EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Idaho’s Gravity-Defying Balanced Rock

August 29, 2022

RayB_balrockida248ac_26july22 (006)

RayB_balrockpkida253c_26july22 (006)

Photographer: Ray Boren

Summary Author: Ray Boren

High above a rural road southwest of Twin Falls, Idaho, rises a huge,
precariously poised hoodoo shaped somewhat like the continent
of Africa. Like many of its kind, it is simply called Balanced
Rock, as illustrated in a photograph taken on July 26, 2022. An
upward-tilted arrow on a roadside sign points toward it, and the sign
reports that this natural sculpture, some 48 feet high and 40 feet
wide (14.6 by 12.2 meters), hovers over a slim base only 3 feet by 17.5
inches wide (0.9 by 0.5 meters).

Shaped by differential weathering over a great span of time, the
pillar is composed of rhyolite, a silica-infused magma laid
down about 8 million years ago on the southern fringe of the Snake
River Plain, when the volcanic hot spot below today’s Yellowstone
National Park instead sat 300 miles (480 kilometers) away, below this
part of southern Idaho.

Just down the road from Balanced Rock is a veritable oasis in this dry
setting: Twin Falls County’s Balanced Rock Park, as shown in a
second photograph taken the same day. Salmon Falls Creek, en route
to the Snake River, flows beneath volcanic escarpments, providing
visitors a pleasant spot for picnicking, camping, hiking, climbing,
boating and fishing.


Balanced Rock, Idaho Coordinates: 42.5482386, -114.9575579


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Geography Links

* Atlapedia Online
* CountryReports
* GPS Visualizer
* Holt Rinehart Winston World Atlas
* Mapping Our World
* Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
* Types of Land
* World Mapper

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 26 weeks, 20 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)

EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


Dalene Matthee Big Tree

December 29, 2022

Louise_IMG_20221210_114403 (003)

Photographer: Louise van der Meulen

Summary Author: Louise van der Meulen; Jim Foster

The stunning specimen featured above is thought to be over 800 years
old. Found in the montane forest near Knysna, South Africa, it’s
called the Dalene Matthee Big Tree. And big it is -- standing 131
ft (40 m) with a diameter of 5.6 ft (1.72 m). This handsome giant
belongs to the Podocarpus falcatus species (family
Podocarpaceae) and is commonly referred to as a yellowwood tree.
Photo taken on December 9, 2022.

The sign at its base reads -

Like a towering king it stood towering above the white alder and
mountain saffron, stinkwood, assegai and hard pear. As if God had
planted long before the others. Its giant root anchored it to the
ground like giant arms.

Dalene Matthee, Circle in a Forest, 1984.


Knysna, South Africa Coordinates: 33.9167 -22.9579


Related EPODs

Dalene Matthee Big Tree Patterns in the Dieffenbachia Plant
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Plant Links

* Discover Life
* Tree Encyclopedia
* What are Phytoplankton?
* Encyclopedia of Life - What is a Plant?
* USDA Plants Database
* University of Texas Native Plant Database
* Plants in Motion
* What Tree is It?

-
Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the Universities
Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu

--- up 43 weeks, 3 days, 20 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (21:1/186)