely on the strength of his brilliant work in science. Of course he’s best known for being the first to figure out that natural and sexual selection worked as tools to sculpt species over time, a theory whose announcement he shared with Alfred Russel Wallace, who independently arrived at almost exactly the same theory but without the deep evidentiary backup Darwin had amassed.
But had evolution turned out to be a bum theory, Darwin’s other works would have qualified him as one of the greatest scientists of all time, including:
Darwin’s theory set out a sequence of coral reef formation around an extinct volcanic island, becoming an atoll as the island and ocean floor subsided. Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
US Geological Survey graphic demonstrating how coral atolls form on the sinking remains of old volcanic sea mounts, as Darwin described. Wikimedia commons image
- World’s greatest collector of biological samples: During his five years’ voyage on HMS Beagle, Darwin collected the largest collection of diverse plant and animal life ever by one person (I believe the record still stands); solely on the strength of his providing actual examples to the British Museum of so much life in so many different ecosystems worldwide, before he was 30 Darwin won election to the Royal Society. (His election was engineered partly by friends who wanted to make sure he stayed in science, and didn’t follow through on his earlier plan to become a preacher.)
- Geology puzzle solver: Coral atolls remained a great geological mystery. Sampling showed coral foundations well below 50 feet deep, a usual limit for coral growth. In some cased old, dead coral were hundreds of feet deep. In the South Pacific, Darwin looked at a number of coral atolls, marvelous “islands” that form almost perfectly circular lagoons. Inspired partly by Lyell’s new encyclopedic review of world geology, Darwin realized that the atolls he saw were the peaks of volcanic mounts. Darwin hypothesized that the volcanoes grew from the ocean floor to the surface, and then the islands were colonized by corals. The round shape of the volcano gave the atoll its shape. Then the volcanic mounts eroded back, or sank down, and corals continued to grow on the old foundations. It was a perfectly workable, natural explanation for a long-standing geologic puzzle. (See Darwin’s monograph, Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs.)
- Patient watcher of flowers: Another great mystery, this time in biology, concerned how vines twined themselves onto other plants, rocks and structures. Darwin’s genius in designing experiments shone here: He put a vine in his study, and watched it. Over several hours, he observed vine tendrils flailing around, until they latched on to something, and then the circular flailing motion wrapped the tendril around a stick or twig. Simple observation, but no one had ever attempted it before. (See On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants.)
- Champion of earthworms, and leaf mould: Darwin suspected the high fertilizer value of “leaf mould” might be related to the action of earthworms. Again, through well-designed experiments and simple observation, Darwin demonstrated that worms moved and aerated soil, and converted organic matter into even richer fertilizer. (See The Formation of Vegetable Moulds Through the Action of Worms.)
- Creation of methodological science: In all of this work, Darwin explained his processes for designing experiments, and controls, and made almost as many notes on how to observe things, as the observations themselves. Probably more than any other single man, Darwin invented and demonstrated the use of a series of processes we now call “the scientific method.” He invented modern science.
Any of those accomplishments would have been a career-capping work for a scientist. Darwin’s mountains of work still form foundations of geology and biology, and are touchstones for genetics.
Born within a few hours of Abraham Lincoln on February 12, 1809, Darwin survived 17 years longer — 17 extremely productive years. Ill through much of his life with mystery ailments, perhaps Chaga’s Disease, or perhaps some other odd parasite or virus he picked up on his world travels, Darwin succumbed to heart disease on April 19, 1882.
More:
- P.Z. Myers had a good account of Darwin and his death, back in 2007
- Some recent Darwin in the news… (thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com)
- Why is Darwin more famous than Wallace? (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
- The “On the Origin of Species” author dies on this day in 1882. (commuteresources101.wordpress.com)
- Coral atoll where giant tortoises outnumber man 10,000:1 (terradaily.com)
- What killed Charles Darwin? Chaga’s? History Channel contemplates the cause, or causes
1 Comment | Biology, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, geology, History, Science | Tagged: Biology, Charles Darwin, Evolution, geology, History, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
August 24, 79 C.E.: Vesuvius spoke, with thunder
August 24, 2015Much as the GOP Caucus and other climate-change deniers, Roman officials in Pompeii and Herculaneum refused to be alarmed at the ground shaking, and obvious eruptions from Mount Vesuvius, on August 24, 79 C.E.
In the past week we have earthquakes in California, Nepal, British Columbia, and other places. The old Earth keeps rumbling.
Oddly, we now pay more attention to earthquakes than to other things that can cause greater, rolling disasters.
Santayana’s Ghost wonders if we ever learn from history.
Vesuvius, asleep for now (2013). National Geographic photo by Robert Clark
More:
- From New Historian, an account of the destruction in brief
- Will Vesuvius kill another city? Wired wonders
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
Leave a Comment » | Archaeology, Disasters, earthquakes, Geography - Physical, geology, Global warming, Science, Volcanoes | Tagged: 79 AD, 79 CE, Disasters, earthquakes, geology, Global warming, Pompeii, Rome, Vesuvius, Volcanoes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Yosemite Nature Notes: Ghost towns
January 13, 2015Up on the Tioga Pass, Dana Village, Bennettville and the abandoned Golden Crown Mine tell part of the story of the 1890s gold rush in the Sierra Nevada.
Mining in California, okay. Mining at 11,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada, and staying there all winter?
Great history, geography, and explanation that every U.S. history student should know, about gold rushes, about boom towns, about mining entrepreneurs and investors, about failed enterprises and about the aftermath.
Sitting on the crest of the Sierra Nevada, Tioga Pass is a gateway to Yosemite’s past. In 1880, a gold and silver rush erupted here, and miners flocked to Tioga Hill in droves.
Today, the ghosts of these miners work can be seen in the stone walls of Dana Village, rusty machinery at Bennettville, and the log cabins of the Golden Crown Mine. Even today’s popular Tioga Road was once a simple wagon road built to access the wealth of minerals that were never found.
It’s another great production by Steven Bumgardner, featuring two National Park Service rangers, Yenyen Chan and Greg Stock.
More:
- History of the Tioga Road, from Undiscovered-Yosemite.com
- Tioga Road gets good reviews from visitors, at TripAdvisor.com
Tioga Road. Travelers who took this photo made the drive in a large RV — so you can do it, too. Photo from stillhowlyntravels
Map showing how to get to Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park (at the eastern end of the red line). Map from Undiscovered-Yosemite.com.
1 Comment | Geography - Physical, geology, History, Mining and Mining Law, National Parks, Travel, Yosemite | Tagged: Boomtowns, California, geography, geology, Ghost Towns, Gold Rush, History, Tioga Pass, Yosemite | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas earthquakes, 2014
January 7, 2015
WFAA Channel 8 map of four quakes confirmed by 10:00 p.m. news casts, showing how close the quakes are in proximity to each other and the site of the old Cowboys Football Stadium.
This Tweet from our local NBC TV affiliate sums it up nicely.
North Texas shook yesterday — not big quakes, but a bunch of ’em — and that doesn’t sit well with Texas oil executives, since it seems likely gas and oil drilling, especially hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and especially waste-water reinjection seem to be causes.
I grew up in Utah. We had quakes you could feel, at least weekly. Our home sat less than a mile west of the Wasatch Fault. Many mornings my mother would stand drinking her coffee, looking over the stove and out our kitchen window at Mt. Timpanogos, remarking on the earthquakes. Most often we couldn’t feel them, but the power and telephone lines that slashed through our $10 million view of the mountain would dance in sine waves during quakes. It was pretty cool.
Along the more famous faults, one rarely comes on more than a couple of quakes a day.
Dallas — more accurately, Irving — is far away from most major faults, and rarely has more than a couple of quakes a year in recent human history.
So this swarm of quakes makes news!
WTVT Channel 11 (CBS) reported:
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – Nine earthquakes, three of them with a 3-point magnitude or greater, rocked North Texas Tuesday into early Wednesday, knocking items off walls, causing cracks to appear in ceilings and generally rattling nerves across the region.
“The last one really shook,” said CBS 11 anchor and reporter Ken Molestina, who felt the the earth move in the White Rock Lake area of Dallas.
The latest quake, reported just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, measured in at a 3.1 magnitude, and was centered near the convergence of State Highway 114, Loop 12, and the Airport Freeway near the old Texas Stadium site in Irving.
Others felt the temblor in the Uptown area of Dallas and as far away as Bedford and Mesquite.
Here’s a list of the quakes in order of when they happened:
7:37 a.m. 2.3 magnitude
3:10 p.m. 3.5 magnitude
6:52 p.m. 3.6 magnitude
8:11 p.m. 2.9 magnitude
8:12 p.m. 2.7 magnitude
9:54 p.m. 1.7 magnitude
10:05 p.m. 2.4 magnitude
11:02 PM 1.6 magnitude
12:59 AM 3.1 magnitude
Rafael Abreu, a geophysicist with the USGS, spoke with NewsRadio 1080 KRLD and said while the Irving earthquakes happened only hours apart, given the strength and intensity, “we’re not calling it an aftershock.”
At last count Tuesday night, there had been 24 or more earthquakes in the Irving area since November 1, 2014.
Jokes fly, too. Not this much shaking since Elvis toured the area heavily in 1957, some say.
Screen capture of USGS reports of four earthquakes in or near Irving, Texas, on January 6, 2014
Recent studies show earthquakes in other areas linked to oil and gas drilling and extraction. All of these quakes are in close proximity to working wells or wells being drilled.
What’s the Earth trying to tell us?
Details from USGS on biggest quake, January 6, 2014
More:
- Did this whole thing start back in 2008 with a small swarm of quakes?
- USGS details of the biggest quake on January 6, 2014
Historically, Texas has not been a hotbed of earthquake activity, between 1973 and 2012. Texas Seismicity Map from USGS.
5 Comments | Dallas, earthquakes, Geography - Physical, geology, History, Oil, Texas | Tagged: Dallas, earthquakes, Fracking, geography, geology, History, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, and stars at night
January 5, 2015
Tweet from the Wilderness Society. Devil’s Tower National Monument, in Wyoming, at night. Photo by Alex Weimer, from his flickr feed
Leave a Comment » | Astronomy, Geography - Physical, geology, National Parks, Outdoor Recreation, photography, Travel | Tagged: Astronomy, Devil's Tower National Monument, geography, geology, Outdoor Recreation, photography, Travel, Wyoming | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Time lapse of latest eruption of Mexico’s Popocatépetl Volcano
December 30, 2014It’s a 17-second video, a compilation of photos (over how much time?) showing the December 29, 2014 eruption of Popocatépetl.
Published on Dec 29, 2014
Fuente: http://www.webcamsdemexico.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/webcamsdemexico
Eruptions are captured by webcamsdemexico, which is another indication that good, inexpensive electronic imaging devices change the way we study and experience natural events in the world today.
17 seconds of great drama. Are there other good images from this eruption?
Satellite photo of Popocatepetl, earlier. Image via CNN/Mexico
More:
- Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcano Program listing for Popocatepetl
- Basic facts on the Popocatepetl from Wikipedia
Leave a Comment » | Geography - Physical, geology, Mexico, Science, Volcanoes | Tagged: geography, geology, Mexico, Popocatepetl, Science, Volcanoes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Glacier National Park, 104 years old and looking good
June 26, 2014
Department of Interior, May 18, 2014 — Here’s our most popular photo on social media last week celebrating @GlacierNPS 104th birthday. pic.twitter.com/JNaYYNnfcH
Glacier National Park marks its 104th year in 2014. Glacier offers views this spectacular every day of the year.
3 Comments | Geography - Physical, geology, National Parks, photography, Travel | Tagged: geography, geology, Glacier National Park, photography, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Moon and Mobius Arch, Alabama Hills, California
May 18, 2014
U.S. Department of Interior, Twitter feed: Beautiful view of the Moon over Mabius Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills Recreation Area. #California @BLMca pic.twitter.com/u0KYyJ6p0S
Interesting points, reasons to like this image:
- No, that’s not the Sun. It’s the Moon.
- Who knew California had natural arches? I mean, it makes sense — but there’s one in Virginia, and a bunch of them at Arches National Park, and . . .
- An arch that should be in Utah, in the Alabama Hills, but not in Alabama, in California.
- Stars!
- Great photograph, obviously a long exposure.
Let’s see if we can find the name of the photographer. Pox on Interior for failing to fit that into the caption. Photographer is Steve Perry, and you should check out his site (and buy some photos!). (Thanks, J. A. Higginbotham, for tracking that down.) - America’s public lands, showing how they are unexcelled at astonishing us.
- What? Interior called the “Mabius Arch?” No, it’s the Mobius Arch!
- This place was named after the Confederate warship C.S.S. Alabama. Sympathetic miners making claims on minerals, it appears. “The unusual name Alabama Hills came about during the Civil War. In 1864 Southern sympathizers in Lone Pine discovered gold ‘in them thar hills.’ When they heard that a Confederate cruiser named the Alabama had burned, sunk or captured more than 60 Federal ships in less than two years they named their mining claims after the cruiser to celebrate. Before long the name applied to the whole area. Coincidentally, while Southerners were prospecting around Lone Pine, there were Union sympathizers 15 miles north near Independence. And when the Alabama was sunk off the coast of France by the U.S.S. Kearsarge in 1864, the Independence people struck back. They not only named their mining claims ‘Kearsarge’ but a mountain peak, a mountain pass, and a whole town as well.”
- More than 400 movies were shot using Alabama Hills for a backdrop, including How the West Was Won, Gunga Din (standing in for the hills of northern India) and the 1960 Audie Murphy classic, Hell Bent for Leather.
- Geologists will love that this area is a prime example of chemical erosion — rocks made out of the same stuff as the craggy Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance, but eroded differently.
- Lichens by moonlight! (Or is that just desert varnish?)
More:
- Alabama Hills Recreation Area: “On May 24, 1969, the BLM dedicated nearly 30,000 acres of public land west of Lone Pine, CA, as the Alabama Hills Recreation Area. Management plans are being considered that will eventually include a scenic trail system that people may walk and enjoy this geologic phenomena at a leisurely pace.“
- Several more views of the arch, at NaturalBornHikers.com
- A few hundred other shots at Flickr, many of them spectacular
- Everybody knows about Mobius strips, right? Maybe as “Moebius?” Wolfram’s version. Cut the Knot. Wikipedia. Fun found by Jennifer Ouelette. More fun at Phil Plait’s shop (Bad Astronomy) involving rare earth magnets, liquid nitrogen, a superconducting puck, and a Mobius strip.
2 Comments | Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Geography - Physical, geology, Hiking, photography, Public Lands, Travel | Tagged: Alabama Hills Recreation Area, BLM, California, geography, geology, Hiking, Mobius Arch, photography, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Darwin’s death, April 19, 1882, and his legacy today
April 19, 2014We shouldn’t pass April 19 — a day marked by significant historic events through the past couple hundred years — without remembering that it is also the anniversary of the death of Darwin.
Charles Darwin in 1881, portrait by John Collier; after a Collier painting hanging in the Royal Society
Immortality? Regardless Darwin’s religious beliefs (I’ll argue he remained Christian, thank you, if you wish to argue), he achieved immortality solely on the strength of his brilliant work in science. Of course he’s best known for being the first to figure out that natural and sexual selection worked as tools to sculpt species over time, a theory whose announcement he shared with Alfred Russel Wallace, who independently arrived at almost exactly the same theory but without the deep evidentiary backup Darwin had amassed.
But had evolution turned out to be a bum theory, Darwin’s other works would have qualified him as one of the greatest scientists of all time, including:
Darwin’s theory set out a sequence of coral reef formation around an extinct volcanic island, becoming an atoll as the island and ocean floor subsided. Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
US Geological Survey graphic demonstrating how coral atolls form on the sinking remains of old volcanic sea mounts, as Darwin described. Wikimedia commons image
- World’s greatest collector of biological samples: During his five years’ voyage on HMS Beagle, Darwin collected the largest collection of diverse plant and animal life ever by one person (I believe the record still stands); solely on the strength of his providing actual examples to the British Museum of so much life in so many different ecosystems worldwide, before he was 30 Darwin won election to the Royal Society. (His election was engineered partly by friends who wanted to make sure he stayed in science, and didn’t follow through on his earlier plan to become a preacher.)
- Geology puzzle solver: Coral atolls remained a great geological mystery. Sampling showed coral foundations well below 50 feet deep, a usual limit for coral growth. In some cased old, dead coral were hundreds of feet deep. In the South Pacific, Darwin looked at a number of coral atolls, marvelous “islands” that form almost perfectly circular lagoons. Inspired partly by Lyell’s new encyclopedic review of world geology, Darwin realized that the atolls he saw were the peaks of volcanic mounts. Darwin hypothesized that the volcanoes grew from the ocean floor to the surface, and then the islands were colonized by corals. The round shape of the volcano gave the atoll its shape. Then the volcanic mounts eroded back, or sank down, and corals continued to grow on the old foundations. It was a perfectly workable, natural explanation for a long-standing geologic puzzle. (See Darwin’s monograph, Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs.)
- Patient watcher of flowers: Another great mystery, this time in biology, concerned how vines twined themselves onto other plants, rocks and structures. Darwin’s genius in designing experiments shone here: He put a vine in his study, and watched it. Over several hours, he observed vine tendrils flailing around, until they latched on to something, and then the circular flailing motion wrapped the tendril around a stick or twig. Simple observation, but no one had ever attempted it before. (See On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants.)
- Champion of earthworms, and leaf mould: Darwin suspected the high fertilizer value of “leaf mould” might be related to the action of earthworms. Again, through well-designed experiments and simple observation, Darwin demonstrated that worms moved and aerated soil, and converted organic matter into even richer fertilizer. (See The Formation of Vegetable Moulds Through the Action of Worms.)
- Creation of methodological science: In all of this work, Darwin explained his processes for designing experiments, and controls, and made almost as many notes on how to observe things, as the observations themselves. Probably more than any other single man, Darwin invented and demonstrated the use of a series of processes we now call “the scientific method.” He invented modern science.
Any of those accomplishments would have been a career-capping work for a scientist. Darwin’s mountains of work still form foundations of geology and biology, and are touchstones for genetics.
Born within a few hours of Abraham Lincoln on February 12, 1809, Darwin survived 17 years longer — 17 extremely productive years. Ill through much of his life with mystery ailments, perhaps Chaga’s Disease, or perhaps some other odd parasite or virus he picked up on his world travels, Darwin succumbed to heart disease on April 19, 1882.
More:
- P.Z. Myers had a good account of Darwin and his death, back in 2007
- Some recent Darwin in the news… (thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com)
- Why is Darwin more famous than Wallace? (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
- The “On the Origin of Species” author dies on this day in 1882. (commuteresources101.wordpress.com)
- Coral atoll where giant tortoises outnumber man 10,000:1 (terradaily.com)
Leave a Comment » | Biology, Charles Darwin, Darwin, Evolution, geology, History, Science | Tagged: Biology, Charles Darwin, Evolution, geology, History, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Delicate sunset in Utah
March 21, 2014
From the U.S. Department of Interior: This stunning photo of dusk @ArchesNPS by Jonathan Backin is the perfect way to end the week. #utah #nature pic.twitter.com/5bIanEG8sZ
Delicate Arch, with a dusting of snow, as the sun sets.
A great reason to live in Moab, Utah, or visit there.
Leave a Comment » | Geography - Physical, geology, National Parks, Travel, Utah | Tagged: Arches National Park, Delicate Arch, Department of Interior, geography, geology, Jonathan Backin, Moab, Photogarphy, Travel, Utah | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Lightning strike in Monument Valley, Navajo Nation
February 20, 2014
Lightning strikes in Monument Valley, on the Navajo Reservation, Utah. Photography by Carolyn Slay (Oak Ridge, TN); Monument Valley, UT Feb. 20 2014 Via smithsonianmag.com.
Lightning strike in Monument Valley, photo by Carolyn Slay of Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Smithsonian Magazine Tumblr Photo of the Day, February 20, 2014.
Rocks on the right can also be seen in this photo; can you help pinpoint the location of the photographer, and names of any of the other formations?
Leave a Comment » | Geography - Physical, geology, Navajo, Travel, Utah | Tagged: geography, geology, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Travel, Utah | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A sign of some apocalypse in Dinosaur, Colorado?
December 28, 2013It’s an interesting town, Dinosaur, Colorado 81610. It’s on the south side of US Highway 40, a very short distance east of the Utah border.
And it touches on the Colorado part of Dinosaur National Monument. The Wikipedia entry gives specifics:
The Town of Dinosaur is a Statutory Town located in Moffat County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 339 at the 2010 census.[5]
The town of Dinosaur was originally named Artesia; the current name was adopted in 1966, to capitalize on the town’s proximity to Dinosaur National Monument.[6] The monument headquarters is located just east of the town on U.S. Highway 40.
And:
Many streets in the town are named after dinosaurs, including Cletisaurus Circle, Tyrannosaurus Trail, and Antrodemus Alley.[8]
It’s a setup, a straight line waiting for a good comedian.
Brian Switek, the science writer now based in Salt Lake City, suggests one area ripe for comedy:
Wait. What? Dinosaur Baptist Church?
Brian Tweeted that he wasn’t looking to ridicule, but: “I just imagined thyreophorans, maniraptorans, sauropodomorphs, and their ilk in the congregation.”
That might produce even more comedic situations.
It’s a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated congregation. Aren’t you curious how Sunday school goes for dinosaur-crazy kids in such a church, in such a town?
Signs of life, signs of the times, signs of something!
Another shot of the directional sign for Dinosaur Baptist Church, from earlier in 2011, I think. From Text of the Day.
From a different angle, one can see that the church is just a couple of blocks off of Stegosaurus Freeway. Wow.
2007 photo of the sign showing street signs at the intersection of 6th Street and Stegosaurus Freeway. Photo by Will Gelnaw, who has copyright to it.
Still, it’s fun to imagine a nice, small town church, with dinosaurs in the back pews singing along. (Instead, Chris Clarke suggested, they are hiding in the Rocks of Ages . . .)
More:
Welcome to Dinosaur, Colorado (Photo credit: J. Stephen Conn)
- Groups Push to Find Industry-Outdoors Balance in Dinosaur, CO (publicnewsservice.org)
- Dinosaur National Monument (mysoul dothdelight.wordpress.com)
- Signs: “Church” Warning signs? (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- More good stuff from Chris Clarke, here at Coyote Crossing
1 Comment | Creationism, Dinosaurs, Evolution, Geography - Physical, geology, Humor, Religion, Travel | Tagged: Dinosaur Colorado, Dinosaur National Monument, geography, Humor, Signs, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Annals of global warming: Great Lakes need water
November 13, 2013
Photo and caption from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Does Lake Michigan’s record low mark beginning of new era for Great Lakes? At least 150 years of rhythmic pulses in Lake Michigan’s water levels appear to have shifted abruptly with loss of winter ice. Photo by Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Don’t get complacent, yet. Has enough water fallen in the Great Lakes drainage area in the past six months to change this situation at all? From the New York Times last June:
Drought and other factors have created historically low water marks for the Great Lakes, putting the $34 billion Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway shipping industry in peril, a situation that could send ominous ripples throughout the economy.
Water levels in the Great Lakes have been below their long-term averages during the past 14 years, and this winter the water in Lakes Michigan and Huron, the hardest-hit lakes, dropped to record lows, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Keith Kompoltowicz, the chief of watershed hydrology with the corps’s Detroit district, said that in January “the monthly mean was the lowest ever recorded, going back to 1918.”
While spring rains have helped so far this year, levels in all five Great Lakes are still low by historical standards, so getting through the shallow points in harbors and channels is a tense affair.
It’s not just storms, rising sea levels, and melting glaciers, you know.
The Great Lakes from space. The Great Lakes are the largest glacial lakes in the world. NASA photo via Wikipedia
More:
- NOAA’s Great Lakes dashboard
- “Does Lake Michigan’s record low mark beginning of a new era for Great Lakes?” first part of series from Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel On-Line
- National Geographic busts five myths about where the Great Lakes water went, or goes
- Great Lakes fish on a diet (northcountrypublicradio.org)
- A chilly Lake Superior warms up (northcountrypublicradio.org)
- The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – 38 years ago (blogs.woodtv.com)
- Portman’s Toledo Blade Op-Ed: It’s Now or Never to Keep Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes (portman.senate.gov)
- SUNY Fredonia Research Leads to Call for Ban on Microplastics (wkbw.com)
- The 1913 White Hurricane on the Great Lakes (netnewsledger.com)
- Face scrub micro-beads are choking the Great Lakes (boingboing.net)
- 100 years after ‘deadliest’ winter storm (newsnet5.com)
- Up or down? Which way are Great Lakes water levels headed? (mlive.com)
Great Lakes in Sunglint (NASA, International Space Station, 06/14/12) (Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center)
2 Comments | Climate change, climate_change, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, geology, Global warming, History, Science, Water | Tagged: Climate change, Geograpnhy, geology, Global warming, Great Lakes, History, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Devils Tower is beautiful in autumn
October 25, 2013Or any other time of year.
From the Department of Interior Twitter feeds:
US Dept of Interior @Interior 16h Is there any doubt fall is best enjoyed in America’s great outdoors? Here’s great example from Devils Tower NM. pic.twitter.com/YRo1U8DSMQ
What do you think Richard Dreyfus thinks when he sees that? Stephen Spielberg?
“Devils Tower NM” means “National Monument,” not New Mexico. This volcano remnant stands in Wyoming.
Old friend, painter and photographer Nancy Christensen Littlefield offers a more close-up view.
Devil’s Tower on a July morning. Photo by Nancy Christensen LIttlefield.
And looking even closer, you spy Richard Dreyfus never-wanna-bes:
Climbers on Devils Tower. Photographer Nancy Littlefield said: “There were Native American prayer bundles along the trail around the base. It really is awe inspiring. Early morning gives you the best light to photograph it by.”
Devils Tower is the plug of an old volcano. What’s left is the magma that hardened, and what we see is left after the softer cone eroded away.
More:
- Official site for Devils Tower National Monument
United States Flag and Devils Tower National Monument – Wikipedia image
- This was the very first National Monument, proclaimed under the Antiquities Act, by President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1906. Had he visited the site, perhaps in his South Dakota cowboy days? The official notice left off the apostrophe in “Devil’s,” and that typo, “clerical error,” has never been corrected.
- How do climbers get up there?
- Time-lapse of the area at night, especially the sky against which Devils Tower stands
- Devils Tower National Monument (memoryhollow.wordpress.com)
- Devils Tower in Wyoming became America’s first National Monument today in 1906. Now WE know em (carl-leonard.com)
- Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming (visualingual.wordpress.com)
- Geology of Devils Tower National Monument… (fox41blogs.typepad.com)
- Devils Tower Wyoming (coloradotravelingducks.com)
- Video: Jenn Fleming’s First Climb of Devils Tower (climbing.com)
- Hike Gallery – 2013-08-28 Devils Tower (4walkabout.wordpress.com)
Leave a Comment » | Geography - Physical, geology, History, National Parks, Theodore Roosevelt, Travel | Tagged: Antiquities Act, Devils Tower, geography, geology, History, National Monuments, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
