Geobulletin alpha

Living the Dream, Day 5 – Bright Angel and Beyond 

We are deep within the metamorphic rocks of Granite Gorge, more than a mile below the rim of Grand Canyon. At river mile 88, in the area of Phantom Ranch, we cross beneath two narrow bridges. In 1928, construction of the Kaibab (Black) Bridge changed the dynamics of tourism along the Colorado River. Its purpose was to connect the North Kaibab trail and the South Kaibab trail, making travel safer for both humans and mule traffic. A short distance downstream is the Bright Angel (Silver) Bridge, [...]

Questioning Carbon Capture and Storage 

With billions of dollars around the world being invested into carbon capture and storage, often in the energy sector, there are compelling questions to ask about when, where and for what purpose we use this

How to Clone a Mammoth, by Beth Shapiro 

I just finished an interesting book with a provocative title. How to Clone a Mammoth, by Beth Shapiro, is a readable, sober assessment of de-extinction, the idea of bringing back extinct species through a variety of techniques. She defines very clearly at the outset that the purpose of de-extinction is ecological – to restore critical / desired organism/organism or organism/abiotic environment interactions in ecosystems. It is, in other words, a

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A conulariid revisited (Lower Carboniferous of Indiana) 

This summer I’ve been updating some of the photos I placed in the Wikipedia system (check them out here, if you like; free to use for any purpose). I was especially anxious to replace a low-resolution image I had made of an impressive conulariid (Paraconularia newberryi) from the Lower Carboniferous of Indiana. The new version

Glacier Bay 2015 

Guest Blogger: Dan Misinay This summer Dr. Wiles, Nick, Jesse Wiles, and myself traveled to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. We spent our six days in upper Muir Inlet at Wolf Point. Our purpose this summer was to bridge a crucial gap in the tree ring record around 1700-2000 years B.P. As well as

Excel and mapping: an embedded non-GIS solution with Power Map 

Today Aleks blew my mind with a feature on a preview addon for Microsoft’s leading spreadsheet software Excel: The Power Map Plugin. So Let me show you a quick example and describe my recent fallbacks. For this purpose I used a list of worldwide skyscrapers and their places in the world. Where to get it Power Map? The Power Map plugin/add-on seems to be a little older with regards to this video: Yet it was new to me and you can download the preview (why is there no progress in status?) on [...]

More oncoids (from the Peyto Formation?) 

Two years ago, I posted on some interesting structures my students and I saw at Consolation Lakes, near Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. They were little concretions, “oncoids” roughly speaking, and may have indicated (thanks Howard!) that the boulders were sourced to the Peyto Formation, a Cambrian carbonate within the Gog group: The purpose of today’s post is to confirm that these structures are still there two years later,

geo.admin.ch: bringing Swiss geodata potential to life 

A priorized project of eGovernment Switzerland Usage and exchange of geodata is fostered by geo.admin.ch in a significant way. The Federal geoportal is operated by the Federal Office of Topography, swisstopo, on behalf of the coordinating body for Federal geographical information with the aim to implement the Geoinformation Act. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that geodata relating to the territory of the Swiss Confederation is made available to the Federal, Cantonal and municipal [...]

Summer Reading – H is for Hawk 

Much of my time is consumed with reading, but it is almost always for a purpose: essays, assignments, proposals, drafts of papers, re-drafts of papers, papers for classes, for review..  This almost always means reading fast, with a goal: to measure, assess, hone, distil, critique and rewrite.  Often, it means hacking through tangled and cumbersome layers of scientific

EoE – End of Expedition 

We are almost there. Today we finished logging of Hole F that was dedicated for the purpose of logging only. More than 700m deep. We ran the Triple-Combo during the night and this morning the VSI. The VSI has to be operated during daylight hours because it seismically images the borehole using shockwaves. read

U.S. House Hearing Supports Legislation for Development of Domestic Minerals (H.R. 761) 

On Wednesday, July 23, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held an oversight hearing, titled "American Metals and Mineral Security: An examination of the domestic critical minerals supply and demand chain."  During the hearing, a panel of witnesses spoke on the benefits of securing a supply of minerals through domestic mining.  This panel included representatives from GE Global Research and the National Defense Industrial Association, [...]

EPA Delays Potential Fracking Chemical Disclosure Mandates 

On Friday, July 11, 2014 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) extended the public comment period for its advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (“ANPR”) for hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure rules.  The USEPA initially requested public comment on May 9, 2014 by issuing the ANPR.  This set a 90-day public comment period, slated to end on August 18, 2014.  The July 11 announcement extends the public comment period for 30 days, setting [...]

Dipleura dekayi pygidium from the Windom Shale 

At the Penn Dixie site, near Blasdell NY, it is very common to find Phacops rana trilobites and sometimes Greenops sp. trilobites. One of the more rare trilboites to be found there is Dipleura and when you do find them it's often just isolated pieces. Such is the case with the specimen below of a pygidium from a Dipleura dekayi. The fossil is very smooth despite all the dots that you can see on the surface. I'm used to finding specimens of D. dekayi in my local Mahantango formation that don't [...]

Conflict Minerals 

National Geographic has an article about “conflict minerals”. These are minerals that are mined or stolen for the purpose of supporting military operations, particularly in eastern

My Citipati in Quarks & Co. television spot 

A few readers are perhaps already familiar with this Citipati illustration which I did about two years ago. It has even been featured on this blog once before.Back in January this year, I was contacted by a writer from the German television broadcaster, WDR, requesting permission to use this illustration for their science documentary strand, Quarks & Co. The programme in question, I was informed, concerns a certain Jack Horner's proposal to create a 'chicken dinosaur', to which I think no [...]

Wednesday, October 2, 2013: Field Review of New Geologic Mapping, Cedar City area, Iron County, Utah 

Mapped by Tyler R. Knudsen, Robert F. Biek, and Janice M. Hayden Utah Geological Survey A STATEMAP project supported by the Utah Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey  Wednesday, October 2, 2013  The purpose of the review is to give the public and local government officials an opportunity to learn about new geologic research

Maps for our robots 

I have often wondered what could be the purpose of these mapping 3D models more and more accurate for major cities of the world (eg, Monaco, Geneva or Dubai). The level of detail provided by the standard City GML even imagine the level of detail taking into account the interior (Level Of Details-LOD4) architecture, street furniture,

New Position in New Mexico 

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History is hiring a Museum Technician and Conservator position, more info and the listing here:Purpose of PositionThe position exists as part of the Museum's legislative mandate to develop and maintain a collection of New Mexico natural history, in this case is a collection of fossils, rocks and minerals. This position will be responsible for handling over 70,000 fossils, rocks and minerals. The Museum currently has a collection of this kind that [...]

Reducing Natural Gas Flaring in the Bakken 

Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior, recently visited North Dakota. Part of her purpose there was to learn about natural gas flaring. About $3.6 million in natural gas is wasted through flaring in North Dakota every day. Related: Global view of natural gas

Design Guidelines for Horizontal Drains Used for Slope Stabilization 

The Washington State Department of Transportation has released a report that provides a reference for geotechnical engineers and hydrogeologists on designing horizontal drainage systems to improve slope stability. Here's the report abstract:The presence of water is one of the most critical factors contributing to the instability of hillslopes. A common solution to stabilize hillslopes is installation of horizontal drains to decrease the elevation of the water table surface. Lowering the water [...]