Monday, November 30, 2009

Spinning its wheels...

and going nowhere fast, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, that is. The view above (click to enlarge) is captured by the navigation camera, and looks back at its tracks made in April of this year, the last time the robotic explorer made any forward progress. Here's the latest from NASA/JPL on attempts to free the stuck rover.

Perhaps most significantly, the rocks scattered about appear to be laminated/bedded, and perhaps sedimentary in origin.

World record set...

by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as it ramps up to higher energies:
"The LHC pushed protons to 1.18 TeV (trillion electron volts), surpassing the previous record of 0.98 TeV held by Fermilab’s Tevatron."
So far so good, I guess. We're still here.

Microscopic organism portraiture...

in an image gallery at the Micropolitan Museum. Daphnia and Caprella are particularly cute.

Get your ticket to ride...

to the edge of space: Virgin Galactic’s Space-Grazing Aircraft Is Ready for Liftoff. The cost? A mere $200,000 will get you a seat on a sub-orbital flight where you will float weightless at the edge of space for several minutes.

Yeah, if you have to ask you can't afford it.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Climate research scientists...

behaving badly: Climate Change Data Dumped. This story just keeps getting worse.

In addition, in response to an ABC news piece on the scandal, there is the following post from respected geologist and Pleistocene climate expert Dr. Don Easterbrook:

"I've spent 4 decades studying global climate change and as a scientist I am appalled at Krugman's cavalier shrugging off the Hadley email scandal as 'just the way scientists talk among themselves.' That's like saying it's alright for politicians to be corrupt because that's the way they are. Legitimate scientists do not doctor data, delete data they don't like, hide data they don't want seen, hijack the peer review process, personally attack other scientists whose views differ from theirs, send fraudulent data to the IPCC that is used to perpetuate the greatest hoax in the history science, provide false data to further legislation on climate change that will result in huge profits for corrupt lobbyists and politicians, and tell outright lies about scientific data.

Posted by: Don Easterbrook | Nov 29, 2009 1:57:05 PM"

I couldn't have said it better myself.

A waterproof camera and perfect sense...

of timing is manifest in this amazing photography: Inside the Tube - Incredible Wave Photography.

Early winter arrives...


in the majestic Purcell Mountains, seen here across Kootenay Lake near Kaslo, British Columbia (click to enlarge). Fortunately, nearby hot springs provided an opportunity to warm chilled bones during my holiday visit to the wintry high country. And, for my geo-readers, this area is also host to a historically significant Ag-Zn-Pb deposit.

Fresh look at ALH 84001...

seems to dismiss the non-biologic argument for the origin of previously discovered worm-like structures in the famous Martian meteorite. Here's the technical abstract.

Previous related post on this controversial space rock.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Micro-poop...

is the basis for some cave mineral deposits: Lava Cave Minerals Actually Microbe Poop.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Bat migration...

has been mathematically modeled: The Evolution Of Bat Migration. Here's the related technical abstract and article: Evidence for Repeated Independent Evolution of Migration in the Largest Family of Bats.

Remember: bats need friends.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Heading north of the border...

to the Kaslo, British Columbia area to spend the extended holiday weekend in a foreign country. I'll try to access Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park as well as Cody Caves Provincial Park (weather permitting) in addition to soaking in hot springs.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Tickle me, and don't ever stop...

"Climategate" scandal...

is slowly drawing increased scrutiny from the press and government agencies that funded the now suspect climate change research. Some updates on the developing story can be found here and here, and so far no one has denied the documents are genuine. One gem found in the published emails that goes beyond scientific dishonesty:
“We need to show some left to cover the costs of the trip Roger didn’t make and also the fees/equipment/computer money we haven’t spent otherwise NOAA will be suspicious.”
So not only is there collusion to influence the peer review process, apparent fudging or manipulation of data, use of erroneous and flawed software code, intentional and coordinated deletion of documents in order to frustrate FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, now there may be accounting fraud to add to all that. Don't believe it? Read the documents for yourself, or consult this summary.

The contempt for scientific objectivity that is revealed here is staggering. Unfortunately, this growing scandal is going to make science (in general) and scientists (specifically) lose credibility with the public.

However, on the lighter side, get your "Hide the Decline" t-shirts and merchandise. And enjoy the hilarious "Hide the Decline" video by Minnesotans For Global Warming.

Solar tsunami has been imaged...

by NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft, and consists of a wave of hot plasma and magnetism that races across the Sun's surface, generated by a coronal mass ejection. The scale is humongous:
"The technical name is "fast-mode magnetohydrodynamical wave"—or "MHD wave" for short. The one STEREO saw reared up about 100,000 km high, and raced outward at 250 km/s (560,000 mph)."
Fortunately the phenomenon is no hazard for Earth.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Cascadia subduction zone quakes...

could hit inland, striking large urban areas as far as 60 km from the coast with high magnitude events.

Animation of recent Casinni flyby...

of Enceladus shows the spacecraft approaching the backlit geyser-like fountains that spew from fractures in the icy crust near the south polar region of this tiny moon of Saturn. Check out the previous related post that describes this flyby that occurred on 21 November 2009 and provides links to other stunning images.

Very cooool.

Image credit: four-frame animation by Gordan Ugarkovic via The Planetary Society.

Good advice...

on how to choose a strong password. Remember: practice safe computing.

An example EWU should follow...

Game Over: Northeastern U. Spikes Its Football Program

World's largest volcanic lake...

is Lake Toba in Sumatra, spanning an area of 100 km by 30 km (click to enlarge). Recent research suggests that the lake occupies an edifice created by a super eruption: Supervolcano Eruption In Sumatra Deforested India 73,000 Years Ago.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Baby steps toward armageddon...

occurred early today as the Large Hadron Collider initiated collisions between protons at 900 billion electron volts of energy (900 GeV; 0.9 TeV), a level that is merely 1/15 of its full potential.
"CERN hopes to boost the energy to 1.2 TeV per beam – exceeding the world's current top collision energies of 1 TeV per beam at the Tevatron accelerator in Batavia, Illinois.

In early 2010, physicists will attempt to ramp up the energy to 3.5 TeV per beam, collect data for a few months at that energy, then push towards 5 TeV per beam in the second half of the year."

Note that:
"The LHC is designed to allow collisions at much higher energies – all the way up to 14,000 GeV (14 TeV), or 7 TeV per beam."
Clearly we're in for some astounding science, that is, if the world survives.

Abyssal depths are teeming...

with bizarre marine life: Thousands of Strange Sea Creatures Discovered. More on this story here.

See even more images of these interesting creatures at the Census of Marine Life image gallery.

Icy hydrocarbon lakes...

on Titan "are loaded with acetylene, a chemical some scientists say could serve as food for cold-resistant organisms" according to a new study.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Raw images of Enceladus...

from the recent flyby by the Cassini spacecraft on 21 November show a fresh, non-cratered, icy surface with countless pressure ridges (click to enlarge).

Here's the link to more raw images: Enceladus Rev 121 Flyby Raw Preview.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

World's largest earthquake-safe building...

is now open at Instanbul's airport:
"Stretching across more than 2 million square feet, the terminal doesn’t sit directly on the soil, but rather on more than 300 isolators, bearings that can move side-to-side during an earthquake. The whole building moves as a single unit, which prevents damage from uneven forces acting on the structure."

Western hemisphere weather...

visualization showing clouds using the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Verison 5 (GEOS-5) at 7 km resolution for the period from 17 August through 21 August 2009 (click on image for 3 MB MPEG-4 video). This visualization was designed to closely match a GOES satellite image for comparison purposes.

Mesmerizing.

Climate change debate heats up...

with hacked e-mails from the Climate Research Unit (at the University of East Anglia) posted on-line by skeptics. The 61 MB document dump purportedly reveals the dark underbelly of how science is done by global warming proponents, including alleged falsification and manipulation of data, along with priorities being driven by political motivations and desire for career advancement.

Human beings behaving like, well, human beings. Just like a soap opera except that these shenanigans have serious implications and can influence international policy.

UPDATE: Here's a convenient summary of some of the content of the e-mails exchanged between global warming proponents. If these documents are real it's pretty dishonorable behavior, and argues in favor of greater transparency (and accountability) in science.

This has all the makings of a serious scandal.

UPDATED UPDATE: It may be a whistleblower, and not a hacker, that resulted in the release of ~172 MB of information.

Enjoy the upcoming holiday...

as the countdown to the end of all things has commenced: Large Hadron Collider back online. At present, the gargantuan physics experiment is circulating protons along its 17 mi-long track, with low-energy collisions scheduled for later in the week.

So, enjoy Thanksgiving! It may be your last.

UPDATE: Here's a look at those who will destroy us.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Revisions to the solar system...

explained in an image gallery. Yep, this isn't the same neighborhood that I grew up with in grade school.

Distribution of water...

on Earth summarized in an infographic at Wired.com.

Diminishing dung fungus...

and increasing amounts of pollen from broad-leaved floras reveal the timing of the die off of North American megafaunas according to a new paleoecological study.

Grazing patterns of mastodons, camels and giant sloths that modified the habitat, coupled with human hunting, may have caused the extinction of these large animals, and not climate change nor a comet impact.

Or, maybe a combination of all these factors is the cause as one of the study's authors states:
“In North America, there’s a lot of confusion because everything was happening all at once.”

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Breaking news...

"One killer gear deal,...

one item at a time until it's gone" is the tag line of Steep and Cheap, an on-line retailer of name brand outdoor products. Indeed, you have to click into the web site often in order to take advantage of tremendously discounted but high-quality recreational gear that is randomly presented until it's sold out.

Give it a go. Highly recommended.

Hat tip: RO'Q.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Bolide explodes over western US...

last night and the event was captured by security cameras: videos at KSL.com and at KREM.com. A bit more information about this event is here.

City of Cheney municipal well #8...

has been on-line for several months and is capable of yielding ~850 gallons/minute of groundwater from confined aquifers in the Columbia River Basalt Group, specifically the Grande Ronde Basalt.

I was retained as a consultant to the City for this project. Here's a link to the test well log (.pdf format) and to the production well log (.pdf format).

Wise words...

“I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”

Isaac Asimov

Al Gore on geothermal energy...


demonstrates how absolutely little he knows about science and technology. I guess I've been teaching my students incorrect information about the geothermal gradient.

Is there any doubt whatsoever that this guy is a blowhard and a charlatan? Sheesh.

UPDATE: Link to a history of geothermal energy development at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Queen Charlotte Island earthquakes...

early this morning determined to be an initial M 6.6 at 15:30:46 UTC followed about seven minutes later by a M 5.7 at 15:37:43 UTC.

UPDATE: The events have rattled our departmental seismometer - image posted above (click to enlarge).

Second sed/strat exam...

is scheduled for this Thursday, 19 November. Note to my budding stratigraphers: study hard, don't hardly study.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Confounded dataset shows...

that record highs outpace record lows during the last decade. Balance that report with the information included in this previous post about the extraordinarily flawed nature of the temperature monitoring network established in the US, while also reading this rebuttal.

Mark Twain said it best: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Sold! Auctioned T. Rex...

finally has a buyer. But who it is, and where the skeleton will ultimately reside, has yet to be announced.

Previous related post.

Geology Club talk this week...


on Thursday, 19 November, at 12 noon in SCI 118, that features your very excitable correspondent's adventure in the Arctic earlier this summer. If you like birds, whales, polar bears, walrus and rocks, you won't be disappointed. Be there or be squared.

Note: This will be a reprise of a presentation I have been invited to deliver tonight, to the EWU-Spokane chapter of Sigma Xi, where I will be the annual banquet speaker. Wish me luck.

Wise words...

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

-- Paul Anderson

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Visualizing body waves...

propagating through the Earth's interior in three-dimensions (click to enlarge).

Image courtesy the graphic wizards at Wired.com.

NASA clears space shuttle Atlantis...

to launch on Monday on another mission to nowhere to resupply the ISS.

Click into the on-line NASA-TV feed at 11:28 am PST on 16 November to catch the lift-off from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

UPDATE: It was a successful launch.

End of days is upon us...

as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ramps up for it's restart according to the CERN Bulletin:
"Six of the eight sectors of the LHC have now been hardware commissioned to allow the passage of beams at 1.2 TeV. The remaining two (Sectors 3-4 and 8-1) will be powered up in the coming week.

If all goes well, in just over one week from now, the beams could circulate in both pipes of the LHC. The first low-energy collisions should follow shortly after."
It's been nice knowin' ya.

Friday, November 13, 2009

This pup needs a hand up...

"Significant amount" of water...

found on the Moon in the debris plume generated by the LCROSS impact last month. Although the event was a visual fizzle, it is clear that the mission is returning huge scientific results. How much water was liberated in the impact?
"Based on the measurements, the team estimated about 100 kilograms of water in the view of their [two spectrographic] instruments — the equivalent of about a dozen 2-gallon buckets — in the area of the impact crater (about 80 feet, or 20 meters across) and the ejecta blanket (about 60 to 80 meters across), Colaprete said."
This is particularly amazing: the water ice volatilized in the ejecta may be billions of years old.

Field work Friday...

occurs today during the first winter storm of the season, while I engage in my monthly acquisition of groundwater levels for monitoring wells in the Rathdrum Prairie, Idaho. Oh well, no hardship is too difficult to endure in the pursuit of science.

It's been a tough year...

for paraskavedekatriaphobics. This is the third and final Friday the 13th this year, and you have a while to relax until its next occurrence in August 2010.

Previous related posts for February and March.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Not a computer generated graphic...

from a recent sci-fi flick but an actual image of Earth acquired by the Rosetta spacecraft (click to enlarge). The European Space Agency mission is on its way to intercept comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko where it will place a lander on the comet’s surface in 2014.

Stunning and ethereal.

Credit: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.

Wise words...

If you want a certain thing, you must first be a certain person. Once you are that certain person, obtaining that certain thing will no longer be a concern of yours.

-- Zen proverb

Biggest bat in Europe...

survived the Ice Age and persists to this day: Largest Bat In Europe Inhabited Northeastern Spain More Than 10,000 Years Ago. The subject of the article, shown above (click to enlarge), is the Greater Noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus).

Remember: bats need friends.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Um, never mind...

10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

An image of Earth...

from space showing the northeastern United States in true-color during summer (click to enlarge). Lake Erie barely extends into the image from the western edge, and Lake Ontario appears in the enlarged image in the upper left.

The Appalachian Mountain fold belt is the dominant geologic structure in the image, but Pleistocene glacial deposits - terminal moraines - on Long Island, Nantucket and Marth's Vineyard are also evident. Various near shore features can also be observed, including barrier islands along the Atlantic coast, and the very obvious sand spit on Cape Cod.

Image credit: MODIS team; NASA.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

October 2009 was third coolest...

on record, with an "average temperature of 50.8°F which was 4.0°F below the 20th Century average." Link to State of the Climate report at NOAA.

Comment, Mr. Gore?

Now this should be interesting...

department: Plan to Pierce Heart of Urban Monster Volcano. Starting next month, an Italian volcanologist will direct the Campi Flegrei Deep Drilling Project that is planning to drill seven holes in the region of a giant caldera that dwarfs the size of nearby Vesuvius.

While I don't believe this activity will trigger an eruption, it is not without significant risk as similar projects have discovered. We'll just have to watch and wait, watch and waiters.

Toss in an asteroid...

and agitate the ocean, thereby adding oxygen: Asteroid impact could have stirred the ocean. Key bit:
"The Sudbury impact ... happened around 1.85 billion years ago. The event fundamentally affected the concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the deep sea — enough to almost instantly shut down the accumulation of marine sediments known as banded iron formations."

Arachnophobics keep scrolling by...

because this will freak you out: Arachnid Hall of Fame image gallery at Wired.com. I think spiders are fascinating and beneficial creatures, and avoid killing them, even in the house.

Exploration strategies for life...

in our solar system beyond Earth: Extraterrestrial Rafting - Hunting Off-World Sea Life.

Faster, please.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Following its seasonal schedule...

my Christmas Cactus (genus Schlumbergera) is starting to blossom as the days grow shorter (click to enlarge).

Enjoy!

Wind energy not so green...

after all, that is, if you care about bats and birds: Wind Energy: A Scare for Bats and Birds.

Previous related post on bat mortality related to wind farms.

Remember, bats need friends.

Meet the geeks at Mozilla Foundation...

and join them in celebration of the five year anniversary of the Firefox web browser, now on version 3.5.5. It is certainly my browser of choice, both at home and at work, and for the majority of readers of this blog.

Congrats, and keep up the good work.

Link to Mozilla.org where you can download the Firefox web browser and show your support for open source software.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Emerging from the blue...

are "Islands Seen From Space" in an image gallery from Wired.com.

Upgrading to Windows 7...

on my home desktop computer took about three full hours this morning, not counting backing up the system prior to the actual upgrade. The changeover seemed to work well with no problems encountered during the transition to the new operating system. Here's my experience:

1.) Back up critical files: I overdid this a bit, creating two backup copies of files to a 500 GB network drive and a 320 GB portable USB drive. I've got a lot of important documents and a load of images, and this took about four hours to accomplish (I let the PC churn on this through the night.)

2.) Rebooted the desktop PC that is running MS Vista Home Premium and turned off the McAfee antivirus program per recommendation. Then another reboot. Time: about 7:00 am.

3.) Placed the MS Windows 7 upgrade DVD in the optical drive and started the process, giving the program permission to first check for updates on-line prior to executing the actual upgrade. Time into upgrade process: 0:00 (hrs:mins).

4.) At 1:00 into the process the PC shut down and rebooted, but the display remained blank for about 25 mins. A new splash screen appeared at 1:30 into the process.

5.) Another reboot at 2:20 with a blank screen for about 10 mins. The new operating system was available for first use at 2:40, prompting for the upgrade key code, then at 2:45 it allowed me to log in under my former username and password.

6.) Several minutes later my old desktop wallpaper appeared at the proper screen resolution, gadgets appeared along the right side of the desktop, and all previous icons were in their usual places. No errors reported. Turned on the antivirus program, and the conversion was finished. Voila.

In sum, the upgrade to Win 7 seems to have worked. I'll post updates as I run some programs and get familiar with the new system.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

This elevator going up...

to space: Seattle Team Wins $900,000 in Space Elevator Contest. Despite their sci-fi attributes, space elevators may very well be the most cost effective way of getting heavy payloads into Earth orbit.

Faster, and higher, please.

Near earth object 2009 VA...

(a small asteroid) zipped by Earth yesterday ~14,000 km from the surface, well within the orbits of geosynchronous satellites. Here's the scoop from Spaceweather.com:
"If it had hit, the ~6-meter wide space rock would have disintegrated in the atmosphere as a spectacular fireball, causing no significant damage to the ground. 2009 VA was discovered just 15 hours before closest approach by astronomers working at the Catalina Sky Survey."
Close shave.

Friday, November 6, 2009

You can't make this stuff up...

department: Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really).

The upside of this event is that the life of the universe as we know it has been extended a while longer.

Wise words...

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

-- Albert Einstein

Star birth in M83...

as imaged by the powerful new Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The brightly glowing red regions in the spiral arms of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy are dense bubbles of hydrogen gas in which fledgling stars are developing. This article describes some of the details:
"Gradually, the young stars' fierce winds (streams of charged particles) blow away the gas, revealing bright blue star clusters. These stars are about 1 million to 10 million years old. The older populations of stars are not as blue."
Link to more information and related images at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Sell crazy someplace else...

Massive Earthquake Predicted for California Within a Month.

OK, the so-called prediction has been made. Let's start the clock. I'll go out on a limb and suggest nothing of any significance will occur, nor will Yellowstone blow its top, during the next 30 days.

Open-air dinosaur tracks museum...

has been proposed north of Moab, Utah. The project, tentatively called "Moab Giants," is located at the turn-off to Dead Horse Point State Park and the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park.
"The proposal identifies a path winding through displays of casts of dinosaur tracks and replicas of animals from the early Jurassic through the late Cretaceous geologic periods. Participants would be allowed to “dig” for bone replicas."
The proposal has been tabled by the Grand County Planning and Zoning Commission, however, in order to give staff more time to review information provided by the applicant.

Icy plumes of Enceladus...

are seen backlit by the Sun in a recent flyby that occurred on 2 November 2009 (click to enlarge to full resolution). This image was taken while the spacecraft was ~190,000 km from the moon, but at its closest approach it flew merely ~100 km (62 mi) above the surface.

The misty fountains jetting from the south polar region of the diminutive Saturnian moon are believed to be water ice and contain significant amounts of ammonia and sodium. The purpose of this flyby (the seventh) was to gauge the size, mass, charge, velocity and composition of the particles within the geyser-like plume.

This odd world - allowing for the temperature difference - is Yellowstone on steroids.

Image credit: NASA/Cassini team.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Perfect gift for the geek...

in your life for the upcoming holidays: GIANT microbes. News flash: swine flu (H1N1) is now available!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

EWU Geology Club...

is meeting on Monday, 16 November, at 2:15 pm in SCI 113. But this Friday, 6 November, members are getting together for pizza at Rosa's Pizza in Cheney at 6:30 pm.

/end public service announcement

An image of Earth...

from space showing the Heiltskuk Icefield in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia (click to enlarge). Geomorphology students should be able to pick out a wide variety of alpine glacial features - including valley glaciers, horns, aretes, cirques, moraines - in the enlarged view.

Image credit: Astronaut photograph acquired on 6 August 2009.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Wise words...

If it's green, it's biology. If it stinks, it's chemistry. If it has numbers, it's math. If it doesn't work, it's technology.

-- Unknown

New high-res panorama...

of the Milky Way galaxy has been compiled from 3,000 images acquired over 22 months by Axel Mellinger. Here's the link to his All-Sky Milky Way Panorama 2.0 web site to view the full image.

Quite the project. When I look at stuff like this I feel really, really small.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Water use in the United States...

is lower today than 35 years ago according to the U.S. Geological Survey:
"Despite a 30 percent population increase during the past 25 years, overall water use has remained fairly stable according to a new U.S. Geological Survey report."
Hmm. Maybe I can take that long, hot shower after all.

Fall back...

to standard time early this morning (at 2 am). Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour, and enjoy the extra hour of sleep. Learn more about daylight saving time.

I'm conflicted about the change back to standard time. Being a morning person I certainly enjoy the extra hour of light early in the day, but at northern latitudes the darkness descends entirely too early. One big advantage is that the evening stars pop out earlier for observation.