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Geology News
Engineering Geology Current Events

A landfill in Stark County, Ohio has seen numerous problems which include: an underground fire, slope stability, liner leaks and more. It is one of the largest landfills in the state.

Houston Satellite Image

Researchers at the University of Houston used advanced radar-like laser technology to map the location of more than 300 surface faults in Harris County, Texas. The new, most accurate map of these faults produced to date, might prove to be valuable to planners and mitigation studies.

The 2007 Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities has released the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast - the first comprehensive framework for comparing earthquake likelihoods throughout all of California. It provides important new information for improving seismic safety engineering, revising building codes, setting insurance rates, and helping communities prepare for inevitable future earthquakes.

Here’s a source of printable polar coordinate graph paper that can be used to plot things like joint and fracture orientations, current directions, fossil orientations or any type of data that is collected in degrees. These are .pdf files that you can easily download and print. Bookmark it for easy access when you need it.

The Philippines office of Mines and Geosciences recommends relocation of many residents on the flank of Mt. Diwalwal after finding large fissures in the ground. Mining activity is being blamed.

Over 50,000 squatter families have taken refuge on a waste dump in the Philippines that has been placed as fill along the shoreline of Laguna de Bay. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology says that this area has a very high risk of liquefaction. Earthquakes shake this area frequently.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have new regulations for the restoration of wetlands and streams. These regulations have already stirred a lot of discussion on how wetlands will be treated during construction and development projects.

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.

The California Geological Survey continues to release more seismic hazard zonation maps for the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. The most recent are maps for Dublin and Livermore Quadrangles. These maps and many others can be viewed as .pdf files on their websites.

The Soil Science Society of America has a publication on the use of ground penetrating radar to do the following and more: identify soil layering, locate water tables, follow wetting front movement, estimate soil water content, assist in subsurface hydraulic parameter identification, assess soil salinity, and support the monitoring of contaminants.

The next big earthquake on the Hayward Fault could have five million people feeling strong shaking and cause property damage over $165 Billion.

An article at GEOTIMES documents the removal of Marmot Dam from the Sandy River in northwestern Oregon. Learn what happens when a hydroelectric dam is removed from a river after more than 90 years.

Subsidence of about 1 mm per week has been experienced in the town of Staufen, located in southwestern Germany after a geothermal heating system was installed in a public building.

The National Science Foundation convened a committee of experts who identified several challenges which, if solved, would improve the quality of life worldwide. They are listed below but you can vote for the one you think is most important at EngineeringChallenges.org. You can also see the results of voting so far.

• Make solar energy affordable
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools for scientific discovery

NASA Landsat

A class-action suit against the US Army Corps of Engineers filed by citizens who suffered loss during the New Orleans flooding was thrown out by a federal judge. The judge used the Flood Control Act of 1928 to rule that the Corps could not be held accountable for levee and canal failures.

Members of the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering selected ten achievements for 2007. Three of them were related to earth science: Ultra-deep drilling rig developed, World’s largest bird-like dinosaur fossil found, and, “Chang’e-1″ successfully launched and clear moon surface images obtained.

Coal production in the United States declined slightly - about 1.4 percent (tonnage) - in 2007. The decline was mainly a result of weak demand from utility companies and hit the Appalachian states hardest.

A $1.8 billion research project was approved for construction near Mattoon, Illinois. This plant will produce electricity from coal and sequester the carbon dioxide in subsurface rock units.

In most gas fields the reservoir rock is the target of drilling. However in this case the source rock is also the reservoir. Drilling for the Barnett is happening in parts of 15 counties, with many of the wells being drilled in the urban setting of the Fort Worth metropolitan area.

About 30 miles of tunnels have been driven through the Rock of Gibraltar. Some of these tunnels were built as early as the 1700’s to open gun ports facing the Isthmus. This is another VOX article by Freddie Gomez and it describes some of the tunneling methods used for these early tunnels.

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.

Freddie Gomez has his third article on the geology of Gibraltar on the VOX website. This one is on the geology of urban development. It features building stones, construction materials and a little engineering geology.

Scientists in the Netherlands have examined the possibility of damming the Red Sea for hydroelectric power. Such a project could produce a large amount of electricity and save carbon emissions but it could also cause ecological harm that might exceed the benefits.

The Three Gorges Dam was build to generate clean electricity, control flooding and improve shipping on the Yangtze. However it has more than its share of environmental problems. This article explores some of the problems which include: landslides, erosion, tremors and more.

Carbon dioxide is one of the problem gases of global climate change and a product of fossil fuel combustion. Many researchers are looking for ways to capture and hold the gas so that it does not enter the atmosphere. This article reports on the idea that the enormous flood basalts of the Pacific Northwest might be a possible place to store some CO₂.

Scientists using highly sensitive seismic detectors on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington and on Vancouver Island, British Columbia have found that the strength of faint tremors increases during periods of high tide and decreases during periods of low tide.

Shanghai continues to see annual subsidence of a few millimaters per year. Some of the subsidence is blamed on downtown construction activities (ground water pumping associated with excavation dewatering can lead to subsidence). The government is banning pumping for industrial and agricultural purposes.

Within the Pittsburgh city limits a homeowner has underground water that flows from his property onto a city street. Should he be fined for that discharge or should he receive government aid? This article explores a few of the many abandoned mine problems in Pennsylvania. Statewide over a million homes are above underground mines, but only 58,000 subsidence insurance policies have been written.

Netherlands Satellite Image

The Dutch have been fighting to hold the sea back for a long time and global climate change is expected to make their job a lot more difficult in the coming years. This article explores what’s ahead for them and how they might respond.

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.

An abandoned mine collapsed right across the street from the K-12 school campus in Galena, Kansas. Fortunately the sinkhole developed in a vacant lot and there were no injuries. Galena has a long history of subsidence problems. On the same day the city was awarded $250,000 to asses the subsidence problems.

JAXA Image

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency used data acquired by the Advanced Land Observing Satellite “Daichi” (ALOS) satellite from January 16th 2007 and July 19th 2007 to map patterns of subsidence and uplift that are most likely caused by the recent 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake.

London Landsat Image

London, a home to over one million people, has large areas which are only slightly above sea level. The Environment Agency is conducting studies to determine subsidence rates in the London and Thames Estuary. Subsidence combined with sea level rise are causing significant concern.

NASA Landsat

There is a lot of controversy in Galveston. This low-elevation community on a barrier island has a proposal to build 4000 new housing units and two mid-rise hotels. Geologists who have studied the plans say that it has serious flaws which include topography changes and excavation for artificial lakes and boat channels. The proposal amounts to the largest development in the city’s history.

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.

Netherlands Satellite Image

About 55 percent of the Netherlands is already below sealevel and global warming promises higher sealevels with every passing year. Their vast system of dikes, seawalls and storm-surge barriers is an expensive protection system to keep out the sea. How will the Dutch cope with rising sealevels and steady subsidence - which together could increase the sealevel problem by up to one centimeter per year.

NPS Image

The Jefferson Memorial was built in the late 1930’s on pilings and caissons that were sunk into fill that is up to 100 feet deep. This fill in the Tidal Basin has been settling for decades. Minor subsidence damage was repaired in the past at the seawall and roads along the edge of the park. New subsidence in these areas needs prompt attention again.

Damage from earthquakes, floods, subsidence, landslides, expansive soils, and other geologic processes are not covered by the typical homeowners insurance policy. Thousands of people across the United States are learning very expensive geology lessons every year. This makes a strong case for geoscience education, easy access to professional opinion, and maybe some changes in the way that insurance is sold.

Energy.gov Image

Longwall mining involves the complete removal of a coal seam with the expectation of subsidence. This mining method is commonly done in the Pittsburgh Coal seam beneath large portions of western Pennsylvania. There, longwall mining in Consol’s Bailey Mine, which is about 1000 feet below Ryerson Station State Park is blamed for a crack in the Duke Lake dam. This crack led to draining of the dam out of safety concerns. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation has filed a “notice of intent to sue” against Consol.

India

Predicted sea level increases will cause serious problems for the city of Mumbai, India. Low-lying areas, poor drainage, subsidence and important transportation and other facilities in flood-prone parts of the city are some of the special concerns for this financial capital. The city is particularly vulnerable to storm surge and other events that could produce high water levels.