Geo 365: August 17, Day 229: All Along the Watch Tower

The watch tower is on the highest part of the rim of the Sand Mountain cinder cone, and the intended trail runs from just above the old trail head directly up the back side of that ridge to the tower. We took a "wrong" turn (actually, just went straight instead of making the "correct" turn), and followed the old trail, which provides more interesting geology, (Sorry, no pictures; I was awfully tired at that point, but you can see some of the welded layers on the slope to the left of the tower.) and a more gradual climb. I know they're trying to be protective of the vegetation in the area, but I would recommend others who make this climb make the same mistake. The walk down was awfully steep, and I would not have wanted to climb up that way.

In related news, Hollie's husband has posted his own account, with photos and maps, of our outing last Sunday.

Photo unmodified. August 11, 2013. FlashEarth location.

Geo 365: August 16, Day 228: Sand Mountain Crater

Looking below yesterday's panorama, and at a wider angle, we're seeing the summit crater of Sand Mountain. Young flows from this cinder cone and others in the area have created the rugged landscape in the area of McKenzie Junction and Clear Lake. The linear disposition of these cones is nowhere nearly as obvious from the ground as it is from aerial or satellite imagery.


Photo unmodified. August 11, 2013. FlashEarth location.

Geo 365: August 15, Day 227: Upper McKenzie Valley

Okay, it's pretty tiny, but there's a lot going on here. (Right-click the image here for size options.)

(size options) We're looking roughly NW to SW here. Starting from the north (right), I've labeled Fish Lake, a seasonal impoundment. By mid to late summer, it's a basically dry field. But during melt season, water coming down from the Western Cascades ponds up here, and if flow is especially strong, can actually make it across the young lava flows to Clear Lake, overland. Most of the contained water, though, works its way into the rubble and travels as groundwater to the same destination. A similar spot is Lava Lake, out of the photo to the left, or hidden behind the trees or crater rim.

Iron Mountain is just above Tombstone Pass, where US Route 20 crests the Western Cascades. I have the sense it's an old volcanic neck, though I've never really gone up and looked at it. It's best known as a magnificent hike for wildflowers in the late spring to mid summer. 20 comes down the valley above Fish Lake, and comes to McKenzie Junction a few miles north of that spot. We could pick out its line through the trees while we were up there, but I'm not seeing it in this photo.

Next South is Clear Lake, the source of the McKenzie. Except during highest flow conditions, essentially all the water there is emerging from springs in the lake. It's pretty mind-blowing to realize that the vast bulk of the precipitation in the basin around and to the north of Clear lake simply goes underground, to re-emerge there, unseen, and basically invisible. The river is surprisingly powerful when it emerges from the lake.

Though I only labeled the Sand Mountain crater rim about halfway across the photo, I hope it's clear that it covers the full extent of the bottom portion.

The McKenzie drainage, like the Willamette drainage, is first and foremost structurally controlled. That is, those rivers are where they are due to the geologic structure of their basins, not because they simply happened to carve a valley there. So the McKenzie River is contiguous with the western half of the High Cascades graben. Green Ridge, which can just be seen peeking out between Black Butte and Hayrick Butte in Monday's panorama, is the eastern half. I think this is the first time I've been able to see both from one spot.

Finally, marked with a dotted line, you can see the spot where the Upper McKenzie River, flowing basically north to south,  turns abruptly west to flow down toward Eugene. Route 242, which wends its way up to McKenzie Pass, takes off at about that point. I made the line dotted because, while you can clearly see the upper reaches of that valley, the river itself is immediately hidden behind the ridge.

I don't know if I'll do this hike again. It would have been trivial when I was in my 20's and 30's- only four miles round trip, with maybe 500-600 800 feet elevation gain. But Tuesday and yesterday I was darned near crippled from my achy legs, and while less stiff today, they're still sore. On the the other hand, was it worth it? Oh, my, yes!


Photo unmodified. August 11, 2013. FlashEarth location.

Wednesday Wednesday

Haven't done one of these in ages! But I just came across this at Darius Whiteplume's Tumblr, and had to repost:

Geo 365: August 14, Day 226: Three Fingered Jack

Among the taller Cascade peaks, it's pretty easy to tell which ones have been volcanically active since the Pleistocene glaciation: they're deeply eroded and ragged looking. Three Fingered Jack, above, is an example of this. The central lava conduit(s) are generally more resistant to weathering and erosion, but during their emplacement, as they exsolve various noxious gases and water, and heat surrounding groundwater, they cause hydrothermal alteration in the rock around them. This renders the country rock weaker, often just a semi-coherent mass of clays and similar minerals. Had there been post-glacial eruptions here, the deeply eroded altered areas would have been buried below some combination of lava and tephra (a loose term for fragmental volcanic products, including ash, lapilli, and bombs)- in other words, the edifice would have been smoothed out to a "more typical" conical form.

Several peaks in this area, including this one, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington, and North Sister (largely cloud enshrouded in yesterday's panorama) have similar forms, and have been inactive for the last ten thousand years or so, and are unlikely to erupt again. This should not be taken as "proof" they're extinct, but smart money wouldn't be betting on them to erupt.

This photo was taken before yesterday's, lower on the trail, before we really started the climb around the cinder cone to the north of Sand Mountain, so the location is approximate.

Photo unmodified. August 11, 2013. FlashEarth location.

50 Science Fiction-Fantasy Novels

Meme Time! Here's the list, from this post, where they thoughtfully discuss their criteria and limits (No more than one book or series per author, for example). Despite the waste of virtual paper, the blank list is appended below my annotated list, so you don't have to extract my added text. (I've learned that if you drop formatted text directly into HTML compose mode, it wipes the formatting clean, to plain text.)

Standard rules: bold the ones you've read, * the ones you found particularly outstanding, / the novels or series you've only read a fraction of, that is, not finished. ? if you're not sure. (I haven't read much new SF in 20 years, so I have a number in that category; memories are not forever. Add notes as desired. Make a suggestion or two for ones they missed. Or, you know, make up your own rules.

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card*
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien*
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood ?
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake Excellent, but too depressing for a *
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler- I know I've read a couple novels by her, but not this one.
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin It's been a LONG time, but I think*
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut*
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling / First book only and movies, but in process of acquiring the whole series. When complete, I'll read the whole thing.
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle / 1st book only (Wrinkle in Time)
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis Loved this as a youngster, hated it as adult. Like I need to be beaten about the head with Christian symbolism.
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *for the first three, then it gets too dark.
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert*
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell Like Gormenghast, excellent, but too depressing for a *
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman Only thing I've read by him, and not terribly impressed. Need to try others.
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett / Only 2 or 3 of series, damned if I know which ones.
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll** My all-time, life long, favorite book. By the end of elementary school, I darned near had the whole thing memorized.
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley / Bored me to death. Didn't finish
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle ?
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton ?
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro Movie only. Despite comments at the source site, I quite liked it.
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey / A few, but again, they got dull
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

One nice thing about this list is that it gives me some clues about which more recent authors I should be catching up with. Two authors I think should be included are Connie Willis, who's almost always excellent, but I'll go with her Doomsday Book and Sherri Tepper. For her, I'll go with The Family Tree, as that one is not as grim and brutal as many of her novels can be. Looks like my bolded count is 31, but quite a number of those are only partials.

Here's the "blank." Wanna play?

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

Geo 365: August 13, Day 225: Sand Mountain Saddle

A panorama of the High Cascades from the saddle between Sand Mountain and another cinder cone to its north. We're looking roughly SSE to NNE here. Size options can be seen here (right click). And here's an annotated version:

(Size options for the annotated photo)

This was taken at the old parking area and trail head. About a mile and a half of the road has been closed to the public due to off-road driving and concerns over the delicate ecosystem. As lush as it looks, soils here are very young (3000 years), susceptible to erosion and fire, and extremely dry during the summer (though not on this particular trip). So what I had read online as a half mile hike with 200 feet elevation gain ended up being a two mile hike with 500-600 800 feet elevation gain, one way. I'm achier today than I was yesterday- it takes a while for the muscles to enunciate how much they feel they've been abused.

Despite my comments on the road into the area yesterday, the person manning the fire watch tower here had driven a rather modest sedan up to this point, so drivers with even more confidence than me may, in fact, be able to navigate to the new parking area. (It's gated there, so unless you have a key, driving up to this spot is not an option.)

I'm not going to systematically go through the features in this photo; I'll save that for later posts. Of particular interest though, is Hayrick Butte, a tuya erupted through glacial ice. Though unlabeled, and not readily visible in the size of the above photos, Hogg Rock is about halfway between Three Fingered Jack and Hoodoo Butte, below the former's eastern flank- that is, it's below the horizon, but pretty easy to pick out in larger sizes. It looks as if it might be a tuya as well.

The cross hairs in the location link below are on the old parking area, but this view is backed out enough to see the Sand Mountain chain of cinder cones, Hayrick and Hoodoo Buttes, Big Lake a bit to the south of them, and Clear Lake to the west.

Photo unmodified. August 11, 2013. FlashEarth location.

25 Minutes of Agonizing Helplessness

A recently found and released video of the 2011 Japanese tsunami has got to be seen to be believed. I generally don't watch clips longer than a few minutes, but what this one illustrates is just how unbelievably long the tsunami advances. I can think of no other way to show this than actually seeing that duration. And there are some cuts, so it's not clear if we're actually seeing the whole thing.

The first arrival is about 3 minutes in, and at first it doesn't look all that bad, though the boats being swept up and along are dramatic. Obviously, the onlookers are unimpressed at first, as well; they're remarkably nonchalant. Then it gets worse.

Then it gets much worse.

And by the end, it's catastrophic.

I white-knuckled my way through it, and any geo-inclined readers are advised to do the same. The educational value of this clip is incredible.

Geo 365: August 12, Day 224: Geologic Special Interest Area

Yesterday, @GeoHols, her husband, one of her students from Chemeketa Community College, and I drove up to Santiam Pass, turned south, and bounced over an increasingly bad road to the Sand Mountain Lookout trailhead. While I've found many roads are passable to small vehicles, if you're patient, slow, and plan where your tires are going to be, this ultimately turned out to be not one of those roads. I was very thankful for the four-wheel drive vehicle we were in. There had been an intense thunder/hailstorm on Saturday, and there were several places where we went through patches of mud, water and slushy pea-sized hail. In addition, both on the road and the trail, the runoff had carved into the ash and lapilli fragments that constitute the "soil" of the area, which at times could be irritating or even hazardous. The upside? A persistent fire on Green Ridge had been largely suppressed, and the air was very clear. There were some lingering clouds, so we by and large couldn't see the crests of Mt Jefferson or Three Sisters, aside from brief glimpses, but for practical purposes, the viewing conditions were ideal.

The above sign amused me in a couple ways. First, what does "Geologic Special Interest Area" even mean? Especially in this swath of High Cascades, everything is of "special interest." Second, "Loaner leashes may be available below." And there was one.

Photo unmodified. August 11, 2013. FlashEarth location.

Geo 365: August 11, Day 223: Tafoni Terrace

A final shot from Shore Acres State Park, near Charleston, Oregon. Here I'm standing on the unconsolidated terrace deposits, looking down a few feet onto "Tafoni Terrace," where the overburden has been eroded off by spray from breaking waves. Resistant versus non-resistant beds create the pattern of high and low lineations running mostly parallel to the coastline in this area.

Photo unmodified. March 8, 2012. FlashEarth location.

I'm headed up into the Cascades, to Sand Mountain, today, with @GeoHols, her hubbie, and possibly a former student of hers, so the Sunday Funnies won't be happening today. No promises, but perhaps I can do a Monday edition.