While one year is but a proverbial blink of the eye to those who think in geologic time, we’re still indulging in some year end reflections and looking back on our posts from 2010. On the off chance you want to look back with us, here are the first lines and links to the first posts from each month this past year.

January: Wind gaps are fossil rivers: water once flowed through these valleys, but now that water has been diverted to flow elsewhere. [On the 8th day of Christmas my true love sent to me: 8 streams reversing…, a post by Chris, part of his epic 12 days of Christmas series]

February: Today President Obama announced that in his next budget he was going to cut funding for NASA’s Constellation Program, and with it the plan to send people back to the Moon. [What is a manned space programme actually for?, a post by Chris]

March: The further back in time we go, the more and more fragmented the Earth’s geological record becomes. [Earth’s forgotten youth – and beyond, a research blogging post by Chris]

April: Late on Tuesday (or Wednesday morning local time) western China was shaken by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake. [Tectonics of the Qinghai Earthquake, a post by Chris]

May: The causes of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that has led to 5000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day being leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, and an oil slick that can be seen from space, are still murky. [Drilling for oil is more risky than it used to be, a post by Chris]

June: Welcome to the latest edition of the Accretionary Wedge geoblogging carnival. We’ve been delighted by the response to our call for your favourite geological imagery, and the number of nominations we’ve received has been matched by their diversity – images have ranged from the microscopic to continental scales, from the depths of geological time to the present day, from the igneous to the sedimentary. [Accretionary Wedge #25: An Illustrated Glossary of Cool Geologic Things, compiled by Chris and Anne from contributions by geobloggers far and wide]

July: The fossil record prior to 550 million years ago is so patchy that every discovery is going to cause some fanfare. [How do we know Gabon’s ‘multicellular’ fossils are 2.1 billion years old?, a research blogging post by Chris]

August:I’ve just spent the last few days travelling around western Scotland, with the furthest point I visited being the Scottish island of Islay. [Glacial deposits new and old in the Scottish isles, a post by Chris]

September: One year ago, Kim Hannula, Pat Campbell, Suzanne Franks, and I launched a survey about women geoscientists reading and writing in the blogosphere. [Diversity in the geosciences and the impact of social media, a research blogging post by Anne]

October: Last October, geobloggers lead by Kim Hannula, Erik Klemetti and us raised nearly $10000 for earth science education in US public schools through a fundraising challenge with DonorsChoose.org. This year we’re going to do even more to bring needed supplies, books, and field experiences to science classrooms around the US. [Teaming up with DonorsChoose to bring Earth Science to Schools, a post by Anne. To date, $1674 has been given through our challenge.]

November: Geomorphologists increasingly recognize that the way water is delivered to and moves through a hillslope, river, or landscape affects surficial processes and geomorphic form. [What do you mean by “hydrogeomorphic processes”? (Some thoughts following my GSA session on the topic.), a post by Anne]

December: It turns out that, by US standards at least, I’m quite close to the Driftless Area that Anne posted about earlier this week. But unlike that corner of Minnesota, Illinois is whatever the opposite of ‘driftless’ is: it was covered by ice 20,000 years ago, and was blanketed with a thick layer of sediment released from that ice as it melted over the next 10,000 years or so. [The flat of the land, a post by Chris]