Geology
Category archives for Geology
Earthquake Time Bombs by Robert Yeats
Posted by Greg Laden on March 1, 2016 
The Great San Francisco Earthquake(s) On October 8th, 1865, the “Great San Francisco Earthquake” hit south of the city of San Francisco, magnitude 6.3. On October 21st, 1868, the ‘Great San Francisco Earthquake” hit near Haywards, east of the city, across the bay, magnitude 6.8. On April 18th, 1906, the “Great San Francisco Earthquake” hit…
Link Between Yellowstone And The Magma Plume Found, Imaged
Posted by Greg Laden on April 24, 2015 
It is like finding a leak in your roof. I remember once up at the cabin, noticing that my waders were full of water and pointing this out to my wife. “You’re supposed to hang the waders upside down. Keeps dead mice from falling in there.” Well, I thought, if any mice fell in these…
Calbuco Volcano Erupting
Posted by Greg Laden on April 22, 2015 
Calbuco is a volcano in southern Chile. This one erupts fairly frequently averaging about every 20 years, sometimes quite impresively. The largest eruption during historic times in Chile occurred at Calbuco in 1894. It is erupting now. Evacuations have been ordered. Here is some amazing footage:
How many lakes are there?
Posted by Greg Laden on October 18, 2014 
How many lakes are there? We don’t actually know. Lakes are often undercounted, or small lakes ignored, in larger scale geophysical surveys. It is hard to count the small lakes, or in some cases, even to define them. A recent study (published in Geophysical Research Letters) examines this question. We want to know how many…
Volcanoes, Tree Rings, and Climate Models: This is how science works.
Posted by Greg Laden on July 30, 2014 
Mark Your Cosmic Calendar: 774/775 One wonders if anyone felt it. Did Charlemagne feel it as he led his forces across Pagan Saxon Westphalia, knocking down Irminsuls and making everyone pretend to be Christian or else? Did the people of Bagdad, just becoming the world’s largest city, notice anything aside from their own metro-bigness? Did…
Disaster! Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes
Posted by Greg Laden on December 5, 2012 
I’m reading Disaster!: A History of Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes by John Withington, who also wrote about other disastrous things such as disasters specific to London. It is a couple of years old (and thus does not include the recent Japan earthquake and tsunami). This is more of a reference book than a…
How old is the Earth?
Posted by Greg Laden on November 19, 2012 I can’t believe we still have to cover this. We know how old the Earth is. The science on this is pretty darn good. It is 4.54 billion years old plus or minus about 1%. Florida Senator Marco Rubio does not know how old the earth is. Here is what he says about it: I’m…
There has been a large earthquake in Mexico
Posted by Greg Laden on March 20, 2012 The 7.6 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck 120 miles east of Acapulco. There are no details yet. UPDATE: With a bit of time passing, it is starting to look like a lot of stuff got shook-up, but there was not a lot of significant damage anywhere.
A new island is about to be borned!
Posted by Greg Laden on November 13, 2011 There are thirteen canary islands. But there are about to be fourteen. Well, actually, there’s probably more than 13 as these island chains usually have a few extra rocks sticking up that people aren’t sure about including in the final count. The point is, there is a volcano erupting under the sea in the Canary…
A River Runs By It: Children growing up with science all around them
Posted by Greg Laden on October 6, 2011 Look at this map, of a small part of the state of Minnesota: See the wide channel that runs from left to right with the windy river in it? You are looking at one of the most amazing stories in geological history ever. I’d like to tell you about it.