After some discussion, Anne and I are putting Highly Allochthonous on hiatus whilst we consider our future here on Scienceblogs.
This decision is not made lightly. But the events of the last 24 hours have forced us to consider whether we can continue to contribute here without damaging our public and professional credibility.
Seed Media run this space and can therefore invite whoever they want to contribute to it; but allowing the employees of a major multinational to blog, not in a personal capacity, but on behalf of that multinational, raises serious questions about impartiality and conflicts of interest that, as scientists, we find hard to ignore. However, regardless of how the current furore is resolved, it has merely added to our feeling that although we have both enjoyed, and benefited immensely from, our time here at Scienceblogs, the network is moving in a direction that we may not want to follow.
Hutton’s Unconfomity, Siccar Point. Here, deposition began again after some time and upheaval…
No long-term decision has been made on future blogging, except there will be future blogging, at some place on the Internet. Hopefully you will join us again when we work out where that will be.
On this hot, hot day, when much of the eastern United States is beset by a record-breaking heat wave, what could be more refreshing than a nice cold, fresh bottle of water?
After all, that’s exactly what is recommended by CDC health officials for prevention of heat-related illness:
Drink more fluids (nonalcoholic), regardless of your activity level. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. Warning: If your doctor generally limits the amount of fluid you drink or has you on water pills, ask him how much you should drink while the weather is hot. Don’t drink liquids that contain alcohol or large amounts of sugar-these actually cause you to lose more body fluid. Also, avoid very cold drinks, because they can cause stomach cramps.
But, maybe, before you pass by the sink on your way to the fridge to get that nice bottle of water, you should watch this video…
This video was brought to mind this morning as I filled several liters of reusable water bottles with tap water in preparation for heading out into the field. It was also brought to mind by the newest Scienceblogs advertorial blog, Pepsico. In addition to being a major manufacturer of those sugary drinks the CDC is warning you not to drink on hot days, Pepsi is also a major producer of bottled water. Their Aquafina brand of bottled water is filtered, municipal tap water. But while muncipal water supplies are required to report their water quality and comply with federal drinking water standards, much fewer regulations exist around the quality of bottled water. So while there are some places where there are legitimate reasons for people to drink bottled water (e.g., lead pipes, pollution from coal mining or natural gas extraction), for the vast majority of Americans, there is no health benefit to drinking bottled water over municipal tap water.
Honestly, though, bottled municipal tap water doesn’t bother me as much as bottled spring water, where the springs and the aquatic ecosystems that depend on them can be destroyed in pursuit of the mythical pureness (and retail power) of spring water. While the bottled water industry will assure you that their groundwater consumption is much less than 1% of the national total groundwater withdrawals, the effects of those withdrawals are localized and not distributed around the country evenly. Finally, it doesn’t take much analysis to understand why buying bottled water from Fiji, an island in the tropical Pacific where a shallow freshwater lens will be irrevocably contaminated by salt water intrusion by overpumping of the aquifer, is a ridiculously bad idea.
For more on this topic, you might consider reading Peter Gleick’s book, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water.
So, today, drink plenty of tap water and stay cool!
One of the blogging commandments should probably be: know thy readers! Therefore we are following the example of Janet, DrugMonkey and various others (who are themselves riffing from Ed Yong’s original idea) and asking you, our readers, to tell us a little about yourselves.
Who are you? Academic or professional geologist, student, enthusiastic rockhound, general browser?
What’s your level of science education? Postgraduate, undergraduate, school, dropped it like a hot potato at earliest opportunity?
What originally brought you to this blog, and what keeps you coming back (if indeed, you intend to)?
Which of the topics covered here do you particularly enjoy? Is there anything you tend to skip?
Are there any topics that would you like us to write about more often?
If you lurk rather than commenting, are you content with that? Are there conditions that you think might suck you into commenting?
If you could ask us to write one post explaining one basic concept in earth science, what would that concept be?
And finally, we have to ask: which is better, water or rocks?
This is a bit of an experiment. People seem to quite appreciate my posts that place significant earthquakes in their tectonic context (e.g. #1, #2, #3). However, I can’t write a detailed post for every single one. So I’m wondering if it might be worth producing a brief weekly summary of any significant earthquakes, showing their focal mechanisms together with a brief tectonic interpretation. Below I do this for all magnitude 6+ earthquakes reported by the USGS in the past seven days. The format is admittedly a bit unpolished right now, but I’m interested if you’d be interested in me making this a regular feature.
Saturday 26 June: M 6.7, Solomon Islands, Depth 35 km
A transpressional focal mechanism, with mostly NE-SW compression. The direction of shortening is consistent with the NE subduction of the Australian plate beneath the Pacific plate under the Solomon Islands. Historical seismicity suggests that this quake occured near the subduction interface.
(USGS page)
Wednesday 30 June: M 6.3, S of Fiji, Depth 536 km
Focal mechanism indicates extension. The great depth of the rupture, and it’s location behind the Tonga Kermadec arc, suggests it occurred far down dip on the subducting Pacific Plate, which is stretching under its own weight as it sinks deeper into the mantle.
(USGS page)
Wednesday 30 June: M 6.2, Oaxaca, Mexico, Depth 20 km
Focal mechanism indicates NE-SW compression. This is consistent with the convergence direction of the subduction zone off the west coast of Mexico (Cocos plate subducting beneath the North American plate), but the rupture is too shallow to be associated with the subduction thrust itself. This earthquake is likely caused by strain transferred across the locked subduction boundary is being accommodated by thrust faulting in the overriding plate.
(USGS page)
Friday 2 July: M 6.3, Vanuatu, SW Pacific, Depth 34 km
Focal mechanism indicates E-W compression. In this region, the Australian plate is subducting to the east beneath the Pacific plate, and the depth of the rupture is consistent with it being a thrust close to the subduction interface.
(USGS page)
Nice plan for content warnings on Mastodon and the Fediverse. Now you need a Mastodon/Fediverse button on this blog.
For lot's more videos on soil moisture topics, see Drs Selker and Or's text-book support videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoMb5YOZuaGtn8pZyQMSLuQ/playlists
[…] Announcing STORMS | Highly Allochthonous on Recent News […]
After some discussion, Anne and I are putting Highly Allochthonous on hiatus whilst we consider our future here on Scienceblogs.
Nice plan for content warnings on Mastodon and the Fediverse. Now you need a Mastodon/Fediverse button on this blog.