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Geology News
Earth Science Current Events

The CEO of Chesapeake Energy had purchased a large amount of the company’s stock on margin, got caught in a margin call when the price dropped, and had to sell virtually all of his shares.

Many of the companies drilling natural gas shales in the United States have cut back on their leasing and drilling activity. This is in response to lower gas prices and tight credit (many of them were leasing and drilling on borrowed money).

A Magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico area at about 6:40 local time this morning. There were no reports of damage or injury.

Associated Press news report.

This has been one of my favorite programs for many years. Alan Jones of Binghamton University developed Seismic-Eruption and makes it available as a free downloadable program that you can use to visualize volcanic activity and earthquakes in space and time (30 years of data) for many areas of the earth. I’ve used it for learning and amusement but the most powerful use that I have found is as a demonstration on the first day of an environmental geology course. It clearly communicates that earthquake activity is not randomly distributed across the earth. It makes a great visual and the small chimes that announce the earthquakes are a great surprise for the students. A download link to the program and other free software can be found at the IRIS website. (The screenshot below shows cumulative earthquake activity in the Mammoth Lakes (Long Valley Caldera) area.)

“Natural gas spot prices in the Lower 48 States this report week declined to their lowest levels this year even as disruptions in offshore Gulf of Mexico production continue in the aftermath of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. During the report week, the Henry Hub spot price decreased $0.83 per million Btu (MMBtu) to $6.58.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration release.

A Lamar University professor made an unusual discovery when returning to the site of a home that had been destroyed by Hurricane Ike - a very well preserved tooth of a Columbian Mammoth.

This project is a website that features photographs taken at each latitude and longitude degree intersection across the world. Volunteers take the photos, post them to the website and write a short story about their visit. The thumbnail photo at right is from Venezuela 11 degrees south, 108 degrees east.

The United Nations formed a committee to help design an underwater musem that could be build in Alexandria, Egypt. The site selected will allow visitors to view Cleopatra’s palace that is now underwater as a result of subsidence.

Eighty skeletons found in caves near Machu Picchu may reveal information about the ancient people who lived near the site. The remains are thought to be about 500 years old.

Hurricane Norbert continues in the eastern Pacific as a Category 3 hurricane, expected to hit Baha on Saturday. You can access track maps and public advisories at the National Hurricane Center. Earth Observatory has a good satellite image of the storm acquired on October 8.

NASA has released a satellite image of the Louisiana Gulf Coast that shows the impact of Hurricane Ike’s storm surge. Areas that were inundated are clearly visible because they are either covered with sediment or the vegetation was damaged. It shows that the impact of a storm surge and hurricane flooding can extend far inland.

For more than 40 years, the NASA Innovative Partnerships Program has facilitated the transfer of NASA technology to the private sector, benefiting global competition and the economy. “Spinoff” is an annual publication that features 40 to 50 new commercial products that have their roots in NASA technology. Some examples from this issue are racing swimsuits, electric vehicle batteries, deep sea diving suits, medical devices and photography technologies.

Compared to last heating season, the price of home heating oil is up sharply. In areas such as New England where nearly 50% of all homes are heated with oil, residents will see a significant increase in the costs of fuel delivery.

This article contains a few accounts of the rock slide that occurred at Yosemite today.

Some photos of damage in the Curry Village area are in the middle of this forum thread.

A rockslide in Yosemite National Park sent large granite boulders downslope destroying several cabins and injuring three people at a popular lodging area. This is the second rockslide in two days at the park.

If you want some idea of what a rockfall in Yosemite might look like, take a look at the image below. This is one frame of a photo sequence of a Yosemite rockfall captured by photographer Herb Dunn in August, 2006

The National Hurricane Center is calling Hurricane Norbert an “extremely dangerous Category Four hurricane”. It is now in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Mexico. It is expected to track towards Baja California where it could make landfall late Friday night or Saturday morning.

The Cassini spacecraft is set to do a double fly-by of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The first will occur on October 9, when Cassini will pass a mere 16 miles above the moon’s surface. The second will be on October 31 when Cassini passes at an altitude of 122 miles.

The Massachusetts Port Authority is experimenting with producing electrical power from wind. They have 20 turbines installed at the Logan Office Center and if the results of their test show promise they could install a large number of turbines for commercial production.

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft flew by Mercury yesterday collecting hudreds of images. It sped past the planet at a speed of 15000 miles per hour and was just 125 miles above the planet’s surface. MESSENGER is on track to begin an orbit of Mercury in March 2011

“Scientists are furthering the ability to detect caves on Earth, the moon and Mars by studying the conditions under which caves are detectable in thermal infrared. Finding caves on Earth is important for locating habitats of bats and other animal populations. Martian cave detection is vital to the search for life—if life existed or exists on Mars, the best place to look will be underground.” Quoted from the USGS release.

“The Federal Government promotes targeted energy outcomes, such as production of a specific fuel or promotion of conservation and energy efficiency by energy consumers through incentives such as tax credits, grants, and low interest loans. Some of these subsidies are described in this article.” Quoted from the EIA release.

“Dendritic patterns of white identify the snowcapped peaks of the Himalaya. Northeast of these mountains, skies are largely clear in southwestern China (Tibet) except for some clouds. Southwest of the mountains, however, haze partially obscures the view of the landscape, from Pakistan to Nepal.” Quoted from the NASA release at Earth Observatory.

An article at MSN explains how the GPS system that much of our navigation and geographic information systems are based upon could be vulnerable to vandals. The system itself could be hacked into and individual GPS devices can be remotely compromised.

A new cancer treatment uses nanodiaminds (diamond dust) to carry chemotherapy medications. The nanodiamonds are placed on a patch and the patch placed over the area where treatment is to occur. The chemotherapy medication is released over time.

The landslide seen in this VIS image occurs within an unnamed crater in Terra Cimmeria. From the Mars Odyssey Mission’s Thermal Emission Imaging System. NASA/JPL/Arizona State University

“A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery. JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning.” Quoted from the NASA release.

A family in Platte County, Missouri has a house on the very edge of a landslide. So far they have watched their yard slide away and the house is probably next.

Homeowners insurance does not cover damage by landslides.

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Kyrgyzstan, near the Chinese border, at about 10:00 PM local time on Sunday night. News reports say that it flattened the town of Nura and killed up to 70 people.

Geoffrey Notkin of Aerolite Meteorites describes the three main types of meteorites and shares some of the best meteorite photos on the web in a new article titled “Meteorite Types and Classification”. The image at right is a photograph of polished slice of the Imilac Pallasite. It shows gold and orange olivine crystals suspended in a matrix of extraterrestrial iron-nickel.

If you are new to meteorites you might start with his “What are meteorites?” article.

Google has released their plan designed to increase the use of renewable fuel sources and decrease the dependence on fossil fuels. Here are a few of their goals:

• Increase energy efficiency to cut fuel use by 33%
• Replace all coal and oil power plants with renewable energy plants
• Increase the use of plug-in vehicles to 90% of all cars sold
• Increase conventional fuel vehicle efficiency to 45 mpg
Related stories.

Billions of barrels of oil is waiting to be produced off of the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Exactly how much is unknown because the last detailed estimate was done in the 1980’s. Virginia might have a head start on other states when the US government starts granting leases thanks to some recent legislation.

“Outlook”, a weekly television show on West Virgina Public Broadcasting will feature a special program titled “Underground West Virginia”. It will be on at 9:00 PM on Thursday and rerun at 6:0 PM the following Sunday.

Twenty-eight percent of the electricity generated in the Philippines comes from hot rocks in the ground. That huge percentage spread over 90 million people makes the Philippines the world’s largest consumer of geothermal electricty. Most people would never guess that this country hold that distinction.

Great Salt Lake in Utah is approaching some of the lowest levels that have been seen since records have been kept. It is almost six feet lower than recent average levels and approaching the record low of the 1960’s.

Some of the platinum and iridium found in Earth’s crust was contributed by meteorites. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt of the University of Mainz, Germany believes that a large portion of highly siderophile elements in Earth’s crust have a cosmochemical origin.

More about Meteorites and Meteorite Classification.

Nunavut Map

Some mining operations in Nunavut, Canada are feeling the pinch of a difficult financing environment. Many of them depend upon borrowed money for getting new mines through the first stages of development until production begins. Now that credit is tight some mines remain on the drawing boards and others struggle towards first production.

Political candidates and government officials are talking a lot about “clean coal”. Perhaps “cleaner coal” would be a better way of saying it. Coal is an important energy resource and improved ways to mine it, process it, burn it, clean the emissions, and dispose of the ash and emission residue can go a long way to reducing its environmental impact. To dismiss coal as an energy source is irresponsible and to improve how things are done should be a goal.

Geology played an important role in the Civil War. Topography played an important role in several battles. Thin soils played important roles in others. The topic is very popular with both geologists and historians.

As a retired geologist I enjoyed Chris Rowan’s post titled: “Why geologists only get better with age.” There’s another saying: “The best geologists are the ones who have seen the most rocks.”

An interesting article at Astrobiology Magazine explores fossil microbes. Microbes have a very low chance of being found as fossils because of their small size and their delicate nature. However, fossil microbes have been found in many rocks and evidence of tiny organisms have been found in even more.

The Ontario Mining Association syas that 93,000 mining jobs will open across Canada in the next decade but there will not be enough qualified people to fill them unless more people enter programs that prepare workers for mining jobs. They have a video titled “New Opportunities” to recruit people to train for mining industry jobs.

DiamonEx Limited, has applied for a permit to explore for diamonds on a 23-acre parcel near North Rabbit Creek Valley, Larimer County, Colorado. The area has the characteristics needed to host a diamond deposit and a history of diamond prospecting. But many local people are strongly opposed to mining.

A guy was hiking in the Washington Cascades when he fell and broke his leg. Alone and without a cell phone he might have died from exposure. He happened to have a ham radio with him and tapped out an S-O-S in Morse code. Six hundred miles away a guy in Montana heard his message and obtained help..

“Salaries for civilian Astronaut Candidates are based on the Federal Government’s General Schedule pay scale for grades GS-12 through GS-13. Each person’s grade is determined according to his/her academic achievements and experience. Currently, a GS-12 starts at $65,140 per year and a GS-13 can earn up to $100,701 per year.” Quoted from the NASA Website.

Honda plans to produce a motorcycle that runs on a combination of electricity and gasoline. It might be available as early as 2010. They also plan to produce an electric motorcycle by 2011.

Here is a list of the most popular news items here for September, 2008….

• Hurricane Ike Damage Photos
• Greenland’s Ice Loss
• What Are Meteorites?
• East Africa’s Great Rift Valley
• Arctic Sea Ice: 2nd Lowest Year
• Toyota’s New Natural Gas Car
• Huge Ancient Lake Discovered in Russia
• Rubber Ducks Track Glacial Melt
• Volcanic Ash Risk in PNG
• Canadian Ice Shelf Retreat

USGS has published a Geologic Map of the Denver West 30′ x 60′ Quadrangle, North-Central Colorado as Scientific Investigations Map 3000. It is accompanied by a 52-page publication that describes the mapped rock units, the geologic history of the area and the potential geologic hazards. You can download it for free or order a printed copy for only $7.00.

Geoberg.de has compiled a list of 102 blogs that are directly related to the geological sciences. They fall into several categories which include: climatology, geohazards, geoengineering, geoinformation, geomorphology, geophysics, hydrogeology/hydrology, paleontology, petrology/mineralogy/economic geology, quaternary geology, regional and local geology, sedimentology, structural geology / tectonics, vulcanology, miscellaneous and general.

Congress voted to freeze spending on all federal programs excpet national security and veterans affairs. That means federal science budgets are frozen until at least March 2009.

“Although Hurricane Ike is long gone, its impact lingers more than a thousand miles from where it made landfall. Runoff from tributaries dumped massive amounts of sediment into Lake Michigan, contaminating the water, compromising near-shore navigation and raising E coli bacteria to levels unsafe for swimming. ” Quoted from the USGS release.

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