By Mary Drew at Pasty Central (Mdrew) on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 - 06:12 pm:
Traveling to several Keweenaw beaches today, both in the archives and our current photo of the day. Our first photographer, Randy Dyle was visiting friends just south of Bete Grise, in 2001, when he spotted this tree stretched out over Lake Superior. It looks like a Cedar tree that’s sprouting a row of trees, rather than the remaining branches on the upside of the tree.
In 2007, Kim Kaura took us to Keystone Bay. For the most part there is a sandy beach there, but the rocks Kim captured in her shot are further up the beach toward the tip of the Keweenaw. Note where the trees are still gray and leafless, just across the water, that’s where the fire burned the year before, taking out 129 acres on the Keweenaw tip.
The third archive photo was snapped by Tim Bertsos. Those are what he calls dot rocks and that distinctive reddish colour tells you they're composed of sandstone. Tim has a nice collection of them there and back on this day in 2010, Dr. Nat explained how those dots are formed in the sandstone:
“The white spots in the red sandstone are reduction spots, which are a result of the chemistry of the sandstone and groundwater when the rock was formed. Red sandstones, like the Jacobsville, get their colour from a little bit of iron in the cement that was precipitated by groundwater and holds the sand grains together into solid rock. Because of the oxygen in the atmosphere and water, most of the iron is oxidised, making it red. In a few places the iron is reduced, leaving the sandstone the white colour. The iron doesn’t get oxidised in those small zones because something in the rock used up all the oxygen before the iron could get it. Usually that something is a small bit of organic matter that was decomposing in the sand or a mineral that is more easily oxidised than iron. The area around that little bit of organic matter or mineral becomes oxygen poor, making the white reduction spots you see in those rocks.”
Mike Rudzki recently captured a photo of something we’ve all enjoyed doing as a kid and maybe still do as an adult. Skipping rocks, seeing how far you can throw them, waiting to hear the plunk as a big one hits the deeper water...the joys of throwing rocks into Lake Superior. This scene was on the beach across from the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, as the sun was setting.
Rocks, rocks and more rocks...that’s what our video today contains, too. Tiger Holm was up at Big Bay or Hoar Bay Beach on the Keweenaw Peninsula past Keystone Bay, toward Manitou Island. He takes us on a walk along the pebbly beach, sounds of your footsteps included.
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