Well I finally decided to give my blog it's very own URL. So if you are a regular reader, or want to become one (hint, hint), please point your browser to...
http://ReadJerryWilson.com
...and be sure to bookmark it!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Stay Close to Home by Wandering Indiana
With the price of gasoline so expensive these days, a lot of folks are opting to stay close to home for their vacations. Last year my daughter and I took a trip to the coast of North Carolina. The year before that, we went to both Niagara Falls and to Holland, Michigan. But this year, it was one trip and we stayed in state. We went to French Lick.
Back in 1988, I wrote a supplemental resource book for my earth science class that I was teaching. It was during the summer, so I had the time to wander Indiana, as the slogan went in those days. I crisscrossed the state in an effort to learn as much as I could about Indiana’s geology and its unique landscapes.
This summer, I am endeavoring to update my supplement and publish it online. But I was thinking that, since I was in the wandering of Indiana mode again, I would share some of the nice sites that I’ve visited with my readers, just in case you want to stick close to home this year as well.
First of all, let me point out that the landscape of the northern two-thirds of Indiana is a legacy of the Ice Age. Vast ice sheets covered much of Indiana from about 70,000 years ago until about 10,000 years ago. Actually, there were three other periods of glaciation prior to that, dating back about two million years.
One of the most striking features of the ice sheets are the Great Lakes. The basins were dug out by the ice, and then filled with water when the ice melted. A great place to see one of the five Great Lakes is from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Lake Michigan has formed giant sand dunes on its southern and eastern flanks. The sand has piled to an impressive 123 feet at Mount Baldy near Michigan City. Indiana Dunes State Park also offers some imposing dunes to climb or just photograph. It also has a fantastic beach that you can drive right up to.
While on your way to Lake Michigan, traveling up Interstate-65, you might take note of the large flat expanse of land near the Kankakee River. This in an outwash plain that was formed as ice melted from the glacier as it retreated northward about 11,000 years ago. And just before you get to Lake County, the land starts to rise with a gradual slope. This is the Valparaiso Moraine. A moraine is a large ridge of debris that was left behind at the edge of the ice sheet. Glaciers carry all kinds of debris, scratched loose from the bedrock of places in Canada and the northern U.S. on their way southward during their initial advance.
Sometimes, water flowing off the side of a glacier deposits mounds of sediment in small mounds. These hills are called kames, and School Hill in Edinburgh is one of them.
Northern and central Indiana are covered with glacial till, a thick layer of sediment deposited by the ice. Southern Indiana, however, has bedrock close to the surface. One of the few remnants of the Ice Age in southern Indiana is the drainage pattern. The Ohio River, for example, was not always where it is today. It was created by the glaciers.
The Ohio River eroded deep into the bedrock and left small creeks, such as Clifty Creek, high above, resulting in water falls. These can be explored at Clifty Creek State Park near Madison.
Another feature of southern Indiana, not related to the glaciers, is the karst topography. And by that, I mean caves, sink holes, and Indiana’s Lost River. Caves are carved into limestone by slightly acidic groundwater. At Spring Mill State Park, you can take a boat tour through one of the caves. Through Orange County flows the Lost River. Now you see it; now you don’t. It flows part of its way above ground, then disappears into the porous limestone, only to reappear several miles downstream from underneath a road bed.
Indiana really does have some nice geological features for those who are into geology. And if you’re not, they still make nice places to hike and take photos. And wandering Indiana is much cheaper than going cross-country.
Back in 1988, I wrote a supplemental resource book for my earth science class that I was teaching. It was during the summer, so I had the time to wander Indiana, as the slogan went in those days. I crisscrossed the state in an effort to learn as much as I could about Indiana’s geology and its unique landscapes.
This summer, I am endeavoring to update my supplement and publish it online. But I was thinking that, since I was in the wandering of Indiana mode again, I would share some of the nice sites that I’ve visited with my readers, just in case you want to stick close to home this year as well.
First of all, let me point out that the landscape of the northern two-thirds of Indiana is a legacy of the Ice Age. Vast ice sheets covered much of Indiana from about 70,000 years ago until about 10,000 years ago. Actually, there were three other periods of glaciation prior to that, dating back about two million years.
One of the most striking features of the ice sheets are the Great Lakes. The basins were dug out by the ice, and then filled with water when the ice melted. A great place to see one of the five Great Lakes is from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Lake Michigan has formed giant sand dunes on its southern and eastern flanks. The sand has piled to an impressive 123 feet at Mount Baldy near Michigan City. Indiana Dunes State Park also offers some imposing dunes to climb or just photograph. It also has a fantastic beach that you can drive right up to.
While on your way to Lake Michigan, traveling up Interstate-65, you might take note of the large flat expanse of land near the Kankakee River. This in an outwash plain that was formed as ice melted from the glacier as it retreated northward about 11,000 years ago. And just before you get to Lake County, the land starts to rise with a gradual slope. This is the Valparaiso Moraine. A moraine is a large ridge of debris that was left behind at the edge of the ice sheet. Glaciers carry all kinds of debris, scratched loose from the bedrock of places in Canada and the northern U.S. on their way southward during their initial advance.
Sometimes, water flowing off the side of a glacier deposits mounds of sediment in small mounds. These hills are called kames, and School Hill in Edinburgh is one of them.
Northern and central Indiana are covered with glacial till, a thick layer of sediment deposited by the ice. Southern Indiana, however, has bedrock close to the surface. One of the few remnants of the Ice Age in southern Indiana is the drainage pattern. The Ohio River, for example, was not always where it is today. It was created by the glaciers.
The Ohio River eroded deep into the bedrock and left small creeks, such as Clifty Creek, high above, resulting in water falls. These can be explored at Clifty Creek State Park near Madison.
Another feature of southern Indiana, not related to the glaciers, is the karst topography. And by that, I mean caves, sink holes, and Indiana’s Lost River. Caves are carved into limestone by slightly acidic groundwater. At Spring Mill State Park, you can take a boat tour through one of the caves. Through Orange County flows the Lost River. Now you see it; now you don’t. It flows part of its way above ground, then disappears into the porous limestone, only to reappear several miles downstream from underneath a road bed.
Indiana really does have some nice geological features for those who are into geology. And if you’re not, they still make nice places to hike and take photos. And wandering Indiana is much cheaper than going cross-country.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
We Can Have More Oil and a Clean Environment
Back in the early 1970s, during the oil crisis brought on by an Arab embargo, there was a major push by the American oil companies to build a gigantic pipeline through Alaska, from the Arctic permafrost to the southern coast.
As an idealistic college student who got caught up in the environmental movement of the time, I was opposed to the pipeline. I even sent a telegram to Pres. Nixon urging him to quit backing the effort to build it.
But, alas, the pipeline was built and we starting reaping the benefits of the petroleum flowing through it. The environmentalists won a partial victory in that the design of the pipeline had to be such that it did not melt the permafrost and did not hamper caribou migration.
Fast-forward 35 years or so and we are in the midst of another energy crisis. Gasoline prices are well over four dollars a gallon and continue to creep upward. And just like in the 1970s, there are environmental groups that want to derail any effort to exploit more domestic sources of oil.
But his time around, I’m not on board with them. We learn from our accomplishments from the past, and our mistakes. We know that we can exploit our natural resources without destroying the environment we take them from.
I don’t often agree with the Bush administration on anything. But I do agree that opening up some of our shorelines to drilling for oil, as well as the national park areas of Alaska, would help alleviate the energy crisis. And according to the experts, we can obtain the new oil without destroying the environment.
Critics also point out that any new oil would be at least 10 years away. Well, that’s probably true. But does anyone think the energy crisis will be over in 10 years? No; it will be far worse. The new oil will be coming on line at a time we will need it even more than we do today.
Nuclear energy is another technology that needs to be restarted. We haven’t built a nuclear power plant in the U.S. for 30 years. The ones we do have are aging. Replacing them with modern plants would be safer. Building additional ones would decrease our reliance on foreign oil and would also be much cleaner for the atmosphere. Nuclear fuel also does not add to global warming.
We have to strike a balance between protecting our environment and protecting our lifestyle. With new technologies, we can actually have the best of both worlds. But many of today’s environmentalists are stuck in the 1970s. They equate all progress with raping the land, and it need not be so. It wasn’t even always true back then.
If we started a national drive to build 100 new nuclear power plants and replace some of the old ones within 20 years, and if we allow off-shore drilling and the exploration of the Arctic for new oil sources, we could become energy independent. And as long as we made the efforts we did back in 1975 not to destroy the environment while we’re taking the oil from it, our kids and grand-kids will enjoy cleaner air than we do.
Energy independence is within our reach. We just need to start realizing that gaining that independence doesn’t necessarily mean destroying the environment. We need to start using what we have and stop relying on foreign sources for our energy.
As an idealistic college student who got caught up in the environmental movement of the time, I was opposed to the pipeline. I even sent a telegram to Pres. Nixon urging him to quit backing the effort to build it.
But, alas, the pipeline was built and we starting reaping the benefits of the petroleum flowing through it. The environmentalists won a partial victory in that the design of the pipeline had to be such that it did not melt the permafrost and did not hamper caribou migration.
Fast-forward 35 years or so and we are in the midst of another energy crisis. Gasoline prices are well over four dollars a gallon and continue to creep upward. And just like in the 1970s, there are environmental groups that want to derail any effort to exploit more domestic sources of oil.
But his time around, I’m not on board with them. We learn from our accomplishments from the past, and our mistakes. We know that we can exploit our natural resources without destroying the environment we take them from.
I don’t often agree with the Bush administration on anything. But I do agree that opening up some of our shorelines to drilling for oil, as well as the national park areas of Alaska, would help alleviate the energy crisis. And according to the experts, we can obtain the new oil without destroying the environment.
Critics also point out that any new oil would be at least 10 years away. Well, that’s probably true. But does anyone think the energy crisis will be over in 10 years? No; it will be far worse. The new oil will be coming on line at a time we will need it even more than we do today.
Nuclear energy is another technology that needs to be restarted. We haven’t built a nuclear power plant in the U.S. for 30 years. The ones we do have are aging. Replacing them with modern plants would be safer. Building additional ones would decrease our reliance on foreign oil and would also be much cleaner for the atmosphere. Nuclear fuel also does not add to global warming.
We have to strike a balance between protecting our environment and protecting our lifestyle. With new technologies, we can actually have the best of both worlds. But many of today’s environmentalists are stuck in the 1970s. They equate all progress with raping the land, and it need not be so. It wasn’t even always true back then.
If we started a national drive to build 100 new nuclear power plants and replace some of the old ones within 20 years, and if we allow off-shore drilling and the exploration of the Arctic for new oil sources, we could become energy independent. And as long as we made the efforts we did back in 1975 not to destroy the environment while we’re taking the oil from it, our kids and grand-kids will enjoy cleaner air than we do.
Energy independence is within our reach. We just need to start realizing that gaining that independence doesn’t necessarily mean destroying the environment. We need to start using what we have and stop relying on foreign sources for our energy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)