Earth Science

Lots of people enjoy going to fee mining sites where you can prospect inactive surface mines, mine tailings, soil, sediments or outcrops and keep any rocks, gems, minerals or fossils that you find. Examples include: Herkimer Diamond Mines where you can search for doubly-terminated quartz crystals, and Crater of Diamonds where you might be lucky enough to find a real diamond.

National Geographic has an interesting article about how many small communities on the seaward edge of the Mississippi River delta are being lost to subsidence and sea level rise.

The community of Leeville (shown in Google map below) is featured in the article. If you toggle between “Map” and “Sat” you will see how the map greatly overstates the amount of dry land – at least on the day that the satellite image was acquired.

View Larger Map

“Last July, something unprecedented in the 34-year satellite record happened: 98 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s surface melted, compared to roughly 50 percent during an average summer.” Quoted from the CIRES press release.

Why did penguins give up flying and instead become swimmers? National Geographic has an article that explores this question.

This isn’t the “baking soda volcano experiment” that you remember from grade school. It is all about using buried explosives to simulate the creation of maar volcanoes.

“The first-ever estimate of how fast frogs, toads and salamanders in the United States are disappearing from their habitats reveals they are vanishing at an alarming and rapid rate.” Quoted from the USGS press release.

The Center for Disease Control has a collection of tornado resources. One is the instructions for “how to survive a tornado”. Persons who know what to do when an emergency arises have the greatest chance of survival.

The Arizona Geological Survey published a mineral resource evaluation for the proposed Arizona Sonoran Desert Heritage Area in western Maricopa County.

A partial map of the area is shown at right.

The United States Geological Survey has published a study on the depletion rates of ground water in the United States between 1900 and 2008. The rate of depletion is accelerating.

An article in the Houston Chronicle explains how Croatian researchers are training honey bees to find land mines by associating the odor of their food source with the odor of explosives.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline plans to build a pipeline from the Utica Shale play in Ohio to an LNG export facility in Louisiana.

Earth’s May 31 “close call” with a 1.7 mile-wide asteroid has radio astronomers excited. Fortunately it is going to miss Earth by over 3 million miles.

“Whenever an asteroid approaches this closely, it provides an important scientific opportunity to study it in detail to understand its size, shape, rotation, surface features, and what they can tell us about its origin. We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid’s distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise.”

“March 2012 set records for warm temperatures that promoted early leafing and flowering across large areas of the United States.” Quoted from the USGS press release.

When natural gas prices rise heating a home with gas becomes more expensive. Many other activities become more expensive. One concern about exporting natural gas is that lots of people (and industries) will see their expenses go up. An article on the Christian Science Monitor website explores who will see higher prices.

AccuWeather.com has an article about a subdivision in Lakeport, California where a landslide moving at a rate of inches per day is tearing homes apart.

“Invasive “crazy ants” are displacing fire ants in areas across the southeastern United States. [...] It’s the latest in a history of ant invasions from the southern hemisphere and may prove to have dramatic effects on the ecosystem of the region.” Quoted from The University of Texas at Austin press release.

This video compresses a two month view from the bow of an ice breaker travelling through the Ross Sea of Antarctica into less then five minutes. Watch for the wildlife surprise at the end.

ABC News Australia has an article about the 101 carat colorless diamond that set a new price record by selling for $23.8 million.

Large slabs of ice pushed onto land along the Yukon River have pushed buildings from foundations and a fear of flooding has forced evacuations.

An article on NationalGeographic.com explains how the popularity of “climbing Everest” has resulted in inexperienced climbers creating traffic jams on the mountain and littering the landscape. Ways to reverse this are explored.