Geobulletin alpha

My DEFENCE! Follow live tweets with #129I @ 2:30pm ET 

My PhD defence is this week (Wednesday) at 2:30pm ET. I am feeling pretty good about the whole thing but at the same time nervous. I just don’t know exactly what to expect. I have a sort of idea of what the questions might cover and where my assumptions or conclusions might be challenged. However, the uncertainty of all this is what is making me nervous. I have gotten lots of good advice from people such as “you are the real expert on the material” and “be confident and [...]

No love for Ichthyodectes? 

It seems like nearly every year a new book, film, or television program comes out featuring the long-dead seaway that covered most of the central part of North America back in the late Cretaceous. Invariably they have cameos featuring Xiphactinus, Cretoxyrhina, Protosphyraena, and even the "bait fish" Gillicus and Enchodus. They have mosasaurs, pterosaurs and even sea turtles. If you didn't follow the science closely, you'd understandably figure that's about all that lived in that shallow [...]

Where To Get Some Good Science on The Nepal Quake 

I thought I would put together a few links to some good early science reporting on the Nepal Quake. First up is Dave Petley’s Landslide Blog here on the AGU Blogosphere. Dave has some good basic facts on the quake. The Washington Post has a good piece that quotes Geologist Roger Bilham who is an expert on quakes in this region, and he says that this was a severe quake

Oklahoma Kept Silent About Fracking To Protect Industry 

While it has long been known that 'fracking' byproducts and waste water well injections can and do cause earthquakes, it seems that in Oklahoma, that fact was suppressed to protect the oil industry. According to an article on Rawstory, University of Oklahoma President David Boren pressured subordinates to either downplay or remain silent on the issue after being pressured by oil executives.Waste water well injections pump millions of gallons of chemical-laden liquid into 'waste water [...]

Making Dramas: The Secret Workings of Science 

From: Earth Dramas: Ancient Mysteries and Modern Controversies (2014), by Philip A. AllenThe Frontispiece and Chapter 1 of Earth Dramas is reproduced below. For more information and purchase of Kindle and print versions, go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JQAL0X6_____________________________________________________________________The painter's portrait and the physicist's explanation are both rooted in reality, but they have been changed by the painter or the physicist into something more [...]

A more detailed look at The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi 

Sorry to anyone waiting for this more in depth review. I've had a really bad 1.5 weeks at work.Without further delay, I give you my more elongated review of The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi.Summary:A fantastic popular Palaeoart volume, that delivers huge amounts of top notch palaeoart. Fantastic for especially young up and coming palaeo nuts, as a huge amount of modern palaeo findings and thinking are communicated through pictures (with supplementary text if needed). Might be [...]

Robot Geologist on Mars Makes History 

One small scoop full of powdered rock, one giant step forward for exogeology. Lovers of the good science of rock-breaking will find their breath catching at this image: That’s the first, folks. The first time we’ve ever drilled in to a rock on another planet. We’re doing geology with a robot on another world. Us. [...]

Campi Flegrei Inflating Again 

The massive Campi Flegrei caldera, one of a few large and active caldera systems in the world, seems to be inflating at an accelerated rate, and new data suggests that it is also heating up. Volcano-discovery.com reports that the area has been uplifted by an astonishing 8cm during their study period of July-August of 2012, until now, and that the uplift seems to be holding steady. Even more disconcerting is that gas emissions and fumerole temperatures are also on the rise. [...]

Busy Wooster geology labs this summer 

WOOSTER, OHIO–This has been a particularly active summer in Scovel Hall, home of Wooster’s Geology Department. All our fieldwork eventually results in labwork, so our student geologists have been spending quality time with rocksaws, microscopes, computers and x-ray analytical equipment. I thought it might be fun to walk through the building recording the good science

Peer-review of scientific papers does not guarantee good science 

Some comments to my posts, especially those dealing with climate change, complain that some of the sources I cite are not from peer-reviewed scientific journals and therefore should not be considered as reliable sources. They belittle blog posts from scientists just because the research has not been published in a journal. But, just because a

Vintage Dinosaur Art: I Can Read About Dinosaurs! 

Today we feature another piece shared by Terry Thielen. We've featured a pretty wide spectrum of work during this series, and this one definitely sits on the "cheapo" end of the spectrum: compositions obviously inspired by classic work, printing that can charitably be described as frugal, text seemingly spat out from the top of the writer's head. Of course, it's also not exactly aiming high: I Can Read About Dinosaurs has a pretty modest goal embedded in its title. It was published in 1972 by [...]

Matt Kuchta's science in slow motion 

[This is the first in a series of posts in which we'll feature some of many interesting and impressive colleagues.  Stay tuned for more.]"To me, good science looks cool," Matt Kuchta, professor of geology at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, says.When Kuchta has anything to do with it, science looks awesome.In the past few months, he's been using a high-speed video camera to show events in super slow motion.Like this one, which shows stress and strain in gelation during a collision.Or [...]

Viennese Whirl – EGU 2012 

Thought it might be time for a little update on how EGU’s been going for those of you who couldn’t make it. There’s been some really good science on show, and while the inevitable timetable clashes have been highly frustrating, … Continue reading

Ye Maclargehuge Announcement: ETEV Joining Freethought Blogs 

Oh, yes. I am mean, I am cruel, I am forcing all of you to update blogrolls and RSS feeds and all that rot: En Tequila Es Verdad is moving to Freethought Blogs on October 1st. Look, was I really gonna say no when the opportunity to get all of my beloved geobloggers in front of more interested eyeballs was presented to me? Would I actually decline the chance to blog alongside so many of my personal heroes? Dude. PZ Myers, Stephanie Szvan, Ed Brayton, Ophelia Benson, Jason Thibeault, Greta [...]

"Adorers of the Good Science of Rock-breaking" 

"Make them like me adorers of the good science of rock-breaking," Charles Darwin told Charles Lyell once, long ago. This, from a man who also once said of Robert Jameson's lectures on geology and zoology, "The sole effect they produced on me was the determination never as long as I lived to read a book on Geology." That, of course, was before Adam Sedgwick lectured him in geology and took him out for field work, which seems to have done the trick. He did read another book on geology, Lyell's [...]

The importance of good science in geology (and other fields too) 

I am not going to make this a long blog post. I know that many of you find that I have been unfair when it comes to deal with certain ideas about geology and how it works. The truth however … Continue reading

Graphic analysis: “Climate data challenges” 

Callan assesses the quality of the information design displayed in a graphic accompanying a recent article in Science. See if you agree with his critique! Being conscious of our graphic design is important for good science to be unencumbered by gimmicks, propaganda, and layout that obscures

Some Good Science Talks On Radio 

A few terrific science talks I've heard recently: 1) A Biography of Cancer- Terry Gross of Fresh Air interviews oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee. 2) The Man Who Killed Pluto - OnPointRadio's Tom Ashbrook talks to astronomer Mike Brown and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about why Pluto has been relegated from the league of planets and some other frontiers of astrophysics. 3) Science

"YouCut" Good 

I'm am writing this as a member of Britain's educational elite (MA Oxon, St John's, 1988) and adopting the persona of a firm, but caring conservative in the mold of my contemporaries David Cameron (Brasneose, 1988) and Boris Johnson (Balliol, 1987). From this perspective, I think it's entirely reasonable that in these fiscally challenging time our elected representatives should ask the public to consider whether they are really getting good value for money from Federally-supported research.To [...]

Another 'KIll Off' Claim 

Article Catastrophic volcanic eruptions in Europe may have culled Neanderthals to the point where they couldn't bounce back, according to a controversial new theory. Modern humans, though, squeaked by, thanks to fallback populations in Africa and Asia, researchers say. Ok, kiddies, this makes a good science project.  You, with the laptops at your desk, are much better off than students