Re: pinhole Sierra questions

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From: Paul Doherty (pauld@exploratorium.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 18 2002 - 11:51:21 PDT 

Message-Id: <l03110712b9352fd63a8e@[192.174.3.125]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 11:51:21 -0700
From: Paul Doherty <pauld@exploratorium.edu>
Subject: Re: pinhole Sierra questions

Hi Geoff

3.
The simple rule of thumb for lower elevations (below 15,000 feet (Which is
great for the continental US for which the high point, Mt. Whitney is below
15,000 feet.) is to subtract an inch of mercury for every 1000 feet of
elevation gain.

So at 15,000 feet you subtract 15 inches of mercury from sea level 30
inches of mercury and find you are above 1/2 of the atmosphere.

2. When the sun sets it sets first for the valleys and last on the summits.
So you can see summits glowing in the orange light of the setting sun.
After sunset clouds can catch the sun and glow oorange. These clouds then
illuminate the mountains. This iis known as alpineglow.

1. The physicists way to get fish uphill is via waterspouts and tornadic
storms. These have been known to lift fish into the air (essentially
vacuuming them from one body of water.) The fish are dropped whenever the
storm dies. This happened to a friend (Kate Duckworth store manager at the
Expplo.) Who found hher house and yard covered in anchovies a couple of
years ago. Biologists have simppler means of ttransport involving eagles.

Paul D

My keyboard iis doubling characters sorry foor mispprintts. (It's my second
apple pro keybooard to do this.

I had a few questions after hiking in the Sierras for a week:
>
>1. How do fish get into lakes when they can't swim into them from a
>lower elevation? I saw a number of high Sierra lakes in which the
>streams draining the lakes went down cliffs (ie, were waterfalls) or
>went underground beneath massive piles of boulders. Either way, I
>couldn't imagine how fish would get into the lakes originally.
>
>2. What makes the alpine glow in the mountains?
>
>3. Is there a formula for figuring out what % of the atmosphere
>you're above when you're at a certain elevation? I was at 13,000 feet
>on Saturday and I was curious how much oxygen there was in the air.
>
>- Geoff
>
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