Author’s Note: This part of a weekly series on geology for a class I am taking this semester at BYU-Idaho. This week’s prompt required students to interview somebody who had firsthand experience with a volcano. I interviewed my grandparents, who lived in Kennewick, Wash. when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. Other posts from this […]
Salt is my favorite mineral
Author’s Note: This part of a weekly series on geology for a class I am taking this semester at BYU-Idaho. This week’s prompt required students to find a mineral in their local area and explain what it is. Other posts from this assignment can be found under the “Geology 111” category. Featured Image: The Great […]
Earthquakes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone
Author’s Note: This part of a weekly series on geology for a class I am taking this semester at BYU-Idaho. This week’s prompt required students to find a news article, post it on our blogs and explain how plate tectonics played a role in the situation. Other posts from this assignment can be found under […]
Thermal Springs of Nevada
Author’s Note: This the first part of a weekly series on geology for a class I am taking this semester at BYU-Idaho. This week’s prompt is “Where have you seen geology in your daily life?” Other posts from this assignment can be found under the “Geology 111” category. Geology, like weather, is all around us and […]
Does Bethlehem ever have a White Christmas?
Recently, I saw a post in a Facebook group I am a part of. It was posted by an Australian who was frustrated that, despite it being summer in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas still carries a winter theme there. This reminded me of when I lived in Abilene, Texas. Unlike my last Christmas, which was […]
SLIDESHOW – Trip to see the meteor shower
With all this talk of “the best meteor shower of 2017,” Alisha and I decided to go on an adventure to take advantage of the majorly clear skies and lack of rain in northern Nevada. Knowing that the lights of Fernley, Fallon, and Reno would drown out the night sky, we made the trek north to […]
What difference does elevation make for air pressure?
Saturday, my wife and I took a few kids we go to church with up to Mount Rose and Lake Tahoe while their mom had a work meeting in Reno. After spending some time playing in the snow where Highway 431 crosses the mountain (elevation 8,911), we drove down to Kings Beach for some hot […]
Wet year in Utah helps the Great Salt Lake
Note: Lake levels mentioned in this article are from the Saltair Boat Harbor, near I-80 Exit 104. The last time the Great Salt Lake’s surface elevation was at its historical average of 4,200 feet above sea level was in the early 1990s. At that elevation, the lake is roughly 33 feet deep at its deepest […]
Warm system for Thanksgiving week
An atmospheric river is set up to douse almost the entire West Coast. Raising freezing levels today and tomorrow will aid Thanksgiving travelers the next couple of days, keeping snow off of the major passes. By midnight Monday night, the freezing level in much of Oregon will be above 9,000 feet with freezing levels remaining near […]
Forecast for the Auburn Marching Band Competition
I am friends with a lot of folks in the Tri-Cities who have siblings or kids in marching band. This weekend, they will be traveling over to the west side of the mountains to participate in a parade and competition in Auburn. As the weather here outside Reno is fairly chill, and this is the […]