The Sunday link-fest has returned, although it’s just me this week as Anne has been busy preparing for, and travelling to attend, the GSA Conference in Minneapolis. Here are the most interesting items I found in my travels around the internet in the last seven days:
Earthquakes & Volcanoes
- The crux of L’Aquila quake trial: always a risk, but probability always low over timescales people are interested in.
http://nyti.ms/pnnGwn - Short lived earthquake swarm beneath Katla in Iceland last night: @eruptionsblog has the details
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/earthquake-swarm-keeps-icelands-katla-rocking/
Fossils
- Fascinating post from @Laelaps on how teeth seem to be the key to unravelling whale evolution
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/evolutionary-treasures-locked-in-the-teeth-of-early-whales/
Planets
- New in debate over original source of Earth’s water: Comet Hartley 2 contains water isotopically similar to oceans
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15181123 - Some fascinating info & pictures from the MESSENGER Mercury orbiter, courtesy of Emily Lakdawalla.
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003211/ - The IAU will love this: Dawn PI describes the asteroid Vesta as the “smallest terrestrial planet in the solar system”.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/334916/title/Miniplanet_sports_megapeak
(via @alexwitze)
General Geology
- Wow. This video of a cliff collapsing into the sea in Cornwall has to be seen to be believed.
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2011/10/07/watch-this-surely-the-very-best-ever-cliff-collapse-video/
(via @daveslandslides) - Cool limestone outcropology from http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/friday-field-photo-157-evidence-of-a-500-million-year-old-storm/
- Odd but effective: annoyingly catchy & informative music video about Earth’s internal structure. Warning: press play at your own risk of ear worms!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9j1xGaxYzY&feature=player_embedded - A record of a complicated tectonic history: lithospheric thickness sharply varies from 25-60 miles under California
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-scientists-reveal-southern-california-tectonic.html - Heh. The Geological Society of London blog considers what makes a good volcanic lair for the aspiring evil genius.
http://geolsoc.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/top-5-volcanic-lairs-for-evil-geologists/ - Geotourism as a force for economic good: NPR covers the Mistaken Pt Ediacarans in Newfoundland
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/04/141044355/fossils-help-rev-hard-hit-newfoundland-fishing-area
(via @callanbentley) - Some beautiful photos of highly metamorphosed rocks in outcrop in Norway
http://mentemalleo.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/mishmash-in-the-earths-crust/
And while you’re looking at metamorphic rocks, check out this primer from Metageologist
http://all-geo.org/metageologist/2011/10/metamorphism-pressure-temperature-time-paths/ - Not in the career guide, but it should be: ‘field geophysicists are hybrid offspring of MacGuyver & a James Bond villian’
http://www.geomika.com/blog/2011/10/02/job-geophysicist/
(Paleo)climate
- This NOAA animation of Arctic ice cover since 1987 superbly highlights recent dramatic fall in multi-year ice
http://www.climatewatch.noaa.gov/video/2011/old-ice-becoming-rare-in-arctic
(via @NatureGeosci)
In the scary present, 2011 Arctic sea ice melt neared record 2007 lows even without weather extremes that drove the previous minimum.
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2011/100411.html
(via @NSIDC_ArcticIce) - The geochemical arguments over what was going on in the Neoproterozoic & the Snowball Earth get ever more complicated: this new paper argues it was actually not that cold…
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v478/n7367/full/nature10499.html
Environmental
- How even very smart people can do something dumb. A pro-geoengineering panel wrangles over a more focus-group friendly moniker.
http://thinkprogress.org/?p=336676
(via @climateprogress)
Following the money behind this panel also finds some strange bedfellows:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/oct/06/us-push-geoengineering
(via @alicebell) - Arctic ozone hole breaks all records Weirdly, the cold air that caused it may be due to climate change
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20988-arctic-ozone-hole-breaks-all-records.html
(via @m_c_marshall) - Flagship UK carbon capture project ‘close to collapse’. CCS is fast becoming the nuclear fusion of the green economy (as in the potential is being touted far in advance of proving it can be practically harnessed).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/06/carbon-capture-project-longannet-collapse
Interesting Miscellaney
- Dana Hunter on the legacy of Steve Jobs: “I’ll be able to bloody well do field geology on a f***ing phone.”
http://freethoughtblogs.com/entequilaesverdad/2011/10/06/steve-was-all-right/ - A lesson from Sherlock Holmes: “Often, our mind conflates the world and our own interpretation of it.” Part of a fascinating series at Scientific American blogs.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/10/04/lessons-from-sherlock-holmes-trust-in-the-facts-not-your-version-of-them/
(via @JenLucPiquant) - Something to cheer me up following England’s exit from the Rugby World Cup: Rugby and bad statistics get amusingly mashed up.
hhttp://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/on-statistics/ - Observation, Observation, Observation x2: Six ways to never get lost in a city again
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15125287
(via @WanderingGaia) - What key ingredients make a good poster presentation? A compelling graphic from
http://betterposters.blogspot.com/2011/10/mostly-right.html
(via @andyfarke, @DoctorZen) - Brilliant. The 3 things I learned at the Purdue Conf for Pre-Tenure Women: On being a radical scholar:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-variation/2011/10/07/the-three-things-i-learned-at-the-purdue-conference-for-pre-tenure-women-on-being-a-radical-scholar/
(by @KateClancy)
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