Casa Grande, Biosphere 2, & Kitt Peak

Today we spent the morning at the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, and I just have to say that it is still hot here in Arizona.

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument Facts:

• Completed about 1350 CE, and abandoned around 1450 CE (CE stands for Common Era, a politically correct term for AD, which is Anno Domini)
• Stands 4 stories high and is 60 feet long
• Built of 3,000 tons of caliche (a mixture of sand, clay, and limestone - similar to concrete)
• Walls are 4 feet thick at the base, then tapers
• It is the largest known structure from Hohokam times (Hohokam is an O'odham word meaning "Those Who Are Gone.")
• The walls line up with 4 cardinal points on a compass
• And its use still remains a mystery

We were fascinated by the efforts taken to preserve this structure and how it has survived years of grafitti, "souvenir hunting," and the weather!


Preservation timeline:

• 1889: "influential" folks from Boston, Mass. requested the government repair and protect the ruins
• 1892: became the nation's first archeological reserve
• 1901: General Land Office took over management assigning Frank Pinkley as the first on-site custodian
• 1903: A shelter roof of corrugated iron supported by redwood timbers was built to protect the ruins
• 1906-1908: Major excavations and repairs of the ruins were conducted, Bureau of Ethnology
• 1918: President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Casa Grande Ruins to be a National Monument, transferring management to the National Park Service
• 1932: A new steel shelter roof over the Casa Grande, the same shelter you see today.

Many steps have been taken to preserve the structure - including placing concrete over the original caliche and painting it. We half jokingly/half seriously discussed the next possible step in preserving Casa Grande - - - chipping away the layers of paint and concrete, then building an air-tight, temperature controlled building around the monument.


And one more astonishing fact from one of the park's plaque:

The face of the desert has changed since the time of the Hohokam. Modern agriculture irrigation has resulted in a dramatic drop in the ground water table - from about 12 feet below the surface in 1930 to over 100 feet below the surface today. This accounts for the many dead mesquite trees in the park. Natural resources available to the Hohokam (plant and animal alike) no longer thrive under our changed conditions.

Richie spotted and photographed this round-tailed ground squirrel.

______________________________________________

We traveled further into the Catalina Mountains to visit Biosphere 2.

What is Biosphere 2?
A big scientific experiment to study and better understand environments in Biosphere 1 - The Earth.

It was originally built in 1986 to "research and develop self-sustaining space-colonization technology."

There were two human missions, participants called Biospherians:

Mission I

• 1991-1993
• 8 people from 7 different countries (4 men and 4 women)

Mission II

• 1993, suspended in 1994
• 7 people (5 men and 2 women)

While some say these human experiments failed, it did provide some incredible results on the body's metabolism and adaptability.


Today, Biosphere 2 is used to "quantifying some of the consequences of global climate change."

Check out the timeline for Biosphere 2 here.


The facility itself is really spectacular. It's amazing what man can produce/reproduce.

• 91 feet at highest point
• Sealed from the earth below by a 500-ton welded stainless steel liner
• 3.14 acre glass and steel complex (convenient that it is also pi)
• 6,500 windows and 7.2 million cubic feet of sealed glass
• Contains 5 bioms: desert, rainforest, ocean (1 million-gallon ocean, current coral reef is dead - part of an experiment), savannah, and marsh.
• Located at 3,820 feet in the Santa Catalina Mountains
  

The coolest part of Biosphere 2 was being able to stand inside one of two "lungs" which were originally designed to control the pressure within the biosphere - preventing it from exploding or imploding.

We decided to treat ourselves to a night in Tucson at the luxurious Royal Elizabeth Bed & Breakfast, a.k.a. "The Liz."

Jeff and Chuck, the owners, were wonderful hosts and even let us do our laundry (I'm certain this is not a common request). To get a bit of relief from the warm weather, we took a refreshing swim in The Liz's pool. This place is exquisite - with a scrumptious breakfast - and worth every penny.

______________________________________________

Before leaving Tucson, we decided to visit the Diamondback Rattlesnake bicycle and pedestrian bridge. It was designed by artist Simon Donovan, and received the nation's best road projects by the Federal Highway Administration. There is even a motion censored speaker at the tail of the bridge that projects a rattle noise when you pass it. Quite clever!


Then it was a dusty drive on Gates Pass Road for nice views of Tucson and the Saguaro National Park. Apparently it is a favorite of cyclists, but we didn't see any today.


Kitt Peak Observatory in the Quinlan Mountains of the Sonoran Desert was next. It is the world's largest collection of research telescopes - 23 optical telescopes and 2 radio telescopes, to be exact.


We were able to catch a tour of the Mayall 4-meter telescope - the largest optical telescope on Kitt Peak. Our guide provided a nice balance of the research done at the facility and of the history of the Tohono O'odham Nation - "People of the Desert."


Read facts on the Mayall 4-meter Telescope here.


The Tohono O'odham Nation was kind enough to allow the observatory to build on their second most sacred peak - Kitt Peak. Baboquivari Peak is the most sacred peak and home of The Pima or I'itoi.


While we were in the 4-meter telescope, technicians were maneuvering the telescope for the night's observations.

Here is information on the scientist and research:

The scientist: Todd R. Vaccaro From: Physics Department at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC The Abstract: We request KPNO 4m time to obtain red spectra of several low-mass eclipsing binaries. Good signal to noise spectra (20-30) at high dispersion (0.5Aper pixel) are needed to get velocities at the 5- 8km/s precision. Velocities will be coupled with contemporaneous photometry so that light and velocity curves can be used to determine the masses, radii, and luminosities using a binary star program (Wilson- Devinney) as well as modeling dark spots due to magnetic activity. One of the primary targets will be LP133-373 and its tertiary white dwarf LP133-374, which will have its atmosphere modeled yielding an accurate mass and temperature so that the systems age can be determined as well. The binaries' refined masses and radii will enable comparisons to current models (M-R relations) of these poorly sampled stars.

And Richie explains this in layman's terms for all of us...

Well, you know how when an ambulance passes you on the street, and the volume is higher pitched as it approaches and lower pitched as it recedes? Basically the same shifting occurs with light, and astronomers can measure the amount of red or blue shift and determine how fast an object is moving.


And a photo of Stephen F. Jacobs' Sun Clock design.