One Pacific evening, in the cool and still ocean air, uncommonly gentle ocean waters slowly overlapped a long and broad shoreline at low tide, smoothly coating the sand and reflecting the subtle hues of the sunset hour, as a thin and shallow marine fog floated across the distance. It was a moment both ephemeral and indelibly preserved in image and memory. 17 S Forks WA (21 Aug 16) Looking … [Read more...]
Somber Icelandic Stormscape
Just several miles below the Arctic Circle itself, the closest one will see there to a "dark day" stormy convective regime follows a convergence boundary across Iceland's deeply incised northern (Arctic Ocean) coast. Somber, textured, slate-colored skies, and the ominous shadows they cast upon landscapes, have captivated me since earliest childhood, and this moody scene was hard to leave behind. … [Read more...]
The Skutustadir Pseudocraters
What does this formation of craters have to do with water works? The key to the answer is in the origin. Lava flowed over wetlands or shallow lake-bottom sediments near present-day Myvatn Lake in Iceland. The resulting steam pressure built up and blasted holes repeatedly through the same weaknesses in the overlying lava deck. The resulting flying plumes of rock built craters that look like … [Read more...]
Cascade from Orange Rock
On the highest parts of southern Utah's plateau country, characteristically orange desert rock layers have been uplifted thousands of feet into altitudes where lakes and forests cover them. Water draining Navajo Lake has tunneled a conduit through the ochre-toned sediments, rushing out of this rock wall before plunging stepwise for miles through the Dixie National Forest as the North Fork of the … [Read more...]
Frisco Hail
Once it was readily apparent that a supercell I had been tracking was in no substantial danger of producing a tornado, I found a drive-through overhang at a closed bank and backed in. This would let the supercellular vault region (a notorious place for precipitation size sorting of this nature) pass overhead, with windshield protection for my vehicle. The result was significant hail of very … [Read more...]
22-degree Halo
Light from the sun or moon, bent through hexagonal ice crystals in cirrus clouds, often forms a ring removed at a 22-degree angle from the position of its source. The coloring looks similar to a primary rainbow, but in reverse, with reds on the inside grading through yellow and green to blue and purple hues on the outside. However, the process is not the same, since the water state involved is … [Read more...]
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