• ES Picture of the Day 28 2022

    From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Monday, March 28, 2022 12:00:44
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    Panoramic View of Etna and the Winter Solstice

    March 28, 2022

    Etna21122021-solstizioinvernale(1)

    Photographer: Rosario Catania

    Summary Author: Rosario Catania

    Long ago, ancient civilizations observed the path of the Sun
    through the sky varied depending on the time of year. Instead of
    remaining uniform across the year, the Sun’s daily solar angle for
    a given location on the Earth correlates with the seasons. This
    solar trend occurs annually while the Sun’s angle above the horizon
    gradually increases throughout the spring before reaching its maximum
    point in summer when its ascent appears to stop. The reverse trend is
    true as the Sun’s path decreases throughout autumn before reaching an
    annual minimum daily angle in winter when its decent again appears to
    stop.

    This stopping in Latin is called "sol sister" meaning "stopping of the
    sun", hence the name solstice. Over the course of the year, this
    difference in daily solar angle horizon also affects the length of the
    day, which results in shorter days and longer nights in winter and vice
    versa in summer. Therefore, the day of the winter solstice will
    correspond to the minimum duration of the day and the maximum duration
    of the night. The solstice occurs at a very precise moment and in 2021
    that moment was December 21^st at 4:59 PM local time, with a day length
    of 9 hours and 35 minutes. At 8:58 AM on December 21, the panoramic
    image shown above was taken with a 180° view. The photo shows the view
    from Nicolosi, featuring the snow-capped volcano Etna with the
    Sun to the east (to the right of the image), and the Moon just below
    the horizon to the west, in a diametrically opposite position. Solstice
    day is an opportunity to shoot both celestial bodies in the sky, either
    with a panoramic photo or with a fisheye lens.
    * Nicolosi, Sicily, Italy Coordinates: 37.617, 15.024

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    Sun Links

    * NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
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    * The Sun Now
    * This Week’s Sky

    -
    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
    Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

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  • From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Thursday, April 28, 2022 12:00:58
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    Pinwheel Rock in the Mojave Desert

    April 28, 2022

    IMG_20211227_154500_4 (2)(1)

    Photographer: James Denton

    Summary Author: James Denton

    The photo above provides a unique look into the formation processes
    of a layered rock feature in the Mojave Desert. Similar to how warm
    snow will clump together and roll down a steep hill to create a
    pinwheel, hot freshly fallen volcanic ash can do the same-
    albeit on a much grander scale. Shown with a person for scale, these
    layers slightly differ in size, but are generally several feet thick.
    Photo taken December 16, 2021.

    Photo details: TINNO U304AA, f/2.2, 1/317 second exposure, ISO-118

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    Geology Links

    * Earthquakes
    * Geologic Time
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    * General Dictionary of Geology
    * Mineral and Locality Database
    * Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness
    * This Dynamic Earth
    * USGS
    * MyShake - University of California, Berkeley
    * USGS Ask a Geologist
    * USGS/NPS Geologic Glossary
    * USGS Volcano Hazards Program

    -
    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
    Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

    --- up 8 weeks, 3 days, 21 minutes
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)
  • From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Thursday, July 28, 2022 12:01:18
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    Idaho’s Granitic City of Rocks

    July 28, 2022

    RayB_CityofRocks1270c_22june22 (003)

    RayB_CityofRocks1250c_22june22 (003)

    It isn’t difficult to understand the wonder experienced by westbound
    pioneers and Gold Rush Forty-Niners whose wagon trains rattled
    through southern Idaho’s Albion Mountains while crossing North
    America via the 19th century’s California Trail. The same granite
    monoliths, spires, domes and cliffs — which to some emigrants resembled
    urban skylines back East — are encountered at today’s City of Rocks
    National Reserve, a unit of the U.S. National Park Service and the
    Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation that was established in
    1988. The time-sculpted landscape’s panoramic viewpoints include Window
    Arch, shown here in a photograph taken on June 22, 2022.


    City of Rocks, and nearby Castle Rock State Park, expose the
    Almo Pluton and the Green Creek Complex. Igneous rock intruded
    into even more ancient rock, up to 2.5 billion years old, and cooled
    deep in the Earth. Raised by Basin and Range physiographic dynamics
    over millions of years, the weathered and often-rounded outcrops might
    now bring to mind sculpted turtles, armadillos, elephants and trolls as
    much as cityscapes. In a second image, taken on the same date, summer
    wildflowers and sage fill a high plain below sawtooth pillars dozens of
    stories high. The gritty, cracked cliffs and scarps also attract rock
    climbers, who test their ropes and technical skills on more than 700
    acknowledged routes. Note the climber atop the pinnacle in the photo at
    bottom.


    The picturesque setting remains sacred to Native American peoples,
    including Shoshone and Paiute tribes, some of whom consider
    City of Rocks to be their place of origin, the Park Service notes. The
    historic California Trail, followed by over 200,000 emigrants
    between the 1840s and 1880s, diverges south and west from the nearby
    Oregon Trail, at “the Parting of the Ways” at the confluence of
    the Snake and Raft rivers, and slices through City of Rocks
    toward northwestern Utah and Nevada’s Humboldt River. Some pioneers
    left names, dates and other inscriptions in axle grease on formations,
    such as Camp Rock and Register Rock. Freight and stagecoach routes
    subsequently used the corridor, linking the transcontinental railroad,
    after its 1869 completion in northern Utah, to Boise, Idaho. Today
    cattle ranches and alfalfa fields cover vast stretches, as in Almo and
    the Raft River Valley to the east, while a few in-holdings and
    homesteads remain within the City of Rocks reserve itself.


    RayB_CityofRocks1276ac_22june22 (003)


    City of Rocks National Reserve Idaho Coordinates: 42.0727, -113.7038


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    Geography Links

    * Atlapedia Online
    * CountryReports
    * GPS Visualizer
    * Holt Rinehart Winston World Atlas
    * Mapping Our World
    * Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
    * Types of Land
    * World Mapper

    -
    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
    Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

    --- up 21 weeks, 3 days, 21 minutes
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)
  • From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Sunday, August 28, 2022 12:00:42
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in North Carolina

    August 26, 2022

    PattiW_DSC02848 (005)

    PattiW_IMG_9459 (005)

    Photographer: Patti Weeks

    Summary Author: Patti Weeks

    The Yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) is “one of the
    most migratory of woodpeckers,” as stated on the audubon.org
    website. Thus, this male sapsucker, whose photo I took February 3,
    2022, on a sugar maple tree in an eastern North Carolina arboretum,
    departed this spring for a breeding ground somewhere in the
    northeastern United States, eastern Alaska or Canada. The range of this
    sapsucker’s breeding territory has edged even further northward
    however, due to global warming. The Yellow-bellied sapsucker’s
    winter territory includes the southern and southeastern United States,
    Mexico, Central America and the West Indies. Territories of the other
    sapsuckers (Red-napped, Red-breasted and Williamson’s) are further west
    in the U.S. and Canada.

    The sapsucker perches vertically on the tree trunk, propping itself
    with its tail, and drills holes in neat rows (as seen in the second
    photo on a pecan tree.) It returns to the “ sapwells” to consume
    the sap as it oozes (inset is a close-up photo of oozing sapwells on a
    sugar maple). The moniker ‘sapsucker’ is misleading, as the bird
    actually sips the sap with hairlike structures on its tongue. Up to
    1,000 trees and woody plants have been identified as food sources for
    Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, but they prefer maple and birch trees.
    They also feed on insects, fruit, berries and nuts. Sapsuckers are
    considered a “ keystone” species, providing a crucial role in the
    health of their surrounding ecological community. Many other
    organisms are drawn to the sap, including bees, wasps, butterflies,
    squirrels, bats and other types of birds, particularly hummingbirds. In
    some areas, as many as 35 bird species have been reported to feed on
    the sap and the insects it attracts.

    Patti_inset

    The elevation of the Yellow-bellied sapsucker’s range can vary from
    10,000 ft. (3200 meters) to sea level. The Pitt County Arboretum here
    in Greenville, North Carolina is 56 ft (17 m) above sea level. Perhaps
    I will see this fella again, when it returns here to its wintering
    territory.


    Pitt County Arboretum, Greenville, North Carolina Coordinates: 35.6396,
    -77.3606

    Frozen Sap of a Yellow Birch Tree

    Harvesting Maple Syrup


    Categories: _AnimalLinks | Animals | Trees & Shrubs |
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    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the
    -
    Universities Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

    --- up 25 weeks, 6 days, 20 minutes
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  • From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 12:01:18
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    Fossil Lake’s Legacy at Wyoming’s Fossil Butte

    September 28, 2022

    RayB_fossilbutte329c_01aug22

    RayB_fossilbutte328c_01aug22 (002)

    Photographer: Ray Boren

    Summary Author: Ray Boren

    Over 50 million years ago — during the Eocene Epoch, after the age
    of dinosaurs and as a result of the rise of the Rocky Mountains — a
    freshwater lake formed in western North America, covering an area that
    today is partly in southwestern Wyoming, northern Utah and a bit of
    Idaho. Geologists and paleontologists call the vanished body of water
    Fossil Lake, because its sediments, rich in calcium carbonate,
    excellently preserved the remains of prehistoric fish, birds, mammals,
    reptiles, amphibians, insects and subtropical plants, such as ferns and
    palm trees. The U.S. National Park Service’s Fossil Butte National
    Monument, west of Kemmerer, Wyoming, encompasses just a fraction of
    Fossil Lake’s now-uplifted territory, and the displays in its visitor
    center showcase the rediscovered diversity of life (top photo). Fossil
    displays include lizards, snakes, small extinct mammals, a couple of
    bats, a caiman, and at the bottom left, a typically small early horse
    ( Protorohippus venticolum) of the Eocene — member of a taxonomic
    family that subsequently disappeared from the continent upon which it
    evolved.

    In the 2nd photograph, my great-nephew, Hunter, is standing inside
    Fossil Butte’s visitor center next to a much-fractured 13-foot-long (4
    m) cast of a crocodilian fossil, Borealosuchus wilsoni. A third
    image (bottom), taken along the park’s scenic drive, presents the
    eroded, and sometimes slumping, buttes and slopes of the Green
    River Formation, in which the fossils are quarried.

    The Fossil Butte area also played a part in the fabled “ Bone Wars,”
    or “Dinosaur Wars,” of the late 19th century. Naturalists and
    scientists made note of early fossil finds during the era’s exploratory
    mapping and transcontinental railroad surveys. Rival
    paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope
    were famously among the scientists and professors who vied in
    discovering and describing fossils. They and others often hired
    individuals and teams to dig and gather fossils for them, which were
    sent to universities, laboratories and museums. Fossil Lake specimens
    made their way to scientists and collectors in the Eastern United
    States and around the world, a process that continues today from
    quarries on state and private land. Photos taken on August 1, 2022.

    RayB_fossilbutte349c_01aug22

    Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming Coordinates: 41.8563 -110.7625


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    -
    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
    Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

    --- up 30 weeks, 2 days, 21 minutes
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  • From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Monday, November 28, 2022 11:01:04
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    Mamattus Observed in Stratus Cloud

    November 28, 2022


    Cesar_mammatus__H3A7829-Edit copy

    Photographer: Cesar Cantu
    Summary Author: Cesar Cantu
    Shown above is a stratus-type cloud with noticeable pouches (mammas or
    mammatus) that I observed near Monterrey, Mexico, on July 7, 2022.
    Mammatus clouds can appear strange and whimsical and often even
    intimidating. Their bulging or drooping is attributable to the
    collision of downward vertical currents that generally occurs when the
    atmosphere is unstable, such as during thunderstorm development
    ( cumulonimbus clouds). However, mammas can also form in cirrus
    and stratus clouds, as long as there’s some downward motion
    ( downdraft) within the cloud. The result may be a cloud base with
    conspicuous lumps.

    Photo details: A single shot with the Canon EOS R camera and a 24 mm
    lens; processed in Photoshop.


    Garcia, Nuevo Leon, Mexico Coordinates: 25.71444, -100.6039


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    -
    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
    Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

    --- up 39 weeks, 21 minutes
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  • From Dan Richter@1:317/3 to All on Wednesday, December 28, 2022 11:00:34
    EPOD - a service of USRA

    The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
    captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
    community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
    relevant links.


    The Snake River’s Formidable Hells Canyon

    December 28, 2022

    RayB_HellsCyn245c_07oct22 (003)

    RayB_HellsCyn221c_07oct22 (003)

    Photographer: Ray Boren

    Summary Author: Ray Boren

    The Snake River winds its way 1,036 miles (1,667 kilometers) from
    Yellowstone National Park through western North America before it joins
    the Columbia River, and their shared waters roll on to the Pacific
    Ocean. Along the way, the river’s course forms the wavy border between
    the U.S. states of Idaho and Oregon, where it is a centerpiece of the
    Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and Hells Canyon Wilderness.

    As illustrated in the first photograph, taken on Oct. 7, 2022, from
    near the Hells Canyon Overlook on the river’s west side in Oregon, the
    rumpled landscape plunges from the heights of the Seven Devils
    Mountains in Idaho. High flatlands give way to rocky slopes incised by
    side canyons and ravines. A persistent forest fire is smudging the
    horizon to the right, in Idaho. A second image, taken the same day from
    the west shore, features a placid stretch of the Snake River below
    Oxbow, Oregon, near where the Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon dams
    impound elongated reservoirs for hydroelectric generation.

    The chasm is considered the deepest gorge in North America, dropping
    8,000 feet (2438 meters) when measured from Idaho’s He Devil Peak
    (9,393 feet/2863 m.) to the river. The northbound Snake is not quite
    visible from this viewpoint. The area is roadless between Hells Canyon
    Dam on the south and Hells Gate to the north, near Clarkston,
    Washington, and Lewiston, Idaho — twin cities named for William Clark
    and Meriwether Lewis, leaders of the exploratory Lewis and Clark
    Expedition of 1804-1806.

    Native tribes have occupied the region for thousands of years, but the
    long, steep-sided Snake River gorge hampered and sometimes thwarted
    early explorers, trappers and westbound pioneers. Nevertheless, the
    name “Hells Canyon” apparently was not applied to the area until late
    in the 19th century. The terrain, however, definitely had “hellish”
    beginnings. The oldest rocks are evidence of underwater volcanoes added
    to the North American continent by tectonic forces about 150
    million years ago. Additional volcanism, as recently as 6 million years
    ago, slathered the landscape during a series of extensive basaltic
    lava flows.


    Hells Canyon, Idaho Coordinates: 45.371389, -116.638333


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    -
    Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
    Space Research Association.

    https://epod.usra.edu

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