Happy Holidays!

Xmas Eve greetings! Photos are all from Nevada City, CA, although I'm elsewhere at the moment. Above: the Outside Inn.

Inside the Mine Shaft.

Likewise.

Xmas cheer from inside Lefty's.

West to Southwest of Center: Beers and Roads and Folds and Things

I thought I'd back up to a time a week before our stop at The Geographic Center of Nevada, a time just prior to our soak at Spencer Hot Springs. MOH and I had gone out to Austin, Nevada, and we had aimed, successfully, to arrive in time for Serbian Christmas.

Serbian Christmas is celebrated yearly at the International Cafe & Bar, and we've happened in once before without knowing that we were arriving on that celebrated date. This time, we postponed our already scheduled trip to Austin by one or two days in order to arrive on the 7th of January, which corresponds to December 25th on the Julian calendar.
By perfect celebratory standards, we got there just a wee bit late, but still in time to get a room with overrated free wi-fi (terrible bandwith, poor broadcasting) at the Mountain Motel, and time to sit in the bar for a drink or two — including some traditional plum brandy from Serbia — before moving to our table in the cafe. The Christmas dinner of pit-roasted pig served with various and sundry dishes and desserts begins at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon (or maybe as early as noon). I think we sat down just before 6:00 and the food was still coming. The meal is free (unless you order off the pizza menu), the experience is more than worth the price, and the cuisine is the best for miles around.

We spent much of the next day trying to find a certain locality in the Northumberland caldera, and at one point we came close to taking the right road.

The right road.
I somehow didn't manage to take a picture of the wrong road.

We found a nice Z fold in Ordovician cherts of the Vinnini Formation just a couple miles southeast of the turnoff to the right road. The Z fold was part of a larger fold or fold complex that was difficult to photograph with straight-down-sun lighting. You can barely make out the Z fold near the main fold axis, just to the right of the prominent, though thin, black chert band in the right hand part of the photo.
Here's a better look at the Z fold with my boot for scale
And here's the Z fold rotated into a Z postion. I'll leave it to all the diehard structural types in the audience to tell me which direction is up in the photo showing the whole fold.

Not knowing that we hadn't made it to our sought-after spot in the Northumberland caldera, we returned to Austin after partaking of the waters at Spencer Hot Springs. We had another beer or two at the bar before eating dinner at the International, and the next day we continued our journey.

View Northumberland in a larger map

First Walk of the New Year

I went on my first walk of the year earlier today, out along a creek in Anchorage, AK.
That's about 24 inches of snow on the ground, although the total snowfall for the season has been much higher than that.
Photos were taken at about 10:30 Alaska time, about 15 minutes after sunrise.

Trees.

And more trees.

Did I mention that it was a short walk?

White Xmas

Right now it's 27 inches and counting.

Not Quite Blogger Meetup

While sitting at the empty table beyond the closest or largest "Alaska" sign in an unnamed bar at the SeaTac airport ...
...and after eating this early lunch with Pike IPA ... ... I had a fine phone forum with Dana Hunter of En Tequila Es Verdad fame (True Fame, really) — and we decided that we would definitely meet sometime in the future.
Here's to ya, Dana! :)

What I'm Considering as an Xmas Gift to myself...

...to replace my aging Canon A650 IS camera:

A650 IS specs at Canon

G12 specs at Canon

D10 specs at Canon

ABCDeals refurbished A650 $450

Refurbished A650 "from China" $290

A650 at Amazon, varied prices

G12 at Amazon $430

I really like my A650 IS, I have had it cleaned or fixed once (dust or spots internally on the lens or mirror, a glitch that somehow develops during airline flights). It's a great camera that has already survived one E18 or "Lens error, restart camera" event, which I fixed by carefully whacking the camera, as per the percussion advice on some forum (maybe this one; other options were send in for repair or take the camera apart and mess around). I'm now facing a growing spot of no pixels on the vari-angle LCD screen (vari-angle is a higher requirement for me than AA batts). I'm sure Canon can fix this, but I don't know at what cost (yet). In the meantime, before I send my camera off, I'll need another camera (though I could pull out my old A620, like I did in the spring of 2010 when I last had the A650 in for repair). eBay currently has A650's that generally sound no better than the one I already have.

A note: Xmas always comes early when I buy something like this for myself.

UPDATE 20Nov2011: Nikon Coolpix P7100 review

UPDATE 28Jan2012: Just ordered a Canon G12. This option retains the vari-angle LCD screen, adds slight weight and height, aperture drops from max 4.8 to 4.5, total zoom drops from about 210 mm to 140 mm, wide angle increases from about 35 mm to 28mm, megapixels drop from 12 to 10, have to use Canon battery packs, gain High Dynamic Range shooting.

Happy Valentine's Day from the central Basin and Range

Thanks to a combination of faults and linears along 1) the Walker Lane, 2) some ENE-trending structures in northwest Nevada that parallel the main trend of the Snake River Plain, 3) the Northern Nevada Rift (the north-central, NNE-trending magnetic linear on this map), 4) some northeasterly features in north-central Nevada that trend toward the Snake River Plain, 5) the Wasatch Fault, and 6) other Basin and Range structures near Las Vegas (going clockwise from the west), I've managed to outline a large heart-shaped feature in the central part of the Basin and Range.
That's what I see every time I look at the Nevada-Utah part of the Basin and Range on Google Earth. (Enlarge both images, then click back and forth to see where I've drawn the lines.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Xmas Greetings from Nevada!

Christmas tree inside Middlegate Station, along Highway 50 in central Nevada—that "loneliest highway" and also the Lincoln Highway.
Decorated antlers.
Decorated six-pack condiment holder.
The view from inside, with decorations.

Decorations were spotted earlier this month, when MOH and I were at Middlegate to do some exploration and to generally get away from it all.

Happy Holidays to all, wherever you may be!

Happy Halloween...

...from Jack-o-Breccia.

Accretionary Wedge #28: Deskcrop Trick or Treat

This month's Accretionary Wedge is being hosted by Matt Kuchta over at Research at a Snail's Pace, and it's all about deskcrops, "the spookier the better." I missed the fisrt Accretionary Wedge on Deskcrops, which was Wedge #4 at Goodschist, although I've featured a few random deskcrops now and again (exactly two, so far). And, as I explained elsewhere recently, I don't really have a desk, and will have to use either shelfcrops from inside the house, garden crops, porchcrops from the steps near the back door, or back-of-truck-crops. I had one vote for garden crops and one vote for porchcrops, but am going with a spooky little indoor shelfcrop.

Scale: Entire rock is 3cm in diameter.

MOH brough this little gem home from a hike one day, and it was immediately in the running for top shelfcrop, seeing as how Halloween is nearly upon us and it resembles an cheerfully smiling jack-o-lantern. It has a big grin, one partly squared off round eye, and one triangular eye. In reality, it's a dark gray, brecciated dolomite (now running out to the truck to get the HCl in order to test this diagnosis - yes!). Some breccia clasts appear to have been rotated or at least moved (the triangular eye) while others appear to be nearly in place (part, or even most, of the smile); the clasts were then cemented by a matrix of white, coarsely crystalline calcite dolomite (HCl to the rescue).

This is a sedimentary rock (dolomite) that has been brecciated under unknown circumstances, given that the context (an outcrop) is missing. Consequently, I don't know what kind of breccia this is. Possibly it's a karst breccia; maybe it's a hydrothermal breccia; maybe it's a sedimentary breccia that was cemented with dolomite. Maybe it's some kind of fault or tectonic breccia. Just don't know.
Oh, and then I had to do this, thinking I saw a couple veinlet correlations...
...and then this...
...and then this. Purple outlines the breccia fragments; dark pink follows veinlets.
And here's our grinning jack-0-lantern breccia in it's current home, on a shelf, leaning against a folded towel, making it truly a shelfcrop, and a top shelfcrop, at that!

Happy Halloween!
Or, Happy Nevada Day, depending on which you prefer to celebrate. :)

An Alaskan Lunch Overlooking the Glacier

After our long, seemingly endless drive up the Glenn Highway, we finally arrived the Long Rifle Lodge. We pulled in, parked right next to the entrance, and went inside - where we were welcomed by this testy character, who was thankfully behind a railing.
One great viewing spot for glacier watching is the windowed room beyond the shadowed bear. We were the only ones at the lodge when we arrived (besides our hosts), so we had our pick of tables. I was all for sitting at one of the far tables overlooking the snowed-out glacier, but others were chilly.
So we took a table right next to this fine wood stove.
I went outside. Down at the corner of this second-floor porch, you can see the glacier - on a clear day, not on this day.
Another porch corner has good viewing, and a telescope to boot. The Matanuska Glacier would be in plain view beyond the telescope and above the trees, were it not for all the snow and low clouds.
Back inside, we spent some time admiring this great ammonite fossil. This specimen could be from several local formations including the Cretaceous Matanuska Formation, which is known to contain ammonites and other marine fossils along with some plant fossils (Merritt, 1985, p. 45-46).
The inside of the lodge has its walls and empty floor spaces filled with Alaskan artwork, maps, historic paraphernalia, old rifles, and mounted animals.
We got ready for lunch: some of us started with hot chocolate, some with Alaskan ale of one flavor or another.
After lunch, on the way out, I looked into the bar area and spotted this bear having a bottled beer.
What kind of beer? A Big Sky Brewing Moose Drool (from Montana, not Alaska). Wonder if the bear drinks anything else - will try to remember to check that out next time!
And because today is St. Patrick's Day, I've added a photo of a Northwest Coast art piece with a little green in it. I'm sorry I didn't get the artist's name or location.

Links: Deep Time and Time

It being the start of a new year (the year 2010 to be precise), I have a few deep-time links for all you deep-time lovers (or would that be lovers of Deep Time?):

• The 2009 Geologic Time Scale: GSA



• No vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end: Hindered Settling, Mar 2007



• The Geologic Time Scale is Mind Boggling: Edward de Leau, May 2007



• How the Discovery of Geologic Time Changed our View of the World: ScienceDaily, Sep 2007



• "We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end": Laelaps, Oct 2007



• Time: All The Rage, Feb 2008



• The times they are a-changin': Laelaps, Apr 2009



• Time Almost not Beyond Imagining: Recent Volcanism on the Colorado Plateau and Deep Time: Geotripper, Aug 2009



• Fading Into Insignificance: Mather Point, Grand Canyon National Park: Geotripper, Dec 2009 - this is a great use of photography and zoom lenses to create a sense of scale, which is then a metaphor for deep time, with the background being the Grand Canyon, a perfect example of deep time!



• Deep Time: SERC at Carleton College



• Mapping Deep Time: About.com: Geology



• Understanding Deep Time: Boulder Area Sustainability Network (BASIN)



• Hutton's geology: ‘No vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end’: OpenLearn

Happy New Year!

Xmas at Our Little House

I don't yet know for sure where I'll be on Christmas day, but this is what Christmas decorations look like at our little house. I went out a few days ago and found the tiniest fake tree I could find, decorated it with two tiny-light necklaces designed to be worn to Xmas parties, along with some tiny gift-wrap bows, and there it sits, hanging on our front door knob, on the inside where we can see it. We also have some LED lights wrapped around our elliptical exercise machine, which I haven't photographed. I have a large selection of various lights and decorations at our lake house - including a somewhat larger, though still small, fake tree. I didn't want to duplicate by buying more stuff, hence this tiny tree.
Here's wishing everyone happy holidays, whatever kind you may be celebrating and enjoying!

Modified Gluten Free Banana Bread

I haven't been blogging that much recently, but will record here a gluten-free, wheat-free banana bread recipe I used recently, with the modifications I made. The original recipe is from the back of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour:

Ingredients

1/3 cup Canola Oil
2/3 cup Brown Sugar, packed
2 large Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe Bananas
1/2 cup finely chopped Pecans or Walnuts
1/2 cup Raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9x5-inch non-stick loaf pan. Cream together oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl with eletric mixer. Add flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and cinnamon to egg mixture, alternating with bananas. Beat until smooth. Stir in nuts and raisins. Batter will be somewhat soft. Transfer to pan. Bake for 1 hour. Serves 10

Modifications

One, I used a whip and a plastic spatula (scraper) for stirring rather than an elecric mixer. An electric mixer is generally not recommended for banana breads, and extra beating is not recommended for high altitude cooking (which I was doing, although I didn't pay any attention to that fact before I started).

Two, I puréed the walnuts in a coffee grinder (we don't have a cuisinart or blender at our little house because of space considerations, but may shortly get a small blender). The addition of puréed walnuts rather than chopped walnuts was a little like adding 1/2 cups extra flour with a minor or trace amount of extra oil.

Three, I didn't use any raisins.

Four, after mixing everything together, I considered the high-altitude aspect of my baking situation. (It's usually better to consider this prior to beginning!) I looked up adjustments for cooking at 5000 feet (I'm at about 6500 feet), and, thinking that the batter was too thick and too dry, I made the following adjustments:

1. I added two or three large dollops of applesause.
2. I added one or two smaller dollops of sour cream.
3. I then added a minor scattering of extra flour after wondering if the mixture was too moist.
4. I added a little extra cinnamon for more flavor.
5. I increased the cooking temperature by 25°F, and possibly could have decreased the cooking time but didn't.
6. It would be normal to reduce the baking powder as part of the high-altitude cooking adjustment, but I didn't consider adjustments early enough to do that.

The resulting loaf seemed too dry to me when it first came out of the oven, but after placing in a plastic baggie overnight it didn't seem that way at all. Next time I will probably look for a recipe that uses applesauce to begin with, and modify it for wheat-free flour. I'm wondering if some combination of applesauce and sour cream could be substituted for a half or more of the oil.

Sorry, no pictures - it's already gone!

A Bird - Or Two

While we are waiting for the bird in the oven to cook, we have been watching smaller birds discover our new birdfeeder, which hangs from a bungee cord over our wintertime garden. Here, I'm looking out our entryway window, spying on one of the first Juncos to find the feeder.
These birds act quite nervous about this new feeder - seems they are used to hiding in elm trees, and maybe aren't used to being so close to the ground while eating. Or maybe they just don't like being watched, or are aware of the many outdoor house cats that prowl the area.
A hungry Junco sticks it's head and beak inside the feeder...
...and comes out with a millet seed.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Daylight Again / Cost of Freedom

Find the Cost of Freedom - link to GCN videoGreenthumbnails from Green Thumbnails - The Green Wall and @greenthumbnails UPDATE 13June2010: The Green Wall site is no longer available.