En Tequila Es Verdad

A probe sweeps through space. Roughly 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) away, you sit and watch images of another world appear. You notice a mottled surface, and on its horizon, jetting an incredible 260km (162mi) above its surface, a plume.

This photo was taken by Voyager 1 looking back 2.6 million miles (4.5 million km) at Io, three days after its historic encounter. This is the same image in which Linda A. Morabito, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer, discovered the first extraterrestrial volcanic eruption (the bright curved volcanic cloud on the limb). Image courtesy NASA/JPL.

This is the first volcano ever seen erupting outside your planet. Read the rest of this entry »

Two photos that will have you screaming for me to write up the full posts:

1. Oregon Caves National Monument

Cave formations at Oregon Caves.

Oh, yeah, they allow flash photography. It was my first time shooting a cave, so a lot didn’t turn out quite right, but I got just enough to illustrate some important features of caves and make you drool.

2. Grayback Creek

Water flowing over an algae-covered rock in Grayback Creek.

By chance, we stopped at the confluence of Cave and Grayback Creeks. There are shots of the rapids to die for.

In addition to this, I have cryptopod sex, the world’s most obliging butterfly, a nickel mine, and I don’t even know what else. I’ll be back home tomorrow night, and after a brief coma, shall regale you with tales of our adventures and many photos. There’s even a lighthouse or two in there, although we didn’t tour any. Also, UFDs. I got a little of everything for everyone. Because I love you.

We’re halfway through our trip, and I’ve got some enticing photos for you, my darlings. Soon, we’ll have a series of posts exploring several aspects of Oregon geology in detail, and you will love them. I promise! So many stories to share with you when I return, not to mention about six trillion photos.

Enjoy!

“The town and its fluctuating fortunes are a humble reminder that much of human history has been influenced by the vagaries of the geologic processes that shape the land we inhabit, form the minerals from which we construct our civilizations, and produce the riches we covet.”

-Lon Abbott and Terri Cook, Geology Underfoot in Northern Arizona.

While tourists gazed rapt into the billions of years exposed in the layer-rock-cake walls of the Grand Canyon, my mother and I would hop down to Jerome. At Grand Canyon, you have to climb down thousands of feet to touch 2 billion year-old rocks. At Jerome, all you have to do is walk up the street. Read the rest of this entry »