GeoBlog

2004-04-06T14:03:00.000-05:00

From the New York Times: Scientists Discover Fossil From Era When Fish Did Push-Ups. "A small arm bone fossilized in the red sandstone of a Pennsylvania road cut may hold clues to a critical transition of life on Earth, the evolution of some fish into land-dwelling animals.

The two-and-a-half-inch-long bone, which scientists think is the oldest known upper arm, or humerus, appears to be a link between the fins of fish and the arms and legs of amphibians. The creature the bone belonged to apparently had developed a capability important toward bridging that evolutionary gap: it could do push-ups.

2004-02-11T13:44:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times: Ignored for Decades, Insect Fossil is Declared World's Oldest. "Scientists say they have discovered the world's oldest known insect fossil — a 400 million-year-old set of minuscule jaws that lay unrecognized for nearly a century in a lonely drawer at the Natural History Museum in London. The findings, being published on Thursday in the journal Nature, pushes the date for the appearance of insects, one of the most successful life forms on earth, some 10 million to 20 million years back in the fossil record. And they suggest that insects were among the first animals to live on land. The authors also argue that these ancient insects flew. If true, that would mean that flight — one of life's most important and vigorously investigated evolutionary innovations — evolved much earlier than suspected, 70 million years before the oldest fossilized insect wing. Scientists say the finding puts insects, already recognized as the earliest animal fliers, up in the air a good 170 million years before anything else, even flying dinosaurs." Wow!

2004-02-10T15:38:00.000-06:00

From the BBC - Earth 'shook off' ancient warming "UK scientists claim they now know how Earth recovered on its own from a sudden episode of severe global warming at the time of the dinosaurs.... Rock erosion may have leached chemicals into the sea, where they combined with carbon dioxide, causing levels of the greenhouse gas to fall worldwide."

2003-08-30T13:24:00.000-05:00

global earth history A cool site illustrating paleogeographic change through time.

2003-08-27T18:39:00.000-05:00

From the Discovery Channel: Hubble Captures Mars Close-Up. "The Hubble Space Telescope's newest picture of Mars shows summer on the Red Planet just as it makes its closest pass by Earth in 60,000 years." Very cool!

2003-08-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

From the New Zeland News: Coral reef decline predates global warming: "Destruction of the world's coral reefs began long before the pollution and global warming of modern times, but it can still be traced back to man. "

2002-08-22T08:43:00.000-05:00

Also from the BBC: Microbes 'could survive on Mars'. "Microbes may be able to survive on Mars according to new simulations of the Martian environment. Researchers used a device called the Andromeda Chamber to simulate Martian conditions. They discovered that microorganisms called methanogens could grow at low pressures. They say their findings imply that life could have existed on the Red Planet in the past, present, or at some point in the future."

2002-08-22T08:41:00.000-05:00

From the BBC: Fossil was 'first walker'. "The most primitive foot to walk on land has been described by scientists. It belonged to an animal that lived about 345 million years ago - in what is now Scotland." Check it out...

2002-06-18T13:26:00.000-05:00

Go to the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program for details regarding today's earthquake near Darmstadt, Indiana.

2002-02-23T13:05:00.000-06:00

From Science Daily Magazine: When The Earth Dried Out. "About a billion years ago, the continents emerged relatively suddenly from an ocean that covered 95 percent of the Earth's surface, according to a new theory by Eldridge Moores, a geologist at the University of California, Davis. The appearance of large masses of dry land would have caused more extreme weather, changes in ocean currents and the emergence of proper seasons. In turn, these environmental changes may have led to rise in atmospheric oxygen that enabled the explosion of new life forms around 500 million years ago."

2002-02-21T15:51:00.000-06:00

From National Geograhic.com: Dino-Era Vomit Fossil Found in England. "British scientists have discovered the world's oldest fossilized vomit, believed to have come from a large marine reptile 160 million years ago." I can see how a meal of belemnites would be difficult to keep down. Interesting article - not at all nauseating!

2002-02-08T11:34:00.000-06:00

From the Guaridan Unlimited Is human evolution finally over?. "For those who dream of a better life, science has bad news: this is the best it is going to get. Our species has reached its biological pinnacle and is no longer capable of changing....'If you want to know what Utopia is like, just look around - this is it,' said Professor Steve Jones, of University College London, who is to present his argument at a Royal Society Edinburgh debate, 'Is Evolution Over?', next week. 'Things have simply stopped getting better, or worse, for our species." This ought to be an interesting debate, particularly coming from Steve Jones. He wrote the excellent Darwin's Ghost: the Origin of Species Updated. Check out this article and Jones' book.

2002-01-24T11:39:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times: Kentucky Governor Admits Wronging Coal Miners. This is a worthwhile read about how governor Paul Patton intends to help those miners suffering from black lung disease. Apparently, a 1996 act effectively discontinued medical compensation for those miners suffering from the disease (only 16 claims approved since 1996! - less than 1%). Patton aims to ammend that act and vastly increase medical compensations to miners suffering from black lung. My only question is this: where is he going to get the money? Pattons plan requires $6 million per year -- a lot of money in state that doesn't have much.... Stay tuned.

2001-12-30T17:30:00.000-06:00

Well as this year draws to a close, I thought I would post a link to the Earth Science News of the Year as compiled by ScienceNews Online. As I browse through the list, I realize there's a lot I missed! Thankfully, the good people at ScienceNews keep up with such things. Enjoy.

2001-12-07T11:55:00.000-06:00

Hello Geology 112/114 students! Welcome to GeoBlog, my web log of "all things geologic." I use this site primarily to archive geology-related articles of interest to me and to my colleagues. I occasionally use it to link people such as yourself to recent happenings in the geosciences.

Of course, the reason I’ve brought you here is for an extra credit opportunity. This opportunity is worth up to 8 extra points, applicable either to your last lab exam OR your upcoming final. All you have to do is read and summarize two geology-related articles I’ve linked to on GeoBlog. The summaries must be typed and can be submitted to me via e-mail at fred.siewers@wku.edu or handed in to me at my office. As you can see from this page alone, there are several recent discoveries that pertain to topics we have covered in Historical Geology. An exploration through the archives or a search using the search-engine will no doubt turn up other course-related articles. Look around a bit and find some articles of interest. I think that you’ll see that there is a lot of good stuff here!

The full number of extra credit points will be awarded to those summaries that are well written and that take on some of the more lengthy articles I’ve linked to. Good articles to summarize include this article from the BBC and this article from Scientific American. Even summarizing just one article will earn you some extra points.

The due date for this assignment is midnight, December 14, 2001. Be sure you specify which exam you want the points applied to (sorry, you can't do both). Please e-mail me with any questions. Enjoy!! Thanks for taking Historical Geology!!

2001-11-27T05:53:00.000-06:00

From NASA: Ancient Layered Rocks on Mars. As the caption says, "Is this a picture of Mars or Earth?" This is one of the more remarkable pictures I've seen from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Give it a look and be sure to follow the links in the caption.

2001-11-20T16:54:00.000-06:00

From the BBC: "The microbes that 'rule the world' "The Earth's climate may be dependent upon microbes that eat rock beneath the sea floor, according to new research.

Analysing rock samples from under the Atlantic and the Pacific, scientists have seen evidence that microscopic organisms are eating into volcanic rock, leaving worm-like tracks. The microbes alter the chemistry of the rock, allowing it to exchange chemicals and minerals with seawater when they come into contact. The process influences global chemical interactions, such as the carbon cycle which plays a crucial role in the Earth's climate." Cool! More evidence supporting the notion that microbes rule!

2001-10-26T13:49:00.000-05:00

More from National Geographic Did Plants Cool the Earth and Spark Explosion of Life? "Plants colonized Earth much earlier than previously believed, giving a jump start to the huge proliferation of animal species that occurred hundreds of million years ago, say scientists at Pennsylvania State University. Based on the fossil record, scientists have thought that land plants and fungi evolved around 480 million years ago. The researchers at Penn State propose much earlier dates based on molecular clock analysis: 700 million years ago for land plants, and 1.3 billion years ago for land fungi." Whoa...better change my lectures....

2001-10-26T07:57:00.000-05:00

From National Geographic: Legged Sea Cow Fossil Found in Jamaica. "The nearly complete skeleton of an ancient aquatic mammal with legs has been unearthed in Jamaica.

The 50-million-year old skeleton is one of the best examples so far of the evolution from a land animal to an aquatic animal, said Daryl Domning, a paleontologist at Howard University in Washington, D.C., who reported the discovery.
The skeleton found in Seven Rivers, Jamaica, is a new genus and species of the order Sirenia, which encompasses the ancestors of modern-day manatees and dugongs."

2001-10-17T12:31:00.000-05:00

From Scientific American: more info on the Snowball Earth.

2001-09-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

From Science News Online: New Fossils Resolve Whale's Origin. "Recent fossil finds from Pakistan overturn the picture of whale evolution long championed by paleontologists, bringing them closer to agreement with an alternative view proposed by molecular biologists. The discoveries establish a close evolutionary link between cetaceans, which include whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and a group of mammals known as artiodactyls. These hoofed animals with an even number of toes include cows, sheep, goats, pigs, deer, and hippopotamuses." Cool!

2001-09-21T09:11:00.000-05:00

From the New York Times: Experts Dissect a Primordial Banquet. "Extending their knowledge of some of the earliest life on earth, scientists believe they have figured out what one group of bacteria was feasting on 3.5 billion years ago.

Analyzing rocks from western Australia, the researchers did not find any fossils of the bacteria, but they said the chemical composition of sulfur compounds in the rock could only be the byproduct of living organisms — the leftovers of an ancient microbial meal." Check it out.

2001-08-29T13:05:00.000-05:00

A Radiometric Dating Resource List. Another good resource.

2001-08-29T13:01:00.000-05:00

Radiometric dating tables. I'm giving a lecture on this today and found this to be a useful site. Good for case examples.

2001-08-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

Also from EurekAlert: Well preserved meteorite yields clues to carbon evolution in space. "The first results are in from the organic analysis of the Tagish Lake Meteorite, a rare, carbon-rich meteorite classified as a "carbonaceous chondrite" that fell on a frozen Canadian lake in January 2000 and is the most pristine specimen ever studied of this group of important space objects.

Carbonaceous chondrite meteorites contain vital clues to the evolution of carbon compounds in our solar system preceding the origin of life.

The analysis, conducted by a team headed by chemist Sandra Pizzarello, a research scientist at Arizona State University, on 4.5 grams taken from the sealed interior of the meteorite, found organic compounds in the meteorite with some similarities to other known carbonaceous chondrites, but also clear differences -- most notably the near-absence of the amino acids found in some meteorites studied before.

In an article scheduled to appear in the August 24 issue of the online journal Science Express (with publication in Science to follow) the team notes that the chemistry of the Tagish Lake Meteorite appears to preserve organics that accumulated or developed in the early history of the Solar System including molecular bubbles of carbon (fullerenes or "buckyballs") containing the noble gasses helium and argon in a ratio similar to the gas and dust cloud that formed the planets -- and thus perhaps reflects an early stage in a process of evolution of complex carbon compounds in space."

2001-08-27T09:58:00.000-05:00

From EurekAlert!: Seismic doubleheader: Seismologist shows deep earthquakes come in pairs. "Seismologists now know that deep earthquakes like to do just like baseball immortal Ernie Banks liked to : "Play two today." Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has seismic wave evidence that many deep earthquakes in the Tonga area occur at the same spot repeatedly and often occur in pairs.

The second earthquake generally has the same magnitude and follows the first within one day. These earthquake doubleheaders are seldom found for earthquakes at shallow depths, such as along the San Andreas Fault. These results may imply that earthquakes deeper than 300 miles do not represent brittle slip along a fault, as do shallow earthquakes that can be studied more readily. "

2001-08-24T12:31:00.000-05:00

From UniSci: Plausible Biological Cause For Major Climate Events. "The largest genetic study ever performed to learn when land plants and fungi first appeared on the Earth has revealed a plausible biological cause for two major climate events.

Those events are the Snowball Earth eras, when ice periodically covered the globe, and the era called the Cambrian Explosion, which produced the first fossils of almost all major categories of animals living today." Sounds very interesting!

2001-08-23T09:10:00.000-05:00

From EurekaAlert: Is Earth's magnetic field failing?. "It might even be a matter of life or death. The Earth's field is one of nature's great gifts, shielding us from lethal cosmic radiation and possibly stopping our atmosphere being stripped away by the ravages of the solar wind. If our magnetic field were to switch off entirely, the Earth could become as sterile as Mars.

Our protective shield is unlikely to fail permanently, but a temporary shutdown may be imminent. It could happen within as little as 2000 years. Measurements of the Earth's field show that it is getting weaker, and suggest that we are heading for a field reversal, in which the north and south magnetic poles will swap. When the reversal is in full swing, there will be a time when the field sinks almost to zero before cranking up again. This unprotected period might only last for a few years, or it could go on for thousands. To know for sure, we'll need a very precise model of the Earth's core. "

2001-08-22T11:27:00.000-05:00

From the New York Times: Ancient Coral May Hold Hint of Worsening Weather Cycle. "Reading chemical clues etched in coral up to 130,000 years old, geologists say it appears that El Niño and La Niña, the pulses of warm and cool Pacific waters that can lead to Indonesian droughts and Idaho blizzards, have almost never before reached the sustained intensity seen in the past century." This is kind of old news, but nonetheless it is interesting.

2001-08-17T15:10:00.000-05:00

Roman Numeral and Date Conversion with Roman Calculator & Test. I know some physicists that would really go for this.

2001-08-16T15:20:00.000-05:00

From the Washington Post: Planetary System Found Similar to the Sun's. I hadn't posted here in a long time, so I thought this would be a good article to get things going.

2001-04-08T06:03:00.000-05:00

Its been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I would post this from the New York Times: Evolutionists Battle New Theory on Creation. The quote the article "When Kansas school officials restored the theory of evolution to statewide education standards a few weeks ago, biologists might have been inclined to declare victory over creationism.... This time, though, the evolutionists find themselves arrayed not against traditional creationism, with its roots in biblical literalism, but against a more sophisticated idea: the intelligent design theory." I don't know much about intelligent design theory, but I do know that one of the difficulties with Darwinian evolution (at least for me) concerns the origin of life. How did it all arise? The intelligent design folks seem to suggest that even very simple life is too complex to evolve on its own. I'm not so sure. And I certainly have no problem with Darwinian evolution once life has evolved. Read this article for more info.

2001-03-13T06:16:00.000-06:00

From Eureka alert: Do old glaciers cause new earthquakes in New Madrid, Missouri? "The ghost of past glaciers may still rattle the American Midwest. During the last ice age 20,000 years ago, a gigantic ice sheet invaded North America, weighing down the hard upper crust of the continent for millions of years. Eventually, the glaciers melted. Freed from the heavy pressure of the ice sheet, North America slowly rose. This glacial rebound continues even today and triggers quakes in the New Madrid fault zone in Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee, says Stanford geophysicist Mark Zoback." This is a really intriguing idea, one that will no doubt get a lot attention from scientists.

2001-03-02T03:36:00.000-06:00

From the BBC: Fossil fish in Chinese tale "Ancestors of the first fish that crawled on to land, giving rise to back-boned animals and eventually humans, probably arose in China...The discovery of a 400-million-year-old fossil fish at a site in what is now southern China throws light on a fishy "garden of Eden", where creatures first evolved lobe-like fins that went on to form limbs."

2001-02-22T05:31:00.000-06:00

From MSNBC: New clues in biggest extinction mystery? "What triggered Earth's most severe mass extinction? The Permian-Triassic event, 250 million years ago, was more devastating than the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago."

The culprit? Another comet or asteroid say researchers from the University of Washington, as indicated by concentrations of "buckyballs" at the extinction horizon. Another overview (via the AP) can be found here at CNN's web site. The NASA press release can be obtained via ftp by clicking here.

I find all of this very interesting, but I have to say I'm skeptical until I see the data. That comes out tomorrow in the journal Science. Stay tuned....

2001-02-20T16:29:00.000-06:00

From the Associated Press: DNA links teacher to 9,000-year-old skeleton. "Using DNA from a tooth, scientist have established a blood tie between a 9,000-year-old skeleton known as "Cheddar Man" and an English schoolteacher who lives just a half mile from the cave where the bones were found." This is actually old news, but a colleague of mine saw a re-run of a show about this. I had never heard about it. I find totally incredible. The power of mitochondrial DNA!

2001-02-19T17:32:00.000-06:00

From CNN.com (I couldn't resist...) NASA debunks moon landing hoax conspiracy "Did NASA land men on the moon? "Yes, we did," the space agency proclaimed Monday on the Internet, rebutting newly boosted claims from conspiracy theorists that the Apollo missions were faked." One of the lines of evidence supporting the moon walk is, of course, the samples collected. To quote CNN..."NASA adds another line of defense. The program never raised the issue of more than 800 pounds (363 kg) of lunar rocks that astronauts brought back to Earth. "Geologists worldwide have been examining these samples for 30 years, and the conclusion is inescapable. The rocks could not have been collected or manufactured on Earth"" For the full text of NASA comments check out this link. And remember..."the truth is out there."

2001-02-19T12:46:00.000-06:00

Wither the Snows of Kilimanjaro? Check out "Glacier Loss Seen as Clear Sign of Human Role in Global Warming" from the New York Times. "The icecap atop Mount Kilimanjaro, which for thousands of years has floated like a cool beacon over the shimmering plain of Tanzania, is retreating at such a pace that it will disappear in less than 15 years, according to new studies. The vanishing of the seemingly perpetual snows of Kilimanjaro that inspired Ernest Hemingway, echoed by similar trends on ice-capped peaks from Peru to Tibet, is one of the clearest signs that a global warming trend in the last 50 years may have exceeded typical climate shifts and is at least partly caused by gases released by human activities, a variety of scientists say." Impressive....

2001-02-17T10:26:00.000-06:00

From Scientific American: Volcanic accomplice to the KT Mass-extinction? "The Chicxulub Crater, sprawled across the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, is an approximately 180-kilometer-wide remnant of the impact of a 10-kilometer-wide meteorite. It has been called the smoking gun in the extinction of the dinosaurs between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods 65 million years ago. Some geologists, though, are starting to believe the meteorite didn't act alone." Check out this article to find out why.

2001-02-15T10:15:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times: Kansas Puts Evolution Back Into Public Schools "In the beginning, there was the theory of evolution. That was until the Kansas State Board of Education voted two years ago to remove it as the sole explanation of the origin of man from the state's public school curriculum. But in a 7-to-3 vote today, the board reversed that decision, reinstating evolution with the adoption of new state science standards and essentially mandating that evolution be taught in public schools throughout the state." This is a very good thing.

2001-02-13T06:28:00.000-06:00

From Scientific American: Reading the Book of Life. "We have only about twice as many genes as a worm or fly--far fewer than anyone guessed." Here's a nice summary article on what some of the latest research finds are in the effort to understand the human genome. Apparently, some of genetic material is very much similar to that of bacteria - a fascinating find with major evolutionary implications.

2001-02-06T10:02:00.000-06:00

From the BBC: Planet Earth on the move
"Moving 5.972 sextillion tonnes is relatively "simple..." "Mankind will soon have the ability to move the Earth into a new orbit, say a team of astronomers. The planetary manoeuvre may more than double the time life can survive on our planet, they believe."

2001-01-31T06:08:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times: Rescuers Find Handful of Survivors of Indian Earthquake. Here's a good article summarizing the tragic news of last Fridays devasting earthquake in India (7.9 on the Richter scale). Lots of links too, inlcuding video footage of the damage. If you don't get the NYTimes on-line, you'll have to subscribe to read the article. Don't worry, its free and well worth it!

2001-01-23T16:49:00.000-06:00

From the International Herald Tribune: Warming of Earth Raises New Alarm. "The debate over global warming gained new intensity Monday with the release of an authoritative new report showing that global temperatures are rising faster and higher than most experts feared only a short time ago - faster, in fact, than at any time during the past 10,000 years according to one climate scientist"

"The new climate report, more than 1,000 pages in length, was the work of 123 lead authors and 516 contributing experts. It is the most comprehensive study ever made of the global warming phenomenon." Sounds authoritative.

2001-01-18T07:04:00.000-06:00

From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Proof of Kilauea’s big bang shocks Hawaii geologists. Sometime before 1000 A.D., Kilauea appears to have had a Mt. St. Helens-style eruption never before known among the Hawaiian islands. So rather than the typical "effusive" style of eruption associated with the island's volcanoes, a highly explosive eruption occurred sending rock and dust 18 miles into the air. The evidence for this includes 3 to 4 pound volcanic bombs five miles from the summit. That's explosive!

2001-01-14T16:12:00.000-06:00

From Reuters News: Earthquake Kills Hundreds in Central America. "More than 234 people died and at least 1,200 more were missing in El Salvador on Sunday, a day after a strong earthquake struck the Central American nation setting off landslides and burying hundreds of homes, officials said. A National Police spokesman told Reuters 234 deaths had been confirmed, most of them in a massive landslide that buried as many as 500 homes in the San Salvador suburb of Santa Tecla....The 7.6 magnitude quake occurred at 11:34 a.m. (1734 GMT) Saturday and was felt across El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras and as far north as Mexico City." For a view of the damage, click here. Tragic....

2001-01-12T07:15:00.000-06:00

From EurekAlert: Liquid water at Earth's surface 4.3 billion years ago, scientists discover. Give this a read. Much of the evidence comes from looking at oxygen isotopes in zircons, something that geologists have only recently been able to do.

2001-01-12T07:04:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times: Ancient Rock May Alter Theories of Earth History. "In a grain-size crystal from western Australia, geologists have identified the oldest piece of Earth yet discovered. The find may lead scientists to reconsider theories about when life first appeared on the planet, as well as the origin of the Moon. The geologists, who describe their discovery in today's issue of the journal Nature, said the crystal — a transparent pink speck of zircon only about as wide as a strand of human hair — crystallized 4.4 billion years ago, when Earth was a mere 150 million years old." Another account of this incredible find can be found here.

2001-01-05T15:24:00.000-06:00

From Nature: Earth scientists iron out their differences. (yuck, yuck...gotta love those geology puns....). This article contains probably all you want to know about iron and iron-loving elements (i.e. siderophiles) in the Earth's interior. Still it is interesting, particularly if you (like me) never really understood how geologists are able to estimate the chemical composition of the Earth's interior.

2001-01-05T15:12:00.000-06:00

From the Ann Arbor (MI) News: U-M scientist offers solution to debate about Earths former super-continent. This is an interesting newspaper article on some of the latest thinking about the configuration of Pangea as deciphered from paleomagnetic data. Give it a read.

2001-01-04T15:01:00.000-06:00

From Geotimes: Redefining the Core-Mantle Boundary. "Scientists from the United States and Canada are proposing a new layer in the “onion” model of Earth, essentially a zone of material with properties of both the outer core and lower mantle. Their idea suggests that the boundary between core and mantle may not be sharp. It proposes a conducting layer at the core-mantle boundary that could explain Earth’s wobble and, potentially, the zones of low seismic velocity found in the lower mantle."

2000-12-27T07:35:00.000-06:00

Speaking of global warming, here's an article from ScienceDaily discussing recent research on methane seeps and gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico. Warming of the oceans could melt icy gas hydrates and release significant quantities of methane into the atmosphere. As methane is a strong green-house gas, a substantial release of this gas into the atmosphere could potentially contribute to global warming.

2000-12-27T07:21:00.000-06:00

From Science Daily: Scientists Track Phosphate To Better Understand Global Warming. One tends to hear more about carbon and its relationship to global warming rather than phosphate. Check out this article for an interesting perspective on the phosphorous cycle and biogeochemical research.

2000-12-25T07:42:00.000-06:00

From the BBC: Asteroid misses Earth by whisker - a "whisker" that is twice the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Pretty close in astronomical terms. Apparently, the crater would have been 3/4 of a mile across had the impact occurred.

2000-12-21T22:11:00.000-06:00

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Space Object That Killed Dinosaurs Broke Through Earths Crust. There are some pretty good impact scenarios described in this article.

2000-12-18T13:30:00.000-06:00

From Geotimes: an interesting essay on Evolution and Faith.

2000-12-18T08:51:00.000-06:00

Keep an eye on the ongoing activity at Popocatépetl Volcano, located just southeast of Mexico City. Popocatépetl, whose name translates as "Smoking Mountain", has been active since 1994 but activity has increased significantly in the past week. Ash and steam emissions, Vulcanian eruptions, and the appearance of a new lava dome have prompted authorities to issue new evacuations and increased alert levels. Keep informed at the Popocatépetl Volcano Observatory - mostly in Spanish, with an daily summary of events in English.

2000-12-17T18:12:00.000-06:00

Reuters news from the AGU meeting in San Francisco: Scientists Drill for Clues to Dinosaur Extinction. Seems that someone's finally getting serious about sinking a deep scientific drillhole into the Chicxulub crater on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Too bad the drilling starts in June, after the spring semester ends. Still, it's further evidence that T Rex and the Crater of Doom is timely reading. By the way, check out Walter Alvarez's bio if you haven't already. Note the honorary citizenship in two Italian towns - not bad.

2000-12-15T10:30:00.000-06:00

From Eureka Alert: Geologist suggests water may reside as ice deep in planets' interior How so? Through subduction my friend, through subduction....

2000-12-15T10:08:00.000-06:00

From the Electronic Telegraph: Nasa convinced of life on Mars. Are you? Check out this article and the associated links. See also the BBC report on this subject.

2000-12-14T12:00:00.000-06:00

From Scientific American: Three New Planets. Its amazing the rate at which these are being discovered. Already 46 "extra-solar" planets are known from northern hemisphere observations. Now the number is up to 49.

2000-12-12T13:57:00.000-06:00

From CNN.com: E-commerce: friend or foe of the environment? "It's unlikely e-commerce will save the planet as some have claimed," says Bette Fishbein, a senior fellow at Inform, an environmental research organization in New York City. "There might be some reductions in energy use, but there's a huge increase in packaging and shipping by air results in much more air pollution. Office paper use has doubled since the wide-spread use of computers so much for the promise of the paperless office."

Indeed. Still, it seems to me that society can figure out a way to at least cut-back on the excessive packaging. That would certainly help the environment. Post a comment here to let me know what you think (or that you have at least read this post). Thanks.

2000-12-11T11:13:00.000-06:00

More interesting news from ScienceDaily Magazine. "Probing the microscopic life found in the submerged recesses of an abandoned Wisconsin lead and zinc mine, scientists have found compelling evidence that microorganisms play a key role in the formation of mineral deposits. The finding not only sheds light on biology's role in the formation of some metal ores, but could help jump-start new remediation efforts for contaminated mining sites." This research finding seems quite significant to me. Check out discovery may jump-start mine remediation efforts for more info on this interesting topic.

2000-12-11T09:50:00.000-06:00

From Yahoo News: NASA: Satellite Odds of Hitting Someone 250-1. That seems like pretty good odds to me! Talk about ruining your whole day....

2000-12-11T09:39:00.000-06:00

From ScienceDaily Magazine. Here's another article on the recent research suggesting that Earth's continental land masses were created in short, fast bursts. You might check out my earlier post regarding this research.

2000-12-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder what a 3 foot rise in sea level would do? The Washington Post has an interesting article with some fairly scary figures. See WHAT ON EARTH? Rising Waters.

2000-12-08T05:08:00.000-06:00

Curious about my research profile? Here's what I recently put together for the WKU Department of Geography and Geology website.

"Dr. Fredrick D. Siewers is a sedimentary geologist with expertise in carbonate sedimentology, stratigraphy and invertebrate paleontology. He received his Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of Illinois where he worked on the origin and stratigraphic significance of discontinuity surfaces (hardgrounds and paleokarst surfaces) in Middle Ordovician limestones of Nevada. He has a wide range of interests in geoscience research, including instructional technology. In 1997 while teaching at Rock Valley College, Rockford, Illinois, he founded and co-administered the Rock Valley EdNet, an educational intranet and on-line learning community. Since joining the Department of Geography-Geology in 1998, Dr. Siewers has worked on the origin of "coal-ball" concretions in Pennsylvanian coal seams and the preservation of plant remains in those concretions. Dr. Siewers enjoys working with students and colleagues on research projects and is always looking for new students and colleagues to collaborate with. He has extensive experience in field geology as well as a variety of laboratory techniques, including sedimentary petrography, cathodoluminscence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and geochemical microanalysis. He is actively involved in geoscience education, both regionally and nationally, and enjoys maintaining a "web-log" of noteworthy happenings in geology. He is an associate of the WKU Center for Biodiversity Studies and is the secretary and treasurer of the WKU Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. Additionally, he is the secretary of the Geology Section of the Kentucky Academy of Science. Feel free to contact Dr. Siewers via e-mail or phone (270-745-5988)."

2000-12-07T13:59:00.000-06:00

Everyday numerous places on our planet experience an earthquake. Several have hit today, including a mild earthquake in southern Indiana. Other quakes include a strong earthquake in Turkmenistan, a quake that apparently was felt in Moscow, some 1,200 miles away. For more information on the Indiana quake, check out this info from the Indiana University PEPP Earthquake Institute.

2000-12-07T12:47:00.000-06:00

From Scientific American - an interesting article on Building Earths Continental Crust. To quote from the article "according to this model, granite intrusions in Greenland (above) or the Canadian Shield, depending on their size, would have taken only thousands of years to form--which is extraordinarily fast from a geological point of view...." Check it out.

2000-12-06T06:39:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times: U.S. Students Fail to Keep Up in Global Science and Math Tests. I found this to be an interesting if somewhat distressing article. Apparently we're doing great at the 4th grade level, but by 8th grade we are lagging behind in math and science education. 25% of Americans aren't getting any physics in high school. Who knows what the percentage would be for Earth Science (despite the fact that the international exam tests for Earth Science knowledge). There certainly is room for improvement.

2000-12-03T02:42:00.000-06:00

An early cosmic wallop for life on Earth? This article from Science News discusses some recent research on the potential connection between astronomical events and the origin of life on Earth. Check it out and post your thoughts.

2000-12-02T12:13:00.000-06:00

I've added a search engine to this site, one that is powered by Atomz.com. I'm hoping the search engine will enable you to readily look for geologic information posted on this site. Give the search engine a try, and let me know what you think (by clicking the "Comment" button).

2000-11-30T14:30:00.000-06:00

Want to discuss anything I've posted here? Please try out the new "Comment" functions I've added to each of the messages (discussions powered by BlogVoices, a link I came across when checking out Harrumph!). Give it a go! And thanks....

2000-11-30T12:46:00.000-06:00

This month's Scientific American has an interesting article on marine reptiles of the Mesozoic. Check out Rulers of the Jurassic Seas.

2000-11-30T12:22:00.000-06:00

Here's one for all you coal buffs.....Geology: Strikers set big Ohio coal fire.

2000-11-29T17:11:00.000-06:00

Ancient South African soils point to early terrestrial life says a group from Penn State. Check out this summary of the latest on this interesting subject.

2000-11-29T13:20:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times: Here is an interesting op-ed piece on why the recent climate talks collapsed. Check out Sins of Emission

2000-11-21T10:37:00.000-06:00

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has predicted that an asteroid, which could unleash a force 100 times greater than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, may strike earth on September 21, 2030. For more info, check out this link.

2000-11-21T10:03:00.000-06:00

Looking for some recent articles on Geology? Check out this nice compilation of links from the New York Times, entitled The Natural World: Geology. This is a site worth bookmarking....

2000-11-20T16:25:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder how soil liquefaction occurs during an earthquake? The physical details aren't actually all that well known and are the focus of an upcoming series of experiments aboard the space shuttle. Check out Sand Blast for more info on this interesting topic.

2000-11-20T08:41:00.000-06:00

There are some interesting developments regarding the preparation and certification of teachers to teach science in Kentucky schools. The Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) of the Kentucky Department of Education has recently been working to change the current requirements for certifcation. On the table is an ammendment of the Kentucky teaching certificate that proposes that teachers of 8-12 grade science have the "equivalent of a major" in one or more of the following - chemistry, physics, earth/space science, or biology. As far as I can tell, the EPSB has given preliminary approval to this amendment - their September Newsletter indicates that the Board voted to approve a "Notice of Intent" (to change the certification) and a public hearing was held on October 23 to receive comment. Supposidly, the regulation is to be presented for final review at the Board’s November 20-21 meeting; however, the November meeting agenda from the EPSB makes no reference to this upcoming presentation.

There are also some interesting developments pertaining to science education in the high schools. Recently, a measure was approved to change the minimum high school graduation requirements in science and other disciplines. Beginning with the Class of 2002, students will have to have 3 science credits in life science, physical science and earth and space science. Changes in the "Program of Study" and the "Core Content for Science Assessment" have also been implemented which require that much more Earth and Space Science be taught in the high schools.

What does this all mean for Geology education in Kentucky? Well, it certainly means that students are going to get a lot more exposure to Earth and Space Science in high school. It also likely means that any pre-service teacher interested in teaching high school Earth Science is going to have to have the equivalent of a Bachelors in Geology plus a wide range of education courses. They will also have to pass several National Certification Exams, including the General Science exam and the Earth/Space Science exam.

From my perspective, I think these developments are a good thing: the more students are exposed to geology in the high schools, the more likely they will want to pursue geology in college and beyond. These developments, however, pose considerable challenges to pre-service teachers who have to take the above mentioned exams (they are not easy), and to in-service teachers who have to expand their Earth Science content coverage just so that graduating students are adequately prepared for their exit exams.

The KDE does provide excellent suggestions on how to incorporate Earth and Space science content into the curriculum (see the current High School Implementation Manual). These suggestions, coupled with content-based professional development opportunities should, in the short term, help teachers face the current challanges. However, what is really need are more teachers trained specifically in Earth and Space Science, teachers who can teach actual Earth and Space Science courses. Such teachers are not currently coming out of the teacher education programs in state, nor are they coming out of the Geology programs, as none of the geology programs in the state currently offer a Bachelors in Earth Science Education. This situation must change soon in order for teachers to be adquately prepared to teach Earth and Space Science in Kentucky's schools.

Questions? Comments? Comment here or e-mail me. I can even grant you full posting privelages if you want to contribute to this site.

2000-11-17T05:40:00.000-06:00

Here is an interesting effort to establish a time scale for the evolutionary development of galaxies that is similar to the geologic time scale. Check out this link to Galactic Palaeontology.

2000-11-16T13:11:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple of other headlines of interest (all found on Newsblogger).

University At Buffalo Research Offers First Evidence That Massive Lava Flows Triggered Apocalyptic Climate Change. Another take on the K-T extinction event.
New Look at the San Andreas Fault.
Study: Forests May Help Counteract Greenhouse Gas

2000-11-16T12:55:00.000-06:00

Here's some geologic news that you might have lost amongst all of the election fluff. Huge earthquake hits Papua New Guinea. 8 on the Richter scale is pretty darn major!

2000-11-16T06:25:00.000-06:00

I'm glad to see others posting on this site! I hope we can grow this thing. I'm using it to learn HTML and to get a little more web-savy. Perhaps others of us can too (not that you need it Ron!).

Bethany had a question about adding links to a message. This requires inserting an HTML tag into your message. The one that allows me to insert a link to House of Onyx is <A HREF="page.html">label text</A> where "page.html" is the URL for the web site and "label text" the text that you want a user to click on to go to a particular site (such as, again, House of Onyx)(note that straight quotes only go around the URL, not the label). If this seems complicated...well, I guess it kind of is, but it allows us to communicate over the web and to exchange messages and ideas via computer (plus a whole host of other technologies). In your next post, try adding a link to some web site that might be of interest to us all. Doing so is what blogs are all about - sharing info found on the web via the web.

If you are interested in learning more about HTML and the incorporation of HTML tags into your messages you might visit Webmonkey; in particular check out their HTML Cheatsheet. There is plenty there to get you going. Have fun!!

2000-11-15T19:18:00.000-06:00

Greetings everyone. I think everyone has gone Blogger crazy, including myself. Thanks for the invite Dr. Siewers.
Hope you are enjoying yourself at GSA Dr. Schott. Feel free to get me a job, assistantship, or whatever.
A reminder to all Geo kids, we will be going to the House of Onyx this Saturday, bring lots of cash (like $400,000) for killer garnets, etc. At some point I may learn to create links. Hopefully this will occur sooner than later because the House of Onyx has a website. Mabey you could post that Dr. Siewers?????...

2000-11-15T16:58:00.000-06:00

Here's an interesting bit of news pertaining to climate change. Check out Arctic Evidence of Warming

2000-11-15T12:29:00.000-06:00

Greetings from GSA!
Howdy from Reno, NV, the "biggest little city in the world". It's been a great meeting so far. I've been pretty busy scurrying about between talks and interviews (5 yesterday). Things are a little spread out which makes it hard to get from one talk to the next sometimes. Had free dinner on the Micromass (mass spectrometer) folks last night. I'm seeing lots of old friends too. Hope everything's well in BG.
See you on Friday!

Ron

2000-11-15T09:46:00.000-06:00

Don't believe in plate tectonics? There are other view points/perspectives. Check out this site: Global Expansion Tectonics. Anyone want to provide a critique? If so, e-mail me, or if you'd like to post here please do so (I'll create an account for you). Perhaps one of these days I'll provide my own analysis....

2000-11-15T06:26:00.000-06:00

Some of you reading this site might be interested in going to graduate school in geology. If you are looking for names of top schools, check out the U.S. News and World Report web site. They not only rank the top schools; they also rank by subdiscipline. If you need a web site for a particular geology program, try checking out the Geoscience Departments WWW Directory. It has links to all the web pages of Geology Departments in the U.S. and Canada.

2000-11-14T13:35:00.000-06:00

One more site to look into is Spyonit. This software will tell you when a web site has been changed or updated. You are then notified of the change via e-mail, pager, cell phone, a web page, and other technologies. One potential use for this technology is to track job announcements in the Chronicle or GeoTimes...not that I'm really looking...;-)..., or to track changes in air fares. Apparently, using Farefinder you can get notified when the fare is below what you will pay. Pretty cool, eh?

2000-11-14T11:24:00.000-06:00

I just came across a really easy way to set up threaded discussions with groups of students that's independent of commercial groupware (such as CourseInfo). Its called QuickTopic. I found out about it from Peterme.com. I see great potential here, particularly if such discussions are linked to a course web site.

While you are at it, you might also check out E-Quill. As they indicate in their promotional info, "(E-Quill) lets you treat Web pages like pieces of paper: add digital ink, highlights, or sticky notes to any Web page, then click to share the marked-up pages with coworkers, clients, or friends... The only drawback that I can see is that it runs only on Windows (95 or later) and that you need to be using Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Since I don't routinely use either (Mac guy that I am) I'm kind of out of luck. Oh well...

2000-11-13T20:14:00.000-06:00

Yet another link to a blog - this one more intellegent and interesting than some of the ones I posted earlier (and have explored more recently). The blog is Peterme. Check it out...

2000-11-13T16:48:00.000-06:00

Speaking of maps, check out this one of the election results by county. So how did your home county vote?

2000-11-13T07:31:00.000-06:00

I've been looking for a good source of maps for a friend. Here is what I came up with:

The USGS National Geologic Map Catalog - very comprehensive
Microsoft's TerraServer which is, in truth, not really a map site (its cool nonetheless)
Raven Maps & Images - as they say, the world's most beautiful maps.

Does anyone know of any other good sites for ordering maps? If so, e-mail me. Thanks.

2000-11-12T09:26:00.000-06:00

Well I'm checking out more blogs out there to see what kinds of things people are doing. Here's one that Ambre might go for: Michael Moore.com. Its pretty sophisticated (much more so than this site) - it makes me realize what one can do with a little web design background. Blogs (weblogs) are certainly good for getting the information out. Check out RobotWisdom for an example of this. Another one worth checking out is Fairview It was mentioned in the New Yorker article I read the other day. I haven't check it too much, but there is clearly a lot there. Have fun!

2000-11-10T15:38:00.000-06:00

Hi Bethany and Ron. Perhaps you are here because you've accepted my invitation to join GeoBlog. I'm not really sure what were going to do with this site other than post random thoughts. I'm intending it to be geologic - if it's not at first....fine. I figure it'll come around. Make sure you join Blogger. That way you'll be able to post too. Cheers....

2000-11-10T06:27:00.000-06:00

Perhaps a few other links would be good too. We should certainly link to the Geology Club. Perhaps we ought to consider having this blog hosted on the GeoClub website (or at least linked).

2000-11-10T06:09:00.000-06:00

Wow that was easy! I wonder if I can use BBEdit to easily anchor some links into my blog. For example, I found MegNut to be an excellent starting point. Blogger is also (obviously) a really good place to start too.

2000-11-10T05:59:00.000-06:00

This is my first exploration into the world of blogs. I read about them last night in the latest edition of the New Yorker. They are pretty cool. I'm wondering if I can create an online community for my classes with them.