Our topic for this day is almost impossible to summarize in a couple of web-paragraphs. I will briefly outline the geological history of the Mojave Desert, leaving plenty of room for Dr. Judge to talk about the tectonic and structural context of the Mojave next week. For your reading this week, please start at this USGS page on the Mojave National Preserve and keep reading through all the successive pages.
We will spend most of the period discussing the human history of the Mojave Desert. It in many ways is even more complex than the geology, and it is full of drama, bravery, cruelty, cowardice, creativity, surprises and mysteries — like most history! The primary characters will include the Mojave Indians, Francisco Garcés, the first of the “Spanish Fathers” (as they were always called in my California History classes of childhood), Jedediah Smith (one of my heroes), The Old Spanish Trail, emigrant wagon trains, Mormons, outlaws, the railroads, the mining industry, Route 66, and much else. Near the end we’ll view this ancient newscast about the last appearance of Curtis Springer at Zzyzx.
Calico Ghost Town near Barstow, California.
Geology in the News –
The rate of sea level rise in the past two decades has been steeper than previously thought. This means projections of the inevitable continued rise of sea level will be significantly modified upwards. Part of this story’s interest is how difficult it is to get consistent measurements of sea level over time.
Here is an excellent popular account of the Snowball Earth concept. More than once in Earth history the planet either partly or completely froze over. The geological evidence for Snowball Earth episodes is very strong. The latest interest is in how these events affected the evolution of life.
Here’s a good first-person account of finding Scotland’s first Jurassic ichthyosaur. I’m surprised there aren’t more such fossils because they are relatively common in southern England.