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Scenes from the August 9, 2015 Vermilion Cliffs and Highway 89A Flood Event
On August 10 of this year, a large storm cell dumped significant moisture on the south facing Vermilion Cliffs near the small settlement of Cliff Dwellers. A passing motorist shot this video which...
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Circum-Ambulation of Meteor Crater at the Northern Arizona University 3rd...
Educational panel in the Meteor Crater Visitor CenterStudying geology at Northern Arizona University was perhaps the single best thing I did to promote my career as a geologic educator. Located close...
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New Mexico's Chama River - A Geologic Gem!
Note to the readers of Earthly-Musings: I apologize for a seeming lack of postings in the last month but I have been busy with trips and numerous weddings. Stay tuned - an Australia and New Zealand...
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Australia and New Zealand Adventure Begins!
Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory, also known as Uluru in the native languageI am off to the Land Down Under and will be blogging from Australia and New Zealand. Be sure to follow me as we explore...
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Green and Blue Australia
Tonight, as I was looking over two days worth of photographs from here in Cairns, Queensland, I realized that there is a distinct color theme running through them. Yesterday the major color was green...
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Australia's Red Center
Australia is an exotic land with unique animals and plants, and a rather quiet recent tectonic history. It has the lowest average elevation of any continent at about 1,000 feet. To say that the trip is...
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Ayer's Rock (Uluru) and the Olga Mountains (Kata Tjuta)
After a few days in Alice Springs, it was time to head southwest to the main attraction of this region, Ayer's Rock, also known by its Aboriginal name Uluru.The distances are long in the outback and I...
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Brilliant Australia - The Sights of Sydney
After more than a week in green, blue and red Australia, we headed next into what I call brilliant Australia - the amazing city of Sydney. But even this urban paradise had a few geologic and faunal...
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A View of Christchurch New Zealand Nearly Five Years After the Big Quake
On February 22, 2011 at 12:51 in the afternoon, Christchurch experienced a magnitude 6.3 earthquake which devastated huge portions of the city's infrastructure 181 people lost their lives and the...
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Mt. Cook National Park, South Island New Zealand
One of New Zealand's most iconic natural treasures is Mt. Cook National Park, located in the Southern Alps southwest of Christchurch. The area has been in the consciousness of the Kiwi's since the...
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A Day in Milford Sound, New Zealand
As long as I can remember, I have known about the Milford Track near Milford Sound. In the 1970's, it seems like lot's of Americans who loved trails and long hikes would talk about a fantastically...
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Rotorua Geothermal Area, North Island
There were just two more stops on this Smithsonian Journeys trip to Australia and New Zealand and both were on the North Island.. I had not previously been to the North Island so I was curious to see...
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Geology Guide Training in a Geologic Paradise - Las Vegas, Nevada
Most folks who work in the great outdoors often view Las Vegas as a place to be avoided at all costs. It is often thought of as a slovenly, loathsome place where night owls crawl around looking for a...
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Antarctic Adventure Begins - Aboard MV The World!
Many of you have heard that I have signed on to participate in two expeditions to the Antarctic this Austral summer. I'm typing this at the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, prepared to make...
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Tierra del Fuego to Deception Island Antarctica
We are underway for the first of two voyages on The World. Beginning in Ushuaia Argentina (the world's southernmost city) we sailed for 38 hours until we spotted land in Antarctica. This was one of the...
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Sunny Antarctica
Before I ever had a chance to visit the Antarctic Peninsula, a fellow naturalist said to me, "When you go, may you have a sunny day in the Lemaire Channel." I never forgot those words and in my 28...
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Cuverville Island and Sunset on Anvers Island
After the Christmas holiday on board, we made a landing at Cuverville Island, then to the south side of Anvers Island at Arthur Harbor where the US has their peninsular station. Have a look!December...
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Visiting Antarctic Research Stations - Palmer (US) and Repurposed Port...
A New Year's Read for my Loyal and Appreciated Readers!The final leg of this voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula was made by visiting two stations - one currently active in research and the other having...
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Perfect Conditions at Cape Horn - The Southernmost Tip of the Americas
The crossing of the Drake Passage was again quite mild. Pea-soup fog for much of it but no worries on this big ship. On the morning of December 31, the last day of 2015, we raised a piece of land in...
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A Bit of Sunshine for My Friends in Northern Arizona - From Antarctica
I know that my readers in Arizona must be tired of the snow and cloudy skies. For that, a posting from the Antarctic might seem uninviting. But, we have been having stupendous weather and I hope some...
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Summary of the Geology of the Antarctic Peninsula
A prompt from Jack S. in Boston reminded me that I yet to write about the generalized geology of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is rather simple, with the Peninsula having been located on the active...
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Farewell to Antarctica - Tabular Icebergs in Antarctic Sound, Brown Bluff...
It's gone by quickly but the two trips to Antarctica are now complete (still to come however, is South Georgia Island and the Falklands - I do not leave the ship until January 21). To finish up the...
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Elephant Island and the Ghost of Sir Ernest Shackleton
As we made our way toward South Georgia Island, we stopped for a Zodiac cruise at well-known Elephant Island, made famous by Sir Ernest Shackleton, who was able to land 28 men after a harrowing winter...
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South Georgia Island and Farewell to the Deep South
The two voyages have come to an end and only South Georgia is left to report on. After four glorious weeks of sunshine in Antarctica, we were bound to pay the price with rain and snow. Oh well, some...
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Final Stop - The Falkland Islands
I wasn't planning on writing a blog about our final stop on these two voyages, the Falkland Islands. But a request from a reader prompted me to reconsider. I'm so grateful to my readers of these...
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