EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Radial Stress Fracture

January 02, 2023


TomMc_EPOD.RadialFracturedSiltstoneBoulderOnSandstone (002)

Photographer: Thomas McGuire

Summary Author: Thomas McGuire

This image shows unusual fracturing in a boulder in the remote
Circle Cliffs area of Southern Utah. The boulder is a massive
(unlayered) siltstone, a sedimentary rock type common on the
Colorado Plateau. Whether it weathered in place settling on top of
the white sandstone surface or was moved onto the sandstone surface
isn’t clear. Soft siltstone would not survive being moved very far.

Radial fractures are rare. An impact or explosion might create this
kind of fracture. But I conjecture that this it occurred as the boulder
came to rest on a relatively hard, flat sandstone surface with a
protruding point, or on another, smaller boulder.


Burr Trail, Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument, Utah
Coordinates: 37.7902, -111.1534


Related EPODs

Radial Stress Fracture Red Bar Natural Bridge, Utah Crystal
Forms in Petrified Wood Mt. Baker at Sunrise Fossil Find in
Sicily, Italy Arizona’s China Wall
More...

Geology Links

* Earthquakes
* Geologic Time
* Geomagnetism
* General Dictionary of Geology
* Mineral and Locality Database
* Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness
* This Dynamic Earth
* USGS
* MyShake - University of California, Berkeley
* USGS Ask a Geologist
* USGS/NPS Geologic Glossary
* USGS Volcano Hazards Program

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 44 weeks, 20 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Biofouling

February 02, 2023

Mila_epod_2 (004)

Mila_epod_3 (005)

Photographer: Mila Zinkova
Summary Author: Mila Zinkova

Biofouling is an accumulation of marine organisms found on the
underwater parts of vessels, docks, etc. (top photo shows biofouling on
a shipwrecked hull). On occasion, they can be dangerous to the
environment. For example, on January 1, 2023, a cruise ship was
refused permission to dock in Australian ports because it carried a
deleterious fungus on its hull.

At about the same time, a small shipwreck was washed out at Ocean
Beach in San Francisco. It was almost completely covered by biofouling,
which included a sea anemone, sponges, algae and barnacles. The
barnacles were still alive since they're able to survive for many
years without water, as you can see from this video (made of the
shipwreck). If you look closely, you can them popping out of their
shells (bottom photo, at top center).


Ocean Beach, California Coordinates: 32.7495, -117.2470


Recent EPODs

backyard_viewing_of_saturn_and_uranus pincushion_cactus
antitwilight_colors_and_belt_of_venus
winters_black_and_white_and_gray_world
volcanoes_of_the_northern_oregon_cascade_range
pearl_necklace_or_frozen_spiderweb
-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 48 weeks, 3 days, 21 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Kings Canyon, Australia

March 02, 2023

IMG_5688-Kings Canyon-Lost City

Kings Canyon-Garden of Eden

Photographer: Rick Stankiewicz
Summary Author: Rick Stankiewicz
While touring Australia for three months with my wife in 2014, we had
the good fortune to tour “ The Red Centre” (Northern Territory),
which is near the geographic center of the Australian Continent. This
tour included a bus trip from Yulara to Alice Springs as well as a side
trip to Watarrka National Park. The jewel of this park is Kings
Canyon, just 35 km (22 mi) from Kings Creek Station.

If you’re reasonably healthy, you’ll want to plan on the 6 km (3.6 mi)
Rim Walk but wear sturdy footwear and start early in the morning
for this trek in order to beat the heat and catch a stunning sunrise.
Once up on the rim trail, you’ll eventually enter the “ Lost City,”
a maze of weathered sandstone domes (above at top). The canyon is a
combination of Mereenie and Carmichael Sandstones, divided by
shale and mudstone, deposited between 400 and 440 million years
ago.

About halfway around the walk you find yourself descending a series of
wooden stairs into a palm-filled chasm called the “ Garden of Eden.”
It offers a shaded, cool respite, next to inviting pools of water that
reflect the south rim wall and the sky above (middle photo). The canyon
can reach depths of over 100 m (325 ft), so you need to stay on the
trails and watch your footing. Australia is a magical place, but
nowhere more so than the Red Centre. Photos taken on May 21, 2014.

Photo details: Canon XTi camera; Canon 28 to 70mm lens; ISO 200; f/4 to
10; 1/40 to 1/250 second exposures.

Kings Canyon, Australia Coordinates: -24.252966, 131.5757208


Related EPODs

Kings Canyon, Australia Northeastern Nevada’s Pilot Peak
Dance Hall Rock and Tafoni La Scala dei Turchi Atacama
Lagoon and Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way The Snake River’s
Formidable Hells Canyon
More...

Geography Links

* Atlapedia Online
* CountryReports
* GPS Visualizer
* Holt Rinehart Winston World Atlas
* Mapping Our World
* Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
* Types of Land
* World Mapper

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 1 year, 3 days, 20 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)