Can you believe it's been 40 years since the first IMAX movie at Grand Canyon premiered? Yep, it was 1983, the year of high-water out of Glen Canyon Dam, when "Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets was filmed and released. The original river scenes in the movie captured some of the high-water drama and the organic debris left from the flood in riverside tamarisk trees. The production received only luke-warm accolades from the locals, who saw the plot, if plot it could be called, a bit simplistic and fanciful with quasi-true recreations of historical events. The general public however, must hav ..read more

In 2018, Helen and I established the Wayne and Helen Ranney Geosciences Educator Award at Northern Arizona University. We are pleased to announce at this time that the first awardee is Rhyleigh Abel, a senior in the geology department at NAU. The award allows her to partake in a 7-day, geology-themed rafting trip in Grand Canyon with fellow alumni and professors.  The award is an endowed fund that takes interest earned to support the award in perpetuity. If you would like to contribute to our goal to encourage professional earth scientists to share their enthusiasm and passion for landsca ..read more

I love Santa Fe, New Mexico. So when I got the opportunity to present a lecture on the Colorado River for Southwest Seminars, we took a few extra days to explore more of the area. My colleague, Kirt Kempter invited us talong o see first hand the results of his pandemic project, making a detailed map of a maar volcano to the southwest of the city. These features form when magma interacts with groundwater to create a steam explosion, forming a shallow depression after the explosion. The depression can become filled with scoria (cinders) and lava flows, and sometimes a lava lake, which upon subse ..read more

At Plateau Point, Grand Canyon, November 2021. Photo by Helen Ranney A new year has dawned along with the realization that I have been remiss in keeping up with this blog. Blame it on the pandemic and its lack of travel, these uninspiring times, or whatever. I'm aware of this and I'm not pleased with it - especially when I look back at some of the detailed and lengthy posts I previously typed here (I will not post without anything to say). And, I've also been contemplating what might be the next phase for this online blog? I think readers (if any of you are left) this year will see a ..read more

In early October, Helen and I journeyed to southwest Colorado and the San Juan Mountains near Ouray. We embarked on a five-day, four-night backpack along the Dallas Trail, traveling hut to hut. Thus, we carried no sleeping bags or tents to make the load lighter. The fall colors were at their peak and admittedly, this post is more about autumn than the San Juan Volcanic Field. We had a group of seven and this is near the start of the hike. Some of the route was along old logging roads. This is our first hut, called North Pole hut. One of the peaks near here is called North Pole Peak. If yo ..read more

I heard from Sean Daly, a mining geologist and author who has published a book called, "From the Erzgabirge to Potosi". He has written a poem that rests inside the front pages of the book and I include that poem here for your reading pleasure. The book looks very interesting for those who may want to better explore the development of mining and its boon to the development of society and civilization ..read more

Ejected and overturned Kaibab Formation sitting atop the younger Moenkopi Formation on the rim of Meteor Crater. The sudden and violent impact peeled these layers backwards out of the impact site. Northern Arizona is rich in geologic features including the Grand Canyon, the San Francisco Mountain composite volcano, Monument Valley, the Petrified Forest and Oak Creek Canyon. One other attraction that qualifies for this list is Meteor Crater, where a space rock the diameter of a football field slammed into the Earth's crust around 50,000 years ago. It excavated a hole 600 feet deep into ..read more

Screen capture the new fissure eruption taken August 3, 5:58 PM local Iceland time With news this morning of renewed fissure eruptions in Geldingadalir Iceland, I thought it would be fun and instructive to share photos and descriptions of a unique trip I recently completed in Iceland. On the trip from July 7-17 I served as a geologic lecturer and interpreter for Smithsonian Journey's. Imagine my disappointment at missing this new activity by only a little more that two weeks. (I may go back). A live feed of the new eruption can be viewed here. The Erics ..read more

As a geologic educator who has been around since the latter quarter of the 20th Century (read 'ancient'), I occasionally receive requests to review books, articles and now, films, that contain geologic themes. On July 11 of this year, I received an email asking if I would be interested in watching a new film and writing a review on this blog. I was skeptical at first but then each the film's opening and became hooked. That's what I call a good opening (described below). FYI - I am receiving no compensation of any kind in making this review. Now I do not clai ..read more

The story and video that was posted here yesterday has moved to my personal blog site, All In A Day's Karma. Google changed some functions on its platform and I am still learning to navigate the changes. Sorry for any confusion. However... It's been awhile since I posted something here. I've been busy on lot's of trips. One was a Private Jet adventure over parts of the American Southwest. Here are a few photos from the trip. The Sonoma California coast Mono Lake California  Frenchman Mountain Nevada Where the San Juan river (bottom) meets the Colorado River (top) now under the Powell ..read more