George Davis' rock collection in 3-D

George Davis let the UA virtual reality lab use rocks from his personal collection to demonstrate their capabilities. Move them around in 3-D at http://qtvr.arizona.edu/work/rocks.html.

George is a professor of geology at UA and recently stepped down as Provost to get back to teaching and research.

Aquifer level falling despite headline

The headline in the Tucson Daily Star this morning practically yelled,

Big central aquifer rises 25 feet

But further reading disclosed that the rise is for a small part of the aquifer under central Tucson. According to a quote from Tucson Water spokesman Mitch Basefsky, the area where the level is still falling is larger than where it's rising. In other words, the aquifer water level overall is still dropping.

How many readers of the newspaper came away understanding that? My guess is not many.

Mapping lawsuit dismissed

The lawsuit that many scientists believed would prohibit anyone but licensed surveyors and engineers from making a map (see my May 14 blog), was dismissed by the judge today in summary judgement.

The judgement said "Nothing in the legislative history of the 1988 amendment suggests that the phrase 'surveying and mapping' was intended to broaden the Brooks Act’s focus from construction on federal lands to the procurement of mapping services unrelated to construction on real property."

See more comments at:
http://www.aag.org/

http://www.aag.org/help/links.html

http://www.allpointsblog.com/archives/2970-MAPPS-vs.-U.S.-Summary-Judgment-Issued-in-favor-of-Government.html

The court's decision is posted in full at:
http://www.directionsmag.com/images/articles/BrooksAct/2007-06-14_MAPPS_Decision(EDVA).pdf

Is brackish water the coming groundwater resource?

Could today's brackish groundwater resources be the fresh water resources of tomorrow? If so, we have to be concerned about the geologic sequestration of CO2 (carbon dioxide) into saline or brackish aquifers.

That's the message here at the state geologists annual meeting from Kevin McCray, Executive Director of the 14,5000 member National Ground Water Association.

Kevin noted that 40,000 communities and 15 million households get water from groundwater resources. The growing pressures on ground water are coming from population increase, demands for biofuels, and climate change.

Geology images downloadable from AGI

The American Geological Institute's "Image Bank" has over 6,600 geology images online (http://www.earthscienceworld.org/images/) that can be searched by subject and freely downloaded for use in talks and presentations. There are outstanding Arizona images in the bank, including the one shown here.

AGI's new Executive Director, Pat Leahy, briefed us at the State Geologist's annual meeting, on this and the upcoming geology documentary that will be shown on the Discovery Channel this fall.

[right: Arizona's SP Crater downloaded from the AGI Image Bank, @ Michael Collier]

Geology prof to head ASU Global Sustainability Institute

The Arizona Republic reports that Dr. Jonathan Fink will take over as ASU's "chief of sustainability" and Director of the Global Institute of Sustainability on July 1. He is former chair of the ASU geology department, and for the last 10 years has been ASU Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs. (http://ovprea.asu.edu/bios/jfink/)


The Republic says ASU is the first university in the country to start a School of Sustainability.

http://www.asu.edu/news/stories/200705/20070501_fink.htm

Earth fissures on Ch 8's "Horizon" show

The Phoenix PBS affiliate, KAET-TV, Channel 8, devoted half of last Wednesday night's edition of the "Horizon" program to earth fissures in Arizona. It can viewed in Windows Media Viewer or Quicktime, or listened to as a podcast at http://www.azpbs.org/horizon/watch.asp. Scroll down to May 30 and click on the earth fissures link.

[right: earth fissure in Chandler Heights area, southeast of Phoenix, August 2005]