Because Earth science does way more than rock

Here's a good resource for anyone who's introducing students to Earth science, trying to keep it in or add it to a curriculum, or anyone who wants to see really cool animations. It's AGI's "Why Earth Science" video, which they've recently posted on the web.



There's also an accompanying brochure available for downloading in English and Spanish versions.

At least I won't get attacked by monkeys

I just came across an article from a July 2007 Wired Magazine article about the "Best Dangerous Science Jobs". Guess what #7 is?

Volcanologist! (I love the little graphic.)

And #6 is...

Graduate student.

Yep, I'm doomed. Happily doomed, though.

In the Humorous Vein #3

We had an earthquake!

Okay, so 1.8 is pretty dinky - but I felt this one, darn it. Whee! My first earthquake.

Details from the Arlington Alert website:

05/06/08 14:55	The USGS has confirmed a magnitude 1.8 "micro" earthquake occurred near Annandale, VA at 1:30pm. There have been no reports of damage or injuries. OEM/LCS
05/06/08 14:31	The National Earthquake Information Center, via FEMA Operations, is reporting that Northern VA has experienced rumblings equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 2 to 3. It remains unclear if this was an actual earthquake, or due to another cause. Arlington OEM will continue to monitor. OEM/LCS

The USGS report:

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	1.8
Date-Time	Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 17:30:23 UTC Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 01:30:23 PM at epicenter
Location	38.828°N, 77.234°W
Depth	10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region	VIRGINIA
Distances	2 km (1 miles) WSW (250°) from Annandale, VA 3 km (2 miles) NW (320°) from North Springfield, VA 3 km (2 miles) SE (143°) from Mantua, VA 6 km (4 miles) NNE (32°) from Burke, VA 12 km (8 miles) WSW (242°) from Arlington, VA 21 km (13 miles) WSW (244°) from Washington, DC
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 1.7 km (1.1 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	NST= 6, Nph= 13, Dmin=70.2 km, Rmss=0.3 sec, Gp=151°, M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=1
Source	Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network (LCSN)
Event ID	ld1022071

Now I'm all excited. Yup, not getting any work done today.

(Actually, we thought someone was moving furniture upstairs. Or that our elevator had crashed. )

UPDATE: Oh, I feel cool. Got to do the "Did You Feel It?" report. Oh yeah.

UPDATE 2: Thanks to Ron for the email - he checked in with Callan and I right away. (Callan's got great coverage, and he managed to find the seismogram of the earthquake from the Maryland Geological Survey. And he was practically on top of the thing. Lucky!)

Oh, all right...

Because every person in the known geoblogosphere is doing this, I suppose I'll have to as well.

Voila! My thesis:

39ar 40ar al area ash biotite caldera composition contains continental creek deposits diagram eruption et feldspar fiamme field figure fish flow formed indicates lake magma matrix melt monroe osiris peak phenocrysts plagioclase plateau probably range results rims samples sanidine section subduction surface thick thin trachyte unit utah values volcanic welded

created at TagCrowd.com

Fish were a very prominent feature. (No, not mica fish. I like things that go or went boom, remember.)

In the Humorous Vein #2

For all those of you out there who are going through the ordeal once more - and that includes grading - I salute you. (And next year, I'm going to be joining you on both fronts!)

Although it's nice that, for the first time in four years, I'm not taking a final on my birthday.

Look! I'm famous!

I was recently asked to do a short interview for the blog My Cool Job about being a geologist. Here's the post - hopefully I've done a good job of describing the job to the non-geo-blogosphere! And showing off flow banding in welded ash flow tuffs - that's one of my favorite photos.

(And yes, it uses my real name. Which you can figure out by doing a little digging anyway. I still like Tuff Cookie :)

Update: Looks like that post made it to the front Wordpress page. Woohoo! I'm really famous.