Dolomite Magic
Cinque Torri (Five Towers) is a magical place in the Alps of NE Italy (The Dolomites) where hiking, climbing, skiing, and history spectacularly converge. Explore this panoramic 360 vista of this remarkable area near the town of Cortina D’Ampezzo.
Then, Now, and Beyond
Field trip participants from the Northern Colorado Geologists group listen to Dr. Donald Boyd, Professor Emeritus of Geology from the University of Wyoming offer his thoughtful interpretations on the depositional origin of the Precambrian Nash Fork Formation stromatolites.
I had the privilege, once again, to participate in a unique field trip with fellow scientists and friends to visit a fascinating geologic site in southern Wyoming. To be sure, a geologic field trip is always about ancient time travel, but this was truly remarkable. Our excursion offered us an extremely distant target: 2 billion years in time yet only 2 hours on the highway from Fort Collins. Our destination were the Precambrian-aged stromatolites of the Medicine Bow Mountains which in simple terms are– well– rocks that contain fossil slime. Fossil slime? Yes but really, really old fossil slime that was the dominant life form on our planet for more than half of earth’s entire existence!
Typical outcrop of the Precambrian Nash Fork Formation. Tectonic forces have tilted the original layers into an upright position while deep-seated physical and chemical processes caused silicification (hardening) of the original lime-mud layers.
Convex laminae that follow the undulations of the ancient seafloor. A great variety of shapes and forms reflect both original growth patterns as well as sliding, slumping and collapsing of the microbial/sediment mats.
Modern stromatolites from western Australia. wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stromatolites_in_Sharkbay.jpg
So why do we get so excited about 2 billion year-old microbes? It is a window of understanding into the origin of our modern oxygen-rich atmosphere and perhaps– a view of what Extraterrestrial Life may actually look like. After all, astronomers are routinely discovering sister earth “exoplanets” whose billions-year old histories almost certainly contain similar evolutionary story lines. Just maybe…
Oblique cross section of stromatolite dome contrasting 2 billion year old life with modern flowers which made their first appearance a mere 150 million years ago.
Closer to home in Northern Colorado, these ancient stromatolites form siliceous (resistant) mounds as part of the Jurassic (150 my) Morrison Formation. The larger ‘heads’ are about 1 meter in diameter.
Valley margin outcrops feature glacially caused striations. Sand and gravel embedded in Ice Age valley glaciers gouge the underlying rocks in a geologic process that is a mere 10,000 (or a bit older) years old
Welcome Home…herbsearth
Recent rains (and lots of it!) green up the rim rock hogback while a rainbow canopy arches overhead
Re-awakening Volcano Calbuco
Aerial view of Andes volcanic chain east of Lake Llanquihue, southern Chile. Photo by Herb Saperstone
Volcano Calbuco framed by trees along the shores of Lake Llanquihue at Puerto Varas, Chile. Photo by Herb Saperstone
In 2007, we visited our daughter Lindsay who was studying abroad in Valparaiso and took an adventure south to the Lake District of southern Chile. One of our favorite stops was the postcard pretty resort of Puerto Varas- some 630 miles south of Santiago. In early July, southern Chile shivers in the austral winter season- short days, long nights and plenty of snow to gaze at atop the Andes Mountains. Along the shore of Llanquihue Lake we marveled at the ‘Fuji-like’ presence of Osorno Volcano and its sister peak, Volcano Calbuco. The dark volcanic sands and gravels along the waterfront are a testament to the newness of these majestic volcanoes which dominate the western coast of South America for thousands of miles.
When news broke last week that the sleeping Calbuco was erupting after 40 years of quiescence, I realized we had been there and recalled the amazing scenery – a product of profound forces of nature.
Image of April 22, 2015 eruption of Calbuco Volcano featuring a large pyrocumulus cloud reaching alttudes of over 6 miles. Photo from Radio Nacional Mendoza
Origin of Laramide uplift hits the popular press. Why? – crustal hydration
Denver Skyline coutesy of Matt Santomarco (www.santomarco.com)
In a recent report by AP writer, Dan Elliott, another theory is ‘floated’ (pun intended) on why Denver and other areas of the Rockies and High Plains sit at a higher elevation than is predicted by our current understanding of plate tectonics. CU -Boulder geologists Craig Jones and Kevin Mahan attribute the 65 million-year rise from sea level to abundant water incorporated into the descending Farallon Plate that then rose into overlying crustal rocks giving them more buyoancy. What makes this article so interesting is how this made the popular press in the absence of a geologic disaster or debate over energy extraction. http://t.usnews.com/Z7mnxd via @usnews
#earthscience
Macs, Rocks and Maps
Half Dome, YNP (image courtesy of Apple Inc)
Geologic map of southeast face of El Capitan. Recently published by the Geological Society of America
Its hard not to think about geologic processes when staring at my mac desktop. Apple’s current OS X operating system, Yosemite, sports a beautiful sunlit photo of Half Dome- an icon of geologic wonder in California’s Yosemite National Park. The Park’s magnificent scenery owes its good looks to the unroofing of a pluton (igneous rock that forms below the earth’s surface) by ancient uplift and more recently by glacial sculpting during the Ice Ages. Nearby, the formidable sheer cliff of granite, called El Capitan made recent headline news when American climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson scaled the 3,000-foot “Dawn Wall”. Check out the megapixel image featured here. Their feat was unique as they relied solely on their body strength, hands and feet during their 19 day ascent. Safety ropes were used only to break their occasional falls. There is a wonderful map of El Capitan’s south east face, showing prolific detail of the wall’s geologic features. The map features the “Nose Route” (among others) and the fine-scale mapping of various dikes and cross-cutting intrusions that make up this massive granitic structure. Thanks Apple for honoring the rock formations of Yosemite and those who challenge their breathtaking verticality.
The World in a Sand Grain
Having been a student of sand (and sandstone), I fully appreciate this creator’s wonderful explanation of the diverse and beautiful nature of sand. In the video below, weathered grains of granite make their way from California’s Sierra mountains to the Golden Gate. Here in Colorado, there are endless ways to study the origin of sand. Our summer hikes to Gem Lake Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park reveal fractured and weathered granites- some of which simply crumple in your hand- the humble origin of sand from the Rockies.
Diary of a Slow Moving Disaster
Courtesy USGS. This Kiluea Volcano flow of June 27 pushed through a fence marking a property boundary above Pāhoa early on Oct 28, 2014. Here, the flow is inflated to a height around 4 feet.
On the island of Hawaii, residents are all too familiar with lava flows encroaching on their properties. In 1986, the town of Kalapana was overun by flows destorying homes, vehicles, roads and vegetation- leaving swaths of unwelcome basalt throughout this Hawaiian community. Creeping at speeds of several kilometers/hour, you can certainly out-walk these- but with temperatures of active flows between 500 and 1400 C, they are extremely dangerous forces of nature. The USGS has a day by day video/photo chronology you can follow here.
Glaciers and the Art of Change -part 1
Pinedale-age (Ice Age) Lateral Moraine (forested ridge) in Rocky Mountain National Park
What I love about geology is imagining changes in our earth through impossibly vast periods of time. Some things are difficult if not outright impossible to study directly (the nature of the earth’s interior) but landscsapes afford an easier path for us curious souls. In the case of river or glacial geomorphology (geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that form them), the evidence for landscape evolution is quite accessible. Having visited Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Park many times, I was always amazed and even somewhat skeptical that those heavily forested ridges are actually enormous Ice-Age piles of chaotically arranged gravel and boulders- better known as lateral moraines. Only after seeing active glaciers and their companion moraines, can one truly see how they form as rocky rubble from valley walls shoved into long ridges against the steep sides of the ice-filled valley.
Actively forming lateral moraine near Kennecott Mine along the Root Glacier in the Wrangell-St Elias National Park.
Aerial view of Root Glacier, Wrangell-Elias National Park. The gray ridges flanking the glacier are lateral moraines
On a recent trip to Alaska, Jessica and I had the good fortune to visit glaciers- a lot of glaciers as we love to hike and explore new areas wherever we can. If you examine the images closely, you can see the obvious relationship between lateral moraines and their glaciers– now– today– in the present –Wow. You can even hear the rocks sliding and moving as the glacier creeps downhill in an arguably -not so glacial speed. That’s another story of course. You see, these moraines are fresh and naked of vegetation, so from the air or from the ground, their steep gray ridges are easy to spot. Jessica, who has learned to endure my commentaries like this for decades easily notices these features in Rocky Mountain National Park. We may not be able to travel in time, but we can travel in space to make these connections real and truly understand all dimensions of change on our planet.
Jessica observing the receding Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park
Teachers Rock On!
The perfect counter-pose to a year of teaching? Two glorious mornings in the field, learning about our community’s amazing geology. As part of Poudre School District’s Summer Institute, teachers from across grade levels and schools, joined together for a fun day in the foothills west of Fort Collins. Each of the two mornings was followed by afternoon classroom trainings where teachers used the days’ photos, video clips, and notes to construct virtual field trips for their students. Lessons included stream erosion and deposition along the modern Poudre River, explanation of mountain building, faulting and folding, and of course, the obligatory time travel. This group visited the ‘ancient’ Poudre River dating back 300 million years to the time of the Ancestral Rockies. Capping the experience was a close look at shale beds which are both economic (shale gas and oil) and a hazard (when homes are built on their unstable slopes). Thanks to Dee Dee Wright, Adam McBride and guest scientist Neil Sherrod for their support and teaching.
herbsearth 