Los Angeles Vacation 2/25

[urbpan]

Ever since I learned it existed, I've wanted to see the La Brea tar pits. That alone was reason to go to Los Angeles. This main lake by the road is actually a pit created by humans 100-150 years ago, digging the tar out because it's a useful substance. Native Americans also dug the tar out to use as an adhesive and water-proofing agent. I had the impression before that the animals would sink in tar over their heads, but that's probably not what happened. According to the information in the Page Museum (the museum associated with the tar pits) a large animal got stuck once a decade or so, and predators would swarm in and feed--getting stuck themselves. Fossilized fly pupae and other insects show that the trapped animals were exposed for some time before their remains sunk into the tar to become the most important record of ice age life known.




Anaerobic bacteria and archaea live in the asphalt and produce methane, which bubbles up through the collected rainwater in the pit.


Inside the museum is a work shop called "the fish bowl," where scientists are on exhibit cleaning and categorizing fossils. This is a bunch of tools used for cleaning tar off of fossils.


Here my brother and father pose with 400 dire wolf skulls. This extinct canine was one of the most frequently fossilized animals in the tar--they must have come in large numbers to feast on the trapped megafauna, only to be trapped themselves. Then the carrion birds arrived.


The scale of the numbers is disturbing.


Outside on the roof, a frieze depicts one of the trapping events, while today's scavengers keep a watchful eye.


Outside on the grounds of the museum I found some California poppies, and lots of honeybees.


Still trying to identify this plant, some kind of agave with a truly massive and bizarre flower spike.


Nearby, tar still bubbles out of the ground--is this what it looked like before the pit was dug? You can see how an animal might accidentally step on this and sink ankle-deep, never to free itself.


For lunch we stopped at Snow White's Cafe! My dad (who goes by "Doc") poses with a portrait of Doc.

Comments

[detroitos.livejournal.com]

Was the tar pit smelly like a swamp?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Honestly it only smelled faintly like petroleum, not very swampy at all.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

When we were last in LA we went to La Brea. You do realize that La Brea mean The Tar, so when you say The La Brea Tar pits you are actually saying, The The Tar Tar pits. We laughed about this quite a bit and still call them The The Tar Tar Pits. We ended up parking in a lot across the street from the museum and in the middle of the lot tar had bubbled up through the asphalt. It had all kinds of trash and plant matter stuck in it that happened to blow past at some point.
I found the place fascinating, but we were there in the summer, and we went first thing in the morning, by midday the smell of the tar, from the heat of the day, was so overhwleming it was making us sick and we had to leave.

[bleppo.livejournal.com]

OMG I don't know why but I totally want to go there.

My big sister lives in Pasadena, and whenever I think of some place I'd like to go in L.A., it turns out to be a million miles away. I'm such a New Englander, when I think "suburb of (insert name of big city here)", I always think it's nearby. That is not the case. You know that feeling, when you get off a plane and feel all relieved and oh yay, I'm here -- I get that feeling when I land in LAX, but then I remember I've got a 1-2 hour shuttle ride before I'm finally there.

So I just wrote my sister an email saying "I WANT TO GO TO THE LA BREA TAR PITS", and it'll probably turn out it's 4 hours away.

Oh, and in reference to donnad's reply -- there is a girly parts procedure I've had done a couple of times called a LEEP ("loop electrosurgical excision procedure" -- exactly as unpleasant as it sounds), but whenever I say "Leep procedure", I realize I'm saying "loop electrosurgical excision procedure procedure".

That is all I have to say. I think.

Oh! One more thing -- took this pic the other day: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8373/8523969120_9b76bd0869_c.jpg

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Nice turkey tails!

Pasadena is 18.9 miles from the Page Museum, which I guess means between 30 minutes and 4 hours drive depending on traffic.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

I always pictured the animals sinking beneath the the tar at La Brea myself. I had a book that mentioned the place when I was a kid and found it fascinating.

That is one crazy looking tentacle plant!