Makes me want to travel
You may have seen this already…it’s been around for a while. This guy, Matt, has a blog called Where the Hell is Matt?, which chronicles his world travels and bad dancing.
For some reason, I really love this video….I’d love to go to all these places. Enjoy.
Where on (Google)Earth #10?
Okay…Ron has gotten the last few of these….someone else needs to step up!
No clues until there’s a few guesses.
happy Saturday.
Friday Field Foto #15: Pillow basalts
One of the best parts about living in the San Francisco Bay Area is that there is great geology very close by. I snapped this photo just a couple weeks ago when we showing some out-of-town visitors around the area.
These beautiful pillow basalts are exposed out at Point Bonita, which is the most seaward promontory adjacent to the Golden Gate. Barely visible is a seagull in the upper left corner of the photo for scale. This area is part of the Marin Headlands, which is composed of rocks of the Franciscan accretionary complex. Very near to this site are spectacularly folded radiolarian cherts.
In addition to the pillow basalts, which are obviously the main attraction, there is a cool old lighthouse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video of debris flow in California
Note: I downloaded this clip a long time ago and, unfortunately, don’t know any specific information about it (except that it occurred in California). If you happen to know the details and source of this video, please let me know.
I have a bunch of video clips related to sedimentation that i’ll be posting from time to time. This one is a muddy debris flow carrying and/or rolling some rather large boulders.
UPDATE: See a longer version of this video on another Clastic Detritus post here; or on YouTube here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stunning new images of Jupiter and its moons
NASAs New Horizons spacecraft, which is on its way to Pluto, returned some incredible new images of Jupiter and its satellites. Check out the entire BBC article here and go here for more images.
The craft was using Jupiter as a slingshot to get out to the outer solar system as was able to get these images during the process. The above image shows the Little Red Spot (which is as big as Earth), a gigantic storm that scientists have had their eye on for some time.
The image below shows the moon Io in the upper left. The blue plume is from the erupting Tvashtar volcano. Europa, which has amazingly different characteristics is seen in the lower right.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Science podcasts
I take a commuter train nearly every day from home to my office at school. I find this time perfect for catching up on the latest science news via podcasts. Below are science-related podcasts that I subscribe to. If you know of any others, please let me know…i’m always looking for something new.
I’m including the link to the website for these podcasts but, if you use an iPod, you can also easily find them through the iTunes directory. These are all free.
—————————————————
Nature Podcast: This is one of the longer ones at about 25-30 minutes and is pu
blished once a week. This podcast sums up 3 or 4 of the prominent articles that are reported in the weekly journal Nature. The format is typically a phone interview with one or more of the authors of a study in that week’s issue. This is the most technical of all the podcasts listed here.
Science Friday: This is one of my personal favorites. Science Friday is part of NPR‘s Talk of
the Nation programming and hosted by Ira Flatow. If you listen to this on the radio is an hour long and typically broken into 2-4 segment covering different topics. The podcast edition is delivered so that each segment is a separate episode, which is nice so you don’t have to listen to the entire hour to hear the topic you are really interested in. Sometimes a segment can be over 30 minutes and others will be only 10 minutes. It is very non-technical and Flatow does a great job of keeping the guests from using too much jargon. Lately, they’ve had a lot of climate science and/or policy topics that are pretty good.
Science Times is hosted by David Corcoran of the New York Times. It is published once a
week and summarizes the main articles that were highlighted in the newspaper that week. This is a nice one to add to the mix because they tend to not focus on the same story that all the other media outlets picked up (usually from Nature or Science). It is typically 15-20 minutes in length.
Science Talk is the podcast associated with the magazine Scientific American. I’ve only
started listening to this one recently, but so far so good. There is a little overlap with the others but sometimes that is nice because you get a slightly different perspective or style of reporting. It is similar in length to the others (20-25 minutes) and published about once a week.
PopSci Podcast is hosted by Jonathan Coulton and is the less serious one throw
n on this list. It is associated with Popular Science magazine, which I don’t read, and is essentially a nerdy comedy podcast sprinkled with some information. It is short (<10 minutes) and consists of an intro and summary by Coulton (who is stationed on the moon) and a phone interview with a researcher usually on something offbeat. For example, they once had a guy who studied how fruit flies fight and another story about how San Francisco wants to try and collect dog poo and turn it into energy. The problem is there hasn’t been a new episode in a couple months, so i’m not sure what’s up with it.
If you know of other podcasts that are similar to these, please leave a comment and link.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wilco on Letterman
Here’s a video from 2004 of Wilco playing one of my favorites, ‘Hummingbird’, on David Letterman. Enjoy.
Friday Field Foto #14: Landslide deposit
In the spring of 2006 I was lucky enough to attend a geology conference in Mendoza, Argentina, which is in the foreland of the central Andes east of, and just over the continental divide from Santiago, Chile. Part of the program was a day trip up to the Andes to look at the fold-thrust belt structure. This is very close to Aconcagua, which is the highest peak in the western hemisphere (almost 7,000 meters).
I snapped this photo on the last stop of the day (near the divide/border) of a landslide that occured about 100 years ago. Apparently, the timing of this is known from notes and observations from European explorers/settlers. Note the building in the lower right foreground for scale.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Structural deformation revealed on sea-floor image
As you’ve seen from previous posts on this blog (e.g., here, here, and here) I have a penchant for images of sea-floor bathymetry. Not only are they fascinating (and aesthetically pleasing) but they constantly remind of us of how much we don’t know about our own planet surface (remember, 2/3 of the Earth’s surface is under water). We have mapped the surface of Mars better than Earth!
A recent Deep Sea News post reminded me of a great web resource if you are interested in marine science. It is called SIMoN, which stands for Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network, is a portal for all things related to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Much of the site involves the biological and habitat aspects (it is a sanctuary after all) but there is also great stuff regarding the geology and geomorphology of the area.
The image below (see page on SIMoN here for all the details) is from an area offshore of the central California near Half Moon Bay (just south of San Francisco and north of Santa Cruz). This area is called Mavericks and is a popular surfing spot.
What is most striking is how nicely the structural deformation of Pliocene sedimentary rocks is shown with this image. Movement on the San Gregorio fault (a wholly owned subsidiary of the San Andreas) has produced this folding and the layered nature of the strata has resulted in the differential erosion and alternating ridges and ‘valleys’ seen on the bathymetry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where on (Google)Earth #9?
Beautiful!
Good luck.
Clastic Detritus 