...Or Something

Big changes for "...Or Something"

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:39:00 +0000

THIS BLOG IS NOW CALLED CLASTIC DETRITUS AND HAS MOVED TO: http://clasticdetritus.com/

I have done it ... I made the big switch from Blogger (blogspot) to WordPress.

I took this opportunity to also rename my blog. I pondered a long time if a "rebranding" was a good idea or not. I've focused much of my blogging on Earth science, and sedimentary geology in particular, over the course of the life of ...Or Something. That name doesn't really represent what this blog is really about (plus, then I get to choose a geeky name).

So, the new name is .... drum roll ... Clastic Detritus

The new URL is: http://clasticdetritus.com/
The new feed is: http://clasticdetritus.com/feed

Hopefully this won't cause too many problems. I know some of you receive my posts via feed aggregators (e.g., GoogleReader) so you will have to update that (sorry). I guess you'll have to update your blogroll lists as well (sorry sorry).

Why the switch to WordPress?

Wordpress.com allows you to use your own domain but still host it through them. Although I had to purchase the domain ($15/yr), I feel that having my own is better in the long run.
I've never been fond of how commenting is done in Blogger. It is often clunky and inefficient.
I like the idea of having static pages associated with the blog (the tabs on the bottom of the header image).
I like the look and feel of WordPress much better. When it comes to aesthetics everyone has their own preferences.
The navigation for managing the posts, pages, and comments is also better (in my view).

I also felt the timing of changing the name would be better combined with the blogging software switch. The migration was relatively painless. All the posts and comments made it over, although I haven't gone through everything yet. I will write a post about that soon.

The new URL is: http://clasticdetritus.com/
The new feed is: http://clasticdetritus.com/feed

This whole switch-over is happening at the same time as The Accretionary Wedge gets under way but I don't foresee any problems.

A call for posts for the inaugural edition of The Accretionary Wedge: Why do you study geology?

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:46:00 +0000

As of 8/28/07: ...Or Something is now called CLASTIC DETRITUS and has moved to: http://clasticdetritus.com/

You can find this post exactly as it is below here. Kindly put any comments there, but I will be checking both to make sure nothing is missed. Thanks!

This move does not affect The Accretionary Wedge geology carnival...it will simply be hosted at my new blog (which is pretty much the same as this blog). Sorry for any confusion or hassles!

--------------------------

If you are first hearing about the geology blog carnival, read this post and associated comments first.

We are organizing a geology blog carnival called The Accretionary Wedge.
What is it and how does it work?

write a post related to the chosen theme
one blogger will collect the posts and then distribute/announce
there will be a different host each edition (me for this one)
looks like about once a month (more-or-less) is a good frequency

Okay, so for the inaugural edition of The Accretionary Wedge we have come to a consensus that it would be a good idea to introduce ourselves to each other and the blogosphere at large by writing about why you study geology in the first place. What aspect of Earth/planetary science fascinates you the most? How or when did you decide this was the path for you? And so on.

This topic is purposefully wide open. It can be technical, it can be funny, it can be serious. As The Wedge evolves we will come up with other more focused topics. For this first one, it would be nice to just see the breadth of expertise and personalities the geoblogosphere has to offer.

Please e-mail me links to your post by 6pm (Pacific time) this Sunday (9/2). I will then put them together and release later that evening (with short blurbs introducing each submission). Please put the word "wedge" somewhere in the subject of your e-mail so I can filter it. My e-mail is in the "About Me" box on the sidebar.

If this timing is too soon, we can move it (although I will be out of town and away from computer from Wed 9/5 to Mon 9/10). If I don't hear anything in the comments below, I'll assume this works for everyone.

Please pass this announcement on to other geology bloggers!

Finally, although it's not necessary a simple logo for the carnival would be cool. We can discuss that in the comments below.

An e-mail I hope to get more often

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:49:00 +0000

In the midst of trying to write a manuscript, dealing with data glitches, and putting together the first edition of The Accretionary Wedge, I received an e-mail from the chair for a session at the upcoming American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting in December.

I sent him a note, asking about the session, whether it was an oral or poster session, and so on.
And then I get this note back:

I have added you as an invited author.
Cheers,

Yay!
One less thing to worry about....although I do still have to actually submit something (deadline is Sept. 6th, by the way).

Calling all geology bloggers!!

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:10:00 +0000

Okay, I think we are getting somewhere now with getting a geology blog carnival going.

If you have a geology-rich blog and don't know what I'm referring to, read this post and associated comments from last week first.

Coturnix from A Blog Around The Clock was kind enough to chime in and provide me a link to a post from last year outlining what a blog carnival is and what it should be (take a look). This is helpful...as the comments from last week revealed, many of us geo-bloggers are aware of carnivals but not quite sure what they are.

What is a blog carnival?

A blog carnival is:
- well-defined
- well-archived
- regular
- rotating
- linkfest

So far, we have agreed that the (still) unnamed geology carnival will be rotating (hosted on a different blog each issue), regular (about once a month, more-or-less), and, of course, providing the links to the posts.

We are still working on the 'well-defined' part of this equation. What should it be about? This is a tough question. Here's what I gathered from the comments in the original post last week:

we don't want to focus on a single discipline within earth sciences (e.g., seismology, geochronology, sedimentology, etc.); the best aspect of a blogging community is the breadth
but...we don't want to be completely unfocused either

A couple of ways to strike the perfect balance (that we thought of so far) are to have editions of the carnival focus on:

a geographic region -- in this way, bloggers can share their expertise and knowledge but we will have a 'theme' within which the (hopefully) numerous posts will fit

similarly...focus on a specific geologic time (e.g., Cretaceous, Archean, Holocene, etc.)

share stories and photos about field work or field trips -- many of us have chosen the path of geology as our scientific discipline because of field experiences

At this point, it seems there is a decent consensus to have our first edition of _________ to be about a geographic region. I think this is a great idea. I was also thinking that since plate tectonics is what ties everything together....it is our closest thing to a 'grand unifying theory'... that for our first edition we should choose a tectonic plate to blog about (maybe one of the bigger ones to start).

In this way, we can choose a region but, at the same time, have a geological foundation from which the individual posts can start.

Any thoughts?
Does a 'plate' theme work for everybody? The host of each edition could be the one that gets to choose the plate (everybody has their favorite).

If everybody is on board with this, then I can go ahead and put together the first 'call for posts'. But, please don't hesitate to comment on potential shortcomings of this approach....I really want this to be a community decision.

One final, but very important issue: We need a name and a logo!!
I don't know....maybe "Plates and Periods" .... or something.
Let the brainstorming begin.

image of plates from here

Wilco at The Greek

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:02:00 +0000

"You were right about the stars
Each one is a setting sun"

That is one of my favorite lines from Jeff Tweedy, the creative foundation for the band Wilco. We went across the Bay last night to see them at the beautiful Greek Theater on the Berkeley campus. The weather was perfect and although we got there a little later than we wanted, we didn't miss any of Wilco's set and got pretty good seats.

They played a lot of tunes from their newest album, Sky Blue Sky, which has seen a lot of play on my iPod in the last month or so. It's a great record. Some of the songs are simple, even light, acoustic guitar melodies while some are more raucous rock songs. A few have a very Lennon/Beatles quality to them, especially "Hate it Here".

I am a huge fan of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)...I think that'll always be their best, it is their Sgt. Peppers in my eyes. But this newest album might be my second favorite. The show last night was fantastic....a good mix of new and old. Jeff Tweedy is a great performer and the rest of the band members are all excellent musicians. I'm no Wilco historian but I think Tweedy and the bassist John Stirratt are the only members left from the original line-up back in the mid '90s. Guitarist Nels Cline is a maniac!

It was a beautiful night and a great time. If Wilco comes to your town I highly recommend you shell out the cash to see them.

photo of Wilco from here
photo of Jeff Tweedy from here

Friday Field Foto #27: Cretaceous marine shale

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:57:00 +0000

I was browsing my collection of photographs this morning looking for a Friday Field Foto and, as happens when you start looking at old photos, I was reminded of when we were doing this field work. Today's photo is from the Cretaceous of central Utah (the Book Cliffs). When I was working on my master's in Colorado we took many field trips in the western Colorado and east-central Utah. I've shown some photos from the Book Cliffs before (here, here, and here).

What's obvious in the photo is the cliff-forming sandstone unit capping the mesa. These strata represent the movement of the ancient shoreline through the area. The underlying thick shale sequence (the drab, slope-forming gray 'rocks') are offshore marine deposits. If you look closely (click on the image to get a better view*), you'll notice a darker gray path heading up the gray slope to the base of the sandstone cliff. Me and another guy measured a stratigraphic section and took some samples up that hill. We were out here helping out another student and this was supplemental data for him....he was trying to look at the nature of the marine shale over a thick sequence.

This falls into the category of "hey, whatever happened to that data?"

*I'm pretty unhappy with the quality of embedded images in Blogger. One shouldn't have to click on an image to get a better view. Photos on other blogs, WordPress for example, tend to look much crisper. Maybe i'm just being anal. If anyone has any positive or negative comments about WordPress and/or migrating a Blogger blog to WordPress, please comment below.

Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:20:00 +0000

Head over to Union of Concerned Scientists to see all the finalists for this contest. They are all pretty good...but this one is my favorite.

The personification of nature: a preface

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:22:00 +0000

With a post title like that, you might be expecting a long and well-written essay....well, as much as I'd like to do that right now, I have to have will power and keep working on "real" work (some deadlines are approaching fast and furious).

Instead, this post will be a short rant (and preface to a longer, more organized essay) about my dislike for these kinds of phrases:

"Mother Nature has been really cruel to our state the last four or five days."

This is a statement from Wisconsin governor about recent floods and the effect they've had on the people of that state. I really think that this personification of natural events should stop. We all do it, and I'm not excluding myself...I can think of a few instances where I've made similar remarks. Maybe you're thinking that this isn't such a big deal, that it's merely a colloquialism we use and there is no harm. Perhaps. But, I would argue that the practice of demonizing (and applauding) natural events or systems is unwise and, in the long run, a detriment to our advancement as a species.

But...I need to cut myself off before I blow off the work I'm supposed to be doing right now. If I start writing down my reasons for thinking this, then next thing I know, two hours will have elapsed! Hopefully I can come back to this topic very soon.

Paper out in Geology

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:46:00 +0000

THIS POST CAN BE FOUND AT NEW BLOG, CALLED CLASTIC DETRITUS, HERE

A paper i'm a co-author on is in the September edition of Geology. I'm swamped right now and don't have time to write a coherent post about it....but I will soon.

In the meantime, check it out (if you have access, of course):

Highstand fans in the California borderland: The overlooked deep-water depositional systems
Jacob A. Covault, William R. Normark, Brian W. Romans, and Stephan A. Graham

Ideas for a geology blog carnival: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 04:00:00 +0000

UPDATE (8/25/07): Please see updated post for the latest

To all those with earth science-rich blogs,

The success of science blog carnivals such as The Boneyard (paleontology/paleobiology), Tangled Bank (variety of biology-related topics including ecology, evolution, and genetics), and Carnival of the Blue (ocean sciences) makes me yearn for a geology-focused carnival.

So....I'm hoping that this post can serve as a place to bounce ideas around and get the first edition of this carnival up and running. For example, should we have a 'theme'? Do we want it to focus on a particular topic? Or do we want to highlight the breadth? Does anyone have a good idea for a name? A logo? Do we want a separate blog site, or should we just take turns hosting it?

Let the ideas flow.....hopefully we can reach some consensus and get the inaugural edition, which I can host here, up soon.

Oh. My. God.

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:27:00 +0000

From the annals of American idiocy, I bring you the results of the latest World Net Daily poll. Please use as fodder for humor and/or evidence for the continued demise of America's grasp and appreciation of science.

The readers of WND are a special group. If you combine the first two answers, the vast majority (nearly 80%) truly believe this is all a hoax. Not that we are wrong about the warming or the attribution, but that it is all made up to take over the world (i.e., a globalist power agenda). I am willing to have discussions with people about the science (although i'm not a climate scientist, I try and keep up). But....I doubt I could even have that discussion with these people. I really hope this is another parody site that duped me into thinking it was real.

Technology and evolution

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 02:33:00 +0000

Before going on with this post, please add your ideas for a geology blog carnival.

I've talked about the TED conference talks before. Last time I showed a video of techno-prophet Ray Kurzweil talking about when technology and biology merge. This talk, by Kevin Kelly, discusses the topic of technology and what it means a little differently. Instead of predictions, Kelly discusses what technology is and how it is intermingled with the human species itself.

For example, he talks about how life, in general, develops "hacks" to get through life, or how to "do" life better. In this context, evolution is technology. This is a fascinating way to talk about technology. We are too ensconced in a consumer-centric perspective of regarding technology as a product...something to invent, something to build, something to sell, and something to purchase and utilize. Kevin Kelly discusses a framework where our technological advancement is part of our evolution. As we advance further into biotechnology, this should become even more apparent.

The talk is about 20 minutes....take a break from working and watch it.

This sounds way cooler

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:56:00 +0000

I have found a new title for what I do. I am now a:

Paleomorphodynamicist

The field of morphodynamics is defined as the study of the evolution of landscapes and seascapes in response to the erosion and deposition of sediment. As a geologist, I am largely concerned with the record of ancient sedimentary systems, hence the paleo prefix. Sweet!

I gotta go order some new business cards.

Friday Field Foto #26: Birds on a corral fence

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:46:00 +0000

I snapped this photo of some ibis this past March after a long horse ride out of the woods. Happy Friday!

The joy of research

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:14:00 +0000

Not the e-mail I wanted to see from my collaborator this morning:

The calibrated ages for _____ show a major glitch re your attempts to
look at _____.

Awesome.

From these results, I conclude...

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:12:00 +0000

...I need more data.

But, here are the poll results anyway.
I asked the readers what title describes them best. I had a feeling most people reading this blog were involved in science or academics in one way or another.

The students win big time. That is kind of what I expected, which is really cool to see. It's also nice to see some faculty coming by as well.

I'm not too surprised with the number of industry scientists...there are a lot of them out there. The world needs scientists, so there they are....reading blogs and taking dorky polls instead of working. Plus, I have some experience and affiliation myself with industry.

I guess the big question is who are all the 'none of the aboves'? Perhaps non-professional scientists -- that is, people who love science but don't necessarily do it as their livelihood? Maybe some journalism or policy types? Who knows....maybe just passers-by.

Thanks for participating.

Oh yeah, one more thing...you may have noticed how I put it in percentages to obscure the low number of samples (n=52, by the way). You should be impressed I did any quantitative analysis...I am a geologist after all.

Where on (Google)Earth #40?

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:31:00 +0000

Just so y'all know, I did not win Wo(G)E #39....sagan did. But, since sagan does not have a blog (but maybe soon?), Kent proposed that the first person to comment could take the next one. And then I strolled on by...right place, right time. So Ron tallied sagan for the win on #39.

So, here we go. Wo(G)E #40 is below. The only clue i'm gonna give is that i've been thinking a lot about this river in recent weeks. Click on image for a higher resolution. This is an oblique view and note north arrow.

Good luck!

p.s. to my new readers out there, the Where on (Google)Earth? series started on this blog several months ago, but has now been serialized such that the winner takes the next installment. Simply put the coordinates in the comments below to play....we tend to pick geological features, so bonus if you can say anything about it.

Top shelf seismometer

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:05:00 +0000

The USGS has the 'Did You Feel It?' website for generating shake maps for earthquakes felt by anybody. Late last night, I felt the modest 3.2 quake in Oakland.

I may have been the only one in San Francisco to feel it (they don't show locations on the map under a certain number of entries, apparently). Why did I feel it and nobody else in SF? Well, it was after midnight, and it was rather late (after midnight). And, it wasn't a very strong earthquake either.

But, another reason is the bookshelf-liquor bottle seismometer we have in our apartment. On the top shelf of said bookshelf we keep the handful of bottles of liquor we have. When the bus goes by our apartment, they rattle ever so slightly. Something about the slightly warped hardwood floor in this 1940s building makes this set-up a very sensitive recorder of any motion. Last night as I was working late, the bottles rattled, but a lot slower than when the bus goes by. Earthquake! The fact that no bus was going by at that moment was another clue.

Rapid burial

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:44:00 +0000

Like the margin of a foreland basin with high sediment supply, some recent posts by other bloggers out there have been buried rather quickly. I'd like to exhume just a few of them.

Discussing how to develop a seminar for writing and understanding summaries of scientific research over at All of My Faults Are Stress Related

The ideal grant proposal law at Southern Exposure

Follow the link through Sabine's Garden for the Uncyclopedic definition of geologist. Absolutely hilarious.

The Where on (Google)Earth? series is not dead! Wo(G)E #39 is over at T-Rex eats Fish.

A fantastic essay by Laelaps titled Homo sapiens: The Evolution of What We Think About Who We Are. It is not often bloggers have the time to write such a comprehensive and thoughtful essay. Even if you can't get through it in one sitting, bookmark it and come back to it from time to time.

p.s. has anyone else noticed that the quality of images on Blogger seems to be getting crappier and crappier?

It's all about water

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:33:00 +0000

Okay...as much fun as arguing with the anti-science types is, let's move on.

ScienceDaily has an intriguing little article today called Keeping the Earth's Plates Oiled. I haven't had time to dive into it, but I'll put a few blurbs from it here.

Björn Winker, a mineralogist at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, believes that the key to the asthenosphere is water. "We have to have water in the asthenosphere to get it plastically deforming," he explains. This water is no longer in its liquid state, but is bound to oxygen in crystal structures to form hydroxyl (OH-) groups instead.

Winkler, and another researcher Refson's study attempts to address the nature of the water through experimentation.

Unfortunately we can't get samples from the asthenosphere ... Winkler finds samples of these candidate minerals on the Earth's surface and...subjects them to the pressures and temperatures estimated for the asthenosphere.

What they found was that...

...clinochlore was found to be good at holding onto water, but showed some interesting changes in its structure at around 8GPa. "The nature of the hydrogen bonds start to change and the layers within the structure slide," explains Refson.

The article then moves on to a separate, but related study.

These kind of results have been invaluable for Hans Keppler, a geologist at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. He has been trying to work out why the asthenosphere exists. Previous theories have suggested that this 'wet' and slippery layer exists because minerals leave their water behind them when they melt and turn into magma. "This explains why the asthenosphere appears beneath oceans, but it doesn't explain why we have an asthenosphere beneath the continents," says Keppler. Lava continually bubbles up at mid-ocean ridges, but continental plates don't have an equivalent spring of constant magma. It also fails to explain why there is a lower boundary to the asthenosphere.

What Keppler found was that...

...water solubility in olivine continuously increases with temperature and pressure, whereas in aluminium-saturated enstatite the solubility reaches a distinct minimum at asthenosphere temperatures and pressures. "It means that the mantle minerals cannot contain all the water and the excess water forms a hydrous silicate melt"

I'm not a mineralogist/petrologist by training, so I honestly can't comment on the details of these studies (I welcome comments from my geoblogger colleagues). But, reading it made me take a step back and think about the question posed at the beginning of the article regarding why the plate tectonics operating on Earth seems so unique. Water is key to subduction, and subduction seems to be what is unique. Other planetary bodies have different forms of volcanism, but not subduction (as far as we know).

These ideas are nothing new (see reference below, for example), but it should be very interesting as we explore other planets in the future. We will be able to put Earth's plate tectonics into a broader context, which will certainly help us understand it better.

Like I said, I'm used to studying modern and ancient Earth surface processes, so I encourage any comments about other papers or ideas out there.

Ragenauer-Lieb, K., Yuen, D. and Branlund, J., The initiation of subduction: criticalilty by addition of water? Science, B. 294, p. 578-580, (October 2001)

image above from here

A graph is worth 1,000 words

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:39:00 +0000

This weekend has been kind of fun. First, the anti-evolution blogs jumped all over the hominid study that was in Nature. And, then when they were challenged by scientists to clarify why they thought this was a 'hit' against evolution....well, they couldn't. Some mostly good discussions ensued from there of a more philosophical bent (which I enjoy). See more coverage and links here, here, and here.

And, in a strikingly similar fashion, the global-warming-is-a-hoax crowd* has been having an orgy over the announcement of an error in temperature data from the NASA GISS lab. All of the sudden, the basis for global warming has been completely shattered! I'm not gonna go into the details here; you can get more information here and here (and updated more here). And just for kicks, check out the numskulls on this blog....yikes.

What I do want to point out is that Tamino over at Open Mind has yet again boiled all the hub-bub down to its essence (by the way, Open Mind one of the best climate science blogs out there). Please follow that comment thread if you want to get into the nitty gritty.

Here, he plots the temperature data before the correction (in red squares) with the now corrected data (open diamonds).

Alrighty then.

------------------------------

UPDATE: This is just too good to not mention. I'm not sure why I did it....maybe I was bored, but I went onto the blog I mention above (the numskulls) and got into some back-and-forth commenting. I was being civil (at least compared to the tone of the rest of the commenters), and I simply pointed them to Tamino's graph and asked them why the error and its correction is proof that global warming theory is all of the sudden invalid. I got a response that didn't address the data or my question; it was a ranting non sequitur (and I even tried to pre-emptively discourage non sequiturs to focus the discussion). Then I was called a "leftist". Good argument. And then, finally, the blog owner removed my comments. If you go down to the comments numbered in the mid 80s or so, you'll see my comments clipped with a snarky response, but the actual full comment was removed. But, I just hit refresh and some other comments were further manipulated....so, who knows.

People can do whatever the hell they want on their blogs. But, if you say this...

Comments are welcome, even those that contradict the main post. However, comments may be deleted for profanity, racism, threats, harassment, spam, or if they are deemed inappropriate.

...and then delete them anyway, you're completely misrepresenting yourself. I guess my comments were deemed "inappropriate" because they challenged their narrow-minded view. Plus, i'm sure the blog owner didn't want that pesky link to a graph for his followers to see....they might be educated and leave his blog. Go on over to this post at Deltoid to see "The Ace" in action (starting around comment #110 or so)....very entertaining!

--------------------------
*I've said it before, and i'll say it again. The mixture of the evidence for warming, attribution, and policy in this global discussion is unfortunate. I do think that the real debate to be having now is what should we do and how should we do it (i.e., policy). But, the denialists continue to muddle that serious debate with nonsense about the scientific basis, claims of conspiracy, or simply their hatred for Al Gore. When having discussions with people I always try and "tag" each aspect into (1) data; the measurements, (2) attribution; the cause, and (3) policy; what to do about it. I found this clears up the mud significantly in serious discussions and causes nonsensical and emotional partisan arguments to be revealed rather quickly.

So What

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:52:00 +0000

It's been too long since I had a post about music. If you like jazz, you'll love this rendition of trumpeter Miles Davis' "So What" featuring John Coltrane on saxophone from 1958.

I especially like how these cats hang around in the background just chillin' during Coltrane's solo. Good stuff.

Friday Field Foto #25: Ancient organic detritus

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:59:00 +0000

Many modern river delta environments are chock full of organic matter (think Louisiana swamp). Much of it is plant and other woody material. In some cases, this material is buried and remnants or evidence of it are preserved when the sediment lithifies.

The photos above show the bedding plane view (looking down on top of the surface of sedimentary layer) of a deposit rich with organic detritus (i.e., pieces of stuff). A lot of it is preserved woody fragments. Also note the dark black flecks...this material is mostly carbonaceous shale, which is kind of like coal. Click on these to see the high-res versions.

The organic detritus is abundant in thin (~1 cm) layers. The photo below is a cross-sectional view where you can see the layering of the sedimentary rock. The darkest layers (the pencil is pointing to one) are dark in color because they are full of this organic detritus and coaly bits.

But, wait, these are turbidites? It says so in the post label. How can you have all this terrestrial organic matter on the deep sea floor? In this case, this turbidite system is being fed by a delta. In the upper photographs, notice how broken up all the organic matter is. It has been ripped up and flushed off the delta environment and into the deep sea, where it was likely buried rather quickly. We find abundant organic detritus on the very tops of turbidite beds....this material is relatively light compared to the medium-grained sand and, therefore, is deposited after the sand as the flow slows down (ending up on top).

The organic detritus-rich nature is, in fact, one of many lines of evidence telling us that these Cretaceous strata are delta-fed turbidite deposits.

On the nonlinearity of drafting a manuscript

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:15:00 +0000

Do you write papers in a neat, orderly fashion? Kind of like they taught you back in grade school -- with the outline first, and then you go write each section and subsections?

I sure as hell don't.

I've been writing up another big chunk of my dissertation work lately (you'll notice my posting frequency has increased too....hmmm). I find it hard to stay in one section of the paper for more than 10-15 minutes. While working on the Introduction, I think of something I need to discuss in the....well, in the Discussion, so I type a few reminder phrases as a place marker. As I scroll back up to the Introduction I remember that I forgot to look up the number that goes where the highlighted red "X" is. That's right, I need to address that aspect in the Introduction so when I reveal my data later it all fits together nicely....yes, that'll be awesome! But, oh crap....now i'm opening a spreadsheet. Oh crap....I found a seemingly small, but cascading error in one of the tables. Did I really do that wrong? That was stupid. How bad is it?

Instead of dealing with it right away, I decide to go back to the text and finish my train of thought. What train of thought?

cartoon above from here

Nanobots controlling your consciousness

noreply@blogger.com (BrianR) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:32:00 +0000

If you haven't been to the TED website yet...do it. TED is an annual conference held in Monterey, CA designed to share ideas. Speakers included scientists, economists, sociologists, artists, and many others. Their website hosts the videos for these ~20-minute talks from meetings over the last five years or so.

The "T" in TED is for technology.
This talk is by Ray Kurzweil, who is best described as a futurist. His ideas about the acceleration of technology are controversial but incredibly interesting. Even if what he talks about doesn't actually happen, I think having the conversation in the first place is valuable.

Here's the description blurb from the TED website:

Prolific inventor and outrageous visionary Ray Kurzweil explains in abundant, grounded detail why -- by the 2020s -- we will have reverse-engineered the human brain, and nanobots will be operating your consciousness. Kurzweil draws on years of research to show the speed at which technology is evolving, and projects forward into an almost unthinkable future to outline the ways we'll use technology to augment our own capabilities, forever blurring the lines between human and machine.

I've embedded the video below...or click here to watch it on TED site.

I've read Kurzweil's latest book, called The Singularity is Near, which I mean to write a review of at some point. This talk is a very condensed version of the ideas he puts forth in his book.