A Little Geo-poetry for Earth Day (22 April)

But of course, every day should be Earth Day...

Plate Tectonics Haiku
  • sea-floor spreading starts
  • where to put all this basalt?
  • a-ha! subduction!
Here are a few more (or less) Earthy haikus:
Obsidian Butte more plate tectonics...
  • mid-ocean ridges
  • where can I find one near here?
  • one hundred miles east
Sunday afternoon in Point Loma
  • sitting on my deck
  • watching golden eagle soar
  • two miles from downtown
Grand Canyon from Cape Royal Grand Canyon stratigraphy simplified
  • Paleozoic:
  • Kaibab limestone at the top
  • Tapeats at bottom
favorite part of the Grand Canyon...
  • Toroweap road sign
  • says "Impassable When Wet"
  • keeps the riff-raff out
Cerro Prieto geothermal plant our exotic terrane
  • Santiago Peak
  • Volcanic arc was forming
  • early Cretaceous
the view from my deck
  • ocean to the south
  • no land mass is encountered
  • 'til Antarctica
San Andreas fault sag pond famous crack in the world
  • San Andreas fault
  • from the Salton Sea shore to
  • Cape Mendocino
contrary to John Hartford...
  • California falls?
  • no - San Andreas fault is
  • strike-slip - no up-down
Mission Bay aerial on leaving Pt. Loma/Ocean Beach in the A.M.
  • osprey on lamp post
  • Sunset Cliffs Boulevard bridge
  • good omen for day
after considering students' work
  • my students' haikus
  • affirm my existence
  • as "geo-mentor"
pasque flower at Honey Creek late Thursday night
  • pondering questions:
  • "Who am I?" "Why am I here?"
  • my life examined...
watching the Weather Channel
  • No. Dak. wintertime
  • gets down to forty below
  • keep stiff upper lip!
Kauai sea something that bothers me:
  • "oceanography"?
  • not just descriptive - should be:
  • oceanology!
and another thing...
  • water is finite,
  • a hydrologic cycle.
  • so, what goes around...
moving on: Joshua Tree sheep
  • per "Governator"
  • the name has five syllables:
  • Kah-lee-for-nee-ya!
  • Chewy misses Spot
  • I no longer drive solo
  • dog is co-pilot
  • who owns the oceans?
  • not Somalian pirates!
  • they belong to all
  • Cory's desert house
  • refuge from the mid-day heat
  • in Borrego Springs
uranium drilling in Wyoming
  • is it buffalo?
  • or would bison be better?
  • either way, orn'ry!!!
  • biotite crystals
  • contained within orthoclase
  • it's an oikocryst!
  • melting away
  • Athabaska Glacier
  • now a mere shadow...
  • Sweetwater River
  • along the Oregon Trail
  • what a summer job!
Tetons at sunset
  • summer '65
  • geology assistant
  • beheld the Tetons!
  • carp, ospreys, swallows
  • attack me in my canoe
  • Canyon Ferry Lake
  • a "proper" haiku
  • needn't be five, seven, five
  • but be sure to pause
  • April showers bring
  • well, you know... May flowers bring
  • why, pilgrims, of course!
  • at nine thousand feet
  • East Kaibab Monocline seen
  • Marble View campsite
end of spring semester, 2009: shoot the moon
  • disgruntled student
  • deserves better than a C?
  • don't tell me, show me
  • proctoring exam
  • wondering why we do it...
  • tension fills the air
  • Whitney Portal trail
  • eighteen-hour agony
  • dark start and finish
Mulholland Highway
  • L.A. "country" drive
  • Cahuenga to Malibu
  • on Mulholland Drive
  • Waikiki air show
  • Halekulani Hotel
  • USAF Thunderbirds
  • Calgary grading
  • Yuens: Callistus, Moses,
  • Benedict, and Bill
a new year, new haikus: Comox Glacier from Forbidden Plateau
  • Forbidden Plateau
  • Comox Glacier, Canada
  • "overseas duty"
  • Anza Borrego
  • desert floor appears lifeless
  • colorful up close
  • favorite granite
  • oligoclase 'round K-spar
  • called Rapakivi

at Marble View

from Phil Farquharson, "Geology Guy" ©2009 - 2021