Video of Mars Flyover

What would it be like to fly over the surface of Mars? Now, taking digital elevation data, a new video shows the Martian surface like never before. Watch it here.

The Grass Is Going Away at the EL Tovar Hotel Grand Canyon

NPS Continues Exotic Plant Management by Eliminating Lawns in the Historic District:   Area will be Re-landscaped with Native Vegetation in Keeping with Historic Landscape


Grand Canyon, Ariz. – The National Park Service will begin eliminating turfgrass (lawns) around the historic El Tovar Hotel and adjacent rim lodges as part of a long-term plan to re-landscape the area with native vegetation consistent with the historic Grand Canyon Village rim landscape. Weather permitting; the two-day project will begin on Tuesday, September 17.

The lawns, made up of Kentucky bluegrass, were planted in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when the Kachina and Thunderbird Lodges were constructed. Kentucky bluegrass is not native to the Grand Canyon and requires an unnatural amount of water to maintain. The park’s General Management Plan, Exotic Plant Management Plan, and Historic Village Cultural Landscape Report all call for the removal of non-native species, such as Kentucky bluegrass. Once the lawns have been eliminated, native plant landscaping will be implemented in phases beginning in 2014.

In recent years, the exotic Kentucky bluegrass lawns have become an attractant for non-native Rocky Mountain elk that are utilizing the irrigated lawns as a food and water source creating a more urgent need to remove the lawns. Rocky Mountain elk were introduced into the Flagstaff and Williams, Arizona areas between 1913 and 1929 and have migrated to the South Rim of Grand Canyon in search of easy access to food and water.

Parkwide, there has been a dramatic increase in the number and concentration of aggressive elk encounters requiring staff intervention, especially around the El Tovar and adjacent rim lodges where large numbers of elk are causing human health and safety concerns.

“Visitors are naturally attracted to elk, and often approach too closely or place themselves directly in the path of elk that are foraging on the lawns,” stated Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga. “Elk have become habituated to these lawns, making them dangerous and unpredictable. Although elk can give the impression of being tame, they can quickly become aggressive when protecting their food and water sources, their young, and during the fall rutting season.”

Aggravated and aggressive elk are in close proximity to thousands of people visiting the lodges, restaurants, gift shops, and viewing areas along the edge of the canyon rim. By eliminating the lawns and removing unnatural food and water sources, the elk will disperse away from the rim’s edge to other areas of the park where there is a less concentrated visitor presence.

The lawns will be eliminated using a glyphosate based herbicide, a product found in local stores. The herbicide will be applied by certified applicators early in the morning. Park staff will be in the area, and the area signed and flagged to keep people and animals off the lawn as it dries, normally for a period of two to four hours.

The herbicide cannot be applied during rainy conditions or once overnight temperatures fall below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. In the event that the herbicide cannot be applied in the next few weeks, the project will resume in spring 2014.

For more information about this project, please contact Vicky Stinson, Grand Canyon Project Manager at 928-638-7364. For more information about elk or wildlife safety visit the park’s website at http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/elk.htm.

The Rim Fire in Yosemite - A Time Lapse Journey

 The Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park has consumed a few hundred thousand acres of pine forest and scrub land.  It is a devastation that is all too common out west with over a century of fire suppression (causing forests to become too dense) and a decade of drought. My friend John P. sent along this YouTube link to a time lapse of some of the smoke columns from this fire. Look at it here.

Animal Crackers - A Review

My friend and Grand Canyon park ranger Scott Kraynak has just published his book with fantastic illustrations in it. Called "Animal Crackers" the book is reviewed here in one of the latest editions of High Country News. Congratulations Scott and good luck with this book.

You can visit the books web site at: animalcrackersbook.wix.com/animal-crackers.

From their web site:

'Animal Crackers' is a mix of poetry and art, a creative effort by the brothers Kraynak.  While Scott is primarily the artist and Jeffrey is primarily the writer, to say that one wrote while the other illustrated would be a gross generalization.  For our creativity has bridged the divide and neither half would be as good without the input from the other side.

The Blackhawk Landslide in Southern Caifornia

Now and then, friends send me items of interest that I find too interesting to pass up. This one is on a little known but stupendous landslide that occurred just south of Victorville California, about 17,400 years ago. You can read the geologic description of the events here. You are sure to be amazed! Other dating estimates and stories can be found here, here (this link will allow you to download Shreves dissertation and geologic map as pdf's), and here is especially good.

Next time I am on my way to SoCal, I will be doing a drive by.

How Hot Is It?

It's really hot! I gort this from Jeff Masters blog site:

One of the greatest heat waves in North American history peaked June 30 and July 1, and will still bring some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded to portions of the Western U.S. The extraordinary heat wave, caused by an unusually extreme standing wave pattern in the jet stream, brought Earth's highest June temperature ever recorded on Sunday, June 30, when the mercury hit 129.2°F (54.0°C) in Death Valley, California. The only higher temperatures ever recorded on the planet occurred in Death Valley on July 10, 12, and 13, 1913, when readings of 134°F, 130°F, and 131°F were recorded. This 100 year-old record heat wave has many doubters, though, including Mr. Burt, who noted in a 2010 blog post that "The record has been scrutinized perhaps more than any other in the United States. I don't have much more to add to the debate aside from my belief it is most likely not a valid reading when one looks at all the evidence. Normally when Death Valley records its hottest temperatures they occur during region-wide heat waves. On July 10, 1913 the next highest temperatures recorded in southern California (aside from Greenland Ranch) were just 119° at Heber and 118° at Mammoth Tank." If Mr. Burt is correct, then this Sunday's temperature of 129.2°F in Death Valley was the hottest temperature in recorded history on Earth.

June 27, 2013
102° Santa Fe, NM set an all-time heat record for that city
105° Albuquerque, NM: tied 2nd highest temperature on record

June 28, 2013
105° Salt Lake City, UT: hottest June temperature on record
114° Zion National Park, UT: hottest June temp on record, and only 1° short of their all-time record of 115°

June 29, 2013
100° Ely, Nevada: hottest June temperature on record (previous 99° June 22, 1954)
101° Eureka, Nevada: hottest June temperature on record (previous 98° on two occasions)
105° Salt Lake City, Utah: hottest June temperature on record (again, see June 28)
122° Palm Springs, California: hottest June temperature on record (tied June 28, 1994) and 1° short of all-time record of 123° set on August 1, 1993
128° Death Valley, California: hottest June temperature on record (tied previous 128° set on June 29, 1994)
It was 119° in Phoenix, Arizona their 4th warmest reading on record.

June 30, 2013
129° Death Valley, California: Earth's all-time hottest June temperature
115° Lancaster, California: all--time heat record (previous record 114° on July 18 and 19, 1960)
117° Las Vegas, Nevada: all-time heat record (tied with July 19, 2005 and July 24, 1942)

All-time June monthly records were set or tied at:
104° Elko, Nevada (previous 104° June 24, 1981)
103° Tonopah, Nevada (previous 102° on two occasions), this was also just 1° short of their all-time record of 104° set on July 18, 1960).
106° Winnemucca, Nevada (previous 106° on June 24, 1988)

July 1, 2013
127° Death Valley, California
110° Boise, Idaho: tied for 2nd hottest temperature on record

Does Geology Explain the Loch Ness Monster?

Apparently, it does! Read here.