[FRIAM] "Weather line" on 14
Barry MacKichan
barry.mackichan at mackichan.com
Sat Jun 22 17:37:40 EDT 2024
Several times on the Thuram Zoom call, I asked “Do you mean that
volcanic dike?” but I always seemed to say it just as someone else
started up.
I have two memories about it.
1. The president of SAR conjured up the image of 3,000 Comanches coming
through the gap (Comanche Gap) as they came to Santa Fe in the 1770s to
agree to the truce with New Mexico — the truce that I believe enabled
the Spanish to hang on for the next 50 years in NM. The image has stuck
with me.
2. I thought it would be a great place to find petroglyphs, and indeed
it is. The density of the “No trespassing” signs along the road
increases as the square of the inverse of the distance from the point
where the road crosses the dike. They make it clear exactly where you
should not trespass.
—Barry
On 21 Jun 2024, at 11:18, Stephen Guerin wrote:
> Research last night on historical geologic maps got the name of that
> as the
> "Galisteo Dike". composition and description in attachment. There is
> one
> further with as well. Also known as the Creston or Comanche Gap
>
> https://galisteo.nmarchaeology.org/sites/creston.html
>
>
> Basic formation given this description (chatGPT):
>
>
> The Galisteo Dike is a geological formation characterized by its
> composition and physical properties, indicating its formation through
> volcanic activity. Here’s a detailed interpretation of its formation
> based
> on the description provided:
>
> 1. **Composition Analysis**: The Galisteo Dike consists of
> micro-monzonite,
> a fine-grained igneous rock. It contains a mixture of minerals
> including
> plagioclase, potassium feldspar, titan-augite, titaniferous biotite,
> apatite, and opaque grains in a glass groundmass. This mineral
> composition
> suggests that the dike formed from magma that cooled relatively
> quickly,
> preventing the formation of large crystals.
>
> 2. **Physical Description**: The dike appears as a dark gray,
> fine-grained
> rock with a salt and pepper texture. It weathers to dark brown or
> grayish
> brown and forms a wall-like rampart. This implies that the dike is
> resistant to weathering and erosion, standing out in the landscape as
> a
> prominent feature.
>
> 3. **Structural Features**: The dike is described as comprising many
> right
> echelon overlapping segments varying in length from 200 to 1200 feet
> and up
> to 18 feet thick. This pattern of overlapping segments indicates that
> the
> magma was injected into pre-existing fractures in the surrounding
> rock,
> likely under significant pressure, causing the fractures to open and
> propagate in an en echelon pattern.
>
> 4. **Geological Age**: The dike is dated to 26.55 million years ago,
> placing its formation in the Oligocene epoch. This was a time of
> significant tectonic activity in many parts of the world, often
> associated
> with volcanic and plutonic intrusions.
>
> ### Formation Process
> 1. **Magma Intrusion**: The formation of the Galisteo Dike began with
> the
> intrusion of magma into fractures in the Earth's crust. The magma,
> originating from deeper within the mantle, was rich in the minerals
> described and had a high temperature, allowing it to flow and
> penetrate the
> fractures.
>
> 2. **Cooling and Crystallization**: As the magma moved upward through
> the
> fractures, it began to cool and solidify. The rapid cooling near the
> surface resulted in the fine-grained texture of the rock, with
> minerals
> crystallizing quickly in the groundmass of glass.
>
> 3. **Fracture Propagation**: The injection of magma caused the
> fractures to
> propagate, leading to the characteristic right echelon overlapping
> segments. This suggests that the fractures did not open uniformly but
> rather stepped along the strike, with each segment forming as a
> discrete
> intrusion event.
>
> 4. **Weathering and Erosion**: Over millions of years, the surrounding
> rock
> may have eroded away, leaving the more resistant dike exposed as a
> wall-like structure. The weathering of the dike itself results in the
> observed dark brown or grayish brown coloration.
>
> In summary, the Galisteo Dike was formed by the intrusion of magma
> into
> fractures in the crust, followed by rapid cooling and crystallization,
> resulting in a fine-grained igneous rock with distinct mineral
> composition
> and structural features indicative of significant volcanic activity
> during
> the Oligocene epoch.
> ____________________________________________
> CEO Founder, Simtable.com
> stephen.guerin at simtable.com
>
> Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Lab
> stephenguerin at fas.harvard.edu
>
> mobile: (505)577-5828
>
> On Fri, Jun 21, 2024, 9:08 AM Nicholas Thompson
> <thompnickson2 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Stephen,
>>
>> Thank you for prompting me to respond to this inquiry. I was having
>> some
>> trouble getting the image to behave on my computer, and so was
>> reluctant to
>> wade in.
>>
>> Indeed, just as nature abhors vacuums, she abhors straight lines,
>> and so
>> any line as straight as this one requires a special explanation. To
>> me,
>> that the line points southwestward toward the radar site NW of ABQ
>> suggests
>> a radar artifact, perhaps the shadow or some distant hill. As we
>> watched
>> the animated radar image, we could see a persistent weakness in the
>> radar
>> echo along that line, even as the clouds crossed it.
>>
>> Speaking of abhorrent straight lines, during our conversation with
>> Frank,
>> we spent quite a lot of time discussing another line, a berm of sand
>> that
>> runs across the Galisteo Basin in roughly the same orientation,
>> perhaps 50'
>> high?. I had noticed this feature on topo maps and always assumed it
>> was
>> an old railway embankment. Frank, who knows the area well, thought
>> that
>> idea was absurd. So, we were left with the puzzle of a highly linear
>> geological formation several miles long.
>>
>> Could it be that this geological straight line accounts for the
>> straight
>> line cloud formation that Mr. Kadlubek sees? As the dry line breaks
>> down
>> in anticipation of the SW Monsoon, moist air does indeed move
>> northward,
>> following the river valleys up from TX. AT some point, it will be
>> raised
>> enough that its moisture is condensed leading to the release of
>> latent heat
>> and the further development of clouds. If the structure that raises
>> it is
>> a straight line, then the clouds themselves will be arranged in a
>> straight
>> line. We can see this effect often along linear coast lines as a sea
>> breeze front topped by (usually) fair weather cumulus. However,
>> given all
>> the dramatic topography in the area, it's hard for me to imagine that
>> this
>> low lying feature would be determining very often.
>>
>> I, too, live for the weather. I don't live for Face Book, however.
>> So if
>> you have any way to put in touch with Mr. Kadlubek, he and I could
>> perhaps
>> have coffee when I get back to Santa Fe in the fall.
>>
>> Yours faithfully,
>>
>> Nick Thompson
>> "Behavioral Meteorologist"
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 7:06 PM Stephen Guerin <
>> stephen.guerin at simtable.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Nick,
>>>
>>> It's your time to shine! Respond to Vince.
>>>
>>> In the comments, local knowledge refers to it as the "prison line"
>>> as
>>> weather is different on either side of the prison on 14.
>>>
>>>
>>> -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom
>> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
>> to (un)subscribe
>> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
>> archives: 5/2017 thru present
>> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
>> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
>>
> -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom
> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
> archives: 5/2017 thru present
> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20240622/40d0e7a0/attachment.html>
More information about the Friam
mailing list