It will be southern hemisphere springtime...

when I explore the west coast of South America on this upcoming Zegrahm expedition.  (I am on personal leave from the university the next three weeks.)  Here's a map showing the itinerary of the voyage where I will work as the geologist lecturer and guide, as well as expedition photographer and Zodiac driver (click to enlarge):

 

Click the link above to see the detailed itinerary and meet the other staff members for this amazing travel experience.

Breakfast at Goosenecks State Park...

was spent in the company of this fellow (click images to enlarge):

But the real focus of my attention was the deeply incised San Juan River, more than 1,100 ft from rim to river, flowing lazily through the tortuous meanders that inspire the name of this viewpoint:

Most of the stratigraphic section you see in this image is comprised of the Honaker Trail Formation (Pennsylvanian).  In fact, the type section is a short distance down canyon from this vantage point, and in 2006, I hiked the trail down to the river and back.

Natural Bridges National Monument...

is featured in my guidebook project, and so I spent a couple of days in the quest of representative images of this small and isolated park.  Lit by the setting sun, brilliant Indian paintbrush (genus Castilleja) ranks among my favorite wildflowers (click images to enlarge):

Owochomo Bridge may not technically be a natural bridge at all, but an arch, since it doesn't span a valley of erosion (a stream course).  Here the rock span (106 ft high, 180 ft wide) is seen beneath gathering storm clouds:

Multiple storms swept across the desert in the early evening, and this is the view from my hammock as an energetic  thunderstorm rumbled off to the west:

Lastly, here's a canyon rim view of Horsecollar Ruins:

RELATED:  Link to Natural Bridges National Monument.

Survey of best jobs in 2012...

based on good working conditions, high salaries and relatively low stress places software engineer in first place.  However, geologists rank very well, in 21st position, of the 200 jobs considered.  The worst?  Lumberjack.

Here's the link to the article and the interactive list of job rankings.

El Hierro vigorously degassing...

carbon dioxide from its submarine edifice in the southwestern Canary Islands, as seen in this echogram acquired between April 5-9 by a Spanish oceanographic vessel observing the eruption (click to enlarge):

The ocean surface is minimally disturbed, though slightly discolored, by this activity according to recent  reports, and I will be arriving in the Canary archipelago near this location in about two weeks.

 Track current activity here if you dare: El Hierro Volcano : Yellow alert.

Image courtesy El Instituto Español de Oceanografía.

Growth of giant gypsum crystals...

has been explained.

Two unanticipated guests...

have kept me busy the last several days, arriving within a day of my landing at my place in Castle Valley.  So, rather than unpacking and cleaning the house and other chores, the former director of the Spokane County Water Quality Management Program Office and his cousin toured the Onion Creek area with me as guide.  The peculiar geology of this salt-cored anticline in its early stages of development are spectacularly exhibited in the variegated valley, seen here in a view to the northwest:

This Utah serviceberry bush (Amelanchier utahensis) was pushing out spectacular white blossoms along the riparian zone:

The strongly contorted beds in the Paradox Formation are well exposed in this outcrop, created by the slow deformation of the rising salt diapir (that's me for scale):

Here's a broad view toward the southwest of the Fisher Towers area, with the collapsed center of the Onion Creek salt-cored anticline in the center of the image:

And I can report the pit toilet at the Fisher Towers parking area is clean and well-stocked for the early season:

 

RELATED:  Here's the online geologic map and report for the Fisher Towers 7.5' quadrangle (warning:  5.6 MB .pdf file).

The Swell was swell...

and that's no Aprils' Fools joke. On the way to Utah I spent parts of the last two days exploring the San Rafael Swell, a large Laramide-age sandstone upwarp in south-central Utah.  This was the view from my sleeping perch at the edge of the Wedge Overlook at sunrise this morning (click images to enlarge):

My long shadow towards the west accompanies the view of the Little Grand Canyon of Utah, where the San Rafael River has incised deeply into the heart of the structure:

The early morning view to the east, towards the rising sun, has an Ansel Adams-esque quality to it:

The Buckskin Wash pictograph panel is one of my favorites in Utah, extending more than 100 ft along the base of a wall composed of the Navajo Sandstone:

These anthropomorphic figures with outstretched arms are almost certainly inspired by the phenomena of virga, where falling rain evaporates before striking the surface:

And I'm sure there's a story behind this snake encounter, recorded as rock art:

The bridge spanning the San Rafael River was built in 1936, and though no longer in use, stands as a historic monument:

Bottleneck Peak forms the prominent natural monument in the center of the region:

This ground-hugging beauty, phlox (?), was blooming in the early desert spring:

And lastly, here's the view where I-70 drops off the monoclinal fold that defines the eastern side of the uplift, with an interpretive geologic exhibit includes an east-west cross-sectional diagram:

 

Shuttle Atlantis over Tenerife...

in the Canary Islands, as photographed during a previous mission from the International Space Station (click image for high res version):

North is to the left in the image, and you can clearly see the Pico del Teide volcano within the Las Cañadas caldera through the break in the clouds over the island.

Personal note:  I'll be exploring Tenerife and the volcanic edifice seen here in about five weeks time with Zegrahm Expeditions as their geologist lecturer/guide.  I'm getting excited.

Mercury has a liquid core...

and other new surprises from the innermost planet. Terrific images at the link.

Storming the Bastille...

karst in remote northern British Columbia in 1988 with a small international team of cavers began with multiple airlifts of gear and personnel deep into the wilderness.  We established our base camp below Bastille Mountain at tree line, with the helicopter seen here dropping one of several nets of gear in support of our expedition (click images to enlarge):

 

That's Mount Sir Alexander standing tall in the distance, the northernmost peak over 3200 m (10,500 ft) in the Rocky Mountains, seen during the helicopter flight into our objective:

 

The alpine karst is developed on a thrust-faulted sheet of glacially scoured Devonian limestone, and the large peak in the near distance is - no joke - named Mount Buchanan:

Large shafts take the meltwater from surrounding icefields, swallowing the frigid runoff in its entirety:

 

Here's Canadian caver BM beginning his rappel into one such pit, carefully rigging off to the side to avoid as much as possible the icy spray of a waterfall:

 

Lastly, here's an expansive view of the karst plateau below Wallbridge Mountain, taken from the summit of Mount Buchanan (yes, indeed, I had to climb the namesake summit):

We discovered dozens of pits and one large cave during the ten day assault, and the area is still ripe for discovery.

Mesmerizing rivers of lava...

Periodic bedrock ridges...

are a newly identified landform on Mars, although resembling dunes, are likely shaped by wind erosion.

I'll have to recalibrate my thinking when I hear "PBR" from now on.

It may look like a pizza...

but it's actually a new map of the surface of Io, one of Jupiter's moons and the most volcanically active body in the solar system:

More here at the USGS: Geologic Map of Io.

Image credit: Wired.com.

Today's strong earthquake in Mexico...

was caught by the seismometer at EWU (click to enlarge):

The USGS fixes the location of the 7.4 magnitude event near Oaxaca.  Here's an early news account.

Fiery geologic history...

of the Moon visualized in a short video:

Experience a virtual field trip...

to Mount St. Helens using these two linked videos.  They were shot and narrated by me in the mid-1990s during a week-long EWU geology field trip to the volcano.  Realize there was no such thing as digital HD technology at that time, but they are still pretty cool to watch.  Enjoy.

• Mount St. Helens - The View From the Summit
• Mount St. Helens - Into the Crater

NOTE: These should work fine if you have the QuickTime player installed.

Neither do most college students...

Velociraptors Didn't Turn Down Free Meals

Pics from the past...

taken during one of many climbing trips to the Bugaboo Mountains in British Columbia (click images to enlarge).  I'm tweaking a lecture on alpine glaciation and found these while looking for images to use in the presentation.

This adventure, in the late-1990s, set the objective of climbing Snowpatch Spire with partners RE and JL, seen in silhouette below:

Here's the view of the crevassed glacier below, from a point about midway on the ascent:

I've momentarily paused my belay of RE, seen lower-right, as I snap a shot showing the broad glacial valley and lateral moraines:

Once on top the Pigeon Spire (left) and Howser Towers (distance) present themselves in spectacular fashion:

And here's the requisite hero shot on the summit:

Indeed, life begins above tree line.

Physicist terrified of geologists...

on The Big Bang Theory: "Oh dear.  Not the dirt people!"

Heh. At least the earth sciences rank higher than the disdain shown for the liberal arts!