Today: I offer some photos I took in Boulder Canyon, Colorado, in June. These are all igneous rocks exposed in the Precambrian 'basement' rocks, brought to the surface by the Laramide Orogeny.

Directions: Drive to Boulder; go west up the main canyon into the Rocky Mountain Front Range.

Location map:


Granite pegmatite:


Contact! Granite pegmatite meets granodiorite:


Contact! Granite dike cutting across granodiorite (with one small mafic xenolith):


Contact! Mafic xenoliths afloat in granodiorite:


Put the previous two pictures together, and what do you get? My favorite outcrop of the whole excursion... Contact contact! A granite dike cutting across mafic-xenolith-bearing granodiorite. This would be a good practice photo for introductory level students to establish relative ages of the three different rocks shown:


Contact! More prosaic, but high-contrast... Granite meets basalt:


Epidote vein (Without any good reason, I love the color of epidote):


My Prius parked on the side of Boulder Canyon Drive:

Labels: basalt, colorado, granite, primary structures, prius, travel, xenoliths

Howdy folks,

I've been on the road for several days now, and thought it would be time for an update. On my first day, I got up at the crack of dawn and drove from DC out to Winchester, Virginia, where my brother lives, and had breakfast with him and his family. After saying goodbye to my passel of nieces, nephews, and the dogs Cubby and Slick, I hit the road proper. Down the Shenandoah Valley on I-81, then west on I-64 across the wide part of West Virginia. This was the Valley and Ridge province, and it's hell on the gas mileage. I dropped from 54 mpg to 53.5 by the time I got out the Allegheny Plateaus. I also saw the most expensive gas I've seen so far: $4.75 a gallon for regular unleaded. (The lowest I've seen is $3.78.)

After crossing the border into Kentucky, I deviated to the south, and around 8pm EST (7pm CST), I pulled into Mammoth Cave National Park. I got a campsite, set up the tent, and popped a bottle of homebrew. (I brought my last six bottles of Whatchagot Ale with me.) There was a racket coming from the trees: a 17-year cicada emergence was in progress, and the seething insects pulsated as they coordinated their shrill call: positively primordial. For my evening's entertainment, I attended the Park Service's "campfire" program. (Today, "campfire" means "PowerPoint slideshow," which has its advantages and its disadvantages.) It was a hot and humid night's sleep.

The next morning, I got up and made some coffee. After breaking camp, I took a hike down to the "River Styx," an emergent spring where a stream of water flows out of Mammoth Cave and into the Green River (the same Green River, by the way, of John Prine fame). I also passed one of the many entrances to the Mammoth Cave system, and felt an amazing cool breeze oozing out of the hole and flowing down a classic solution valley towards the Green River. At 10am, my tour of the cave began. Mammoth offers multiple tours of different parts of the cave at different activity levels. I signed up for the gnarliest one on offer: the so-called "Wild Cave" tour. (Tuff Cookie presciently recommended this to me, though I had in fact reserved it a couple of weeks ago.) The Wild Cave tour is different from most Mammoth tours because it's real caving, with crawling and mud and tight squeezes, and climbing skills. You've got to be reasonably fit and trim for the Wild Cave tour to work. Joining me where 11 other people with various backgrounds, including seven from the ESPN auto racing circuit. They had a fun, jocular attitude, with a lot of mutual joshing and teasing.

I was struck by a few things about Mammoth: (1) It's really big. But that's why we bother going there, and why it's a national park (it's the longest cave system in the world), so this is no big insight. (2) It's got a lot of gypsum in it. In many places, "flowers" of gypsum crystals sprout from the ceiling and walls. I asked, where's the sulfur coming from? The guides said there was a pyrite rich layer above, which was being leached by rainwater. (3) There's not a lot of stalactites in Mammoth. I've spent a lot of time in caves in West Virginia, and there are many places in them where it's nothing but stalactites. I'm not sure what's up with that, but it was noteworthy to me. (4) There are some HUGE rooms in Mammoth, with ceilings that are easily five or six stories tall. Very impressive; cathedral-like. (5) Mammoth Cave has been a tourist destination for a LONG time. People have been trekking to this destination long before there was a road network to bring them there. Back in the day (late 1700s and early 1800s), people arrived via the river rather than overland. Some of the cave was developed early on to support these visitors. Nowadays, the Park Service continues this tradition with paved walkways, lighting, and even a subterranean cafe in "sacrifice" areas of the cave. My tour passed in and out of these areas throughout our six-hour expedition.

After exiting the cool cave back into the Kentucky afternoon heat, I took a shower (the best $2 I've spent so far on the trip!) and popped into the Prius for some more driving. I headed north again, crossing briefly into Indiana, and then Illinois. I spent the night at a hotel near Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Yesterday morning, I got up and drove west all day, back on I-64 and then on I-70. I crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis, and then crossed Missouri. Into Kansas after that: it wasn't nearly as flat as I remembered it. Part of the insight into Kansas' topography was courtesy of the Prius, which showed me (via the mpg indicator) when I was going uphill and down. A strong headwind lowered my fuel efficiency significantly, dropping it down to 52.7 mpg by day's end. There's a lot of wind out here! I was also struck by the clouds: such crazy, distinctive forms. I can see how if you were growing up here, you could get into meteorology big time. I saw a massive storm system to my south, and the local NPR affiliate was broadcasting storm warnings and tornado watches all afternoon.

I decided to stop for the night in Hays, Kansas, home of fellow geoblogger Ron Schott. As it turns out, Ron is not actually in town this week, but I may be able to hook up with him for some Kansas chalk scouting on my way back east in late July. But there's a lot to do in Hays. For dinner, I went to the Lb. Brewing Company, a craft brewery and brewpub downtown. I got a sampler of eight (small glasses) of their various beers, and enjoyed them all. Most unusual was a lemon beer which tasted a lot like lemonade. After dinner (reading Oceans of Kansas with my turkey panini), I watched another massive storm system pass to the north, with towering gray clouds and sporadic pulses of lightning. Wow.

This morning, I'm off for a run (need to stretch those legs!) and then to the Sternberg Museum of Natural History here in Hays (an affiliate of Ron's university, Fort Hays State University). The Sternberg has a reputation as having awesome fossils from the area's sedimentary strata laid down in the Western Interior Seaway. Looking forward to it.

Next stop: Denver, hopefully by 7pm so I can attend the "Geography Goes Digital" event at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. More later...

Labels: caves, kansas, kentucky, prius, travel

There's been some interesting articles in my media subscriptions lately. Thought I'd use today's post to share.

In the June National Geographic, a study of the geology of Stonehenge reveals the source of the monoliths ("polyliths?") there. They came from the Preseli Mountains of Wales. That's a long journey for such big rocks. Also in the same issue is an eye-popping pictorial piece on sea slugs. You must check it out, because it features dozens of David Doubilet images like this one:

WIRED's cover story this month is about environmental "heresies": ideas that supposedly environmentalists aren't supposed to like, but need to happen. The basic premise is that "only cutting carbon matters," and so they come up with some interesting recommendations like: (1) use A/C more, and heating less, (2) "screw the spotted owl" (don't worry about the loss of biodiversity), and (3) buy a used Geo Metro rather than a new Prius. I found this last of particular interest, as it recounts a web rumor that it took less carbon to make a Hummer than a Prius, and therefore Hummers were more environmentally friendly. (The Prius' battery has a lot of high-carbon-cost nickel in it.) WIRED breaks it all down into BTUs, and runs the numbers. According to their analysis, it takes the Prius 100,000 miles to catch up (i.e. be more carbon-efficient) than an old Toyota. Bummer... Big bummer. (At least the Hummer bit has been debunked.)

As usual, Smithsonian had a bunch of interesting pieces in it. Almost everything in there catches my imagination. It's a very well done magazine.

The New Yorker had a couple of articles, too: In their recent "innovators issue," Alex Ross profiled John Luther Adams, the man responsible for the mesmerizing "the place where you go to listen" in the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. If you haven't ever been there and find yourself in Fairbanks, I would recommend this museum highly, and this one room / art installation in particular: it plays certain notes and tones and changes the lighting depending on what the aurora, seismic activity, and other Earth processes are doing. And Margaret Talbot profiled Irene Pepperberg, who raised the parrot Alex and taught him to talk. This article explores the insights into intelligence gained from this serendipitous longterm experiment.

On the commodities front, the New York Times reports today that thieving biofuellers are stealing vegetable oil in Oregon, and that guano stocks are being closely guarded in Peru. Telling quote from the latter: "Before there was oil, there was guano, so of course we fought wars over it," (Pablo Arriola).

Labels: alaska, birdies, environmental, mollusks, news, prius, wales

An article in today's Washington Post explores the constant feedback that Prius drivers get about their fuel consumption -- and how that may be one of the main reasons that Prii* get lower gas mileage than other vehicles. I've noted this phenomenon before, so I thought I'd pass along a link to the article.

* "Prii" = plural of "Prius," at least in my world.

Labels: action, environmental, oil, prius, tech

On my drive out to Shenandoah National Park this weekend, I hit a new milestone with my Prius' fuel efficiency. It turned over 50.0 mpg: this is the running average since I bought the car, about 4000 miles worth of accumulated data. Then it ticked up to 50.1, and then I got to Sperryville and began driving up the Blue Ridge. Up, up, up the hill means fuel efficiency goes down, down, down. That's a steep hill. When I got up to Skyline Drive, it was down to 48.8 again. But then using the principles of hypermiling, I got it back up to 50.1 over the course of the drive back to DC.

Driving the Prius is like a game, where you're constantly challenging yourself to get more miles out of every gallon of gas. The dashboard display shows you your moment-to-moment fuel efficiency, and you can tailor your driving second by second to maximize your distance to gasoline ratio. It's a whole different experience as compared to driving a car without a dashboard readout, and I find myself much more mentally engaged in the driving process.

Anyhow, yesterday, after a jaunt into NOVA to do some work, I was driving up the Rock Creek Parkway, and it ticked over to 50.2. Ooh boy! Goody, goody, I thought to myself. I should take a photo of that and put it on my blog, where I brag about what a minimal petroleum consumer I am.

But, because this is springtime in DC, the display had a fine layer of pollen all over it. So I pulled out a paper towel to wipe away the pollen. The problem is, the pressure of the paper towel on the touch-sensitive screen activated the "RESET" button. Instantly, my hard-won 50.2 mpg disappeared, to be replaced with 0.0. Aargh!

While I appreciated knowing the overall fuel efficiency of the car, I'm now realizing the benefit of hitting RESET: Now my numbers aren't "bogged down" with my early days of inefficient Prius-driving technique. The new average will reflect what I'm actually driving, not my overall mpg legacy. I knew that I was driving more efficiently than 50.2, since the numbers kept going up over time, but I wasn't sure how much more efficiently. Now that I've reset the system, I can get a more accurate bead on my day-to-day fuel efficiency.

Since the reset, I've driven 18 miles, a slight majority of it uphill. The numbers look promising:

Labels: oil, prius

In an article in Newsweek, the hosts of NPR's "Car Talk" talk about the car of the future.

Turns out that the Tappet Brothers, one of whom doesn't even own a car (!), are lobbying Congress for increased automobile fuel efficiency. They're also starring in a new episode of the PBS series Nova. And they have some advice for you, the consumer: "Get a Prius."

FYI, since we're talking about it -- a quick update on my "Pious" seems in order. Its current fuel efficiency (running average since I bought the car in December) is:

Labels: action, climate change, global warming, oil, petroleum, prius, tech, tv

A friend forwarded me a link to this interesting article in Mother Jones. After reading my discussion of Prius-induced fuel-conscious driving techniques on this blog, my friend recollected the Mother Jones profile subject, Wayne Gerdes, who gets 59 m.p.g. just by driving really, really consciously. He includes some maneuvers in his repertoire that are pretty dangerous, but the point is that he doesn't even need a hybrid to acheive these sorts of fuel efficiencies. Check it out.

Labels: oil, prius, products

An update on the Prius that I've been driving for 1.5 months. I've spun its wheels about 1300 miles now. It's getting a running average of about 47.5 miles out of each gallon of gasoline. For those who haven't seen one before, this is the fuel consumption display that is set in the middle of the dashboard:

One of the things that driving a Prius has taught me is that fuel efficiency varies a lot. On cold mornings, driving up my hill in DC, I'm getting like 7 miles per gallon. But then out on the highway on a flat stretch, going 65 mph, I get 100 miles per gallon. Huge disparity there. As much as having an innovative engine, I think some of my success with the (relatively) low gas mileage is learning how to maximize efficiency through my own driving habits. This little dashboard display is constantly telling me whether I'm getting as much as I can be out of my gasoline, and I can adjust my pedal position or coasting strategy accordingly. It's more brainwork than driving my old Corolla used to be, but it's also kind of engaging to be thinking about. Anyhow, it's still giving me good gas mileage and a lot of positive vibes.

Also: another geo-blogger, Jim Repka, wrote about his Prius in a recent post.

Labels: oil, prius

WIRED magazine's cover story this month is about the race to build a car that gets 100 miles per gallon of gasoline. Also, they offer an online feature about a guy who modified his 1992 Honda Civic to get 95 m.p.g. (under certain conditions).

On a related noted, my friend Greg has a great nickname for the Prius (he's also a Prius driver): the Pious! (as in "holier-than-thou")

Labels: global warming, prius

An update on my Prius: I've driven about 250 miles since I got it last week, and over that period I'm getting an average of 46.7 miles per gallon. I am pleased. Merry Christmas!

Labels: action, global warming, prius

So... I've been talking to my students for years about the science of climate change. I've stated as plainly as I can that I'm convinced that emissions of greenhouse gases, in particular CO2, are warming up our planet. To my long-term, whole-planet style of thinking, this is a MUCH bigger issue than something like the war in Iraq. Iraq is "merely" a conflict between two (or a half-dozen) countries. On the other hand, climate change is BIG -- it affects all of the planet's surface (albeit to differing degrees) and it's going to last an unimaginably long time (if all continues along the present trend). The rates at which geologic processes extract CO2 from the atmosphere are way too slow to compensate for the breakneck pace we're generating atmospheric CO2 through the burning of fossil fuels (and forest biomass).

But besides educating students, what am I doing about it? Two days ago, I took a big step towards putting my money where my mouth is. I bought a Toyota Prius, one of the current generation of hybrid vehicles that are much more fuel efficient and produce less greenhouse gases. The Prius is ranked by the EPA as getting 45 miles per gallon in the city and 48 m.p.g. on the highway. It's classified as a partial-zero emissions vehicle.

Here's a comparison for several cars from the EPA's data. Hopefully you can see why I opted for the Prius. Maybe in another five years, there will be a mass-market electric vehicle. That's what I really want for Christmas!

Make and model	Engine	Fuel	Drive	Air pollution score	Fuel-economy (MPG) City/Highway	Greenhouse gas emissions score
Toyota Prius	1.5L 4 cyl	Gasoline	2WD		48 / 45
Honda Civic Hybrid	1.3L 4 cyl	Gasoline	2WD		40 / 45
Honda Insight	1.3L 4 cyl	Gasoline	2WD		45 / 49
Mazda Tribute Hybrid	2.3L 4 cyl	Gasoline	2WD		29 / 27
Lexus LS 600 HL	5L 8 cyl	Gasoline	4WD		20 / 22
Jeep Grand Cherokee	3L 6 cyl	Diesel	4WD		17 / 22
Jeep Grand Cherokee ("flex-fuel")	4.7L 8 cyl	Ethanol Gasoline	4WD		9 / 12 ethanol 14 / 19 gasoline
Hummer H3	3.7L 5 cyl	Gasoline	4WD		14 / 18
Bentley Continental GTC	6L 12 cyl	Gasoline	4WD		10 / 17

Labels: action, global warming, prius, teaching