August 2014 on EARTH Magazine

Down to Earth With: Kerry Sieh

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 12:09:58 -0400

After more than 30 years as a professor and researcher at Caltech, earthquake geologist Kerry Sieh (pronounced “sea”) surprised his colleagues when he pulled up stakes in 2008 for a rare opportunity in Southeast Asia to be the founding director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

Down to Earth With: Tom Malloy

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:23:38 -0400

In a century of mining, the Berkeley Pit and underground mines produced more than 290 million metric tons of copper ore and more than 635 million metric tons of waste rock. Credit: Drew Cramer.

Tom Malloy holds open a gate to the Diamond Mine headframe (behind) surrounded by mine waste. Credit: Brianna Mills.

Butte, Mont., is home to one of the nation’s largest Superfund sites — a 300-meter-deep lake of acidic, heavy metal-contaminated water known as the Berkeley Pit. As the reclamation manager of Butte-Silver Bow County, it’s Tom Malloy’s job to help clean it up.

Infrasound reveals lava lake levels

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 18:58:48 -0400

Only rarely can scientists get a view of the lava lake atop Villarrica volcano. Credit: Greg Waite.

The rises and falls of volcanic lava lakes are not easily tracked, especially when the lakes aren’t visible from crater rims. But recently, researchers found a way to monitor the lava lake at Chile’s Villarrica volcano using complementary methods to keep an eye on a feature they can’t always see.

Human-induced earthquakes shake less

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 12:16:09 -0400

Occurrences of earthquakes in the Central and Eastern United States have increased since 2009 — a phenomenon that many scientists attribute to the growing use of hydraulic fracturing for fossil fuel extraction. Most agree that it’s not the fracturing itself, but the reinjection of wastewater into wells for containment beneath the surface that tends to induce seismic activity. Now, new research looking at the effects of induced seismic activity suggests that human-made earthquakes and naturally occurring tectonic earthquakes are felt differently at the surface.

Natural arsenic levels in Ohio soils exceed regulatory standards

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 10:44:13 -0400

A new study in which all 842 soil samples taken in Ohio had more arsenic than recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) raises the question of what to do when natural background levels in the environment exceed limits set to protect ecosystems and human health.

Africa's impact is one that even the dinosaurs would have seen coming

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:37:46 -0400

An artist's rendering of an asteroid impacting Earth. Credit: NASA/Don Davis.

The crater left by the infamous Chicxulub asteroid responsible for finishing off the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, was more than 19 kilometers deep and 177 kilometers in diameter. Those dimensions correspond to a huge energy release estimated at 100 teratons of TNT, but that’s puny compared to an impact that struck South Africa’s Barberton Greenstone Belt about 3.26 billion years ago. Now, researchers have estimated just how big that massive asteroid was and the catastrophic effect it might have had on Earth and its budding plate tectonic system.

Unprecedented low water-vapor levels detected on exoplanets

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 15:57:13 -0400

Illustration of a 'hot Jupiter' exoplanet orbiting its star. Credit: Haven Giguere, Nikku Madhusudhan.

Dust surrounding a star coalesces into larger particles, spinning and building over a million years or more to create the beginning of a planet. This is part of the widely accepted core-accretion theory of planet formation. As planetesimals combine into a planet, surrounding gases are attracted by the gravity of the new planet, forming the planet’s new atmosphere. According to the theory, oxygen, in the form of water vapor in the atmosphere, will be the most abundant element present on the planet. However, recent discoveries have raised questions about the commonly held understanding of the processes involved in planet formation.

Geomedia: 'Dinosaur 13' chisels away at the story behind discovery of Sue

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 14:56:42 -0400

'Dinosaur 13' opens in theaters Friday, Aug. 15.

As the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, “Sue” is an icon. She even has her own logo and her own Twitter account. Sue made history in the early 1990s, and not just for being a major paleontological discovery: The human drama that unfolded afterward is the focus of the 2002 book “Rex Appeal,” and, now, the subject of a new documentary, “Dinosaur 13,” to be released in theaters Aug. 15.

Benchmarks: August 15, 1984 & August 21, 1986: African killer lakes erupt

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:23:07 -0400

In August 1986, a carbon dioxide eruption from Lake Nyos in Cameroon killed more than 1,700 people. This photo was taken in early September 1986 by U.S. Geological Survey scientists studying the disaster. Credit: USGS.

Only three lakes in the world are known to explosively release dissolved gases from their bottom waters. All three are in Africa; two have erupted with deadly consequences.

Floating nuclear plants may be safer from tsunamis

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:16:33 -0400

Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI.

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake just off the coast of Tohoku, Japan, set off a devastating tsunami that swamped the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex on the coast northeast of Tokyo. Backup generators failed, triggering nuclear meltdowns in three reactors that could no longer be cooled.

Sunken logs a delicacy for ocean bottom-feeders

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:03:23 -0400

Wood isn’t often on the menu for deep sea-dwelling critters, but for some species, there’s nothing like a tasty tree stump for dinner. Five years after leaving bundles of Acacia wood 3,200 meters deep at the bottom of Monterey Canyon off the central California coast, biologists retrieved the bundles with a remotely operated vehicle and found that some hosted diverse colonies of organisms.

Volcanic ash feed southern ocean plankton

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:54:55 -0400

Technicians aboard the British RRS James Cook retrieve a seawater sampling device in the Southern Ocean. Credit: Gideon Henderson.

Ash plumes from volcanoes in South America and elsewhere may spur large blooms of plankton in otherwise barren parts of the Southern Ocean, but maybe not for the reason scientists have suspected, according to a new study. Such blooms are of interest because they consume atmospheric carbon dioxide, although their overall effect on climate remains far from clear.

The subcontinent's sturdy mammals

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:40:11 -0400

The spotted deer, or chital (Axis axis), has inhabited parts of India for most of the last 200,000 years. Credit: ©Yathin S. Krishnappa, CC BY-SA 3.0.

India is home to some hardy mammals, according to a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers reported that 20 of 21 mammalian taxa identified from fossils found in southern India have survived on the subcontinent over at least the last 100,000 years, with some lineages stretching back twice that long.

Extra rib may be sign of mammoth decline

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:36:28 -0400

High rates of a congenital defect in woolly mammoths may offer evidence that inbreeding and environmental stress contributed to the animals’ demise during the Late Pleistocene, according to a new analysis of fossil mammoth neck bones.

South American fossils offer revised view of Gondwana assembly

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:31:25 -0400

An Archaeonassa trace fossil identified in carbonate rocks from the Bambuí Group in Brazil is thought to have been left by an organism during the Late Ediacaran. Credit: Lucas Warren.

Fossils of a known age have been found for the first time in rocks in Brazil that, although long-studied, had previously eluded scientists’ attempts to pinpoint their age. The discovery of the marine animals dates the rocks to 550 million years ago, researchers say, offering important insights into the geological evolution and timing of the assembly of the former supercontinent Gondwana.

Warm river water melted Arctic sea ice

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 11:10:25 -0400

Sea-ice extent and open-water surface temperatures in the Beaufort Sea changed dramatically between June 14 (left) and July 5, 2012 (right), during which the barrier of "landfast" sea ice blocking the mouth of the Mackenzie River (left image, bottom) gave way. Credit: NASA.

In September 2012, the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice was the smallest on record since satellite monitoring began in 1979. Several factors are thought to have contributed to that summer’s diminished ice, including a large cyclone in August that brought warmer ocean waters into the area and broke up the ice and a longer-term trend of thinning and weakening sea ice. Now, researchers have found that at least one large burst of warm freshwater into the Arctic earlier in the summer probably played a role as well.

Longer season for Rocky Mountain wildflowers

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 10:56:22 -0400

The Rocky Mountains. Credit: Public domain.

A nearly 40-year study of Rocky Mountain wildflower phenology has found that almost two-thirds of species have changed their blooming patterns in response to climate change. Flowers are blooming earlier each spring and lasting longer each fall, but not all species are reacting similarly.

New model predicts pumice drift patterns

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 10:45:29 -0400

In July 2012, the Havre volcano in the remote southwestern Pacific erupted, creating a raft of pumice that covered more than 400 square kilometers of ocean. Despite the raft’s massive size, the event went unreported for three weeks, until a passenger aboard a New Zealand-bound plane noticed the floating mass from above.

Acid oceans followed Chicxulub impact

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 10:36:16 -0400

The proposed mechanism by which the oceans could have been acidified within days after the Chicxulub impact 65.5 million years ago. Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI.

Within days after the massive Chicxulub impact that ended the Cretaceous Period 65.5 million years ago, a deluge of acid rain may have turned Earth’s ocean surfaces into suddenly inhospitable homes for a multitude of microorganisms, ultimately pushing them to extinction, according to a new study.

Changing the landscape: Geoscientists embrace 3-D printing

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 09:59:19 -0400

Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI.

Franciszek Hasiuk prints T. rex skulls in Iowa State University's school colors using a 3-D printer. He uses these and other printed "fossils" for teaching and outreach. Credit: Franciszek Hasiuk.

In a modest, low-slung room tucked in the back of Oregon State University’s Pacific Slope Archaeological Laboratory, a small box sits quietly buzzing on a countertop and hiccuping each time the mechanical arm inside abruptly changes direction. Behind the box’s clear walls, an object has started to take shape. It looks something like a lumpy plastic pancake, but closer inspection reveals sharp edges and a scalloped surface. It is actually a half-finished replica of an arrowhead excavated from Cooper’s Ferry, Idaho, an idyllic spot along the Salmon River inhabited by early North Americans 13,000 years ago. The box producing it — a 3-D printer called a Replicator 2, designed by the Brooklyn-based company, MakerBot — is much newer.

Getting there & getting around the Aussie Outback

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 12:34:20 -0400

The Red Center’s gateway airports are Alice Springs and Ayers Rock/Uluru. Neither hosts direct flights from the U.S. but both are well connected to Sydney, Australia’s primary international arrival point, and other major Australian cities.

Distances in the Outback are vast; renting your own wheels is by far the most convenient way to get around, although petrol is very expensive (we paid up to US$8.25 per gallon). Both gateway airports offer a good selection of rental cars, including four-wheel-drive vehicles, from major international companies.

Travels in Geology: Aussie Outback Adventure

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 11:33:54 -0400

Australia, having experienced little recent tectonic activity, is the world’s lowest and flattest continent on average. But don’t take that to mean it’s geologically boring. It is this very quiescence that has ensured the preservation of a remarkable record of early-Earth events on the continent: from mineral grains only slightly younger than the planet itself, to a glacial event so severe that geologists call it “Snowball Earth,” to an unparalleled record of life’s early evolution. To see the ancient rocks that hold this record, you must leave the comparatively lush coastal strip — home to 90 percent of Australia’s population — and venture into the vast, arid interior wilderness known as the Outback.

Down to Earth With: Chris Strong

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 10:56:24 -0400

Chris Strong (right), the warning coordination meteorologist, and Steven Zubrick, science and operations officer, from the National Weather Service's Baltimore-Washington, D.C., forecast office after a winter weather briefing with White House staff. Credit: Chris Strong.

Being a weatherman is sometimes a thankless job, particularly when forecasts don’t pan out as expected. But the two-fold task of meteorologists — predicting the course and severity of impending weather events, and clearly communicating those predictions to a broad audience — is a vital one. This is especially true when you’re part of the group that so many people, including other forecasters, turn to as the primary source for weather information and insight: the National Weather Service (NWS).

Benchmarks: September 1, 1957: Fossil Cycad National Monument is dissolved

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 10:29:17 -0400

On Sept. 1, 1957, with the stroke of a pen, the U.S. Congress declared Fossil Cycad National Monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota to be no more. At one time, the site held the world’s largest collection of rare fossil cycad-like plants that thrived during the Cretaceous. Over the years, mismanagement, vandalism and theft left the site barren of fossils — the site never had a staff or visitor center, and was never opened to the public. The site’s initial designation as a national monument, in October 1922, had been brought about by the crusading of one man, Yale University paleobotanist George R. Wieland; in the end, he was also responsible for its demise.

Energy Notes: March 2013-2014

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 10:11:15 -0400

Credit: The American Geosciences Institute.

U.S. Oil & Petroleum Imports (million of barrels per day)

' Oil and petroleum imports data are preliminary numbers taken from the American Petroleum Institute’s Monthly Statistical Report. For more information visit www.api.org.

Mineral Resource of the Month: Arsenic

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 10:02:57 -0400

The most common arsenic-containing minerals are arsenopyrite, realgar and orpiment (shown here). ©Elke Wetzig, CC BY-SA 3.0.

George Bedinger, mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, prepared the following information on arsenic.

Geologic Column: How T. rex got its street cred back

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:50:15 -0400

©J.M.Lujit, cc-by-2.5-nl licentie van auteur.

You wake up hungry in the middle of the night and remember that chunk of Spam in the refrigerator. You sneak down, ease open the fridge door and find that, embedded in said Spam, is a set of dentures. How do you react? With a Brando-esque utterance of “the horror, the horror”? Of course not; you have scientific smarts to fall back on.

Comment: Energy 360: Let science speak, not agendas

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:13:51 -0400

Credit: ©shutterstock.com/MilaSupinskaya.

Ideally, science is objective and without bias. But realistically, some bias, in the form of predetermined inclination, is unavoidable. Unfortunately, science can be used naïvely, without understanding its limitations, or shrewdly, to manipulate an issue. Such use of science by nonscientists, often to gain political advantage, is worrisome. More troubling is when scientists themselves become activists. There are times when scientists feel morally or ethically obligated to speak out, and they are, of course, free to do so. But without proper context, disclosure of bias and potential conflicts of interest, the risk is great that politicians, the media and the public will have trouble distinguishing where scientific objectivity stops and activism begins. Thus, transparency is essential.

Comment: The search for clarity on climate change

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:34:41 -0400

Credit: ©Shutterstock.com/JohnWollwerth

Straightforward scientific conclusions about climate change often fail to reach policymakers and the broader society. Climate scientists need to revise their communication strategies to close the vast gap in understanding that persists between what is known about climate change and how the public perceives the issue.

Energy Notes: February 2013-2014

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:55:26 -0400

Credit: The American Geosciences Institute

U.S. Oil & Petroleum Imports (million of barrels per day)

' Oil and petroleum imports data are preliminary numbers taken from the American Petroleum Institute’s Monthly Statistical Report. For more information visit www.api.org.

Mineral Resource of the Month: Peat

Tue, 29 Jul 2014 13:20:33 -0400

Lori E. Apodaca, mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, prepared the following information on peat, which is used primarily for horticulture in the U.S.

Although most peat is used in horticultural applications, it is still cut into blocks and used as fuel, as shown here at a peat bog in Ireland. Credit: ©markjhandel/CC-BY-2.0.

Peat is an organic material formed from the incomplete decomposition of plant matter under anaerobic conditions. Over thousands of years, layers accumulate at a rate of about 0.5 to 1 millimeter per year. Water sources and chemistry influence the type and decomposition of vegetation in peat ecosystems like bogs and fens, from which peat is harvested.

Mars Monthly

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:52:05 -0400

The high-elevation Tharsis region appears in shades of red and brown in this topographic map produced with data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter aboard NASA's now-defunct Mars Global Surveyor. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University.

Thousands of kilometers across and bulging to elevations of almost 10 kilometers, the Tharsis region on Mars hosts several massive volcanoes and straddles the border between the planet’s northern lowlands and southern highlands. Some scientists have postulated that the bulge resulted from a stationary hot spot, or plume, of warmer-than-normal mantle rock beneath it, but a new study supports a competing idea that the hot spot migrated to its present position. Karina Cheung and Scott King of Virginia Tech University identified a plume pathway, based on measurements of crustal thickness and surface topography, from Mars’ south pole to the current Tharsis bulge. The pathway is characterized by thick crust underlying a relatively smooth stretch of surface that stands out from the surrounding pockmarked surface, and which may have resulted as plume-powered volcanism wiped out craters as it traveled north. The researchers noted in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets that the presumed Tharsis hot spot track resembles the path left by the Yellowstone plume as it has migrated under the western U.S.

A real rift in the midcontinent

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:44:06 -0400

Analogs for the various life stages of the Midcontinent Rift can be seen today. The early rift looked like today's East African Rift, with major plates pulling apart, separated by microplates. At middle age, it was similar to the West Central African Rift, where faulting during the opening of the South Atlantic during the Mesozoic created four microplates. Looking at the progression could help geologists understand how the Midcontinent Rift evolved, says co-author Seth Stein, a geophysicist at Northwestern University. Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI.

But now, Carol Stein of the University of Illinois at Chicago and her colleagues have offered a new possibility. Stein and colleagues suggest the Midcontinent Rift was related to the breakup of a supercontinent and to the early stages of a young ocean basin opening — similar to what is happening today in East Africa’s Great Rift Valley — that preceded the Atlantic. The findings could have implications for how geologists view early plate tectonics, and cast new light on the New Madrid Fault Zone, formed 500 million years later and home to earthquake-producing faults in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee that seriously rocked the region in 1811 and 1812.

Augustine Volcano's earthquakes and explosive eruption caused by a clogged conduit

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:32:36 -0400

Augustine is one of Alaska's most active volcanoes. Credit: Game McGimsey, AVO/USGS.

Located 280 kilometers southwest of Anchorage, Augustine is one of the most active volcanoes in the volcanically active state, erupting every 10 to 20 years. Because of its history of frequent eruptions — five blasts in the past 75 years — and close proximity to Anchorage and other communities in south-central Alaska, Augustine is one of the best-monitored volcanoes in the state. “You can see Augustine’s ash clouds from Anchorage, so people really pay attention to it,” says Helena Buurman, a volcano seismologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and lead author of the new study, published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Books: The once and future San Andreas Fault

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 13:04:35 -0400

"Earthquake Storms: The Fascinating History and Volatile Future of the San Andreas Fault," by John Dvorak, Pegasus, 2014, ISBN: 978-1605984957.

One of the most famous pictures of the San Andreas Fault — taken by G.K. Gilbert, the pioneering geologist whose late-19th century insights into faults and the earthquake cycle were close to prescient — shows a woman standing next to the ruptured fault immediately after the 1906 earthquake.

Geologic Column: By train or pipeline: That is the question

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:05:57 -0400

My wife and I (and our 49-year marriage) recently survived a 48-hour train trip from Chicago to Portland aboard Amtrak’s aptly-named “Empire Builder.” Traveling on a single-track line, the train spent a day crossing North Dakota, slowed behind empty tanker trains and shunted to side rails so oncoming, higher-priority oil cargo could pass. We met and chatted with a number of workers heading from or returning to work in the Bakken oilfields. One such conversation was with a gregarious 20-year-old high-school dropout who works for an oil company. Working stretches of 14 consecutive 12-hour days, interspersed with six-day breaks, he earns $25 per hour and also receives a $125 per diem. His total annual compensation exceeds $100,000! It’s tough work, he told us, but it’s an adventure and there’s nowhere else he could make as much money.

Are slow-slip earthquakes under Tokyo stressing faults?

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:33:45 -0400

Japan sits at the intersection of multiple tectonic plates. Just east of the island is a deep trench called the Sagami Trough. To monitor slow slip in the region, scientists are tracking the surface motion of the Boso Peninsula on the eastern side of Tokyo Bay, where the Philippine Plate plunges beneath the Eurasian Plate, creating the trough. Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI, after Ozawa et al., Geophysical Research Letters (2014).

To study plate movements under Tokyo, Shinzaburo Ozawa of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan in Tsukuba used GPS sensors to track the surface motion of the Bōsō Peninsula on the eastern side of Tokyo Bay, where the Philippine Plate plunges beneath the Eurasian Plate, creating the Sagami Trough. His results were published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Rings not just for planets anymore

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:23:55 -0400

An artist's drawing of Chariklo, the first nonplanetary object in the solar system found to host rings. Credit: Lucie Macquet.

Reporting their findings in Nature, an international team of more than 60 astronomers recently announced the detection of two rings — an inner 7-kilometer-wide-ring and an outer ring just 3 kilometers wide — circling Chariklo, which orbits the sun on a path between Saturn and Uranus. It is the largest of a group of solar system bodies called Centaurs, which are actually considered minor planets and sometimes share characteristics of both asteroids and comets.

For toothed whales, ecolocation is an ancient art

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:41:20 -0400

The skull of the 28-million-year-old Cotylocara macei. Its anatomy and density variation indicate that this early toothed whale used echolocation to find its prey. Credit: James Carew and Mitchell Colgan.

Echolocation is a distinctive feature of toothed whales, but little is known about how and when this complex behavior and its underlying anatomy evolved, Jonathan Geisler of the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine and colleagues wrote in Nature. To navigate and communicate, toothed whales emit high-frequency vocalizations in the nasal passages just below the blowhole. As the sound waves bounce off objects and echo back to the whale, they are modulated through the animal’s air sinuses and the melon, a mass of fatty tissue at the forehead, producing an “image” of the seascape.

Ocean waves explain which La Niña events will linger

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 18:00:40 -0400

El Niño years are characterized by warm conditions in the eastern tropical Pacific while in La Niña years, like 2007 (shown here), the tropical Pacific is cool. Credit: NASA.

Many La Niña events last just one season, but historical records reveal that nearly half linger for two years or more, a phenomenon scientists have long struggled to explain. Now, new research has identified a potential mechanism behind such enduring La Niñas that may provide a blueprint for the kinds of long-range predictions needed to mitigate the economic impacts of associated events like the devastating Texas drought.

Pompeii-like eruption fossilized dinosaurs in death poses

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:49:17 -0400

The Yixian and Jiufotang formations are famous for preserving fine details such as hair, skin and feathers from a diverse array of animals, including land dwellers, birds and freshwater fish. Careful analysis of the exquisitely preserved fossils and surrounding sediments suggests that the diverse assemblage of animals were killed by a series of sudden, lethal ash flows that swept through the area, charring the carcasses and leaving them piled in bone beds.

Ancient seawater found in Chesapeake Bay impact crater

Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:38:17 -0400

When the bolide struck in the Late Eocene, it shattered the bedrock, truncated aquifers and left a crater roughly twice the size of Rhode Island and nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon. The resulting structural low is likely responsible for the formation of the Chesapeake Bay.

Striped pyrites link earthquakes to gold deposition

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:11:36 -0400

Researchers have linked pyrite in the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea to the so-called fault-valve process of gold deposit formation. Credit: Richard Farbelini.

Pyrite, or “fool’s gold,” is an iron sulfide mineral commonly found in hydrothermal ore deposits. In such deposits, gold atoms can substitute for iron in the structure of pyrite, so pyrite crystals in gold mines often contain portions of the precious metal. Eleanor Peterson, a student at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, and her advisor, John Mavrogenes, an economic geologist also at ANU, analyzed pyrites from the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea, where quartz veins in the Roamane Fault Zone host high-grade gold ores.

Desert dust influences monsoon rains

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 14:40:08 -0400

Dust storm over the Arabian Sea on January 13, 2013. Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, NASA, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response.

A team led by V. Vinoj of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar and Philip Rasch of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington used satellite data and climate simulations to examine the relationship between desert dust levels over the Arabian Sea, West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, and the intensity of the Indian summer monsoon. They found that desert-dust levels were positively correlated with the intensity of monsoon rainfall.

Hell Creek Formation reveals a 'chicken from hell'

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:25:40 -0400

Anzu belongs to a mysterious group of theropods called Caenagnathidae, which were only known previously by a handful of fossils found in the 1920s. “Anzu is far and away the most complete caenagnathid that has ever been discovered,” said Matthew Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh in a statement. “After nearly a century of searching, we paleontologists finally have the fossils to show what these creatures looked like from virtually head to toe. And in almost every way, they’re even weirder than we imagined.”

People's earthquake reports influenced more by locomotion than location

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:11:55 -0400

Intensity surveys help geologists study earthquakes. This map compiles all responses to the U.S. Geological Survey's Did You Feel It? survey between 1994 and 2012. Credit: USGS

Intensity scales like the Modified Mercalli scale, used in the U.S., and the European Macroseismic scale measure the strength of shaking produced by an earthquake at a certain location, as determined from surveys assessing the effects on people, structures and the natural environment. For example, a II on the Modified Mercalli scale is: “Felt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors of buildings,” whereas a V is “felt by nearly everyone; many awakened. Some dishes, windows broken. Unstable objects overturned. Pendulum clocks may stop.”

A watery surprise from Earth's depths: Mineral provides first direct evidence for water in mantle's transition zone

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 12:58:05 -0400

This half-centimeter-wide diamond contains a speck of ringwoodite, the first known water-bearing mineral from Earth's transition zone. Credit: Graham Pearson, University of Alberta.

Studies of seismic waves traveling through Earth have long suggested that the mantle is like a layer cake, with regions of differing composition. In a layer known as the transition zone, between depths of about 410 to 660 kilometers, much of the rock is thought to be composed of pressure-squeezed variants of the common mineral olivine. One of these hypothesized forms is ringwoodite, which forms blue, cube-shaped crystals. Ringwoodite synthesized in the lab under high pressure can contain up to 2 percent water by weight, suggesting the transition zone could hold massive amounts of water. But direct evidence of this water had been nonexistent as no one had observed ringwoodite from the mantle; the only naturally occurring specimens had come from meteorites.

Ancient food web shows modern structure

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 12:17:31 -0400

Hundreds of thousands of fossils — many in such fine detail that soft tissues and gut contents are visible to the naked eye — have been recovered from the Messel site in Germany. Credit: clockwise from top: Mark A. Wilson; ©Franzen et al., PLOS ONE, 2009; ©Gerbil, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Located in a former shale quarry near Frankfurt, Germany, the Messel deposit is so fossil-rich it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About 48 million years ago, this area was a forest surrounding a lake. Scientists hypothesize that a sudden release of toxic gases from the lake — similar to that at Cameroon’s Lake Nyos in August 1986 — smothered thousands of organisms, many of which sank to the bottom of the oxygen-poor lake, where they were fossilized in such fine detail that soft tissues and gut contents are visible to the naked eye.

Solar wind gives lightning a boost

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 11:54:27 -0400

Solar wind consists of charged particles like electrons and protons emitted continuously by the sun. Especially high-speed solar winds — zipping through space at up to 800 kilometers per second — are produced at particular locations in the sun’s atmosphere, and, as the sun rotates, these fast-moving emissions “sweep past Earth quite regularly,” says Chris Scott, a space scientist at the University of Reading in England and lead author of the study.

La Brea climate adaptation as different as cats and dogs

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 12:37:45 -0400

New research on bones at the La Brea tar pits suggests saber-toothed cats (at right) grew larger as the climate warmed toward the end of the last ice age, whereas dire wolves grew smaller. Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI.

“The most attractive thing about working at the tar pits is the sheer quantity of fossils,” says Robin O’Keefe, an evolutionary biologist at Marshall College in West Virginia and lead author of the dire wolf study, published in Palaeontologia Electronica. “Instead of just studying individuals, we can actually ask population-level questions about how these animals evolved.”

Getting there and getting around the Causeway Coast

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 08:47:03 -0400

Left: Rathlin Island is famous for its seabirds, shipwrecks and seafood. Top right: Public pay phones are still a common sight in Northern Ireland. Bottom right: No need to carry a tent or lots of extra food on the Causeway Coast Way, but be sure to pack rain gear. Credit: all: Mary Caperton Morton.

To visit the Causeway Coast, fly into Dublin or Belfast and rent a car or take a bus to Ballycastle, Bushmills or Portstewart. During the summer tourism season, public buses run on a regular schedule up and down the coast. Accommodations are available in most of the small towns, ranging from high-end hotel rooms in Portstewart to quaint bed-and-breakfasts to budget hostels. More information on the Causeway Coast Kayak Association’s Port Moon Bothy hut can be found at: www.canoeni.com/canoe-trails/north-coast-sea-kayak-trail/access-point/port-moon.

The legend of Finn Maccool's Causeway

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 08:39:21 -0400

Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.

A long time ago, when giants ruled the Earth, a massive Irishman named Finn MacCool was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Now, as everybody knows, giants can’t swim, so MacCool, an expert mason and not one to back down from a fight, built a walkway of hexagonal stones across the North Channel to the coast of Scotland so the two behemoths could meet.

Between rocks and hard places

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 08:32:18 -0400

If you are interested in exploring Northern Ireland but are unsure about going it alone, the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland offers custom-guided landscape tours to any and all of Northern Ireland’s natural attractions, including the Causeway Coast, Mourne Mountains and Sperrin Mountains. Experienced guides will take you on half-day or all-day trips highlighting the region’s geology, history and folklore. The “Between Rocks and Hard Places” tours can be scheduled seven days a week, year-round, for groups of up to 29 people. For more information, email gsni@detini.gov.uk and see www.bgs.ac.uk/gsni/landscape.

Travels in Geology: Basalt cliffs and columns along Nothern Ireland's Causeway Coast Way

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 07:18:16 -0400

Sunset on the Giant's Causeway. The Causeway Coast Way runs along the cliffs above. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton.

Like its neighbor to the south, Northern Ireland is renowned for its green vegetation, but the rocks that underlie this part of the Emerald Isle are also legendary. The Antrim Coast famously hosts one of the most striking examples of columnar basalt in the world, the Giant’s Causeway, which, according to legend, was built by a brawling giant. Other local lore tells of island cave hideouts, shipwreck massacres and Viking sieges.

Unlocking the Cascadia Subduction Zone's secrets: Peering into recent research and findings

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 22:54:41 -0400

Most people living along the coast in California, Oregon and Washington are aware of the earthquake and tsunami risk posed by the Cascadia Subduction Zone just offshore. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/4FR.

Once overlooked because of its relative inactivity compared to other subduction zones around the world, the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) — and the potentially devastating megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis it could unleash — are today well known to both geoscientists and the public.

Crowdfunding spotlight

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 13:52:56 -0400

Science writers at Columbia University used Kickstarter funding to create a calendar of glamour shots of Columbia scientists, including Lisa Goddard and Kátia Fernandes of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Richard Seager and Jason Smerdon of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Credit: all: Charlie Naebeck.

NAME: Rebecca Fowler & Francesco Fiondella, science writers at Columbia University

Crowdfunding science: A new piece of the research grant puzzle

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 13:19:23 -0400

Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI

As a leading researcher in the field of atmospheric science, University of Washington scientist Dan Jaffe had never had trouble securing funding for his work on airborne pollutants. Over the past 20 years, he has been awarded more than $7 million dollars in grants from multiple government agencies, from NOAA and NASA, to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). That all changed when he wanted to study the effects of increased coal-train travel through his home state of Washington.

Pike's Peak

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 10:08:14 -0400

The 4,300-meter-tall peak that Zebulon Pike first spied in November 1806 was already known to Native Americans, as well as Spanish settlers, who called it El Capitán. Pike first dubbed it Grand Peak, but by the mid-19th century, the name Pike’s Peak (later Pikes Peak) had begun to stick.

Benchmarks: July 15, 1806: Zebulon Pike launches Southwest expedition

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 10:03:13 -0400

Brig. Gen. Zebulon Pike depicted during the War of 1812. Credit: Library of Congress.

Of America’s early 19th-century western explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark typically garner the most attention. But there was a third military man who, along with a detachment of U.S. Army troops and volunteers, also trekked into the newly acquired reaches of the young United States in the same era: Zebulon Pike.

Down to Earth With: Martin Lockley

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:35:00 -0400

Lockley scaling an outcrop to examine some tracks. Credit: Martin Lockley.

Shortly after a young Martin Lockley — a British paleontologist specializing in marine fossils — arrived in Denver in 1980 to begin a new job as a geology professor at the University of Colorado (CU), a student asked if he would like to check out some interesting dinosaur tracks. The tracks were located near the town of Gunnison, Colo., about four hours southwest, on the ceiling of an underground coal mine. Lockley and the student drove down to the site, and, agreeing that the impressions in the rock were tracks but not knowing much about them, Lockley carefully documented the site. At the time, little scientific literature existed on ancient tracks, so after publishing the information, Lockley — much to his own surprise — immediately became known as a dinosaur track expert.

Geomedia: Books: The earth system symphony

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:24:32 -0400

Credit: Copyright Shutterstock.com/Vilainecrevette

"The Dance of Air and Sea: How Oceans, Weather, and Life Link Together," by Arnold H. Taylor, Oxford University Press, 2011, ISBN: 9780199565597.

The planet is a symphony played by the orchestral sections of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere, each of which includes many instruments. However, teasing out the myriad relationships in the concerto that is the earth system is daunting. Not only do the scales involved range from planetary to microscopic, but our observational records are also relatively short, and some features are inherently chaotic. Just understanding the basics of any one of the major components can take a lifetime.

Magma mobilizes quickly beneath Mount Hood

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:16:20 -0400

New research looks at the eruptive potential of Mount Hood in Oregon. Credit: Kari Cooper.

The term “magma chamber” might evoke thoughts of a roiling mass beneath a volcano, ready to blow at any moment. But in a recent study in Nature, researchers found that magma beneath Oregon’s Mount Hood spends minimal time in this eruptible state. Instead, magma remobilization and eruption occur within a short time frame.

Ancient skeleton found in underwater cave reveals DNA of earliest Americans

Fri, 16 May 2014 12:17:38 -0400

Between 13,000 and 12,000 years ago, a teenage girl entered a cave, likely searching for water, and fell to her death into a pit, which would later fill with glacial meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age. The pit, called Hoyo Negro, Spanish for “Black Hole,” part of the San Actun cave system beneath Mexico’s Eastern Yucatán Peninsula, has now yielded one of the oldest human skeletons ever found in North America.

Humans causing California's mountains to grow

Wed, 14 May 2014 09:56:28 -0400

A study of more than 500 GPS stations in Southern California and Nevada found an anthropogenic signal in uplift of the Sierra Nevada and the California Coast Ranges related to long-term water withdrawal from aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley. Credit: UNAVCO

Humankind has proven time and again that it can reshape mountains, or even tear them down. Now, it appears, we can make them rise as well. Geologists studying growth rates of the Sierra Nevada and of central California’s Coast Ranges have identified an anthropogenic contribution to the mountains’ uplift that they suggest is tied to the decades-long depletion of groundwater in the state’s Central Valley. What’s more, the researchers report in a study published today in Nature, the long-term water loss may be affecting how stress builds up on faults like the San Andreas.

Scientists look wider and deeper to predict the next El Nino

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 20:05:49 -0400

The reds in this band show the general areas of sea-surface temperatures that affect the formation of an ENSO event. Anomalously warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific tend to indicate an El Nino event; anomalously cool sea-surface temperatures in that region tend to indicate a La Nina event. Credit: NOAA.

Whether it be the two monsoons that wiped out Kublai Kahn’s conquest of Japan, or the fog in Long Island that allowed George Washington and his troops to escape with their lives, the predictability of the weather (or lack thereof) has left its mark on human civilization. Of all climate and weather phenomena, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the most well known for its impact on world climate and human life, but is also one of the most puzzling to scientists. Recently, researchers have begun accounting for a much more global dataset than previously considered in the hopes of predicting El Niño or La Niña conditions sooner than is currently possible.