Geology News - Earth Science Current Events

Image by NASA

Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the edge of Victoria Crater, a 730-meter wide impact crater. This destination should be one of the most interesting and valuable stops by Opportunity. The navigation camera on the top of Opportunity's mast has taken many images, some of which were used to create the composite panorama below showing the rocky walls of Victoria Crater.

Image by NASA
Because craters are holes in the surface of Mars, scientists now have an opportunity to examine layers of material below the Martian surface which could reveal new information about the history of Mars. Opportunity has visited other craters, however, Victoria Crater is the deepest - a depth of about 70 meters. This gives an opportunity to examine additional subsurface materials which are probably much older than those observed in previous craters.


Image by NASA
The image above is an aerial view of Victoria Crater. The bottom of the crater is covered by sand that has been shaped into ripples by the Martian wind.

Learn more and see thousands of images at the Mars Rover Website.

Labels: Astronomy-Planets

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Fourpeaked Volcano, located near the mouth of Cook Inlet, Alaska is threatening to erupt. Visible unrest began on September 17 with explosions and vigorous emissions of ash, gas and steam from vents on the volcano's flank. Elevated levels of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide have been detected.


Steam emissions from Fourpeaked Volcano. Image by Christina Neal, AVO/USGS

According to USGS, these abundant volcanic gases, the opening of new vents near the summit, and the disruption of glaciers suggest the presence of new magma at shallow depths beneath the volcano. USGS's level of concern color code for the volcano is YELLOW with a possible eruption within the next few days to few weeks.

Geologists from the Alaska Volcanic Observatory are monitoring the volcano with satellite data and observation flights. They are also installing seismometers to monitor earthquake activity beneath the volcano.


Temporary broadband seismometer and time-lapse camera installed on Fourpeaked Volcano.
Image by Rick Wessels, AVO/USGS

Get the most recent news about Fourpeaked Volcano at the Alaska Volcano Observatory website.

Labels: Volcanoes

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A portion of the USGS Landslide Overview map - red areas have more than 15% of the land area involved in active or geologically recent landslide processes.

Native Americans recognized the landslide problems in the Pittsburgh area. Their name for the Monongahela River means "the banks that slip into the water". The unstable soils that gave the Monongahela its name are widespread in the Pittsburgh area. Combine these soils with a high population living on steep hillsides and you have a city that is very vulnerable to an ongoing series of landslide problems.

The latest problem has resulted in landslides that have blocked all four lanes of Route 65, known as Ohio River Boulevard, closed three railroad lines and resulted in the suspension of the Kilbuck Properties building permit for River Pointe Plaza, a shopping center complex. The slide occurred on September 22nd, rail traffic resumed today, but Route 65 remains buried under thousands of tons of mud, rock and debris.

Read more about the Pittsburgh Landslide at ThePittsburghChannel.com.

Labels: Landslides

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Since the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004, there has been a lot of discussion about a potential Atlantic Basin wide tsunami triggered by a landslide on the volcanic island of La Palma in the Canary Islands.


Image copyright Geology.com and Map Resources

Studies of surface faulting produced by a 1949 eruption suggest that a large mass of between 200 and 500 cubic kilometers could slip into the sea, generating an Atlantic Ocean tsunami with basin-wide impact. Models suggest that these waves could be 100 meters high at adjacent islands, 50-100 meters high on the African coast, 7-10 meters high at Spain and the UK and over 20 meters high on the coast of Florida.
From: Atlantic Ocean Tsunami Threat, September, 2005

More recent studies by researchers at Delft University of Technology suggest that the risk is much lower than previously thought. Required for a near future failure would be a situation of exceptionally heavy rainfall accompanied by a strong magmatic outburst. The risk would increase with time, however, as the Cumbre Vieja volcano grows and the flanks become less stable.

Read more about Canary Island Tsunami Threat.

Labels: Tsunamis

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The United States Geological Survey has released a new report: USGS Open File Report 206-1219 - "Historical Shoreline Change and Associated Coastal Land Loss Along Sandy Shorelines of the California Coast". This report documents change on over 450 miles of California shoreline. According to the report, 66 percent of California's beaches are eroding.

The estimated average rate of long term shoreline change for the state was 0.2 meters per year - an accretional trend. This trend was most likely due to changes in the large volumes of sediment that are added to the shoreline system by large rivers and to impact by beach nourishment projects. The short term shoreline change was -0.2 meters per year - an erosional trend. Some of this has been attributed to local nourishment projects that have been stopped or slowed in recent years.


Image by USGS
The report contains many photos, graphs, maps, data tables and graphics related to California shorelines and the shoreline erosion problem (.pdf link).

Labels: Coastal-Geology, Oceanography

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Scientists from Case Western Reserve University, who have a strong track record recovering meteorites in Antarctica, have discovered that one of their specimens found in 2005 is a piece of Earth's Moon. The specimen was found by members of the U.S. Antarctic Search for Meteorites program on an icefield in the Miller Range of the Transantarctic Mountains, roughly 750 km from the South Pole. The lunar meteorite weighs 142.2 grams and is slightly larger than a golf ball. The specimen was broken to allow a close study of its composition and texture. Pieces of the specimen will be shared with scientists at research centers around the world.


The meteorite is a coarse-grained gabbro that is similar in composition to lunar basalts that fill the lunar maria. However, the large crystal size suggests that this rock cooled within the Moon's interior. The cube in the image is one cubic centimeter in size. Image by NASA's Johnson Space Center.


Polarized light photomicrograph of part of the lunar meteorite. The bright, highly fractured material is pyroxene and the smoothly textured dark gray material is maskelynite, a mineral formed from the vitrification of plagioclase by shock melting. Image by NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Read more about the Lunar Meteorite at the Case Western Reserve Blog.

Labels: Arctic-Antarctic, Meteor-Meteorite

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Map of the Arctic Ocean and North Pole. Image by CIA

The North Pole is often thought of as a place that is inaccessible - unless you have a submarine or the ability and courage to travel there over the ice. Satellite images taken last month from ESA's Envisat and EOS Aqua satellites show that the Arctic Ocean was clear enough of ice that a ship could sail from locations in northern Europe directly to the North Pole.

This adds to the accumulating evidence that the northern polar ice cover is shrinking as a result of global warming. There are many downsides to global warming but a tiny upside would be opening of The Northwest Passage, a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada and the Northern Sea Route, a shipping lane between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans along the northern margins of Europe and Asia.

Read the full article on Ice in the Arctic Ocean at Yahoo! News.

Labels: Arctic-Antarctic, Global-Warming, Oceanography

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Here is an interesting website by USGS that gives you near-real-time access to about 100 seismograms. The map below is from the website. The blue stars are recent earthquakes.


Image by USGS

The red dots are seismograph stations and (when you are on their site) clicking on the red dots will show you a near-real-time seismogram (updated every thirty minutes).

The #4 star is for an earthquake that occurred at 10:13:18 GMT on September 15th, 2006. This was a 5.7 M event in the New Britain Region of Papua New Guinea. If we click the red dot for the Port Moresby, New Guinea station - labeled PMG and partially hidden by the blue star the seismogram below is displayed. The earthquake is obvious on this seismogram.


Image by USGS

We can then trace the progress of seismic waves across Australia by clicking stations
CTAO (Charters Towers, Australia), MBWA (Marble Bar, Western Australia, and NWAO (Narrogin, Australia) respectively, as shown in the seismograms below.


Image by USGS


Image by USGS


Image by USGS

This type of data is not only interesting but can be of great value to teachers and students of geology. It could be used in a wide variety of assignments related to recent earthquakes, seismic wave propagation, and seismograph interpretation.

Check out the map and seismograms at the ASL DCC Telemetry Stations website.

Labels: Earthquakes

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Image by USGS

Lots of people are going to the USGS "Did You Feel It?" page to report what they experienced as a result of Sunday morning's earthquake beneath the Gulf of Mexico. As of 9:30 PM, Sunday evening - a little over 12 hours after the earthquake - nearly 5000 people had provided data. You can see a plot of reports vs. time below.


Image by USGS

USGS is using this data to automatically compile an earthquake intensity map for the event - which is shown below as captured from their website at 12:30 AM on Monday, September 11th. This map shows the geographic pattern of intensity for the event.


Image by USGS

A more up-to-date reporting and map can be seen at the USGS Website.

Added: Looks like USGS is getting heavy web traffic from people checking on this event. Their earthquake server is up and down like a yo-yo tonight

Labels: Earthquakes

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Image by USGS

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Gulf of Mexico at about 8:56 AM MDT today. The earthquake's location was about 330 miles southeast of New Orleans and about 250 miles west of Tampa, Florida. The focus was about 6.2 miles below sea level. No damages, injuries or tsunamis have been reported.

Image by USGS
Google Map -- Gulf of Mexico Earthquake

Shaking was felt in parts of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Cuba and Mexico. The USGS reports:

"This is the largest of more than a dozen shocks that have been instrumentally recorded from the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the past three decades, and it is the most widely felt. The most recent significant earthquake in the region occurred on February 10th, 2006 and had a magnitude of 5.2. We have not associated this earthquake with a specific causative fault."

This is an unusual event because it is far removed from an active plate boundary. This location away from a plate boundary makes this type of earthquake unlikely to produce a tsunami. In addition, earthquakes of 6.0 magnitude are generally considered too weak to yield a tsunami.

More information at the National Earthquake Information Center

Labels: Earthquakes

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Stories about global warming and melting glaciers are showing up in the news everywhere. There must be something to the idea of global warming if numerous investigators are observing glaciers are melting and in consistent retreat in countries worldwide.


Image composed by Geology.com using NASA Landsat data

Here is a sampling of story titles that have appeared over the past few years on the BBC website.

  Europe's glaciers in retreat - 6 Sep 2006
  'Major melt' for Alpine glaciers - 4 Apr 2006
  Earth - melting in the heat? - 7 Oct 2005
  Peru's glaciers in retreat - 25 Aug 2005
  Glaciers in Antarctic 'shrinking' - 21 Apr 2005
  Antarctic glaciers show retreat - 21 Apr 2005
  Himalayan glaciers 'melting fast' - 14 Mar 2005
  Greenland ice-melt 'speeding up' - 28 Jul 2004
  Patagonian ice in rapid retreat - 27 Apr 2004
  South American glaciers' big melt - 17 Oct 2003
  Melting glaciers threaten Peru - 9 Oct 2003
  Kazakhstan's glaciers 'melting fast' - 4 Sep 2003
  Antarctica's ice sheet melting naturally - 3 Jan 2003
  Bolivian glaciers shrinking fast - 10 Dec 2002
  Record ice loss in Arctic - 9 Dec 2002
  Photos show glacier's decline - 8 Aug 2002
  Antarctic ice fringe 'melting faster' - 13 Jun 2002
  Rapid Antarctic warming puzzle - 6 Sep 2001
  Warm-up in the Alps - 26 Aug 2001
  Alpinism: Then and now - 26 Aug 2001
  Kilimanjaro's white peak to disappear - 19 Feb 2001
  Antarctic ice sheet shrinks - 1 Feb 2001
  Earth enters the big thaw - 7 Mar 2000
  Antarctic ice crumbling rapidly - 8 Apr 1999
  The thawing of Alaska - 10 Nov 1998

Any of these stories and more can be found at the BBC website. Here is a link if you want to read any of these articles or check for yourself... "glaciers + retreat".

Labels: Arctic-Antarctic, Glaciers, Global-Warming

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Chevron today announced a major oil discovery from the Jack #2 well at Walker Ridge Block 758 in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, approximately 275 miles southwest of New Orleans. There in over 7000 feet of water they drilled a test well to a depth of 28,175 feet below sea level. The well flowed at a rate of 6000 barrels per day from an area that Chevron estimates could contain between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels.

In addition to striking oil Chevron set several drilling records. World records for test equipment pressure, depth and duration in deepwater were broken. It was also the deepest well ever drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. Chevron is the operator of the well with a 50% interest. Other participants are Statoil (a Norwegian company - 25%) and Devon Energy (a North American independent oil and gas producer - 25%).

Developing this deep resource will take additional investments of billions of dollars and at least two years of work. A second test well is planned for drilling in 2007.

Read Chevron's press release about the Jack #2 well at their website.

Labels: Fossil-Fuels

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The American Association of Petroleum Geologists annual salary survey shows a sharp increase in geology salaries across the board - approximately 16% overall. Charted below are the salaries of entry level petroleum geologists plotted from 2000 to 2006. The sharp increase between 2005 and 2006 is likely a result of multiple factors which include:

• High oil prices
• Lots of geologists are nearing retirement age
• The number of geology degrees earned is down

All of these work together to bump up salaries.


Graph based upon AAPG data.
The salaries above are for entry level geologists in the petroleum industry, many of whom have advanced degrees. Visit the AAPG website too see salaries broken down by degree, years of experience, industry high/low and data over time.

AAPG Geologist Salary Survey

Labels: Employment

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Geological disposal of CO2.

Carbon dioxide is one of the driving forces behind global warming and has long been tied to fossil fuel production and use. Burning coal, oil and natural gas releases significant quantities of carbon dioxide. Drilling for natural gas can also bring up some carbon dioxide from subsurface reservoirs. This waste carbon dioxide is normally vented into the atmosphere.

However, a partial solution to the carbon dioxide problem is to pump the gas down wells and into the same reservoir rocks that yielded the fossil fuels. This is not a new idea. The oil industry has long pumped carbon dioxide into depleting reservoir rocks in an effort to drive the oil to a production well. This can't be done all of the time because the availability of carbon dioxide is not geographically matched with the secondary recovery of oil (see carbon dioxide flooding article at the Occidental Petroleum website).

In the North Sea, Statoil, Norway's largest petroleum company, has been injecting a million tons per year of carbon dioxide into subsurface formations. These efforts are done to save the company $53 million per year in Norwegian taxes on carbon dioxide emissions. For Statoil, disposing of carbon dioxide is a cost-saving response to an environmental protection tax (see article on carbon dioxide emissions buried at sea).

Researchers at Western Michigan University are working on ways to create an income stream by using the billions of cubic feet of porous rock beneath Michigan as a disposal site for waste carbon dioxide. They envision developing injection well fields that are supplied by pipelines full of waste carbon dioxide gas emitted by coal-fired power plants, ethanol plants, cement factories and other facilities (see their article on geological carbon sequestration).

If carbon dioxide emissions become stringently regulated then it is likely that companies will try to find ways to match the production of waste carbon dioxide and uses of that gas for economic gain. Secondary oil recovery could consume very large amounts of carbon dioxide. The gas is also used for methanol production, urea production, propellants, refrigerants and many other minor uses (see uses of carbon dioxide at the UIG website).

Labels: Global-Warming

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Animation by Geology.com - Images by NOAA

Hurricane Tracks are hard to predict!

One week ago it looked like "Hurricane Ernesto" would rake across Cuba and attack the central Gulf of Mexico coast of the United States - possibly making a direct hit on New Orleans. Ernesto clearly demonstrated that predicting the path of a hurricane is tricky business.

Ernesto veered north, degrading to Tropical Storm Ernesto as it passed over Florida and reducing to a tropical depression as it entered the Mid-Atlantic states. However, tropical storms and tropical depressions can still cause a lot of damage and disruption.

By Saturday, Ernesto had cut power to nearly one half million people, forced evacuations and caused heavy flooding in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Portions of North Carolina and Virginia received up to one foot of rainfall.

When most people think about hurricanes and tropical storms their mind goes straight to Louisiana, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Ernesto demonstrated that these storms can bring problems much farther north.

Labels: Hurricanes

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USGS image by C. Newhall - September, 1984

In early August, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recommended an evacuation of thousands of people who live within a danger zone surrounding Mayon volcano and the Philippine government responded with an evacuation order (see our previous post).

Mayon continues its activity and remains dangerous in the opinion of the PIVS. The evacuated people remain in numerous temporary evacuation centers which provide uncomfortable accommodations which are expensive for the government to maintain.

One of the main causes for concern is the possibility of pyroclastic flows (deadly clouds of hot gases and ash that can flow down the flank of the volcano at great speeds and run several miles from the volcano's base). During an eruption in 1993, seventy seven people were killed by Mayon's pyroclastic flows. The images (below and right) show pyroclastic flows descending Mayon during a 1984 eruption.


USGS image by C. Newhall - September, 1984
Read more about Mayon Volcano in a story at Yahoo! News.

Labels: Volcanoes

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