Geobulletin alpha

The effect of antecedent soil moisture conditions on green roof runoff water quality and quantity 

Lab alumna and 2015 REU student Jillian Sarazen is presenting her work this week at the 59th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research, affectionately known as IAGLR. Jillian graduated from Oberlin College in May. Congratulations on both fronts, Jillian! The effect of antecedent soil moisture conditions on green roof runoff

Iron Fertilization Won’t Work in Equatorial Pacific, Study Suggests 

Over the past half-million years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean has seen five spikes in the amount of iron-laden dust blown in from the continents. In theory, those bursts should have turbo-charged the growth of carbon-capturing algae, but a new study shows that the excess iron had little to no

April 7th - Chernobyl exclusion zone - 30 years on 

April 7th - Bath Geological SocietyChernobyl exclusion zone - 30 years onDr. Lorraine Field, British Geological SurveyThe world’s worst nuclear disaster took place on the 26th April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the town of Pripyat, in the then Ukrainian SSR. The battle to contain the contamination cost in excess of an estimated 18 billion roubles, and involved over 500,000 workers from across the Soviet Union. There is now a 30 km exclusion zone in effect around the plant. The [...]

Stephen Jay Gould On Justice Scalia's Misunderstanding About Evolution Science 

The United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died a couple of days ago. I remembered an  essay on him written by Stephen Jay Gould. The occasion was Justice Scalia 's dissenting opinion in the 1987 case that invalidated the State of Louisiana 's "Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act." Louisiana was in effect arguing that "Creation Science" be put on

Mystery object found on the Bath GS Manor Farm trip 

The object above was found at Borrow Pit, Manor Farm, Aust - a Triassic mystery.  An expert's opinion is as follows:-"My interpretation of this is that it lacks the symmetry and detail to be a fossil animal in its own right, though algal activity may have played a part in producing the lumps on the surface.  It has a slightly laminated appearance and I believe it to be a sedimentary accretion.  Whether it has a nucleus of any kind could only be resolved by sectioning and [...]

Spectacular Geology: Amazing Photos of the American Southwest 

A spectacular look at the geology in southern Utah—a lasting display of nature’s effect on rock. livescience.com Southwest of Moab, Utah, is an area of the American Southwest that is truly a showcase of geology. Check out these stunning images of one of the most geologically and biologically rich environments in North America. READ

A History of the World in Six Glasses, by Tom Standage 

This week’s book was a survey of human history, from the dawn of civilization to the Cold War, of the various ways that societal, health, political, technological, and economic factors drove the adoption of various beverages, and how the presence of those beverages in human society generated ripples of cause and effect, propelling advances and turns of history that led us to the world we live in. It’s a prime

Arctic Magic – One research vessel multiplies to hundreds! 

The Arctic is magical, that we know, but when one ship multiplies to hundreds of small boats we really see the effect that Arctic magic can

Em2 Owner Receives Environmental Excellence Award 

Vermont’s Ottauquechee Natural Resources Conservation District was a recipient of the 2015 Vermont Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence for their River Road Show, a traveling educational display that uses the Emriver Em2 model to demonstrate how rivers and streambanks react to human impacts. The program has educated thousands of Vermonters on river science and flood resiliency. We blogged about the great work ONRCD was doing in 2013. With 13 Emriver models in use throughout the [...]

Make your own rain 

Have you tried the ELI 'Mini-world water cycle; a water cycle demonstration model in a box'? Make a sandy ‘beach’ in the box and add the shallow ‘sea’. Switch on the lamp (‘Sun’) and wait for a few minutes for the water to become warm (or ‘cheat’ by adding warm water from the kettle). Add the freezer pack to cause the effect of cooling air which will form ‘clouds’. After a time, the

Comic Relief: Opera Snakeoil Salesmens and MEMorable Lawyers 

A friend accused me of being too serious of late on this blog.  So some comic relief. Last week I was updating a client’s tailings facility emergency response plan.  The Canadian Mining Association (CMA)document calls amongst other things for a statement on “Drilling and Testing.” I wrote something to this effect:  neither drilling nor testing

Research Summary: Effect Of Deforestation On Global Wetland Hydrology 

1School of Geography Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Humans have been clearing forest for thousands of years to prepare the landscape for settlement and agriculture.[...] The post Research Summary: Effect Of Deforestation On Global Wetland Hydrology appeared first on Lake

My neck-cartilage angle paper is out! 

Arriving as an early Christmas present, and coming in just a week before the end of what would otherwise have been a barren 2014, my paper Quantifying the effect of intervertebral cartilage on neutral posture in the necks of sauropod dinosaurs is out! You can read it on PeerJ (or download the PDF). Yes, that posture

Soil moisture dynamics and their effect on bioretention performance in Northeast Ohio 

Most members of the Watershed Hydrology lab chose to go to GSA this year, and we had a blast sharing our science and enjoying Vancouver and surrounding areas. But now we are sadly missing out on the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting going on this week. Fortunately, a small piece

Geosciences Column: Is it possible to quantify the effect of natural emissions on climate? 

The air we breathe is full of tiny particles that can have a big impact on our climate. Industrial activities have greatly increased the number of these particles, cooling the climate and potentially offsetting some of the warming due to greenhouse gases. In this post Kirsty Pringle introduces new research that suggests that it might

The Coming US Earthquake Shock 

I'm shelving my new book.  It'll go right beside 'Peak Oil' and 'The Hockey Stick'.  In as lurid a style as possible, I laid out the consequences of a New New Madrid in Oklahoma, and its effect on cheap oil.  It was good as these things go, but I decided I couldn't keep a straight face on the talk shows.  I don't have the talent of Al Gore! It would have sold well in Europe, where they they

Soil wind erosion is influenced by soil inherent properties 

Carlos M. Asensio Grima casensio@ual.es Department of Agronomy University of Almería, Spain Soil wind erosion is influenced by soil inherent properties, different wind characteristics and surface vegetation cover. For a better understanding of this process is necessary to explain the effect and consequences of wind erosion on the ground and especially in agricultural areas of

The Anthropocene? 

If an alien civilisation lands, millions of years from now when humans are a distant memory, what will they find? Our cities will be long gone; our sturdiest monuments and greatest buildings will be dust. But if they bring a geologist with them, they may be able to read the story of our existence from the stones they walk on. In Berlin, recently, a group of scientists met to discuss just what that story will tell – and how important a story it is. Humans have existed in [...]

Research Summary: The Effect Of Cyanobacteria Blooms On Zooplankton Species Diversity In Two Northern Kentucky Lakes 

Water quality is an important aspect of a lake ecosystem, and can be degraded by nutrient loading of phosphorous and nitrogen that results from anthropogenic land use (Beaver et al.[...] The post Research Summary: The Effect Of Cyanobacteria Blooms On Zooplankton Species Diversity In Two Northern Kentucky Lakes appeared first on Lake

Seasons: the effect of our tilted Earth 

The new ELI, published today, 'Seasons: the effect of our tilted Earth' is the last in this 'Earth in space' series. It involves an indoor demonstration which explains the changing seasons very clearly. After watching the activity pupils will be able to:- explain how the half of the Earth bathed in sunlight at any one time is experiencing day, whilst the other half is experiencing