The Earth Story

Morning Glory Pool This spot, especially when caught at the right time of year, is one of the most colorful in Yellowstone National Park, flashing all the colors of the rainbow.

The morning glory over Cape St Vincent Also known as roll clouds, no one knows exactly how they form, but these tubes can be thousands of kilometres long and (often but not always) appear in the early morning along coastlines. It is thought to be due to a circular air current pattern creating tube like zones of condensation when strong breezes blow inland off the sea. They are accompanied by turbulent winds and surface jumps in atmospheric pressure. We get them every now and again in my home city of Montevideo, forming along the length of the Rio de la Plata just offshore, sometimes in long perfect tubes, sometimes amazing ragged wind sheared formations. This one was shot off the coast of Portugal. Loz Image credit: Vanda Rita via APOD

The Morning Glory Spillway

The Morning Glory spillway at Lake Berryessa, California - the spillway is flowing for the first time in years this year, and is back to looking like someone divided by 0.

Here is an image of a tubular cloud formation over Calgary, Alberta as seen on the morning of June 18, 2013. This phenomenon is a type of arcus cloud and is commonly (and regrettably) referred to as “The Morning Glory” cloud.

Despite being studied extensively, this cloud formation is not fully understood. However, it is determined that the main cause is probably due to mesoscale circulations. In the front of the cloud, there is strong vertical motion that transports air up through the cloud and creates the rolling appearance, while the air in the middle and rear of the cloud becomes turbulent and sinks.

The formations can be up to 1000 kilometres long, 1 to 2 kilometres high, and can move at speeds up to 60 kilometres per hour. It is often accompanied by sudden wind gusts, intense low-level wind shear, a rapid increase in the vertical displacement of air parcels, and a sharp pressure jump at the surface, making these clouds problematic to air traffic.

-Jean

For more photos and information see: http://www.stemme-powergliders.ch/en/flight-reports/australia---morning-glory-cloud/index.html

Photo courtesy of: Gry Elise Nyland

We’ve written about roll clouds or “morning glory” clouds a few times, including this recent post. Here’s a time lapsed video of one passing that will easily explain where the term “roll cloud” comes from. 

THE MORNING GLORY SPILLWAY, AKA "THE GLORY HOLE".

The Monticello Dam holds back Lake Berryessa in Napa County, California, USA. The morning glory spillway associated with the dam is the largest in the world; it is a funnel-shaped outlet that allows water to bypass the Monticello Dam when it reaches capacity (1370 m³/s).

The Glory Hole is located about 61m from the dam; the distance from the funnel to the exit point - which is situated in the south side of the canyon - is about 213m. The outside diameter is 22m, slowly narrowing to 8.5m at the exit.

Water spills over the lip of the Glory Hole when the lake reaches 1,976,037,908 cubic metres (1,602,000 acre-feet). The spillway is designed to handle a maximum of 1,370,319 litres of water per second (362,000 gallons of water per second); this happens when the lake level rises to 4.7 metres (15.5 feet) above the level of the funnel.

Swimming near the glory hole is prohibited. Unfortunately in 1997 a UC Davis graduate student was pulled into the glory hole while swimming and drowned. Skateboarders and bikers sometimes use the spillway's horizontal exit as a half-pipe during the drier months, when the water levels are well below the rim of the glory hole. Due to the current drought in California, this site doesn’t look nearly as cool.

You can watch a video here of bikers using the tunnel: http://bit.ly/GXtpjR Video of the Morning Glory Spillway in action: http://bit.ly/1jmAYh

-TEL

http://daviswiki.org/Morning_Glory_Spillway, http://www.fogonazos.es/2007/02/largest-drain-hole-ever.html Image from Panoramio is by Auggee http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10262321

Is this the result of dividing by zero? Nope - this is the Morning Glory Spillway, also known as "The Glory Hole".

This Spillway, the largest in the world, is the funnel-shaped outlet that allows water to bypass the Monticello Dam in California when it reaches capacity (1370 m³/s). The Glory Hole is located about 61m from the dam; the distance from the funnel to the exit point - which is situated in the south side of the canyon - is about 213m. The outside diameter is 22m, slowly narrowing to 8.5m at the exit. -TEL http://daviswiki.org/Morning_Glory_Spillway,http://www.fogonazos.es/2007/02/largest-drain-hole-ever.html

The Morning Glory One of Yellowstone National Park's more visited geological features is this hot spring, named after the eponymous bright blue creeping flower that forms such lovely lines of vivid purplish blue dots. The original name followed the Latin name before the common English one was adopted. The water burbles out at 70 degrees Celsius, though it used to be hotter before the tourist practise of throwing objects in altered the water flow and it started to cool, allowing yellow bacterial films to spread towards the centre, previously beyond their temperature range, replacing the blue higher temperature ones. Sadly people are now calling it 'Fading Glory'. It has occasionally erupted as a geyser, when prompted by an nearby earthquake. Loz Image credit: Bernhard Edmaier http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/tours/oldfaithful/mrngglry.htm http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/morning-glory-pool http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/uppergeyser.htm