Comments on: The Milky Way and the Mashed Potatoes Mountain

By: rob

rob — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:08:40 +0000

i visited the Tower several times. one time three friends and i climbed it–the Durrance route. that was a lot of fun. one of the things i remember as i was hanging on by my fingernails contemplating gravity was a scrawny chipmunk zipping up right past me. show off!

anyway, there is no alien landing strip at the top–but there is a *wonderful* view.

By: CR

CR — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 05:43:30 +0000

About twenty years ago, my parents & I visited Devil’s Tower while on a trip that included the Tetons and Yellowstone. Aside from my nerdiness relating Devil’s Tower to CE3K, it was one of my favorite parts of that trip (not to mention one of the last ‘landmark’ type places I visited on the route). I, like others, walked the trails around the base, and observed climbers about halfway up the side… it’s much bigger than you realize, once you see tiny humans scaling it!

An interesting–to me–side note is that on the way to the Tower, we pulled over to switch drivers, and encountered a cow on the side of the road that said “MOOOOO.” I’m not saying that it went moo, it actually SAID the American English word “MOOOOO.” The “oo” was sort of stretched out. It enunciated so clearly, I swore we were being pranked (‘tricked’ would have been the phrase back then); I looked for a farmer/rancher hiding in nearby bushes, figuring we were on some sort of ‘Candid Camera’ show. (Boy, I’m really dating myself with that reference!) Nope, no humans around besides us. It was a talking cow.

Well, if you consider a one-word vocabulary to be talking. Still…

About a decade later, I drove past it again on a different trip–Devil’s Tower, that is, not the talking cow. I got nowhere near it that time, but still could not miss it jutting up from the horizon, all those miles away. Can’t miss it, really.

So, yeah, go there! It’s amazing.

By: Solius

Solius — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:12:49 +0000

mountainmckay wrote:

Is Devils Tower an old volcano?- No. Geologists agree that Devils Tower is an igneous intrusion.

Hmmm, the definition for phonolite that I find describe it as an extrusive. Anything with columnar jointing is, obviously, intrusive. What gives?

By: Chris Winter

Chris Winter — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:31:47 +0000

Thanks, Mountainmckay. Wikipedia mentions several theories of origin, with the best accepted being that it’s a laccolith (which is what your quote describes.)

By: Wryd Smythe

Wryd Smythe — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:21:20 +0000

Love the photo, love Devil’s Tower (visited it on a family vacation back in the days of B&W photography), but the BA and I will have to disagree on Close Encounters… It’s one of my *least* favorite SF movies. That mashed potatoes scene is where it seriously jumped the shark for me. (And, full disclosure, in general I don’t care for Spielberg’s work… also really hated A.I., but I did rather like Minority Report.)

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:25:59 +0000

“Magma welled up into the surrounding sedimentary rock. There it cooled and hardened. The sedimentary rock has since eroded away to show the tower.”

Huh? I thought a giant bear with a tail scraped at it with its claws. Some school I went to!

@8 Ed – Thanks, I knew someone would geek out (that’s a compliment) and prove me right or wrong. I was able to see just the orbit of the ISS on Heavens Above, but I’m not registered there, so I couldn’t go any further. One bit of corroboration, though, was that it seemed to fade in brightness as I watched it.

By: Brian C

Brian C — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:17:08 +0000

Looks like a good spot for a … Science Getaway!

Never mind the canyon where the mothership landed, what about the giant sinkhole on the other side in which the mothership was hiding before it rose up?

By: mountainmckay

mountainmckay — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:29:46 +0000

From NPS:

Is Devils Tower an old volcano?- No. Geologists agree that Devils Tower is an igneous intrusion. Magma welled up into the surrounding sedimentary rock. There it cooled and hardened. The sedimentary rock has since eroded away to show the tower.

Is it hollow?- No! You could compare it to a bunch of pencils held together by gravity.

What kind of rock is it? – Phonolite porphyry, it is similar in composition to granite but lacks quartz. Phonolite refers to the ringing of the rock when a small slab is struck, and its ability to reflect sound. Porphyry refers to its texture, large crystals of feldspar embedded in a mass of smaller crystals.

By: Chris A.

Chris A. — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:46:49 +0000

In my experience, the definition of “butte” is rather loose. I just spent Sunday hiking in the Soldier Mountains of Southern Idaho, past Grouse Butte which is neither isolated, nor flat-topped, nor a volcanic core. In this case, “butte” appears to mean “mountain lacking trees or exposed rock at its summit.”

By: Chris Winter

Chris Winter — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:32:35 +0000

Michael Eans wrote: “Devil’s Tower is about a day’s drive from Boulder, and well worth the trip –avoid Sturgis Rally time, and you can find lots of places to stay in the nearby Black Hills.”

I was fortunate to be able to drive there some years back. I can well understand why there is a rally there: The side road leading to the tower is a delight to drive in a sports car.