Castles, temples and power rocks
I'm back home in Oregon, but can't leave the topic of Japan without revisiting some of the sites Japan is most famous for—castles and temples. At these sites, we were impressed by the intentional choice and position of rocks, often carried over great distances and implying symbolic meaning and power. Here is a sampling. Castle of the Tokugawa shogunate in...
Kamikoche—Japan’s Yosemite Valley
Kamikoche Valley is not bordered by glacially-scoured granite walls like Yosemite Valley, but it is a wildly popular site within the Chubu-sangaku National Park. As in Yosemite National Park, most visitors go to the valley, but there is also an extensive network of higher-elevation trails for hiking and backpacking. Also like Yosemite, the area has an interesting geologic history. Although...
Shiretoko Peninsula: Japan’s “end of the earth”
One of the most remote parts of Japan, Shiretoko is derived from sir etok, meaning “the end of the earth” in the Ainu language. Ainu people lived in the region for thousands of years, but like indigenous groups worldwide, they were discriminated against, and largely obliterated when, in this case, the Japanese people moved into Hokkaido in the 19th century....
Japan: a country full of geologic activity
Jay and I arrived in Japan on 27 August and will be traveling in the country for 6 weeks. There are many reasons to travel here. The culture and history are fascinating and—wow!—who doesn't enjoy the high quality food. For two earth scientists, learning more about the country's geologic makeup is another big draw. In Japan, no one is immune...
Evidence of coastal uplift at Brookings, Oregon
Oregon's coast is a geologic wonderland of steep cliffs, nearshore sea stacks and caves, estuaries where rivers flow from the coastal range into the sea, and a large variety of landscapes and rock types. The entire coast is adjacent to the Cascadia Subduction zone where the oceanic plate is colliding (and descending beneath) the continental plate. Because the plates are...
Bienvenidos a Colombia: welcome to the northwest corner of South America
In my continuing quest to learn more about South America’s geology, culture and history, I traveled for a month (mid February–mid March) in Colombia, located in the northwestern corner of South America. Colombia is at the northern end of the Andes, the longest mountain range on our planet. It is the only South American country with coasts on both the...
Why are there so many hills in San Francisco?
Any visitor to San Francisco will be impressed by the number of hills and how they contribute to the overall beauty of the city. People (like me) who have resided in San Francisco have found biking and walking routes to avoid the steepest hills, and have appreciated how the hills compartmentalize the city into distinctive neighborhoods and provide stunning views....
Plate tectonics 101—what happens when plates move toward each other?
When plates move away from each other (divergent boundaries; see last post on December 31), new oceanic crust is created. Since Earth is not expanding, ocean crust must be destroyed elsewhere. This happens at convergent boundaries, where plates move toward each other. Here, oceanic crust is destroyed, or rather, it gets recycled back into Earth's depths. The places where oceanic...
The geology of Yosemite National Park
With stunning vistas of shear rock walls, cascading waterfalls, rounded granite domes and jagged spires, it's no surprise that Yosemite is one of the most popular national parks in the U.S. While most visitors are drawn to Yosemite Valley, the park has numerous other wonders beyond the valley and even the park boundaries in the Sierra Nevada (=snowy mountain range...
The Geology of Crater Lake National Park
Like most of our national parks, the spectacular beauty of Oregon's only national park is a result of the geologic processes that created it. But whereas most of our parks were created by gradual processes over long periods of time—for example, erosion by the Colorado River to create the Grand Canyon—Crater Lake was created in a few days during a...
South Sister—the third highest volcano in Oregon and one of its youngest
The Three Sisters volcanoes, located in the Three Sisters Wilderness west of Bend, Oregon, are part of the Cascade Range of volcanoes formed above the Cascadia subduction zone. "For magnificence of glacial scenery, for wealth of recent lavas, and for graphic examples of dissected volcanoes, no part of this range surpasses the area embracing the Sisters and McKenzie Pass", said...
How does the Rogue Valley fit into the larger tectonic picture?
In the last three posts, we explored the geologic makeup of the Rogue Valley region. Most people know that there is a subduction zone off the coast of the Pacific NW and you might wonder: how does the Rogue Valley region fit into this larger picture? We will explore the tectonic setting in this post. This diagram shows the present...
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.