Before we get on with the link sharing, Lockwood has issued the call for the next Accretionary Wedge Geo-carnival. The theme is
‘Important Geological Experiences’ and the submission deadline is September the 27th.
Also this week, the geology PodClast is back: episode 15 covers everything from the latest earthquake research in Tonga, Haiti and California, to the floods in Pakistan, and is now available for your listening pleasure. And Anne discusses her blogging in a nice interview in the Charlotte Observer.
Blogs in motion
Erik Klemetti’s excellent Eruptions blog, and its knowledgeable and lively community of volcano spotters, has now moved to Big Think, and another new voice has added itself to the geoblogosphere in the form of Glacial Till. It’s a good thing that there only 2 new science blogging networks launched this week, at PLoS and the Guardian, or we might not be able to keep up.
Earthquakes and Tectonics
- The big news this week is obviously Friday’s magnitude 7 tremor near Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. Chris is adding links to useful and interesting information and photos to his post about the tectonics of this earthquake.
- A geological map of the whole Himalayan Orogen.
http://suvratk.blogspot.com/2010/09/best-map-i-have-come-across-so-far-of.html
(via @Geoblogfeed)
Volcanoes
- Nice animated gif of recent eruptive activity at Etna (time-lapse, covers 4.5 hours)
http://i33.tinypic.com/30uajxt.gif
General Geology
- How the oldest continents survive: mantle roots of cratons persist because they are dry.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/asu-wie090210.php - Low velocity zones at core mantle boundary may not be partially melted regions but a "squishy" iron-magnesium oxide?
http://www.physorg.com/news202645104.html - Microbial pyrite munching boosts coastal erosion? Interesting…
http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/Beamlines/I18/casestudies/study5.html
(via @SophieLNixon, @DiamondLightSou) - A potted history of creationism by, via @callanbentley‘s book review of Ron Number’s The Creationists. I wonder if many evangelical Christians know that their ‘literal’ reading of Genesis comes from the 7th Day Adventists?
http://mountainbeltway.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/creationists-numbers
Environmental
- How Peak Oil might effect economic growth in China. Good to see an analysis that looks beyond the Western economies.
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/136894-the-peak-oil-crisis-prospects-for - Adm Thad Allen: in hindsight BP could have shut down the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in weeks, not months (if they had cut off the riser…)
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/09/thad_allen_in_hindsight_bp_mig.html
(via @craigtimes) - Time lapse video of Earth from International Space Station. [Day, night, cities, aurorae]
http://youtu.be/CyHiMORy9tU
(via @gravelbar, @LeeBillings) - Researchers Fight To Save Fruit Seed Bank In Russia. Destroying it will be an incalculable loss to science.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129499099&f=1007
(via @nprscience )
Water
- 3 years later, SC may settle with NC over water rights to the Catawba River. In a case that has reached the Supreme Court, maybe the two sides are talking again?
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/01/1658900/sc-may-seek-settlement-of-catawba.html
(via @watercrunch) - How deforestation contributed to destruction in Pakistan’s floods, as less vegetation to soak up rain & stop erosion and more logs to bash into things during the floods.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/29-0
(via @rivrchik)
Interesting Miscellaney
- The curious chimeric ecosystem of Ascension Island – a creation of Darwin, Joseph Hooker & the Royal Navy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11137903 - This seems to be begging for augmented reality app: the ancient Greeks painted their statues, and not subtly either!
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/true-colors.html - Better Posters: Poster Venn. A riff on the brilliant xckd comic on university websites. Totally agree on the emphasis, although I don’t think you should completely bin affiliations and funding bodies (who have, after all, paid for it all) or contact details (since your poster will be there when you are not)…
http://betterposters.blogspot.com/2010/09/poster-venn.html
(via @BoraZ) - Fascinating stuff: why Noam Chomsky’s ‘innate grammar’ concept of language may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
http://scientopia.org/blogs/childsplay/2010/09/butsciencedoesntworkthatway/ - Read this if you don’t understand why we still need feminism. Share this if you do:
http://thenewagenda.net/2010/08/25/20-reasons-why-we-still-need-the-%E2%80%9Cf%E2%80%9D-word/ - Finally, it’s Sunday. Are you away from lab? @DavidKroll hopes so – it’s OK with him. Anne applauds.
http://cenblog.org/terra-sigillata/2010/08/29/does-it-matter-to-your-p-i-what-you-did-this-weekend/
Nice plan for content warnings on Mastodon and the Fediverse. Now you need a Mastodon/Fediverse button on this blog.