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Student of Geology and Archaeology, Varsity swimmer... Nerd

[rjzimmerman]

From Desmog Blog:

Beneath a giant methane gas cloud recently identified by NASA, the oil and gas fracking industry is rapidly expanding in northwestern New Mexico. Flares that light up the night sky at drilling sites along the stretch of Route 550 that passes through the San...

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When my interests in the Southwest intersect... Again. Resource geology and archaeological management seem to be at odds more and more in the southwest. Reminds me of the new Rio Tinto porphyry copper mine in Arizona.

[earthstory]

The Spire of Pelée In 1902, Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique unleashed one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century. After a period of a few weeks activity, on May 8 it exploded, producing a pyroclastic flow nicknamed a nuée ardente, which translates to “glowing cloud”.  Gases dissolved in the magma broke free, tearing apart the molten rock inside the volcano as it escaped.That mixture of gas and rock enveloped the city of St. Pierre below it, leaving only a handful of known survivors out of a city of 28,000. After the climactic eruption, Mount Pelée calmed down, but later in the year it began a new phase of activity. Rocks that could be seen glowing at night began oozing out of the volcano, pushing upward and forming this spire that eventually reached over 300 meters in height. The spire grew as much as several meters per day until it finally collapsed in early 1903. This sequence reminds me of more recent events, such as the recent eruptive activity at Mt. St. Helens, and implies a more general set of processes. First, the volcano became active, waking up over a period of days to weeks as magma entered the system. Then, there was a huge explosion, dramatically releasing volatile gases like water and CO2 that were dissolved in the magma. Finally, after the large burst of volatiles was released, sticky, leftover, high-viscosity magma forced its way up the throat of the volcano, building a spire on the site where the explosion took place. -JBB Image credit: Lacroix, A., 1904, La Montagne Pelee et ses eruptions: Paris, Masson et Cie, 622 p. http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Pelee.html http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2014572_2014574_2014625,00.html

[all-geo]

Fourteen years after Hoover Dam’s gates were closed, U.S. Geological Survey scientists found earth’s crust beneath the dam had sunk 4 inches because of the weight of its impounded water:

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That's isostacy for ya.

[earthstory]

What could be more picturesque than a rainbow? How about a Moonbow? Or more correctly; a lunar rainbow! As many of you will know, a rainbow forms as a result of the refraction of sunlight as it passes through water droplets in the sky. The refractive properties of the droplets cause sunlight to be split into a band of colours, more specifically the light spectrum.  For a Moonbow, the principles behind its formation are quite the same. The only exception is the light source is no longer the Sun, but the Moon. While most of us will have seen a rainbow at least once in our life time, a much fewer number will have had the pleasure to encounter the lunar equivalent. This is because, as the Moon is more variable than the sun, many conditions need to be just right. 1- Moonbows are best seen when the Moon is conspicuous in the sky, so the period around the full moon, and more particularly before and after the gibbous phase is particularly favourable. 2- Of course, the brightest Moon thinkable will not cause a moonbow on its own accord. Moisture in the air also a crucial component. The best nights to see a moonbow is when there is rain coupled with intermittent clear skies. 3- The last main consideration is the position of the Moon in the night sky. Acredited to the atmospheric optical parameters of water droplets; a low Moon altitude is desired. If the Moon is greater than 42 degrees above the horizon, no bow will form. These three things are the basic necessities for the formation of a lunar rainbow. While they may sound like reasonable considerations individually, it is quite a different situation when you need all three of these to work together at the same time. As a result, this phenomenon is really quite rare. The best places to witness this spectacle are said to be the Scottish Highlands and The Hawaiian Islands as well as Ireland and the United Kingdom. So, if you ever think it is a Goldilocks night, in which all the conditions are right- get outside and see if you can catch a glimpse of this amazing phenomenon.   -Jean  Photo courtesy of Rob Ratkowski of Hawaii. Photo link: http://all-that-is-interesting.com/post/8779470889/seven-bizarre-and-beautiful-natural-phenomena/2

[earthstory]

PENULTIMATE GEOLOGY IN OUTCROP I can think of no better title to accompany this photo. Please imagine this as a 48 point banner headline. A picture is worth a thousand words; an outcrop like this is worth, well, at least about 300 million years of geologic history. The ability to “read” the geologic history of an area by viewing its structures and stratigraphy is a skill essential to a geologist, and this spectacular outcrop is a virtual banner headline.  This outcrop is from Telherio Beach, Portugal. Geology addicts of all degrees of education can make out the awesome unconformity above the folded formation. Let’s add just a minimal of information: The lower deformed unit is upper Carboniferous in age (the Brejeira Formation) and the overlying undeformed unit is Triassic (the new red sandstones of the Grés de Silves Formation).  Before the deposition of the sandstone, the Brejeira Formation was  1. Deposited,  2. Deformed in some immense compressional event,  3. Exposed to weathering.  The timing suggests that the folding is related to the merging of continental blocks into the Pangaean super-continent. The lack of deformation in the Triassic certainly suggests that at this locality anyway, not much has happened since.  Like all headlines, the details are given in the accompanying article. There’s so much more that can be learned by detailed study of these formations, their composition, their strain… but for a headline, this is one of the world’s penultimate geologic outcrops.  If this is the headline, I wanna read the whole story! Annie R Photo: Gabriela Bruno,Telheiro Beach, Portugal.  And thanks to Francisco Sousa for inspiring this post.  Read also: http://rop.ineti.pt/rop/images/intro/it2_en.html http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/JIGE/article/view/33912/0

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Basically easy-mode structural geology in one of the sexiest outcrop photos I've seen in a while.

[huffpost]

This Is What Happens When You Step On Molten Lava

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Best $200 mistake ever.

[magictransistor]

Joseph Wright of Derby, Various views of Vesuvius in Eruption (Oil paintings on canvas), c.1777-80.

[peashooter85]

Fun History Fact,

In the Hou Hanshu, the historical records of the Han Dynasty , the ancient Chinese referred to the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Antoninus) as “Andun, King of the DaQin  安敦” (Antoninus, King of the Romans).

[underthescopeminerals]

Botallackite

Geological Setting of type material:In a copper deposit, in areas weathered while exposed to sea water.

Photo Copyright © Chinellato Matteo

[earthstory]

In honor of International Mountain Day, lets watch one blow up!  This beauty of a picture comes courtesy of the International Space Station, which just happened to be passing over Sarychev Volcano in the Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan, on June 12, 2009. This volcano is one of the most active in the Kuril Islands. As a result of the eruption, multiple flights had to be diverted due to the danger of an engine ingesting ash. The ash from this eruption was detected as far as 2400 km away. You may have noticed the ‘hole in the clouds’ by now, and there is not just one answer as to what caused it. In fact, according to various meteorologists and volcanologists there are three possibilities: 1) the hole has nothing to do with the eruption (boring), 2) the hole is caused by descending air around the eruption plume (better), and 3) this is my personal favorite, the hole is caused by the shockwave from the eruption blast (YAY!!). Have a happy International Mountain Day!! —-Adam Photo Credit: NASA Earth Obervatory References: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=38985

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Putting my money on #3. Just because.

[earthstory]

The Chesapeake Bay Crater 35 million years ago, the Earth was much warmer than today due to higher abundances of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There were either small or no ice caps at the poles, leading to high sea levels that flooded the edges of the continents that are exposed today. This was the situation when a large rock from space came hurtling in, hitting the submerged continental shelf off the coast of what is today the state of Virginia. The object was between 3 and 5 kilometers in diameter. The impact of this rock caused a massive explosion and formed a crater 85 kilometers in diameter. It shattered the existing rocks, creating a debris pile known as a breccia that has since been buried by sediment shed off the continent. The Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure still controls features of the shoreline today. It’s no coincidence that it sits right at the mouth of the modern day Chesapeake Bay.  The presence of this crater has caused the land above to subside, or sink, more than the surrounding land for 35 million years. That subsidence has caused rivers to flow to this location, making it a central point for erosion and downcutting. 15,000 years ago, sea level was much lower due to the presence of huge ice caps, so rivers flowed through the Chesapeake Bay impact structure out to sea, cutting wide canyons. When sea level rose, it flooded those canyons, creating shoreline features called estuaries around the world. The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary created by the flooding of river valleys that were fixed in location by an asteroid impact 35 million years ago. The East Coast of the United States today is shaped, in part, by a rock from space that landed tens of millions of years ago. -JBB Image credits and more: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs49-98/ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chesapeake_Crater_boundaries_map.png

[skunkbear]

That’s right! This picture created at night by looking through the earth at the sun.

It wasn’t made with light though — it visualizes the flux of neutrinos coming from the sun. Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles created in the nuclear furnace of the sun, and they can pass through nearly anything. Billions of neutrinos shoot through our bodies every second, and they fly with ease through the rocky bulk of the earth.

Scientists have built a giant neutrino observatory in an abandoned mine shaft 3,000 ft below Mount Kamioka in Japan. It’s called the Super-Kamiokande - and it’s essentially a 13 milliion gallon tank of ultra-pure water, rigged with sensors that can detect the extremely weak interaction of neutrinos with other matter. This picture shows the tank when it is empty and undergoing renovations.

This observatory looks down — through the earth itself — to collect data from solar neutrinos. This image is the result of about 18 months of data collection.

(Why does the observatory need to be underground? The rock shelters the observatory from the noise of cosmic rays.)

Sun image: Robert Svoboda and K. Gordan

Super-K image: courtesy of Kamioka Observatory, ICRR (Institue for Cosmic Ray Research), The University of Tokyo

[earthstory]

How Deep do we Drill for Oil? Deeper every year as the easy shallow oil is depleted and drilling technology evolves. In 1949, the average depth for an oil well was 1108 m (3,635 ft), or about the half the height of the highest of the Appalachians above sea level. By 2008, the average well was about 1830 m (~6000 ft), now getting a high as some of the highest peaks of the Appalachians (~6000 ft). Oil platforms of today, in the deep oceans, exploit reservoirs at several km depth — 2.850 km below the waves for the Perdido platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon, before blowing out and spewing its petroleum throughout the Gulf, was capable of drilling in water as deep as ~2500 m, and reach oil at a depth of ~9,100 km. That is, to keep this to a scale we can somewhat comprehend, these wells are capable of reaching depths below sea level about equivalent to the height of Mt Everest above sea level, deeper in fact than the Marianas Trench. What limits the drilling depths? Technology can be advanced, but technology costs money. So, the price of crude is a major limiting factor. But as well, petroleum itself reaches a depth limit: at high pressures and temperatures, oil breaks down, probably converting to gas. The point of this conversion is variable around the planet, depending on such things as the thickness of the crust and its regional heat flow.  Recognized as the world’s deepest well is the Soviet Era Kola Borehole of Siberia that went down 12 km into the earth’s crust to literally go where no man has gone before (see our post here: http://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js1FTDFmX). This hole was not for oil, but for scientific exploration: it went into rocks of the Archean, found microfossils, didn’t find a change in rock type from granite to basalt that had been the accepted consensus model before this hole, and shut down when it came to a place where rocks become ductile enough that they really could be drilled anymore.  Annie R Read also: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/underground-oil-deposits.htm http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/offshore-oil-rigs-drilling-deeper-than-ever/article4481035/ http://rt.com/business/exxon-sakhalin-well-record-727/ http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kola-superdeep-borehole Image Source: Downloaded from http://xkcd.com/

[chrisbrinleejr]

Two days ago, I summited Imja Tse - a 20,305’ peak in the Himalayas. Better known as Island Peak - it’s a baby by Himalayan standards, but there are only two points on earth outside of Asia that are higher.

It was the most difficult day of my life, but I made it up. I made it down. And I’ll take that with me forever.

[peashooter85]

A recommended read.

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Science fiction in the grand tradition!

[peashooter85]

A Good Nights Sleep in Ancient and Medieval Times

Today, when one gets a good nights sleep, one typically goes to bed in the middle of the night, gets a good 7-8 hours of continuous sleep (if possible), and it greeted by the new day with the blaring of an alarm clock.  However, that was not they most of humanity slept throughout history.  Rather, the eight hour night is mostly a modern invention created by modern industrialism.  Throughout most of history, humans practiced a type of rest called “bifurcated” or “segmented sleep”.  Rather than sleeping in one long stretch, people turn in for bed at dusk, sleep for four hours, then enjoy a period of wakefulness last about 1-3 hours.  During this period of wakefulness, people would do a variety of things.  First and foremost, people would check the fire and ensure that the home, crops, and livestock were still secure.  Afterall, this was an age when outlaws were common and regular law enforcement was rare.  During this time people would play games, spend time with the family, take a walk through the neighborhood, or even socialize with the neighbors.  During this period it was not uncommon for pubs and taverns to re-open, so one my have an ale or mead and chat with friends before turning in again for “second sleep”.  Many scholars considered this period to the perfect time for focusing and learning, so it was often a time for reading, studying, reflection, or philosophizing.  A French doctor from the 16th century reported that this time was often a time used by bedfellows to have sex.  For monks and priests, it was often a time for prayer and meditation.  Once this period of wakefulness was done, people would return to bed for “second sleep”, which lasted until sunrise.  Often many cultures assured there was no sleep deficit by adding a siesta, usually early afternoon.

The practice of bifurcated sleep probably occurred throughout most of human history. Such a sleep pattern is mentioned in a variety of sources, including Homer’s Odyssey, the Bible, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.  The practice of bifurcated sleep began to die in the 17th century.  What killed it off entirely was the industrial revolution, where inventions such as electricity, street lighting, and 24 hour a day shift work put an end to bifurcated sleep, demanding more compact sleeping habits.  Modern scientific sleep studies suggest that humanity has not quite gotten over this ancient practice, as circadian rhythms are still adjusted to an awake period in the middle of the night.  Today, the sleeping habits of modern peoples in industrialized countries are especially appalling, with millions suffering from chronic sleep shortages, especially when it comes to precious REM sleep.  Many suffer such deprivations due disorders such as sleep apnea and insomnia.  Others suffer under a society which values productivity over health.  Perhaps we as a society should rethink how we sleep, and take a queue from our ancient and medieval ancestors?  

[eocene]

Vertical by Rebecca Schortinghuis