The Great Annular Eclipse of 2012

We timed our southwest adventure to coincide with the Annular solar eclipse visible in the western US. The National Park Service helped out by publishing a great web page with an interactive map helping us select which unit of the NPS would have the best viewing.

We chose Bandelier  National Monument in New Mexico. WE arrived a few hours before the event and so hiked around some great Volcanic Tuff outcrops made into cliff dwellings by the Ancestral Pueblos (worthy of a whole blog post by itself) 

When the time came we found a not-too-crowded overlook that faced the west and we sat down to watch. By the time the sun started to disappear there was a good little group watching. We all enjoyed the few who showed up with the proper equipment to directly view the eclipse as we only brought our trusty pin hole camera.

The ruins at Bandelier. The building material is all volcanic.

 Our camera couldn't quite capture the sun with out any filters.

 Our pin hole camera shows the annular eclipse just fine!

Visit to Shanghai

I had the pleasure of visiting China for the past month and although it was not a geology trip per say, geology is hard to ignore since life is indeed a field trip.

I was hoping to blog while on vacation but found that it was a little difficult posting anything while in China.

We flew into Shanghai Pudong airport and it was hard not to notice the low lying fields and what looked like rice paddies near the airport. Driving into the city we were treated to miles (or kilometers) of new construction of massive buildings. The scene of down town Shanghai shows the incredible buildings in the city center. Of course I am from a very small town in the inter mountain west and am unused to buildings over a few stories tall...anyway

What also caught my eye was the amount of water. There are canals and large drainage ditches everywhere. I live in an arid region and I am used to seeing irrigation canals, but these are drainage canals. 

It seems that the whole of the city is built on Quaternary deltaic sediments delivered by the Yangtze river. These sediments, a fine soft clay mixture are similar to what we find in the Mississippi delta region. It makes for great rice fields but not-so-great massive city basement. It seems that most of the new buildings have been built in the top clay layers and some have been sinking from compaction of clay as well as from the subsidence from the use of ground water. 

A water gage on a canal near Shanghai.

The down town at night, including the Oriental Pearl and the Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest building in China

Geology with benefits

Last weekend I had the chance to visit my favorite Permian formation, the Cedar Mesa sandstone. This formation, part of the Cutler group can be found in southern Canyonlands National Park (both the Needles and Maze) and in the type area on "Cedar Mesa" part of the Monument uplift.

This thick sandstone layer shows not only classic sand dune cross bedding but also some fantastic swirleys where water interacted with the sand. The image below was originally taken because of the hundreds of hand print pictographs (painted on rock art). The image above shows the whole wall. It was only later when I noticed the great swirley of Permian water interacting with a Permian beach.

So, this was a beach environment made with sand eroded from a mountain range that does not exist any more... geology is so cool!

Geo-anatomy of a race course

Last weekend I had the chance to run in the Canyonlands 1/2 Marathon in Moab UT. Except for the wind (It is March in the desert after all) the race was lots of fun with geology at every side. The course follows the Colorado River as it flows south towards Moab.

At the start of the course, you can clearly see many of the typical Canyonland area rock units. Starting at river level is the ever popular Chinle formation of the Triassic period. This area was a large floodplain receiving material from the Uncompaghre uplift to the east. The Chinle is most famous for its uranium ore heavily mined during the 1950's.

Above the Chinle is my personal favorite: the Wingate sandstone. This Triassic aged cliff forming formation- former sand dune is ubiquitous through the Canyonland area. Its reddish hues catch that morning light just right to make the best campsites. Making a region-wide cap rock above the Wingate is the Kayenta formation containing lots of sandstone but also beds of shale and limestone showing a change in climate from sand dunes to at least occasional stream flows.

Another stratigraphic column shot from along the race course.
As the course makes its way to Moab, the late-Triassic Navajo sandstone makes an appearance atop the Kayenta formation. This shows yet another energy regime change away from the streams of the Kayenta to yet another huge sand dunes mass like the Wingate. This image also shows some structure with the ledges of the Kayenta dipping down into the river marking the edges of the Courthouse syncline.
The course doesn't end when the Colorado River reaches the Moab fault and the collapsed salt valley that created the valley where the town sits, there are still over two uphill miles into town left to go.
Over all a very fun run on a most beautiful course.

AW 43, your favorite geology illustrations

In the Company of Plants and Rocks is hosting this month's Accretionary Wedge and it is all about geologic illustrations.

All types of geological illustrations qualify -- drawings, paintings, maps, charts, graphs, cross-sections, diagrams, etc., but not photographs. You might choose something because of its impact, its beauty, its humor, its clear message or perhaps because of a special role it played in your life. Let us know the reasons for your choice!

From my first geology class I have seen every form of illustration to help us imagine all that underground stuff. Some professors must have been artists in former lives with their masterpieces drawn on chalk boards (did I just date myself there?) Others, like me never graduated beyond stick drawings. Some classes showed aerial photographs while others didn't. One thing though that most geology departments had in common though were collections of wearable geological illustrations.

Now most of the classes I teach are out on the Colorado Plateau. A few years ago, the Canyonlands Natural History Association had some T-shirts designed honoring the geology of the plateau parks. I naturally grabbed some different designs including the cross section of Utah route 12. I have worn and used this garment in more than one field class. If you haven't had a chance to explore along Utah 12, I strongly suggest a trip in the near future.

T-shirts also make such great gifts for the geologist on your list. My kids who live in California bought the California has its faults shirt for a Fathers Day a few years ago.

I had the pleasure to hike across the Grand Canyon last fall. Not wanting to carry too many books, we found the classic stratigraphic column bandana. It not only was light weight and full of information but doubled as a cotton cloth to get all wet and wrap around my neck as the temperatures started to climb. I also have one for the Colorado National Monument. I teach many classes along the Colorado River near the monument and this again is a great teaching tool while on the river.

Grand Canyon Rocks, what else can I say?

An excellent resource while exploring Central Utah.
This is always a conversation starter.

steep drop offs and narrow shoulders

I really haven't been any where different and had nothing interesting to blog about. So even though this is a kind of a cheater blog post, I thought I would share one of the new signs put up last fall just south of town.

I do love living here.

Metamorphic Core Complex...while on vacation

I am a snow snob...I admit it. This winter has seen less-than-great ski conditions and so when the temperatures in Southern Arizona were in the mid 70 degree range we thought a visit was in order.

Our major objective was to enjoy the warmth, ogle the Saguaro cactus and hike as much as possible while wandering the hillsides above Tucson we started to notice the abundance and great examples of crystalline rock, both igneous and metamorphic rock. The outcrops we examined were not anything we were familiar with beyond a very general way. The granites appeared to have been drastically changed and the gneisses looked like they had been put through the wringer.

The mountains we were hiking in were formed in mid-Laramide time when a large detachment fault allowed a decidedly large rock mass to slide while the Catalina Mountain were arching upwards. The material that moved along the fault was metamorphosed considerably, giving us some awesome outcrops to examine. Since then, erosion and weathering has moved materials from the mountain tops into the broad valleys. Many of the hiking trails use these alluvial fans to gain access to the higher elevations. Garry at geotripper has also just recently written about these mountains

Hiking in the Catalina Mountains with examples of granite that had not been altered during the formation of the Catalina Mountains.

Further out from the mountains we came across this outcrop of mylonitic gneiss, a former granite that was abused by its passage along a detachment fault as the Catalina mountains were being uplifted 25ish million years ago.

A fun outcrop of gneiss, another remnant of movement of granite along the fault.
You can never be too careful riding your bike around interesting geology.
A trail crew with an eye for aesthetics and geology. An assortment of metamorphic rocks making a wall.
Hiking across an alluvial fan; Saguaro and geology at the same time.