Climate Debate Articles

I don't have a lot of time to write a post, but I thought people might want to know about this. A journal called GeoJournal (I didn't know this one existed) has published 6 articles debating the science and effectiveness of "An Inconvenient Truth". One intro, 2 "pro," 2 "con," and one summary article. The articles are behind a firewall, but let me know if you want the articles and I can PDF them to you. Enjoy!

I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll show you the CO2 map for the US

I saw this article about the Vulcan system on the ScienceDaily news feed and thought I might share it. Normally, I don't listen to a lot of the "general news" about climate stuff coming out. I know I am better off reading the journal papers directly to remove the "Oh My We're All Gonna Die" sensationalism. But, this headline caught my eye and after reading the article, I am impressed with the article summary and the project.
Actually it wasn't so much the headline that caught my eye as it was the first line of the article- "A new, high- resolution, interactive map of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels has found that the emissions aren't all where we thought." That did catch my eye. I wondered what could be so different from what I already know about the sources of CO2 (point sources like power plants, moving things like cars, weathering of limestone, etc). This map didn't change my mind as to where I expected the most CO2 (population centers), but it was really cool to see where the CO2 blows off (and up) and the changes observed in low CO2 areas. I also have to admit, I hadn't thought about the diurnal nature of CO2 emissions, but it makes complete sense. Now for the stipulations... This map does not seem to be made from measured CO2 concetrations in the atmosphere, but from other gases monitored by the EPA; CO2 is then modeled from that data (please correct me if I misinterpreted their PPT slides). On a map this size (with this much data) there are probably errors, but I doubt they affect the major trends we see. Also be aware this data is from 2002 (How much more damage have we done since?). Older data isn't bad, it's just nice to know all the facts. Check out the animation if you're short on time.

Brian's Crinoid

Well, since this is a popular petroleum industry field trip location I am not surprised multiple images of this crinoid are floating around out there. So here's my version of the Lake Valley Formation "curled crinoid" photo.

My first Spammer...

Well, I just received my first comment SPAM. I'm not sure whether I should be grateful because maybe, just maybe, it means I am getting some decent traffic (which I am, thank you!). Or if it was just a coincidence they found my page and decided to SPAM me. In any case, I hope you are all enjoying the content.

(I tried to think of a way to make a geology joke about the spammer, but the closest I got was "Don't TREAD on me... Lame. I know.)

In any case, you can find the articles I have "starred" in my shared GoogleReader home page. It's not a geology post, but enjoy perusing the high quality posts of others!

Rough Draft of Landslide Activity

Wow! The landslide activity went great on Saturday. The kids liked it, they were interactive, and they could identify landslides and hazards areas when they were done. The powerpoint is finished, but for a more detailed explaination I wrote up a description of the activity. It's in really rough shape, just a brain dump, but I will update it as time premits. The activity went so well, I want to get a formal write-up of the activity done for teachers. There is a lot of ways this activity could be modifed for different age levels and group sizes. I have placed all the relevant files in this folder for anyone who is interested. Let me know if you have tried a similar activity or if you try this activity - how did it go?
As I develop this, I might try and make some assessment tests for this activity and practice it on some local schools in town. I want to make sure it really is a good learning activity, not just fun playing in the mud!
(Yes, the activity went so well I am still glowing about it)

Hat tip to Brian for introducing me to GeoMapApp.

Updated Blogroll

I have updated my blogroll to reflect my GoogleReader subscriptions. If you're not on there, let me know and I will add you. The links in the blogroll may lead to the RSS feed rather than the web page, but that's all I had time for while updating. Back to writing!

Landside Activity...

I am designing an activity for a group of 8th grade girls on landslides. I am going to have them generate a couple of landslides with different substrates (wet/dry, different grain sizes, different cohesion). I'm going to try a few different materials this weekend to 'field test' the activity and make sure it will work. If anyone has some advice or experience, I'd appreciate any tips.

The Plan:
Introduction on 'Women in Geology'
Rita Colwell
Mary Kraus
Kitty Milliken
Michele L. W. Tuttle
(I could go on forever. What successful female geologists would you recommend?)

Introduction on 'Landslides'
What they are (generally)
Driving forces (interactive - have them make educated guesses on why they occur)
Different types (chart - relate to features the have seen)
Generate their own landslides (different materials, mud, sand, pebbles, sandstone, then wet vs. dry then collect all the data from each group - I just hope the materials work as expected)
Identifying Landslides (show them a bathymetric map of Hawaii, identifying areas of landslide hazards, huge landslides, small landslides, and implications for development)

That should fill up an hour to an hour and a half. If their is time, I will fill it with opportunities for women in geology. It's a hot field to get a job right now!

Do you have any suggestions? I'll write up a more detailed activity as I work out the kinks. Here are some resources I've been using in the mean time.

Landslide Hazard Manual
DLESE
USGS
Map of Hawaiian Islands
USGS Bathymetry of Hawaiian Islands
Oahu Field Trip
Oahu Topography