Finally we had a mostly sunny day! We began the day with a tour of the Revelstoke Dam. This dam was one of the last Canadian dams built within the Columbia River watershed. The dam area is really interesting because just across the highway from the dam is the Columbia River Fault zone – a…
Notes From The Field – Lake Louise and Moraine Lake
I’m backtracking somewhat here by posting on our trips to both Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Both are so gorgeous that I didn’t want to exclude them from the postings, but my SD card with their photos was not accessible when I did the initial postings. Suffice it to say that hikes and canoeing in…
Notes From The Field – Field, B.C. to Revelstoke, B.C.
The AWG field trip continued along the Trans-Canadian Highway 1 from Field, B.C. to Revelstoke, B.C. – again in the rain. But at least the rain stopped several times for us to have fun at our trip stops. We followed the Kicking Horse River to its junction with the mighty Columbia River at Golden, B.C…..
Notes From The Field – The Burgess Shale Hike
The hike to the famous Walcott Quarry in the Burgess Shale near Field, British Columbia, was one of my highlights of the AWG field trip.The hike was long and seemed to go on forever – especially the climb up to the quarry. It was in total about 11 km into the quarry and then 11…
Notes From The Field – Icefields Parkway
After more rain and no wifi, we’re finally in Revelstoke, British Columbia where we still have rain, but finally have some wifi. We had a great trip from Lake Louise (I will post a few photos of scenes from Lake Louise later as my camera flash card for that part of the trip is still…
Notes From The Field
The first full day of the AWG Canadian Rockies Field Trip opened to pouring rain by the time we reached the Canmore, Alberta area – about 66 miles west of Calgary. So no grand views of the impending Front Ranges or sights of Triangle Zone structure. Once in a while during lunch we could vaguely…
AWG 2014 Canadian Rockies Geology Field Trip Gears Up
The Association for Women Geoscientists’ 2014 Canadian Rockies geology field trip is fast approaching. The trip starts and ends in Calgary, and runs from August 28th through September 7th, with pre-trip hikes around the Calgary area on August 27th. Because the trip geology will be so spectacular and many people wanted to go, but just…
Prospecting For Vertebrate Fossils On Hot Summer Days In Southwestern Montana
The end of July always brings The Webb School students who are interested in paleontology to southwestern Montana. That time is packed with prospecting a variety of Tertiary sites in the hopes of finding interesting vertebrate fossils. This year had its good finds along with persevering through some really hot days. Being on a surface…
Yellowstone’s Firehole Lake Drive Reopens
Last Thursday (July 10),Yellowstone National Park (YNP) temporarily closed the 3.3 mile-long Firehole Lake Drive, a paved road that traverses some of Lower Geyser Basin. Melting asphalt on a part of the road near the start of the loop drive became a “soupy mess”, according to Dan Hottle, YNP spokesman. Hottle told Live Science that…
Montana’s Smith River Float
The 59-mile float trip down the Smith River is a must-do for anyone who likes the Montana outdoors. The Smith float is a permit-only float within the Montana Smith River State Park, and is accessible only by non-motorized watercraft. There is only one public put-in site (Camp Baker), and one public take-out site (the Eden…
Glacial Geology Field Tripping in the Northern Yellowstone Area
Living near Yellowstone National Park has its advantages – and the best of these is being easily able to go on field trips to the Park area. A field trip opportunity came up last week when the Rocky Mountain section of the Geological Society of America came to Bozeman, Montana, for its annual meeting. One…
2013 Yearbook of the Cuban Society of Geology – Now Online
For those interested in Cuban geology, Manuel Iturralde-Vinent, President of the Cuban Geological Society, just informed me that the 2013 Yearbook of the Cuban Society of Geology (Volume 1, No. 1, 2013. ISSN 2310-0060, Scientific Journal of Geosciences, Havana) is now online. The papers in the yearbook are listed separately on the Cuban Digital Geoscience Library website. The individual…
Landslide Hazards – Geology On The Move
Landslides in the western U.S. are very much in the news lately, so I thought I’d put together a brief listing of some data, images and video on a few of them. Most of the listings below are related to the Oso, Washington landslide. But because of unusually wet conditions that have occurred during the…
Rare Earth Elements and the WTO
Yesterday the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that China breached international trade law by limiting the export of 17 rare earth elements and two metals used in steel alloys (molybdenum and tungsten). The case was originally brought before the WTO by the United States in March 2012; the European Union and Japan later joined in…
Ukraine Crisis Fueling Natural Gas Exports Debate
The Ukraine crisis is adding fuel to the natural gas export debate that’s been brewing in Congress. Sen. John Barrasso, R-WY, is proposing that an amendment to lift restrictions on U.S. natural-gas exports be added to the Senate aid package for Ukraine. On March 5, Sen. Mark Udall, D-CO, a senior member of the U.S….