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Geology News
Arizona Current Events

The Sierra Club is not satisfied with the environmental protection measures of coal-fired power plants in seven states. The Club’s most recent effort targets plants in Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Missouri and Wyoming for failing to include adequate pollution controls for mercury and other toxics.

Highway 87, known as the “Beeline Highway” was closed for six days near Slate Creek, between Sunflower and Rye, by a large landslide. Safe passage is now possible although work is still being done to reconstruct southbound lanes damaged by the slide.

A new title has been added to the “Geology Underfoot” series. Lon Abbott and Terri Cook have published “Geology Underfoot In Northern Arizona”. It contains lots of information on topics such as: The Colorado River and Glen Canyon Dam, Antelope Canyon, Navajo National Monument and Black Mesa, Monument Valley, The Grand Canyon and the Gorge of the Little Colorado River, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, The San Francisco Volcanic Field, Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest National Park, Montezuma Castle National Monument, Tonto Bridge State Park and a lot more. Did you remember that there are so many world class things to see in Northern Arizona?

I really like to see publications like this placed on the web where citizens have free access to valuable information prepared by government agencies. This publication includes chapters on floods, earthquakes, problem soils, mass movements, subsidence and earth fissures, radon, karst, abandon mines, volcanic hazards and radon. Every state should have a publication like this on their website.

A bill in the Arizona Legislature could mandate assessment methods used in public educational institutions and require educators to develop their assignments very carefully. If this bill goes to law, teachers and professors (yes, professors - it says “public educational institutions”) will have to count as correct any answers that require content that could be drawn from the student’s religious experience.

“A report published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) contains a regional map and associated database that inventory 121 locations of reported natural asbestos and fibrous amphibole occurrences in the Southwestern United States, including Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.” Quoted from the USGS release.

Last week, Arizona’s Grand Canyon was flooded in an effort to improve the area’s ecosystem. Now that the waters have subsided, we can begin to see the effects.

After more than 10 years of preparation, the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham, Arizona is now up and running. It is the world’s largest and most powerful telescope to date. With some modification, it should be able to view outer space ten times more clearly than the Hubble Space Telescope.

Arizona’s Grand Canyon has been artificially flooded in an effort to improve the area’s ecosystem. The BBC tells the story through a series of interesting photos.

The University of Arizona Faculty Senate accepted a proposal to eliminate the geological engineering undergraduate major and merge the degree with Mining Engineering. Low enrollments and budget cuts were cited as the cause. The new degree will be a B.S. in Mining and Geological Engineering.

Here is a list of the news items that were most popular with our readers for February 2008…

• New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Discovered in Mexico
• Coal Through a Microscope
• Volcanoes May Have Caused the Little Ice Ages
• Plastic: The Scourge of Sea Life
• Sir Charles Lyell’s Elements of Geology
• Photos from the Tucson Gem and Minerals Show
• Meteorites from Mercury
• Heated Debate Over the Definition of a Planet
• Theories on Grand Canyon Formation
• Who Buys High End Mineral Specimens?

The Bureau of Reclamation is testing the environmental impact of a high flow experiment for the Colorado River. “During the high-flow experiment, Reclamation will release water through Glen Canyon Dam’s powerplant and bypass tubes to a maximum amount of approximately 41,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) for about 60 hours. Current operational plans call for the experimental flows to begin increasing in the evening on March 4th, with powerplant bypass flows to begin on March 5th.”

This article by Joel Pederson explores the path of the pre–Grand Canyon Colorado River and how it came to its present course.

Arizona produced over $7 billion in non-fuel minerals during 2007, making it the leading non-fuel mineral producer in the United States. This is the third consecutive year that Arizona has been the US leader.

NOAA’s Seasonal Drought Outlook shows developing drought conditions continuing in the southern United States with areas of developing drought in Florida, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.

A new publication from USGS. “Flagstaff is becoming warmer and drier. Estimated average-daily temperatures of the Flagstaff area are 2.3-degrees warmer since 1970 and annual precipitation at Flagstaff has been below average for nine of 11 years since 1996. Rising temperatures in the area parallel those of global-surface temperatures, particularly the rapid rise since the early 1970s.” Quoted from the USGS release.

There are over 3000 vendors at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, so planning ahead is important. Arizona Vacation Planners have a list of good tips to help you make the most of the show.

“An experiment using high flows from Glen Canyon Dam to study and improve Colorado River resources in Grand Canyon National Park has been proposed by the Department of the Interior. The goal is to better understand whether higher flows can be used to rebuild eroded beaches downstream of Glen Canyon Dam by moving sand accumulated in the riverbed onto sandbars. The 2008 test would be different than previous high-flow tests conducted in 1996 and 2004.”

John Wesley Powell was a soldier, an explorer and the first director of the United States Geological Survey - amoung other things. The Arizona Republic has a short biography about him that you can read in a few minutes.

The asteroid on a possible collision path with Mars was discovered by astronomers at the University of Arizona. They estimate that it is about 164 feet wide, traveling at about 8 miles per second and if it hits Mars it will create a crater about the size of Meteor Crater in northern Arizona.

NASA Image

An asteroid known as 2007 WD5 is speeding towards Mars and scientists believe that it has a small chance of hitting the planet in January. It could make a hole in Mars about the same size as the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona.

Earth fissures are cracks in the ground that are often associated with heavy ground water production. They have been a special problem in Pinal County, Arizona. This article presents the problem and refers to a free downloadable report on Land Subsidence and Earth Fissures at the Arizona Geological Survey’s website.

Pictographs are a form of “rock art” in which people paint an image on the rock. Explore a worldwide collection of ancient pictograph images from Arizona, Aruba, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Namibia, Nevada and Utah.

USGS Image

Earth fissures are caused by differing subsidence rates and magnitudes associated with groundwater pumping in alluvial basins. In this article, Ravi Murthy and Jon Benoist, both with the Arizona Department of Water Resources, examine the impact that earth fissuring has on embankment dams used for flood control. Submitted by Randy Post.

Kevin Lange © iStockphoto.com

A petroglyph is an image that has been carved into a rock. People have been making them for thousands of years. This photographic collection of petroglyphs includes rock art from Arizona, British Columbia, California, Hawaii, India, Namibia, New Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Utah, Virgin Islands and Washington.

Arizona Geological Survey Image

The Arizona Geological Survey is taking advantage of the web to educate the public about earth fissures and to make their data widely available. The AGS website has educational information, a press release, maps and contact information for anyone who is interested in earth fissures. They also report that 20,000 earth fissure planning maps have been downloaded from their website!

Should geologists be allowed to use precision GPS units as a routine part of their field work? I think that in many situations it would be irresponsible not to use them. Some surveyors in Arizona feel that the use of these devices for mapping earth’s physical features should be restricted to those who hold a surveyor’s license.

A municipal well in Chandler, Arizona produces naturally hot water that is delivered to residential taps at up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit - and sometimes higher. Although people who are supplied by the well do not have “cold running water” but the city enjoys its 3 million gallons per day production capacity. We know some people in northern climates who would love to own that well!

Geophysicists at Arizona State University have discovered a molten layer about ten miles in thickness beneath much of the United States Southwest. The layer is about 250 miles below the surface and was located using a technique known as geomagnetic depth sounding or magnetotellurics, which measures changes in the electrical conductivity of rocks at different depths.

Arizona Map

Randy Pellatz, assistant director of utilities for the city of Flagstaff says that eight years of drought and a growing population is causing serious water supply problems. Since 1990 the population has grown from 45,000 to 62,000 and the reservoir that provides 40% of the city’s water is down to 18 percent of normal levels. Although water for human use is a priority concern, the most serious threat that they face is wildfire. And, since Arizona is the US state with the fastest growing population the water supply problem will likely remain even if the rains return.

House.gov Image

A short article at AZ Central describes several historic Arizona Mining scams. Stories of salting real estate with gold, diamonds and other precious minerals to add value to otherwise worthless properties; deceptive stock sales; pump-and-dump stock sales and presenting false assay reports. These schemes have taken investors and others for millions of dollars.

Colorado Rivers

A six-decade-long drought between 1118 and 1179 in the Colorado River Basin has been documented by tree ring climate reconstructions. This medieval drought could serve as a model of what might happen given the trends of global climate change that we experience today. This study done by researchers at the University of Arizona is producing one of the longest records of climate record that has been done to date in the southwestern United States.

Pennsylvania Satellite Image

Composite Landsat images of each US state with state boundaries. Favorites include: Arizona (see Grand Canyon, National Forests, cities, Painted Desert visible), Colorado (views of the Rockies and eastern farmlands), Pennsylvania (view the folded Appalachians), Utah (salt flats, canyons, deserts and forests),Washington (volcanoes, rivers, cities and farmland).