Geology News
Interesting Current Events

This video compresses a two month view from the bow of an ice breaker travelling through the Ross Sea of Antarctica into less then five minutes. Watch for the wildlife surprise at the end.

An article on NationalGeographic.com explains how the popularity of “climbing Everest” has resulted in inexperienced climbers creating traffic jams on the mountain and littering the landscape. Ways to reverse this are explored.

Today, Raha Muharraq became the first woman from Saudi Arabia to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

The city of Aspen has been trying to get a geothermal project off of the ground for nearly two years but drilling has not been successful.

“In 2012, the United States became a net exporter of liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) for the first time. LPG includes the natural gas liquids (NGL) components ethane, propane, butanes, and marketed refinery olefins.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration press release.

ScienceMag.org has an article about proposed legislation that would assure that NSF funds are being spent on “high quality research”.

Maars are the second most common volcanic feature on Earth.

The largest maars are found on the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. Do you know what they are and how they form?

Spring and early summer are some of the most active times for ticks. Learn how to recognize ticks, how to avoid tick bites and how to remove a tick from your skin.

Triboluminescence is a flash of light produced when a material is subjected to friction, impact or breakage. The phenomenon is also known as fractoluminescence and mechanoluminescence. Triboluminescence is common in minerals because about 50% of crystalline materials are thought to exhibit the property.

ExxonMobil and Statoil ASA announced their third major natural gas discovery off the coast of Tanzania. This discovery, combined with those made off Mozambiqe and Kenya, makes East Africa an extremely promising area.

Ever since planets have been observed through telescopes Mars has been considered to be the best candidate for life beyond earth. Now some researchers believe that Jupiter’s moon Europa is the most promising place to easily find evidence of extraterrestrial life.

“Total U.S. liquid fuels consumption fell from 20.8 million bbl/d in 2005 to 18.6 million bbl/d in 2012. EIA expects total consumption to rise slightly over the next two years to an average of 18.7 million bbl/d in 2014, driven by increases in distillate fuel and liquefied petroleum gas consumption, with little change in gasoline and jet fuel consumption.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration Short-Term Energy Outlook.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day is a photograph of volcanic lightning at Sakurajima Volcano.

“Invasive animals are often most abundant in habitats impacted by humans, especially man-made habitats, such as roadsides, suburban and urban developments, and areas of intensive agricultural activity. Understanding why this is true may reveal important insights about the ecological mechanisms that help determine the success and impact of many invasive species.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.

This short video by John Dyer explains the characteristics of well-cut and poorly-cut faceted gemstones. Beautiful faceted stones are a combination of great mineralogy and great craftsmanship.

Ultraviolet light has been used to disinfect well water for decades. Now UV technology is being used to disinfect hospital rooms between patient stays.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “There are some places that Mother Nature owns” when he announced buy-outs of certain Hurricane Sandy impact properties.

“NASA’s Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

“Satellites show that the recent ozone hole over Antarctica was the smallest seen in the past decade. Long-term observations also reveal that Earth’s ozone has been strengthening following international agreements to protect this vital layer of the atmosphere.” Quoted from the European Space Agency press release.

An article on the University of Wisconsin-Madison news site explores some of the negative comments made in response to online science articles, news reports and blog posts… “Blogs have been a part of the new media landscape for quite some time now, but our study is the first to look at the potential effects blog comments have on public perceptions of science.”

“Two of NASA’s great observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, have teamed up to uncover a mysterious infant star that behaves like a strobe light. Every 25.34 days, the object, designated LRLL 54361, unleashes a burst of light.” Quoted from the NASA press release.

A prime number is an integer larger than one that is only evenly divisible by itself and one. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 17 are examples. There is an infinite number of prime numbers and Curtis Cooper recently discovered one with over 17 million digits.

This isn’t geology… but a guy in Maine makes a living by finding ancient logs that have been on the bottoms of lakes – usually for centuries. He then hoists them up to his pontoon boat, tows them to a mill and saws them into exotic lumber that sells at premium prices.

Giant Squid in the North Pacific

Every Field Geologist Should Know This…

Why Lava Has a Red Glow

Falling Water Levels in the Great Lakes

Eruption at Copahue

How Deep Does Magma Form?

M6.1 Earthquake on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge

2012: Hottest and Second Most Extreme

Did you ever wonder why lava flows glow red, why natural gas flames are blue and why candle flames are orange? Now you can find out….

If you are in the field and it starts to rain…. should you run to the truck or should you walk?

Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a large asteroid belt around the star Vega, the second brightest star in northern night skies.

Troglobites are small creatures that have adapted to a permanent life in a cave. They are so well adapted to life in a cave that they would be unable to survive in the surface environment. To survive in the darkness troglobites have highly-developed senses of hearing, touch and smell.

Physicists at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have been able to produce temperatures below absolute zero – something that was thought to be impossible.

The British Antarctic Survey team encountered drilling difficulties in their attempt to drill through 3 kilomters of Antarctic ice and into the subglacial waters of Lake Ellsworth. They will return to the UK to decide if a new attempt is possible.