Regulating CO2 will affect major electric power sources

The EPA has sent the White House an "endangerment finding" that concludes carbon dioxide is a risk to public health. This sets the stage for possibly regulating CO2 under the Clean Air Act. The biggest impact is expected to be on coal-fired power plants, where CO2 is a waste product that goes up the smokestacks.

Arizona has 6 coal-fired power plants with 16 generating units,[right, Clean Air Task Force] listed below with capacity and year units were added. [credit: Sourcewatch]

* Apache - 408MW - 1979
* Cholla - 1129MW - 1962, 1978, 1980, 1981
* Coronado - 822MW - 1979, 1980
* H. Wilson Sundt - 173MW - 1967
* Navajo - 2409MW - 1974, 1975, 1976
* Springerville - 850MW - 1985, 1990

There is debate over whether CO2 emissions should be taxed or if a cap be placed on the total amounts produced, allowing producers to trade their unused balances.

Catch a falling star

The cover story in this week's Nature is about the meteorites found that can be tied directly to an asteroid impact with Earth, tracked by the team at UA's Mt. Lemmon Observatory. At first the UA team did not expect that any remnants survived as the asteroid was expected to burn up completely in the atmosphere over Sudan. But dozens of students searched the remote site and found 8.7 pounds of the asteroid 2008 TC3.

The meteorite is a class F, with iron, nickel, graphites, and nanodiamonds, probably formed by collisions in space.

[right, cover to this weeks issue, with the caption: "fragment of asteroid 2008 TC₃ as found in the desert in northern Sudan in March 2009. The asteroid disintegrated at an altitude of 37 km in October 2008 but, remarkably, 47 fragments with a total mass of 3.95 kg have been recovered, and Jenniskens et al. have identified the material as surface matter from a class ‘F’ asteroid, a type not previously represented in meteorite collections. Credit: Peter Jenniskens/ SETI Institute."]

Watching the San Andreas

Yesterday's M4.8 earthquake by the Salton Sea in southern California [right, USGS] following a series of smaller events in the previous week, has seismologists wondering if this could be a foreshock for something larger.

[below, Mohawk Valley (113A) seismometer records aftershocks of yesterday's M4.8 event on the southern San Andreas fault, including a M3.6 event at 07:51 UTC]

The series of recent small earthquakes are on the southern tip of the San Andreas fault, suggesting that a larger event would rupture from south to north, with the energy focused into southern California. We expect a north to south rupture would send more energy across Arizona.

ASU coping with budget cuts

Last week the New York Times ran a front page story about the difficulties faced by state universities competing for a spot in the top research category, using Arizona State University as the prime example. [right, Biodesign Institute, ASU]

The article questioned the ability of a school to aim for 100,000 students while growing into a major research center. But they note since Michael Crow became president, ASU "has hired more than 600 tenured or tenure-track faculty members, and last year, for the first time, won a spot on the National Science Foundation’s list of the top 20 research universities without a medical school, along with powerhouses like MIT and the University of California, Berkeley."

But, to deal with the state budget cuts, ASU eliminated more than 500 jobs, will close 48 programs, cap enrollment, and make every employee, take 10 to 15 unpaid furlough days this spring.

The student newspaper carried the headline, “The New American University has died; welcome to the Neutered American University.”

Stolen "Basket" meteorite returned to Meteor Crater

There's a fun story on the front page of today's Arizona Republic about a man who bought a big chunk of metal at a garage sale in Wisconsin three years ago. It turned out to be the famous "Basket" meteorite, a piece of the object that impacted into northern Arizona creating Meteor Crater. It was stolen from the site in August 1968. You can see how it got its name. [right, postcard of the Basket Meteorite, as shown on sale on eBay.com]

The story is being picked up by news media and bloggers all over the country.

Redoubt webcam

As dawn arrives over Alaska's Cook Inlet, we may see the results of last nights 5 eruption events at Mt. Redoubt, 106 miles southwest of Anchorage. The USGS reports clouds of ash rising to 50,000 feet.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory has a webcam on a Chevron oil platform that offers a great view when weather permits [right, static photo of Mt. Redoubt in clear skies]

A number of geobloggers and websites are following this closely with great detail. I won't attempt to duplicate their work - a good source for updates is the Volcanism Blog.

Making room for AGS Digest 22

The 800+ page proceedings volume from the Arizona Geological Society's Ores and Orogenesis symposium has been printed and should arrive by the end of the week. To make room for the 1,000 copies of the 5-1/2 pound book, a bunch of us cleaned and re-organized the AGS storage space this afternoon. AGS President Kevin Hortsman, Cori Hoag,Colleen Brown, Bob Kamilli, and Claudia Stone, were heaving around cartoons like longshoreman for a couple of hours. Notice how I managed to avoid capturing anyone's face in the picture on the left? That's Cori on the right, checking an inventory list.

Nearly 300 copies were pre-ordered, and the Arizona Geological Survey will have the books for sale in our Tucson bookstore and by mail order. More details when the book arrives.

Planetary science conference will be big for Arizona projects

The 40th Lunar & Planetary Science Conference kicks off in Houston tomorrow. The science news has been full of advance stories about papers that will be presented there over the next five days, with a bunch of them coming from Arizona scientists or using data from Arizona-run missions and instruments - e.g., Phoenix Mars Lander, HiRISE camera, THEMIS. Expect to hear about water and where to look for life on Mars, about methane lakes and dunes on Titan, and more.

I attended a number of these conferences in the early 1980s when they were still held at the Lunar and Planetary Institute's original home in a stately mansion on Galveston Bay. I met the legendary John Young, Gemini-Apollo astronaut and first shuttle pilot, when he was judging the infamous annual chili cook-off held on the tree-shaded grounds of the institute.

Martians blog on Arizona geology

The team of Ryan, Melissa, and Briony, who blog at The Martian Chronicles, have posted extensively on their week-long geology tour of northern Arizona, including excellent photos. The group was looking at terrestrial analogs to Martian geology, but found a lot more.

Plugs for their road log showed up at Highly Allochthonous and Chinleana, which is where I found out about it. [right, Grand Falls. Credit, Martian Chronicles]

Lake Powell webcams

I keep stumbling across more webcams around Arizona. The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area maintains 6 webcams with views mostly from the marinas and launch ramps.

Author calls for draining Lake Powell

A new book, "Resurrection: Glen Canyon and a New Vision for the American West," by NAU journalism instructor Annette McGivney, makes the case for draining Lake Powell, with the water going downstream to Lake Mead. [right, Gunsight Butte at Lake Powell. Credit, Nat'l Park Service]

The book review in the Arizona Daily Sun covers some of the history and debate over building Glen Canyon Dam, and the obstacles to changing the water and power dynamics of today.

In summary: it sounds like there are too many vested interests that want the dam and lake to remain.

Mud volcanoes on Mars?

Researchers from NASA's Johnson Space Center think the UA's HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted mud volcanoes in the northern plains of that planet [right, University of Arizona/JPL/NASA]. Their paper will be presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference next week.

ASU planetary scientist Jack Farmer in an interview in New Scientist said the features could be mud volcanoes but may also be sedimentary remnants from retreating glaciers. However, either way, the presence of fine grained clays in the deposits would be ideal locations to look for organic molecules, "like amonia and proteins."

Arizona geologist makes spacewalk

Astronaut Joseph Acaba, who earned his master's degree in geology from UA in 1992, made his first spacewalk today, spending more than six and a half hours outside the space station, with fellow astronaut Steve Swanson. They worked on a truss, installed another GPS antenna, and photographed areas for further work.

Update 3-22-09: the news this morning reported that Mr. Acaba, while suspended in space, with no 'up' or 'down,' inserted a pin upside down, jamming some mechanism.

Having known some members of the space corps, I expect that his compatriots are going to ride him mercilessly about this, with appropriate denigration of geologists in general.

Is uranium in Colorado River naturally occurring?

The Environmental Working Group posted a report last month about near-complete scientific studies that show "mine tailings from uranium mining along the Colorado River do not lead to contamination in the main river could undermine environmentalists' and other critics' opposition to Bush administration efforts to permit controversial proposed mines that they fear will contaminate the river."

That's a surprising statement from EWG, which in January had released a report under the headline "Grand Canyon Threatened by Approval of Uranium Mining Activities," along with a map [right] showing mining claims marked by radioactive hazard symbols.

However, after apparently posting the staff report on February 23, it was removed and the page
(http://www.ewg.org/node/27650) says it is under development and not available.

EWG's press release said a University of Arizona researcher found that "much of the uranium in the river is naturally-occurring, a key indication that the industrial activity does not harm the water quality for drinking water and agricultural activity that depends on the river for water."

A copy of the EWG press release was forwarded to me with a note saying that the study is coming from the Water Sustainability Program at the UA. My source says the UA preliminary findings support the Kaibab Joint Venture Draft Environmental Assessment (http://public.dirxploration.fastmail.us/) conclusion that continued uranium exploration and mining in northern Arizona would not threaten Colorado River quality.

If all this information is correct, EWG is also correct in predicting it would have the big impact on actions to stop uranium exploration on federal lands in the region.

This is a developing story that is likely to get lots of attention in both the mining and environmental communities.

UA asronomers will train asteroid hunters

Astronomers from the UA's Catalina Sky Survey will run a workshop April 2-4 to give participants hands-on experience in observing, image processing and data analysis of asteroids and near-Earth objects. But it's not cheap.

The CSS team has discovered about 70 percent of all near-Earth objects found in the past three years. [right, the 60-inch telescope on Mount Lemmon is one of three telescopes the Catalina Sky Survey used in finding 565 near-Earth objects in 2008. Credit, UA]

The "Observing Asteroids and Near Earth Objects" workshop costs $725, which includes transportation, food, accommodations, workshop materials, and a tour of Steward Observatory's world-famous Mirror Lab underneath the east wing of the UA football stadium.

Participants will need to provide their own laptop computers, which must meet the minimum system requirements listed on the workshop registration page.

Registration can be made online at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter Web site or at the Catalina Sky Survey Web site.

[this was taken in part from a UA press release]

Permits and fees to pick up a rock in the national forest?

The U.S. Forest Service is considering issuing permits to pick up a rock in the forest around Aspen, Colorado. Really.

The Aspen Times reports that the Aspen/Sopris Ranger District is seeking public comments on a program to permit the collection of small amounts of rock for home decorative project with fees to cover the cost of running the program, but permits would also be required to pick up an interesting rock you might see along along the trail. Collecting rocks for commercial purposes would not be covered.

The Forest Service would regulate where rocks can be picked and how many. [right, Sabino Canyon, Coronado Nat'l Forest. My photo, 2006]

They are doing an environmental assessment of this proposal. Public comments are invited by May 1 in writing to:

Aspen/Sopris Ranger District
c/o Kevin Warner
P.O. Box 309
Carbondale, CO 81623

or to: kwarner@fs.fed.us

Arizona DroughtWatch

AZ DroughtWatch is "a tool designed to collect, summarize and display timely observations of drought impacts across Arizona."

The UA posted a 'podcats' yesterday with AZ DroughtWatch researcher Michael C

[right, drought impacts for Feb, 2009. Impacts were reported only in the Santa Cruz watershed]

Dealing with "Stealth Disasters"

In this year's plenary address at the AAAS meeting in Chicago, geologist Susan Kieffer compared slow developing problems like ocean acidification, spreading deserts, dry aquifers, and degraded soils as "stealth disasters" with natural disasters such as floods, and warned that they "will undermine our survival."

Stealth disasters are those caused by humans that involve the natural systems we live with. They have a gradual onset but with near-term consequences. These are generally new to the human experience, so we are struggling to comprehend them and learn how to deal with them. [right, low water in Lake Mead. Credit Nat'l Park Service]

She called for the creation of a "CDC for Planet Earth" that "could respond to planetary threats with the same coordination that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed during the SARS and bird flu outbreaks of the late 1990s."

The video of her talk is now posted online along with the slides from her presentation.

China on buying spree for strategic mineral and energy assets

Well, the Washington Post has picked up on something that many of us have been watching for a long time - China is buying up strategic mineral and energy reserves all over the world, and the current depressed global market for commodities has provided them an opportunity to snap up bargains.

The Post reports that "The deals have allowed China to lock up supplies of oil, minerals, metals and other strategic natural resources it needs to continue to fuel its growth. The sheer scope of the agreements marks a shift in global finance, roiling energy markets and feeding worries about the future availability and prices of those commodities in other countries that compete for them, including the United States."

Supai Village to complete flood restoration and re-open May 1

The Havasupai Tribe announced today that they expect to open Supai Village to tourists and visitors again by May 1, after restoring trails, bridges, and campgrounds from damage that occurred during flooding last August.

AZGS geologist Brian Gootee has been in the canyon since Saturday, working with the Tribe to review progress on restoring trails and stabilizing stream banks and hillsides, and to make recommendations for further work. [right, credit Havasupai Tribe]

Brian's daily progress reports and photos show tremendous progress as the Tribe has worked tirelessly since last summer to repair the damage and protect sensitive areas from future damage. Brian and fellow AZGS geologist Ann Youberg spent a week in the canyon last fall, assessing damage and making recommendations that were subsequently adopted by the Tribe.