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Jen Piatek (East_of_Hellas)
New Britain, CT,
United States of America
Gigapans: 161
Snapshots: 157
Bookmarks: 2
Last Visited: March 17, 2010
Tags:
ccsu,
fofs,
beta,
fofsep
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I';m currently an assistant professor of Earth Science at Central Connecticut State University - my research interests include the geology of Mars (hence the username!) and infrared remote sensing... and sharing photos of interesting rocks I meet with people I find.
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GigaPan w/Canon SD850 |
| GigaPan robotic mount (beta version) with Canon Powershot SD850 IS |
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GigaPan w/Canon SX110 |
| GigaPan robotic mount (beta) with Canon SX110 |
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Side trip along a dirt road to the trailhead for the Stump Spring Trail gives us a nice view of the orange rocks of the Claron formation, which are also responsible for the colorful scenery at Bryce Canyon.
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Located in eastern Utah, Capitol Reef was the name given to a ridge of sandstone that blocked westward travel by wagon. These rocks here (not actually the reef) outcrop along the road heading into the park.
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Just east of Escalante is the Kiva Koffeehouse, which is a little coffee shop set into the side of Calf Creek Canyon: this is the view from the parking lot.
(Note: I'm not in any way affiliated with the coffee house, but it was a great place to stop for lunch both times we were there - and it's the best way to mark the location of this pan!)
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Another view of "the blues" in southern Utah, where blue-grey sedimentary rocks are exposed along Rte. 12.
These rocks were formed from sediments deposited by a river around 100 million years ago (Cretaceous period, Kaiparowits formation)
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5
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Navajo Sandstone (Utah)
Author: Jen Piatek (East_of_Hellas)
Tags:
sedimentary,
crossbeds,
fofs,
beta,
CCSU-WestUS09,
outcrop,
sandstone,
stratigraphy,
desert,
dune
Size: 0.09 gigapixels
Added: September 4, 2009
Total Views: 170
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Continuing on Rte. 12 to the east of "On a Clear Day..." (http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/32030/), the road drops down further into the Navajo sandstone - there are some great views of the bedding layers in these rocks. The angled "crossbeds" are ancient sand dunes preserved in the sandstone.
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7
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Cross Bedding (Navajo Sandstone, Utah)
Author: Jen Piatek (East_of_Hellas)
Tags:
southwest,
utah,
fofs,
beta,
sedimentary,
outcrop,
CCSU-WestUS09,
geology,
sandstone,
stratigraphy,
crossbeds,
dune
Size: 0.17 gigapixels
Added: September 4, 2009
Total Views: 474
View in Google Earth 4.2+
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Across the street from the scenic overlook "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" (http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/32030/) is this particular outcrop, which is a really nice view of cross beds. These structures are remnants of sand dunes (millions of years old, now preserved in the sandstone rock).
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That's the name given to this particular overlook along Rte. 12 in southern Utah. Large expanses of Navajo Sandstone make up the majority of the foreground rocks - these were once (millions of years ago) a vast expanse of sand dunes. The remnants of the dunes are found in structures called cross beds, where layers of sand from the dune meet layers of sand from the original surface at an angle.
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One of the geyser pools in Black Sand Geyser Basin: this is named for it's green color.
When the water is still, it's possible to see just how straight and deep the walls of the pool are. The color is due to different bacteria growing inside the pool - if the temperature goes down, the green-ish bacteria die, while the orange/red bacteria thrive - so the color of the pool may change.
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Black Sand is a smaller geyser basin (relative to others in Yellowstone, that is) - the visitor boardwalk leads to two pools: this pan is taken from the boardwalk looking towards Sunset Pool.
The water draining from the pool is relatively warm, and is a great habitat for bacteria - the red and black colors are due to those organisms.
The steam underneath the boardwalk is not from the pool, but from little fumaroles (steam vents) punching through to the surface - you can hear and see (yes, and smell) them from the boardwalk as you walk out to the pool.
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Now geolocated, this is a turnout that looks over Midway Geyser Basin (the famous Grand Prismatic Spring would be off to the right in the distance).
Very few people seemed to be stopping to look here, which is why we pulled over. Nice place to view run-off from the geysers entering the river (believe this is the Firehole River, but did not double-check that).
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