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3 September 2008
Hawaii Field Work – Ground Truth
I posted a while back, right before I left to participate in the NASA Planetary Volcanology Field Workshop, describing what exactly I was going to be doing there. Our goal was to study a set of images and come up with a geologic map of the area, and then actually go to that location (something we can’t usually do for other planets) and see how good our geologic maps were. …
27 August 2008
What Makes Volcanoes Erupt?
The local newspaper here in Ithaca posts weekly science questions, with answers from experts at Cornell. I’ve answered a couple of questions about astronomy in the past, but that’ not why I’m mentioning it. I mention it because today’s question ties in nicely with my recent volcano – themed posts! So if you want to know why volcanoes erupt, check it out! Edit: It looks like the Ithaca journal link …
25 August 2008
Hot Lava: Types of Lava
We’ve talked about how lava becomes molten, now let’s discuss how it behaves once it erupts. As liquid rock erupts from a volcanic vent it is glowing hot and can be very fluid. But, it cools rapidly, and as it does so it behaves more like rock and less like a liquid. Depending on the rate of eruption (among other things) there are two main types of lava flow: a’a …
22 August 2008
Hot Lava: Where does it come from?
You’ve seen it in movies, documentaries, and photographs. Mario and other video game heroes have died countless terrible deaths falling into pits of the stuff, but how much do you really know about lava? Where does it come from? Well, volcanoes. And the lava in volcanoes comes from deep in the earth where everything is molten, right? Wrong! It’s true that as you go deeper into the earth, things heat …
17 August 2008
Shield Volcanoes
I recently returned from a really awesome trip to Hawaii, where I participated in the 2008 NASA Planetary Volcanology workshop! The idea behind the workshop is that planetary scientists who are trying to interpret orbital data of other planets should have some experience doing the same on Earth. Now that I’m back, I have a lot to tell you about volcanoes. Today we will start by talking about shield volcanoes, …
25 July 2008
Hawaii Field Work
I have a pretty cool job. I look at data coming down from spacecraft orbiting around and driving on another planet, and try to figure out what it used to be like there. To be able to interpret images of Mars, it helps to first be able to interpret images of our own planet. And that’s why I’m going to Hawaii in a couple of days! On Saturday, I head …
21 July 2008
Well-Traveled Granite
Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has a nice post about the recent discovery of a piece of granite in Antarctica. You may be thinking: “Oh boy, a rock in Antarctica. What’s the big deal?” The big deal is that this specific piece of granite matches up with granite found in North America, and it means that the two continents were once attached, billions of years ago! Hooray for plate …
21 June 2008
The Great Canadian Adventure – Part 2: Gypsumville and Salt Springs
After our trip to the mine tailings, we headed to the remains of an ancient 40 km impact crater. The crater is totally invisible, but the rocks tell the story plain as day. Our first stop was just outside the town of Gypsumville. We drove through swampy, bumpy back roads into the middle of nowhere and stopped next to an unassuming patch of rock and gravel. At first it didn’t …
20 June 2008
The Great Canadian Adventure: Part 1 – The Price of Gold
After our trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park, where we compared dunes on Earth to those on Mars, we flew up north to Winnipeg, Canada. There we met up with a bunch of geologists and spent three days exploring a bunch of interesting sites in Manitoba. The first site was an old mine tailings dump from a gold mine in the area. When mining for gold, the rocks are …
14 June 2008
Which is Earth?
We had another great day at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve today, with lots of pictures, but it also involved a lot of hiking and I’m tired. So instead of a full post, I will refer you to my adviser’s post about our first day at the dunes, over at the Planetary Society blog. I’m also stealing the image that he posted over there, comparing granule ripples on …
