Montana on EARTH Magazine

Blogging on EARTH: A letter from field camp

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 18:30:37 -0400

Bryce Mitsunaga at field camp in Montana. Bryce Mitsunaga

The 2013 University of Houston-YBRA field camp participants exploring glacial features atop the Beartooth Range. Bryce Mitsunaga

University of Houston-YBRA field camp, summer 2013. Bryce Mitsunaga

Learning the basics of mapping includes how to take a strike and dip. Bryce Mitsunaga

Bryce Mitsunaga, a recent graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., is currently attending field camp at the Yellowstone-Bighorn Research Association camp located in the Beartooth Mountain Range outside of Red Lodge, Mont. In honor of EARTH's August feature on field camps, Bryce wrote in with some reflections on his experiences so far.

Age changes you: Torosaurus actually just old Triceratops

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

_Triceratops_ (left) had a shorter frill than _Torosaurus_ (right). Artwork by Holly Woodwrad, Montana State University

_Torosaurus_ had giant holes in its frill. When the animal was alive, the holes were covered in a thin layer of keratin. Daniel Hendricks, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

Triceratops and its cousin Torosaurus are not hard to tell apart. Both horned dinosaurs had a giant bony frill that rose up behind the head, but Torosaurus’ frill was much longer and was adorned with giant holes that were covered by a thin layer of protein called keratin. Yet Triceratops and Torosaurus may have been more alike than scientists realized: New research suggests that the two animals were actually the same species, with Torosaurus being the adult version of Triceratops.

Benchmarks: August 17, 1959: Hebgen Lake earthquake and landslide

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Disrupted ground and trees of a landslide caused by the Hebgen Lake earthquake. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

The Madison River landslide rode across the valley at speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour and up the opposite valley wall. The leading edge, shown here, is the white ridge of dolomite boulders. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

A large dolomite boulder on the east side of the Madison River landslide, with Earthquake Lake in the background. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

A fault scarp near Red Canyon Creek in Montana shows a 5.7-meter displacement from the earthquake. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

Highway 287, near Hebgen Lake, was fractured in the earthquake. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

A barn collapsed by the fault scarp extending from the foreground through the barn and across the stream. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

You’re camping in Montana, doing some fly fishing on the Madison River. You’ve had a full day of beautiful Big Sky country weather, and had fresh trout for dinner. In your campsite at the Rock Creek Campground, you go to bed satisfied and happy. It’s a nice enough evening that you sleep out in the open, to better appreciate the stars. The waters of the Madison gurgle by, gently lulling you to sleep while Orion shines above.