Interesting Geology

[Turtle]

I'm waiting for the temperature to drop below freezing tonight to try & get some infrared photos of the frost-heaving. In particular I'm looking to see any ice crystals on the soil and/or in the cracks. Yes, I will include a scale ruler in the next shot(s). :hihi: We may have a pattern of freezing & thawing the next several days so perhaps the formations will rise up a bit. :shrug:

 

While waiting for that, I killed some time looking for more on the effect and found this interesting bit. :D

 

>> Physics News Update Number 334

FROST HEAVING is a process by which ice columns can grow like plants out of moist soils. In the Arctic structures as big as hundreds of meters wide and 50 m tall ("pingos") can form in this way. Where does the energy come from to thrust ice upwards against the force of gravity? Hisashi Ozawa, now at the Nagaoka Institute for Snow and Ice Studies in Japan ([email protected]) observes frost heaving in the lab. He grows ice columns above a reservoir of supercooled water (water below its freezing point kept in a liquid state). A microporous filter (approximating the role of Arctic soil) between water and ice keeps the ice from intruding into the liquid. Ozawa believes that newly formed ice is able to push against gravity not through any conventional mechanical force but by a thermodynamic tendency by which the system as a whole (water plus ice) gains entropy. In principle, one could build a "frost engine" which could produce a heaving pressure of a megapascal per degree of supercooling. Similarly one might make a "helium frost engine" operating near 0 K and a "metal frost engine" operating at blast-furnace temperatures. One could also purify solutions (separate solvents from solutes) without distillation. (In Physical Review E, September 1997; figures at Physics News Graphics.)

[Turtle]

I went out at 1 am last night and took the infrared photo below of the frost-heave patch. The temperature was 27ºF. The illumination on the right is from an infrared LED in the camera, and illumination on the left is from an external hand-held white LED. White spots are the ice crystals. :shrug:

 

 

This afternoon I took an elevation shot in which the low rise of the heaved soil patch is visible against the level grass line. :naughty:

 

[Essay]

Very cool! (npi)

 

I learned a lot about the non-linearity of ice melting, through close observation, one unique month several winters ago. Good luck.

 

~Hey! "Remote controls" might work as an IR light source too.

 

~ :)

[Turtle]

Very cool! (npi)

 

I learned a lot about the non-linearity of ice melting, through close observation, one unique month several winters ago. Good luck.

 

~Hey! "Remote controls" might work as an IR light source too.

 

~ :circle:

 

Roger the remotes. I did make an array of infrared LED's housed in a hand-lantern, but I never used it much & it was clutter so I pitched it. :circle: What I found when collecting enough for an array of 6 was that the remotes' cost at Goodwill was the same as buying a new LED; about $2. Sony also sells an infrared LED external light source for many of their cameras.

 

It froze again last night and my hump roseth some more. :circle: :Alien: The frost-heaved soil hump! :bdayparty: I saw a reference to frost-heave formations found on Mars and found some nice photos. :bdayhappy_balloons:

 

Robotic Exploration The National Space Society of Phoenix

[Turtle]

My little frost-heave patch continues to develop with alternating thawing & freezing as well as now some rain & snow. Seems to me that the finer material is bound to find its way into the cracks that form before larger pieces so I'm watching for that.

 

The snow prompted me to wonder about snow on Mars, though rain is certainly out of the question. Anyway, as luck has it the Phoenix Lander just spotted falling snow on Mars for the first time ever. :friday:

 

I woke today to a second snowfall of about 1" and it's melting pretty fast so I grabbed a photo. :gift: The top photo is after the melt on Jan. 25 and the lower photo today's snow. Turtles loooove interesting geology. :)

 

 

 

 

NASA Rover Sees Falling Snow On Mars

LOS ANGELES — NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time, scientists reported Monday. Soil experiments revealed the presence of two minerals known to be formed in liquid water. Scientists identified the minerals as calcium carbonate, found in limestone and chalk, and sheet silicate.

But exactly how that happened remains a mystery.

"It's really kind of all up in the air," said William Boynton, a mission scientist at the University of Arizona at Tucson.

A laser aboard the Phoenix recently detected snow falling from clouds more than two miles above its home in the northern arctic plains. The snow disappeared before reaching the ground. ...

[Turtle]

It's two weeks now since I spotted my frost heave and it continues to develop nicely. :) Water is getting added from snow melt and rain and I have thawing during the day and freezing or below at night. I see a few large pebbles have got worked up to the top. :)

 

[Thunderbird]

Turtle

You are getting very close to an experiment that can explain some of the Big Foot tracks. :)

[Turtle]

Turtle

You are getting very close to an experiment that can explain some of the Big Foot tracks. :eek2:

 

:eek2: Experiment is my middle name. I will look for that from now on. :hihi:

 

Until yesterday we had about 5 days of no rain and the patch dried out considerably. I grabbed a photo on 2/21/09 to show the drying, the depth and development of the cracks and the sorting of larger material to the surface. :(

 

 

With ~ 1/2" of rain in my gauge today, I expect to find the cracks largely filled in tomorrow with the smaller material. :naughty:

[Thunderbird]

:confused: Experiment is my middle name. I will look for that from now on.

 

Until yesterday we had about 5 days of no rain and the patch dried out considerably. I grabbed a photo on 2/21/09 to show the drying, the depth and development of the cracks and the sorting of larger material to the surface.

 

 

With ~ 1/2" of rain in my gauge today, I expect to find the cracks largely filled in tomorrow with the smaller material.

This reminds me of what one of the local indian artifact collectors told be about going into plowed fields in the spring after a thaw to find arrow heads. Now I know why !! :hyper:

[Turtle]

This reminds me of what one of the local indian artifact collectors told be about going into plowed fields in the spring after a thaw to find arrow heads. Now I know why !! :)

 

Well thunk! :lol: My little interesting-geology-of-frost-heaving experiment is drawing to a close as we have few, if any, more freezing nights ahead and I need my little garden plot for seeding soon. :naughty:

[Turtle]

round about the start of july my pal racoon and i hiked to the top of a nearby mountain to collect some wildflower seeds. while i knew something of the origin of the geology there, i did not collect any rock samples as i was after seeds. :doh: no worries as i intend to get over this week & grab some rock samples as it turns out it is quite an intesting bit of geology and i pretty much gotta now that i have brought it up. :D

 

less than 10 miles from me, Green Mountain is the closest failed volcanic cinder cone in my area. below find a google map screenshot; note mt. rainier marked in back and lechtenberg park is the forested area in front. you can read about my now-several-years-long environmental study of lechtenberg here: >> environmental study of lechtenberg park the funny long shapes between lechtenberg & green mt. are artificial lakes for ski boats. :hyper:

 

can't wait to get some of the rock as according to the article quoted below from usgs, it is neither the usual basalt of the columbia gorge or the usual andesites mt. st. helens or mt. adams, but rather a mix. . . . . . .

 

 

green mountain in pinks

 

 

http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2006/2924/LacamasCrk_map.pdf

 

Basaltic andesite of Green Mountain (Pleistocene)—Olivine phyric

basaltic andesite erupted from cinder cone at west end of Green

Mountain. Light-gray, microvesicular, generally platy lava flow,

extending about 1 km to northwest of Green Mountain, consists of

olivine phenocrysts (2-4 percent; 0.5 to 3 mm across; contains

inclusions of chromian spinel; rims variably replaced by iddingsite)

in a fine-grained trachytic groundmass of plagioclase, clinopyroxene,

orthopyroxene, and Fe-Ti oxide; locally contains quartzite

pebbles and small, dark, fine-grained clots that may be sedimentary

xenoliths, both presumably derived from underlying gravels (units

QTc and Ttfc). Conical hill at west end of Green Mountain consists

largely of deeply weathered basaltic ash; platy basaltic andesite

lava crops out at summit and presumably fills vent. Lava flow has

normal magnetic polarity (J.T. Hagstrum, written commun., 1999)

and yielded an 40Ar/39Ar age of 575±7 ka (table 2) ...

[Racoon]

Wow! Cool!

I am finding out so much about the geologic formations around our awesome area, Turtle.

 

I remember vividly that steep-as-hell incline we had to climb!

Keep us posted.

You might have to include me in some new research projects and expeditions.

[modest]

It's interesting that Brunner Hill (overlooking Fern Prairie) looks like Green Mountain's little cousin. It has the same kind of shape—elliptical and stretched in the east/west direction with a cone on the west end. It reminds me of the Hawaiian islands where a single underground hot spot makes a chain of elongated bumps as the plate moves over it.

 

How are these things formed, Turtle?

 

~modest

[Turtle]

Wow! Cool!

I am finding out so much about the geologic formations around our awesome area, Turtle.

 

I remember vividly that steep-as-hell incline we had to climb! :D

Keep us posted.

You might have to include me in some new research projects and expeditions. :)

 

roger all. :) what you call a steep incline i'm gonna call a cliff. :lol: that's the spot nevertheless where i plan to get some rock samples and hopefully today i can get over there. shouldn't take me more than half-an-hour. definitely have you inked in for the next big adventure though racoon and as you know a person can't spit in this neck-of-the-woods without hitting some interesting geology.

 

It's interesting that Brunner Hill (overlooking Fern Prairie) looks like Green Mountain's little cousin. It has the same kind of shape—elliptical and stretched in the east/west direction with a cone on the west end. It reminds me of the Hawaiian islands where a single underground hot spot makes a chain of elongated bumps as the plate moves over it.

 

How are these things formed, Turtle?

 

~modest

 

roger all. while i called green mountain a "cinder cone", that is only technically correct if the cone is actually composed of cinder material, otherwise called scoria. anyway, brunner hill is also a cousin "cinder cone" to green mountain as you say. both mountains/hills are volcanos that never developed beyond one or two eruptions, ergo my earlier use of the term "failed". unlike the hawaiian volcanos which develop as the pacific plate passes over a hotspot, my local volcanos result from subduction of the plate of juan de fuca under the north american plate. volcanic cones here form when magma finds a path to the surface through cracks in the rock and forms a vent and the erupting material stacks up to form the cone.

 

i forgot to mention that i took a gps mark when rac & i summited green mountain and here's that data:

45º 39' 17" N

122º 27' 25"

elevation 823 feet above sea level

 

there is a small section on cinder cones at the first wiki, as well as some good general info on volcanos. second link is specifically on cinder cones. . . . . . . :phones:

 

Volcano - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Cinder cone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Turtle]

alrighty thens. went there, did that. :eek2: it will likely take me most of the day to get the lab work done, but i'll post as i go.

 

this view of green mt. is looking east-north-east from ~ 2 miles away. i pulled into a drive for this shot. :eek_big: :cheer:

 

these boulders have eroded from higher up and rolled to the base of the mountain. behind them is the very steep incline ( ~40º) that racoon remembered correctly and i did not: :doh: gotta love that rac for remembering where i/we have been. the cliffs are a ways up the slope. :eek: :hyper:

 

a shot of a singular boulder approx. 3 feet in diameter.

 

more candy to come. ;) . . . . . . . :phones:

[Turtle]

onward! the predominate rock is definitely tephra and green mountain definitely a cinder cone. :eek2: i collected a couple cobbles at the cliff face of a pound or two each and i washed them & they are drying. i will get some photos when they're ready. :eek_big: i also think i can get a flat fresh surface on a piece for a high-res 1200 dpi digital scan. :doh:

 

here's a closeup of that singular boulder at the base.

 

looking up to the cliff face from the slope. my finger is on the rock outcrop; that's not a tree. :cheer: :phones:

 

looking up to the cliff face from a little further up the slope.

 

up close & personal with the cliff face. this exposure is ~15 feet high.

 

note:

Lapilli

Rock fragments between 2 and 64 mm (0.08-2.5 in) in diameter that were ejected from a volcano during an explosive eruption...

VHP Photo Glossary: Laplli

 

 

lapilli in the tephra matrix of the cliff face. :hyper:

 

more lapilli in the tephra matrix of the cliff face. :eek:

 

more to come at a turtle's pace. . . . . . . . . ;)

[Turtle]

so thens, two steps foward, one back. :cheer: the high-res scanning didn't work out. :doh: i used a hardened steel file to flatten a small face on my sample, but the material is so pocked with cavities and mineral crystals & chunks that i was left with a too-rough of surface to go flat on the bed. now when i do this technique for my tree ring studies i sand the wood, but as sandpaper is mineral grains it would/could contaminate my sample. :eek: another problem is that the sample is fully capable & willing to permanently scratch the glass in my scanner bed. :hyper: :eek_big:

 

so thens to the bench!!! here's a shot of my starting bench setup with the tephra cobble* i examined. :eek2: ;)

 

 

the scale in this macro camera shot of a fresh break surface has 1 mm divisions. :phones:

 

 

*

cobble

n.

....

2. Geology A rock fragment between 64 and 256 millimeters [2.5" to 10"]in diameter, especially one that has been naturally rounded.

...

cobble - definition of cobble by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.