November 2013 on EARTH Magazine

Mineral Resource of the Month: Thallium

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 15:16:39 -0400

David E. Guberman, a mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, compiled the following information about thallium, an extremely toxic metal used in a limited number of commercial applications.

Thallium, a grayish-white metal similar to tin in appearance, was discovered spectroscopically in 1861. Like lead, it is heavy yet soft, and can be cut easily with a knife. When exposed to air, thallium’s luster quickly tarnishes to a blue-gray color owing to the formation of a film of thallium oxide. Its concentration in Earth’s crust is estimated at 0.7 parts per million; mostly it is found in association with potassium minerals in clays, soils and granites, but in general it is not commercially recoverable from those sources. Manganese nodules, found on the ocean floor, also contain thallium.

Travels in Geology: The wild east of Wyoming: Bone wars, outlaw hideouts and crack climbing

Thu, 24 May 2018 13:07:00 -0400

Eastern Wyoming is known for its wide open spaces. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton

When vacationers plan trips to Wyoming, the western half of the state, with its grizzly bears, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, tends to be the biggest draw. But Eastern Wyoming — home to bone wars, outlaw hideouts and the nation’s first national monument — also boasts a captivating mix of Wild West history and geologic marvels.

Boondocking 101: How to camp for free in Wyoming

Thu, 24 May 2018 12:51:26 -0400

Credit: Mary Caperton Morton

When I drove this loop around Wyoming last spring, I did it in 10 days, camped out every night and didn’t pay for a single campsite. Wyoming is replete with public land: Nearly half of the state’s lands are held by the federal government and managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. Travelers are free to camp on BLM lands or national grasslands or in national forests, a practice known as dispersed camping, boondocking or coyote camping. You can stay in one site up to 14 days, but you must honor “Leave No Trace” ethics: After you leave your campsite, there should be no trace that you were ever there.

Getting There and Getting Around Wyoming

Thu, 24 May 2018 12:48:23 -0400

"Road" is a loose term in parts of Wyoming. But even on a lot of main roads, you can go a long way without seeing a sign of civilization. Credit: Mary Caperton Morton

To drive all or part of this loop, fly into Cheyenne and rent a car. You can also fly into Denver, 160 kilometers south of Cheyenne. The loop runs from Cheyenne to Laramie, then up through Casper, Buffalo, Gillette and Devils Tower before returning back south to Cheyenne via U.S. Highway 85. Primitive and developed camping opportunities abound in Wyoming, and hotels, motels and other accommodations can be found in the cities along the loop.

Energy Notes: July 2012-2013

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 12:04:28 -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: Thallium

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:59:58 -0500

Down to Earth With: David Montgomery

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:31:56 -0500

From the length and breadth of his body of work, you might assume that David Montgomery, a geomorphologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, is approaching the end of a highly successful career. After all, among other accomplishments, he pioneered our understanding of how river channels shape landscapes, explored how glaciers and climate determine the height of the world’s highest mountain ranges, and helped elucidate how erosion has shaped human civilizations through time. He has authored or co-authored more than 140 academic papers as well as three (going on four) books, and even snagged a MacArthur “genius grant” in 2008. However, Montgomery is only a youthful 51 and shows no signs of slowing down — he even manages to find time to write songs, play guitar and sing in two Seattle-based bands, Big Dirt, a folk rock group, and High Noon, a bluesy jazz rock ensemble. Recently, EARTH’s Julia Rosen caught up with Montgomery before he headed off to Africa for another season of fieldwork.

November 10, 1934: Arizona declares war against California at Parker Dam

Wed, 03 Dec 2014 14:01:44 -0500

From above, tiny green irrigation circles draw a narrow buffer along the 2,300-kilometer course of the Colorado River like the brush strokes of a zoomed-in pointillist painting. These vibrant green dots stand out against the buff and ochre hues of the desert palette, a testament to the river’s life-giving waters. Less obvious are the 6.4 billion cubic meters of water that flow, or are pumped, more than 390 kilometers from the Colorado’s gorge through tunnels and canals, up and down hills, to the agricultural and population centers of Southern California each year, and the additional 3.4 billion cubic meters that gurgle toward Phoenix and central Arizona annually.

Bare Earth Elements: IceCube observatory spurs "dawn of new age" in astronomy

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 11:56:46 -0500

Nicknamed 'Ernie,' the highest-energy neutrino ever observed, at 1.14 peta-electronvolts (PeV), was seen by IceCube on January 3, 2012. The second-highest-energy neutrino, nicknamed 'Bert,' had an energy of 1.04 PeV and was observed on August 9, 2011. Each blip of color in this image corresponds to the response of one of IceCube detectors. IceCube Collaboration

A skymap showing the approximate point sources of 28 high-energy neutrino events recently reported by the IceCube collaboration. IceCube Collaboration

“Deep below the glacial surface at the South Pole, where the Antarctic ice is crystal clear yet pitch black, a 3-D array of more than 5,000 custom-built and precisely positioned sensors, each about the size of a basketball, lies frozen in place.”

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

MAVEN takes off for Mars to study the planet's atmosphere

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:02:54 -0500

MAVEN launched on Nov. 18 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. NASA

NASA’s latest Mars mission, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter, successfully blasted off toward the Red Planet today to study how its evolving atmosphere contributed to climate change on Earth's neighbor.

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.

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.

Corals find a way to adapt?

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:41:14 -0500

Bleached brain coral. NOAA

A healthy coral reef in the U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA

In the past few decades, corals around the world have become endangered because of rising water temperatures. However, a new study suggests that corals may be able to adapt to some of that warming.

Slab tear explains perplexing Colombian earthquake activity

Fri, 08 Nov 2013 10:08:56 -0500

Four plates converge at the northwest corner of Colombia, leading to a complicated pattern of earthquake activity. Kathleen Cantner, AGI

Colombia sits atop a restless intersection of tectonic plates: The Caribbean Plate is subducting along the country’s northern coast while the oceanic Nazca Plate subducts along its western edge. In between, the narrow but buoyant Isthmus of Panama continues to crash into South America like a battering ram. The complex pattern of earthquake activity produced by these disparate forces has long confounded scientists hoping to decipher the plate structure beneath Colombia. In a new study, researchers have identified a feature called the Caldas Tear that may explain many long-standing riddles of Colombia’s geology.

Hydrological models locate ancient human migration routes

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 17:34:49 -0400

Google Earth image of North Africa encompassing Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, with the three main rivers predicted by the researchers' simulations shown flowing toward the Mediterranean as they would have 100,000 years ago. The green dots correspond to archaeological finds from that period. Courtesy of Google Earth and Jorge Ramirez

Archaeologists and geologists have long hypothesized that major river systems flowed north through the Sahara Desert about 100,000 years ago. These rivers would have provided a sort of network of “green corridors” across the Sahara that early humans could have traversed as they migrated out of Africa. Ancient lake records, fossil river systems, and radioisotope data have offered evidence for the existence of flowing water in the region. Now, a team of researchers has developed a novel paleohydrogeological and hydraulic modeling approach to help confirm the existence and location of these ancient rivers. Their research complements existing evidence that all three of these rivers could have provided the necessary water and food sources for migrating humans.

The Lizard King rises

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 13:01:28 -0400

The trouble with being a lizard is that your mammal neighbors are always trying to eat your dinner, or make you into their dinner, wielding a competitive advantage scientists have long attributed to their warm-blooded metabolism. For this reason, large lizards like the Komodo dragon are extremely rare, and only occur in isolated island environments that lack other predators. Now, a giant fossil species of herbivorous lizard that appears to have happily coexisted with various large mammal species has been identified in Eocene-aged rocks from Myanmar. Scientists christened it Barbaturex morrisoni (which translates to “bearded king Morrison”) in honor of the other Lizard King, singer Jim Morrison of The Doors.

NOAA quantifies oil danger from shipwrecks

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 11:28:47 -0400

The S.S. Jacob Luckenbach went down off the coast of California in July 1953 and has been leaking oil for decades. It is estimated that the vessel has leaked more than 1.1 million liters of oil. California Department of Fish and Wildlife

In the 1970s, mysterious oil spills began to plague hundreds of kilometers of California’s Central Coast. The spills usually occurred in winter, during large storms, and — with the exception of a few tarball events, like one that afflicted Point Reyes National Seashore in the winter of 1997-98 — little oil was seen on the beaches or in the water.

CSI La Brea: Tiny traces reveal big secrets of the tar pits

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 11:11:47 -0400

Kathleen Cantner, AGI

The La Brea tar pits in the middle of Los Angeles are known for turning up spectacularly preserved specimens of dire wolves, saber-tooth cats and woolly mammoths. But how long it took for the animals to sink down into the sticky tar after they became trapped has long been a mystery. Now a new study looking at the traces left by hungry bone-eating insects is providing a minimum time span for burial, as well as confirming some long-held suspicions about when the tar pits were at their most lethal.

Caspian Sea: Negotiation Support System

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:15:40 -0400

A digitized map of the Caspian Sea used in the Negotiation Support System showing the locations of proven oil and gas deposits (green). Courtesy of Kaveh Madani

Sample outputs (optimum nautical boundaries) created by the NSS follow the stipulation that either each portion of the sea is allotted to the country to which it is physically closest (left), or that each country receives an equal areal portion (i.e., 20 percent) of the sea (right). Courtesy of Kaveh Madani

To supplement their efforts at modeling the Caspian conflict using game theory and, potentially, to aid the five littoral countries as they continue to negotiate over how to govern and apportion the sea and its resources, Kaveh Madani, a civil engineer at the University of Central Florida, and his colleagues have developed a computer model dubbed the Caspian Sea Negotiation Support System (NSS).

Gaming the system in the Caspian Sea: Can game theory solve a decades-old dispute?

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:00:27 -0400

Kathleen Cantner, AGI

Water-rights disputes are never easy. Whether they are over pumping from aquifers shared among adjacent landowners, allocation of resources at the municipal, county or state level, or division of a river or lake shared between neighboring countries, there is an inevitable push and pull among stakeholders over who gets what and how much. In the end, resolutions tend to be compromises — often meted out by governing authorities — which, while not ideal from any one party’s standpoint, appeal to the desire of the group for stability over strife.