Auditory Pleasure - Les Mis

Well, if you haven't seen the video of Susan Boyle singing, give it a listen. (Embedding disabled) I love Les Miserables and her voice singing "I dreamed a dream" is absolutely beautiful. Inspirational for me. Carrying on with writing and studying now... Postings will resume in May.

Ted Talk...

Callan's post on the TED talks reminded me that I wanted to post a TED talk I thought was very interesting. Despite living in the Rocky Mnt Region, I do on occassion scuba dive. I only have my open water certification, but I was enthralled with the development of this new technology to go deeper with minimal risk of oxygen/nitrogen toxicity.
Now, the development of this new technology opened up a whole new level of the ocean for exploration. Go check out Richard Pile's TED talk. Well worth the 17 minutes.

10 Things every geology major should know...

Callan at NOVA Geoblog has started a new meme. “What are ten things that every geology major ought to know about? The only restriction is you're not allowed to list anything that has already been listed by a previous geoblogger. You don't have to list everything, just ten important things.”

Mel’s Ten Things a Geology Major Should Know
1. Evolution.
2. Evidence for plate tectonics.
3. That fossils (and trace fossils) can provide more information about the rocks they reside in - depositional environment, chronology and correlation, water temperature, stratigraphic up, relative rate of deposition, water depth, etc.
4. And vice versa, the rocks can tell you a lot about the fossils that are contained within them - geography, taphonomy, chronology and correlation, etc.
5. The relationship between sediment production --> sediment transport --> sediment deposition.
6. How to identify minerals.
7. Differentiation and fractionation and how they apply to the planet, the solar system, and isotopes.
8. How aquifers work (or don’t work if we drain them too quickly).
9. Where our energy supply comes from. All facets from petroleum products, to solar radiation, to conductive metals extraction, etc. (These are also useful for seeking gainful employment as a geologist.)
10. Pedogenesis. How it takes thousands of years of chemical reactions and transport to generate the soils we use for agriculture. (And how we should be taking better care of them.)

I know, seds and paleo heavy. I am expecting the rest of the geoblogosphere will round things out a bit… I can definitely see where my paleo and chemistry backgrounds have influenced this list. And towards the end, I got a little soap-boxy. Everyone should know these last couple, not just geologists. But, I don’t think we can limit the list to just 10. If we were, then it should be composed of things like “critical thinking” and “the scientific method” and all encompassing subjects like “plate tectonics.” If it were really only limited to 10, we should be thinking about goals as per Kim and SERC tutorial. I did find a good "subjects to know in geology" study guide here, but it's a wee bit longer than 10. So, what is on your list?

Callan Bentley’s Ten Things a Geology Major Should Know
1. The relationship between cooling rate and crystal size in igneous rocks.
2. The fact that rocks can flow, given sufficient temperature and pressure [and low strain rate, for the purists out there].
3. The idea that sedimentary rocks reflect specific depositional settings. By studying modern depositional settings and the sediments they contain, we can interpret ancient sedimentary rocks in light of the conditions under which they accumulated.
4. The fact that the chemical stability of molecular configurations (minerals) changes with different temperatures and pressures (metamorphism).
5. Large Igneous Provinces, and their potential role in tectonics and expressing mantle plumes.
6. Elastic rebound theory for the origin of earthquakes.
7. The notion of partial melting, and its relationship to Bowen's Reaction Series.
8. An understanding of the carbon cycle, and an understanding of the atmospheric physics that facilitate global warming.
9. The role that rivers play in shaping the landscape: nickpoints, terraces, quarrying, abrasion, drilling of potholes, etc.
10. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, which is extremely old in comparison to human life -- and the reasons we think it's so old [Pb isotopes, etc.].

The generation of giant dunes explained

Ever climbed up a 200+ ft dune (I know some of you have from your memes ...) and wondered how it formed?
Well, a new paper in Nature explains the controls on giant dune size. Andreotti et al. (2009) use a combination of field measurements and aerodynamic calculations to provide evidence that giant dunes are built of smaller dunes and their terminal height is controlled by an atmospheric boundary layer.
They show that large dunes grow by the amalgamation of superimposed dunes. Dune growth stops (assuming it's not the result of climatic change) by interaction with an inversion layer. Once the dune has grown large enough, it begins interacting with the inversion layer which confines airflow to move around the dunes rather than over them. The height of this inversion layer correlates to the variation in annual temperature. The greater the variation in annual temperature the higher the altitude of the inversion layer and the taller the giant dunes can grow. Continental dunes with larger annual temperature changes grow larger than coastal dunes which have smaller annual temperature changes moderated by their proximity to the ocean.

There is also a short piece on Ralph Bagnold and his seminal book "Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes." And in case you missed it in the Carnival of the Arid #1, Through the Sandglass' Michael Welland describes the fascinating life of Ralph Bagnold.

Cool stuff!

Bozeman Building Explosion and Fire

Thank you everyone for your concern. If you haven't heard, a natural gas explosion and fire occured in downtown Bozeman this morning. Initially, no one was reported missing or injured because most if the downtown businesses were closed. However, the local officials are now reporting up to five people missing (one is officially missing, 5 are unaccounted for as of yet). For more information, our local paper is making regular updates. I'd like to extend my deepest symapthies to all the people and businesses affected by this tragedy and I appreciate the hard work of the firefighters and emergency personel.

Update: One person is officially missing and was reported to be in the building at the time. For anyone needing aid Red Cross has set up a relocation center at Grace Bible Church at 19th Street or people can call 1-800-ARC-MONT for more information.

Snow and Ice Job Postings

A friend passed this list along to me and I thought others might like to know what snow and ice research positions are available. Good luck for anyone applying.

Accretionary Wedge - Where would I go... the desert of course!

For the Accretionary Wedge Carnival, we were challenged to make a list of what we felt were the top 100 places to visit for geologists. Well, I’m going to deviate from that a bit. Instead of recommending exact places to visit, as geologists, I think we should be listing features to visit and possible locations where those features can be observed. The point of seeing an example (or several examples) of a feature is to broaden our perspective and make us better geologists.

My contribution to the Carnival this month is to list the deserts of the world and those I have visited. Any one of which would be a fantastic addition to the 100 places to visit. Now, we could get bogged down in terminology defining what is or is not a desert (I have my opinion <200 mm of rainfall/yr, others have theirs), but I prefer to keep it more general.

Why deserts? Well, it may be a little selfish because I study deserts, but it is also a cool place to see some neat geology (and ecology).

Here are the world deserts alphabetical by continent. Extra details can be found at Principal Deserts of the World. (They have a nice table, but didn't want to infringe on any copyright)

Africa:
Kalahari - Any chance to visit sub-Saharan Africa should include a visit here.
Namib - My favorite desert. This region has been a desert for almost 70 million years. It also contains some of the tallest dunes and hosts diamond mines along the southern coast. I have heard they used to find the diamonds by their reflection in the moonlight. And did anyone else notice the desert scenes in "The Cell" are the Namib desert? Others may have "Shawshank Redemption," I have "The Cell."
Sahara – actually composed of multiple ergs (sand seas). In searching for Where on GoogleEarth challenges, I have often wandered over to Libya. I think Libya has some of the coolest aerial exposures of geology on the planet. Check it out some time or argue for a better location.

Antarctic - In case you didn't already know, this counts as a polar desert.

Arctic - Polar desert.

Eurasia:
Arabian
Thar
Kara-Kum - I haven't studied this desert much and it looks like it's wiki page could use some work. If only there were more hours in a day.
Kyzyl-Kum
Iranian
Taklamakan
Gobi – Actaully, not very sandy. But I would love to visit especially after seeing the Mongolian culture in "Long Way Round."

Australia:
Gibson
Great Sandy
Great Victoria
Simpson and Sturt Stony

North America:
Mojave - The only North American desert I have not visited. Bummer, I know.
Sonoran - The Sonoroan Desert is absolutely beautiful and has some of the greatest ecological diversity I have ever seen in a desert.
Chihuahuan - I've driven through much of the Chihuahuan Desert, but never made it into Mexico.
Great Basin - Been through here too, but have not made it to Great Basin National Park.
Colorado Plateau - Yeah, doing field work in this region isn't too shabby.

South America:
Atacama
Patagonian - "I'm being followed by a rain shadow, rain shadow-rain shadow..."

Specifically, I think everyone should visit a desert with active dunes. Dune fields are excellent places to think about and witness how fluid moves particles. Unless you are watching flume experiments or underwater cameras, it can be difficult to see how water moves particles around. (Smaller particles, there is plenty of video showing debris flows pushing boulders around.) In the desert landscape you can also see how changing wind directions and speeds influence the topography on many scales. If you are so inclined, running along the dune face may produce avalanche deposits and sometimes they sing!

Currently, Nick Lancaster is working on compiling an atlas of Quaternary dune fields. There are hundreds of dune fields (especially if you start counting coastal dune fields) so I will just list out the dune fields I have visited.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area - My first dune field visit. Often windy and when the wind really gets whipping, the ankle biting gets intense.
Bruneau Dunes State Park – two really massive dunes that have converged leaving a circular sand free void in the center. Climbing down into the sand free zone is really cool and a little eerie. The GoogleEarth image (I have the kmz but have forgotten how to post it) has very nice resolution, but it doesn’t portray the creepiness factor. The circular floor is a different color (pink gravel), completely calm and quiet except for the occasional grain avalanching of the walls, and often contains a few small carcasses and insects. I don’t spook easily, but this is easily one of the weirdest places I have been.
St. Anthony Sand Dunes - Really beautiful in the winter with eolian snow and sand features mixing. Too bad there is a lot of ORV traffic, especially if they post a wilderness study area sign, grrr.
Coral Pink Sand Dunes Very few camping spots. Try hitting up the undeveloped campsite if it’s full. The pink color is not the only cool part about these dunes.
White Sands National Park What can I say, beautiful and pristine white gypsum sand dunes as far as the eye can see. I’ll post some photos below.

And no, I still have not made it to Great Sand Dunes National Park. It's next on my list!

Heavily bioturbated dune at White Sands National Monument

Interdune

Microbes living in the moist sediment below the interdune surface.

Surfs up!