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Wyoming is an amazing place. I was just reading about how windy it is there. Blows vehicles over cliffs. Turns over 26 wheeled tractor trailers. Geologists hav

Wyoming is an amazing place. I was just reading about how windy it is there. Blows vehicles over cliffs. Turns over 26 wheeled tractor trailers. Geologists have rough estimates for how much sediment, from the once 10,000 - 15,000 foot higher Rocky Mountains, has been deposited in the plains and in the Mississippi river delta. It's a lot! So much that the delta has 25 thousand feet of sediment, sinking and pressing down into the Earth's mantle, causing one heck of a thermal reaction. But maybe 30% of the former Rocky Mountains is unaccountable as sediment or as nicely sloped Kansas/Nebraska plains. One day, scientists in South Carolina noticed a lot of dust in the air. They checked the weather and found out the dust had been carried from the Rockies. They estimated that over 1,000,000 tons of dust was deposited in the Atlantic Ocean that day. Apparently, many places in Wyoming don't have any soil smaller than pebbles. It's all been blown away. Wyoming has a history of producing energy for the West Coast. The Jim Bridger Power Plant is turing 250 tons of WY coal per hour into 2,000 MW of electricity for the Pacific Coast. But, it's keeping all the pollution for Wyoming. You can learn a hundred more interesting facts, in poetic story form, by reading: Annals of the Former World by John McPhee. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005H0O8KQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005H0O8KQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...

twothamendment 9y ago
"The Jim Bridger Power Plant is turing 250 tons of WY coal per hour into 2,000 MW of electricity for the Pacific Coast. But, it's keeping all the pollution for Wyoming." How, with all that wind, is the pollution staying in WY?
- euroclydon 9y ago
  Good point. Jim Bridger is in SW WY, so prevailing winds do take it east across the state, but it must go past the state as well. It just doesn’t go to where the electricity is used, which is west.
sizzzzlerz 9y ago
Upvote for the McPhee reference. Annals is the compilation of his 4 books on geology. Your reference is from Rising From The Plains, I think. They're excellent reads on how North America came to be. Even as a non-geologist, they're among my favorite reads.
johan_larson 9y ago
There's a whole lot of nothing at all in Wyoming. I remember driving through on the highway eastbound, and came to a spot where the only sign of civilization was the road. Not even an aircraft contrail in the sky. Just the road.

twothamendment 9y ago

"The Jim Bridger Power Plant is turing 250 tons of WY coal per hour into 2,000 MW of electricity for the Pacific Coast. But, it's keeping all the pollution for Wyoming." How, with all that wind, is the pollution staying in WY?

euroclydon 9y ago
Good point. Jim Bridger is in SW WY, so prevailing winds do take it east across the state, but it must go past the state as well. It just doesn’t go to where the electricity is used, which is west.

sizzzzlerz 9y ago

Upvote for the McPhee reference. Annals is the compilation of his 4 books on geology. Your reference is from Rising From The Plains, I think. They're excellent reads on how North America came to be. Even as a non-geologist, they're among my favorite reads.

johan_larson 9y ago

There's a whole lot of nothing at all in Wyoming. I remember driving through on the highway eastbound, and came to a spot where the only sign of civilization was the road. Not even an aircraft contrail in the sky. Just the road.