Geology News
Georgia Current Events

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.

Pamela Gore and William Witherspoon have recently published “Roadside Geology of Georgia“, a new guidebook in the Mountain Press Roadside Geology Series.

This is a field guidebook for the state of Georgia with road logs and maps that describe the physical and historical geology.

Geology.com and RockTumbler.com are both GeoShops.com websites.

Lots of people enjoy going to fee mining sites where you can prospect inactive surface mines, mine tailings, soil, sediments or outcrops and keep any rocks, gems, minerals or fossils that you find. Examples include: Herkimer Diamond Mines where you can search for doubly-terminated quartz crystals, and Crater of Diamonds where you might be lucky enough to find a real diamond.

Royal Dutch Shell and El Paso Pipeline Partners hope to develop a natural gas liquefaction plant near Savannah that will export LNG.

An article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on a few companies who are researching, leasing and drilling test holes in the shales of Georgia.

Did you know that most homeowners insurance policies do not cover damage from any type of subsidence? That includes collapse from sinkholes, oil production, ground water pumping and underground mining activity. Most insurance companies offering homeowners coverage exclude almost any type of geologic hazard from coverage – unless you make specific arrangements to acquire it yourself.

The folks at MyTopo.com are now printing supersized topo maps; large enough make a huge 8′ x 5′ (or 5′ x 8′) 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.

We are affiliates of MyTopo.com and receive a commission on sales.

How Much Does Exxon Profit on a Gallon of Gasoline?

Pompeii in Ruins, Again

Messier 107 Star Cluster

The Overlooked Natural Gas Basins?

Wyoming Rare Earth Deposit

Landslides Waiting to Happen

In the eastern United States the natural gas rush has focused on the Appalachian Basin. However, there are over a dozen minor basins along the east coast that have received very little attention.

“Since about 1990, sea-level rise in the 600-mile stretch of coastal zone from Cape Hatteras, N.C. to north of Boston, Mass. — coined a “hotspot” by scientists — has increased 2 – 3.7 millimeters per year; the global increase over the same period was 0.6 – 1.0 millimeter per year.” Quoted from the USGS press release.

Related: Sea Level Rise – New York, Washington DC

The United States Geological Survey has published Fact Sheet 2012–3075…

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources of the East Coast Mesozoic Basins of the Piedmont, Blue Ridge Thrust Belt, Atlantic Coastal Plain, and New England Provinces, 2011.

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.

Tropical Storm Beryl is expected to produce dangerous rip currents as it moves along the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

NOAA Article: How do rip currents form?

El Paso Corporation seeks government authorization to export up to 1/2 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day from its Elba Island, Georgia terminal.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to approve Southern Company’s application to build and operate two new nuclear reactors [...] near Augusta, Georgia. The combined construction and operating license will make the Vogtle units the first to receive construction approval in over 30 years.

USGS has recently published: “Monitoring Floods and Fires during the Summer of 2011 — The Value of the Landsat Satellite 40-Year Archive“

USGS has recently published: “Shallow Coal Exploration Drill-Hole Data—Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas”. Data is available by state in MS Excel files.