December 2013 on EARTH Magazine

Energy Notes: August 2012-2013

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 15:26:43 -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: Phosphate Rock

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 15:24:51 -0400

Stephen M. Jasinski, mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, has compiled the following information on phosphate rock, the source of phosphorus, one of the three essential plant nutrients.

A phosphate mine in Utah, one of four U.S. states to produce the mineral resource. Credit: ©Jason Parker-Burlingham, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

As a mineral resource, “phosphate rock” is defined as unprocessed ore and processed concentrates that contain some form of apatite, a group of calcium phosphate minerals that is the primary source for phosphorus in phosphate fertilizers, which are vital to agriculture.

Travels in Geology: The Bay of Kotor: Europe's southernmost "Fjord"

Thu, 24 May 2018 12:26:04 -0400

The Bay of Kotor formed when rising sea levels drowned an ancient river valley — a geographic feature called a ria. Credit: Background: ©Shutterstock.com/Gerardo Borbolla; left: Terri Cook and Lon Abbott

With its stunning backdrop of steep, imposing cliffs that plummet to a narrow inlet of the sparkling Adriatic Sea, Montenegro’s Bay of Kotor is often called Europe’s southernmost fjord. But this is a mistake. Unlike the finger-like inlets adorning the coasts of more famous European destinations like Norway and Iceland, the Bay of Kotor was not carved by glaciers. This impressive bay was instead created when rising sea levels drowned an ancient river valley — a feature geomorphologists call a ria.

Getting There and Getting Around Croatia

Thu, 24 May 2018 12:05:01 -0400

Most visitors to the Bay of Kotor arrive via cruise ship or an all-day excursion from Dubrovnik, Croatia. These options usually leave only a few hours to enjoy Kotor and neglect most of the bay’s other attractions.

Energy Notes: August 2012-2013

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:45:08 -0500

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: Phosphate Rock

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:34:00 -0500

A phosphate mine in Utah, one of four U.S. states to produce the mineral resource. Credit: ©Jason Parker-Burlingham, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Down to Earth With: Past American Geosciences Institute Congressional Geoscience Fellows

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:03:47 -0500

The American Geosciences Institute’s (AGI) William L. Fisher Congressional Geoscience Fellowship provides an opportunity each year for a geoscientist to work in Washington, D.C., as a staff member in the office of a member of Congress or congressional committee. Since the fellowship program began in 1998, many fellows have used the skills and knowledge they acquired to launch careers at federal and state agencies, nongovernmental organizations and universities. Former fellows Gabrielle Dreyfus (2008-2009), Aisha Morris (2011-2012) and David Wunsch (1998-1999) recently spoke with EARTH contributor Brittany Huhmann about their experiences and how their time as fellows shaped their understanding of the role of science in public policy. Today, Dreyfus is a policy analyst at the Department of Energy, Morris is an education and community engagement specialist at UNAVCO and Wunsch is director of the Delaware Geological Survey and state geologist.

Bare Earth Elements: EARTH's Top 10 online stories of 2013 ... (Yes, it's a list)

Tue, 31 Dec 2013 10:52:19 -0500

Beachfront homes in Rodanthe that will soon fall into the ocean. This row of homes used to include one made famous in the movie "Nights in Rodanthe," but that house was moved to a safer location. Tim Burkitt, FEMA

An airborne geophysical survey has confirmed the discovery of an impact crater under the town of Decorah in northeastern Iowa. Adam Kiel, U.S. Geological Survey

Would you drink water out of a toilet, even if the toilet was never used? That's the question asked at this display at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Calif. It's also a question on the minds of those working on wastewater recycling plans. Kathleen Canter, with permission of the Exploratorium

The Burgess Shale's Walcott and Raymond quarries lie on the ridge between Mount Wapta (left) and Mount Field (right), across from Burgess Mountain in Canada's Yoho National Park. Mary Caperton Morton

I have been resisting the urge to pull together a “year-in-review” list, mostly because there are already so many out there. (What it is about lists exactly — numbered, bullet-pointed or otherwise — that makes them so attractive remains a mystery, but I confess that whatever their appeal is, it works on me too.) But although there have been a lot of year-in-review and “best of 2013” lists posted, many of which have rehashed and/or ranked science stories from the past year, there haven’t been many focusing specifically on the geosciences. What an oversight, right?!

Bare Earth Elements: AGU 2013 wrap-up

Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:15:02 -0500

Outside the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif., site of the American Geophysical Union meeting last week. Timothy Oleson

The exhibition hall at the 2013 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Calif. Timothy Oleson

NOAA's Science On a Sphere at AGU 2013. Timothy Oleson

It’s back to the office this week for several EARTH staffers, including myself, who attended the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco last week in search of interesting story ideas and fascinating folks in geosciences that we might cover in upcoming issues. With more than 20,000 participants, 7,000 research talks and invited speeches, and 14,000 posters, along with numerous other activities, there was plenty of potential material, and we spent some long days absorbing as much we could.

Energy 360: Moving energy - No easy feat, but a vital conversation

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:23:43 -0500

Scott Tinker worked in the oil and gas industry for 17 years in research, exploration and development before going to the University of Texas at Austin in 2000, where he directs a major environmental and energy research unit and looks at global energy issues. Gregory Daniel

Trucks, trains, planes and boats move food, clothing, cars, wood, steel, medical products, smartphones, bicycles, organic milk, free-range chickens—basically all consumer goods. And energy is no exception. Coal is mined and then carried to where it is burned. Oil and natural gas are moved from where they are produced to where they can be refined into transportation fuels and myriad other products, and then moved again. Uranium is mined and transported to create fuel rods for nuclear power plants or nuclear-powered ships. Materials for solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal plants, and wave and tide generators are mined and moved to manufacturing plants, from where the final products are moved again. Materials for dams are carried for construction, while water moves to the dam, largely on its own, thanks to topography and gravity. Biofuels are grown, transported, converted (refined), and transported again as fuels. And once created, electricity is moved along power lines to where it is consumed.

Comet ISON still intrigues and inspires, even after its demise

Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:20:44 -0500

“Comet ISON is dead, but its memory will live on." That eulogy for the much-discussed “comet of the century" was delivered today by Karl Battams of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., during a series of reports presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco, Calif. In response to queries from reporters seeking a definitive statement on the fate of the comet that rounded the sun in late November, Battams noted that both amateur and professional astronomers had combed the area of the sky where ISON would now be had it survived, and there is simply no trace of it.

Juno salutes its home planet and heads to Jupiter

Wed, 11 Dec 2013 12:07:06 -0500

Thanks to orbital mechanics, a spacecraft heading to Jupiter must go most of the way there, then loop around the sun, zoom back close to Earth, and finally head out again on its mission to the largest planet in the solar system. That's the story of Juno, launched by NASA on Aug. 5, 2011, and due to arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Its journey required a boost in velocity, relative to the sun, which it received when it flew as close as 559 kilometers above Earth on Oct. 9, 2013. Juno’s flyby of its home planet took it over several continents, with its lowest approach occurring over Cape Town, South Africa.

Hazards abroad: Sent home

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 10:08:22 -0500

On May 19, 2012, seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado at Boulder landed at the airport in Delhi, India, on his way to Bhutan. He debarked from the plane and was met by Indian customs officials, who declared he was on the “blacklist” and not allowed entry to India, despite having a valid visa. Two hours later, he was on a plane heading back to the U.S.

Be prepared: Navigating the risks of hazards research

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 09:48:01 -0500

Kathleen Cantner, AGI

Background photo shows a debris flow along a stream triggered by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 in Macon County, N.C. It killed four people and destroyed 16 homes and structures. Left inset: A home close to the stream was destroyed. Right inset: A home set back from the stream was spared. This landslide, along with hundreds of others in the western North Carolina mountains, spurred the legislature to pass the Hurricane Recovery Act of 2005, authorizing creation of the North Carolina Geological Survey Landslide Hazard Mapping Program. The intent of this program was to make people more aware of landslide hazards in the mountains and to provide a tool for planning and emergency management courtesy of North Carolina Geological Survey (NCGS )

Penn State climatologist Michael Mann recently wrote about legal battles over his research and findings in The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars. Greg Rico, courtesy of Michael Mann

At the 2012 and 2013 annual meetings, AGU offered scientists the opportunity to educate themselves about legal issues by offering access to a "Lawyer in a Box." Kathleen Cantner, AGI

Just over a year ago, in a cavernous room of the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif., hundreds of geophysicists, seismologists, volcanologists and climate scientists, as well as a few journalists and a lawyer or two, sat transfixed as a panel discussed the manslaughter conviction of six scientists and a public official in Italy a few months earlier. The Italian scientists and official had been accused of giving misleading advice to the public — failing to communicate the seismic risk, based on their knowledge — ahead of a magnitude-6.3 earthquake in April 2009 in the city of L’Aquila that killed 309 people.

Curiosity finds an ancient habitable environment in Mars' Gale Crater

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:19:01 -0500

San Francisco - Yellowknife Bay is named for Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, but is nowhere near that subarctic city. It is not even on Earth, but is the focus of intense interest among scores of Earthbound geologists, biologists and astronomers. Yellowknife Bay is a geologic formation on Mars in the 154-kilometer-wide Gale Crater. The Curiosity rover, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), has been exploring that crater for more than a year. Scientists on the MSL research team think the “bay” offers convincing evidence of an ancient lake that provided an environment that could have supported microbial life.

In or Out? Has Voyager left the solar system?

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:14:13 -0500

The Voyager spacecraft launched in August and September of 1977 and spent more than 11 years exploring Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before heading off toward interstellar space in 1989. Scientists think it arrived, 23 years later, in August 2012.

San Francisco - There is a possibility that Voyager, the U.S. spacecraft launched in 1977, which is thought to have left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space last year, could still be "inside," said Ed Stone, Voyager project chief scientist, today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Gifts: Holiday gift guide

Fri, 06 Dec 2013 12:13:46 -0500

Finding gifts for that special scientist can be challenging: They are often more excited by ideas and specimens than material possessions, or they are already up to their ears in gadgets. But, luckily, shops across the Internet have caught on to the fact that science is hip and have launched whole lines of novel “geekery” for the scientifically inclined.

Geologic Column: Beer's secret ingredient: geology

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 11:55:19 -0500

Geologists have a long history with beer. Earlier this year, I decided to raise my own beer appreciation to the next level and take a class on the subject. I attended the beer school at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis. A few minutes into the class, our instructor noted that the beer-brewing process uses clean water, which, he said, is basically the same no matter where you are. Unfortunately, that got us off on the wrong foot. As anyone in the beer business should know, water — and what’s in the water, courtesy of the geology through which it percolates — can make all the difference in an end product.

Giant quake sloshed fjords half a world away

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 11:43:45 -0500

On the morning of March 11, 2011, Leif Hus and his wife Gry Melas Hus were having breakfast in their kitchen overlooking Sognefjord in Leikanger, Norway. It was low tide on a calm and windless day with near-freezing temperatures. As they stood, coffee cups in hand, looking out the window at the fjord, they saw an unusual wave roll in. The wave continued to rise, surging over the seawall into their backyard before receding back into the fjord. Then another wave surged in, and another. As the water rose, engulfing the ladder on their dock, Leif grabbed his cell phone and started filming.

Old photos help scientists relocate 1906 San Francisco quake rupture point

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 11:28:18 -0500

The buttons being in their proper place on the right-hand side of the man's waistcoat indicate that this 1906 photo has not been reversed during the printing process, providing an important clue as to the orientation of the fault trace, seen at the couple's feet. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Portola Valley, just south of San Francisco, is famous for its progressive approach to geology. The town was the subject of the first geologic map of California and the first municipality in the state to hire its very own resident geologist. There’s a good reason: The section of the San Andreas Fault that produced the deadly San Francisco quake of 1906 runs right through the town. But where exactly the fault trace lies has long been a mystery. Now, in a new study, researchers have used a combination of new technology and old photographs to relocate the fault line.

World War G: Zombies, energy and the geosciences

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 11:12:51 -0500

Kathleen Cantner, AGI

Editor's Note: Traditionally, EARTH has published a "highlights" or "year in review" issue at the end of the year. This year, we decided to try a new approach: We asked our staff and some frequent contributors to write a short commentary on something that grabbed their attention in 2013. We gave everyone carte blanche. What follows is a collection of extremely varied, often very personal insights into how the planet impacted each individual. You can find some online this month, but for the full grouping, you'll have to buy the issue here or subscribe.

Witnessing geology in action: A rockfall in the garden of the gods

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 09:09:45 -0500

A rock formation in the Garden of the Gods, N.M., before a rockfall. Mary Caperton Morton

The rock formation in the Garden of the Gods, N.M., after the rockfall. A white scar on the fin marks the site of the erosion. Mary Caperton Morton

The rockfall left a smattering of bright white rock all over the ground. Mary Caperton Morton

Mary Caperton Morton

Science denialism: The problem that just won't go away

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 14:39:37 -0500

A public service announcement: Improve geologic literacy starting on the home front

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 14:22:48 -0500

Hiking around the Sheep Rock Unit at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in eastern Oregon provides a full day of geologic adventures. Megan Sever

It's also nice to know a little something about the geology of where you vacation, such as when the last eruption on Maui occurred. While on a tour in May, the guides asked, "So, is anyone here a geologist?" I tentatively raised my hand. "Oh no, now she can fact-check what we say," they replied. No need — they had done their homework and knew a lot about the geology of the area! @Griff, Aloha Kayaks Maui

Jim Sever

Earlier this fall, I took a paddleboarding tour along the Willamette River to Willamette Falls near Oregon City, Ore., a Portland suburb famous for marking the end of the Oregon Trail. Willamette Falls, as I learned, is one of the largest waterfalls in the U.S. My tour guides, a couple of young and knowledgeable self-described river rats, explained how the falls were used for hydroelectric power generation and how the locks worked. But they didn’t tell us anything about how or when the falls formed or about the massive basalts responsible for their grandeur.

Once a digger, always a digger: Or, how I learned to stop researching and love deadlines

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 14:48:40 -0500

Bailing through the Boulder flood: One neighborhood's experience

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 13:31:47 -0500

Despite everything I learned in my sedimentology-stratigraphy class about alluvial fan deposits, and the debris flows and floods that emplace them, I never once considered what those depositional events might sound like. Now I know.