Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week
We’ve been away for a couple of weeks, but now we return you to your normal linky service.
Volcanoes
- Eruption of Laki may not have caused an unusually cold winter in 1783. Just the suffocating SO2 clouds.
http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/04/05/maybe-ben-franklin-was-wrong/ - More unrest at Ruapehu: crater lake heating up, increased CO2 & seismicity. If it erupts, there is a risk of lahars.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/37709
Earthquakes
- Christie Rowe discusses Simon Winchester’s recent quake-mongering on the Science…sort of podcast. It’s a good discussion, despite the brief appearance of the dread word ‘overdue’.
http://www.sciencesortof.com/2011/04/episode-80-strength-in-numbers/
(via @glacial_tiil) - Wow. Centuries-old stone markers in Japan warning of tsunamis. Sad to contrast ancient foresight with modern shortsightedness. [Anne says: Ancient people are still awesome.]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/06/international/i083854D05.DTL - But there may be limits to ‘Disaster Memory’: after more than 3 generations, the warnings lose their force.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/limits-to-disaster-memory-even-etched-in-stone/ - It seems April is earthquake awareness month in Illinois, including Central U.S. ShakeOut earthquake drill on April 28.
http://www.shakeout.org/centralus/ - "Random doesn’t mean evenly spaced out.&quo A lucid exploration of the question: ‘are we living in age of giant quakes?’
http://tw.physorg.com/221480079
(via @geosociety) - Nice article about 2010 Mexicali quake: “earthquakes don’t necessarily respect fault segments identified by geologists.”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/04/large-mexican-earthquake-eye-opener-scientists/ - Photo: Manholes poking out of the ground due to liquefaction during Japan’s massive earthquake
http://www.tumblr.com/xu82153fbj
(via @geographile, @nprnews) - Video shows tsunami crashing into Fukushima nuclear site [Very short and grainy]
http://www.wtsp.com/news/national/article/186213/81/Video-shows-tsunami-crashing-into-Fukushima-nuclear-site - Tsunami Floods Linger near Sendai, Japan: New imagery from NASA Earth Observatory.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=49941
(Paleo)climate
- Richard Muller deserves praise for being honest about the BEST results (which unsurprisingly replicate other global temperature curves) but he’s still a bit clueless about climate science
http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2011/04/muller_is_rubbish.php
(via @dr_andy_russell) - ‘Glacial melting in Patagonia has sped up drastically in recent decades, by at least a factor of 10.’
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/in-the-mountains-of-patagonia-a-harbinger-of-a-rising-ocean/
@EPSclimate - New study models regional variation in 21st century sea level rise
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13011073/
Flooding in Minnesota
For those following the on-going Red River flooding, the river appears to have crested yesterday in Fargo at 38.75 feet, about 0.75 feet lower than had been predicted. However, it is raining in the area now, and river levels will remain high for some time. 38.75 feet is the fourth highest crest on record, but 3 feet lower than the record flooding of 2009. Of course, the Red River is not the only Midwestern River above flood stage. There is moderate to major flooding now on the Minnesota, Mississippi, and St. Croix Rivers now as well. The links below are from several of those floods.
- Outstanding collection of historical Minnesota flood photographs from the Minnesota Historical Society
http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/Results.cfm?Page=1&Digital=Yes&Keywords=floods&SearchType=Basic&CFID=1064498&CFTOKEN=38267306
(via @RiverLifeUMN) - Wonder how those sand bag levees are built? How they work? Here’s a guide to Sandbagging 101.
http://www.startribune.com/newsgraphics/119421454.html - A front row seat for the flood on the Mississippi River at the Science Museum of Minnesota (with webcam)
http://www.sciencebuzz.org/topics/flood-2011 - Retreating Snow and Advancing Water in the Upper Midwest
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=50021
(via @NASA_EO) - Anne also had a Geopathology post this week on the continental divide that runs between the Red River and Minnesota River watersheds. Believe it or not, it’s in a valley!
http://geopathology.posterous.com/a-continental-divide-that-runs-through-a-vall-0 - Pictures of the Red River
http://cherishthescientist.net/2011/04/09/pictures-of-the-red-river/
(via @mareserinitatis) - Davenport, Iowa has made land-use change & avoided a flood wall in all but most necessary places
http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/midwest/2011/03/30/183810.htm
(via @RiverLifeUMN) - Alternatives to the heavy sandbag: Innovations Replace Sandbags in Fight Against Floods
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/09flood.html
(via @RDrKlapperich)
Water
- An REU is now available to work with Anne and colleagues on stormwater management & ecosystem function. Apply by April 22.
http://coefs.uncc.edu/smcmil10/opportunities/
- I like it. use irrigation canals to reduce flooding and increase acquifer recharge.
http://www.imperialrepublican.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2587:nebraska-diverts-swollen-north-platte-river-to-canals&catid=36:news&Itemid=76 - Proposed Dam Demolition in Georgia Draws Opposition. Dams often get built for one purpose, outlive that use, but then don’t get removed because locals have gotten used to them and offer up alternative justifications for keeping them. That’s what happening here. http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/03/24/proposed-dam-demolition-draws-opposition
(via @watercrunch) - Brazil rejects human rights pleas to stop Belo Monte dam, which will be 3rd largest in world and displace more than 10,000 indigenous people
http://nyti.ms/gfRo6x - Challenges facing the Corps of Engineers: National Academies report – competing interests, declining dollars, and limited water.
http://dels.nas.edu/Report/National-Water-Resources-Challenges-Facing/13136 - Trickle Down: Is Access to Clean Water a Human Right? (US, UK, others did not support this UN resolution)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-right-clean-fresh-water
Environmental
- Shock! Blowout preventer maker questions Deepwater Horizon report that faults design of blowout preventer.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/blowout_preventer_manufacturer.html - Short rotation energy crops [willow/poplar] on marginal land could provide 4% of UK electricity.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110401085119.htm - 10,000 shipping containers fall overboard & sink each year. MBARI is investigating one.
http://singularityhub.com/2011/04/05/10000-shipping-containers-lost-at-sea-each-year-heres-a-look-at-one-2/
(via @nparmalee) - Spectacular results when Seoul tore down a highway and uncovered an urban stream
http://www.grist.org/infrastructure/2011-04-04-seoul-korea-tears-down-an-urban-highway-life-goes-on
(via @geographile)
General Geology
- Some fabulous geo-photography on show at Wired. They should do a calendar.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/geology-photo-contest/
(courtesy of @clasticdetritus and @betsymason) - Proposed targets for ocean drilling programme include Japan Trench (source of recent eq) & Chicxulub impact crater.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12969599 - A [very large!] Feldspar Twin found by Silver Fox on a recent hike.
http://highway8a.blogspot.com/2011/04/recent-hike-feldspar-twin.html
Planets
- Could natural selection explain the Fermi paradox?
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26622/
(via @rowhoop) - Composition of Earth’s early atmosphere may have been influenced by micrometeorites adding cooling SO2?
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-sugar-grain-sized-meteorites-climates-early.html
Interesting Miscellaney
- When it comes to the basic infrastructure that society depends upon, lack of investment means we’re going backwards
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/299173-moore-s-or-murphy-s-law - Interesting account of AGU media workshop, with thought-provoking inverted pyramid diagram of how journalists structure stories
http://blogs.agu.org/sciencecommunication/2011/03/30/thinking-of-science-like-a-journalist/ - Dealing with online criticism: What’s a scientist to do? [guest post by @USGS research geologist Amy Draut]
http://blogs.agu.org/sciencecommunication/2011/04/06/dealing-with-online-criticism/
(via @theAGU) - Ferrofluid: iron filings for the 21st century! Cool vid at New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/04/ferrofluid-sculptures-reveal-magnetic-fields.html - The Human Lake: Carl Zimmer on the ecosystem within the human body. Just read.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/03/31/the-human-lake/
Nice plan for content warnings on Mastodon and the Fediverse. Now you need a Mastodon/Fediverse button on this blog.