Science and Society on EARTH Magazine

Late Antique Little Ice Age underpinned unrest and upheaval in Europe and Asia

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 10:45:15 -0400

Effects of climate change on society aren’t just a contemporary concern. A new study has found that a cold snap in the sixth and seventh centuries may have been the catalyst for a period of societal turmoil, marked by famine, plague and political tumult.

Moving cars could help gauge rainfall

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 18:53:00 -0400

Could sensors in cars one day supplant scientific rain gauges? Credit: ©Shutterstock.com/CBCK

Accurate and timely rainfall measurements are crucial for the design of drainage systems, dams and other modern infrastructure. But rain gauges are often spread too sparsely to provide the necessary coverage in densely populated regions. In parts of Germany, for example, gauges equipped to make hourly readings are especially scarce — just one per 1,800 square kilometers. To help fill in the gaps, researchers at the Leibniz University of Hannover are developing an idea they call “RainCars” — using moving cars to measure rainfall.

Crowdfunding spotlight

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 13:52:56 -0400

Science writers at Columbia University used Kickstarter funding to create a calendar of glamour shots of Columbia scientists, including Lisa Goddard and Kátia Fernandes of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Richard Seager and Jason Smerdon of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Credit: all: Charlie Naebeck.

NAME: Rebecca Fowler & Francesco Fiondella, science writers at Columbia University

Crowdfunding science: A new piece of the research grant puzzle

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 13:19:23 -0400

Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI

As a leading researcher in the field of atmospheric science, University of Washington scientist Dan Jaffe had never had trouble securing funding for his work on airborne pollutants. Over the past 20 years, he has been awarded more than $7 million dollars in grants from multiple government agencies, from NOAA and NASA, to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). That all changed when he wanted to study the effects of increased coal-train travel through his home state of Washington.

Travels in Geology: Peru's petrified forest: The struggle to study and preserve one of the world's most remarkable fossil sites

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:53:18 -0400

Located approximately 2,800 meters high on a plateau in the Andes, Peru's petrified forest is exposed around the rim of a caldera-like basin. To the east and south of the basin, the Rio Chancay has sliced a deep canyon. Credit: Jean Schnell.

This log was lithified — preserving the rings and details of the tree's anatomy — 39 million years ago. Credit: Jean Schnell.

Tucked high in the Andes Mountains of northern Peru is a remarkable fossil locality: a 39-million-year-old petrified forest preserved in nearly pristine condition. With its existence unknown to scientists until the early 1990s — and its significance unbeknownst to villagers — this ancient forest hosts the remains of more than 40 types of trees, some still rooted, that flourished in a lowland tropical forest until they were suddenly buried by a volcanic eruption and a series of roiling torrents of mud and debris known as lahars.

Creationism comes to the county fair

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 10:24:00 -0400

You never know what you're going to find at the fair. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Lokibaho.

County fairs are opportunities to bring in those handsome Holsteins competing for Best Bessie, to sample foods that don’t normally belong on sticks and definitely shouldn’t be deep-fried, and to enjoy carnival rides and games with unfavorable odds. They’re also opportunities to get the attention of a lot of people. Just ask the exhibitors who pay for space to hawk their wares.

Geomedia: Books: Science in fiction

Thu, 15 May 2014 12:21:35 -0400

As a science magazine, EARTH usually reviews nonfiction. This month, however, we are bringing you reviews of three recent novels with scientific themes that might make nice additions to your summer reading list. The three novels fall neatly into classic genres — the murder mystery, the high-stakes thriller and the science-infused fantasy — so hopefully there is a little something for everyone. Warning: spoilers follow.

Benchmarks: June 16, 1963 & June 18, 1983: Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride become first and third women in space

Thu, 15 May 2014 10:33:49 -0400

Credit: Copyright Shutterstock.com/peresanz.

On June 16, 1963, during the height of the Cold War, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. It would be 19 years before another woman would fly in space — Soviet Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982 — and 20 years before the first American woman, Sally Ride, made it into space on June 18, 1983. These pioneers inspired the generations of women astronauts who followed. In the three decades since Ride’s foray into outer space, 57 other women have also taken flight (see sidebar) and, last year, half of NASA’s new class of astronauts were women.

Dueling dinosaurs hit the auction block

Thu, 15 May 2014 09:51:34 -0400

The "Dueling Dinosaurs" specimen identified as Nanotyrannus (shown here) has 16 to 18 tooth sockets in its upper jaw, whereas Tyrannosaurus rex has only 11 to 12 sockets. Credit: Raphael Rosen

In 2006, fossil collector Clayton Phipps (a Montana rancher known as the “Dinosaur Cowboy”) and his crew discovered a rare fossil on private land in Montana’s Hell Creek Formation: the bones of two fully articulated dinosaurs that appeared to have died together, locked in battle. The fossil duo — a small, pony-sized carnivorous tyrannosaurid and a slightly larger herbivorous ceratopsian, both now preserved in plaster — became known as the “Montana Dueling Dinosaurs.”

The history, science and poetry of New England's stone walls

Tue, 13 May 2014 11:24:52 -0400

In 2007, I returned to eastern Connecticut, where I grew up. Driving north on Interstate 395 past towns like Norwich and Griswold, I was struck by the many old gray stone walls tumbling off into the forests along the highway. Realizing that the trees in those forests weren’t particularly old, I surmised that those forests had once been cleared farm lands.

Precise to a fault: How GPS revolutionized seismic research

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:57:55 -0400

The Global Positioning System is a constellation of more than 30 satellites orbiting Earth twice a day at an altitude of more than 20,000 kilometers. Geoscientists use GPS to make precise measurements of position and ground motion. Credit: Kathleen Cantner, AGI

In the late 1980s, Ken Hudnut, a Columbia University graduate student studying plate tectonics in Southern California, began experimenting with a new technology, called the Global Positioning System (GPS), as a way to measure the slow, relentless motion of Earth’s crustal plates.

Faking quakes at full scale: Giant shake tables simulate earthquakes to make buildings safer

Fri, 11 Apr 2014 13:29:41 -0400

The largest shake table experiment ever conducted shook this full-size seven-story condominium built at the Japanese National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention's Earth-Defense facility ("E-Defense") in 2009. Credit: John van de Lindt

On a muggy day in mid-July 2009, a lone seven-story condominium complex northwest of Kobe, Japan, was violently shaken by seismic forces similar to those that struck Northridge, Calif., in 1994 — only stronger. Onlookers watched the 23-unit, wood-frame tower sway and bounce while, inside the building, furniture toppled and plates clattered to the floor.

GPS measurements of ground inflation help forecast ash plumes

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 16:07:31 -0500

When Grimsvötn Volcano in Iceland erupted in May 2011, northern European airspace was closed for seven days and about 900 passenger flights were canceled. Scientists were charged with trying to read the volcano — to tell how high the ash plume would go and to figure out how long the violent eruption would last. Such features are hard to predict, but in a novel study, one research team has found a correlation between the height and composition of the Grimsvötn ash plume and ground deformation before and during the eruption. The findings, the team says, could improve volcanic plume dispersion models, which in turn could help air traffic managers determine when and where it’s safe to fly when volcanoes like Grimsvötn and Eyjafjallajökull suddenly erupt.

Seattle's landslide risk greater than thought

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 12:17:34 -0500

This Seattle area map shows the location of the Seattle Fault Zone (dotted line), the fault location used for the rupture model for landslide simulation (line of triangles), and landslide-prone areas designated by the city. The inset map shows the regional tectonic setting and volcanoes (triangles). Allstadt et al., BSSA 2013 ©Seismological Society of America

Landslides have been part of Seattle’s history “from a time to which the memory of man runneth not back,” wrote famed city engineer Reginald Thomson in 1897. A new study shows that landslides will also play a central role long into the future. They will be “extensive and potentially devastating, causing direct losses and impeding recovery,” reported a team in Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

From field scientist to filmmaker: Doug Prose

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 09:58:57 -0500

Geo-documentarian and filmmaker Doug Prose. Diane LaMacchia

With a background in writing and film production, Diane LaMacchia — Prose's co-producer and wife — writes, directs and edits films at Earth Images Foundation. Doug Prose

Whether it has been filming from precarious positions (like this one overlooking a volcanic crater in Ecuador) or sleeping in a self-made snow trench during Antarctic cold-weather training, Prose has had his share of brushes with danger. Diane LaMacchia

Ask Doug Prose what his favorite part of producing geologically themed documentaries is and he’ll tell you it’s filming nature and science in the field that excites him most. In particular, it’s the company of awe-inspiring landscapes, eminent experts and eager students; it’s capturing science in action, and researchers’ reactions at moments of discovery; it’s even logistical elements like composing camera shots and, when needed, managing curious onlookers crowding sometimes camera-shy scientists.

Brooks Ellwood and the unusual applications of magnetism

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 09:26:45 -0500

Comparing a historical photo of a cemetery in Giddings, Texas, to modern-day photos and removing modern additions like phone lines and curbing, Brooks Ellwood and his team noticed three trees and five monuments common in both photos, allowing them to locate the possible position of Wild Bill Longley's grave. Sure Ellwood

Ellwood, Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Doug Owsley and their team then excavated where the computer work indicated, and found the long-lost gravesite of Wild Bill. Sure Ellwood

Ellwood pioneered the use of the MagnetoSusceptibility Event and Cyclostratigraphy (MSEC) technique to study Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) localities around the world, such as this one near Luxor, Egypt. Brooks Ellwood

The call came out of the blue. Geophysicist Brooks Ellwood was sitting in his office in the geology department at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1990 when the telephone rang. On the other end was Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution, who was calling to ask for Ellwood’s help to find the grave of “Wild Bill” Longley. Little did Ellwood realize that this seemingly straightforward request would set him off on a 10-year quest.

Commissioned artwork

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 09:17:45 -0500

The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) commissioned this artwork from Adam Frus (center) to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Geological Society of America (GSA). AGI Executive Director Patrick Leahy (left) and AGI Foundation Executive Director Bill Barkhouse (right) presented the piece to GSA last October. Maureen Moses

In 2013, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI, which publishes EARTH) commissioned glass artist Adam Frus to create a sculpture to celebrate the Geological Society of America’s (GSA) 125th anniversary. AGI was looking for something unique to capture the essence of geoscience to present to GSA.

Geoscience inspires glass artist Adam Frus

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 09:08:56 -0500

Adam Frus has been blowing glass since he was 16. He creates art inspired by the geosciences in color, content and style. Courtesy of Adam Frus

Artwork was a staple in Adam Frus’ boyhood home in Jacksonville, Fla. “Growing up, my parents took me to a lot of art shows, which taught me the value of creating something beautiful,” he says. But his true love for art took off when, at the age of 16, he took a glass-blowing class with his father and brother. Frus has now been working in blown glass for the better part of two decades, and in 2007, he started his own company, Frus Glass. He wasn’t always sure he wanted to be a professional artist, however, and he first pursued geology, graduating with a degree in geology from Arizona State University in 2007. Now he uses that geological background and love of the earth sciences to inform his art.

Be aware and prepare

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:53:03 -0500

Hiking the full 340-kilometer length of the John Muir Trail (JMT) isn’t a beginner backpacking trip. Make sure you enjoy slowly plodding up switchbacks carrying a heavy pack for days before you start out on this weeks-long trek. That said, I met a surprising number of people for whom the JMT was their first wilderness foray, and as far as I know, they all survived.

Travels in Geology: Walking toward Whitney: A journey through the Sierra High Country along the John Muir Trail

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 09:26:19 -0500

From atop Mount Whitney — the tallest peak in the lower 48 states — ridge upon ridge of Central California’s Sierra Nevada range stretches out before you, the topography blurring into the northern horizon. My travel companion and I arrived at Mount Whitney’s peak after a 340-kilometer hike through the High Sierras along the John Muir Trail (JMT) — climbing up and down many of the ridges that now fade in the distance. Having just traversed the trail, one boot-step at a time, you can appreciate the scale of the scenery all the more: You’ll understand just how high you truly are and that those ridges, their severity now softened by distance, are anything but tame.

Harvesting fog could bring water to millions

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 13:17:37 -0500

Fog collectors resemble volleyball nets with tighter weaves. Standard fog collectors are getting a boost with an optimized stainless steel mesh, as shown here near Pena Blanca, Chile. Water is collected in the white plastic drum. K.C. Park

In northern Chile, as in many other parts of the world, freshwater is a limited commodity, but heavy fogs are a regular occurrence. For at least two decades, people in such areas have turned to fine mesh nets to harvest moisture from fog, but to date the nets have never been terribly efficient. Now, new research could greatly improve the nets’ efficiency, increasing the amount of water they’re able to capture.

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.

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.

Think differently: renewable hydrogen generation

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:01:17 -0400

Could hydrogen, used to fuel cars like Mazda's RX-8, be generated using renewable energy sources? Copyright Mazda North American Operations

Most of the existing solutions for renewable energy storage represent riffs on our current energy infrastructure. They are either inherent to existing fuel sources (concentrated solar power), or linked directly to the grid (flywheels, pumped storage and compressed air energy storage). But what if the future looks radically different from today, as history has often shown it can? What if the future of energy is based on hydrogen produced by renewable energy sources?

Home sweet home for field campers

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:27:16 -0400

A tent camp in the Chisos Mountains in Texas offers a temporary home for students during a regional geology field course run by the College of William and Mary. Jessica Ball

With a few exceptions — including available meal choices and entertainment options for when students have limited free time — accommodations at today’s field camps haven’t changed all that much, at least in the last few decades. Depending on the camp, however, lodging ranges from log cabins to college dorms to motels to the occasional traveling camps that still live and work out of “tent cities.”

New dates place Spanish cave art as oldest in Europe

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:31:02 -0400

Scientists have redated art in El Castillo Cave in Spain. The new dates place a hand stencil at earlier than 37,300 years ago and a red disk at earlier than 40,600 years ago — the oldest cave paintings in Europe. Image courtesy of Pedro Saura

The Panel of Hands in El Castillo Cave. Scientists have found a new date for a hand stencil: It is at least 37,300 years old. Image courtesy of Pedro Saura

Researchers removing calcite samples for dating from Tito Bustillo Cave, Spain. New dates put the art at between 29,000 and 36,000 years old. Image courtesy of Rodrigo De Balbín Behrmann

But were the artists modern humans or Neanderthals?

Scientists have studied Paleolithic cave art for more than a century, but new research suggests paintings and carvings in some Spanish caves are thousands of years older than previously thought, which would make them the oldest cave art in Europe. The new evidence has left researchers wondering if the artists were modern humans or Neanderthals.

A Dirty Secret - China's greatest import: Carbon emissions

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

A factory along the Yangtze River in China. High Contrast, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Germany

The U.S. and much of the Western world have a dirty secret.

Comment: Volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide: The missing science

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

Alaska's Mount Redoubt, during a 1990 eruption. USGS

“Volcanoes add far more carbon dioxide to the oceans and atmosphere than humans.” So says geologist Ian Plimer of the University of Adelaide in his 2009 best seller “Heaven and Earth: Global Warming — the Missing Science.” With this assertion, Plimer brings volcanic carbon dioxide degassing front and center in the climate change debate, reviving and reinforcing this wildly mistaken notion.

Crystal Ball EARTH: Natural Hazards: Reducing society's risks

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

Many of the world's largest cities, such as Caracas, Venezuela, are hotspots of extreme poverty and most vulnerable to catastrophes following natural hazards. Abby Baca, RMS

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones and her son, Niels Hauksson, watch the Station Fire near their home in La Cañada Flintridge, Calif. Egill Hauksson

The Station Fire in California burned dangerously close to communications towers and the Mount Wilson Observatory. Todd Hoefen, USGS

More than 65,000 people were left temporarily homeless by the magnitude-6.3 earthquake that struck L'Aquila, Italy, in April. Walter Mooney, USGS

The L'Aquila earthquake crumpled both medieval and modern infrastructure. Walter Mooney, USGS

The global financial disaster of 2009 has many parallels with catastrophic natural hazards. It struck pretty much without warning, its impact was greatly exacerbated by an incredibly complex system of cascading consequences, and finally, mechanisms supposedly in place to mitigate the worse impacts (regulations, in the case of the financial system) failed. There was awareness that such a meltdown could theoretically occur, but it was considered such a low-probability event that it was evidently not worth planning for.

Geologic Column: Snow globes, light shows and t-shirts

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

Horseshoe Falls from Niagara Falls, Ontario. Johnny Albert 10

American and Bridal Falls of Niagara Falls. Ujjwal Kumar

It seemed like a simple question. “What do you think the most commercialized geologic site is?”

Highlights of 2010: Definitive statements: a new trend?

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

AGI

“This is the way it was.” Or: “This is what is happening.” Hmmm. Scientists don’t usually make such definitive statements, given that in science, there are almost always caveats. Yet in the last year, such statements have been issued by several large groups of scientists who have come together to support a certain point of view. Are scientists feeling the need to dig in their heels because of public pressures? Or are we actually reaching some consensus?

Oil barrel politics

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

As a new president and Congress entered office in January, current events continue to keep energy in the forefront of national concern. Volatile prices, resource depletion, climate change and national security impacts of energy trade have become a part of daily news and policy discussion. Americans will be watching the new policymakers to see how they respond to energy concerns. How they treat energy research and development — particularly the amount of funds dedicated to R&D, and the portion of that R&D that is allocated through earmarks — will be telling. If they’re smart, they’ll avoid allocating R&D funds through earmarks altogether.

Running into the brick wall of Creationism again

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

I had recently moved to a new community and begun a new job. One night I was dining with some potential new friends. Upon learning that I am both a Christian and a passionate student of geology, one of my dinner mates proclaimed, “So, I suppose you believe in evolution, right? Well, I need to let you know that I HATE evolution.” I somehow managed to keep my cool. “And exactly why do you hate evolution?” I queried. “My minister has taught us that it is false Christian teaching,” she retorted. By that time, I could not hold myself back. I initiated some strong discussion aimed at educating.

Science and the social media

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

How blogs, Twitter and other social media tools are changing conversations about scientific research

Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools are undeniably changing the way that people communicate and share information. A small but increasing number of scientists are starting to use these tools to talk about science: writing blog posts about their work, papers they have read and the activities in their laboratories, or using Twitter to collect and share stories and resources with like-minded colleagues. These outlets, which were initially used mainly for scientific outreach, are also gradually becoming venues for conversations with other scientists — conversations that have until now been confined to the conference halls and coffee rooms of academia. Despite what you might think, this is a good thing for science.

The art of un-legislating

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

The U.S. Capitol Building Diliff

Taking public approval ratings at face value, it would be easy to conclude that the legislative branch of our government is motivated by an unfortunate blend of incompetence and arrogance. Certainly the repeated and well-documented failures of Congress to act on issues of national significance and its tendency to substitute rhetoric and pork barrel spending for meaningful action provide ample fodder for this well-worn reputation. Whether or not such a portrait is fair, it reveals a powerful and deeply rooted public perception: that the fundamental purpose of Congress is to enact good legislation. Yet this is not the case, as I have seen firsthand in my year spent on Capitol Hill.

Voices: A growing need for geoscience diplomacy

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

U.S. State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. AgnosticPreachersKid, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

“I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world … we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek.”

Voices: An old Earth for all Muslims but how does evolution fit in?

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

It’s no secret that many of the protests and rebellions in North Africa and the Middle East this year have been dominated by globally connected, young, educated Muslims. One of the stated goals of many of these young people is improving the science and technology programs in their countries. They understand that to compete in the global marketplace, strong science and technology programs are necessary. That bodes well for these countries’ futures. But there are still threats to the scientific futures of these nations — including the quiet but growing population of people who reject the principles of evolution.

Voices: Austerity axes geological survey in Greece

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

We have all heard about the austerity measures being taken in Greece regarding its economy. This economic situation is about to affect many of us outside of Greece, however: One aspect of the austerity measures is the immediate closure of the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME). This is a travesty. I am hopeful that by raising awareness outside of Greece, we might be able to save this great body.

Voices: Does all scientific work deserve public attention?

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

Last September, I read a thoughtful post about science blogging and communication on The Guardian’s science blog by David Dobbs. Many scientists seem to think that their work is done once they’ve published a paper, Dobbs said. He argued that scientists have grown over-reliant on the scientific paper to get the word out about their findings and instead — or really, in addition — they need to communicate the importance of their work to an audience larger than the readership of peer-reviewed papers.

Voices: Geologists on the wrong side of the law

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

Many of L'Aquila's buildings were reduced to rubble during the April 6 earthquake. INGV

We live in a litigious society. Engineering and environmental geologists are no strangers to the legal system. They frequently deal with issues relating to geologic hazards such as active faults and unstable ground, the release of contaminants into the environment and numerous other circumstances. But for the most part, geoscientists tend to avoid legal battles. Is that changing?

Voices: Greening the Gross Domestic Product

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

When measured in terms of annual Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, the United States is the richest country in the world, followed at a distance by China and Japan, and then several European countries, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The GDP — the value of all final goods and services produced in a country during a given year — is a simple computation that allows a direct comparison of wealth between countries. But if you take into account a country’s carbon dioxide emissions, its pollution, its depletion of ecological assets and/or its deteriorating infrastructure, would the total GDP remain the same? Probably not. Because these issues are not accounted for in the GDP indicator, using GDP to measure a country’s true wealth is remarkably poor at best and highly damaging at worst.

Voices: Humans at high temperatures

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

Reconsidering the economic implications of climate change

How much will it cost to implement plans to mitigate climate change? And if we don’t implement changes, what will the cost of climate change be?

Economists tend to examine questions like these with cost-benefit analyses. For example, in the climate change debate, if a climate change policy will produce more gains to society than it will cost to implement, a cost-benefit analysis might suggest we should embrace the policy. To date, virtually all cost-benefit analyses of greenhouse gas reductions have suggested that mitigation policies cost more than the benefits they produce, at least in the short run. But most of these analyses have probably dramatically underestimated the economic impacts of a warming climate by not factoring in an important process: what happens to humans when temperatures rise.

Voices: Log off and get outside again

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

I began this column while meandering across the West just after Labor Day last year. We drove from Telluride, Colo., to Zion National Park in Utah, to Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border, and finally to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Voices: Natural gas can lead the way

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

Much of the debate concerning energy, climate and the economy involves how to manage the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources. In this context, it may seem ironic to promote one fossil fuel over another, but natural gas is an inexpensive, abundant and relatively clean fuel that can lead the transition away from coal and oil, while achieving significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants over the next two decades. In short, increased use of domestic sources of natural gas needs to be an essential component of U.S. energy policy.

Voices: Redefining humanity through energy use

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

What is it, exactly, that distinguishes us from other species? The definition of humankind has perplexed scientists, philosophers and theorists for centuries. DNA composition differentiates species in a technical sense, but that definition is hardly satisfying. Certainly there must be something more ethereal that separates us from “lower” forms of creatures. Over the centuries, several definitions have emerged — from using tools to speaking — but have then been proven insufficient in some heuristic way. So I propose another option: manipulating energy.

Voices: What does "The Nation's Report Card" tell us about science education?

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

In President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech in January, he emphasized the need for more scientists, mathematicians and engineers in the U.S. workforce. But the latest national assessment of science education in the U.S. appears to offer little hope for our next generation of scientists. Still, the results provide some insight on the state of science education in this country — information that we can use to improve our schools.

Voices: Wildfires and debris flows: Federal mud

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

“Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.”

– Joan Didion, California author

In 2010, California was struck by 6,656 wildfires, due in large part to the strong and extremely dry Santa Ana Winds that sweep through Southern California and northern Baja California in the late fall and winter. These fires often lead to debris flows after the winter rains set in.

2012 budget requests a mixed bag for science

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

The White House. Wikimedia Commons

The Obama administration emphasized scientific innovation and education in its fiscal year 2012 budget requests. On Monday, the president’s science advisor, John Holdren, summarized the requests across the different agencies as part of a “tough-love” strategy outlined in the president’s State of the Union speech in January to “win the future.”

A day without Glory

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

Glory was expected to fly in a low-Earth orbit about 705 kilometers above Earth's surface. NASA

Glory was set to join the "Afternoon Constellation" or "A-train" of polar-orbiting satellites. NASA

On a warm afternoon in early March, the Taurus XL rocket that was prepped for launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California looked more like a giant chopstick standing on end than a potential game changer in the debate over climate change science. The barrel-shaped satellite that the rocket carried — named Glory — was designed to deliver critical information about small airborne particles called aerosols. The elusive particles account for much of the uncertainty in climate models, and data from the satellite would have helped scientists determine more of the aerosols’ key properties than ever before. Instead, before dawn the next morning and just minutes after launch, Glory’s remains crashed into the southern Pacific Ocean near Antarctica.

A memoir: A decade-plus of tracking lunar larceny

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

Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong opens a sample return container during Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) training in Houston, Texas. NASA

A moon rock brought back by Apollo 16 astronauts. NASA

The first Apollo 11 sample return container arrives at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. NASA, scan by Ed Hengeveld

In the back alleys of the world’s capitals and in the ballrooms of presidential palaces exists a black market that preys on the imagination of some and the greed of others. These black-market items were neither carved nor painted; in fact, they are not of this Earth. They traveled 400,000 kilometers via six Apollo missions and three unmanned Soviet missions to and from the moon.

AGU: How scientists should talk climate change

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

Blogging on EARTH

SAN FRANCISCO — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment report last year showed a strong consensus among scientists that the climate is warming, thanks largely to anthropogenic greenhouse gases. So one has to wonder why scientists are still struggling to get that message through to both policymakers and stakeholders.

Benchmarks: February 12, 1809: Charles Robert Darwin is born - and so began modern biology

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

During his five weeks in the Galapagos Islands, Darwin collected many samples, some of which are shown in the traveling Darwin exhibit. Denis Finnin, American Museum of Natural History

As celebrations in honor of Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday are in full swing this month, a revolution is rumbling through evolutionary biology. In the 150 years since Darwin published his landmark book “On the Origin of Species,” scientists have elucidated much of the molecular underpinnings of how evolution — natural selection, punctuated equilibrium and the like — works. One of the pillars of evolutionary theory has long been the notion that the DNA sequence is the only molecular information that is passed on from one generation to the next. But over the last decade or so, an avalanche of studies has shown that epigenetic settings — specific markings on the genome that can turn a gene on or off — can be heritable as well. Moreover, some of these epigenetic changes are triggered by environmental influences, such as stress or diet, suggesting that there is much more to evolution than just random variation followed by selection of the fittest.

Benchmarks: March 1, 1872: "Bone Wars" heat up

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

Edward Drinker Cope. The Academy of Natural Sciences, Ewell Sale Stewart Library

Edward Drinker Cope stood before a smoke-filled audience at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pa., on March 1, 1872. One of the nation’s leading paleontologists, Cope would present his latest fossil find: an extinct flying reptile he designated Ornithochirus. Certainly the piece would be recognized as a major contribution to the scientific understanding of ancient life. More importantly, Cope thought, he would receive credit as its discoverer.

Benchmarks: November 22, 1859: "On the Origin of Species" published

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

Ben Tillman, University of Sydney Library

Asa Gray was one of Charles Darwin's most vocal proponents in the United States in the late 19th century. Library of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University

About a decade ago, I was fortunate enough to hold in my hands a first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.” The green cover was cracked and frayed. The cardboard backing protruded through the torn corners. I put the book down and stared at it in awe. The owner of this book was Asa Gray, one of America’s greatest botanists, an important early American supporter of natural selection, and a friend of Darwin’s.

Benchmarks: The first Earth Day

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

NOAA

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across the United States celebrated the first Earth Day. “It was a time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire,” as the Environmental Protection Agency states on their Web site. Once again, Earth Day is celebrated this month, but now it’s a global phenomenon, with hundreds of millions of people participating in activities. What began as a grassroots effort to notice the environment has now grown into a global environmental movement.

Biofuels and food: Mutually exclusive?

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

Global energy demand is forecast to double by 2025. Fossil fuel supplies are finite and increasingly politicized and insecure. Yet viable alternative energy sources on the required global scale are lacking. In this context, major energy consumers, especially the United States and the European Union, are expanding their use of biofuels as one of the few sources of affordable and secure energy. Assuming this trend continues, biofuels will expand despite public concerns about the implied pressure on food prices and expansion of agriculture into environmentally sensitive areas like rainforests. The biofuels genie is out of the bottle and here to stay, and it is now just a question of how fast and in what ways the industry will grow.

Blogging on EARTH: "Climategate" scientist tells his side

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

SAN FRANCISCO: In November, hackers broke into the e-mail server of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit and stole thousands of e-mails dating back to 1996 written by and to climate scientists. The e-mails, which were then leaked to the public, contained the typical stuff of science (and of e-mails, for that matter): amid discussions of data and theory, there was debate, confusion, flippancy, dark humor and questioning.

Blogging on EARTH: A proposed twist on carbon trades at AGU

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

SAN FRANCISCO: In the ongoing climate negotiations, one issue that keeps coming up is that developing countries should be held to the same standards as the developed world.

But that’s not quite fair, say Steven Davis and Ken Caldeira (both at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, Calif.): Much of the carbon dioxide emitted by those developing countries goes into producing goods that are exported to the developed world — which means the developing world ends up paying for others’ consumerism. In other words, we’re outsourcing our carbon dioxide emissions.

Blogging on EARTH: Climate change threatens Virginia's vacation spots

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

The 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown settlement is commemorated on the Virginia state quarter. U.S. Mint

Each year, millions of visitors flock to Virginia’s natural wonders, such as Shenandoah National Park, and to historical landmarks, like Jamestown, one of America’s earliest colonies. But a new report by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) states that many of Virginia’s landmarks are jeopardized by climate change.

Blogging on EARTH: The lighter side of geo-jargon

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

A big haboob sweeps over Phoenix. Junebug172

A hoodoo at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. Ciar, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Hawaiian pahoehoe lava. U.S. Geological Survey

Timothy Oleson at Machu Picchu in Peru. courtesy of Dave Clark

Sometimes in this world, we just need a little levity.

Blogging on EARTH: Webb Space Telescope ensnared in political drama

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

A full-scale replica of the James Webb Space Telescope sits outside the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. NASA

Timothy Oleson at Machu Picchu in Peru. courtesy of Dave Clark

Perhaps you have heard of the psychological principle of entrapment. In college, a friend of mine once described it to me while we stood in a seemingly endless line in one of the dining halls. As I recall, the essence of it is that the more money, time or effort you invest in some venture waiting for a return — a sandwich in my case — the harder it is to simply let it go or give up hope, regardless of how unfavorable the potential cost-benefit ratio is. At the time, I remember thinking that my friend, a budding behavioral psychologist, was merely re-packaging a bit of common sense as some trumped-up, pseudo-scientific axiom. Bullheaded, I scoffed and left the sandwich line, mainly to irritate him, but also to prove that I was not so easily ruled by outside forces.

Breaking the Energy Barrier

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

Refueling Air Force planes in midair increases fuel costs to about $42 per gallon. U.S. Air Force photo by Jet Fabara

The Department of Defense is the world's single largest energy consumer and is poised to help solve the world's energy challenges. Photo: Tech. Sgt. Angela Stafford, USAF

President Barack Obama, Col. Dave Belote and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., tour Nellis Air Force Base. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Nadine Y. Barclay

Can the Department of Defense solve the world’s energy crisis one jet at a time?

Californians prepare for the Big One

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

At 10 a.m. local time Thursday, a massive magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck Los Angeles. But don’t worry — it was only a drill.

During the Great Southern California ShakeOut Drill, more than 10 million people, ranging from businessmen to schoolchildren, will be exposed to extreme shaking. More than 5 million people will “drop, cover and hold on.” Meanwhile, fire and rescue, together with 300 scientists and engineers, will work to save the city. At least 600,000 buildings will have some damage — much of it from the fires that will rage after the shaking stops — and there will be at least $200 billion in damage. Electricity will be out in some areas for days, and water could be out for as long as six months. And about 1,800 people will be “killed” and 50,000 “injured.”

Chile quake/tsunami news coverage: The bad and the good

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

Blogging on EARTH

As you would expect, there's been tons of coverage of the earthquake off the coast of Chile and the resulting tsunami in the mainstream media. And some of it has been notoriously poor.

In addition to Rick Sanchez of CNN, who took serious and well-deserved heat (and not just from Comedy Central's the Daily Show) for his extremely shouty "nine meters is what now in English?" schtick, a number of geoblogs, including geotripper and Magma Cum Laude, have pointed out the extreme annoyingness of less flashy but still misleading stories like this and this, which imply that NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center should hang its head in shame for issuing a tsunami warning for Hawaii, since the waves that did arrive were much smaller than they could have been.

Congress lets bans on outer continental shelf drilling expire

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

The cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. U.S. government

In July, President Bush lifted the executive ban on outer continental shelf (OCS) drilling, putting pressure on Congress to follow suit.

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.

Criminals steal London dino's dung

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

It took a big dinosaur to make dung this large. This coprolite was likely from a _Maiasaura_, an herbivorous dinosaur that walked upright on its hind legs. Karen Chin

Blogging on EARTH

A series of robberies over the past five years at London’s Natural History Museum has curators frustrated — and puzzled. From stuffed squirrels to scarab beetles, it seems that anything that can be carried is vulnerable. But most oddly, some thieves made off with a piece of fossilized dinosaur dung.

Crystal Ball EARTH: Policy: A tale of two years

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

The U.S. Capitol Building Diliff

The International Space Station, seen from the shuttle Discovery. The shuttle program is due to be retired in 2010, and the space station decommissioned in 2015. NASA

Florida Power & Light's Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center will be the largest solar thermal plant outside of California when it opens in 2010. Florida Power & Light

BP's Thunderhorse oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Congress and the Obama administration are considering whether to allow more drilling off U.S. coasts. BP p.l.c.

In U.S. policy, the past year was dominated by discussions of energy and climate change issues, at least in the earth sciences realm. In the first year of his administration, President Barack Obama focused on his top campaign priorities — but between discussions of healthcare reform, trying to rejuvenate the economy and setting up his cabinet, he still found time to discuss the sciences.

Danger and wonder in Nat Geo's "Giant Crystal Cave"

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

National Geographic Channel

Working in the Giant Crystal Cave. National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel

Razor-sharp rocks. Deadly crevasses. Unbearable heat. Scalding water. One false step...and you’re history.

Danger in the Deep: Chemical weapons lie off our coasts

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

After the two world wars, many weapons were dumped into the oceans. Roy Wilkins

Flash back to 1944: It’s a misty Hawaiian morning and a military vessel carries a nervous crew and deadly cargo from Pearl Harbor into the Pacific. The crew’s instructions are clear: Travel eight kilometers out to sea and dump tons of unused chemical weapons that are piled on deck. As the ship reaches the open ocean, the captain slows the vessel and sailors start pushing their lethal freight into the water. During the next half-hour, several thousand chemical bombs go overboard and into the abyss.

Designing Snowflakes

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

One of Kenneth Libbrecht's snowflake photographs. Kenneth Libbrecht

It's easy to forget that powerful snowstorms are made of tiny, delicate ice crystals we call snowflakes. Some snowflakes take a familiar six-sided form. Others are more fantastic. Either way, snowflakes can astound with their intricate beauty.

Earth science rocks at the USA Science & Engineering Festival

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

USA Science & Engineering Festival

A jazz-improvising robot; an Einstein impersonator; Van de Graaff generators that make your hair stand on end: These were just some of the attractions at the inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival, which included an expo held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 23 and 24, 2010.This celebration of science, where NASA astronauts mingled with awestruck kids and families competed in robotic soccer tournaments, featured 1,500 hands-on activities and attracted 500,000 visitors.

Earth: The movie (not the magazine)

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

Disneynature

Blogging on EARTH (the magazine)

Earth Day is over. But you don’t have to wait until next year to celebrate the planet. Disney’s new movie “Earth,” which opened Apr. 22, offers some spectacular views of the planet and its inhabitants.

Earthquake prediction: Gone and back again

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

A collapsed bridge after the Tangshan, China, earthquake on July 28, 1976, which killed more than 240,000 people. Although Chinese seismologists 'successfully' predicted the Haicheng quake of 1975, they failed to forecast this one. USGS

After the Haicheng quake, a Chinese seismologist produced this map of strange animal behavior (circled areas) and earthquake fractures (dotted lines). Helmut Tributsch and The MIT Press for the English language edition

Luminous dots over Parma, Italy, on August 10, 2007. Five days later, there was a small magnitude-2.9 quake. The dots may be ionized air from shifting faults, proponents of earthquake prediction say. GAZETTA DI PARMA - Italy

The 1990s and early 2000s were hard times for earthquake prediction research. “For 10 years, there was limited funding in the U.S.,” says Dimitar Ouzounov, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. That changed in 2004, Ouzounov says, after a magnitude-9-plus quake struck off the coast of Sumatra and set off a tsunami, killing more than 225,000 people in 11 countries.

Energy mission: "Kilowatt Ours"

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

In 'Kilowatt Ours,' filmmaker Jeff Barrie asks viewers to think harder about saving energy. Jeff Barrie

“What if every time you flipped a light switch, a mountain exploded in West Virginia?”

Energy's the hot topic this week on the Hill

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

The cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. U.S. government

UPDATE: The House energy bill, which will allow offshore drilling and gives states incentives by sharing the revenues from drilling leases with them, passed yesterday (Sept. 16). The Senate bill is still pending, but a vote is likely sometime this week.

Extinction-era coal linked to Chinese cancer epidemic

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

At the close of the Permian, 252 million years ago, conditions on Earth took a turn for the worse, nearly wiping out life on land and at sea in the planet’s most severe extinction event. Now, eons later, geologists are implicating a coal seam that dates to the “Great Dying” at the Permian-Triassic boundary in one of the modern world’s worst cancer epidemics.

Finding water in the heart of darkness: Afghanistan's ongoing water challenges

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

Locals cross a stream in Faryab Province in northern Afghanistan. Kristin Enstad

Fieldwork in Afghanistan is not like most geology fieldwork. “When I landed, the first thing I had to do was to put on a bulletproof vest,” says Tom Mack. He was part of a U.S. Geological Survey team that evaluated water resources in the Kabul Basin, in the north-central part of eastern Afghanistan, a couple of years ago. “It was strange to wear the vest, but eventually you get used to it.” There was a lot to get used to, he says. No matter where Mack went, he had to get special permission to be there. His team also always had to travel with a special security team in a reinforced vehicle mainly limited to the city of Kabul.

FY 2010 budget cuts Yucca, oil and gas programs

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

Blogging on EARTH

The White House Office of Management and Budget released today its FY 2010 budget reductions and savings — what programs it plans to cut or reduce.

The OMB reiterates the President's focus on education, health care and alternative sources of energy in the overall budget, while slipping in some interesting cuts. Many programs were cut outright: In particular, the White House proposes to eliminate the controversial Yucca Mountain Repository Program — the Nevada site of a long-proposed national repository for high-level nuclear waste (the budget does give the Department of Energy $197 million in 2010 to look for alternative waste disposal sites).

Games: In Spore, cells divide and conquer

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

A Spore creation explores the primordial soup of the Cell phase.

In the Creature phase, players are constantly tweaking their creations, adding or removing wings, eyes or limbs.

Spore's Tribal phase involves defending your species' hut, fire and food.

Spore Electronic Arts

I’m no evolutionary biologist, but I’m pretty sure that you can’t just add a horn or an extra ear to your own body whenever you feel like you need a leg up on the competition, so to speak.

Geomedia: Twitter gives heads-up to users and officials about earthquakes

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

Twitter stirs up a wide range of reactions — it’s hailed as a vital social networking service by some, despised as the ultimate waste of time by others. But the popular online message board does possess one characteristic that is universally undeniable: speed.

Geoscientists Without Borders: Geologists Lend a Hand

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

Seismic profiling in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Boise State University - Geoscientists _Without_ Borders

Boise State University student Eric Rothwell collects sediment cores in northern Thailand. Spencer Wood

Rothwell and Chiang Mai University student Tharaporn Bundarnsin collect magnetic data at an archaeological site in northern Thailand. Spencer Wood

Craig Beasley’s one-year term as president of the Society for Exploration Geophysicists had a challenging start. After about two months in office, a magnitude-9-plus earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004, triggering a powerful tsunami that killed more than 225,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Getting a master's in social geology

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

Guatemalan teachers and John Lyons (left) conduct a workshop on earthquakes prior to conducting the first school-wide earthquake drill in locals schools near Fuego volcano. Courtesy of John Lyons

Peace Corps Master's International students Julie Herrick (left) and Karinne Knutsen and advisor Bill Rose (far right) examine an andesite lava flow from Volcán Baru in Panama. Courtesy of Julie Herrick

Jesse Silverman and several locals plant citaria grass as an erosion barrier in Tectitán, Guatemala. Courtesy of Jesse Silverman

York Lewis works with students in El Salvador to create a world map mural. Courtesy of York Lewis

At first glance, it seems like an obvious solution to a problem: Villagers need vegetables and an aid organization has money to buy tools and seeds. Striving to create a sustainable program, the aid organization develops a training plan to teach the villagers how to garden, invests in local workshops, and purchases tools to distribute to the participants. All plans seem in order and the project is poised for success. However, the project’s managers encounter the first of potentially many obstacles when they realize that shovels are impossible to use if you don’t have shoes.

GM, Ford, Chrysler CEOs may carpool to Capitol

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

The cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. U.S. government

Blogging on EARTH

Last week, members of the House Financial Services Committee blasted the execs at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler for arriving on the Hill in separate private jets — even as they pleaded for a $25-billion-dollar government bailout. But it looks like the Big Three auto companies have gotten the message.

Google searching for the world's next top scientists

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

The old baking soda volcano probably won't get you very close to the blue ribbon in Google's Global Science Fair 2011. The fair, a first for Google, will judge and showcase the work of thousands of students ages 13 to 18 from more than 120 countries in 11 categories, including earth and environmental sciences and energy and space. The aim is to spark creativity and scientific exploration among students.

Granite countertops: NOT silent killers

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

Nothing says class like a thick slab of polished granite. The stone is so durable. So chic. So modern. So...radioactive?

On Sept. 2, NBC's Today Show cautioned homeowners - especially pregnant women or families with small children - to think twice before installing granite countertops. Granite emits not only radiation, but also radioactive radon gas, explained Today Show correspondent Natalie Morales.

Great Lakes geologic sunken treasure

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

In the sinkholes of Lake Huron, researchers are finding microbial life more reminiscent of the life found in ocean hydrothermal vents than that in freshwater lakes. NOAA, courtesy of Thunder Bay Sinkholes 2008

Researchers sent the Phantom S2 ROV into one of the sinkholes. NOAA, courtesy of Thunder Bay Sinkholes 2008

The Great Lakes hold the secrets of hundreds of ill-fated voyages in their notoriously treacherous waters. Shipwreck enthusiasts find a bounty of nautical relics preserved in their chilly depths. Only within the last decade, however, have explorers and scientists begun to reveal the secrets of a much different — and ancient — sunken treasure in Lake Huron.

Hazardous Living: Atlantis' final countdown

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

The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off on July 8 for the final time. NASA TV

Megan Sever is managing editor of EARTH and writes the Hazardous Living blog. Jim Sever

As the space shuttle Atlantis prepared for liftoff for the final time this morning, I was humming Europe’s 1986 hit “Final Countdown” in my office. As the countdown proceeded, I got chills. When Atlantis lifted off, I got a little teary-eyed. Watching NASA TV for the next hour, I couldn’t help but wonder what will become of all the people involved in the space shuttle program — mission control, the engineers, the astronauts. It’s hard not to think of this as the end of the U.S. space program. But as we’re assured by NASA, it most certainly is not.

Hot enough for ya? Investigating climate change in "Heat"

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

In FRONTLINE's urgent, ambitious new special "Heat," producer and reporter Martin Smith takes on a sweeping canvas of climate change, journeying from the disappearing glaciers of the Himalayas to the cement factories of India to the coal mines of the United States. There's a revealing look into the U.S.' role in the climate change conference in Bali last December, as well as into the plans of China's largest car company.

How oil and water helped the U.S. win World War II

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

U.S. Navy Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bombers over aircraft carrier USS Enterprise after strikes against Palau in March 1944. U.S. Navy

The Spindletop oil discovery in eastern Texas in 1901. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

World War II U.S. Gen. Omar Bradley is often cited as the originator of the famous military quote: “Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics.” Irrespective of its origins, the adage holds true for most extended conflicts — and World War II is no exception. Managing logistics for the production, movement and consumption of energy was one of the critical determinants of success during the war.

Is it time to invest in entrepreneurial geoengineering?

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

Government research and development has its limits: Time, money and bureaucracy can all hamper the timely progress of research. As a result, many federal agencies are looking to private companies to help drive new innovation and keep costs down — but it’s never that simple. Two current hot-button topics — returning humans to space and geoengineering — highlight a range of issues related to how private and public investment in science can coexist. Last month, we looked at NASA’s push toward privatization. This month, we focus on geoengineering — altering earth systems to reduce warming or modify weather.

Is there really a minerals crisis?

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

©Callan Bentley, 2011

China sent the high-tech industry and markets reeling last September when it blocked exports of raw rare earth minerals to Japan. In mid-October of that year, China imposed a similar ban on rare earth exports to the United States and Europe. The sudden severing of rare earths supply was a frightening prospect: Rare earths are a hot commodity in the modern world, because they are the key ingredients in a broad range of high-tech products, from smartphones to wind turbines to hybrid cars. Although China lifted the ban on exports of rare earths to the United States and Europe by late October, the ban on exports to Japan — although unofficial — remained in place for months.

Lack of water threatens "Garden of Eden"

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

Iraq's marshes in 2003. Today, the marshes are drying up due to a drought and competition over limited water supplies. Hassan Janali, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

A two-year drought and competition over limited water supplies threaten Iraq's marshes, including this one pictured here in December 2008. University of Basrah, courtesy of Dr. Hussain

A two-year drought and competition over limited water supplies threatens Iraq's marshes, including this one pictured here in 2008. Note the dike in the background. University of Basrah, courtesy of Dr. Hussain

Since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqis and scientists from around the world have been working hard to restore Iraq’s once-lush marshes. But after several years of measurable improvement, drought and competition over limited water supplies threaten to reverse this progress. Those working on the marshes are confident that the marshes can come back — but whether the people who rely on these wetlands for their livelihood will be as resilient remains to be seen.

Lay of the Land: Terrain's Toll on the U.S. Civil War

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

Nearly 23,000 men died in the Battle of Antietam, including these Confederate soldiers. Library of Congress - Alexander Gardner

In the Battle of Antietam, there were fewer casualties near Burnside Bridge, pictured here, than at the Cornfield. Ernest Mettendorf

Thousands of men died along Sunken Road, or "Bloody Lane," during the Battle of Antietam. Stephen Kellam

Antietam Library of Congress - Kurz and Allison

In the waning days of summer 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee lined his Confederate troops along a grassy ridge on the western side of Antietam Creek in the outskirts of Sharpsburg, Md.

Maldives' residents looking for a new patch of land

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

Blogging on EARTH

The highest land point in the Maldives, a tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, is only about 2.4 meters above sea level. With the IPCC predicting a sea level rise of 20 to 58 centimeters by the year 2100, the Maldives' 300,000 residents are therefore among the most threatened in the world by climate change.

November 26,1872: Great Diamond Hoax Exposed

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

Clarence King (far right) - who later became head of the U.S. Geological Survey - and his men helped foil one of the boldest prospecting hoaxes in history. U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library

On a foggy day in 1871, two men walked into the Bank of California in San Francisco. One held a rifle and the other gripped a large buckskin pouch. Both were covered in a thick layer of grime. Initially, the nervous teller took the shady drifters for bank robbers. But his anxiety turned to elation when they showed him the contents of their pouch — a shimmery bounty of diamonds, rubies and sapphires.

Obama asks EPA to reconsider state-set emissions standards

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

Just a week into his presidency, Barack Obama has already set out to reverse several of Bush’s policies, including policies on long-contentious climate and energy issues.

One issue is fuel economy standards and emissions requirements for the nation’s automobile fleet. Obama announced today that he plans to make it easier for states to set their own fuel economy and emissions standards — something Obama said that the White House has stood in the way of in the past, but no longer. “The days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts; we will be guided by them,” he said at the White House today.

On Her Majesty's space agency

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

The United Kingdom is to have its own dedicated space agency, U.K. Minister for Science Lord Paul Drayson announced last month. Supporters of the U.K. space program hope the agency, which will coordinate all of Britain’s space activities, will not only bring more jobs and income but will also increase the profile of the space program.

OPEC and Oil: The next 50 years

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

In 2010, Austria and OPEC members issued stamps to commemorate OPEC's 50th anniversary. Courtesy of OPEC

Last September, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) celebrated its 50th anniversary. Over the past five decades, OPEC has earned a reputation for being a powerful cartel that controls the world’s oil production and prices — but there are limits to OPEC’s influence and wealth. In fact, many OPEC countries face grave problems, which, to some extent, are the result of their oil-based economies. Looking ahead to the next 50 years, it is imperative that we have an analytical understanding of OPEC, its current position and the role it may (or may not) play in the coming decades

Opening up space travel to everyone

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

Three glowing gas rings around supernova 1987A. P. Challis

Jason Marsh is done waiting around for someone else to transport him into space.

Marsh, a system administrator near Washington, D.C., is preparing to launch a new website for his Open Space Movement (OSM — currently here), a nonprofit project that aims to be a platform for developing and funding aerospace technology — and will be open to anyone who wants to join in.

Pelosi: Science first for economic recovery

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

Blogging on EARTH

According to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, there are four words to describe the economic recovery package that Congress will consider this spring: “science, science, science and science.” Pelosi told National Public Radio today that science has to be first and foremost in this bill: “[We need] the science, technology and engineering to build the infrastructure for the future, the science for the innovation to keep us competitive and number one in the world markets,” she said.

People of the Ice

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

Andrew Podoll (left) and Kelly Gorz, both North Dakota State University geology undergraduates, map the terrain in Antarctica's Dry Valleys. Photo by Peter Rejcek of The Antarctic Sun. Dry Valleys Productions

The four geologists in 'Ice People' go on a hike to find fossils and volcanic ash. Taylor glacier is in the background. Dry Valleys Productions

Allan Ashworth (left) and Adam Lewis look for fossils in the Dry Valleys. Dry Valleys Productions.

Allan Ashworth exits his tent in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Photo by Adam Lewis. Dry Valleys Productions

Adam Lewis holds a spoon full of volcanic ash discovered in the Dry Valleys. Dry Valleys Productions

Riggers Andrew Asher and Michiel Lofton repair a wind generator tower after six months of winter darkness. Dry Valleys Productions.

Director Anne Aghion during the filming of 'Ice People.' Richard Fleming

“We do not come to Antarctica because we are in love with Antarctica. We come to Antarctica because we want a mystery to solve, and we love a challenge. And there’s one here.”

Protecting planets from us - and us from them

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

Apollo 11 astronauts in isolation garments. NASA

Rangers 6 through 9 made it to the moon, but were unsterilized - thus, their crash landings could have contaminated the moon. NASA

Although Apollo 11 astronauts and their ship were supposed to be quarantined to protect against possible pathogens in moon dust, the capsule door opened into the Pacific Ocean after landing. NASA

NASA scientists examine dust from comet Wild 2 in a clean room. Pathogens in the dust could still contaminate the scientists: Their eyes (soft, moist tissue) are exposed. NASA

The Space Shuttle Discovery on its way to the International Space Station. NASA

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands with the American flag on the moon. The astronauts' footprints are visible in the lunar soil. NASA

The two Viking landers were the only NASA spacecraft sent to Mars that received a full heat sterilization. NASA

A technician puts finishing touches on the Sputnik 1 satellite in the assembly shop in fall 1957. NASA

The Outer Space Treaty and planetary contamination

Is there life out there? Finding life has been a goal of the exploration of other celestial bodies since humans first imagined leaving our atmosphere — and that life may come in forms we do not immediately recognize. The search itself carries an inherent danger, however: We must not contaminate these pristine worlds with earthly microbes — lest we “rediscover” earthly microbes on a different planet, completely frustrating the science and devaluing the investment in the mission. If celestial bodies like Mars, the moon, comets, and Jupiter and Saturn’s icy moons do harbor microbial life, crash-landing a spacecraft on them could have serious consequences.

Putting Earth's history to sound

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

Geologist Dave Engebretson of Western Washington University in Bellingham has made an amateur career out of turning scientific data into sound. George Muspot

Geophysicist Dave Engebretson of Western Washington University in Bellingham has struggled with his eyesight since birth. But when his vision took a serious downturn in 1996 — today he has difficulty recognizing faces up close — Engebretson grasped for the world of sound. He has made a considerable hobby out of audifying scientific data — taking numbers from datasets and setting them to sound frequencies to create seconds-long clips at his home studio. The result ranges from a series of differently pitched explosions that fast-forward through the last 20,000 years of eruptions along the Cascade Mountains, to haphazard movements up and down the music scale that represent changes in the tides.

Raising bees and capturing rainwater: U.S. prisons go green

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

The flagging economy may complicate federal aspirations for a green revolution, but at least one government entity has adopted the movement in stride: state prisons.

According to a recent report by the Associated Press, prisons across America now host the likes of compost heaps, organic gardens and solar panels in an attempt to save precious state budget money.

Rebuilding Afghanistan

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

Locals cross a stream in Faryab Province in northern Afghanistan. Kristin Enstad

Ravaged by war, drought and natural hazards such as earthquakes and landslides, Afghanistan’s people face many challenges. But the country also has untapped resources — great natural beauty , deep supplies of groundwater and a vast mineral wealth, including coal, gems like emeralds and metals like copper and iron.

Report from Ground Zero

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

On Sept. 16, 2001, smoke still rose from the ground where the World Trade Center buildings once stood. Gregg Swayze, USGS

Halema'uma'u crater on Kilauea volcano in spring 2008. USGS researchers have assessed the characteristics of volcanic ash from this and other volcanoes. USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Scanning electron microscope image of an elongated crystal of silica found in Mount St. Helens ash in 2004. Heather Lowers, USGS

USGS researchers characterized the extensive dried mud deposits left behind by the flooding from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Courtesy of John Lovelace, USGS

Smoke from wildfires blankets the San Diego area in October 2007. USGS researchers studied ash left behind by these fires and are beginning to analyze ash and smoke carried downwind from wildfires. Greg Mendez, USGS

Microscopic framboidal pyrite was found in mud samples from eastern New Orleans suburbs in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes. The pyrite was likely from marsh sediments. Greg Meeker, USGS

NASA satellite image shows the different wildfires burning on Oct. 24, 2007, and the extent of the downwind smoke plumes that enveloped much of the Southern California coast. NASA

USGS geophysicist Ray Kokaly takes field reflectance spectroscopy measurements of ash and soil in Southern California burned areas. Todd Hoefen, USGS

How geoscientists aid in the aftermath of environmental disasters

People around the world remember when they first learned of the attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. For me, the memories are vivid — my feelings of shock, horror and sadness were similarly etched on the faces of all the attendees of a mining and the environment workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I was speaking. At that time, I had no idea that our small research group at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, Colo., would soon be called upon to help public officials understand the potential health and environmental implications of the disaster and the ensuing rescue, recovery and cleanup efforts.

Saving Energy and Water Through Superior Sanitation

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

A Clivus Multrum waterless toilet. Courtesy of Clivus Multrum

The Solaire, an apartment building in lower Manhattan, has a wastewater treatment plant in the basement. Creative Image

Recycled wastewater from Manhattan's Solaire apartment building is used in air conditioning, toilets and irrigation. American Water

Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, has its own water recycling plant. The recycled water is used to flush toilets. American Water

Have you ever thought about using your urine to fertilize your tomatoes and cucumbers? Full of nutrients like phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, urine can work wonders in your garden. How about composting your feces — packed with rich organic matter just waiting to be decomposed — to help your rose bushes and oak trees grow? If you don’t use feces for composting, then it could be a source of natural gas and hydrogen for use as an alternative energy supply. Or perhaps you would be more comfortable with the thought of reusing the water you wash your clothes in to flush your toilets?

Scientists Go to the Movies

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

Hollywood’s sometimes sloppy depiction of scientific concepts often galls scientists. Some productions strive for accuracy; others — well, they wing it. Not surprisingly, there are gaffes. Movie stars burst through glass without a scratch, plants grow where they shouldn’t and woolly mammoths help construct the Egyptian pyramids. Now, the National Academy of Sciences is fighting back.

Sea sprawl: Into the blue frontier of ocean development

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

Picture it: Dozens of kilometers off the coast of Texas, a giant polygon-shaped cage constructed of steel ribs and mesh netting floats 30 or so meters beneath the waves. The cage, moored to the seafloor, is filled with tens of thousands of teeming, silvery fish. Several kilometers away, offshore wind turbines sprout from the sea surface in a curving line, their spindly white arms churning the atmosphere. Still farther along the horizon, a massive oil platform squats heavily on four stumpy legs over its parcel of ocean, pipes plunging 11 kilometers into deep reservoirs within the seafloor. In the open waters between these industries, tankers and commercial fishermen follow snaking shipping lanes that lead them toward the coast.

Stonehenge's Mysterious Stones

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

Glacial eratics in Canada, such as this giant boulder on the Alberta plains, exemplify how glaciers could have carried giant boulders from mountains in Wales and deposited them on Salisbury Plain. Lionel Jackson

Glaciers once carried giant boulders out of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and moved them hundreds of kilometers southward. Graham Colson

Glaciers carried giant boulders out of the Canadian Rocky Mountains for hundreds of kilometers. Brian John and Lionel Jackson

A tale of glaciers, man, rocks and North America

Strategies to meet our water and energy needs: Insight from a Texas "Treemap"

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

Texas, divided into 16 Regional Water Planning Areas, colored according to water availability in 2010 (minimum is greener, maximum is pinker). Planners use these to construct 'treemaps,' visual models to compare water and energy data. Data sources: Texas Water Development Board, Water for Texas, 2007 and Stillwell et al., Energy-Water Nexus in Texas, 2009

"This is our generation’s Sputnik moment," declared President Barack Obama in the 2011 State of the Union address, challenging the nation to pursue a future of cleaner energy.

Student scientists cast a long shadow

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

Nate Burgess

Andy Olander explains his poster to scientists at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in December 2008. Turtle Haste

Shannon Hamilton (left) and Meagan Richards measure sun shadows. Turtle Haste

Scientists in Antarctica measure sun shadows cast by the pole marking the South Pole. Charlie Kaminski

Last December, in the enormous, fluorescent-lit hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center South, thousands of geophysicists and geologists milled through dozens of aisles of poster displays, chatting enthusiastically about the latest in geophysical research at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Within each aisle, people clustered around the more intriguing displays, trying to hear more about a given researcher’s work. At the center of one such group, commanding his own audience, was the youngest scientist ever to present research at an AGU conference.

Surviving field school: Better than reality TV

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

Emily points to the embedded dinosaur fossil she discovered in an outcrop of the Morrison Formation. Clay Farris Naff

A closer look at Emily's fossil. Clay Farris Naff

In David Harwood's field course for future teachers, students learn the basics of geology. Kyle Thompson

At a road cut, David (foreground) and Ben ponder the 'layer cakes' above them. Kyle Thompson

David (middle) leads the discussion that solves the Mystery Rock puzzle. Aaron (right) and Chelsea also help. Kyle Thompson

David Harwood’s geology field course for future teachers is not a network reality show — but it should be. The three-week course has all the humor, drama, exacting challenges and bleepable moments of “Survivor.” But in contrast to the staged setups of TV “reality” shows, Geology 160 offers billions of years’ worth of authentic geological history that students see, taste and scrape from under their fingernails.

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.

Texas Board of Education votes to strike amendment questioning evolution

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

Blogging on EARTH

Evolution will still be taught in Texas. After months of proposed amendments, statements by special interest groups and lengthy debate, the Texas Board of Education voted 8-7 today to strike language from its curriculum that required students to “analyze and evaluate the sufficiency or insufficiency” of common ancestry, a major tenant of the theory of evolution.

The Changing Face of Sudan

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

To say that things are changing in Sudan would be an understatement. With a referendum on secession set for Jan. 9, and expected to pass, and many issues to be negotiated between now and July 9 when the country’s peace agreement ends, a lot will change over the coming months. And everything hinges on Sudan’s most valuable product: oil.

The Disappearing Lake

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

Emily Woodall

For many tourists, Mountain Lake in southwestern Virginia has been an idyllic retreat. But in 2008, it pulled a disappearing act, leaving behind only cracked earth and a small pond.

In this multimedia presentation, EARTH reporter Cassandra Willyard tells the geologic story of Mountain Lake.

The long legacy of Peru's "Mine of Death"

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

Sediments at the bottom of a small lake 4,600 meters high in the Peruvian Andes archive the history of mining and metallurgy at Huancavelica, the largest mercury deposit in the New World. William Hobbs

Colonial ruins litter the landscape around the Huancavelica mercury deposit. Colin Cooke

Laguna Warmicocha, high in the Peruvian Andes, served as base camp for researchers studying the history of mercury mining and pollution in the Andes. Alberto Reyes

The Inca knew there was something sinister about the cinnabar they hauled out of the ground at Huancavelica in Peru hundreds of years ago. They called the mine the Mine of Death. Now, a new study has exposed a 3,500-year history of mercury pollution from the cinnabar mines, a much longer legacy than researchers had previously realized.

The rise of community remote sensing

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

If you ask someone involved in community remote sensing to define the emerging field, the most likely response will be a chuckle followed by “That’s a hard question to answer…”

Bill Gail, a director at Microsoft’s Startup Business Group in Boulder, Colo., coined the term, and he says he likes to keep the definition “nebulous” as the field takes shape. At its core, the movement is about remote sensing — collecting data from afar. Remote sensing “has revolutionized science and Earth monitoring,” Gail says. Airplanes, satellites, space probes and the like have helped scientists gather information on long-term, global scales, but these tools have limitations: They fail to capture what’s happening at the local level, he says.

The Thirsty Dragon and the Wealthy Bear

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

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline carries crude oil 1,768 kilometers from an oilfield in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. BP

How China, Russia and High Oil Prices Influence Global Dynamics

The world is changing. Gone are the days of Middle Eastern sheikhs controlling the world’s oil and our purse strings. Russia and China are changing the rules of the game.

The Thirsty Dragon and the Wealthy Bear

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

How China, Russia and High Oil Prices Influence Global Dynamics

It’s a brave new world. China and Russia are changing the terms of energy geopolitics, and in the process, changing everyone’s place in the world.

These growing powers are gaining influence and shifting foreign policy relationships by currying favors with oil-producing states, building regional influence and dependency, and disregarding human rights abuses. By extending their unique brands of “democracy” into the energy game, the two nations are compromising U.S. efforts to promote its foreign policy agenda.

Thinking outside the rocks in the search for ancient earthquakes

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

Ancient amphitheater in Pinara, Turkey, a site known to have been struck by earthquakes. Osmanyaylali, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

This famous Japanese color woodblock entitled "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), depicts a large tsunami wave with Mt. Fuji in the background. Library of Congress

Multiple views of a Roman mausoleum in Pinara, Turkey, show how 3-D laser models are used to test different destructive scenarios like earthquakes and rockfalls. The damage to this structure is most consistent with a large earthquake. Klaus-G. Hinzen

The eyewitness accounts, written in columns from right to left, top to bottom, testify that there was no warning of the tsunami, no shaking to drive villagers to high ground before the wave hit, drowning rice paddies and swamping a castle moat. The entries, written by merchants, peasants and samurai, all clearly mark the time and date: just after midnight on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 1700.

Thirsty Cities: Water management in a changing environment

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

The lush green backyard of a Beaufort, S.C., manor. Water is not usually a big concern in the southeastern United States. Nate Burgess, AGI

A member of SWAT (Save Water Atlanta Team) conducts a water meter investigation. City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management

A 1930s advertisement on a streetcar in Denver, Colo. Water has been a concern in Denver since the town was founded. Denver Water

A Denver Water employee conducts an irrigation audit. Denver Water

Filled recharge basin in Tucson in January 2009. Lisa Song

A dry recharge basin in Tucson, Ariz., in March 2009. Tucson collects water in these basins for future use. Lisa Song

On a clear day in November 2007, the governor of Georgia held an unusual public vigil. Before the doors of his state capitol, Gov. Sonny Perdue bowed his head, took his wife’s hand and prayed for rain.

Travels in Geology: Atop the German Alps

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

For a taste of classic Bavaria, head to Farchant, about 4.5 kilometers from Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps. Mary Caperton Morton

The Eibsee Aerial Tramway, a glass-bottomed cable car, carries visitors to the summit of the Zugspitze. Mary Caperton Morton

Crossing to the summit of the Zugspitze. Mary Caperton Morton

The author, climbing in the German Alps. Mary Caperton Morton

The summit of the Zugspitze - also the highest point in Germany - is marked by the gold cross. Mary Caperton Morton

A viewing platform from the summit of the Zugspitze, looking out over the Eibsee Valley. Mary Caperton Morton

The glacially-fed Eibsee lake is shockingly blue and crystal-clear, and sits in the valley north of the Zugspitze. Mary Caperton Morton

The Zugspitze glacier, one of Germany's most beloved natural features, is rapidly melting. Mary Caperton Morton

Relaxing in a paddleboat on the glacially-fed Eibsee Lake, with a panoramic view of the Alps above. Mary Caperton Morton

In the time-capsule town of Farchant, Germany, many of the locals still wear traditional lederhosen and herd their dairy cows through the cobblestone streets. Mary Caperton Morton

In Farchant, Germany, the timberframe houses are painted with colorful murals and flowerboxes perch on every window. Mary Caperton Morton

Mountaineers in the “High Points Club” have a lofty goal: to “tag,” or reach, the highest elevations of every country in the world. Many of the 193 summits are best left to the professionals, but at least one, the highest point in Germany, is accessible to anybody with a train ticket. At 2,962 meters, the Zugspitze towers over the German Alps. But unlike most alpine peaks, you don’t need ropes, crampons and ice axes to stand on the summit. The Zugspitzbahn, an old-fashioned cog wheel train, will take you all the way to the top.

Travels in Geology: Twin coral reefs separated in time in Western Australia

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

Geikie Gorge is one of the three national parks where visitors can see the Devonian Great Barrier Reef. Terri Cook and Lon Abbott

Turtle at Ningaloo Reef, one of the world's longest fringing reefs. s-ron mckellar, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

In Western Australia, you can visit two unusually accessible coral reefs. Although they look similar enough to be fraternal twins, these reefs were born nearly 400 million years apart. Ningaloo is a modern coral reef where you can snorkel amid spectacular reefbuilding organisms by wading just a few meters from the sandy, white shore. One of the longest fringing reefs on the planet, Ningaloo also boasts one of the planet’s healthiest reef environments, where 500 species of fish, 600 species of shellfish and more than 250 species of coral thrive.

TV: Discovery Channel grows more curious

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

Stephen Hawking illustrates the principles of gravity in 'Curiosity.' Discovery Channel

Hawking sitting in the dining hall at the University of Cambridge. Discovery Channel

Milky Way galaxy. Discovery Channel

At first, it is difficult to distinguish the Discovery Channel’s new show “Curiosity” — in which celebrity-scientists and science-oriented celebrities each host an episode purportedly answering a big question — from the many other similar shows on television, especially on Discovery itself. The premiere episode, which aired in August and was hosted by Stephen Hawking, appears to be a rehash of that old chestnut of science television, the question of how the universe began. The first clue that you are perhaps about to see something different is the disclaimer: “This program examines the creation of the universe through the commentary and opinions of Professor Stephen Hawking.” Then the question: “Did God Create the Universe?”

USGS finds giant gas hydrate deposits on North Slope

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

Buried beneath Alaska's North Slope are about 85.4 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas hydrates, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey assessment. That would be a significant source of energy to add to the U.S. energy mix — enough natural gas to heat 100 million homes for 10 years, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced Wednesday.

Using Citizens in Science Research

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

Glittering stars and wisps of gas create a breathtaking backdrop for a massive star's self-destruction, called a supernova. NASA, The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI, AURA

Three glowing gas rings around supernova 1987A. P. Challis

Robert Evans has spotted 42 supernovae, more than any other person. The bright star above the spiral galaxy is supernova 2005df, Evans' 40th supernova discovery. European Southern Observatory

Stars, just like people, have finite life spans. Some die quietly. Others go out in a blaze of glory, as supernovae. These brilliant explosions are sometimes visible from Earth, but most appear as only a faint twinkle.

VA geologists axed due to budget crunch

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

Virginia, like many states, is being hit hard by the recent economic downturn — and as Virginia tightens the purse strings, the state’s geological survey is going to feel the pinch.

Not surprisingly, geologists in Virginia are not happy.

Wal-Mart to use wind energy

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

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart’s reputation for cheap prices precedes it, but recently the retailer showed its greener side when it announced plans to supply 15 percent of its total energy load with wind power.

The energy will come from Texas wind farms constructed by Duke Energy, which will go online this spring, a Wal-Mart press release said.

Wanted: Interim nuclear waste storage site

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

Before being stored in dry casks, spent nuclear fuel spends time cooling off in a storage pool. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Like current commercial nuclear power plant practices, an interim storage facility would store spent nuclear fuel in dry casks made of concrete, lead and steel. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The United States is in a nuclear waste holding pattern. Yucca Mountain, the site of the proposed geological repository that is supposed to permanently store the country’s nuclear waste, was supposed to open in 1998. Controversy has led to numerous delays, and the repository won’t open until 2020 — assuming everything goes smoothly from here on out.

Water Wise: An oil plume at depth, and NOAA vs. the White House

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

The oil spill in late May 2010. NASA

The autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry tracked the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico. Dana Yoerger, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

There is definitely a deep plume of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and it was definitely produced by BP’s damaged Macondo well, according to a report published today in Science. Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts reported unequivocal evidence of a plume at a depth of about 1,100 meters that was at least 35 kilometers long, as of the end of June. The plume, they said, was traveling to the southwest, largely driven by the topography of the seafloor. They also found — contrary to some other studies — that microbes do not appear to be significantly munching on the oil in this deep plume.

Water Wise: The leak is capped; but what's the oil's long-term fate?

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

The oil spill in late May 2010. NASA

BP’s new cap system, installed to stop the oil spilling into the Gulf, is now working, BP announced this week, though how long it will hold remains to be seen. The cap — which was itself leaking until robotic submersibles finally stemmed the new leak yesterday afternoon — is not intended to be a permanent fix; BP is currently drilling two relief wells that it plans to use to pump mud and cement into the well and hopefully permanently plug it by mid-August.

Water Wise: Where will the oil spilled in the Gulf go?

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

Carolyn Gramling (pictured in Clearwater, Fla.) writes Water Wise for EARTH. Carolyn Gramling

It’s been about eight weeks since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig damaged a wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico and triggered the onset of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, with oil washing up on shores from Louisiana to northwestern Florida. Last week, a scientific group appointed by the federal government to study the impact of the leak upgraded its previous estimate of how much oil has been flowing from the well. Based on video of the leak, the group estimated that the well has been spewing between 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day — and between 1.7 million and 2.0 million barrels since the April 20 explosion. That estimate is an increase over the previous estimate, in late May, of 12,000 barrels to 19,000 barrels a day — and an even larger increase over early estimates, in late April, of 5,000 barrels a day.

Weird whale tusks act as matchmakers

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

Blainville's beaked whales, like all beaked whales, are sexually dimorphic - they can be easily distinguished from females and juveniles by a pair of large visible tusk-like teeth that point forward from the lower jaw. Ari Friedlaender, Duke University

In the depths of the ocean, the bizarre beaked whale looks more like an eerie mutant than a gentle giant. With its bird-like beak and sharp tusks that jut out from the top of its head, anyone would wonder: What’s with all the weaponry? Now scientists think they’ve found the purpose of these weird tusks — and it is not nearly as maleficent as you may think.

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

Blogging on EARTH

Actually, this is a meta-blog: A blog about a blog.

When and why L'Aquila came tumbling down

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

Many of L'Aquila's buildings were reduced to rubble during the April 6 earthquake. INGV

The Adria Microplate is sliding beneath the European Plate (jagged red line); the subduction tugs the European Plate eastward, causing faulting that produces earthquakes. AGI

Early on the morning of April 6, 2009, a magnitude-6.3 earthquake rocked the Apennine region of central Italy, killing more than 290 people and leaving at least 30,000 homeless. Some 15,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed in L’Aquila, the largest city in the region. Although strong, the earthquake was not powerful enough to easily account for the high loss of life in a developed country. The devastation has prompted some researchers to investigate Italy’s seismic safety codes for new construction — but the problem may have more to do with retrofitting older buildings.

When the dust settles: Investigating lingering health questions 10 years after 9/11

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

Beyond characterizing the minerals in the dust cloud, U.S. Geological Survey and NASA scientists helped identify long-burning fires beneath the rubble. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Jim Watson

Satellite images taken by Landsat 7 after the attack show the smoke and dust plume across lower Manhattan. NASA

Five days after the Twin Towers collapsed, two geoscientists boarded a plane from Denver to New York City. They were part of a team that would use remote sensing techniques to categorize the hazards that might affect the rescue workers, civilians and survivors of the terrorist attacks. One of their immediate tasks involved identifying long-burning fires under the rubble. A second was to create a compositional profile of the debris cloud that resulted from the devastation. Part of the project was to be completed immediately using remote sensing, and part would take several months.

When wildfires attack: Should I stay or should I go?

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

As California enters its third consecutive year of drought, officials are standing by for the state’s wildfire season, set to peak later this summer. They have reason for concern: During the previous two summers alone, wildfires have burned more than 12,000 square kilometers and killed more than two dozen people. A new study offers advice on how California can minimize wildfire deaths and save property: Don’t force residents who live near the margins of forest and urban areas to evacuate; instead, give them the option of staying and defending their homes.

White House climate report: U.S. changes already apparent

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

Blogging on EARTH

The climate status report released today by the White House includes no new research; instead, it is a synthesis of existing scientific data and studies. But the report sums up this information by adding a firm message: The United States is already feeling the impact of climate change — and should therefore take mitigating action sooner rather than later.

Who deals with coal fires?

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

Currently (and historically), most people who deal with underground coal fires and gob fires are employed by government agencies, mining and engineering companies, and firefighting agencies. Today, as in the past, these institutions undertake various responsibilities that include recording the location of coal fires, tracking their progression, and extinguishing the most problematic ones, if physically and economically feasible.