Rock Blog

NASA has an out of print book available online:  Geomorphology From Space: A Global Overview of Regional Landforms.  The book illustrates, describes and analyses major kinds of landforms (tectonics, fluvial, aeolian, etc.) through satellite imagery, complemented with maps and ground photos.

I really like the Tectonics section – provides nice regional summaries of areas that crop up in my course – either material I’m covering directly or areas that the students are researching.  The descriptions are not for the feint of heart for sure – quite a bit of terminology that would need to be explained to a non-technical audience, but it would work well for some tectonics activities in the course.

Just wanted to note the Canadian locations for Tectonics:

• Plate T-9, Cordilleran Accretionary Terranes
  http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/by-location/GEO_2/GEO_PLATE_T-9.shtml
• Plate T-15, Grenville Front (Canadian Shield)
  http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/GEO_2/GEO_PLATE_T-15.shtml
• Plate T-16, the Labrador Trough
  http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/GEO_2/GEO_PLATE_T-16.shtml
• Plate T-17, Western Canadian Shield
  http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/GEO_2/GEO_PLATE_T-17.shtml
• Plate T-18, Bathurst Island Group
  http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphology/GEO_2/GEO_PLATE_T-17.shtml

I always think of England as your basic passive coastal margin. You get some good storms, but all that geological madness that we in BC experience…. why that is simply not done in England….

Silly me… Tsunamis have some good reach…

Tsunami Swamped England 400 Years Ago, Study Says

The Earth Science Picture of the Day for September 10, 2006 is beautiful. If you ever wanted to explain photosynthesis – and the release of oxygen into the atmosphere that results – look to a photo like this one. Wow!

I’m not sure where I originally found this, but its been listed as an unpublished entry on another blog of mine.

Census of Marine Life:

This site:

The Census of Marine Life is a growing global network of researchers in more than 70 nations engaged in a ten-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans — past, present, and future.

The Christian Science Monitor article, “Beyond and Below the Blue Horizon“, reviews two exploration areas – space and ocean.

Its always interesting to explore the similarities and differences in approach to exploration. Regardless of desitination, both sites are packed with excellent educaitonal resources and multimedia:

NASA: Project Constellation – http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/constellation_front/index.html
NOAA: Ocean Explorer – http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/.

From a Geoscience perspective, the NOAA site holds more allure…

Each of exploration zone website provides background geology information. I especially like the “Ring of Fire” information. Rich, rich data and information provided.

UBC Aerial View

Originally uploaded by mnlamberson.

This photo shows some of the elements that need to be considered when describing the erosional dynamics of Point Grey.

Ranier

Originally uploaded by mnlamberson.

Mount Ranier, Washington — a 14,000+ ft stratovolcano located in Washington state, USA. Note Mt St Helens in the distance a haunting shadow of this giant volcano.

Dune

Originally uploaded by mnlamberson.

I am just testing the link from Flickr to this weblog….

Big Dune in Imperial Valley, CA (I think)

So much of what we get is the western view of the history of science. I was delighted to run across this resource, which I really must go back and examine thoroughly:

Copyright 1999, from the History of Science Society
An Introduction to the History of Science in Non-Western Traditions

edited by: Douglas Allchin and Robert DeKosky

The publication covers China, India, Africa, Native America, Latin America, Australia and the Pacific and Japan.

The History of Science Society has some other interesting resources at: http://www.hssonline.org/teach_res/index.html

This link points to another of the Geological Society of America’s Rock Star Series. This entry is also wrriten by retired member of the Geological Survey of Canada, Charles H. Smith, and covers George Mercer Dawson.

George Mercer Dawson: Pioneer Explorer of Western Canada

This is an Adobe Acrobat file. AN HTML version is available online.

EOSC 311 Students: this entry is relevant to Module 2.