Earthquakes and Tectonics
- The big earthquake news this week was the latest spate of activity in Christchurch, New Zealand. The BBC posted some eyewitness accounts of the latest shaking, and the Trembling Earth blog collected the best Youtube clips of the earthquake as it happened. The latest shaking triggered several new rockfalls, as Dave Petley reported with some striking pictures. As ever, Christchurch geologist Mark Quigley talks a lot of sense on New Zealand TV about these latest quakes and the future seismic hazard.
- The Big Picture’s feature on Japan, 3 months after the quake. Numbers 20-29 are before and after shots showing the impressive progress of the clean-up.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/06/japan_three_months_after_the_q.html - The Tohuku earthquake has revealed weaknesses in models of strain build-up on subduction zones. A great Nature article explains (subscription required, sadly).
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10265.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20110616 - Highlights incoherence of charges: (Italian) Indictments Over 2009 Quake Cause Quite a Furor:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/europe/15italy.html
(via @CPPGeophysics) - Interesting idea: "Tectonic Aneurysm" – feedback between erosion and location of faulting?
http://www.ees.lehigh.edu/groups/corners/cornerdocs/aneurysm.shtml
(via @_ColinS_) - Wow! Passage of tsunami from Tohuku earthquake across Pacific generated glowing ripples in air above.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/331412/title/Tsunami_lit_up_the_heavens__
Volcanoes
- Very cool: NASA Earth Observatory snaps floating pumice in lake near Puyehue-Cordon Caulle
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=51060&src=eorss-nh
Planets
- Fascinating stuff. Early MESSENGER results: Mercury is its own planet, it’s not the Moon or Earth:
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003067/
(via @elakdawalla)
(Paleo)climate
- What does sea level rise mean for Rebuilding Christchurch? Interesting analysis on Hot Topic blog
http://hot-topic.co.nz/rebuilding-on-a-rising-tide/ - The sunspot/solar cycle is not ramping up as expected after last solar minimum. And yet the planet still warms…
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20575-sluggish-sun-may-sit-out-next-solar-cycle.html
Although some solar scientists disagree with the hypothesis that the sun is entering a prolonged minimum in activity. Basically, we don’t have instrumental data over enough solar cycles to tell ‘normal’ from ‘abnormal’ behaviour.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/a-solar-scientist-rebuts-a-cool-sunspot-prediction/
(via @wildweatherdan) - Only 7 of the lower 48 states had normal spring rainfall this year: very wet in the north, very dry in the south.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1824 - It would take 700 Mt Pinatubo-sized eruptions a year to emit as much carbon dioxide as people do.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/06/scienceshot-volcano-co2-emission.html
(via @ScienceNOW)
Water
- The Tale of Two Rivers, with key differences between the way Mississippi and Missouri floods & flows are managed by Corps
http://www.americanrivers.org/newsroom/blog/sudvardy-200110610-the-tale-of-two-rivers-and.html - “Missouri River levee near Hamburg, Iowa fails”(13 June 2011) See, illusion of flood control.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/13/us-flooding-plains-levee-idUSTRE75C55H20110613
(via @gravelbar) - Floodwaters Reach Makeshift Iowa Levee and other updates on Missouri River flood (as of 16 June 2011)
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/16/137219580/floodwaters-reach-makeshift-iowa-levee - [Iowa] residents wait, watch rising waters of the Missouri (19 June):
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/20/us-flooding-plains-idUSTRE75H1SX20110620
(via @gravelbar) - Missouri River breaches 2 levees and overtops 2 others in northwestern Missouri; 250 urged to leave homes (19 June)
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/19/missouri.flooding/index.html
(via @Etheostomatt) - Lingering Floodwaters near Vicksburg, Mississippi from @NASA_EOhttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=50991
- Video: Flooding swamps eastern Australia – 26 cm of rain in 24 hrs
http://gamutnews.com/20110615/24986/video-flooding-swamps-eastern-australia.html - ‘Thermal Pollution’ in Rivers Not Fully Mediated by Gravel Augmentation [Work from Anne’s graduate lab]
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110608161535.htm
(via @rivrchik)
Environmental
- Why frakked shale gas can never replace conventional fossil fuels: diminishing returns bite early & hard.
http://www.scitizen.com/future-energies/shale-gas-not-a-game-changer-after-all_a-14-3672.html - A stark visualisation of the cliff we are happily driving off: Humanity’s energy dilemma in three easy charts
http://www.grist.org/climate-energy/2011-06-14-humanitys-energy-dilemma-in-three-easy-charts
(via @grist) - Stability within and between nations might be the first casualty in a resource-constrained world. Sobering.
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/364397-the-shrinking-pie-post-growth-geopolitics - Alien Invasions: Do They Deserve Their Bad Rep? Yes, says Nerdy Christie in her critique of a recent Nature essay
http://scienceblogs.com/observations/2011/06/alien_invasions_do_they_deserv.php - Tamarisks are NOT benign by @abqdorid (re: native vs. alien species debate)
http://theradula.blogspot.com/2011/06/alien-invaders.html - Wind energy: Wind power and water power collide in the Northwest
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-adv-wind-energy-20110614,0,1852355.story
(via @chanceofraincom)
General Geology
- Barrier Island along Arctic Shores
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50792
(via @NASA_EO) - "Welded tuff" – not just a cool name to say – but a rock with a violent origin and @glacial_till tells its story
http://glacialtill.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/accretionary-wedge-35-favorite-geology-word-welded-tuff/ - A profile of geologist Maria Matilda Ogilvie Gordon by @David_Bressan. We need more of these female rock stars.
http://historyofgeology.blogspot.com/2011/06/women-geoscientist-in-dolomites-maria.html - If only all scientists had to write a bloggish summary of their papers, like Brian Romans brilliantly does here:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/linking-erosional-and-depositional-landscapes/ - Hmmm. Creationists running field trips, saying little controversial, then claiming intellectual victory back home
http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/456-7db-6-a
I find it hard to take people who lie to the geological community, and lie to their supporters as well, particularly seriously. But I did enjoy Dana Hunter’s rant on our behalf.
http://entequilaesverdad.blogspot.com/2011/06/lying-liars-and-creationist-bastards.html - 2010 Geology paper on deep metamorphic minerals in Himalayas retracted after key figure shown to be plagiarised.
http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/geology-retraction-unearths-a-deceased-co-author-and-plagiarized-image-of-himalayan-rock-actually-from-norway/ - And we can’t not mention this week’s geologically flavoured xckd…
Interesting Miscellaney
- A valid point (overloaded school curriculum in the UK) made with boneheaded example (exclude climate change) or just boneheaded?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/p/2qc25/tf
Geoblogger and actual teacher Julia Heathcoate chimes in:
http://www.stagesofsuccession.com/2011/06/anthropogenic-global-warming-in.html - Did you see them? they must be scientists! Nice "draw a scientist" study before/after interaction with graduate students
http://theseamonster.net/2011/06/wow-did-you-see-them-they-must-be-scientists/
(via @BoraZ) - Women as natural capital – interesting idea to crub girl infanticide
http://blogs.plos.org/blog/2011/06/08/women-as-natural-capital/
(via @dhunterauthor - In which Anne gets Scicurious’s Friday Weird Science dedicated to her: The curse of the tasty pine nut
http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/06/17/friday-weird-science-the-curse-of-the-tasty-pine-nut/ - Chemistry at work: how to make a perfect cup of tea. The call for milk first may prove divisive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jun/25/science.highereducation
(via @NatureGeosci)
Nice plan for content warnings on Mastodon and the Fediverse. Now you need a Mastodon/Fediverse button on this blog.