Tarns

Topics covering photography and videography of the flora, fauna and landscape of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Show off your talent. Post your photos and videos here!
User avatar
Hetchy
Topix Regular
Posts: 269
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:51 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Santa Cruz Mountains Ben Lomond

Tarns

Post by Hetchy »

How about your photos of Tarns? Those snowmelt fed mini-lakes so often found in the heights of the Sierra. Some are scarcely more than puddles at the end of summer. Yet they can be every bit as interesting as the big lakes. I will kick it off here with this photo:
The Tarn at Mule pass:
Image
You can make more money, but you can't make more time.
User avatar
Buck Forester
Founding Member
Posts: 452
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 1:38 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Lincoln, CA (Sacramento area)
Contact:

Re: Tarns

Post by Buck Forester »

That's gorgeous!


Image

Here's a Fall shot of the tarn to the south of Pinchot Pass just before you drop down into Woods Creek. (This is looking north back up towards Pincho Pass). I dunno, this might not technically be classified as a true 'tarn', maybe more of a pond, depending on the definition of tarn.
It's all about the WILDERNESS!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/buckforester/page9/
User avatar
Buck Forester
Founding Member
Posts: 452
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 1:38 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Lincoln, CA (Sacramento area)
Contact:

Re: Tarns

Post by Buck Forester »

Image

Here's a couple remote tarns way up Cartridge Creek. In order to fit all this in one image I used my 15mm fisheye. We visited these tarns (on our Circle the Cirque Crest trip) and I remember the one on the left was filled with colorful goldens of decent size. The scale of topography was amazing, my fisheye lens shrinks the crud out of the peak.
It's all about the WILDERNESS!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/buckforester/page9/
User avatar
copeg
Founding Member & Forums Administrator
Founding Member & Forums Administrator
Posts: 2109
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:25 pm
Experience: Level 4 Explorer
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Contact:

Re: Tarns

Post by copeg »

You guys are killing me here. All these sweet pics!
This was taken during one of those magical afternoons after hiking a very long day, the pack went down, and suddenly the eyes opened wide. I guess this classifies as a tarn, just below Vee Lake at the base of Seven Gables
Image
User avatar
will_jrob
Topix Acquainted
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 7:35 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: S F Bay Area

Re: Tarns

Post by will_jrob »

Image
Looking east over Rubicon River canyon to Jacks and Dicks peaks, Desolation Wilderness.
User avatar
treadwell
Topix Acquainted
Posts: 96
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:13 am
Experience: N/A

Re: Tarns

Post by treadwell »

North of Ramona Lake with Pilot Knob in the background.

Image
User avatar
SSSdave
Topix Addict
Posts: 3523
Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2005 11:18 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Silicon Valley
Contact:

Re: Tarns

Post by SSSdave »

Image

A tarn is a small lake left by the retreat of a glacier. May fill a basin formed by a moraine dam or eroded by the glacier into bedrock.

http://www.geologicalglossary.com/t.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I would tend to refine even the above definition to only include such lakes at higer elevations as there a re a great many bodies of water below treeline that are glacial in origin but hardly worthy of the term. There are many little swampy mud lined depressions formed in glacial granite bedrock that by late summer become warm with black water of organic life one would never consider drinking from. Per the above definition it might be a tarn.

Some may think any small lake aka a pond at higher elevations is a tarn, however the term in strict geological terms per above is somewhat more narrow. For instance one often finds small turfy pools in meadows but they are certainly not tarns but rather ponds. Regardless in the narrow sense most small lakes and ponds in the higher timberline and alpine areas of the Sierra could be classified as tarns because glaciers have been the dominant force sculpting the granite bedrock. There are of course other ways lakes and ponds form like the above. One of the more common is debris blockage of a stream path where its course narrows that leads to further siltation and damming. For me the perfect example of a tarn is the one at the toe of the little glacier below Larmarck Col.

One question is at what size ought one call a body of water a lake or a tarn ? And what about ephemeral tarn/ponds that dry up by mid summer? Are they tarns? My own sense is a body has to be rather small to be called a tarn and not a lake. Shallow ponds at mid and lower forest elevations though glacial in origin tend to evaporate by summer whereas there are a great many ponds in higher alpine areas though small and shallow that always last through the summer because the season they emerge from winter snows is short and there is often permanent snowfields and streams nearby that replenish their waters.
User avatar
lostcoyote
Topix Regular
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 9:11 pm
Experience: N/A

Re: Tarns

Post by lostcoyote »

south west of mt. brewer

Image
User avatar
MountainMinstrel
Topix Expert
Posts: 464
Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:09 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Sonora

Re: Tarns

Post by MountainMinstrel »

This is one of my favorites, (possibly due to the fact that we were close to runninig out of water).

Image

The tarn is on the north side of Tuolumne peak. It looks very different from the snowfield.

Image
Just an old musician who loves the Mountains.
User avatar
calipidder
Topix Regular
Posts: 205
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:00 pm
Experience: N/A
Location: Above 10k
Contact:

Re: Tarns

Post by calipidder »

One of my favorites, simply for the color vs the granite. Have only photographed it with a point and shoot, unfortunately.

South side of Glen Pass:

Image
Image
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests