January 2014 on EARTH Magazine

Down to Earth With: Naomi Levin

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 13:29:16 -0500

Naomi Levin is a stable isotope geochemist. Credit: Will Kirk/Homewood Photography, Johns Hopkins University.

Stable isotope geochemist Naomi Levin, a native New Yorker, says she could easily imagine alternate career paths that would have been more in line with her urban roots. But the hands-on nature of both fieldwork and lab work lured her to geology and anthropology. And after working with a string of prominent geochemists — including Jay Quade, Thure Cerling and John Eiler — as a graduate student and post-doctoral researcher, Levin has quickly moved to the top of her field.

January 26, 1905: The world's largest gem-quality diamond is unearthed

Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:18:15 -0500

Glass replicas of the nine main gems cut from the original rough Cullinan. At top left is the 530.2-carat pearshaped Cullinan I, dubbed the

Each day, thousands of visitors to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History view the rare and spectacular Hope Diamond, a 45-carat blue diamond. And dozens of diamonds bigger than the Hope — with names like Excelsior, Incomparable and Jubilee — have also been retrieved, cut and polished to perfection.

Down to Earth With: Sally Jewell

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 15:43:54 -0500

Most people who find their way into public office start locally, perhaps by running for a seat on the school board or city council. Sally Jewell’s first foray into public service came at the behest of President Obama, who last year nominated her as the 51st Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) — the first Secretary in more than a decade with a background in geoscience.

Warring trolls explanation for mysterious basalt pillars revised

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 08:01:24 -0500

Clusters of moss-covered, two-meter-tall basalt pillars in Iceland's Skaelingar Valley remain from the Laki lava flow of 1783. Tracy Gregg

The exterior of a freestanding individual basalt pillar. Tracy Gregg

Peculiar basalt pillars found in Iceland — attributed in local lore to a pair of angry trolls hurling projectiles at each other — are having their origin story updated. In a rare example of nonexplosive lava-water interactions occurring on land, the hollow pillars likely formed around vertical columns of steam and superheated water venting through lava as it flowed over saturated ground, according to a new study.

2013 Front Range Flooding: An Ecological Perspective

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 10:44:30 -0500

Predatory stonefly populations may be affected by algal losses in mountain streams. James McCutchan Jr.

Boulder's open spaces host a number of bald eagles and herons that prefer large, old cottonwood trees for nesting. Many of these trees were knocked down by the floods. Managers are hoping the Front Range drainages will experience a regeneration of these native trees following the September floods. Rolf Reiser

The 2013 Colorado floods may have been a record-setting event in human terms, but scientists and resource managers emphasize that what happened along the Front Range was a natural occurrence. “This was a natural event, and the system and all the species in it are equipped to cope with such events,” says Deborah Brosnan, an environmental and policy scientist at the University of California at Davis who works on the ecological and environmental effects of natural hazards, and who assessed the ecological effects of these floods. “From nature’s perspective, this was not noteworthy,” she says.

When water, gravity and geology collide: Firsthand observations of the impacts of the 2013 Colorado floods

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 09:25:28 -0500

A car remained frozen in the rocks, timbers and other materials deposited by a deadly Jamestown debris flow. JoAnn Holloway

Inertia-enhanced erosion caused heavy damage to roads on the outside of river bends, even when the roads were 3 to 6 meters above the river channels. Geoff Plumlee, USGS

Around almost every bend in the road on our tour of the Colorado Front Range and points downstream in the weeks after the September floods, the physical devastation confronted us like a punch in the gut. Even though we had all seen graphic images on the news, observing the destruction firsthand, especially from a geologic perspective, was truly stunning and humbling.

Disaster strikes along Colorado's Front Range

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:52:24 -0500

In early September last year, the weather along Colorado’s Front Range, the urbanized corridor paralleling the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, swung from one extreme to another. The first week of the month was exceptionally hot and dry, with high temperatures averaging 7 to 9 degrees Celsius above normal. For three days in a row, the city of Denver matched or exceeded its record high temperatures, according to National Weather Service (NWS) data.

Humans are influencing some extreme weather events, but not all

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 11:13:32 -0500

In 2012, the world experienced dozens of extreme weather events, including droughts, heat waves, cold spells, extreme rainfalls, big storms like Superstorm Sandy, and a record-low Arctic sea-ice extent. Teasing apart the factors that create extreme weather is a challenge for scientists, especially when it comes to determining whether human-induced climate change plays a role. Recently, 18 different research teams — comprising 80 scientists — took on that challenge.

Climate, terroir, and wine: What matters most in producing a great wine?

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 11:01:05 -0500

Wine can grow all over the world, including the pre-Alps of the Veneto region in Italy where Prosecco is produced. Gregory V. Jones

Weather and climate have played decisive roles throughout human existence — where and how cultures developed, where they migrated and even how some died out. The most successful early civilizations were those that developed strong agrarian systems based on what crops were most compatible with the climate. If conditions changed for one reason or another, people migrated to areas with a more suitable environment to grow a certain crop or raise specific animals. Today, as in the past, climate is clearly one of the most important factors in the success of all agricultural systems, influencing whether a crop — including winegrapes — is suitable to a given region, largely controlling crop productivity and quality, and ultimately driving economic sustainability.

Getting there and getting around in Antarctica

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:48:44 -0500

Traveling to Antarctica pretty much requires being part of an organized tour, something tens of thousands of people do each year. We went on a trip arranged by the Geological Society of America and Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris. If you aren’t lucky enough to take a scientific tour, there are plenty of more traditional tours that will get you there. Most depart from Argentina, but some go through the Falkland Islands as well as Australia and New Zealand. The vessels used by tour operators range from icebreakers to cruise ships to smaller yachts (not for those with a weak stomach) that can carry you across the Drake Passage to the more remote islands of the Scotia Arc and on to Antarctica.

Ship life

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:45:27 -0500

Perhaps the most common question I’ve gotten after returning from my trip is, “Did you get sea sick?” The answer is yes, but I wasn’t miserable. And in truth, very few individuals missed out on any of the shore excursions because they didn’t feel well.

Travels in Geology: Antarctica: Following in the footsteps of giants

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:32:38 -0500

In fall 2012, when I told friends and colleagues that I was heading south for a few weeks, they assumed that I, like many other northeasterners, was going to Florida or the Bahamas for a break from winter weather. Instead, I was headed to the iciest and southernmost place on Earth: Antarctica.

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.

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.

Hominin skull discovery fuels debate about early human evolution

Thu, 17 Oct 2013 14:32:28 -0400

The face of Dmanisi Skull 5. Courtesy of Guram Bumbiashvili, Georgian National Museum

The Dmanisi Skull 5 early _Homo _cranium and herbivore fossil remains in situ at the discovery site. Courtesy of Georgian National Museum

Artist's reconstruction of the original _Homo erectus _owner of Dmanisi Skull' 5. Courtesy of J.H. Matternes

The Dmanisi site (in the upper right of the photograph), lies beneath a small medieval town about 85 kilometers from Georgia's capital Tbilisi. The site sits on top of a lava flow and covers some 50,000 square meters. Courtesy of Fernando Javier Urquijo

Five different hominid skulls have been found at Dmanisi so far, all exhibiting slightly different traits. The newest one, Skull 5 on the far right, is believed to be _Homo erectus_. The question is whether all five are _Homo erectus_ or are different species. Courtesy of M. Ponce de León and Ch. Zollikofer, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Hailed as a find for the ages, a rare skull of a 1.8-million-year-old human relative could provide answers to longstanding questions about the lineage of our species. It also fuels debate over what differentiates one hominin species from another, and could mean that Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and other early bipedal hominins may all be members of Homo erectus, rather than distinct species.

Environmental changes contributed to Mediterranean cultural crisis

Wed, 11 Sep 2013 18:27:41 -0400

About 3,200 years ago, urban cultures thrived in the Eastern Mediterranean until invasions in coastal and inland areas, compounded by agricultural decline, created a regional crisis. “When the dust settled,” says Harvey Weiss, an archaeologist at Yale University, “entirely new ethnic groups and polities and ideologies [were] emergent in west Asia and the eastern Mediterranean.” Scientists have long puzzled over the cause of this period of social and agricultural instability, known as the Late Bronze Age Crisis. Now, new research suggests that environmental changes — especially a prolonged drought — contributed to the unrest.

Ancient volcanic island arc blocked Antarctic current formation

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 14:26:57 -0400

The mountainous spine of South Georgia Island is the Allardyce Range, a displaced fragment of the Andes of southernmost South America. New research suggests such a volcanic island arc blocked the Antarctic Circumpolar Current from forming until 12 million years ago. NASA

There has long been a debate in the geological community over what caused the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet during the Eocene-Oligocene period about 30 million years ago. One of the widely accepted hypotheses is that the glaciation was triggered by the commencement of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current that circles Antarctica insulating the continent from the warm waters to the north, allowing the ice sheet to remain relatively stable. However, a new study in Geology may invalidate this hypothesis.

Arsenic in wells in Vietnam suggests dig-deeper approach has issues

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 14:05:41 -0400

Laura Erban collects water samples to test for arsenic in wells in Vietnam. Courtesy of Laura Erban

For years, scientists and public health officials have known that arsenic threatens the water supplies of millions of people in the heavily populated floodplains of Southeast Asia. A recent study centers on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, but has profound implications for the people of the entire region. In Vietnam, arsenic is naturally hosted in sediments drained off the Himalayas, which wash into the Mekong. Within the delta sediments, microbes dissolve the carcinogen, facilitating its movement. According to previous studies, arsenic can be avoided by “digging deeper” — by drilling farther into the aquifers, past the poisoned groundwater. But now, a team of researchers has found that digging deeper may actually accentuate arsenic poisoning rather than alleviate it.

Arsenic levels in China may be predicted by modeling

Mon, 09 Sep 2013 13:44:45 -0400

Guifan Sun and his students collect water samples in China. Courtesy of Prof. Sun, China Medical University, Shenyang

In China, arsenic poisoning from groundwater has been a known chronic health issue since at least the 1970s. From 2001 to 2005, the Chinese Ministry of Health tested 450,000 wells, 13 percent of which exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) arsenic standards. However, numbers could be far worse, as only about 12 percent of Chinese counties were screened. Now, researchers from the Swiss Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) and China Medical University have developed a predictive model for arsenic groundwater contamination that they say could more efficiently determine regions where high-level arsenic contamination is most likely to occur. Their results, published in Science, showed that main arsenic risk is most likely in northern China.