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"title": "Dinosaur Extinction: New Research Favors Volcanism as Cause",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_25257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/western-ghats-hari-ratan.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/western-ghats-hari-ratan.jpg\" alt=\"Deccan Traps\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25257\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The colossal lava beds of the Deccan Traps are well exposed in the Western Ghats range of western India. Many scientists blame them, not just the Chicxulub asteroid impact, for the demise of the dinosaurs in the so-called K-T extinction. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/ratan/\">Hari Ratan\u003c/a>/\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/\">CC-BY-NC-ND\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What made the dinosaurs go extinct? This scientific question has been fraught with controversy since the 1800s. For a while, starting in the 1980s, it seemed like everybody had settled on one cause: an asteroid impact from outer space. That’s what the textbooks say nowadays and that’s “what everyone knows.” But researchers, most of whom have been ignored and even shouted down, have kept on collecting evidence that favors an alternative. The case for their favored cause—volcanism—is bolstered by \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/12/10/science.aaa0118\">a paper in last week’s issue of the journal \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dinosaur fossils appear in the rocks throughout the long Cretaceous Period, but disappear at its end approximately 66 million years ago (except for the birds, which live on today). It wasn’t just dinosaurs either: other land animals suffered too, and about half of all plant species disappeared. In the oceans, the large sea lizards known as mosasaurs vanished, along with the long-necked plesiosaurs and coiled shellfish known as ammonoids. Just as with land plants, the species of floating algae in the sea, the base of the ocean’s food web, were devastated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arguments have long raged over what caused this mass extinction, typically called the “K-T event” because it marks the boundary between the Cretaceous Period (marked “K” on geologic maps) and the Tertiary Period that followed. Changes in sea level, climate, and ocean chemistry were the preferred candidates for many decades, and studies have shown that each of these can be nasty enough to cause large waves of extinction. Other, more novel suggestions included waves of disease, bursts of supernova radiation and evolutionary chaos. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 1980, two new “bombshell” candidates arose: a gigantic episode of volcanic activity and a gigantic cosmic impact. The impact theory, invented at UC Berkeley, is \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event\">so well known\u003c/a> you can chat about it at parties. It’s plausible science and a great story besides. The main problem is that the K-T mass extinction appears to have started before the impact and continued after it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The volcanic theory is just as plausible, especially after 30 years of research. Giant eruption episodes are blamed for causing several other mass extinctions. And lava flows built a stupendous pile of basalt the size of France, called the Deccan Traps, in the heart of India around the time of the K-T event. Large amounts of lava emit sulfur gases and carbon dioxide. Either of these gases could disturb global climate and the chemistry of the ocean. If enough lava were erupted all at once, the effects of both gases would look like an instantaneous blow in the geologic record. The main problem with the Deccan Traps is that its exact age and chronology are poorly known.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discussion is very complex, but the root difficulty is that in the record of the rocks, geologic time is extremely foreshortened. A bed of stone no thicker than a handspan can represent a hundred thousand years of time or more, and a massive layer hundreds of feet thick might have been the work of one catastrophic week. Microfossils are a well established yardstick in geologic time, but lava flows don’t have any. Magnetic techniques don’t work on every rock either. Isotopic methods that tell a rock’s age typically reach a precision as good as around 1 percent—but that still means uncertainties of a million years or so. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/12/10/science.aaa0118\">the latest paper in \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>\u003c/a> comes in. \u003ca href=\"http://www.princeton.edu/geosciences/people/schoene/\">Blair Schoene\u003c/a> of Princeton University and four co-authors visited the Deccan Traps and managed to find examples of lava containing tiny crystals of the mineral zircon. These allowed them to date the rocks in Princeton’s newest lab using the uranium-lead method, the gold standard of isotopic dating. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zircon is not found in basalt. Schoene’s team had to find microscopic crystals of it in scattered beds of volcanic ash, representing rare explosive eruptions of lava with a different composition. Zircon samples from high and low positions in the 10,000-foot lava pile enabled them to show that Deccan eruptions crossed the K-T boundary, lasting from about 250,000 years before it to 500,000 years afterward. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a simple finding, but it means that the volcanism people have kicked down the door and taken seats at the table where the K-T event is being discussed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The volcanic theorists have been gathering evidence for a long time. It shows that truly monstrous eruptions took place that sent lava flows entirely across the Indian subcontinent. The emissions of gases that accompanied those flows would have wrought havoc with the atmosphere, disturbed the ocean circulation, and made the extinctions of the time entirely plausible, even without a giant impact. The new dates for the volcanism jibe with microfossil evidence, making their case doubly strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the impact theorists have shown a strong, almost visceral resistance to the volcanism argument. Indeed, at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union going on this week in San Francisco, a group of Berkeley scientists is presenting an argument that the worst of the Deccan eruptions was simply triggered by the impact, which leaves volcanism secondary and their favored theory supreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the volcanic K-T hypothesis is useful science, even if it’s wrong, because today’s global warming is driven by the same processes—a geologically sudden blast of greenhouse gases. If we can model the K-T event in detail and find its predicted signs in the rocks, we can have more confidence in the models we use today to forecast global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The demise of the dinosaurs could have resembled the assassination of Rasputin, who according to legend was poisoned, stabbed, shot and drowned. As one coauthor of the \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> paper, Gerta Keller, has put it \u003ca href=\"http://rock.geosociety.org/Store/detail.aspx?id=spe505\">in a recent book on the volcanic theory\u003c/a>, “Ultimately, the effects of volcanism, impacts, sea-level and climate changes (warming and cooling), ocean acidification, ocean anoxia, and atmospheric changes have to be considered in any extinction scenario in order to understand the causes and consequences of mass extinctions. Moreover, these data hold the keys to help us understand, and cope with, the looming environmental and extinction crises in the modern world.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discussion is very complex, but the root difficulty is that in the record of the rocks, geologic time is extremely foreshortened. A bed of stone no thicker than a handspan can represent a hundred thousand years of time or more, and a massive layer hundreds of feet thick might have been the work of one catastrophic week. Microfossils are a well established yardstick in geologic time, but lava flows don’t have any. Magnetic techniques don’t work on every rock either. Isotopic methods that tell a rock’s age typically reach a precision as good as around 1 percent—but that still means uncertainties of a million years or so. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s where \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/12/10/science.aaa0118\">the latest paper in \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>\u003c/a> comes in. \u003ca href=\"http://www.princeton.edu/geosciences/people/schoene/\">Blair Schoene\u003c/a> of Princeton University and four co-authors visited the Deccan Traps and managed to find examples of lava containing tiny crystals of the mineral zircon. These allowed them to date the rocks in Princeton’s newest lab using the uranium-lead method, the gold standard of isotopic dating. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zircon is not found in basalt. Schoene’s team had to find microscopic crystals of it in scattered beds of volcanic ash, representing rare explosive eruptions of lava with a different composition. Zircon samples from high and low positions in the 10,000-foot lava pile enabled them to show that Deccan eruptions crossed the K-T boundary, lasting from about 250,000 years before it to 500,000 years afterward. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a simple finding, but it means that the volcanism people have kicked down the door and taken seats at the table where the K-T event is being discussed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The volcanic theorists have been gathering evidence for a long time. It shows that truly monstrous eruptions took place that sent lava flows entirely across the Indian subcontinent. The emissions of gases that accompanied those flows would have wrought havoc with the atmosphere, disturbed the ocean circulation, and made the extinctions of the time entirely plausible, even without a giant impact. The new dates for the volcanism jibe with microfossil evidence, making their case doubly strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the impact theorists have shown a strong, almost visceral resistance to the volcanism argument. Indeed, at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union going on this week in San Francisco, a group of Berkeley scientists is presenting an argument that the worst of the Deccan eruptions was simply triggered by the impact, which leaves volcanism secondary and their favored theory supreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the volcanic K-T hypothesis is useful science, even if it’s wrong, because today’s global warming is driven by the same processes—a geologically sudden blast of greenhouse gases. If we can model the K-T event in detail and find its predicted signs in the rocks, we can have more confidence in the models we use today to forecast global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The demise of the dinosaurs could have resembled the assassination of Rasputin, who according to legend was poisoned, stabbed, shot and drowned. As one coauthor of the \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> paper, Gerta Keller, has put it \u003ca href=\"http://rock.geosociety.org/Store/detail.aspx?id=spe505\">in a recent book on the volcanic theory\u003c/a>, “Ultimately, the effects of volcanism, impacts, sea-level and climate changes (warming and cooling), ocean acidification, ocean anoxia, and atmospheric changes have to be considered in any extinction scenario in order to understand the causes and consequences of mass extinctions. Moreover, these data hold the keys to help us understand, and cope with, the looming environmental and extinction crises in the modern world.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "L.A.'s \"Resilience By Design\" Report Lays Out Ambitious Earthquake Infrastructure Plan",
"headTitle": "L.A.’s “Resilience By Design” Report Lays Out Ambitious Earthquake Infrastructure Plan | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24878\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/softstorynorthridge.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24878\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/softstorynorthridge.jpg\" alt=\"Soft-story building in Northridge, Calif.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This soft-story apartment building collapsed during the Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994. A Los Angeles city task force has outlined new efforts to retrofit such buildings before a truly major earthquake in Southern California. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazardimages/picture/show/373\">J. Dewey, USGS/NOAA\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti established a Seismic Safety Task Force, chaired by his Science Advisor for Seismic Safety, Dr. Lucy Jones, and gave the group a year to create a plan to tackle the city’s most important earthquake threats. \u003ca href=\"http://www.lamayor.org/earthquake\">Published this week\u003c/a>, the Task Force’s report “Resilience by Design” promises to set in motion a program of activities as momentous as anything in state history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force started with the ShakeOut earthquake scenario, a scientific model that calculates as closely as possible what an earthquake the size of the one that struck San Francisco in 1906—a magnitude 7.8 event—would do if it hit Southern California today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There would be about 1800 deaths, which is a very small number compared to the 88,000 who died in 2008 in Chengdu, China (M 7.9) or the 200,000-plus in Haiti in 2010 (M 7.0). Good building codes have reduced the risk to lives in California. But the report also measures catastrophe in dollars and jobs and economic destruction: “$213 billion of economic losses across Southern California, consisting of: $47.7 billion due to shaking damage; $65 billion due to fire damage; $96.2 billion due to business interruption costs; and $4.3 billion due to traffic delays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force’s major recommendations aim at the city’s weakest weak points: water, communications and buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>WATER:\u003c/b> The report estimates that 1600 fires would start after its scenario earthquake. The aqueducts that carry water to Los Angeles cross the San Andreas fault in no less than 32 places. Getting them flowing again would take at least a year. Naturally the report recommends fortifying them all. And backup water sources, ranging from recycling and rainwater capture to refurbishing the San Fernando Valley’s groundwater basin, have valuable parts to play. Because firefighting doesn’t need drinking-quality water, alternative supplies for that purpose can help spare the best water for other purposes, like drinking and making a living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>COMMUNICATIONS:\u003c/b> Our lives rely on television, radio, phones, data connections. The electric power grid also crosses the San Andreas (as do the gas lines that support generators), and it’s run by a crazy-quilt of agencies. The report recommends that the city join those agencies in a consortium to work out plans in advance for broken power lines and cascading failures across the grid. Cellular towers need to be fortified as opportunities come up. And as a backup to everything, there should be a citywide, solar-powered Wi-Fi system (which would piggyback on the upcoming \u003ca href=\"http://ita.lacity.org/ForResidents/CommunityBroadband/LACBNProject/index.htm\">Los Angeles Community Broadbank Network\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BUILDINGS:\u003c/b> Because “no building code in the world is retroactive,” the report says that the greatest losses would come from two classes of structures built before 1980 under old building codes: about 16,000 “soft-story” buildings and about 1400 “non-ductile” reinforced concrete buildings. Soft-story buildings are wood-frame structures with big open spaces (usually parking or shops) on their ground floors. Apartments in these buildings are subject to rent stabilization, and they house a sizeable population. Pre-1980 concrete buildings, which aren’t tied together with enough steel to withstand strong shaking, are described in the report as “among the deadliest buildings in earthquakes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All Angelenos, collectively, should care about these buildings because each one that fails can get the whole neighborhood red-tagged, sometimes for weeks. And retrofitting them for greater strength is a well-known procedure. The report contains suggested legislation that would require the owners of soft-story buildings to document them (by reporting that they have or haven’t been fixed) within 1 year and fix them within 5 years, and that concrete buildings be documented within 5 years and fixed within 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Somehow we must encourage the owners of these and other building types to keep improving them beyond the minimum. The report recommends a \u003ca href=\"http://www.usrc.org/rating-definitions\">proposed five-star rating system\u003c/a> to clarify everyone’s understanding. One-star buildings would be deadly; three-star buildings meet code and would not kill you, although they may well be a total loss anyway; and five-star buildings have the most advanced designs and would likely stay usable. Such a “safety star” rating should become as widely known as the LEED “green building” ratings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The steps recommended for water and communications are no surprise. They’ll be expensive, but they’re good subjects for bonds and federal funding, and the work can be done with expertise and oversight. However, the recommendations for buildings will touch the general public, and the necessary costs will surely concern different parties. Can landlords make their tenants pay for the retrofits? Will businesses pay higher rents for stronger buildings? There will be efforts to issue bonds and proposals to extend loans. Settling these matters in ways everyone can accept is what politics is for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It will help to remember what’s at stake. Recall what happened to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, its “big one,” in 2005. Not only did it take an immediate $100 billion hit in damages, but over 200,000 residents moved away and haven’t come back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Image1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24879\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Image1.png\" alt=\"New Orleans after Katrina\" width=\"600\" height=\"404\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lucy Jones uses this graph in her talks to show that natural disasters can cripple a great city for decades. Unlike Nashville, a city of comparable economic strength, New Orleans has fallen and is still struggling to get up. The international insurer Swiss Re has estimated that Los Angeles presents a colossal risk of catastrophic losses from earthquakes, surpassed only by Tokyo, Manila and Jakarta. (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now consider Los Angeles, many times larger—can we risk such a fate for America’s second largest city? Recall what happened to San Francisco in 1906, at the time America’s sixth-largest city—the effects of its “big one” led directly to the nationwide recession and financial crisis of 1907.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program laid out in “Resilience by Design” is aimed at building resilience—flexible strength—against those kinds of threats. The report is the first step in “a new proactive science-based approach toward resilience” and will get close attention in Northern California, in Sacramento, and (one hopes) in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles is part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.100resilientcities.org/\">100 Resilient Cities project\u003c/a>. So are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/05/four-bay-area-cities-selected-as-future-models-of-resilience/\">San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24878\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/softstorynorthridge.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24878\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/softstorynorthridge.jpg\" alt=\"Soft-story building in Northridge, Calif.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This soft-story apartment building collapsed during the Northridge earthquake of January 17, 1994. A Los Angeles city task force has outlined new efforts to retrofit such buildings before a truly major earthquake in Southern California. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazardimages/picture/show/373\">J. Dewey, USGS/NOAA\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti established a Seismic Safety Task Force, chaired by his Science Advisor for Seismic Safety, Dr. Lucy Jones, and gave the group a year to create a plan to tackle the city’s most important earthquake threats. \u003ca href=\"http://www.lamayor.org/earthquake\">Published this week\u003c/a>, the Task Force’s report “Resilience by Design” promises to set in motion a program of activities as momentous as anything in state history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force started with the ShakeOut earthquake scenario, a scientific model that calculates as closely as possible what an earthquake the size of the one that struck San Francisco in 1906—a magnitude 7.8 event—would do if it hit Southern California today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There would be about 1800 deaths, which is a very small number compared to the 88,000 who died in 2008 in Chengdu, China (M 7.9) or the 200,000-plus in Haiti in 2010 (M 7.0). Good building codes have reduced the risk to lives in California. But the report also measures catastrophe in dollars and jobs and economic destruction: “$213 billion of economic losses across Southern California, consisting of: $47.7 billion due to shaking damage; $65 billion due to fire damage; $96.2 billion due to business interruption costs; and $4.3 billion due to traffic delays.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force’s major recommendations aim at the city’s weakest weak points: water, communications and buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>WATER:\u003c/b> The report estimates that 1600 fires would start after its scenario earthquake. The aqueducts that carry water to Los Angeles cross the San Andreas fault in no less than 32 places. Getting them flowing again would take at least a year. Naturally the report recommends fortifying them all. And backup water sources, ranging from recycling and rainwater capture to refurbishing the San Fernando Valley’s groundwater basin, have valuable parts to play. Because firefighting doesn’t need drinking-quality water, alternative supplies for that purpose can help spare the best water for other purposes, like drinking and making a living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>COMMUNICATIONS:\u003c/b> Our lives rely on television, radio, phones, data connections. The electric power grid also crosses the San Andreas (as do the gas lines that support generators), and it’s run by a crazy-quilt of agencies. The report recommends that the city join those agencies in a consortium to work out plans in advance for broken power lines and cascading failures across the grid. Cellular towers need to be fortified as opportunities come up. And as a backup to everything, there should be a citywide, solar-powered Wi-Fi system (which would piggyback on the upcoming \u003ca href=\"http://ita.lacity.org/ForResidents/CommunityBroadband/LACBNProject/index.htm\">Los Angeles Community Broadbank Network\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BUILDINGS:\u003c/b> Because “no building code in the world is retroactive,” the report says that the greatest losses would come from two classes of structures built before 1980 under old building codes: about 16,000 “soft-story” buildings and about 1400 “non-ductile” reinforced concrete buildings. Soft-story buildings are wood-frame structures with big open spaces (usually parking or shops) on their ground floors. Apartments in these buildings are subject to rent stabilization, and they house a sizeable population. Pre-1980 concrete buildings, which aren’t tied together with enough steel to withstand strong shaking, are described in the report as “among the deadliest buildings in earthquakes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All Angelenos, collectively, should care about these buildings because each one that fails can get the whole neighborhood red-tagged, sometimes for weeks. And retrofitting them for greater strength is a well-known procedure. The report contains suggested legislation that would require the owners of soft-story buildings to document them (by reporting that they have or haven’t been fixed) within 1 year and fix them within 5 years, and that concrete buildings be documented within 5 years and fixed within 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Somehow we must encourage the owners of these and other building types to keep improving them beyond the minimum. The report recommends a \u003ca href=\"http://www.usrc.org/rating-definitions\">proposed five-star rating system\u003c/a> to clarify everyone’s understanding. One-star buildings would be deadly; three-star buildings meet code and would not kill you, although they may well be a total loss anyway; and five-star buildings have the most advanced designs and would likely stay usable. Such a “safety star” rating should become as widely known as the LEED “green building” ratings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The steps recommended for water and communications are no surprise. They’ll be expensive, but they’re good subjects for bonds and federal funding, and the work can be done with expertise and oversight. However, the recommendations for buildings will touch the general public, and the necessary costs will surely concern different parties. Can landlords make their tenants pay for the retrofits? Will businesses pay higher rents for stronger buildings? There will be efforts to issue bonds and proposals to extend loans. Settling these matters in ways everyone can accept is what politics is for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It will help to remember what’s at stake. Recall what happened to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, its “big one,” in 2005. Not only did it take an immediate $100 billion hit in damages, but over 200,000 residents moved away and haven’t come back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Image1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24879\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Image1.png\" alt=\"New Orleans after Katrina\" width=\"600\" height=\"404\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lucy Jones uses this graph in her talks to show that natural disasters can cripple a great city for decades. Unlike Nashville, a city of comparable economic strength, New Orleans has fallen and is still struggling to get up. The international insurer Swiss Re has estimated that Los Angeles presents a colossal risk of catastrophic losses from earthquakes, surpassed only by Tokyo, Manila and Jakarta. (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now consider Los Angeles, many times larger—can we risk such a fate for America’s second largest city? Recall what happened to San Francisco in 1906, at the time America’s sixth-largest city—the effects of its “big one” led directly to the nationwide recession and financial crisis of 1907.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program laid out in “Resilience by Design” is aimed at building resilience—flexible strength—against those kinds of threats. The report is the first step in “a new proactive science-based approach toward resilience” and will get close attention in Northern California, in Sacramento, and (one hopes) in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles is part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.100resilientcities.org/\">100 Resilient Cities project\u003c/a>. So are \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/05/four-bay-area-cities-selected-as-future-models-of-resilience/\">San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Earth's Most Common Mineral is Bagged and Tagged: Meet Bridgmanite",
"headTitle": "Earth’s Most Common Mineral is Bagged and Tagged: Meet Bridgmanite | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/tenham-meteorite.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24502\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/tenham-meteorite.jpg\" alt=\"Tenham meteorite\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tenham meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1879, has yielded microscopic bits of a mineral otherwise found only in the Earth’s lower mantle, where it makes up 38% of the planet. Having a specimen in hand has allowed scientists to formally give this mineral the name of bridgmanite. (Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Giving names to newly discovered minerals is a sideshow in the carnival of science, like one of those booths where you toss a ball in a cup to win a stuffed animal. By that analogy, a team of scientists has won the giant stuffed panda, and the achievement was enough to rate \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6213/1100\">a paper in the prestigious journal \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> last week\u003c/a>. They successfully identified the commonest mineral that makes up the Earth, and gave it the name of bridgmanite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In various fields of science, insiders have the geeky privilege of awarding names to the things they discover. Astronomers can give names to new asteroids. Biologists get to name new species. Paleontologists get to name fossils. Even geneticists get to name genes. For instance, workers in all of these fields have used their privilege to honor the musician \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa#Acclaim_and_honors\">Frank Zappa\u003c/a> (who died on this day in 1993).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And mineralogists get to name new minerals. Normally this is a pretty obscure deal because all the significant minerals have been named. The rules are clear: you have to find a sample in a natural rock, and you have to describe its crystal structure and its chemical formula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bridgmanite was previously known by its description: magnesium-iron silicate in the perovskite crystal structure, or (Mg,Fe)SiO\u003csub>3\u003c/sub>-perovskite or “silicate perovskite” or, confusingly, just “perovskite.” (This can be confusing because real perovskite is the rare oxide mineral CaTiO\u003csub>3\u003c/sub>, and the common surface mineral orthopyroxene also has the formula (Mg,Fe)SiO\u003csub>3\u003c/sub> but a different crystal structure.) It exists only under very high pressure, deep in the Earth’s mantle, and makes up more of this planet than any other mineral, about 38 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve known what it is for many years, and we’ve been manufacturing it in the lab, but by the rules of mineralogy we couldn’t call it by a simple name. One good way to find high-pressure minerals is to peek inside diamonds, which form at great depths and can trap tiny inclusions of other minerals inside them. Another is to find pieces of shattered planets—meteorites—and search for the bits that represent their high-pressure cores. Neither of these have worked for silicate perovskite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only way to make the stuff in a form we can find naturally appears to be extreme shock, leading again to meteorites. Examples of the material were first reported in 1997, and the chemical formula was known. The only missing piece was to describe the details of its crystal structure, but the electron microscopes used to discover that destroyed any crystals that might have existed. At room temperature and pressure, the material is so far out of its comfort zone that merely dipping it in a cup of coffee turns it into glass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A team of scientists led by Oliver Tschauner of the University of Nevada–Las Vegas and Chi Ma of Caltech managed to use gentler X-ray techniques on a piece of the Tenham meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1879, to find microscopic bits of crystalline silicate perovskite amid the shock-melted glass. These held still well enough for the team to collect the data they needed to win that big stuffed panda from the booth operator, otherwise known as the International Mineralogical Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bridgmanite is named for \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Williams_Bridgman\">Percy Bridgman\u003c/a> (1882-1961), a Nobel Prize winning physicist considered a founding father of high-pressure mineral research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the naming of bridgmanite, the Earth’s deep structure and composition looks like this today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 635px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/worldwedge.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24503\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/worldwedge.jpg\" alt=\"Earth corss section with minerals\" width=\"635\" height=\"483\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Layers of the inner Earth and their dominant minerals. (Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are still some important minerals waiting to earn names. One of them might be called meta-bridgmanite because it’s a configuration of “perovskite” that forms even deeper in the mantle. For the last decade or so it’s been called post-perovskite. Another possibility was hinted at earlier this year by experiments showing that \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6186/877.abstract\">bridgmanite breaks down into two mineral phases\u003c/a> at great depths. And then there’s the solid iron compound that forms the Earth’s innermost core. Nobody knows for sure what that one is. We know that the iron must be alloyed with some lighter element. Recently carbon has gained attention, and the iron carbide compound Fe\u003csub>7\u003c/sub>C\u003csub>3\u003c/sub>, long known in industrial circles, is one candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If one of those turns up in a meteorite, I hope the discoverer will consider naming it for \u003ca href=\"https://www.caltech.edu/news/don-l-anderson-44994c\">Don L. Anderson\u003c/a>\u003ca>, an influential deep-Earth researcher at Caltech who died earlier this week.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Thanks to a meteorite collected in 1879, we have finally given a name to the most abundant mineral \u003ci>in\u003c/i> Earth. Here's why it took so long to christen this stuff.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/tenham-meteorite.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24502\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/tenham-meteorite.jpg\" alt=\"Tenham meteorite\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tenham meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1879, has yielded microscopic bits of a mineral otherwise found only in the Earth’s lower mantle, where it makes up 38% of the planet. Having a specimen in hand has allowed scientists to formally give this mineral the name of bridgmanite. (Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Giving names to newly discovered minerals is a sideshow in the carnival of science, like one of those booths where you toss a ball in a cup to win a stuffed animal. By that analogy, a team of scientists has won the giant stuffed panda, and the achievement was enough to rate \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6213/1100\">a paper in the prestigious journal \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> last week\u003c/a>. They successfully identified the commonest mineral that makes up the Earth, and gave it the name of bridgmanite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In various fields of science, insiders have the geeky privilege of awarding names to the things they discover. Astronomers can give names to new asteroids. Biologists get to name new species. Paleontologists get to name fossils. Even geneticists get to name genes. For instance, workers in all of these fields have used their privilege to honor the musician \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa#Acclaim_and_honors\">Frank Zappa\u003c/a> (who died on this day in 1993).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And mineralogists get to name new minerals. Normally this is a pretty obscure deal because all the significant minerals have been named. The rules are clear: you have to find a sample in a natural rock, and you have to describe its crystal structure and its chemical formula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bridgmanite was previously known by its description: magnesium-iron silicate in the perovskite crystal structure, or (Mg,Fe)SiO\u003csub>3\u003c/sub>-perovskite or “silicate perovskite” or, confusingly, just “perovskite.” (This can be confusing because real perovskite is the rare oxide mineral CaTiO\u003csub>3\u003c/sub>, and the common surface mineral orthopyroxene also has the formula (Mg,Fe)SiO\u003csub>3\u003c/sub> but a different crystal structure.) It exists only under very high pressure, deep in the Earth’s mantle, and makes up more of this planet than any other mineral, about 38 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve known what it is for many years, and we’ve been manufacturing it in the lab, but by the rules of mineralogy we couldn’t call it by a simple name. One good way to find high-pressure minerals is to peek inside diamonds, which form at great depths and can trap tiny inclusions of other minerals inside them. Another is to find pieces of shattered planets—meteorites—and search for the bits that represent their high-pressure cores. Neither of these have worked for silicate perovskite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only way to make the stuff in a form we can find naturally appears to be extreme shock, leading again to meteorites. Examples of the material were first reported in 1997, and the chemical formula was known. The only missing piece was to describe the details of its crystal structure, but the electron microscopes used to discover that destroyed any crystals that might have existed. At room temperature and pressure, the material is so far out of its comfort zone that merely dipping it in a cup of coffee turns it into glass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A team of scientists led by Oliver Tschauner of the University of Nevada–Las Vegas and Chi Ma of Caltech managed to use gentler X-ray techniques on a piece of the Tenham meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1879, to find microscopic bits of crystalline silicate perovskite amid the shock-melted glass. These held still well enough for the team to collect the data they needed to win that big stuffed panda from the booth operator, otherwise known as the International Mineralogical Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bridgmanite is named for \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Williams_Bridgman\">Percy Bridgman\u003c/a> (1882-1961), a Nobel Prize winning physicist considered a founding father of high-pressure mineral research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the naming of bridgmanite, the Earth’s deep structure and composition looks like this today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 635px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/worldwedge.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24503\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/worldwedge.jpg\" alt=\"Earth corss section with minerals\" width=\"635\" height=\"483\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Layers of the inner Earth and their dominant minerals. (Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are still some important minerals waiting to earn names. One of them might be called meta-bridgmanite because it’s a configuration of “perovskite” that forms even deeper in the mantle. For the last decade or so it’s been called post-perovskite. Another possibility was hinted at earlier this year by experiments showing that \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6186/877.abstract\">bridgmanite breaks down into two mineral phases\u003c/a> at great depths. And then there’s the solid iron compound that forms the Earth’s innermost core. Nobody knows for sure what that one is. We know that the iron must be alloyed with some lighter element. Recently carbon has gained attention, and the iron carbide compound Fe\u003csub>7\u003c/sub>C\u003csub>3\u003c/sub>, long known in industrial circles, is one candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If one of those turns up in a meteorite, I hope the discoverer will consider naming it for \u003ca href=\"https://www.caltech.edu/news/don-l-anderson-44994c\">Don L. Anderson\u003c/a>\u003ca>, an influential deep-Earth researcher at Caltech who died earlier this week.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Hidden Perils of Permafrost",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]There’s something buried in the Arctic soil that could have a huge effect on the future of our planet’s climate. Scientists from \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a> have descended on Barrow, Alaska to study permafrost — soil that remains frozen throughout the seasons, often for thousands of years. They’re interested in permafrost because it has the potential to release an enormous amount of greenhouse gases in a short amount of time if rising temperatures cause the permafrost to thaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Hubbard-and-Gusmeroli.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24402\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Hubbard-and-Gusmeroli.jpg\" alt=\"Susan Hubbard and Alessio Gusmeroli collecting ground penetrating radar data. \" width=\"720\" height=\"540\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Susan Hubbard driving and Alessio Gusmeroli (UA Fairbanks) collecting ground penetrating radar data. Photo: John Peterson/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nearly one quarter of the land in the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is permafrost, and the decaying plant matter within it contains about twice as much carbon as is presently in the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Susan-Hubard.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24409\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Susan-Hubard.jpg\" alt=\"Susan Hubbard exploring the different types of Arctic vegetation\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Susan Hubbard, LBNL’s representative on the NGEE-Arctic project exploring the different types of Arctic vegetation present at the Barrow, AK field site.\u003cbr>Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ngee-arctic.ornl.gov/\">The Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment – Arctic\u003c/a>, is a collaborative project between Lawrence Berkeley Lab and seven other institutions to study this ecosystem in incredible detail. The researchers began work in 2012, and plan to continue their research through 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24404\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2499px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-271.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24404\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-271.jpg\" alt=\"Craig Ulrich collecting imagery of the land surface using sensors mounted on a kite.\" width=\"2499\" height=\"1668\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Ulrich of LBNL collecting imagery of the land surface using sensors mounted on a kite. Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They aim to combine information from a wide range of techniques – from \u003ca href=\"http://www.earthsound.ie/electrical-resistivity-tomography.html\">Electrical Resistance Tomography\u003c/a> that measures the soil’s moisture, salinity and texture, to a kite outfitted with a camera that reveals the surface vegetation and topography. By bringing together a variety of techniques, they hope to learn all they can about this one specific location. The team plans to use the knowledge to create more accurate computer models of our planet’s climate, which will allow scientists to better understand how permafrost everywhere will react to changes in temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The combination of above and below ground geophysical imaging of the Arctic tundra has enabled us to, for the first time, ‘see’ complex interactions occurring between land surface, active layer, and permafrost processes that contribute to carbon cycling,” says Susan Hubbard, Director of the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to predict how large swaths of permafrost will react to changing conditions, the researchers must learn exactly what the soils are made of — down to the microscopic level. They need to know where the permafrost is and how deep it goes. They need to know what minerals it contains, including how much water and gas, and what tiny organisms live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24411\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1836px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/20140423_125037.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24411\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/20140423_125037.jpg\" alt=\"Drilling permafrost cores in Barrow, AK. Photo: Craig Ulrich/LBNL\" width=\"1836\" height=\"3264\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drilling permafrost cores in Barrow, AK. Photo: Craig Ulrich/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One aspect of the project requires the researchers to drill down from the surface and extract long solid cylinders of frozen soil. They ship the frozen samples back to research labs for a battery of tests. At Lawrence Berkeley Lab, they’re using a CT scanner, similar to those found in hospitals, to measure and examine the makeup of the cores, because different substances react differently to changing temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 3840px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Kneafsey-CT.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24412\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Kneafsey-CT.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Kneafsey loading a permafrost core onto a CT scanner at LBNL. Photo: Josh Cassidy/KQED\" width=\"3840\" height=\"2160\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Kneafsey loading a permafrost core onto a CT scanner at LBNL. Photo: Josh Cassidy/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the “active layer” near the soil’s surface can freeze each fall and thaw each summer, the permafrost layer further below may stay frozen for thousands of years. Within it lays the remnants of ancient plants and bacteria that have stayed dormant, trapped in the frozen soil. It also contains greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, which are the waste products created by bacteria as they break down the dead plant matter buried in the soil. If the soil thaws, the ancient bacteria will get to work decomposing the plant matter and releasing greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2499px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-026.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24403\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-026.jpg\" alt=\"Craig Ulrich of LBNL collecting Electrical Resistance Tomography data\" width=\"2499\" height=\"1668\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Ulrich of LBNL collecting Electrical Resistance Tomography data using sensors buried in the Alaskan soil. Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The extra greenhouse gases could trap heat in the atmosphere, which would in turn thaw more permafrost. This could result in a catastrophic feedback loop that would accelerate the warming of the planet. Another possibility is that a warming climate might create longer growing seasons in the summer, which would allow more plants to grow at the surface. As the plants grow, they could trap more carbon out of the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to its vast size, the Arctic tundra is also extremely complex. The different geological features make it difficult to predict how the large swaths of land will react to warming, researchers say. Current models suggest that between 7 percent and 90 percent of permafrost may thaw by the year 2100. That wide range shows that scientists need to gain a more detailed understanding of the systems at play in order to achieve more precise predictions about the future.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>There’s something buried in the Arctic soil that could have a huge effect on the future of our planet’s climate. Scientists from \u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a> have descended on Barrow, Alaska to study permafrost — soil that remains frozen throughout the seasons, often for thousands of years. They’re interested in permafrost because it has the potential to release an enormous amount of greenhouse gases in a short amount of time if rising temperatures cause the permafrost to thaw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Hubbard-and-Gusmeroli.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24402\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Hubbard-and-Gusmeroli.jpg\" alt=\"Susan Hubbard and Alessio Gusmeroli collecting ground penetrating radar data. \" width=\"720\" height=\"540\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Susan Hubbard driving and Alessio Gusmeroli (UA Fairbanks) collecting ground penetrating radar data. Photo: John Peterson/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nearly one quarter of the land in the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is permafrost, and the decaying plant matter within it contains about twice as much carbon as is presently in the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Susan-Hubard.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24409\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Susan-Hubard.jpg\" alt=\"Susan Hubbard exploring the different types of Arctic vegetation\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Susan Hubbard, LBNL’s representative on the NGEE-Arctic project exploring the different types of Arctic vegetation present at the Barrow, AK field site.\u003cbr>Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ngee-arctic.ornl.gov/\">The Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment – Arctic\u003c/a>, is a collaborative project between Lawrence Berkeley Lab and seven other institutions to study this ecosystem in incredible detail. The researchers began work in 2012, and plan to continue their research through 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24404\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2499px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-271.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24404\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-271.jpg\" alt=\"Craig Ulrich collecting imagery of the land surface using sensors mounted on a kite.\" width=\"2499\" height=\"1668\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Ulrich of LBNL collecting imagery of the land surface using sensors mounted on a kite. Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They aim to combine information from a wide range of techniques – from \u003ca href=\"http://www.earthsound.ie/electrical-resistivity-tomography.html\">Electrical Resistance Tomography\u003c/a> that measures the soil’s moisture, salinity and texture, to a kite outfitted with a camera that reveals the surface vegetation and topography. By bringing together a variety of techniques, they hope to learn all they can about this one specific location. The team plans to use the knowledge to create more accurate computer models of our planet’s climate, which will allow scientists to better understand how permafrost everywhere will react to changes in temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The combination of above and below ground geophysical imaging of the Arctic tundra has enabled us to, for the first time, ‘see’ complex interactions occurring between land surface, active layer, and permafrost processes that contribute to carbon cycling,” says Susan Hubbard, Director of the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to predict how large swaths of permafrost will react to changing conditions, the researchers must learn exactly what the soils are made of — down to the microscopic level. They need to know where the permafrost is and how deep it goes. They need to know what minerals it contains, including how much water and gas, and what tiny organisms live there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24411\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1836px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/20140423_125037.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24411\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/20140423_125037.jpg\" alt=\"Drilling permafrost cores in Barrow, AK. Photo: Craig Ulrich/LBNL\" width=\"1836\" height=\"3264\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drilling permafrost cores in Barrow, AK. Photo: Craig Ulrich/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One aspect of the project requires the researchers to drill down from the surface and extract long solid cylinders of frozen soil. They ship the frozen samples back to research labs for a battery of tests. At Lawrence Berkeley Lab, they’re using a CT scanner, similar to those found in hospitals, to measure and examine the makeup of the cores, because different substances react differently to changing temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 3840px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Kneafsey-CT.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24412\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/Kneafsey-CT.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Kneafsey loading a permafrost core onto a CT scanner at LBNL. Photo: Josh Cassidy/KQED\" width=\"3840\" height=\"2160\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tim Kneafsey loading a permafrost core onto a CT scanner at LBNL. Photo: Josh Cassidy/KQED\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the “active layer” near the soil’s surface can freeze each fall and thaw each summer, the permafrost layer further below may stay frozen for thousands of years. Within it lays the remnants of ancient plants and bacteria that have stayed dormant, trapped in the frozen soil. It also contains greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, which are the waste products created by bacteria as they break down the dead plant matter buried in the soil. If the soil thaws, the ancient bacteria will get to work decomposing the plant matter and releasing greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2499px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-026.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24403\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/12/XBD201307-03354-026.jpg\" alt=\"Craig Ulrich of LBNL collecting Electrical Resistance Tomography data\" width=\"2499\" height=\"1668\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Ulrich of LBNL collecting Electrical Resistance Tomography data using sensors buried in the Alaskan soil. Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt/LBNL\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The extra greenhouse gases could trap heat in the atmosphere, which would in turn thaw more permafrost. This could result in a catastrophic feedback loop that would accelerate the warming of the planet. Another possibility is that a warming climate might create longer growing seasons in the summer, which would allow more plants to grow at the surface. As the plants grow, they could trap more carbon out of the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to its vast size, the Arctic tundra is also extremely complex. The different geological features make it difficult to predict how the large swaths of land will react to warming, researchers say. Current models suggest that between 7 percent and 90 percent of permafrost may thaw by the year 2100. That wide range shows that scientists need to gain a more detailed understanding of the systems at play in order to achieve more precise predictions about the future.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Using 3D Visualization, Geologists Explore the Complex Areas Where Faults Join and Split",
"headTitle": "Using 3D Visualization, Geologists Explore the Complex Areas Where Faults Join and Split | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/serpboulder.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/serpboulder.jpg\" alt=\"Serpentinite\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24080\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s earthquake faults seem to have a close relationship with serpentinite, a slippery stone that lubricates their motions. (Andrew Alden photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a map of the whole state, the great earthquake faults of California look like a pretty simple set of lines that join and divide in a loose tangle: the San Andreas Fault Zone. But what exactly happens where a fault splits in two? If you cut the map along those lines into wedges and slivers of the Earth’s crust, then try to move them past each other, you can’t make them fit exactly right. How does the Earth do it, and what does that mean for earthquake ruptures in these areas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 625px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/CAfaults-simple.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/CAfaults-simple.png\" alt=\"State fault maps\" width=\"625\" height=\"362\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24081\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Extremely simplified maps of our major faults. The places where the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras faults meet and join (or split, if you will) are a keen focus of earthquake research. (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geologists have spent the last century mapping the state’s faults and measuring the tectonic ground motions that put stress on them. During that century, they’ve also monitored earthquakes of all sizes (most of them too small to feel) to see precisely where the action is happening on those faults. Only in the last couple of decades have they begun to look at faults in three dimensions. It’s a brain-busting exercise in 3D visualization, using several techniques to provide clues. \u003ca href=\"http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3045/\">Our own Hayward fault was an early subject.\u003c/a> A new paper in the journal \u003ci>Tectonics\u003c/i> (\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014TC003561/abstract\">open access\u003c/a>) has begun to lay bare the intricate buried structure south of Hollister where two major faults come together, the San Andreas and Calaveras faults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work of peeking downward into the crust is slow and labor-intensive, but it’s our only way to check whether our maps are misleading us. It starts by tracing surface rocks downward into the ground, using gravity data and magnetic data to match patterns deep in the crust to confirm that rock units of the right density and magnetic characteristics exist where they’re expected. At the same time, the locations of thousands of tiny earthquakes show where faults are in motion today. Each of these forms of data—gravity, magnetics and seismicity—is fuzzy in its own way, making certainty almost impossible. However, it helps that we have precise data for the Earth’s surface—where the rocks and faults lie and how tectonic forces are moving the landscape. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ci>Tectonics\u003c/i> paper, Janet Watt and four of her colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Menlo Park assembled their evidence for the Calaveras–San Andreas junction, in the Coast Range mountains around Pinnacles National Park. Here’s what the faults look like on the map, close up. I’m not showing the rocks because it would be too confusing for anyone but a geologist to enjoy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24082\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/SAF-Calav-joinmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/SAF-Calav-joinmap.png\" alt=\"Map of San Andreas-Calaveras join\" width=\"600\" height=\"633\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24082\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Red lines are active faults; yellow dots are earthquake locations. H marks the town of Hollister. The three lines X-X’, Y-Y’ and Z-Z’ are cross section shown below. From Figure 1 of the Tectonics paper (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Putting together all of the data that I described, the authors built a detailed picture—a model, in scientific-speak—of the region. Here are the three cross-sections of that model. They’re what the model looks like if you sliced it apart along the three lines X-X’, Y-Y’ and Z-Z’.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileX-X.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileX-X.png\" alt=\"profileX-X\" width=\"599\" height=\"425\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24083\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileY-Y.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileY-Y.png\" alt=\"profileY-Y\" width=\"599\" height=\"425\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24084\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileZ-Z.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileZ-Z.png\" alt=\"Cross sections\" width=\"600\" height=\"425\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24085\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cross sections from Figure 6 of the Tectonics paper. Granite of the Gabilan Range on the left (west), mostly older rocks of the Franciscan complex on the right (east). Black dots are earthquake locations, red lines are active faults (dashed if possibly active).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The model is quite an achievement. The authors singled out two noteworthy features, shown by the yellow dashed lines. These appear to be deeply hidden active faults that connect the San Andreas and Calaveras faults, transmitting motion between them. Over geologic time, these “cross faults” are very temporary things, but right now they’re important links in the chain of energy that causes our earthquakes. Because earthquakes can spread from one major fault to another, these are the things we need to find if we want to learn our earthquake future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing the authors point out is the key role of the rock serpentinite, which appears in the model as a usual suspect along these newly traced cross faults. Little did our legislators know how important “serpentine” is when they named it America’s first official state rock, back in 1965.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The cutting edge in earthquake research is mapping our most important faults in three-dimensional detail. A new paper finds some key hidden links in the Bay Area's fault system.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24080\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/serpboulder.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/serpboulder.jpg\" alt=\"Serpentinite\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24080\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California’s earthquake faults seem to have a close relationship with serpentinite, a slippery stone that lubricates their motions. (Andrew Alden photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On a map of the whole state, the great earthquake faults of California look like a pretty simple set of lines that join and divide in a loose tangle: the San Andreas Fault Zone. But what exactly happens where a fault splits in two? If you cut the map along those lines into wedges and slivers of the Earth’s crust, then try to move them past each other, you can’t make them fit exactly right. How does the Earth do it, and what does that mean for earthquake ruptures in these areas?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24081\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 625px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/CAfaults-simple.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/CAfaults-simple.png\" alt=\"State fault maps\" width=\"625\" height=\"362\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24081\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Extremely simplified maps of our major faults. The places where the San Andreas, Hayward and Calaveras faults meet and join (or split, if you will) are a keen focus of earthquake research. (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geologists have spent the last century mapping the state’s faults and measuring the tectonic ground motions that put stress on them. During that century, they’ve also monitored earthquakes of all sizes (most of them too small to feel) to see precisely where the action is happening on those faults. Only in the last couple of decades have they begun to look at faults in three dimensions. It’s a brain-busting exercise in 3D visualization, using several techniques to provide clues. \u003ca href=\"http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3045/\">Our own Hayward fault was an early subject.\u003c/a> A new paper in the journal \u003ci>Tectonics\u003c/i> (\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014TC003561/abstract\">open access\u003c/a>) has begun to lay bare the intricate buried structure south of Hollister where two major faults come together, the San Andreas and Calaveras faults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work of peeking downward into the crust is slow and labor-intensive, but it’s our only way to check whether our maps are misleading us. It starts by tracing surface rocks downward into the ground, using gravity data and magnetic data to match patterns deep in the crust to confirm that rock units of the right density and magnetic characteristics exist where they’re expected. At the same time, the locations of thousands of tiny earthquakes show where faults are in motion today. Each of these forms of data—gravity, magnetics and seismicity—is fuzzy in its own way, making certainty almost impossible. However, it helps that we have precise data for the Earth’s surface—where the rocks and faults lie and how tectonic forces are moving the landscape. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ci>Tectonics\u003c/i> paper, Janet Watt and four of her colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Menlo Park assembled their evidence for the Calaveras–San Andreas junction, in the Coast Range mountains around Pinnacles National Park. Here’s what the faults look like on the map, close up. I’m not showing the rocks because it would be too confusing for anyone but a geologist to enjoy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24082\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/SAF-Calav-joinmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/SAF-Calav-joinmap.png\" alt=\"Map of San Andreas-Calaveras join\" width=\"600\" height=\"633\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24082\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Red lines are active faults; yellow dots are earthquake locations. H marks the town of Hollister. The three lines X-X’, Y-Y’ and Z-Z’ are cross section shown below. From Figure 1 of the Tectonics paper (USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Putting together all of the data that I described, the authors built a detailed picture—a model, in scientific-speak—of the region. Here are the three cross-sections of that model. They’re what the model looks like if you sliced it apart along the three lines X-X’, Y-Y’ and Z-Z’.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileX-X.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileX-X.png\" alt=\"profileX-X\" width=\"599\" height=\"425\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24083\">\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileY-Y.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileY-Y.png\" alt=\"profileY-Y\" width=\"599\" height=\"425\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24084\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_24085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileZ-Z.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/profileZ-Z.png\" alt=\"Cross sections\" width=\"600\" height=\"425\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24085\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cross sections from Figure 6 of the Tectonics paper. Granite of the Gabilan Range on the left (west), mostly older rocks of the Franciscan complex on the right (east). Black dots are earthquake locations, red lines are active faults (dashed if possibly active).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The model is quite an achievement. The authors singled out two noteworthy features, shown by the yellow dashed lines. These appear to be deeply hidden active faults that connect the San Andreas and Calaveras faults, transmitting motion between them. Over geologic time, these “cross faults” are very temporary things, but right now they’re important links in the chain of energy that causes our earthquakes. Because earthquakes can spread from one major fault to another, these are the things we need to find if we want to learn our earthquake future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing the authors point out is the key role of the rock serpentinite, which appears in the model as a usual suspect along these newly traced cross faults. Little did our legislators know how important “serpentine” is when they named it America’s first official state rock, back in 1965.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Want to Go to Mars? A Cheaper Alternative Resides in Chile's Atacama Desert",
"headTitle": "Want to Go to Mars? A Cheaper Alternative Resides in Chile’s Atacama Desert | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23601\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 273px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/IMG_6407-162x162.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-23601\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/IMG_6407-162x162.jpg\" alt='\"Desert selfie\" in the driest place on the planet: Atacama Desert in Chile.' width=\"273\" height=\"278\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Desert selfie” in the driest place on the planet: the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you want to go to Mars but can’t quite afford the hundreds of billions of dollars for a ticket, there is another solution: consider instead a trip to the Atacama Desert in Chile. This place is not a typical holiday destination, but for those of us who want that \u003cem>out-of-this-world\u003c/em> experience, this is as Martian as it gets. The wettest part of the desert receives a mere 15mm of rain a year, and even that is a monsoon compared with the 2mm of rain that falls once per decade in the hyper-arid core of the Yungay region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When flying into the region last month on a small connecting jet from Santiago to Antofagasta, the closest town to the desert where I’d collect samples for my research, I stared out of the window at the Atacama below — noticing the geomorphological similarities between the driest desert on Earth and many of the satellite and rover photos I have analyzed from Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Gpm0pAVAY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The landscape is almost completely devoid of any plants and animals\u003c/a> (even at the microbial level): your backyard probably has more biological activity than the whole of the Yungay region.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>And during the first day of my field campaign with scientists from NASA Ames Research Center and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, our team drove approximately 600km through the Atacama; not a single insect collided with our truck’s windshield. In this desolate and extraordinarily dry environment, it is hard to imagine that Mars is still 1000 times drier than the driest part of the Atacama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Atacama, I had to readjust my perception of time and dominance of normal erosion processes. In most terrestrial environments, water is responsible for carving the landscapes we see. But in Yungay, the soils and boulders have been etched for millions of years by wind, the rare miniscule rainfall and extraordinarily, earthquakes. \u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/11-68.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scientists estimate that the Atacama has experienced approximately 30,000 seconds of rock-shaping shaking over the last few million years\u003c/a>. The result is some of the most Mars-like terrains you can find on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23605\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2006-04-20-02.24.58-2-1024x731.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23605\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2006-04-20-02.24.58-2-1024x731.jpg\" alt=\"Boulders in the driest part of the Atacama are commonly marked by light-toned grooves worn into the surface by nearby boulders during earthquakes. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"731\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boulders in the driest part of the Atacama are commonly marked by light-toned grooves worn into the surface by nearby boulders during earthquakes.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When I began my Ph.D. over two years ago, I could have only hoped that my thesis project would have taken me to the most Martian place on Earth, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUTydO1oYyU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">covered from head-to-toe in a sterile suit, dust mask and gloves for hours\u003c/a> in order to collect uncontaminated sediments for analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My research interests lie at the juncture point between geology and biology. I want to understand how exactly the chemical constituents that make up life get preserved in the rock record on Earth, especially in Mars-like environments. This will help to enable me to make a prediction about how and where we might be able to find molecular evidence of past life (\u003cem>if there ever was any\u003c/em>) on Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23603\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/DSC_6057-2-1024x680.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23603\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/DSC_6057-2-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"Clean sampling of biomarkers in the desert soil requires suits, gloves, masks, goggles, and sterile tools to make sure no contamination ends up in the soil sample. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clean sampling of biomarkers in the desert soil requires suits, gloves, masks, goggles, and sterile tools to make sure no contamination ends up in the sample.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility of Mars analog environments like the Atacama is paramount. These unique locations provide a test-bed of sorts to begin to understand in greater detail geological processes occurring hundreds of millions of miles away on another planet. This is why many scientists, including myself, travel to Mars analogs to study geological processes up-close and to take samples back to our labs to examine them with analytical instruments that would be extremely difficult and costly to send to the red planet.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "If you want to go to Mars but can’t quite afford the hundreds of billions of dollars for a ticket, there is another solution: consider instead a trip to the Atacama Desert in Chile.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23601\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 273px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/IMG_6407-162x162.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-23601\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/IMG_6407-162x162.jpg\" alt='\"Desert selfie\" in the driest place on the planet: Atacama Desert in Chile.' width=\"273\" height=\"278\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Desert selfie” in the driest place on the planet: the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you want to go to Mars but can’t quite afford the hundreds of billions of dollars for a ticket, there is another solution: consider instead a trip to the Atacama Desert in Chile. This place is not a typical holiday destination, but for those of us who want that \u003cem>out-of-this-world\u003c/em> experience, this is as Martian as it gets. The wettest part of the desert receives a mere 15mm of rain a year, and even that is a monsoon compared with the 2mm of rain that falls once per decade in the hyper-arid core of the Yungay region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When flying into the region last month on a small connecting jet from Santiago to Antofagasta, the closest town to the desert where I’d collect samples for my research, I stared out of the window at the Atacama below — noticing the geomorphological similarities between the driest desert on Earth and many of the satellite and rover photos I have analyzed from Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Gpm0pAVAY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The landscape is almost completely devoid of any plants and animals\u003c/a> (even at the microbial level): your backyard probably has more biological activity than the whole of the Yungay region.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>And during the first day of my field campaign with scientists from NASA Ames Research Center and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, our team drove approximately 600km through the Atacama; not a single insect collided with our truck’s windshield. In this desolate and extraordinarily dry environment, it is hard to imagine that Mars is still 1000 times drier than the driest part of the Atacama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Atacama, I had to readjust my perception of time and dominance of normal erosion processes. In most terrestrial environments, water is responsible for carving the landscapes we see. But in Yungay, the soils and boulders have been etched for millions of years by wind, the rare miniscule rainfall and extraordinarily, earthquakes. \u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/11-68.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scientists estimate that the Atacama has experienced approximately 30,000 seconds of rock-shaping shaking over the last few million years\u003c/a>. The result is some of the most Mars-like terrains you can find on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23605\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2006-04-20-02.24.58-2-1024x731.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23605\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2006-04-20-02.24.58-2-1024x731.jpg\" alt=\"Boulders in the driest part of the Atacama are commonly marked by light-toned grooves worn into the surface by nearby boulders during earthquakes. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"731\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boulders in the driest part of the Atacama are commonly marked by light-toned grooves worn into the surface by nearby boulders during earthquakes.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When I began my Ph.D. over two years ago, I could have only hoped that my thesis project would have taken me to the most Martian place on Earth, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUTydO1oYyU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">covered from head-to-toe in a sterile suit, dust mask and gloves for hours\u003c/a> in order to collect uncontaminated sediments for analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My research interests lie at the juncture point between geology and biology. I want to understand how exactly the chemical constituents that make up life get preserved in the rock record on Earth, especially in Mars-like environments. This will help to enable me to make a prediction about how and where we might be able to find molecular evidence of past life (\u003cem>if there ever was any\u003c/em>) on Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23603\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/DSC_6057-2-1024x680.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23603\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/DSC_6057-2-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"Clean sampling of biomarkers in the desert soil requires suits, gloves, masks, goggles, and sterile tools to make sure no contamination ends up in the soil sample. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clean sampling of biomarkers in the desert soil requires suits, gloves, masks, goggles, and sterile tools to make sure no contamination ends up in the sample.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility of Mars analog environments like the Atacama is paramount. These unique locations provide a test-bed of sorts to begin to understand in greater detail geological processes occurring hundreds of millions of miles away on another planet. This is why many scientists, including myself, travel to Mars analogs to study geological processes up-close and to take samples back to our labs to examine them with analytical instruments that would be extremely difficult and costly to send to the red planet.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "What Can We Learn from the Italian Earthquake Trial?",
"headTitle": "What Can We Learn from the Italian Earthquake Trial? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/laquila-aftermath.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/laquila-aftermath.jpg\" alt=\"L'Aquila aftermath\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23715\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Devastation from the magnitude 6.3 earthquake of April 6, 2009 in L’Aquila, Italy, is recalled on a banner in front of buildings under repair. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlopolisini/\">Carlo Polisini\u003c/a>/\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/\">CC-BY-NC-ND 2\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Five and a half years after a devastating earthquake in Italy, a notorious verdict holding seven scientists liable for manslaughter has been overturned on appeal. With the benefit of a little perspective, we can look at some of the lessons learned now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early spring of 2009, the area around the city of L’Aquila, in central Italy, was in a nervous uproar. A swarm of small earthquakes had been going on for months, an amateur with some radon detectors was appearing on TV and driving around in a sound truck predicting a major earthquake, and the authorities couldn’t quell the panic. The civil defense agency called up a special committee of seven scientists, who held a meeting and then a press conference, where they stated what seismologists all know: \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/10/the-science-of-californias-seismic-pests-or-earthquake-swarms/\">earthquake swarms happen and we can’t make much of them\u003c/a>, we can’t depend on them as a sign of a large quake to come, and the area is always prone to large earthquakes at any time—people need to stay prepared. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the previous day, unbeknownst to them, the committee’s chief had told a reporter a widely believed falsehood about earthquake faults: “The scientific community assures me that the situation is good because of the continuous discharge of energy.” When the reporter suggested that people should sit back and have a glass of \u003ci>vino rosso\u003c/i>, he cheerfully agreed. That little clip, with a responsible official endorsing an urban legend, got on the news the same day as the committee’s briefing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later on April 6, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck L’Aquila and over 300 people died. Some of the survivors sued the committee members for causing the deaths of 29 of their loved ones. Their claim was that the official reassurances had misled the victims into staying indoors in their unsafe stone buildings instead of camping outside, as was the longtime local practice. In 2012 when the court found the L’Aquila seven guilty of 29 manslaughter counts and sentenced them to six years in prison, geoscientists around the world erupted in consternation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week a higher court threw out the convictions of six of the scientists and reduced the sentence for Bernardo De Bernardinis, the committee chief who made the video remarks, to two years. (The best summary I’ve found is by Arielle Duhaime-Ross at \u003ca href=\"http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/11/7193391/italy-judges-clear-geologists-manslaughter-laquila-earthquake-fear\">The Verge\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But aftershocks of the trial continue. Could American scientists run afoul of the same laws? One analog of earthquake forecasts is weather forecasts: Can you sue a meteorologist if, for example, your wedding is ruined by a hailstorm? We accept that you would—and should—lose in court. The science policy analyst Roger Pielke Jr. \u003ca href=\"http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2012/10/legal-liability-for-bad-scientific.html\">argues that the same court precedents backing up meteorologists look strong for scientific forecasting in general\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Italian scientists still face civil lawsuits, baseless or not. And seismologists everywhere would rather not risk \u003ci>any\u003c/i> sort of court action, or even public misunderstandings that hurt people. As one of the L’Aquila seven, Giulio Selvaggi, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/italian-seismologists-cleared-of-manslaughter-1.16313\">said to \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i> after his acquittal\u003c/a>, “There is nothing to celebrate—because the pain of the people of L’Aquila remains.” And even the remaining conviction of De Bernardinis sets a troubling precedent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California seismologist Lucy Jones, who advises the city of Los Angeles, put her finger on the problem: “\u003ca href=\"http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/nov/11/laquila-verdict-quashed\">A technically correct prediction that is not used correctly is not a good prediction.\u003c/a>” Scientists must keep speaking up, because their advice belongs to the public. It’s up to the rest of the information chain, from the press to the audience, to handle that advice with care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News people have to double-check scientists even when time is short. They need to understand the basics of earthquake risk. Seismologists know this stuff like baseball fans know the infield-fly rule, but they have to remember that many people know nothing at all of baseball. News producers have to issue corrections promptly and repeatedly. The Italian case showed us that even one snippet of “good TV” can spread a fatally misleading error.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court system is designed to single out one villain. The L’Aquila fiasco came about from a cascade of errors that several different parties could have interrupted. For instance, De Bernardinis could have kept his mouth shut (although a phone recording shows that his supervisor had pretty much ordered him to damp down the public panic by whatever means). The news editor could have gone with what the scientists said the next day and spiked the contradictory earlier interview. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the obvious faults that could have been fixed, there are other steps to work on. Reporters can question scientists more aggressively until they fully understand them. Scientists can rehearse and refine their remarks more thoroughly beforehand. The authorities and press can issue more emphatic corrections afterward. So there are lessons for lots of people, not just scientists who are thrust into the public eye at a time of high stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, we have good relationships between scientists and the press. News outlets like KQED know who to call and what to ask. We’re a civilized place . . . but so is Italy. And who can say how we might act after months of steady earthquakes near a major city? We need to keep our heads—experts, journalists and the general public alike—when those around us are losing theirs.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/laquila-aftermath.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/laquila-aftermath.jpg\" alt=\"L'Aquila aftermath\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23715\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Devastation from the magnitude 6.3 earthquake of April 6, 2009 in L’Aquila, Italy, is recalled on a banner in front of buildings under repair. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlopolisini/\">Carlo Polisini\u003c/a>/\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/\">CC-BY-NC-ND 2\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Five and a half years after a devastating earthquake in Italy, a notorious verdict holding seven scientists liable for manslaughter has been overturned on appeal. With the benefit of a little perspective, we can look at some of the lessons learned now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early spring of 2009, the area around the city of L’Aquila, in central Italy, was in a nervous uproar. A swarm of small earthquakes had been going on for months, an amateur with some radon detectors was appearing on TV and driving around in a sound truck predicting a major earthquake, and the authorities couldn’t quell the panic. The civil defense agency called up a special committee of seven scientists, who held a meeting and then a press conference, where they stated what seismologists all know: \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/10/10/the-science-of-californias-seismic-pests-or-earthquake-swarms/\">earthquake swarms happen and we can’t make much of them\u003c/a>, we can’t depend on them as a sign of a large quake to come, and the area is always prone to large earthquakes at any time—people need to stay prepared. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the previous day, unbeknownst to them, the committee’s chief had told a reporter a widely believed falsehood about earthquake faults: “The scientific community assures me that the situation is good because of the continuous discharge of energy.” When the reporter suggested that people should sit back and have a glass of \u003ci>vino rosso\u003c/i>, he cheerfully agreed. That little clip, with a responsible official endorsing an urban legend, got on the news the same day as the committee’s briefing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later on April 6, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck L’Aquila and over 300 people died. Some of the survivors sued the committee members for causing the deaths of 29 of their loved ones. Their claim was that the official reassurances had misled the victims into staying indoors in their unsafe stone buildings instead of camping outside, as was the longtime local practice. In 2012 when the court found the L’Aquila seven guilty of 29 manslaughter counts and sentenced them to six years in prison, geoscientists around the world erupted in consternation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week a higher court threw out the convictions of six of the scientists and reduced the sentence for Bernardo De Bernardinis, the committee chief who made the video remarks, to two years. (The best summary I’ve found is by Arielle Duhaime-Ross at \u003ca href=\"http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/11/7193391/italy-judges-clear-geologists-manslaughter-laquila-earthquake-fear\">The Verge\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But aftershocks of the trial continue. Could American scientists run afoul of the same laws? One analog of earthquake forecasts is weather forecasts: Can you sue a meteorologist if, for example, your wedding is ruined by a hailstorm? We accept that you would—and should—lose in court. The science policy analyst Roger Pielke Jr. \u003ca href=\"http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2012/10/legal-liability-for-bad-scientific.html\">argues that the same court precedents backing up meteorologists look strong for scientific forecasting in general\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Italian scientists still face civil lawsuits, baseless or not. And seismologists everywhere would rather not risk \u003ci>any\u003c/i> sort of court action, or even public misunderstandings that hurt people. As one of the L’Aquila seven, Giulio Selvaggi, \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/italian-seismologists-cleared-of-manslaughter-1.16313\">said to \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i> after his acquittal\u003c/a>, “There is nothing to celebrate—because the pain of the people of L’Aquila remains.” And even the remaining conviction of De Bernardinis sets a troubling precedent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California seismologist Lucy Jones, who advises the city of Los Angeles, put her finger on the problem: “\u003ca href=\"http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/nov/11/laquila-verdict-quashed\">A technically correct prediction that is not used correctly is not a good prediction.\u003c/a>” Scientists must keep speaking up, because their advice belongs to the public. It’s up to the rest of the information chain, from the press to the audience, to handle that advice with care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News people have to double-check scientists even when time is short. They need to understand the basics of earthquake risk. Seismologists know this stuff like baseball fans know the infield-fly rule, but they have to remember that many people know nothing at all of baseball. News producers have to issue corrections promptly and repeatedly. The Italian case showed us that even one snippet of “good TV” can spread a fatally misleading error.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court system is designed to single out one villain. The L’Aquila fiasco came about from a cascade of errors that several different parties could have interrupted. For instance, De Bernardinis could have kept his mouth shut (although a phone recording shows that his supervisor had pretty much ordered him to damp down the public panic by whatever means). The news editor could have gone with what the scientists said the next day and spiked the contradictory earlier interview. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the obvious faults that could have been fixed, there are other steps to work on. Reporters can question scientists more aggressively until they fully understand them. Scientists can rehearse and refine their remarks more thoroughly beforehand. The authorities and press can issue more emphatic corrections afterward. So there are lessons for lots of people, not just scientists who are thrust into the public eye at a time of high stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, we have good relationships between scientists and the press. News outlets like KQED know who to call and what to ask. We’re a civilized place . . . but so is Italy. And who can say how we might act after months of steady earthquakes near a major city? We need to keep our heads—experts, journalists and the general public alike—when those around us are losing theirs.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Yosemite's Tuolumne Meadows: A Long-standing Geological Puzzle",
"headTitle": "Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows: A Long-standing Geological Puzzle | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadows.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadows.jpg\" alt=\"Tuolumne Meadows\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23500\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tuolumne Meadows is an unexpected kind of place. In a new study, geologists suggest that it exists because an accident of geologic history allowed glaciers to carve the exact same kind of rock into both flats and high blocks like Lembert Dome, shown here. (Andrew Alden photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of many iconic landscapes in Yosemite National Park is a wide-open grassy stretch mixed with high granite outcrops called Tuolumne Meadows. Millions of visitors have stopped there in wonder. Geologists love a good view as much as anyone, but sooner or later they ask themselves the strange but typical question, “How did this landscape happen?” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuolumne Meadows is a long-standing geological puzzle—a large relatively flat place in the midst of a rugged range. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 550px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadowspng.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadowspng.png\" alt=\"Tuolumne Meadows in Google Maps\" width=\"550\" height=\"325\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23502\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tuolumne Meadows in Google Maps\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like most of the high Sierra valleys, the Meadows were covered by ice age glaciers until very recently (in geologic time), just 12,000 years ago or so. So in the Sierra, the geologists’ question usually boils down to “How did the glaciers make this landscape?” At Tuolumne Meadows, their question is “How the heck?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuolumne Meadows is geologically weird because it mixes a wide flat area, typical of weak bedrock, with big humps of clean strong stone, like Lembert Dome, exposed like sculpture in a gallery. But the whole area is in one large body of identical granite, the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite. (Granodiorite has a slightly different blend of minerals from true granite; only geologists notice. Most of the Sierra’s beautiful white “granite” is granodiorite.) The clean crags that Yosemite rock climbers love are cheek by jowl with flat, well-eroded meadows, all in the same rock. How did the glaciers carve the same stuff into such a variety of landforms?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geologist Richard Becker and three colleagues have unraveled the puzzle in a new paper for \u003ci>GSA Today\u003c/i> (\u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/11/abstract/i1052-5173-24-11-4.htm\">open access\u003c/a>). They say the key is the cracks in the granite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long ago, for nearly a hundred million years, the land we know as the Sierra Nevada was a huge belt of volcanoes, similar to Japan today. Japan gets its volcanism as a result of plate tectonics. The Pacific plate is being pulled westward under Japan where it sinks from its own weight, and as the plate subducts, its material partially melts into water-rich, highly fluid magma that slowly moves upward to erupt in Fujiyama and hundreds of other volcanoes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deeper down, that same process creates bodies of slow-cooled granite. In California those granite bodies, which once fed magma and fluids to ancient volcanoes above them, have been uncovered by millions of years of erosion. The Cathedral Peak Granodiorite is a former intrusion of magma that solidified about 88.1 million years ago. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon afterward (85.4 million years ago) another body of granite pushed its way into the area, feeding its own generation of volcanoes as it came. Fluids rising from it through the older granite created peculiar clusters of cracks. Becker and his coauthors have described these in previous papers and given them the name of tabular fracture clusters, or TFCs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tabular-fracture-cluster.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tabular-fracture-cluster.jpg\" alt=\"Tabular fracture cluster\" width=\"600\" height=\"465\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23503\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Hollister’s students from Turlock High School walk in the glacially eroded trace of a tabular fracture cluster in the Bummers Flat Granodiorite near Chewing Gum Lake in the Emigrant Wilderness. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.mrhollisterphoto.com/\">Ryan Hollister\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>TFCs are not like the typical cracks in granite, which are classified by geologists as joints. They’re shattered zones, tightly clustered bundles of cracks, that may be a meter wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23504\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/TFC-landscape.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/TFC-landscape.jpg\" alt=\"TFCs in the landscape\" width=\"600\" height=\"474\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23504\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Area of abundant TFCs near Mosquito Lake, Emigrant Wilderness. Cracks in the background are joints. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.mrhollisterphoto.com/about.html\">Ryan Hollister\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ice age glaciers found those fractures easy digging. Where TFCs are scattered, glaciers carved them into deep grooves. Where they’re closely spaced, glaciers could also break the hard rock between them and scrape the land down wholesale. Tuolumne Meadows has two large sets of abundant TFCs, arranged in different directions, that cut the granite into blocks as effectively as a knife slicing up a pan of brownies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just to make sure of their findings, Becker’s team examined another part of the Sierra, the Mono Recesses, where the granite is almost identical but where TFCs are rare. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23505\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 550px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/monorecessespng.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/monorecessespng.png\" alt=\"Mono Recesses in Google Maps\" width=\"550\" height=\"325\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23505\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mono Recesses in Google Maps\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There the glaciers carved a textbook alpine terrain of narrow, U-shaped valleys—another climber’s playground—without wide meadows. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23506\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2nd-recess-mono-creek.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2nd-recess-mono-creek.jpg\" alt=\"2nd Recess of Mono Creek\" width=\"600\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23506\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mono Recesses is underlain by the same granite as Tuolumne Meadows, only unfractured, yielding a typical landscape of U-shaped glacial valleys (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnexplorer/\">Craig Taylor/\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/\">CC-BY-NC-SA\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s just as grand, but a different kind of beautiful. Deep events of 85 million years ago left tracks at Tuolumne Meadows that the glaciers followed as they carved a geological sculpture garden in the high Yosemite country.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadows.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadows.jpg\" alt=\"Tuolumne Meadows\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23500\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tuolumne Meadows is an unexpected kind of place. In a new study, geologists suggest that it exists because an accident of geologic history allowed glaciers to carve the exact same kind of rock into both flats and high blocks like Lembert Dome, shown here. (Andrew Alden photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of many iconic landscapes in Yosemite National Park is a wide-open grassy stretch mixed with high granite outcrops called Tuolumne Meadows. Millions of visitors have stopped there in wonder. Geologists love a good view as much as anyone, but sooner or later they ask themselves the strange but typical question, “How did this landscape happen?” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuolumne Meadows is a long-standing geological puzzle—a large relatively flat place in the midst of a rugged range. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23502\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 550px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadowspng.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tuolumnemeadowspng.png\" alt=\"Tuolumne Meadows in Google Maps\" width=\"550\" height=\"325\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23502\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tuolumne Meadows in Google Maps\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like most of the high Sierra valleys, the Meadows were covered by ice age glaciers until very recently (in geologic time), just 12,000 years ago or so. So in the Sierra, the geologists’ question usually boils down to “How did the glaciers make this landscape?” At Tuolumne Meadows, their question is “How the heck?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuolumne Meadows is geologically weird because it mixes a wide flat area, typical of weak bedrock, with big humps of clean strong stone, like Lembert Dome, exposed like sculpture in a gallery. But the whole area is in one large body of identical granite, the Cathedral Peak Granodiorite. (Granodiorite has a slightly different blend of minerals from true granite; only geologists notice. Most of the Sierra’s beautiful white “granite” is granodiorite.) The clean crags that Yosemite rock climbers love are cheek by jowl with flat, well-eroded meadows, all in the same rock. How did the glaciers carve the same stuff into such a variety of landforms?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geologist Richard Becker and three colleagues have unraveled the puzzle in a new paper for \u003ci>GSA Today\u003c/i> (\u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/11/abstract/i1052-5173-24-11-4.htm\">open access\u003c/a>). They say the key is the cracks in the granite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long ago, for nearly a hundred million years, the land we know as the Sierra Nevada was a huge belt of volcanoes, similar to Japan today. Japan gets its volcanism as a result of plate tectonics. The Pacific plate is being pulled westward under Japan where it sinks from its own weight, and as the plate subducts, its material partially melts into water-rich, highly fluid magma that slowly moves upward to erupt in Fujiyama and hundreds of other volcanoes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deeper down, that same process creates bodies of slow-cooled granite. In California those granite bodies, which once fed magma and fluids to ancient volcanoes above them, have been uncovered by millions of years of erosion. The Cathedral Peak Granodiorite is a former intrusion of magma that solidified about 88.1 million years ago. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon afterward (85.4 million years ago) another body of granite pushed its way into the area, feeding its own generation of volcanoes as it came. Fluids rising from it through the older granite created peculiar clusters of cracks. Becker and his coauthors have described these in previous papers and given them the name of tabular fracture clusters, or TFCs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23503\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tabular-fracture-cluster.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/tabular-fracture-cluster.jpg\" alt=\"Tabular fracture cluster\" width=\"600\" height=\"465\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23503\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Hollister’s students from Turlock High School walk in the glacially eroded trace of a tabular fracture cluster in the Bummers Flat Granodiorite near Chewing Gum Lake in the Emigrant Wilderness. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.mrhollisterphoto.com/\">Ryan Hollister\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>TFCs are not like the typical cracks in granite, which are classified by geologists as joints. They’re shattered zones, tightly clustered bundles of cracks, that may be a meter wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23504\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/TFC-landscape.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/TFC-landscape.jpg\" alt=\"TFCs in the landscape\" width=\"600\" height=\"474\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23504\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Area of abundant TFCs near Mosquito Lake, Emigrant Wilderness. Cracks in the background are joints. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.mrhollisterphoto.com/about.html\">Ryan Hollister\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The ice age glaciers found those fractures easy digging. Where TFCs are scattered, glaciers carved them into deep grooves. Where they’re closely spaced, glaciers could also break the hard rock between them and scrape the land down wholesale. Tuolumne Meadows has two large sets of abundant TFCs, arranged in different directions, that cut the granite into blocks as effectively as a knife slicing up a pan of brownies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just to make sure of their findings, Becker’s team examined another part of the Sierra, the Mono Recesses, where the granite is almost identical but where TFCs are rare. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23505\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 550px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/monorecessespng.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/monorecessespng.png\" alt=\"Mono Recesses in Google Maps\" width=\"550\" height=\"325\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23505\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mono Recesses in Google Maps\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There the glaciers carved a textbook alpine terrain of narrow, U-shaped valleys—another climber’s playground—without wide meadows. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23506\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2nd-recess-mono-creek.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/2nd-recess-mono-creek.jpg\" alt=\"2nd Recess of Mono Creek\" width=\"600\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23506\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mono Recesses is underlain by the same granite as Tuolumne Meadows, only unfractured, yielding a typical landscape of U-shaped glacial valleys (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnexplorer/\">Craig Taylor/\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/\">CC-BY-NC-SA\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s just as grand, but a different kind of beautiful. Deep events of 85 million years ago left tracks at Tuolumne Meadows that the glaciers followed as they carved a geological sculpture garden in the high Yosemite country.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-amazing-life-of-sand",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/author/lrothjohnson/\">Article by Liz Roth-Johnson\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]Every grain of sand has a story to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By studying the composition and texture of sand, geologists can reconstruct its incredible life history. “There’s just a ton of information out there, and all of it is in the sand,” said Mary McGann, a geologist at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McGann recently took part in a comprehensive research project mapping sand’s journey into and throughout San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Barnard, another USGS geologist who helped oversee the project, said that it will help scientists understand how local beaches are changing over time. In particular, Barnard wants to understand why beaches just south of San Francisco Bay are among the most rapidly eroding beaches in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It comes down to sand,” he said. “Where does the sand supply come from to these beaches, and is it being cut off?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 509px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Hoover-and-Goeden.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23060\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Hoover-and-Goeden.png\" alt=\"Daniel Hoover and Brenda Goeden collect sand samples along the coast of Drakes Bay in California. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\" width=\"509\" height=\"678\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Hoover of the USGS and Brenda Goeden of the SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission collect sand samples along the open coast of Drakes Bay in California. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From 2010-2012, Barnard and his team sampled beaches, outcrops, rivers and creeks to track sand’s journey around the bay. They even collected sand from the ocean floor. The researchers then carefully analyzed the samples to characterize the shapes, sizes, and chemical properties of the sand grains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnard said the information provides a kind of fingerprint, or signature, for each sample that can then be matched to a potential source. For example, certain minerals may only come from the Sierra Mountains or the Marin Headlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’ve covered all of the potential sources, and we know the unique signature of the sand from these different sources, and we find it on a beach somewhere, then we basically know where it came from,” explained Barnard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 817px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Sand-Grab.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23061\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Sand-Grab.png\" alt=\"Jeff Hansen and Daniel Hoover send a “sand grab” into San Pablo Bay to collect sand samples. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\" width=\"817\" height=\"613\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Hansen and Daniel Hoover of the USGS get ready to send a “sand grab” into San Pablo Bay to collect sand samples from the ocean floor. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But sometimes this geological information isn’t enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes it’s difficult to say where sand comes from,” said McGann. “Sometimes it’s distinct and comes from different watersheds and people know it. Sometimes it’s not obvious at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McGann studies tiny ocean-dwelling organisms called forams and diatoms, which can provide additional information about how sand travels. Because these critters prefer to live in very specific environments, their location can offer clues about how ocean currents transport material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McGann has found marine diatoms near Pittsburg, in Honker Bay, and ocean floor-dwelling forams near the Dumbarton Bridge. “They wouldn’t normally live there,” she said. “There’s no way those things would live there. It shows us that there’s a pathway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those species aren’t the only things finding their way into the sand. Manmade materials can show up there, too. McGann has found metal welding scraps and tiny glass spheres (commonly sprinkled on highways to make road stripes reflective) in sand samples from around the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23345\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 726px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/Foram.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23345\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/Foram.png\" alt=\"A single foram sits on the “W” of a penny. (Mary McGann/USGS)\" width=\"726\" height=\"521\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A single foram sits on the “W” of a penny. (Mary McGann/USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All of these things can get washed into our rivers or our creeks, or washed off the road in storm drains,” explained McGann. “Eventually they end up in, for example, San Francisco Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By piecing together all of these clues – the information found in the minerals, biological material and manmade objects that make up sand – the researchers ended up with a pretty clear picture of how sand travels around San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some sands stay close to home. Rocky sand in the Marin Headlands comes from nearby bluffs, never straying far from its source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other sands travel hundreds of miles. Granite from the Sierra Nevada mountains careens down rivers and streams on a century-long sojourn to the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, much of the sand in the Bay Area comes from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, with local watersheds also playing an important role in transporting sand to the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnard said he hopes this research will help Californians realize that the sand they enjoy at the beach has to travel through inland rivers and watersheds to arrive at the coast. By mining and constructing dams, residents could be cutting off sand sources and compromising the sustainability of local beaches, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately we’re potentially cutting off a supply of sand, which is what makes these beaches we enjoy wide to provide storm protection and recreational use,” said Barnard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although this project focused on San Francisco Bay, the same techniques could be used to study other coastal systems, he added, revealing the incredible life stories of sand from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "There’s a story in every grain of sand: tales of life and death, fire and water. If you scooped up a handful of sand from every beach, you'd have a history of the world sifting through your fingers. From mountain boulders to the shells of tiny ocean creatures, follow the journey that sand takes through thousands of years across entire continents to wind up stuck between your toes.",
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"description": "There’s a story in every grain of sand: tales of life and death, fire and water. If you scooped up a handful of sand from every beach, you'd have a history of the world sifting through your fingers. From mountain boulders to the shells of tiny ocean creatures, follow the journey that sand takes through thousands of years across entire continents to wind up stuck between your toes.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Every grain of sand has a story to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By studying the composition and texture of sand, geologists can reconstruct its incredible life history. “There’s just a ton of information out there, and all of it is in the sand,” said Mary McGann, a geologist at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McGann recently took part in a comprehensive research project mapping sand’s journey into and throughout San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Patrick Barnard, another USGS geologist who helped oversee the project, said that it will help scientists understand how local beaches are changing over time. In particular, Barnard wants to understand why beaches just south of San Francisco Bay are among the most rapidly eroding beaches in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It comes down to sand,” he said. “Where does the sand supply come from to these beaches, and is it being cut off?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 509px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Hoover-and-Goeden.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23060\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Hoover-and-Goeden.png\" alt=\"Daniel Hoover and Brenda Goeden collect sand samples along the coast of Drakes Bay in California. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\" width=\"509\" height=\"678\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Hoover of the USGS and Brenda Goeden of the SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission collect sand samples along the open coast of Drakes Bay in California. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From 2010-2012, Barnard and his team sampled beaches, outcrops, rivers and creeks to track sand’s journey around the bay. They even collected sand from the ocean floor. The researchers then carefully analyzed the samples to characterize the shapes, sizes, and chemical properties of the sand grains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnard said the information provides a kind of fingerprint, or signature, for each sample that can then be matched to a potential source. For example, certain minerals may only come from the Sierra Mountains or the Marin Headlands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we’ve covered all of the potential sources, and we know the unique signature of the sand from these different sources, and we find it on a beach somewhere, then we basically know where it came from,” explained Barnard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 817px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Sand-Grab.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23061\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/Sand-Grab.png\" alt=\"Jeff Hansen and Daniel Hoover send a “sand grab” into San Pablo Bay to collect sand samples. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\" width=\"817\" height=\"613\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Hansen and Daniel Hoover of the USGS get ready to send a “sand grab” into San Pablo Bay to collect sand samples from the ocean floor. (Amy Foxgrover/USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But sometimes this geological information isn’t enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes it’s difficult to say where sand comes from,” said McGann. “Sometimes it’s distinct and comes from different watersheds and people know it. Sometimes it’s not obvious at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McGann studies tiny ocean-dwelling organisms called forams and diatoms, which can provide additional information about how sand travels. Because these critters prefer to live in very specific environments, their location can offer clues about how ocean currents transport material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McGann has found marine diatoms near Pittsburg, in Honker Bay, and ocean floor-dwelling forams near the Dumbarton Bridge. “They wouldn’t normally live there,” she said. “There’s no way those things would live there. It shows us that there’s a pathway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And those species aren’t the only things finding their way into the sand. Manmade materials can show up there, too. McGann has found metal welding scraps and tiny glass spheres (commonly sprinkled on highways to make road stripes reflective) in sand samples from around the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23345\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 726px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/Foram.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23345\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/11/Foram.png\" alt=\"A single foram sits on the “W” of a penny. (Mary McGann/USGS)\" width=\"726\" height=\"521\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A single foram sits on the “W” of a penny. (Mary McGann/USGS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All of these things can get washed into our rivers or our creeks, or washed off the road in storm drains,” explained McGann. “Eventually they end up in, for example, San Francisco Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By piecing together all of these clues – the information found in the minerals, biological material and manmade objects that make up sand – the researchers ended up with a pretty clear picture of how sand travels around San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some sands stay close to home. Rocky sand in the Marin Headlands comes from nearby bluffs, never straying far from its source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other sands travel hundreds of miles. Granite from the Sierra Nevada mountains careens down rivers and streams on a century-long sojourn to the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, much of the sand in the Bay Area comes from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, with local watersheds also playing an important role in transporting sand to the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnard said he hopes this research will help Californians realize that the sand they enjoy at the beach has to travel through inland rivers and watersheds to arrive at the coast. By mining and constructing dams, residents could be cutting off sand sources and compromising the sustainability of local beaches, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately we’re potentially cutting off a supply of sand, which is what makes these beaches we enjoy wide to provide storm protection and recreational use,” said Barnard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although this project focused on San Francisco Bay, the same techniques could be used to study other coastal systems, he added, revealing the incredible life stories of sand from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "With Residential Retrofit Scheme, Oakland Enters Next Phase of Quakeproofing",
"headTitle": "With Residential Retrofit Scheme, Oakland Enters Next Phase of Quakeproofing | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23216\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandbuilding.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandbuilding.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland apartment building\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23216\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland gains character as well as affordable housing from its stock of small and mid-sized apartment buildings. A city plan is being prepared to strengthen this crucial part of the city’s fabric against earthquake damage. (Andrew Alden photos)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the Bay Area’s next big earthquake strikes, \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/housing/losses/\">forecasts say that more than 150,000 housing units will be permanently lost\u003c/a> and their residents made homeless—as things stand now. The majority of those earthquake refugees will come from one class of structure: small wood-framed apartment buildings with soft stories. Cities are now targeting these weak points in the urban fabric. Oakland, the Bay Area city with the greatest length of major fault lines in its borders, is joining Berkeley and San Francisco with a major strengthening program for soft-story apartments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It takes time to prepare a region against deadly earthquakes. A million things need attention, and most of them involve fixing structures that weren’t built with earthquakes in mind. In the 25 years since the Loma Prieta quake, Bay Area agencies have taken care of the big-ticket items. Caltrans has beefed up the big bridges and all the freeway overpasses. BART has strengthened its tracks and stations. The water agencies have fixed their largest mains wherever they cross a major fault line. The power and gas systems are much more robust today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once a city’s lifelines are able to survive an earthquake, the next step is to see that residents can quickly resume their lives—with homes, schools and jobs. Schools are seismically strong, thanks to the Field Act of 1933. Modern business buildings meet strong codes and should be quickly repairable. Streets are straightforward to fix. Living places are the weakest link, and Oakland has been working on a program for several years to retrofit vulnerable residences. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest payoff is in fixing soft-story apartments—buildings with ground floors occupied by parking spaces or retail shops. When one of these building slumps, everyone in it is displaced, the building is ruined and its neighboring properties are jeopardized. The Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 brought down many of these in the Marina district of San Francisco, and in Oakland some 1300 residence units of this type were lost or severely damaged—and in those cities that did not count as a major quake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It pays in many ways to preserve them instead. Oakland’s city administrator, Henry Gardner, made a succinct case for a retrofit program \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/Info_Memo_Safer_Housing_for_Oakland_Soft_Story_Apartment_Retrofit.pdf\">in a recent memo to the City Council\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Retrofitting soft-story apartment buildings will likely save lives, minimize injuries and help keep people in their homes after a major disaster. Renters can avoid personal losses, costs associated with relocating, and inflated rental prices. In particular, retrofitting soft-story apartment buildings will protect the most vulnerable, the same people most at risk of being displaced after a disaster. Building owners can avoid the cost of demolishing and rebuilding, and avoid revenue loss while rebuilding occurs. The public sector can avoid the cost of emergency services for disaster housing, and the loss of tax revenue from rental property owners. Additionally, retrofitting soft-story apartment buildings aligns with Oakland’s sustainability goals by reducing the City’s post-earthquake carbon footprint.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23217\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandapartment.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandapartment.jpg\" alt=\"Classic Oakland apartment building\" width=\"600\" height=\"453\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23217\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail of small apartment building overlooking Lake Merritt\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It also must be said that these buildings are an important part of Oakland’s heritage and character. Many of them were built in the 1920s, and they dominate cherished neighborhoods all around Lake Merritt as well as the Dimond, Laurel and East Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandsoftstorymap.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandsoftstorymap.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland soft-story inventory map\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23218\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portion of Oakland’s map of soft-story apartment buildings. Green shades refer to average household income. The volunteer coders of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.openoakland.org/\">Open Oakland\u003c/a> nonprofit have put together \u003ca href=\"http://softstory.openoakland.org/\">SoftStory\u003c/a>, an interactive map showing each of these residential buildings along with its status—evaluated, not yet evaluated, or exempt. (\u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/Info_Memo_Safer_Housing_for_Oakland_Soft_Story_Apartment_Retrofit.pdf\">City of Oakland\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland started its focus on soft-story apartments in 2008 with a preliminary survey that mapped 1400 of these buildings, then a 2009 ordinance requiring their owners to assess their structures. Now it’s ready to move ahead with a formal Soft Story Retrofit Program that will be presented to the City Council in a few months. Its basic elements are becoming clear, but the details are fluid. Building owners and residents will share the cost of retrofits, and a long menu of possible incentives will be considered. There is seed money available. (More details are given in \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/Info_Memo_Safer_Housing_for_Oakland_Soft_Story_Apartment_Retrofit.pdf\">Gardner’s memo\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first of several hearings on the proposal \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/announcements/Seismic_Community_Forum_Flyer_10%2030%2014.pdf\">will be held tonight\u003c/a> from 5:30 to 7 pm at Oakland City Hall in Hearing Room 1. (City Hall, I should point out, \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandgeology.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/city-hall-and-the-loma-prieta-quake/\">is itself a monument to retrofitting\u003c/a>.) The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/05/four-bay-area-cities-selected-as-future-models-of-resilience/\">Chief Resilience Officer\u003c/a> of Oakland, Victoria Salinas, will speak and her San Francisco counterpart, Patrick Otellini, will share his city’s experience with \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgsa.org/index.aspx?page=6048\">its retrofit ordinance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More reading:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Association of Bay Area Governments \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/projects/oakland-soft-story/\">page on Oakland Soft-Story Buildings\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Building_and_Safety/Soft_Story_Program.aspx\">Berkeley’s Soft-Story Retrofit Program\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PBN/OurOrganization/BuildingServices/DOWD008964\">Oakland Soft-Story Seismic Screening page\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco: “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfaa.org/june2013/1306_otellini.shtml\">Survival of the Retrofittest\u003c/a>” by Patrick Otellini\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23216\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandbuilding.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandbuilding.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland apartment building\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23216\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland gains character as well as affordable housing from its stock of small and mid-sized apartment buildings. A city plan is being prepared to strengthen this crucial part of the city’s fabric against earthquake damage. (Andrew Alden photos)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the Bay Area’s next big earthquake strikes, \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/housing/losses/\">forecasts say that more than 150,000 housing units will be permanently lost\u003c/a> and their residents made homeless—as things stand now. The majority of those earthquake refugees will come from one class of structure: small wood-framed apartment buildings with soft stories. Cities are now targeting these weak points in the urban fabric. Oakland, the Bay Area city with the greatest length of major fault lines in its borders, is joining Berkeley and San Francisco with a major strengthening program for soft-story apartments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It takes time to prepare a region against deadly earthquakes. A million things need attention, and most of them involve fixing structures that weren’t built with earthquakes in mind. In the 25 years since the Loma Prieta quake, Bay Area agencies have taken care of the big-ticket items. Caltrans has beefed up the big bridges and all the freeway overpasses. BART has strengthened its tracks and stations. The water agencies have fixed their largest mains wherever they cross a major fault line. The power and gas systems are much more robust today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once a city’s lifelines are able to survive an earthquake, the next step is to see that residents can quickly resume their lives—with homes, schools and jobs. Schools are seismically strong, thanks to the Field Act of 1933. Modern business buildings meet strong codes and should be quickly repairable. Streets are straightforward to fix. Living places are the weakest link, and Oakland has been working on a program for several years to retrofit vulnerable residences. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest payoff is in fixing soft-story apartments—buildings with ground floors occupied by parking spaces or retail shops. When one of these building slumps, everyone in it is displaced, the building is ruined and its neighboring properties are jeopardized. The Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 brought down many of these in the Marina district of San Francisco, and in Oakland some 1300 residence units of this type were lost or severely damaged—and in those cities that did not count as a major quake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It pays in many ways to preserve them instead. Oakland’s city administrator, Henry Gardner, made a succinct case for a retrofit program \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/Info_Memo_Safer_Housing_for_Oakland_Soft_Story_Apartment_Retrofit.pdf\">in a recent memo to the City Council\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Retrofitting soft-story apartment buildings will likely save lives, minimize injuries and help keep people in their homes after a major disaster. Renters can avoid personal losses, costs associated with relocating, and inflated rental prices. In particular, retrofitting soft-story apartment buildings will protect the most vulnerable, the same people most at risk of being displaced after a disaster. Building owners can avoid the cost of demolishing and rebuilding, and avoid revenue loss while rebuilding occurs. The public sector can avoid the cost of emergency services for disaster housing, and the loss of tax revenue from rental property owners. Additionally, retrofitting soft-story apartment buildings aligns with Oakland’s sustainability goals by reducing the City’s post-earthquake carbon footprint.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23217\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandapartment.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandapartment.jpg\" alt=\"Classic Oakland apartment building\" width=\"600\" height=\"453\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23217\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail of small apartment building overlooking Lake Merritt\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It also must be said that these buildings are an important part of Oakland’s heritage and character. Many of them were built in the 1920s, and they dominate cherished neighborhoods all around Lake Merritt as well as the Dimond, Laurel and East Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandsoftstorymap.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/oaklandsoftstorymap.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland soft-story inventory map\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23218\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portion of Oakland’s map of soft-story apartment buildings. Green shades refer to average household income. The volunteer coders of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.openoakland.org/\">Open Oakland\u003c/a> nonprofit have put together \u003ca href=\"http://softstory.openoakland.org/\">SoftStory\u003c/a>, an interactive map showing each of these residential buildings along with its status—evaluated, not yet evaluated, or exempt. (\u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/Info_Memo_Safer_Housing_for_Oakland_Soft_Story_Apartment_Retrofit.pdf\">City of Oakland\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Oakland started its focus on soft-story apartments in 2008 with a preliminary survey that mapped 1400 of these buildings, then a 2009 ordinance requiring their owners to assess their structures. Now it’s ready to move ahead with a formal Soft Story Retrofit Program that will be presented to the City Council in a few months. Its basic elements are becoming clear, but the details are fluid. Building owners and residents will share the cost of retrofits, and a long menu of possible incentives will be considered. There is seed money available. (More details are given in \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/Info_Memo_Safer_Housing_for_Oakland_Soft_Story_Apartment_Retrofit.pdf\">Gardner’s memo\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first of several hearings on the proposal \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/wp-content/documents/announcements/Seismic_Community_Forum_Flyer_10%2030%2014.pdf\">will be held tonight\u003c/a> from 5:30 to 7 pm at Oakland City Hall in Hearing Room 1. (City Hall, I should point out, \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandgeology.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/city-hall-and-the-loma-prieta-quake/\">is itself a monument to retrofitting\u003c/a>.) The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/12/05/four-bay-area-cities-selected-as-future-models-of-resilience/\">Chief Resilience Officer\u003c/a> of Oakland, Victoria Salinas, will speak and her San Francisco counterpart, Patrick Otellini, will share his city’s experience with \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgsa.org/index.aspx?page=6048\">its retrofit ordinance\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More reading:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Association of Bay Area Governments \u003ca href=\"http://resilience.abag.ca.gov/projects/oakland-soft-story/\">page on Oakland Soft-Story Buildings\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Building_and_Safety/Soft_Story_Program.aspx\">Berkeley’s Soft-Story Retrofit Program\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PBN/OurOrganization/BuildingServices/DOWD008964\">Oakland Soft-Story Seismic Screening page\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco: “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfaa.org/june2013/1306_otellini.shtml\">Survival of the Retrofittest\u003c/a>” by Patrick Otellini\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 850px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/826scr_5fa7533564080f8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23078\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/826scr_5fa7533564080f8.jpg\" alt=\"Activists are concerned that Diablo Canyon can't withstand a major earthquake. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"850\" height=\"638\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Activists question whether Diablo Canyon can withstand a major earthquake. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An environmental group is pushing for a public review of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s license, amid concerns about the seismic safety of the Central Coast plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The environmental group Friends of the Earth has file a \u003ca href=\"http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/f4/7/4937/14-10-28_FoE_Petition_FSAR.pdf\">petition for review\u003c/a> in the U.S. Court of Appeals. It’s the latest move in the group’s longstanding campaign to shut down California’s only remaining nuclear plant, which supplies about nine percent of the state’s electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent discoveries of geologic faults near the San Luis Obispo County facility should trigger a public re-assessment of the plant’s safety, said Friends of the Earth spokesman Damon Moglan. Instead, he said, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and PG&E changed how earthquake risk is assessed in the plant’s license, without public input. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There really has to be a full public review of whether or not this plant is safe,” he said. “And whether or not it’s worth the risk of operating a decrepit 40-year-old plant designed in the 1960s in the most seismically active area of any reactor in the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its petition, Friends of the Earth said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated federal law and its own internal policies by making the change to Diablo Canyon’s license without public review. The group said the plant should be shut down until a full review is complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new fault was discovered near the plant in 2008. Earlier this year, PG&E completed \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/en/safety/systemworks/dcpp/seismicsafety/report.page\">its own study\u003c/a>, finding that even with that additional nearby fault, the seismic risk to the plant is below what the plant was built to withstand. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The facts are: the plant was built with earthquake safety at the forefront,” Blair Jones, a spokesman for PG&E told KQED. “It’s a seismically safe facility. And it’s in full compliance with NRC licensing requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former inspector at Diablo Canyon released his own \u003ca href=\"http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/5a/8/4821/Diablo_Canyon_Seismic_DPO.pdf/\">analysis\u003c/a>, saying the NRC was not applying its own safety rules to the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokeswoman for the NRC says the agency will review the petition.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_23078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 850px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/826scr_5fa7533564080f8.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23078\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/10/826scr_5fa7533564080f8.jpg\" alt=\"Activists are concerned that Diablo Canyon can't withstand a major earthquake. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"850\" height=\"638\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Activists question whether Diablo Canyon can withstand a major earthquake. (Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An environmental group is pushing for a public review of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s license, amid concerns about the seismic safety of the Central Coast plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The environmental group Friends of the Earth has file a \u003ca href=\"http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/f4/7/4937/14-10-28_FoE_Petition_FSAR.pdf\">petition for review\u003c/a> in the U.S. Court of Appeals. It’s the latest move in the group’s longstanding campaign to shut down California’s only remaining nuclear plant, which supplies about nine percent of the state’s electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent discoveries of geologic faults near the San Luis Obispo County facility should trigger a public re-assessment of the plant’s safety, said Friends of the Earth spokesman Damon Moglan. Instead, he said, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and PG&E changed how earthquake risk is assessed in the plant’s license, without public input. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There really has to be a full public review of whether or not this plant is safe,” he said. “And whether or not it’s worth the risk of operating a decrepit 40-year-old plant designed in the 1960s in the most seismically active area of any reactor in the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its petition, Friends of the Earth said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated federal law and its own internal policies by making the change to Diablo Canyon’s license without public review. The group said the plant should be shut down until a full review is complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new fault was discovered near the plant in 2008. Earlier this year, PG&E completed \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/en/safety/systemworks/dcpp/seismicsafety/report.page\">its own study\u003c/a>, finding that even with that additional nearby fault, the seismic risk to the plant is below what the plant was built to withstand. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The facts are: the plant was built with earthquake safety at the forefront,” Blair Jones, a spokesman for PG&E told KQED. “It’s a seismically safe facility. And it’s in full compliance with NRC licensing requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former inspector at Diablo Canyon released his own \u003ca href=\"http://libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/5a/8/4821/Diablo_Canyon_Seismic_DPO.pdf/\">analysis\u003c/a>, saying the NRC was not applying its own safety rules to the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokeswoman for the NRC says the agency will review the petition.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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"order": 3
},
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},
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"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
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}
},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
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"id": "city-arts",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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},
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
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