A trifold brochure I designed this summer for a Greenville non-profit, Gardening for Good.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Hydrothermal Activity in the Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park
So do you guys want to learn about what I had to do research on? Well if you said no, then that's okay, I'm pro-choice. You can skip down to the next posts that I think are quite funny. As for the rest of you who are still reading, let's do this.
Okay so if you did not know, Yellowstone is a super volcano and the whole park is on top of it, that's hot. To a degree, actually. The whole place is not steaming hot, how would we have a park there. But in some places, yes it is hot. That is because the earth's crust is thinner in Yellowstone than it usually is. Certain spots where water is heated by rocks on top of the magma chamber create hydrothermal features in Yellowstone. There are four different types of hydrothermal features in the park.
Fumaroles
Fumaroles are spots where steam is released from cracks in the ground called conduits. The temperature of fumaroles are controlled by the local water supply, and is higher in dry years and lower in wet years.
Mudpots
Mudpots occur where there is a heat source but not an extensive amount of water. There is mud, because there are microorganisms that convert hydrogen sulfide gas into sulphuric acid, which breaks rock down into clay. As gasses escape from the mud, it creates bubbles that can be up to 3 feet high.
Geysers
Geysers require four things to function: a watertight plumbing system, a heat source, a water source, and volcanic rock. The "plumbing system" is the hole into the ground, but does not go straight down, but rather has crevasses and horizontal tunnels. The system is watertight because of silica. Silica forms a rock called sinter that lines the system and prevents water from circulating, creating a great deal of pressure. The heat source is located undressed the ground in the magma chamber which then heats the rock that heats the water. Snowmelt and rainwater, penetrate the ground and percolates down through the rocks and enters the system, accounting for the water source. The rock is the park is primarily rhyolite and can withstand the extreme pressure of the geyser. So how this all works is that the water fills up in the geyser and is heated by the rock. The water is heatedly a temperature of a over 400 degrees, but is unable to boil because of the pressure. The bubbles accumulate and rise up the system where they get caught in the upper lip. The bubble pop after a while and causes some of the water to exit the system. This cause the pressure to change and the water flashes to water vapor and empties out the whole system.
Hot Springs
A hot spring is a thermal spring where water is heated by hot rocks. The thing that separates hot springs from geysers is that hot springs lack the plumbing system that geysers have. For a spring to be considered a hot spring is that it needs to have a temperature of 98.6 degrees or higher.
That's basically my research in a nutshell, I hope it wasn't too boring.
Facial Hair Fun
We stopped at a hotel in between traveling between campsites and I was getting annoyed so I decided to shave, but I had a little fun doing it.
Saved By Angels
I've talked about how much I love the snow in past blog posts, but I had a experience that has made me a little more careful when I'm around snow that is multiple feet deep.
We took a day trip through Shoshone National Park and crossed into Montana. I don't think that I have ever seen as much snow as I did that day. It was unbelievable how much snow was in the mountains up there. As we drove on the road up there we passed multiple areas where the snow was higher than the height of our van. It was beautiful. I was upset because my DSLR could not capture the same image that I saw with my eyes and I eventually gave up trying to recreate reality with my lens instead I went into the snow. It was glorious. I walled into the snow and within a few feet I feel in to my knees and instead of getting out, I sat down in the soft snow. The weight of my big booty made me sink in and was just like I was sitting in a chair, I even had lumbar support from the compacted snow along my spine. I just looked out across the ridge that was in front of me and tried to relax for a moment, forget the people annoying me, the stress of trying to understand geology and just enjoy my life for the moment. The moment was short, but I felt completely content and I knew that it was worth the thousands of dollars that I had to spend to come here. A moment later I got hit by a snowball. Karma. I wasn't mad, I loved throwing snow at people and this was starting to become a fun rutine.
Nature is scary as hell. It's a true wonder that we have managed to get out of the grind that almost every animal faces every moment of their life. There is the constant possibility of death. Of course we still die, but the risk has got to be so much lower than before modern medicine and other advances in technology. We don't have to constantly worry about getting eaten by an animal or contracting a disease that has the high possibility of killing us. For me, I was too comfortable in the snow. I was obvious to all of the risks that are present while being in snow multiple feet deep. As I was walking to leave the snow fight I fell into the snow to my hips. At first I laughed and my friends took some pictures of me, but then I tried to move my foot. The snow had compacted over my foot and there was no way for me to pull myself out of the snow. Soon, everyone realized that I wasn't joking I was actually stuck. They tried to pull me out, but I felt that my body was going to break. None of us had cell coverage because we were in the middle of onewhere, so calling for help was out of the question. It was up to my group to get me out.
I have never been able to act well in emergencies. I never know what to do, what questions to ask to asses the situation, or who to call besides Ghostbusters and even then I don't seem to have their number in my phone. Thank god that there seems to always to be a person in the vicinity who seem to have a clue of what to do and I can just hide behind them. Once we knew that things got real my group rushed over instantly and started working to get me out. We figured out that the only way to get me out was to use our hands to dig the snow away around my leg. I started digging with hands and had to stop almost instantly because my hands became so numb. The first person to help was Katherine. I don't think I have met anyone who can take charge of a situation as well as Katherine can. Whether it is packing our camping food away or saving my life, she is calm but assertive with her commands. She dove down onto the snow next to me and started digging me out with her bare hands and went much longer than I could. Eventually she had to give up and then Elly came in with her gloves and picked up where Katherine left off. It was so weird because I felt like a trapped animal and I was kicking my leg kind of like how some people tap their feet when they are sitting. Soon my butt got really cold. I knew that couldn't be good and was a little afraid of getting hypothermia. After a few minutes of pulling, digging, pulling some more and just a little bit more pulling they got me out. The first thing that I said once they got me out was "I'm a dumbass." And I really was one. I was silly for being so careless and taking my safety for granted.
The angels I was referring to are Katherine and Elly. It really touched me that they we so quick and determined to get me out. We drove around the area for about an hour and then I realized that my camera was not in the car. We stopped and searched the van completely, but could not find it. I had no recollection of where I might have set it down or where it may have fallen off and I was so upset with myself. My father had bought the camera for me right before coming on the trip and in wasted hundreds of his dollars. The thing that really bummed me out was that close to 1,000 shots that I had taken were gone forever. The pictures were more for my memory than for photography. Even after searching in the snow we couldn't find it. I had used to watch a show called Full Metal Alchemist that was about a pair of brothers who try to save their deceased mother with alchemy. In alchemy you must put in something of equal value for the spell to work but they did not and lost some of their body parts doing so. My mother doesn't really like this thought that I'm about to share but it's how I feel so I'll say it anyways. If I had been alone in the snow and had fallen in the same way, then I could have died. What if it's like achemy in that you have to give up something of value for something to happen. I guess that would make my life worth $600. I need to build up my net worth...
Later Skater
I'm Lichen Hikin'
Phelps Lake
Our first full day hike of the trip was a currumnativigation of Phelps Lake, a which is a lake at the foot of the Tetons. It is about 7.5 miles around the lake and it was supposed to take four and a half hours but you know how things work, we did it in eight hours. Part of the reason that it took us so log was that we hopped off of our the trail onto a different trail that lead up through Death Canyon, what a beautiful name. Apparently it is named for a guy that went missing on a survey party and was never found, we didn't find him. Instead, we found snow! Well there is snow all over the place here so this wasn't our first rodeo with 3 foot deep snow that is perfect for making snowballs. I think I have a snowball fighting problem... I get way too into snowball fights. Maybe it's because I'm snow deprived living in the Carolina's and my New Hampshire side comes out when I'm around snow. Snow kills friendships. Getting lost may have also contributed to why it took us so long to get back. Around this time of the year as the snow melts I guess that it common for avalanches to occur so there was downed trees and snow blocking our path. Well we were just doing a loop around the lake so when in doubt go to the lake. Too bad there was a river that fed into the lake and blocked our path once again. Dont worry we made it out. Getting lost and trying to find our way was actually really fun, it was cool to have to think about where to got rather than just coasting along, mindlessly. After we got out the professors surprised us with ice cream. It had half of my daily value of saturated fat but it was totally worth it. I did a little dance as I endulged.
Jenny Lake
After our long day yesterday I was really starting to feel it in my fetuses (the plural of feet), but we had a hike planned for today so I had to soldier on. Jenny Lake is a much larger than Phelps Lake so there was no way that we could walk around the whole thing...and live. Before we met with the park ranger to learn about the geology of the Tetons, we were given a few minutes to mosey around the shop, visitor center, and the bathrooms. I went to the shop,nor general store as they like to call it out here. Guess what. They had hot dogs! I was watching them spin around on the cooker and I was getting so hungry. Forget the turkey sandwich that I packed, I wanted a hot dog. But every rose has its thorn, they wouldn't wine ready till 11:30. I looked at my watch, and it said 10:00. I don't have much experience with cooking, but I know that it does not take an hour and a half to cook a hot dog. I mean maybe if they were using a solar cooker, but this place was dedinitely burning fossil fuels by the giaton. I wanted to just risk it and toss one of the supposedly uncooked dogs onto a bun and toss a 5 down on the counter and walked out of the store as I smoothly told the clerk to keep the change and put on my black rayban wayfarer sunglasses that I totally don't own. But I didn't want to cause a scene and I only had 20s so the process would have been much more awkward as I would have to wait for the change. Instead I just ate half of my sandwich as I met back up with my group. We were being taught about the fault that is at the base of the mountain and is what caused the mountain to rise from the plains. There are two plates and as one goes up, where the Tetons are, the other one goes down, the plains. If you are looking from the plains side the flat land actually dips down and then rises into the Tetons. We looked at maps made of it by lydar or lidar, which is recorded by sending waves down from a plane and bounces back up, giving an x ray sort of look that is just the land without the trees. It was cool but I still don't understand it. We saw a moose with her moose kid it was really spectacular. I am way more interested in ecology than geology. I know rocks are the base for everything, but plants and animals just seem so much more relevant to me. When we got back to the general store the hot dogs were gone. I responded by buying three packs of ramen noodles, 39 cents a piece aw yeah. UPDATE: my classmates do not appreciate me eating raw packs of ramen noodles and give me this face.
Granite Canyon
Today we did not do a full day hike, but this was my favorite hike of the whole trip. I don't know what it was, maybe it was the unpublished blog post that I wrote that I vented about everything that had been annoying me, or maybe it was the beautiful blue sky. Whatever it was I had a great time. The trail followed a river that had to be a class 5. For you non white water rafters the river was flowing pretty damn hard. Every time I looked at the river I would imagine what it would be like to be in it. The force of the water looked immense as it followed down a waterfall and was pure white. No doubt about it, if you fell in you would die, either from drowning or collision against the giant rocks. Despite the negative thoughts I loved the river. The sounds created a white noise effect and the flowing water seemed to soothe my mind. The water was flowing hard because all of the snow in the Tetons is starting to melt, so the wart is freezing cold. After eating lunch, some of the girls decided that it would be fun to swim in a calmer section of the river. I think of myself as the adventurous type, but that sounded a little crazy to me. We didn't have towels and wha if we got pulled down into the more rapid part of the river? We would die. Okay maybe I'm more of pessimist... We got to the part of the steam that the girls were talking about and as it turns out, the current was too strong to go all the way in, so they went up to their knees. Kelsey even dunked her whole body in. I ain't about that life. Then Katherine slipped and almost got taken away by the current. See there is some logic in ways. I eventually got into the freezing river and dunked my head in. It was really refreshing and made me feel alive. 30 seconds later I couldn't move my feet and had to get a hand from someone to get out. Woo hoo, adventure. Later, we scaled up a gaint rock about the size of a house and observed striations on the rocks at the top. Striations are marks where the glacial rocks grinded against stationary rock as the glaciers advanced down the mountain. I just realized that I wrote a lot and I appologize for not breaking this post up into a few shorter ones. If you read all of this, then you're the bomb. Go buy yourself some ice cream or listen to Elton John (that's what I've done today) because you have read farther than I would have.
Later skater
The Teets!
We arrived at 5 the first day so the majority of our day was spent in the van that Elly has nicknamed the Geologic Van of Discovery. I am neither a fan of long car rides nor of being close to other people so my uncomfortableness is not looked back on with fond memories, but I'm here to talk about the good things. The views of the range got better and better. The Rockies started to form ten million years ago, but they are very young compared to the age of the earth, which is around 4.6 billion years, and the Appalachian Mountains are much older. The Tetons are very steep and jagged due to erosion by glaciers and water. Basically glaciers formed on the Tetons during the ice age and then when the earth started to warm the glaciers slid down the mountians, this is called glacial advance. While the glaciers advanced from their resting places they brought massive rocks with them, and the rocks grinded against the bigger rock of the mountain and eroded it. People give a lot of credit to glaciers for forming the mountains, but the ice age started 2 million years ago meaning that there are 8 million glacier-free years that were open to water erosion.
We are staying in a place called Gros Ventre ( pronounced grow vant) and between us and the Tetons is a smaller formation called Blacktail Butte that is about a mile away. Don't worry the e is not silent so it's not pronounced butt, believe me, I tried and have gotten corrected many times. Since we have developed a mutual exploring interest, Kelsey and I hiked to the top of the butte at 7 o'clock one morning. I was worried that I would not be up to do it so early because I stayed up till 12 the night before watching a meteor shower (I saw 5!). The butte looks like a little hill, so we thought it would be very easy, but size is very deceiving out here in the west. Us being the smart people we are decided it would be quickest to go straight up the almost vertical part of the butte because it was shorter and had less vegetation. That was a silly decision. We made it to the top! Kelsey almost had an asthma attack and I was dehydrated because I didn't bring water, but we made it. The view of the Tetons is basically the same everywhere you go, so we had already seen the view before at an overlook. Despite the view not being better, it's still the Teton mountains. It's 70 degrees every day and they still have snow on them. When we got to the top we took pictures, Kelsey's were of the landscape and mine were of Kelsey struggling to get up the butte, but no picture could really capture our experience. It was beautiful to start our day off accomplish something. It was a great confidence booster and it was also mediative process since it was just us and the land.
For those who have not had the pleasure of meeting Kelsey this is her.
Later Skater
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