Circle 'Round the Sun in Water Canyon

Yesterday, when out hiking in nearby Water Canyon (before the Super Bowl), MOH and I slowly (at least for me) made our way up a variably steep, grassy to rocky hillside until we came to a large rib of quartzite. While standing there admiring the many geological and other features of the rib (including quartz veins, fractures and joints, bright greenish yellow lichen patches, and packrat middens), I noticed that a nice circle (22° halo) had formed around the sun. I moved into position behind the towering quartzite rib and shot a picture or two. The best one (which is enhanced to match the way it looked on the camera, which is the way it looked IRL except for the high contrast or excessive darkness of the foreground, where my eyes could see better than the camera) is shown above. You can also see just a bit of the bright greenish yellow lichen on the quartzite, barely shining through the camera-darkened foreground.

The lichen, also with a more common dark gray to black or dark brown variety and a pale green variety, can be seen better in this photo showing the same quartzite outcrop, although here I've moved over a little to the right to center the photo on a tall, narrow cleft formed along a couple parallel fractures or joints, possibly a small fault zone.

I immediately walked into the fracture so I could turn around and take this picture looking back to the north. The white bands in the center of the brownish quartzite, slanting shallowly to moderately to the right, are several of a complicated quartz vein set that are no doubt saying something about the stress regime during the time of their formation.

Cliffs of the Ruby Mountains: Some Pretty Pictures

And while we're waiting an even longer time for me to get around to posting about the nappe in Lamoille Canyon, here are a few of my favorite pretty pics taken from our campsite at Camp Lamoille in late September. I can say that a bit of the nappe can be seen in a few of these photos, if you know where to look!

Cliffs (with sunset, first night) and the U-shaped valley of South Fork Lamoille Canyon about where it merges with the main part of the canyon.

Oooh! Cliffs and colors!

Oh, besides the nice colors on the cliff walls (sunset, still the first night in camp), this photo shows part of the Lamoille Canyon nappe.

Sunset colors and burning orange aspens.

Alpine glow on the cliffs behind the roof of the wood-heated lodge.

Back to a view of the U-shaped valley.

Our camp and lit-up lodge, with granitic gneiss in the core of the nappe barely visible in the dark cliffs behind the tent.

The next day, noonish: the upper part of the cliffs that were in darkness in the previous photo.

The same cliffs on the morning of the third day; orthogneiss in the core of the nappe showing in the lower left of the photo.

A red-tailed hawk soars overhead just before the downpour of the second day.

Dinner bell at the lodge.

Cliffs, clouds and chimney on the second day.

The rocks of the chimney blend in with the not-so-distant cliffs.

A dusting of snow, cliffs, and orange aspens; early morning of the third day.

The sun rises behind a hill. The shallow slope to the right of center is part of the lateral moraine of  South Fork Lamoille Canyon.

Related Posts:
Cliffs of the Ruby Mountains: More Views from the Hanging Valley Pullout
Links: Lamoille Canyon Geology
A Hanging Valley in Lamoille Canyon
Cliffs of the Ruby Mountains: Mt. Gilbert
First Trip into the Ruby Mountains of Nevada

2014 Top Ten Posts at LFD...

...and, like last year and the year before, a few more. And to quote paraphrase myself from last year:

Because of the vagaries of stat reporting (in this case, by Google Analytics), I'm listing both the top ten posts for the year (in large font, with respective Top Ten number), and the top two one or two posts for every month (non-ten-rated posts are in a smaller font).

And so, the top 10 posts, plus 14 extra, along with a few pretty pictures:

January:

• De-Icing at the Anchorage Airport #5
• Where in the West: Dean and Burke Channels; Thunder Mountain and Tzeetsaytsul Peak, B.C. #6

• A Bit More about Toulon Peak #9

February:

• New Snow in North-Central Nevada (my only post for February!!)

March:

• Where in the West: Big Hole, Hole-in-the-Ground, and Fort Rock #4

• Fieldwork in the US: A Map

April:

• I-80 Yesterday: Very Windy

• Across the West and Back Day 2: Beyond the Wasatch

May:

• The Road to Majuba: Keep Out Sign #7
• The Middle Adit at Majuba Hill #8

June:

• Views from Majuba Hill
• It Was a Devilish Sort of Day

July:

• Escape from the July 20 Haboob in Western Nevada #3

• A Trinket from Majuba Hill

August:

• Rhyolite Porphyry from Majuba Hill I #10
• Rhyolite Porphyry from Majuba Hill III

September:

• Varying Water Levels at a Few Reservoirs in California
• Dust Hole

October:

• First Trip into the Ruby Mountains of Nevada #2

• Geologists: The Cowboys of Science

November:

• A Hanging Valley in Lamoille Canyon #1

• Links: Headwaters of the Susan River and Lassen Volcanic National Park

December:

• Cliffs of the Ruby Mountains: More Views from the Hanging Valley Pullout

• Links: Lamoille Canyon Geology

Meeting a Second Time

So, I met with Dana Hunter, the prolific and excellent writer, who not only has ONE, TWO (count 'em) blogs at two distinct blog networks (Freethought Blogs and the SciAm blog network), but is also (rumor has it) writing other stories, books, and — we hope — field guides (like those in this awesome series).

I met her at the usual place (usual for us, so far): the area outside security at the SeaTac airport. We had our usual drinks (see this post about our first meeting), and we ate a lunch of sandwich and salad. We talked and gabbed and had a great old time for a few/couple hours (whichever it was: time flew past rapidly, much faster than the Horizon turboprop I boarded after our meeting).

Anyway, things we discussed? Everything from A (Alaska) to E (her newish Etsy: Dana Hunter's Gneiss Schist) to F (field trips: field trips past and field trips future) to G (geology — yes, what else would geo-types like us hone in on) to K (Kittehs and Geokittehs) to N (networks: blog networks such as SciAm and FTB in particular) to P (phones: types, providers, and plans) to W (writing: blog writing and other writing) to...

...yes, there was more here, more that was somehow lost by the offline Blogger app I was using to block this post out while flying between Seattle and Reno...

We also discussed, at least briefly, geobloggers, geoblogging, and geological locations (at least from Washington to Nevada, and at least briefly between other topics) — and also a few other things that didn't necessarily take us all the way to the Z of the alphabet, but included South Africa, Mt. St. Helens, travel, wireless networks — oh, did I already mention that? We talked about scribbles (mine), focus (how it can be hard to accomplish at least for me), and cats (hers, because I don't have any and haven't for many years). Also, holidays and family (a little, and possibly mostly mine) —  and what else?

...to Z for Zinfandel (no, really, we didn't make it to Z!).

Inevitably it was time for me to go stand in the non-Pre security line, for the second (and thankfully final) time that day. We hugged for the second time — and went onward toward 2015.

One Year Ago Today Compared to Last Month: Mud and Snow v. Mud and Water in the Fernley Wildlife Management Area

A year ago today, a thin snow highlighted some Lake Lahontan shorelines on basalt-capped hills out in (or near) the Fernley Wildlife Management Area (FWMA):

Snow on low hills across the dark brown playa in part of the Fortymile Desert on January 5th, 2013.

About a month ago, there wasn't any snow on the ground, buy the playa was dark brown, muddy, and in places very wet.

The same two hills on December 3rd, 2014 (location near Milepost 59 on eastbound I-80).

There was quite a bit of water near the main part of the FWMA a month ago; photo looking southeast toward Hazen from eastbound I-80
between Mileposts 55 and 56.

The roadside marshes were full of water a month ago (near Milepost 57).

A second view of the marshes near Milepost 57.

I'm always pleased to see a lot of water in the FWMA area and roadside marshes. I'll get a chance to see them in a week or so. I wonder what they'll look like then! Hopefully the water table will still be fairly high. And hopefully the marsh and water birds will be swimming, wading, and having a great time!