Skip to main content

WATER MEDITATION


“…and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.”



Wilson River (Click on image for slightly larger version) Feb. 2008


At a bend in the Wilson River, under the footbridge trailhead, quick flowing water bottlenecks into a narrow rock gorge. The river’s character, once loud and boisterous immediately becomes subdued and sullen. Though popular proverbs suggest that deep waters run quiet, turbulence and turmoil are reflected in the river’s tortured face.

In their Case Study: Water and Ice, Timothy A. Isgro, Marcos Sotomayor, and Eduardo Cruz-Chu admit that …the microscopic structure of liquid water is unknown…




Figure 3: Views of the crystal structure of ice (a-c) and a view of liquid water (d). a) Along the c-axis of the lattice (showing the basal plane) with all 3 equivalent a-axes in the plane of the page and the c-axis coming out of the page, b) With an a-axis running left to right (showing the primary prism plane), c) Along an a-axis, d) Liquid water at 300 K. The difference in the density between ice and liquid water is apparent. The density of liquid water at 4_C is 1.00 g/cm3, while that of ice at 0_C is 0.917 g/cm3


Wilson River, Feb. 2008


Here, where the winter sun dips below the coast range and leaves the gorge in perpetual shade, the river utilizes hydraulic power in combination with crystalline wedges, to chip out an ever wider passage to the sea.




Multnomah Creek, Jan. 2008




Oregon Coast-Near Newport, March 2008

The interface between water and land is sometimes violent. The earth is broken and polished in continent wide rock tumblers.



Silver Falls State Park, May 2008

…or pummeled by streams approaching terminal velocities.




Water Returning to the Sea - near Newport, March 2008

Considerable sifting and sorting occurs.




Sauvie Island shoreline
Patterns emerge and repeat
Wave sculpture - near Seaside,OR
Layers of order arise from chaos



Perhaps the chemical structure of clay, or something like it, once provided the scaffolding by which early proteins ordered themselves.









…then an explosion of life








Considerable sifting and sorting occurs




Brats boiling in beer (one of the more important ways water sustains life on earth)




Wikipedia, while describing the hydrologic cycle, says, “Since the water cycle is truly a ‘cycle’, there is no beginning or end.”




Does water sing as it runs down hill?









Sky sailing




How many humans does it take to ruin the hydrologic cycle?



About 7 billion?



Trace amounts of oil, presumably washed off Marine Drive, trickle into the slough above the Smith and Bybee wetlands.


Over time, wetlands (if you have any) can strain pollutants out of water, but the timeline for taking care of the clever byproducts we have managed to produce isn’t really established yet.




"Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean"

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime

Comments

  1. So I decided to stare at your figure 3.D (Water at 300K) like one of those 3D pictures at the mall and at first I thought I saw a Shark or maybe a Pirate Ship but then as I was about to give up, this sentence appeared; "..that elicits a sense of awe at the eddies along the river of entropy that foster life and complexity" uhh, wait... geez, that doesn't make any sense.............At All... uhhh, so i'm going with Pirate Ship, yeah Pirate Ship or.....man, now I'm getting a headache.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scott - the images in this post are astoundingly good. You really have the Photographer's eye.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Day River: Thirty Mile Creek to Cottonwood Bridge

"Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;" -Romans 1:20 "I'm not so sure about that, but whether or not we all make it through these rapids alive, I'm confident the grading criteria will be fair." -  Scott "Get ready to explore your world without boundaries." -  Wilderness Systems Owners Manual Sunrise found us on the outskirts of Wasco, high on the Columbia Plateau, our 3 vehicle convoy speeding through golden fields of wheat on toward Condon and then West to a 7:30 AM meeting with a rancher who would provide us a private launch site to the John Day river and also execute our car shuttle.   Startling verdant fields, free of the vestiges of irrigation, belied narratives of drought that punctuated the news. The fresh born morning, still cool to the senses, felt like the fledgling hours of a

Miller Island Expedition: Columbia River Ghost Cult

My brother Fred sent me a checklist of things he didn’t want to forget for our second attempt at a Miller Island Expedition. Foil pans Steak Beer or whiskey/tequila Bacon Shovel TP Bug spray Homebrew Ghost repellents Scouting Miller Island from the Lewis and Clark Highway (Washington side of river) “Ghost repellents?” I asked. Well, it turns out that Fred had been doing some research and found an old article from American Anthropologist by Wm. Duncan Strong called The Occurrence and Wider Implications of a “Ghost Cult” on the Columbia River Suggested by Carvings in Wood, Bone and Stone. The article, written in 1945, revealed that bone carvings depicting figures with prominent rib cages, a symbol of death, were found in old cremation pits on Miller’s Island. Excerpts from the article: “It can be shown that among these peoples there was an old belief in the impending destruction and renewal of the world, when the dead would return…” “One of the most striking fea

Test Paddling the Tarpon 160 (finally)

The problem with 'objectivity' is that it's usually 'subjectivity' cleverly disguised as objectivity. I've wanted the Tarpon 160 ever since I saw it sitting in the rack at the kayak shop. However, I'm trying to take the universal advice of the broad community of kayakers who suggest that choosing a kayak is a personal choice based on how a particular boat fits one's body and objectives, and so, going through the motions of due diligence, I've finally come to the day when I actually get to paddle my dream boat. It doesn't escape my attention that I seem to have a Wilderness Systems' bias. The first kayak I ever sat in was their 12 foot plastic Pungo which delivered me down the Sandy River without making me a candidate for the Darwin Awards. The first kayak I ever bought (so far the only kayak I ever bought) was their Tsunami 125 which has, over the last eight years, patiently taught me everything I know about kayaking except for tha