How amazing is 3 1/2 inches of snow on the Las Vegas Strip! WOW! I've heard conflicting reports on rather or not it was a record amount. One report suggested the most snow ever in Las Vegas since records have been kept, while another stated worst snow in 30 years.
Regardless, I can't help but wonder what the Bellagio fountains looked like in the heavy snowfall. The normally black Luxor pyramid was white, covered with snow.
Not surprisingly, with the city only having something like four snow trucks, reports were a few flights were diverted to the Salt Lake City International airport and traffic was clogged. I guess being stuck in your hotel isn't really a problem in Vegas. In fact, that is kind of the whole point to a Vegas vacation for most visitors.
By the way, the temperature in Death Valley only got into the 40's today. Could the Pupfish be starting to stir?
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Top 10 Travel Web Sites
In the month of November (2008), according to Hitwise data, 39.36% of all web traffic related to the “travel” industry went to the following top 10 web sites:
- Mapquest
- Google Maps
- Yahoo! Maps
- Southwest Airlines
- Expedia
- Travelocity
- Orbitz
- Priceline
- Yahoo! Travel
- American Airlines
In my humble opinion, the top three shouldn’t be considered “vacation” type travel web sites. Sure, once I know my vacation destination I’ll make use of directional travel sites, and on occasion, I’ll even use those sites for planning a vacation. However, they are in the top three for directional purposes, and most likely for short-range trips.
Therefore, if my “assumption” that the top three are not really vacation/long-range travel planning web sites, Southwest Airlines was the real number one travel site in the November. That is for a good reason, Southwest is the only airline that “consistently” offers travel bargains. So, hats off to Southwest Airlines!
So far, the travel industry seems to be holding on to hope that 2009 won’t be as bad as we all think. Travel executives are trying to keep “pricing integrity” intact (for which read, “Don’t offer rock-bottom rates just to fill an empty seat or room”) until they see what impact the bailouts have on the economy.
Some have suggested that 2008 was the year of the “Stay-cation” and if things don’t pick up, 2009 will be the year of the “Nay-cation”.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Death Valley Califonia Earthquakes
On December 2nd, 2008 a small swarm of earthquakes occurred near Death Valley. The largest was a magnitude 4.1. However, in a region with such a violent past, any activity is worth noting.
In October of 2008, I just happened to be traveling south on highway 395 heading to Death Valley, California. Traveling south on historic highway 395 is amazing in many ways, not the least of which, is all the earthquake and volcano related features visible to those with an interest for such things
On March 26th, 1872 a violent magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurred near Lone Pine that killed 27 people and leveled all but two building. Even more astonishing, in just a few minutes an entire block of the Sierra Nevada’s raised 20 vertical feet
To help put that in perspective, one resource I found suggested that a single 12,000 ft mountain would weigh about 17,250,000,000 tons or 34,500,000,000,000 pounds! The Sierra Nevada is a range, not a single mountain and therefore its weight is inconceivable. Another source suggested that if you drilled under the mountain and buried the biggest nuclear warhead ever made underneath and set it off, the mountain wouldn’t even quiver and there would be no noticeable release of radiation or heat into the environment.
Simply put, earthquakes and volcanoes are powerful beyond comprehension. It is therefore, very humbling to travel through the western United States and see chapter after chapter of both types of events played out in regular, albeit unpredictable intervals. Those forces could at any moment decide to re-sculpture the face of an entire region.
Take Ubehebe crater in Death Valley for example. A mere 2000 years ago (there are trees older than that in California) an eruption occurred that was possibly more powerful than the Mt. St. Helens eruption.
So when I read in the news, statements like, “There have been a dozen earthquakes of magnitude-3.0 or above in the area since Nov. 25, 2008” and "There's something hot down there and it's heating up water", well I get a little excited. Is there another Ubehebe event on the horizon? Will it happen in my lifetime? I guess the facts would trend towards the answer being no, but odds are a tricky business, in that a long shot can happen any day. Looks like I’ll be keeping my Google Alert for earthquakes active a little while longer.
Click here to view a virtual panarama image of Ubehebe Crater
In October of 2008, I just happened to be traveling south on highway 395 heading to Death Valley, California. Traveling south on historic highway 395 is amazing in many ways, not the least of which, is all the earthquake and volcano related features visible to those with an interest for such things
On March 26th, 1872 a violent magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurred near Lone Pine that killed 27 people and leveled all but two building. Even more astonishing, in just a few minutes an entire block of the Sierra Nevada’s raised 20 vertical feet
To help put that in perspective, one resource I found suggested that a single 12,000 ft mountain would weigh about 17,250,000,000 tons or 34,500,000,000,000 pounds! The Sierra Nevada is a range, not a single mountain and therefore its weight is inconceivable. Another source suggested that if you drilled under the mountain and buried the biggest nuclear warhead ever made underneath and set it off, the mountain wouldn’t even quiver and there would be no noticeable release of radiation or heat into the environment.
Simply put, earthquakes and volcanoes are powerful beyond comprehension. It is therefore, very humbling to travel through the western United States and see chapter after chapter of both types of events played out in regular, albeit unpredictable intervals. Those forces could at any moment decide to re-sculpture the face of an entire region.
Take Ubehebe crater in Death Valley for example. A mere 2000 years ago (there are trees older than that in California) an eruption occurred that was possibly more powerful than the Mt. St. Helens eruption.
So when I read in the news, statements like, “There have been a dozen earthquakes of magnitude-3.0 or above in the area since Nov. 25, 2008” and "There's something hot down there and it's heating up water", well I get a little excited. Is there another Ubehebe event on the horizon? Will it happen in my lifetime? I guess the facts would trend towards the answer being no, but odds are a tricky business, in that a long shot can happen any day. Looks like I’ll be keeping my Google Alert for earthquakes active a little while longer.
Click here to view a virtual panarama image of Ubehebe Crater
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