Climate, culture and history of the Quebrada de Humahuaca
Because the Quebrada de Humahuaca is such a long north-south valley with readily available water from the river (Rio Grande) that cut it, it has been a well-used route connecting Peru, Bolivia and Argentina for thousands of years. The region was also important in the revolution for independence from Spain (1810). To the west, the highest part of the Andes,...
La Quebrada de Humahuaca—colorful landscape in NW Argentina
A quebrada is a valley or canyon formed by the action of flowing water. The Quebrada de Humahuaca is located in the northwesternmost corner of Argentina, on the eastern side of the Andes, where active uplift of the land has caused rivers to cut down and create quebradas of many sizes and shapes, resulting in a stunning landscapes of shear...
Human interactions with the Lava Beds landscape
The Modoc group of Native Americans have lived in the region that is now the Lava Beds National Monument for thousands of years. They left little imprint on the land, but they did leave some rock art that is interesting to examine. Two caves—Big Painted Cave and Symbol Bridge Cave—contain pictographs that are painted onto the rocks with a charcoal-based...
Lava lava everywhere—Lava Beds National Monument, NW California
I've said there are just two Cascade Range volcanoes in California—Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta. But there is a third called Medicine Lake Volcano, as shown on the map below (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Volcanoes). Lava Beds National Monument is located just north of the volcano, where numerous flows have completely covered the landscape during the past 500,000 years. Because it is a...
Pyla dune—the highest sand dune in Europe
The last three posts touched on how the landscape of Bordeaux affects wine characteristics. But there are landscape features that are just fun for their own sake. Billed as the highest dune in Europe, we had to visit Pyla Dune, a geologic feature along the Atlantic coast south of Arcachon, a popular seaside that is an easy 52-minute train ride...
Biking between two rivers—the Entre-Deux-Mers region
The Entre-Deux-Mers region is located between the Garonne and Dordogne Rivers that feed into the Gironde estuary. The name, though, is "between two seas" or "between two tides" because the rivers have a tidal influence. The Gironde has a large tidal range and during the largest tides, a tidal bore (single wave) will move upstream in the rivers. One of...
The terroir of Saint Emilion
The terroir of the Saint Emilion AOC (see roundish purple region on the Right Bank in previous post) differs from that of the Médoc (of course). The climate has less of a maritime influence, and the limestone bedrock is close to the surface, with only thin, mostly clay-rich soils. We visited just one Chateau—Troplong Modot. Notice that the rocks in this...
Terroir extraordinaire—a key to understanding the wines in Bordeaux (and elsewhere in France)
The ancient Greeks understood the effects of location on wine characteristics, but it was the French who really ran with the concept, coining the term "terroir" and making it an essential aspect of their appellation d'origine controlée (AOC), the controlled designation of origin that is granted to wine, and other agricultural products, based on the location where the product is...
Climbing Mount McLoughlin—one of the lesser known Cascade volcanoes
Mount McLoughlin is located 63 kilometers (38 miles) east of Ashland, Oregon, where I now live. As shown on this map by the U.S. Geological Survey, Mount McLoughlin is located between the volcanoes of Mount Shasta and Crater Lake, which is the remnant of Mount Mazama that exploded to become a caldera 7,700 years ago. All of the Cascade Range...
Andalusian follow-up
On the way back to the U.S., I began reading a book that pulls together most of the historical events explored during this trip. If you are interested in learning more about the Islamic period in southern Spain, you may wish to check out this book: Ornament of the world: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a culture of tolerance...
Seville—the crown of Andalusia
Seville (Sevilla in Spanish) has been the dominant city in southern Spain for most of the past millennium. Located in the lower part of the Guadalquivir river valley just 60 km (40 miles) from the sea, it was a Roman city that grew greatly in size during the Islamic period after the caliphate (central governance) in Córdoba weakened and individual...
The world-famous, acorn-eating Spanish pig
Just an hour north of Seville (like Córdoba, located in the Guadalquivir river valley), the Sierra de Aracena is a tranquil rural world that feels far removed from the bustling city. Geologically, it's also a world away. This is the only place we are visiting in Spain that is beyond the realm of the Eurasian–African collision zone. Like Portugal, this...
About the Blogger
Karen (here with Mt. Shasta in background) is a geology professor emerita who aims to provide a "pocket geologist" for world travelers. Follow the blog to explore the landscapes of our planet and figure out what causes them to look the way they do.