In her continuing blog series, “The Hidden Meanings of Maps”, Anne-Laure Freant’s new posting focuses on map legends. As noted in her blog: Most cartographers neglect map legends. They put a lot of effort in the projection and scale choice, data and pretty colors selection, but then they just want to add a powerful title and press the “share” button. That…
Yellowstone and Super-Eruptions
I give much thought to supervolcanoes – mainly because I live next to Yellowstone National Park and consequently spend much time in the Park. So when I saw today’s Nature publications about the cause of super-eruptions, naturally I wanted to read them. I’ll first start with a definition for a supervolcano, and for that I’ll use…
A Snafu for US Gas Exports and US Energy Policy
A cost-overrun dispute on the expanded Panama Canal construction could be a big snafu for exporting US liquefied natural gas. Keith Johnson of the Seattle Times notes that: The project is the expansion of the Panama Canal to allow more and bigger ships to pass through – for instance, the large tankers that carry liquefied…
How Do You See Our Earth?
How do we actually visualize the earth? The Vsauce channel has posted an intriguing video that explores this question, ranging from discussions on human color perception to map projections. And much thanks to Anne-Laure Freant, who is fast becoming my favorite geographer, for posting a blog on the video, thus bringing it to my attention….
Paleontology Podcasts
Palaeocast hosts podcasts on varied aspects of paleontology, including podcasts on mass extinctions, early vertebrate evolution, trilobites, trace fossils, and the fossil forests of Gilboa – just to name a few. Currently there are 24 podcasts posted on the Palaeocast website, with today’s podcast focusing on marsupial evolution. In this latest podcast, Laura Sol does…
The Hidden Intent of Map Makers?
The blog series, The Hidden Meanings of Maps posted by Anne-Laure Freant, is well worth reading for all who make and use maps. The main theme to the blog set is basically – how well does a map carry its meaning to viewers? The map making blog series includes the following topics: – The Projection Choice – Why Scale Matters…
Whose Land Is It Anyways?
The development of energy resources is typically dependent upon the availability of infrastructure such as hydrocarbon pipelines and transmission lines. Many of the issues concerning energy development and consequently infrastructure construction focus on the impact of climate change generated by a particular energy resource. The continuing controversy over the permitting of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline…
Cuba Geology Via the Cuban Digital Geoscience Library
The Cuban Digital Geoscience Library, compiled by Yasmani Ceballos Izquierdo and Manuel Iturralde-Vinet, is now available at www.redciencia.cu/geobiblio/inicio.html. This is an extremely complete compendium of resources on Cuban geology – one that I wish I had access to before I went on geology/”people to people” tour to Cuba last March…
US Microgrid Technology and the U.S. East Coast
Microgrid systems, an alternative approach for integrating small scale distributed energy resources, are becoming a reality on the U.S. east coast. The microgrids are viewed as a way to improve energy resiliency in the face of future impacts related to climate change, as reported by the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. Bill Howley, in today’s “The Power Line” blog, points…
Colorado’s Front Range September Storm Event
The northern Colorado Front Range area was hit with flooding and hundreds of landslides that were triggered by record rains that fell throughout this area from September 9 through 13, 2013. U.S. Geological researchers from the Landslide Hazards Group in Golden, Colorado, presented their findings to-date on landslide hazards associated with this storm event at…
Montana Dueling Dinosaurs – No Sale For Now
A few days ago, Bonhams auction house in New York City hoped to sell a fossil specimen dubbed the “Montana Dueling Dinosaurs”. I say “hoped” because the Dueling Dinosaurs did not sell. The highest bid was $5.5 million which did not clear the reserve. Bonhams had estimated the Dueling Dinosaurs to be worth between $7…
AWG 2014 Canadian Rockies Field Trip
I thought that I’d give some advance notice for a geology field trip that is being sponsored by The Association for Women Geoscientists. The field trip will go through a part of the Canadian Rockies and the Alberta Badlands, and anyone can sign up for a spot on the field trip. Here’s the trip information…
Human Influence On The Climate System Is Unmistakable
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s (IPCC) much awaited report, the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), concludes that scientists are 95% certain that humans are the “dominant cause” of global warming since the 1950s. A policy makers’ summary for AR5, IPCC’s latest report on physical evidence for climate change, was released today. The full report will be released…
A Question of Firsts – Grass or the Teeth to Eat It?
I thought that I’d post a link to really interesting work being done by Burke Museum researchers that revolves around this question: which came first – grass or the teeth to eat it?? Link to the study information at: Grasslands Evolution
The Continuing Saga of the Utilities’ Death Spiral
For those of you who are fighting numerous proposed high-voltage (HV) transmission projects, take some solace in the idea that “time is on our side”. There are lots of reasons for that, but one of them has always been that technology and the market would unfold and develop in ways that would, and should, make HV transmission largely…