Antarctic Adventures - Port Lockroy & Neko Harbor

This was our final landing in the Antarctic before heading north. Port Lockroy is a British research station that has been around for several decades, and naturally, being British, has a post office. Part of the station has a "museum" set up the way Antarctic scientific research was done in the 40's and 50's (it's basically just preserved, complete with food, from that time). It was really cool, and this is where I sent a few postcards. Mail from here goes by boat to the Falklands, then military plane to the UK, then enters the British postal system!

Day 18:
Postcards were sent from British Base A
Then back on ship for BBQ day
Humpbacks, zodiacs
Snowslides on our backs
Then from the Antarctic we sailed away

Food shelf!

Recipe book, complete with instructions for penguins, seals and cormorants

I knitted a vengeful fur seal, here it is looking satisfied after a hearty whale snack. Picked those bones clean!

Weddell seal

Neko Harbor sunset

Antarctic Adventures - Deception Island - South Shetlands

Deception Island is a volcano that most recently erupted in 1969. Immediately prior to that eruption, it was home to a British base for research and "strategic positioning". Prior to that, it was a whaling station (of course). I bet you can't guess what caused the destruction here...

Day 16:
On Deception Isle the wind did blow
While we explored the pyroclastic flow
Went for a polar swim
On a geothermal whim
What a wild day, what a volcano!

Chinstraps on steaming cinder beach, British base (ghost "town") in the background

British base remnants, volcanic background

Pyroclastic flow, sweet blocks, lapilli & cinders lodged in this tuff!

Pretty sweet glassy pahoehoe core in this scoria block (also didn't take this home with me... sigh)

Whaling station "water boat" - possibly was used to cart fresh water out to the whaling ships that operated on steam

Most ridiculously unbelievable thing I have done (possibly) - while the sand was steaming, let's just keep in mind the fact that the air temp was freezing and the water temp was 1ºC, so the 16ºC sand was warm by comparison... but not THAT warm... Also, winds happened to be blowing 50-60 kph.

The end of the semester is nigh - scratch that - over!

When I originally drafted this post, it was still the semester... now that it's been over for a couple of weeks and I'm going to start teaching a summer course in another couple of weeks, I thought I'd better post these Grand Canyon photos sooner rather than later!!!


By sheer luck I was invited onto a private trip down Grand Canyon, there was a spot, and I snagged it. It was an excellent opportunity for me to take photos of the Canyon for my Android mobile game on Geologic Time that I built this semester. Yes, you did read that correctly. Soon I will figure out how to make it available for you, should you want it, and should you have an Android device to play it on. iOS is a long way off. Take your issues up with Apple.

So anyway, there I was minding my own business when suddenly I was surrounded by the most amazing opportunity that I didn't have the time or money for but absolutely couldn't possibly turn down. The following are a few of my fave photos from the trip.

 

There was a random petting zoo at a gas station in Scipio, UT. It had an ostrich.

 

It turned out that we were only taking one raft down the canyon, the rest of the boats were... DORIES!!! It was pretty epic. I got to row a dory for a little while, that was also pretty epic. Hi! I'm rowing a hand-built dory down Grand Canyon right now! Yup, that's right.

There was no point at which the views were tiresome.

This was the toilet system - also known as the "groover"...

We hiked up North Canyon, a slot canyon, which had outstanding rock formation walls. Hooray for lithified dunes having been carved by running water!

I did mention earlier that we never tired of the views...

...didn't I?

Mississippian-aged straight-shelled nautiloid fossils (in Nautiloid Canyon)

My "office" for a week.

I think I might have said something about the views before.

We hiked up to the Anasazi granaries above Nankoweap

 

They were high up there. Those Anasazi had some mad skills.

 

Finally, as is customary for whenever I am at Grand Canyon, it snowed. I have never been there in winter, and I have never been there when it didn't snow...

Pure California GOLD.

Some time ago I blogged about Lake Dolores/Rock-A-Hoola water park, a ghost town of sorts on hwy 15 between Barstow and Baker. Recently I got a comment on that blog post indicating that there were intentions to rebuild the place and reopen it.

That lead to this site, where you can watch the transformation.

And this site, where you can hear about the documentary being made on the place.

And then youTube, which of course, had old Lake Dolores commercials!

1970's commercial:


Yes, those were the famous stand-up water slides! Wait until you see them in the 1980's commercial below!!!



1998 commercial:

Field Trip Class 2010: Adventures in Eastern-Central California's Geology

The "Pink Postpile" - Devil's Postpile was inaccessible due to snow, so we found this in the Fish Slough Volcanic Tablelands instead. It was fantastic!

The group at the newly named "Pink Postpile".

Wheel changes were a multi-time-a-day occurrence: the pit crew at work.

Bodie Ghost Town.

The wooden ones I get, but the iron? Can you even imagine? (Bodie)

I'm not sure what this magical powder for men is. (Bodie)

When in Bodie, gotta get in a stamp mill.

An impressive balancing erratic at June Lake. Naturally this calls for tagging - not by our group of course.

Paper cranes at Manzanar cemetary.

Typical menu at Manzanar Internment Camp. The thing that puzzles me is the 4oz of curry powder available.

Heart-shaped arch at Alabama Hills, inclement weather in background.

Silly attempt at towing by hand... totally worth it for entertainment value.

Inclement weather + slow driver + two wheel drive van = getting stuck in a ridiculously small snow pile. *sigh*

Ascending the 680ft high Eureka Dunes, they too "sing", and are the highest in California and rivaling for the highest in the USA.

Teamwork and a little creativity means that anyone can go anywhere. Even at 9500ft.

The group at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest - trees over 4000 years old!

The Chaflant Group Petroglyphs (Fish Slough area), some of the largest (5ft diameter) petroglyphs around.

Two little brine shrimp from Mono Lake.

The group at the scenic vista overlooking Mono Lake.

Gotta love "xing" signs. (Gull Lake)

Why is this whole sign in quotes? (Mammoth Geothermal)

Foxy Brown and Troy Pliocene on the Eureka Dunes. These two were trip mascots; unfortunately Foxy Brown escaped at the ammonite site in Union Wash and was never seen again.

It's amazing how many people go in anyway, and end up receiving the $175 ticket. (Hot Creek Geologic Area)

And of course several other places were visited too - but these constitute my favourite images of the trip.

Paleo-trippin'

So I took a few students to tag along on SSU's semi-annual PaleoPalooza field trip (combined with other schools as well). Kiki and Loki made valiant efforts to come along too, but the trip started without them and with a remarkably horrid freak April blizzard en route to Nevada...

the view out the window from my Jeep-hammock on morning #1

After we awoke to a snow dump and packed up wet gear and pushed and pulled the vans out of the wet sandy snowy campsite, we moseyed on to see some Ichthyosaur action in Berlin-Ichthyosaur state park, also coated in snow.



The next day we ventured off to find some Redlichid trilobites, but that too was covered in snow. Amazingly, one of the SSU girls found this awesome specimen.


Then a few of us took a break from geology and took a romp through an abandoned brothel, check out the snazzy wallpaper!



After some snooping we continued on to investigate some archaeocyathid reefs, which took us into the next day and up Mt Dunphy (near Goldpoint), where some oddly angled stromatolites can be found.



On our final day, the weather had cleared spectacularly and we hit the fossil jackpot with some pretty fabulous ammonites.