Japan quake wiki online

The ESIP (Earth Science Information Partnership) Federation has set up a wiki for sharing scientific and technical information on the Japan (also called the Honshu or Sendai quake), but it includes a variety of news aggregations and links as well.


The ESRI map [right] has interactive links to YouTube tsunami and other videos of damage from around the country.

Kudos to Erin Robinson at ESIP Federation for setting this up and starting the compilations.

Big crowds at Tucson Festival of Books

It's another gorgeous day in Paradise - warm and sunny with the temperatures climbing towards the low 80s. And it's drawing huge crowds out to the Tucson Festival of Books on the UA campus, where the AZGS booth started drawing visitors an hour before the event opened, while we were still unpacking. [right, Michelle Harriman answers questions as a steady stream of customers stops by]

The book festival has become one of the largest in the nation in just a couple years. Organizers expect 75,000 attendees to the 2-day event this weekend, that includes book signings, lectures, interactive displays, performances and more.

Permits issued for 3 uranium mines in N. Arizona

The (Flagstaff) Daily Sun and other news outlets are reporting that the Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality issued three air and one aquifer permits today for 3 uranium mines in northern Arizona being developed by Denison Mines. Denison already operates the Arizona #1 mine in the region.

Neither the ADEQ or Denison web sites have any news on this. The Sun doesn't state the mine names but the 3 with permits filed with ADEQ are Canyon, Pinenut, and EZ mines [right, credit ADEQ]

Mining opponents were quick to issue scathing critiques of the decisions.

Putting magnitude in perspective

How does the Japan earthquake of magnitude 8.9 compare to other recent large quakes?

The news media do a better job than they used to of noting that each magnitude number is 10 times that of the lower number. But most everyone assumes that refers to the relative amount of energy released by the quake - comparable to measuring the power of atomic bombs for instance.

Not true.

The magnitude is a measure of the amplitude of the seismic waves. But each 1.0 magnitude increase is equal to approximately a 32 times increase in energy release. Each increase of magnitude by 2.0 equals 32 x 32 or 1,000 times increase in energy released.

The M8.9 Japan quake released the equivalent of 336 megatons of TNT. In comparison, last months, Christchurch, New Zealand M6.3 quake was equal to 43 kilotons, and last years M7.0 Haiti quake was equal to 474 kilotons.

The Japan quake was about 7814 times bigger than the Christchurch quake and 709 times larger than the Haiti quake.

I've simplified this in regards to Richter magnitude vs moment magnitude but my intent is to emphasize the power of the Japan quake.

Seismic waves from Japan roll across Arizona

The AZGS-run broadband seismic network recorded the M8.9 earthquake in Japan today. Here is a screen shot of the seismic waves rolling across Arizona from our station near the North Rim of Grand Canyon.

Also, Lisa Linville at Northern Arizona Univ. has multiple seismograph images up on the Groundswell ("AZ Shakes") blog from other Arizona instruments. [below, AISN station CCAZ, 44 miles NE of Flagstaff, AZ]

Arizona drought is worst in SE

Much of Arizona is in drought, ranging to extreme in the southeast corner of the state.


Thanks to Shaun McKinnon of the Arizona Republic for tweeting this link.

UA's best Mars photos from the past 5 years

Wired magazine is showcasing the best photos taken during the past 5 years by the UA-HiRise camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Observer. MRO went into orbit on March 10, 2006 and has returned over 70,000 images. All of the top 10 images are amazing.

[right, "veiny gullies trace the walls of a large pit in Mars' southern hemisphere in this image, captured Aug. 5, 2007. The gullies may have been carved by liquid water millions of years ago, when Mars was warmer and wetter." Credit, NASA/JPL/UA. Caption from Wired]