A Geology Conference in an Earthquake Zone

Hotel Earthquake Evacuation Guide, San Francisco, December 2010.

After a long day of travel yesterday, I arrived in San Francisco for the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Conference. The conference is held here in San Francisco every year. This is my first time at AGU. I'm very excited to be here, if a little overwhelmed by all of the people! I have to wonder a little, though, about the choice of conference venue. San Francisco, as the above "Earthquake Procedures" emergency evacuation guide I found in my hotel room reminds me, is located along the San Andreas fault and is prone to Earthquakes.  Sure, there hasn't been a major earthquake (as far as I know) during this or previous AGU conferences, but it's only a matter of time. Hopefully, during this (and subsequent) AGU meetings there won't be a repeat of the great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Perhaps AGU should consider moving their fall conference to a more geologically stable interior region- Kansas, for instance. Though I guess then you'd have to worry about tornadoes. And perhaps it wouldn't be quite as scenic.

I've had a great conference so far- I spent the day meeting with colleagues and attending a session on geological carbon sequestration. I also visited the vendor's hall and visited the life-size mock-up sphere of the Alvin deep-sea submersible, which was transported by truck from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), my home base of operations. Be sure to stop by and visit the sphere- you can also enter a raffle to win a real Alvin porthole! WHOI, by the way, is an oceanographic institution located on ephemeral glacial till that will likely be underwater in the near future due to sea level rise...

Me and the Alvin Sphere Mock-Up, San Francisco, December 2010.

Okay, off to explore San Francisco a little! Hope to see some of you tonight at the AGU Movie Event!

What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas- Part II

My What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas post has been attracting some serious (well, for my little blog anyway) traffic over the past few days. Apparently, many people find my blog post by googleing phrases such as "geology christmas gifts," "geology gifts," and "what to buy a geologist." I guess many people are doing their Christmas shopping for their geologist friends and family!

Over the past few days, I've thought up another ten items that I think a geologist would like for Christmas. Again, please feel free to post your own suggestions for geological Christmas gifts in the comments!

Gift #1: Trilobite Jewelry from Surlyramics

Image from Surlyramics Etsy shop.

AGU Movie Event

"The Core" movie poster. Image from wikipedia.com.

 "Deep Impact" movie poster. Image from wikipedia.com.

For those of you who like bad geology movies and who are attending the American Geophysical Union conference next week in San Francisco, I just wanted to advertise that there is an event called AGU Sciences Meet Hollywood.

The director of "The Core" and the screenwriter for "Deep Impact" will be there, among others. Sounds like fun!

This event takes place Tuesday night in Moscone Center South, Room 300. Hope to see some of you there!

Geology Word of the Week: F is for Fabric

Note: I started the Geology Word of the Week at Skepchick, where I am one of several fabulous, skeptical women (and one deserving man) bloggers. For the first few weeks of the Geology Word of the Week, I am going to re-post my "Geology Words of the Week(ish)" from Skepchick. Before being distracted by graduate school and life, I made my way from A to G... I will re-post those letters here and then continue with the rest of the alphabet. In 26 weeks, I will have made my way through the alphabet!

Foliated fabric in a sedimentary carbonate rock, Oman 2009.

def. Fabric:

The arrangement of the elements (minerals, textures, fossils, layers) that make up that rock. The fabric of a rock is basically the pattern of the rock.

How to Wash Dishes

Teflon beakers in Aqua Regia.

Some days, I feel that I do nothing but wash dishes... I wash dishes in lab and then go home and wash more dishes. Below is my guide to washing dishes, both at home and in lab.

What to Buy a Geologist for Christmas

Zayna (my cat) in my Newtonmas tree.

Christmas is just over three weeks away. If you're like me, you've recently put up your tree and a few decorations and are contemplating what to buy your friends and relatives. My family isn't religious, so we celebrate Newtonmas instead of Christmas. We call the holiday Newtonmas because Issac Newton, the famous mathematician and scientist, was born on Christmas Day. We celebrate Newtonmas on the same day as Christmas.

My family is very festive about Newtonmas. My mom often throws a science-themed Newtonmas Party, and we have all kinds of Newtonmas decorations, including a Newtonmas tree. The best thing about a Newtonmas tree is that you don't have to use an angel or a star as a tree topper (unless you want to). Rather, you can use anything you want! When we lived in Europe for a couple of years, we bought a little Napoleon doll and this has become our traditional tree-topper. Since I've moved out of the house and started putting up my own tree, I've used various stuffed animals and toys as tree-toppers. This year I'm using the little blue dragon from the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie. Because dragons are cute and are as real as angels, to me anyway. In honor of Newton, my family exchanges gifts and eats delicious food and even plays Christmas music. Because music is pretty, whatever your religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

Many of you may be wondering what to buy a geologist for Christmas/Newtomas. Below I've listed a few suggestions of gifts I think a geologist would like. Feel free to post your own suggestions for gifts in the comments!

And Merry Christmas/Chanukah/Newtonmas!

Gift #1: Geology Cake T-Shirt

Image from Threadless.com

This T-shirt is sold by Threadless.com here. Unfortunately, this t-shirt is currently sold out. Everyone should help request a reprint! A quick note is that geoblogger Callan Bentley pointed out in his NOVA blog that the angular unconformity cake/geology layer is highly improbable. Despite that, this is a fun t-shirt!

Cost: $18 (cheaper if it's on sale!). 

Geology Word of the Week: E is for Eustasy

Ocean meets land, Western Cape, South Africa, March 2009.

def. Eustasy:
A global change in sea level. The key word in the definition is global-- eustasy is not used to refer to local variations in sea level. Rather, a eustatic change in sea level occurs when there is a global change in (a.) the total amount of water in the oceans and/or (b.) the total volume of the ocean basins.