Moonishness on Earth
Sunday, 18 October 2009
In geologic terms, time is—I can’t say relative, although it is, because it’s too trite—well, confusing. So yesterday was geology-in-the-making, geology-in-motion.
Today, in contrast, was geology in more of a holding pattern, although still geology of the Holocene (if I’ve got it right, we’re still in the Holocene…).
This afternoon we wandered around Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, established in 1924. The park includes the largest primarily Holocene-epoch basaltic lava field, I think, in the continental US of A.
So glad we weren’t there in the heat of the summer, all that black radiating the daytime temps, but in today’s overcast, without direct sunlight, the lava became flat and difficult to judge, especially distances. Loved the spatter cones! (Sorry, photo is of old lava flows that were more photogenic today; can’t imagine this landscape is really like the Moon, though….)