Saturday, August 19, 2006
Exploring Pioneer Valley
To learn a little bit about Massachusetts geology, we headed out to the Connecticut River Valley. Our first stop was to see some fossilized dinosaur tracks near Northampton, and then hike up Mt Holyoke (elev 936). I need to hike a mountain where there isn't a parking lot at the top (but this explains why some people think there is a road to the top of Mt Rainier)! My favorite picture from this trip is Bella being "loved" by a couple of kids in the Mt Holyoke parking lot. Read more!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Purgatory Chasm
Our exploration of the area around Worcester continued with a visit to Purgatory Chasm about 15 miles south of town. Sara's going to do a geology field trip here. The Chasm is developed in pegmatitic granite and the walls reach up to 60 or 70 feet above the chasm floor. The best part is that there are all sorts of labelled areas of the chasm, such as the Devil's coffin. The genesis of the chasm has been hypothesized to be related to glacial outburst floods, faulting, or glacial plucking. There's no way that chasm was created by an outburst flood, as there's no sign of any fluvial erosional or depositional features and the head of the chasm is on a ridge top. I think it's likely glacial plucking that preferentially eroded out a jointed and/or faulted area. But what do I know?
Miss Bella enjoyed hopping around the rocks, but did not enjoy our frequent stops to look at the rock mineralogy and pegmatitic dikes.
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Miss Bella enjoyed hopping around the rocks, but did not enjoy our frequent stops to look at the rock mineralogy and pegmatitic dikes.
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Sunday, August 06, 2006
Life goes on - Wachusett Mountain
The highest point in Worcester County is about 15 miles north of our house. Wachusett appears to be the "nearby" ski hill to Boston, which means it's close to Boston, but maybe not the best resort out there. Anyway, it's still summer (but the unbearable heat had mostly broken), and we needed to get out and explore our new environs. We parked in a parking lot at the bottom and headed up a classic New England trail-rocky and steep. Pleasant enough, and the views from the top (ignoring the parking lot we were standing in) were very nice. We could see the Boston skyline to the east, Mt Monadnock in New Hampshire to the north, and the Berkshires to the west. We decided to head down the road rather than bust up our knees on the rocky trail.
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