XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: linze@aol.net   
      
   Hot weather and continued drought this week is having a series   
   of landmark effects on glaciers, rivers and streams across   
   California’s high country:   
      
   Lyell Glacier, Yosemite National Park: At the present pace, the   
   Lyell Glacier, at 12,000 feet, the highest of the 14 glaciers in   
   the high Sierra, could melt off and disappear in the next 25   
   years, according to Yosemite’s geologist Greg Stock. The Lyell   
   Glacier is 60 percent smaller and has thinned by 120 vertical   
   feet since John Muir measured it in 1900. Snow acts as a buffer   
   for glaciers and cold temperatures keep them intact; there is no   
   snow this summer on the Sierra crest and temperatures have been   
   verified with highs in the low 70 degrees this summer at the   
   glacier. The Lyell Glacier is set on the flank of 13,114-foot   
   Lyell Peak, located above Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National   
   Park.   
      
   McCloud River, Shasta County: The McCloud River was turned into   
   a high, mud-driven mess over the weekend in its path through the   
   world-renown McCloud River Nature Conservancy. With no snow on   
   14,179-foot Mount Shasta and temps reaching the mid-70s at   
   12,000 feet, the Konwakiton Glacier started melting and sent   
   water plundering into the Mud Creek Canyon. In turn, that swept   
   huge loads of volcanic ash deposits down the mountain. The   
   result is a river of mud pouring into the McCloud River   
   watershed. According the historians, this has occurred seven   
   times in the past 100 years, always in dry, hot years with no   
   snow on giant Shasta.   
      
   Mount Whitney creeks: The snow that fell in the spring in the   
   southern Sierra, from 14,497-foot Mount Whitney north into a   
   portion of Kings Canyon National Park, has long since melted   
   off. Except in areas where localized thunderstorms have provided   
   temporary flows into watersheds, the small feeder creeks have   
   dried up. It’s stunning to see that many small creeks that feed   
   tributaries of the Kern and Kaweah Rivers, watersheds that span   
   and drain huge swaths of wilderness, are dry.   
      
   Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer.   
   E-mail: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com. Daily twitter at:   
   @StienstraTom   
      
   http://blog.sfgate.com/stienstra/2014/07/20/drought-temps-melt-   
   glaciers-mud-blows-out-river/#25239101=0   
      
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)