Friday Hike

Went for another hike today.  Back to the Mohonk Preserve (I have a membership so I hike there a lot).  When I was leaving, my wife asked me where I was going and I didn't know.  A lot of times I'll leave to go on a hike and not know exactly where I'm going.  I've often decided while driving which trailhead I'll park at.  Then, at the trailhead, I'll figure out my final destination just by starting to walk in some direction as the spirit moves me.

Today I parked at the Spring Farm trailhead and followed Table Rock trail.  Spotted a neat little plant I know called hepatica (Hepatica nobilis).  The name comes from the Greek word for liver because the leaf has three lobes like the human liver.  It's a traditional medicinal plant, once thought to be good for the liver due to its shape (the Medieval "doctrine of signatures").

The trail passes through a beautiful meadow, still mostly brown but soon to be filled with grasses and blooming with wildflowers.  I love this meadow sitting surrounded by woods.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  I was walking through the meadow, the warm Sun is shining, the sky is deep blue, the grasshoppers are buzzing, and the birds are singing.  I can't even describe how places like this make me feel.

I continued along the trail to a junction.  As I was wondering which way to go, I heard a barred owl calling to my right.  That decided my direction.

Some wildflowers along the trail.  I have a book called Wildflowers of New York but couldn't identify either of these from pictures (of course, I didn't note down details of the leaves and stems and things).  Feel free to enlighten me if you know what they are.

I also saw these plants.  They were growing in a moist area.  At first I thought they were skunk cabbage but the leaves are different.  Anyone know?

And here, for no apparent reason, is a picture of a bumblebee drinking water.  I thought it was cool and watched him (her?) for a while.

I also came across some coyote scat.  How do I know it's coyote?  It was displayed prominantly on top of a rock, looks like dog poop, but is loaded with fur and bones (the white bone in the crushed up piece looks like a little rodent scapula).

This may be why people don't generally go hiking with me.  I take pictures of shit.

Anyway, I followed a little-used trail I like (since I never run into people on it) and ended up at Bonticou Crag, one of my favorite places on the Ridge.  There's a great "trail" to the top that goes up the front face winding it's way among the talus boulders (Click on the picture to make it larger.  See the guy in the red sweatshirt near the top?  That's the trail).

Here's a view from near the top looking down (I actually came down that way today).

The most challenging part of the climb is near the top when you have to shimmy up a crevice and then climb along a very exposed ledge for a short distance (not for those afraid of heights).  The crevice, like many along the ridge, is actually a strike-slip fault (can't have a post without a little geology).

One of these days I'll write about Bonticou.  It's a sacred place.

Thursday Hike

Since I had off today (our school had today scheduled as a makeup day which we didn't need to use since we've had few snow days this winter), I decided to go for a hike.  It was a beautiful day around 60 F.

For those who know the Mohonk Preserve, I started at Clove Chapel, went up Undivided Lot Trail to Stokes Trail to Maple Path to Laurel Ledge Road to Cope's Lookout.  It's a couple of miles and about 1,000 feet of elevation gain.  On the return, I went down Cathedral Path to Laurel Ledge Path to Clove Path and back to Undivided Lot Trail.  It was a nice hike and Undivided Lot Trail is one of the more remote areas of the Preserve (which I like since I rarely run into people).

Going to the gym three times a week since last September has paid off.  I'm definitely hiking better than I was last summer - especially on the uphill segments.

Signs of spring abounded in the woods.  Here are some fiddleheads poking up through the dead leaves.

These little pinkish flowers are on blueberry bushes.

A flowering tree.

I don't know offhand what the tree is, but here's a slightly blurry closeup of the flower.

And, since I'm a geologist, here's a nice example of physical weathering as the rock breaks down along bedding planes and vertical joint sets.

And who can resist a nice set of chatter marks and glacial striations.

And some fault striations on the side of a crevice.

Here's a scenic view of Cope's Lookout.  The cliffs on the left are the Trapps - a world-class rock climbing destination.  The valley on the right is Clove Valley and, geologically, a syncline where the Shawangunk Conglomerate bedrock downwarps into a trough.

Here's how I like to eat lunch - sitting on a cliff with my feet dangling off.

I'll close with a self-portrait...

Mercury's Gold

One of the aims of classical alchemists was figuring out a way to turn base metals into precious metals, often using the liquid metal mercury in their processes.  Ultimately, it was a fool's quest (although they did discover a lot about chemistry in the process).  This is my clever way to introduce a post about fool's gold and Mercury.

A week or so ago, March 19-23. the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) was held in Houston, Texas.  A few of the papers presented caught my eye since I'm teaching a course on Solar System Astronomy this semester.

A group of researchers presented a paper titled Mercury's Internal Structure as Constrained by Messenger Observations where they discussed some of the most recent findings from NASA's MESSENGER probe which is currently orbiting and studying the planet Mercury.

Since we know how large Mercury is (mean radius = 2.4397 x 10⁸ cm) and we can accurately determine its mass from its orbital characteristics (3.3022×10²⁶ g), we can calculate its bulk density (r) which is mass per unit volume.

[The radius and mass values I used are from Wikipedia.  The radius was multiplied by 100,000 to convert kilometers to centimeters and mass was multiplied by 1,000 to convert kilograms to grams.]

   r = 3.3022×10²⁶ g / [(4/3) p (2.4397 x 10⁸ cm)³]

   r = 3.3022×10²⁶ g / (6.0827 x 10²⁵ cm³)

   r = 5.43 g/cm³

OK, so what?  Well it turns out that this is an anomalously high density for such a small planet.  The average density of crustal rocks is around 2.7 g/cm³.  This means that the interior of Mercury has to be much more dense.  Since, for a variety of reasons, we know that terrestrial planets have internal cores composed primarily of iron, the size of this iron core can then be calculated.

The Earth, for example, has an internal structure composed of an iron core, a mantle, and the crust.  The crust is, of course, solid.  Many people mistakenly believe the mantle of the Earth is molten magma but it's also solid.  It's properties change with depth, due to pressure and temperature changes, but it's primarily plastic.  This means it's soft and flows while remaining solid (I illustrate this in my class with Silly Putty).

The core is segregated into two parts - an inner solid core surrounded by an outer liquid core.  As the Earth cools over geologic time spans, the core is gradually solidifying.  The movements of liquid iron in the Earth's outer core, by the way, generates the Earth's magnetic field.

Mercury also has a core, mantle, and crust but the core is much larger proportionally than we would expect.  Mercury may once been much larger but lost much of its outer core and mantle from a large collision (there is a lot of indirect evidence on other planets and moons for the occurrence large collisions early in the history of our solar system).

By analyzing the rotation of Mercury on its axis, planetary scientists are able to determine that the solid outer crust and mantle of the planet is decoupled from a solid core by a liquid layer.  This is interpreted to mean that the outer part of Mercury's iron core is still liquid.  Mercury does have a magnetic field as well.

The MESSENGER spacecraft has been making some detailed measurements of Mercury's gravity field and this data, along with geochemical data obtained from analysis of surface rocks on the planet, allows planetary scientists to develop models of the interior of the planet (see the paper for all the messy mathematical details).

One model leads to the possibility that there is a layer of solid iron sulfide (FeS₂) at the core-mantle boundary.  This is the mineral pyrite, also known as "fool's gold" (you would be a real fool to confuse it with gold because it has very different physical properties), and relatively common here on Earth.

Image from Sky & Telescope

Pyrite's a beautiful mineral, often forming golden cubic crystals.  It's neat to imagine the interior of a planet has a layer of this stuff.  It's also neat to see how astronomers can figure out what's in the interior of a planet without ever stepping foot on it.  Science rocks!

Sunday ramblings...

So I was reading my monthly horoscope for the upcoming month and learned the following:

The Sun continues to shine its light on your solar twelfth house. This is the time to listen to your intuition, to take a break from the hectic pace of your life, and to reflect on what you have learned in the past year. You might naturally retreat a little and take more private time for yourself now.

That frightened me a bit, since my intuition is that I need a break.  I thought I might drive out to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (just south of Cincinnati).  I'll call in sick at work for the next couple of weeks and ask my colleagues to show my students videos while I'm off - here's a good one for my historical geology class.  I've been coming more and more skeptical of evilution now that I see how scientists are simply unable to address objections to Darwinism proposed by great thinkers like Ken Ham.

Has anyone noticed the Moon looks funny lately too?  Tilted weirdly.  I think the scientists are covering it up to avoid panic.

I can't believe I didn't win the MegaMillions lottery either.  I bought $1,000 worth of tickets because I know how your odds are greatly improved when you buy more tickets like that.  I even used my lucky numbers that I got out of a Chinese take-out fortune cookie last Friday

By the way, did you see the Washington Post OpEd which exposed how college professors don't work hard enough?  As a professor I can certainly attest to that.  I only teach a few hours a week.  I don't have to come in until 11 am and typically leave before 2 pm when I go down to the local tavern and drink Scotch until it's time for dinner.  Top shelf stuff too since I'm paid so well as a full professor.

Since I have so much free time, I've decided to get invest in other activities to keep from getting bored.  Did you know they used to mine silver and gold right here in the Shawangunks?  True.  I was doing some historical research and came across some documents in the local historical society archives that have been completely overlooked.  As a geologist, I was able to figure out the exact locations referred to and hiked out there one day after I gave my students a worksheet and left class early.  There's still enough gold in some of these mines to make a whole slew of people fabulously wealthy.  I was able to purchase some of the land these mines are on from the Mohonk Preserve and am currently selling shares in the mine to those people who aren't afraid of being rich. At only $1,000 / share, it's a great opportunity.  Just mail me a check and you're in.

Oh, some good news for a change.  My wife has finally agreed that an open marriage would do us a world of good.  So, if you're an attractive female between the ages of 18 and 30 (35 if you take care of yourself), give me a ring.  Sorry, but current students are not eligible for this offer.  Not to be immodest, but I do have quite the reputation as a ladies man.  You know what they say about geologists, right?  We know how to make the bedrock!

On a final, more serious note.  The recent uptick in solar flare activity on the Sun leads me to caution everyone reading my blog.  Energetic particles from large coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can damage sensitive brain tissue unless you take precautions.  Fortunately, there is an easy, inexpensive remedies everyone has available in their kitchens.  A layer of aluminum foil (heavy duty) will very effectively shield you from these particles (as long as you point the top of your head toward the Sun during a CME.  Here are some simple directions (by the way, it's aluminum foil, not tin foil!).

You did notice the date this was posted, right?