Geology in the Headlines!

So if you’ve been tracking my blog you will have noticed that I have pointed out many ways which show that geology is not just about rocks.

To prove just how diverse this subject is, here is a list of some headline news from just this week which are part of geology:

1.       Giant prehistoric toilet unearthed (BBC News)
Now this headline would catch anyone’s eye. I don’t know about you but when I first saw this I imagined quite literally a large (and smelly) place where prehistoric animals went to go and do their business. But when you read the story, you go on to learn more about a specific species which left these traces.

These dinosaurs were called dicynodonts which were large mammal-like reptiles whose diet was entirely plants, making them megaherbivores.  Dinosaur poo which has been preserved is called a coprolite, and in this case they discovered coprolites up to 40cm wide! Finding these is fantastic news for any palaeontologist as they can provide clues to the environment that the animal was in at the time such as; the vegetation around, the food chain and even animal behaviour. Because faeces degrade so easily, finding a site with such good preservation of coprolites was very exciting for the scientific community, and because the story is so relevant to any animals (including us), it makes for a fantastic read:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25126333

2.       Last-minute deal saves fractious UN climate talks (BBC News)

So this story might sound a little dry, but the background story behind this is that the UN is trying to find ways to reduce the negative effects which developed and developing countries may be having on the changing climate. Behind this debate, there are geologists studying past climate change who are researching the effects, timing and frequency of these events to find out as much as possible about how climate change is controlled.   

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25067180

3.       Indonesia raises Sumatra volcano alert to highest status

Now this one is a bit more exciting! Mount Sinabung has been showing signs of eruption recently which means and so the local authorities have been raised from "stand-by" to "caution". This has meant drastic changes for local people who are advised not to go closer than 5km away from the crater and 15,000 villagers in the area have been moved to temporary shelters. As you can imagine this brings masses of disruption to everyday life for these people and it is up to the scientists (including geologists) to determine when it is safe for them to return to their homes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25048531

These are but a few examples this week of how geology and being able to communicate it fit into real world scenarios. Keep an eye out, and when you see an interesting story, take a minute to consider if there is a connection to geoscience, I bet you’ll be surprised by how often there is.

Happy reading!

Mt Merapi School Visit and the CRES Conference!

So today has been quite an exciting one for geoscience communication...

This morning

The day kicked off with a school visit from Kelly College students (local to Plymouth, UK) who had come into Plymouth University just for the morning to do a volcanic hazard session. This involved the students acting as an expert team trying to deal with the hazards of an impending volcanic eruption as and when activities occurred. Each team had three members; a geologist, information co-ordinator and decision maker who needed to work together to make the best decision to minimise the risks associated with the hazard. All of the teams worked well and effectively communicated via posters and radio broadcasts to the communities residing on the volcano.

This was an enjoyable exercise and a great way to get children interested in geology, and this made me think about volcano warning systems in real scenarios. The basic requirements for an effective warning system are:
- Information has to be easily readable.
- The system has to be user friendly.
- The user must have trust in the system to give accurate information.

All of these points have been covered in the GEOWARN Atlas Information System, the key information of which is shown in this image:

This system works excellently as it can be implemented into any volcano hazard program of organizations dealing with hazard assessment and crisis management, without dependence on expensive software. Further information about the development of this system can be read here:

http://cartography.oregonstate.edu/pdf/2005_Hurni_etal_Geowarn.pdf

This afternoon

This afternoon was the CRES (Centre for Research in Earth Sciences) Conference at Plymouth University, where academic staff, students and guest speakers gave short talks about their current research projects. It was fascinating whether you were interested in fossils, climate change, minerals, volcanoes or science communication (or all of them!)

These conferences happen every year and it seems that every year I discover some new aspect of geology which I didn't know about before.

For instance I didn't know that research on characterising mineral surfaces through adsorption may be applied to you and me! For example, if this research identifies definite results, it could eventually lead to the development of research into slow release drugs or long lasting flavours in chewing gum. And this is just one way that geological research could positively effect everyday life.

Most universities, colleges and interest groups hold these conferences and events so if you are interested in attending one, I strongly encourage you to investigate your local organisations. You never know you might discover an interest in something which you didn't even know about!

Happy reading!

Everyday Geology

So far in this blog I have been talking about some of the uses of geology, but I thought it would be good to mention some of the most common uses of different types of rocks.

So lets look at some of the most common things in everyday life and see what they are made of.

Roads. We all use them even if we don't have a car or motorcycle, for walking, the bus or cycling. One of the key ingredients to making the material which is used on roads is basalt. Basalt is an igneous rock formed from rapid cooling of lava. It is then processed to be used and combined with other materials to make road surfaces.

Monuments, sculptures, tombstones and buildings. These can be made of a variety of rock types but the most common ones are granite and marble. Granite is an intrusive igneous rock (i.e. was hot rock which slowly cooled and solidifies below the Earths surface). It is a very common rock within the continental crust.

Marble is very different. It is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallised calcite or dolomite, commonly metamorphosed limestone.

Exfoliating scrubs. These are very light and made of pumice. Pumice is volcanic rock which contains lots of air pockets called vesicles. It looks like foam but is a hard and airy rock which is great for scouring, scrubbing and polishing other surfaces.

Roof tiles. Made of slate. Slate is an metamorphic rock and the heat and pressure which altered the rock and gave it its platey property make it an appropriate material for use on roofs.

So that was a brief look at some common objects we see everyday and what they are made of. I hope this has made you interested in what other everyday items are made of and I hope you are interested enough to go and find out more for yourself.

Happy reading!

The Earth is warming up...but don't panic!

This morning I was flicking through the BBC News website and I came across an article titled ‘Concentrations of warming gases break record’. I read through it and wasn’t surprised to find that according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), atmospheric CO₂ grew more rapidly last year (2012) than its average rise over the past decade. To be exact, the amount grew by 2.2ppm (parts per million) in a year, which may not sound like a lot but is a significant step to make in just a year.

Then it struck me that people are told by the media that gas emissions are increasing and this will cause global warming and the ice caps will melt etc etc, but the question I want to know is what do people really know about global warming?

For instance, do people know that global warming is a completely natural thing and it has happened regularly in the recent past?

Its true! Historical evidence of the natural cycle includes a record of floods on the Nile going back 5,000 years, Roman wine production in Britain in the first century AD and thousands of museum paintings that portray sunnier skies during what is called the Medieval Warming. The Mail online did an article on this (and many other newspapers, articles and programmes have too!) which can be found at the address here for an example:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-481613/Global-warming-Its-natural-say-experts.html#ixzz2jzIcuk5a

So don’t spend your life worrying about whether global warming and climate change is going to ruin it because it has happened in the past, will happen in the future and humans have and will adapt to it through time.

There have been many many scientific journals written about global warming and climate change, so if you are interested in finding out more just type it into google. But remember that there are conflicting views about whether global warming is even real so think about who is writing the article/story and why before taking information as fact.

Happy reading!

The house that rocks!

This afternoon myself, four other students and our professor, Iain Stewart, got together to discuss how we can design an activity that secondary school children could do to make rocks, minerals and fossils more interesting to learn. After discussing some initial ideas Iain took us to see an interesting site where the owner had used rock cuttings to decorate his house!

I thought this house displayed a fantastic arrangement of different rocks from igneous ones like granite to a cutting of a mixture of pebbles (called a breccia).

The man who did this came from a town abroad where all of the houses were made of marble, and so he decorated the exterior of his house here with these slabs of rock because he thought they were beautiful, and I totally agree that they are!

Seeing this today reminded me of an article which I read recently about what the public thought about geology. The article referred to "the deep comprehension gap" which argued that the general public have "empty heads waiting to be filled up by scientific knowledge".

I think that it is becoming increasingly important for the public to understand geology. Especially around topics like climate change, hydrocarbon exploration as these effect how we all live and our way of life.

If you want to know more about this here is the name of the paper that I was referring to earlier:

"Earth stories: context and narrative in the communication of popular geoscience" by Iain Stewart and Ted Nield.

Take a read and let me know what you think. If you have any questions or opinions, feel free to comment below. Happy reading!