Research on EARTH Magazine

Going subterranean: Repurposed mines become innovative labs

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 10:13:05 -0400

A technician works inside a roughly 500-cubic-meter neutrino detector during its construction in April — one of two liquid argon detectors being built at the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) facility near Geneva, Switzerland. Known together as ProtoDUNE, the detectors at CERN are prototypes of four larger versions to be built at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) — housed in the former Homestake Gold Mine near Lead, S.D. — as part of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). Credit: CERN.

The headframe of the historic Soudan Iron Mine on a frigid day in northern Minnesota. The mine, which ceased operations in 1962, is now operated as a state park and also hosts scientific research. Credit: Josh Knackert.

At about 5 a.m. on a frigid, icy February day in northern Minnesota — the kind of day when it feels like your eyeballs might freeze — a group of about 10 undergraduates in a geobiology course at the University of Minnesota-Duluth jumped onto a bus, headed for a destination far more temperate and out of the elements — or, rather, deep below the elements. Joined by their professors, microbiologist Cody Sheik and geologist Latisha Brengman, as well as a few others (including yours truly), the students arrived, two hours later and still before daybreak in the Minnesota Northwoods, at the visitor center and museum for the historic Soudan Iron Mine. The mine began operations in 1882 as an open pit mine, but moved underground about 20 years later and ceased mining in 1962.

Slumgullion: Colorado's natural 'lab' offers insights into landslides worldwide

Mon, 09 Apr 2018 14:35:55 -0400

The enormous Slumgullion landslide in southwestern Colorado has been moving — sometimes imperceptibly slowly — every day for some 300 years. Credit: William Schulz, USGS.

In southwestern Colorado, a centuries-old “laboratory” looks out on the snowy peaks of the Lake City Caldera in a remote section of the San Juan Mountains. The lab’s scientists don’t wear white coats, but Gore-Tex and hiking boots, and they don’t work inside a building but on a 6.8-kilometer-long mishmash of red, brown and yellow earth topped with boulders, ponds and tilted spruce. Early settlers to the region called the mass Slumgullion, after an “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” stew, with “slum” being an old word for “slime” and “gullion” an English term for “cesspool.”

Benchmarks: October 1, 1960: Camp Century, a cold war ice fortress is built

Tue, 23 Aug 2016 13:51:59 -0400

The soldiers who staffed Camp Century enjoyed many of the same accommodations as their fellow soldiers at bases around the world. They had a mess hall, a chapel, a theater, a dispensary, an emergency room and even a hobby shop, all onsite. Just like their counterparts elsewhere, Camp Century’s soldiers got out of bed, shaved, showered and went to work. However, when Camp Century personnel opened the door and walked from their quarters, they saw only one thing: snow. No sun, no moon, no sky, and no distant horizon. Just a corridor with walls, floor and ceiling made of snow.

Comment: Mudrock cement and the importance of basic research

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 13:58:32 -0400

Red mudrock in the Ragged Reef Formation ( Pennsylvanian), Cumberland Basin, Nova Scotia. Credit: Michael C. Rygel, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Diverse motivations drive scientific research. For many of my geoscience colleagues, curiosity seems motivation enough. However, motivations beyond mere curiosity often spur the funding of science. Geoscience offers many questions of such immediate and practical value that much funding is supplied by private industry, although work of a more basic nature may also be funded publicly by governments at many levels. In the political world, it’s often argued that responsibility for advancing science should be weighted more heavily on one sector or another. But it need not be imbalanced: What often gets lost in such conversations is that science truly needs the fullest possible portfolio of motivations — and funders — to be most effective.

Benchmarks: December 1, 1959: Antarctic Treaty Signed

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 11:23:01 -0400

A victory for peace and science

In 1911, Roald Amundsen was the first person to mark the South Pole. Credit: Steve nicklas/noS, nGS (noAA).

Science trumps all in Antarctica. For the past 50 years, Antarctica has remained a military-free, globally shared continent, dedicated to peace and scientific advancement, thanks to the Antarctica Treaty.

The Arctic is open for research

Mon, 06 Jul 2015 13:28:27 -0400

Scientific cooperation is important in the Arctic. Here, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy meets with the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent. Credit: Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard.

“Science knows no boundaries, and the issues that the Arctic region faces require high-quality, trans-disciplinary and problem-based research, something which cannot be accomplished solely at the national level.” So stated Annu Jylhä-Pyykönen, Finland’s Head of Delegation to the Arctic Council’s Task Force for Enhancing Scientific Cooperation (SCTF) in an interview published on the Arctic Council’s website in March 2015.

Endangered Icebreakers: The future of Arctic research, exploration and rescue at risk

Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:11:02 -0400

Sailing the waters of the Arctic or Antarctic requires icebreakers — ships built to withstand polar conditions and break through sea ice. Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Prentice Danner.

The sun doesn't set in the Arctic summer. Credit: Piper Lewis.

The shipboard radar of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy shows a confused mass of yellow, the radar reflections of thousands of birds. Credit: Piper Lewis.

I had never seen so many birds in my life. The sunset turns the world a deep pink as auklets and murres spiral up to their nests on the Diomede Islands, two rocky outposts in the Bering Strait equidistant from the shores of Alaska and Siberia. The seabird observers count as quickly as they can; the shipboard radar of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy shows a confused mass of yellow at our location — the radar reflections of thousands of birds. Meanwhile, scientists in a lab on the Healy take samples of water collected at different depths below us from a rosette of Niskin bottles, while others on the aft deck collect plankton with giant ring nets. This is life aboard a research icebreaker in the Arctic.

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

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

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.