Wednesday’s Entry:
Today was all about hiking in the desert and lava tubes. This is what I imagined a scientific expedition to the desert to be all about. The first thing this morning, the teachers participated in a webcast to describe some of the experiences we have been having. I hope you had a chance to see it. If not, it will be on the Spaceward Bound archive soon. Dan and I kind of just watched from the sideline since we already are doing so much communication with all of you. We wanted other teachers and monkeys to get a chance to connect with all of you and other students as well.
After the webcast, we had a couple of hours before lunch. We joined a small hike up the tall mountains (hills, really) near Zzyzx. Even though we scrambled up and back down in less than 2 hours, the views were really great. This particular mountain was also interesting, geologically. It was composed of metamorphosed intrusive igneous rocks. Let me explain. Igneous rocks are rocks that form when magma (melted rock) cools. It is intrusive if this cooling takes place underground. This makes the cooling process take a long lime so that the crystals in the cooling rock get very large. Metamorphosed means that after the magma cooled slowly underground so that large crystals formed, then great pressure and some heat smashed the crystals so greatly that the crystals actually changed shape! That is a lot for young bears to learn, but it is so interesting to learn about the processes of our planet.
Today was all about hiking in the desert and lava tubes. This is what I imagined a scientific expedition to the desert to be all about. The first thing this morning, the teachers participated in a webcast to describe some of the experiences we have been having. I hope you had a chance to see it. If not, it will be on the Spaceward Bound archive soon. Dan and I kind of just watched from the sideline since we already are doing so much communication with all of you. We wanted other teachers and monkeys to get a chance to connect with all of you and other students as well.
After the webcast, we had a couple of hours before lunch. We joined a small hike up the tall mountains (hills, really) near Zzyzx. Even though we scrambled up and back down in less than 2 hours, the views were really great. This particular mountain was also interesting, geologically. It was composed of metamorphosed intrusive igneous rocks. Let me explain. Igneous rocks are rocks that form when magma (melted rock) cools. It is intrusive if this cooling takes place underground. This makes the cooling process take a long lime so that the crystals in the cooling rock get very large. Metamorphosed means that after the magma cooled slowly underground so that large crystals formed, then great pressure and some heat smashed the crystals so greatly that the crystals actually changed shape! That is a lot for young bears to learn, but it is so interesting to learn about the processes of our planet. 
After the hike and a quick lunch, we took off for the lava tube. This lava tube was formed when a river of lava formed a channel or trench but then the top of the flow cooled so that a crust of rock was formed over the whole trench. The lava down in the tube continued to flow as liquid lava and when the flow stopped, a hollow tube was left. This particular lava tube has a nice big entrance where the roof has collapsed and also has some “sky-lights”. 
NASA scientists are thinking about having astronauts live in lava tubes on the moon and on Mars if there are any there. Some of those scientists are here this week trying to develop ways of detecting and exploring these tubes if they can find them.
Dan and I think this picture
looks like a scene from Indiana
Jones and the Lost Polar Bear.
It's just me in a lava tube 'sky-
light'.
No comments:
Post a Comment