Back from vacation in a geologic paradise; MLK stamps

I just returned from three weeks of family vacation. I thought I would summarize the last article in the December 1957 IGY Bulletin before I left, then I thought I'd do it while I was away, but I just ended up taking a break. So that post will come in the next couple of days.

Anyway, Happy New Year. Although the USPS regularly issues stamps to honor the Chinese New Year, it has never done so for our secular January 1st holiday.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S., honoring the birthday and legacy of the civil rights leader. King. By the time of the IGY in 1957-58, the 28 year old King had already played a leadership role in the Montgomery bus boycott (1955) and was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957). The IGY may have been a time of international scientific cooperation, but there was also plenty of domestic strife over issues of racism, economic inequality, and civil liberties.

Two U.S. stamps have been issued in King's honor. I don't own either, but I scanned images from my recently purchased Harris U.S. Postage Stamp Catalog. I didn't really need the book, but after looking at it in the public library I couldn't resist the tactile and visual appeal of those glossy pages and pictures.

Cover scan of my catalog

Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative, 1979, Scott #1771

MLK stamp (Scott 3188a, 1999), part of the 1960s Celebrate the Century sheet

I visited the King Center during the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Atlanta in 2009.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King burial monuments, King Center, Atlanta

Anyway, the recent vacation took the four of us to Germany to visit family, and then to Gran Canaria (Spain, but off the west coast of Africa) for two weeks of sunshine and relaxation. We bought our tickets before the onset of Omicron, so we went ahead and took the risk. We avoided indoor crowds, and thankfully made it back ok. 

The geology of the island provided a dramatic background to the trip. The seven major islands of the Canaries archipelago are volcanic in origin, formed atop a hotspot in the Earth's mantle as the African tectonic plate drifted over the stationary hotspot, similar to the formation of the Hawaiian Islands. (The idea of hotspots was not yet understood in the pre-plate tectonic days of the IGY.) The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the westernmost island of La Palma, currently over the hotspot, has been recently active and in the news. We stayed near the Bandama Caldera for a week, hiked around it, and even played golf adjacent to it. I didn't play that well, but lost no balls into the caldera or anywhere else during my 9 holes.

My photo of Bandama Caldera, with Pico de Bandama in the background

Max, Sam, and myself with the Bandama Caldera behind us at the Real Club de Golf de Las Palmas

The day we moved down to the south coast for another week, we left cooler and cloudy weather behind on the north slope of the central highlands (orographic effect). We did get a lot of wind as we walked a ways into the Maspalomas sand dune area, but at least the wind seemed to keep away the naked hordes that apparently frequent this area.

My photo of the Maspalomas sand dunes

Sunrise from Bandama

I did think a little about celestial orbits on the trip. We watched sunrises from our patio in Bandama the first week, and the second week Max started a golf round before sunrise at the Anfi Tauro golf club. I was surprised to realize that in early January, sunrise was still occurring slightly later each day, even though the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere had already occurred at the solstice on Dec. 21. And here is the explanation why! In early January, at 20°N latitude, the sunrise gets slightly later, but so does the sunset, such that the days do indeed become longer.

Times of sunrise and sunset. Gran Canaria is near 20°N latitude.

On the flight home, one of the two movies I watched was Jailhouse Rock, with Elvis Presley. It was released in the Fall of 1957, so it is an IGY era movie. I hadn't seen it in many years. It is light fare, and pretty standard bad boy-makes-good movie, but Elvis and his music were endearing enough. The title song was well choreographed, and Elvis' gyrations elicited an appreciative laugh from me:

The song topped the Billboard charts for seven weeks.

Back to the IGY proper next time.