Airliner geology
Hi, folks–
As I write this, I am flying over Utah/Colorado at 40,000 feet. For the third
time in recent memory, I have gotten a good look at the Grand Canyon from high
altitude. Choosing connections that pass over the Grand Canyon and the Rockies
in daylight, and trying for a window seat have paid off again. Luck remains in
my flight not being delayed (as it was until dark on my outbound trip), clouds
not covering the interesting stuff, and in getting a window without the
corrosion (which I hear is caused by Pinatubo and other volcanic eruptions). I
had to settle for the usual corroded window, but the rest was great.
This time was unique in that snow had fallen on the tops of the mesas and some
of the slopes, but left lower areas and vertical faces bare. The color
contrasts are beautiful and help draw contours to help one understand what one
is seeing more readily. Parts of the canyon looked even more like layer cakes
than normal with snow-white alternating with rust.
I am flying from greater L.A. in Calif. to Denver and then back to OK city. The
same snow-highlighting of similar terrains of the Colorado Plateau continued as
we flew toward Utah and maybe Colorado before clouds closed in. Some of the
reds there made even more impressive contrasts with the snow – I sort of
remember being overwhelmed by redness and less impressed in past snow-less
overflights.
A short while after the Grand Canyon, I saw a fairly flat part of the Colorado
plateau with a narrow nearly-linear feature of great length prominent – it
involved sharply uptilted rock layers and did not seem to be any sort of
river-generated feature. It crossed the flight path – if no special turns were
involved (to see the canyon?), it would have been running
northwest-to-southeast. Is there a major fault thereabouts? My second guess
would be an anticline just barely peeking out of the general strata – but it
seemed rather narrow for that.
Do not let the possibility of bad weather put you off some really interesting
geological viewing when choosing your flights. A really good look may take
several tries, but it can be well worth it!
Well, I was flying yesterday, but now I am writing on the ground. I let my
battery run out before exiting OzCIS, and clobbered my forums database,
forbidding further activity until I could repair the damage using backups at
home.
–Doug