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.
Posted by Ed Darrell 
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