December 2010 on EARTH Magazine

Energy Notes: August 2009-2010

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 16:33:47 -0400

Credit: The American Geosciences Institute

U.S. Oil & Petroleum Imports (millions 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: Clay Minerals

Thu, 14 Jun 2018 14:06:56 -0400

Robert Virta, mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, prepared the following information on clays, one of the more multifaceted mined mineral commodities.

The 2,200-year-old terracotta warriors found in Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb in China are made of clay. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/xxapril

Clays were one of the first mineral commodities used by people. Clay pottery has been found in archeological sites that are 12,000 years old, and clay figurines have been found in sites that are even older. One of the most famous examples is the 2,200-year-old army of terracotta (clay) warriors — 8,000 of them — found in Shaanxi Province, China. Today, the production of clays is among the largest of the world’s minerals industries, exceeding 1 billion metric tons per year. Clays are used in everything from shampoo to kitty litter to pottery to cement.

Travels in Geology: Kilauea: Experiencing Pele's wrath through the eyes of a young geologist

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 12:07:45 -0400

Kilauea's 3-kilometer-by-5-kilometer caldera sits in the middle of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Halema`uma`u crater located within the caldera is currently erupting. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/joeygil

This past summer, I lived a geologist’s dream: residing in a national park and getting up close and personal with Hawaii’s infamous Kilauea volcano. For hundreds of thousands of years, Hawaii’s Kilauea has been erupting on and off. But on Jan. 3, 1983, the volcano began one of its longest (and largest) eruptions, shooting a fountain of lava hundreds of meters into the air. Twenty-seven years later, the volcano is still alive and kicking — in fact, it’s the most active volcano in the world. For volcanologists, Kilauea is a mecca: an accessible active volcano in a picturesque location. So when I landed an opportunity to volunteer at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory near Kilauea, I couldn’t refuse.

Getting There and Getting Around Hawaii

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 11:52:42 -0400

The Big Island has two airports: Hilo on the east side (pictured here) and Kona on the west side. Credit: ©Shutterstock.com/Shawn Zhang

Many trips to Hawaii’s Big Island involve island-hopping. From the U.S. mainland, you’ll most likely fly through Honolulu on Oahu or Kahului on Maui on your way to either of the Big Island’s airports — Hilo on the east side or Kona on the west side. However, some airlines fly directly to Kona. Once on the Big Island, renting a car is your best bet for getting around because public transportation, albeit free, is virtually nonexistent: Buses run a handful of times a day during the week, but not at all on Sundays. From Hilo, getting to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is a 30-minute drive straight up Highway 11. Getting to the park from Kona is more of a trek, a two- to four-hour scenic drive depending on which route you take.

The Sleeping Giants

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 11:48:18 -0400

The Big Island's tallest volcano, Mauna Kea, is home to astronomical observatories. Credit: Gro Birkefeldt

After you’ve gotten a taste of what Kilauea has to offer, consider taking the time to travel to the rest of the Big Island’s volcanoes.

The first dinner in a beast

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 14:06:10 -0400

Hawkins with his statue of the Irish elk, Megaloceros, circa 1853. Credit: Academy of Natural Sciences, Ewell Sale Stewart Library and the Albert M. Greenfi eld Digital Imaging Center for Collections.

Surprisingly, there is precedence for eating dinner in the body of a massive beast. In February 1802, Rembrandt Peale, an early American painter best known for his portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, invited 12 friends and family to dine under the rib cage of a mammoth, which had recently been erected in his father’s museum in Philadelphia.

Benchmarks: December 31, 1853: Dinner in a dinosaur

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 13:27:44 -0400

On New Year's Eve, 1853, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins hosted a formal dinner in the mold of an Iguanodon. Credit: Academy of Natural Sciences, Ewell Sale Stewart Library and the Albert M. Greenfield Digital Imaging Center for Collections.

The weather in London on Saturday, Dec. 31, 1853, could not have pleased Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. After a relatively warm Friday, the temperature had plummeted, snow had begun to fall, and for the first time in more than a decade, masses of ice floated down the Thames River. The snow made the streets so slippery that injured pedestrians filled the hospitals.

Highlights of 2010: Definitive statements: a new trend?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

AGI

“This is the way it was.” Or: “This is what is happening.” Hmmm. Scientists don’t usually make such definitive statements, given that in science, there are almost always caveats. Yet in the last year, such statements have been issued by several large groups of scientists who have come together to support a certain point of view. Are scientists feeling the need to dig in their heels because of public pressures? Or are we actually reaching some consensus?

Voices: Geologists on the wrong side of the law

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

Many of L'Aquila's buildings were reduced to rubble during the April 6 earthquake. INGV

We live in a litigious society. Engineering and environmental geologists are no strangers to the legal system. They frequently deal with issues relating to geologic hazards such as active faults and unstable ground, the release of contaminants into the environment and numerous other circumstances. But for the most part, geoscientists tend to avoid legal battles. Is that changing?

Blogging on Earth: Driveway sealants add PAHs to environment

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Pavement dust with coal-tar-based sealant has PAH concentrations hundreds to thousands of times higher than dust from pavement with no sealant or asphalt-based sealant. USGS

Winter is hard on asphalt: Water that seeps into tiny cracks freezes and expands, breaking the asphalt apart. That’s why homeowners and business owners across the U.S. use sealants to protect their driveways and parking lots.

Blogging on EARTH: Yellow submarine robot debuts at AGU meeting

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The robotic submersible in flight mode. It will be tested in March in Lake Tahoe and will head to Antarctica late in 2011. DOER Marine

The submersible ROV looks a lot like a big yellow cigar; it opens up once beneath the ice. DOER Marine

Geologist Ross Powell stands with the DOER submarine ROV that will dive beneath Antarctica in coming years. Northern Illinois University

Geologist Reed Scherer with the submersible ROV at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco this week. Northern Illinois University

The rover is on display at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco this week. Northern Illinois University

McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Photograph by Steven Profaizer, National Science Foundation

It doesn’t look like a typical robot. About half a meter across and 9 meters long, a new, super-high-tech submarine ROV, unveiled Tuesday in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, strongly resembles … well, a big yellow cigar.

Highlights of 2010: Offshore wind in Texas and the curious case of Massachusetts

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The primary hurdles have finally been cleared to allow Cape Wind to put a wind farm similar to this one in Nantucket Sound. Siemens

Humans have harnessed wind energy throughout history for milling, pumping and transportation — in a way you could say it’s the “original” form of industrial energy. But only recently have we built massive, powerful turbines to convert that wind into electricity. As concerns about pollution, carbon emissions, resource depletion and energy security mount, wind farms are an increasingly attractive alternative for meeting growing energy demand.

Highlights of 2010: What does it mean to be human?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2010 helps scientists answer the age-old question

Calling someone a “Neanderthal” in the heat of an argument may not be such an insult after all. Last May, scientists announced they had completed a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome, and found evidence that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred, likely sometime 80,000 to 50,000 years ago when modern humans left Africa and ventured into Eurasia — Neanderthal territory. Those encounters left a mark in the modern gene pool: As much as 4 percent of the DNA in people with European or Asian ancestry may be Neanderthal DNA, the researchers reported in Science.