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Roadside snow stratigraphy at Lake Tahoe



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 3rd 08, 08:01 PM posted to rec.skiing.backcountry
AES
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Posts: 21
Default Roadside snow stratigraphy at Lake Tahoe

Interesting roadside snow stratigraphy (I thought that should be
"stratiography" but Webster's says "stratigraphy") at Lake Tahoe at the
end of this winter.

If you drive along roads where big snow-blowing snow plows, instead of
pushing snow back onto the banks at the sides of the road, have cut away
the snow deposits on the shoulders, leaving vertical walls of snow, you
see similar striking stratigraphy all around the Lake.

You get an edge view of many very distinct tree-ring-like horizontal
layers of snow, typically an inch or so thick, such as might arise from
some rippled or toothed edging on the snow removal machinery, but I
think do not.

I've not stopped to examine or count these layers carefully, but
starting at the ground level there may be a dozen or more such layers,
which I suspect trace back to a series of daily storms in late December.
It seems reasonable to assume that differences in daytime and nighttime
temperatures will give a primarily daily character to these layers.

Then there's a single very distinct, quite thin, dirty black layer,
which I assume comes when the snowfall stops for a period of multiple
days and dirt thrown up by passing cars and maybe falling pine needles
pile up on the snow surface.

Then on top of this another 12" to 18" of daily strata, representing
probably the January storms that passed through the area; then another
black layer; and another series of thin layers from February. Above
this, nearing the top of the existing snow, things tend to get messy,
because the top layers have been melting, or even gotten rained on a
little, and the top edge of the vertical bank has curled over.

Every once in a while there will be a roadside structure of some sort --
a low stone wall, a raised culvert, even just a roadside bush -- and one
can see all of these layers "hump up" and curve continuously over that
point.

I suppose all of the above is something that observant people see every
winter, in lots of other places at well, and I've just not noticed
before. However, the phenomenon seems to be particularly distinctive
this winter, which may be due to (a) the series of distinctive and
prolonged storms we had here this winter, and (b) perhaps increased use
of snow-blowing machinery, as contrasted to older snow plows that just
push snow off the road into big banks on the shoulders.

Anyone have pointers to more formal studies of these stratigraphic
records?
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  #2  
Old April 4th 08, 02:33 PM posted to rec.skiing.backcountry
Booker Bense[_2_]
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Posts: 8
Default Roadside snow stratigraphy at Lake Tahoe

In article ,
AES wrote:

Anyone have pointers to more formal studies of these stratigraphic
records?


The evolution of the snowpack over the season is the basis of all
avalanche hazard estimation. The "standard" reference book there
is "The Avalanche Handbook".

In terms of other fields, most of that kind of analysis of the
snowpack happens in the Antarctic. There was an PBS show a few
years back of a climb of a new route on Mt. Vinson in the
antarctic w/Jon Krackuar where digging snow pits and examining
the layers was part of the expedition.

_ Booker C. Bense
  #3  
Old April 7th 08, 07:06 PM posted to rec.skiing.backcountry
Eugene Miya
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 166
Default Roadside snow stratigraphy at Lake Tahoe

In article ,
Booker Bense wrote:
In article ,
AES wrote:
Anyone have pointers to more formal studies of these stratigraphic
records?


Ask in sci.geo.geology and sci.geo.hydrology.

The evolution of the snowpack over the season is the basis of all
avalanche hazard estimation. The "standard" reference book there
is "The Avalanche Handbook".

In terms of other fields, most of that kind of analysis of the
snowpack happens in the Antarctic. There was an PBS show a few
years back of a climb of a new route on Mt. Vinson in the
antarctic w/Jon Krackuar where digging snow pits and examining
the layers was part of the expedition.


UNR has Tahoe records which should go back the late 1890s when they
started using the Rose Snow Sampler. There's a national repository of
ice cores near Boulder.

It depends what one wants to do with stratigraphy. Most people think
chemistry, but others do physics. Still others do other things.
CA DWR holds lots of stuff. The old project I worked on is still around.

--
  #4  
Old April 8th 08, 12:09 AM posted to rec.skiing.backcountry
AES
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 21
Default Roadside snow stratigraphy at Lake Tahoe

In article 47fa62ac@darkstar, (Eugene Miya)
wrote:

In article ,
Booker Bense wrote:
In article ,
AES wrote:
Anyone have pointers to more formal studies of these stratigraphic
records?


Ask in sci.geo.geology and sci.geo.hydrology.

The evolution of the snowpack over the season is the basis of all
avalanche hazard estimation. The "standard" reference book there
is "The Avalanche Handbook".

In terms of other fields, most of that kind of analysis of the
snowpack happens in the Antarctic. There was an PBS show a few
years back of a climb of a new route on Mt. Vinson in the
antarctic w/Jon Krackuar where digging snow pits and examining
the layers was part of the expedition.


UNR has Tahoe records which should go back the late 1890s when they
started using the Rose Snow Sampler. There's a national repository of
ice cores near Boulder.


Driving home from winter hibernation today (sob), noticed one face with
particularly sharp clean layers about halfway up the Old Donner Pass
Road, under a rock overhang which protected it from direct sun. Thicker
layers up there than in similar examples alongside 28 or 89 down by the
Lake!

Wish I'd had a bit more time the past couple of weeks to do some
systematic photography. I'd make a hypothesis that the dirt layers
might be slightly different -- some of the lesser ones might be missing
-- on roadsides in places like Emerald Bay or Old Donner Pass Road,
which aren't always get plowed out and opened to traffic between storms
as quickly as other roads.

Pardon me for getting a bit turned on by this topic, but it's another of
those examples of "science in everyday life" that always seem neat to
me. Another one with a Tahoe wintertime locus that intrigued me a few
years ago is at:

http://www.stanford.edu/~siegman/snowmelt_soliton_index.html

Warning: I did this several years back, when I was just learning to put
things on web sites, and the movies are way oversized and slow to
download. (And, this was prepared in part with one of my Asian
colleagues, Dr. Tung Inn Cheeek.)
  #5  
Old April 8th 08, 11:16 PM posted to rec.skiing.backcountry
Dan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14
Default Roadside snow stratigraphy at Lake Tahoe

AES wrote:
In article 47fa62ac@darkstar, (Eugene Miya)
wrote:

In article ,
Booker Bense wrote:
In article ,
AES wrote:
Anyone have pointers to more formal studies of these stratigraphic
records?

Ask in sci.geo.geology and sci.geo.hydrology.

The evolution of the snowpack over the season is the basis of all
avalanche hazard estimation. The "standard" reference book there
is "The Avalanche Handbook".

In terms of other fields, most of that kind of analysis of the
snowpack happens in the Antarctic. There was an PBS show a few
years back of a climb of a new route on Mt. Vinson in the
antarctic w/Jon Krackuar where digging snow pits and examining
the layers was part of the expedition.

UNR has Tahoe records which should go back the late 1890s when they
started using the Rose Snow Sampler. There's a national repository of
ice cores near Boulder.


Driving home from winter hibernation today (sob), noticed one face with
particularly sharp clean layers about halfway up the Old Donner Pass
Road, under a rock overhang which protected it from direct sun. Thicker
layers up there than in similar examples alongside 28 or 89 down by the
Lake!

Wish I'd had a bit more time the past couple of weeks to do some
systematic photography. I'd make a hypothesis that the dirt layers
might be slightly different -- some of the lesser ones might be missing
-- on roadsides in places like Emerald Bay or Old Donner Pass Road,
which aren't always get plowed out and opened to traffic between storms
as quickly as other roads.

Pardon me for getting a bit turned on by this topic, but it's another of
those examples of "science in everyday life" that always seem neat to
me. Another one with a Tahoe wintertime locus that intrigued me a few
years ago is at:

http://www.stanford.edu/~siegman/snowmelt_soliton_index.html

Warning: I did this several years back, when I was just learning to put
things on web sites, and the movies are way oversized and slow to
download. (And, this was prepared in part with one of my Asian
colleagues, Dr. Tung Inn Cheeek.)


On road cuts, some of the stratigraphy is highlighted by the blowing of
prior storms' snows loaded down with sand from the road. Later in the
season, you can see pollen layers from the conifers. Cool stuff!

Dan
 




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