Good news if you're an anadromous fish...

in the Klamath River: Utility agrees to removal of four dams.

White-nose syndrome update...

from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region.

The disease, which is decimating bat populations in the Eastern states, is progressively moving westward and is expected to arrive in the West in 2-3 years. Remember: bats need friends.

Pugs, not drugs...

Announcing a geology guest lecture...

next week:

"An Iceberg Graveyard: Ice Age Flood Deposits of the Vantage, Washington Area"

Tuesday, 6 October, at 6:30 pm in SCI 137

Presented by: Ryan Karlson, Interpretive Program Manager, Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission

The lecture will detail how the Ice Age floods impacted the Vantage Reach located between Frenchman Coulee and Sentinel Gap within the Columbia River Valley. This one-hour presentation will focus on extensive field research of ice-rafted erratics and other flood deposits along the northwest margin of Lake Lewis within modern day Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park.

The event, sponsored by the Cheney-Spokane Chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute, is free and open to the public.

Weird, rare clouds...

and the physics behind them: an image gallery that includes lenticular, mammatus and noctilucent varieties among other dramatic and peculiar examples.

507 carat diamond found...

at a South African mine.

But you'll need a USB 11.0 port...

in your head: By 2040 you will be able to upload your brain. And we'll need more comprehensive copyright laws, too.

Previous related rambling post written in the early days of this blog.

Mag 8.0 earthquake...

occurred in the Samoa Islands region this morning at 10:48 am PDT and has been recorded on our local seismometer in Cheney, Washington (click to enlarge.) Man, just look at those harmonics.

A small tsunami has struck Pago Pago on American Samoa according to news reports.

UPDATE: Villages wiped out; 99 dead.

Superheavy element 114...

has been confirmed by scientists at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory.

Alas, its chemical symbol isn't Bu (hey, that's obviously already taken by me!) but Un for Ununquadium.

Dendritic drainage systems...

on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, have now been evaluated in terms of a global perspective of the mysteriously shrouded body (click to enlarge.) Can anyone doubt that there's an active hydrologic (er, hydrocarbon) cycle at work? Link to related abstract.

New target crater selected...

on the Moon for the LCROSS impact that will take place on 9 October. The crater Cabeus, rather than nearby Cabeus A, has now been chosen by scientists based on data that "shows a lot of hydrogen there." Read more about the re-targeting here.

Previous related post.

Close shave for Mercury...

today at ~ 3 pm PDT when NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft whizzes by the first rock from the Sun at a 142 mi (228 km) altitude during its third flyby in order to slow down to enter orbit in March 2011.

The image shown above (click to enlarge) is a true-color view (left) and a composite of visual and infrared observations (right) that shows variations of mineral deposits on Mercury.

Image credit: NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft on 6 October 2008; NASA/JHUAPL.

EPA clears Superfund disposal project...

in northern Idaho despite environmental concerns, including seasonal flooding of the site which is located on a floodplain. This is priceless:

"The early warning system will be installed by next spring, so it’s in place before the spring floods occur, she said."

Indeed, it sounds like a perfect site to sequester contaminated soils from the environment! Sheesh.

Previous related post.

UPDATE: Repository shipments begin.

Troglobitic species rule...

the underworld: 850 Mostly Blind, Pale Creatures Discovered Underground.

I can personally vouch that the subterranean world is a vast wilderness we have yet to fully explore and understand. Please, tread softly if you visit.

Hot rocks at Newberry Volcano...

south of Bend, Oregon may provide geothermal energy for 100,000 homes. Exploration has been occurring for more than a decade in this area and the project still seems far from development.

Julia Child cooks primordial soup...

Hat tip: Oblate Spheroid.

Wise words...

When you get to the top of the mountain, keep climbing.

-- Zen proverb

What I'm reading...

right now: Kamchatka - A Journal and Guide to Russia's Land of Ice and Fire by Diana Gleadhill.

This Russian peninsula is certainly among the world's most active and dramatic volcanic landscapes. Plus it possesses boundless wildlife and an interesting cultural history. I'm counting the days until I get there next summer as a geologist lecturer/guide on another Zegrahm expedition.

Missed it by only...

ten centimeters in 1976: Viking 2 lander would very likely have found frozen water ice if it had dug deeper. Repeated high resolution images of the Martian surface - seen above - shows ice exposed in recent impact craters that eventually sublimates through time (click to enlarge.)

Previous related post.

Birds bite off bats' heads...

in an interesting form of predation. Link to technical abstract.

Hey, everybody's gotta eat.

Do it yourself...

How to Take Photos from the Edge of Space for $150

Tsunami safe house...

may be built at Cannon Beach, Oregon as a demonstration project.

It's an interesting concept but I would be tempted to ride out the event at the so-called "tsunami evacuation building" just for the thrill and potential for photographic opportunities. Wouldn't others do the same, instead of sensibly evacuating?

Oil imports to the U.S....

Click graphic to enlarge to a higher resolution version.

Image courtesy Oil and Gas News.

Wise words...

Facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world’s data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away while scientists debate rival theories for explaining them. Einstein’s theory of gravitation replaced Newton’s, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air pending the outcome.

— Stephen Jay Gould

An encore presentation...

of my lecture on "The Geology of Mars and the Scablands Connection" will be presented next week in Spokane, this time sponsored by the Spokane Astronomical Society.

• WHEN: Friday, 2 October, 2009, 7:30 p.m.
• WHERE: Spokane Falls Community College, Building 24, Room 110

This is a lavishly illustrated presentation that examines the geology of Mars and how it relates to the catastrophic outburst flooding that shaped the Channeled Scablands in eastern Washington. A comparison of Martian and terrestrial landforms will be made, and the history of Mars exploration and recent scientific findings will be highlighted.

/end shameless self promotion

EWU Geology Club...

meets for the first time this year on Friday, 2 October, at 1 pm at a location to be announced. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements posted in the hallways.

There is a student contingent planning on attending the national meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon (18-21 October.) Contact club officers as soon as you can if you are interested in going.

UPDATE: the meeting will take place in SCI 118, and it's been rescheduled for 2 pm. Strike that, it's SCI 113. Geez, guys, make up your mind!

Sun could be headed...

into a period of extended calm.

Perhaps that's why I feel so relaxed.

National Geologic Map Database...

can be found at this link and looks like it will be a very useful tool. Here's the description from the web site:

"Welcome to our Data Portal. It is intended to: 1) give you a quick browse and query of our Nation's geologic maps, in a standardized format, and 2) link you to the source information found via the NGMDB Map Catalog and Geologic Names Lexicon. More than 80,000 maps and reports, by 370 publishers, are accessible. We anticipate expanding the Portal this year, and welcome your comments."

Swim at your own risk...

in a Triassic sea: Bus-sized marine reptile had teeth with serrated edges. A new species of ichthyosaur nearly 10 m long and with "a type of dentition particularly well-suited to shearing flesh" has been excavated in Nevada.

Finer than any wine...

on Earth: It's Official -- Water Found on the Moon.

NASA could fund its entire space program if it could return bottled water from the Moon and sell it to the wealthy and snobbish on Earth.

UPDATE: More about this discovery here and here.

What's more fun...

than a barrel full of monkeys? Why, a swimming pool full of monkeys!

And so begins...

my 26th year at EWU as a professor of geology. Where has the time gone?

I feel exceptionally fortunate that I enjoy my vocation so very much: mentoring students, self-directed research, public involvement and interesting travel experiences in pursuit of exploring and understanding our home planet. I can't believe I get paid to do this.

Is something percolating...

beneath Mount Rainier? Seismicity has been ramping up the last several months as the time vs. depth graph shown above clearly indicates (click to enlarge.) More plots are available here and show that most of the hypocenters associated with this recent activity are clustered on the northeast side of the volcano.

I would note that the resurgence in volcanic activity at Mount Saint Helens in September 2004 was preceded by a similar seismic signature, but I am not suggesting that an eruption at Rainier is imminent. But let's keep a watchful eye on this developing trend.

Gearing up for...

fall term with a pre-meeting of the geology department teaching assistants. First day of classes is tomorrow. Oh, the joy!

Do not buy Solinst monitoring equipment...

if you desire reliability and expect fair treatment by the Canadian groundwater and surface water instrumentation company. Two of six loggers I had deployed in the field have failed during a long-term aquifer monitoring project and considerable data may have been lost.

And get this: they offer a whopping 2.5% educational discount on orders over $1,000.00 which likely wouldn't even cover international shipping.

They have competitors. Use them.

Autumn arrives...

on the glaciated spine of the continental divide south of Anaconda, Montana (click to enlarge.) I captured this mini-pan just days ago, on my travels back to eastern Washington.

The autumnal equinox specifically occurs at 2:18 pm PDT today, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night are of equal length, marking the first day of autumn. Ugh, the days are getting shorter.

Stunning views of glaciers...

from space in an image gallery from Wired.com that includes excellent geological descriptions. Take a look, people who like to take looks.

Winter outlook...

for the Inland Northwest can be found in the on-line Weather Watcher quarterly report (.pdf file.) In sum:

• Better chance of above normal temperatures
• Better chance of at or below normal precipitation

Oh well, put away the skiis.

Visualizing data...

in creative ways: an image gallery at NewScientist.com.

Wise words...

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

-- Albert Einstein

Fossil supervolcano...

discovered in the Italian Alps. The Permian age caldera is more than 13 km in diameter and is located in the Sesia Valley, where uplift has exposed 25 km deep rocks.

A welcoming committee...

of two white-tailed deer fawns (Odocoileus virginianus) greeted me early today as I unpacked from my recent travels (click to enlarge.) Too cute.

1,000 post milestone...

has been achieved with this blog entry. Wow, hard to believe.

I initiated this blog on 17 January 2009 as a form of on-line journaling through which I could share science news, personal experiences and perspectives with my students, friends and family. Today there are ~80 readers that check in daily to catch up on this nonsense (perhaps they have nothing better to do with their time?!) Seriously though, I'm flattered that there are some who find this forum so interesting. Thank you.

Your geomorphology assignment...

for today is to consider the difference between pediments and alluvial fans. The image shown above (click to enlarge) is a pediment south of Wellington, Utah along US Route 6 (seen at left.) Those are the Book Cliffs on the right side of the image, containing Late Cretaceous mudstones and sandstones comprising the Mesa Verde Group.

Why I love the west...

Water ice on the Moon...

may have been detected based on initial results yielded from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. We'll know more when LCROSS strikes the Moon on 9 October, just three weeks hence.

Red rocks on Mars...

aren't just rust but may be the product of mechanical processes. Interesting.

Heading into the Pintler Wilderness...

near Wisdom, Montana for several days prior to the beginning of fall term next week at the university. The image shown above was taken last year at this time when I made a similar sojourn (click to enlarge.)

Your sed/strat assignment...

for today: trace or outline the lateral accretion elements that you can observe in this outcrop of the Kayenta Formation along the Colorado River (click to enlarge.) This Jurassic-age unit is interpreted to have been deposited by fluvial channels, eventually succeeded by a change to arid conditions and deposition of the eolian Navajo Sandstone.

Wise words...

The ten thousand questions are one question. If you cut through the one question, then the ten thousand questions disappear.

— Zen proverb

Flash flooding occurred...

at dawn today in Castle Valley, Utah in response to a slow moving thunderstorm that parked itself in the Pinhook Valley. Runoff flowed to Placer Creek making some of the roads in the community impassable.

Elsewhere the flooding jumped the arroyo and spread widely across unoccupied spaces, but water, mud and debris came quite close to a number of homes.

Culverts filled to capacity for a few moments causing some of the flood waters to escape over the roadways.

Fortunately only roads and ditches took a beating with this storm. (Click images to enlarge.)

Note the dark gray color of the flood waters in the images, in distinct contrast to the red color that one would expect due to the red silty soils present in the area. This is due to the fact that the Pinhook - Placer Creek watershed burned during September 2008, and the ashy soils have been mobilized by this event.

UPDATE: The second image above has been published in this week's Moab Times-Independent newspaper.

Stellar cartography...

like you've never seen it: Interactive, 360-Degree Panoramic View Of Entire Night Sky.

Here's a direct link to the GigagalaxyZoom project web site. (Best enjoyed with high bandwidth Internet connections.)

Beco's tub toy...

An evening of culture...

in red rock country was enjoyed with my wonderfully good friends JW (my hooping tutor,) MM (Zegrahm expedition leader) and EJR (bohemian photographer) at a Moab Music Festival event. The concert featuring Scandinavian music was hosted at an outdoor pavilion at a nearby resort on the Colorado River. Imagine listening to classical music while enjoying sunset on the surrounding red buttes and mesas. Priceless.

Cabeus A is the target...

crater at the lunar south pole for the LCROSS impact scheduled for 9 October. Here's why:

"LCROSS will search for ice by plunging its spent upper-stage Centaur rocket into the permanent shadows of Cabeus A, where water might be trapped in frozen form. The LCROSS satellite will then fly into the plume of debris kicked up by the impact and measure the properties of the plume before it also collides with the lunar surface."

Previous related post that provides background on the LCROSS mission.

Space shuttle Discovery...

lands safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California after completing yet another mission to nowhere in low Earth orbit.

What is the future for human exploration of space, beyond Earth orbit? In a word, bleak. Here's another word: disappointing.

Mural in Moab...

graphically depicting the hazards of outdoor recreation - and doing field geology - in the region. I attribute the mutant spiders to all the uranium deposits in this part of the Colorado Plateau.

Wise words...

You can observe a lot by just watching.

-- Yogi Berra

Your structural geology assignment...

for today: make a tracing of this image and count the number of faults exposed in this road cut that exposes the mostly carbonate Honaker Trail Formation (Pennsylvanian.)

This is a slightly oblique view into the Moab fault zone, looking south, from the Visitor's Center at Arches National Park. The faults strike NW-SE, mostly parallel to US 191, as seen in this mini-pan of the area.

WSU's first in the nation...

in the number of students infected with the swine flu.

Entrance to Arches National Park...

looking north, showing US 191 and the Visitor's Center, from the Moab Fault Overlook (click to enlarge.)

The trace of the Moab fault can be seen above and to the left of the Visitor's Center, manifest by the extremely fractured and rubbly sandstone just above road level. The prominent escarpment to the left (west) of the fault is the Wingate Sandstone, while the red beds on the right side (east) belong to the Slick Rock Member of the Entrada Sandstone. Given the offset in the stratigraphy, the vertical throw on this fault is determined to be ~ 2,600 ft. Note that there is a parallel normal fault located towards the right side of the image.

No, not really...

Do Scientists and Journalists Get Along?

It's gotten so bad, in my personal experience, that I rarely will give an interview unless it is live and unedited.

Signs along the road...

less traveled (click to enlarge.) I dunno, looks like the adventure is just getting started.

Chromium stable isotopes...

from banded iron formations reveal the "atmospheric rollercoaster" of the oxygenation of the Precambrian atmosphere-hydrosphere system.

Link to technical abstract.

Hubble resumes science operations...

with this jaw-dropping image of a stellar explosion in NGC 6302, a planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpius (click for a hi-res version.) Here's more about the return to service of the HST since Servicing Mission 4.

All I can say, as eloquently as possible, is WOW!

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

Out of Africa...

A skull that rewrites the history of man.

Blooming rabbitbrush and...

a big red pollinator. Thank you, pollinators, for doing your job.

New video being shot...

at Naica Crystal Cave in Mexico. Here's a link to an on-line article that describes the experience.

Previous related post with embedded video.

Later this morning...

it will be 9:09:09 am on 9/09/09. And if you miss that, then be sure to observe 9:09:09 pm later tonight.

Don't you just love these silly fleeting moments?

Previous related post.

UPDATE: Added the image sent by the Bu bro. Thanks for the assist.

Two for the price...

of one,with the space shuttle Discovery leading the International Space Station in their shared orbit high above Castle Valley, Utah this evening (8 sec exposure captured at ~ 8:50 pm MDT.) Both spacecraft separated earlier this afternoon and the astronauts on board Discovery are preparing for re-entry and landing on Thursday.

I'll need a receipt...

for that exhalation, please: Carbon budget for every human being is proposed by German scientist. The gist:

"It means that each person on earth would only be able to produce about 110 tons of CO2 between 2010 and 2050."

Good luck with that.

ISS/Discovery in orbit above...

Castleton Tower this evening around 8:26 pm MDT in this 16 sec exposure (click to enlarge.)

Happy Labor Day...

Don't work too hard.

Complex reverse fault...

along US 191 south of Moab, Utah (click to enlarge.) Note the small scale folds in the more ductile mudstone/shale beds in the fault zone. This structure is a parallel offshoot of the larger Moab fault located approximately 200 m to the east.

Great reference to the interesting geology of the Moab area: Moab salt-intruded anticline, east-central Utah (~1 Mb, .pdf file.)

Geeky cocktails...

for the last holiday of summer, including Romulan Ale and the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster. You may have to be a serious sci-fi nerd to fully appreciate the references.

Kane Springs Creek...

is a perennially flowing desert stream that sustains a verdant riparian community that includes the brilliant red monkey-flower (Mimulus eastwoodiae,) and it is also home to the shy red-spotted toad (Bufo punctatus.)

These two gems were among the delights that were encountered on a morning hike with two Castle Valley neighbors, Geogal and her hubby JR. A very good time was had by all.

Wise words...

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

— Zen proverb

Mapping American vice...

at Wired.com: infographic showing the per-capita distribution of the seven deadly sins (shown above - pride.) Take a look, people who like to take looks. Very interesting.

Graphic credit: Kansas State University Geography/USACE.

2,000-plus sick...

at Washington State University during the first two weeks of the semester, prompting concerns about the coming weekend's football game with Stanford. Geez.

Glad their concern is in the right place.

RELATED: Pig flu plan at EWU. I'm sure EWU's administration would share the same concern.

Big solar minimum...

seems to be occurring. Hey wait, isn't that an oxymoron? The current stats from Spaceweather.com:

Spotless Days
2009 total: 195 days (79%)
Since 2004: 706 days
Typical Solar Min: 485 days

Related article: Are Sunspots Disappearing?

Life sprang from "zinc world"...

according to a new hypothesis in an attempt to explain the origin of life on Earth. Key bits:

"The scientists suggest that life on Earth originated at photosynthetically active porous structures, similar to deep-sea hydrothermal vents, made of zinc sulfide (more commonly known as phosphor).

In nature, zinc sulfide particles precipitate only at deep-sea hydrothermal vents.Its ability to store light makes zinc sulfide an important factor in the discussion on life's origin. Mulkidjanian explains that, once illuminated by UV light, zinc sulfide can efficiently reduce carbon dioxide, just as plants do."

Kepler may be capable...

of detecting exomoons. Amazing. Link to technical abstract.

Link to previous post about the ambitious Kepler Mission to find and catalog exoplanets.

Chicken building its nest...

out of tissue paper. Enjoy.

Historic Matrimony Spring...

near Moab, Utah is undergoing additional water quality testing since it was closed as a public water source earlier this year, ostensibly due to the presence of coliform bacteria. At present, visitors to the well known spring will discover the old spring box and pipe outlet has been disassembled, and that it is no longer possible to acquire water at this site. Sad.

Rumor was if you drank from the spring you would be "wed" to the area, bound to return again, hence the name. Personal testimonial: I drank generously of this cool elixir as early as 1982, frequently ever since, and it has obviously worked its magic on me.

The flu fighting plan...

at EWU, as outlined by Vice-President for Business and Finance Mary Voves in response to my recent e-mail inquiry:

"There is a button in the bottom right hand corner of the university web site that is the University's H1N1 update site. This site links emergency management and Student Health Services and includes a link to the Center for Disease Control. The current recommended response to H1N1 is to remain open as an institution and isolate infected individuals. Our plan is not to close and we are prepared to offer essential services (police custodial, dining, payroll etc) even at greatly increased levels of absenteeism. If this changes the campus will be notified via the E2 emergency alert system, campus emails and the emergency line (snow line). We take our guidance on H1N1 protocols from the Spokane County Health Officer and the CDC. The Provost is preparing information regarding academic policies surrounding this issue. Please contact his office for more information on this question."

Police custodial? That sounds ominous. I've asked for clarification.

Me? I'm preparing to lecture in this stylish but functional outfit. Seriously, though? Prepare to be sick.

New uranium mill...

being considered near Paradox, Colorado. "If approved, it would be the first new uranium mill to open in the U.S. in nearly 30 years."

ISS/Discovery pierce...

the heart of "The Hunter" - the Orion constellation - early this morning above Castle Valley, Utah (click to enlarge.) The joined spacecraft passed overhead at 5:29 am MDT when I captured this image.

Image details: Canon 30D with EFS 17 mm lens, ISO 200, f/4.5, 20 sec exposure.

Ten extraordinary and unique...

lakes in the world featured in a photo gallery at, of all places, WomansDay.com. Yes, you caught me, indulging my feminine side today.

Dendritic pyrolusite...

is not an expression of fossil flora, but rather an intricately branching mineral encrustation composed of manganese dioxide (click to enlarge.) Here it is exposed on a sandstone bedding plane surface, captured by my macro lens during a morning walkabout.

Enormous solar storm...

struck Earth 150 years ago today, shorting out telegraph wires and resulting in magnificent auroras observed as far south as Panama. Such an event, if it occurred today, could disrupt the electrical grid, paralyze communications and transportation systems.

UPDATE: Telegraphs Ran on Electric Air in Crazy 1859 Magnetic Storm

EWU's policies and procedures...

for dealing with the H1N1 (swine) flu are... who knows? I've e-mailed the administration asking them just that more than two weeks ago and I'm still waiting for a reply. This link popped up on the EWU home page yesterday, but it only recycles the usual flu-related preventive care information. It provides no guidance to students, staff and faculty about how EWU will specifically manage an outbreak if/when it occurs on campus.

From Inside Higher Ed:

• Swine flu hits several campuses (30 April 2009)
• H1N1 creeps onto campuses (2 September 2009)

Recent outbreak: University of Kansas.

Surely there's a plan at EWU?

New drilling technolgies...

summarized in a brief overview, including hydrothermal spallation, laser drilling and pneumatic hammers.

Fungi are fun...

to find, interesting to study, and yummy to eat. Here's a special article about mushrooms in today's Spokesman-Review.

One stop shopping...

for fire information: National Interagency Fire Center. Here's the direct link to daily status reports.

Smoky dawn...

in southern Utah this morning (click to enlarge.) That's Venus, in the upper right, made ruddy by the suspended smoke in the atmosphere.