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Web resources
Archaeology and the Toba eruption
May 2010
Depending on when fully modern humans left Africa - and that itself depends on evidence that is at odds with any definite resolution - the forebears of the eventual colonisers of the rest of the world may, or may not, have had to survive the effects of the biggest volcanic eruption of the past 2 million years. Around 74 ka the huge, elliptical caldera lake at Toba in Sumatra was formed by a stupendous eruption that threw out 800 km3 of ash (see Ash Wednesday to put this in perspective with recent events). Toba deposited a 15-centimetre ash layer over the entire Indian subcontinent. Toba has taken on a near iconic status among some palaeoanthropologists as a possible means of reducing the entire human population to a mere few thousand: a genetic 'bottleneck' that could have led to rapid evolution among surviving generations that shaped such things as language and culture. Unsurprisingly major efforts are underway to get hard facts about the relationship of fully modern humans to the Toba event, a lot of the work-in-progress being outlined at toba.arch.ox.ac.uk/index.htm.
See also: Balter, M. 2010. Of two minds about Toba's impact. Science, v. 327, p. 1187-1188.
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Must-have mineral site
January 2007
Theo Kloprogge of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia has assembled probably the most comprehensive archive of mineral images in the course of his research. You can access his cyber-collection at www.mineralatlas.com using the alphabetical list of minerals link, and then drool over more than 3650 minerals, each of which has many photographs from various sources. The site also gives a great deal more in terms of optical and chemical information.
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Write about your favourite fossil
November 2006
The success of the online encyclopaedia called Wikipedia stems from millions of people being able to write about their own expertise, and also to add to, revise, correct and update any entry. Building up a knowledge base that way is a lot faster and more agreeable than individual efforts. The authors of a useful website on fossils (www.palaeos.com), begun in 2002, recently ran out of steam. Rather than allow it to become fallow, they have turned it into a wiki (wiki wiki means quickly in the Hawaiian language) at www.palaeos.org. Hopefully it will grow explosively, and I have suggested to my dear friend, Prof Pusiffli, of Sringeri University in Karnataka, India, that he should contribute his hitherto private but astonishing knowledge on fossil hamsters.
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Threatening Earth
October 2006
The US Geological Survey has recently launched its Natural Hazards Gateway at www.usgs.gov/hazards/ to give access to data and educational material on volcanoes, landslides, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires. The coverage is global, naturally with a great deal on the US. The links within USGS and to other agencies are comprehensive. When USGS sets out its stall, it groans with produce.
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Breathing life into `Snowball Earth'
April 2006
Paul Hoffman's hypothesis of episodes, mainly in the late-Precambrian, when Earth was encapsulated in ice from pole to pole has taken repeated knocks since he first proposed it. It seems only natural that he should make the evidence and his ideas more publicly available on the Web—www.snowballearth.org. `Snowball Earth' is a live and important aspect of geoscientific debate, for a whole raft of reasons, and it continually evolves. Although Hoffman does use the site as a vehicle for rebuttals to all the objections that further research has raised, it is a great deal more interesting and useful than that: a very well produced resource for anyone interested in a crucial period—the Neoproterozoic—in the evolution of life. Additionally, it helps budding geoscientists come to grips with the intellectual and experimental processes involved in major advances in knowledge and understanding. Besides which, it will save Hoffman a small fortune in air fares to have his say to live audiences!
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Google Mars
April 2006
Have you exhausted the possibilities in Google Earth—unlikely—then why not try Google Mars (www.google.com/mars)? Well it's a bit early, as the site is still under construction, and does not yet include the features that enrich the Google Earth experience or the full planetary surface. Nevertheless the University of Arizona, which produced the data mosaics, has provided a bright, colour-coded elevation map and mosaiced images in visible and infrared wavelengths that show enough detail to easily examine many of the landforms for which the `Red Planet' has become renowned. It is a fine resource for targeting users to find specific kinds of feature—craters, dunes, water-carved valleys and lava flows. Once complete it should satisfy anyone who wants to explore, probably including those with delusions of `boldly going…' before they become too old and infirm….
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The Digital Earth revolution
March 2006
Launched in July 2005, Google Earth (earth.google.com) has become familiar to many Earth scientists. Some, like me, may have needed encouragement to try it out. Whatever, once up and running on a modern PC with Windows 2000 or XP and broadband connection, even the free version of the software that you need to access Google Earth is compelling, even addictive. It takes no more than a few minutes to realise that it revolutionises teaching of many aspects of Earth science, and will be used too as a top-line research tool by anyone interested in spatial data.
Based primarily on natural-colour images that cover the entire Earth, much at Landsat TM 15-30 m resolution but for some areas using other images that resolve to the order of a couple of metres or better, Google Earth also uses global topographic elevation data. This is where it takes on its revolutionising role. It is easy to view the surface of any part of the planet in oblique perspective, when all topographic and a great many geological features show up dramatically. It is the ultimate 'Swiss Hammer'—mapping the complex geology of the Alps was only possible by viewing exposures in one massif from the vantage point of another. Choosing appropriate zoom factors connects geological features that are on different scales. Design of the database—it is perfectly seamless, except where resolution changes in mostly urban areas—makes it possible at broadband connection speeds to roam in real time at any scale. This allows you to simulate flight at any altitude and with any downward look angle: 'grand tours' to visit all the famous geological sites you have longed for on every continent become simple. The novelty of 3-D simulation also means that there is much to discover.
Sometimes, even in one's homeland, it is possible to get lost, especially at large scale. By turning on GIS layers for rivers and roads (in many areas populated places, even street names and fast-food outlets show) navigation is made easier. It is the linking of images with other kinds of data that gives Google Earth its potential for research power. Designed as an easy-to-use geographic information system, by purchasing professional versions of some GIS software you can add layers interpreted, almost literally, 'on the fly' (Butler, D. 2006. The web-wide world. Nature, v. 439, p. 776-778).
An immediate attraction, both for globe-trotting geoscientists and, more importantly, people engaged in disaster relief, is the way Google Earth makes it easy to become familiar in moderate detail with the terrain that has to be faced. Solving problems of access, assessing where assistance may be most urgently needed is helped enormously by its highly realistic geographic visualisation. Of course, it cuts down the need for very expensive helicopter reconnaissance. Google Earth has already proved invaluable for assessing the aftermath of the October 2005 earthquake in Kashmir. Google facilitates the mosaicing of new images of disaster areas, such as those struck by Hurricane Katrina, and their incorporation into the Google Earth database (Nourbakhsh, I. 2006. Mapping disaster zones. Nature, v. 439, p. 787-788).
A few people get frightened by some of the highest resolution images that are available—even the lines on tennis courts show up—as if their privacy was being invaded. More seriously, some governments worry about security implications of anyone being able to see intimate details of airfields and ports. That is silly—at any time the Quickbird or Ikonos satellites can take a snap of any part of the planet at up to 65 cm resolution for anyone who has the cash to pay for its acquisition; most likely intelligence agencies and military strategists. Privacy, at least from several hundred kilometres above, is a thing of the past. Every geologist would like to get one-metre resolution images of their research areas. If they see something intended to be hidden for one or another reason, they have an obligation to be discrete.
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Movies of Mars
December 2005
One of the most exciting geoscience websites that you can find is hosted by Arizona State University in Tempe. It centres on the capture of thermally emitted infrared radiation from the Martian surface by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter (http://themis.asu.edu). The opening `splash' features thermal images gathered on the fly by THEMIS, as if you were peering down from the spacecraft as it orbits the planet. The movies are not really live, but about 2 weeks old. Nevertheless, they have a hypnotic appeal as one waits to see what is going to turn up—mainly small craters, but sometimes oddities such as the strange terrain of the northern Tharsis Basin that is a tangle of extensional faults that might well be on the floor of the Afar Depression in north-eastern Ethiopia. THEMIS acquires data in several thermal wavelengths, and this is its scientific importance: the multiple channels span the very different emission spectra of silicate minerals.
Using different thermal bands to control the red, green and blue colour guns of a video monitor produces vivid images that are colour-coded for a variety of rock compositions. The great advantage of thermal sensing is that it works at night as well as during the day. So THEMIS images can also tell us a great deal about the way in which rocks heat up and cool, which is another clue to their composition. Having no clouds—there are seasonal dust storms—Mars can be mapped in great geological detail without geologists having to traipse across space and the inhospitable Martian surface. All that a human touch could add would be to bring back some rock samples for geochemists to get their teeth stuck into. What those rock are—basalts, andesites and various sediments—is already becoming known in greater detail than for huge tracts of the Earth's surface. Fortunately, a sister instrument to THEMIS, called ASTER does orbit the Earth to deploy a similar multispectral thermal imaging system. What is hugely annoying is that the Martian data are 5 times sharper than those of the infinitely more interesting Earth. Yet again, NASA has priorities that that are far from those of most of humanity. One excuse regularly given for better resolution from other planets is that of security issues for Earth images….
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Multimedia volcanoes
November 2005
Virtual field trips made possible by the considerable ingenuity of their authors are excellent means of taking school children and even undergraduates to places well off limits or resources. Most are available only on CD or DVD, but those on the web are especially valuable for all with sufficient connection speed to use them. A Swiss educational organisation hosts the work of Italian volcanologists Roberto Carniel and Marco Fulle with Swiss teacher Jürg Alean. They make it possible to experience volcanological life vividly, by `visiting' the famous Stromboli, Ethiopia's Erta Ale lava lake, explosive Montserrat in the Caribean and others.
Visit www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli
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Smithsonian geological timeline
August 2005
A measure of the quality of a science website, apart from its visual appeal, is a mixture of how much it teaches you and what you can snaffle to help teach others. As a point of departure for E-geology, it will be hard to beat the Smithsonian Institutions geotime site (www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/geotime). That's because it focuses first on the history, and if you care to you can discover how that was constructed from the geological record. Its central organiser is a slider that can be zoomed, which lays out the geological past—the literal time line divided into stratigraphic Eons, Eras, Periods and Epochs. Each division is clickable, although zooming in several times is needed to see the Cenozoic Epochs. But, hang on, there is no Ediacaran Period, the newest addition, nor the subdivision of the Proterozoic on the timeline. Whatever, clicking on a division opens a thumbnail sketch of each and links to pages that give more detail on the highlights, plus introductions to the founding concepts behind geological time and unravelling Earth and life processes. There is a glossary, which shows the influence of Encarta and Wikipedia. Here is a chance to learn for hours in a most convenient and engaging way, but graphics are few and far between in the various main panes. There are examples of important fossil organisms, but displayed at a size that lacks satisfying detail. What the site needs are maps and explanatory diagrams, which are available elesewhere. So the Smithsonian needs, I think, to liase a bit with other learning resources in the geosciences. It would be good to have a one-stop shop.
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Tree-ring heaven
May 2005
Growth rings in tree trunks are among the best records of local climate variation that there are: they provide an annual "stratigraphy". So intricate are the records that it has proved possible to match ring sequences in ancient but still growing trees to those found in logs of even greater antiquity, thereby building up a "dendrochronology" that extends back into history. Tree rings help historians to link human affairs to a background of changing conditions for life. Henri Grissino-Mayer of the University of Tennessee has brought together a wealth of dendrochronological information in his Ultimate Tree Ring Pages at web.utk.edu/%7Egrissino/default.html.
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Wanna see an earthquake?
January 2005
Most of us have grown used to thinking that earthquakes have an epicentre at some fixed point beneath the surface. That is not at all true, as the event that set the Boxing Day 2004 tsunamis in motion as been shown to have been a lengthy rip that propagated from Sumatra NNE to the Nicobar Islands, over a period of about an hour. Even quite small earthquakes are distributed and often migrate along a fault line. Christine arson of the University of Colorado has captured what is effectively a movie of a magnitude 8.3 event off the island of Hokkaido, Japan, which can be viewed at spot.colorado.edu/~kristine/tokachi_rupture.gif. The data that she used comes from a network of a thousand highly sensitive GPS receivers set up throughout Japan. Instead of acceleration, measured by conventional seismometers, GPS records actual position in x, y, z coordinates. That enable the actual motions to be imaged as in the movie.
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An electronic antidote to eclecticism
December 2004
It is a plain to me as to any reader that EPN is eclectic, and in some cases pretty impressionist; how else to write a monthly weblog about the broad spectrum of geoscientific developments? So it is good to see websites with a much narrower focus, yet that manage to inform entertainingly and provocatively. Such a site is www.mantleplumes.org, organised by Gillian Foulger of Durham University, currently a visiting scientist with the Volcano Hazards Team at USGS, Menlo Park, USA. It covers the whole of "plumeology" the tectonics, the magmatism, ages and wider features, even ideas about the presence or absence of plume-related features on other planets. It has some powerful contributing essayists, such as Don Anderson and Warren Hamilton, who are not averse to scepticism and critiques, and represent work in progress on a book, Plates, Plumes & Paradigms just submitted to the Geological Society of America—a rare event to see preprints of book chapters. It serves an educational role as well, with well-illustrated and up-to-date reviews of the mechanisms involved in large-igneous provinces., and thumbnails on a continent-by continent basis. Jason Morgan came up with the "hot-spot" idea about 33 years ago and launched a revolutionising force in plate tectonics. It is good to see that there is still a vibrancy about the topic.
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Ancient Art
December 2004
The hallmark of modern human's abilities is the art left behind by our ancestors since about 30-40 thousand years ago. Among the most enigmatic are those by Australian native people, that might date back as far as 50 ka. The first were discovered by Joseph Bradshaw and his brother in the Kimberly Ranges of northern Western Australia in 1891. The Geneva-based Bradshaw Foundation (http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/) is developing a comprehensive archive of rock-art images from across the globe, which will uplift anyone who visits it.
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Three web sites well worth browsing
November 2004
Three web sites that have been suggested are well worth browsing. Bernie Gunn has assembled a monumental database of the geochemistry of volcanic rocks at http://www.geokem.com . That, in itself, is a magnificent resource for anyone working on the topic, but the site also has a comprehensive guide to good laboratory practice that will be invaluable to anyone beginning to work in the field, plus a host of good reference material and links. Its quality is hardly surprising since Bernie has been engaged in geochemical research for more than 3 decades at the University of Montreal. Another dimension to geological web resources is revealed by that compiled by Fettes College in Edinburgh at http://www.fettes.com/shetland. It is an encyclopaedic source of environmental information on one of Britain's many microcosms of Earth science. It ranges from the Shetland Isles' long geological evolution to its present geomorphology. Fettes is a private school, with a glittering roll of alumni. Equally encyclopaedic is http://paleodb.org, which is as near to a global database of palaeontology as you can get at present. One of the highlights is being able to plot occurrences at the genus and species level on interactive maps, as well as browse and analyse the contents statistically. Users do need to know how to spell taxonomic names! Once you have compiled a map (the only trilobite whose name I can spell is Dalmanites! ), you can zoom in. If you click on an occurrence up comes a summary of the locality, with links to other parts of the database, including other fossils at the locality. Wisely, location detail is crude enough to deter collectors from ravaging sites. The database is compiled by 140 contributors in 11 countries. This a site for specialists, but a beginner can learn a great deal from it.
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Mineralogy links
October 2004
Information on mineralogy is often hard to find on the web, so the University of Wurzburg Institute of Mineralogy in Germany has created a comprehensive set of links that cover a wealth of topics. They include teaching materials at different levels, information on experimental and analytical techniques, thermobarometry, mineral descriptions and crystallography, economic mineralogy, gemmology and much more besides. Go to http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/mineralogie/links.html
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National Geochemical Survey of the USA
January 2004
The US Geological Survey has made publicly available a large repository of geochemical data (63 of the 91 naturally occurring elements) that it has acquired through a continuing nation-wide survey of stream sediments (available at http://tin.er.usgs.gov/geochem/doc/home.htm). The data coverage is incomplete and involves several generations of previous surveys. The most revealing stream sediment surveys involve collection of panned sediment samples in every small stream that has no upstream tributary, but that is a daunting task for such a vast area as the USA. That method allows the analyses to be treated as accurate representations of stream sediment composition in upstream catchments around 1 x 1 km in size. The USGS data are a mixed bunch, some dating from the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) of the 1970s when there was a scramble to find new uranium ore bodies. The NURE survey involved a sample density based on a 17 x 17 km grid, and made no distinction between stream order. The latest USGS survey is based on sample collection that uses 10 x 10 km grids drawn in the UTM co-ordinate system. Each 10 x 10 km cell is divided into four quadrants, and one is selected at random for sampling. In that one small stream selected at random is chosen for analysis. The data set is too coarse and too varied to create meaningful gridded interpolations that can be displayed as continuous tone images, unlike comparable geochemical atlases based on systematic, small-stream sampling, such as that developed for commercial leasing by the British Geological Survey. The NGS data will be a useful resource for scanning broad geochemical features of the country, such as for high levels of potentially toxic elements in water, bearing in mind that the analyses are of solid minerals not the water itself.
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"Plumeology" site
January 2004
The last issue of EPN showed that the debate over mantle plumes, their sources, and even their existence is hotting up (see Geoscience consensus challenged in EPN January 2004). However that pans out, vast areas of continental and submarine flood basalts compel geoscientists to ponder over them, the more so because they represent events never witnessed by humans and are therefore unimaginable. Now they have their own website (http://www.mantleplumes.org/) that has been compiled by Gillian Foulger of Durham University. It is an impressive and highly useful resource, the outstanding feature being pages on most aspects of large igneous provinces written by experts who are also excellent communicators. There is even a linked site at the Geological Society that hosts discussion on the Great Plume Debate, as well as a letters page, links and up to date news. For information, without unnecessary frills, this is the place to go, especially if you have to write an essay!
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Smithsonian Dynamic Earth site
August 2003
The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History has a new and evolving Earth science website at www.mnh.si.edu/earth (Flash 6 and printable versions). Currently only the Rocks and Mining section is up and running, but it is instructive at the introductory level. To come are sections on gemstones, plate tectonics and the Solar System. There are also downloads and a geogallery. It is somewhat slow in Flash using a normal dial-up connection., but the printable version has no images. With a fast connection, this is likely to become a favourite for elementary visualisation of Earth processes.
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Dinosaurs galore
August 2003
They are all at www.dinodata.net, seriously! Dutch enthusiast, Fred Bervoets puts a vast resource and copious links at anyone's disposal, even including a forum and a chat rooms. Technical drawings and artistic impressions of many species are there, together with guides to where specimens can be seen in museums, and major fossil sites. Skin, eggs, diet, controversies, companion species and sources for replicas……
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Impact database
July 2003
The University of New Brunswick, Canada, maintains an illustrated archive of information on terrestrial impact craters. It lists 169, with exact co-ordinates for each and much other information besides. Many have satellite, aerial and/or ground images, plus full lists of references for each. The URL is http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/
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Astronauts' snaps
June 2003
When directing The Greatest Story Ever Told George Stevens was unimpressed by John Wayne's delivery of his only line at the very end of the film. Stevens said, "You have to deliver with a little more awe, John". And so we have one of the great conclusions in cinema history, "Aw, he truly was…..". Astronauts have had a fair number of those "Aw" moments, and thankfully, most have them have carried cameras. They captured a great many views of odd and awesome phenomena and features of the Earth as they passed over. There are a great many (around 400 thousand), and NASA has compiled the best views of Earth's surface on its new site at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/EFS/. I put in "faults" to see what came up; there were 184 images from every continent. Downloads are in two sizes, 300 kb and 13 Mb, so the images are of very high quality. The entire archive is searchable at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/.
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USGS photographic archive
May 2003
The US Geological Survey has placed 16 thousand of its archived field photographs on the web, at print-quality resolution. They can be accessed at http://libraryphotos.er.usgs.gov and carry no copyright, so anyone can use them for illustration of lectures or textbooks (it would be polite to acknowledge the USGSs generosity). The photos date back to the earliest days of geological research in the United States, and are in black and white, and colour. Although still under development, the site's search engine works well and quickly. Putting in "unconformity" and "thrust" yielded 31 and 52 pictures, respectively. However, trying to find the highly photogenic thrust of grey Cambrian limestones over Permian redbeds west of Las Vegas in Nevada drew a surprising blank. Every geological survey holds enormous archives of photographs that never see the light, so the USGS initiative ought to encourage others to follow suit. In particular, it would be great news if the British Geological Survey, the world's oldest, did likewise, instead of just generating a meagre flow of funds by selling a minute proportion of its collection as postcards.
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"Greenhouse" gas website
April 2003
Dave Reay of the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh has developed an extremely useful website that covers all the breaking news about "greenhouse" gases and climate change at www.ghgonline.org, which is easy to navigate and regularly updated. It contains links to on-line publications and a comprehensive Links page.
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Digital library of educational web sites
March 2003
The Digital Library for Earth Systems Education now has a site that can act as a gateway to thousands of Earth Science web sites that provide educational materials from school to professional level (www.dlese.org) . There is a comprehensive range of topics, and a potentially useful enhancement is part which announces conferences and discussion groups.
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Devonian art
March 2003
The Devonian Period witnessed sudden diversification of vertebrate animals, including the first amphibians. The oceans were teeming with other life forms. Museums have for a long while commissioned artists to create dioramas of ancient seas that express part of their diversity. Using gaming software, British artist Christian Darkin is in the process of developing an interactive Devonian diorama, eventually intended for museum use. His work in progress can be viewed at www.geocities.com/christiandarki/fish.htm . You will need the Macromedia Shockwave plug in, downloadable direct from Darkin's site, and a higher speed connection than with a normal modem. However, the experience is dramatic and informative.
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Frightened by impacts?
February 2003
If so, the site to visit is at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( www.jpl.nasa.gov/templates/flash/neo/neo.htm ). The Near Earth Objects team has designed the site for general education about the kinds of space chunks that might strike, the risks involved and what will probably happen when we get very unlucky.
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Volcano Webcams
January 2003
CCTV not only infests every street, trunk road and office block, but is beginning to be trained on volcanoes. The US Geological Survey maintains a web site that links to more than 40 Webcams pointed at active volcanoes, including St Helen's, Fuji, Ruapehu and Etna (http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Photo/volcano_cams.html). So, volcanologists, make sure your sensors, hard hats and reflective suits are packed, ready to go. You can keep an eye out for your volcano starting to blow, even as you are eating your Rice Crispies!
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United States geological database
January 2003
As well as organising its geographic information, including topographic maps and digital elevation data, into a seamless browseable whole (Brown, K, 2002. Mapping the future. Science, v. 298, p. 1874-1875), the US Geological Survey has launched a national geological database from which anyone can download a vast amount of information in 100 categories (geode.usgs.gov).
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Landsat images as art
January 2003
A new web site at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthasart) enables you to view, download and order some of the most dramatic and aesthetically pleasing images captured by the Landsat programme.
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Climate change data from satelites
December 2002
Among the many regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, that spanning microwaves most easily penetrates the atmosphere. Most people are familiar with radar images, produced by actively illuminating the Earth's surface with microwaves. However, the Earth also radiates microwaves, depending on surface temperature. A great deal of information can be gleaned from this upwelling radiation, about surface temperature and at different levels in the atmosphere, rainfall, wind speed and soil moisture. NASA, in partnership with several US universities, has launched public access to passive microwave data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and NOAA-15 satellites at pm-esip.nsstc.nasa.gov. Data go back 5 years, and include comparisons of daily air temperatures with the 20-year average.
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Florida Department of Environmental Protection—www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/
November 2002
The department’s site combines high-quality educational media and scientific data about those environmental aspects of Florida that are unique. You can access downloadable AutoCAD *.dxf files showing geological maps from the county
level to smaller scales plus other GIS files, lithological logs from boreholes and detailed information on the State’s oil and gas industry. Currently featured on its home page is a related web site about Florida’s unique hydrogeology and its famous springs. A well-designed, easy to use site.
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