June 2022 - On & Off Earth
I had to go all the way back to my first column, over two years ago, to find a reference to the reality that not far below our feet lie tilted bands of very old, fractured rock that will occasionally shift a bit, to relieve pressure and get more comfortable. At midnight, on May 20th, the new day began with a magnitude 1.8 adjustment tremor. That big shake and rumble (felt bigger than 1.8 to me) brought all the quake and aftershock memories back.
As a geologist teaching Earth Science and, as my students would tell you, someone seemingly obsessed with rocks, I was often asked after our big 2011 quake if I liked living in such an active earthquake zone; NO, was always my reply. In hindsight, I’m glad I experienced the big quake, that no one was seriously injured or killed but living near the epicenter, with hundreds of aftershocks; the shaking got old. I’d move to the west coast or these days, west Texas if I wanted daily quakes.
The fractures in those old rock bands became a conduit for hot fluids from deeper in the Earth to work upward, forming the Central Virginia mineral (and gold) belt. We see the evidence when we work in our gardens, or when I cut my yard (closer to a field than a lawn) in the chunks of rocks we encounter; almost without exception, the mineral, Quartz.
Quartz (Silicon Dioxide), in its many shades and forms is likely the most common mineral on Earth’s surface. It is fairly hard (resists scratching), polishes nicely (Amethyst, Onyx, Citrine, Agate, Rose, Opal; all semi-precious varieties) and dissolving in very hot water, with a host of other minerals in tow, is the milky white vein that gold miners seek out.
If you have beach plans this summer, more, once local, quartz will be there waiting for you. Most of the sand on the beaches of Earth, and certainly the eastern seaboard, is quartz. Earth, rarely in a hurry, is slowly breaking down the quartz in your yard and garden and storm by storm, moving it ever closer to joining the river of sand, that is a beach.
If you are at a beach mid-month, the Full Strawberry Moon on the 14th, is also at perigee (closest monthly approach to Earth) and will look bigger than normal and cause huge tidal swings for several days. Enjoy watching our natural satellite and planet interact.
June 1st kicks off the Hurricane Season and the Summer Solstice, at 5:14am on the 21st, the Summer Season. That point of greatest northern tilt allows the sun to shine over the top of the Earth, gracing June days with almost 15 hours of sunlight, and long, lingering twilights; lots of time to explore the countless outdoor options of summer(all requiring sunscreen!).
But, all that daylight, combined with the warm, hazy humidity of our summer sky, limits evening sky views. I try and get out, on that rare, cool dry night for a peek at the Milky Way and summer constellations but June is about daylight, and with lots of it, it’s time to get out and enjoy Summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment