Flying over the northernmost mountains: Alaska’s Brooks Range and Gates of the Arctic National Park

Yukon River Alaska

In the winter of 2023, we traveled to the northernmost mountain range of the North American continent—the Brooks Range. The heart of this range lies within Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska. 1. Fairbanks to Bettles On the day of departure, the temperature was still below freezing, but the sky was perfectly clear. … Read more

Time-traveling through 1.7 billion years of geology at the Grand Canyon

We visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona this spring and hiked all the way to the bottom! Starting with the Kaibab Formation at the top, which formed around 270 million years ago during the Permian period, and moving down to the Vishnu Schist at the canyon floor, which formed 1.7 billion years ago during the … Read more

Barringer Crater and Canyon Diablo Meteorite

Barringer Meteor Crater

When we were going back to Phoenix from the Grand Canyon, we turned east in Flagstaff and took a 45 minutes detour to visit the Barringer Meteor Crater (a.k.a. Meteor Crater Natural Landmark). This is the most well-preserved meteor crater in the world and the first confirmed impact crater on Earth caused by an extraterrestrial collision. The meteorite … Read more

Iberian Peninsula – Gibraltar, Cadiz, and Geoparque Oeste

Gibraltar from the distance

I visited southern coast of Spain, Gibraltar, and the coast on the Atlantic side of central Portugal (also known as the “Silver Coast”) in the spring of 2024. The scenery is beautiful and its sedimentary rock structure is particularly special. Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar separates Europe and Africa, with its narrowest point … Read more