Life of Neutrality: I flung the summer flu high!

Recently I came down with a fever that I have no idea how I got - a summer flu if you may. One moment I was healthy as a horse hiking along the foothills of the Rockies, the next i am bed-ridden, down with a flu that took me by surprise. The last time i had a bed-ridden affair was a one-day fiasco in Vancouver that I knew I would catch from my nephew. That was hardly a flu because I was well the very next day ready to take off to Denver (which included a 3 hour drive to Seattle).

Nevertheless, what prompted me to write this blog is what I learned from the whole affair. This requires a little back story, so please bare with me.

I started feeling a sore throat in the early morning hours on the 1st day and I wondered what i was going to do. How was I going to tackle this when my husband was leaving to New York that very morning and I would have no one else to comfort or look after me. I pleaded with him to stay, though not as much as I wanted to as I knew it would be hard for him to leave his very visible and very high-strung client. He left. But before he did so, I asked him to get me some medication and a water filter. That's right! A water filter! The old one was starting to smell and was leaving behind a metallic taste in the water. He got them. And I knew I was wise enough to have stocked up on cans and cans of soup. So I let him go. I was prepared to fight this summer fling.

I was however not prepared for what I would come to realize.

The 1st day, I took the medication every 6 hours and was drugged so much that I could barely think about food. But i knew i had to fight this, so I inhaled the soup and snacked on some fruits throughout as I was awake. Most of the day, I slept it off. Come the 2nd day, I started off very much drugged that it took all my will power to stand up straight. After coming down to earth, I started thinking - which may or may not have been a good thing. What caused this and how do i prevent it, how do i get better faster? As I pondered these questions, I realized this happened to me before when I was in Houston. The only difference was that I had at least 1 friend whom I could count on and I was keeping myself in a social circle there as I was volunteering at the Houston Geological Society. So now i knew what the cause was; it was depression, something that caught me off-guard. I had fallen into a depression since I quit my job and this had weakened my body. Now the question was, how do i fight this.

As I thought about it, what was opposite to depression? Happiness, right? Where better to elate myself than look to the most social networking site - Facebook. So i got on and quickly saw that my best bud had mentioned that she cherished me and my wisdom. I can always count on her to cheer me up even if she doesn't know it. So Facebook cheered me up, but........ at a cost! It increased my fever. I wondered why and I realized that I was using up my energy to feel happy. So now what? Then I thought about Buddha after all these years for no reason at all. I am not a religious person, but there are times when I look up to him for wisdom. He taught about the middle path. So I took the path of neutral thinking. This is so much harder than it sounds and you will only realize that in times of situations like this how hard it is to think neutrally. Even as I was listening to music, if it wasn't a more neutral song, it would affect my mentality deeply. When you are at your most vulnerable, this neutral stance is guaranteed to help you through. It was tough as I went from wild thoughts of sadness to elation of looking through old photographs. They did not help. My neutral thought was my aunt. I am not particularly close to her, but for some reason it worked. And now here I am on my 3rd day writing this out with no signs of the flu other than some phlegm.

So with a little bit of courage, medicine, rest and neutral thoughts, I flung the summer flu high!

Here's a list of what I think are some neutral songs in no particular order. Hope they make you feel calm too!

Fata Morgana by Imperia
Fuck You by Lily Allen
Fahrenheit 451 by ATB
Bad Blood by Bastille
Aberdeen by Cage the Elephant
Speed of Sound by Coldplay
December by Collective Soul
Aerodynamic by Daft Punk

Most of Enigma's songs are pretty neutral like - The Eyes of Truth, Turn Around, Beyond the Invisible, Dreaming of Andromeda, Northern Lights, Voyageur - some of my favorite Enigma songs aren't included though as they make me want to skip along to it lol
Lord of the Rings and The Dark Knight soundtracks are all pretty neutral too
Can You Hear Me by Hybrid
Berlin by New Politics
1901 by Phoenix
Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden
Black and Yellow by Wiz Khalifa
Silver Tongue by Zulu Winter

Of course this list is my own opinion which depends on my memories of what I associate with it and doesn't make me want to skip along to or swing my legs to, dance to or make me feel sad or that I need a booster. Some of them are however some of my favorite songs, I guess because they have a more calming effect on me.

Back after 2 years! Bonjour a la Rockies!

Bonjour a la Rockies

It seems much longer than 2 years ago I put my thoughts on nature/geology/travel on a blog. A lot has happened within those 2 years and it has been a roller coaster ride. I want to get back to blogging about nature again. Maybe not just nature, life in general too i suppose with a little bit of geology. I will try to keep this blog up as I just read one of my drafts that I had started on my visit to India. It was very interesting and now i wish i had finished it if not published it. But alas, i cannot finish it now since I had written that a year ago. What a shame!

Being in between jobs and my husband traveling for work, I find some time to idle whilst i work on several things. And so i'm reborn again online with my blogging.

So what happened within the last 2 years? Here's a summary:

• Got married to my boyfriend of seeing him for 2 years
• Graduated with my MSc in Geology
• Traveled to India twice
• Saw a Sri Lankan wedding in Sri Lanka (my first)
• Started working with one of my friends to set up a home for orphaned girls in Sri Lanka
• Started volunteering with a water organization which ended up getting me an Executive Vice President position
• Got published on a different blog for my work
• Terminated my position with the water organization
• Went on a road trip from Los Angeles to Maryland
• Can add to my list of travel to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Utah and Vancouver

And now here I am looking for a job again. As i wait to steer my fate onto a new and exciting job, I've decided to keep active. Here's my current list of activities - don't be envious ;)

• Still working with the home for girls in Sri Lanka
• Helping out on some water projects in Sri Lanka with another Foundation
• Started music class - decided to go back to learning to read & write music and learn some classical pieces on the piano
• House hunting in the Denver metro area
• Learning about the geology of Colorado more closely
• Reading various histories on the British, French and Austria
• And of course staying active

My life as i know has never been the same since I worked as VP of an organization. It showed me the potential i have and what a difference i can make. Once i get some more work experience, WATCH OUT FOR ME WORLD! I WILL TAKE YOU ON!

Washington - The tour continues with Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier was on our agenda the next day of our Washington tour. A volcano finally! A stratovolcano to be exact. One who's peak is prominently tall and conical in shape. In fact, Mt. Rainier is known to have the tallest peak of all the Cascade volcanoes and this is the Columbia Crest. From what i've seen around the forest area, most of the material is either rhyolitic or andesitic. The boulders surrounding the basal area were probably deposited by lahars. Here is a good history background of Mt. Rainier published by the USGS.

Volcanic boulders along a stream near the base

 Boulders moved probably by the force of lahars causes more damage than lava flow as they travel far. This was again near a stream.

As an active volcano which last erupted during the late 1800s, there were signs at the base with evacuation routes in case of an eruptions. Didn't get a picture of it, but it's pretty distinctive. There are monitoring areas throughout this area that provides the warning system in case of an eruption or lahars occur.

It took a whole day of exploration and even still we were not able to get to the very top since they had not opened most of the road as the snow had still to be cleared. In fact, they were going to reopen that road the day after. So the best time to actually get closer to the peak of Mt. Rainier is in June or later and not mid-May. The rain on the mountain was less than what we experienced in Seattle. So it gave us some time for exploration. We took the Longmire route out of the 5 different routes they had along the base of the volcano. This is the SW route which has the Nisqually Glacier.

Sunny Beach Point at Alder Lake. Formed when they dammed the Nisqually River near the base of Mt. Rainier.

 Came across some serpentine or verd antique near the lake. This was amongst the rubble and not in place. But picked it up since i don't have a serpentine sample in my collection.

These rocks are signs of a subduction zone and belongs to an ophiolite complex (where the sea floor is subducted then raised by tectonic forces).

 With calcitic veins 

The folding of the calcite occurred after it precipitated.

 The slickensides (stress lines created by sliding against other rocks) seen at the bottom of the sample.

Then when we got to the information center, came across this:

A 670year old Douglas-fir tree with me for scale, cut down by the Saint Regis Paper Co. in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. A type of tree that was used as a source of wood for heat and light by the natives.

We had visitors.

Steller's Jay

Sparrow

Mt. Rainier is known to have the greatest number of glaciers in the lower 48 states. And one of those is the Nisqually glacier which is in the Physical Geology Lab textbook that i teach! So naturally i wanted to go see it, but as luck would have it we didn't have the right hiking gear for climbing through deep and/or melting snow. So lesson learned: Don't go to Washington without the right amount of clothing and gear and make sure the season is right!

We did run into some luck where a glacier had proceeded closer to the base. So we stopped by.

 The ablation (melting) portion of a glacier that we noted that is carving out a small valley.

The Nisqually River flows close to that glacier. Standing on a lava boulder displaced by lahars.

Christine Falls

Christine Falls

Contributing to the rivers by eroding and carrying material downstream.

Another natural spring.

The Nisqually River flows through from the Nisqually glacier

 

Another misfit wanting a morsel of food

 Fit for a queen at Paradise Inn

This was the highest we were allowed. As our luck had it, they would open the road the next day.

Layers in the snow. It's a wonder the snow doesn't melt as it wasn't that cold.

The top of the mountain is above the clouds

And yet another....These guys were more frequent than the birds.

A Western hemlock.

Resembling the Hoh Rainforest big maples in the Olympic peninsula, these Western hemlocks looked like they had HUGE spiders living on the trees.

These seemed very much out of place and looked like brand new blooms.

A type of Tulip?

Many trees were in this condition around the forest.

Moss-attack

Corridor of hemlocks and firs.

Plane shot of Mt. Rainier in the background peeking out of the clouds.

This trip to this volcano has got me longing for more of it. And since it was a very spontaneous trip, I suggest anyone who is actually going to this area to have it all planned out else you cannot get the most out of what this great natural wonder has to offer. A good list of things to prepare are:

• Make sure the dates that you go are a time when the park is fully open and of course read about if there are signs in the news about an eruption or lahar occurring about to happen.
• Routes to take since there are 5 different roads that lead up to the summit. The national park service website is a good resource to start planning with.
• Hiking routes along the way. 
• A physical map which the park provides. This is handy when your phone gps dies on you. Although, now google maps can be downloaded and used offline.
• Have hiking gear. Plan for all types of weather. Mostly snow and rain.
• Review of how to protect oneself if encountering a bear or a mountain lion. The park usually provides guidelines, but it's always best to read up about it beforehand.
• Have at least a couple of days handy since it's hard to take everything in on one day.
• A handy camera that is always ready to take a snap shot.
• Food and water even though there are inns present. Do not feed the wild life though. That is the sole reason we saw so many foxes along the way.
• Most of all, don't forget your adventurous spirit!

Of course that was not an exhaustive list, but the essentials are there. So I hope there's a next time story involved in my future.

Next post will be about the fascinating, yet hidden city known as Wenatchee which is east of the Mt. Rainer & Wenatchee National Forests.

Washington - Start of a tour into her beauty

Our recent visit to Washington, inspired me to get back into writing a blog again after a long time. Tied to my birthday gift from my boyfriend, it was a 1st for both of us going into active volcanic territory. I was mostly excited about that versus the concert we were going to see called Sasquatch (aka yeti of North America). More on that in a later blog.

What stuck out the 1st going towards downtown from the Sea-Tac Airport was the highway sign.

Yup! It's the face of George Washington and there's a town called George!!! This is a sign in Quincy, WA about 3 hours east from Seattle though and east of the Columbia river. This was taken when we went to the concert later.

After getting over the sign, next notice was the trees. 1st reaction was, they all look like HUMONGOUS christmas trees.

Aka Douglas Firs or this type is the coast Douglas-fir. Taken when we went to the Mt. Rainier National Forest.

Started off our tour with going through Pike's Place Market, mostly to get me a sweater as it was cold. This market reminded me of shopping for local fares in Sri Lanka where you have to haggle to come down to a reasonable price. Also how the fresh fish (didn't have a terrible fishy smell like it does in Sri Lanka), the fresh vegetables, and other fares are laid out. It was similarly set up and so different from the rest of US shopping. Truly worth for leading you down memory lane or a different shopping style.

Then we made our way to Mt. Olympus at the Olympic National Forest which is about a 3 hour drive to the west, on a peninsula (created during the last glaciation) of its own. This mountain was formed from the accretion of the sea floor as subduction occurred on the west coast. Thus, unlike the Cascades to the east, this is a mountain made up of shales and sandstones and not volcanics. This is the most NW i've been in the continental US.

Mt. Olympus in the very distant background or where the road seems to end at.

Google did take us on an exhilarating ride along steep slopes on one side and up the slope of the mountain and we came across some land where the trees were cut down.

Trees cut down by the Green Diamond Resource Company in the Olympic National Forest. Another sight i wasn't expecting.

The drive led up to where it started raining to a point where we couldn't see the road, so we decided to turn back. Rain is a typical occurring on the west side of the mountains here and this includes Seattle. Not a day went by that it did not rain. Kind of a damper but we kept moving east the next couple of days where it would rain less. 

I will post about our drive to Mt. Rainier next.

Zebraic Chalcedony

Some pictures of zebraic chalcedony from a silicified (turned into chert) stromatolitic sample from Missouri.



























Zebraic chalcedony in a silicified stromatolitic sample in plain light. Same view as the cross-polarized view below. Refer to that for scale.
The black spots are remnant dolomite and some hydrocarbon (probably bitumen).






























4x close up - the same crystal as below is 0.125mm
This zebraic chalcedony is thought to replace evaporites (McBride et. al, 1977) (e.g gypsum or halite).






























10x close up - the brightest (white) crystal in the center is 0.15mm.
Megaquartz is forming in the middle of the zebraic chalcedony splays.


Thus, the chances are that this stromatolite formed in an upper intertidal environment. There is no other evidence as the dolomitization that occurred before the silicification of this sample has destroyed all other fabric (if) present.


Reference:

Mcbride, E. and Folk, R. 1977, The Caballos Novaculite revisited: Part II: Chert and Shale Members and Synthesis. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 47, n. 3, p. 1261-1286.

An addition of cooler chalcedony:

Chalcedony radiating fans of fibrous crystals. 10x magnification in plain light. Same stromatolite as the previous pictures. No idea what it is replacing though as dolomitization occurred prior to silicificaiton.

Same as above picture. 10x in cross polars. Megaquartz filling in the rest of the pore.

Fans are so cool! No pun intended there :D

Plane geology and other observations

My flight to San Francisco starting from Wichita led me to Minneapolis which in turn flew to SFO.

On the flight to Minneapolis, being a day flight, I stole the window seat on the plane. I doubt the other passenger noticed, especially since he had an aura of alcohol which i could smell before he even sat down!

Since I did not have my camera on me, I kept a note of all the different streams that I came across as the plane flew below the clouds. A 105° day with no clouds was a great day to fly! Cloud cover mostly started to appear closer to Minneapolis and then on the flight to SFO.

The most noticeable geology features on the flight to Minneapolis were the different types of streams. So there are 4 different types of streams in general. Straight, alluvial fan type, braided, and meandering.

Meandering streams are mostly common on flatter lands. Most of the meandering streams on this route had bars within them. These bars as you will see in the figures below were probably old point bars that became isolated from the bank as the water made it's way around it. In time, these bars became stable and then grass & shrubs started to grow on it. Now this is east of the Rockies and the rivers in the Central Plains and north of that are mostly meandering and most of them drain into the Mississippi River. Here are my observations:
























The 1st meandering stream that I paid most attention to was a huge river which was closer to being straight than meandering like Fig. 1, but it still had the noticeable point bars. This stream also had bars within the channel that had shrubs/trees growing on it. So these bars were stable and weren't being eroded off enough which allowed plants to grow on them. As i mentioned earlier, these bars were probably created by the water moving around existing point bars.

The other streams that i noticed were highly meandering streams. Whilst some had bars within the channel (Fig. 2), others did not (Fig. 3).

Then getting excited to see the Rockies again, I decided to keep my camera on me on the flight to SFO. Here's what I noticed on the flight:

























Red beds of possibly the Chugwater Formation (a sandstone deposited during the Triassic period of about 250-200my) in Wyoming.



























This highly meandering stream seen (in WY) where the floodplain (green) is well developed is lying in a valley.



























And so here are the Rockies in Wyoming.



























First time seeing the Great Salt Lake in Utah. This very arid lake is surrounded by evaporites (white) and longshore currents are creating groin-like structures in the evaporites if you look closer to the bottom (lake portion) of the picture.



























First time seeing Lake Tahoe that is right on the border of Nevada & California. I wouldn't have known it was that lake if it wasn't for the nice lady sitting next to me. First thing I noticed was that it was smaller than the Great Salt Lake and was set between the mountains (Sierra Nevadas).


























Low cloud hanging over a bridge (not sure which one) in the San Francisco area.


The rest of the pictures are taken once i got off from the plane.

























This is the view of the the bay in Milbrae, California and the run way where the planes land at the San Francisco airport. If you look closer at the bay area in between the run way and the land, you'll see that there is a little channel in between the algae. Photo taken at 1pm.



























Here's a close up view of that channel.



























Here's that same area at 3pm. The water has risen and is flooding over the algae.



























Same view with plane landing :D



























Same view at 4pm. The algae is all flooded!



























Same area at 6pm with the grassy area flooded! The bay water rose quite a bit throughout the course of the day.



The following 2 pics are close up views of the channel inlets












































































A variety of birds were feeding on the insects (?) within the algae and I caught a close up. My guess is these are Marbled Godwits but I am no bird watcher.



























These are a type of Brodiaea (?) found close to the channel. I saw these abundantly growing around the bay area.



























At the Ocean Beach (at the Pacific Ocean) in western San Francisco. This is a rocky beach where cliffs are found near the ocean as you see here. Those rocky islands seen off in the distance is the Seal Rocks where sea lions used to roost at.



























Now there are only sea gulls and pelicans perking on the island.



























And then there are sea caves that have been created by the sea eroding away that sandstone cliff that is part of the Santa Cruz mountains.


























Highly eroded cliff face that's overlooking the Ocean Beach.


























A platform jutting out into the Pacific Ocean at Muir Beach north of the San Francisco Bay.



























Little lagoon hidden away behind the Muir Beach.



























Then I came across an authentic Sri Lankan restaurant (Kadupul). I was dying to get some good Sri Lankan food since there is none anyway within or in the vicinity of Kansas.



























Had some delicious and spicy lamprice (or lamprie). A dutch influenced dish which consisted of rice cooked in stock with fried fish, poached egg, fried brinjals, a fish cutlet (the brown ball seen in the background), caramelized onions (aka seeni sambol), and fried plantains, all on a banana leaf. It was DELICHE!









































To taste a wood apple drink again topped with ice cream was heavenly!









































And Krishna ended up having a Sri Lankan biriyani. It was a tad spicier than what we expected! Was made of fried rice with cashews, raisens, a poached egg, and a variety of vegetables.




On the plane back to Kansas, not having a camera, I made more drawings of fluvial (river) geology.































Braided streams are more common within a mountainous range. This is what I observed which I believe were in the Sierra Nevadas. There were of course meandering rivers like in the following picture.



























Here's an attempt on a panoramic view from my phone camera of a salty lake (Great Salt lake again?) possibly near the Colorado/Utah border.

And so my observations ended there as night befell the rest of the journey back.

I have to give a lot of credit to my boyfriend for sponsoring my trip to San Francisco as I observed and learned a lot during the trip.