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Geology News
Great Websites Current Events

Here is a website where you can view USGS topographic maps and print them from .pdf documents.

There is no charge for the service. Check it out.

Here’s where you can get a variety of free printable graph papers in easy to use .pdf files. Grid paper, axis paper, isometric paper, ternary paper, polar paper and more.

“The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world’s first comprehensive Census of Marine Life – past, present, and future – will be released in 2010.” Quoted from the COML.org website.

Need triangular graph paper for ternary plots? Here is where you can download a free .pdf file and print all that you need. You can also get isometric paper, polar paper, grid paper, axis paper and more.

USGS has published “Ground-Water Availability in the United States” as USGS Circular 1323. “This report examines what is known about the Nation’s ground-water availability and outlines a program of study by the U.S. Geological Survey Ground-Water Resources Program to improve our understanding of ground-water availability in major aquifers across the Nation. The approach is designed to provide useful regional information for State and local agencies who manage ground-water resources, while providing the building blocks for a national assessment.” Quoted from the USGS release.

“The Earth Portal is a comprehensive resource for timely, objective, science-based information about the environment. It is a means for the global scientific community to come together to produce the first free, expert-driven, massively scaleable information resource on the environment, and to engage civil society in a public dialogue on the role of environmental issues in human affairs.” (from the EarthPortal “About” page)

NASA has dedicated part of their website to helping people learn about global climate change and its impact on the planet. They have videos about global change, an interactive sea level viewer, climate time machine, information about the spacecraft that study Earth, and much more.

Here is one of the best Geography Dictionaries on the web with over 1400 clearly-defined terms. It includes terms from physical and human geography as well as many terms from cartography, navigation and geolocation.

This is one to bookmark for future reference.

FEMA now has an online flood mapping system that allows you to view their Flood Insurance Rate Maps online. In addition you can zoom in on specific areas and produce printable .pdf files. Check out the sample below. In the past their system worked poorly but we just tried it again and it worked great. Check your address to see if you live in a flood hazard area.

Here’s a printable PDF map of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania

This paper can be difficult to find. Here’s a website where you can download a PDF and print it for free. Other hard-to-find graphing papers include polar, isometric and isometric dot – all as free PDF files.

NASA Image

Microsoft has created a tool which allows users to view objects in space from a “virtual telescope”. It is free to the general public.

NASA Image

An archive of NASA news releases, image galleries and articles on a variety of topics related to planetary geology, earth observation, global climate change, monitoring volcanoes, looking beyond our solar system, monitoring the oceans and more. A few of the most popular ones are:

• Monitoring Volcanoes from Space
• Photograph of Avalanches on Mars
• Glacial Sediments Add to Louisiana Coastal Subsidence
• Satellite Images of Marine Phytoplankton Blooms
• Sahara Dust Storms Lower Sea Surface Temperatures
• Satellite Measures Pollution From East Asia to North America

Here’s a Google map that serves USGS topo map tiles. You can browse topo maps in any of the 48 states and Canada and print a copy of these maps from a PDF document.

USGS has their Ground Water Atlas of the United States online. It describes the location, extent and geologic/hydrologic characteristics of the important aquifers of the United States.

Did you know that you can see the International Space Station orbiting the earth with your unaided eyes? It’s easy if you know when it is above your area and what part of the sky it will pass through. NASA has a website to help you see it.

Google has added contour lines to their terrain maps. They are not quite as detailed as USGS topos but for free-to-use maps they are very nice. Contour intervals vary depending upon local relief.

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.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has an educational website for children. “FEMA for Kids” has educational materials and activities for children, parents and teachers to help children better understand hazards, disasters, mitigation and more.

BBC has a special page dedicated to the topic of climate change. There you can find frequently updated news, research reports, features, video/audio clips, fact sheets, carbon calculator and more.

All waters can be expected to contain small amounts of contaminants. EPA sets standards for nearly 100 of the most common water contaminants. The standards are guides to be used in determining if water is safe for use.

The-Vug.com is a website owned by Justin Zzyzx and Brandy Naugle. Their goal is to provide a portal to mineral dealers on the web and updates when dealers add new materials to their website. The Vug also has a large list of articles, links to mineral museums, a list of mineral clubs, mineral show announcements and much more. If you like minerals check out The Vug.

The Devonian shales of the Appalachian Basin have long been known to be a source of difficult-to-recover natural gas. A Fredonia State College professor has calculated that Marcellus Shale might contain more than 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Detailed article on the Marcellus Shale

Marcellus Shale: News, Videos, Maps, Lease Information

USGS has a number of short courses online and on CD-ROM that are available for anyone to take. They cover a variety of surface water data collection methods.

Web-Based Classes

* Surface-Water Field Methods
* Measurement of Stream Discharge by Wading
* Stage-Discharge Relations – Basic Concepts
* Cableway Safety – Pre-use Inspection
* Overview of Data Collection at Gaging Stations
* Overview of roughness coefficients in western U.S. rivers

CD-Based Classes

* Stream Discharge Measurements Under Ice Cover
* Stream Discharge Measurements From Cableways
* Levels at Streamflow Gaging Stations- A CD-ROM Based Training Class
* Introduction to Suspended-Sediment Sampling

Yellowstone National Park has its first video web cam. You can use it to see Old Faithful Geyser erupt. When geysers such as Beehive, Lion, or Giantess are erupting, the camera will be aimed at them. Thanks to Rick Steele for sharing this information.

The Geothermal Laboratory at Southern Methodist University has an impressive collection of maps, databases and other information on the geothermal characteristics of North America. They also have information related to geothermal heat pumps for heating and cooling buildings.

Geologic Survey of Canada has put together a geothermal potential map of Canada. It classifies Canada into areas suitable for high temperature electrical generation (these are mainly in British Columbia and areas where warm water heat pumps/heat exchanges might be possible.

Here is a website that I have visited a few times that some readers of Geology.com might appreciate. This organization receives proposals for classroom projects, mainly from K-12 teachers, and posts them for review by anyone who would like to help.

This morning there were 18 projects returned in a search for “Geology” and scores of projects in searches for “Science”. Several were from teachers who would like to have mineral specimens, one teacher wanted a weather station (for years this teacher’s class graphed daily temperatures from a thermometer and students enjoyed learning that way), one teacher simply wanted paper and art supplies so students could draw as part of a science lesson.

Most were from schools in high needs areas. Some of the projects that I reviewed sounded great. If you would like to help, the support that you send goes to DonorsChoose.org. They purchase the materials and have them delivered to the school. You don’t have to pay for the entire project. You can contribute any amount.

Some enthusiastic K-12 teachers are trying to deliver the science that we enjoy to their students – and they hope to do it in a way that goes beyond the resources available. You might enjoy helping one of them.

The NASA Near Earth Object Program has a collection of animated orbit diagrams for the 911 known asteroids that have an orbit that is potentially hazardous to earth. Just click on the name of the asteroid to get a control panel that allows you to advance the orbit in increments or watch an animation.

The California Geological Survey has an area on their website where you can download a large number of geologic maps in .pdf format. There you can find 7.5 minute and 30×60 minute geologic maps, landslide maps, mineral production maps and more. A few other states are placing maps like these online and the USGS has an online National Geologic Map Database where you can do research and download some of the maps.

Lots of people are curious about meteorites or find an interesting rock that they suspect might be a meteorite. Here are links to some of the best-on-the web resources that you can use to get a preliminary answer. They can help you decide if your specimen might be a meteorite that is worth more detailed investigation.

See also: Have You Found a Space Rock?