News

“The islands of the Caribbean basin are predominantly net energy importers, with the exception of Trinidad and Tobago. Some islands, such as Aruba, Curacao, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, are important centers for oil refining and storage, due to their proximity to the U.S. market.” Quoted from the EIA article.

Tony Hayward, CEO of BP in a speech titled: “The Harsh Realities of Energy” given at MIT: “Renewable energy is an essential part of the future energy mix…. And yet we still foresee up to 80% of energy coming from fossil fuels in 2030.”

“NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has contributed to the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf ever observed — a finding that, if confirmed, may solve an astronomical mystery about how these cosmic misfits are formed. ” Quoted from the NASA press release.

An article in the Houston Chronicle predicts that natural gas production from shale will account for 25% of the United States natural gas supply by 2005.

“Oil and gas exploration leaves deforestation scars throughout the northern boreal forest region in Alberta, Canada near Swan Hills.” Quoted from the USGS image description.

The Department of Homeland Security wanted to have over 1000 machines in position to scan imported cargo containers for potential nuclear bombs. Unfortunately a shortage of Helium 3 has prevented the plan from going to completion.

“President Obama has launched an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This campaign will include efforts not only from the Federal Government but also from leading companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies to work with young people across America [...]

A large piece of rime ice fell onto a Colorado home, breaking through the roof, through the kitchen ceiling and scattering debris throughout the kitchen. Rime ice is ice that builds up on the outside of a plane’s cold fuselage as it flies through moist air. Rime ice often drops from planes during [...]

NASA’s Earth Observatory has posted an interesting satellite image of Maupiti Island, near Bora Bora in the South Pacific. It consists of a central island surrounded by a lagoon and coral reefs.

The Strategic Risk website has a summary of the flooding problems experienced this past weekend as over one foot of rain fell in just 24 hours on some parts of northwest England.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has a new article that provides a brief overview of seafloor minerals, seafloor mining, who regulates seafloor mining and how environmental impact might be limited during mineral extraction. They also have two Flash presentations on seafloor mineral deposits and seafloor mining.

More than 50 AZGS publications and maps on geothermal energy in Arizona are now online and can be read or freely downloaded. The publications represent more than 30 years of studies and investigation by AZGS geologists and other contributors and collaborators.

The Arizona Geological Survey reports that October was a record month for website downloads. They had a total of 12,584 documents downloaded from their website with their gold bulletins being the most popular. Any geological survey that is not moving strongly to website downloads is not getting their word out. If they [...]

The Strategic Risk website has a list of the top ten natural disasters of the past century and what they would cost in today’s dollars with today’s land use. The New Madrid Earthquake of 1812 and the Miami Hurricane of 1926 top the lists with over $100 billion in current damages.

(Clemson University) The next-generation wind turbines and drive trains will be tested by the Clemson University Restoration Institute in a move that is expected to create hundreds of jobs and place one of the most important sites for wind energy research and development in South Carolina.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, researchers report.

(University of New Hampshire) University of New Hampshire microbiologist Louis Tisa has received two grants totaling $498,115 to advance understanding of the actinorhizal plants, widespread woody plants with potential to enrich nutrient-poor and contaminated soils.

(American Society of Agronomy) A US DOE and USDA study concluded that 50 million US acres of cropland, idle cropland, and cropland pasture could be converted from current uses to the production of perennial grasses, such as switchgrass, from which biomass could be harvested for use as a biofuel feedstock. Economically viable production of a perennial grass monoculture from which substantial quantities of biomass are removed annually is expected to require nitrogen fertilizer.

(Virginia Tech) Turkey is the fourth most economically important source of meat for consumers in the United States. The genome sequence and genomic resources should provide turkey breeders with the tools needed to improve commercial breeds of turkey for production traits such as meat yield and quality, health and disease resistance, and fertility and reproduction. The sequence work is now about 90 percent complete.

(University of Toronto) The time of day matters to forest trees dealing with drought, according to a new paper produced by a research team led by Professor Malcolm Campbell, University of Toronto Scarborough's vice-principal for research and colleagues in the department of cell and systems biology at the St. George campus.