2018/08/20

Landslide on Gee Creek

While hiking in the South Cherokee National Forest and Wildlife Management area this weekend I observed what appeared to be a fresh landslide. I was excited at the chance to look closely at this and document a fascinating geologic event.

The location of the rockfall is at 35.246533, -84.529235, on the north side of Gee Creek right above the cement tunnel formerly used by the mill operation. The rock that dropped is Nebo Sandstone, part of the Chilhowee Group. In the photos and map below you can see the steeply dipping in-situ rock unit. 





2018/08/15

Oddities of Official Place Names of the United States

There are 2,278,005 registered place names in the United States. The average length of a place name is 19.46 characters. The average number of words in a place name is 2.89.

At 117 characters, the longest official place name of the United States is Center Street Colored Methodist Episcopal Church-Chestnut Street Colored Methodist Episcopal Church Historical Marker.

There are 25 places which have short names of only two characters: 

Ai, AL, Ai, GA, Ai, OH, Ai, MH, Ai, NC, Ex, AK, Hy, MO, Ii, PW, Iw, FM, Kì, HI, Ka, VA, Le, WY, Mo, FM, Na, FM, Ni, MH, Or, FM, Ot, FM, Ot, FM, Ow, FM, Oz, KY, Ri, FM, Ti, OK, To, FM, Uh, FM, and Yo, MH

With 19 unique words, the building San Juan County Fire District 2 / Orcas Island Fire and Rescue Station 24 Deer Harbor / Spring Point tends to stand out.


You may find it frustrating as a resident of Grant's Vacation Park Recreational Vehicle and Mobile Home Park if you are having to write your address frequently. It turns out that all 8 of the places one can live with the most words are all mobile home parks.

There are some odd stream and river names out there, including Little North Fork North Branch North Fork Elk River, or North Fork of South Fork of North Fabius River.
Data processing done with data from NationalFile_20180801.zip located at 
Domestic and Antarctic Names - State and Topical Gazetteer Download Files. Software used was Microsoft Access 2007, and ArcMap 10.6.1.

2018/08/06

Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave

This is mostly macro work that I did at Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave. I experimented with extension tubes shooting water drops at the end of soda straws. The photos aren't as crisp as I would like. Next time I will use a different lens. If anyone sees this, let me know what you think. :)

Soda straw, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 1 [macro]
Soda straw, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 2 [macro]
Soda straw, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 3 [macro]
Helectite, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 1 [macro]
Helectite, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 2 [macro]
Helectite, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 3 [macro]
Soda straws, helectites, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 2 [macro]
Soda straws, helectites, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 3 [macro]
Curtain formation, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee [macro]
Soda straws, Cedar Ridge Crystal Cave, Marion County, Tennessee 2