Brian Conway at the Arizona Dept. of Water Resources reports the online land subsidence maps have been updated to
reflect InSAR data collected through April of this year. You can access
the maps through the attached interactive map pdf or at this link:
The American Geosciences Institute has released another analysis of the geoscience workforce. "Currents #56" [right] concludes that
"Geoscience enrollment and degrees in the U.S. slipped back from their highs
during the 2010-2011 academic year. After several years of rapid increases,
enrollment at the undergraduate level dropped 8% to 22,162 while slipping 3% for
graduate students to 8,977. These decreases still left enrollments at or above
the 2008-2009 levels. Degrees conferred dropped by similar percentages."
It's not clear this is part of a trend. There is a fair amount of variation from year to year, and the previous year was higher than average for the past decade or two.
NASA's Earth Observatory site is showcasing this image and description:
The wildfire season is underway in Arizona so the timing is right for the publication of the proceedings of a recent workshop held at the Biosphere2, on the subject of wildfire hydrology and hazards.
The American Copper Council is holding its annual meeting at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix this week. The American Copper Council is a "
not-for-profit trade association representing all segments of the copper
industry. Incorporated in 1975, the Council's 120 member companies
include producers, scrap dealers, brass and wire mills, fabricators,
consumers, merchants and brokers."
Registration is open for the Volcanism in the American Southwest Conference to be held in Flagstaff, October 18-20, 2012. This meeting provides an opportunity for volcanologists, land managers, and emergency
The U.S. mining industry is lining up support for H.R. 4402, a bill that would force federal agencies to complete their review of strategic and critical minerals within 30 months, which is being voted on tomorrow in the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. Two weeks ago, president and CEO of the National
Mining Association, Hal Quinn, testified before members of the House Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee in support of Rep. Mark
Amodei’s, R-Nev., National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2012(H.R. 4402). According to an email from NMA, "Mr.
Quinn argued that if U.S. mining cannot perform to its potential, our
nation will be forced to become even more reliant upon potentially
unstable foreign sources of minerals, undermining our ability to compete
in the global marketplace. You can watch more of his testimony here." [Right, Miami mine, Arizona. Credit, Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold]The House Committee on Natural Resources held hearings in April on the Map it Once, Use it Many Times Act (H.R. 4233), the Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2011 (H.R. 1620), the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2012 (H.R. 4402), and the Soda Ash Royalty Extension, Job Creation, and Export Enhancement Act of 2011 (H.R. 1192).
H.R. 4402, introduced by Representative Mark Amodei (R-NV), defines strategic and critical minerals as minerals necessary for national defense, the nation’s energy infrastructure, to support domestic manufacturing, and for the nation’s economic security. Any mine that could provide strategic and critical minerals “shall be considered an ‘infrastructure project’ as described by a March 22 Presidential Order. It would limit the total review process for mining permits to a maximum of 30 months unless signatories agree to an extension. H.R. 1192 would extend a reduced royalty rate of 2% for the development of soda ash, which expired in 2011, through October of 2016. The Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on H.R. 4402 and H.R. 1192 on April 26.
The threat of a worldwide helium storage is attracting front page headlines (Tucson's Arizona Daily Star) and a Congressional bill to halt the near give-away of U.S. reserves. But neither of the stories I read yesterday mentioned Arizona's helium resources and efforts underway to develop them.
The company said that "On closing of this acquisition Passport's holdings will
include approximately 70,000 acres of contiguous, royalty free, private
land. Combined with Passport's 52,000 acres of public land, their land
package will comprise over 122,000 acres."
A number of donors have stepped up to allow the Central Arizona Geology Club to continue to hold their monthly meetings at the Prescott Library. The city library announced imposition of fees this coming Fall, which forced the Club to consider charging dues, finding an alternate location, or folding up shop. The cost to rent library's Founder's Suite A & B, where the Club meets, will be $30 for 2 hours, $50 for 4 hours.
Wired magazine posted a collection of satellite views of open pit mines from around the world that are visually striking. Only one, the New Cornellia mine from Ajo, is from Arizona.
Last week the Dept. of Energy held their annual Peer Review in Denver
for all federally-funded geothermal projects. Our project review was
given more time to present because of the scope and complexity of
bringing digital data in from 44 states as nodes on a national
distributed network. The AZGS project, run by us on behalf of the Association of American State Geologist, has the largest funding from DOE of 170 or so projects in the nation. The reviews by the panel are expected in the next
few weeks. Last year, reviewers described it as one of the best run in the nation.
The bigger challenge was the "Go/No-Go" review by DOE of the National Geothermal Data System run by Boise State University. That project
has had numerous problems and delays and was shut down in 2010 by DOE to
develop a redirection plan. That was finally adopted one year ago and
last week's review was to determine if it's working. If not, the project
could be terminated.
While I was in Long Beach at the AAPG annual meeting, giving a luncheon address and two technical presentations, Steve Richard went to Vienna for the EGU General Assembly and gave our four talks there (plus we provided materials for two more talks that we co-authored). These were related to our leading role in the Geoscience Information Network and the State Geothermal Data project
AHS President Alan Dulaney notes that "Water levels in Lake Mead are only eight feet away from triggering such a declaration in April 2011, but creative water accounting, releases from Lake Powell, and forbearance by some parties may push back the declaration date by two or three years. But not forever. Excess water will disappear first from the CAP canal, potentially by 2015, then agricultural water allocations will be reduced."
The pre-meeting field trip on Monday-Tuesday toured the Plateau region with stops at two limestone (cement) quarries [right, photo credit Stan Krukowski], a hectorite mines, Montezuma's Well and Jerome. Prescott-based geologist Paul Lindbergh provided sweeping stories of the regional geology and mining history of Jerome. John Bezy described the geology of the Sedona area using his newly published guidebook (AZGS released it on Monday in time for the trip). Well-known Arizona mining geologist Ted Eyde showed people probably the first hectorite mine that any of them had seen.
