Interesting Search Terms That Found My Blog

For the past little while, I have been keeping track of some interesting search terms that found my blog. These are just a sampling of ones that I happened across. I've put some "answers" below the search terms. Hope you enjoy. Happy Friday!

what is at the center of any self respecting volcano (4/5/11)
Answer: The lair of a mad scientist.

is jurassic park too scary for 8 yr old (4/6/11)
Answer: My grandmother took me to see Jurassic park in theaters when I was 9 years old, and I was very, very scared and had nightmares about velociraptors. However, the movie also helped inspire my interest in geology & dinosaurs.

synonym: hot liquid that come from tsunami in japan  (4/6/11)
Answer: Oil and gas that caught on fire? The only thing worse than a tsunami is a tsunami ON FIRE.

what is komatiite used for today (4/8/11)
Answer: Many komatiites are mined for diamonds.  D'oh, that would be kimberlites. Thanks for the correction, Chuck. More here.

is there a volcano in japan (4/9/11)
Answer: Yes. Many, actually.

dress code geology convention (4/10/11)
Answer: Recommended dress code for a geology convention is a t-shirt with a dinosaur and/or a geology pun on it, hiking pants, and teva sandals with socks.

I Want a Meteorite to Hit My House

I like meteorites. I think it would be very cool if one struck my house, as long as I, my fiance, and my two adorable kitties made it through the impact okay. Alas, while many, many meteorites hit our planet every year, they rarely fall on houses. However, just a few weeks ago a meteorite hit a house in Poland. Thanks to Phil Plait and Ryan Brown for the tip-off on this story. I wonder... if  a meteorite hits your house or car, do you think insurance covers the damage?

A few years back on Skepchick, I jokingly asked for my house in Boston to be hit be a meteorite.. Unfortunately, God had poor aim and hit Bloomington, Illinois instead (though there's a chance this wasn't a real meteorite at all-- anyone know the result of the scientific investigation?).

Note: I am a happy atheist, though I harbor no ill will against most religious people, including many members of my family. I hope no one who is religious takes offense at my tongue-in-cheek joking about asking God to hit my house with a meteorite. At least, I hope my jesting doesn't keep you from reading this blog, which I try to keep geology-focused. I'll only rant here about religion if you tell me the Earth is only 6,000 years old or if you tell me some nonsense such as that the rapture (raptor?) is coming this weekend.

Geology Word of the Week: Y is for Yardang

Yardangs 1. Photo courtesy of Michael Welland.

Cross-posted at Through the Sandglass. 

def. Yardang (also sometimes: jardang):
An elongated erosional landform, commonly found in deserts, resembling the hull of an inverted boat. Similar to sand dunes, yardangs typically have a tall, steep side facing the prevailing wind direction and slope gently down away from the wind. Yardangs are formed when looser material is eroded away (primarily by the wind and particle abrasion), leaving behind more consolidated material that is then sculpted into strange, ship-like shapes by further erosion. Yardangs most commonly form in soft rocks such as siltstone and sandstone (rocks commonly found in deserts) but can also form in harder rocks in places where the wind is the primary erosional force. The word yardang is of Turkish origin coming from the word "yar" which means "steep bank or precipice." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word yardang was first introduced to the English language in 1904 by the Swedish explorer Sven Anders Hendin.

Geology Word of the Week: X is for Xenolith

Mafic xenolith, Ontario, Canada, 2002. Photo Credit: Ron Schott.

Note: Sorry for the re-post. This post was lost and then mangled somewhat in the blogger mishap last week. I managed to correct the post, but I had to re-post it under a new day and time.   

def. Xenolith:
A foreign rock inclusion, usually in an igeneous rock.

3D Dinosaur Stamps

 Postcard for Dinosaur-lover Brian Switek, South Africa, May 2011.

Note: Sorry for the re-post. This post was lost and then mangled somewhat in the blogger mishap last week. I managed to correct the post, but I had to re-post it under a new day and time. 

Just before I left South Africa several days ago, my fiance and I went to the post office to buy some international postcard stamps.

The clerk handed me the five stamps I requested, and I turned to my fiance and said, "Cool! Dinosaur stamps!"

My fiance and I looked more closely at the stamps, and he said, "Huh, that's funny. They're blurry."

I replied, "Oh, that's too bad. Maybe they weren't printed properly?"

For a moment, I was dismayed at the poor quality of the South African stamp printing system. Then I realized I was mistaken. The South African stamp printing system wasn't bad. It was awesome! Far more awesome than the American one, in fact.

I shouted, "Wait... I think they're 3D!"

Several customers in line behind us gave us whimsical looks as my fiance and I excitedly chattered about our 3D dinosaur stamp discovery. The clerk just smiled. 

After finishing our shopping, we headed back to our apartment and managed to find a set of 3D glasses. Yes, we are geeky enough to have 3D glasses at home. Sure enough, the dinosaur stamps jumped to life when viewed with 3D glasses! We have decided that these are the coolest stamps EVER.

Here is some more information on the 3D South African dinosaur stamps:
3D Dinosaur Stamps on StampsWiki

The stamps show five different African dinosaurs. There are two images of each dinosaur: one of the skeleton and one as the dinosaur may have looked in the flesh.

Dinosaur stamps- skeletons. Image from StampsWiki.

Dinosaur stamps- in the flesh. Image from StampsWiki.

Of course, I had to send a postcard with a dinosaur stamp on it to dinosaur-lover Brian Switek. If you haven't already, I recommend checking out Brian's Wired Science blog Laelaps.

Blast from the Past: Iguanodon Poem

Iguanodon skeleton. Picture taken from Wikipedia here.

I have decided to introduce a new, semi-regular feature to this blog, at least for the next little while. "Blast from the Past" will feature past items from my life: pictures, geology-themed childhood sketches, old school essays, etc.

I am currently in the process of packing up my apartment so that I can move to Wyoming this summer and then to South Africa later in the year. I have been sorting through some boxes of high school and college notes and letters and have been finding some interesting tidbits from years ago.  I think some of these tidbits are worth sharing on this blog as they are records of my budding and developing interest in science, travel, and other topics-- or simply because they are entertaining. 

For the first "Blast from the Past," let me share with you a poem I wrote for a high school English class. We could chose any topic we wanted for the poem and I chose... dinosaurs. I guess in English class I was daydreaming about geology. Enjoy!

Sexism in Science

I just wanted to write a short post to recommend that you all go and read this post by my friend Bug Girl about her experiences with sexism in entomology. I am proud to call Bug Girl my friend. Bug Girl is a fellow Skepchick, and I've known her for a long time through skeptical circles. Bug Girl was very supportive and encouraging of me when I was studying science back in undergrad, and she continues to be an inspiration for me.

I wish I could say that I have never encountered sexism in my own academic experiences, but unfortunately I have. I do not remember encountering any sexism (at least, nothing too blatant) during my undergrad days at Dartmouth. However, I have encountered sexism at MIT a number of times, ranging from subtle to blatant. Actually, some of the sexism I encountered at MIT contributed to my decision to leave my first advisor after passing my PhD qualifying exam. There were many factors that influenced my decision, and one of them was that I did not feel that the environment at MIT was particularly encouraging for young female scientists. And I was not the only young woman to leave my lab group. Two of us left at about the same time, actually. I still bitterly remember one particular comment, said to me after I mentioned that I was tired after a long shift on a summer research cruise. A male lab technician (not my first advisor, fortunately) from MIT said to me, "You know, if science is too difficult, it's not too late to become a housewife." He laughed and said he was joking, but the comment stung nevertheless.

Recently, I recounted the story of the housewife comment to my current advisor, who is a woman. She was a graduate student back in the 1970s, and I'm sure she encountered much worse sexism than that during graduate school. Shaking her head, she said to me, "You know, I thought we'd moved past comments like that." I think that says it all. Please, let us move past this sexism. 

Things are improving, and fortunately I have never encountered the level of sexism that Bug Girl encountered. I am very impressed at how she managed to persevere in spite of all the blatant sexism. There is still a long way to go to combat sexism in science, but at least progress is being made.