Geobulletin alpha

'Lost city' in Greece is actually the result of a gas leak 

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Fallen trees 

Naturally, the people of a city named Oakland cherish their trees. But trees are living things, and every one must die at some point. After years of drought plus one wet winter, I’ve noticed a lot of downed trees. This one was in Leona Heights, an oak. When oaks topple, that’s the end of them.

Roaring Inferno in Alberta is What Climate Change Looks Like. 

The wildfire in NW Alberta grew much larger overnight and now over 85,000 people are evacuated as fire crews try to save the city. The question about how this is related to climate change is an easy one, a very easy one. It is related, and the data backs it up. Jeff Masters (at Weather Underground) has an exc. post on this, and he posted a graph from Rutgers (see

Toronto Luxury Condos -- The New Urban Wasteland 

Toronto condo rents downtown, per person, are up to Palo Alto levels, without the Palo Alto incomes.  I always had hope for the city to be the next Palo Alto, but they are doing everything to stop this, mainly by attacking Uber and making things unfriendly for bright young people. I am astounded by my son's condo security for letting in two armed gangs, and the fact that they could have

Horniman bonus dinosaurs 

As an addendum to my previous post, it's worth mentioning that there's some dinosaur material on permanent display at the Horniman...just not very much. Perhaps the most noteworthy dinosaur display consists of a series of very dated scale models. They're most definitely of the pre-Renaissance, cold-blooded old school, but very charming with it. Here's a selection.Stegosaurus: lovingly detailed and boasting a rather lifelike skin texture, alongside a too-short tail and semi-sprawling forelimbs. [...]

How to Rethink Urban Transit, and Pay for It, Too 

"We have conflated mobility with access, but mobility is not the same as access. The best solution to a transportation problem is to not have to travel. The city itself was invented as a solution to a transportation problem. We have cities so we don’t have to

Rapid raccoons hit Toronto 

That should be 'rabid'  but I don't want to panic people.  The raccoon was out all weekend, and now it approach my dog Doggy McDogface, who can really put on a vicious show that scares coyotes.  I called the dog and the darn thing came after us.  I informed the City.  I had thought the coyotes would have taken care of it, but perhaps they are smart as well.

Oklahoma earthquake - shallow, directed thrust 

This is the exact type of earthquake that will crumble the city, but it has to be a 6 or above.  A 5 will just scare everybody.  The gas frack waste has arrived and the season of earthquake zombies has begun.  Call in the Bennet

GORDES: CITY OF LIMESTONE & LIGHT 

Birding in Seattle – Stone, Metal, and Terra Cotta 

Seattle is well known for its abundant bald eagle population, with nearly two dozen nests in and around the city. The nests are generally in large green spaces, such as parks and greenbelts, but you can also find many eagles in downtown Seattle. In fact, there are more eagles downtown than any place else. And … Continue reading Birding in Seattle – Stone, Metal, and Terra

Geology of the National Parks in Pictures - City of Rocks 

The next up on my Tour of the Geology of the National Parks in pictures is:City of Rocks National ReserveOur last stop on this trip through Idaho was the City of Rocks National Reserve. As always, you can click on the pictures to enlarge the images. At the City of Rocks, it is possible to travel through the whole park in essentially one loop, however you must leave the park on the western edge to get between the northern and southern roads of the park. We decided to take the southern [...]

Faculty Profile: Susan Blaustein 

With more than half of the world now living in cities, and well over half of that number living in urban poverty, Professor Blaustein believes that humanizing the city - making it livable for women and families- is a key factor in ensuring its

A rejection and a promise. 

A while back I entered the MsLexia First Novel competition for the first time. I’ve known about this competition for years, but never bucked up to do it. And it was a real heart-sinking feeling to get the rejection letter, because I had been feeling incredibly confident about entering City of Dis. But every cloud

Dewind Remediates Seepage at Dam in Tyler, Texas 

Dewind One Pass was involved in constructing a cut-off wall to address seepage issues at Tyler Dam in Tyler, Texas. The earthen dam was constructed of clay, but the foundation soil consisted of a very permeable silty sand material. The remediation involved a mixed-in-place soil, cement, and bentonite cutoff wall on the downstream face of the dam, about halfway between the crest and the toe. Dewind won the job, and the City's consulting geotechnical engineer narrates this video explaining [...]

Berlin is the city for the geo-industry…‎ 

Berlin is the place to be for the geo-industry…‎ Visiting the INTERGEO 2015 in Stuttgart I came to one conclusion: Berlin is the place to be. Forget ‎about Munich, Munster or Bonn. Pack your stuff and head east. Just let me support my opinion a ‎bit with some facts‎ ‎ Berlin? defining the region ‎When I talk about Berlin I talk about the metropolitan region of Berlin. This includes Potsdam which is connected with Berlin by local transport system (buses, city-train) and ‎is [...]

458-Million Year Old Twin Impact Craters Found in Sweden 

Scientists in Sweden have found two craters south of the city of Östersund with diameters of 7.5 and 0.7 kms. The two meteorite impacts occurred at the same time, 458 million years ago. “From studies of meteorites, we know that a large disruption of an asteroid occurred around 470 million years ago in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.” “This disruption spawned large amounts

Back to Seymour, Back in Time: Part Two — Bringing back a city 

The visit to our active digs at the Craddock Ranch red beds exhausted Kelly and I, but it was fascinating to learn how the Houston Museum of Natural Science discovers, jackets and moves its Permian fossils to our lab. The … Continue reading

Map a whole city with OpenStreetMap 

One day last month, I came back to OpenStreetMap, to see how the city of Legnano (city of 60k people – near Milan – Italy) was mapped. I knew I did not find much, but hoped it would have been mapped to a large extent. I immediately created an atlas with the online tool mapOSMatic and the result can be found here: Download PDF Atlas of Legnano (as it was) or go to the repository mapOSMatic I always talk about OpenStreetMap on my blog and I invite and teach all kinds of mapping. [...]

Places with equal chance of devastation as Seattle - Part 2 

So why is almost every city in danger of being wiped out at 1 in 500?  That's because everybody and their dog build to living memory, which is about 1 in 100.  Thus New Orleans only builds seawalls for Granpappy's Great Storm.  They wouldn't get any money to build better. There was this guy who saved a Japanese coastal village by building a 50 foot high seawall.  He inspired everybody and

Oklahoma earthquake summary - July 2015 

I'm really going to say that the rate of increase of magnitude is down.  Kansas is enjoying a summer holiday, but Ok. City had a big flurry last week.  It's interesting to think how the rate should go up as the earthquakes become larger.  Since the magnitude scale is exponential, and the fault area goes by the square, some things should slow down.  Stress corrosion would go on a steady rate