Volcanic Ramblings Part I: Teaser Tweeting

I'm now back in my sleepy little home town of Corvallis, blissfully sipping coffee at my favorite coffee shop. Bif the kitteh was clearly traumatized by his 5-day abandonment; the person who was to feed and water him and give him a little attention and company didn't, and the back-up apparently didn't really do back up. His water was low and filthy, and it looked, from the amount of food spilled around, that the bowl was filled to the brim once, then forgotten. I don't know what the whole story is yet, so I'm keeping my temper on simmer. The good news is, as frantic and scared as he was when I got in last night, he calmed and quieted down as the evening went on, and seemed pretty relaxed this morning.

While I did have wifi most nights, what I didn't have was energy and time to say anything of substance regarding the day's sights and events. So starting day 2, I made my priority to get my photos downloaded to ye old electronical difference engine, and get a few "teasers-" photos I was pleased with- uploaded to Twitter, with a minimum of commentary and concern with geological utility. I figured those things were better addressed with blog posts, which simply were not going to happen. Between the difficulty of sleeping in unfamiliar beds in unfamiliar settings, and days that invariably ran longer than anticipated, I think it's fair to say all three of us spent the trip in a state of semi-exhaustion, and complete exhaustion by the time we retired to our respective rooms.

So herewith are the photos I posted from the road, more or less in the order we visited the sites, along with the associated Twitter comments I made when posting them. I'm not going to try to resize these to larger, but they should all get much bigger if you click on them or open links in new tabs with a right-click.

Booyah geotweeps! Tired, but great geo! Few pics: 1, Salt Creek Falls, yday
Volcanclastic seds, diatomite, coal, on Rt. 97 N of Klamath Falls, ~30 mi.
Pinnacles, Crater Lake NP
@Dhunterauthor in front of lahar deposit filling cut into volcaniclastic sed layers
Platy jointing 1; hammer middle bottom for scale.
Platy jointing 2, partway up Doherty grade. #1 in left middle of #2
Pisolitic texture in devitrified rhyolite (I was reminded later by @CGKings317 that the correct name for these structures is "spherulites," however, I'm not sure "pisolitic texture" would be incorrect in this context. Any geo-terminology nerds care to clarify?)
Filling in the happy little alluvial fans- Doherty Rim
One more pic before bed: Hart Mountain (on right) from near Adel, OR.
Summer Lake: a geologist was here (before us, I mean)
Ball & pillow structure in Table Rock tuff cone deposits.
Yaaaaaay! Correlation is fun! (Table Rock tuff cone deposits)
@callanbentley The rarely observed "splort structure." (Table Rock tuff cone)
Palagonite tuff at Fort Rock, OR
3 episodes of palagonite tuff accumulation, 2 of sloughing into blast crater, & 1 major episode of wave erosion.
Mahogany obsidian (looks like Glass Butte) in facade of hotel where staying tonight (Budget Inn, Bus. Rt. 97, Bend OR)
Parasitic cinder cones on NW flank of Newberry Volcano, from top of Lava Butte
A few final teaser photos from last day of volcanic rambling: 3 Sisters, Paulina Peak Pinnacles & Paulina Lake
Paulina Lake, Central Cinder Cone, East Lake and obsidian flow, ringed by Newberry Caldera
Contorted flow banding in Newberry Obsidian Flow (need to measure lens cap, but recollection is 52 mm)
Flow banded block broken off and re-entrained in more flow banded obsidian, Newberry Caldera, OR.
One more: Dee Wright Observtory, McKenzie Pass, OR: a most propitious place to observe volcanoes

Keep in mind, these are intended just to be quick and dirty updates, and to tantalize various geobloggers with hints of things to come. I will post the majority of these photos again with more detailed discussion and many additional shots from the same stops and areas. I shot 625 pictures on this trip, so the above, while including some of my favorites, are truly only a drop in the bucket. Also be sure to follow @Dhunterauthor (En Tequila Es Verdad), who was my impossibly generous sponsor, delightfully enthusiastic traveling companion, and increasingly, dear friend on this grueling but wondrous excursion. She probably took twice as many photos as I did. The third member of our company, Cujo359, blogs at Slobber and Spittle, and while not as enamored with things geological as Dana and I are, also helped underwrite my participation in this adventure, and showed enduring patience in the face of our lithic fixation. He has already posted a lovely picture of a rail trestle west of Oakridge OR, and will undoubtedly post further documentation of this trip in the days and weeks to come. Followup: Thanks to a commenter on that post, information on a large landslide has come to light, which Cujo359 has gone through and discussed in detail at the link. For example, mud/debris lines 50 feet up the tree trunks...

I make no promises regarding the regularity or frequency of posts in this series, but I'm looking forward to working through some first-hand experiences at long last. Stay tuned!

Taters and Tofu: It's What's for Breakfast!

In honor of a past employee who's visiting this weekend, Interzone is running as a special the breakfast he liked to prepare for himself when he worked here. They haven't run a special in quite a while, and as much as I love the weekend Super Burrito, I gotta give this a try. I'm substituting an everything bagel for the toast. Should be showing up any minute now...

The Imperative of Questions

This post is dedicated to Dana Hunter, who seemed particularly unsettled by my endless questions when we went to Marys Peak and the coast last fall. I'm going to spend five long days with her very soon, and thought she at least deserved to know that my questions are not intended to be "tests." They are, in fact, much more subversive and manipulative than that. Fair warning though: knowing what I'm doing and why will not free you from the effect I describe. ;)

There are two main reasons teachers ask questions: assessment and motivation. Assessment can either be formative (trying to figure out where students are in terms of knowledge and understanding, so one can more effectively and efficiently guide them to your goals and objectives) or summative (trying to determine if they have indeed arrived at the set objectives). Motivation in this case means that students are more likely to mentally engage with a topic at hand if they are frequently and regularly asked questions... and particularly if they expect to be asked questions, and expect to be obligated to answer them.

One of the reasons I left teaching was the disgust I feel with our society's obsession with grades. Is that the only reason we have to learn any more? Well, for some, yes: "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." -Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001. BRAAAPP! Sorry, Dubya, you get to start over with grade one. So the idea of questions as "tests," while necessary, an unavoidable component of traditional teaching, important, justified, what have you, is just distasteful and offensive to me. I rarely ask those sorts of questions.

I sometimes ask questions to figure out what I need to clarify. I was going to tell my hipster geology gag about thalwegs to a student in environmental science, but asked first if he knew that term. (he did, and loved the joke). So formative questions can be quite useful to figure out what background you need to cover before getting to the meat of the subject at hand, and I ask these sorts of questions fairly often.

But it's the "motivational" questions I really love. Educational research has consistently shown that it's more about the frequency and expectations students have for questioning than the cognitive level, difficulty or complexity of the questions. Obviously, for advanced learners (i.e. upper level undergraduates and up) some of the questions need to be demanding. But the expectation that there will be questions, and that the learner will be expected to give some kind of response, do the most to keep the mental faculties engaged.

There's also a side issue which I think is best claimed as a matter of personal opinion and educational philosophy- I don't know that I've read the perspective I'm about to present elsewhere.

I view questions as a sneaky, subversive and somewhat unfair- though completely ethical- opportunity to issue imperatives. If I say "Describe that outcrop," and do it often enough, I will come to be seen as abrasive and even dictatorial. On the other hand, if I wave and point at an outcrop, and with a smile, ask "What do you see?" then wait... The student has been given almost no guidance, and is generally not sure what specifics I'm after (because more often than not, I'm not after any particular thing[s], specifically), and may not even be sure where to start, yet there I stand, bemused grin smeared across my mug, waiting... This is a powerfully motivating situation for students. Why? Perhaps it's fear of failure, or the fear of looking diminished in the eyes of an instructor. I'm honestly not sure, but it's a very real feeling that I have experienced myself many, many times. In my own case, I think it's mostly a matter of living up to my own expectations for myself ("C'mon, dude, you oughtta know this one..."). But I recognize that widened-eye flicking of students' minds racing when I see it. I feel a slight pang of guilt sometimes, because I don't like that feeling of cognitive near-panic either. Still, I know that working through it can lead to some powerful learning experiences, so in my estimation, it's worth it.

So when I hand you a rock or point out an outcrop, and ask an innocuous question like "What do you see," or "How do you suppose that might have happened," or "Why is that growing there," or any of hundreds of other open-ended questions for which there is not and cannot be a single "right" answer, I'm not testing you. I'm telling you to look and think. Because questions are an imperative way to do that in a much more effective and much less irritating manner than pointing at an outcrop and saying "Look! Think!"

Or if you'd like the blunt version, I'm messing with your head.

I'm a teacher at heart. That's what I do.

Volcanic Ramblings

As I've mentioned, I'll be doing some geotripping next week, and the schedule looks as if it's been bumped up a day. Which means it's a day closer than it was when I woke up this morning, and in turn, that I'm even more excited than I expected to be. I have had the itinerary basically worked out for the last two months. By "basically" I mean that in the many, many trips I've done with high schoolers and middle school students, I've found that it's important to plan a certain amount of flexibility into one's expectations. Spur-of-the moment decisions can lead to unexpected and terrific discoveries. So I think of a trip itinerary as a framework to be built onto as needed. On the other hand, for safety (and sometimes communication) reasons, it's nice to have something that someone could point to and say "this is where they're supposed to be right now." A policeman might have some chance of finding a group that's in the neighborhood, but that's unlikely if they are two counties away.

I've also found that it's good to have a conceptual framework that you can tie things to. On Central and Southeast Oregon trips with high school-age students that framework was either how various differences in magma composition and environmental factors interacted to create different styles of volcanism, or how geologic factors (including- but not limited to- the landscape) interacted with the rest of the non-living world to effect the local biota. The conceptual framework I've been pondering for this trip more or less combines those two, and unites them in thinking about the large scale tectonic structure of Oregon: subduction, forearc ridge, forearc basin, arc, back arc rifting, and influences from the Yellowstone Hotspot, which made its presence impossible to ignore in Miocene Oregon. Basin and Range is still a little enigmatic to me, and I haven't seen anything that convinces me that the questions surrounding what drives that rifting have been satisfactorily settled. Nevertheless, it is certainly best explained in terms of tectonics; it's just that there are at least two approaches to doing that, and probably more, in addition to sliding scales of importance of this factor versus that factor.

All that said, here's the outline I just sent to the person sponsoring this volcanic ramble:

Day 1: (hoping we can set off from CVO mid-day/early aft.)

• Rt. I-5-> Eugene; Willamette seds, W. Casc. foothills
• Rt. 58 Eugene-> Crescent area http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.656335&lon=-122.225997&z=11.5&r=0&src=msl W. Casc, Salt Creek Falls, High Casc, E Casc. flank, Mazama ash

Day 2:

• Rt. 97-> N entrance Crater Lake, drive rim w/numerous stops, side trip to Pinnacles (inverted Mazama magma chamber)
• http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.146907&lon=-121.697854&z=10.1&r=0&src=msl
• Couple hour drive over to Lakeview & geyser http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=42.219802&lon=-120.369028&z=14.4&r=0&src=msl

Day 3:

• Rt. 140 E into N Nevada, Basin and Range volcanics. This grade will knock your socks off: drive up the side of a 1500 foot cliff! http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=42.037287&lon=-119.485068&z=13.1&r=0&src=msl Virgin Valley opals, opalized wood, badlands, Canyon hike, NICE hotspring if you feel like a leisurely soak http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=41.860943&lon=-119.006195&z=14.4&r=0&src=msl then back to Lakeview

Day 4:

• Rt. 395 N to Valley Falls, Abert Rim & Lake http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=42.530515&lon=-120.278008&z=10.7&r=0&src=msl
• Double back to Rt. 31, N to Summer Lake, Picture Rock Pass, Table Rock http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.165818&lon=-120.880866&z=12.3&r=0&src=msl Fort Rock http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.373231&lon=-121.068561&z=13.2&r=0&src=msl Hole-in-the-Ground http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.407399&lon=-121.194715&z=13.1&r=0&src=msl If time, a lava tube and associated spatter cone http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.526128&lon=-120.865433&z=15.9&r=0&src=msl Another possibility is Crack-in-the-Ground. http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.334696&lon=-120.673823&z=16.4&r=0&src=msl

Day 5:

• Newberry Volcano area- there are just too many possibilities here to list, figured we'd discuss and choose in preceding days or on the fly. http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=43.713128&lon=-121.233225&z=13.2&r=0&src=msl
• Head back to the Valley via McKenzie Pass: http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=44.243084&lon=-121.793236&z=12.3&r=0&src=msl and McKenzie River Highway http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=44.343641&lon=-121.99535&z=12.3&r=0&src=msl to Rt. 20, then into CVO

So skimming over this list, things to bring that you might not think of would include swimsuit/water wear if you're into hot springs, and flashlight/lamp. Bring a large container of water to keep in car (I generally carry 2 liters with me, try to keep at least 4 in the car), and smaller to carry with you. High elevation desert (Lakeview is over a mile in elevation, and it's on the valley floor), sunshine will be intense; hat and sunscreen. (Something I forgot to mention in this note is that the area is REMOTE, and very sparsely populated. Two hours or more between gas stations/stores of any kind is not uncommon, and that's assuming you're staying on main roads. In this area problems that might be minor elsewhere can quickly become life-threatening if you don't have basic supplies. Water is at the top of that list, and knowing places you can top off your supply is important.)

Okay I've spent too much time on this, but I think this is a good overview. Tectonically, we'll see a forearc basin (forearc ridge last fall), the evolution of a volcanic arc (W. Cascades are older, to ~30 Ma; High Cascades younger, <5Ma), and overlapping, complex magmatism related to the arc itself, back-arc rifting (possible early stage continental rift system) and hot-spot influenced magmas. I keep telling people that Oregon is overwhelmingly volcanic; we will see a few other rocks, but those are mostly sediments derived from erosion of volcanics.

I'm planning on taking the ol' electronical difference engine with me, in case we make meal or night stops that have wi-fi, but I make no promises that I'll actually post anything for a while. And even after I get back home, I will likely spend at least a day or few trying to high-grade my way through the better part of a week's intertubal accumulations.

Sunday Funnies

Clay Bennett "This won't hurt (me) a bit."
Sofa Pizza
Savage Chickens
"Every. Damn. Morning." Sober in a Nightclub
epic4chan
epic4chan
Too big to embed the comic, so I'll just post the teaser above and recommend you click this link.

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