Each year at this time thousands of tourists embark on cruises along Alaska stunning coastal waters. If they are lucky, the tourists experience dry weather, relatively calm seas, and breathtaking vistas. In some places the ships can get up close and personal to dramatic scenes of glaciers “calving” ice that breaks off and falls into […]
As any child can tell you, the Mesozoic Era ends with the extinction of the dinosaurs. Most geologists think the cause of that extinction was the impact of an enormous meteorite that hit the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. As the theory goes, the impact was so large it led to global changes in the composition […]
Sometimes “solid rock” turns out to be anything but sturdy stuff. Limestone and a couple other related sedimentary rocks are common in some parts of the country, including in Florida.
Not too long ago I rewrote my will, bringing it up to date. There’s nothing like tackling a project like that to remind me of my mortality. But imagine not just your own individual death, but the finality of the death of all members of your species – that’s the idea behind what geologists and […]
Maybe you vote red, or maybe you vote blue. One thing is certain: with the upcoming election, we Americans seem to feel what divides us more keenly than what unites us. But no matter how partisan we are likely to be from now through November, I like to think we can emphatically agree on the […]
PULLMAN, Wash.—In 2004, E. Kirsten Peters, a geologist-turned-newspaper-reporter in Pullman, started writing a monthly column on local rocks and fossils, pulling from her extensive field experience in the area. Today that column has grown in scope and become the nationally syndicated “Rock Doc” columns, distributed twice per month to more than 100 newspapers across the […]
Scientists have studied natural climate change for quite a while. Part of what we have learned about past climates comes from tree rings, and thereon hangs an interesting tale going back more than a century. Flagstaff, Arizona was a pretty small burg in the 1890s, without the street lamps of big cities Back East. It […]
Geology has surely been in the news lately, with the price of petroleum moving relentlessly upward, a threat to global economic recovery because oil is so central to industrial society the world around. But now matters are suddenly worse.
I parked my ample butt on the granite steps and waited in the shade of a campus building. As good as his word, Dan Hanson of Olympus Innov-X came to meet me to show me a real-life device that reminded me of Spock’s tricorder in Star Trek.
With the price of gold over $1,000 per troy ounce, people have asked me if they should sell Great Aunt Edna’s rings and bracelets. Is the price of gold going to go up more based on fears of economic troubles?