Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week

Other posts on All-geo

• On Earth Science Erratics, Erin Johnson tells us about the surprising lessons you learn when teaching Earth Science, including the willingness of students to boldly put their tongues where dozens of dirty hands have been before.
  http://all-geo.org/erratics/2012/03/please-dont-lick-the-specimens/
• Meanwhile Metageologist is trying to get more evidence to support his observation that geology may have more than its fair share of left-handers. The more geologists we can survey, the better!
  http://all-geo.org/metageologist/2012/03/request-for-information-about-left-handed-geologists/
  The current rolling tally from a poll of Twitter is 33% lefties, 15% ambidextorous and 52% righties from 33 geotweeps:
  http://storify.com/allochthonous/are-geologists-mostly-lefties

Anniversary of the Tohuku Earthquake

It is one year today since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and accompanying tsunami devastated the east coast of Japan, prompting many stories about the event and its aftermath.

• A compelling set of ‘Then and Now’ pictures for places hit by the Japanese Tsunami from the Big Picture:
  http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/03/japan_tsunami_pictures_before.html
• A Nature News special marking the anniversary has many good pieces, Rich Monastersky on tsunami forecasts/
  http://www.nature.com/news/specials/japanquake/index.html
  http://www.nature.com/news/tsunami-forecasting-the-next-wave-1.10171
  (via @alexwitze)
• Sped-up recordings of seismic waves from the Tohuku quake make them perceptible to human hearing. The record of triggered tremor on the San Andreas Fault is especially interesting
  http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=111701
  (via @aboutgeology)
• Lessons from Tohuku earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear accident: “Crisis management requires us to imagine what may be outside our imagination”
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-year-after-the-tsunami-japan-premier-notes-failures-in-government-response/2012/03/03/gIQAdv2KoR_story.html
• This documentary on the struggle to control the Fukushima nuclear plant after the tsunami hit is well worth a watch.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/japans-nuclear-meltdown/
• Critical NYT op-ed argues Fukushima accident was mainly due to international nuclear safety standards being ignored.
  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/opinion/fukushima-could-have-been-prevented.html
• The Fukushima accident is certainly casting a shadow over the prospects for nuclear power in the US, but economics is also an issue. This article at Ars Technica argues that high costs mean any ‘nuclear renaissance’ is going to be slow.
  http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/03/chain-reaction-the-slow-revival-of-us-nuclear-power.ars
  The Economist also weights in on why nuclear reactors are expensive and likely to remain so.
  http://www.economist.com/node/21549936
  (via @jfleck, @GernotWagner)

Volcanoes

• Where did newspapers get quotes when Eyjafjallajokull erupted? Representatives of the aviation industry drowned out scientists, it seems. I’m shocked.
  http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2011JB008735.shtml
  (via @callanbentley)

Environmental

• Climate change’s first unambiguous victims: Kiribati plans to evacuate whole nation to Fiji due to sea level rise.
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/kiribati/9127576/Entire-nation-of-Kiribati-to-be-relocated-over-rising-sea-level-threat.html
• Algae are not only oil producers, they also eat atmospheric CO2.
  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=blue-green-acres
  (via @ejgertz, @patrickdijusto)
• Lessons from Deepwater Horizon: embedding media & vested interests into scientific process can lead to a big damn mess.
  http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/03/why-open-science-failed-after-the-gulf-oil-spill.ars?comments=1#comments-bar
• And in a troubling echo of some of the issues raised by Deepwater Horizon: Arctic weather continues to stymie attempts to plug blown out well on Alaska’s North Slope.
  http://wilderness.org/content/alaska-weather-reminds-big-oil-whos-charge-arctic
  (via @SkyTruth)
• Any parents know how to reconcile an environmental ethic with modern life?
  http://www.collide-a-scape.com/2012/03/06/in-search-of-an-eco-ethic-for-our-times/
  (via @keithkloor)

Water

• When the mantle is involved, the water cycle can take a billion years
  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/life-unbounded/2012/03/05/billion-year-old-seawater/
  (via @Geoblogfeed)

Planets

This week’s solar storm has produced some awesome aurora displays:
http://blog.flickr.net/en/2012/03/08/the-skys-ablaze-with-light-tonight
(via @AmazingPics, @photojojo)
http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=JAsup3nAsna-AskarsdAsup3ttir-IMG_7055-3_1331249583.jpg
(via @davidmpyle, @kielder_obs)
• The ocean underneath the icy crust of Europa is likely too acidic to support larger life forms.
  http://news.usf.edu/article/templates/?a=4231&z=123
  (via @ProfAbelMendez)
• *Incredible* picture of a towering dust devil on Mars!
  http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/03/07/between-the-devil-and-the-deep-red-planet/
  (via @BadAstronomer, @HiRISE)
• Venus has very pretty craters! Lots of radar image goodness.
  http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003402/
  (via @elakdawalla)

General Geology

• The carnival of geological illustrations that is Accretionary Wedge #43 is perfect for a lazy reading session.
  http://plantsandrocks.blogspot.com/2012/03/geologic-illustrations-galore.html
  Accretionary Wedge #44 is being hosted by Metageologist. The theme: tell us about your ‘most important teacher’.
  http://all-geo.org/metageologist/2012/03/call-for-posts-accretionary-wedge-44-most-important-teacher/
• A fascinating history of SF bay’s islands: there were islands in the SF Bay that were been blown up?
  http://museumca.org/theoaklandstandard/shellmounds-shipyards-and-exploding-islands
  (via @mollyis)
• From Geotripper, a fossil waterfall over lava in the California desert: “A River Runs Through It, or at least used to”
  http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2012/03/strangers-in-strange-land-river-runs.html
• Cool! EarthScope seismometers detect seismic signals from tornado
  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/iu-sds030712.php
  (via @EarthScopeInfo)
• Very cool! Global map of crustal thickness from satellite gravity mapping of the Moho.
  http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMMC68YBZG_index_0.html
  GEMMA project page, with gridded data:
  http://geomatica.como.polimi.it/elab/gemma/
• Want to help design the next Estwing hammer?
  http://volcanoclast.com/want-to-help-design-the-next-estwing-hammer/
  (via @volcanoclast)
• Some Geological posts for International Womens’ Day:
  http://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/2012/03/09/on-being-a-female-geologist/
  http://highway8a.blogspot.com/2010/09/cornelia-clermont-cameron.html
  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/03/08/geologizing-women-into-the-field/

Interesting Miscellaney

• Thousands of Researchers Discuss Work Environments, Family Policies, & Work-Life Integration Overload
  http://www.awis.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=575
  (via @fiainros, @AWISnational)
• Tevatron finds hints of Higgs, but one of the LHC experiments now less certain about it.
  http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21545-conflicting-higgs-results-muddy-particle-hunt.html?full=true
• An interesting looking map creation interface. Simple and elegant maps:
  http://kartograph.org/
  (via @Taconic_Musings)
• And here’s another link to nifty map stuff. : an online database of historical maps. Very cool.
  http://www.oldmapsonline.org/
• Fun, fascinating, kinda hypnotic: Zero-gravity droplets of water orbiting like planets round charged knitting needle.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qHrBhgwq__Q