Recession of high water, followed by many rainless and sunstroked days, left behind this alien landscape backed by the Badlands of South Dakota, from which the clay sediments drained to settle on this hard-baked pan. Another angle of the scene offers a smaller-scale view. 2 NE Interior SD (16 Jun 12) Looking NW 43.7518, -101.9492 … [Read more...]
Geometrically Cracked
Patterns of horizontal and vertical cracking form naturally geometric art. The sun-dried field of clay was deposited during the calming of a water-mud slurry that had cascaded from nearby erosive badlands. The smooth-sided, basically rectilinear pattern to the cracks indicates a young deposit—likely just one or two generations of drying since the creation of the sediment. Here's the broader … [Read more...]
Arcus over Turtle Mountains
Behind the previous evening's supercell-laden cold front, behind post-frontal rains in the morning, and beneath a cold-core, upper-level low, just enough moisture lingered to support one more round of storms. We had penetrated the morning rain on the way westward, targeting not convection, per se, but instead a couple of days of rest and relaxation in the so-called Turtle Mountains (actually a … [Read more...]
Crescent Sun
What a treat it was to be able to set up along the High Plains of the Texas-New Mexico border for the 2012 annular eclipse, the day after a great supercell and lightning show in western Oklahoma! In an annular eclipse, the moon is far enough away from Earth in its orbit that its apparent diameter is smaller than that of the sun. That imparted a nice, hooking crescent shape to the sun … [Read more...]
Seibert Supercell: Prelude to Destruction
One supercell formed in the immediate lee of the Front Range, over Denver, then headed eastward across the Plains, growing and adding new cells as it went. By this time, about a hundred miles to the east, it had grown into a photogenic, outflow-dominant complex of storms with the supercell embedded, moving eastward at least 50 mph. We had very little time to stay at this spot and appreciate the … [Read more...]
Fine Day at Krossarfoss
Krossarfoss (a.k.a. Foss á Síðu) tumbles in a tall, thin, delicate ribbon off a face of dense tuff near Iceland's southern coast, right next to a small cave. Too bad the cave is apparently on private property and its floor so tilted. Can you imagine the relaxing lullaby of the continual rushing cascade to a camper going to sleep there? Simply viewing this image, much less thinking back to the … [Read more...]
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