February 2010 on EARTH Magazine

Energy Notes: October 2008-2009

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 15:57:39 -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: Asbestos

Thu, 14 Jun 2018 12:13:44 -0400

Robert Virta, mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, prepared the following information on asbestos, a mineral commodity used for centuries but now in significant decline.

Chrysotile has long been the most commonly used form of asbestos. Credit: ©U.S. Geological Survey/ESW Image Bank

Asbestos is a generic name given to six needle-shaped minerals that have been used in commercial products. It is an industrial term rather than a mineralogical term, referring to specific fibrous mineral particles that possess high tensile strengths, large length-to-width ratios, flexibility and resistance to chemical and thermal degradation. Asbestos also exhibits high electrical resistance, and many forms can easily be woven into textiles. Even though asbestos markets have declined dramatically over the past 30 years because of health and liability issues, it is still used throughout the world.

Down to Earth With: Mike Gallagher

Wed, 23 May 2018 11:31:14 -0400

Mike Gallagher. Credit: Germaine Price

Mike Gallagher is not your typical science educator. After spending three years as a researcher and field geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., Gallagher decided to become a teacher after budget cuts at USGS in the late 1980s encouraged him to reconsider his career track. Gallagher went on to earn a Washington state teaching certificate (while renting a place in the belfry of a local church). As a teacher in Washington, Gallagher engaged his students with hands-on science research projects: By 1999, two of his students had even presented their research on the water quality of a local stream to then-Governor Gary Locke, who is now secretary of commerce. A windsurfer in his spare time, Gallagher now works for Michigan’s Oakland Intermediate School District, advising districts and teachers on how to improve their science education programs.

Conjunction injunction: Recent and future planetary alignments

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 10:53:03 -0400

Distant Space. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Mike Grindley.

February 1962: The five planets visible to the naked eye, as well as the sun and moon, all appeared within 17 degrees of each other in the sky. A concurrent solar eclipse and new moon made it possible to view the planets.

Benchmarks: February 4, 1962: Five planets align - but no end of the world

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 10:36:32 -0400

Highly-detailed 3D rendering of our earth (north america) with very active and big sun in background. The 3D rendering using an Earth map from NASA (Visible Earth). Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Christian Miller.

In the movie “2012,” released in theaters last November, an alignment of five planets in our solar system — supposedly foretold by the Mayans thousands of years ago — causes horrors that span nearly every earth science disaster movie cliché: solar flares, neutrinos, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, poles shifting, oceans washing over the tallest mountains in the world, cities falling into the sea, mass hysteria and, basically, total destruction of life as we know it.

Voices: Should science dictate whether to rebuild after a natural disaster?

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

Four days after a magnitude-7.0 earthquake caused severe damage on Jan. 12, 2010, Haitian citizens remain in the street afraid or unable to return to their homes. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Candice Villarreal

A Haitian man watches rubble being removed from a collapsed church in Baie De Grand Grove, Haiti. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Monique Hilley

Move Port-au-Prince? Maybe. San Francisco and New Orleans? Never.

It is common for scientists to call for the relocation of a city to a safer location after it is struck by an earthquake or hurricane. After all, when many cities were built, the nature of the hazard they faced was either unknown or very poorly understood. This is true whether we’re talking about San Francisco, Calif., New Orleans, La., or Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Now that we know the hazards, is it time to relocate a city in a dangerous locale? Port-au-Prince? Yes. San Francisco and New Orleans? No.

Can snowstorms be categorized like hurricanes or other hazards?

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

Duke Ellington Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., during a snowstorm in December 2009. Erin Wayman

NOAA's snowstorm index ranked regional impact during a December 2009 snowstorm in the mid-Atlantic region. Within the region, there was greater impact (category 4) in the southeast than the northeast (category 1). Mike Squires, NOAA

A December 2009 snowstorm dumped nearly two feet of snow on Washington, D.C. Erin Wayman

On Dec. 18, 2009, a winter storm deposited two feet of snow in a swath from the North Carolina mountains to Baltimore, Md., shutting down airports for days. Eight days later, a Christmas blizzard ripped through the Midwest, stranding holiday travelers in Nebraska and the Dakotas under almost a foot of snow. But which storm was worse? It’s a difficult call to make, because unlike other natural disasters, snowstorms have no categorization system. But researchers at NOAA are changing that: They are creating a unique ranking system to show how winter storms impact society.

Court rules against Army Corps in New Orleans flooding case

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

A housing complex in New Orleans flooded after Hurricane Katrina. Water levels in much of the region did not drop for weeks. Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality

A district court judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is liable for much of the flooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The ruling puts the Corps and the U.S. government on the hook for millions if not billions of dollars in damages and punitive penalties, and could open the floodgates for more such lawsuits nationwide, experts say.

Hubble's pics of Pluto: Dark orange and charcoal-black

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

NASA, ESA and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute)

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Today NASA released new Hubble images of dwarf planet Pluto — and far from being just an icy colorless rock, the images show a mottled, dynamic, orangey-black world that changes color with the seasons (on Pluto, the change of seasons lasts 248 Earth years — and although on Earth the seasons change due to the axial tilt of the planet, Pluto's eccentric, non-circular orbit plays a big role in its seasonal variations).

Reclaiming Alberta's oil sands mines

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

At left, one of the original mine pits at Syncrude's Mildred Lake oil sands mine in Alberta, Canada. At right, the same area after reclamation. Both: Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Before: One of the original mine pits at Syncrude's Mildred Lake oil sands mine. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Gateway Hill, Syncrude's certified reclaimed area, was planted in the early 1980s. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

And after: Syncrude's reclaimed Mildred Lake oil sands mine, in Alberta, Canada. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

An area in the process of being reclaimed. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Bill's Lake is another Syncrude reclamation site. Reclamation began here in the 1990s. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Syncrude's water cap tailings test ponds, where the company tests plants to determine which eliminate pollutants and set up the best ecosystem. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Syncrude researcher taking a sample of groundwater in one of the company's reclamation areas. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Researchers grow many different plants on more than two dozen test plots to determine what to plant in a wetland in a reclaimed area. Courtesy of Syncrude Canada Ltd.

Forest, wetlands and a lake suggest a boreal ecosystem can be rebuilt

Hiking through the 104-hectare parcel of land known as Gateway Hill in the Canadian province of Alberta, you pass through a boreal forest of aspens, spruce and jackpine, possibly detouring around one or more wetlands. You might catch glimpses of foxes, rabbits, deer, coyotes and various species of birds. You could picnic among the trees or stretch out for a nap beneath one, secure in its shade. You would almost certainly imagine that this ecosystem looked much the same 20 or 30 years ago — and you would be wrong.

Termites and climate change: Here, there and everywhere?

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

Termiticide treatments, although costly and destructive to property, are usually necessary in termite-prone areas. Chris J. Peterson

Termites and wood-decaying fungi quickly dispose of downed trees in southern U.S. forests, such as this one in Mississippi. Chris J. Peterson

But northern forests, such as this one in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, lack termites and are still choked with downed trees. B. J. Peterson

Will climate change allow termite populations in North America to spread?

As a child growing up in Iowa, every summer I looked forward to our family’s annual trip to the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. One of the highlights was going to “camp,” an old logging camp my grandfather purchased in the 1940s and maintained as a deer camp and weekend getaway. Off-road hiking in the Northwoods was slow. We had to maneuver our way around downed logs that sometimes piled two or three deep, and climb over a profusion of old stumps still charred from a massive fire that had burned through the area three or four decades before.

Voices: If global warming is real, why is it snowing in DC?

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

Visiting the White House on skis during the February 2010 blizzard. Carolyn Gramling

A snowy Washington, D.C., scene. Carolyn Gramling

A buried car on a Washington, D.C., street. Carolyn Gramling

The only way to get to the grocery store in Arlington, Va., during the February 2010 storm: by ski. Brenna Tobler

EARTH headquarters in Alexandria, Va., during the February 2010 snowstorm. Brenna Tobler

Over the last week, I’ve heard a lot of people say, “If global warming is real, why is it still snowing in Washington, D.C.?”

What makes a disaster? Does this blizzard count?

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

A snowy scene on a Washington, D.C., street during the February 2010 blizzard. Carolyn Gramling

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