Earthquakes
- Nice commentary on the aftermath of the latest Christchurch earthquakes; with some interesting geological information.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/5161630/A-rubbish-week - 18 months after Haiti quake, many still living in tents or ‘transitional’ shelters (‘slightly better tents’)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCyPZAKUq7WITsjipX2VG5d-4Jeg
No surprise, then, that people feel a bit jittery and panic when a noticeable aftershock hits (only a 3.2 but enough to cause some shaking.).
http://defend.ht/news/articles/environment/1304-32-earthquake-felt-in-port-au-prince-dozens-injured-in-panic - Sadly, the morons claiming scaremongering in the comments to this (actually very good) piece on Cascadia quake will be the first to whine for compensation in the aftermath when the inevitable happens.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/06/experts_say_an_earthquake_sure.html - Hard compacted sediments in Sumatra trench allowed the 2004 rupture to propagate closer to surface, making a bigger tsunami?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110622162320.htm
Volcanoes
- Gorgeous picture of meltwater-filled crater lake left by Grímsvötn eruption
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=51156
(via @NASA_EO, @eruptionsblog) - Pictures of Volcanic Ash and Pumice From Puyehue from In Focus at The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/06/volcanic-ash-and-pumice-from-puyehue/100088/ - Great image of new lava from Nabro in Eritrea from Nasa Earth observatory.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=51135
Some of the geologists on Twitter teamed up to add some interpretation:
http://geotweeps-discuss.tumblr.com/post/6778288037/nabro-eruption-from-space - Anyone interested in the tectonic processes driving earthquake and volcanic activity in the Afar region should check out this superb discussion by Alex Witze.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/331389/title/Death_of_a_Continent,_Birth_of_an_Ocean_ - More volcanology by satellite in Brian Romans’ post on a pyroclastic flow caught in the act.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/pyroclastic-flow-caught-in-the-act/
Fossils
- Always fascinating to read backstory of fossils you’ve seen ‘in the flesh’: Brian Switek on Harvard’s "Plasterosaurus"
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/the-frustrating-legacy-of-plasterosaurus/
(Paleo)climate
- RealClimate asks: what if the Sun went into a new Grand Minimum? Rejoice! We’ll only heat up by 3.7C instead of 4!
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2011/06/what-if-the-sun-went-into-a-new-grand-minimum/ - Tamino examines Arctic sea-ice volume record (thickness as well as extent): if anything the decline is even more pronounced than it is if you just look at area.
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/sea-ice-3-d/ - Excellent Eruptions post on study that demolishes ‘but volcanoes emit more CO2!’ anti-AGW canard.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/38998
Water
- Note: Flood links will be coming in a separate round-up post later today or tomorrow.
- New post on Anne’s lab blog: Getting good stream temperature measurements without losing your probes!
http://hydrogeo.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/getting-good-stream-temperature-measurements-without-losing-your-probes/ - Fantastic demo of a cheap, home-built water level indicator from Matt Kuchta
http://pascals-puppy.blogspot.com/2011/06/thurs-demo-one-on-friday-for.html - On The Landslide Blog, Dave has posted two riverbank collapse videos. They are great images of a common, but rarely seen process.
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2011/06/14/two-riverbank-collapse-videos-dont-miss-these/ - Maps of Mississippi River delta showing sediment concentration from @NASA_EO
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51167
(via @clasticdetritus) - "Dammed if you do" at Through The Sandglass on the Digital Water Atlas
http://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2011/06/dammed-if-you-do.html - Dams May Be Rated for Environmental and Social Impacts Under New Agreement:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=dams-rated-for-environmental-social-impacts
(via @BoraZ) - Court suspends Chile dam works. Hooray!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-138512 - More Dangerous Than Nuclear Power: The Floods Caused by Aging Dams [Anne says: Yes, old dams can be very dangerous, but this was a poor article. If you read it, please read the comment thread where I and others take the author to task.]
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=more-dangerous-than-nuclear-power-t-2011-06-17&posted=1#comment-09 - Here’s a dangerous old dam, with leakage, on a fault, and upstream of Reno
http://www.geologyinmotion.com/2011/06/why-old-dams-are-dangerous-martis-creek.html - Fabulously awful, from LA Creek Freak: Fake Creek of the Week:
https://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/fake-creek-of-the-week/
(via @chanceofraincom)
Environmental
- Good news! planned road across Serengeti National Park – that would have seriously impeded animal migrations – has been cancelled.
hhttp://news.mongabay.com/2011/0623-hance_serengeti_road.html
(via @mongabay) - Graphite coated ‘Super sand’ could help treat drinking water at low cost:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-138950 - Cumulative impact of human actions on the ocean via fishing, pollution, climate change worse than realised.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13796479
(via @NatureGeosci)
Planets
- Interesting Nature News piece on deliberations over landing site for Curiosity Mars rover. Lots of interesting targets but only one rover, sadly.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110623/full/news.2011.380.html - That day the Genesis solar wind probe crashed in Utah, who’d a thunk it’d accomplish its #science goals? http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/331820/title/Spacecraft_goes_from_crash_landing_to_mission_accomplished__
(by @alexwitze)
General Geology
- An abundance of fabulous geological words are being discussed in entries for the upcoming Accretionary Wedge, which looks like it’s going to be a cracker. On Earth Science Erratics, Simon Wellings nominates porphyroblast, but also talks about Porphyroclasts and glomeroporphyritic textures. Syllables galore!
http://all-geo.org/erratics/2011/06/aw35-porphyroblast/
Although Brian Romans has possibly beaten everyone with the barely believable ‘geophantasmogram’.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/06/my-favorite-geology-word-geophantasmogram/
But Chris’s favourite so far has to be Dana Hunter’s sublime ode to the subduction zone
http://entequilaesverdad.blogspot.com/2011/06/seduction-of-subduction.html - Lots of pretty pictures of Arches National Park from Dave Munger
http://wordmunger.com/?p=1502&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter - "Rheology" an ugly word to describe a pretty concept, by @mikamckinnon
http://www.geomika.com/blog/2011/06/24/rheology/ - Evelyn Mervine’s geology word of the week, “D is for Delta”, brings to mind the fantastic collection of delta images on Pathological Geomorphology last spring:
http://georneys.blogspot.com/2011/06/geology-word-of-week-d-is-for-delta.html
http://geopathology.posterous.com/?sort=&search=delta - Pawn of the Pumice Castle: Kata Tjuta – the forgotten sibling [Sadly, Anne didn’t get to go there, because of a flood.]
http://pumicecastle.blogspot.com/2011/06/kata-tjuta-forgotten-sibling.html
Interesting Miscellaney
- Fascinating stuff."coconut DNA preserves a record of human cultivation, voyages of exploration, trade and colonization"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110624142037.htm - 330 books from Charles Darwin’s library have been digitized, with full transcriptions of his annotations
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/collection/darwinlibrary
(via @alexismadrigal, @mocost) - Some good ideas in Elsevier’s paleontology ‘articles of the future’; especially like option to download figure data
http://www.articleofthefuture.com/paleontology - Dear Emma B: or, how to talk to children, by @pzmyers
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/06/dear_emma_b.php
(via @BoraZ)
Nice plan for content warnings on Mastodon and the Fediverse. Now you need a Mastodon/Fediverse button on this blog.