The Sixth Mass Extinction

Normally I would have posted this under the "Cool Geology Videos" heading, but I am not sure how long this link will last. I am posting a cool slideshow from CNN that is talking about the suggested sixth mass extinction that is beginning or will soon begin. I found it very informative and thought-provoking and thought I would share.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/specials/vanishing/

Free Topographic Maps

I don't know how I did not know about this site, but I found out that anyone with internet access can now print out USGS 7.5 minute topographic maps of the Continental US. This seems to be made possible by National Geographic and the United States Geological Survey. I apologize if I am not aware of other sponsors. Here is a link to the website: http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/pdf-quads#internalmap.

If you are asking yourself how you can take advantage of these maps, let me suggest some ideas:

1. Use them for hiking. These maps should probably be printed out anytime you go for long walks just in case your GPS battery dies, phone dies, or you get lost.

2. Use them to understand what elevation change you could expect in a run or bike ride.

3. Use them for your backpacking trip. These maps can be used to help you find trails, campgrounds, or even civilization.

4. Use them for artwork in your house. Okay, maybe this is just me that likes printing out the topographic maps from where I have lived and display them!

These are only a few ideas for using a topographic map. Topographic maps consist of  lines on a map (contour lines) indicating equal elevation above sea level. Anytime you are dealing with elevation or gradients, these maps can be useful. Enjoy!

Gift Ideas for Geologists

I was reading news stories on my phone using the USA Today app, and because of the holiday season, there are many articles about gift ideas for particular groups of people. This had me thinking about what kind of gifts a geologist would enjoy. Here are five gifts that can be given to a geologist for the holiday season:

1. Rock, minerals, and fossils - This item kind of seems like a no-brainer because what geologist would not like to add to their rock, mineral, and fossil collection. However, this might not be as easy as you think. For someone who is just beginning their collections, you can walk into a rock store and find plenty of items of interest. These items include minerals such as quartz, pyrite, calcite and fossils such as clam shells, trilobites, and orthoceras shells. For the more seasoned geologist, they likely already have all those specimens that they personally collected on their various field trips and instead might be looking for the rarer specimens. The rarer minerals and fossils likely won't be found at your closest mall, but instead at dedicated rock and mineral shops. The problem with these specimens is they can be rather pricey.

2. New field equipment - Most geologists do some kind of field work, so a good gift idea is items that will enhance their field experience. Ideas can include a rock hammer, hand lens of different magnifications, GPS unit, new hiking boots, new tent, walking sticks, or a new camera.

3. A geologic trip - Depending on where you live, a geologic trip can be either relatively inexpensive or extremely expensive and time-consuming. I think any geologist would love a trip to go hiking in a National Park, National Forest, or State Park. One can also think about taking a big trip to a different country like Iceland, Chile, Argentina, China, or New Zealand.

4. Books or article subscriptions - Ideas for books can include fiction books such as Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, non-fiction such as The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester, or for the research-intensive person,  subscriptions to scientific journals.

5. If all else fails, buy some beer, because all geologists love beer!

Google Earth Tour of Deltas

A delta is a landform that forms when river sediment is deposited at the mouth of a river when entering a large body of water that is either slow-moving or standing-still such as an ocean, estuary, or lake. Some of the more famous deltas are the Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana or the Nile River Delta in Egypt. If you Google these deltas, you will notice that they have two different morphologies. The different morphologies of deltas are produced depending on three main forces: 1) the amount of river discharge, 2) tidal strength, and 3) wave strength (Fig. 1).

Figure 1 - Ternary diagram of deltas based on sediment input, wave energy flux, and tidal energy flux. The shape of the delta is determined by these forces. Image is from https://media1.britannica.com/eb-media/66/7766-004-3DB51702.jpg

The different morphologies of deltas based on the dominating force are generally described as elongate, cuspate (or arcuate), lobate or estuarine (Fig. 2). The names of  deltas are listed in the ternary diagram to show what their shape is and what environmental factors control that shape.

Figure 2 - Morphology of deltas. Image from http://armyengineer.tpub.com/En5341a/En5341a0064im.jpg

To take a tour of the deltas listed in Figure 1, download the following .kmz files that I have created and placed in Google Drive. The Deltas.kmz file has the location and names of the deltas, while the other Delta Tour.kmz is the actual tour. You will view the delta for 20 seconds before the tour goes to the next delta. This time includes the "flight" time, so that is why it will seem like you are viewing the first delta longer. The tour will begin with deltas created by strong sediment input, and then tide-dominated, finishing with wave dominated deltas. Enjoy!


https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4iABJVeC4jFZnpkMjl0dUtTMjQ?usp=sharing

Geology and Politics

The other day I was on Facebook and one of my friends retweeted an image of a political map by county from the 2012 Election between Obama and Romney. The purpose of the original tweet was to highlight a curve of blue (democratic) counties in the southeast United States. Here is the original tweet:

A retweeted image that shows the results of the 2012 Presidential election. The tweet reads: "See blue belt on Obama?Romney map? That's Cretaceous coastline. Fertile soil later led to high cotton production + high slave population.

When I first saw this image, I was very intrigued, but I also wanted to check the accuracy as well as learn more about the geology. Below I am attaching a paleogeographic image of the Late Cretaceous shoreline from Google Earth provided by Ron Blakey.

This image shows North America during the Late Cretaceous (~90 Mya). 

If you are not familiar with looking at these paleogeographic maps, it may be difficult to visualize exactly where the shoreline is compared to the modern day North America. I am now going to attach another paleogeographic map from Ron Blakey's website that shows the paleogeography with outlines of the states, and I have approximately overlain the political map.

An image that shows an overlay of the 2012 political map and the paleogeography of North America in the Late Cretaceous (~85 mya).

The last Google Earth image I want to show is the location of Cretaceous rocks in the United States.

An image of the United States that shows the location of Cretaceous Rocks.

The previous images clearly show that the democratic votes line up well with the location of the Cretaceous shoreline! I didn't think the person who posted the tweet was lying, but it is fun to look for yourself!

I was also curious about why these soils are the best for cotton growth. According to an eHow website, cotton grows best in sandy loam soils or loamy sand soils that drain well and have a pH in the range of 5.8 to 8. Without getting too much into soil classification, sandy loam is approximately 60% sand, 10% clay, and 30% silt particles. Loamy sand is about 60% sand, 10% clay, and 30% silt. This site also mentions the color of soils but I won't get into that. If you are interested in reading more from this site, here is the link: http://www.ehow.com/list_6606124_types-soil-cotton-plants.html.

I hope I don't say this in any kind of bad way, but the south tends to vote republican, but the African American community tends to vote democratic. The sad part of the political image is that it implies that the people who lived and voted in those democratic areas are descendants of the slave population. This point was also obviously stated in the original tweet.

Geoscientist - Good Career Path?

Yes.....

Okay, in all seriousness I have recently begun to think if being a geoscientist is a good career path. When I talk about a good career path, I am talking about high job prospects, good growth, as well as a steady job market. I have thought about this topic for two reasons: 1) I have recently been laid off very shortly after starting my first job as a geologist, and 2) My daughter was born recently and I wonder what kind of career will choose. I  also wonder if I should help steer that path or let her choose her own path hoping that either way she is successful in life.

I want to make something clear, I do not regret one bit my career path. I love, absolutely love geology, and I feel very lucky that I get to pursue a career in one of my passions in life. Life has highs and lows, and unfortunately, right now I am in one of those lows. I feel that very often though I hear older generations complain that millennials are going to college for their passion, and not for degrees that have high prospects of finding jobs. Geology is a science, and is considered to be part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field that we are told are highly valued right now and in the future.

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook on the Burea of Labor Statistics website, the job outlook for geoscientists from 2014-2024 is 10%. This is the projected change in employment for that time period. This value is above average the job outlook for all occupations which is at 7%. I was searching online for places that geologists commonly work, but I was actually having a hard time finding a nice list. I am therefore going to list industries where most of my friends work. I will try to make some comments on the industries

Industries:
1. Higher Education - This can be at community colleges or four-year universities. These positions are very competitive. Salaries can range quite a bit depending on if you are an adjunct professor or on a tenure-track professor position.

2. Oil and Gas Industry - Lucrative salaries which are often in the six-figures. This industry is very volatile (we are in a downturn right now and this is why I lost my position).

3. Mining Industry

4. State of Federal Government - You can work for State or National Parks or organizations such as U.S. or State Geological Surveys. Can also be employed in government agencies such as Department of Interior, Energy, or U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to name a few.

5. Environmental Geology

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook on the Burea of Labor Statistics website, the typical entry-level education is a Bachelor's Degree and the median pay in 2015 is $89,700 a year compared to the national average of $36,200.

Now I would like to talk about an intangible. According to a National Student Survey conducted in the UK, geology students are the happiest with their degree.  Here is the link to an article about the survey: http://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2015/12/18/geology-students-happiest-college-campus-study/#7806114a717a

The author I think summarizes pretty well, and shares my thoughts, on why he thinks geology students are the happiest with their degrees.

Based on this quick summary, it appears as though a geoscientist can have the best of both worlds where we can enjoy our passion, as well as find a good paying steady job.  Just writing this post gets me excited for my next adventure as a geologist!

Structural Geology and Mapping

For this blog post, I want to discuss some structural geology, mapping skills, and briefly touch on the geology of the Appalachian Mountains. I will first begin by showing this Google Earth image (Fig. 1) of a segment of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania.

Figure 1: Image of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania. 

 In this image, there are obvious "wrinkles" of the Earth that are identified as the mountains. These mountain belts were created from multiple collision events between plate boundaries and with volcanic island arcs. The first of these collisional events is called the Taconic Orogeny and occurred in the Middle Ordovician (~480 million years ago). The modern day Appalachians were created during the Alleghanian Orogeny during the Permian (~285 million years ago) which was the result of the North American Plate and African/Eurasian plate colliding. This collision also helped create the supercontinent Pangea. The landscape you see today is from further uplift and lots of erosion of the sediments.

In this image (Fig. 2) what I want to show are the folds ("wrinkles") which are called anticlines and synclines. 

Figure 2: Same image from Figure 1. White arrows point to synclines and anticlines. Please note that the white arrows are pointing to the "points" of these folds.

To visualize the morphology of anticlines and synclines, take a magazine and imagine that each page is a layer of rock. The Law of Superposition tells us that originally these sediments were layered with the oldest at the bottom and the youngest at the top. If you fold the edges of the magazine down so you make an upside down U, this will create an anticline. If you would slice the top of the magazine off (or rock layers) the oldest layers would be in the middle with younger sediments on the sides. If you fold the edges of the magazine up and make a U, this will create a syncline. Here if you slice off the top you will see younger sediments in the middle with older layers on the sides (Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Example of anticlines and synclines. The image is from http://www.radford.edu/jtso/GeologyofVirginia/Photos/Structures/Foldblock.png.

In Figure 2 the folds have pointed ends, which I had pointed out with the white arrows. As you can see in Figure 3, if the beds were horizontal in the one direction, in map view you would observe continuous beds. The pointed ends of these beds indicate that the beds are dipping, or as a geologist would say, plunging (Fig. 4)

Figure 4: Example of plunging synclines and anticlines. Notice the points of the folds, similar to what I pointed out in figure 2. Image is from http://saturniancosmology.org/files/geology/Sect2_1a_files/plunging.jpg

Now we can see that the original image of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania is a series of plunging anticlines and synclines (Fig. 1). How do we know though which ones are synclines and anticlines, and how can we figure out the way the beds are dipping? These are good questions that geologists use to map geologic beds in the field. I will explain the way you can identify the types of folds and the dip of the beds. As I mentioned earlier, anticlines have the oldest beds in the middle with younger on the sides, while synclines have younger in the middle with older beds on the sides. A good resource to find the ages of beds are geologic maps. It is then as simple as looking at the ages and then determining if the fold is an anticline or syncline. To find the dip of the beds, you have to do some memorization. Anticlines will point in the direction of the dipping bed, while synclines will point in the opposite direction. You can see this principle illustrated in Figure 4. 

Going back to our original Figure 1, I am now going to overlay a geologic map of the area thanks to the wonderful people at San Diego State University (Figure 5). If you have not been reading my blog, I mentioned in an earlier post about overlays you can add to Google Earth. This overlay is a geologic map of the entire United Staes. 

Figure 5: Geologic map of the area shown in figure 1. The ages of the geologic beds are written in the corresponding color.

Figure 6 is the final map showing which structures are anticlines and synclines and in what direction the beds are plunging. 

Cool Geology Vidoes

I am adding a new feature to the left-hand side of my blog. I want to share cool videos about geology that I find on the internet. I am sure most of these videos will be from YouTube. Enjoy!

Access to Journals

Today I want to discuss the ability to access articles in peer-reviewed journals to stay up to date on current research in the geosciences. Regardless of your profession in the geosciences, it is a good idea to stay up to date with current research so that you are a well-informed scientist. A problem that I have recently found is that access to peer-reviewed journals can be difficult. If you work at a university or research institution, you likely have access to a wide array of journals because the institution bought subscriptions. Even at these institutions, it is unlikely they have access to every journal you may desire.

It is even harder for me to access articles in journals because of my situation. I am an unemployed geoscientist, or what I like to say, a freelance geologist. My passion is geology, and as I am looking for my next opportunity, I would like to stay updated on current research. Furthermore, I am in the process of writing two manuscripts based on my dissertation, and this requires me to read and cite many articles that are relevant to my research. Furthermore, it is even more important for me to stay up to date on current geoscience research because I am trying to follow my other passion by finding a teaching position at a college or university. I don't think I need to emphasize the need to teach students the most up to date material.

When I say I don't have access to articles in journals, I am not telling the truth 100%. I actually can get the articles, but they cost quite a bit of money for just one article. Looking through various journals that I often read (I won't name them) the price to read an article is $15. Even worse, that price means I only have access to that article for one day! As with most products, if you buy in "bulk", it is cheaper for the product. A yearly subscription for one of the journals is $500. That actually seems quite reasonable considering it is equivalent to $1.38 dollars/day. However, that is only for one journal and in order to do good research or stay up to date with research, you need access to multiple journals. As an unemployed geologist with a family (daughter born 2 and a half weeks ago!), I can't be spending that much money on articles.

All is not lost, in fact, there are open-access journals which are peer-reviewed journals that the public can access. I have been fortunate to find quite a few articles in these types of journals. Unfortunately, in the geosciences, most of the high-impact factor journals (ones that are cited a lot in other research) are not open access. A problem that can occur with the open-access journals is the cost of publication is normally put on the authors. Most of the time this is not a problem, however, for students who are trying to publish, this cost may keep students from publishing in that particular journal. Students who are looking to apply at mainly research institutions often want to publish their research in these high impact journals because it can be considered more prestigious. I would worry that discrimination would occur for students who can't afford to publish but whose research is still of great quality.

I am going to attach three (free!) articles on websites that I read regarding the issue of open access journals. In particular, I like the last website because it has pros and cons to questions regarding open access journals.

Open access: The true cost of science publishing

Open Access Should scientific articles be available online and free to the public?

Should all scientific research be made open access?

Even though I am having trouble reading articles that I find interesting, I refuse to give up in my pursuit of continuing my education in the field I love. I hope in the future that more journals in the geosciences move to an open-access environment. This is especially important for people like me who are unemployed or scientists that work at institutions that can't afford subscriptions to all the high impact journals but want to continue learning.

Essential skills Every Geoscientist Should Have

I recently was on Facebook and saw a post from the Amazing Geologist's page sharing an article from Geology IN titled "What kind of Skills are Essential to Be a Geologist." You can find the article at the following link: http://www.geologyin.com/2016/05/what-kind-of-skills-are-essential-to-be.html.

The author of this article lists the following skills as essential to a geologist: observation, analysis, equipment, and applications. Although I agree that all of those skills are important to a geoscientist, I differ in opinion that those are essential skills. The reason the author may have listed these skills as essential could be based on the subdiscipline in geology they study.

I wanted to offer my opinion on the essential skills every geoscientist should have. I base these skills not only on my personal experiences but also on my interpretation of the definition of a geologist according to the United States Department of Labor. On their website (link), they define a geoscientist as scientists who "study the physical aspects of the Earth, such as its composition, structure, and processes, to learn about its past, present, and future."

The essential skills are as following:
1. Outdoor Enthusiast
2. Observation
3. Analysis
4. Communication

1. Outdoor Enthusiast: One part of the original article that I completely disagreed with, under the section titled equipment, the author wrote: "geology is a lab-oriented discipline." I believe that geology is an outdoor or field-oriented discipline, although, I don't disagree that geoscientists spend most their time in the lab. Ask any geoscientist, and I am confident 95% of them would prefer to be outside doing field work instead of working in the lab. The reason I believe geology is a field-oriented discipline is because hypotheses are formulated based on the observations of the natural world viewed in the field. If a hypothesis is formed in the lab, the results are often tested against what happens in the real world, which is observed in the field. Because hypotheses are formed based on field observations, a geoscientist should enjoy hiking, camping, and just, in general, having a basic understanding of outdoor safety.

2. Observation: This is a skill that I agree with the previous author, and I believe is important to all science disciplines. The more detail that one can observe, the better chance they have of being able to develop questions and hypotheses that explain that observation. It is not just being able to make detailed observations, it is also important for a scientist to be able to document these observations in a clear and organized manner so that the person, or more importantly future scientists can come and view and understand your observations.

3. Analysis: This is another skill that I agree with the previous author, and I believe is important to all science disciplines. Once observations are made, questions are asked, hypotheses are made, and a scientist needs to be able to analyze the data to answer the questions or provide an interpretation. One could argue that the more money a scientist has, the more equipment the scientist has access to, the better a scientist might be able to answer a question, emphasis on might. What I believe is important with analysis, however, is having a basic background knowledge of the question, and/or, knowing where and how to obtain the basic background knowledge to answer a question. A good scientist is never going to know everything about a subject.

4. Communication: Again, this another skill that I believe is important to all science disciplines. A scientist should be able to effectively communicate their research. This goes beyond just being able to publish in peer-reviewed journals. A scientist should be able to write effective grant proposals, which often means providing a succinct explanation of your research and the questions to be answered. A scientist should be able to present their research in both oral and poster presentations of varying lengths. For example, at professional meetings, oral presentation maybe 10 minutes long, whereas in an invited talk you may be asked to present for 50 minutes. Lastly, it also important for a scientist to be able to explain their research to the general public. A scientist may be asked to share their research with a general science magazine, a TV show, or a local newspaper. In all cases, the scientist should be able to explain the main points of their research and interpretations in layman terms.

I am sure as I continue with my geoscience career I will change and/or add essential skills.

Unusual Structures? I Think Not

A while back I was on Facebook and I admittedly clicked on an article that was obvious click-bait.  I forget what the article was titled, but the purpose of the article was showing unusual objects visualized in Google Earth. One image, in particular, caught my interest, and I will share a similar image below. Note the square objects in close proximity.

Image was taken in New Mexico

Because of my love with browsing through Google Earth, I found more images in other locations that showed a similar pattern! Again please note the square objects.

Image was taken in Pennsylvania

Image was taken in Ohio

Image was taken in Louisiana

Image was taken in Arkansas

Image was taken in Texas

Image was taken in Texas

I am sure at this point some people are thinking "These features are not unusual objects, I know what they are!"  I will admit, I knew what these objects were as soon as I saw the original image on that article. I remember laughing and saying: "these aren't unusual objects, they are drilling pads!"

In particular, these drilling pads are located in locations where hydraulic fracturing is occurring to access petroleum in tight rocks such as organic-rich mudstones. The images in descending order are from the Permian Basin in New Mexico, Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, Utica Shale in Ohio, Haynesville Shale in Louisana, Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas, Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, and the Barnett Shale in Texas.

These pads are constructed to accommodate the drilling rig and all the associated equipment with drilling and completing of a well. In the first image, the drilling pads are so close together because the operator is trying to access all the hydrocarbons that they can. When one well is finished drilling and completing, they move the rig over to the next pad and drill again. I am making an assumption here, but I would guess that all those wells are vertical wells, and that is why they are so close together. A new method is now being used where multiple wells are being drilled from a single well pad. These wells are horizontals that will project in different directions. The advantage is reducing costs as well as the overall footprint because you only need one pad instead of multiple. Some of the other pictures may be showing the multipad technique, and this is why the pads are further apart from each other. Another reason the pads may be further from one another is because of the topography of the land. Well placement is important for several reasons, one of which is avoiding areas with large slopes. Drillers want to drill in areas of flat ground because it is easier and cheaper to build the drilling pads. In locations such as Pennslyvania and Ohio where you are more likely to have rolling hills, the pads will always be further apart than in areas in Texas where the topography is mostly flat.

In conclusion, everyone can rest easy because these structures are not the work of aliens or a government doing something they shouldn't.

Recognizing different views regarding climate change

Every once and awhile I will Google the terms "Climate Change" and "Global Warming" to read up on the latest news being presented about this issue. Today I came across an article called "Civil War on the left, Part 28: Varieties of Climate Change Thinkers." The article was about a chapter in a new book by Berkely Physicist Richard Muller called "Energy for Future Presidents." In this chapter, the author gave a classification of different climate change views.

I was excited to see this classification because in the news you commonly only hear about the two extremes which are the alarmist and the denier. According to the author the alarmist "pay little attention to the details of the science. They are "unconvincibles." They say the danger is imminent, so scare tactics are both necessary and appropriate, especially to counter the deniers. They implicitly assume that all global warming and human-caused global warming are identical."  The deniers "pay little attention to the details of the science. They are "unconvincibles." They consider the alarmists proposals dangerous threats to our economy, so exaggerations are both necessary and appropriate to counter them." 

The other categories include exaggerators, warmists, lukewarmists, and skeptics. I will let you read the description for each of these categories, but I think they sound pretty accurate when it comes to different views. I have trouble voicing my opinion  on climate change because in the past when I raised questions, I felt I was automatically lumped into the denier category. I was shamed by people for reading views that were in the denier category, even though I tried to explain I was trying to understand the arguments of both sides. 

Check out the categories and remember that next time you discuss climate change with someone that not everyone believes in the extreme views.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/07/civil-war-on-the-left-part-28-varieties-of-climate-change-thinkers.php

Here is an earlier dated article discussing the same thing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-classifications-of-cl_b_9729598

Science and Politics

I am inclined to discuss my quick views on science and politics because of a recent text I received from a friend informing me of an article on fracking that has been retracted due to mathematical errors. This post is not meant to discuss this article directly, but I will quickly summarize the main points. The conclusions of this published article showed that air pollution levels increased in locations near gas extraction sites. After the publication was released the authors discovered there were errors in their spreadsheet used to calculate the air pollution concentrations. I have to say that in this case the authors absolutely did the right thing and informed the journal of their errors. A new article will be published that show basically the exact opposite results from the original study.

The topic of science and politics is tricky to discuss because people tend to really dig their feet into the ground when it comes to their political views. Two topics that I know that come up a lot between my friends and the news is fracking of rock in the petroleum industry and climate change. I think a huge problem is people tend to ignore or dismiss facts and instead back their political views. What I am trying to say is that often there are gray areas between the two views. I will give an example of the petroleum industry. One view is that we should extract all fossil fuels in the ground to provide energy to the world. The opposite view is that we should leave all fossil fuels in the ground because they are dirty fuels that are ruining the Earth and should invest completely in renewable energy. One could argue that the facts support that a combination of fossil fuel energy and renewable energy should be used to support our growing demand for energy. Discussions can be made about how much and where we get this energy, but that is beyond the scope of this example. I promise you though that I have friends who believe in either one view completely or the other. The facts are though that using all fossil fuels will not be good, and we currently do not have the capability of switching to renewable energy tomorrow without any use of fossil fuels.

My main point with science and politics is that a good scientist should keep their political views/funding from a certain group out of their conclusions. I am sure to all scientists this suggestion seems like a no-brainer, but I am not so sure it happens. If you asked the question does "air pollution increase due to fracking," and your research suggests otherwise, a good scientist should publish their results no matter what. This is why I am very glad that the paper that is be retracted is being republished with a different conclusion. Perhaps it isn't the conclusion they or their funding agency were hoping for, but it is still a result and should be published regardless. To not publish the new conclusions would be hurting the integrity of science.

There is one other point I wanted to discuss. One phrase that I absolutely despise that everyone has heard regarding climate change is "the science is settled." I am infuriated when my very educated scientist friends use that statement.  Science is never settled, that is the beauty of science! If we always agreed the science was settled nothing new would ever be discovered. Instead, we are constantly testing and retesting similar hypotheses with new methods or new data to see if the original conclusion is still supported.  Instead of using that statement, a phrase that could be used is: "A large majority of scientists agree that an overwhelming amount of data support an increase in global temperatures." In my view the original phrase makes it seem like no changes can be made to this conclusion, which is absolutely not the case.

Looking at meandering fluvial systems

Recently I was on Google Earth looking at the mighty Mississippi River. I came across one area which I thought looked interesting because it showed many different features that correspond with a meandering fluvial channel. I just said two words that some people might not completely understand.  Meandering is a term that just defines a winding course and fluvial is the scientific term that refers to the processes associated with rivers. I am therefore talking about a river that bends quite often.

Why do rivers meander? As is the case with a lot of natural phenomena, water is looking for the path of least resistance to the ocean. Meandering rivers are often found in low-lying, flat landscapes with low discharge. When the river has a bend in the channel because it has tried to find the path of least resistance, it begins to erode on one side of the channel because water is flowing faster. Think about going down a water slide, as you go around a curve you will go up the side where water is moving faster. Where the water is moving fastest is called the Thalweg. The thalweg is technically a line connecting the lowest points along the entire length of a river bed defining its deepest channel (Wikipedia). On the other side of the curve the water isn't flowing as fast, so in a river, we tend to get deposition. This bend is where you will find sand bars. With erosion on one side of a bend and deposition on the other, it is safe to say that river channels move laterally. 

As a river continues to erode on one side of the channel, the meander begins to pinch off. At some point, the river decides that the path of least resistance is now not through the loop, but in a more straight path. When this occurs an oxbow lake is formed. Remnants of oxbow lakes that have filled or dried up can be seen as meander scars. A meander scar is identified typically by its crescentic morphology. Below is an image of the Mississippi River that shows the features I have described today.

I, of course, want to note that this is a simplified description of a fluvial system. In the future, I think that I will dig deeper into the geology of the sand bars describing what sedimentary features are formed and the pattern of sedimentary features. It is these sedimentary structures and patterns that allow geologists to identify fluvial systems in the rock record. 

Image of the Mississippi River (wide) and another river joining together. The red dotted line represents approximate location of the Thalweg.

Crabs in the sand

This past Memorial weekend, my wife and I remembered, and are thankful for all of the men and women that have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country. We also thank all the current men and women in the military for their service.

As do millions of other Americans, we also celebrated the unofficial first day of summer by traveling to Galveston for a beach day.  It was a hot and sunny day that was a welcomed contrast from all the extreme storms and flooding that has been occurring in southeast Texas.  We walked onto the beach and set up our chair and beach towel close to the sea wall behind a row of chairs and umbrellas that you need to pay for. We apparently picked a wonderful spot, because soon after I sat down, I noticed multiple holes in the sand that I immediately identified as burrows! I was sitting in the chair reading a book while I unknowingly was becoming sunburnt, when my wife said: "look, there is a crab coming out of the hole."  I immediately looked, however, the fast crab quickly jumped back into the burrow. My wife took our camera and waited patiently until she took a picture of the crab that came out of the burrow.

A crab on a sandy beach that is half way in their burrow.

Based on some basic Googling, this type of crab is commonly called a sand crab. In particular, this crab I believe belongs to the family Ocypodidae, a type of semiterrestrial crab that includes the ghost crab and the fiddler crab. Based on viewing images, it appears that this is likely a ghost crab because the male fiddler crab contains a large claw, which I did not see in any of these crabs. If based on the pictures I am mistaken about the identity of these crabs, please let me know and I will change my identification.

A smaller ghost crab in their burrow. The crabs color very closely matches the color of the sand, presumably to avoid predators. 

I wish I had a shovel at the beach because I would have loved to have excavated the burrow to see how deep the burrow went as well as the shape. When I did a Google search for ghost crab burrows I found a couple websites about these crabs. To summarize, ghost crabs belong to the genus Ocypoda. They can be located all around the world on sandy beaches in tropical and sub-tropical coasts. The ghost crab dig burrows to keep cool during the daytime. The burrows typically enter the substrate at a 45-degree angle and can reach a depth of to 4 ft according to the one website (which I will list below). Adult crabs typically have two entrance shafts. Interesting facts I read include that males tend to neatly pile the excavated sand next to the entrance, while females tend to scatter the sand all over. I am not sure what is considered "neat," so I am not sure if I would call the crabs in the above images female or male. Another interesting fact is that younger crabs tend to dig burrows closer to the water whereas older crabs tend to have burrows further away from the water.

While I was sitting at the beach looking at the crabs and their burrows, I did notice that there were balls of sand by the entrance of the burrows. As I continued to watch I saw a crab appear, and throw one of these balls away. I think I was watching a crab currently excavate a burrow. I started to notice that all the crabs were appearing and throwing these balls of sand away from the entrance! Just an interesting note, I also noticed that these balls of sand were wet, indicating that the crab had likely reached the water underneath the sand. Below I will show a video that my wife took of the crab throwing the ball of sand that it excavated.

Here are the websites I looked at for information regarding the ghost crab

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_crab
http://www.animalspot.net/ghost-crab-sand-crab.html

What do geoscience graduates value most from their academic experiences?

Yesterday I received an e-mail that the new issue of GSA Today was available for download. For those who might not know, GSA Today is a publication of the Geological Society of America. This publication normally has articles about upcoming meetings, job postings, and scientific articles. One of the articles was entitled "Looking back: What do geoscience graduates value most from their academic experiences?" It is a very interesting read, although the results are only from alumni that attended Dartmouth College.

To quickly summarize, the authors found that independent research, field training, and writing were the components geoscientists valued most in their education. To me, this is not very surprising. I feel as though most students who go into any science field have an extreme interest in independent research to begin with. I am also not very surprised by the second value being field training since most geology training involves the outdoors. Most geologists I have met are outdoors people to begin with, so it is no surprise to me that they valued being outdoors doing what they loved. I was surprised by the third value of writing, although I am glad it made the list.  I guess I was surprised by this value because I feel like I did more writing in other classes such as chemistry, biology, and physics in the way of lab reports.

This article, of course, started to make me think what I valued in my geoscience education. If I had to list three items they would be field experiences, independent research, and strong relationships with my professors. I listed field experiences because I love the outdoors, I was afforded the opportunity to visit amazing places around the world, and I consider myself a visual and hands on learner. I listed independent research because I was taught time management, critical thinking, patience, and perseverance through grant writing and my research. My final point was listed because I truly believe without my professor's friendships, advising, and teaching I would not be where I am today.

What is geology, and why do I have a passion

What is geology? To put simply, geology is the study of rocks. To add a little more meat on the bone, geology is the science that deals with earth's physical structure, history, and the processes that act on it. When you consider that definition, it means that geology can focus not only on the rocks, but also the biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.

Compared to the other sciences, it feels like geology has been an undervalued science. In popular culture Sheldon from Big Bang Theory commonly makes fun of geologists. Quite recently, there has been talk from politicians about not funding geology because they believe it is not a core science. That claim is ridiculous and clearly shows the ignorance of these politicians. Geology is applicable in many different parts of our society such as mineral, oil and gas exploration. These are raw materials that are made into products you touch everyday whether you know it or not such as gasoline, lubricants, metals and even makeup.

Geology and other science disciplines often complement each other. Although you can probably make this claim for other sciences, I still love the fact that a good geologist has knowledge in many other fields. Here I will list different disciplines that are often incorporated with geology.

Geology - Biology = Palentology and ichnology
Geology - Chemistry = Geochemistry
Geology - Physics = Geophysics
Geology - Fluid mechanics = Sedimentology
Geology - Solid mechanics = Structural geology
Geology - Planetary Science = Planetary geology
Geology - Environmental sciences = Environmental geology

There are definitely a lot more sciences or sub-disciplines you can combine with geology. What I love about all the sub-disciplines in geology that I listed is that they are all actually pretty common. I went to school and/or are friends with colleagues who have studied these disciplines. I have a friend who studied geophysics on Mars!!! That is pretty cool!

I have a passion for geology because I find it fascinating that I can touch an object that is hundreds of millions of years old. When I touch a dinosaur bone, I have touched a part of a living creature that is maybe 65 million years old and we have nothing on Earth similar to it anymore. This animal walked around that location feeding on plants or other animals. That animal then died, decomposed, bones transported and buried to finally become fossilized. Those bones existed on Earth for millions of years when the Earth and the animals on it changed drastically. When I uncover this bone, I am the first one to see it in millions of years! Another example is walking around and finding ripples on a sandstone in the middle of Utah. These ripples are exactly like the ripples I would find on a beach on the east coast of the United States, but it is in a rock in the middle of a continent! What this rock is telling me is that water in an ocean or sea moved over this surface perhaps millions of years ago!

To summarize, I have a passion for geology because I get to touch, visualize, and try to interpret what was happening in this environment in the ancient past! Every rock tells a story, and I enjoy trying to interpret and write down this story.

Looking for faults

When I was thinking about creating a blog, I didn't want to blog about my personal life, my struggles, or my life decisions. There is nothing wrong with blogging about these topics, I just wanted to write and share my thoughts and ideas on a topic that I love. In case you came to this blog hoping to learn about my personal life, you are in luck today with this blog post.

So this past week my wife and I have put an offer into a house in Beaumont, TX where we will be moving for her job. We are very excited about this next step in our lives, but before we go through and finalize the purchase, diligent work needs to be done. The work I am talking about of course is the inspection of the house. We are having a hired professional inspect the house for any major repairs that may need to be done. As a geologist I am really interested in the ground the foundation and house is built on. 

This past week I went on an internet adventure trying to find geologic maps of the Beaumont area as well as a fault map. The last thing I want is a house we buy to be located on a fault that could potentially cause damage. The internet did not let me down. I found a couple very cool sites that showed the geology of the entire state of Texas! I will share one of those sites with you here: http://txpub.usgs.gov/DSS/texasgeology/.  

What I like about this site is you can zoom in and out really far and the geology is overlying a map of Texas so it is easier to see road and town names. In the top right corner of the website you can also turn on and off different features such as rock units, members, and faults. What doesn't thrill me about this site is the lack of identification of the units. The units are all abbreviated so it is difficult to know what they mean. What you can do is Google those abbreviations and you should get an answer to what units are. 

This next site is similar in that they have scanned individual areas of Texas. I like this site because they also include the legends for the individual maps.  http://www.twdb.texas.gov/groundwater/aquifer/GAT/.

The answer to my initial question about is my potential house going to be on faults appears to be no!  Now of course you shouldn't substitute a professional with looking at a map for yourself to identity potential problems. What I believe these maps can do are help you get an idea if you do live near identified faults that you may want to get more information on. 

I want to discuss just a little bit about the faulting in Houston. From what I have gathered the faults of Houston are thought to have developed with the formation of the Gulf of Mexico. The faults are considered growth faults, which is a type of normal fault that develops because of extensional forces (pulling apart). The down-dropped side of the faults are towards the basin (Gulf of Mexico). These faults are not like the faults in California that cause major earthquakes. These faults do however move at a rate of <1 to 3 cm a year depending on the fault and location.  

If you are interested in reading more about faults in the Houston area follow these links:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237842253_Lidar_mapping_of_faults_in_Houston_Texas_USA

http://pubs.usgs.gov/mf-maps/mf1136/mf1136/discuss.htm

New Zealand Google Earth

Today I plan on beginning a segment of my blog dedicated to geology in Google Earth. The satellite imagery in this program is amazing, and with a click of mouse you are able to visualize the Earth from different elevations and perspectives. I often find myself viewing landscapes, mountains, volcanoes, rivers, and glaciers on Google Earth when I am bored.

The segment I want to start is sharing geologic images from Google Earth and explaining (through a geologists eyes) what I am visualizing. I am excited about this because not only do I get to share amazing images of geologic features, but I also get to learn more about a certain subject myself and sort of teach about it! Now just to be fair, if you Google "Google Earth geology" there are very good websites that are dedicated to providing overlays that have geologic maps, paleogeography maps, etc.  I myself have downloaded these overlays, and I will likely use them in the future in my posts and I will make sure I tell you where I downloaded them. 

The inaugural Google Earth image is from New Zealand where my wife and I recently vacationed. We visited Fox Glacier which is located on the western side of the southern island.  As you can probably guess from the name, I am somehow convinced my wife to visit a glacier! I was super excited because my wife booked a helicopter ride for us onto the actual glacier! Regardless of what you study, this is definitely high on a list of what geologists dreams of geologic adventures. Unfortunately the day we were suppose to take off, there was a bad storm that resulted in a cancellation of the trip :(. As disappointed as I was, it was better to be safe then sorry when it came to a helicopter ride onto a glacier.

Fox Glacier is an ~13 km long glacier that is fed by alpine glaciers of the southern Alps. This glacier is one among a few glaciers that terminates in a lush rainforest. (Some information gathered from the Wikipedia page).

This image from Google Earth is looking approximately east at Fox Glacier.  There are a few things on this photo that I labeled that are very interesting.  The first are towards the top of the glacier you can see horizontal cracks in the glacier that are referred to as transverse crevasses. Transverse crevasses form in zones of longitudinal extension. The crevasses are transverse to the flow direction which in this image would be towards the bottom of the image. Another feature that I illustrated is called an arete. An arete is simply a a sharp mountain ridge that is usually created by the movement of glaciers. Now obviously there are many more glacial features on this image that can be identified, but I won't always describe everything in an image. If you have questions you can always post comments and then we can have discussions about additional features.

Well I had another set of images that I wanted to post that showed how the glacier has retreated from 2006 until 2013, but I am learning a new program and apparently only half of the image was saved. I will admit, I am feeling a little lazy and I do not feel like redoing the image.  However if you go into Google Earth they have a great preference that allows you to compare satellite images from different years.  I encourage you to look at this glacier or other glaciers to see if you can notice either the retreat or advance of glaciers.

If you are interested in viewing this glacier in Google Earth go to the following coordinates:

Instagram photos

In my quest to try new things, I thought I would sign up for the social media platform Instagram.  This Instagram account is a continuation of this blog where I hope to post interesting, fun, or just cool pictures of items related to geology. The title of the Instagram account is about the same as the title for this blog. I like the title of the Instagram account because my pictures are really like you are looking through the eyes of a geologist (haha)! For example, my first post was a picture of a crawfish burrow that my wife and I saw in Beaumont, TX!  I especially thought this was fun because I studied burrows just like this during my masters and PhD. I tried to include a feed to my Instagram account in this blog, but failed miserably.  For right now I will just post the link in this post, and I will also put up a link under a tab that I will label "Favorite Links" or something similar to that.  Please follow.

https://www.instagram.com/through_the_eyes_of_a_geo/

First post as a new blogger!

In this first blog post I thought I would discuss why I am starting this blog and what I hope to post. If you have read the "about me" section then you know that I have a doctorate in geology. My first job was in the oil and gas industry, but unfortunately with the huge downturn I was laid off. Although this is a difficult time for me, I also see this as an opportunity to try new things.

One of the new things I thought I would do is start a blog about geology where I can share my photos, discuss my thoughts, talk about new articles, or just post silly things. This blog has two purposes for me: 1) Give me a hobby as I wait for a new job opportunity to arise, and 2) more importantly allow me to refresh as well as expand my knowledge about the topic I love that is geology!

This blog page will likely change quite a bit in the beginning until I learn all the bells and whistles and ins and outs of blogging! I am excited to try something new and I hope that this page will lead to even more opportunities.