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| Looking across the Neuse River to Bridgeton |
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| On the Neuse River waterfront |
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| Looking across the Neuse River to Bridgeton |
The Neuse and Trent Rivers meet here in New Bern as inland extensions of Pamlico Sound. These rivers rise and fall with the tide, like wisteria vines dependent on the tree that holds them. In that way they remind of the western sides of the Outer Banks, which also border Pamlico Sound.
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| Stanley House on George Street, built about 1781 |
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| Stanley House on George Street, built about 1781 |
I set out seventeen days ago to see the sand islands, to enrich my geology. I came to where earth study should be simple and well organized—simple quartz particles (silicone dioxide), piled up. The Outer Banks promised not to be mysterious like ancient ocean crust we see raised high in the Sierras to much wonderment and disagreement. I wanted to relax geologically on the beach.
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| Tyron Palace |
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| Tyron Palace |
I’m not one of those buff postdocs who look like tennis players in combat boots ready to serve with a rock hammer, but I do love an understood rock. If I were to marry for excitement, it would be to a field geologist pounding ophiolites along the United Plates of America. I was trained to look at woodwork and see the original trees. Imagine our conversation over a granite countertop with red-oak trim.
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| Christ Episcopal Church built 1715, 320 Pollock Street |
So when the icepack began to melt, some ten thousand years ago,
rising sea level flooded the lowlands and sediment built up off the coast. Ongoing results include the Outer Banks. Man as a geologic agent has built groins,
placed huge pillows of sand, pumped sand, and hoped it will hold. Most sand movement happens in catastrophic
events - nor’easters, hurricanes. On
average, these islands will always be a slowly moving sandflow. Geologic time is making me schizophrenic.
Another way to look at is that these unrisen mountains are now coastal plain, but some future creatures may see them as we see parts of the Sierra Nevada.
New Bern is not like mountainous Bern, Switzerland, made of
risen lowlands, it is a town on the coastal plain.
Amazingly anachronistic :)
ReplyDeleteGeology works both ways, Toti, chronologically and mixed. Nature is messy, the science needs to follow. :)
DeleteVery informative. I've been to Bern in Switzerland. Home to Ursula Andress and Albert Einstein. This looks more secluded. Lee
ReplyDeleteThe old town of New Bern is quite small and quaint, but it does spread out with strip malls and tract houses.
DeleteShe married a geologist for excitement.
ReplyDeleteTogether they pounded ophiolites for enlightenment.
And since then each year
they drink cabernet and read Kabir
and ponder the surface of their environments
;-)
Please drop me off at the riverwalk... Lois
What a nice take on my whimsy, wish it were true. Again I'll ask if I may use it, with credit, somewhere. Amazingly, I have received about a dozen poems so far, two from you.
Deletevery nice indeed .... that segment of your day's report certainly captured your internal zest for your own at-home geologist
Delete" I was trained to look at woodwork and see the original trees. Imagine our conversation over a granite countertop with red-oak trim."
Lovin' it all! Especially the on-guard, dressed-up, bibbidy BOBBIDY fire hydrant playing around in a place called New Bern ...
Of course Sharon. Would be delighted. You inspire me to be more playful. I changed the last line just a tad:
DeleteShe married a geologist for excitement.
Together they pounded ophiolites for enlightenment.
And since then each year
they drink cabernet and read Kabir
and ponder the surfaces of their environment
x
Yes Lois, I like it better in the revision
Delete