Earth Science

Diamonds are just carbon. Colorless diamonds are generally pure carbon, but diamonds of various exotic shades are almost always colored by tiny impurities within the structure of the stone. Graphite, the “lead” in pencils, is pure carbon too. The only…
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New England is supposed to be an awful place to look for gold, but there is more gold in them thar hills then believed. Gold is there, but it is awful hard to find. Newmont Mines has grown to be…
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The sudden shaking of the earth’s surface that drives one out of one’s composure is thought to cause damage worth an estimated 200 billion dollars in the US alone. Earthquakes remain the most hard-to-predict and destructive natural hazards on the…
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Scientists are people who try to understand the world. When you want to understand a thing, the first step is often to describe it in a way that shows its differences from other things that seem like it. A scientist…
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The series of disasters that hit Japan may be far from over. The worst to come may be just over the horizon: a super mega-thrust earthquake that will deliver a devastating blow releasing massive destruction just short of the annihilation…
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We are currently facing a transition that has monumental consequences. The transition to energy independence by the US, in part by alternative sources, is not an easily plotted path. It is a myriad of paths that crisscross environmental, economic, political,…
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This is a list of countries with proven reachable oil reserves in billions of barrels, and is a rough estimate based on the ability to recover the oil by current technological and economical means. * list in billions of barrels…
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What is the disicpline of Geography? At its most fundamental Geography is concerned with the spatial distribution and patterns of practically anything, it is a spatial science, and so although the discipline is one of the most wide ranging, and…
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The San Andreas Fault is a roughly 800m long tectonic boundary that runs straight through California. The Earth is made up of a solid core of iron, then a liquid layer of iron, on top of which is a thick…
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“What is the difference between minerals and rocks?” is one of geology’s basic questions. It’s not really much different from asking, “What is the difference between a brick and a wall?” though, because minerals are the building blocks of rocks,…
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