Geology News - October 2005

News stories about geology and earth sciences in the world. News articles will be archived monthly. All links are to external sites.

October 29, 2005

New method of dating oceanic crust is most accurate so far
A newly developed method that detects tiny bits of zircon in rock reliably predicts the age of ocean crust more than 99 percent of the time, making the technique the most accurate so far.

October 26, 2005

New evidence about the rise of oxygen
In an article appearing in the Geological Society of America's journal Geology, investigators from the California Institute of Technology, the University of Tübingen in Germany, and the University of Alberta describe their new findings about the origin of the mineral deposits known as banded-iron formations, or "BIFs."

Geology students help Hurricane Katrina victims
Associate professor Gregory Easson, University of Mississippi, who is also the director of the UM Geoinformatics Center, organized a team of four students who specialize in Geographic Information Systems to use their knowledge to help with relief efforts immediately following the storm.

New dinosaur species discovered in China
Lanzhoumagniden is a kind of plant-eating dinosaur with huge teeth, with the single biggest tooth being 14 cm long and 7.5 cm wide, the biggest known in the world.

Varsities to revise quake curriculum in Pakistan
Pakistani universities and institutions imparting education on architecture, seismology and geology are making drastic changes in their curricula in the light of experiences after the devastating earthquake of Oct 8.

October 23, 2005

New satellite images of meteor impact craters available via Google Maps at Geology.com
New on Geology.com is an interactive map of Earth's meteor impact craters. Zoom in on any of two dozen meteor impact craters sites scattered across Africa, Australia, Europe, Asia, and North America.

October 19, 2005

Drilling permits issued for Killam Oil Field
Culane Energy Corp., the operator of the Killam North Oil Field Project, has obtained the first two drilling licenses from the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board.

October 14, 2005

Deaf students may have advantage in studying geological faults
University of Massachusetts Amherst geologist Michele Cooke contends that students who are well-versed in sign language, an inherently spatial language, have ideal skills for becoming structural geologists.

October 13, 2005

Firestone Ventures expands Alberta Sun uranium project area
The sandstone-hosted uranium potential of southern Alberta was first suggested in Alberta Geological Survey Open File Report 1994-8, and later confirmed by results from Firestone Ventures initial field program

October 6, 2005

World's first geological map is displayed in New York
The hand-drawn map was created by canal surveyor William Smith in 1815, based on his travels across Great Britain on foot and on horseback.

Related story

October 1, 2005

Gambling on gems in the Northwest Territories
Some 60 companies are spending millions of dollars probing the Arctic in a race to replicate two massive strikes in the early 1990s. Those mines turned struggling geologists into millionaires and made Canada the third-largest producer of uncut diamonds in an $11 billion-a-year global market.