Category: Geography

Glaciers, Faults, and Tectonics

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by Skip Via
skip@westvalleyaturalists.org

Here in the Flathead Valley, we’re fortunate to be able to enjoy a richly varied landscape—craggy mountains, rolling hills, swift rivers and meandering streams lined with brightly colored stones, a sprawling valley floor punctuated with the occasional boulder or with massive rock outcroppings displaying multiple bands of colors and textures, clearwater lakes fed by springs or seasonal precipitation, wetlands that provide shelter and food for our avian residents. It’s a rare day that I’m not struck by the immense beauty of our valley.

But do you ever wonder how it got this way?

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Hoarfrost or Rime Ice?

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by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org

A few days ago, driving around West Valley, I remarked on the beauty of the hoarfrost that had coated some Ponderosa pines along the roadside. That got me wondering about the nature of hoarfrost and how it forms. It turns out that some of what I have been calling hoarfrost is, in fact, not hoarfrost, but rather rime ice. The difference is not important for the casual observer, but it can be important meteorologically.

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Geology Field Trip

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by Dr. Lex Blood, Community Activist, Conservationist, Professor Emeritus/Flathead Valley Community College

The West Valley Naturalists sponsored a geology field trip in May 2014.  Dr. Lex Blood led this field trip; for more than 40 years Lex Blood has served as Flathead Valley geologist, geographer, educator, conservationist. After a brief introduction we car-pooled and explained the “story behind the landscape” as we traveled through the West Valley area.  For background information on the geology of the Flathead Valley please visit: http://www.flatheadwatershed.org/natural_history/geology.shtml

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Flathead Valley Water Resources

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by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org

Mike Koopal, Executive Director of the Whitefish Lake Institute, pointed us to some exceptional resources for learning more about the Flathead Valley watershed and the numerous lakes and streams that make up some of the most beautiful areas of the west valley area and the rest of Montana.

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All About Argillite

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by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org

You see it everywhere in the valley–lining the bottom of creek beds, along hiking trails, layered throughout road cuts, on the shores surrounding Tally Lake, in the cliffs around Flathead Lake, piled at the corners of plowed fields, covering fireplace hearths and floors, in the pavement of many area roads and parking lots, and often in your yard when you are trying to dig a new garden bed (especially if you live on a glacial drumlin, as I do). It’s the predominant rock in Glacier National Park a few miles to our east.

It’s argillite, the colorful rocks and tiered strata that were formed during the Precambrian period over 500 million years ago–and western Montana is one of the best places in the world to see it.

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