Poetry & Thrift Shop

Our last day in Flagstaff may have been one of the funniest and saddest moments of our lives. We have all gotten so close and enjoyed our time together that to know it is almost over kinda makes me want to cry. Today was our down time day, we stayed in the house and performed experiments. They were quite interesting and then we went to downtown Flagstaff. It was a lot of fun. We all went to a thrift shop and bought ridiculous pieces of clothing, and then we got a random guy on the street to read us poetry. It was a lot of fun. Once we got back to the house we performed more experiments and then had dinner. Today was just relaxing and fun, but it is our last night together and so we are all really sad. Our Winterim group has been so much fun. We all have had an incredible time, now we are returning home and our journey is over. The awesome time we have had together has to come to end. We will miss spending time with each other as we have bonded and become so close. We have promised to remain this way during the school year too, hopefully it happens.

- Lisa and Hanna

Day 9: Petrified Forest & Meteor Crater

Once again, we had such a full day that we didn't get this post written until the morning.  Sorry!

Yesterday we started the day by driving out to Petrified Forest National Park.  Once we arrived, Ranger Lauren Carter gave a talk on the Triassic Period.  We learned that the trees that are now petrified grew over 200 million years ago in a tropical rainforest.  When they died, they were buried by silica-rich sediments (probably volcanic ash) in a wet, oxygen-poor environment.  The areas where high concentrations of petrified wood are now found were probably log-jams in an ancient river.  Over millions of years, the silica and other minerals leached into the woods and crystals replaced the organic material inside the cells.  We also learned about the different reptiles that lived in the late Triassic.  Many fossils have been identified within the park.


Gary with one of the giant logs

A colorful petrified tree at Crystal Forest

After we listened to the talk, we went on a couple of short hikes: one on the Giant Logs trail and one on the Crystal Forest trail.  We drove north through the park to Chinde Point for lunch, where we had a great view of the Painted Desert.  We learned that Gertie, a Chindesaurus fossil, was found in the Painted Desert Wilderness near Chinde Point.  (See Park Map)

The Painted Desert from Chinde Point

On the way back to Flagstaff, we stopped at Meteor Crater, also known as Barringer Crater.  Meteor Crater is the first confirmed meteoric impact crater and to this day is one of the best preserved.  It was mined at the beginning of the 20th century by Daniel Moreau Barringer, who was convinced that the crater was caused by a meteor (rather than a volcano) and spent 25 years looking for the iron-rich meteor in the bottom of the crater.  His descendents, along with the families that ranch the nearby areas, still own and operate the crater today.

Most of the group then went back to the Lowell Observatory to see the PANSTARRS comet.  Mr. Mogil took some great pictures and wrote an article about our viewing.  A few of us went back to the house to make dinner.  The beef & broccoli and curry were fantastic.
 




Day 8: The Grand Canyon and Lowell Observatory

The sun shone down on the Grand Canyon today, and the moon brightened our view from the Lowell Observatory, lucky for us we were there to witness them.
With a start at 6 am, one would think a group full of teenagers would be cranky and tired, but we were all far from it. The excietment in spending the entire day in the sun woke everyone up, but mentioning that we were going to visit the Grand Canyon, that brought smiles to our faces. Visiting one of the natural wonders of the world was truly an incredible experience. The vast colors that have formed due to the erosion of rocks that create the Grand Canyon made every viewing point 'majestic' (Winston).  All together, the day was fun and well spent.
We continued our day after the Grand Canyon by going to a Mexican & American restaurant for dinner. The food was not bad, however, several of us felt unwell after. Dinner ended with a drive to the Lowell Observatory. The Observatory had two incredible telescopes that allowed us to look at the planet Jupiter, which was pretty awesome. Well that was our day, hope you folks back home enjoyed your day too. BUT OURS WAS MORE EXCITING!

Ines & Alaina

Day 7: Museum of Northern Arizona & Sunset Crater

Yesterday was a full day, and we forgot to blog at the end of it.  Oops!  Right after breakfast, we set up experiments.  One group built large blocks made of sugar cubes and caulking.  Another set up salt solutions and made predictions about crystal formation.  A third group had Kestral weather meters and took measurements throughout the day and the fourth took measurements with infrared thermometers. 

After we got everything set up, we headed out to the Museum of Northern Arizona.  We learned about the different native cultures of the Colorado Plateau: the Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and the Pai (Yavapai, Havasupai, Hualapai).  The museum had displays about the lifestyles and art of each culture.  We also learned about the geology of the Colorado Plateau.  The Grand Canyon shows many of the layers and exposes the discontinuities, where millions of years are missing from the rock record.

In the afternoon, we headed up to Sunset Crater National Monument.  Sunset Crater is a very young cinder cone volcano (under 1000 years old).  We met Charlie Gray, a ranger, who took us on a hike.  He grew up in western Massachusetts (in the same town where Ms. Ruby went to college).  Ranger Gray explained that Sunset Crater gets its name from the red colors at the top.  The cinder (loose small volcanic pieces) has a lot of hematite in it, and the cinders that were exposed to gas clouds with lots of sulfuric acid turned red.  Sunset Crater is the youngest of a big field of volcanoes that includes the San Francisco peaks and has all four kinds of volcanoes (cinder cones, lava domes, composite volcanoes, and shield volcanoes).

Ranger Gray showing us a hornito (a little side crater)

Gary pointing to the volcano

Day Six: Red Rocks

    Hey there, today we had an amazing time seeing a lot of rocks. First, we woke up to the sound of knocking on the door. After breakfast, we headed off to Sedona from our place in Flagstaff. On the way down, we stopped at a place where we took pictures with beautiful mountains covered with snow.

    After that, we arrived at Montezuma Well. The well was not the kind of well you think. It was more like a natural pool surrounded by mountains. What was marvelous about the well was that being in the middle of a desert, it would never dry up. Even modernday scientists  could not figure out the exact source of the well. And, YOU CAN'T drink the water from the well because it contains arsenic, which could be lethal.

    Later on, we went to the Montezuma Castle. It was neither Montezuma nor castle. Basically, the Hopi Indian chose to build there houses high up in the cliff, which consists of sedimentary rocks. Why? 1. To prevent wild animals from attacking. 2. To make it hard for hostile tribes to invade. 3. To protect their homes from flooding.

    In the afternoon, we took a 3-mile hike in the Red Rock State Park. The red rocks are red because they contain Hematite, a mineral. When we reached the summit, we were amazed by the natural beauty of Arizona mountains. Some old people did better hiking than Asia!


Cool!!!

On the way back to the house, we drove through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.  We were all excited to go to the grocery store!!!
- Gary & Asia

Geoscience Snow Day

Today, believe it or not we were snowed in. According to Arizona, this consists of two to three inches of snow (but we really had 14). After our breakfast of eggs, bacon and blueberry pancakes we New Englanders braved the "snow storm" and headed outside for a quick walk. We paid attention to things we heard and then we came back in and had a discussion. We split the things we heard into two groups of natural things and man made things. This was to learn about ways to organize data. Soon after we were put into groups and spent the first half of the day reading and learning about the places we are going to visit in our last week of Winterim. We learned about places including the petrified forest, the Grand Canyon, and a meteor crater. We created summaries about each location and then had another group discussion about what we had learned. Next we labeled different temperatures for different states. From this we learned about how climate can affect things including, economics, trade, and politics. Soon after we looked at how wind affects climate. We did multiple experiments to better visualize the way wind moves. Then Ms. Ruby handed us cups of jell-o and told us to go outside and build them a structure to keep them warm. When we came back in we started dinner. We had a wonderful multi-cultural meal of fried rice and fried cabbage. Gary Lai and Lisa Lee were nice enough to share their recipes with us. After dinner we went back out and found our almost solid jell-o cups. Even though we were trapped inside all day we learned just as much as any other day, maybe even more.

-- Ally Feinberg and Kaylie McDonald

Day 4: Tucson to Flagstaff

Today we woke up early and packed up the house in Tucson to head up to Flagstaff. On our way, there was a large thunderstorm, that we drove through. After the heavy rains, clouds formed over the mountains in the distance that looked like fog rolling down the slopes. A rainbow was formed as well. As we drove to Phoenix, we stopped at NBC 12 Arizona. We met the station weatherman, Jimmy Q, and we watched him air a forecast live. He also talked to us about working for a news station. Afterwards, we got to go in front of the greenscreen and joked around. After this really nice experience, we continued our journey to the Salt River Canal System, where we met Nancy Selover, the state climatologist. There we learned about how the valley gets its water from the rivers up in the mountains. Finally we drove out of Phoenix to Flagstaff. Along the way it started to thunderstorm again, but as we headed farther north, the rain turned to heavy snow. The roads were very treacherous and slippery. Many cars had skidded out onto the side of the road. We managed to make it off the highway and slowly made our way to Flagstaff. Once we were in the side streets of our new neighborhood, two of our vans got stuck in the snow at different times. We had to run out of the vans and push them all up the hills. After this snowy experience, we finally arrived at our new house for the next week. There was already twelve inches of snow on the ground. Everybody was glad to be inside the warm and cozy house. During our investigation of the house, we spotted a pool table and began to play. We are all looking forward to a stir-fry dinner in a few minutes. That's all for today, we will be back.

- Tim and Winston (Timtim and Tonton)

Thank You!

So far, our trip has been fantastic.  We're headed north to Flagstaff tomorrow but are stopping in Phoenix to visit a broadcast meteorologist at one of the network news studios and the state climatologist at the Central Arizona Project canals.  All of these site visits have been arranged by Barbara Levine and Mike Mogil of How the Weatherworks.  They've been fantastic in helping plan and carry out our Winterim adventure.  We'll certainly have more thank yous for them before it's all over.
-Michelle Ruby & Barbara Greene

Thursday- Day 3

 

 To start the day we went to the Saguaro National Park Visitor Center. There we watched a short clip about the desert and after we went outside and learned about the different plant life. The man that was lecturing us, Tom Greene, had a daughter who went to LA about 20 years earlier. Small world! We hiked on a trail that contained rocks with very old drawings. Native Americans drew these many years ago. After lunch, we then headed off to the Sonoran Desert Museum and split into groups. Each group visited a different section of wildlife and a part of the park. It was almost like a small zoo that was centrally focused on desert life. We were short on time so we went straight to the National Weather Service Tucson Office at Arizona University. There we learned about weather balloons as well as different parts of the weather services they provided nationwide. After a great a presention done by Ken Drozd, we were able to watch a real weather balloon launch (by Ricardo Humphreys)! It was very impressive but a much shorter process than expected. After all this fun we walked around the university campus (it was very pretty and green) we ate dinner at Chipotles. We had ice cream for dessert and walked back to the National Weather Service to watch a presentation at the monthly meeting of the local American Meteorological Society chapter done by Mr. Mogil (with lots of help and organization from Ms. Levine). Many of us were also able to participate in it as well. This presentation ended  the day and we went back to the house with sun tans (many burnt) and a wealth of knowledge.

-Jaly, Jeff

2nd Day in Arizona: Biosphere

Today we went to the Biosphere 2 where we saw many indoor ecosystems. When we arrived, we got a tour of the whole area and we saw a rainforest, an ocean, a desert, and many other ecosystems that were all inside of the dome. To start off the tour, we were informed about the process by which the Biosphere 2 was built. It was first tested with seven people who were lived in the biosphere for two years to see if they could survive without any outside resources. We learned all of this while sitting where the actual tested people lived. After that we got to see and spend time within each ecosystyem. The final part of the tour we went to the 'lung' of the biosphere where we saw all of the mechanics. When we exited the 'lung' we got blown with very strong air and Winston thought the entire experience was majestic. Then we took a break to eat our lunches and during lunch Ines and Hanna jumped and screamed from wasps multiple times. Although this did not stop the bees from coming it was funny to watch. After a short talk about rocks we went to the gift shop where we all only bought food. On the way home we had music parties in the car rides while navigating ourselves to our next destinations. Later we stopped to walk around Tucson and we walked along a walking tour. When we got back to the house we played a huge game of BS and spoons. It was so loud that Mr. Mogil had to calm us down. Jeff, Asia, Ally, and Jaly cooked us all fettuccine alfredo with cheesy bread and 'white trash' for dessert. (White trash is a surprise.) To end the night, we wrote in our journals to reflect on the day.
By Ben and Margaret

First Full Day in Arizona

Today marked our first full day in Arizona.  We landed in Phoenix late last night and, after collecting our bags and finding our rental vans, spent a couple of hours driving to Tucson.  By the time we arrived at our house (2:30am local time, 4:30am Massachusetts time). everyone was wiped out and a little slaphappy.  This morning had a slow start.  After an introduction to weather and geography, we went into Tucson to the Vaisala offices to see Ron Holle, a lightnening expert.  Vaisala is a Finnish company which makes weather instrumentation.  The Tucson office is the headquarters of their lightning detection network.  We learned how sensors can remotely locate a lightning strike, how lightning forms, and that the only safe places in the event of lightning are inside a recently occupied building and inside a car with a solid metal roof.

One of the big exciting things we saw coming out of the airport last night was a cactus along the side of the road.  Margaret and Lisa were so excited that they hugged the cactus next to the parking lot when we made a pit stop.  (Don't worry, they were careful.)  Here's Tim making friends with one of the cacti right outside our house during our walk this afternoon.  We found lots of species of desert plants, including saguaro cacti, prickly pears, cholla, barrel cacti (in blume right now!), and palo verde trees.  We also found sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.  Mike Mogil, our resident meteorologist and guide extraordinaire found one with fossilized shell imprints.

picture by Alaina

As we cooked dinner and wound down from the day, the clouds and virga (rain that evaporates before reaching the ground) lifted enough to deliver a spectacular sunset.

picture by Ms. Ruby

We'll keep you all updated as we venture all throughout the state of Arizona.  Tomorrow we're headed for the Biosphere. 

Welcome!

This blog will become a record of the Winterim trip Geoscience in the Wild, which will take place from March 4-15, 2013.  Check back during those dates to see pictures and logs of our adventures in Arizona.