Geology Picture of the Week, May 18-25, 2003 (and nobody answered last week's WhereIsIt!)

NASA Earth Observatory ^ | May 2003 | NASA

[skeeter]

Lake Balkash, Kazakhstan.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Auyuittuq National Park, Located on the Cumberland Pnsla. of Baffin Island, eh ?

[cogitator]

Mt Asgaard. Mt Asgaard is one of the most recognizable features in the Park. It is surrounded by glaciers, but can easily be reached with a bit of caution later in August when the snow has receded and exposed the crevasses, so that one can safely go around them.

Yay! Finally. Care to also mention why it's most famous? (I will if you won't.) Plus, you didn't mention where Mt. Asgaard is.

The spike-shaped mountain in the first image is Mt. Thor, which is also pretty impressive.

[cogitator]

You got it hey. (Can you pronounce Auyuittuq correctly, not that I could?)

[HEY4QDEMS]

eye-ya-took ??

[LiteKeeper]

Auyuittuq National Park?

[xJones]

All right, already (nag, nag nag) :). click.

"Auyuittuq National Park Auyuittuq means the 'land that never melts'. Auyuittuq is home to the Penny Ice Cap, a 6,000 square kilometre ice cap that is a remnant of the last ice age. This is a park of breathtaking grandeur. Enter through the Pangnirtung Fjord at the entrance to the park. Use the cable crossing across the Weasel River to reach Summit Lake and Glacier Lake which is frozen for most of the year.

The Arctic Circle passes through the park and is marked by an inukshuk that has been in many tourist's photographs. Schwartzenback Falls can be seen off in the distance as you trek towards Mount Thor. Mount Thor is the largest uninterrupted cliff face in the world. It is a popular destination for rock climbers.

Auyuittuq Park is also home to Mount Asgard. This mountain is surrounded by glaciers and only climbable for a short time in the later summer. Mount Asgaard was featured in the James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me".

[WSGilcrest]

Gilcrest, Gilchrist, Gillchrest....

12th century gaelic for "servent of christ"

[redhead]

Southwestern US. The redrock country is my old stomping ground. St. George Utah is located in some of the most interesting and diverse geological terrain in the United States. The lake is the Great Salt Lake, and the snow is covering the Wasatch Range.

[cogitator]

FINAL WhereIsIt? REPLY:

Sorry about the confusion, everybody. The WhereIsIt? image from last week was Mt. Thor, in Auyuittuq National Park, Baffin Island, Canada. While Mt. Thor is famous among rock-climbers for having the longest stone wall in the world, the region is most famous for Mt. Asgard/ Asgaard, the monolith seen in the image I posted in the replies. In 1976, the film crew for "The Spy Who Loved Me" filmed Rick Sylvester as he performed a ski-to-parachute jump that was used in the opening sequence. Only one of the cameras deployed to get the shot actually worked.

If you haven't seen the movie (perish the thought), you can see a small image as Sylvester glides into the air at the URL below.

The Spy Who Loved Me

When this movie shows up on TV, I always try to see the first 10 minutes, just for this stunt.

[capitan_refugio]

I saw it, but I'm not sure which feature you are referring to.

California's Central Valley is a significant feature in the southwest portion of the photo. The Channel Islands and Santa Barbar Channel are easily seen. I would think the "pinkish" feature east of that is probably outcrops of the Morrison Formation or Navajo Sandstone. That's just my first pass.