• Current News
• Africa
• Alabama
• Alaska
• Antarctic
• Archaeology
• Arctic
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Asia
• Astronomy
• Atlantic
• Australia and Pacific
• California
• Canada
• Caves and Karst
• Central America & Mexico
• Coastal Geology
• Colorado
• Contamination
• Delaware
• Diamonds
• Dinosaurs
• District of Columbia
• Earthquakes
• Energy
• Engineering Geology
• Environment
• Europe
• Floods
• Florida
• Fossils
• Gemstones
• Geologist Career
• Geology for Kids
• Georgia
• Geothermal
• Glaciers
• Global Warming
• Gold
• GPS and GIS
• Great Websites
• Ground Water
• Hawaii
• Historical Geology
• Hurricanes and Cyclones
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Interesting
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Landslides
• Louisiana
• Maps
• Mars
• Massachusetts
• Metals
• Meteorology
• Meteors and Meteorites
• Michigan
• Minerals
• Mining
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Natural Hazards
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oceanography
• Ohio
• Oil and Gas
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Plate Tectonics
• Satellite Images
• South America
• South Dakota
• Space
• Subsidence
• Teaching Science
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Tsunami
• United States
• Utah
• Virginia
• Volcanoes
• Washington
• Water
• West Virginia
• Wildfire
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Geology News
Earth Science Current Events

North Carolina Map

There are news reports of tornadoes in North Carolina on Thursday evening and Friday morning. One person is reported killed and others injured. High winds caused significant damage to homes, cars, airport facilities and utility lines.

British Columbia Map.

A report in The Vancouver Sun says that oil jobs are quite dangerous in British Columbia. The injury rate there is about 1/2 of the provincial rate, however, the severity of injuries and duration of off time are much worse.

Learn about plate tectonics with this slideshow of photos from around the world. Some of the areas featured include: the East African Rift Valley, Thingvellir National Park in Iceland, the San Andreas Fault, the Sheep Mountain anticline, Monument Upwarp in Utah, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, Adi Caieh in Eritrea, and more.

Did you know that every day, at least 300 million gallons of sewage water is dumped into the ocean off the coast of Florida? The water is partially treated, but is still not even suitable for watering lawns. Obviously, this is the cause of a multitude of problems. The state is expected to begin working on shutting down the outfall pipes.

Bolivia typically exports a lot of natural gas to Brazil and Argentina. However, now as the South American winter is approaching, lower than expected production levels have forced Bolivia to cut its exports. Now Brazil and Argentina face shortages when gas is needed for space heating.

Lee Allison comments on starting salaries in the oil industry based upon discussions with professors and students at the recent AAPG meeting in San Antonio.

Graduate student Matthew Jackson traveled to Samoa to learn more about how the islands formed. Read about his experience from Oceanus magazine.

Last year, the amount of Arctic sea ice that melted had an area equal to that of Texas and California combined. The forecast for 2008 is even more severe - the worst year yet for Arctic ice melting.

Conventional wisdom says that Daylight Saving Time cuts energy costs and conserves resources. However, a new study suggests that it might cost more money than it saves. This article looks at the history of DST and how it works today.

Earth Observatory has a track map for Cyclone Nargis that shows its location and intensity between April 28 and May 4. A color overlay shows rainfall totals from the storm. As of May 7, 2008, the number of people killed was estimated at more than 22,000, according to news reports citing the Myanmar government, with twice that many people still missing and feared dead.

Satellite Images of Cyclone Nargis Flooding

Chaiten Volcano is pumping out such an intense amount of ash that its plume visibly extends on satellite images from Chile, across Argentina and over the Atlantic Ocean. Earth Observatory has natural color and infrared images of the plume.

A large sinkhole that seems to have formed near an injection well site has grown to over 400 yards wide. Reports say that Route 770 near Daisetta, Texas (about 40 miles northeast of Houston) is threatened by the expanding hole.

Sinkhole Report from KNBC Texas

Millions of people in Myanmar are waiting for aid to arrive. The cyclone that hit last weekend washed a 15-foot high storm surge onto the coastline that drowned thousands and swept away the homes of a million.

A large earthquake occurred off the east coast of Honshu, Japan. USGS reports a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 and their shakemap estimates intensity VII effects in areas of the coastline near the epicenter. It occurred at 1:45 local time and was preceded by smaller earthquakes.

Can you name the volcano? It was three times as powerful as Pinatubo and thirty times the power of St. Helens. If your answer was Katmai, that is incorrect. Forty years after the eruption the volcanic vent responsible was finally realized. This is the most important story of mistaken identity in the history of volcano science.

The need for skilled mining industry professionals in Canada is going up faster than Canadian schools can gradate students. They need 600 engineers per year but schools only graduate between 120 and 150. The nine schools granting those degrees do not have the capacity needed to meet the demand.

This article by Erin Wayman looks at what is being done to learn more about Venus. NASA has not had a dedicated Venus mission for nearly two decades but the European Space Agency launched a Venus mission in 2005 and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch another in 2010.

Beijing, China has a long-standing reputation for air that is thick with pollution and haze. In the past few years they claim to have spent about $17 billion trying to clean it up. A GEOTIMES article takes a look at the problem and the progress.

An increase in the number of mines is facing some resistance in the western United States. Lots of new people have been attracted to these states, primarily motivated by the environment. After they arrive they are not happy when a new mine is proposed.

China is investing a lot more in South America. Aluminum Corporation of China is spending $2.15 billion on the Toromocho Copper Project. This site has an estimated 1.526 millon tons in copper reserves and will host a new smelter to yield 250,000 tons per year.

Current high energy prices and a renewed interest in nuclear power have sparked a sudden rise in the number of uranium claims filed in the western United States. The Los Angeles Times reports that there are 1,100 uranium claims on public lands within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park compared to only 10 in 2003.

Chaitén Volcano in southern Chile erupted on May 2nd for the first time in over 9000 years with a plume of ash and steam that reached altitudes of over 15 kilometers. Earth Observatory has a satellite image showing the eruption plume drifting into neighboring Argentina.

An article on the GEOTIMES website by Benjamin A. Eisterhold and Michael E. Webber explores how some countries try to seize or monetize mineral resources that are being developed by foreign companies or being exported. Examples include: Venezuela and the North Sea area.

The price of gasoline hit $4.00 per gallon in some cities recently. That has politicians looking for ways to cut the cost. These include: dropping federal excise tax, stopping additions to the US strategic reserve (to lower demand) and calling for less restrictive drilling in protected areas.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis has killed 10,000 people in Myanmar and the count is expect to rise much higher. Many people are blaming the government for failing to issue warnings and to quickly accept offers of aid from other countries.

Geodynamics, a company operating near the town of Innaminca, South Australia is working on a hot rocks geothermal power project. To prove that their system will work, they plan to provide free power to the town.

NASA has acquired images of powerful electrical storms on Saturn with lightning bolts 10,000 times more powerful than those on Earth. These resemble terrestrial thunderstorms, but have diameters of several thousand kilometers (thousands of miles) across.

National Geographic has an article that explores how the warming of global climates appears to be linked to a decline in dissolved oxygen levels in world oceans. This leads to the expansion of hypoxic zones - areas where oxygen levels are so low that fish and other organisms find it difficult to thrive.

This article details the activities of some of the many oil company and contractor workers who are doing the on-site labor of searching for oil in the Arctic. Cold temperatures, snow, and small personal quarters are all part of the job when you are working on Alaska’s North Slope.

A photo gallery accompanies the article

Hundreds of people are feared dead after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (Burma) this weekend. A state of emergency has been declared for three cities (Yangon, Irrawaddy, Pegu) and two states (Karen and Mon).

Pictures of Cyclone Nargis aftermath at CNN

Geologist Don Adair recently gave the Gunlock Meteorite to the Utah Geological Survey where it is now on display. He found it near the town of Gunlock in southern Utah in 1982 and later cut the specimen in half. The other half of the meteorite is at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The-Vug.com has a photo display of the Montana Moss Agate case by Brooks Britt from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. This is one of several mineral exhibit competition cases that they feature as articles on their website.

If you collect minerals they note mineral dealer website updates on their homepage.

Two articles, one recent and one from about a year ago, describe the capture and explain the autopsy plan for the world’s largest squid. It weighs nearly 1/2 ton and was over 30 feet long. It died shortly after capture but has been stored in near-frozen salt water for the past year in New Zealand.

The government of Chile has declared a state of emergency with the eruption of Chaiten Volcano in the southern part of the country. Ash falls are making breathing difficult and being carried by wind into neighboring Argentina. About 1000 people are evacuating.

BBC News Report

The largest flood on the lower Mississippi River since 1973 was measured on April 22 in Vicksburg, Mississippi by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The flow measured 1.8 million cubic feet per second. That is enough water to fill more than 20 Olympic size swimming pools in one second, or more than 1.75 million pools in a day.

Over 1000 small earthquakes have occurred below the Reno, Nevada suburb of Mogul during the past two months. Some of these have been strong enough to do minor damage and the intensity and frequency of the quakes are increasing. Now local residents are worried and scientists ponder the meaning of these earthquakes.

The Frank Landslide happened on April 29th, 1903 in Alberta, Canada. A short description of the event with a few photos can be found at Dave Petley’s blog.

Use the Google Map at right to zoom in on the slide. Click the “View Large Map” link to go full screen.

Montana State University researchers have identified numerous types of pollution in the Ganges River of India. Their work has been reported to the Indian Supreme Court in support of renewed efforts to clean up the river.

Munir Humayun of Florida State University and NASA colleagues authored a paper, “Partitioning of Palladium at High Pressures and Temperatures During Core Formation,” in the journal Nature Geoscience. The paper challenges a popular theory that all of Earth’s water and several elements were added to the Earth by impacts with icy comets, meteorites and other passing objects.

A new “Geoscience Currents” at the American Geological Institute website shows that the number of Geoscience Faculty members in the United States fell by 10% since 1999.

| Previous News »