Modern Rock Tumbling by Steve Hart is the most up-to-date book on the rock tumbling hobby. It explains the tumbling process completely and provides enough detail that you should produce excellent results if you follow his instructions.
A new technology for processing low-grade phosphate rock into phosphoric acid for fertilizer production without creating phosphogypsum could increase Florida’s useful phosphate rock resource.
“The chances of rogue fractures due to shale gas fracking operations extending beyond 0.6 kilometres from the injection source is a fraction of one percent, according to new research led by Durham University. The analysis is based on data from thousands of fracking operations in the USA and natural rock fractures in Europe and Africa.” Quoted from the Durham University press release.
Most people are familiar with talcum powder, but did you know that the mineral talc is used to make ceramics, paper, rubber, paint, cosmetics, insecticides and many other products?
“A new Shale Resources and Society Institute [...] will serve as a resource to help the public, policymakers and other stakeholders understand shale’s potential as an energy resource. The goal of the institute is to provide accurate, research-based information on the development of shale and other unconventional resources.” Quoted from the University at Buffalo press release.
“The Atlantis Massif, an undersea mountain, or seamount, formed in a very different way than the majority of the seafloor in the oceans. Unlike volcanic seamounts, which are made of the basalt that’s typical of most of the seafloor, Atlantis Massif includes rock types that are usually only found much deeper in the ocean crust, such as gabbro and peridotite.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.
Jessica Ball has some photos of a recent fossil collecting trip along the shoreline of Lake Erie. They found some nice corals, trilobites and brachiopods.
The Baker Hughes Reservoir Blog has an interesting article that explains how natural gas occurs in shale and how that gas might have formed….. “Gas produced from shale reservoirs may either be thermogenic or biogenic or a combination.”
You might have heard about soapstone being used in cooking pots, wood stoves, fireplace surrounds, bed warmers and smoking pipes because of its ability to absorb heat and release it slowly. Now, here’s one for the cold.
Iowa does not have any current oil or gas production, however, it is underlain by rock units that some believe have an outside chance of yielding oil or natural gas through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This article in the Des Moines Register reveals some of the people who are betting and why.
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.
In the 1970′s a rock brought back from the Moon was broken into 370 pieces and shared with 135 different countries and each of the fifty states. Now nobody knows what happened to some of these rocks.
“Now, we have a study in Nature that discusses the magmatic events that led up to the Minoan eruption at Santorini — a fairly timely topic considering the rumblings there — that has gotten the media’s attention.” Quoted from the Eruptions Blog.
“This project aims to map the location of a graveyards around the globe and then use marble gravestones in those graveyards to measure the weathering rate of marble at that location.” Quoted from the project website.
“The appearance of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere probably did not occur as a single event, but as a long series of starts and stops, according to an international team of researchers who investigated rock cores from the FAR DEEP project.” Quoted from the Penn State press release.
This is a great time to introduce kids to earth science with age-appropriate books. The geology.com store has children’s books on topics that include: dinosaurs, rocks, minerals, fossils, gemstones, volcanoes and more.
Rock tumblers have been manufactured and sold to hobbyists since the 1950′s. The first machines tumbled rocks in metal cans. Since then rubber barrels have significantly reduce the noise, however rotary machines still require at least one month to convert rough rock into brightly polished stones. However, newer vibratory tumblers can process rock in a little over a week. Christmas is great time to try rock tumbling, revive your interest or introduce another person to to the hobby.
“By analyzing carbonate minerals in a four-billion-year-old meteorite that originated near the surface of Mars, the scientists determined that the minerals formed at about 18 degrees Celsius (64 degrees Fahrenheit).”
A geologists has a rare opportunity to be a first-hand witness to how some rocks in Chile’s Atacama Desert are sculpted into unusual shapes by brief periods of “earthquake abrasion”.
“Research on carbon sequestration provides critical information for considering mitigation options for greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere and adaptation opportunities for climate change.” Quoted from the USGS science features.
“Millbillillie meteorites are volcanic rock from other worlds, and are comprised largely of silicate minerals. [...] Some meteoriticists believe that the HED group meteorites may have come to us from the large asteroid Vesta” Quoted from the Meteorite Blog. This article has some great photos.
“Floating rafts of volcanic pumice could have played a significant role in the origins of life on Earth, scientists from Oxford University and the University of Western Australia have suggested.” Quoted from the University of Oxford news release.
The Vermont Danby Quarry is the world’s largest underground marble mine. This video visits the mine and traces some of the marble through manufacturing and end use in National Cemeteries.
Climging Ayers Rock (Uluru), a large sandstone monolith in the Northern Territory, is one of Australia’s most popular tourist activities with over 100,000 visitors making the climb each year. However, popularity of the climb has been declining as Aboriginal people object to the activity and safety concerns increase. An article at CNN Global Experience explores this topic and features an Uluru photo gallery.
The thylacine went extinct on the Australian mainland about 3000 years ago. It was a powerful dog-like predator about the size of a Doberman. A thylacine is illustrated in a rock painting made by Aboriginal people in the Kakadu area of Western Australia.
“We now know that fluids from deeper parts of the subduction zone system have percolated up through the layers of sediment. Studying the composition and volume of these fluids, as well as how they have moved through the sediment, helps us better understand the relationship between the chemical, thermal and mass transfer activity in the seafloor and the earthquake-generating, or seismogenic, region of the plate boundary.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.
“This project aims to map the location of a graveyards around the globe and then use marble gravestones in those graveyards to measure the weathering rate of marble at that location.” Quoted from the Gravestone Project website.
“The weathering rates of gravestones are an indication of changes in the acidity of rainfall between locations and over time [...] the acidity is affected by air pollution and other factors, and could be used as a measure of changes in climate and pollution levels.” Quoted from Megan Kawamoto’s Gravestone Project page.
“A CO2 Plume Geothermal system (CPG) provides a number of advantages over other geothermal systems. [...] First, CO2 travels more easily than water through porous rock, so it can extract heat more readily. As a result, CPG can be used in regions where conventional geothermal electricity production would not make sense from a technical or economic standpoint. [...] CPG also offers the benefit of preventing CO2 from reaching the atmosphere by sequestering it deep underground, where it cannot contribute to climate change. In addition, because pure CO2 is less likely than water to dissolve the material around it, CPG reduces the risk of a geothermal system not being able to operate for long times due to “short-circuiting” or plugging the flow of fluid through the hot rocks.” Quoted from the University of Minnesota press release.
“Scientists and drillers recovered a remarkable suite of heat-tempered basalts that provide a detailed picture of the rarely seen boundary between magma and seawater. These samples were collected during a return to ODP Hole 1256D, one of the deepest “hard rock” penetration sites of scientific ocean drilling.” Quoted from the IODP press release.
Jessica Ball has a new blog post about hunting obsidian in the Santa Fe National Forest. It includes a link to the rules for low-impact, casual rock collecting on National Forest lands.
“Applying cutting-edge technology to samples of ancient rocks from northern Canada has revealed the carbon-based minerals may be much younger than the rock they inhabit.” Quoted from the Boston College press release.
The market for dimension stone declined sharply during the recession as construction and prestige architecture projects were cut back and cancelled. However, 2010 was a better year with apparent consumption up over 20%. Imports continue to account for over 80% of the stone used.
We now have collections of rocks, minerals and fossils for classroom or personal study. Each collection is contained in a compartmented box for easy storage and use. These kits are perfect for students or anyone who wants to learn about geology or earth science.
A short article at NewScientist.com features a world map of surface permeability. It is a highly generalized map that might contribute to understanding Earth’s water cycle on a regional basis.
Uraniumcontamination may move much slower in groundwater than previously believed. [...] Knowing how uranium spreads out or diffuses in water is critical to predicting its movement and removing the contamination. But previous estimates may have significantly overestimated the radionuclide’s ability to move with the groundwater. Quoted from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory press release.
If you have ever observed a classroom where the teacher introduces students to hands-on-materials such as mineral specimens, fossils or rocks you know how excited students become about learning. You can make that happen in a classroom where the teacher is short on supplies but dedicated enough to ask for your help. You choose the project that you would like to help. You can give as much or as little as you can afford. That’s what happens at DonorsChoose.org.
Teachers ask. You choose. Students Learn.
Waterproof Paper.com is affiliated with Geology.com.
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.
Earth Observatory has a spectacular astronaut photo of tidal flats and tidal channels on the Bahamas Platform. The Bahamas is one of Earth best examples of a carbonate environment where the sediments that might eventually form limestone are deposited.
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