Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Geology's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
7:42 pm [tectonic_drift]	Landscape question I am interested in hearing what possibly could have created this landscape? Is this an old eroded lava field? This is a field in northern California near Paynes Creek. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
8:34 pm [horehound3]	sample bags I am shopping for sample bags and was wondering if anyone had a preferred fabric type. I have been looking at Hubco sample bags http://www.hubcoinc.com/sample_bags.htm which come in cotton, polyester, and polypropylene. Obviously it's not too big of a deal, since it's just a bag for holding rocks, but there is a significant price difference on some sites. I guess cotton bags might be more prone to mold, perhaps? I will probably go with the cheapest type, but just wanted to be sure no one had any outrageously terrible sample bag experiences before I made my purchase :) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
8:47 am [sn1885a]	Hypothetical fossil ownership question A random thought I had on waking up this morning... Say you're walking along the road, and you come to a roadcut. Just above the roadcut is a barbed fence closing off private property. You're lucky enough to find a fossil here--not just any fossil, but a big one, maybe even a game-changer. The problem is, it's partly beside the road (presumably funded by federal, state, or local government), but clearly extends well into the roadcut (and hence cannot be excavated without digging into private property). Does it belong to you, the government, or the anonymous landowner? Any answers are much appreciated. :) -John (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 15th, 2009
4:33 pm [fabulousme]	Where to look? Can someone explain to me the SMOW scale, or point me to a good resource? Google isn't helping but I can tell it seems to have something to do with maybe O isotopes and/or seawater salinity. It just isn't anything that has come up in any of my books or classes up to this point, and it's being referenced in a paleoclimate text I'm reading. Any help appreciated - thanks! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
3:30 pm [djtseliot13]	Volcano blogging is back! If anyone is interested, volcanosummer is up and running once again! Join me as I cavort across ten of the world's coolest volcanoes in the next two weeks. After that I may be heading back to Hawai`i for more research, and I'll also be travelling to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to work on my thesis (mapping the rift zone of the submarine volcano Loihi)! Updates for the next two weeks will be arriving via VolcanoSummer's new Twitter account. There will be pictures immediately, and better ones after I return home. I'll be hiking Mount St. Helens, so this could get interesting. You can also find both regular and Twitter updates on the original VolcanoSummer site, so stay tuned for more! Many thanks to those of you who tuned in last year for my Hawaiian adventures. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
5:31 pm [heywood417]	Registrations & Certifications Hoping this is an appropriate post for this community--if it's not, please let me know. x-posted to geography I currently live in Louisiana & am an environmental consultant for a private consulting firm. I've been with my company for nearly 4 years. However, for numerous reasons, I'm starting to have the envie to move back to my home state of Missouri to be closer to my family. I realize that in the current economic climate, I'm going to have a difficult time trying to find a job up there (my own company has laid off several lower level people from our office--none from the environmental department, but we're not hiring any new people either). I also recognize living out of state puts me at a disadvantage. I know I'm going to have to make a hell of an impression on any potential employers to get them to think "hmm...sure, we can give this job to some chick who hasn't even lived in this state for the last 5 years". My first thought goes to certifications. I was adamantly trying to get my REP (Registered Environmental Professional) when I first started at my office--however our GM said that it wasn't really a "necessary" affiliation & that he hadn't seen much benefits from it. However, in the past I've noticed that it IS a preferred certification on some job ads for larger firms. So I don't know if that's just a "big firm" thing, or would benefit me all around. Because I have a master's degree, I'm eligible for my REP without taking the exam. Cost is $250, annual renewal is $90. This cost is reasonable. And then...there's a Certified Environmental Scientist course being offered at the local university. It's the NREP certification, so it's legit...It's 8 hours of class, followed by the 2 hour, open book exam. Cost is $800. Which has kind of an "ouch" factor right now....BUT, if it could REALLY benefit me getting a new job, then would it be worth it? Or, since I have a Masters in Environmental Analysis, would it just be a waste of money? My dilemma springs from the fact that, by all technical definitions, my Masters is in Geography, on the Environmental Analysis track. And it's an M.A., not an M.S., because at my graduate university, the Geog dept is in the College of Liberal Arts (had I gotten a Geog Masters at my undergrad univ, it would have been an MS, because there it's in the College of Natural & Applied Sciences). And I've always been a little self-conscious of that "MA" thing. Does it really matter? Or is a Masters just a Masters, whichever way you slice it? Would it be likely that someone could potentially not see me as a "scientist" because my undergrad is in Environmental Photojournalism (individualized program--Major in Mass Media, minor in Geology), & my Masters is in Geography? Even though I've been an Environmental Professional for the last 4 years? I feel like taking the CES exam & passing would definitively prove that I KNOW my science, and make me a "certified" scientist... I also don't want to become one of those "letter hounds" who gets certs simply to have acronyms behind their name, without them having any bearing on their actual professional ability or experience. *sigh* Any thoughts? Recommendations for alternate certs? Opinions on the actual certs I mention? I appreciate all feedback. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
4:33 pm [idaho88]	Sedimentology! This is a log of a marine sequence. Could someone help me analyse the sedimentary environment this was made in? I can see that the upwards coarsening points us towards something like a delta, or what I suspect even more; a beach zone with a regression going on. In my eyes it shows signs of getting shallower and shallower (the ripple marks as well as parallell lamination) - and at one point there is a change of climate and we get a transgression with newer sediments in an upwards fining. BUT. What I don't understand is the change in silt - sand - silt - sand at the bottom part of the figure. What has caused these periodic changes? Waves? Changes in feeding of sediments into the ocean? (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
4:13 pm [calysto]	Google Ocean The latest version of Google Earth, 5.0, includes "Google Ocean," which allows you to explore the ocean floor around the world, up to and including the Mariana Trench. There's plenty of info on oceanic biology for those interested, but for a geology buff like myself it has a beautiful rendering of the ocean floor too. [Google Ocean info page] (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
10:39 am [lyosh108]	Fossil from Egypt - what is it? I was on vacation in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt. Some of the hotel outside walls are made of the coral stone, which have lots of impregnations, little shells mostly. Stone itself. Sized aprrox. 50x30cm (20"x12") Accidentally I found one inclusion which catched my eye. Have a look at it. Closeup on the fossil Now can someone tell me what it is and is it worth for paleontology? [ Link to the gallery with full-size pictures ] Thanks! x-posted to geology, rockhounds, fossil_hunters (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
9:11 am [petite_mewsette]	Name that rock! At the beach yesterday, my mother and I found several small, black rocks with gold flecks. They are a little rough on the exterior, and very, very sparkly. (They sparkle less when wet.) Ideas? Thanks so much for helping us name our mystery rock! :) Sadly, Google was no help. :\ (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
8:48 am [calysto]	A Sucker is Born Every Minute An Idaho man has decided that a rock face which has recently undergone a landslide is a miraculous representation of the hand of God. He's so inspired by the "miracle"... that he is trying to sell the rights to the geologic formation on eBay. Article, with picture: [link] (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
1:34 pm [aktj01]	gov'ment jobs so, does a person need to commit immoral/indecent acts to be hired by a government agency (BLM, USFS, etc.)? I was told by the hiring manager for a USFS Geologist 5/7/9 position in my town that it was offered to someone else... after two months of waiting. I qualified for the top two grades too. Uggh! Does anyone know the freaking secret to getting a federal job? Posted via LiveJournal.app. Current Mood: confused (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
2:50 pm [paper_crystals]	cheap? I am taking a leave of absence from college and I am trying to join professional organizations for geologists because I would like to have some connections to professional organizations. The problem is is that currently I am taking a leave of absence from school, I am unemployed and when I return to school I will be returning on a part time basis. All of the organizations I looked at require you to be a full time student to apply for a student membership. So my question is is there any professional geological orgs that has relatively inexpensive (under $100) regular memberships? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 30th, 2009
3:46 am [tafyrn]	Alaska gets all the fun Some Mordor-ish photographs of some of the recent eruptions at Mt. Redoubt: Volcano lightning is beautiful, and very poorly understood. As always, the details can be found at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. And credit for these photos goes to Bretwood Higman. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
8:45 am [rolinator]	IMPACT TONIGHT! Tracking a meteorite impact from space to the Sudan. Nice work if you can get it. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
5:48 pm [calysto]	7.7 off the coast of Tonga [link] (Comment on this)
5:02 pm [rolinator]	The downturn, and something more uplifting Hey all. I am an unemployed geologist. That used to be rarer than hen's teeth in Australia, until october came along and the GFC caught up with us. Now 40% of geo's in Australia are unemployed according to the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. I'm handling it surprisingly well. Not having a whopping great mortgage is one thing in my favour. Having an inate ability to do nothing for hours or days at a time (honed by years on diamond rigs) is another bonus. But I'm sure I am not the only one who is a member of Geology who is suffering the slings and arrows. Aside from those of us who are in tenure at a university, if you are still employed how are things looking in your neck of the woods? If you're studying, how are you dealing with the lack of certainty out there in industry at the moment? Or have you missed the whole shebang? Are you changing majors, maybe considering picking up hydrogeology or geotechnical subjects or finding a way to differentiate yourself and gain a new, wider variety of skills? And finally the unemployed bums, like me. How are you coping? Got a job driving taxis yet? Been demoted to field hand/field technician? Lab work? Man-whoring? Edit: Sorry, forgot the Tonga volcano 'splodey! (41 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 14th, 2009
12:38 pm [junebug_n_lamp]	Seismic Stations Data Measuring Devices Hello, I am in my first introductory college geology class and I have been learning about seismic stations in locating earthquakes' epicenters. I find it interesting that a minimum of 3 stations are required to detect the S and P waves. I have so far read about two methods, triangulation, and a computer-based one called SWAP, which requires at least three stations. This question is more geared towards engineers with a background in geology, and it's purely out of curiousity in reducing costs and making such data-acquiring devices more portable and cheaper. So, is it possible to develop a satellite or a new type of seismic station that does the job of triangulation of all three, by somehow having three "spokes" that rotate in the sky and shoots "sensor beams" by recording the vibrations of the earth's crust from above (or maybe even below, in large oceanic expanses? and effectively deriving triangulated data, perhaps if the horizon isn't a limiting factor in its range? (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
5:09 pm [ryttu3k]	Fields of geology? What fields of geology are people here working in / want to work in? I'm a week in to my science degree (majoring in geology, of course!) and am torn between entirely too many choices on what to specialise in. (Planetary science? Volcanology? Seismology? Speleology? Seriously, I'd sell a kidney to go to Lechuguilla.) So, what fields are you in? What've your experiences with it been? (Especially useful if you work in one of the areas I named!) Thanks ^_^ (31 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
11:30 am [margorand]	jadeite fibre? Here's a question for all the geologists out there: I recently came across a knitting yarn claimed to be made from jadeite, specifically from jadeite powder left over in the jewellery manufacturing process. Now, is jadeite a mineral that can form fibres, like asbestos? And if it does, can it be transformed from a powder form to a fibrous form? I have my doubts about these manufacturer's claims (and am thinking they may be mixing the powder with acrylic in order to make a usable yarn). Any insight on this would be much appreciated, thank you! (16 Comments |Comment on this)