"Diatreme Double Rainbow" 🌈 This past weekend I departed for some much needed nature therapy into the hot and monsoon-laden desert of Utah with my friend Kane. We had a few areas in mind but mostly I just needed to get out of the house and make some images. As luck would have it, the water-filled monsoon air granted us some amazing weather, including this rainbow over the muddy River. I had pre-composed this image earlier in the day, knowing that if it would rain, the angle of the sun would be about perfect for a rainbow and my planning paid off. I photographed this on a very steep cliff with lots of dangerous rock and had to do some maneuvering to even find a (less than perfect) suitable foreground to help anchor the scene. In the process of scouting and in my haste, my camera was not tightened completely on my tripod and it took a fall to the rocks below my feet. The lens took the brunt of the fall and the only damage was to my lens hood. Phew! I've been visiting this geologically rich zone in Utah for several years now. As a former Geology major in college, I have quite a curiosity for how these amazing areas form. This photograph features a rock formation which is actually what geologists call a "diatreme." A diatreme is a volcanic pipe which was formed by a gaseous explosion. The way it works is that magma rises up through a crack in the Earth's crust and makes contact with a shallow body of groundwater, which creates a rapid expansion of heated water vapor and gasses, causing explosions and awesome rock formations. The aftermath is a shallow crater and a rock-filled fracture in the crust (the diatreme itself). Diatremes eventually breach the surface and produce a steep, inverted cone shape such as seen here.