This small, squatty cumulonimbus cloud, in a very picturesque setting, moved quickly toward the SE from the Minnesota Arrowhead over Lake Superior. It eventually developed a visible precipitation core well offshore. Several broader and slightly deeper thunderheads had developed earlier the same day inland, over stronger surface heating. The high bases came from a lack of richer low level … [Read more...]
Angular Atmosphere
Being a nonlinear, often chaotic fluid, seldom does the atmosphere give us such an uncanny intersection of visual lines and angles! A complex of thunderstorms to the right heaved forth a load of cold outflow air that undercut warm and moist surface air, forming the shelf cloud that points toward the left. Meanwhile, far above and behind the shelf, the southern anvil edge caught the waning rays … [Read more...]
Strokkur, Part 4: Peak Fountain
Strokkur's grand finale culminates with a pinnacle of big drops, spray and steam, all of it volcanically heated, translucent from this angle to a partially cloud-diffused sun, a stop-action scene belying its brevity. The whole event, from blue-water dome to fountain to collapse, often lasts less than 5 seconds, but makes memories for a lifetime. [To Part 3] [Back to Part 1] Haukadalsvegur, … [Read more...]
Strokkur Part 3: Silhouetted Hot Tower
About a second after its blue-dome beginning, a Strokkur eruption fires a cone of scalding water 50 feet aloft and rising fast. This geyser hasn't been so productive throughout its known history, as earthquakes have both clogged and unclogged its chamber. The current run of activity, however, commenced in 1963 when volunteers removed blockages that had kept its innards plugged for six … [Read more...]
Strokkur Part 2: Shooting Sunward
In Icelandic, Strokkur means "churn"--an apt concept for its remarkably cyclic behavior. More faithful than Old Faithful, Strokkur's conduit refills, pressurizes, and blows skyward again a 50–90-foot column of near-boiling water, every 4–6 minutes. This makes situational photographic composition and preparation fairly straightforward—much more so than for the great majority of geysers here and … [Read more...]
Strokkur Part 1: The Blue Dome
Located steps from its mostly dormant geological namesake (Geysir), the Strokkur geyser is the most well-known and reliable one on Iceland, if not the world. Its blasts are predictable enough that I could get the focus, exposure and filtering (3-stop graduated neutral density against bright sky) just right to freeze-frame it at the very moment the bubble starts to burst through a dome of … [Read more...]
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