Monday, November 17, 2008

Extrusive Igneous Exploration


"Please try to remember how you would've felt about this stuff when you were seven or eight."
-David Morris

Here are a few shots from the "Lava River Cave" located 13 miles North of Flagstaff.
There are plenty of lava tubes to explore here in Idaho. It's on my "to do" list.
Humans present for scale
Flow texture of the floor
Cooling fracture?
Flow lineations in the cave wall

Monday, November 10, 2008

I haven't posted that?

I can't believe I left my Yellowstone pictures unposted! Let me remedy that!
in the first photo, Bro. Dan Moore pin-points our location on a map of the Yellowstone caldera, just inside the caldera rim. Yellowstone is a playground for Geologists. I had fun watching tourists as they happened upon an expert geologist explaining Yellowstone's volcanism to students. There was an initial captivation; "Ooh! he's explaining the volcanoes!". Then they sat and attempted to decipher the lecture. Words like "isostatic" and "viscous" turned them right away. Poor saps.
Yellowstone Falls at the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone. See the yellow stones? That's where the park gets its name.
More staining of the ash flow deposits down the canyon
Hot Springs! You wouldn't want to swim here. The water is that pretty blue color because of the thriving thermophilic bacterium.
Mud pots! The only difference from a hot spring: proximity to the water table.
And one of the main attractions at the park, no, not bison; geysers!