Geology News - August 2008

Geology news and current earth science articles and blogs from around the world. Our geology news stories are archived monthly. All links are to external sites and linking does not mean the site or opinions are endorsed by AGS. If links are broken, it is because the news source has removed it from its website.

August 27, 2008

Harper unveils strategy to geo-map Arctic riches
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has laid bare his government's vision of the Arctic as a resource treasure house to be exploited by Canada, announcing a $100-million fund to kick-start detailed geo-mapping searches for minerals and oil and gas deposits.

Mines bureau to investigate Philippines landslide
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Central Visayas (MGB-7) will start mapping Catmon town to determine the cause of the landslide in the mountain barangays (villages) of Cabunggaan and Panalipan.

New Zealand landslides
The Earthquake Commission says it is aware of about 200 slips that have occurred in the greater Auckland region in recent weeks.

New method might reduce water used in oil sands
With public concern over the environment constantly growing, oil exploration companies are moving toward greener ways of doing business.

Copper deposits found in western Victoria, Australia
GeoScience Victoria has found evidence of large copper deposits in the state's west.

Fault lines mapped in New Zealand
Scientists hope research into the country's most active seismic risk area will help to better predict earthquakes.

August 21, 2008

Manitoba unveils geothermal incentive program
The government of Manitoba this week unveiled a new geothermal program designed to reduce greenhouse gases and help Manitobans cope with rising energy costs.

A googol of heat beneath our feet
The energy from the heat beneath the earth's surface is essentially an unlimited resource. What if it could be developed to help solve our energy challenges and fight global warming?

Ice cream is an igneous rock
Geologist Maria Brumm makes a compelling case for considering ice cream to be a sort of igneous rock. You begin with a liquid slurry containing a hodgepodge of chemicals, and by bringing it below its freezing point, you create something solid - or at least solid-ish.

Geologists fly over Hood to study volcano's unstable slopes
State geologists teamed with the Civil Air Patrol over the weekend on reconnaissance flights around Mount Hood, a dual mission to study landslides on the volcano's unstable slopes and train for possible future volcanic activity.

Natural gas drilling top issue for Rendell
Widespread drilling for natural gas in Marcellus Shale is one of the top environmental issues facing Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday as he announced his new choice for state environmental secretary.

Hydrogeology is hot!
Imagine a geosciences specialty where there are lots of jobs right now. Now imagine a specialty where there are lots of jobs year after year after year. In fact, imagine a specialty where, according to the American Geological Institute, there are four jobs for every qualified graduate and it is described as "recession-proof."

August 20, 2008

Gates and Buffett tour Alberta oil sands
Two of the richest people in the world, software magnate Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett, quietly flew into northeastern Alberta on Monday to take a look at the oil sands.

Two-jawed mutant fish fuels oil sands dissent
A northern Alberta native band that displayed a deformed, two-jawed fish at a weekend water conference says the grotesque specimen has ramped up efforts to collect evidence to show Alberta's oil sands are poisoning both wildlife and people.

August 19, 2008

Taking the guesswork out of offshore drilling
The technology involves using a device, pulled through water at the end of a long cable attached to a ship, that shoots low-frequency electromagnetic signals through the seafloor toward what scientists suspect is a reservoir. Those signals bounce back to receivers placed on the seabed.

August 18, 2008

Natives unite to fight oil sands
Natives want a moratorium on oil sands project approvals until government and industry can assess the damage caused by the developments and find ways to mitigate it.

Trans-Canada Highway closed from Gander to Gambo over landslide fears
Government officials feared a landslide after heavy rains. Fire departments from the area used dozens of pumps to get rid of the water while engineers assessed the integrity of the road.

Alberta bumped to third in energy hunt
British Columbia and Saskatchewan raked in a combined haul of $745-million in land rights yesterday, strengthening their claims as the hottest exploration zones in the country and edging Alberta into third place.

Study could help with Pacific earthquake preparation
New Mexico Tech geophysics professor Dr. Glenn Spinelli has discovered that the area where earthquakes may occur off the coast of Washington and Oregon probably extends further inland than previously believed.

Groundwater availability in the United States
This report examines what is known about the States' groundwater availability and outlines a program of study by the U.S. Geological Survey Ground-Water Resources Program to improve understanding of groundwater availability in major aquifers across the U.S.

Call for early warning system for Australia
Australia urgently needs an independent national advisory panel of expert geoscientists to provide an ''early warning system'' on environmental crises before they become irreversible, according to the Geological Society of Australia.

Sand extraction is devastating groundwater in India
The insatiable demand from Bangalore’s construction industry has spawned large-scale illegal sand extraction in the area, which has permanently changed the landscape of scores of villages in Kanakapura, India, and depleted the groundwater.

Shadow of fear over volcano town
Three months after erupting, for what scientists say they believe was the first time in 9,370 years, the Chaiten volcano continues to threaten to coat the once picturesque town of the same name below with volcanic ash.

August 15, 2008

Mapping out Arctic sovereignty
Canada uses science and a team of geologists to make claim to seabed riches.

Related article

UK scientists unveil a Mars rover called Bradley
The ExoMars rover will be designed to search for signs of life and study the red planet's geology over a range of several kilometres from the landing site. It will have a drill for extracting rock samples from up to 2 metres beneath the surface and a mini-lab for analysing them.

Spike in activity at Chile's Chaiten volcano
Chile's national Geology and Mineral Service reported the volcano rumbled to life Wednesday evening with a series of medium-strength earthquakes, but returned to a state of low-level activity by the next morning.

August 13, 2008

Officials expect 1,500 natural gas wells to be drilled annually
Water regulators expect energy companies tapping the Marcellus Shale to drill more than 1,500 wells per year throughout the region, collectively drawing as much water as a nuclear reactor.

Scientists study mercury in the Great Salt Lake
Exactly where the poison is coming from — and how much danger it poses to the millions of migratory birds that feed on the Great Salt Lake — are now under investigation.

28 dead in southwest China floods and landslides
Tropical storm Kammuri triggered disasters last week that affected one million people in Yunnan province.

August 12, 2008

Saudi Arabia's new gold mine
A new generation of fortune hunters is seeking riches under the sands of Saudi Arabia. "Gold, copper, phosphate, bauxite - this place could be the next Canada or Australia," says Inés Scotland, CEO of Citadel Resource Group, an Australian company that is mining copper in the kingdom. "The geology here is fantastic."

Small earthquake shakes Utah
The 2.2 magnitude quake sparked reports from several people in Magna and West Jordan, who reported feeling mild shaking for three to five seconds, according to a University of Utah seismologist.

U.S. and Canada to collaborate on Arctic undersea survey
The two nations have agreed to collaborate on a seismic survey of the Beaufort seabed north of the Yukon-Alaska border, part of a bid to extend the countries' respective undersea territories.

Quake hits Venezuela oil region, buildings damaged
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook east Venezuela on August 11th, damaging dozens of buildings and forcing patients to evacuate a hospital in the oil producing region.

August 11, 2008

Coal still an important ingredient in Canada's energy mix
While coal-fired power generation remains an important component of Canada's energy industry, environmental concerns could limit its wider development, the National Energy Board said.

Is Uranium set for a rebound?
There is a school of thought that argues there is now a misalignment between the outlook for nuclear energy and the current low valuation of uranium companies. 

Perseid meteor shower easily viewed on August 12th
The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak during the early morning hours of Aug. 12, possibly producing as many as 60 visible meteors per hour during the darkest hours of the night.

Mayon volcano spews ash after two-year silence
Almost two years after its major eruption, Mayon Volcano spewed ash again Sunday morning reaching about 200 metres above the crater before drifting east-northeast.

August 8, 2008

Canada to make groundbreaking Arctic claim
Canadian scientists are set to make one of this country's most important assertions of Arctic sovereignty in decades at a geology conference in Norway.

Canadian diamond explorers need 'blockbuster' discovery to recapture market's attention
Investors of late have been left cold by the long and expensive waits between discovery and production, as well as by the absence of a “blockbuster discovery” over the last ten years.

In rural Alaska, fuel costs now matter of survival
Soaring oil prices that swelled Alaska's treasury have come back to slam the state, particularly its 170 rural villages. The seasonal barge shipments of fuel have yet to arrive, meaning villages are still paying last year's prices, already a minimum of 60 cents higher than the U.S. average.

August 7, 2008

Keepers of the Water III: water is boss!
Since early July, members of the Keepers of the Athabasca Watershed Society (KAWS) have been travelling the length of the Athabasca River Basin. Along the way, they’re holding conferences in communities alongside the river as part of their Keepers of the Water tour.

Wyoming geology offers perfect environment for finding fossils
Let's say you lived tens of millions of years ago. Perhaps you weighed several tons and were a meat-eating terror of the tropics. Or maybe you were a little sea turtle just trying to get by in a harsh, cruel world. Whatever you were, if you wanted to be preserved, virtually forever, Wyoming was the place you would've wanted to retire.

Parched Jordan launches huge water project
Jordan launched a near-billion-dollar project to supply the capital with much-needed water from an ancient desert aquifer near the border with Saudi Arabia.

A boon for Pickens, not for America
T. Boone Pickens is right to suggest that America's oil dependence is a source of economic ruin and that Congress must act to stop the biggest transfer of wealth in human history. But Pickens stands to benefit from his own campaign -- and his proposal could do more damage than good to U.S. energy security.

August 6, 2008

Can offshore Florida be major contributor of oil, natural gas?
The bottom line is that discovery of huge amounts of oil or natural gas in currently unexplored areas of the central and northern Gulf is very unlikely, because the geology doesn't support it.

Website aims to show Mother Earth - naked
It's being touted as Google for geologists. OneGeology, the brain child of the Geological Survey of Sweden, will go live with a web-based interactive 3-D map of the Earth next week.

Related story

Cold temperatures gripped earth during glaciation period
A new study contradicts geoscientists, who believe the tropics remained warm throughout the glaciation period during which all parts of the world suffered a marked lowering of temperature.

Scientists find hottest water ever
Scientists have found the hottest water ever -- water so hot that it exists in a state between gas and liquid.

World geology congress in Oslo
The 33rd International Geological Congress (IGC) opens in Oslo today. A total of 6,000 geologists from 120 countries will attend the biggest event of its kind in the world. Top of the agenda are climate change, the environment and future energy supplies.

 

New planet geology map seen aiding mining, climate
The first digital map of the Earth's geology could guide oil and gas exploration and mining or pinpoint sites for burying greenhouse gases.

August 1, 2008

Grad student helps create soil database to help solve crimes
A doctoral student in geology at UC Riverside has painstakingly dug, collected, analyzed and catalogued 255 soil samples to create a database for forensic sleuths.

Marine hotspots linked to geology
Geological shifts over millions of years may explain the huge wealth of fish, corals and other life in seas between Asia and Australia and hold clues to modern conservation.

GeoVisionary to take the International Geological Congress by storm
The truly groundbreaking 3D landscape visualizing software enables the visualization of terabytes of geoscience data, and allows other data, such as geotechnical, environmental and geochemical information to be overlaid onto it, giving a complete picture.