After a long hiatus, our weekly link-sharing extravaganza returns! Comprising the most interesting and notable things we have found around the internet in the last few days.
Other posts on All-geo
- On Metageologist: Scotland, 1 billion years ago: an orogeny, a foreland basin, and an awful lot of sand.
http://all-geo.org/metageologist/2012/06/the-biggest-pile-of-sand-the-world-has-ever-seen/ - At volcan01010: A report from AGU Chapman Conference on Volcanism and the Atmosphere in Iceland , including a spirited debate over how well tree rings pick up cooling by volcanic eruptions.
http://all-geo.org/volcan01010/2012/06/aguvolcatm/
Volcanoes
- Dana Hunter continues her compelling blow-by-blow account of the 1980 eruption of Mt. St Helens, complete with pretty aerial photos.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/rosetta-stones/2012/06/21/something-dramatic/ - Some interesting new research on kimberlites, from whence all diamonds. spring
http://lithics.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/diamond-geyser-anatomy-of-a-kimberlite-eruption/
(via @Geoblogfeed) - Reason number 1,001 to visit Iceland…. : Tour an Icelandic volcano – from the inside.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/p/38f83/tw
(via @CPPGeophysics) - Another enviable field trip: Quiet Eyjafyallajukull littered with reminders of 2010 explosion
http://blogs.agu.org/geospace/2012/06/15/eyjafyallajokull-reminders-of-2010-explosion/
See also Alex Witze’s account:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/341634/title/Icelandic_volcanoes_slumber_today%2C_but_not_forever - After a tough week, you deserve to lower your blood pressure by admiring some volcanoes from space. Go on, go on, go on…
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/vulcans-view-10-volcanoes-seen-from-space-for-june-22-2012/ - New post by @subglacial on Alaska – The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (Part 1)
http://davemcgarvie.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/alaska-the-valley-of-ten-thousand-smokes-part-1/
Earthquakes
- I want this on my wall. I need this on my wall. 40 years of earthquakes on one seismogram.
http://tremblingearth.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/40-years-of-earthquakes-on-one-seismogram/ - Clever use of thermochronology to show pseudotachylyte (melted rock formed by fault movement) formed at 2.4-6 km depth
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/pip/2011JB008846.shtml
(Paleo)climate
- Plant leaf wax remnants in Antarctic sediment core indicate 15-20 Myr ago continent was 11 C warmer than today.
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo1498.html - Panamanian Isthmus may have formed much earlier than N hemisphere glaciation it is theorised to have triggered.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-dating-panama-formations-cast-doubt-ice-age-origins - As we enter the melting season, lots of graphs showing the scary decline of Arctic Sea over the last few decades.
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/sea-ice-update/ - Speculative, but worrying: Pumping CO2 underground may trigger quakes, damage reservoir, release CO2
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428256/researchers-say-earthquakes-would-let-stored-co2/
(via @geocastaway) - Bleached sandstones in Utah are a natural analogue of how sequestered carbon dioxide could leak back to the surface without careful site selection.
http://earth-pages.co.uk/2012/06/21/carbon-dioxide-burial-an-analogy-of-some-pitfalls/
http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/40/6/555.abstract - Dual isotope detrending of evaporation effects on carbonate proxies of paleoelevation
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2012GC004132.shtml
Water
- Ooh, Pretty. LiDAR map shows path of Great Missoula Flood [in northern Willamette Valley]
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/06/lidar_map_shows_path_of_missou.html
(via @AiGeology) - New Paper: CrowdHydrology: Crowdsourcing Hydrologic Data and Engaging Citizen Scientists. This is a great idea for urban hydrology
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.00956.x/abstract;jsessionid=7720434416C464C19F80C29BB10704B9.d02t03 - New paper: Expanding the concept of Urban Watersheds into a 4-dimensional network:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120614182757.htm
(via @BenthosNews) - Pasadena hydrology: “A portion of the stream…may better function covered, allowing for…parking.” [Yeah, right]
http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/a-better-functioning-arroyo-seco/
(via @chanceofraincom, @LACreekFreak) - Flooding in Florida last weekend:
http://ayresriverblog.com/2012/06/15/florida-flooding/ - Largest dam removal in California history approved!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cpuc-approves-removal-of-the-san-clemente-dam-2012-06-21
(via @LizHadly) - New paper: Placer mining along the Fraser River, British Columbia: geomorphic impact
http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/124/7-8/1212.abstract?rss=1
Duluth and Northern Minnesota Flooding
- Impressive/scary video of the torrents of water flowing through the streets of Duluth, :
http://ayresriverblog.com/2012/06/21/duluth-inundated-by-record-flooding-footage/
(via @Geoblogfeed) - Some serious urban flooding and infrastructure damage in Duluth, MN
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/statewide/archive/2012/06/photos-duluth-north-shore-endures-major-flooding.shtml
(via @JacquelynGill) - Ten inches of rain, an overwhelmed storm sewer, and sinkholes – more news from Duluth, MN.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/21/flood/duluth-damage-assessment/
(via @stcNCED) - Flood causes seals in the streets of Duluth. Good roundup by Tom Pagano.
http://tompagano.blogspot.com/2012/06/flood-causes-seals-in-streets-of-duluth.html - Fantastic photos of Gooseberry River in flood on Minnesota’s north shore.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/21/disaster/photos-gooseberry-river-in-full-roar-after-record-storm/
(via @RiverladyBB)
Environmental
-
This week’s saw the Rio+20 Earth summit. As usual, hopes of the world’s governments actually agreeing to anything beyond boilerplate platitudes quickly faded.
- Rio+20 might mark a paradigm shift in the way we measure growth and wealth #climate
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/rio20-a-momentum-for-resource-economics/
(via @HeidiCullen) - Governments achieve early [but toothless] agreement at Rio summit
http://www.nature.com/news/negotiators-achieve-early-agreement-at-rio-summit-1.10861
(via @thingsbreak, @NatureNews) - “final [#Rio+20] communique is so diluted that any remedy it offers to the world can only be homeopathic”
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/06/22/analysis-rio-20-epic-fail/
(via @alicebell) - Nicholas Stern gets to the root of the problem: “Our economies consistently fail to take into account enormous value of biodiversity & the environment”
http://blogs.afp.com/geopolitics/?post/2012/06/17/The-economics-of-protecting-the-planet - Meanwhile, the stark future that awaits us if we continue to twiddle our collective thumbs is laid out by David Roberts. Although arguably, it probably should be “do something, so we might only be slightly screwed.”
http://grist.org/climate-change/climate-change-is-simple-we-do-something-or-were-screwed/ - Adding to the gloom North Carolina is continuing to be stupid about projecting sea-level rise: Science gets counterpointed with ‘la-la-la!’ and loses.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/north_carolina_costly_mistake_on_climate_change/2543
(via @geosociety) - Southern Fried Scientist explains why, contrary to the proposed NC law, linear extrapolations of sea-level rise are the stupid option.
http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=13278 - But here’s a slightly cheery counterpoint to Rio+20 gloom-cloud: How cities are responding to climate change.
http://ihrrblog.org/2012/06/22/how-cities-are-responding-to-climate-change/
(via @Geoblogfeed) - Amazing reporting on the global rise in air conditioning, and how it will make things hotter:
http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/asia/global-demand-for-air-conditioning-forces-tough-environmental-choices.htmla>
(via @hillaryrosner) - Peak planet: are we starting to consume less? [Not likely, I say]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21886-peak-planet-are-we-starting-to-consume-less.html
(via @newscientist, @coolfireconserv) - Should uninhabited, active volcanic Pagan island be used as dumping ground for tsunami debris? No!
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/06/13/japan-tsunami-debris-on-pagan-island-financial-problems-may-lead-to-a-second-environmental-mess/
General Geology
- Callan Bentley has now moved out of the city – his commute now covers 1.1 billion years!
http://blogs.agu.org/mountainbeltway/2012/06/18/my-new-commute/
(via @callanbentley) - Sandatlas has been touring Ireland: check out cool (if rainy) pics of the Giant’s Causeway, and angular Variscan folds under a nascent unconformity.
http://www.sandatlas.org/2012/06/ireland-trip/
http://www.sandatlas.org/2012/06/giants-causeway/
(via @sandatlas) - Dolomite: a carbonate that’s abundant in the geological record, yet quite rare in modern depositional settings. Why?
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/06/21/the-mysterious-microbial-origin-of-the-dolomite-mountains/ - Nice @nasa_eo images of huge landslide dam in Tibet, before slide, after slide, & after dam breach.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78293&src=eoa-iotd
Interesting Miscellaney
- More background on recent firing of Ohio State geologist over revised shale gas map. Still seems a bit dodgy to me.
http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-37136-questions-remain-about-geologistrss-removal.html - I love xckd visualisations: always quirky, yet informative. The latest: all known exoplanets, to scale
http://xkcd.com/1071/
(via @davidmpyle) - Just add magnets: scientists demonstrate oil in sea water can be made into magnetic emulsion & extracted
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18521711
(via @kwinkunks) - Nice article from on the lingering mysteries of H5N1 bird flu: #H5N1
http://www.nature.com/news/influenza-five-questions-on-h5n1-1.10874
(via @edyong209) - Greenland sharks swim less than 1 mile per hour, but still eat seals. Find out how they do it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18531924 - Fascinating account of Galapagos tortoise-donkey interactions & the scientist who documented them by @virginiahughes
http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/06/18/galapagos-monday-lynns-tortoises/ - Meet Dr. Wendy Harrison the new NSF EAR division director
http://geology.mines.edu/faculty/wharrison.html - NSF goes to 1 submission per year for Geography & Spatial Sciences, citing low funding rates
http://www.aag.org/cs/news_detail?pressrelease.id=1258
(via @deepseadawn) - This doesn’t surprise me. US students can conduct experiments but not explain results
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/06/19/naep-science-students-can-do-experiments-and-get-answers-but-cant-explain-or-justify-their-results/
(via @leonidkruglyak, @pourmecoffee) - Top 10 reasons why professors leave: elephant in the lab series
http://www.ipscell.com/2012/06/top-10-reasons-why-professors-leave-elephant-in-the-lab-series/
(via @drugmonkeyblog) - Diversity in Science, PRIDE EDITION! On the blog
http://scientopia.org/blogs/gertyz/2012/06/13/announcing-diversity-in-science-carnival-pride-edition/
(via @GertyZ) - Incredibly brave and powerful post from @maggiekb1 on miscarriage and “elective” abortion:
http://boingboing.net/2012/06/20/the-only-good-abortion-is-my-a.html
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