Potash lands leased in Holbrook

Most of the lands underlain by potash in Arizona's Holbrook basin are private or trust lands held by the Arizona State Land Dept. Except of course, for the large block right in the center in Petrified Forest National Park.

Joe Dixon in State Land Dept. was kind enough to send us the latest lease map for the area.

There are tribal lands in the northeast and BLM lands in the southwest, but you can see the brown and blue State Trust Lands and the private lands in white dominate the area.

UA engaged in battle of the giant telescopes

There's a great feature article in last week's issue of Science that describes a 'race for the heavens' between the University of Arizona and partner's $700 million Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT, right) and the Univ. of Calif.'s $1 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Neither proposed instrument "has come close to securing the total funding it needs."

The story contrasts the personalities and visions of the leading advocates for both instruments, Roger Angel at UA and Jerry Nelson at UC.

The GMT would link 7 monolithic mirrors, each 8.4 meters across. Angel's lab produced the two 8.4 meter mirrors used in the Large Binocular Telescope that went into operation on Mt. Graham in Arizona in 2007.

The article reports that it's too late for the two projects to be combined. Each is at different stages in fund raising, design, and implemtation, so it's too early to tell which, if either is going to be built. Science posted a podcast interview at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/326/5952/512/DC1

Data to determine water quality in Lake Powell

A new data set on water in Lake Powell and from Glen Canyon Dam, was published by the USGS this week. The purpose is so that "further interpretation may be made concerning mixing processes in Lake Powell, the movement and fate of advective inflow currents, effects of climate and hydrological variations, and the effects of the operation and structure of Glen Canyon Dam on the quality of water in Lake Powell and from Glen Canyon Dam releases."

Ref: Physical and Chemical Data for Water in Lake Powell and from Glen Canyon Dam Releases, Utah-Arizona, 1964-2008

Vernieu, William S., 2009, USGS Data Series 471

Triassic wildfires in northern Arizona - news from GSA meeting

A poster presentation at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in Portland last week presented evidence of more widespread charcoal in widely distributed Late Triassic sediments across northern Arizona. The authors, Lawrence Tanner and Spencer Lucas, conclude that wildfires were not uncommon and atmospheric oxygen levels had to have been higher than previously thought, likely at or above modern levels. [right, Triassic plant from Petrified Forest National Park. Credit, NPS]

The result is this "may be linked with the first appearance of mammals, and of pterosaurs and dinosaurs, whose evolutionary success likely resulted from their enhanced, oxygen intensive metabolisms."


Ref: FOSSIL CHARCOAL IN CHINLE GROUP STRATA (UPPER TRIASSIC), NORTHERN ARIZONA: DISTRIBUTION AND SIGNIFICANCE

TANNER, Lawrence H., Dept. Biological Sciences, Le Moyne College, 1419 Salt Springs Rd, Syracuse, NY 13214, tannerlh@lemoyne.edu and LUCAS, Spencer G., New Mexico Museum of Natural History, 1801 Mountain Road N.W, Albuquerque, NM 87104

Pleistocene debris flows much larger in Catalina foothills

AZGS geologist Ann Youberg's talk at the Geological Society of America annual meeting last week was at 3 pm on the last day, usually a deadly time as people bail out to catch planes home. But her room was pretty well packed, with us late arrivers filling in around the walls.

Ann reported that she and co-workers found that volume of late Pleistocene debris flows in the Catalina Mountains foothills on the north side of Tucson, are in the range of 10 million cubic meters, two orders of magnitude larger than the biggest debris flows resulting from the severe events of summer of 2006. [right, 2006 debris flow in Soldier Canyon. Credit, AZGS]

The team concluded that "climatic change between the late Pleistocene and the Holocene affected storm meteorology and seasonality thus causing changes in debris-flow initiation mechanisms, available source material, and initiation-source areas."



Ref: COMPARISON OF LATE PLEISTOCENE AND HISTORICAL DEBRIS-FLOW VOLUMES AND INITIATION MECHANISMS, SANTA CATALINA MOUNTAINS, ARIZONA

YOUBERG, Ann1, MAGIRL, Christopher S.2, WEBB, Robert H.3, GRIFFITHS, Peter G.3, and PEARTHREE, Philip A.4, (1) Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona, 1133 E. James E. Rogers Way, Tucson, AZ 85721, ann.youberg@azgs.az.gov, (2) U.S. Geological Survey, 934 Broadway, Suite 300, Tacoma, WA 98402, (3) U.S. Geological Survey, 520 N. Park Avenue, Suite 221, Tucson, AZ 85719, (4) Arizona Geological Survey, 416 W. Congress St, Suite 100, Tucson, AZ 85701

#GeoPort

Legislators push N. Arizona mineral withdrawal

A group of Arizona state legislators called today for the withdrawal of 1 million acres of federal land in northern Arizona from mining activities while hydrologic and hydrogeologic studies are carried out on the potential impacts on the regions water. Rep. Daniel Patterson of Tucson posted the letter to BLM officials on his blog today. [right, areas under consideration for withdrawal in red. Credit, BLM]

The BLM is collecting comments on the proposed withdrawal as part of the EIS process underway, following two public meetings earlier this month.

Populating the National Geothermal Data System

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu today announced that a coalition of 40 state geological surveys headed up by the Arizona Geological Survey has been selected to populate the new National Geothermal Data System with relevant state-specific geothermal data.

The Secretary announced awards totaling $338 million for geothermal energy across the country. The AZGS-led project would receive $15.7 million over 3 years. AZGS is acting on behalf of the Association of American State Geologists (AASG).

AZGS is already a partner in the Geothermal Data Coalition, based at Boise State University to design and build the National Geothermal Data System under contract to DOE. AZGS will adapt the Geoscience Information Network (GIN - www.usgin.org) to provide data discovery, access, and exchange services as a component in the developing data system. Other components include a data repository, software applications, vocabularies, data content, network communications, and web portals.

GIN is a collaboration between AASG and the U.S. Geological Survey to integrate geological survey data bases using web services and open source standards in a distributed system.

The project announced today includes the USGS and Microsoft Research as partners.

All of the dozens of other geothermal projects announced today are expected to integrate their data into the NGDS.