Extremophiles rule...

other worlds, most likely. I've always held a fascination for creatures able to adapt to seemingly hostile environments (hostile at least to us.) Here's a press release describing new discoveries related to tube worms that populate hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find comparable organisms thriving in the ice-covered ocean of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, clustered around similar hot springs.

Wise words...

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

-- Winston Churchill

Innovative new laptop from Apple!

I'll stick with my new ASUS netbook despite its lack of stylish embellishments.

A brilliant claret cup cactus...

to brighten the blog this weekend and to remind everyone that Valentine's Day is next Saturday. I photographed this scarlet gem at Arches National Park last spring along the Devils Garden trail, and this specific type of cactus is one of my favorite plants in the desert (click to enlarge.)

Knock, knock...

Who's there? It turns out some presumptuous Christians wanting to proselytize. Really. Just moments ago my quiet Saturday morning at my digital cottage in the forest was disrupted by these uninvited intruders. I sent them on their way with a respectfully polite and cheery "thanks, but no thanks" but I really wanted to say more.

Hey, I fully realize that I'm going to Hell and I don't need anyone to remind me of that fact. I anticipate better parties, more fascinating people, and certainly a lot more interesting geology there than what the alternative offers.

The readout on Redoubt...

shows the increase in seismicity at the volcano during the last two days on the right-side of this continuously updated RSAM plot (click to enlarge.)

The AVO reports: "Redoubt Volcano continues to be in a state of unrest. Seismic activity remains elevated and consists of relatively continuous tremor that fluctuates in amplitude over time." Read the weekly update for a complete summary.

SATURDAY EVENING UPDATE: A steam plume is visible in the webcam and has been since this morning. An observation and gas overflight is underway.

Don't fall into...

the largest holes on Earth. Mostly pictures with some descriptions - keep scrolling.

First rule of holes: if you find yourself in one, stop digging.

Countdown to the end...

of all things. The Large Hadron Collider may start up again in September. Doomsayers predict the device (a grand particle physics experiment seeking the elusive Higgs boson) will spin off Earth-gobbling black holes that will consume us all.

So I guess fall quarter classes will be canceled - it's been nice knowing you. Be sure to do something especially fun this summer.

The EWU Geology Club will meet...

this coming Tuesday, 10 February, at 11 am in SCI 115.

This has been a public service announcement. Now back to regular blogging.

Columnar jointing...

spotted in high resolution images of a crater wall on Mars (click to enlarge.) A recent technical paper describes the discovery of these volcanically-generated structures that result from the cooling of ponded lava. These structures are very common in the Miocene-age flood basalts on the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington. Moreover, the suspected pillow structures seen in the image strongly suggests the presence of water coeval with the extrusion of the lava flow.

I tweaked the image a bit by rotating it so that the downslope direction is to the lower right, and by making slight adjustments to brightness/contrast. The annotations in red are also mine. HiRISE image PSP_005917_2020 courtesy NASA/JPL.

Wanna see Mars? It's as close as a short drive to the Grand Coulee.

Wise words...

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I've found it!), but 'That's funny...' "

- Isaac Asimov

The space elevator...

is a considerably more efficient way to get payloads into Earth orbit as an alternative to rockets. This seemingly far-fetched and sci-fi based technology may be closer than you think as scientists begin to master techniques for making high tensile strength tethers.

The Spaceward Foundation is sponsoring competitions to encourage innovative designs and is awarding hefty prizes to drive development.

Faster, please.

The heartbeat of Redoubt...

summarized for the last ten days. The RSAM (Real-time Seismic Amplitude Measurement) plots shown above (click to enlarge) display the earthquake activity in the form of a frequency plot through time. This episode of unrest started 25 January and at that time the AVO elevated the status of the mountain to WATCH.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: a significant but short term increase in seismicity just occurred and it appears at the right-side of the RSAM plot above. (Note: this plot is updated in real time.) The AVO notes the burst in activity but reports no eruption.

One week until...

the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday. We're taking it very seriously in the sciences. To wit:

Darwin Day Celebration

When: Friday, February 13 @ 3pm (directly
following the biology seminar at 2pm)
Where: Science Room 175
What: Darwin’s Birthday Cake Competition

In honor of Charles Darwin’s 200^th birthday the Biology Department will be holding a cake competition.

Any group or individual may compete. Cakes must reflect some aspect of Darwin’s work. Prizes will be awarded for creativity, execution, and taste!

(Cakes can be delivered to the biology department office for safekeeping)

Hope to see you there!

I am flattered to have been invited to serve as a judge for this celebratory event. That means I'll have to taste each cake. I have it on good authority that Mr. Darwin himself may make an appearance. I sincerely hope that the geology students consider making an entry in this fun contest. Do us proud.

Did I mention that there will be cake? Homer Simpson, eat your heart out.

Global warming?

What global warming? The national forecast map for overnight lows this evening shows that approximately 90 percent of the country will experience below freezing temperatures.

Global warming? Bring it on.

Did construction of a new reservoir...

and its subsequent filling with water cause the devastating M7.9 earthquake in China on 12 May 2008 where ~70,000 people died? Some scientists certainly believe so, especially because of the close proximity of the reservoir to the fault, and that such a large magnitude event hasn't occurred at this location in centuries. I don't believe in coincidences either, and other earthquakes have been attributed to dam projects elsewhere. However, in this case, I remain skeptical.

A simple quantitative analysis of the circumstances of this tremor leads me to doubt that crustal loading was indeed the cause. I calculated the additional weight of the water relative to the weight of the column of crustal rocks to the 19 km depth of the focus. The added weight of the impounded water contributed only 0.3% of the total mass of the underlying rocks, which, in my opinion, is an insignificant load. Perhaps other factors were at work, say, increased pore fluid pressures that may have "lubricated" the fault plane?

Shameless self-promotion: if you are interested in hazardous Earth processes then you should consider enrolling in my GEOL 360 course during spring term.

Google Mars...

is too cool for school. Here's a screen shot (click to enlarge) of the Olympus Mons region of Mars showing the reference frames for all of the satellite imagery available at this location which, by the way, is the largest volcano in the solar system. The new iteration of Google Earth 5.0 includes this Mars viewer, and this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as to its capabilities.

Guess what I'll be exploring the next several weeks?

Dinosaur dung...

has been stolen from the Natural History Museum in London. Several coprolite specimens have vanished and museum staff regard them as "priceless."

[Insert countless inappropriate jokes here.]

I hope the dastardly thieves at least washed their hands after their caper.

Six mysteries of...

the solar system. Learn more about our neighborhood in space.

Hat tip: CN

STS-119 mission...

is delayed one week due to potentially faulty fuel valves. Shuttle Discovery is on the pad and poised to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) with liftoff originally scheduled for 12 February. NASA is investigating a flaw in critical valves that regulate the hydrogen fuel supply to the main engines. The new launch date will be announced once the investigation yields some answers.

This flight to the ISS will deliver and install the final starboard solar array which will provide enough power to double the present crew to six (to occur later this year.) Read about the STS-119 mission objectives here.

Volcanic seismicity during...

the last 10 day period for Redoubt station RSO EHZ (click to enlarge) courtesy of the USGS/AVO. This is what the pulse of an active volcano looks like - rocks cracking, harmonic tremors, long-period events... oh my.

Geologic Investigations Map...

I-2800 from the U.S. Geological Survey is now in a downloadable form on the web. The map is entitled This Dynamic Planet and it consists of a world map of volcanoes, earthquakes, impact craters, and plate tectonic features. Students will recognize this wall map since it is posted in most of the classrooms and laboratories in the geology department.

Warning: read the web page linked above before you download these huge .pdf files.

An image of Earth...

from space showing the channeled scablands of eastern Washington (click to enlarge.) J Harlen Bretz proposed the outrageous idea of a catastrophic flood origin of many of the landforms in this region without the benefit of satellite imagery. The braided flood channels carved by the outburst of glacial Lake Missoula are clearly obvious in this image where overlying soils have been stripped to barren basalt bedrock.

This image includes the Grand Coulee with Banks Lake on the west (left), the community of Moses Lake (bottom left) and the Spokane River - Columbia River confluence (upper right.)

Image credit: Enhanced Thematic Mapper on NASA’s Landsat 7 taken on 23 July 1999 (NASA)

Wise words...

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing."

- Wernher von Braun

Joke o' the week...

Q: Why did the dinosaur cross the road?

A: Chickens hadn’t evolved yet.

— Anonymous

Welcome to Jurassic Park,...

sort of. An extinct ibex has been resurrected through cloning.

As a favor to all of you, I will resist any attempts at cloning myself.

My hydrogeology students can stop...

banging their heads against the wall. The exam is over. Relax.

A hint of joyful things...

to come in the spring. That's an image of native arrowleaf balsamroot from my undisturbed (never cultivated) property southwest of Cheney, America.

Hang in there. Good things will come to those that wait.

Google Earth 5.0 (beta)...

has been released. Here's the link.

Cool content: access to all Mars imagery. More: Google Ocean

Warning: don't download and use this nifty program unless you have a high-bandwidth connection to the net.

Groundwater mining is occurring...

in the confined aquifers contained within the Columbia River Basalt Group. A recent study shows that groundwater levels are rapidly declining in eastern Washington. Although this is packaged as "news" it certainly is not.

The groundwater resource in semiarid eastern Washington has been exploited for decades in order to improve crop yields on what were formerly dryland farms. As an increasing number of wells were completed in these deep aquifers the water use has increased dramatically, exceeding the amount that naturally recharges the same aquifers, so the lowering water surface is the result. It's analogous to writing more and more checks from your bank account while never depositing sufficient funds to maintain a positive balance. Eventually you go bust.

A request has been made for $ 2.5 million in order to construct a groundwater model to "find potential solutions" to this problem. What a waste! Let me help! The solution is simple - pump less groundwater through improvements in irrigation infrastructure and plant only those crops that are low water tolerant, or return to a more manageable form of sustainable dryland farming. No amount of computer modeling will create, nor find, new water!

/end_rant

UPDATE: Here are two monitoring well hydrographs (click to enlarge) I grabbed from the USGS NWIS web site that show the degree of groundwater mining that is occurring in parts of Adams County.
Not exactly a picture of proper groundwater resource management in my opinion.

Hydrocarbon rains...

may fill lakes on Titan, the largest moon orbiting Saturn. The Cassini team has released this statement that describes seasonal changes taking place near the south pole of the body. Follow this link to see the imagery that supports the conclusion that methane rain seasonally fills these intermittent lakes with liquid methane.

Instead of a water cycle it's a hydrocarbon cycle. Just don't smoke if you visit Titan.

I'll need better glasses...

in order to read the smallest letters ever written. Stanford University scientists are creating letters that are one-third of a billionth of a meter in size.

How did they do it? Well, it has something to do with physics of course.

UPDATE: Mount Redoubt...

continues to shake and vent gas through the weekend. These images were gathered by Alaska Volcano Observatory personnel during an overflight of the mountain on Sunday (click on images to enlarge; click on link for current status.)

The upper image shows the steaming vents that are developing on the north side of the summit, while the lower image shows the melting glacial cap at the site of the enlarging fumaroles.

Be patient. It's the calm before the storm.

Groundhog Day 2009!

Did Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow? Will there be six more weeks of winter, or an early arrival of spring?

Check it out, check-it-outers: Groundhog.org

A look at the origin and history of Groundhog Day.

For those that appreciate the clockwork precision of astronomical events, this holiday falls on a cross-quarter date, the middle of astronomical winter, approximately mid-way between a solstice and an equinox.

I've always thought it peculiar that we rely on a rodent's shadow to predict the weather.

UPDATE: It's official... six more weeks of winter.

While we wait on Redoubt...

another Pacific rim volcano erupts near Tokyo dusting the city with a light fall of ash.

And the US Air Force has transferred aircraft and personnel from Alaska to Tacoma in a precautionary move.

Yeah, I'd be listening to the warnings issued by the AVO too. Redoubt's gonna pop. Count on it.

I'm a doer and a visionary...

based on an analysis of my blog and my web pages, respectively. Here are the unadulterated results:

ESTP - The Doers:

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

ENTP - The Visionaries:

The charming and trend savvy type. They are especially attuned to the big picture and anticipate trends. They often have sophisticated language skills and come across as witty and social. At the end of the day, however, they are pragmatic decision makers and have a good analytical ability.

They enjoy work that lets them use their cleverness, great communication skills and knack for new exciting ventures. They have to look out not to become quitters, since they easily get bored when the creative exciting start-up phase is over.

Interesting. I've always thought of myself as reclusive and shy.

It may be Super Sunday...

but I won't be watching the Superbowl. Not even for the commercials, nor for potential "wardrobe malfunctions."

Although I most certainly possess a Y chromosome, it apparently lacks the usually-dominant football gene.

Boom and bust...

cycles are an unfortunate part of the mining industry, whether due to exhaustion of an ore body or changing economic circumstances. The latter seems to have caused the closure of Teck Cominco's zinc-producing Pende Oreille mine at Metaline Falls, Washington.

I have been told that several geologists remain on the skeleton staff in order to continue to characterize the ore body in case the mine re-opens in the future.

A hot picture...

for a chilly winter day (click to enlarge.) Here we see two volcanologists approaching a vigorous lava flow on Kilauea volcano in an attempt to grab a sample of the ~1,100 C molten material. I snapped this image from a hovering helicopter near the new breakout from the Pu'u 'O'o vent in August 2007.

Just look at that new pahoehoe. Like I said before: every geology student needs to visit this dynamic volcano at some point in their life.

My small dinner party...

with friends/colleagues last evening was a smashing good time. It was fun to share the yummy Thai shrimp curry I had prepared with company.

Highlights of the evening involved us gathering in the frigid darkness on the back deck to catch a very bright transit of the International Space Station - it cruised by directly overhead in its 220-mile high orbit. Then we viewed what can arguably be described as the best geo-comedy ever made, the 1990 movie Tremors. It's Jaws but with giant, vicious worms. No spoilers here - just watch it sometime. I promise it's big fun. (Note: the sequels are lousy - don't bother.)

But perhaps the most memorable experience of the entire night involved kumquats. I had never tasted one of these gems before, and I can best describe them as tiny citrus bombs that explode in your mouth. Give 'em a try sometime to zest up a salad - support the kumquat growers of America.

See, science nerds can have fun too.