“Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program.” Quoted from the USGS press release.
Since 1972 the “Roadside Geology” series has provided introductory information on the geology of states and small regions of the United States. The books provide a combination of maps, travel logs, photos and commentary for the geology that can be seen along highways or visited at parks and public viewing areas. They are popular with geologists and others who are interested in the Earth.
This open-file report presents materials from the 2012 Southwest Wildfire Hydrology & Hazards Workshop, including the workshop schedule, presentation abstracts, and a list of attendees. The oral presentations and posters are part of this report and are available for viewing.
Abandoned mines and quarries are dangerous places! Every year about 20 to 30 people die in accidents that occur in abandoned mines across the United States. The victims range in age from preschool children to an 85 year-old mining veteran.
“Our study describes a methodology to assimilate geologic, seismologic, and geodetic data surrounding a seismic fault to form a physical model of the cycle of earthquakes that has predictive power,” says Sylvain Barbot, a postdoctoral scholar in geology at Caltech. Quoted from the Caltech press release.
USGS has developed a working “Shake Alert” system that will send early warnings that arrive from a few seconds to as much as 90 seconds before earthquake vibrations. Unfortunately, very few people/institutions are able to receive these potentially life-saving warnings. The reason: the project needs more funding.
Fragments thought to be part of the fireball that was seen in daylight by people from Las Vegas to San Francisco have been found near Lotus California.
“The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an estimate of volumes of technically recoverable, conventional oil that could eventually be added to reserves in nine selected major oil fields in the San Joaquin Basin in central California.” Quoted from the USGS press release.
A small asteroid about the size of a minivan is thought to be responsible for a sonic boom that was heard by millions of people in California and Nevada.
One would think that lots of people in California have earthquake insurance coverage on their home and business. An article in The Orange County Register reports that 88% of homeowners and 90% of businesses are not covered.
There are three possible solutions for the landslide that destroyed a 900-foot stretch of Paseo del Mar in September, 2011. A) build a bridge, B) build a road through a nature preserve, C) terminate the Paseo del Mar.
An article on the New York Times website explores the impact of sea level rise on the United States. Coastal flooding is expected to become much more common in the near future and millions of people could be displaced by rising waters. Florida, New York, Loisiana, California and the Chesapeake area are at particular risk.
The Los Angeles Times has photos of a 340-ton piece of granite being delivered to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The transport vehicle is enormous and has 176 wheels. Sorry, it’s not part of a geology exhibit.
“The importance of hydropower as a source of electricity generation varies by geographic region. While hydropower accounted for 6% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2010, it provided over half of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest.” Quote from the Energy Information Administration article.
This time of year in Yosemite National Park sometimes produces a unique phenomenon of illumination. The rays of the sun catch the water of Horsetail Fall at the perfect angle to make it glow like flowing lava.
“More than 500 volcanic vents have been identified in the State of California. At least 76 of these vents have erupted, some repeatedly, during the last 10,000 years. … Sooner or later, volcanoes in California will erupt again, and they could have serious impacts on the health and safety of the State’s citizens as well as on its economy.” Quoted from the USGS press release.
Recent research on Ubehebe Crater of California’s Death Valley reveals that it last erupted about 800 years ago instead of the previously-believed date of several thousand years ago. Erik Klementti comments on this new date.
“More than 500 volcanic vents have been identified in the State of California. At least 76 of these vents have erupted, some repeatedly, during the last 10,000 yr. Past volcanic activity has ranged in scale and type from small rhyolitic and basaltic eruptions through large catastrophic rhyolitic eruptions.” Quoted from the USGS report.
An article in the Los Angeles Times reports that the California Department of Transportation would like to abandon State Highway 39 because landslide and other problems are costing $1.5 million per year to repair.
The-Vug.com has an impressive listing of mineral clubs organized by state. You might be surprised at how many clubs are listed and there is probably one that meets within a short drive of your home.
Damage caused by a landslide that cut off the Paseo Del Mar highway near San Pedro, California appears to be confined to an area fenced off by the city. The Contra Costa Times has a photo showing the severity of damage.
“In an attempt to better understand earthquakes and with the goal of one day being able to predict them, an international team of scientists and engineers headed to the heart of where earthquakes happen.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation news release.
An article on the Redding.com website considers the types of problems that will occur in the next eruption at Mt. Shasta. The mountain has erupted at least seven times in the past 4000 years.
The folks at MyTopo.com are now printing supersized topo maps – large enough make a huge 5′ x 8′ (or 8′ x 5′) map that will look fantastic on the wall of your office, conference room, lobby, cabin or den. These maps are custom-centered on any location that you pick using their online map-making tool. Lots of smaller sizes are also available.
We are affiliates of MyTopo.com and receive a commission on sales.
The National Weather Service expects strong Santa Ana winds to produce gusts of 80 miles per hour or higher in southern California on Thursday and Friday.
The University of Washington, the University of California Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology have each received $2 million for developing an earthquake warning system for the Pacific Northwest.
An article on the Forbes.com website reports that Molycorp is spending nearly $1 billion to restart its Mountain Pass Summit mine in California. Check out the Google map below if you want a quick look at the mine.
Raven Maps are beautiful examples of shaded-relief wall maps that display the elevation of a state in vibrant colors. These large maps look great in a classroom, den or office. Use one to mark the locations of your work or company.
Trout populations in the Eel River of California which now spawn in separate locations were for centuries confined by a landslide into a single area where interbreeding occurred.
This video takes you on a quick visit to the Molycorp rare earth elementmine at Mountain Pass, California and provides some background on rare earth elements.
In Californiaearthquake country many people do not have earthquake insurance coverage for their home. The median price for earthquake coverage in California is about $800.
Numerous earthquakes have been recorded on a short portion of the Hayward Fault near Berkeley. Retired UC Berkeley seismologist, Robert Uhrhammer, explains earthquake basics and details about these recent events.
The Loma Prieta Earthquake killed 63 people on October 17th, 1989. The earthquake that interrupted the World Series killed 63 people, injured thousands and destroyed thousands of homes. This San Andreas Fault event is also known as the “Santa Cruz Mountains Earthquake“.
“Geologists at Brown University have produced the most detailed picture of southern California’s lithosphere, which is crucial to understanding the geological forces that shaped the area.” Quoted from the Brown University news release.
“Earthquake prediction remains an imperfect science, but the best forecasts are about 10 times more accurate than a random prediction.” Quoted from the University of California-Davis news release.
“After more than a century of production, the Kern River Field in California is still pumping oil, thanks to steamflooding. We put high-pressure steam into reservoirs to reduce the oil’s viscosity and then pump it out of the ground.” Quoted from the Chevron website.
Teams of earthquake scientists did their best to identify locations in California where magnitude 4.9 or stronger earthquakes would occur over a five-year period. This article explains the experiment and how poorly the forecasts compared to earthquake occurrences.
Researchers are testing an earthquake early warning system that has the ability to give you a very brief warning before earthquake waves arrive. Wired and wireless communication signals travel faster than earthquake waves so when monitors near the source of an earthquake detect vibrations they can trigger warning signals that will be received before earthquake waves arrive. Japan already has an early warning system that warned millions of people on March 11th.
“California beach towns could face hefty economic losses caused by sea level rise in the next century, according to a new state-commissioned study conducted by economists at San Francisco State University.” Quoted from the San Francisco State University news release.
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