Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week

DonorsChoose Update

We’re wrapping up another spectacular week for supporting Earth Science in the schools.. The Highly Allochthonous drive has now raised over $1000 from 14 donors and touched the lives of 589 students. Among the projects you helped complete this week were both of the “water warriors” projects I featured on Thursday. If you are looking for another project in need of help, how about giving sets of minerals and rocks to a 6th grade classroom in New York City? Or supporting a classroom that wants to buy some books of beautiful landscape photography by Michael Collier? Huge thanks to all who have given and spread the word.

General Geology

• Erosion of the geology curriculum: fewer requirements attract more majors, but they have fewer options when they graduate…
  http://scienceantiscience.blogspot.com/2007/03/erosion-of-geology-curriculum.html
  (via @squawky)
• Gorgeous! A post from @UncoveredEarthon “Ways to play with rocks: Make beautiful art!”
  http://uncoveredearth.com/2010/10/23/expressions-in-stone-bonseki/
• Geotripper explains why geologists might bypass Gotthard Tunnel Wld be different story if it was faced with Perspex!
  http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2010/10/gotthard-base-tunnel-breakthrough-why.html
• New study claims subducting slabs do not transfer water deep into Earth’s mantle. So where does it all go?
  http://www.physorg.com/news206625005.html

Water

• Whoa: seasonal changes in onland water storage show up as changes in the Earth’s gravity field!
  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=46472
  (via @cbdawson)
• Pakistan floods turned back clock & turned off lights. Whole villages have been replaced by boulder fields.
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11568963
  (via @geographile, @richardallaway)
• Drought, American Style: Lake Mead reaches record low: average American fails to see the problem
  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JfleckAtInkstain/~3/W2TR1LSWn2Y/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
• Thai Flooding Is Worst in Decades
  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/asia/22thai.html?_r=1

Volcanoes

• Devastation and Recovery at Mt. St. Helens timelapse satellite images for three decades
  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/sthelens.php
  (via @Eaterofsun)

Earthquakes

• Interesting: study of Haiti #eq damage patterns shows strong topographic effect on shaking intensity )
  http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2617
  (via @tpenews)

Fossils

• Lyuba, an infant woolly mammoth on display in the Mammoths and Mastodons traveling exhibit
  http://www.lsc.org/lsc/ourexperiences/mammothshttp://twitpic.com/307f
  (via @laelaps)

Planets

• Last Year’s Moonshot Splashed Up Lots Of Water: 41 gallons.
  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130737378&f=1007
• @BadAstronomer has a cool new gallery of exoplanets, with real pictures of alien worlds!
  http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/10/18/gallery-of-exoplanets-real-pictures-of-alien-worlds/
  (via @Sheril_ )

(Paleo)climate

• One-third of the most extreme El Nino events in last 500 years occurred after 1940!
  http://www.springerlink.com/content/2242tp4610562j55/
  (via @KHayhoe)
• Climate change threatens emerging superpowers, warns report. SE Asia seems particularly vulnerable…
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/21/climate-change-superpowers
  (via @EcoTechDude)

Environmental

• Optimistic proclamations about the Gulf of Mexico being free of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill keep on being trumped by reality. There is some – apparently serious – speculation that changing weather conditions cause it to flip between floating at the surface, and beneath it. Meanwhile, it seems that many marine scientists are not being given access to all the samples we’re told are being taken to monitor the break-up and environmental impact of the spill.
• Louisiana sand berms are still being built – but little oil captured & potential environmental side-effects are very bad
  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/us/22berms.html?_r=1&hp
  (via @zzsylvester)
• Dare I say it – an example of successful framing? In Kansas, climate skeptics embrace clean energy
  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/science/earth/19fossil.html
• Otter recovery cutest manifestation of cleaning up of UK waterways in last few decades. )
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-11562679
  (via @BBCscience)

Interesting Miscellaney

• Sounds like a challenge! Soil-scientist-turned-radio-reporter explains how to create a 1 min story
  http://blog.agu.org/sciencecommunication/2010/10/20/one-minute-science/
  (via @theAGU)
• The only book prize in Britain dedicated to popular science fails to find a sponsor and this year’s award was the last prize.
  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/endangered-award-the-science-book-prize-2111355.html
  (via @JacquelynGill, @PD_Smith)
• Eight months of science blogger interviews by @tdelene.
  http://sciencetrio.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/eight-months-of-science-blogger-interviews/
  (via @BoraZ )