Geobulletin alpha

30 Scientific Societies Send Congress Letter on Climate Change. It pulls no punches. 

A letter signed by the directors of over 30 different scientific societies was sent to the Congress this week. The AGU, and the American Meteorological Society, were among the signers. Jason Samenow at the Washington Post has a piece on this as well today. Research by Ed Maibach at George Mason Univ., and others at the Yale Program on Climate Change, indicates that the number of those who dismiss climate

Common sense and volcano tourism 

It's not very often that I comment on news articles, but a reader of the blog recently brought this one to my attention, and it hits close to home. The article is in the Washington Post's Travel section and is entitled, "In Guatemala, a treacherous hike to one of the world’s most active volcanoes". That title pretty much covers why I'm so upset - and conflicted - about the author of the piece is writing

Suomi Sees the Snow 

This image form the Suomi Satellite on Sunday afternoon. Snowfall for the storm is below: There is talk today among climate researchers (and synoptic meteorologists like me) about how climate change may be causing these Eastern Seaboard blizzards to be worse, and the very warm waters off the coast with this storm were definitely a factor in this one. See Chris Mooney’s piece in the Washington

September 11, 2015 

Don’t Write on Rocks While Doing FieldworkKSL.com Types of Rock Art: Petroglyphs, Pictographs, and VandalismGeology.com Output Per Miner-Hour Rises as Smaller Coal Mines CloseEnergy Information Administration Fossils Found in African Cave Are New Relative of the Human SpeciesThe Washington Post Watch Paleoartists Sculpt the Face of Our Newest Human RelativeThe Washington Post This Volcano Erupts

I’m Not A Politician But… I Think The Answer is 1 in 27 Million 

The Washington Post (and other news outlets) reported Thursday that Jeb Bush believes it is arrogant to claim that it’s settled science that humans are primarily responsible for the warming of the planet: From the Washington Post: “The climate is changing,” he said, according to The Post’s Ed O’Keefe. “I don’t think the science is clear on what percentage is man-made and what percentage is natural. It’s convoluted. And for people to

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

We Already Have Pi Day, But Why Not 60 Seconds for Euler? 

Fareed Zakaria of CNN has a very good piece in the Washington Post about STEM and I must say that it makes a lot of sense, although you might not think I would from the title. Check out “Why America’s obsession with STEM education is dangerous” and then come back here for more. Ok, so your back and I hope you agree with what he said, because I do, and

Dead Rat Journalism, and The Ethics of Communicating Scientific Uncertainty 

  I spent all day Monday (and part of Tuesday) at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, attending a seminar on the ethics of communicating scientific uncertainty. It was hosted by the Environmental Law Institute with funding from the National Science Foundation, and it brought together a diverse group of lawyers, journalists and scientists. I was one of two meteorologists invited (Jason Samenow of the Washington Post being the other)

September 16, 2014 

Social Problems Drilling a Geothermal Well in NYC DNAInfo New York In Arid Areas: Water for Fracking or for Drinking ? CNBC California Replacing Canadian Crude with Domestic Bloomberg Citizen Oceanography California Academy of Sciences It’s Probably the Most Bizarre Dinosaur Out There ! New York Times Earth’s Ozone Layer is Recovering The Washington

September 10, 2014 

A Ruby Deposit in Greenland ? BEMining Corundum: The Mineral of Ruby and Sapphire Geology.com Plate Tectonics on Europa ? NASA Iceland’s Volcano Under Northern Lights Time Dreadnoughtus: The Largest Terrestrial Animal Washington

Methane outbursts due to melting permafrost in Siberia: the Yamal crater 

Image from the Washington Post hereSeveral months ago, a photo of a crater discovered by a helicopter crew  went viral. It is located in the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia, a desolate spit of land. The crater was variously reported to be 100- 200 feet in diameter. In the July 31 issue of Nature, highlighted in the Washington Post article referenced in the adjacent figure caption, the discovery of two nearby craters is reported in the Washington Post article. The article contains an excellent [...]

The Things & Critters I will Miss at the Invertebrate House at the Zoo 

As many of you may have noticed from the news or from my Twitter feed (@echinoblog), the National Zoo's Invertebrate House (here in Washington DC) will be closing its doors for good on Sunday, June 22nd.  So, if you're in DC on Saturday GO see it before its gone!  The official Press release explaining the closure can be found here.   Since the closure, the Washington Post has written a

What are the DEEPEST known echinoderms?? 

                      The depth of the ocean has been in the news a lot lately. Here's Virgin Oceanic planning to send someone down to the bottom,  as well as this excellent infographic from the Washington Post about how deep a challenge MH370's recovery might be..   and of course 2012 was James Cameron's big dive in the Marianas Trench! Image from NPR The other day this came up

The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake 

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Great Alaska Earthquake and The Washington Post has an article titled: “Remembering the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, the largest in U.S.

Super Typhoon Usagi nears Philippines. What is a super typhoon? 

Cyclone Usagi on Thursday.Credit: Colorado State UniversityHurricanes Ingrid and Manuel pummel Mexico; Hurricane Humberto in the Atlantic has become a ghost of its former self, and now Super Typhoon Usagi is targeting the Philippines and Taiwan.  It is expected to become merely a severe typhoon when it hits China, right at Hong Kong. Usagi has a diameter of more than 1000 kilometers. It has eclipsed Super Typhoon Utor, which was the strongest storm of the year so far. On Thursday evening, [...]

40 Maps that Explain the World 

The Washington Post has an interesting article titled “40 Maps that Explain the World”. Most of these are demographic maps

Sprites Keep Getting Better 

Longtime readers here on About.com know that I adore sprites, those ghostly upside-down lightning flashes found above energetic storms. So I'm happy when the big media notice them too, and every year the high-speed video equipment gets better. So today in the Washington Post, the Capital Weather Gang was drooling over a bunch of delicious images just captured over a Nebraska thunderstorm by a National Science Foundation research project. The scientist responsible, Jason Ahrns of the University [...]

Arizona Daily Star editorial rebuts itself 

An editorial in the Arizona Daily Star (see here), reprinted from the Washington Post, whines about failure of international bureaucrats to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Within the editorial are these two sentences: “Last month, the world reached another milestone that scientists and policymakers said they wanted to avoid – CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere

Geology tour at Doukenie Winery 

The Washington Post reminds us this morning of the monthly “A Taste of Science” tours at Doukenie Winery near Hillsboro, Virginia. A TASTE OF SCIENCE Geology tour at Virginia winery Doukenie Winery, Saturday, April 6 A popular descriptor among oenophiles … Continue reading

Weekend CUP for February 14, 2013 - Flaming Cheese? 

Did that headline catch your eye too? Here are a few interesting links I didn't get to blogging about...including that little gem from Norway.  Be careful if you are doing fondue for V-Day! Shaner Industries’ Steel Foundation Supports A 90-foot Tall Wind Turbine - Source: Shaner Industries 2013 Tunneling Industry Forecast - Source: Tunnel Business Magazine EarthSoft Receives 2012 Environmental Business Journal Business Achievement Award for Growth & Innovation - [...]