Southern Utah landslide may close highway for weeks

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

A major landslide closed state highway east of Cedar City, Utah, for possibly weeks. Thanks to Randy at GeoPrac.net for pointing out the tv news report and video of the slide site.

Omnibus lands bill includes Arizona proposals

The U.S. Senate is considering take early and fast action on an omnibus lands bill that carries forward from last year. The omnibus has something like 150 separate bills including 15 proposals for wilderness, dozens for studies for national parks, heritage areas and scenic rivers, including areas in Arizona. The bill also contains reauthorization of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Act, something dear to state geologists. Part of the strategy seems to be to include so many proposals, that everyone will have a stake in seeing it passed.

Sen. Harry Reid says the bill will be come forward under a rule meaning it will be place on the Senate calendar immediately without going through the committee process.

A controversial section would formalize the 26-million-acre National Landscape Conservation System. There is a Dept. of Interior inspector general investigation into possible illegal coordination between lobbyists for environmental groups and federal officials of the system.

I found these Arizona proposals and sponsors in the list:

• Special Resource Studies, Walnut Canyon study: S 722 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 1558 - Renzi (R-AZ) /HR5751 - Pastor (D-AZ)
• Sierra Vista Subwatershed feasibility study, AZ: S 1929 - Kyl (R-AZ) - HR 3328 – Giffords (D-AZ)
• Additions to the Natl & Wild Scenic Rivers System: Fossil Creek, AZ NWSR: S 86 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 199 – Renzi (R-AZ)
• Additions to the Natl Trails System: AZ Natl Scenic Trail: S 1304 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 2297 - Giffords (D-AZ) [above, credit Arizona Trail Assoc.]
  

Earlier this week, I got an email opposing the bill from the American Land Rights Association, which calls it "the largest land grab of the last 20 years."

Arizona subsidence maps posted

Subsidence maps drawn from InSAR data are now posted for a dozen Arizona basins at the Arizona Dept of Water Resources website. Each basin shows subsidence for different periods as far back as 2000.

The map at right shows the Phoenix West Valley area from 2004 to 2008. The red areas show subsidence of 6 - 8 cms. [credit ADWR]

Correction: in the original post, I mis-identified this as the Hawk Rock area. 1-8-09

Ash pond in Arizona

There are 1,300 power plant ash ponds in the country that are generally not regulated, according to a story in the New York Times today. One of 67 ash piles characterized as having contaminated water [right, credit NY Times] is in Arizona.

The Times doesn't list the power plants and ash ponds but based on their map, it appears to be APS' Cholla Power Plant, in St. John [below, credit scenicplaces.com]. The Cholla Bottom Fly Ash Pond is a noted fishing locale.

Grand Canyon in competition for 7 Wonders of Nature

The Grand Canyon is one of 261 sites nominated to be selected as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature by global vote. Online voting continues until July 7, 2009, when 77 semifinalists will be winnowed down to 21. A popular vote will continue into 2011 when the 7 winners will be announced. The Canyon is the U.S. entry although two US/Canada border features are also in the running - Niagara Falls, and Lake Superior.

With the Grand Canyon being put up against Mount Everest, Loch Ness, etc, I wonder if we need to come up with a local monster to give the Canyon the same kind of buzz that the Yeti and Loch Ness monster impart to those sites.

Anyone have suggestions for an Arizona version of Nessie? And I don't think "Granny" is going to make the cut.

UA's HiRISE camera wraps up primary mission

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with the UA HiRISE camera aboard, wrapped up its primary mission last month and the New York Times wrote about its accomplishments today.

HiRISE has a resolution of about a meter, resulting in a long string of spectacular Martian images.

In the image at right, showcased on the HiRISE website today, "the crater area shown is intersected by one of the putative shorelines of the hypothesized ancient northern ocean.

"It is in a region which has also been proposed to have younger Amazonian fluvial deposits. The south rim of the crater is additionally cut by well-defined gullies.

"The crater is filled with sediments, possibly fluvial or lacustrine in origin. They were probably emplaced in two or more separate episodes, as two different floor units are clearly visible, separated by a fractured zone. The erosion pattern of the mesa walls shows that the inner structure of the upper floor material is densely layered. The mass wasting (landslide) deposits from the mesas superimpose the aeolian ripples, suggesting that the mesa degradation and fracturing is recent, and possibly even ongoing."

A broader view of Galileo

Galileo's first use of the telescope to explore the heaven 400 years ago produced such a revolutionary change in humanity's view of its place in the universe that Blaise Pascal said, "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread." It was a feeling that permeated and changed society. [right, Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition, by Cristiano Banti, 1857] This year, as we celebrate the International Year of Astronomy and the Year of Science, Galileo's actions are being highlighted.

University of Arizona professor Richard Poss, a humanities scholar in the Dept. of Astronomy, will offer a deeper look at Galileo beyond the Western stereotype of him as "a poster child of free academic inquiry" in a spring seminar "Humanities and the Frontiers of Science."

There's an interview with Dr. Poss at the UA news site, where he describes Galileo's decision to do battle with the Catholic Church to get them to change their heliocentric views of the universe. Galileo took provocative public actions intended to provoke the powers that be. Sound familiar? It reminds me of the current situation where some climate scientists have stepped out of the lab to push political action on an issue they feel demands it.

Video shows power of landslides

The amazing Guatemalan landslide video posted by newspaper Prensa Libre is circulating widely among geobloggers thanks to Dave's Landslide Blog, but I link to it here because it's cautionary evidence of the power and terror of what landslides can do, especially for those of us who live in geologically active and mountainous terrains.

A local geologist was filming at the site of a slide that occurred Dec. 14 and closed the road. About 1:50 minutes into the video, the main slide starts.

The picture at right is from the with the Fire Earth site, showing the damage caused by a landslide outside San Cristobal, Guatemala, about 125 miles north of Guatemala City, January 5, 2009. Early reports talked about 10,000 tons of rock but a more recent number I saw is 25 million tons.

UA-ASU debate next major planetary mission

Ron Greeley at ASU wants the next big planetary mission [top] to go to Jupiter's moon Europa to probe the planets ice shell with radar, geology, and chemistry for signs of an underlying liquid ocean that might hold life.

Jonathan Lunine of UA argues that a mission to Saturns' moon Titan offers something for all aspects of planetary science. The mission would include an orbiter, a lander aimed at one of Titan's liquid methane-ethane lakes, and a nuclear-powered hot air balloon [bottom] that would circle the moon.

Greeley and Lunine make their cases at a NASA meeting held recently at ASU in Tempe. NASA is holding a first-ever head to head competition between competing planetary proposals with the these tow projects making the first cut. One will be selected by the end of January.

This is gleaned from a great article on the meeting by Richard Kerr in Science.

Mineral Park mine ships first copper concentrate

Mercator Minerals announced that they have shipped the first copper concentrates from their Mineral Park mine near Kingman. The company says it is constructing a 50,000 ton per day copper and molybdenum milling operation mill facility [right, credit Mercator Minerals] to handle an expected average annual copper and molybdenum production over the first ten years of a 25-year mine life of 56.4 million pounds of copper, 10.3 million pounds of molybdenum and 600,000 ounces of silver per year. The copper concentrates are shipped to the Port of Guaymas in Mexico. Copper is selling for $1.39 today, down from highs over $4 this past spring.

Testing for radionuclides in the Tuba City dump

The USGS released a new report today of data collected as part of investigations into the possible sources and resulting transport of radionuclides and other dissolved constituents in the surrounding ground water from the Tuba City Open Dump, largest town on the Navajo reservation in northeast Arizona and near the Hopi town of Moenkopi.

USGS OFR 2008-1374, "Geochemical Data from Analyses of Rock, Sediment, Water, and Solid-Phase Leaching at the Tuba City Open Dump, Tuba City, Arizona," includes data collection and analytical methods but no interpretation or conclusions about the results. It's not immediately obvious what the significance is of the data presented. That must be coming in a future publication.

Whiskey is for drinkin', water is for fightin'

The new issue (Jan-Feb) of Southwest Hydrology features six articles under a general theme of "Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress," with recommendations on a range of water issues. My print copy arrived last week but the digital copy has not yet been posted online.

Some of the proposals are likely to be controversial, such as establishing a National Water Plan, and a National Water Committee led by a Water Czar, reporting to the president. Even though much of the Plan and Committee's work would be in data collection, projections, research, and 'coordination,' it seems certain that such a proposal will be met with staunch resistance.

I once testified to Congress about the need to get similar data for the High Plains (Ogallala) aquifer from among the 8 states it underlies, so we could try to figure out what is happening to this critical regional water source. I was seated in the center of a table of opponents who accused me of a federal takeover of state and local water rights, and stealing the food from the plates of farm workers. As one reporter described in his story about the hearing, "whiskey is for drinkin'; water is for fightin'."

Barrier walls to protect SR 87 from landslide debris

ADOT planned on putting up barrier walls yesterday along a stretch of State Route 87 that crosses the landslide that shut the highway this past Easter weekend. The walls are intended to prevent loose soil from the slope from moving onto the highway. On Dec. 31, ADOT reported that they saw additional movement on the landslide slope after noting movement on Dec 17, following rain in the area. [right, ADOT contractor builds a retaining barrier at the bottom of the landslide. My photo, May 16, 2008]

ADOT says Phase Two of the SR 87 erosion control project will begin in early spring and includes the installation of a retaining wall on the west side of SR 87 and additional erosion-control measures on both sides of the highway.

CSI Younger Dryas: did a comet kill the mammoths?

A report out in yesterday's issue of Science, "Nanodiamonds in the Younger Dryas Boundary Sediment Layer," describes billions of nanometer-sized diamonds [right, credit D.J. Kennett et al, Science] from six locations, including Murray Spring, Arizona, that "provide strong evidence for Earth's collision with a rare swarm of carbonaceous chondrites or comets at the onset of the Younger Dryas cool interval [12.9K years ago], producing multiple airbursts and possible surface impacts, with severe repercussions for plants, animals, and humans in North America."

Three Arizona geologists were among the 8 co-authors of the study: Allen West of GeoScience Consulting in Dewey, Ariz.; Ted Bunch and Marilee Sellers, both at Northern Arizona University.

In a separate commentary, Science writer Richard Kerr talks about a paper published a year ago, that included some of the present authors, that first proposed the comet hypothesis, which speculated that "such a cataclysm could have wiped out mammoths and other large mammals, abruptly ended the Paleo-Indian Clovis culture, and triggered a millennium-long return to near-glacial cold."

Critics challenge whether the nanoparticles are diamonds, whether they originated in comets, and whether such comets would cause such environmental consequences.

Uranium mining in the West

Noting that "groundwater was involved in the formation of many large uranium ore deposits, and increasingly groundwater (fortified with other compounds) is being used to mine them using in-situ leaching methods," the Nov/Dec issue of Southwest Hydrology (published by SAHRA at the Univ. of AZ) has 7 excellent articles on uranium mining in the southwest U.S. The entire issue or individual articles can be downloaded at the website:

Western Uranium Development: The Next Boom?
Clyde L. Yancey and Betsy Woodhouse

Uranium Geology of the West
Clyde L. Yancey and Virginia T. McLemore

Groundwater Remediation from Uranium Mining in New Mexico
Jerry Schoeppner

In-Situ Recovery of Uranium
Mark S. Pelizza

DOE Remediation of Uranium Mills: A Progress Report
David M. Peterson, Laura E. Cummins, Judith D. Miller, and Richard P. Bush

In-Situ Recovery of Uranium
Mark S. Pelizza

Well-Field Mechanics for In-Situ Uranium Mining
Shao-Chih (Ted) Way

Science Friday launches the Year of Science

Ira Flatow interviewed me this afternoon live on his NPR show, Science Friday (the segment should be available tonight), from New York, as the first story of the new year, talking about 2009 as the Year of Science. We only had less than 10 minutes, but a lot of people must have been listening. I started getting calls and emails within minutes of hanging up the phone. New registrations to COPUS - the organizers of the YoS activities - started rolling in all afternoon.

I just logged on after dinner tonight and found my in box stuffed with more groups signing on from all over the country as well as from Mali, Australia, and Guatemala. I saw at least a few Arizona organizations signing up among the participants.

It's energizing to see and hear the interest in engaging the public about science. Judy Scotchmoor, the co-founder of COPUS, and Sheri Potter, our effervescent program leader, are in Boston tonight for the opening of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meeting on Saturday. Ira Flatow (left) and science writer Carl Zimmer (right, he blogs at Discover magazines The Loom) are featured presenters in a special session to formally launch 2009 as the Year of Science. Sheri told me this afternoon that what was going to be a rather intimate event is mushrooming in attendance. SICB says registration for the conference is up 20% with the YoS events creating a great sense of excitement.

What's my role in all this? Well, in the summer of 2005, Judy and I wrote a short white paper on the need for improving public understanding of science, at the urging of the National Science Foundation. They funded a small workshop that led to formation of COPUS, where I continue to serve on the steering committee. Some influential members of the science community suggested COPUS take the lead in organizing 2009 as a year to celebrate science and the group jumped at the idea.

Judy is the driving force behind the new Understanding Science website, whose roots are in the highly successful and popular Understanding Evolution site. Understanding Science officially goes public next Tuesday but Carl Zimmer is the YoS guest blogger for January and describes some of what he's discovered already in the site.

Grand Canyon had the most suicides

Three suicides last year were enough to put Grand Canyon National Park [right, credit NPS] at the top of the list, according to a National Park Service report. Saguaro National Park listed one. In 2007, there were 26 suicides or probable suicides in the parks. Park Service search-and-rescue records show 18 suicides in 2006, 18 in 2005 and 16 in 2004. Grand Canyon averages two suicides per year.

I've read speculations that the beauty and solitude of the parks are attractive to suicides or is it like Golden Gate bridge - dramatic and prominent? Is the big increase in numbers in 2008 over previous years a trend, or perhaps an anomaly related to the economic turmoil?

Environmental group raises concerns about potash exploration in and near Petrified Forest park

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) issued a press release yesterday about the potential for potash drilling near Petrified Forest National Park, and included an internal Interior Dept. memo discussing the AZGS report [right, potash thickness map from AZGS OFR-08-07. The green lines show the national park boundary] released this past fall on the size of the resource.

PEER said the Interior briefing for Assistant Secretary Lyle Laverty dated October 5, 2008 outlines pending plans for subsurface extraction on the park:

• “A new study by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) identifies the size and distribution of a world-class potash deposit in the Holbrook Basin of east-central Arizona, including the southern portion of Petrified Forest National Park and much of the lands Congress authorized for park expansion in 2004. Public release of the study awaits impending approval from the governor’s office. Potash is an essential ingredient in fertilizers. This deposit underlies 600 square miles east of Holbrook, AZ, and was first identified in the 1950s, but not developed because it was not viewed as economically competitive. In the last three years, there has been a ten-fold increase in potash prices with additional rises in the last few months pushing the price up another 50-100%. Calculated tonnage for the entire deposit is 682 million to 2.27 billion metric tons. Approximately 20% of the deposit lies below Petrified Forest National Park and is closed to mining. An additional 30% underlies lands covered by the Petrified Forest Expansion Act of 2004. This discovery will obviously have an impact on land values within the Expansion Act boundaries…”

A PEER board member proposed using economic stimulus funds to buy out landowners in the park expansion area to prevent them the potash from being developed on those lands.

Shortly after the AZGS report came out, exploration companies leased all the remaining state trust lands over the deposit. The mineral rights for most (and perhaps nearly all) private lands in the play area are reportedly also tied up for exploration.

Celebrate Year of Science with us!

Celebration of 2009 as the Year of Science starts today, although the first formal launch events actually kickoff this weekend.

Did you know that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born 200 years ago, on Feb 12, 1809? Darwin published "Origin of Species" 150 years ago. Lincoln created the National Academy of Science. The two men never met but reportedly admired each others accomplishments.

The Year of Science is a grass roots effort among the 475 participating organizations representing over one million scientists and science educators, in the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science - COPUS, rather than some centralized national event. The idea is to build on the thousands of science outreach and education activities that go on all over the country all year long, and link them with a set of monthly themes and common goals. Many groups have developed special programs to capture the spirit of celebrating science this year.

The Year of Science website continues to build catalogs of activities and invites you to add your events. Take a look too to see what you can do in your community, to see profiles of scientists, and find out how others are celebrating 2009. Download the YoS logos to add to your website or blog.

The new Understanding Science website and tools is being formally launched next week, but you can start exploring this revolutionary approach to see how the scientific process works now. Whether you've never had a science class in your life or you've spent your life in a laboratory, the tools you find here will change the way you view science and scientists.

We're launching YoS with January's theme of Nature and Process of Science. In October the theme will be Geosciences and Planet Earth, tying in with Earth Sciences Week nationwide. We're searching for geoscientists to showcase during October.

Hiking Romero Canyon

New Years Day, 70 degrees, blue skies - time to go hiking!

We went up Romero Canyon today to the pools about 2.2 miles from the trailhead in Catalina State Park, on the west side of the Santa Catalina Mountains. We almost immediately ran into state park volunteers cutting back cacti and agave that were growing over the trail [right: the woman in the photo declined to give me her name but cheerfully talked about the work they did on trail maintenance] The results of their work were evident along the entire trail.

Much of the trail is on boulders and bedrock - lots of hopping from boulder to boulder. The outcrops were dominated by quartz and feldspar, with glistening crystal faces everywhere. I saw only a small amount of mica schists.

The Romero pools were flowing with cold clear runoff from last week's storms. This is where almost everyone stopped for lunch, stretch out on the rocks, or scramble among the pools and rocks. We went another 1/4 mile up the canyon to the upper pools [bottom] which were deserted. While eating lunch, we saw only 3 other hikers, and they just passed through on their way up canyon.

Great way to kick off the new year.