Geology
When rainwater filters through the ground in arid regions, it dissolves calcium from soils, which can react with carbon dioxide to form the mineral calcite. This calcite precipitates on rocks ranging in size from pebbles to boulders, coating them with white growth-ring-like layers called pedothems. [These provide evidence of climate changes.]
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Earth Science 30 Saskatchewan Curriculum Resources
- A New Tool May Make Geological Microscopy Data More Accessible
- Atlas оf geological maps of the Сircumpolar Аrctic (VSEGEI, 2016)
- Earth Science Videos
- Find Open Textbooks (BCcampus, OpenEd)
- Curriki (K-12+, Searchable Collection)
- Ivy Panda Open Textbooks Library
- LibreTexts™ (Chemistry)
- MERLOT Collection (All Subjects, 12+)
- Open Textbook Library
- OpenStax CNX
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- Earth Science 30 Canada
- Learning Resources Solicitation
- Earth Science 30 Course Outline (Creighton, 01.2019)
- Earth Science 30 Course Outline 2020W
- Earth Science Resources
- Earth_Science_ 30_2018
- Earth Science 30 Outcomes & Indicators
- Earth Science 30 Text Book Borrow List
- Attendance Sign In & Out
- Canadian Oxford World Atlas Borrow List
- Earth Science 30 Final Exam Study Guide
- Earth Science 30 Atlas Terms, Tectonics Review & Essay
- Earth Science 30 Glaciers & Ice Ages
- Earth Science 30 Ground Water
- ES Cumulative Review Air, Water, Ice
- Final Exam Draft
- Final Exam Prep Rock Cycle
- Final Exam Review 2 Rock Cycle
- Quiz 1 ES30
- Quiz 2 ES30
- Quiz Atlas Terms, Tectonics Review & Essay
- Quiz Atmosphere
- Quiz Atmosphere & Oceans
- Quiz Deserts
- Quiz Deserts Vocabulary
- Quiz Earthquakes & Seismology
- Quiz Earth’s Biography & Geologic Time Scale
- Quiz Geomagnetism Open Book Quiz & Earth’s History Reading
- Quiz Ground Water
- Quiz Ground Water 2
- Quiz Glaciers & Ice Ages
- Quiz Glaciers & Ice Ages 2
- Quiz Mountains
- Quiz Oceans & Coasts
- Quiz SK Geo Map South
- Quiz Rivers
- Quiz Rivers 1
- Quiz Rivers 3
- Quiz Rock Cycle
- Quiz Volcanic Eruptions
- Ozone Layer Development & Destruction Essay Task
- Permafrost & Thawing Effects Essay Task
- Physiographic Regions, Land Covers, & Soils Quiz Tasks
- Rock Cycle & Metamorphic Rocks Quiz Tasks
- River Explorations Project Template
- Soils Quiz Tasks
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- Earth’s motion around the Sun, not as simple as I thought (9:27)
- Fiery Looping Rain on the Sun (4:16)
- Highlights From SDO’s 10 Years of Solar Observation (NASA, 5:12)
- Magnificent Eruption (2:10)
- Thermonuclear Art – The Sun In Ultra-HD (30:24)
- The Solar Cycle (NASA, 3:35)
- Space Weather and Earth’s Aurora (NASA, 4:48)
- Universe Size Comparison 3D (5:07)
- A Goldilocks zone for planet size
- All of the bases in DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites
- An ancient star casts new light on the birth of the universe
- At future Mars landing spot, scientists spy mineral that could preserve signs of past life
- Did a Huge Solar Storm Detonate Deep Sea Mines During the Vietnam War?
- Dust Older Than the Sun Sheds Light on Galactic History
- European Space Agency
- “Farfarout” is the most distant celestial body in the Solar System
- First Image of a Black Hole
- Giant neutrino telescope to open window to ultra-high-energy universe
- Images from NJIT’s Big Bear Solar Observatory peel away layers of a stellar mystery
- It’s not aurora, it’s STEVE
- Newfound Martian aurora actually the most common
- New Horizons spacecraft ‘alters theory of planet formation’
- New measurement yields smaller proton radius
- Nightside barrier gently brakes ‘bursty’ plasma bubbles
- Physicists Prove Anyons Exist, a Third Type of Particle in the Universe
- Plasma flow near sun’s surface explains sunspots, other solar phenomena
- Pressure runs high at edge of solar system
- Revealing the physics of the sun with Parker Solar Probe
- Revisiting Decades-Old Voyager 2 Data, Scientists Find One More Secret
- Rover images confirm Jezero crater is an ancient Martian lake
- Scientists Find the Universe’s First Molecule
- Solar Tsunami Hit Earth 9,200 Years Ago
- Sugar delivered to Earth from space
- Sun just belched out the strongest solar flare in 12 years (2017)
- The First Molecule in the Universe
- The Moon is a KREEPy place
- The Sun, The Earth, & Near-Earth Space (Eddy, NASA, 2009)
- Why Newton’s ‘law of universal gravitation’ is not so universal after all
The Silver Surfer (John Buscema, artist)
Harvard astronomer argues that alien vessel paid us a visit
NASA’s DART mission will crash craft to redirect asteroid
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- Looking Down a Well: A Brief History of Geodesy (NASA, 2:24)
- What are Geodetic Datums? (COMET, 4:30)
- 9 Impacts of Geodesy (UNAVCO, 5:02)
- Is Earth Actually Flat? (Vsauce, 10:30)
- How does land surveying work? (Practical Engineering, 6:25)
- Basic Geodesy (NOAA, 1977)
- Earth Observatory (Terra Satellite, NASA)
- Geodesy (NOAA)
- Geodesy for the Layman (US DMA, 1983)
- Grace of the Worlds: Beautiful Planets
- Images of Earth from Space, NASA Earth Observatory
- Nasa has shared the best snaps of Earth from space
- Nautical Mile
- US finally giving boot to official foot measurement
- What is Geodesy? (SERC)
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Geologic Time (Lauren Adams, #15)
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- 240 million years ago to 250 million years in the future (CR Scotese, 12:24)
- A Brief History of Geologic Time (PBS Eons, 12:07)
- Ancient Oceans & Continents: Plate Tectonics 1.5Ba – Today (CR Scotese, 1:38)
- Collision of India & Tectonic Evolution of SE Asia – CR Scotese (3:15)
- Continental Drift (Mike Sammartano, 2018)
- Continental Flooding & Orography by CR Scotese (2:30)
- Divergent Boundary—Fast Spreading Ridge (IRIS, 1:09)
- Faces of Earth – Assembling America (43:37)
- Faces of the Earth — Shaping the Planet (43:35)
- History of Earth (1:31:51)
- History of the Earth Dashboard View (11:35)
- History of Earth in 9 Minutes (9:15)
- Massive Crater Discovered Under Greenland Ice (4:29)
- Petrified Wood – 15 million-year-old Petrified Tree (Nick Zentner, 3:30)
- Plate Tectonics 750Ma to Today by CR Scotese (3:00)
- Plate Tectonic Evolution of the North Atlantic: Scotese Animation (5:00)
- Plate Tectonic Evolution of the South Atlantic: Scotese Animation (5:00)
- Plate Tectonic Evolution of North America – Scotese Animation (5:00)
- Plate Tectonic Evolution of South America – Scotese Animation (5:00)
- Plate tectonics, Paleogeography, & Ice Ages (dual hemispheres) (CR Scotese, 6:30)
- PlateTectonics & Ice Ages – Scotese Animation 022116a (6:34)
- Plate Tectonics Basics 1: Creation and Destruction of Oceanic Lithosphere (UT Dallas, 8:43)
- Plate Tectonics (Smithsonian, 4:28)
- Story of the Malay Peninsula (Archipelago) (CR Scotese, 2:44)
- Stratigraphic Cross Section—Interpreting the Geology (IRIS, 2:57)
- Tectonic Evolution of Africa – Scotese Animation (5:05)
- Tour of the Moon in 4K (NASA, 4:56)
- What caused the Cambrian explosion? (The Economist, 10:56)
- 4-billion-year-old nitrogen-containing organic molecules discovered in Martian meteorites
- A Comet May Have Destroyed This Paleolithic Village 12,800 Years Ago
- A first glimpse deep beneath an ultraslow-spreading mid-ocean ridge
- African evidence support Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis
- Apophis, the ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid is speeding up — increasing the likelihood of it hitting Earth in 2068
- As many as six billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, according to new estimates
- African evidence supports Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis
- Ancient rocks show high oxygen levels on Earth 2 billion years ago
- A steeply-inclined trajectory for the Chicxulub impact
- Australian Meteor Crater is the Oldest Known
- Australasian impact crater buried under the Bolaven volcanic field, Southern Laos
- Before plants or animals existed, this 250,000-ton rock fell in the mud
- “Chibanian” adopted as 1st Japanese name for geologic age
- Chronostratigraphic Chart 2018-08
- Colours of time smeared in mountain-sized tectonic rip
- Cosmic pearls: Fossil clams in Florida contain evidence of ancient meteorite
- Crater From Asteroid Impact That Covered 10% of Earth’s Surface in Debris
- Deep caves are a rich source of dinosaur prints for this paleontologist
- Do microbes control the formation of giant copper deposits?
- Earth has had more major mass extinctions than we realized
- Earth History (EdGeo.org)
- Earth’s Biography (Marshak, Chapter 13)
- Earth’s Impact History through Geochronology (Schmieder, 2019)
- Earth’s Impact Events Through Geologic Time (Schmieder & Kring, 2020)
- Fallout from ‘the collision that changed the world’
- Fantastically Strange Origin of Most Coal on Earth
- Geologic Time Scale
- Geologic Time (USGS)
- Geologic Time Scale (Marshak, Chapter 13, Earth’s Biography)
- Geological history of the earth
- Geological Timescale Study Guide
- Glassy Nodules Pinpoint a Meteorite Impact
- Grace of the World: Beautiful Planets
- Hadean Earth, Moon, & Life
- Hubble telescope gives closer look at rare asteroid worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000
- Initiation of Plate Tectonics in the Hadean (2017)
- International Commission on Stratigraphy
- Introduction to Structural Geology (Patrice F. Rey)
- Largest impact crater in the US, buried for 35 million years
- Lunar Craters vs Earth Craters
- Major deep carbon sink linked to microbes found near volcano chains
- Meteor strike may have destroyed Sodom
- Microbes could influence Earth’s geological processes as much as volcanoes
- Mile-High Tsunami Caused by Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Left Behind Towering ‘Megaripples’
- Moon Is Different Than Earth at Its Core
- New maps offer detailed look at ‘lost’ continent of Zealandia
- NASA finds evidence two early planets collided to form Moon
- Planetary Changes from 65 to 50 Mya Responsible for Changes to Ocean Oxygen Levels
- Team of scientists led by U of T identify period of increased asteroid impacts on ancient Earth by studying the moon
- Terrestrial Impact Craters Slide Set
- The day the world burned
- This Map Lets You Plug in Your Address to See How It’s Changed Over the Past 750 Million Years
- Quaternary Correlations 2.7 Ma
- Scientists find a mineral seen in the depths of the Earth in a meteorite
- Underground crater reveals how broken rocks can flow like liquid
- Unified Geologic Map of the Moon
- What drives plate tectonics?
- Why 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’
- Wolfe Creek Crater in Australia much younger than thought
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Map representing the trajectory of the magnetic north pole between 1590 and 2020. The magnetic north positions observed between 1831 and 2007 are shown as yellow squares. Modeled pole locations from 1590 to 2020 are shown as circles progressing from blue to yellow. Map:Courtesy of NOAA NCEI
- A Robust Proxy for Geomagnetic Reversal Rates in Deep Time
- Cluster Helps Solve Mysteries of Geomagnetic Storms
- Dynamics of the Earth’s Inner Magnetosphere (Zheng, NASA)
- Earth and Moon Once Shared a Magnetic Shield
- Earth’s core
- Earth’s Magnetic Field (NOAA, WDGC, NS, Nature, Others)
- Earths Magnetic Field (NOAA)
- Earth’s ancient magnetic field just got a lot older
- Earth’s magnetic field: What would happen if the poles flip?
- Earth’s magnetic shield booms like a drum when hit by impulses
- Earth’s north magnetic pole is heading for Russia
- Earth’s Magnetic Poles
- Future of Geomagnetic Earth Observations (Kathy Whaler)
- Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM)
- Herky-Jerky Weirdness of Earth’s Magnetic Field
- Introduction to Geomagnetism (USGS)
- Last reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field took twice as long as previously thought
- ‘Space hurricane’ observed above the North Pole
- Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA)
- Streaks in aurora found to map features in earth’s radiation environment
- Sun (Chapter 16)
- Sun, The Earth, & Near-Earth Space (Eddy, NASA, 2009)
- Swarm probes weakening of Earth’s magnetic field
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Atmosphere & Climate (Lauren Adams, #18)
- 11 New Cloud Types Named—First in 30 Years (2017)
- 130 Degrees: Death Valley Sees What Could Be Record Heat
- 2019 was 2nd hottest year on record for Earth
- Absence of internal multidecadal and interdecadal oscillations in climate model simulations
- Adiabatic Processes (Fezzik)
- Ancient climate change triggered warming that lasted thousands of years
- Ancient farmers spared us from glaciers but profoundly changed Earth’s climate
- Ancient rocks show high oxygen levels on Earth 2 billion years ago
- Ancient soil from secret Greenland base suggests Earth could lose a lot of ice
- A New Solution to Climate Science’s Biggest Mystery
- Antarctic melting slows atmospheric warming and speeds sea level rise
- Arctic Circle sees ‘highest-ever’ recorded temperatures
- Are methane seeps in the Arctic slowing global warming?
- As the Planet Warms, El Niño Could Become Harder to Predict
- At least 25 dead as rains deluge central China’s Henan province
- Atmosphere
- A Warming Arctic Turns Topsy Turvy – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
- A warning from ancient tree rings: The Americas are prone to catastrophic, simultaneous droughts
- Canadian Drought Monitor 31.12.2015
- Climate Change Essay Task
- Climate Change Evidence
- Climate change may be behind fall of ancient empire, say researchers
- Climate change now (Australia, 10.2021)
- Climate change: ‘Stunning’ seafloor ridges record Antarctic retreat
- Climate change: Current warming ‘unparalleled’ in 2,000 years
- Climate crisis has shifted the Earth’s axis, study shows
- Climate-driven megadrought is emerging in western US
- Climate warming promises more frequent extreme El Niño events
- Coastal fog linked to high levels of mercury found in mountain lions
- CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere nearing levels of 15m years ago
- Coccolithophores, from whence comes Chalk
- Convection-permitting models better depict the heavy rainfall events in 2016 eastern China flooding
- Current climate models underestimate warming by black carbon aerosol
- Deep snow cover in the Arctic region intensifies heat waves in Eurasia
- Delhi, north India reel under intense cold wave
- Did Shifts in Tectonic Plates, not Changes in CO2, Shape the Modern East Asian Monsoon?
- Drought Map U.S. 20.12.2018
- Drought Maps U.S. Forecast 20.12.2018
- Drought that Revealed a Dark Medieval Message
- Dust Blankets the Canary Islands
- Dust on the wind: Study reveals surprising role of dust in mountain ecosystems
- Dust Traverses the Atlantic Ocean
- Earth’s Atmosphere (Teacher Background, NOAA)
- Earth’s atmosphere stretches out to the Moon – and beyond
- Earth just had its 2nd-hottest February on record
- Earth sizzles through October as another month ranks as the warmest on record
- El Nino & La Nina
- El Nino & Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
- El Nino swings more violently in the industrial age
- Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression has one of the most extreme climates found on Earth
- Europe’s black gas market fueling climate change
- Europe warming faster than expected due to climate change
- Foehn Effect
- Four charts that show just what’s at stake at the COP26 climate summit
- France plans to ban all new petrol and diesel cars by 2040
- Global warming: Can these striking charts convince nay-sayers?
- Global Wave Discovery Ends 220-Year Search
- Greenhouse gas ‘detergent’ recycles itself in atmosphere
- Half of the world’s annual precipitation falls in just 12 days
- How greenhouse gases are actually cooling Earth’s upper atmosphere
- How a Polar Vortex Works & Impacts
- How weather and climate shape Earth’s life-sustaining surface
- Humankind did not live with a high-carbon dioxide atmosphere until 1965
- Iowa Derecho This August Was Most Costly Thunderstorm Event In Modern U.S. History
- In the warming Arctic, a promising solution to climate change
- Intensified global monsoon extreme rainfall signals global warming
- Irrigation does more than deplete groundwater, it changes climate too
- Judge Orders EPA to Produce Science behind Pruitt’s Warming Claims
- Lightning ‘superbolts’ form over oceans from November to February
- Major new paleoclimatology study shows global warming has upended 6,500 years of cooling
- Mapping Dust
- Mesosphere (Mitchell, 2017)
- NASA analyzes Tropical Cyclone Phanfone’s water vapor concentration
- NASA finds wind shear affected new Tropical Cyclone 09S
- NASA-NOAA satellite analyzes a strengthening Typhoon Kammuri
- NASA Predicts 2030s Record Flooding Due To Moon And Climate Change
- New method delivers first global picture of mutual predictability of atmosphere and ocean
- Nature’s archives: piecing together 12,000 years of Earth’s climate story
- No more climate change, as US officials ban the phrase
- Ocean temperatures turbocharge April tornadoes over Great Plains region
- Origin and evolution of the earth’s atmosphere
- Ozone Layer (Sabrash)
- Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere (Thomas Wagner)
- Plastic rain: More than 1,000 tons of microplastic rain onto western US
- Powerful derecho leaves path of devastation across Midwest
- Rain Fell On Peak Of Greenland’s Ice Sheet For First Time In Recorded History
- Roots of climate science stretch much further back than you might think
- Scientists shocked to discover how much lightning may clean the atmosphere
- Siberia’s warming shows climate change has no winners
- This May be the Best Cloud Formation Picture Ever!
- Tracking down climate change with radar eyes
- Tracking Global Warming Means Finding The Flaw In Old Data
- Two lightning megaflashes shattered distance and duration records
- Saskatchewan gave no public warnings about pollution.
- Scientists forecasted late May tornado outbreak nearly 4 weeks in advance
- Severe Weather Europe
- Snowmageddon warnings in North America come from tropics more than Arctic stratosphere
- Solutions to urban heat differ between tropical and drier climes
- Sudden Ancient Global Warming Event Traced to Magma Flood
- Super Rare Horizontal Rainbow Spotted Over Sea After Storm In Devon
- There Is No Impending ‘Mini Ice Age’ – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet
- Two decades of rain, snowfall from NASA’s precipitation missions
- Turbulence creates ice in clouds
- Water Cycle
- We are living at the bottom of an ocean
- We must wake up to devastating impact of nitrogen
- Western Drought Ranks among the Worst of the Last Millennium
- Wild weather, warming planet
- Why 536 was the worst year to be alive
- Why this striking rainbow may carry a hidden message
- World Just Experienced the Four Hottest Years on Record
- Yep, it’s bleak, says expert who tested 1970s end-of-the-world prediction
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Ozone Layer Development & Destruction Essay Task
- Ozone Depletion 101 (National Geographic. 3:10)
- Ozone layer and eukaryotes show up in the Proterozoic eon (9:56)
- Ozone depletion explains global warming better than greenhouse gases (Peter L. Ward, 14:21)
- The Ozone Layer Overview Lecture (Open Yale Courses, 40:41)
- Ozone Watch (NASA)
- The Ozone Hole (Charles Welch)
- Ozone Layer (Ritchie & Roser, Our World in Data, 06.2018)
- An Illicit Chemical Is Again Jeopardizing the Ozone Layer
- Arctic ozone depletion reached record level (World Meteorological Association, 01.01.2020)
- Basic Ozone Layer Science (U.S. EPA)
- CAMS tracks a record-breaking Arctic ozone hole (Copernicus, 06.04.2020)
- Depletion of the Ozone Layer (Libretexts, Chemistry)
- Ozone Layer Development & Destruction Essay Task
- Earth’s original atmosphere and the origin(s) of our present atmosphere
- Exceptional ozone hole over the Arctic in 2020 (RBISA, 22.04.2020)
- Extraordinarily low ozone in the Arctic this winter was contemporaneous with extraordinarily high temperatures (04.05.2020)
- Evolution of Oxygen and Ozone in Earth’s Atmosphere (Kasting & Donahue, 1979)
- Handbook for the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer Fourteenth edition (UN Environment Programme, 2020)
- Health and ecological effects of ozone depletion
- How an Illicit Chemical Is Jeopardizing Recovery of the Ozone Layer (Richard Conniff, 23.05.2019)
- How and when did the ozone layer form? (Socratic Q&A, 2018)
- How do you solve a problem like the ozone hole? (Giuliana Viglione, 17.12.2019)
- How saving the ozone layer in 1987 slowed global warming
- How to stop the climate crisis: six lessons from the campaign that saved the ozone
- Increased risk of ozone loss over the United States in summer
- International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, 16 September
- Montreal Protocol saved the ozone layer — and slowed warming
- NASA data aids ozone hole’s journey to recovery
- OzonAction (UNEP)
- Ozone Depletion 101
- Ozone depletion
- Ozone Depletion (NOAA)
- Ozone Depletion Theory of Global Warming (Peter L. Ward)
- OzoneHole.org
- Spring 2020 brings rare ozone “hole” to the Arctic
- Ozone in the air has increased by 40% since the industrial revolution
- Ozone in the Atmosphere
- Ozone Layer (Our World in Data)
- Ozone Layer (Sabrash)
- Ozone Layer (Yale)
- Ozone Layer (UCAR Center for Science Education)
- Ozone Layer Recovery Is Being Undermined by U.S. Pollution
- Ozone Problem is Back – And Worse Than Ever (Sharon Begley, Smithsonian, 12.2012)
- Ozone trend and variability results (Hohenpeissenberg, Germany)
- Ozone, UV, and Aerosol studies (Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium)
- Ozone Watch (NASA)
- Past warming events in the Arctic linked to shifting winds in the Antarctic
- Plugging the ozone hole has indirectly helped Antarctic sea ice to increase
- Remember the Hole in the Ozone Layer? This Scientist Discovered It.
- Rogue chemicals threaten positive prognosis for ozone hole (Nature, 02.11.2018)
- Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018 (WMO, UNEP, NOAA, NASA, EC)
- Six lessons from the campaign that saved the ozone
- Spring 2020 brings rare ozone “hole” to the Arctic (NOAA, 21.04.2020)
- Susan Solomon: at the frontline of research on the ozone layer and its role in Earth’s climate (Dawn Stover, 22.05.2018)
- The Antarctic ozone layer is recovering, but The Independent claim fails to grasp significance of study it relies on (Climate Feedback, 07.04.2020)
- Twenty Questions and Answers About the Ozone Layer (U.S. NOAA)
- UK Stratospheric Ozone and UV Measurements
- Unusual ozone hole opens over the Arctic (European Space Agency, 06.04.2020)
- When there was no ozone layer, life could only exist in the sea (Japan)
- When there was no ozone layer, life could only exist in the sea (PDF)
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Sand storm happening on June 23, 2016 in Xinjiang, China (Credit: Zhijun Sun)
- Deserts 101 | National Geographic (3:52)
- David Attenborough Explains Desertification (3:40)
- Rain Shadow Effect (Zentner, 4:26)
- How Geography Turned the Sahara Green (15:16)
- Welcome to the Atacama Desert (Gonoretzky, 3:29)
- Ocean currents Atacama inversion (1:28)
- Buried Alive In Mongolia’s Worst Sandstorms In A Decade (May, 2021)
- Desert Landscapes
- Deserts & Desertification
- Deserts & Precipitation
- Deserts Vocab Quiz
- Deserts Quiz Open Book
- Deserts
- Drought in the Northern Great Plains (October 1 – 12, 2021)
- Dust Blankets the Canary Islands
- Great Western Drought, Explained
- Here are the places in Canada — yes, Canada — vulnerable to drought
- Major study shows climate change can cause abrupt impacts on dryland ecosystems
- More than 57 billion tons of soil have eroded in the U.S. Midwest
- New evidence of the Sahara’s age
- North American Drought Monitor
- Patagonian Dust Streamers (NASA Earth Observatory (07.03.2020)
- Rain Shadow Effect (Nick Zentner, 4:26)
- Satellite pictures show Europe facing droughts as ground water runs low after 40C heatwave
- ‘Sink into the dry as dust soil’: What historic droughts mean for today
- World Atlas of Desertification
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This image shows that the ice along the western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet has a dark band which grows each summer. Dark ice adsorbs more sunlight, and melts faster. (Jason Box, GEUS)
Glaciers & Ice Ages (Lauren Adams, #20)
- Aerial photographs shed light on Mont Blanc ice loss
- Age Of Earth’s Oldest Ice Is a Mystery
- Ancient carvings show comet hit Earth and triggered mini ice age
- Ancient soil from secret Greenland base suggests Earth could lose a lot of ice
- Antarctic: study from Kiel provides data about the structure of the icy continent
- Antarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level Rise
- Antarctica losing six times more ice mass annually now than 40 years ago
- Antarctica’s thinning ice shelves causing more ice to move from land into sea
- Chain reaction of fast-draining lakes poses new risk for Greenland ice sheet
- Climate change: ‘Stunning’ seafloor ridges record Antarctic retreat
- DEEP PURPLE — Future biological darkening of the Greenland Ice Sheet
- Dust from Asteroid Breakup May Have Triggered an Ice Age 466 Million Years Ago and Sparked a Burst of Marine Biodiversity
- Earth’s oldest asteroid impact ‘may have ended ice age’
- Earth’s Orbital Variations & Glaciation
- Evidence of Paleozoic Ice Age in Southern Africa
- Glacier Retreat Canada
- Glaciers that feed the North Water Polynya are rapidly retreating
- Greenland ice sheet melt ‘off the charts’ compared with past four centuries
- Greenland is on track to lose ice faster than in any century over 12,000 years
- Greenland Lost 12.5 Billion Tons of Ice in a Single Day
- Greenland’s ‘unusual’ melting sea ice captured in stunning image
- Here’s How Much Ice Antarctica Is Losing–It’s a Lot
- Himalayan Glaciers Melting
- Huge Cavity in Antarctic Glacier Signals Rapid Decay
- Huge Lakes Abruptly Empty into Greenland Ice Sheet
- Ice Age Causes & Effects
- Ice in motion: Satellites capture decades of change
- Ice-sheet collapse and sea-level rise at the Bølling warming 14,600 years ago
- Ice we’ve lost to climate change this past decade, visualized
- It Was 65 Degrees In Antarctica This Week (February, 2020)
- LeConte Glacier Timelapse (Jason Amundson)
- “Mega” iceberg releases 152 billion tons of fresh water into ocean
- Possible 1,000-kilometer-long river running deep below Greenland’s ice sheet
- Potential major rock slope failure above Barry Glacier in Alaska
- Rapid worldwide growth of glacial lakes since 1990
- Rapidly receding Arctic Canada glaciers revealing landscapes continuously ice-covered for more than 40,000 years
- Scientists find the deepest land canyon on Earth under the Antarctic ice sheet
- Sea Ice Volume 1900 – 2010
- See the eerie glacier caves carved by Mount St. Helens’s fiery breath
- Shrinking Margins of Greenland
- Snow on Ice: Ice above, warm water below #5 | ITGC Thwaites Glacier
- Switching on the Atlantic heat pump
- Thomas Becket: Alpine ice sheds light on medieval murder
- Track of T-3 Ice Island from 1962-1974
- UCI-led team releases high-precision map of Antarctic ice sheet bed topography
- Underwater robot reveals hidden base of Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier
- Warm water beneath Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier (NOVA PBS)
- What causes an ice age to end?
- What’s the coldest Earth’s ever been?
- World’s glaciers hold less ice than thought: Study
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Permafrost & Thawing Effects Essay Task
Permafrost (Alfred-Wegener-Institut)
- All About Frozen Ground (U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center)
- Animation: Permafrost – what is it? (13:04)
- Arctic Centre
- Artic Meltdown (Bridget Alex, Discover, 02.01.2019)
- Arctic Focus (Arctic Research Foundation)
- Arctic permafrost thawing 70 years early
- Arctic permafrost is thawing. Here’s what that means for Canada’s North — and the world
- Arctic Permafrost is Starting to Thaw. Here’s Why We Should All Care. (Amy Martin, PRI’s The World, 30.10.2018)
- Artic Program (NOAA)
- Arctic’s melting permafrost will cost nearly $70 trillion (WEF)
- A Warming Arctic Turns Topsy Turvy (NASA, 28.04,2020)
- Climate and Cryosphere (CliC)
- Climate policy implications of nonlinear decline of Arctic land permafrost and other cryosphere elements (Nature, 23.04.2019)
- Collapsing permafrost is transforming Arctic lakes, ponds and streams
- Fast response of cold ice-rich permafrost in northeast Siberia to a warming climate (Nature, 04.05.2020)
- Geologic Hazards – Permafrost
- Global Cryosphere Watch (World Meteorological Organization)
- Glossary of Permafrost and Related Ground-Ice Terms (NRC Canada, 1988)
- Glossary of Permafrost and Ground-Ice (IPA, 2005)
- How to save the Arctic’s moderating role on global warming (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 01.04.2019)
- International Arctic Research Center
- International Glaciological Society
- Monitoring Permafrost (U.S. National Park Service)
- Mountain Permafrost
- Multi-Language Glossary of Permafrost and Related Ground-Ice Terms (International Permafrost Association, 2005)
- New map shows extent of permafrost in Northern Hemisphere
- Permafrost (GEOSCAN Search Results)
- Permafrost (Natural Resources Canada)
- Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release (Nature, 30.04.2019)
- Permafrost – An introduction
- Permafrost and Hazard Atlas (Yukon College)
- Permafrost and the Global Carbon Cycle (T. Schuur, 2019)
- Permafrost & Thawing Effects Essay Task
- Permafrost mapping
- Permafrost: Everything You Need to Know
- Sea-ice-free Arctic makes permafrost vulnerable to thawing (08.01.2020)
- Thawing Permafrost Is Beginning to Transform the Arctic
- Tunnel Vision: Lessons in the Impermanence of Permafrost (UNDARK, 28.04.2020)
- Understanding the threat of Arctic permafrost thaw
- Unexpected future boost of methane possible from Arctic permafrost
- Why Thawing Permafrost Matters
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West Antarctic Peninsula (Drew Spacht)
Oceans and Coasts (Lauren Adams, #17)
- African continent is very slowly peeling apart. Scientists say a new ocean is being born.
- Ancient clams help measure moon’s ever-changing orbit
- Aral Sea Basin
- Arctic Ice Melt Is Changing Ocean Currents | NASA
- Are We Seeing a New Ocean Starting to Form in Africa?
- ASU working to save Hawaiian coral reefs during onset of new ocean heatwave
- ‘Atlantification’ of the Arctic Ocean started decades earlier than thought
- Bigger and more frequent monster waves in Southern Ocean threaten to gobble up coastlines amid climate change
- Catastrophic events carry forests of trees thousands of miles to a burial at sea
- Circulation Patterns in the North Atlantic Ocean
- Complicated Origin of Earth’s Water
- Could the Atlantic Overturning Circulation ‘shut down’?
- Earth may have been a ‘water world’ 3bn years ago
- Earth’s oceans have absorbed 60 percent more heat than previously thought
- Enormous Antarctic lake disappears in three days, dumps 26 billion cubic feet water into ocean
- ENSO update: road trip (NOAA Climate, 14.05.2020)
- Giant whirlpools of the northern oceans
- Glaciers that feed the North Water Polynya are rapidly retreating
- Insolation triggered abrupt weakening of Atlantic circulation at the end of interglacials
- Mapping the Ocean Floor
- Mapping the Oceans
- Mass melting of Antarctic ice sheet led to three metre sea level rise 120,000 years ago
- Melting glaciers cool the Southern Ocean (MIT, 17.05.2020)
- Meet ENSO’s neighbor, the Indian Ocean Dipole
- Methane Hydrates
- Monster Waves of Nazaré
- NASA Sees El Niño Conditions Prevail in the Central Pacific Ocean (March, 2019)
- Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
- Ocean Currents Are Speeding Up, Driven by Faster Winds
- Oceans Are Warming Faster Than Predicted
- Record-Breaking Rogue Wave Detected Off Vancouver Island
- Researchers develop first mathematical proof for key law of turbulence in fluid mechanics
- Samples from famed 19th century voyage reveal ‘shocking’ effects of ocean acidification
- Satellites are key to monitoring ocean carbon
- Scientists discover ancient seawater preserved from the last Ice Age
- Sea-level rise from climate change could exceed the high-end projections
- Sea level rose 3.1 mm each year between 1993 and 2020
- Sediment Transport Rates & Grain Size (King, USACE, 2005)
- Study finds big increase in ocean carbon dioxide absorption along West Antarctic Peninsula
- Study Rewrites History of Ancient Land Bridge Between Britain and Europe
- The Cornish hut that gave rise to sea level benchmark
- Thermohaline Convection Atlantic Deep
- Thermohaline Convection Key Points
- Theromohaline Convection (WHOI)
- This supermoon has a twist – expect flooding, but a lunar cycle is masking effects of sea level rise
- Tides don’t always flush water out to sea
- Tides in two easy pieces
- Warning signs of Gulf Stream collapse
- Water, Oceans, & Currents
- World ocean heat hits record high in 2021
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Groundwater (Florida Karst Example)
- ASU geoscientists discover an overlooked source for Earth’s water
- Canada’s first geothermal production and injection well test exceeds expectations
- Chemicals Called PFAS Have Contaminated Water All Over America
- Circulation of water in deep Earth’s interior
- Fast response of cold ice-rich permafrost in northeast Siberia to a warming climate
- How Arctic lakes accelerate permafrost carbon losses
- Land subsidence ‘will affect almost fifth of global population’
- Mapping groundwater’s influence on the world’s oceans
- Recharging aquifers — a solution to water scarcity
- Seismic study reveals huge amount of water dragged into Earth’s interior
- Sierra Nevada has oldest underground water recharge system in Europe
- Tehran’s drastic sinking exposed by satellite data
- Villagers follow the geology to healthy water in Bangladesh
- UN warns of rising levels of toxic brine as desalination plants meet growing water needs
- US groundwater in peril: Potable supply less than thought
- Water takes a deep dive into an oceanic tectonic plate
- Water use for fracking has risen by up to 770 percent since 2011
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Drainage Basins, BC Coastal Mountains
- ‘100-year’ floods will happen every 1 to 30 years, according to new flood maps
- Average annual runoff in Canada, 1971 to 2013
- Colorado River flow shrinks from climate crisis, risking ‘severe water shortages’
- ‘Eye-popping’ study: Colorado River down 2 billion tons of water due to climate change
- Global climate change concerns for Africa’s Lake Victoria
- Huge Lakes Abruptly Empty into Greenland Ice Sheet
- Largest delta plain in Earth’s history
- Receding glacier causes immense Canadian river to vanish in four days
- River Explorations Project Template
- Saltier waterways are creating dangerous ‘chemical cocktails’
- Sediment Transport Rates & Grain Size (King, USACE, 2005)
- Streamflow Basins Canada
- The 70 Million-Year-Old History of the Mississippi River
- The world is getting wetter, yet water may become less available for North America and Eurasia
- Victoria Falls dries to a trickle after worst drought in a century
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Elevations (Above and Below Sea Level)
Mountain Building (Lauren Adams)
- Plate Tectonics—History of How it was Discovered (IRIS, 5:56)
- Plate Tectonics—What Drives the Plates? Overview. (IRIS 6:53)
- Plate Tectonics – How Mountains are Made (Brian Johnson, 3:00)
- Plate Tectonic Evolution of India (Christopher Scotese, 4:59)
- Why is Mount Everest so tall? – Michele Koppes (4:52)
- Anatolian Transform Fault System
- Blobs (Large Low-Shear-Velocity Provinces)
- Crystal coatings could help solve mystery of fracture patterns
- Deepest land canyon on Earth under the Antarctic ice sheet
- Friday fold: an Extreme(adura) geological history question
- Initiation of Plate Tectonics in the Hadean (2017)
- Lost tectonic history recovered from Earth’s deep mantle
- Mountains
- Phenomenal Faults and Folds
- Researchers dig into case of geologic amnesia
- Rockies Thrust Up | National Geographic (5:15)
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Earthquakes (Lauren Adams, #11)
- Changing the Magnitude of an Earthquake: Why downgrade/upgrade? (IRIS, 6:53)
- Crust vs. the Tectonic Plate (What’s the difference?) (IRIS, 1:57)
- Earth’s crust: tectonic plate movement, volcanoes, tsunami, earthquakes (Meneer Wiersma, 7:36)
- Earthquake Faults, Plate Boundaries, & Stress (IRIS, 2019, 8:44)
- Earthquakes & Tectonics of South America—2019 version (IRIS, 8:49)
- Earthquakes & Tectonics of Western South America (IRIS, 10:16)
- Earthquakes of the Caribbean: 1918 – 2019 (NOAA/NWS, 3:31)
- Earthquakes of Indonesia: 2004 – 2019 (NOAA/NWS, 3:00)
- Ghost Forests of the Pacific N.W.—Evidence for Cascadia’s Past Earthquakes (IRIS, 3:54)
- Great Alaska Earthquake, 1964—Magnitude 9.2 —Causes & Effects (IRIS, 6:42)
- Gulf of California Tectonic Setting—Earthquakes & the Spreading Ridge (IRIS, 3:11)
- Here’s how plate tectonics caused Puerto Rico’s recent earthquakes
- Himalayas—Tectonics, Earthquakes, and the 2015 Nepal Earthquake (IRIS, 6:35)
- Japan—Earthquakes & Tectonics (IRIS, 10:04)
- Japan earthquake of 2011 Time-scale distribution map (9:56)
- Layers of the Earth—What are they? How were they found? (IRIS, 6:20)
- Pacific Northwest Earthquakes—3 Types (IRIS, (8:05)
- Plate Tectonics—What Drives the Plates? (IRIS, 6:54)
- Regional Alaska Tectonics and Earthquakes (IRIS, 8:39)
- Seattle Earthquake Fault (Nick Zentner, 3:41)
- Solomon & Vanuatu Islands—Earthquakes & Tectonic Setting (IRIS, 4:16)
- Strike Slip Vs Subduction: Why no tsunami? (IRIS, 1:00)
- Subduction Zone Observatory Webinar – Cascadia and Alaska (IRIS, 1:22:38)
- Subduction Zone Observatory Webinar – Indonesia and Southeast Asia (IRIS, 1:08:42)
- Subduction Zone Observatory Webinar – Latin America (IRIS, 1:04:25)
- Sumatra—A Tale Of Two Earthquakes & A Tale of Two Upcoming Tectonic Plates (IRIS, 4:37)
- Tectonic Plates—What are the lithospheric plates? (IRIS, 6:40)
- Tsunamis Generated by Megathrust Earthquakes (IRIS, 5:43)
- Tsunami Animation: Sumatra 9.1 Earthquake, 2004 (NOAA/NWS, 1:45)
- Addressing Cascadia Subduction Zone Great Earthquake Recurrence
- Anak Krakatau: Giant blocks of rock litter ocean floor
- Ancient continental blocks soldered from below
- A Plate Boundary Emerges Between India and Australia (Eos, 18.05.2020)
- A potential major rock slope failure above Barry Glacier in Alaska
- A Seismologist Present at the Discovery of Plate Tectonics
- Can a UNICORN outrun earthquakes?
- Cascadia v Sumatra Earthquake Comparison
- Deducing the scale of tsunamis from the ’roundness’ of deposited gravel
- Earthquake General Facts (NAC)
- Earthquakes Canada 1627 – 2017
- Earthquakes in Canada
- Earthquake Hazards Program (USGS)
- Earthquakes, Magnetism and Tides (1957, NAC)
- Earthquake nucleation in the lower crust by local stress amplification
- Landslides, Rudbar & Fatalak (Iran, 1990)
- Latest Earthquakes Reports & Maps (USGS)
- Making sense of a ‘7.1’
- Modeling the Creation of Cratons, Earth’s Secret Keepers
- Rare “boomerang” earthquake detected under the Atlantic Ocean for the first time
- Researchers uncover role of earthquake motions in triggering a ‘surprise’ tsunami
- Rippling Rainbow Map Shows How California Earthquakes Moved The Earth
- Stormquakes: Powerful storms cause seafloor tremors
- Strong Storms Generating Earthquake-Like Seismic Activity
- Study Picks Up Nearly 2 Million Tiny, Undetected Earthquakes in California
- Ten Earthquakes on Reykjanes Peninsula
- Tsunami
- Tsunami Events Canada
- Tsunamis Info (NAC)
- Tsunamis in Lake Geneva
- Ultra-thin fault caused gravity-distorting Japan quake
- World’s Biggest Tsunami
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Volcanic Eruptions (Lauren Adams, #10)
- How the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted and why it caused tsunami warnings (01.2022)
- Volcanoes 101 | National Geographic (4:58)
- Volcanoes Around the World (Nick Zentner, 4:09)
- What is a Volcanic Hotspot? (IRIS, 2:12)
- Volcanic evolution of the Pacific Northwest: 55 million year history (IRIS, 5:11)
- Mount Mazama Ash from Crater Lake volcano eruption 7,700 years ago (3:23)
- River of Lava | South Pacific | BBC Earth (4:10)
- Incredible Krakatoa volcano eruptions at night | anak krakatau 2018 (6:19)
- Largest Volcanoes in History – Mantle Plumes explained (16:29)
- Giant Lava Flows | Nick on the Rocks (5:05)
- Columnar Basalt – Geologist explains spectacular stone columns (2:30)
- Thorp Lahar (Nick Zentner, 9:49)
- Collecting Lava (Inside Planet Earth, 2009. 3:51)
- A 3D Encounter With a Violent Volcano’s Underbelly
- Anak Krakatau: Giant blocks of rock litter ocean floor
- Blobs (Large Low-Shear-Velocity Provinces)
- Breathing? Thank volcanoes, tectonics and bacteria
- Continents of the Underworld Come Into Focus
- Deadly Volcanic Flows Glide on Their Own Cushion of Air
- Early warning signals heralded fatal collapse of Krakatau volcano
- Eating Up Limestone Gives Volcanoes Gas
- From Deep Within Earth’s Mantle, This Never-Before-Seen Mineral Hitched a Ride to the Surface in a Diamond
- Geology of Yellowstone Map
- Hawaiian Volcano Observatory – Volcano Watch
- Human Populations survived the Toba volcanic super-eruption 74,000 years ago
- Interferogram of the December 2018 Eruption of Etna
- Lava Lake Discovered on Mount Michael
- Major Volcanos Canada Map
- Mt. Asamayama eruption in 1108 may have led to famine in Europe
- Scientists create 3D images of geological processes below Earth’s surface
- Slow-slip earthquake studies reveal effect of undersea volcanoes
- Tonga volcano eruption may dwarf biggest nuclear tests (21.01.2022)
- Triassic extinction tied to massive lava spills
- Underground links between quakes and eruptions of Japan’s biggest active volcano
- Volcanic eruption sparked a weeklong thunderstorm
- Volcanic ash sparks a new discovery
- Volcanic Mercury and Mutagenesis in Land Plants during the End-Triassic Mass Extinction
- Volcano Discovery (Tours & Database)
- Volcanoes
- Volcanos General (NAC)
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HYPERACID, HYPERSALINE AND HOT PONDS IN THE GEOTHERMAL FIELD OF DALLOL (ETHIOPIA).
Rock Cycle & Metamorphic Rocks Quiz Tasks
Rock Cycle & Metamorphic Rock (Lauren Adams, #9)
- Clay minerals call the shots with carbon
- Former piece of Pacific Ocean floor imaged deep beneath China
- Geologists identify deep-earth structures that may signal hidden metal lodes
- Giant geode of Pulpí
- Hard as a rock? Maybe not, say bacteria that help form soil
- How Rocks Evolve
- Introduction to Structural Geology (Patrice F. Rey)
- Massive pumice ‘raft’ spotted in the Pacific could help replenish Great Barrier Reef
- No need to dig too deep to find gold!
- OU geoscientists document 300-million-year-old atmospheric dust
- Physiographic Regions, Land Covers, & Soils Quiz Tasks
- Rocks in thin section
- Scientists find a place on Earth where there is no life
- Soils Overview (Soil Science Society of America)
- Soil Map of the World (UN FAO)
- The Hunt for Earth’s Deep Hidden Oceans
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Concrete dome full of nuclear waste, threatened by rising sea levels in the Marshall Islands.
Terra Forming (Engineered Alterations of the Earth)
- Ancient settlers once farmed on thousands of artificial forest islands
- Nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is a doomsday button, Natives say
- Qanat
- Second-largest earthquake in modern South Korean history tied to geothermal plant
- US atomic waste dump in Marshall Islands to be investigated
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Maps & Atlases
- Atlas of Geological Maps of the Circumpolar Arctic 2016
- Geological Map of Saskatchewan
- Geology of Canada Map
- Land Cover of Canada Map
- SK Geo Map North Sheet Features
- Earth Science 30 SK Geo Map South Quiz
- SK Geo Map Legend & Glossary
- Soil Map of the World (UN FAO)
- Tectonics Map Canada
- This Map Lets You Plug in Your Address to See How It’s Changed Over the Past 750 Million Years
- Why Trinidad rocks excite geologists
- World Map Outline for Tests
- World Map Outline Landscape
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Tree Species pollen concentrations stratified in lake bed over 18,000 years.
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Carswell Asteroid Impact Structure
Carswell structure – Interior (pink) = GRANITE; Inner ring (yellow) = DISTURBED ATHABASCA FORMATION; Outer ring (green) = CARSWELL FORMATION (dolomite) – (Sawatzky). … The Athabasca basin, a historical shallow tropical sea basin filled with sediments from the Hudsonian mountains. The Athabasca basin was formed during the Statherian or Paleohelikian 1.7 to 1.6 billion years ago…. … The Carswell crater is the largest known impact crater in Saskatchewan and 4th-largest in Canada. [It is believed to be roughly 115 million years old.] … … At the contact between the crystalline rocks of the core and upturned sediments, uranium deposits are mined. [Cluff Lake Mine] … … The Carswell impact structure is therefore older and larger than previously estimated. … [this] would suggest a crater size in the basement of 118 to 125 km wide.
Out of a Clear Grey Sky … THE METEORITE FELL on Carancas (Peru) on September 15th 2007, at 11:40:14 precisely. Unlike most, it did not break up in the atmosphere, but landed with an impact one scientist has equated to 3,000kg of explosives, enough to destroy a city block. It sent up a mushroom of smoke that could be seen five miles away, in Desaguadero, on the border with Bolivia. …. As soon as the fireball landed, the skies turned dark with a toxic cloud that killed cattle, put many of the villagers in hospital, and left 600 people, including many of the emergency services, with nausea and headaches. One man told me that the cloud made the village smell “like hell must smell—of sulphur and rotten eggs”. The sky rained down with stones hurled up by the meteorite’s landing. The only glass windows in the hamlet, at the health centre, all shattered. …. In this case, the residual heat and impact of the meteorite combusted with the water, which the villagers had been drinking for years. Local health officials now realised the water contained traces of arsenic and that, over the long term, this had caused the liver problems and early mortality in Carancas which had always been put down to the hardship of the villagers’ lives. The meteorite had sent up such a concentrated dose of this arsenic that it finally became apparent; some geologists think that this may have combined with the troilite already present in the meteorite to form a dangerous cocktail.
Small But Deadly … The biggest extinction in history was probably caused by a space rock that changed the climate.
…most people think [the] Araguainha [crater] is too small to be the culprit. It is a mere 40km (25 miles) across. The Chicxulub crater in Mexico, which did for the dinosaurs, is 180km in diameter, and it may have been paired with an even bigger impact in the Indian Ocean. …
After an extensive geological survey, [Dr. Tohver] and his team discovered that a sizeable amount of this rock is oil shale. Any hydrocarbons in the crater would certainly have been vaporised. More intriguingly, the researchers calculate that the impact would have generated thousands of earthquakes of up to magnitude 9.9 (significantly more powerful than the largest recorded by modern seismologists) for hundreds of kilometres around. In effect, it would have been the biggest fracking operation in history, releasing oil and gas from the shattered rock in prodigious quantities.
The upshot, Dr Tohver believes, would have been a huge burp of methane into the atmosphere. Since methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, that burp would have resulted in instant global warming, making things too hot for much of the planet’s animal life. Presto! The Permian mass extinction is explained.
World’s Biggest Tsunami
The largest recorded tsunami was a wave 1720 feet (524m) tall in Lituya Bay, Alaska. July 9, 1958.
Tsunamis in Lake Geneva A millennium-and-a-half ago, Geneva was destroyed by a giant wave. Recent research suggests it could happen again.
… The tsunami of 563 started at the opposite end of the lake from Geneva, at the point where it is fed by glacial meltwater carried into it by the Rhône. …accounts say the wave began with a massive rockfall on what was then called Mount Tauredunum…
… Dr Kremer thinks that the rocks crashed down onto soft sediments which had accumulated at the river mouth because of the slowing of the river’s flow when it enters the lake. These sediments form an underwater delta that has several canyon-like channels. When the falling rocks hit the delta they destabilised the sediments and caused the canyons to collapse. It was this collapse that created the tsunami.
… Her discovery is a bed of what is known geologically as turbidite. This is sediment that, because it is laid down by rapid water movements, is not sorted by grain size. The turbidite Dr Kremer found is a mixture of sand and silt roughly 10km (6 miles) long and 5km wide. On average, it is 5 metres deep, and it seems to have formed in a single event. By carbon-dating leaves and other organic material trapped within it, she has shown that it is about the same age as the Tauredunum event.
… … Dr Kremer’s pinger shows evidence of four layers deeper in the lake bed which also look like turbidite. The formation of these might or might not have triggered tsunamis. But they are a worrying sign.
Though the basin in which Lake Geneva sits is ancient, the modern lake is a product of the end of the last Ice Age. Exactly when it formed is unclear. The whole area was still buried under ice 19,000 years ago. By 13,000 years ago the glaciers had retreated at least as far east as Lausanne. But the age of the current delta is still unknown. That five layers of turbidite may have formed in this time gives a rough sense of how frequently tsunamis might happen. The details will remain obscure, though, until the older beds are examined closely, and core samples taken from them.
… Dr Kremer’s work also raises the question of whether other lakes are at risk of generating tsunamis. Some might be. In 1806, for example, a landslide into Lake Lauerz, farther east in Switzerland, triggered a tsunami 20 metres high.
Ultra-thin fault caused gravity-distorting Japan quake … The results … revealed a significant presence of smectite, a slippery clay largely responsible for many major landslides in Europe…. Temperature measurements confirmed the fault had a coefficient of friction of only 0.1, making it very likely to shift. Most rocks slip at about 0.5 or 0.6…. …the fault zone was found to be less than 5 metres thick, tens of times thinner than at other subduction zones. … It seems that subduction zones with particularly thin fault zones and a lot of smectite can produce slips of more than 50 metres….
The Tohoku slip was so big that the infrasound waves generated by the quake propagated more than 200 kilometres through the atmosphere. That disturbed the orbit of the European Space Agency’s GOCE satellite….
Coefficient of Friction … Essentially, the coefficient of friction tell us how much sideways force is required to move a given object across a surface. So, if a 100 kilogram object can be moved by 40 kilograms of force, the coefficient of friction would be 40/100. This ratio converts to .40/1.00, and is usually written as a simple decimal number .40, or just .4.
Coefficient of Friction (Table of Materials) … Teflon has a coefficient of friction of .04, which is only 2.5x more slippery than smectite.
Slippery Floors versus Smectite … “Polishes and other floor maintenance coatings having a static coefficient of friction of not less than 0.5 … have been recognized as providing nonhazardous walkways.” … Smectite is about 5x more slippery than the accepted safety standard for floors.
Smectite Clay Products Teaching Materials (Audrey C. Rule) … Sodium Bentonite is a form of Smectite. Bentonite is commonly used as a drilling “mud.” It is also used for cat litter boxes. [Note to Self: Do NOT use clay cat litter on icy sidewalks, or under car tires when stuck in snow.]
Canadian Minerals Yearbook: Clays … The most important commercial clays mined in Saskatchewan include kaolinite, montmorillorite (i.e., bentonite), and illite clays … Canadian Clay Products Inc. quarries sodium bentonite near Truax, 60 km southwest of Regina….
Smectite in the treatment of acute diarrhea … Geology for the average (human).
Canadian Geoscience Education Network
Flint and Chert Flint and chert are dense, cryptocrystalline varieties of quartz, slightly translucent to almost opaque. Firestone, Hornstone, and Silex are other names for flint and chert…. …Flint freshly removed from chalk contains a few percent of water. After a couple of years they have mostly dried out and get more brittle. Flint will crack in fire because of the water in it, sometimes so badly that small flint chips fly around. [Flint that has been heated to about 300 degrees Celsius is easier to knap.] …Flint is easy to spot in a gravel pit: often it is covered by a thin white layer, and – in contrast to the other pebbles – it has an irregular shape. …We know from findings in the Olduvai Gorge in Kenia (where the remains of “Lucy”, a female Australopithecus, have been discovered) and many other classic locations of anthropology, that flint, along with obsidian and crystalline quartz has been used as a raw material for tools as early as 1.5 million years ago.
Flint Genesis The exact mode of formation of flint is not yet clear but it is thought that it occurs as a result of chemical changes in compressed sedimentary rock formations, during the process of diagenesis. One hypothesis is that a gelatinous material fills cavities in the sediment, such as holes bored by crustaceans or molluscs and that this becomes silicified. This theory certainly explains the complex shapes of flint nodules that are found. The source of dissolved silica in the porous media could arise from the spicules of silicious sponges. Certain types of flint, such as that from the south coast of England, contain trapped fossilised marine flora. Pieces of coral and vegetation have been found preserved like amber inside the flint. Thin slices of the stone often reveal this effect.
Fort Qu’Appelle Geolog Tour … The geology of Saskatchewan, in simple terms. One of several parts.
Manufacturing metals: A tantalising prospect ALUMINIUM was once more costly than gold. Napoleon III, emperor of France, reserved cutlery made from it for his most favoured guests, and the Washington monument, in America’s capital, was capped with it not because the builders were cheapskates but because they wanted to show off. How times change. And in aluminium’s case they changed because, in the late 1880s, Charles Hall and Paul Héroult worked out how to separate the stuff from its oxide using electricity rather than chemical reducing agents. Now, the founders of Metalysis, a small British firm, hope to do much the same with tantalum, titanium and a host of other recherché and expensive metallic elements including neodymium, tungsten and vanadium.
The effect could be profound. Tantalum is an ingredient of the best electronic capacitors. At the moment it is so expensive ($500-2,000 a kilogram) that it is worth using only in things where size and weight matter a lot, such as mobile phones….
… The company’s first product is tantalum. Its factory is not much bigger than a house, but has enough capacity to supply 3-4% of the 2,500 tonnes of this metal that are used around the world each year….
Measure of Global Warming … AT NOON on May 4th the carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere around the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii hit 400 parts per million (ppm). The average for the day was 399.73 and researchers at the observatory expect this figure, too, to exceed 400 in the next few days. The last time such values prevailed on Earth was in the Pliocene epoch, 4m years ago, when jungles covered northern Canada.
Sunstone, Iceland Spar, or Calcite Navigation: Crystal gazing
THIS may look like a nondescript lump of rock, but it is, in fact, a sunstone. That, at least, is the opinion of Guy Ropars of Rennes University, in France, and his colleagues. Sunstones are legendary items supposed to have been used by Viking sailors in the days before magnetic compasses. Looking at the sky through one, it is said, would reveal the sun’s direction even on a cloudy day or when that fiery orb was below the horizon.
Dr Ropars thinks sunstones were real, and were actually crystals of Iceland spar, a form of calcite that polarises light (and therefore reacts to polarised light). Light from the sky is polarised and, as he discovered in 2011, looking through a piece of Iceland spar reveals the direction of polarisation, and thus the direction of the sun, to within 5° … He also did further experiments…. He and his colleagues found they could locate the direction of the sun even more accurately than before: to within 1°.
Rocks and Minerals Magazine … For Everyone Interested in Minerals, Rocks & Fossils
Great Diamond Hoax of 1872 … How a Kentucky grifter and his partner pulled off one of the era’s most spectacular scams…
Machu Picchu: Ancient Incan sanctuary intentionally built on faults
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