DEEP TIME
Location: Anza-Borrego SP
Date: December 30, 2021 - January 1, 2022
Time according to laundry; time according to rain; time according to freeways; time according to sleep;
time according to compost; time according to timecards; time according to fault lines; time according to dust.
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Millions of years ago, the ancestral Gulf of California extended deep into the Salton Trough, filling the Imperial, Mexicali and Coachella Valleys. Hundreds of marine species inhabited tropical waters that would become vast tracts of desert. Sediment created during the formation of the Grand Canyon eventually filled
the Trough, and it gave way to a massive delta -- savannah that would support the first giant ground sloths, porcupines and bathtub-sized tortoises of North America.
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On time. Out of time. Spend time. Make time.
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Anza-Borrego State Park, with its unique geology and extensive, unbroken fossil record, is a nexus for observing this temporal drama. Material of past epochs reasserts itself via “basement rock” that’s been
folded, squeezed, and thrust upward by a network of faults webbing off the San Andreas. How might a confrontation with these ancient (and not necessarily linear) timelines affect our own rhythms? How do we really measure time, and what alternatives can we find? On this trip, we’ll attempt to shift our time-sense
and fall out of step with the western industrial clock on an 11 mile day hike through the primordial sea bed.