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Melting in the Afar helps scientists understand how oceans form
PlanetEarth Online via Phys.org
Lavas from the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, where three tectonic plates are spreading apart, have given scientists a new insight into how ocean basins form. The Afar region is geologically unique, as it is the only place in the world where two continents are at the advanced stage of pulling away from each other. By studying this so-called rifting process, geologists hope to better understand how other ocean basins formed.
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Flooding of subterranean lake in Antarctica created Boston-sized crater
Nature World News
Flooding of a subglacial lake in Antarctica likely caused some 6 billion metric tons of water to flow directly into the ocean and the drainage caused a vast crater to form on the continent's icy surface to fill the void. Subglacial lakes (SGLs) stay in a liquid state from heat rising up from the rock beds below and the pressure of ice pushing down from above. SGLs are believed to continually fill up with water and then drain. Geologists are busy trying to better understand why this happens and what results from it.
Prehistoric Trackways National Monument preserves the passage of life before the dinosaurs
Desert Exposure
In the Robledo Mountains — a small range a few miles northwest of Las Cruces, N.M., and along the western bank of the Rio Grande — there lies a remarkable geologic chapter in the story of life on our restless planet. It now ranks as the world's most important fossil record of its kind for the geologic time span called the Permian Period of the Paleozoic Era. In recognition of the site's scientific value, Congress passed legislation in 2009 to make it a national monument: the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument.
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AIPG 2014 national officers — election results
AIPG
The results of the AIPG 2014 National officers elections are: President-Elect — Foster Sawyer; Vice President — Brent Huntsman; Secretary — Jim Burnell; and Editor — Bob Stewart. The incumbent officers for 2014 are: President — Ray Talkington; Past-President — Ron Wallace; and Treasurer — Larry Austin. The four advisory board representatives for 2014 will be elected at the AIPG Annual Meeting on Oct. 26.
AIPG members — 25 Years
AIPG
On behalf of all AIPG Members and the Executive Committee a 25th anniversary certificate and lapel pin were sent in appreciation to members with 25 years of active support. Their dedication to AIPG throughout the years is truly appreciated. It has helped ensure the growth and success of the Institute. We look forward to their continued support of AIPG and the profession.
AIPG section newsletters
AIPG
The AIPG Michigan Section Newsletter — June 2013 is now available online.
The AIPG Arizona Section Newsletter — June 2013 is now available online.
50th anniversary lapel pin with tie tack back
AIPG
The AIPG 50th anniversary lapel pin with tie tack back is now available. The cost is $12 for members and $15 for nonmembers — including shipping and handling fees. These lapel pins will be given away for free at the 50th Anniversary Conference, Oct. 23-26, in Broomfield, Colo. Plan on attending!
Come join us for the AIPG 50th Annual Meeting
AIPG
The American Institute of Professional Geologists' 50th Annual Meeting, "Geology Serving Society: Energy Independence, Mineral and Water Resources, and Geologic Education," will be Oct. 23-26, in Broomfield, Colo. This conference is designed to exploit Colorado's unique geologic setting. Ten field trips have been organized — with of one them venturing underground — plus several guest trips and a short course. Register now.
The Foundation of the American Institute of Professional Geologists
AIPG
The Foundation of the American Institute of Professional Geologists has been established to:
- Make educational grants to support individual scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students in the geosciences
- Prepare literature with educational content about the role of geosciences as a critical component of the sciences and of the national economy and public health and safety
- Make grants to classroom geoscience teachers for classroom teaching aids
- Support development of education programs for the science and engineering community
- Support geoscience internships in the nation’s capital
- Support geological filed trips for K-12
- Support educational outreach programs to the public on the state and local level.
For further information or if you have questions about donating to the Foundation, contact John Bognar, Chairman, The Foundation of the American Institute of Professional Geologists at 314-660-9968 or John.bognar@geosciencesolutions.net.
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Loch Ness monster: Geology tries, but doesn't explain mystery
The Christian Science Monitor
In 1933, Londoner George Spicer and his wife told The Inverness Courier that they had seen something. Something strange: a dragon-like creature that quickly disappeared back into the Loch Ness lake. Since then that monster has been (allegedly) seen countless time. An Italian scientist blames the Loch Ness monster sightings on seismic activity. But that doesn't quite add up.
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Researchers call for rethinking efforts to prevent interplanetary contamination
Space Daily
Two university researchers say environmental restrictions have become unnecessarily restrictive and expensive-on Mars. Astrobiologists at Washington State University say the NASA Office of Planetary Protection's "detailed and expensive" efforts to keep Earth microorganisms off Mars are making missions to search for life on the red planet "unviable."
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Britain holds biggest shale basin in the world
Canada Free Press
The British Geological Survey (BGS) report estimates that there could be 1,300 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of shale gas trapped in the Bowland shale basin alone. In fact, the BGS's upper estimate is almost twice that figure — 2,281 tcf. This would make it by far the biggest shale basin in the world.
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An ancient desert, a modern sea and lots of oil
Houston Chronicle via San Antonio Express-News
A drilling hunch with its roots in the Jurassic period is paying off for Royal Dutch Shell, with a potential 100 million-barrel oil find adding to its bounty in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell said its Vicksburg, Texas, exploratory well encountered an estimated 500 feet of net oil pay. The well is five miles from the company's Appomattox site, where Shell already has found 500 million barrels of potentially recoverable resources.
Hitzman: Policy-bereft helium is planet’s most critical element
Mining Weekly
Helium gas, which was earth's most critical energy element, remained outside of any global policy frameworks, U.S. Colorado School of Mines luminary Murray Hitzman said. Delivering the keynote address at GeoForum 2013 in Johannesburg, the Washington, D.C.-based geological leader was speaking on the minerals of the future.
Long-lived oceanography satellite decommissioned after equipment fails
UPI
A U.S.-French satellite doing oceanography surveys for 11 1/2 years has been decommissioned following the loss of its last remaining transmitter, NASA says. The Jason-1 ocean altimetry satellite, a joint venture of NASA and the Center National d'Etudes Spatiales, was launched Dec. 7, 2001, and helped create a revolutionary climate data record of global ocean surface topography, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said.
Missed last week's issue? See which articles your colleagues read most.
Meteoroid, not comet, explains the 1908 Tunguska fireball
Discover
On July 1, 105 years ago, Russians were reeling from the enormous fireball that streaked through the sky the day before and flattened almost 800 square miles of trees near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Whatever it was, scientists found no trace of it in the charred rubble. It has taken researchers over a century to identify the extraterrestrial object — but in a recent paper, geoscientists revealed that the culprit was, indeed, a meteoroid.
Students explore European geosites
Times of Oman
A group of third-year students of GUtech in Applied Geosciences joined two of their Geosciences professors for two weeks of training in Spain and France. The GUtech students and their professors stayed for 10 days in Aliaga, a small village in the Aragon province in the center of Spain. The area is famous among geologists and a good location for preparing Bachelor's degree students for their future careers in geosciences.
Scientists eat their research: Tubeworms, ice cores and ants all make scientific feasts
The Huffington Post
A tube of saggy, bacteria-filled flesh, the deep-sea tubeworm displays a uniquely unappetizing appearance. But marine biologist Peter Girguis and his colleagues tried a morsel anyway. A long-standing marine biology mantra holds that scholars should taste their species of study. But tasting your research goes far beyond the field of marine biology. Scientists' natural curiosity has led them to put some strange things in their mouths.
Toledo sinkhole: Ohio hole swallows vehicle and driver
KpopStarz
Another sinkhole accident has occurred, this time in Toledo, Ohio. A sinkhole opened up in the middle of a road and swallowed a car and its driver. The driver survived after falling 20 feet into the sinkhole. It seems as though sinkholes are opening up everywhere this year. In Florida, a sinkhole swallowed a man's bedroom while he slept. In Chicago, a sinkhole as wide as a city street swallowed three cars. And in China, sinkholes collapsed entire buildings.
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