Why We Need Scientific Ocean Drilling

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced that they will fund only 6 months of scientific ocean drilling on the ship JOIDES Resolution in 2012. There is much need for scientific drilling, but NSF has been debating the expense of ocean drilling in the midst of budget cuts. There's a chance that NSF may choose not to fund any scientific ocean drilling in the near future (The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program ends in 2013), but for now drilling is cut down to just half the year. Since most drilling expeditions take ~2 months, this means only ~3 drilling expeditions will be funded next year.

As a marine geologist, the cut-back of ocean drilling makes me very sad. Ocean drilling provides much valuable scientific information, much of which cannot be obtain except with drilling.

Why is scientific ocean drilling important? My PhD advisor Susan Humphris explains why in this recent EOS article "The Need for Scientific Ocean Drilling."

Blast from the Past: The Rock Cycle

Rock Cycle drawing, circa 1993 or so. Click to view larger.

I'm trying to finish up my packing today, so here's one last gem (for now) from the past: a poem that I wrote in third or fourth grade about the rock cycle. There is also an accompanying drawing (see above). Enjoy!

Blast from the Past: The Goldilocks Planet

Earth, the Goldilocks Planet. Click to view larger.

On Saturday I am leaving Woods Hole to spend the summer in Laramie, Wyoming. Between now and then I have a zillion things to do. I pretty much have to work constantly prepping samples in lab, running the mass spectrometer, packing, and cleaning out my apartment. Oh, and maybe remembering to eat and sleep now and again.

Geology Word of the Week: A is for Accretionary Wedge

Illustration of a convergent plate boundary. I've added a red arrow pointing out the
location of the accretionary wedge. Illustration from TASA graphics and taken from here.
Click to view larger.

def. Accretionary Wedge (aka Accretionary Prism, Subduction Complex):
A wedge- or prism-shaped mass of sediments and rock fragments which has accumulated where a downgoing oceanic plate meets an overriding plate (either oceanic or continental) at a subduction zone. The sediment is generally marine sediment that has been scraped off of the downgoing plate by the overriding plate. However, sediment from the overriding plate can also contribute to the accretionary wedge. Fragments of rock from the colliding tectonic plates can also accumulate in an accretionary wedge.  The sedimentary rocks which form at accretionary wedges are deformed, faulted, poorly-sorted mixtures which are often referred to as "melange" (which means "mixture" in French).

Accretionary Wedge #35: What's Your Favorite Geology Word?

I'm hosting this month's Accretionary Wedge Geoblog Carnival here at Georneys. Since I write about a geology word every week (see the "Geology Word of the Week" tag on the sidebar or the post "A Geologist's Alphabet"), I thought it would be fitting to host an etymological Accretionary Wedge. This month's Accretionary Wedge is easy-- if you want you can post just a single word!

The theme for this month is:

What's your favorite geology word?

You can post just the word if you want. You can also add anything you want-- a definition, some pictures related to the word, a story about the word, a poem, a drawing. Anything at all!

I must warn you, though: if you post about a good word, I may use the word in a future Geology Word of the Week post!

To join the geoblog carnival, just write a post on your blog and then link to it in a comment below or in a comment over at the Accretionary Wedge site. If you don't have a blog, you should start one. If you don't want to start a blog, just type your word in a comment below. Please submit your entries by the 26th or thereabouts so that I can compile them by the end of the month. Happy blogging!

Finally, be sure to check out last month's Accretionary Wedge #34: Weird Geology.

Vote for Me in the 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Contest

The nominations are in for the 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Contest. Now, the general public can vote for which blog posts they like best. The top twenty posts with the most votes will go on to the next round of judging.

If you like this blog or like ophiolites or like me, please go vote for my entry "Georneys: Geology Word of the Week: O is for Ophiolite." You can vote in the 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Contest here. I'm not sure if my post has a chance of winning, but it would be sweet to make it through the voting round to the semi-finals.

If for some reason you don't like ophiolites (though I don't know who doesn't just love ophiolites), I'd also recommend voting for the posts "Highly Allochthonous: Levees and the Illusion of Flood Control" and "Lounge of the Lab Lemming: Dear Hypothesis" as these are two of my favorite recent posts from the geoblogosphere.

Happy voting! I'm spending the evening on the mass spectrometer, but I'll post the next geology word of the week this weekend.

Tornadoes in Massachusetts

Downtown Springfield, MA after the tornado.
Photo by the Associated Press/Jessica Hill and taken from here.

I am moving out of my Cape Cod apartment this week, and today* my dad drove down from New Hampshire to help me. We spent the early afternoon loading a U-Haul trailer with some furniture items my parents and sister wanted-- as well as a dozen or so large boxes of my books and school notes* --and then started on the drive from Cape Cod to New Hampshire via Boston. As we were driving in the Boston area in the late afternoon, we drove through quite the impressive storm. There was downpouring rain and very close thunder and lightning. We drove well under the speed limit, and at times visibility was quite poor. My dad drove the U-Haul, and I followed in my little car with a very long fiberglass racing kayak strapped to the roof. My kayak is very light, and though I tied it on well, I was quite anxious that it might be blown off the roof in the storm. My dad and I passed through at least two distinct thunderstorms, but we made it safely to New Hampshire. My mom was quite fretful for us on the way, however. We didn't realize why she was so concerned about us until we sat down with a late take-out dinner and watched the news.

This evening a State of Emergency was declared in Massachusetts as a result of at least two tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. At least four people have died as a result of the severe weather. The deaths occurred in the towns of Springfield, Westfield, and Brimfield. Looking at this gallery of images of the destruction, I am surprised that there were not more casualties. Thank goodness, most people were able to take shelter in  basements. There are some incredible stories coming out-- people taking random strangers into their basements for shelter, a man who survived a tree and electric line falling on his car, news reporters having to take shelter in the middle of reporting when the thunderstorm became too severe, entire roofs blown away, top floors of brick buildings demolished, short minutes between warning and arrival of the tornado, an interrupted senior prom, people standing outside their demolished homes to prevent looting of what few possessions still remain; the list goes on and on.