Pets teach science...

Aerial views of eolian systems...

in a photogallery at Wired.com: Sublime Sand: Desert Dunes Seen from Space.

The high resolution images are, well, sublime.

Evolution going great,...

reports trilobite.

E-books outsell real books...

at Amazon.com on Christmas day, attributed to the record number of Kindle readers being given as gifts.

Here's the official press release which includes an interesting insight into what people were buying this commercial holiday season.

Don't be a sucker...

but use wet adhesion instead: Sucker-Footed Bats Actually Don’t Use Suction. Unlike most bats the diminutive Myzopoda aurita, shown above (click to enlarge), roosts with its head oriented upward.

Remember: bats need friends.

Compilation of stunning satellite images...

of Earth from Landsat 7. Most of these images are from the USGS/NASA web site Our Earth as Art.

Christmas Tree Cluster...

in the constellation Monoceros is shown in this image captured by the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak with the NOAO Mosaic CCD camera (click to enlarge). Collectively, the four astronomical objects in this image are referred to as NGC 2264.

Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOAO/AURA/NSF.

This well-monitored field site...

located near Castle Valley, Utah is part of a USGS-directed program in assessing the impact and change to microbiotic soils. And here's an excellent document on biological soil crusts (303 MB .pdf file).

Saturnian moon ballet...

Video credit: NASA/JPL.

Happy Festivus everyone!

What? You haven't heard of Festivus, nor do you celebrate it?

UPDATE: More about the holiday can be found here.

Fremont's mahonia...

(Mahonia fremontii) is arguably the most Christmas-y looking desert plant there is, somewhat resembling holly (click to enlarge).

Friends I met on the trail...

today during a walkabout in the valley (click to enlarge). These two mule deer bucks were among a herd of about nine healthy animals.

Winter commences today...

at 17:47 Universal Time (12:47 pm EST) when the Sun reaches its southernmost point below the celestial equator. The shortest day. And the longest night. (In the northern hemisphere, that is.) Learn more about the winter solstice.

So, have a happy solstice, everyone. The days are only going to start to get longer. Cheers.

Really, Smokey?

Gee, I didn't realize that sandstone and snow were so combustible.

The raw, unmanipulated data...

from nearly eight years of groundwater monitoring of five wells in the Rathdrum Prairie, Idaho (click to enlarge). The gaps represent points of time when the wells were being used for summer irrigation, or inaccessible due to snow, or I was traveling. Note, since 2004, the significant rising trend in the surface of the water table in all of the wells.

[Perhaps global climate change since 2004 is the cause for the increase. Heh.]

End of the world on standby...

as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) temporarily shuts down after initial testing and calibration runs.

That will, at least, allow everyone to enjoy the holidays.

Ice jam on the Colorado River...

shown above is evocative of the icy surface of Europa, one of the many moons of Jupiter, as shown below.

(Click each image to enlarge.) Note, in both cases, the larger blocks of ice that have separated and rotated, then frozen within a slushy matrix.

Excellent technical paper: Evidence for a subsurface ocean on Europa (.pdf file).

The corrrelation between geology...

and beer explained at Wired.com: Why Geologists Love Beer.

Alas, I must be an outlier, as I prefer a good single malt Scotch (or blue agave tequila) or a fine red wine (especially a nice Rioja Gran Reserva). Dang, it's too early in the day to tip a drink.

UPDATE: And this bit of advice: Don't be uncouth by adding ice to a good single malt.

Tear-pants weathering...

is the informal term given to this sharply-pinnacled surface texture found on carbonates in arid climates (it's actually a form of micro-karst; click to enlarge). And it's appropriately named, too. I sure wouldn't want to take a tumble on this surface, especially in shorts and t-shirt.

Wise words...

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

-- Albert Einstein

Commanding view of Moab...

from the Portal trail (click to enlarge). I hiked the dip slope of the Kayenta Formation today and examined countless sedimentary structures while enjoying both the solitude and the winter sun on this south-facing exposure. Priceless.

Free McWi-Fi...

with your cheeseburger: McDonald’s To Offer Free Wi-Fi At Most Locations.

Bravo! More businesses should follow this example.

Spokane's "unusual water supply"...

was mentioned in a 1930 article in the short-lived The Spokane Woman newspaper (click to enlarge), a relict accidentally discovered by a former student of mine. Here's his account of this interesting find:

"So I was sledge hammering my basement apart today and found an entire intact copy of an old local publication called "The Spokane Woman" that was being used as a shim for framing a door opening. The first page had a caption about the mysterious source of Spokane's water.

Enjoy,
Deacon"

We know today - 80 years later - that Spokane is indeed fortunate, with a bountiful water supply provided by the sole-source Spokane aquifer.

Thanks, DB, for sharing this with me, and the readers of this blog.

What I'm reading...

right now: The Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton. This tome is a historical recount of the period 1818-1909 during the quest for the elusive North West Passage through the Arctic Ocean.

The book is a gift from colleague RQ who attended my Sigma Xi talk last month about my travels above the Arctic Circle and who shares a similar interest in the polar north. Thanks, Bob!

A worthwhile essay...

at The Scientist: Promises, Promises. "Ill-judged predictions and projections can be embarrassing at best and, at worst, damaging to the authority of science and science policy."

And know this: computer models are not facts.

Seasoned greetings from southern Utah...

It's so easy...

even a cave man can do it: Start a Blog.

There he goes again...

exaggerating global climate change: Inconvenient truth for Al Gore as his North Pole sums don't add up. To wit:

In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

To which Dr. Maslowski had this to say:

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Hey, facts never seem to have gotten in the way of Gore's spinning. Here's yet another recent example. And let's not forget this gem either.

Magma conduit beneath Yellowstone...

presented as a three-dimensional model by researchers at the University of Utah (click to enlarge). Here are general articles, here and here, that describe this recent work performed by the Seismology and Active Tectonics Research Group that used seismic and gravimetric data to create the plume model.

Amazingly, the conduit appears to be plumbed as deeply as 410 miles. The research also reveals this surprise:

"The study's of Yellowstone's plume also suggests the same "hotspot" that feeds Yellowstone volcanism also triggered the Columbia River "flood basalts" that buried parts of Oregon, Washington state and Idaho with lava starting 17 million years ago."

Image credit: UUSATRG.

Natural ventilation of caves...

may affect speleothem growth rates according to a recent study. Link to technical abstract.

EWU administration feathers own nest...

during a statewide budget crisis that has resulted in numerous faculty layoffs. What am I talking about? Here's a list of administrative exempt positions that have been "reassigned" and have resulted in the listed monthly salary increases:

• Vice Provost, Academic Affairs $820.00
• Assistant Men's Basketball Coach $931.58
• Assistant Director CDSUA $ 317.00
• Magazine Editor $ 212.44
• Director, Marketing $ 946.20
• Associate Athletic Director $1,208.94
• Assistant Football Coach $1,275.00
• Interim Senior Admissions Advisor $ 533.34
• Interim Vice President Institutional Research $1,052.66
• Assistant Director, Academic Support Center $ 207.16
• EHS Center Services Manager $ 533.72
• Director, International Programs $1,431.10
• On-line Development Manager $ 499.98
• Senior Director, ITDS Chair $ 781.74
• Associate Vice President, Undergraduate Education $ 499.98

How does this benefit the average tuition paying student at EWU? Hard to say. Why don't you call EWU President Arevalo and ask him?

Personally, I vote no confidence in this academically destructive administration, the worst I've experienced in my 26 years at EWU.

Alpenglow in the high La Sals...

makes for a great end to a wintry and blustery day. The presently established El Nino weather pattern has draped the southern Rockies in abundant quantities of snow that makes me wish I brought my cross-country skis with me.

Another lousy winter day...

in Castle Valley, Utah (click to enlarge). The recent wave of snowstorms have dusted the slopes of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations creating this beautiful winter panorama. Enjoy.

Geothermal project in California...

shuts down due to a link to increased earthquake frequency. That's unfortunate since "millions of degrees of heat" will now go untapped as a virtually unlimited natural energy resource.

Three tall cold ones...

presented themselves during my flight from GEG to PDX and ultimately onto SLC (click to enlarge). From left to right, Mount Saint Helens, Mount Rainier, and Mount Adams. Off the wingtip (which is a free advertisement for my chosen airline), lies the escarpment from the Bonneville landslide, and if one looks closely, you can see the runout in the Columbia River gorge in the lower right of the image. Boy, this lousy image (3.2 Mp with my LG phone) just drips of geology.

So, as a geologist, it's an important consideration as to where you sit during a flight. One must factor the time of day (lighting) with the geology/geomorphology of the over flown terrain. In addition, I typically carry my GPS (Garmin's MAP60 CSx) when flying, with 1:100,000 scale maps loaded on the internal micro SD card, as I enjoy watching the detail of the topography scroll by on the display, with named peaks, towns and drainages.

Moreover, it's interesting to note some of the flight information using the GPS as well. For example, from PDX to SLC we were flying at ~41,000 ft (confirmed by the captain at mid-flight) at an airspeed of 553 mph, while the cabin was pressurized to ~8,200 ft.

I would add that on interminably long international flights it's best to get an aisle set (for the legroom and ease of access) in my opinion.

Wise words...

It is only by introducing the young to great literature, drama and music, and to the excitement of great science that we open to them the possibilities that lie within the human spirit - enable them to see visions and dream dreams.

-- Eric Anderson

World's tiniest snowman...

is just 0.01 mm wide, about one-fifth the width of a human hair. "It was assembled using tools designed to manipulate nano-particles, and welded together with tiny deposits of platinum. A focused ion beam was used to carve the eyes and smile, and to place the platinum nose."

Here's more about how these geeky scientists celebrate the holidays with a neato video.

Image credit: David Cox,Quantum Detection group, National Physical Laboratory, UK.

Migrating south during the winter break...

to my red rock retreat in southern Utah. Though the days are short, it's reliably sunny there this time of year, with lots of south-facing canyons beckoning for exploration. Will resume desert blogging upon arrival.

Excited that the term is over...

That's been my strategy...

all along: Coffee Consumption Associated With Reduced Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer. Hey, it's early, and I think I'll have another cup.