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Friday Headlines, October 4, 2019 THE LATEST IN THE GEOSCIENCES Topics from this week in EES 101 - Earth Systems Science Bubblegum rockThe 2011 Japan Earthquake The Origin of the Rose Quartz Monument This week was the annual week of the Mount Hope Cemetery field trip for my Introduction to the Geological Sciences course. It’s … Continue reading Friday Headlines – October 4, 2019 – #UREES101

Friday Headlines, September 27, 2019 THE LATEST IN THE GEOSCIENCES This week in geology Puerto Rico can't win This week in the environment Where Machu Piccu is is the fault of the faults Already bracing for tropical depression, Puerto Rico rocked by 6.0 earthquake In recent years, Puerto Rico has been in the news most … Continue reading Friday Headlines – September 27, 2019 – #UREES101

Friday Headlines, September 20, 2019 THE LATEST IN THE GEOSCIENCES This week in geology A new mineral in a diamond This week in the environment Hurricanes forming like roaches A Strange, Previously Unknown Mineral Has Been Discovered in a Single Diamond Speck Inside of a diamond found from deep within the diamond mines of South … Continue reading Friday Headlines – September 20, 2019 – #UREES101

Friday Headlines, September 13, 2019 THE LATEST IN THE GEOSCIENCES This week in geology The lost continent below Europe This week in the environment How high can sea level rise? There's a Lost Continent Hiding Beneath Europe Europe is marked by contorted mountain ranges, related to the subduction of the African tectonic plate below the … Continue reading Friday Headlines – September 13, 2019 – #UREES101

Friday Headlines, September 6, 2019 THE LATEST IN THE GEOSCIENCES This week in geology Is Pluto a planet or what? This week in the environment What caused the little ice age and the medieval warm period? Why Pluto isn't a planet - And might become one again When I was a kid, Pluto was the … Continue reading Friday Headlines – September 6, 2019 – #UREES101

Friday Headlines, August 30, 2019 THE LATEST IN THE GEOSCIENCES This week in geology Volcanic eruption in Italy This week in the environment Can burning forests cause climate change? Spectacular Stromboli eruption sends people fleeing for cover Italy's volcanic island of Stromboli erupted on August 29 in dramatic fashion. View this post on Instagram Eruzione … Continue reading Friday Headlines – August 30, 2019 – #UREES101

X is for Xenarthra The Xenarthra is a group of mammals known for a “strange joint” (what ‘xenarthra’ roughly translates to) in their vertebral column. Xenarthrans include sloths and armadillos, and the extinct giant ground sloths and massive armored glyptodonts. That some sloths were massive leads scientists to question what made up the diet of … Continue reading X is for Xenarthra #AtoZChallenge

W is for Wax Leaves tend to cover themselves with wax to prevent water loss. This is convenient for us, because leaf waxes are often preserved in rocks. Analyses of these waxes can provide isotopic values for carbon, which can tell us about the plants present and general information about paleoenvironments. With specialized extractions, hydrogen … Continue reading W is for Wax #AtoZChallenge

V is for Vienna Vienna, Austria is the home of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA is the organization which determines the values of and distributes international isotopic reference materials such as SMOW and NBS-19. When laboratories run analyses, all results are reported with respect to international reference scales. For SIREAL, the scales … Continue reading V is for Vienna #AtoZChallenge

U is for Uranium Uranium is known best for its radioactive isotopes. As scientists working with stable isotopes - and light ones at that - we regularly grapple with the misconception that anything called an “isotope” is radioactive and is a potential component of dirty bombs. Uranium has many isotopes, all of which are radioactive, … Continue reading U is for Uranium #AtoZChallenge