Now this is interesting...

department: No Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fraction in Past 160 Years, New Research Finds. Here's the technical abstract in Geophysical Research Letters.

Hmm.

What a difference...

a year makes. I captured this image of the entrance to my driveway one year ago after record snows in December 2008 (click to enlarge). For comparison, there is less than an inch of snow on the ground today.

By the way, my spray painted editorial elicited a lot of response from local drivers.

A rare Blue Moon...

occurs this evening, the second full Moon during the month of December. Rarer still, a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve occurs only once every 20 years. Learn more here. And, um, don't expect the Moon to be blue.

So, party on as we begin another lap around the Sun. Happy New Year.

Good to know...

how to do: Find North Without a Compass.

Don't necessarily always depend on your GPS.

Is the Gregorian calendar...

obsolete? An interesting take: Time and Again, the Calendar Comes Up Short.

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.

The myth...

of clean coal. You can't claim to be an environmentalist if you don't acknowledge the benefits of nuclear energy.

It's big!

How Huge Is the Internet on an Average Day?

UPDATE: Somewhat related story: US residents gorging on data bytes.

Hubble's deepest view...

of the universe unveils never before seen galaxies (click on image for full resolution version). This new image was acquired in late August 2009 by the Wide Field Camera 3 on the recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the same region of space as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 2004.

Amazing bit: the cumulative exposure time for this image is 173,000 seconds over a four day period of time. And this:

"The faintest and reddest objects in the image are galaxies that formed 600 million years after the Big Bang."

Wise words...

Man lives for science as well as bread.

-- William James

Santa delivers a big wooden crate...

containing a brand spanking new ICP-OES to our smiling geochemist, Dr. C. Nezat (click to enlarge). She can hardly contain herself in anticipation of the joy to be experienced from the first whiff of that new instrument smell.

Given the season, it should have arrived with a big red bow tied to the box.

What I'm reading...

right now: Strange Maps by Frank Jacobs.

If you're a map lover then you'll appreciate this recently published and lavishly illustrated (full color) book. But beware, this is no conventional atlas. This description describes it best: "Brimming with trivia, deadpan humor, and idiosyncratic lore, Strange Maps is a fascinating tour of all things weird and wonderful in the world of cartography."

The author also writes a related blog. Check it out, especially if you love maps.

Thanks, RT, for the perfect gift!

Geology Club holiday party...

will be held this Friday (11 December) evening at 6:30 pm at a student residence in Cheney. Consult the announcements posted in the hallways for more information as I don't want to publicly post a personal address here.

/end public service announcement

Alas, I won't be able to attend the end-of-year get together. I'll be at my desert hacienda for the holidays, but I'll promise a distant toast to all that evening.

The future of WiFi...

includes gigabyte speeds and more.

And check this out too: Printable, Moldable Batteries Made From Paper and Nanotubes.

Faster, please.

Dinosaurs were broiled...

but not burned after the Chicxulub event according to a recent study. Here's the technical abstract.

Yum. That's just how I like my dinosaur. Accompanied with a wild rice pilaf. And a nice Zinfandel.

Image credit: NASA.

Al Gore doubles down...

in Copenhagen despite the growing Climategate scandal, saying that proposed targets for cutting CO2 emissions aren't tough enough. Why no comment on Climategate? Oh yeah, that's right, the science is settled and there is no debate.

One must balance anything Al Gore says with this bit from an earlier interview (emphasis in italics is mine):

"Question: There's a lot of debate right now over the best way to communicate about global warming and get people motivated. Do you scare people or give them hope? What's the right mix?

Al Gore: I think the answer to that depends on where your audience's head is. In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the Category 5 denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.

Over time that mix will change. As the country comes to more accept the reality of the crisis, there's going to be much more receptivity to a full-blown discussion of the solutions."

So, according to Gore, it's OK to exaggerate issues and misrepresent facts. His words, not mine. In context.

I certainly don't believe anything this man says. How can anyone?

Could life exist on Mars...

in watery micro-environments at the poles? Some suggest the possibility: Watery niche may foster life on Mars. Here's the technical abstract.

Final exam in sed/strat...

is scheduled for Thursday, 10 December, from 10 am to noon. Don't fret, my budding sedimentologists, the end of the term is near. As always, good luck.

Crisis? What crisis?

At the so-called climate change summit in Copenhagen:

• 1,200 Limos, 140 Private Planes and Caviar Wedges
• Al Gore Cancels $1,200 Per Handshake Event In Copenhagen

When the people who say there's a crisis begin to act like there's a crisis then maybe, just maybe, they'd gain some credibility with me.

UPDATE: Copenhagen = Carbonhagen: "Attendees will generate a carbon footprint equal to all of Morocco's for 2006." Heh.

UPDATED UPDATE: One wonders why those who believe in anthropogenically-driven global warming don't support projects like this: In Uranium We Trust.

How to photograph sunsets...

explained in a short article at Wired.com. This topic inspired me to post the image above, showing the Japanese Subaru Telescope and the American Keck I & II Observatories on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii during a magnificent sunset (click to enlarge).

Image notes: August 2007, Canon EOS 30D with Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens.

It's the last field work Friday...

on the Rathdrum Prairie this calendar year. I'm making my usual rounds measuring groundwater levels, and I'll post an updated year-end graph as soon as I am able.

(There's no hidden, manipulated, modified nor discarded data in my projects!)

Dino park north of Moab...

one step closer to being built: County approves zone change on north U.S. 191. Previous related post.

Now there's an idea...

that EWU should emulate: Hofstra University to End Intercollegiate Football Program to Invest in Academic Initiatives.

Previous related post.

Hat tip: RO.

Sandtrapped Mars rover...

makes a big discovery. Quick bite:

"Sulfates are minerals just beneath the surface that shout to us that they were formed in steam vents, since steam has sulfur in it. Steam is associated with hydrothermal activity – evidence of water-charged explosive volcanism. Such areas could have once supported life."

Previous related post on the stuck Spirit rover.

Very patiently...

I'd imagine: How do prokaryotes survive in fluid inclusions in halite for 30 k.y.?

Wise words...

Science knows only one commandment: contribute to science.

-- Bertolt Brecht

Certainly a first...

for the web: a live streaming video - for about the next 50 hours - of the dissection of a human brain into extraordinarily thin slices (using a Microtome) for research purposes at The Brain Observatory.

At the time of this post they were slicing the frontal lobe. Interesting and bizarre.

WARNING: Although the brain is encapsulated in ice for the slicing, it is nonetheless rather graphic. Not for the squeamish!

Deep solar minimum continues...

according to Spaceweather.com:

"The sun is in the pits of a very deep solar minimum. Many researchers thought the sunspot cycle had hit bottom in 2008 when the sun was blank 73% of the time. Not so. 2009 is on the verge of going even lower. So far this year, the sun has been blank 75% of the time, and only a serious outbreak of sunspots over the next few weeks will prevent 2009 from becoming the quietest year in a century."

An image of Earth...

from space showing snow in the Rocky Mountains on 17 November 2009 (click to enlarge). The expanded image is fun to explore, especially if you know your western geography.

Image credit: MODIS on the Terra satellite.

A gigabyte doesn't go...

quite as far as it used to: an infographic showing the evolution of digital storage for music, images and data.

I remember when I upgraded my first computer (on which I wrote my doctoral dissertation), from 48k to 64k RAM, and thought that was hot stuff. Heh.

Surprised kitty...

New recommendations for indoor radon...

below the current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines made by the Health Physics Society (HPS). Key bit:

"At levels of 4 pCi/L or more, EPA encourages members of the public to take steps to reduce the radon concentrations and to consider action at levels above 2 pCi/L. The HPS concurs with the EPA’s guideline of 4 pCi/L. However, because 4 pCi/L is not a definite line between “safe” and “unsafe,” the HPS also recommends that the public consider action at levels below 4 pCi/L. Recent residential epidemiological studies have demonstrated that there is a statistically significant increased risk of lung cancer at concentrations as low as 2.7 pCi/L."

Geology club talk this week...

on Thursday, 3 December, at noon in SCI 135 will feature Professor E. Gilmour. He will speak on "Visit to Uncle Yasha in Balycova - Contrast Between the Old and the New in Russia."

/end public service announcement

Today's poster session in sed/strat...

was a huge success, with 21 senior geology students displaying their final projects at the end of the term. The assignment required them to conduct library research (literature review) on some aspect of sedimentology and/or stratigraphy that aroused their interest, and to present summary material - in their own words - as a mix of graphics and text. In addition, as seen here (click to enlarge), each student engaged in a peer review of their fellow classmates in the final lab session of the class.

UPDATE: The consensus among the student reviewers is that the "Best in Show" award goes to student JF for his presentation on Paleozoic transgressive/regressive sequences.

The fastest computers...

in the world, in an image gallery at NewScientist.com. Interesting factoid: "Oak Ridge, Tennessee houses more computing power than anywhere else on the planet."

I'm amused by the names given to these powerful machines.

Tonight's full Moon...

is known as the Long Night's Moon, and it is the first of two full lunar apparitions this month. The second, known as a Blue Moon, occurs on 31 December (an event that occurs on average every 2.7 years).

Go ahead. It's permissible to howl. Both times.

New granite countertops...

were installed in the kitchen yesterday at my cottage in the pine forest (click to enlarge), and they provide an excellent opportunity to teach basic mineralogy and igneous petrology to guests during dinner parties. How geeky is that?

Oh, yeah. They also look fabulous.

It was dumb in the 70s...

and it's still dumb today despite the technological upgrade: USB Pet Rock. Yeah, that's right, it doesn't do a darn thing. Nada. Zip.

I wonder if it comes with a phone number for technical support?