Landslide Laboratory Video

While working on a post for the Accretionary Wedge and Carnival of the Arid, I came across this video. It is a 5 minute piece on a landslide laboratory in Oregon.
In the video Mark Reid, Dick Iverson, and Rick Lahusen describe their experiements. I thought is was pretty neat so am passing it along. Enjoy.
It looks like the USGS Landslide Hazards Program runs this outdoor laboratory. A summary of their research and publications are located here.

Picture Travelog - Uncompaghre Uplift

The post at Arizona Geology about uranium mine tailings cleanup reminded me of a trip I took down to southern Utah. On my traverse around the region (looking at the top of the Navajo Sandstone) I drove through the Uncompaghre Uplift in Colorado (Moab, UT Rt 191 along the Las Salle Mnts to Rt 46 to Paradox, CO to Rt 141 to Grand Junction, CO).
The small little valley in this steep walled canyon was so beautiful that my first thoughts were "I could retire here." Now, I'm a little young to be thinking about retirement, but it struck a cord in me.


What reminded me about this trip was the mention of the nearby Uranium mine. I witnessed the operations from the roadway for a bit before continuing onwards. Unfortunately, I did not grab any pictures. Along the way, I also stopped at a geologic/historic stop and I am glad I did. There I saw this display and evidence for a hanging flume from placer gold mining.


The display reads:
"In need of water to work its Dolores Canyon gold claims, the Montrose Placer Mining Company built a thirteen-mile canal and flume to deliver water from the San Miguel River. The last five miles of the flume clung to the wall of the canyon itself, running along the cliff face below you."

(See it along the wall?)

"Constructed between 1888 and 1891, the four-foot-deep, five-foot-four-inch-wide "hanging flume" carried 23,640,000 gallons of water in a twenty four hour period. Its construction dazzled mining pros with its sheer ingenuity. The placer claim, unfortunately, dazzled no one; after three years of indifferent yields the company folded, abandoning the flume to the ravages of weather and time. Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, this engineering marvel symbolizes the twists of fate so often encountered in the pursuit of Rocky Mountain gold."


Display Picture Captions:
"What is left of this section of the flume can be seen today from the River Road.-Jerald Reid Collection from Main Street Photo"

"This work will show how easy it is, when backed up by enterprising capital, to bring water from and to points which were always thought to be inaccessible. -Engineering and Mining Journal, Jan 1890"

"Hydraulic mining operation similar to that used by the Montrose Placer Mining Company. This method separated flake and flour gold from the dirt and gravel running across the sluice boxes. -Colorado Historical Society"


Even though I was there to ogle the sandstones, I was pretty impressed with the construction feat. All the rappelling that would have been done to build this for five miles... They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Looking through my pictures for this trip, I've got a lot of pretty good ones. I'll try and post them as blog posts. Perhaps I can trigger some memory recall for others. If it's anything like the fondness I have for this trip, then as Martha Stewart says "It's a good thing."

Super Cool! - Paper water bottles

I just saw this on one of the cooking blogs I frequent. Paper water bottles. Recyclable and made from sustainable materials. Not only is it a water bottle but, it can be conveniently sold as tear apart six packs and cases with minimal outer packaging.
I was a little concerned that their utility might be lost since they are not resealable, but they do have a sanitary top (not sure if it's leakproof) for the bottle and they have thought about how to reduce litter while maintaining necessary sanitation.
At first, I was hoping this would replace all the soda cans manufactured, but I doubt this paper product can withstand carbonated water pressures. But, I would love to get all the milk I drink (2 gallons a week) in paper bottles. Individual juice boxes, bottled water (if you must buy the stuff), and it could even replace yogurt and sour cream containers. Too cool. Companies, you have a waiting consumer.

WoGE revived and Name that Landslide created

I'm glad to see Where on GoogleEarth (WoGE) has been revived. I like playing, I just don't always have the time. Well, Ron Schott has won it after it's 3 month lull. Keep an eye out at Ron Schott’s Geology Home Companion Blog for WoGE #156.

Also introduced today Name that Landslide on Dave's Landslide Blog. It has already been "won" but I look forward to more posts.
Have a good weekend everyone!

Journal RSS Feeds...

Chris over at Highly Allochthonous was asking what journals have RSS feeds. I just recently updated my Geoscience Journal Blogroll in GoogleReader (but not on the blog). I don't have a lot of time to make them hyperlinks, but hopefully you will find them helpful.
PS I haven't "cleaned out" the list yet. I usually subscribe to a blog for a couple months, see if I really like reading it and then keep it if I do like it. And geoblogosphere, have no fear, none of YOU have been deleted. You are all just too interesting! But anyway, back to my point. I may not stay subscibed to all these journals. Many of them are still in my trial run period.

Basin Research
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118541711
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=iqwmn&mi=c5q79&ai=un&jc=bre&type=etoc&feed=rss)

Biogeosciences
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/04_rss.xml

Earth and Planetary Science Letters
http://rss.sciencedirect.com/getMessage?registrationId=GEBDGFBDHKBEOECFIEBKGJDDHIBIKIGEPWDLJKFEJB

Earth Surface
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/jf_rss.xml

Facies
http://www.springerlink.com/content/110833/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Geoarchaeology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/36011

Geobiology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118516664
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=0&mi=mkk5t&ai=1o1&jc=gbi&type=etoc&feed=rss)

Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/gc_rss.xml

Geofluids
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118498826

Geological Journal
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/1903

Geology
http://geology.gsapubs.org/rss/current.xml
(old feed http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc-rss&issn=0091-7613)

Geology Today
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118533000
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=iqwmn&mi=c5q79&ai=u0&jc=gto&type=etoc&feed=rss)

Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/gl_rss.xml

GeoScience e-Journals
http://www.univ-brest.fr/geosciences/e-journals/geosciences.xml

Geosphere
http://geosphere.gsapubs.org/rss/current.xml
(old feed http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc-rss&issn=1553-040X)

Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118529494
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=iqwmn&mi=c5q79&ai=7q0f4&jc=ggr&type=etoc&feed=rss)

Ground Water
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118538742
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=iqwmn&mi=c5q79&ai=ifs&jc=gwat&type=etoc&feed=rss)

GSA Bulletin Current Issue
http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/rss/current.xml
(old feed http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc-rss&issn=0016-7606)

GSA Today
http://www.gsajournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc-rss&issn=1052-5173
!But keep an eye out, this one will be changing to gsapubs soon!

Hydrogeology Journal
http://www.springerlink.com/content/102028/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

International Journal of Earth Sciences
http://www.springerlink.com/content/103695/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Journal of Earth System Science
http://www.springerlink.com/content/120420/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/jb_rss.xml

Journal of Petroleum Geology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/117977017
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=iqwmn&mi=c5q79&ai=osc&jc=jpg&type=etoc&feed=rss)

Journal of Petrology
http://petrology.oxfordjournals.org/rss/current.xml

Landslides
http://www.springerlink.com/content/110832/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Mathematical Geosciences (was Mathematical Geology)
http://www.springerlink.com/content/121014/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Moscow University Geology Bulletin
http://www.springerlink.com/content/120678/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Natural Hazards
http://www.springerlink.com/content/102967/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Nature
http://www.nature.com/nature/current_issue/rss/

Nature Geoscience
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/current_issue/rss/

Palaeontology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118531917
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=iqwmn&mi=c5q79&ai=2gc&jc=pala&type=etoc&feed=rss)

Paleoceanography
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/pa_rss.xml

Physical Properties of Rocks
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/51_rss.xml

Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/rss/current.xml

Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences
http://www.springerlink.com/content/119800/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

ScienceDirect Earth Sciences
http://rss.sciencedirect.com/getMessage?registrationId=FDIBFEIBGJICNDJCHDIIFIJHGIJKGIJKIVKJIILJGK

Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Geology
http://basintectonics.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Sedimentary Geology
http://rss.sciencedirect.com/getMessage?registrationId=IGDAIHDAJMDBQGEBKGDHILEJIPFHJKFJNYFILOJDIE

Sedimentology
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/118503415
(old feed http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=iqwmn&mi=c5q79&ai=sv&jc=sed&type=etoc&feed=rss)

Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation
http://www.springerlink.com/content/119901/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Swiss Journal of Geosciences
http://www.springerlink.com/content/120520/?sortorder=asc&export=rss

Tectonics
http://www.agu.org/pubs/rss/tc_rss.xml

Wiley: All New Geography & Earth Science Titles
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/feed/RSS_WILEY2_GEOSCIENCE.xml

And now I have added a couple of the topical RSS feeds from ScienceDirect that Chris at Highly Allochthonous listed. Thanks Chris. If anyone sees any errors or has other suggestions, pass them along.

After seeing how many feeds have changed addresses, I wish there were a way to change the feed's address so I could save my starred/shared settings from the old feed in GoggleReader. Right now I am just keeping the old feed in my list as a deadlink so I can save those settings. And, if anyone knows a better way to export a folder RSS feed list to some usable format, I am all ears. Cutting and pasting was a pain.

Geologists' 100 things meme

Just ran through the list myself. A couple may be considered "cheating" because if I saw the same feature in a different location, I counted it, but I made notes on where I saw the feature. I'm at 48/100 sensu lato, 45/100 sensu stricto.

1. See an erupting volcano – Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Pu`u `O`o Crater lava tubes.
2. See a glacier – Mt. Baker, Mt Rainier, etc.
3. See an active geyser such as those in Yellowstone, New Zealand or the type locality of Iceland – Yellowstone National Park
4. Visit the Cretaceous/Tertiary (KT) Boundary – Hell Creek Outcrops (Bug Creek and Makoshika state Park)
5. Observe (from a safe distance) a river whose discharge is above bankful stage – Small stream in the center of Bozeman. It was interesting when the wate reached the narrower culvert.
6. Explore a limestone cave - Lewis and Clark Caverns, Carlsbad Caverns, a couple in NY
7. Tour an open pit mine - Berkeley Pit & Luzenac Mine, MT
8. Explore a subsurface mine - I think it was the Sunshine Silver Mine, Coeur d'Alene Area, ID
9. See an ophiolite, such as the ophiolite complex in Oman or the Troodos complex on the Island Cyprus (if on a budget, try the Coast Ranges or Klamath Mountains of California). I have driven the coast of California, but I can’t say that I have seen a whole ophiolite complex.
10. An anorthosite complex, such as those in Labrador, the Adirondacks, and Niger (there's some anorthosite in southern California too).
11. A slot canyon - The Narrows in Zion National Park, Bishop Canyon near the San Rafael Swell UT, and Big Horn Canyon, UT.
12. Varves.
13. An exfoliation dome, such as those in the Sierra Nevada.
14. A layered igneous intrusion, such as the Stillwater complex in Montana or the Skaergaard Complex in Eastern Greenland. – Only core from Stillwater, MT15. Coastlines along the leading and trailing edge of a tectonic plate
16. A ginkgo tree
17. Living and fossilized stromatolites – Belt Supergroup Rocks, Northwest MT18. A field of glacial erratics – Too many places to count
19. A caldera – Yellowstone Caldera & manyo f its past calderas
20. A sand dune more than 200 feet high – Bruneau Sand Dunes, ID
21. A fjord
22. A recently formed fault scarp – Does 1959 count? Cabin Creek Scarp at Quake Lake, MT.
23. A megabreccia – I’ve seen some really large clasts in breccias and conglomerates, but I don’t think they count as megabreccias in this case.
24. An actively accreting river delta
25. A natural bridge – Yellowstone National Park and Arches National Park
26. A large sinkhole Florida, lots of them there. Could also count collapsed lava tubes… I’ve seen lots of those in ID and HI.
27. A glacial outwash plain – I’m guessing this has to be an active glacial outwash plain?
28. A sea stack – I know I have seen them, but I can’t remember where, so I won’t count it.
29. A house-sized glacial erratic
30. An underground lake or river - A cave in NY and a disappearing river in FL.
31. The continental divide
32. Fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals – Butte Mineral Museum, MT
33. Petrified trees – Yellowstone again.
34. Lava tubes – Lots near Idaho Falls.
35. The Grand Canyon. All the way down. And back.
36. Meteor Crater, Arizona, also known as the Barringer Crater, to see an impact crater on a scale that is comprehensible – Saw it on the horizon.
37. The Great Barrier Reef, northeastern Australia, to see the largest coral reef in the world.
38. The Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, to see the highest tides in the world (up to 16m) (this seems redundant with #21 fjord…)
39. The Waterpocket Fold, Utah, to see well exposed folds on a massive scale. I’m going to count this one because I have seen the San Rafael swell in UT.
40. The Banded Iron Formation, Michigan, to better appreciate the air you breathe.
41. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania,
42. Lake Baikal, Siberia, to see the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m) with 20 percent of the Earth's fresh water.
43. Ayers Rock (known now by the Aboriginal name of Uluru), Australia. This inselberg of nearly vertical Precambrian strata is about 2.5 kilometers long and more than 350 meters high
44. Devil's Tower, northeastern Wyoming, to see a classic example of columnar jointing
45. The Alps.
46. Telescope Peak, in Death Valley National Park. From this spectacular summit you can look down onto the floor of Death Valley - 11,330 feet below.
47. The Li River, China, to see the fantastic tower karst that appears in much Chinese art. ---It’s on this years to-do list…
48. The Dalmation Coast of Croatia, to see the original Karst.
49. The Gorge of Bhagirathi, one of the sacred headwaters of the Ganges, in the Indian Himalayas, where the river flows from an ice tunnel beneath the Gangatori Glacier into a deep gorge.
50. The Goosenecks of the San Juan River, Utah, an impressive series of entrenched meanders.
51. Shiprock, New Mexico, to see a large volcanic neck. I have seen other volcanic necks with radiating dikes.
52. Land's End, Cornwall, Great Britain, for fractured granites that have feldspar crystals bigger than your fist.
53. Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Argentina, to see the Straights of Magellan and the southernmost tip of South America.
54. Mount St. Helens, Washington, to see the results of recent explosive volcanism.
55. The Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Plateau, Northern Ireland, to see polygonally fractured basaltic flows. Have seen several polygonally fractured basaltic flows near and in the Yellowstone area.
56. The Great Rift Valley in Africa.
57. The Matterhorn, along the Swiss/Italian border, to see the classic "horn".
58. The Carolina Bays, along the Carolinian and Georgian coastal plain
59. The Mima Mounds near Olympia, Washington
60. Siccar Point, Berwickshire, Scotland, where James Hutton (the "father" of modern geology) observed the classic unconformity
61. The moving rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley
62. Yosemite Valley
63. Landscape Arch (or Delicate Arch) in Utah – I think there are much cooler things to see in Arches National Park… Just a personal opinion.
64. The Burgess Shale in British Columbia
65. The Channeled Scablands of central Washington
66. Bryce Canyon
67. Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone
68. Monument Valley
69. The San Andreas fault
70. The dinosaur footprints in La Rioja, Spain
71. The volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands
72. The Pyrennees Mountains
73. The Lime Caves at Karamea on the West Coast of New Zealand
74. Denali (an orogeny in progress)
75. A catastrophic mass wasting event
76. The giant crossbeds visible at Zion National Park
77. The black sand beaches in Hawaii (or the green sand-olivine beaches)
78. Barton Springs in Texas
79. Hells Canyon in Idaho
80. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado
81. The Tunguska Impact site in Siberia
82. Feel an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 5.0 - So close, 4.6!
83. Find dinosaur footprints in situ - Seen not found…
84. Find a trilobite (or a dinosaur bone or any other fossil)
85. Find gold, however small the flake
86. Find a meteorite fragment
87. Experience a volcanic ashfall
88. Experience a sandstorm
89. See a tsunami
90. Witness a total solar eclipse
91. Witness a tornado firsthand
92. Witness a meteor storm, a term used to describe a particularly intense (1000+ per minute) meteor shower. Nope, just several meteor showers. Not up to storm level yet.
93. View Saturn and its moons through a respectable telescope.
94. See the Aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights.
95. View a great naked-eye comet, an opportunity which occurs only a few times per century
96. See a lunar eclipse
97. View a distant galaxy through a large telescope
98. Experience a hurricane – In fact I have been through 5, the eye of 3 of them.
99. See noctilucent clouds
100. See the green flash – I’ve tried, but have not seen it.

Trees/Animals in the Field Meme

I know, it's been a while since you have heard from me. I got married (woohoo!), moved to Houston for an internship (big oil), and am writing up some thesis stuff. I feel like I am working two jobs, sometimes three when my previous job calls me for advice! So, my presence from the geoblogosphere has been absent. I have been keeping up with everyone elses' posts though! We have matured into a wonderful community and it is getting hard to keep up with all the great posts.

Here are a few quick posts.

Tree Meme
I can't remember which blog brought this up (I did a search and it didn't come up, so sorry for not giving credit). An alternate origination of some dropstones were a tree washing out to the ocean and the root system still entangled rocks. As the wood rots, the rocks drop into the sediment below. It reminded me of this picture.

My picture of a tree's roots holding onto rocks is from the beach around Vancouver. While most of these rocks were probably placed their by beach-combers like ourselves, I can easily see how trees could transport rocks out to the deeper ocean sediments.

Animals (Domesticated or Not) in the Field Meme
Huge Bees! (2 inch wingspan)


Huge Owl!
(Yes, it's blurry, but it was so big I had to put the picture up. Standing this owl was almost 3 feet tall, sage brush for scale.)

Huge Dog!

And the best field assistant... Sorry other field assistants, she is the cutest and has been with me the longes :-)