http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/ News and Commentary From the Wide World of Earth Science en Copyright 2009 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:01:47 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.261 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss HighlyAllochthonoushttp://feedburner.google.com <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/chrisicon2.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Chris Rowan"/></span></p> <p>More interesting links that I've shared via <a href="http://twitter.com/Allochthonous">Twitter</a> over the past seven days. If I had to highlight just one you should really click on, take some time to be wowed by the HiRISE imagery of Mars over at the Big Picture - they are jaw-droppingly beautiful. And <a href=http://twitter.com/seismogenic>seismogenic</a> - also known as Julian from <a href=http://harmonictremors.blogspot.com/>Harmonic Tremors</a> - earned all the geonerd cred, and everyone's insane jealously, by filming <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqj_VGQUC8g">his encounters</a> with <a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnbcYtgDwCw>Hawaiian lava</a>.</p> <p>Bill Bryson's Notes from a Large Hadron Collider Manages to convey excitement without any destroy the Earth!! nonsense.<br /> <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article6899505.ece">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article6899505.ece</a></p> <p>Zuska explores cultural parallels between scientific and religious institutions.<br /> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/thusspakezuska/2009/11/can_we_talk_about_science_i_me.php">http://scienceblogs.com/thusspakezuska/2009/11/can_we_talk_about_science_i_me.php</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/ScienceBlogs">@ScienceBlogs</a> )</p> <p>35 beautiful landscapes selected from HiRISE imagery at The Big Picture. Coffee table book out when?<br /> <a href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/martian_landscapes.html">http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/martian_landscapes.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/HiRISE">@HiRISE</a>)</p> <p>Philippines: Mayon 'may explode anytime', heavy rains mean lahar risk remains. <br /> <a href="http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/5412-mount-mayon-may-explode-anytime--phivolcs-official">http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/5412-mount-mayon-may-explode-anytime--phivolcs-official</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/volcanismblog">@volcanismblog</a>)</p> <p>Dr. Albert Bartlett's &quot;Laws of Sustainability&quot;. <br /> <a href="http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5925">http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5925</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/TheOilDrum">@TheOilDrum</a>)</p> <p>Geoengineering in the House. Of Congress, that is. Seems testimony was sensible, at least.<br /> <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/11/geoengineering_in_the_house.html">http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/11/geoengineering_in_the_house.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/NatureNews">@NatureNews</a>)</p> <p>Some beautiful images of islands from space. No. 10 us the coolest.<br /> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/islands-space/">http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/islands-space/</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/geographile">@geographile</a>)</p> <p>MESSENGER Rewrites Mercury Textbooks Even Before Entering Orbit: Lots of iron, but not in silicates...<br /> <a href="http://www.planetary.org/news/2009/1105_MESSENGER_Rewrites_Mercury_Textbooks.html">http://www.planetary.org/news/2009/1105_MESSENGER_Rewrites_Mercury_Textbooks.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/elakdawalla">@elakdawalla</a>)</p> <p>The World's Costly Nitrogen Addiction: 80 megatons of fertiliser used/year; only 17 gets into food.<br /> <a href="http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2207">http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2207</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/YaleE360">@YaleE360</a>)</p> <p>Unsettled Youth: Spitzer Observes a Chaotic Planetary System Dust cloud formed by lots of proto-planetary collisions?<br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news176576185.html">http://www.physorg.com/news176576185.html</a></p> <p>Another example of synthetic aperture radar data being used to track volcanism in the African Rift Valley. <br /> <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104123027.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104123027.htm</a></p> <p>Solar power generation around the clock . Heat stored in molten salt -&gt; electricity as needed.<br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news176632405.html">http://www.physorg.com/news176632405.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/physorg_com">@physorg_com</a>)</p> <p>Haunting outlines of bones and plastic highlight impact of plastic on albatrosses. <br /> <a href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/nov/03/albatross-plastic-poison-pacific>http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/nov/03/albatross-plastic-poison-pacific</a><br /> (via <a href=http://twitter.com/edyong209></a>@BobOHara</a>, <a href=http://twitter.com/edyong209>@edyong209</a>) </p> <p>Blog post from <a href=http://twitter.com/brianshiro>@brianshiro</a> about his work at Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. <br /> <a href="http://www.astronautforhire.com/2009/11/tsunami-kind-of-month.html">http://www.astronautforhire.com/2009/11/tsunami-kind-of-month.html</a></p> <p>Not pretty at all: Athabasca Oil Sands: open-pit mines and tailings ponds line the Athabasca River. <br /> <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40997&src=iotdrss">http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40997&src=iotdrss</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/EarthObser">@EarthObser</a>)</p> <p>Fibre optic solar cells.<br /> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8341186.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8341186.stm</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/suehutton">@suehutton</a>)</p> <p>Even if all other CO2 emissions stopped, fully exploiting Canada oil sands -&gt; 2C global warming. <br /> <a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article6902006.ece">http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article6902006.ece</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/twitoil">@twitoil</a>)</p> <p>CO2 from forest destruction overestimated.<br /> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/forest-destruction-co2-overestimated">http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/forest-destruction-co2-overestimated</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/guardianscience">@guardianscience</a>)</p> <p>Video of lava flows on Kilauea from <a href=http://twitter.com/seismogenic>@seismogenic</a>. Not jealous not jealous not jealous...<br /> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqj_VGQUC8g">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqj_VGQUC8g</a> ,<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnbcYtgDwCw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnbcYtgDwCw</a></p> <p>Run don't walk to Cassini raw images site for new pics from Enceladus flyby e.g. <br /> <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/?start=1">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/raw/?start=1</a> ,<a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS54/N00145397.jpg">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS54/N00145397.jpg</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/elakdawalla">@elakdawalla</a>)</p> <p>Nice discussion of the Shiva Crater palava by Suvrat. <br /> <a href="http://suvratk.blogspot.com/2009/11/end-cretaceous-how-many-impacts-how.html">http://suvratk.blogspot.com/2009/11/end-cretaceous-how-many-impacts-how.html</a></p> <p>'Ultra-primitive' particles found in comet dust Including lots of 'pre-solar' grains.<br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news176400764.html">http://www.physorg.com/news176400764.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/physorg_com">@physorg_com</a>)</p> <p>New PNAS study lists 17 easy household changes that would reduce US ems by 7% <br /> <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/23/0908738106.abstract">http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/23/0908738106.abstract</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/KHayhoe">@KHayhoe</a>)</p> <p>Atacama mudflows may be equivalent of controversial recent flow deposits on Mars.<br /> <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/02/2730988.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/02/2730988.htm</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/geologynews">@geologynews</a>)</p> <p>Geological Society of London on fossil webs found in amber: wow!<br /> <a href="http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscientist/geonews/fossilwebs">http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/geoscientist/geonews/fossilwebs</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/geosociety">@geosociety</a>)</p> <p>Coping With Climate Change: Which Societies Will Do Best? <br /> <a href="http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2205">http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2205</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/YaleE360">@YaleE360</a>)</p> <p>Solar power from Sahara a step closer CSP network aims to provide 15% of Euro power by 2050. Ambitious...<br /> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/01/solar-power-sahara-europe-desertec#">http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/01/solar-power-sahara-europe-desertec#</a></p> <p>Planet hunt delayed by noise problems with Kepler. Fixable though.<br /> <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091030/full/news.2009.1051.html">http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091030/full/news.2009.1051.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/NatureNews">@NatureNews</a>)</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_4.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/fejXm2v_0PE" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/fejXm2v_0PE/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_4.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_4.php links Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:01:47 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_4.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><a href="http://www.researchblogging.org"><img alt="ResearchBlogging.org" src="http://www.researchblogging.org/public/citation_icons/rb2_mid.png" style="border:5;"/></a><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/chrisicon2.jpg" width="48" height="50" alt="A post by Chris Rowan"/></span></p> <p><a href=http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/11/mid-continent_earthquakes_are_often_aftershocks_of_centuries.php>Ed has already given the lowdown</a> on a new study in Nature which might lead to a rethink on earthquake hazards in the continental interior. Plate tectonics treats plates as entirely rigid entities, but continental crust is too weak, and too riddled with faults left over from when it <em>was</em> close to a plate boundary, for it to entirely hold up when subjected to the stresses of plate motion. So although a very large proportion of the Earth's earthquakes occur at plate boundaries, there is also some seismicity - including some very large shocks - within plate interiors. The problem is working out where this intraplate deformation is going to occur, and to do so seismologists rely on data which serve them well at plate boundaries - the historical record of large earthquakes, and the location of low-level seismic activity which indicates the build up of tectonic strain. </p> <p>What <a href=http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08502>Stein and Liu argue in their paper</a> is that away from the plate boundaries, these tools provide a very misleading picture. In apparently active parts of the continental interior like <a href=http://scienceblogs.com/greengabbro/2008/04/earthquake_in_illinois_whats_u.php>the New Madrid area</a>, all the abnormal seismicity can be regarded as a long-lived aftershock sequence; rather than indicating any new elastic strain being built up by external forces, which could eventually produce another large earthquake in the future, the seismicity is just a local tectonic response to a historically recent large earthquake (in New Madrid's case, it was <a href=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/1811-1812.php>a series of magnitude 7-8 earthquakes in late 1811 and early 1812</a>), and will eventually die off with time. </p> <p>This conclusion is a little worrying, since it implies that the next big intra-continental quake might well occur in what presently seems to be a seismically inactive region, which, given the density of old faults cutting through your typical chunk of continental crust, could be almost anywhere. We already know <a href=http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/04/earthquake_prediction_if_only.php>the difficulties of predicting when big earthquakes are going to occur</a>, but it seems that in the middle of plates, predicting <em>where</em> they are going to happen might also be a bit more tricky than we thought. However, a caveat remains: the proposed length of a typical intra-continental aftershock sequence is hundreds of years, which is much longer than our instrumental records, and even historical records in many places. The authors do point out that earthquake patterns in China, which has the best historical record, is of single large quakes in different areas (with last year's <a href=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2008/us2008ryan/>Sichuan quake</a> being the most recent) rather than a series of large earthquakes associated with a particular fault; perhaps palaeoseimology can show whether a similar pattern holds further back in time and on other continents.</p> <p><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.jtitle=Nature&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1038%2Fnature08502&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fresearchblogging.org&rft.atitle=Long+aftershock+sequences+within+continents+and+implications+for+earthquake+hazard+assessment&rft.issn=0028-0836&rft.date=2009&rft.volume=462&rft.issue=7269&rft.spage=87&rft.epage=89&rft.artnum=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Fdoifinder%2F10.1038%2Fnature08502&rft.au=Stein%2C+S.&rft.au=Liu%2C+M.&rfe_dat=bpr3.included=1;bpr3.tags=Geosciences%2CSeismology+Geohazards">Stein, S., & Liu, M. (2009). Long aftershock sequences within continents and implications for earthquake hazard assessment <span style="font-style: italic;">Nature, 462</span> (7269), 87-89 DOI: <a rev="review" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08502">10.1038/nature08502</a></span></p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/earthquakes_within_plates_we_d.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/BCRlda_cQqM" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/BCRlda_cQqM/earthquakes_within_plates_we_d.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/earthquakes_within_plates_we_d.php geohazards Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:11:06 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/earthquakes_within_plates_we_d.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/chrisicon2.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Chris Rowan"/></span></p> <p><a href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/01/tehran-iran-capital>The Guardian reports that the Iranian government has approved plans for a new capital city</a>. It seems this decision was at least partially driven by fears that the present capital, Tehran, is facing some serious earthquake hazard in the future:</p> <blockquote><p>Plans for a new capital were first drawn up 20 years ago, but officials only gave them serious consideration after <a href=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2003/uscvad/>the 2003 earthquake that devastated the south-eastern city of Bam</a> and killed an estimated 40,000 people. Experts warn that Tehran sits on at least 100 faultlines - including one nearly 60 miles long - and that many of its buildings would not survive a major quake.</p></blockquote> <p>Iran is part of the Alpine-Himalyan Belt, formed as the African, Arabian and Indo-Australian plates all push northwards into Eurasia. In Iran, seismicity is concentrated in the Zagros mountains in the south and the Alborz mountains in the North, with both of these mountain belts apparently being actively uplifted as they accommodate plate convergence.</p> <p class='center'><a href=http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/iran/seismicity.php></p><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/upload/2009/11/iran_sesimicity.png" width="500" height="421" alt="iran_sesimicity.png"/></a></p> <p>Tehran, with a population of about 12 million people, is located just on the southern edge of the Alborz mountains, and <a href=http://www.iiees.ac.ir/iiees/English/Seismology/eng_seis_faults.html>a map of the major faults in the area</a> shows that it is surrounded on all sides by sizeable thrust faults.</p> <p class='center'> <img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/upload/2009/11/Tehran_Faults.png" width="500" height="453" alt="Tehran_Faults.png"/></p> <p>So, at first glance a relocation seems like a fairly foresighted strategy, even if a cynic (who, me?) might wonder if the move encompasses more than the political elite and their associated minions. But population centres do not generally spring up at random; there are usually strategic and/or economic reasons that people have settled in a particular location, and once established they tend to suck in ever more people and investment as time goes on. Add to that our general inertia in the face of abstract future risk (just look at the response to climate change) and you have to wonder if people will be all that willing to move. There's also the question of how the cost of abandoning all the infrastructure incorporated into a large city like Tehran, and building a whole new infrastructure in your new city, compares to the cost of increasing peoples' safety by enforcing robust building codes: after all, earthquakes don't kill people, collapsing buildings do*.</p> <p>In the long term, of course, it makes sense to move as much of your population as possible from areas of high seismic risk to low risk areas, by encouraging investment in geologically safer areas and letting economic migration rebalance the population over a generation or three. Sadly, I suspect urban planning is generally driven by somewhat narrower, short-term factors; if building houses on flood plains is waved through without blinking, I can't see nearby faults giving people much pause. </p> <p>*and tsunamis. But not in Tehran.</p> <p><span class="BlogGeoTag" xml="<georss:point>35.73 51.5</georss:point>"><b>Geotagging</b> (<a href=http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117374869064248039494.00047223ee0bd4251fb11&ll=11.254264,135.539789&spn=172.007797,360&t=h&z=1>View all geotagged posts</a>)<br><img src=http://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?zoom=4&size=300x300&maptype=hybrid&markers=color:blue|35.73,51.5&sensor=false&key=ABQIAAAAJThelalzGcHBzm3g8c8OeBSrKJjU8COscoUQ7hjOkzkN98WGpBSY7aXxeTNQxtrhvdCpan7iHtwOQg></span><br /> </p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/earthquake_hazard_mitigation_t.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/kylFPxzg6HY" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/kylFPxzg6HY/earthquake_hazard_mitigation_t.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/earthquake_hazard_mitigation_t.php geohazards Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:30:00 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/earthquake_hazard_mitigation_t.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/chrisicon2.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Chris Rowan"/></span></p> <p>Getting involved in science policy is a tricky business. For the most part, a statement made by a scientific expert is taken as more authoritative than a statement by a government minister, even when the expert strays away from talking about data and evidence and probabilities - the input into a policy decision - and starts talking about translating those data into action - the decision itself. I don't think scientists shouldn't suggest courses of action, but they shouldn't do it in a unilateral way. It's the difference between 'studies show x, and y appears to be a promising approach to dealing with this' (ok) and 'studies show x, so we must do y' (not so ok). A fine distinction, perhaps, but one worth trying to make as hard as possible. </p> <p>Of course, in the case of <a href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/01/david-nutt-gordon-brown-drugs>David Nutt's forced resignation from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs</a> (ACMD - see also <a href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/11/why_was_david_nutt_sacked.html>here</a> and <a href=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/politics/article6898720.ece>here</a>), it appears to be more a case of 'studies show x, it would be sensible to do y, but government has not only done z, which is silly/unworkable, but claims its policy is evidence-based.' Untangle that, if you dare. </p> <p>It's obvious that scientific evidence is just one of the things that ministers take into account when making policy decisions. When it comes to drug regulation, for example, beyond issues of harm there are questions of social impact on particularly at-risk groups, and (when it comes to alcohol and tobacco) long-standing societal mores, which also have to be considered when formulating policy, and perhaps might justify going against the recommendations of a body like the ACMD. As a scientist, I have no problem with that - as long as the decision to go against such advice is justified in those terms. Where it does become a problem is when, for whatever reason, a recommendation based on the best available science is ignored, yet the government continues to assert that it is following an 'evidence-based' policy, rather than acknowledging that its decisions are clearly being driven by other concerns. </p> <p>It is this lack of transparency that worries me; and a scientist who actually faces the paradox of being consulted by the government to provide a veneer of scientific authority, whilst having their actual opinion on the issue at hand ignored, is perhaps justified in <a href=http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091102/full/news.2009.1053.html>getting a little annoyed</a> . </p> <p><a href=http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2007/05/tony_blair_liked_science_but_h.php>I once described </a> Tony Blair's attitude to science thusly:</p> <blockquote><p>...he does not seem to want a electorate that is truly scientifically literate, but one that will accept scientific authorities as expert witnesses in support of government policy.</p></blockquote> <p>It seems that this attitude is still prevalent amongst politicians here in the UK; and if David Nutt did sail over (or very close to) the line between advice and outright advocacy, I think it's at least partly because we have a government which refuses to discuss complex and controversial issues in a grown-up manner.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/advice_and_advocacy.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/08IwhQjnHrc" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/08IwhQjnHrc/advice_and_advocacy.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/advice_and_advocacy.php public science Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:07:33 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/advice_and_advocacy.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span>Geoblog readers are truly amazing. Between you, you gave $8660, making earth science a hands-on reality for 1270 students. Forty-three of you, with a little help from HP, gave more than readers of any other ScienceBlog. Thank you. Your generosity humbles me.</p> <p>A few weeks ago, during Earth Science Week,<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php"> I offered up posts by Chris and I on topics of our readers' choice</a>. Then <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/stressrelated/2009/10/the_amazing_generosity_of_geos.php">Kim willingly jumped in to help</a>. We promised to write one post for each project completely funded during the week with help from geoblogs readers. By the end of the week, you all had funded five amazing projects: <br /> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=313587&challengeid=24187">Healthy Water</a></li><li><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287205&challengeid=24187">First Hand Look at Rocks</a></li><li><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287456&challengeid=24187">How salty is the sea?</a></li><li><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=300540&challengeid=24187">Widespread Weather Wisdom for English Language Learners</a></li><li><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320984&challengeid=24187">Let's Dig A Little Deeper</a></li></ul>Check out the links above to see thank you notes from the teachers and photos of the projects in action. Seeing the students excitedly looking at rocks is the biggest reward I can imagine. But, if you want us to reward you by producing posts on topics that get you excited, here's your chance to nominate the topic. <br /> <br><br /> <strong>In the comment thread below, make your requests, and Chris, Kim, and I will look through them and select five topics that we feel most able to answer.</strong> Then we'll get to work fulfilling them as we can manage in our busy schedules. Maybe we'll get inspired and pick up even more of your ideas for future posts.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/to_our_amazing_readers_we_are.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/PIoAqO2N-_s" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/PIoAqO2N-_s/to_our_amazing_readers_we_are.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/to_our_amazing_readers_we_are.php bloggery Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:59:09 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/11/to_our_amazing_readers_we_are.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/chrisicon2.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Chris Rowan"/></span></p> <p>Registration is now open for <a href=http://www.scienceonline2010.com/index.php/wiki/>ScienceOnline2010</a>, the fourth annual science communicators conference, being held January 14-17 next year in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. </p> <blockquote><p>Please join us for this free (but donations are accepted) three-day event to explore science on the Web. Our goal is to bring together scientists, physicians, patients, educators, students, publishers, editors, bloggers, journalists, writers, web developers, programmers and others to discuss, demonstrate and debate online strategies and tools for doing science, publishing science, teaching science, and promoting the public understanding of science.</p></blockquote> <p>I'll be there, but that's probably a rather dubious temptation; however, if you check out the numerous interesting discussion topics enshrined in the <a href=http://www.scienceonline2010.com/index.php/wiki/Program_Finalization/>semi-finalised programme</a> you'll see that there is a session entitled 'Earth Science, Web 2.0+, and Geospatial Applications', being run by <a href=http://www.elementlist.com/element/blog/about.html>Jacqueline Floyd</a> with back-up from yours truly. That's right, a specialised session which doesn't involve biology. </p> <p>Hopefully this might tempt some of the rest of the geoblog/tweetosphere to attend as well. Even if you can't attend, Jacqueline and I are keen to get as much participation from all of you as possible. Feel free to get in touch with any ideas you might have, but in a perfect world we'd have you all there participating - and if you're physically there, I can buy you a beer. Places are vanishing fast, so don't ponder too much: <a href=http://scienceonline2010.com/register.html>Register today!</a></p> <p class='center'><a href="http://www.scienceonline2010.com/index.php/wiki/"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/scienceonline2010logo.jpg"></a></p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/scienceonline_2010_geobloggers.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/dKplTCNPLwY" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/dKplTCNPLwY/scienceonline_2010_geobloggers.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/scienceonline_2010_geobloggers.php bloggery Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:20:01 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/scienceonline_2010_geobloggers.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span>Last week was the Geological Society of America meeting in Portland, Oregon. Just below t is a view of Mt. Hood looking from the north, which I might have seen if I were not busy in and around the convention center the entire time. What follows are some brief notes from my activities on Monday and Tuesday of the conference. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/upload/2009/10/IMG_1103.JPG"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/upload/2009/10/IMG_1103-thumb-400x300-21249.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="Mt Hood from the North"/></a></p> <p><strong>Monday</strong></p> <p>On Monday morning, I attended a couple of talks and browsed the deserted poster aisles, since I knew I would be in a session all afternoon and unable to attend the designated poster time. Of the talks I attended, the one that sticks most in my mind was one by <a href="http://www.d.umn.edu/~kgran/">Karen Gran</a>, who opened with an eloquent argument for why geomorphologists should care about the landscape evolution of very flat places, in her case, the <a href="http://www.nced.umn.edu/content/le-sueur-river-watershed">Le Sueur River</a> in southern Minnesota. Here the sudden base level drop triggered by the draining of Lake Agassiz down the Minnesota-Mississippi River system has triggered 11,000 years of knickpoint retreat and bank erosion that has been exacerbated by modern agricultural practices, such as tile drainage. </p> <p>Monday afternoon I helped convene a session on "<a href="http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/session_24222.htm">Stream-Groundwater Interaction: New Understanding, Innovations, and Applications at Bedform, Reach, and River Network Scales</a>" sponsored by the Hydrogeology division. We had a great line-up of speakers, from undergraduate to professor, that are actively pushing our understanding of how streams and groundwater interact in environments from the hydropower-generating diurnally-fluctuating Colorado River in Austin, Texas (Bayani Cardenas, Katelyn Gerecht) to the possibility of modern recharge to the Great Artesian Basin in the center of Australia (Brad Wolaver working on the Finke River). We heard about a new smart tracer for quantifying the metabolically active transient storage (Roy Haggerty), radium as a tracer of groundwater inputs to the Sea of Galillee and North Carolina's Neuse River (Hadas Ranan), electrical resistivity for mapping saline upwelling in Nebraska wetlands (Ed Harvey), and lots about using temperature as a tracer of groundwater-stream interactions (John Selker, Christine Hatch, Laura Lautz, Jeannie Barlow). We contemplate the effects of our common simplifying steady-state assumptions (Jesus Gomez) and marveled over a flume and numerical investigation of hyporheic exchange caused by a simple log (Audrey Sawyer). The questions from the audience were provocative and the conversations during our breaks were enjoyable and stimulating. It was my first time chairing a session, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the day it turned out.</p> <p>Monday evening brought the usual round of alumni receptions and the geoblogger/tweeter meet-up. <a href="http://nvcc.edu/home/cbentley/geoblog/2009/10/tugboat-portrait-of-geobloggers.html">Much has been said</a> about that elsewhere, but I'll add that I greatly enjoyed making the acquaintance of so many interesting people and renewing my friendship with others. There were definitely a couple of small-world moments over the course of the evening, and I'll hazard that it was the largest geoblogger/tweeter meetup on record. Shall we aim to break the record next year?</p> <p><strong>Tuesday</strong></p> <p>On Tuesday, I did not go to a single talk. There are no geomorphology sessions on Tuesday because of the <a href="http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/session_23690.htm">Kirk Bryan field trip</a>, and the hydrogeologists have no oral sessions because of their afternoon banquet. So I spent the morning over a wonderful breakfast with wonderful friends and attended the hydrogeology banquet almost immediately thereafter. In the late afternoon, I presented my poster and missed <a href="http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/session_23690.htm">Kim's talk</a> and then meandered my way over to the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology (QG&G) award ceremony and mixer. </p> <p>Please don't ask me to say who knows how to have more fun: the hydrogeologists or geomorphologists. All I'll say is that singing was involved at one event and very clever photoshopping at another. At least one set of geologists believe it is perfect acceptable to receive a major professional award while wearing jeans and holding a beer. </p> <p>For me, the single best highlight of the entire week was talking to <a href="http://www.agiweb.org/geotimes/may04/profiles.html">Reds Wolman</a>, my academic grandfather and undergraduate geomorphology professor. Reds is an amazing teacher, magnificent scientific mind, and a caring person who mentored many of the leading geomorphologists of the last half century. Though he's gotten to be quite elderly, he attended much of the meeting and I got the chance to chat with him and hear his stories several times. I'll also got to hear a very nice, if cheeky, tribute to him by Reds' former student, John Costa, who was awarded the QG&G distinguished career award.</p> <p>In my next post, I'll finish out the meeting by talking about what happens when it rains a lot about this time of year and the mountains fall down. Plus, I'll show some pictures of really big rocks.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/hydrogeo_geomorph_gsa.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/FZpn64_OLt4" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/FZpn64_OLt4/hydrogeo_geomorph_gsa.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/hydrogeo_geomorph_gsa.php by Anne Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:06:08 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/hydrogeo_geomorph_gsa.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/upload/2009/10/IMG_1108.JPG"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/upload/2009/10/IMG_1108-thumb-250x333-21198.jpg" width="250" height="333" align="right" alt="Hood_River.JPG"/></a><br /> Like many North American geobloggers, I've recently returned from the Geological Society of America meeting in Portland, Oregon. It was a bittersweet trip for me, as it was a return to my spiritual homeland, where I spent five happy years working on the rocks and waters of the Cascade Range. Since then, I've felt a bit exiled on the Eastern Seaboard, so it was perhaps apropos that the trip back was a bit of a tease...in my four days in Oregon, I did not manage to see a single mountain. The picture to the right is the Hood River, draining the north side of Mt. Hood, about 45 minutes east of Portland. It was taken in April 2007, during field work for my post-doc.</p> <p><strong>Sunday</strong></p> <p>After an unexpectedly long layover in Phoenix and an entirely unexpected layover in San Francisco (thank you, US Airways), I arrived in Portland at 1 am local time Sunday morning. With any potential time-change/jet-lag problems thus mitigated, I arrived bright eyed for the first talks on Sunday morning. </p> <p>The main order of business on Sunday morning was the Pardee Keynote Symposium on "<a href="http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/session_24267.htm">The Evolution of Basaltic Landscapes: Time and River and the Lava Flowing.</a>" I arrived in time to hear a fascinating talk on "Impacts of basaltic volcanism on incised fluvial systems: does the river give a dam?" by <a href="http://geofroth.posterous.com/">blogger</a>/<a href="http://twitter.com/drjerque">tweep</a>/mapper extraordinaire Kyle House. He was talking about the lava dams, debris flows, and river incision of the Owyhee River of eastern Oregon. After a few gorgeous photos accompanied magnificent Lidar images, I was thoroughly convinced of the utility of Lidar for high-resolution geological mapping. I was also salivating at the thought of a whole day of water + lava talks full of gorgeous volcano photos.</p> <p>After Steve Ingebritsen gave a lovely overview of the hydrogeology of basalts, Dennis Geist convinced me that I absolutely have to go to the Galapagos Islands, by showing pictures of volcanoes with whales for scale. His talk focused on the connections between geology and biology in the Galapagos, and got me thinking about the implications of volcanic emergence and subsidence for the evolution of the creatures of the famous archipelago. While Geist tried to convince his audience that the vegetation of the Galapagos is supported with basically no soil, neither I nor the next speaker, Oliver Chadwick, quite believed him on that point. </p> <p>Indeed Chadwick talked about the patterns and processes of soil development on basaltic landscapes, where weathering rates depend not only on the usual climatic factors but also on the flow texture - with aa and pahoehoe flows exhibitting different patterns and timescales of soil development. For my own work, one key point that Chadwick made was "At some point in the history of lava flows, the surface becomes less permeable than the whole..." I think that statement has implications for the way we think about drainage development in basaltic landscapes, but I'll wait to say more about that until my publication and/or funding record bear me out.</p> <p>I spent my afternoon thinking more about basalt hydrology, in a session on "<a href="http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2009AM/finalprogram/session_24244.htm">Hydrologic Characterization and Simulation of Neogene Volcanic Terranes</a>." I've got lots of notes from that session that are probably of interest only to me, but I will say that it was exciting to hear one of the grad student speakers say to me "I've been reading your dissertation" and to hear my work cited more than once. It is such a relief to know that people working in the field actually find my work interesting or useful. Towards the end of the session, I gave a talk on the geomorphic and hydrologic co-evolution of the central Oregon Cascades Range. My talk was based on a paper that has undergone several major revisions since my Ph.D. days, and it was a pleasure to share the latest and greatest incarnation of my thinking on the subject. The pleasure was immeasurably increased by a recent letter from the journal editor giving me only very minor revisions to do before acceptance.</p> <p>On Sunday evening, the attendees of the morning talks reconvened for a wine tasting with a geological theme - the terroir of taste of Oregon wines grown on basalt versus sandstone. The wine was donated by <a href="http://www.willamettevalleyvineyards.com/">Willamette Valley Vineyards</a> (basalt) and <a href="http://www.kingestate.com/">King Estate</a> (sandstone), and we got to hear from the wine makers as we sipped their wares. According to them, if you see a 2008 Willamette Valley appellation Pinot Noir or Pinot Gris, snap it up. They reckon it will be the best year ever for Oregon wines. That's saying quite a bit, since Oregon is consistently recognized as one of the world's best Pinot producing regions.</p> <p>After a day of stimulating talks and invigorating conversation, I was ready to dive into two days focused on groundwater-surface water interactions and a day of snow, mega-floods, and debris flows to round out my conference. But my notes on those days will have to wait for now, as those paper revisions are not taking care of themselves.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/hydro_evo_basaltic_landscapes.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/LHct2O3SDJ4" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/LHct2O3SDJ4/hydro_evo_basaltic_landscapes.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/hydro_evo_basaltic_landscapes.php by Anne Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:55:41 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/hydro_evo_basaltic_landscapes.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/chrisicon2.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Chris Rowan"/></span></p> <p>More interesting links that I've shared via <a href="http://twitter.com/Allochthonous">Twitter</a> over the past seven days. </p> <p>Volcanic cone-ilicious! : Marion Island, South Africa. <br /> <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40806">http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40806</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/EarthObser">@EarthObser</a>)</p> <p>Break out the stickyback plastic! : Build a high resolution spectrograph in 15 minutes.<br /> <a href="http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/spectrograph/spectrograph.html">http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/light/spectrograph/spectrograph.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/BoraZ">@BoraZ</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/sqfield">@sqfield</a>)</p> <p>Here's what sea ice looks like from 20,000 ft from flight over Antarctica. <br /> <a href="http://twitpic.com/lvtxg">http://twitpic.com/lvtxg</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/geogirldi">@geogirldi</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/mihaela4021">@mihaela4021</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/NASA">@NASA</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/IceBridge">@IceBridge</a>)</p> <p>LCROSS mission just posted new update: &amp; images: But, no word on H2O detection.<br /> <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/LCROSS_impact.html">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/LCROSS_impact.html</a> ,<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/LCROSS_impact_images.html">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/LCROSS_impact_images.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/elakdawalla">@elakdawalla</a>)</p> <p>Make sure to check out the animation : Cassini and IBEX results indicate heliosphere is a big bubble <br /> <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/newsrelease20091015/">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassinifeatures/newsrelease20091015/</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn">@CassiniSaturn</a>)</p> <p>Cool webcam pictures from the ongoing eruption of Chaiten <br /> <a href="http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/the-view-from-chaiten-15-october-2009/">http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/the-view-from-chaiten-15-october-2009/</a></p> <p>Hmm. No real evidence for this so far : giant impact near India - not Mexico - may have doomed dinosaurs.<br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news174827113.html">http://www.physorg.com/news174827113.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/physorg_com">@physorg_com</a>)</p> <p>A reminder that analogies can be stretched too far: important physical diffs between lava lamps and mantle convection.<br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news174764751.html">http://www.physorg.com/news174764751.html</a></p> <p>Fascinating eyewitness account of 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. <br /> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/stressrelated/2009/10/the_great_california_shake_out.php">http://scienceblogs.com/stressrelated/2009/10/the_great_california_shake_out.php</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/stressrelated">@stressrelated</a>)</p> <p>Video: Changes in Arctic sea ice coverage from 1978 to 2008.<br /> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/oct/14/arctic-sea-ice-coverage">http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/oct/14/arctic-sea-ice-coverage</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/guardianscience">@guardianscience</a>)</p> <p>Check out this awesome photo compilation of erupting volcanoes.<br /> <a href="http://pixdaus.com/?sort=tag&tag=volcano">http://pixdaus.com/?sort=tag&tag=volcano</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/clasticdetritus">@clasticdetritus</a>)</p> <p>Satellite imagery of tsunamI damage to Samoan coast : <br /> <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=40745">http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=40745</a></p> <p>Very nice, polished piece by on physicists who go out on a limb as climate skeptics <br /> <a href="http://arthur.shumwaysmith.com/life/content/the_arrogance_of_physicists">http://arthur.shumwaysmith.com/life/content/the_arrogance_of_physicists</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/mtobis">@mtobis</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/arthursmith">@arthursmith</a>)</p> <p>Solid evidence of paleo-lakes on Mars! &gt;3 billion years old though, before you get too excited.<br /> <a href="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-paleolakes-of-mars-are-fossil-fish-next.html">http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/the-paleolakes-of-mars-are-fossil-fish-next.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/geologynews">@geologynews</a>)</p> <p>Scientists seek truth on oil sands damage. &quot;academic community has been pretty quiet&quot; so far, it seems.<br /> <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/scientists-seek-truth-on-oil-sands-damage/article1319806/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/scientists-seek-truth-on-oil-sands-damage/article1319806/</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/geology4u">@geology4u</a>)</p> <p>Morphological differences between juvenile, adult dinosaurs might mean 1/3 of species 'do not exist'. <br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news174634964.html">http://www.physorg.com/news174634964.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/physorg_com">@physorg_com</a>)</p> <p>Awesome! Saturnian aurora!<br /> <a href="http://planetary.org/blog/article/00002162/">http://planetary.org/blog/article/00002162/</a>, longer animation <a href="http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/cassini/saturn_aurora_cassini_astro0.gif">http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/cassini/saturn_aurora_cassini_astro0.gif</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/elakdawalla">@elakdawalla</a>)</p> <p>Literally Doomed. I think poor writing is due to not enough reading: you learn by exposure to good writing.<br /> <a href="http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2009/10/literally-doomed.html">http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2009/10/literally-doomed.html</a></p> <p>UK cities need portfolio of measures that minimize impact of climate change while allowing for growth <br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news174576543.html">http://www.physorg.com/news174576543.html</a></p> <p>WANT! Is this the coolest space exploration poster ever made? <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcrowe/4002050596/sizes/o/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcrowe/4002050596/sizes/o/</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/NatureNews">@NatureNews</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/DrStuClark">@DrStuClark</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/ScienceSoWhat">@ScienceSoWhat</a>)</p> <p>Airships set for Arctic's heavy lifting <br /> <a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Airships+Arctic+heavy+lifting/2084159/story.html">http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Airships+Arctic+heavy+lifting/2084159/story.html</a></p> <p>Meltwater, patterned ground, debris flow levees and more on 0.5 km asteroid: <br /> <a href="http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/oct09image.html">http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/oct09image.html</a><br /> (via <a href="http://twitter.com/aboutgeology">@aboutgeology</a>)</p> <p>Killer earthquakes shake scientific thought Could EQ cycles at diff plate boundary segments move into phase somehow?<br /> <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news174481366.html">http://www.physorg.com/news174481366.html</a></p> <p>Research offers hope for oxygen, life in Europa's oceans Based on chemistry of ice upwelling into surface cracks...<br /> <a href="http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/2009/10/ua-research-offers-hope-for-oxygen-life.html">http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/2009/10/ua-research-offers-hope-for-oxygen-life.html</a></p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_3.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/NRNCY8FzsUQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/NRNCY8FzsUQ/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_3.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_3.php links Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:31:19 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/stuff_i_linked_to_on_twitter_l_3.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/chrisicon2.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Chris Rowan"/></span></p> <p>The <a href=http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/>Geological Society of America's annual meeting</a> starts tomorrow, and <a href=http://scienceblogs.com/stressrelated/2009/09/blogging_geoscience_meetings.php>as Kim has already explained</a>, the conference is actively encouraging <a href=http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/Mtg-BlogRoll.asp>geobloggers</a> and <a href=http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/Mtg-TwitterRoll.asp>geotweeters</a> to report from the meeting. Since I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic and thus unable to attend in person, I'll get the opportunity to see just how much you can get out of a meeting through these media. As a warm up, I'm asking: what is the most effective way of blogging/tweeting a conference? Does an effective way actually <em>exist</em>?</p> <p>I have myself done a bit of <a href=http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/academic_life/conferences/>conference blogging</a>. With <a href=http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/01/liveblogging_from_scienceonlin.php>one (prompted) exception</a>, I've eschewed true 'liveblogging' - writing up conference sessions on the fly - because the demands of producing legible prose - or, at least, prose that my pedantic inner copy-editor is happy publishing - distracts me too much from actually following the presentations. However, I have attempted - and found useful - writing posts that summarise a day's sessions. For the <a href=http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/08/science_online_-_the_london_ed.php>Science Online London conference</a>, I experimented with live-tweeting: I found that the 140 character limit was actually a boon, as it forced a healthy balance between listening and typing, and the need to be succinct led to a useful set of notes when I wrote up my response on the train home the next day.</p> <p>It has occurred to me, though, that my liveblogging endeavours thus far have been, for want of a better word, selfish. The exercise has some value to me, by helping to organise and preserve my thoughts and impressions of the talks that I attended. But I'm not sure how useful it is for a wider audience; does putting my musings online rather than in my notebook give other people a flavour of a conference? Does it highlight the talks that made waves, draw attention to the most cutting edge debates? </p> <p>Based on my experience at the Science Online conferences, my feeling is that there is a critical mass issue here. If you only have a couple of people at a conference on Twitter, then all you get is a few isolated thoughts which are hard to put into context. If you have 50 people tweeting, however, then the social, crowdsourcing strengths of Web 2.0 (or whatever version we're up to now) may start to become more apparent: observers both inside and outside the conference might start to get a sense of which sessions are proving to be interesting, and attendees who share interests and opinions may even have their attention drawn to each other, catalysing new discussions and collaborations. Likewise, if more people actually at the conference are aware of, and reading, what is being blogged about a particular session, then more might be motivated to contribute their own views and perspectives in the form of comments or other blog posts, which not only leads to the discussions that inevitably bubble around the main presentations being more integrated and coherent, but will also preserve them and make them available to a later, wider audience (I've wondered before if <a href=http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/08/surfing_the_google_wave.php>Google Wave might have an impact</a> in this area).</p> <p>Hopefully, you lot will provide your own perspectives on good approaches to blogging or tweeting or friendfeeding or social-application-of-the-month-ing conferences, both in terms of producing commentary and consuming it. What works for you? What is just meaningless noise? Perhaps you can also join me in observing the <a href=http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/blogNews.htm>blogging</a> and <a href=http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23GeoPort>tweeting</a> emerging from GSA over the next few days, and use that as fuel for further discussion.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/blogging_tweeting_and_conferen.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/pFSy91Zz3WE" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/pFSy91Zz3WE/blogging_tweeting_and_conferen.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/blogging_tweeting_and_conferen.php conferences Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:50:00 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/blogging_tweeting_and_conferen.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span>This week, we're helping push the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=24187&category=111&utm_source=BC08&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=GP&utm_campaign=24187">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth challenge</a>, by promising that Chris or I will write a post on a topic chosen by our readers for each project that is fully funded by the end of the week. </p> <p>To finish out the week with a rattle and boom, let's push ourselves and round up $584 for a project on the "charismatic megafauna" of geology: volcanoes and earthquakes. <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317445&challengeid=24187">Shake, Rattle, and Measure</a>, is for a sixth-grade class in Arkansas that wants a seismograph model, erupting volcano pack, and books and DVDs about volcanoes and earthquakes. As their teacher writes: <blockquote>The light of my life this year is my sixth grade class who appear to be so eager to learn just about anything. This is a high risk area that really could use any help you are willing to give. They are a very energetic group of young people who are going to do great things in life. These students have positive attitudes and with your help, I will try to help them reach their full potential.</p> <p>The only thing standing in the way of greatness is the lack of supplies. The minds and willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve are the least of worries. This class has many bright and potential leaders. They are very interested in plate tectonics and are looking forward to the hands-on activities that the lab will provide.</blockquote></p> <p><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317445&challengeid=24187"><img src="http://www.donorschoose.org/images/user/uploads/small/u403820_sm.jpg" align="right"></a>Please spare a few dollars for <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317445&challengeid=24187">"Shake Rattle and Measure"</a> or <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=321712&challengeid=24187">give to another Oregon classroom in need of rocks, earth science books, and a globe.</a> Don't like the project I've picked? Take a look at the rest of the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?page=2&max=10&id=24187&category=111">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth giving page</a> and find the one the best suits your fancy.</p> <p>Thanks to everyone for helping out. So far we have funded two of the projects I featured this week, and we are on our way to funding two more. On top of that, several other projects from the challenge were funded with donations from geoblog readers or members of the Earth Science Women's Network. Thanks to all of our readers for playing along this week and putting up with my incessant begging. When Earth Science week is officially over - we'll call it the start of formal sessions at GSA on Sunday morning - Kim and I will tally up the number of projects completed this week and let you know how to nominate topics for Chris and I to write about. I'll be at GSA for pretty much all of next week, so I promise that if I manage to post at all, there will be a much higher science to fundraising ratio. But before I shush up, I will remind you that the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=24187&category=111">geoblogger challenge</a> lasts all month, and the need for donations to fund science in the public schools <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/">never goes away</a>.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_3.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/G6G0c2PmBYU" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/G6G0c2PmBYU/earth_science_week_challenge_d_3.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_3.php by Anne Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:14:36 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_3.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span>This week, we're helping push the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=24187&category=111&utm_source=BC08&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=GP&utm_campaign=24187">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth challenge</a>, by promising that Chris or I will write a post on a topic chosen by our readers for each project that is fully funded by the end of the week. We already owe you at least<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php"> two</a> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d.php">posts</a>, and I've encouraged a bunch of meteorologists to show up the geologists by funding the remaining <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_1.php">weather projects</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=319823&challengeid=24187"><img src="http://www.donorschoose.org/images/user/uploads/small/u124580_sm.jpg" align="right"></a>Today is the day you've all been waiting for...the day I break down and actually give you a project about rocks. And for once, I don't think I need to tell you why you should fund this project. We all know that it is awfully darn hard to learn about geology without getting your hands on a rock or two. So how about getting some rocks for a first-grade teacher from Oregon to use with her class of urban, high poverty students? These students are mostly English language learners from over 20 countries. In describing the project "<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=319823&challengeid=24187">We love rocks!</a>", she writes: <blockquote>Our district requires a unit about rocks, but provides very little resources for the study of the unit. The students want to see and touch interesting rocks. These books, rock samples, and learning activity kits will help my students understand Earth science. Touching and interacting with the rocks we are learning about will enhance our learning. Your help will make it possible for my students in increase their academic language and understanding of Earth science. They will be so excited to have all of these wonderful books and rocks to learn from.</blockquote></p> <p><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=319823&challengeid=24187 ">"We love rocks!"</a> only needs $175 to be completed. If you happen to all get excited, you can get a head start on tomorrow's featured project <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317445&challengeid=24187">"Shake Rattle and Measure"</a> or <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=321712&challengeid=24187">give to another Oregon classroom in need of rocks, earth science books, and a globe.</a> Don't like the project I've picked? Take a look at the rest of the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?page=2&max=10&id=24187&category=111">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth giving page</a> and find the one the best suits your fancy.<br /> </p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_2.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/Ms2C1XnCHbE" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/Ms2C1XnCHbE/earth_science_week_challenge_d_2.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_2.php by Anne Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:47:03 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_2.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span>This week, we're helping push the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=24187&category=111&utm_source=BC08&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=GP&utm_campaign=24187">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth challenge</a>, by <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php">promising that Chris or I will write a post on a topic chosen by our readers for each project that is fully funded by the end of the week</a>. On Monday, we had two generous donors help ensure that Louisiana high school students got their water quality testing kits, but <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d.php">yesterday</a> no one had cash to spare for North Carolina high school students to <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287456&challengeid=24187">measure ocean salinity</a>. Maybe you were all too busy working on your posters and talks for the <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/">Geological Society of America meeting</a>?</p> <p>Today, let's take a break from the GSA preparations and scrape together <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320812&challengeid=24187">$234 for budding meteorologists</a>. Now before you all say, "I thought this was a geology blog. For what reason is she going on about weather?", let me reply that the rocks are coming, but weather is pretty important for all stripes of earth scientists. For a hydrologist like me, it drives the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw275056JtA">water cycle</a> that I study on and under the ground. For soil scientists, weather produces weathering, the process of breaking down rocks into <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=L0tg1dMqG8gC&dq=dirt+dave+montgomery&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=v6fVSpSTGpPOlAfl3cmcCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false">dirt</a>. Weather is what sets up moisture conditions to set off <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpGP1uoCHr4">debris flows</a> and lahars, and weather is what builds the glaciers that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLfM1FB58yA">buzzsaw</a> through mountain ranges. In other words, for you geologists out there, weather is what give you outcrops. Plus, the weather can determine whether you have a <a href="http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/geology/siccar.point.gif">glorious</a> or <a href="http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/ghayes/images/Dsc00386_First_view_Siccar_Point.jpg">miserable</a> field day.</p> <p>Now that we all agree that weather is pretty crucial, let's get on to the classroom project in need of funding. A seventh-grade teacher at a high-poverty Chicago magnet school wants to turn her class into "<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320812&challengeid=24187">Weather Scientists</a>": <blockquote>As a teacher and lover of Science, I want to instill my love for discovery and inquiry in my students. My students have shown an overwhelming interest in Science and I would like to continue the momentum gained and introduce them to the Science of Meteorology. Adding lab experiences will make this a fabulous and "real" learning opportunity for my students.</p> <p>If my project is funded, the Power of Science Weather Kit will permit me to turn my students into amateur meteorologists who build their own weather stations. They will be able to measure temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, and map reading. The inflatable weather kit will allow my "meteorologists" to use props as they deliver the daily weather. The Weather Tracker Kit will allow me to introduce my students to isobars, jet streams, wind chills, and chart temperatures for different cities using bar and line graphs. Using the Weather Activity Kit my students will be able to take a journey into the world of atmosphere and air pressure, sunshine, rain, storms, wind, and strange phenomena.</p> <p>This project is also important because minorities and women are under represented in the field of Science. By introducing my students to a fascinating field of Science, their interest in Science will grow and perhaps one day they will become meteorologists themselves. By participating in these realistic investigations, my students will develop a higher level of learning and retention of information than using theory only. </blockquote></p> <p><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320812&challengeid=24187"><img src="http://www.donorschoose.org/images/user/uploads/small/u24737_sm.jpg" align="left"></a>This teacher has spoken to my heart on so many levels: hands-on science with real-life applications with the goal of increasing diversity in the scientific workforce. This a complete win in my book, so <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320812&challengeid=24187">please help me make the project a reality</a>.</p> <p>But if you are just grinning and bearing it through these water and weather projects, then tomorrow is your <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=319823&challengeid=24187">rocks, rocks, rocks,</a>, and Friday's project is <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317445&challengeid=24187">going to rattle your windows</a>. Remember, while we'll be highlighting one project each day, all projects are part of the challenge and for each one completed by the end of the week, Chris or I will write a post on the topic of your choosing. Don't like one of the five I've picked, then take a look at the rest of the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?page=2&max=10&id=24187&category=111">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth giving page</a> and find the one the best suits your fancy.</p> <p>And if you are really bored or desperately avoiding working on your GSA presentation, check out all the fun links I embedded into the second paragraph.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_1.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/E8heNUd0zxs" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/E8heNUd0zxs/earth_science_week_challenge_d_1.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_1.php by Anne Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:02:00 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d_1.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span>As part of <a href="http://www.earthsciweek.org/">Earth Science Week</a> and as a diversion from the frantic lead-up to the <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/">Geological Society of America meeting</a>, we're helping push the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=24187&category=111&utm_source=BC08&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=GP&utm_campaign=24187">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth challenge.</a> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php">As I announced yesterday</a>, for every one of the five projects that I'll be highlighting this week that is fully funded by the end of the week, Chris or I will write a post on the earth science topic chosen by our readers. Yesterday, we had two generous donors help ensure that <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php">Louisiana high school students got their water quality testing kits</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287456&challengeid=24187"><img style="padding : 5px;" src="http://www.donorschoose.org/images/user/uploads/small/u15728_sm.jpg" align="left"></a>Sticking with the water theme for now, since after all Earth is 71% covered by salt water, let's turn our attention to an oceanography project that needs just $213 of donor money to complete. "<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287456&challengeid=24187">How Salty is the Sea?</a>", is from a high poverty high school along the North Carolina coast. This project is a fantastic deal for donors, because the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is doubling our donations. The total cost for 5 refractometers and associated necessary charges is $602, but between the foundation and previous donations, we only need to raise the<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287456&challengeid=24187"> last $213</a>. The enthusiastic teacher, pictured at left, writes: <blockquote>We live in an area that is undergoing rapid change and development, all of which is not necessarily viable and good. One of the environmental tipping points of our area might just be the decline of the quality of the water that surrounds our community. As a teacher, I would like to facilitate the study of the water salinity that surrounds us, testing estuarine water, the sound and the ocean. I would like to provide my marine Science and/or Environmental Science students with refractometers that are easy to use but accurate. I would like for my students to test the salinity of the water at different sites around our school campus and community and at different times of the year. With the refractometers, we should be able to test the waters, then we can use the data to compare influences in our outcomes: Will weather be a factor? Will temperature affect salinity? Does depth affect the sample? How are organisms affected by salinity rates? Once all the data is collected, my students can research our findings and make our data analysis charts. </blockquote></p> <p>The concept of measuring salinity in sea water might strike some as overly simple, but as someone who teaches first year university students a course with a section on the ocean, I can tell you first-hand that the concept of salinity varying in space and time is completely new to most of my students. When I show a map like the one below and ask them to explain it, most struggle mightily.<br /> <img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/upload/2009/10/MeanSSSalin90-94POP.jpg" width="500" height="363" alt="MeanSSSalin90-94POP from Penn State"/><br /> <em>Map of mean sea surface salinity from a <a href="https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth540/content/c3_p4.html">web page at Penn State</a>. Can you explain the pattern?</em></p> <p>If they knew about things like the brine lake described in the David Attenborough video below, they'd be even more astonished.<br /> <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KzUEr7uMnXU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KzUEr7uMnXU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></p> <p><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287456&challengeid=24187"><br /> Give these North Carolina high school students the chance to unlock some of the mysteries of the ocean right outside their school.</a> They'll look positively brilliant compared to their future college classmates. But if you're not a sea dog, look for tomorrow's <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320812&challengeid=24187">meteorology project</a>. Thursday's the day for <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=319823&challengeid=24187">rocks and more rocks</a>, and Friday is <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317445&challengeid=24187">going off with a boom</a>. Remember, while we'll be highlighting one project each day, all projects are part of the challenge and for each one completed by the end of the week, Chris or I will write a post on the topic of your choosing. Don't like one of the five I've picked, then take a look at the rest of the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?page=2&max=10&id=24187&category=111">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth giving page</a> and find the one the best suits your fancy.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/8D6jj1gDrvY" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/8D6jj1gDrvY/earth_science_week_challenge_d.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d.php science education Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:02:17 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_challenge_d.php <p><span style="float: left; padding: 5px;"><img src="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/rgallery/anneicon.jpg" width="49" height="50" alt="A post by Anne Jefferson"/></span>Here in the US, we're celebrating <a href="http://www.earthsciweek.org/">Earth Science Week</a> and the lead-up to the <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/">Geological Society of America meeting</a>. What better time to inspire the next generation of earth scientists and earth science aficionados by helping make sure that good, hands-on earth science education reaches all of America's school children, regardless of socio-economic standing?</p> <p>I've picked a five great projects from the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=24187&category=111&utm_source=BC08&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=GP&utm_campaign=24187">Geobloggers DonorsChoose challenge</a> that represent a spread of Earth Science disciplines, a diversity of student ages and geographies, and the many wonderful ways that teachers are trying to make Earth Science relevant to their students' lives. In honour of Earth Science week, I'm challenging you to help me fully fund one of these projects each day this week. It's an ambitious goal, but one I think that we can achieve if we work together, twist the arms of our friends and colleagues, and spread the world through blogs, twitter, facebook, etc. </p> <p>In reward for your generous donations, for each project that we fund by the end of the week, the readers of Highly Allochthonous can request a post topic for Chris or I to write. Want to know more about paleomagnetic reversals in the Proterozoic? Or vanishing groundwater in India? Luscious forests above the Arctic Circle or the glaciers of ancient Australia? Here's your chance to set us to the homework of answering the earth science question that you've been pondering.</p> <p>It is Monday, so we'll start out easy, roll up our sleeves, and contribute $108 to make water quality test kits available to high school students in Louisiana, through a project called "<a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=313587&challengeid=24187">Healthy Water?</a>." The teacher writes a plaintive plea for help, describing a classroom barren of supplies and students who've gotten to 11th grade without ever getting to do a lab: <blockquote>I want to capture and rope back in the lost scientist in the class of 2011. I teach environmental science for eleventh graders. It is a mixed class of special education students and middle to low achieving students that are not expected to attend college. My school is rural, and a high-need community. Most parents have only a high school education and do not expect to send their children to college. The students tend to accept this course of life without challenge. However, I would like to inspire the students to see there are exciting things they can do and pursue in science and around them. I also would like them to leave class with an awareness of their environment around them and how to protect it.</p> <p>These students have not had much hands on science due to lack of funds in school. Most will have their very first lab experience this year. They do not understand many scientific terms because they have not had any visual or tactile experience. Also, they do not see the need to become involved in it because they do not know how it effects their life.</p> <p>I need the six <a href="http://www.carolina.com/product/water+quality+test+kit.do?keyword=water+quality+test+kit&sortby=bestMatches">water quality test kits</a> to give them hands-on experience testing, recording, and analyzing the water they live with. This helps them to see the different properties. They learn how it is tested. They learn what determines water to be safe and clean. Students will know first hand local water quality. It teaches them value and how should they treat it and protect it. It teaches them that data is important. Finally if shows them how to do a real scientific investigation. </blockquote></p> <p><a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=313587&challengeid=24187"><img src="http://www.donorschoose.org/images/user/uploads/small/u399712_sm.jpg" align="left"></a>I've been in high school environmental science classrooms like the one the teacher describes. If you give the students something to do and data to collect, they'll do an enthusiastic job of it, just because they are so glad to be away from the sad norm of textbook lessons. Often these students are enrolled in environmental science, because they have to fulfill a last science credit hour and they've been tracked into a class that's not part of the traditional college prep curriculum. That's why it's so important that we give these students a chance to do hands-on science and see how it connects to their lives - because this is the last science class most of them will ever take. This is our last chance to get them engaged with the physical and ecological world around them. <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=313587&challengeid=24187">Please help us get water test kits for the students in Louisiana.</a></p> <p>If water test kits aren't your thing, look for tomorrow's <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287456&challengeid=24187">oceanography project</a>, or Wednesday's <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320812&challengeid=24187">meteorology project</a>. Thursday's finally the day for <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=319823&challengeid=24187">rocks and more rocks</a>, and Friday is <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317445&challengeid=24187">going off with a boom</a>. Remember, while we'll be highlighting one project each day, all projects are part of the challenge and for each one completed by the end of the week, Chris or I will write a post on the topic of your choosing. Don't like one of the five I've picked, then take a look at the rest of the <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?page=2&max=10&id=24187&category=111">Geobloggers Giving Kids the Earth giving page</a> and find the one the best suits your fancy.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~4/bhzbxGdYcOk" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HighlyAllochthonous/~3/bhzbxGdYcOk/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php by Anne Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:01:20 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/2009/10/earth_science_week_time_give_k.php