Phoenix Lander testing for perchlorate on Mars

The UA-led Phoenix Mars Lander scooped up a soil sample from an intermediate depth between the ground surface and a subsurface icy layer the other day. The sample was delivered it to a laboratory oven on the spacecraft to look for oxygen release that indicates perchlorate. The discovery of perchlorate last month triggered rumors and speculation about its impact on the potential for life on Mars. [right, soil was delivered through cell #7 on the left of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer - TEGA]

The samples are going through a 3-stage heating process. The low temperature heating is to look for ice in the sample. The next step is a middle temperature process to thoroughly dry the sample. The last heating takes the sample to 1000 degrees Celsius (1832 degrees Fahrenheit) to drive off gases that can help determine soil properties.

Another video report shows flooding in Grand Canyon

I ran across another video about the flooding around Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon last week. The focus is on the rescue of a Boy Scout troop but there are segments of the river in flood and the surging falls. It also gives a good sense of the danger that faced campers in the canyon.

Bob Detrick to head NSF Earth Sciences

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences has appointed Robert Detrick [right] of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as its new director of the Division of Earth Sciences.

Bob and I worked together at Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) in San Francisco in the mid-1970s. I'm delighted to see him move into this position that plays such an important role in guiding and supporting new directions in the earth sciences.

Bob is currently a senior scientist and vice president for Marine Facilities and Operations at WHOI, and will begin his NSF position on Nov. 3, 2008. He is a geophysicist and seismologist whose research has focused primarily on the structure and evolution of oceanic crust, the size, depth and physical properties of ridge crest magma chambers, and the effect of hotspots on the thermal evolution of the lithosphere.

NSF's Division of Earth Sciences supports basic research and education into the structure, composition, and evolution of the Earth, and the life it supports. The Division has programs in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry, geomorphology, sedimentary geology and paleobiology, hydrology, geophysics, tectonics, and petrology and geochemistry.

Mining and ag only bright spots in Arizona retail sales

Total retail taxable sales in Arizona for January through July were $30.7 billion, a 7% decrease from the same period a year earlier. The brightest area was mining and agriculture, with a 13.7% increase. The only other sector with an increase was miscellaneous retail, which includes bookstores, office specialty, and pharmacies.

Vehicle sales were off 23% and home furnishings and furniture fell nearly 10% reflecting the drop in home buying.

[right, AZ Dept. of Mines and Mineral Resources]

Solar panels on mine tailings?

Word on the street is that negotiations are well along to build a solar energy power plant on the tailings at the San Manuel copper mine in Pinal County. The closed mine is undergoing the most comprehensive reclamation project in U.S. history. [right, view of reclamation progress on part of the San Manuel mine site. Credit, Arizona Mining Association]

The mine complex is owned by BHP Billiton which started the reclamation project in 2003.

The tailings impoundments cover 3,000 acres (1220 ha) and consist of seven different impoundments that are over 6 miles in length, 200 ft. high in places and just up gradient of the San Pedro River, according to the Arizona Mining Association. AMA reports that the closure plan calls for these facilities to be contoured, covered with soil, armored and revegetated to minimize long-term erosion and provide for lower long-term maintenance costs.

There is a land rush across the West for solar energy projects, pushing land prices to over $20,000 per acre in Gila Bend by one report. Putting large solar arrays on tailings impoundments sounds like a winning strategy.

Earth fissure maps released for Scottsdale, Mesa, & Toltec Buttes

The Arizona Geological Survey released new earth fissure maps today for Scottsdale, Mesa, and Toltec Buttes. (right, excerpt of Toltec Buttes map, centered around the I10 - I8 interchange, between Phoenix and Tucson).

Interactive versions of the maps are hosted by the Arizona Dept. of Real Estate. PDF versions are available at the AZGS Earth Fissure Center.

A total of five maps have now been published.

The two previous maps were updated today, with new fissures added to the Chandler Heights area and the boundary of the study area modified for the Apache Junction map. The new Chandler Heights fissures opened up following monsoonal rains in July.

Additional earth fissure study areas are being mapped now and will be released as each map is completed and checked.

Redlands dam air photo - site of dam breach

You can compare this air photo of the Redlands Ranch area with the YouTube video I posted yesterday to see where the dam was breached last Sunday following heavy rains in the Grand Canyon area.

Authorities now say the water from behind the dam was only a minor contributor to the canyon flows.

Phoenix Lander digging new trenches in polygonal terrain

The UA's Phoenix Lander opened new trenches at its Martian landing site looking for new materials to analyze and examining the soil and ice subsurface structure.

The team described "the surface of the ground throughout the arctic plain where Phoenix landed is patterned in polygon shapes like those of permafrost areas on Earth, where the ground goes through cycles of swelling and shrinking. Some of the recent and planned digging by Phoenix takes advantage of landing within arm's reach both of the centers of polygons and the troughs between polygons. For example, the "Stone Soup" trench has been dug in a trough in the "Cupboard" excavation area, near the western end of the arm's workspace. The team plans to dig in this zone as deep as possible to study properties of the soil and ice deep in a polygon trough."

New geologic map of Arizona-Utah border area

The Utah Geological Survey has released a new geologic map of the Kane 30x60 quad, covering 1,900 square miles of parts of Kane and Washington counties in Utah and Coconino and Mohave counties in Arizona.

The map includes Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks and about one-third of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It represents the most recent compilation of the geology for this area and uses new mapping in many places.

It is available for $24.95 at the Natural Resources Map and Bookstore at 1594 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City, or from geostore@utah.gov. The online version is 38 Mb, so it takes a while to download.

UA geoscience student wins first Farouk El-Baz Research Award

UA Geosciences student Alexander Rohrmann, is the recipient of the first Farouk El-Baz Student Research Award from the Geological Society of America, to encourage and promote desert research.

GSA will present him with an award check, a certificate, and a ribbon at the GSA Annual Meeting in Houston on October 6.

Video and photos of Grand Canyon flooding

News accounts this morning include photos taken by hikers and campers who were in the flash flood Sunday morning in the Grand Canyon. They are all copyrighted, so I can't post them here, but click on these sites to see Havasu Falls in flood. [right, Havasu Falls earlier this year. Credit, Brian Gootee, AZGS]

BBC News
Salt Lake Tribune
Daily Courier

Raw aerial video shows the Redlands dam breach and the flood at the Falls.

League of Women Voters calls for coal-fired power plant moratorium

The national League of Women Voters has called for a 10-year moratorium on new coal-fired power plants.

“Global warming is happening now,” said national League President Mary G. Wilson. “If we wait for federal action from our congressional leaders, it will be too late. We must take immediate and aggressive action to halt climate change.”

There is one coal-fired power plant under construction in Arizona, the 400 MW Springerville Generating Station Unit 4 [above].

There are 17 plants under construction across the country with another 66 in the permitting process.

Reuters.com compiled a list of  the 17 plants in July:

NAME                   SIZE(MW)  TYPE             FUEL
Arizona-Springerville  400       na               na
Colorado Comanche      750       Supercritical    PRB*
Illinois-Springfield   200       na               na 
Illinois-Taylorville   630       IGCC             Bitu
Iowa Council Bluffs    790       Supercritical    Sub-bitu
Louisiana-Rodemacher   660       CFB**            Petcoke
Nebraska-OPPD          660       na               PRB 
Nevada Newmont         200       Pulverized coal  PRB
North Dakota
Spiritwood Station     99       Power, heat      Lignite
Missouri -Iatan
(KC Power and Light)   850       Supercritical    PRB
Missouri-Springfield   330       Pulverized       PRB
Montana-Hardin         116       Pulverized       Lignite
Penn-Northampton       110       Cogeneration     na
Texas-NuCoastal        303       na               Petcoke
Texas Spruce           750       na               PRB
Texas-TXU Sandow 5     600       na               Lignite
S. Carolina Cross
Generating Station  1,280       CFB              Petcoke

 Key: *Powder River Basin  **Circulating Fluidized Bed

Google's $10 million for enhanced geothermal systems

The alternative energy community is abuzz today with news that Google will invest $10.3 million in geothermal companies that develop "enhanced geothermal systems," which circulate water through permeable hot rock underground to produce electricity in a turbine. That may require fracturing the rock. [right, geothermal areas of the western U.S. Credit BLM]

Much of the geothermal potential of Arizona is thought to be in this kind of system, rather than the hot springs systems that are more typical of Nevada, Utah, and California.

The company's philanthropic arm, Google.org, will invest $6.25 million in AltaRock Energy Inc. and $4 million in Potter Drilling Inc., to support development of technologies to reduce the cost of geothermal power. Google.org will get 1% of Google stock and 1% of its annual profits to fund its activities.

The company also will give $500,000 to the geothermal lab at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Vatican's science carried out at UA

The Vatican Observatory's related facility, the Vatican Observatory Research Group, is set up in the Steward Observatory [right] at the University of Arizona. Here, the Vatican is conducting detailed research on dark matter, quasars, and the universe’s expansion, according to an article in Discover magazine titled, "How to teach science to the Pope."

The Vatican Observatory Research Group operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope [above] with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in southeastern Arizona.

The article also describes the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, "an independent and remarkably influential body within the Holy See. Over the years its membership roster has read like a who’s who of 20th-century scientists and it currently boasts more than 80 international academicians, many of them Nobel laureates and not all of them Catholic—including the playfully irreligious physicist Stephen Hawking. There are no religious, racial, or gender criteria. Candidates are chosen on the basis of their scientific achievements and their high moral standards.

BLM still processing uranium claims in Arizona Strip

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is processing uranium exploration claims on lands north of the Grand Canyon, despite a court injunction that has temporarily halted uranium development on national forest lands on the south rim, according to a story, "Do uranium mines belong near Grand Canyon?" in the Christian Science Monitor.

One claim was approved for drilling two days after the U.S. House’s Natural Resources Committee voted emergency action to stop exploration.

But a Department of Interior spokesman says the BLM is still processing claims because the agency doesn’t consider the Congressional vote valid.

[right, uranium mines of the Arizona strip. Credit Quaterra Resources, Inc.]

Redlands dam and Grand Canyon flooding

Thanks to "anonymous" who posted a comment to my earlier blog with a link to TopoQuest.com for the location of the Redlands dam [right] in the Little Harpo Canyon quadrangle, upstream (south) of Cataract Canyon. The dam was erroneously identified by local authorities as the cause of the flooding that hit the village of Supai in the Grand Canyon, early Sunday morning but corrected the next day.

The Redlands Ranch area is in the center of the lower map, showing its location relative to Cataract Canyon, the prominent drainage in the upper center of the map.

This event's attracting a lot of attention. My posts have had four times as many hits as anything else I've ever put online.

Mineral Park copper-moly mine expansion due in October

Stage I expansion of the Mineral Park mine near Kingman is expected to be complete in October 2008, resulting in a production capacity of 25,000 tons of ore per day through the mill. The mine currently produces about 12 million pounds of copper per year by SX/EX leach extraction. [right, Mineral Park mine, copyright Michael Collier]

The expansion is designed to increase production to an average of 56.4 million lbs copper, 10.3 millions lbs of molybdenum and 600,000 ounces of silver per year for the first 10 years of production.

Stage II of the expansion, increasing to 50,000 tons per day of ore through the mill is expected to come on stream during mid 2009.

designed to increase production to an average of 56.4 million lbs copper, 10.3 millions lbs of molybdenum and 600,000 ounces of silver per year for the first 10 years of production.

Stage I is currently under construction and, when completed in the second half of 2008 will have a production capacity of 25,000 tons of ore per day through the mill. Stage II of the expansion, increasing to 50,000 tons per day of ore through the mill is expected to come on stream approximately nine months later, during mid 2009.

Is ASU's geology camp for sale?

The Arizona Republic reports rumors that ASU's Camp Tontozona near Payson may be up for sale. The 36-acre wooded facility is used for geology camp and classes among many other uses. The camp includes various sized cabins, a large dormitory, dining hall, meeting rooms, football fields, creek, and hiking paths. [right, Sparky's Den Lodge at Camp Tontozona. ASU]

Tales of lost mines of Arizona

Stories about 18 lost treasures and mines of Arizona are online at TheGeoZone.com, as part of a series covering all the states of the Southwest. The articles on each tale of lost treasure give a short history, geology description, prospecting potential, mining history, and links. They are a fun read. Thanks to geology.com for spotting this collection. [right, Lost Dutchman State Park. AZ State Parks Dept.]

Dam breach a minor factor in Grand Canyon flooding

The National Park Service says that the earthen dam breached early Sunday morning on a private ranch near Grand Canyon National Park did not contribute to the massive floodwater sweeping through the canyon.

By 3 am on Sunday, a number of bridges and three homes on Havasu Creek were washed away by rising waters.

The Coconino County Sheriffs Dept said the Redlands Dam, which was initially blamed for the flooding, is a small dam that forms a pond to provide water for livestock. The sheriff's office spokesman said it isn't a "huge, significant" structure and its rupture was only one factor in the flooding.

[above, helicopter during rescue operations on Sunday. NPS]