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 :-)

Connections

Just a quick post since I am in frenzied-writing mode and in family-is-in-town-for-MY-wedding mode...

Hypotheses post of a Venn diagram reminded me of another image I use in lecture to try and demonstrate connections. I give a lecture on using SEM and XRD in paleontology to a paleo techniques class every other year. I frequently use this diagram in the lecture to demonstrate some of the connections between geology and paleontology.



Unfortunately, because of time, I have to skim over the diagram and can't really get the students to sink their teeth into how much all of this is really connected. I've thought about rearranging the lecture to follow one connection to another and to keep it going, but it just doesn't work well with the topic I am asked to teach. But, I also know that these students will take an entire class on Taphonomy so they will develop the connections between geology and paleontology much more in that class.

If anyone wants to see the SEM and XRD in paleo PTT, just let me know and I will pass it along.

Rocks and Minerals Blog

I came across the Rocks and Minerals blog the other day, but I have no idea who runs the site. There were also some other sites linked to it (listed below). They look like dictionaries or encyclopedias being developed. I might offer to help add defintions if it is a serious effort, but I don't know who owns the sites or if it is affiliated with an institution. Anyone else have any info about these blogs?
Linked to this blog were the following related sites:
Geologic Terms Index
Paleogeology

Catching up on my Science and Nature

In my RSS reader I have a bunch of feeds from journals. Some work wonderfully, while others are even poor substitutes for the e-mailed table of contents. (Come on, who only wants their RSS feed to have the Online Early Articles, but NOT the table of contents!) I tend to read the smaller geo blogs and their postings in the morning over breakfast, but the journal blogs get left on a weekly basis till I have a chunk of time to cath up with them.

Today while cathing up on my Science feeds, I noticed a few technical comments and replies that I enjoyed and since they are not blocked by the paywall at AAS I thought some of you might enjoy them as well.

The first is on whether a channel system on Mars is draped with ice or lava. Without having read the original article, this comment and reply summarized their positions and rebuttals well. The way a good comment and reply should be.

Comment on "Athabasca Valles, Mars: A Lava-Draped Channel System"

Response to Comment on "Athabasca Valles, Mars: A Lava-Draped Channel System"

The second is on mechanics of plate tectonics in the past. But are their proposed changes to the mechanics correct/possible?

Comment on "Intermittent Plate Tectonics?"

Response to Comment on "Intermittent Plate Tectonics?"