Researchers Owen Shufeldt and Karl Karlstrom of the University of New Mexico, George Gehrels of the University of Arizona, and Katherine Howard of the University of Adelaide present results from a detailed geochronologic investigation of one of the oldest rock units of the Grand Canyon, the Vishnu Schist. Their data reveal a large population of minerals that range from 1 to 2 billion years older than the rock itself. The ages of these minerals suggest an exotic source for the sedimentary material that became the Vishnu Schist. Possible provenances include Australia, North China, Antarctica, or older blocks within southwestern North America that are not presently exposed. The new data provide evidence for a more complex tectonic history of the southwest United States than presently accepted, including input from nearby cratons and the possibility of undiscovered ancient blocks mixed in with the Proterozoic terranes of southwestern Laurentia.
This announcement came in this afternoon. On first glance, it looks like everything you'd ever want about the Gulf oil leak:
The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) and its partners, Boston University and Louisiana State University, have created a resource that will allow you to explore these questions and others, as well as to contribute your own expertise.
The Online Clearinghouse for Education & Networking: Oil Interdisciplinary Learning (OCEAN-OIL) is an open-access, peer-reviewed electronic education resource about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation. [right, leaking oil from the sea floor streams west. Photo credit, Gary Braasch on the www.eoearth.org site]
OCEAN-OIL already contains:
• 1,000+ hyper-linked encyclopedia style articles related to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, including offshore oil and gas, the ecological effects of oil spills, details of the event, oil spill response, and lessons from the disaster, and related topics
• 400+ glossary of important terms related to oil spill causes, impacts, clean-up, and prevention
• 75+ acronyms (LPG, PPM, ROV, VOC) to help decode the language of oil spill science
• 80+ external resource links to federal government sites, image galleries, news sources, industry, environmental groups, education, and journal articles
• Deepwater Horizon photo gallery: Images by renowned photojournalist Gary Braasch
• Deepwater Horizon by the Numbers: Publication quality graphs
• Reports of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The Arizona Daily Star reports that "The website was set up 11 years ago to answer questions about biology from schoolchildren. It has grown from a single page in 1999 to a 2,500-page cornucopia of science stories, puzzles, podcasts, cartoons, activities and instructional materials. It now attracts 1 million unique visitors each year," with 150 scientist volunteers helping to answer questions.
And belated kudos to the UA College of Science for their 32-page supplement [right] published in the Daily Star on Nov 14, showcasing "Science: Exploring Our World and Ourselves." UA science dean (and geologist) Joaquin Ruiz introduced the magazine with the editorial "Tucson is a science city." Articles came from UA faculty including topics such as the Phoenix Mars mission, caves and climate, making mountains, the Mars HiRISE mission, and tree ring research.
Hydraulic fracturing of shale gas reservoirs dominated the agenda and the discussions at the annual meeting of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission that held its annual meeting in Tucson last week. Fears of frac’ing impacts on ground water are being fanned by sensationalist news stories, particularly on the East Coast. Even in states where frac’ing has been standard practice for decades without controversy, there is rising public fear.
This has become the latest battlefield in a long-standing war over state vs federal primacy for oil and gas regulation.
The IOGCC is comprised of 38 oil and gas producing states and serves as a forum for state regulatory agencies to collaborate and offer a common voice to the federal government.
Congress has ordered the EPA to do a study on the impacts of hydro-frac’ing as a result of public fears rising as shale gas deposits are frac’ed. The scoping of that process is just winding up. Many of the state regulators I listened anticipate a heavy-handed federal intrusion that is based on assuaging political pressures rather than being based on the facts and reality. Cynicism and frustration permeated the IOGCC meeting.
IOGCC is partnering with the Ground Water Protection Council to establish a national registry of chemicals used in hydro-frac’ing that is in beta mode and should go public in the next few months. This is a voluntary effort where companies involved in frac’ing will release the details on the chemicals that go into the hydrocarbon bearing layers.
Opponents of frac’ing claim the chemicals are damaging water wells. But I heard state officials challenge horror stories as not being able to be substantiated. Some of the state regulators described situations of panicked water well owners in their states claiming contamination as soon as plans were announced for shale gas wells, even before they were drilled let alone frac’ed. Gas drillers are being urged to test aquifers and nearby water wells to establish base conditions prior to drilling and frac’ing.
There are reports circulating that groups will be targeting certain oil and gas companies in Rocky Mountain states next year as part of a campaign to build political pressure for national restrictions on frac’ing to coincide with release of the EPA study and the 2012 elections.
Hydro-frac’ing has not been an issue in Arizona. There is no shale gas development like in Pennsylvania or New York. A few carbon dioxide wells were frac’ed in the St Johns area a couple decades ago but the tests were not successful and the current development in that area has not proposed using it again.
However, frac’ing might be considered here for carbon sequestration wells or Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) projects, although there are no proposals for this at present.
Hundreds of scanned USGS files ("dockets") on mineral exploration projects in Arizona are now online for free download. They are part of a collection of 5,000 such files from all over the country, including a few hundred from Arizona. [right, number of dockets per county in Arizona]
This looks to be a real treasure trove of materials to sort through.
The USGS announcement summarizes the project:
Congress enacted the Defense Production Act in 1950 to provide funding and support for the exploration and development of critical mineral resources. From 1950 to 1974, three Department of the Interior agencies carried out this mission. Contracts with mine owners provided financial assistance for mineral exploration on a joint-participation basis. These contracts are documented in more than 5,000 “dockets” now archived online by the U.S. Geological Survey. This archive provides access to unique and difficult to recreate information, such as drill logs, assay results, and underground geologic maps, that is invaluable to land and resource management organizations and the minerals industry.
An effort to preserve the data began in 2009, and the entire collection of dockets was electronically scanned. The scanning process used optical character recognition (OCR) when possible, and files were converted into Portable Document Format (.pdf) files, which require Adobe Reader or similar software for viewing. In 2010, the scans were placed online (http://minerals.usgs.gov/dockets/) and are available to download free of charge.
"REE are important ingredients in high-strength magnets, metal alloys for batteries and light-weight structures, and phosphors. These are essential components for many current and emerging alternative energy technologies, such as electric vehicles, photo-voltaic cells, energy-efficient lighting, and wind power. REEs are also critical for a number of key defense applications.
The report describes significant deposits of REE in 14 states, with the largest known REE deposits at Mountain Pass, Calif.; Bokan Mountain, Alaska; and the Bear Lodge Mountains, Wyo. The Mountain Pass mine produced REE until it closed in 2002. Additional states with known REE deposits include Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina."Long, K.R., Van Gosen, B.S., Foley, N.K., and Cordier, Daniel, 2010, The principal rare earth elements deposits of the United States—A summary of domestic deposits and a global perspective: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5220, 96 p. Available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5220/
Cave Fest is part of the park’s and agency’s mission for continuing scientific exploration and discovery, science-informed management of park operations and resources, cave conservation and promotion of public education and scientific literacy.
Talks are offered at half hour intervals beginning at 9:00 am and wrapping up at 4 pm Saturday, resuming at 8:45 AM Sunday and ending at 4:40 PM.
“The consortium headed by the University of Arizona brings a wide range of scientific and impact assessment capabilities to the Southwest Climate Center because it includes institutions located in and familiar with the incredible diversity of ecosystems and human settlements and activities that characterize the U.S. Southwest,” the Secretary noted. The consortium is well versed in issues such as coastal management, drought and its impacts on people and the environment, water management in the Colorado and other Southwest rivers, and the impacts of exploding populations of bark beetles on western forests.
Readers, we need your help. Some time ago, we received these photos of unusual features in what appears to be the Betatakin section of the Navajo Sandstone, asking if we could identify their origin.
A new report from the USGS finds that regional groundwater contributes about 3/4 of the base flow of the San Pedro River near Tombstone, with 1/4 coming from "summer storm runoff stored as alluvial groundwater for the 2000 to 2009 period."Ref: Kennedy, J.R., and Gungle, Bruce, 2010, Quantity and sources of base flow in the San Pedro River near Tombstone, Arizona: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5200, 43 p.
external view in the wrap-up of their two-year project to build a continent-wide data network among 20 nations. In my formal remarks, I applauded the OneGeology project as the continents flagship effort that proved the technology and architectural approach that we are now emulating in the U.S. They have 40 Web services working in 17 languages and are harmonizing geological maps across the borders of Europe. AZGS has been working closely with OneGeology through our geoinformatics chief, Steve Richard, to develop joint vocabularies and specifications so the two continent-wide data systems will be compatible and integrated.
