How Not to Lose Wireless GPS Receivers

In Fall of 2005 I participated in "The Stretch", the trimester-long geology field camp run by Dartmouth College. In recent years, the field camp has taken place in the western continental US. Many years ago, the field camp also took place in Central America, Hawaii, and other locations.

The year I went on The Stretch, we studied geology in Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada, California, and Arizona. We drove thousands of miles and did dozens of geology field projects, ranging from small one-day assignments to week-long mapping exercises. I recently discovered my old field notebooks and journal (I often wrote about my day in the evenings) from The Stretch, so I'll probably blog occasionally about my field camp experience and post some pictures. I've already written about our ternary personalities exercise.

I had an amazing time on The Stretch. I was very lucky to spend an entire trimester studying geology with a wonderful group of students, professors, and TAs. Except for the driving days, I spent every day outside. I came back tan and happy with a head filled with geology. I often look back on photos from The Stretch and think about field camp fondly.

For our first mapping exercises on The Stretch, we learned traditional compass-and-paper mapping. Later on, we did some electronic mapping using tablet PCs and wireless GPS receivers. During previous Stretches, the somewhat expensive wireless GPS receivers would occasionally go missing. To solve this problem, one of our field instructors came up with a creative solution: velcroing the wireless GPS receivers to the tops of Dartmouth "Rox" hats. Students using the receivers had to wear these ridiculous hats. Periodically throughout the day, the professor would count the number of hat receivers to ensure that none had been lost.    

Me + "Rox" Hat + Wireless GPS Receiver, Arizona, Fall 2005.

But why a "Rox" hat? The Department of Earth Science at Dartmouth is known as the "Rox" Department as a play on Dartmouth's motto. The college motto is "Vox clamantis in deserto" which translates to "A voice crying in the wilderness." This is sort of a strange motto, but it comes from Dartmouth being a "frontier school" when it was founded back in 1769. Actually, Dartmouth is still somewhat in the wilderness-- the Appalachian Trail even runs right through campus.

The Department of Earth Science has its own version of the Dartmouth motto: "Rox clamantis in deserto" which translates to "A rock crying in the wilderness." Well, not really. "Rox" isn't actually a Latin word. But it sounds cool. It's okay- geologists aren't always the best linguists. If the motto were in proper Latin, I think it would actually be "Petra clamantis in deserto" or perhaps "Lapis clamantis in deserto." "Petra" and "Lapis" are some of my favorite words, but I have to admit they're not as cool-sounding as the imaginary "Rox." The Department of Earth Science also has its own version of the Dartmouth logo: rather than native Americans being illuminated by a glowing book of knowledge (hey Dartmouth, isn't this logo sort of racist?), a dinosaur is about to be hit by a fiery meteor.

A rock crying out in the wilderness-- I like it. After all, isn't this what geologists do? We listen to the rocks. 

Traditional Dartmouth logo. Image taken from here.

Dartmouth's Department of Earth Science logo. Note the typo in the motto (clamatis rather than clamantis). Again- geologist are not the best linguists. Image taken from the department website here.

Geology Word of the Week: Q is for Quaternary

Quaternary Girl. Base image taken from here.

def. Quaternary:
The most recent Period of geologic time. We have been in the Quaternary Period for the past ~2.6 million years. The Quaternary Period is located within the Cenozoic Era and is further sub-divided into the Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs.

A Poor Disaster in a Rich Country

With at least 75 people dead and extensive damage throughout the city of Christchurch, the toll of the recent New Zealand earthquake is already a heavy one. A number of factors contributed to make this earthquake so deadly-- the magnitude, the closeness of the epicenter to Christchurch, the shallowness of the epicenter, the time of day, and the fact that much damage from the September 2010 Christchurch earthquake had yet to be repaired.  The death toll and damage caused by the recent earthquake in first world New Zealand is nothing like what occurs when large earthquakes hit third world countries, such as Haiti in January 2010, but for a first world country the destruction is fairly high. 

I hope that New Zealand recovers quickly and that the earth-shaking quiets down long enough for proper rebuilding. A geologist colleague of my fiance is currently in New Zealand, just outside of Christchurch, and he told us, "the place is like a warzone." He's not sure when he'll back able to make it home (to South Africa), but he says he just feels lucky to be alive.

Thinking about the toll of the recent New Zealand earthquake, I was reminded of a post about "rich and poor disasters" that I wrote a few years back for Skepchick. Before I started a geology blog, I used to sporadically blog about geology over at Skepchick. These days, I blog here at Georneys about geology, and I blog over at Skepchick about other skeptical and scientific things, such as why skeptics should be interested in statistics. Occasionally, I will re-post some of my old geology posts from Skepchick. I will also sometimes cross-post on both blogs. The post below originally appeared on Skepchick in 2007 here. New Orleans still hasn't fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina.

I don't want to distract from the all the devastation that recently occurred in New Zealand, but I think Hurricane Katrina is a good example to ponder when considering what factors-- both geologic and socioeconomic--affect the toll of natural disasters and the eventual recovery-- or lack thereof-- of a region from a natural disaster.

A boy bikes past homes unrepaired since Hurricane Katrina, on the eve of the storm's five year anniversary in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Image from Reuters: Lee Celano.

A few weeks ago [note: in 2007] I listened to a talk by John Mutter, a geologist at Columbia University. Mutter has two roles at Columbia. First, he is a geophysist in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory doing traditional research in marine geology and seismology. Second, he is a faculty member in Columbia’s Earth Institute doing research on the links between Earth Science and Social Science.

Some Links and Videos Related to the New Zealand Earthquake

Many geobloggers and news agencies have been reporting on the recent magnitude 6.3 earthquake that occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand about six hours ago. This initial earthquake was quickly followed by two magnitude >5.5 earthquakes.

There has been some incredible damage and the latest report is that at least 65 people have died.

Below are a few links and videos related to the recent earthquake.

Here are some links from the geoblogosphere:
Highly Allochthonous: Magnitude 6.3 earthquake rocks Christchurch

Eruptions: Another sizable earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand

The Landslide Blog: First news of the Mw=6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand


Here are some links from news agencies:
New Zealand Herald: Updates on fatalities and damage; pictures, and videos

New York Times: Latest update

CNN: Latest update


Finally, here are a few videos, all taken from youtube. Just a warning that some of the footage is graphic and disturbing. These videos show the devastating destruction that results when a large earthquake hits a highly-populated area.

From TV New Zealand:

From  the Associated Press:

From CNN:

A Presidents' Day Rock: Granite (& Mica Schist)

Presidents carved in granite. Image taken from wikipedia here.

Happy Presidents' Day, everyone!

Lab is nice and quiet today, in honor of our nation's presidents. Excellent. I always accomplish more on holidays! Fewer people around to distract me.

In honor of Presidents' Day, here is a document published by the U.S. National Park Service about the geology of Mt. Rushmore:

Mount Rushmore National Memorial Geologic Resource Evaluation Report

And here is a simple geologic map of the Mt. Rushmore area taken from the above document:

Simple geologic map of the Mt. Rushmore area. Figure taken from here.

A Million Random Digits

Cross-posted on Skepchick. 

First page of random digits in "A Million Random Digits" book. Image taken from Amazon.com.

Earlier this evening I met up with three classmates (all girls, by the way; my statistics class is about 90% female) to work on programming our latest statistics homework into MATLAB. Working in a group is easier as four pairs of eyes tend to catch code errors faster than one pair of eyes. Also, we can eat Chinese food and giggle and have fun as we work.

One of the things we had to do this evening was use the "rand" function in MATLAB. This function calls upon a computer algorithm that generates random-- or really pseudorandom since they're calculated by a computer-- numbers. The "rand" function calls upon a random number between 0 and 1 as a default, though you can tell it to use other ranges.  Random numbers are very important for many types of statistical analyses and numerical simulations. These days, many computer programs, such as MATLAB, have pseudorandom number generators built in. For most types of applications in mathematics and science, a pseduorandom number is nearly as good as a random number.

But what if you need actual random numbers?

And how did people generate random numbers before computers became fancy enough to generate pseudorandom numbers?

The Power and Beauty of Statistics

As I have recently been writing about over at Skepchick, I am taking an applied statistics course this semester and very much appreciating and enjoying it. Some Skepchick readers sent me a couple of videos about statistics, and I thought I would share them with you here. Enjoy!

200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
Hans Rosling

 Video taken from YouTube.

Here's a link to a longer Hans Rosling video.

A Conversation with My Doctor

Last weekend I made a quick trip down to Tennessee to visit family since my great-grandmother recently passed away. I flew out of and back into Boston Logan airport. Before I headed back down to the little village of Woods Hole, I went to visit my doctor at MIT Medical-- a facility that serves MIT staff, students, and their families.

I had a somewhat entertaining conversation with my doctor. The conversation went something like this slightly stylized version:

*****************
Doctor: So, tell me what's bothering you.

Me: Well, my left hand is somewhat numb and painful. I think I've just been working under the microscope for too many hours, but I thought I'd visit just in case I'm dying of some horrible disease.

My doctor laughs softly then catches herself and tries to look more serious.

Doctor: Is your hand numb everywhere?

Me: Somewhat, but it's mostly the two outer fingers.

Doctor: Huh. Well, I would ask you if your hand felt better on weekends, but you probably work through the weekend.

Me: Yes. Well, except this past weekend. And my hand does feel a little better.

Doctor: Oh good. Did you do anything fun?

Me: My grandmother died.

Doctor: Oh. Well, you said your hand is feeling better?

My doctor does various reflex tests and decides that I am probably putting too much pressure on a nerve at my elbow, probably by leaning on my elbow when using the microscope.

Me: Great. I'm not dying of any terrible disease. Just of my thesis.

Doctor (laughing): I guess you could say that. Well, I recommend that you work fewer hours under the microscope and take some weekends off.

The blood drains from my face, and I start twitching nervously.

Me: I'm a 5th year.

Doctor: Oh. In that case, try putting a pillow under your elbow.

*****************

Don't worry. I've switched to another microscope and my left hand is doing much better. I can almost feel all my fingers again. Besides, in a few short months all this scientific perspiration will pay off.

However, I am looking forward to being finished with graduate school and having a better life balance. Perhaps I'll even have all of my fingers.

Geology Word of the Week: P is for Peridot

Before I started a geology blog, I used to sporadically blog about geology over at Skepchick. These days, I blog here at Georneys about geology, and I blog over at Skepchick about other skeptical and scientific things, such as the elusive tree octopus. Occasionally, I will re-post some of my old geology posts from Skepchick. I will also sometimes cross-post on both blogs. The post below originally appeared on Skepchick in 2009 here. I thought I would re-post this because, if you haven't figured it out already, peridotite is my favorite rock and peridot is my favorite gemstone. If you want to learn more about where peridotite (and some peridot gems) come from, be sure to read last week's geology word O is for Ophiolite. After this, I will try not to write about peridotite and peridot for awhile-- though no promises since they are my favorite rock and gemstone.

Peridot gemstone. Image taken from here.

def. Peridot:
Peridot is a gem-quality olivine [(Mg,Fe)₂SiO₄], a beautiful green mineral found in mafic to ultramafic rocks.

Cape Agulhas in Pictures

Yesterday I blogged a little about visiting "extreme" locations on the globe and about my visit to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of the African continent. Here are a few more pictures from my visit to Cape Agulhas. My fiance and I spent a long weekend in Agulhas in March 2009. We visited the lighthouse and went on a few beachside hikes. On this overcast weekend, the tip of Africa looked mysteriously beautiful and quiet, like a calm before a storm or an eye of a hurricane. Click on any of the pictures below to view larger.

Agulhas Lighthouse 1, South Africa, March 2009.

Tips of the Continents

Cross-posted on Skepchick.

For some reason, humans like to travel to extreme or notable points on the globe: the north pole, the south pole, the southernmost point of this, the northernmost point of that, the westernmost point of this, the easternmost point of that, the highest point of that, the lowest point of that, continental divides, the equator, the arctic circle, the prime meridian, and many others.

I'm not sure why these extreme or notable points-- which often don't look like much when you visit them or which can be crazy tourist traps-- are such significant travel goals for humans. Perhaps humans like having a place to seek, a destination that drives them onward rather than just a place to wander across. I suppose that this is one reason I like traveling for geology. Geology gives me specific places I need to reach: a roadcut, a stratigraphic boundary, a fossil-hunting ground, a mineral spring, a fault, an erratic boulder, a sculpture carved into a rock, a rock arch, a glacial striation, a sand dune, and so on.

On the other hand, I sometimes wish there were more time for wandering on busy, fully-scheduled geology trips. Much of my travel has, wonderfully, been funded by my geology research and geology class field trips. This is one reason I decided to become a geologist-- I am often paid to travel, and I find this wonderful. However, after my PhD, I plan to take a little time off and do some wandering with no formal geology obligations. I'm sure I'll wander across some wonderful places and some amazing geology anyway.

Maybe in my wanderings I'll visit a few more so-called extreme points on the globe. So far, I haven't been to too many extreme points. I guess I've made some progress on visiting the southernmost points of continents. I've been to the southernmost point of Africa and the southernmost point of Asia. Well, sort of. One of the problems with many extreme places (well, the ones that are easier to reach, perhaps not Mt. Everest and the poles) is that they attract tourists. Sometimes, locals might exaggerate or even make-up the "extreme" characteristics of their home place in order to attract more tourists.

Cape Agulhas, South Africa seems to be the geographical southernmost tip of Africa. Sentosa Island, on the other hand, seems dubious in its claim to be the southernmost point of continental Asia. I think perhaps Sentosa made up this claim to attract tourists. First of all, Sentosa is an island and not really part of continental Asia. Excluding islands, I think the southernmost tip of Asia should be located in Malaysia. Second of all, Sentosa is not the southernmost Asian island. Including islands, I think the southernmost tip of Asia should  be located in Indonesia. However, Sentosa is a beautiful-- if touristy-- place, so I recommend visiting anyway. You can even take a picture next to Sentosa's dubious, slightly Engrish sign proclaiming "Southernmost Point of Asia Continent" if you want.

Perhaps I'll try to visit the southernmost points of some other continents in my post-PhD wanderings-- just five to go. Or maybe six.

Jackie (my fiance) and I at the southernmost tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas, South Africa, March 2009.

A Valentine's Day Rock: Heartstones

A heartstone is a heart-shaped rock. Many different types of rocks can be heartstones; all that matters is the shape. Many heartstones form naturally through tricks of weathering; others are artificially chiseled and polished into a heart shape.

I  often look for heartstones when walking-- along a beach, a woodland path, or even a driveway. Whenever I find a heartstone, I think fondly of a bookstore called "Heartstone Books" that I used to visit in Putney, Vermont. Long before I ever studied geology in a formal manner, I used to enjoy looking at this bookstore's collection of heartstone rocks and was amazed at how many different types of rocks-- different colors and textures and sizes-- could become heartstones.

I am currently traveling and cannot take photos of my own heartstones, so below are a few heartstone pictures that I've scavenged from the interwebs.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Here are some more holiday rocks, in case you missed them:

A Birthday Rock: Peridotite

A New Year's Day Rock: Travertine Icings and Scums

A Christmas Rock: Fossiliferous Coal

A Thanksgiving Rock: Granodiorite

Hearstone 1. Image taken from here.

Samira the Petrology Cat

My cat Samira likes petrology. Well, she at least likes petrology books. For napping, she prefers Best's Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology over Blatt and Tracy's Petrology: Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic. I don't have the heart to tell her that you cannot learn petrology through diffusion. Trust me-- I tried sleeping with a petrology book under my pillow for that one test back in undergrad, and it didn't work.

Samira the petrology cat 1, February 2011.

Samira the petrology cat 2, February 2011.

My cat Zayna, on the other hand, prefers napping on my knitting projects rather than my petrology books.

Zayna the yarn cat, January 2011.

Geology Word of the Week: O is for Ophiolite

Shadows over Oman mantle peridotite, January 2009.

def. Ophiolite:
An ophiolite is a segment of ocean crust and mantle tectonically exposed on land by obduction (overthrust), usually when an ocean basin closes. An ophiolite sequence consists of variably altered oceanic rocks, including marine sediments, ocean crust, and part of the mantle. The name ophiolite means "snakestone" from "ophio" (snake) and "lithos" (stone) in Greek. The rock sequence is named for the brilliant green, snake-like serpentine minerals which form in altered ocean crust and mantle. Ophiolites are rare but nonetheless found throughout the world. Notable ophiolites are found in Cyprus, the northwestern US, the Alps, Papua New Guinea, and Oman.

Happy Birthday, Jules Verne!

Movie poster for "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Image taken from here.

David Bressan over at the History of Geology blog reminded me that today is the birthday of Jules Verne, one of my favorite authors. Happy Birthday, Jules!

Even more excitingly, on his blog David posted a trailer for the 1959 Disney movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" starring Pat Boone. This is my all-time favorite movie. I first watched this movie as a young child at my grandmother's house. One day, I found the movie in a pile of VHS tapes of children's movies that my grandma kept to entertain her grandchildren. I watched the movie and loved it. From then on, every time I visited my grandmother's house I had to watch "Journey to the Center of the Earth." You know how children often have one book that they insist on reading every night? Or one movie they insist on watching all the time? Well, my movie was "Journey to the Center of the Earth." If I stayed with my grandma for a week, I'd watch the movie every day. I think my parents purposely did not buy a copy of this movie because if they had then they'd have been forced to watch it even more often.

Many years later, when I was an undergrad at Dartmouth, my mom bought me "Journey to the Center of the Earth" on DVD as a Christmas gift. Perhaps that Christmas gift was the inspiration for the introduction to a paper that I wrote back in undergrad about  hafnium (Hf) and neodymium (Nd) isotopes. Here's a snippet from the introduction of that paper:

"Introduction
Contrary to the portrayal in Jules Verne’s classic novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, in which a group of scientists reach the center of the Earth by spelunking down a very deep cave, humans have barely scratched the surface of our planet’s outermost crust. Remarkably, almost all of the adventures that seemed so fantastic when Verne wrote about them in the late 1800s have become a commonplace part of human society. Inspired by the imaginings of Verne and others dreamers, humans have developed technology that allows people to travel around the world in far fewer than eighty days, dive far deeper than 20,000 leagues under the sea*, and soar high above the Earth. At least one Verne tale is still a dream, however: humans have not journeyed anywhere near the center of the Earth. In fact, the deepest hole humans have drilled is 12 km deep, a mere 0.2% of the Earth’s 6378 km radius (1). As scientists cannot directly sample mantle or core material, they must rely on other methods to learn about the physical and chemical characteristics of the Earth’s interior.

One of the methods modern scientists use to learn about the chemical composition of the Earth’s interior is the analysis of isotopic compositions in rocks on Earth’s surface. Geochemical analysis of radiogenic Hf and Nd [and other] isotope ratios in erupted lavas is a powerful tool for examining the processes governing the geochemical evolution of magma deep within the Earth's mantle. Isotope compositions and their ratios are minimally affected by the immense physical stresses imposed at
great depths in the Earth’s interior, the processes of magma upwelling to the crust, and the final eruption at the Earth’s surface. Therefore, these analyses can be used to infer the compositions of the igneous source material as well as how these sources mixed and melted to form the rocks on the surface. Combined with major and trace element data, Hf and Nd isotope ratios can even be used to determine the degree of melting that occurred."

If you're curious about the rest, you can read the full paper here, but please keep in mind that I wrote this in 2004 as a very young geochemist and that DUJS is a non-peer reviewed, undergraduate science journal.

If you like bad geology movies, go purchase "Journey to the Center of the Earth." This is a bad geology movie at its best-- the geology is laughably ridiculous, the special effects are sensationally awful, and the story is wondrously entertaining. If you're like me, you'll watch this movie several times a year, so you won't want to have to order it from Netflix every time (sadly, it is not available on streaming). And make sure you order the 1959 version with Pat Boone. The 2008 version with Brendan Frasier isn't nearly as good.

*Note that this is an error in my paper as 1 league ~ 5.6 km. So it is clearly impossible to dive 20,000 leagues in depth since the deepest point of the world's oceans is only ~11 km deep at the Mariana Trench. In the title of his book, Verne is referring to the horizontal distance traveled under the sea, not the depth.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" movie shot, image taken from here.

Movie poster for "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Image taken from here.

Various scenes from "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Image taken from here.

Scientific Perspiration

Before I started a geology blog, I used to sporadically blog about geology over at Skepchick. These days, I blog here at Georneys about geology, and I blog over at Skepchick about other skeptical and scientific things, such as the elusive tree octopus. Occasionally, I will re-post some of my old geology posts from Skepchick. I will also sometimes cross-post on both blogs. The post below originally appeared on Skepchick in 2007 here. Since I am again spending much of my time picking crystals (carbonates this time), I thought it would be timely to re-post this. The post appears below with minor corrections.

Note that I originally wrote this post during my first year of graduate school. Three years later, I still feel that I am an average graduate student. However, I also feel that since I started graduate school I've gained a large amount of confidence and greatly developed my knowledge in geology, chemistry, and mathematics. I have also been humbled. Although I know much, much more than when I started graduate school, I have also more fully realized what an enormous amount of knowledge there is in the world and how much I don't know. Most importantly, I've learned not to be afraid of a little scientific perspiration, be it picking crystals for hours on end, teaching myself an ancient data reduction program, or jumping headfirst into some math.

Carbonate grains under the microscope, Fall 2010.

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
-Thomas Edison

If you’re average but want to be a scientist, there’s hope! With persistence and a fair amount of perspiration, you can still become a great scientist.

Most of us are not scientific geniuses or autistic savants. Most of us are, well, fairly average. We should be. Most people are supposed to be average. Most of us should be C-level students. C is supposed to be average, the recent trend in grade inflation aside.

Alvin Cam

The Alvin Deep-Sea Submersible, Image taken from here.

The Alvin Cam may not be as cute as the Panda Cam, but as deep-sea submersibles go I think that Alvin is actually pretty adorable. Plus, someone has placed a cute stuffed animal dog with a hard hat in front of the camera.

The Alvin Cam monitors the upgrade of Alvin, a deep-sea submersible that has been taking humans deep in the world's oceans since 1964. This makes Alvin the longest-operating deep-sea submersible with over 4,600 dives! Alvin is owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), where I am a graduate student.

Alvin is long overdue for an upgrade. The National Science Foundation is now funding a multimillion dollar upgrade that will install a larger sphere, more view portals, and other improvements. The upgrade will enhance Alvin's capabilities and also make long dives more comfortable.

Over the next year or so, you can watch the Alvin upgrade live by tuning into the Alvin Cam. If you see a really neat event happening on the Alvin Cam, take a screenshot and email it to me at georneysblog (at) gmail (dot) com. I'll post good screenshots on this blog. If you send a really great screenshot, I'll reward you with a WHOI-themed prize*. 

Read more about Alvin and the upgrade here and here and here.

I am particularly excited about the ongoing upgrade because my advisor is the PI (Principal Investigator, aka "the boss") in charge of the upgrade. The upgrade certainly keeps my advisor busy! Remarkably, she still makes time for me amidst meetings with the Navy and engineers as well as many other obligations. My thesis seems very insignificant compared with the Alvin upgrade, so I feel very fortunate that my advisor makes so much time for me. She is a remarkable woman whom I admire very much.

Finally, here's a really neat time-lapse video of Alvin being disassembled during a routine maintenance overhaul in 2005: Alvin Disassembly Movie.

*Don't get too excited yet... might just be a WHOI pencil, though I'll keep my eyes open for good WHOI swag.

The Small World of Science Blogging

Science is a small world. Science blogging is an even smaller world, though happily growing.

A few months ago, I was thrilled to learn that my former classmate Christie Wilcox is not only a biologist and grad student but also an amazing science blogger. Christie and I went to school together for several years. We've fallen out of touch (unless Facebook counts) in recent years, but I highly recommend her blog Observations of a Nerd. Leave this blog now and go read Christie's blog. It's fantastic.

And Christie-- I'm sorry for those times in Middle School when I made fun of you. Next time you're out east (or perhaps I'm in Hawaii? That sounds nicer), we should catch up! I owe you a beer (probably several) for any jokes I may have made at your expense in Middle School.

Christie Wilcox and I in a class photo, circa 1996 or so.

While I'm at it, here are a couple other blogger friends of mine:

Phil and I, Red Rocks, Nevada, circa January 2006.

This is my friend Phil Plait- aka The Bad Astronomer. Go read his blog Bad Astronomy.

Rebecca Watson and I, Woods Hole, MA, circa 2006, the year after Skepchick was founded.

This is my friend Rebecca Watson, fearless leader of the Skepchick bloggers.

As far as geobloggers go, the only other geoblogger I have met in person is Chuck Magee of Lounge of the Lab Lemming. Chuck is a fellow geochemistry nerd and all-around nice guy. Alas, we didn't take a picture at Goldschmidt!

I hope to meet more geobloggers next time I'm at a geology conference-- perhaps at the AGU meeting later this year?

Wadi Rum in Pictures

Lunch in the shade of a rock arch, Jordan, August 2007.

The Middle East is near and dear to my heart. When I was fifteen, I lived with a Palestinian refugee family in Jordan for five months as an exchange student. The experience opened my eyes to the wider world and no doubt changed the course of my life. Ever since, I have been drawn to the Arabic language, the Middle East, and to deserts. I studied Arabic for four years back in undergrad, but I unfortunately have never had the opportunity to study Arabic abroad and truly gain fluency in the language. The Middle East is a tumultuous region, and the semester abroad programs I signed up for kept being canceled because of safety concerns. Also, I had to balance my Arabic studies with a heavy science courseload.

However, I had the good fortune to have several Arab friends in high school and college. I was also adopted by a wonderful Iranian family (who are Persians, not Arabs) which hired me as a part-time nanny for their three wonderful children. I am still very close with the Iranian family; just the other day, the oldest daughter-- who is now in Middle School-- called me up to ask me questions for a science report she was writing on Plate Tectonics. She told me yesterday that she received a perfect score on her report, and I couldn't be prouder.

In graduate school, I have had the opportunity to carry out my thesis research in the deserts of northern Oman. I hope to always do some geology research-- and perhaps even teach one day-- in the Middle East. There is certainly some fantastic geology in the region.

The recent turmoil in Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries worries me, but I am hopeful for the region. The deaths of protesters and policemen sadden me greatly. I have great respect for all those on the street, fighting and marching and shouting for a better life. I hope there is soon a peaceful transition of government in the protesting countries, though I know the struggle will continue long after the streets are empty. In general, I think the biggest problem the Middle East must overcome is a very young population with few job opportunities. This is a problem that will take many years to work through. Again, I am hopeful.

In honor of all of those in the Middle East who are currently struggling in the midst of turmoil, here are a few peaceful pictures of the beautiful desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan. I took these photos when I briefly visited Wadi Rum in August 2007. Note that my blog header picture and my profile picture were both taken at Wadi Rum. Click on any of the photos below to view a larger version.

Wadi Rum Cliff 1, Jordan, August 2007.

Geology Word of the Week: N is for Nabkha

Nabkhas in front of sand dunes in Namibia. Photo courtesy of Michael Welland and used with permission.

def. Nabkha:
1. A mound-like accumulation of wind-blown sediment, usually sand, collected within and behind, and stabilized by, vegetation (definition modified from Khalaf et al., 1995 and Keary, 1996).
2. One of several words of Arabic origin that is used to describe sand features.

On "The Today Show" in 1994: What is the Internet?

Here is a video that has, appropriately, been spidering around the internet recently. This is a clip of "The Today Show" in 1994 where Katie Couric and her co-hosts are discussing a new internet address for the show, but they don't know how to pronounce the @ symbol. Furthermore, they don't really know what the internet is!

Video taken from YouTube.

I find it amazing how far the internet has come since 1994. These days, everyone is constantly updating their blogs, twittering (or tweeting, I guess-- I must admit I haven't got the hang of that one yet), facebooking, and so on. No one has phone books anymore; people just look up everything on omniscient google. The internet even plays a role in politics-- the Egyptian government has recently shut the internet down in an attempt to slow the revolution there.

Science definitely seems to require the internet these days. There are so many online resources-- databases, references, data reduction programs, map programs such as Google Earth, and so much more.  Personally, I can't imagine writing a geology paper without having the MIT library at my electronic disposal. I rarely make physical trips to the library anymore. When I do actually have to make a trip to the library to-- gasp-- copy an old journal article, I do so begrudgingly.

I barely remember a time without the internet. In 1994 I was ten years old and already a regular internet user. A computer guru, my dad started using the internet at home in 1992 or 1993. At first we just had very slow text-based internet. If there were any pictures, my dad turned them off. I would bring up simple text versions of websites and devour the information. I remember I used to look up information about foreign countries I found interesting, and I would plan imaginary trips. By the time I started high school in 1998, I used the internet all the time.

These days, we all use the internet constantly. We even carry it around with us (well, not me... but that's because I'm a poor grad student with a Jurassic cell phone) everywhere we go, constantly updating our statuses on various sites and googleing information as needed with our iPhones and Androids and Black(Crack)berries.

It's incredible how far the internet has come in seventeen years, isn't it? Something Katie Couric couldn't define in 1994 is now an integral part of most people's daily lives, at least in first world countries.

Although, I do enjoy my occasional internet escapes. The longest I've gone without the internet (well, since 1992 or 1993) is about three weeks-- during geology fieldwork or personal camping trips. Soon enough, I imagine even fieldwork won't take me away from the internet. When I was in the (somewhat) remote Oman desert last year, all the locals had cell phones. I've bet they've upgraded to a 4G network by now.