I sent thomas away

Great rock pics!

I had never thought of silicon valley as being about falsies!!!

But, I had somehow formed an impression of its denizens as being kind of soulless, or, I dunno....big on making money and being geekish?

I am relieved to hear I am wrong!!

For a Renaissance ant, geekishness and money making is a pretty attractive mix. And how soulless can a place get when San Francisco is only a 30 minute train ride away?

The black on the rock is from water, I think (maybe where the water washes away the oxidization?). The narrower-at-the-bottom formations happen when the wind blows grit around, there are more and heavier bits of grit nearer the ground level. Or it happens when the lower strata of rock is of a softer composition than the higher levels. Or not....... <wanders away looking confused>

carbropotus Sp Margo.

Okay, let me continue by trying to give you a better impression of the landscape around Chaco Canyon. Its most distinguished landmark is a mountain called Fajada Butte. I already posted one picture a few pages ago. Here's another:


The park is a very broad valley, the canyon itself being narrow, steep, and maybe 30-50 feet deep. I didn't see how to shoot into the canyon itself without getting fairly far off the trail. But this side arm is a fairly similar to the real thing, if only a third as deep and wide. (On second thought: the main canyon is actually much more straight. But you get the general idea.)



The vegetation was very dry this weekend -- about as dry as it looks in this picture:


One major insight I gained on this trip has to do with rocks. Until last week, I never really understood what got correspondents like farmerman, otherwise sane and reasonable people, so excited about rocks. Chaco Canyon changed that completely. It's simply impossible to walk around the place with open eyes and not get fascinated about them. The rocks look as if an abstract sculptor from outer space (probably working for Slartibartfas) had been set loose on them. For example, there are rocks with weird holes in them ...



... rocks with even more weird holes ...


... rocks with lichens ...


... rocks with alien breeding facilities mounted underneath -- you have all seen Alien I haven't you?


And of course, there's always the good, old-fashioned rock with a lonesome Western landscape in the background, with Charles Bronson expected to ride into the picture any moment now:


So that's how the landscape of Chaco Canyon was looking to me.

You need to ask Diane about the ear of petrified corn we found one year.

Roger -- I will.

Dadpad -- that's exactly the leaves!

littlek -- Your water story makes good sense. I would think that if there is iron in the rock, water would facilitate the oxidation, so we would see iron oxide at the wet spots of the rock. Iron II oxide is black, as you can see in this image:


As to the lower-at-the-bottom formations, the theory with the softer strata at the bottom sounds the most plausible to my non-geologist intuitions. The bigger-gravel-near-the bottom explanation would apply to any mountain in the world, and we aren't seeing the phenomenon on any mountain in the world, or even very many of them.

You sure? The Carpobrotus I know, perhaps a different variety, are known to take down some california slopes by their heaviness..

this one's an edulis..

We rarely planted it for that reason..

this one is C. glaucescens, which I don't know, but also looks heavy.. and is called pigface

I haven't seen it in California, not to say it's not there.

This is Thomas' photo in Balboa Park, and it doesn't look as water holding/heavy...


and this is a Drosanthemum - from online.

"The best iceplant" for holding steep slopes, according to Sunset Western Gardens - less fat leaves.

I'm not sure it's either plant.. but my memory of D. f. rosea in person is more like Thomas' photo than the online photos of it, or of Carpobrotus. Much skinnier leaves, and I've seen it many times in different situations.

I probably have slides myself, would have to do some hunting around.
Meantime, there's Drosanthemum hispidum....


Now I'm really curious. I may have to email the people at the park about that, and about the gnarly tree.

Hah, I just remembered, I've got an old photo of me sitting in a bed of Drosanthemum. I'll have to dig it out. I remember specifically that my hair looked good in it, or so I thought, a truly rare occurrence. So even if I'm wrong about the plant, it would be fun to show it. 'course, I'll have to find a way to scan it.

Love this view...

I have a scanner. It will be a good excuse for you to visit.

I agree easily that the D. floribundum stock image doesn't look right, and it doesn't fit my memory... but look at the proportion of the leaves' length in the carpobrotus photo(s) to the flower size, and the one in your photo, Thomas...

Hmm, I think I'm going to San Diego in November..

True dat!

Those stripes in the rock are not formed by water runnoff. They are called Liesegang structures. First named for a guy named Liesegang, who described them from rocks in the Sechstein basin. Its formation isnt really well understood other than its an internal chemical phenom that is soaked all the way through and occurs at an angle that is fixed for that particular formation so it can be traced for miles as a bedding plane indicator. The PRIMARY sedimentary feature also allows us to use its characteristics to point to the direction of the center of that particular basin. The pattern of supernatant/deposition/depletion in the internal water of the formation actually forms a repeated cyclic pattern that will cause depositions of black (manganese), red(iron), whites and yellows (Potassium and sodium salts) white (sodium), and bluish (flouride salts).All of these form at a high angle to the bedding so it does look like runnoff banding.(runnoff banding wouldnt be so perfectly cyclic like this and would locally vary whereever the bedding is slightly elevated and variable.
BY THE WAY<
That is one of the VERY BEST liesegang(ers) Ive ever seen Thomas. I hope you can make me a copy so when we finally get together some time this month you can present me with a picture of a liesegang feature from chaco canyon. (hint hint)

I think you should just make a trip out to New Mexico and see them for yourselves, and so that we can see you for ourselves.

Thanks, dp and others.

I'm loafing away down the sunny south coast (well, not so sunny, but at least not raining, as was forecast) for the weekend - so I'm away from my books. As a good librarian, I'd much rather see a picture in a book than on that new-fangled internet!

Stopped at a local winery yesterday, and bought a couple of cases....Cheers <hic!>
http://www.thesilos.com/

I used to work in Santa Fe and Los ALamos on longer term assignments.My Uncle used to teach at UNM and was a prospector for several mining companies. I used to visit him in the summers and thus got my lifes mission presented to me by an old desert rat who would tell me stories of miners and mules over small campfires. Ive seriously considered moving to Abaturkey and sell the farm and only keep a little place in MAine and a lot in NM.
You oughta be getting into "dust season" right soon.

Yep.

Move another A2Ker to Albaturkey and they'll be able to call it A2K-turkey any time now!

Been in dust season since the day I moved here a little over a month ago. I'm told we'll get a reprieve for a couple months in the summer before it starts up again in the fall.

I have to choose between sufficating dry warmth in the house for BBB's arthritis, or an open window with winds full of dust and pollen. I finally resorted to putting a humidifier in my bedroom yesterday so I can sleep at night without having to blow my nose every few hours to get rid of the crud. We had rain all night and all day today and that gave some relief for a day.


So, when are you coming home for a visit, Farmerman? The Dys and I are getting ready to plant our tomatoes in the next week or two. I'm sure we can find an extra shovel for you.

That's interesting, f-man. I went back to look at the pix and it seems that the stripes are not perpedicular to the ground or following any pattern of least resistance. Makes me wonder about some of my banded photos........