window.__IS_SSR__=true
window.__INITIAL_STATE__={
"attachmentsReducer": {
"audio_0": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_0",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background0.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_1": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_1",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background1.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_2": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_2",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background2.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_3": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_3",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background3.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_4": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_4",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background4.jpg"
}
}
},
"placeholder": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "placeholder",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
}
},
"science_19005": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_19005",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "19005",
"found": true
},
"parent": 19004,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1404413205,
"modified": 1404413205,
"caption": "This busy figure lays out the case linking deep-injection wells (squares) and earthquakes (gray/colored dots) in north-central Oklahoma. Groups of high-volume wells south and east of Oklahoma City (OKC) flank the long-running earthquake swarm centered on the town of Jones. Prague was the site of a magnitude-5.7 quake in 2011. Modified from Figure 1 of Keranen et al., \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">Sharp Increase in Central Oklahoma Seismicity Since 2008 Induced by Massive Wastewater Injection\u003c/a>,\" \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>, July 3, 2014. (AAAS/Science)",
"description": null,
"title": "OKEQmap",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_18743": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_18743",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "18743",
"found": true
},
"parent": 18742,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/extrasolar-planets.png",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1403808910,
"modified": 1403808910,
"caption": "The orbit of an exoplanet around its star affects the light emitted by the combined system, and the resulting patterns can be detected even in the stream of data from a single pixel. After Nicolas Cowan, \"\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EO250001/abstract\">The exoplanet opportunity: Top-down planetary science\u003c/a>,\" \u003ci>Eos\u003c/i>, 24 June 2014. (Cowan/AGU)",
"description": null,
"title": "extrasolar-planets",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_18308": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_18308",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "18308",
"found": true
},
"parent": 18307,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/earthshells.png",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1402599340,
"modified": 1402599340,
"caption": "New evidence from high-pressure experiments and earthquake waves suggests the presence ofwater-rich melt at the base of the upper mantle, far deeper than previous estimates. (After Wikimedia/\u003ca href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\">CC BY-SA 3.0\u003c/a>)",
"description": null,
"title": "earthshells",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_18298": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_18298",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "18298",
"found": true
},
"parent": 18297,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/18297-thumb.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1402594667,
"modified": 1402594667,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Thumbnail for 18297",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_17846": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_17846",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17846",
"found": true
},
"parent": 17845,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-1.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1401388006,
"modified": 1401388006,
"caption": "Plastic is so widespread that it appears destined to make a worldwide layer in the geologic record. This is on Laysan Island, deep in the central Pacific Ocean. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/\">US Fish & Wildlife Service/Flickr\u003c/a>)",
"description": null,
"title": "plastiglomerate-1",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_17523": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_17523",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17523",
"found": true
},
"parent": 17522,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/brodsky-lay.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1400180079,
"modified": 1400180079,
"caption": "Foreshocks small and large (white and orange-white circles respectively) migrated with time toward two recent great earthquakes (red circles). Patterns like this, if supported by measurements of slow seafloor motion, may lead us toward more reliable short-term earthquake forecasts. (AAAS/Science)",
"description": null,
"title": "brodsky-lay",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_17116": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_17116",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17116",
"found": true
},
"parent": 17114,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily-petal.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1398969451,
"modified": 1398969451,
"caption": "Organisms including this anemone colonize the tar lilies. (NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Gulf of Mexico 2014 Expedition)",
"description": null,
"title": "tarlily-petal",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_17060": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_17060",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17060",
"found": true
},
"parent": 17039,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/auburn_dam_sketch2_crop_.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1398814747,
"modified": 1398814747,
"caption": "ADD CAPTION",
"description": null,
"title": "auburn_dam_sketch2_crop_",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_16770": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_16770",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16770",
"found": true
},
"parent": 16327,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Irrigation_1764.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1398122574,
"modified": 1579492417,
"caption": "An irrigation ditch in the Central Valley. When surface water is scarce, farmers pump more groundwater to make up the difference. ",
"description": null,
"title": "Irrigation_1764",
"credit": "Craig Miller/KQED",
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_16638": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_16638",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16638",
"found": true
},
"parent": 16637,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1397757626,
"modified": 1397757626,
"caption": "The critically endangered Panamanian golden frog (\u003ci>Atelopus zeteki\u003c/i>) stands in for thousands of rare organisms. Should scientists kill one of these just to prove it's not extinct? (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/warriorwoman531/\">Heather Paul/Flickr\u003c/a>)",
"description": null,
"title": "panamafrogs",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_16399": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_16399",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16399",
"found": true
},
"parent": 16397,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonchert.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1397155814,
"modified": 1397155814,
"caption": "Cracks in these 3-billion-year-old sediments are interpreted as the result of an asteroid impact that created a crater 500 kilometers across, somewhere far away on Earth. Photos courtesy Donald Lowe",
"description": null,
"title": "Barbertonchert",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"science_16099": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "science_16099",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16099",
"found": true
},
"parent": 16098,
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/permian-glossopteris.jpg",
"width": 640,
"height": 360
}
},
"publishDate": 1396551035,
"modified": 1396551035,
"caption": "Late Permian fossils include \u003ci>Glossopteris\u003c/i> leaves at left, representing a widespread forest community that vanished in the \"Great Dying\" \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/people/22616984@N07/\">Flickr/Creative Commons\u003c/a>",
"description": null,
"title": "permian-glossopteris",
"credit": null,
"status": "inherit",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
}
},
"audioPlayerReducer": {
"postId": "stream_live",
"isPaused": true,
"isPlaying": false,
"pfsActive": false,
"pledgeModalIsOpen": true,
"playerDrawerIsOpen": false,
"liveAudioPlayStartedAt": 0,
"liveAudioPlayContext": ""
},
"authorsReducer": {
"cmiller": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "221",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "221",
"found": true
},
"name": "Craig Miller",
"firstName": "Craig",
"lastName": "Miller",
"slug": "cmiller",
"email": "craig@voxterra.net",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [
"science"
],
"title": "Editor Emeritus, Science",
"bio": "Craig is a former KQED Science editor, specializing in weather, climate, water & energy issues, with a little seismology thrown in just to shake things up. Prior to that, he launched and led the station's award-winning multimedia project, Climate Watch. Craig is also an accomplished writer/producer of television documentaries, with a focus on natural resource issues.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "voxterra",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "futureofyou",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "stateofhealth",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "quest",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Craig Miller | KQED",
"description": "Editor Emeritus, Science",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b91661df645e001a9cafe0861fa685f9?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/cmiller"
},
"andrew-alden": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "6228",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "6228",
"found": true
},
"name": "Andrew Alden",
"firstName": "Andrew",
"lastName": "Alden",
"slug": "andrew-alden",
"email": "alden@andrew-alden.com",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": null,
"bio": "Andrew Alden earned his geology degree at the University of New Hampshire and moved back to the Bay Area to work at the U.S. Geological Survey for six years. He has \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/\">written on geology for About.com\u003c/a> since its founding in 1997. In 2007, he started the Oakland Geology blog, which won recognition as \"Best of the East Bay\" from the \u003ci>East Bay Express\u003c/i> in 2010. In writing about geology in the Bay Area and surroundings, he hopes to share some of the useful and pleasurable insights that geologists give us—not just facts about the deep past, but an attitude that might be called the \u003ci>deep present\u003c/i>.\r\n\r\nRead his \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/author/andrew-alden/\">previous contributions\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"http://http://science.kqed.org/quest/\">QUEST\u003c/a>, a project dedicated to exploring the Science of Sustainability.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9eaa0afc32f98c5fc7ce634437334a64?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "quest",
"roles": [
"subscriber"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Andrew Alden | KQED",
"description": null,
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9eaa0afc32f98c5fc7ce634437334a64?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9eaa0afc32f98c5fc7ce634437334a64?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/andrew-alden"
},
"kqedscience": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "6387",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "6387",
"found": true
},
"name": "KQED Science",
"firstName": "KQED",
"lastName": "Science",
"slug": "kqedscience",
"email": "kqedscience@gmail.com",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": null,
"bio": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond by the flagship Northern California PBS and NPR affiliate.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5a295ff49cf82a8c0f30937d3f788b2f?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
},
{
"site": "quest",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "food",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "KQED Science | KQED",
"description": null,
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5a295ff49cf82a8c0f30937d3f788b2f?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5a295ff49cf82a8c0f30937d3f788b2f?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/kqedscience"
}
},
"pagesReducer": {
"science_category_geology": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_38",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "38",
"score": 13.559036
},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Geology",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Geology Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 40,
"slug": "geology",
"isLoading": false,
"title": "Geology",
"pageMeta": {
"site": "science",
"WpPageTemplate": "page-topic-editorial",
"currentPage": 14
},
"blocks": [
{
"blockName": "kqed/post-list",
"attrs": {
"layout": "cardArticle2",
"query": "posts/science?category=geology",
"seeMore": false,
"paginated": true,
"page": 14
}
},
{
"blockName": "kqed/ad"
}
]
}
},
"pfsSessionReducer": {},
"postsReducer": {
"stream_live": {
"type": "live",
"id": "stream_live",
"audioUrl": "https://hls.kqed.org/hls/kqed_app/playlist.m3u8",
"title": "Live Stream",
"excerpt": "Live Stream information currently unavailable.",
"link": "/radio",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "KQED Live",
"link": "/"
}
},
"stream_kqedNewscast": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "stream_kqedNewscast",
"audioUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1",
"title": "KQED Newscast",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "88.5 FM",
"link": "/"
}
},
"science_19004": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_19004",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "19004",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1404414495000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1404414495,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Oklahoma Study Offers Better Insight into Industrial Earthquakes",
"headTitle": "Oklahoma Study Offers Better Insight into Industrial Earthquakes | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\" alt=\"Oklahoma earthquakes and injection wells\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19005\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This busy figure lays out the case linking deep-injection wells (squares) and earthquakes (gray/colored dots) in north-central Oklahoma. Groups of high-volume wells south and east of Oklahoma City (OKC) flank the long-running earthquake swarm centered on the town of Jones. Prague was the site of a magnitude-5.7 quake in 2011. Modified from Figure 1 of Keranen et al., “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">Sharp Increase in Central Oklahoma Seismicity Since 2008 Induced by Massive Wastewater Injection\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>, July 3, 2014. (AAAS/Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In today’s issue of \u003cem>Science\u003c/em>, a research team explains how wells that inject wastewater deep underground near Oklahoma City have caused earthquakes much farther away than we thought before — up to 35 kilometers. Their model may make it feasible for regulators to try controlling these quakes—if the industry provides them enough data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oklahoma is not prone to earthquakes the way California is. It doesn’t sit where tectonic plates are grinding against each other. But since 2008, Oklahoma has had a 40-fold rise in earthquakes large enough to feel—and the state has become by far the largest seismicity source east of the Rockies. In fact, acre for acre, Oklahoma matches California these days in earthquakes larger than magnitude 3 (a size that people notice). The largest of these seismic events is a swarm of quakes near the town of Jones that has been going on for five years and counting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of especially large deep-injection wells began operating in Oklahoma around 2004. When the earthquakes began, suspicion was quick to focus on those wells. Could they be pushing the Earth’s crust near Jones to the breaking point?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/basicinformation.cfm\">Deep injection wells\u003c/a> have a history going back to the 1930s, when Texas oil producers began using them to take the salty, toxic water pumped up along with the oil and put it back where it came from. Other producers of nasty stuff began using deep injection too—chemical manufacturers and refiners, military suppliers, paper mills and so on. The Environmental Protection Agency has been regulating them, with a growing web of rules and oversight, since the 1970s, and today tens of thousands of deep injection wells, more than 9000 of them in Oklahoma alone, serve the nation without incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have been arguing for a link between deep injection wells and Midwest earthquakes for several years, with growing confidence as the evidence improves. So far most of the studies have relied on statistical tests, but the new study makes a more direct case using the earthquakes of the Jones swarm and the injection records from the 89 nearest wells. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">The \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> paper\u003c/a>, by Cornell University researcher \u003ca href=\"http://www.eas.cornell.edu/eas/people/profile.cfm?netid=kmk299\">Katie Keranen\u003c/a> and four colleagues, relies on computer modeling using well-known physics to predict how the rocks in north-central Oklahoma would react to being pumped full of wastewater at high pressure. The model shows that as the water is forced into the pores in the rocks, a wave of rising pore pressure moves outward from the wells at 100 to 150 meters per day. The resulting change in the state of stress is enough, as we know from elsewhere, to ease susceptible areas over the edge and trigger earthquakes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only does the pattern of the Jones swarm match the model, but also the model strongly suggests that injection wells can affect pore pressures much farther away than previously thought. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study in the \u003ci>Journal of Geophysical Research\u003c/i> published in April found that the Prague earthquake of 2011, at magnitude 5.7 the largest in recent years, was triggered by a foreshock that in turn was induced by deep injection wells. Keranen was part of that study, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is responding to the wave of new scientific studies by installing more seismometers and requiring operators to keep records of their deep-injection volumes every day rather than monthly. The Oklahoma agency that governs well operations has begun ordering operators to cut back in specific cases. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil and gas production was a huge industry in Oklahoma long before the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques. The practices that led to the Jones earthquake swarm are not connected to fracking. Instead, the wastewater comes from “dewatering plays,” another unconventional oil production method that enables oil to be produced from deposits dominated by water. In this method, huge amounts of formation brine are pumped out before oil production begins to kick in. The wells in question are operated by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.newdominion.net/\">New Dominion\u003c/a> company, which is reportedly in discussions with the state.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 770,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 12
},
"modified": 1704933346,
"excerpt": "A new study adds strong evidence that deep-injection wells can occasionally nudge a fault into activity. The key is figuring out how it happens, then learning to avoid whatever is making it happen.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A new study adds strong evidence that deep-injection wells can occasionally nudge a fault into activity. The key is figuring out how it happens, then learning to avoid whatever is making it happen.",
"title": "Oklahoma Study Offers Better Insight into Industrial Earthquakes | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Oklahoma Study Offers Better Insight into Industrial Earthquakes",
"datePublished": "2014-07-03T12:08:15-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:35:46-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "oklahoma-study-offers-better-insight-into-industrial-earthquakes",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/19004/oklahoma-study-offers-better-insight-into-industrial-earthquakes",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_19005\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/07/OKEQmap.png\" alt=\"Oklahoma earthquakes and injection wells\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19005\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This busy figure lays out the case linking deep-injection wells (squares) and earthquakes (gray/colored dots) in north-central Oklahoma. Groups of high-volume wells south and east of Oklahoma City (OKC) flank the long-running earthquake swarm centered on the town of Jones. Prague was the site of a magnitude-5.7 quake in 2011. Modified from Figure 1 of Keranen et al., “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">Sharp Increase in Central Oklahoma Seismicity Since 2008 Induced by Massive Wastewater Injection\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>, July 3, 2014. (AAAS/Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In today’s issue of \u003cem>Science\u003c/em>, a research team explains how wells that inject wastewater deep underground near Oklahoma City have caused earthquakes much farther away than we thought before — up to 35 kilometers. Their model may make it feasible for regulators to try controlling these quakes—if the industry provides them enough data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oklahoma is not prone to earthquakes the way California is. It doesn’t sit where tectonic plates are grinding against each other. But since 2008, Oklahoma has had a 40-fold rise in earthquakes large enough to feel—and the state has become by far the largest seismicity source east of the Rockies. In fact, acre for acre, Oklahoma matches California these days in earthquakes larger than magnitude 3 (a size that people notice). The largest of these seismic events is a swarm of quakes near the town of Jones that has been going on for five years and counting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of especially large deep-injection wells began operating in Oklahoma around 2004. When the earthquakes began, suspicion was quick to focus on those wells. Could they be pushing the Earth’s crust near Jones to the breaking point?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/basicinformation.cfm\">Deep injection wells\u003c/a> have a history going back to the 1930s, when Texas oil producers began using them to take the salty, toxic water pumped up along with the oil and put it back where it came from. Other producers of nasty stuff began using deep injection too—chemical manufacturers and refiners, military suppliers, paper mills and so on. The Environmental Protection Agency has been regulating them, with a growing web of rules and oversight, since the 1970s, and today tens of thousands of deep injection wells, more than 9000 of them in Oklahoma alone, serve the nation without incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have been arguing for a link between deep injection wells and Midwest earthquakes for several years, with growing confidence as the evidence improves. So far most of the studies have relied on statistical tests, but the new study makes a more direct case using the earthquakes of the Jones swarm and the injection records from the 89 nearest wells. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/07/02/science.1255802\">The \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> paper\u003c/a>, by Cornell University researcher \u003ca href=\"http://www.eas.cornell.edu/eas/people/profile.cfm?netid=kmk299\">Katie Keranen\u003c/a> and four colleagues, relies on computer modeling using well-known physics to predict how the rocks in north-central Oklahoma would react to being pumped full of wastewater at high pressure. The model shows that as the water is forced into the pores in the rocks, a wave of rising pore pressure moves outward from the wells at 100 to 150 meters per day. The resulting change in the state of stress is enough, as we know from elsewhere, to ease susceptible areas over the edge and trigger earthquakes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only does the pattern of the Jones swarm match the model, but also the model strongly suggests that injection wells can affect pore pressures much farther away than previously thought. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A study in the \u003ci>Journal of Geophysical Research\u003c/i> published in April found that the Prague earthquake of 2011, at magnitude 5.7 the largest in recent years, was triggered by a foreshock that in turn was induced by deep injection wells. Keranen was part of that study, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state is responding to the wave of new scientific studies by installing more seismometers and requiring operators to keep records of their deep-injection volumes every day rather than monthly. The Oklahoma agency that governs well operations has begun ordering operators to cut back in specific cases. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil and gas production was a huge industry in Oklahoma long before the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) techniques. The practices that led to the Jones earthquake swarm are not connected to fracking. Instead, the wastewater comes from “dewatering plays,” another unconventional oil production method that enables oil to be produced from deposits dominated by water. In this method, huge amounts of formation brine are pumped out before oil production begins to kick in. The wells in question are operated by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.newdominion.net/\">New Dominion\u003c/a> company, which is reportedly in discussions with the state.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/19004/oklahoma-study-offers-better-insight-into-industrial-earthquakes",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_33",
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_427",
"science_429",
"science_1712"
],
"featImg": "science_19005",
"label": "science"
},
"science_18742": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_18742",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "18742",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1403812298000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1403812298,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Studying Exoplanets: What A Thousand Points of Light Might Reveal About Earth",
"headTitle": "Studying Exoplanets: What A Thousand Points of Light Might Reveal About Earth | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18743\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/extrasolar-planets.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/extrasolar-planets.png\" alt=\"Exoplanet orbit\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18743\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The orbit of an exoplanet around its star affects the light emitted by the combined system, and the resulting patterns can be detected even in the stream of data from a single pixel. After Nicolas Cowan, “\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EO250001/abstract\">The exoplanet opportunity: Top-down planetary science\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Eos\u003c/i>, 24 June 2014. (Cowan/AGU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since the century began, astronomers have been discovering new planets around other stars—exoplanets. This harvest of information has become a flood—NASA’s \u003ca href=\"http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/\">PlanetQuest site\u003c/a> now lists more than 5000 exoplanets. Almost all of them are represented by “impurities” in a stream of starlight, no more than a single pixel in extent, registered by a telescope in outer space. Planetary scientist \u003ca href=\"http://nickcowan.com/\">Nicolas Cowan\u003c/a> explains in a new paper that we can learn a lot from those thousand points of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cowan, a researcher at Northwestern University, \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EO250001/abstract\">writes in the June 24 issue of \u003ci>Eos\u003c/i>\u003c/a> that the thin trickle of light from an exoplanet can be analyzed in surprising detail given what we know about planets in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big obstacle in studying exoplanets is dealing with the stars they orbit—suns like our own whose light may be a billion times brighter than the light from the exoplanet. There are mechanical ways to screen out the star that work in a few cases. Outside that ideal situation, we can still use numerical methods to isolate the stream of photons of exoplanetary light from the flood of stellar photons. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think of the problem as a torrent of M&M candies, representing photons, pouring through a chute onto a table. Almost all of them are brown—that represents the star’s light—and a few are other colors representing light from the exoplanet. Those colors are different because an exoplanet can change the starlight falling upon it. For example, Earth directly reflects more sunlight in blue than it does in red, and its outer atmosphere absorbs incoming light and re-emits it at other wavelengths (ultraviolet during the day and thermal infrared at night). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diagram above shows some of the possibilities raised by the orbit of an exoplanet. When it goes behind the star (in eclipse) its light is lost entirely, and when it goes in front (in transit) it partially blocks the star. This data is very handy for helping separate the two streams of light when they’re mixed. As the exoplanet moves around its orbit, the mix of light it displays changes with time. In the gibbous phase, it reflects more light; in the crescent phase it displays more re-emitted light from the nightside. Over the course of the exoplanet’s orbit, all of these differences show up in that single pixel of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The single pixel can even be cracked open a bit. As the exoplanet enters and leaves eclipse, it becomes possible to derive crude maps, as shown below in \u003ca href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.1883v2\">another of Cowan’s recent papers\u003c/a>. And an exoplanet’s rotation also offers a way into the pixel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18744\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/exoplanetmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/exoplanetmap.png\" alt=\"exoplanet map\" width=\"600\" height=\"306\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18744\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two-dimensional map of exoplanet HD 189733b in infrared light, based on eclipses. The top part of the figure shows the geometry and math behind the method, combining ingress and egress light curves as the exoplanet moves from right to left behind its star. (\u003ca href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.1883v2\">Cowan/Arxiv\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The late Carl Sagan famously called Earth a “pale blue dot” after a picture taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the edge of the solar system. In that image, Earth was barely a pixel across. What could we deduce about Earth from that single pixel? \u003ca href=\"http://m.iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/765/1/L17/article\">In a 2013 paper in \u003ci>The Astrophysical Journal Letters\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Cowan and Talia Strait analyzed a set of one-pixel snapshots of Earth taken during the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/\">Deep Impact space mission\u003c/a>. The snapshots, taken once an hour for 24 hours, represent a complete Earth day. Using well-known techniques (principal-component analysis) and no foreknowledge, the authors were able to tell the rough proportions of land, water and clouds visible as the Earth turned. This proof-of-concept exercise can be refined for use on any object, not just exoplanets but small bodies in our own solar system or, I suppose, enemy satellites. Given enough observations, it could tell a rotating planet from a nonrotating one, even if the planet had weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Techniques like these are already being used on exoplanets, although only a few dozen are represented so far. As the flood of new exoplanets continues, and as more of the smaller, Earth-sized bodies are documented, we will be able to pick out exoplanets like our own and bring the statistics of large numbers to bear on the question “How unusual is Earth?” As the answer to that emerges, we will make progress on another question: How unusual is life?\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 809,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 10
},
"modified": 1704933430,
"excerpt": "As a flood of new exoplanets swim into our ken, we have ways of turning these pixel-size steams of data into insights about our own planet.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "As a flood of new exoplanets swim into our ken, we have ways of turning these pixel-size steams of data into insights about our own planet.",
"title": "Studying Exoplanets: What A Thousand Points of Light Might Reveal About Earth | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Studying Exoplanets: What A Thousand Points of Light Might Reveal About Earth",
"datePublished": "2014-06-26T12:51:38-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:37:10-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "studying-exoplanets-what-a-thousand-points-of-light-might-reveal-about-earth",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/18742/studying-exoplanets-what-a-thousand-points-of-light-might-reveal-about-earth",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18743\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/extrasolar-planets.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/extrasolar-planets.png\" alt=\"Exoplanet orbit\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18743\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The orbit of an exoplanet around its star affects the light emitted by the combined system, and the resulting patterns can be detected even in the stream of data from a single pixel. After Nicolas Cowan, “\u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EO250001/abstract\">The exoplanet opportunity: Top-down planetary science\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Eos\u003c/i>, 24 June 2014. (Cowan/AGU)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Since the century began, astronomers have been discovering new planets around other stars—exoplanets. This harvest of information has become a flood—NASA’s \u003ca href=\"http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/\">PlanetQuest site\u003c/a> now lists more than 5000 exoplanets. Almost all of them are represented by “impurities” in a stream of starlight, no more than a single pixel in extent, registered by a telescope in outer space. Planetary scientist \u003ca href=\"http://nickcowan.com/\">Nicolas Cowan\u003c/a> explains in a new paper that we can learn a lot from those thousand points of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cowan, a researcher at Northwestern University, \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EO250001/abstract\">writes in the June 24 issue of \u003ci>Eos\u003c/i>\u003c/a> that the thin trickle of light from an exoplanet can be analyzed in surprising detail given what we know about planets in general.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big obstacle in studying exoplanets is dealing with the stars they orbit—suns like our own whose light may be a billion times brighter than the light from the exoplanet. There are mechanical ways to screen out the star that work in a few cases. Outside that ideal situation, we can still use numerical methods to isolate the stream of photons of exoplanetary light from the flood of stellar photons. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Think of the problem as a torrent of M&M candies, representing photons, pouring through a chute onto a table. Almost all of them are brown—that represents the star’s light—and a few are other colors representing light from the exoplanet. Those colors are different because an exoplanet can change the starlight falling upon it. For example, Earth directly reflects more sunlight in blue than it does in red, and its outer atmosphere absorbs incoming light and re-emits it at other wavelengths (ultraviolet during the day and thermal infrared at night). \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The diagram above shows some of the possibilities raised by the orbit of an exoplanet. When it goes behind the star (in eclipse) its light is lost entirely, and when it goes in front (in transit) it partially blocks the star. This data is very handy for helping separate the two streams of light when they’re mixed. As the exoplanet moves around its orbit, the mix of light it displays changes with time. In the gibbous phase, it reflects more light; in the crescent phase it displays more re-emitted light from the nightside. Over the course of the exoplanet’s orbit, all of these differences show up in that single pixel of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The single pixel can even be cracked open a bit. As the exoplanet enters and leaves eclipse, it becomes possible to derive crude maps, as shown below in \u003ca href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.1883v2\">another of Cowan’s recent papers\u003c/a>. And an exoplanet’s rotation also offers a way into the pixel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18744\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/exoplanetmap.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/exoplanetmap.png\" alt=\"exoplanet map\" width=\"600\" height=\"306\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18744\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two-dimensional map of exoplanet HD 189733b in infrared light, based on eclipses. The top part of the figure shows the geometry and math behind the method, combining ingress and egress light curves as the exoplanet moves from right to left behind its star. (\u003ca href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.1883v2\">Cowan/Arxiv\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The late Carl Sagan famously called Earth a “pale blue dot” after a picture taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the edge of the solar system. In that image, Earth was barely a pixel across. What could we deduce about Earth from that single pixel? \u003ca href=\"http://m.iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/765/1/L17/article\">In a 2013 paper in \u003ci>The Astrophysical Journal Letters\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Cowan and Talia Strait analyzed a set of one-pixel snapshots of Earth taken during the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/\">Deep Impact space mission\u003c/a>. The snapshots, taken once an hour for 24 hours, represent a complete Earth day. Using well-known techniques (principal-component analysis) and no foreknowledge, the authors were able to tell the rough proportions of land, water and clouds visible as the Earth turned. This proof-of-concept exercise can be refined for use on any object, not just exoplanets but small bodies in our own solar system or, I suppose, enemy satellites. Given enough observations, it could tell a rotating planet from a nonrotating one, even if the planet had weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Techniques like these are already being used on exoplanets, although only a few dozen are represented so far. As the flood of new exoplanets continues, and as more of the smaller, Earth-sized bodies are documented, we will be able to pick out exoplanets like our own and bring the statistics of large numbers to bear on the question “How unusual is Earth?” As the answer to that emerges, we will make progress on another question: How unusual is life?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/18742/studying-exoplanets-what-a-thousand-points-of-light-might-reveal-about-earth",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_28",
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_1073",
"science_5186",
"science_25",
"science_1272"
],
"featImg": "science_18743",
"label": "science"
},
"science_18307": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_18307",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "18307",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1402602079000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1402602079,
"format": "aside",
"title": "New Evidence of Earth’s Deep Water Cycle Reveals A Virtual Buried Ocean",
"headTitle": "New Evidence of Earth’s Deep Water Cycle Reveals A Virtual Buried Ocean | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/earthshells.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/earthshells.png\" alt=\"Layers of the Earth\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18308\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New evidence from high-pressure experiments and earthquake waves suggests the presence of water-rich melt at the base of the upper mantle, far deeper than previous estimates. (After Wikimedia/\u003ca href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\">CC BY-SA 3.0\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Water is part of Earth’s very definition as a planet. Clouds of water fill its atmosphere, oceans cover most of its surface, and groundwater is found everywhere underground. For the last century, geologists have been tracing the influence of water deeper and deeper into Earth’s interior. During the last year, whole oceans worth of water have been found in the mantle, hundreds of kilometers below the crust. And a paper in today’s issue of \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6189/1265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science\u003c/a> traces water’s influence all the way down to an important boundary inside the Earth, the top of the lower mantle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study, by a team of five scientists led by Brandon Schmandt (University of New Mexico) and Steven Jacobsen (Northwestern University), combined high-pressure experiments on minerals with high-precision seismic observations to argue that large amounts of melted rock—magma—exist far deeper than the magma feeding volcanoes on the Earth’s surface. Their research involved the transition zone, the bottom part of the upper mantle between 410 and 660 kilometers deep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A paper earlier this year in Nature reported that ringwoodite, the most common mineral in the transition zone, can contain more than 1 percent of water inside its crystal structure, a significant amount. Schmandt and Jacobsen’s team did an elegant experiment to show what would happen to ringwoodite as it hits the bottom of its comfort zone at 660 kilometers depth. At that depth ringwoodite breaks down and forms two new minerals, neither of which can hold as much water. They laser-heated tiny spots in a water-bearing ringwoodite sample, forcing it to form the two higher-pressure phases, and showed that the water expelled during this process formed a thin layer of melt around the edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 482px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/ringwoodite-fig.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/ringwoodite-fig.jpg\" alt=\"ringwoodite\" width=\"482\" height=\"235\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18309\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left, blue ringwoodite with three laser-heated spots (red) that were transformed into the lower-mantle phases magnesiowustite and brigmanite (silicate perovskite). Right, electron micrograph of the edge of dot 2 shows perovskite crystals and a rim of melt. From Figure 1 of Schmandt et al., “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1253358\">Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> vol. 344, p. 1265-1268.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Next, they analyzed the high-quality data from the great USArray seismic experiment, a 10-year project that has been mapping the mantle beneath the United States with a set of hundreds of seismometers, moving from area to area like a doctor using a stethoscope. The behavior of earthquake waves down at the base of the transition zone matches what would be expected from large areas of melt. More precisely, these would be large areas in which a small fraction of the rock, consisting of the hair-thin spaces between mineral grains, is molten. Just as dry sand behaves very differently when it has a small amount of water between its grains, so too does the rock of the mantle. Wet sand is stiffer than dry sand, but wet mantle is the opposite—softer and more pliable. The slippery layer in the uppermost mantle that allows the tectonic plates to move about—the asthenosphere—that’s wet mantle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The picture Schmandt and Jacobsen’s team present in their paper is one in which the stirrings in the mantle, caused by plate tectonics, move large volumes of rock into and through the transition zone. As these move down through the 660-km level, most of the water they contain is released and left behind. A similar reaction is already known to take place as rock moves upward through the upper edge of the transition zone, leaving water behind. This new paper puts the lower boundary into the story too, suggesting that the transition zone tends to retain water over geologic time. It may even function like the asthenosphere higher up in the mantle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only thing I need to add to this is a disclaimer about water. The lava in volcanoes contains real water, H\u003csub>2\u003c/sub>O, dissolved in it that comes out in the form of steam. Magma in the uppermost mantle, the stuff that directly feeds volcanoes, has real water in it. But water lower in the mantle, trapped inside ringwoodite, is not water as we know it. It is hydroxyl, or OH as opposed to H\u003csub>2\u003c/sub>O. Think of it as dehydrated water. The result, in terms of creating melt and enlivening activity in otherwise solid rock, is the same. The exact connections between these two deep water cycles are still to be discovered.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 786,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 8
},
"modified": 1704933504,
"excerpt": "New evidence from high-pressure experiments and earthquake waves suggests the presence of water-rich melt at the base of the upper mantle, far deeper than previous estimates.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "New evidence from high-pressure experiments and earthquake waves suggests the presence of water-rich melt at the base of the upper mantle, far deeper than previous estimates.",
"title": "New Evidence of Earth’s Deep Water Cycle Reveals A Virtual Buried Ocean | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "New Evidence of Earth’s Deep Water Cycle Reveals A Virtual Buried Ocean",
"datePublished": "2014-06-12T12:41:19-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:38:24-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "new-evidence-of-earths-deep-water-cycle-reveals-a-virtual-buried-ocean",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/18307/new-evidence-of-earths-deep-water-cycle-reveals-a-virtual-buried-ocean",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/earthshells.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/earthshells.png\" alt=\"Layers of the Earth\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18308\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New evidence from high-pressure experiments and earthquake waves suggests the presence of water-rich melt at the base of the upper mantle, far deeper than previous estimates. (After Wikimedia/\u003ca href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\">CC BY-SA 3.0\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Water is part of Earth’s very definition as a planet. Clouds of water fill its atmosphere, oceans cover most of its surface, and groundwater is found everywhere underground. For the last century, geologists have been tracing the influence of water deeper and deeper into Earth’s interior. During the last year, whole oceans worth of water have been found in the mantle, hundreds of kilometers below the crust. And a paper in today’s issue of \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6189/1265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science\u003c/a> traces water’s influence all the way down to an important boundary inside the Earth, the top of the lower mantle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study, by a team of five scientists led by Brandon Schmandt (University of New Mexico) and Steven Jacobsen (Northwestern University), combined high-pressure experiments on minerals with high-precision seismic observations to argue that large amounts of melted rock—magma—exist far deeper than the magma feeding volcanoes on the Earth’s surface. Their research involved the transition zone, the bottom part of the upper mantle between 410 and 660 kilometers deep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A paper earlier this year in Nature reported that ringwoodite, the most common mineral in the transition zone, can contain more than 1 percent of water inside its crystal structure, a significant amount. Schmandt and Jacobsen’s team did an elegant experiment to show what would happen to ringwoodite as it hits the bottom of its comfort zone at 660 kilometers depth. At that depth ringwoodite breaks down and forms two new minerals, neither of which can hold as much water. They laser-heated tiny spots in a water-bearing ringwoodite sample, forcing it to form the two higher-pressure phases, and showed that the water expelled during this process formed a thin layer of melt around the edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 482px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/ringwoodite-fig.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/06/ringwoodite-fig.jpg\" alt=\"ringwoodite\" width=\"482\" height=\"235\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18309\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left, blue ringwoodite with three laser-heated spots (red) that were transformed into the lower-mantle phases magnesiowustite and brigmanite (silicate perovskite). Right, electron micrograph of the edge of dot 2 shows perovskite crystals and a rim of melt. From Figure 1 of Schmandt et al., “\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1253358\">Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle\u003c/a>,” \u003ci>Science\u003c/i> vol. 344, p. 1265-1268.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Next, they analyzed the high-quality data from the great USArray seismic experiment, a 10-year project that has been mapping the mantle beneath the United States with a set of hundreds of seismometers, moving from area to area like a doctor using a stethoscope. The behavior of earthquake waves down at the base of the transition zone matches what would be expected from large areas of melt. More precisely, these would be large areas in which a small fraction of the rock, consisting of the hair-thin spaces between mineral grains, is molten. Just as dry sand behaves very differently when it has a small amount of water between its grains, so too does the rock of the mantle. Wet sand is stiffer than dry sand, but wet mantle is the opposite—softer and more pliable. The slippery layer in the uppermost mantle that allows the tectonic plates to move about—the asthenosphere—that’s wet mantle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The picture Schmandt and Jacobsen’s team present in their paper is one in which the stirrings in the mantle, caused by plate tectonics, move large volumes of rock into and through the transition zone. As these move down through the 660-km level, most of the water they contain is released and left behind. A similar reaction is already known to take place as rock moves upward through the upper edge of the transition zone, leaving water behind. This new paper puts the lower boundary into the story too, suggesting that the transition zone tends to retain water over geologic time. It may even function like the asthenosphere higher up in the mantle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only thing I need to add to this is a disclaimer about water. The lava in volcanoes contains real water, H\u003csub>2\u003c/sub>O, dissolved in it that comes out in the form of steam. Magma in the uppermost mantle, the stuff that directly feeds volcanoes, has real water in it. But water lower in the mantle, trapped inside ringwoodite, is not water as we know it. It is hydroxyl, or OH as opposed to H\u003csub>2\u003c/sub>O. Think of it as dehydrated water. The result, in terms of creating melt and enlivening activity in otherwise solid rock, is the same. The exact connections between these two deep water cycles are still to be discovered.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/18307/new-evidence-of-earths-deep-water-cycle-reveals-a-virtual-buried-ocean",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_591"
],
"featImg": "science_18308",
"label": "science"
},
"science_18297": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_18297",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "18297",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1402594662000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1402594662,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Groundwater Pumping Causing Land to Sink in Coachella Valley",
"headTitle": "Groundwater Pumping Causing Land to Sink in Coachella Valley | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Even before the drought, farmers around California were sucking down the groundwater faster than the environment could keep up. Now, the U.S. Geological Survey reports the practice has caused land in the Coachella Valley to sink up to two feet in some places. \u003ca class=\"rssmi_more\" href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">…Read More\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca title=\"Groundwater Pumping Causing Land to Sink in Coachella Valley\" href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The California Report – Science\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 55,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 4
},
"modified": 1704933508,
"excerpt": "Even before the drought, farmers around California were sucking down the groundwater faster than the environment could keep up. Now, the U.S. Geological Survey reports the practice has caused land in the Coachella Valley to sink up to two feet in some places. \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"rssmi_more\" rel=\"noopener\">...Read More\u003c/a>",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Even before the drought, farmers around California were sucking down the groundwater faster than the environment could keep up. Now, the U.S. Geological Survey reports the practice has caused land in the Coachella Valley to sink up to two feet in some places. ...Read More",
"title": "Groundwater Pumping Causing Land to Sink in Coachella Valley | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Groundwater Pumping Causing Land to Sink in Coachella Valley",
"datePublished": "2014-06-12T10:37:42-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:38:28-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "groundwater-pumping-causing-land-to-sink-in-coachella-valley",
"status": "publish",
"redirect": {
"type": "external",
"url": "http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b"
},
"rssmiSourceLink": "http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/18297/groundwater-pumping-causing-land-to-sink-in-coachella-valley",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Even before the drought, farmers around California were sucking down the groundwater faster than the environment could keep up. Now, the U.S. Geological Survey reports the practice has caused land in the Coachella Valley to sink up to two feet in some places. \u003ca class=\"rssmi_more\" href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">…Read More\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca title=\"Groundwater Pumping Causing Land to Sink in Coachella Valley\" href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The California Report – Science\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201406120850/b",
"authors": [
"6387"
],
"categories": [
"science_35",
"science_38",
"science_16"
],
"featImg": "science_18298",
"label": "science"
},
"science_17845": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_17845",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17845",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1401391542000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1401391542,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Plastic Substance Created by Pollution Yields a New Word: Plastiglomerate",
"headTitle": "Plastic Substance Created by Pollution Yields a New Word: Plastiglomerate | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17846\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17846\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-1.jpg\" alt=\"Plastic on Laysan Island\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastic is so widespread that it appears destined to make a worldwide layer in the geologic record. This is on Laysan Island, deep in the central Pacific Ocean. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/\">US Fish & Wildlife Service/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By now everyone knows the word “Anthropocene,” a name pregnant with meanings. It uses the language of geological time divisions to suggest that the effects of modern civilization have made the Earth system itself operate differently. The Anthropocene has become a powerful hallmark of climate-change/global-warming rhetoric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anthropocene” was coined in 2000 by an Earth scientist, Paul Crutzen, who was speaking to an audience of his peers. Geologists have always accepted its premise, for geological reasons—centuries of land-use changes and river damming really have altered the natural balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For several years a formal committee has been exploring whether to add an Anthropocene time unit to the end of the geological timeline, where the Holocene Epoch is today. Their work has meant a lot of head-scratching in the profession. Do we need the Anthropocene to do our work? What should its boundary be? How could we determine the boundary based on evidence in the field?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geologists have always joked about the “Era of Broken Glass” among themselves. But in the open-access journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/6/abstract/i1052-5173-24-6-4.htm\">\u003ci>GSA Today\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, three researchers have described a substance that may well outlast humanity and remain in the rock record as a worldwide marker. It’s a concrete-like rock made of plastic and sediment that they dub “plastiglomerate.” The researchers are geologist \u003ca href=\"http://www.uwo.ca/earth/people/faculty/corcoran.html\">Patricia Corcoran\u003c/a>, artist \u003ca href=\"http://www.uwo.ca/visarts/about/facultypages/jazvac_k.html\">Kelly Jazvac\u003c/a> (both of University of Western Ontario) and marine researcher/activist \u003ca href=\"http://www.algalita.org/about-us/bios/charles.html\">Charles Moore\u003c/a> (Algalita Marine Research Institute), and their field area was remote, plastic-littered Kamilo Beach in Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plastic effectively lasts forever, but it’s not usually considered a geological material because it does eventually break down under sunlight and chemical action. It’s lightweight and tends to avoid being buried, which would preserve it pretty much indefinitely. However, the researchers found that plastic can be densified by melting it and mixing it with beach sand and other crud, forming a \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/more_sedrocks/ig/conglomerates/\">conglomerate\u003c/a>-type solid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as particleboard acts like real wood, plastiglomerate acts like real rocks. The authors present photos showing some of its variety and divide it into two types. “In situ” plastiglomerate forms at Kamilo Beach when plastic, melted by campfires, infiltrates the lava bedrock there, and “clastic” plastiglomerate forms in lumps when melted plastic glues together sand, coral, woody bits and other crud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17847\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17847\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17847\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-2.jpg\" alt=\"Plastiglomerate types\" width=\"600\" height=\"441\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An assortment of plastiglomerate types at Kamilo Beach. A, C and D are of the in situ type and B is the clastic type, mixing coral and lava chunks in a plastic matrix. Figure 2 of \u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/6/abstract/i1052-5173-24-6-4.htm\">Corcoran et al. 2014\u003c/a>, “An anthropogenic marker horizon in the future rock record.”\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This kind of thing could form on every coastline in the world, either from natural fires near the beach where vegetation traps windblown plastic or, of course, from human campfires. Because it is effectively a worldwide marker, rising seas could bury it and subsequent rock-forming processes could preserve it for geologists millions of years in the future, a robust sign of the Anthropocene Epoch—at least, its beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve followed the Anthropocene debate since it began, and there’s a brain-twisting weirdness about it when we think about those future geologists. If future geologists are human, wouldn’t they know about human history already? And if they were some other intelligent species, wouldn’t they have their own geologic timescale? But it’s productive to contemplate the present in new ways because it can help us better visualize the past. Much of geologic history is still mysterious, and we are surely as ignorant today as our scientific ancestors were in their day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think that for most geoscientists the particular question of whether the Anthropocene should go in the time scale doesn’t matter. But science proceeds by sniffing down all sorts of trails that may or may not lead anywhere—it’s the sniffing part that matters.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 703,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 11
},
"modified": 1704933568,
"excerpt": "When future geologists, whatever species they may be, look for our signs in the fossil record of the future, it may be this newly described amalgam of plastic and sediment.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "When future geologists, whatever species they may be, look for our signs in the fossil record of the future, it may be this newly described amalgam of plastic and sediment.",
"title": "Plastic Substance Created by Pollution Yields a New Word: Plastiglomerate | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Plastic Substance Created by Pollution Yields a New Word: Plastiglomerate",
"datePublished": "2014-05-29T12:25:42-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:39:28-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "plastic-substance-created-by-pollution-yields-a-new-word-plastiglomerate",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/17845/plastic-substance-created-by-pollution-yields-a-new-word-plastiglomerate",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17846\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17846\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-1.jpg\" alt=\"Plastic on Laysan Island\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastic is so widespread that it appears destined to make a worldwide layer in the geologic record. This is on Laysan Island, deep in the central Pacific Ocean. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/\">US Fish & Wildlife Service/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By now everyone knows the word “Anthropocene,” a name pregnant with meanings. It uses the language of geological time divisions to suggest that the effects of modern civilization have made the Earth system itself operate differently. The Anthropocene has become a powerful hallmark of climate-change/global-warming rhetoric.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anthropocene” was coined in 2000 by an Earth scientist, Paul Crutzen, who was speaking to an audience of his peers. Geologists have always accepted its premise, for geological reasons—centuries of land-use changes and river damming really have altered the natural balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For several years a formal committee has been exploring whether to add an Anthropocene time unit to the end of the geological timeline, where the Holocene Epoch is today. Their work has meant a lot of head-scratching in the profession. Do we need the Anthropocene to do our work? What should its boundary be? How could we determine the boundary based on evidence in the field?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Geologists have always joked about the “Era of Broken Glass” among themselves. But in the open-access journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/6/abstract/i1052-5173-24-6-4.htm\">\u003ci>GSA Today\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, three researchers have described a substance that may well outlast humanity and remain in the rock record as a worldwide marker. It’s a concrete-like rock made of plastic and sediment that they dub “plastiglomerate.” The researchers are geologist \u003ca href=\"http://www.uwo.ca/earth/people/faculty/corcoran.html\">Patricia Corcoran\u003c/a>, artist \u003ca href=\"http://www.uwo.ca/visarts/about/facultypages/jazvac_k.html\">Kelly Jazvac\u003c/a> (both of University of Western Ontario) and marine researcher/activist \u003ca href=\"http://www.algalita.org/about-us/bios/charles.html\">Charles Moore\u003c/a> (Algalita Marine Research Institute), and their field area was remote, plastic-littered Kamilo Beach in Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plastic effectively lasts forever, but it’s not usually considered a geological material because it does eventually break down under sunlight and chemical action. It’s lightweight and tends to avoid being buried, which would preserve it pretty much indefinitely. However, the researchers found that plastic can be densified by melting it and mixing it with beach sand and other crud, forming a \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/more_sedrocks/ig/conglomerates/\">conglomerate\u003c/a>-type solid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as particleboard acts like real wood, plastiglomerate acts like real rocks. The authors present photos showing some of its variety and divide it into two types. “In situ” plastiglomerate forms at Kamilo Beach when plastic, melted by campfires, infiltrates the lava bedrock there, and “clastic” plastiglomerate forms in lumps when melted plastic glues together sand, coral, woody bits and other crud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17847\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17847\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17847\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/plastiglomerate-2.jpg\" alt=\"Plastiglomerate types\" width=\"600\" height=\"441\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An assortment of plastiglomerate types at Kamilo Beach. A, C and D are of the in situ type and B is the clastic type, mixing coral and lava chunks in a plastic matrix. Figure 2 of \u003ca href=\"http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/6/abstract/i1052-5173-24-6-4.htm\">Corcoran et al. 2014\u003c/a>, “An anthropogenic marker horizon in the future rock record.”\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This kind of thing could form on every coastline in the world, either from natural fires near the beach where vegetation traps windblown plastic or, of course, from human campfires. Because it is effectively a worldwide marker, rising seas could bury it and subsequent rock-forming processes could preserve it for geologists millions of years in the future, a robust sign of the Anthropocene Epoch—at least, its beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve followed the Anthropocene debate since it began, and there’s a brain-twisting weirdness about it when we think about those future geologists. If future geologists are human, wouldn’t they know about human history already? And if they were some other intelligent species, wouldn’t they have their own geologic timescale? But it’s productive to contemplate the present in new ways because it can help us better visualize the past. Much of geologic history is still mysterious, and we are surely as ignorant today as our scientific ancestors were in their day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think that for most geoscientists the particular question of whether the Anthropocene should go in the time scale doesn’t matter. But science proceeds by sniffing down all sorts of trails that may or may not lead anywhere—it’s the sniffing part that matters.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/17845/plastic-substance-created-by-pollution-yields-a-new-word-plastiglomerate",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_35",
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_64",
"science_1189",
"science_554"
],
"featImg": "science_17846",
"label": "science"
},
"science_17522": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_17522",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17522",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1400182040000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1400182040,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Progress in Earthquake Forecasts May Come from Studying Foreshocks",
"headTitle": "Progress in Earthquake Forecasts May Come from Studying Foreshocks | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/brodsky-lay.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17523\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/brodsky-lay.jpg\" alt=\"Foreshocks of subduction quakes\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17523\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Foreshocks small and large (white and orange-white circles respectively) migrated with time toward two recent great earthquakes (red circles). Patterns like this, if supported by measurements of slow seafloor motion, may lead us toward more reliable short-term earthquake forecasts. (AAAS/Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earthquake prediction has been considered a hopeless task by a whole generation of scientists. All the easy approaches have been tried and found to fail. But two prominent seismologists see a hint of progress in a line of research that combines precision monitoring of earthquake trends and subtle, short-lived changes in the seafloor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1255202\">In a short paper in today’s issue of \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, UC Santa Cruz seismologists Emily Brodsky and Thorne Lay focus on great earthquakes of magnitude 8 and 9, which are Earth’s largest and most deadly seismic events. They occur beneath the ocean floor around the Pacific Rim and in other places with subduction zones, where one tectonic plate plunges beneath another. The decade since the Sumatra earthquake of December 2004, in the subduction zone west of the Indonesian island arc, has included several more events of that class. Thousands of lives could be saved if we could identify advance hints of such quakes—and the science would be sweet, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The magnitude-9 Japan earthquake of March 2011 yielded a torrent of new data about subduction quakes. For one thing, this one had foreshocks—small quakes occurring on the same stretch of fault that subsequently fails in the large mainshock. Foreshocks seem to offer promise for forecasting, but nothing about them stands out except that big quakes follow them. In themselves, they’re scientifically sterile. Brodsky and Lay pointed out a hopeful thing, though: according to a 2013 paper, foreshock sequences that are relatively long appear to precede most large subduction earthquakes. Anything that makes sense of foreshocks should apply to these Big Ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2012 paper by Japanese scientists pointed out that before the Japan earthquake, the foreshocks migrated toward the site of the mainshock over a three-week period. Another paper looked at data from a network of seafloor instruments and showed that “slow slip events,” a kind of non-earthquake involving temporary gentle motion on a fault, were occurring at the same time. It is this combination of data, earthquake patterns and information about the actual warping of the crust that may point the way forward. (Such an approach led to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/01/02/seismology-semantics-researchers-announce-a-successful-earthquake-anticipation-in-costa-rica/\">the recent “anticipation” of a subduction quake in Costa Rica\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brodsky and Lay also point to last month’s magnitude-8 earthquake in northern Chile, another subduction event, which had a similar pattern of migrating foreshocks. People could feel them: “Both the local population and the scientific community reacted to the foreshock sequence with trepidation,” they write, but without any seafloor data or a decent forecasting algorithm “the authorities could only communicate general concern.” Citing a similar migrating earthquake sequence off central Chile in 1997 that turned out not to be foreshocks, Brodsky and Lay argue that without extra data, these sequences mean nothing actionable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’d like to do better than that. The extra data that appeared to be meaningful for Japan came from a network of instruments (nothing more than highly sensitive pressure gauges) on the seafloor. The network is part of Japan’s world-leading program in earthquake science, but the data has to be gathered by a visiting ship weeks or months later. The next frontier is to make these networks send their data in real time, making short-term forecasts at least feasible. And that’s likely to be only the beginning of a long process of study by geoscientists. Brodsky and Lay conclude, “Whether earthquakes are predictable or not is still an open question, but perhaps there is now some cause for optimism.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For someone like me who has watched this story for over 30 years, that’s great news. Subduction-zone earthquakes threaten America from \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/02/16/our-corner-of-cascadia/\">Northern California\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/10/07/tales-from-the-ghost-forests/\">Washington\u003c/a>, plus \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/03/27/50-years-ago-alaskan-earthquake-was-key-event-for-earth-science/\">Alaska\u003c/a>, and we could use every bit of help before the next Big One.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can’t see much, but we can see a little. That’s the way the universe always looks before science finds a way to shed light on what once seemed hopelessly dark.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 730,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 10
},
"modified": 1704933656,
"excerpt": "Recent cutting-edge techniques are opening a new approach for earthquake forecasts by matching foreshocks -- small quakes occurring on the same stretch of fault that subsequently fails in the large mainshock -- to changes on the seafloor.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Recent cutting-edge techniques are opening a new approach for earthquake forecasts by matching foreshocks -- small quakes occurring on the same stretch of fault that subsequently fails in the large mainshock -- to changes on the seafloor.",
"title": "Progress in Earthquake Forecasts May Come from Studying Foreshocks | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Progress in Earthquake Forecasts May Come from Studying Foreshocks",
"datePublished": "2014-05-15T12:27:20-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:40:56-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "progress-in-earthquake-forecasts-may-come-from-studying-foreshocks",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/17522/progress-in-earthquake-forecasts-may-come-from-studying-foreshocks",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/brodsky-lay.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17523\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/brodsky-lay.jpg\" alt=\"Foreshocks of subduction quakes\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17523\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Foreshocks small and large (white and orange-white circles respectively) migrated with time toward two recent great earthquakes (red circles). Patterns like this, if supported by measurements of slow seafloor motion, may lead us toward more reliable short-term earthquake forecasts. (AAAS/Science)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earthquake prediction has been considered a hopeless task by a whole generation of scientists. All the easy approaches have been tried and found to fail. But two prominent seismologists see a hint of progress in a line of research that combines precision monitoring of earthquake trends and subtle, short-lived changes in the seafloor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1255202\">In a short paper in today’s issue of \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, UC Santa Cruz seismologists Emily Brodsky and Thorne Lay focus on great earthquakes of magnitude 8 and 9, which are Earth’s largest and most deadly seismic events. They occur beneath the ocean floor around the Pacific Rim and in other places with subduction zones, where one tectonic plate plunges beneath another. The decade since the Sumatra earthquake of December 2004, in the subduction zone west of the Indonesian island arc, has included several more events of that class. Thousands of lives could be saved if we could identify advance hints of such quakes—and the science would be sweet, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The magnitude-9 Japan earthquake of March 2011 yielded a torrent of new data about subduction quakes. For one thing, this one had foreshocks—small quakes occurring on the same stretch of fault that subsequently fails in the large mainshock. Foreshocks seem to offer promise for forecasting, but nothing about them stands out except that big quakes follow them. In themselves, they’re scientifically sterile. Brodsky and Lay pointed out a hopeful thing, though: according to a 2013 paper, foreshock sequences that are relatively long appear to precede most large subduction earthquakes. Anything that makes sense of foreshocks should apply to these Big Ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 2012 paper by Japanese scientists pointed out that before the Japan earthquake, the foreshocks migrated toward the site of the mainshock over a three-week period. Another paper looked at data from a network of seafloor instruments and showed that “slow slip events,” a kind of non-earthquake involving temporary gentle motion on a fault, were occurring at the same time. It is this combination of data, earthquake patterns and information about the actual warping of the crust that may point the way forward. (Such an approach led to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/01/02/seismology-semantics-researchers-announce-a-successful-earthquake-anticipation-in-costa-rica/\">the recent “anticipation” of a subduction quake in Costa Rica\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brodsky and Lay also point to last month’s magnitude-8 earthquake in northern Chile, another subduction event, which had a similar pattern of migrating foreshocks. People could feel them: “Both the local population and the scientific community reacted to the foreshock sequence with trepidation,” they write, but without any seafloor data or a decent forecasting algorithm “the authorities could only communicate general concern.” Citing a similar migrating earthquake sequence off central Chile in 1997 that turned out not to be foreshocks, Brodsky and Lay argue that without extra data, these sequences mean nothing actionable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’d like to do better than that. The extra data that appeared to be meaningful for Japan came from a network of instruments (nothing more than highly sensitive pressure gauges) on the seafloor. The network is part of Japan’s world-leading program in earthquake science, but the data has to be gathered by a visiting ship weeks or months later. The next frontier is to make these networks send their data in real time, making short-term forecasts at least feasible. And that’s likely to be only the beginning of a long process of study by geoscientists. Brodsky and Lay conclude, “Whether earthquakes are predictable or not is still an open question, but perhaps there is now some cause for optimism.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For someone like me who has watched this story for over 30 years, that’s great news. Subduction-zone earthquakes threaten America from \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/02/16/our-corner-of-cascadia/\">Northern California\u003c/a> to \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/10/07/tales-from-the-ghost-forests/\">Washington\u003c/a>, plus \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/03/27/50-years-ago-alaskan-earthquake-was-key-event-for-earth-science/\">Alaska\u003c/a>, and we could use every bit of help before the next Big One.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can’t see much, but we can see a little. That’s the way the universe always looks before science finds a way to shed light on what once seemed hopelessly dark.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/17522/progress-in-earthquake-forecasts-may-come-from-studying-foreshocks",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_529",
"science_427"
],
"featImg": "science_17523",
"label": "science"
},
"science_17114": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_17114",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17114",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1398971301000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1398971301,
"format": "aside",
"title": "NOAA Expedition Finds Asphalt Volcanic 'Tar Lilies' in Gulf of Mexico",
"headTitle": "NOAA Expedition Finds Asphalt Volcanic ‘Tar Lilies’ in Gulf of Mexico | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17115\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17115\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily.jpg\" alt=\"Tar Lily\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tar lily number 1 is outlined in the headlamps of \u003ci>Deep Discoverer\u003c/i> and photographed by \u003ci>Seiros\u003c/i> on April 24, 2014. The expedition found two of these that day. (NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Gulf of Mexico 2014 Expedition)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last week, an undersea expedition in the Gulf of Mexico came upon something rarely seen: asphalt volcanism, or eruptions of natural tar. But rather than an icky sticky mess, the thick petroleum “lava” had built elegant flower-like forms whose new name, “tar lilies,” is this year’s best entry in the long list of geological phenomena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asphalt has been known since prehistoric times, and \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/07/14/petroleum-in-the-bay-area/\">we in California should be intimately familiar with it\u003c/a>. Natural deposits in the San Mateo Peninsula were mined to give San Francisco its first street pavements, asphalt seeps in the Central Valley were the start of a great oil-and-gas industry, and the tar pits of Rancho La Brea are a leading tourist attraction in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/seepcarptar.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17117\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17117\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/seepcarptar.jpg\" alt=\"Carpinteria tar seep\" width=\"500\" height=\"321\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Natural tar seep at Carpinteria Beach, near Santa Barbara (\u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/07/14/petroleum-in-the-bay-area/\">Andrew Alden/KQED Quest\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nobody noticed asphalt on the deep seafloor, or at least no one published pictures, until 1978. But that was surely no surprise; it was merely a matter of time. We are very slow at exploring the ocean bottom in detail. It’s like exploring the Mojave Desert by driving only off-road on moonless cloudy nights in a Humvee, limited to what the headlights can pick out. But that’s what we’re limited to, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had put together the resources this year to send its ship \u003ci>Okeanos Explorer\u003c/i> on a \u003ca href=\"http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/welcome.html\">59-day research cruise in the Gulf of Mexico\u003c/a> that started in February and ends today. It’s billed as “baseline characterization mapping” of areas new to science, the kind of public-interest work that many deep-sea interests benefit from but only government agencies like NOAA can do right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ship has been mapping the seafloor with sonar and sending down its roving robot submarine \u003ci>Deep Discoverer\u003c/i> and its trusty sidekick, the \u003ci>Seiros\u003c/i> camera platform, to check out interesting things. Some of these are shipwrecks, but there are also natural features worth visiting: cold seeps, brine pools, mud volcanoes and other things arise from causes underneath the seafloor and provide clues to things that drillers as well as marine scientists might find interesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The NOAA scientists didn’t have “asphalt volcanoes” in their bucket list, but surely dive scientist Ian MacDonald, of Florida State University, knew they might be down there. Just ten years before, his research team had reported on a field of tar flows farther south in the Gulf \u003ca href=\"http://ocean.fsu.edu/faculty/macdonald/pubs/macdonald_science2004.pdf\">in the pages of \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. He had even described the flows with the same terms used at the lava volcanoes at Hawaii—ropy \u003ci>pahoehoe\u003c/i> and jagged \u003ci>aa\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And sure enough, when the \u003ci>Deep Discoverer\u003c/i> was sent to nose around an odd feature suspected to be a shipwreck, MacDonald knew right away what this beautiful object was: an asphalt flow that, while hardening in the freezing water, had split apart in a feature quickly dubbed a “tar lily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Approaching closer, the cameras showed that life had made a foothold on the asphalt. Deposits like these can support a host of microorganisms, along with higher organisms like tubeworms. A closeup of a tar-lily petal shows anemones and deep-sea corals on it, suggesting that it first “bloomed” several decades ago. \u003ca href=\"http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/logs/apr24/apr24.html\">MacDonald posted the expedition’s entry for the day on the NOAA website.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17116\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily-petal.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17116\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17116\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily-petal.jpg\" alt=\"Tar Lily Petal\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organisms including this anemone colonize the tar lilies. (NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Gulf of Mexico 2014 Expedition)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This discovery helps fill out \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/cs/volcanology/a/aa051604a.htm\">our sparse picture of asphalt volcanoes\u003c/a>. With three well-documented examples in the Gulf, plus others off Africa and California, we can now say that seafloor asphalt is a real niche in a seafloor habitat of ever-growing complexity and richness. It was there all along.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 674,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 10
},
"modified": 1704933744,
"excerpt": "A research expedition in the Gulf of Mexico has stumbled on a field of beautiful natural sculptures made of asphalt on the sea floor.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A research expedition in the Gulf of Mexico has stumbled on a field of beautiful natural sculptures made of asphalt on the sea floor.",
"title": "NOAA Expedition Finds Asphalt Volcanic 'Tar Lilies' in Gulf of Mexico | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "NOAA Expedition Finds Asphalt Volcanic 'Tar Lilies' in Gulf of Mexico",
"datePublished": "2014-05-01T12:08:21-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:42:24-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "noaa-expedition-finds-ashphalt-volcanic-tar-lilies-in-gulf-of-mexico",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/17114/noaa-expedition-finds-ashphalt-volcanic-tar-lilies-in-gulf-of-mexico",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17115\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17115\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily.jpg\" alt=\"Tar Lily\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tar lily number 1 is outlined in the headlamps of \u003ci>Deep Discoverer\u003c/i> and photographed by \u003ci>Seiros\u003c/i> on April 24, 2014. The expedition found two of these that day. (NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Gulf of Mexico 2014 Expedition)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last week, an undersea expedition in the Gulf of Mexico came upon something rarely seen: asphalt volcanism, or eruptions of natural tar. But rather than an icky sticky mess, the thick petroleum “lava” had built elegant flower-like forms whose new name, “tar lilies,” is this year’s best entry in the long list of geological phenomena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asphalt has been known since prehistoric times, and \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/07/14/petroleum-in-the-bay-area/\">we in California should be intimately familiar with it\u003c/a>. Natural deposits in the San Mateo Peninsula were mined to give San Francisco its first street pavements, asphalt seeps in the Central Valley were the start of a great oil-and-gas industry, and the tar pits of Rancho La Brea are a leading tourist attraction in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17117\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/seepcarptar.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17117\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17117\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/seepcarptar.jpg\" alt=\"Carpinteria tar seep\" width=\"500\" height=\"321\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Natural tar seep at Carpinteria Beach, near Santa Barbara (\u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/07/14/petroleum-in-the-bay-area/\">Andrew Alden/KQED Quest\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nobody noticed asphalt on the deep seafloor, or at least no one published pictures, until 1978. But that was surely no surprise; it was merely a matter of time. We are very slow at exploring the ocean bottom in detail. It’s like exploring the Mojave Desert by driving only off-road on moonless cloudy nights in a Humvee, limited to what the headlights can pick out. But that’s what we’re limited to, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had put together the resources this year to send its ship \u003ci>Okeanos Explorer\u003c/i> on a \u003ca href=\"http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/welcome.html\">59-day research cruise in the Gulf of Mexico\u003c/a> that started in February and ends today. It’s billed as “baseline characterization mapping” of areas new to science, the kind of public-interest work that many deep-sea interests benefit from but only government agencies like NOAA can do right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ship has been mapping the seafloor with sonar and sending down its roving robot submarine \u003ci>Deep Discoverer\u003c/i> and its trusty sidekick, the \u003ci>Seiros\u003c/i> camera platform, to check out interesting things. Some of these are shipwrecks, but there are also natural features worth visiting: cold seeps, brine pools, mud volcanoes and other things arise from causes underneath the seafloor and provide clues to things that drillers as well as marine scientists might find interesting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The NOAA scientists didn’t have “asphalt volcanoes” in their bucket list, but surely dive scientist Ian MacDonald, of Florida State University, knew they might be down there. Just ten years before, his research team had reported on a field of tar flows farther south in the Gulf \u003ca href=\"http://ocean.fsu.edu/faculty/macdonald/pubs/macdonald_science2004.pdf\">in the pages of \u003ci>Science\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. He had even described the flows with the same terms used at the lava volcanoes at Hawaii—ropy \u003ci>pahoehoe\u003c/i> and jagged \u003ci>aa\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And sure enough, when the \u003ci>Deep Discoverer\u003c/i> was sent to nose around an odd feature suspected to be a shipwreck, MacDonald knew right away what this beautiful object was: an asphalt flow that, while hardening in the freezing water, had split apart in a feature quickly dubbed a “tar lily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Approaching closer, the cameras showed that life had made a foothold on the asphalt. Deposits like these can support a host of microorganisms, along with higher organisms like tubeworms. A closeup of a tar-lily petal shows anemones and deep-sea corals on it, suggesting that it first “bloomed” several decades ago. \u003ca href=\"http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/logs/apr24/apr24.html\">MacDonald posted the expedition’s entry for the day on the NOAA website.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17116\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily-petal.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17116\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17116\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/tarlily-petal.jpg\" alt=\"Tar Lily Petal\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organisms including this anemone colonize the tar lilies. (NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Gulf of Mexico 2014 Expedition)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This discovery helps fill out \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/cs/volcanology/a/aa051604a.htm\">our sparse picture of asphalt volcanoes\u003c/a>. With three well-documented examples in the Gulf, plus others off Africa and California, we can now say that seafloor asphalt is a real niche in a seafloor habitat of ever-growing complexity and richness. It was there all along.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/17114/noaa-expedition-finds-ashphalt-volcanic-tar-lilies-in-gulf-of-mexico",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_35",
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_64",
"science_5182"
],
"featImg": "science_17116",
"label": "science"
},
"science_17039": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_17039",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "17039",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1398871207000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science",
"term": 1151
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1398871207,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Auburn Dam: The Water Project That Won't Die",
"headTitle": "Auburn Dam: The Water Project That Won’t Die | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In California, it’s as dependable as the rainy season. Okay, more so. Whenever there’s too much water or not enough, \u003ca title=\"SacBee - post\" href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/14/6235822/why-dont-we-build-the-auburn-dam.html\">people start talking\u003c/a> about \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Auburn Dam\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auburn_Dam\">Auburn Dam\u003c/a>. It’s California’s biggest dam that has never been built — and probably never will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17060\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/auburn_dam_sketch2_crop_.jpg\" alt=\"Auburn Dam\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s rendering of how the completed Auburn Dam would appear on the North Fork of the American River. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The latest revival occurred at a recent show-and-tell for the \u003ca title=\"YouTube - Folsom Spillway\" href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn3eIlLNpr8\">new spillway under construction\u003c/a> at Folsom Dam. Congressman Tom McClintock, R-Auburn, seized the occasion — not so much for congratulations — but to decry recent releases of water from dams on the American River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It infuriates me that for the past three days, we have seen releases of water out of dams on the American River triple in order to meet environmental regulations that place the interests of fish above those of human beings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The congressman then pivoted and called for completion of Auburn Dam, a long-stagnant project on the North Fork of the American River originally green-lighted by Congress in 1965, near the end of what the late writer Marc Reisner called the “go-go years” of American dam building. McClintock’s colleague from across the aisle, Sacramento Democrat Doris Matsui, sat nearby, literally shaking her head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McClintock told the assembled dignitaries that a brimming Auburn Lake reservoir upstream, “could fill and refill Folsom Lake nearly 2 1/2 times.” The current drought has left Folsom Lake at alarmingly low levels this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, the project, designed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, would create one of the state’s biggest reservoirs, with a capacity of more than 2 million acre-feet of water, about half the volume of Shasta Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then McClintock took aim at Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to construct \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/14/california-to-release-chapters-of-plan-to-restore-delta/\">bypass tunnels\u003c/a> to carry water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even with the inflated costs we’re seeing today,” said McClintock, “[the dam project] could be done for much less than the current proposal to build a cross-Delta facility that produces zero additional water storage.” (According to Reclamation, there hasn’t been a reliable cost update on the project since 2006.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He went on to extoll other potential advantages, such as, “power for a million homes” and “a major new recreational resource for our region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17064\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17064\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/3405918292_99db0a4b41_b.jpg\" alt=\"ADD CAPTION (Alisha Vargas/Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excavations remain from where engineers began laying the foundations for Auburn Dam in the 1970s. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/alishav/3405918292\">Alisha Vargas/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course, those who enjoy (or profit from) rafting and paddling the scenic, frothy reaches of the North Fork have long taken a different view of the recreational potential, as those reaches would disappear under hundreds of feet of flat water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Auburn Dam was never completed but it was started. Reminders are still there, the most obvious being the \u003ca title=\"SacBee - post\" href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/16/6330719/foresthill-bridge-undergoes-a.html\">Forresthill Bridge\u003c/a>, a green metal and concrete ribbon that soars more than 700 feet above the American River, built to span a reservoir that never was. If you’re more ambitious and \u003ca title=\"EveryTrail - Auburn Dam\" href=\"http://www.everytrail.com/guide/base-of-auburn-dam\">hike down into the river canyon\u003c/a>, you can still see where it was carved out on both sides to anchor the concrete arch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1975, taxpayers had already shelled out about $137 million for the project. But the following year, when a magnitude 5.7 quake occurred a little too close for comfort, Reclamation took a time-out to revisit the dam’s design and work has never resumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The dam was redesigned to meet those seismic considerations,” McClintock told me in an interview after his remarks at the spillway. “So yes, that’s already been engineered around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did not go back and do a full engineering analysis,” said Drew Lessard, Reclamation’s area manager for central California, referring to an updated study by the Bureau in 2006. He says that in the late 1970s, Reclamation did “move the location slightly,” to minimize seismic impacts. Lessard says that moving forward now would require a full “reformulation study,” reassessing the project’s costs and priorities, and that such a study by itself would take years and cost millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, that thing’s been studied over and over and over again,” said Matsui, in a separate interview. “And you know what? There’s no support for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2008, the California State Water Resources Board revoked the water rights that had been set aside for the Bureau of Reclamation. Most water rights are a use-it-or-lose-it proposition in California, to prevent what the Board calls “cold storage,” which is to say sitting on water rights without actually using the water. Many believed that was the final nail in the project’s coffin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, apparently not everybody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18177\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Auburn_1733.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18177\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Auburn_1733.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration from a USBR report shows the prospective size and location of Auburn Dam, compared to Folsom and Nimbus Dams, which were built. (USBR)\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration from a USBR report shows the prospective size and location of Auburn Dam and reservoir, compared to Folsom and Nimbus Dams, which were built. (USBR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 866,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 19
},
"modified": 1704933748,
"excerpt": "The giant dam and reservoir remains on the radar, whether or not it has a future.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "The giant dam and reservoir remains on the radar, whether or not it has a future.",
"title": "Auburn Dam: The Water Project That Won't Die | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Auburn Dam: The Water Project That Won't Die",
"datePublished": "2014-04-30T08:20:07-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:42:28-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "auburn-dam-the-water-project-that-wont-die",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/17039/auburn-dam-the-water-project-that-wont-die",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In California, it’s as dependable as the rainy season. Okay, more so. Whenever there’s too much water or not enough, \u003ca title=\"SacBee - post\" href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/14/6235822/why-dont-we-build-the-auburn-dam.html\">people start talking\u003c/a> about \u003ca title=\"Wiki - Auburn Dam\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auburn_Dam\">Auburn Dam\u003c/a>. It’s California’s biggest dam that has never been built — and probably never will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17060\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/auburn_dam_sketch2_crop_.jpg\" alt=\"Auburn Dam\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s rendering of how the completed Auburn Dam would appear on the North Fork of the American River. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The latest revival occurred at a recent show-and-tell for the \u003ca title=\"YouTube - Folsom Spillway\" href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn3eIlLNpr8\">new spillway under construction\u003c/a> at Folsom Dam. Congressman Tom McClintock, R-Auburn, seized the occasion — not so much for congratulations — but to decry recent releases of water from dams on the American River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It infuriates me that for the past three days, we have seen releases of water out of dams on the American River triple in order to meet environmental regulations that place the interests of fish above those of human beings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The congressman then pivoted and called for completion of Auburn Dam, a long-stagnant project on the North Fork of the American River originally green-lighted by Congress in 1965, near the end of what the late writer Marc Reisner called the “go-go years” of American dam building. McClintock’s colleague from across the aisle, Sacramento Democrat Doris Matsui, sat nearby, literally shaking her head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McClintock told the assembled dignitaries that a brimming Auburn Lake reservoir upstream, “could fill and refill Folsom Lake nearly 2 1/2 times.” The current drought has left Folsom Lake at alarmingly low levels this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, the project, designed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, would create one of the state’s biggest reservoirs, with a capacity of more than 2 million acre-feet of water, about half the volume of Shasta Lake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then McClintock took aim at Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to construct \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/03/14/california-to-release-chapters-of-plan-to-restore-delta/\">bypass tunnels\u003c/a> to carry water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even with the inflated costs we’re seeing today,” said McClintock, “[the dam project] could be done for much less than the current proposal to build a cross-Delta facility that produces zero additional water storage.” (According to Reclamation, there hasn’t been a reliable cost update on the project since 2006.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He went on to extoll other potential advantages, such as, “power for a million homes” and “a major new recreational resource for our region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17064\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17064\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/3405918292_99db0a4b41_b.jpg\" alt=\"ADD CAPTION (Alisha Vargas/Flickr)\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excavations remain from where engineers began laying the foundations for Auburn Dam in the 1970s. (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/alishav/3405918292\">Alisha Vargas/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course, those who enjoy (or profit from) rafting and paddling the scenic, frothy reaches of the North Fork have long taken a different view of the recreational potential, as those reaches would disappear under hundreds of feet of flat water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Auburn Dam was never completed but it was started. Reminders are still there, the most obvious being the \u003ca title=\"SacBee - post\" href=\"http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/16/6330719/foresthill-bridge-undergoes-a.html\">Forresthill Bridge\u003c/a>, a green metal and concrete ribbon that soars more than 700 feet above the American River, built to span a reservoir that never was. If you’re more ambitious and \u003ca title=\"EveryTrail - Auburn Dam\" href=\"http://www.everytrail.com/guide/base-of-auburn-dam\">hike down into the river canyon\u003c/a>, you can still see where it was carved out on both sides to anchor the concrete arch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1975, taxpayers had already shelled out about $137 million for the project. But the following year, when a magnitude 5.7 quake occurred a little too close for comfort, Reclamation took a time-out to revisit the dam’s design and work has never resumed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The dam was redesigned to meet those seismic considerations,” McClintock told me in an interview after his remarks at the spillway. “So yes, that’s already been engineered around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did not go back and do a full engineering analysis,” said Drew Lessard, Reclamation’s area manager for central California, referring to an updated study by the Bureau in 2006. He says that in the late 1970s, Reclamation did “move the location slightly,” to minimize seismic impacts. Lessard says that moving forward now would require a full “reformulation study,” reassessing the project’s costs and priorities, and that such a study by itself would take years and cost millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, that thing’s been studied over and over and over again,” said Matsui, in a separate interview. “And you know what? There’s no support for it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2008, the California State Water Resources Board revoked the water rights that had been set aside for the Bureau of Reclamation. Most water rights are a use-it-or-lose-it proposition in California, to prevent what the Board calls “cold storage,” which is to say sitting on water rights without actually using the water. Many believed that was the final nail in the project’s coffin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, apparently not everybody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_18177\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Auburn_1733.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18177\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Auburn_1733.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration from a USBR report shows the prospective size and location of Auburn Dam, compared to Folsom and Nimbus Dams, which were built. (USBR)\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration from a USBR report shows the prospective size and location of Auburn Dam and reservoir, compared to Folsom and Nimbus Dams, which were built. (USBR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/17039/auburn-dam-the-water-project-that-wont-die",
"authors": [
"221"
],
"series": [
"science_87",
"science_1151"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_33",
"science_89",
"science_38",
"science_40",
"science_98"
],
"tags": [
"science_1548"
],
"featImg": "science_17060",
"label": "science_1151"
},
"science_16327": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_16327",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16327",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1398171646000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science",
"term": 1151
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1398171646,
"format": "aside",
"title": "California Edging Closer to Regulating Groundwater for the First Time",
"headTitle": "California Edging Closer to Regulating Groundwater for the First Time | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Irrigation_1764.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16770\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16770\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Irrigation_1764.jpg\" alt=\"An irrigation ditch in the Central Valley. When surface water is scarce, farmers pump more groundwater to make up the difference. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An irrigation ditch in the Central Valley. When surface water is scarce, farmers pump more groundwater to make up the difference. (Craig Miller/KQED) \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We hear a great deal about California’s reliance on its “frozen reservoir,” a reference to the (currently anemic) Sierra snowpack. We hear a lot less about the Golden State’s \u003cem>invisible\u003c/em> reservoir, the water that resides in underground aquifers beneath our feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about to change. Today, state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) puts a trio of water conservation bills before her Natural Resources and Water Committee, the centerpiece of which (SB 1168) is a frontal assault on the management of California’s groundwater, which, compared to other western states, is almost unregulated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current drought appears to be putting a new level of pressure on the groundwater debate. Cutbacks in state and federal water allocations have unleashed a \u003ca title=\"Bakersfield Californian - post\" href=\"http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/business/California-drought-spawns-well-drilling-boom-255206371.html\">drilling frenzy\u003c/a> for water wells, and parts of the San Joaquin Valley are actually \u003ca title=\"Merc - post\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_25447586/california-drought-san-joaquin-valley-sinking-farmers-race\">sinking from groundwater depletion\u003c/a> below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The single most critical element in achieving [water] sustainability in California is groundwater,” Lester Snow told members of the \u003ca title=\"SWRCB - main\" href=\"http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/\">State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/a> at a hearing last week. Snow would know. For years he was the state’s chief water manager and now heads the relatively new \u003ca title=\"CWF - main\" href=\"http://www.californiawaterfoundation.org/\">California Water Foundation\u003c/a>, a non-profit devoted, as he describes it, to “achieving sustainable water management” in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16760\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 290px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquiferaside.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16760\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquiferaside.jpg\" alt=\"aquiferaside\" width=\"290\" height=\"222\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">So what, exactly, is an aquifer? Click image to see full infographic.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a good year, which is to say “wet,” Snow says that groundwater provides about 40 percent of the state’s water supply. In dry years, like this one, we lean on aquifers for 60 percent of our water (up from 40 percent as recently as 2 to 3 years ago).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Effectively managed, it is the single biggest mechanism that gives us the flexibility to deal with the vagaries of our water system in California,” said Snow. “And if we can not get our hands around that, we will not have a sustainable water supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some, especially in farm country, are more than a little spooked by what getting our hands around it might entail. If you want to see farmers and ranchers turn ornery, make like you’re a state bureaucrat going after their water — or their right to pump as much as they need out of the ground. So as the battle lines begin to form, here are some key points.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State Intervention\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is the only western state that doesn’t exercise some degree of control over its groundwater. But how much control is too much? Matt Conant, a walnut grower in Sutter County, articulated the greatest fear of many in the ag community: “I’m afraid that the state will come in and try to over-regulate groundwater and surface water,” he told me outside a recent hearing of the State Water Resources Control Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But David Orth, who sits on the groundwater task force at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwa.com/\">Association of California Water Agencies\u003c/a>, says leaving it entirely in local hands may not be enough, especially when local and regional agencies are falling down on the job. “In those instances, we believe the state board should step in,” says Orth. “It creates, frankly, some bit of incentive for the locals to get together and get it right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a fairly bold statement, coming from an organization that has, in the past, taken a firm stand against groundwater regulation. But Orth says times are changing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A year ago it was, ‘This is mine and I don’t want anybody to mess with my personal property right,'” he says. “Today, I think more and more people are recognizing that we have a choice; we can either let this continue to be managed in a somewhat insufficient way in some regions and see significant economic loss, or we can more effectively manage it and do so in coordination with the state, so we can protect that groundwater resource for decades to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in April, ACWA \u003ca title=\"ACWA - policy paper\" href=\"http://www.acwa.com/content/groundwater/acwa-recommendations-achieving-groundwater-sustainability\">proposed one of the most comprehensive blueprints\u003c/a> yet for protecting the state’s aquifers. Pavley’s bill is likely to draw on that. The harmonic convergence only extends so far, however. As Jim Beck at the Kern County Water Agency told KQED’s Lauren Sommer, “California is not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to any regulation. And we believe groundwater is certainly one of those areas of resource management were local folks really understand what’s best for their area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transparency\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a growing chorus insisting that whatever else happens, we need better data, to know what’s going on with our aquifers. Presently there is no coordinated tracking of aquifer health or the volume of water being pumped. Drillers file well completion reports, which can only be accessed by public agencies “conducting studies,” according to state law. But there is precious little information available on how much water those wells are producing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conant told me that farmers know from their wells, what’s going on underground. But no one else really does, though scientists have been trying to piece together the big picture with a combination of monitoring wells and satellites that measure ground density. And once the data is gathered for what individual landowners are pumping, who should have access to it? Should it remain on confidential file with public agencies or be available to anyone?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pricing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s perhaps the thorniest question of all: whether farmers should pay for water that resides naturally under their own property. They’re already paying for the energy required to pump it to the surface. But now the water wonks are freely tossing around terms like “tiered pricing” and “groundwater management fees.” These are theoretical administrative charges to property owners, possibly based on how much groundwater they pump. [contextly_sidebar id=”841ad067163b293b3c4fb002ef0c62ee”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the regulators can’t make this happen themselves. These ideas will have to coalesce into a groundwater bill that lawmakers can make stick. The current version of the Pavley bill contains a definition of “sustainability” but leaves it up to local districts to determine the volume of groundwater pumping that is sustainable in each are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the lingering uncertainties, even some water policy insiders have expressed surprise at what Jonas Minton of the Planning and Conservation League calls, the “unprecedented consensus” on a possible approach to groundwater management. At that state hearing last week, he pronounced, “This is the year to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1148,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 22
},
"modified": 1704933796,
"excerpt": "Power players in California water policy seem to agree for once: It's time to get serious about groundwater.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Power players in California water policy seem to agree for once: It's time to get serious about groundwater.",
"title": "California Edging Closer to Regulating Groundwater for the First Time | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "California Edging Closer to Regulating Groundwater for the First Time",
"datePublished": "2014-04-22T06:00:46-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:43:16-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "california-edging-closer-to-regulating-groundwater-for-the-first-time",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/16327/california-edging-closer-to-regulating-groundwater-for-the-first-time",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Irrigation_1764.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16770\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16770\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Irrigation_1764.jpg\" alt=\"An irrigation ditch in the Central Valley. When surface water is scarce, farmers pump more groundwater to make up the difference. (Craig Miller/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An irrigation ditch in the Central Valley. When surface water is scarce, farmers pump more groundwater to make up the difference. (Craig Miller/KQED) \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We hear a great deal about California’s reliance on its “frozen reservoir,” a reference to the (currently anemic) Sierra snowpack. We hear a lot less about the Golden State’s \u003cem>invisible\u003c/em> reservoir, the water that resides in underground aquifers beneath our feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about to change. Today, state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) puts a trio of water conservation bills before her Natural Resources and Water Committee, the centerpiece of which (SB 1168) is a frontal assault on the management of California’s groundwater, which, compared to other western states, is almost unregulated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current drought appears to be putting a new level of pressure on the groundwater debate. Cutbacks in state and federal water allocations have unleashed a \u003ca title=\"Bakersfield Californian - post\" href=\"http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/business/California-drought-spawns-well-drilling-boom-255206371.html\">drilling frenzy\u003c/a> for water wells, and parts of the San Joaquin Valley are actually \u003ca title=\"Merc - post\" href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_25447586/california-drought-san-joaquin-valley-sinking-farmers-race\">sinking from groundwater depletion\u003c/a> below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The single most critical element in achieving [water] sustainability in California is groundwater,” Lester Snow told members of the \u003ca title=\"SWRCB - main\" href=\"http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/\">State Water Resources Control Board\u003c/a> at a hearing last week. Snow would know. For years he was the state’s chief water manager and now heads the relatively new \u003ca title=\"CWF - main\" href=\"http://www.californiawaterfoundation.org/\">California Water Foundation\u003c/a>, a non-profit devoted, as he describes it, to “achieving sustainable water management” in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16760\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 290px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquiferaside.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16760\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/aquiferaside.jpg\" alt=\"aquiferaside\" width=\"290\" height=\"222\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">So what, exactly, is an aquifer? Click image to see full infographic.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a good year, which is to say “wet,” Snow says that groundwater provides about 40 percent of the state’s water supply. In dry years, like this one, we lean on aquifers for 60 percent of our water (up from 40 percent as recently as 2 to 3 years ago).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Effectively managed, it is the single biggest mechanism that gives us the flexibility to deal with the vagaries of our water system in California,” said Snow. “And if we can not get our hands around that, we will not have a sustainable water supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But some, especially in farm country, are more than a little spooked by what getting our hands around it might entail. If you want to see farmers and ranchers turn ornery, make like you’re a state bureaucrat going after their water — or their right to pump as much as they need out of the ground. So as the battle lines begin to form, here are some key points.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State Intervention\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is the only western state that doesn’t exercise some degree of control over its groundwater. But how much control is too much? Matt Conant, a walnut grower in Sutter County, articulated the greatest fear of many in the ag community: “I’m afraid that the state will come in and try to over-regulate groundwater and surface water,” he told me outside a recent hearing of the State Water Resources Control Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But David Orth, who sits on the groundwater task force at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwa.com/\">Association of California Water Agencies\u003c/a>, says leaving it entirely in local hands may not be enough, especially when local and regional agencies are falling down on the job. “In those instances, we believe the state board should step in,” says Orth. “It creates, frankly, some bit of incentive for the locals to get together and get it right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a fairly bold statement, coming from an organization that has, in the past, taken a firm stand against groundwater regulation. But Orth says times are changing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A year ago it was, ‘This is mine and I don’t want anybody to mess with my personal property right,'” he says. “Today, I think more and more people are recognizing that we have a choice; we can either let this continue to be managed in a somewhat insufficient way in some regions and see significant economic loss, or we can more effectively manage it and do so in coordination with the state, so we can protect that groundwater resource for decades to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early in April, ACWA \u003ca title=\"ACWA - policy paper\" href=\"http://www.acwa.com/content/groundwater/acwa-recommendations-achieving-groundwater-sustainability\">proposed one of the most comprehensive blueprints\u003c/a> yet for protecting the state’s aquifers. Pavley’s bill is likely to draw on that. The harmonic convergence only extends so far, however. As Jim Beck at the Kern County Water Agency told KQED’s Lauren Sommer, “California is not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to any regulation. And we believe groundwater is certainly one of those areas of resource management were local folks really understand what’s best for their area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Transparency\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a growing chorus insisting that whatever else happens, we need better data, to know what’s going on with our aquifers. Presently there is no coordinated tracking of aquifer health or the volume of water being pumped. Drillers file well completion reports, which can only be accessed by public agencies “conducting studies,” according to state law. But there is precious little information available on how much water those wells are producing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conant told me that farmers know from their wells, what’s going on underground. But no one else really does, though scientists have been trying to piece together the big picture with a combination of monitoring wells and satellites that measure ground density. And once the data is gathered for what individual landowners are pumping, who should have access to it? Should it remain on confidential file with public agencies or be available to anyone?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pricing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s perhaps the thorniest question of all: whether farmers should pay for water that resides naturally under their own property. They’re already paying for the energy required to pump it to the surface. But now the water wonks are freely tossing around terms like “tiered pricing” and “groundwater management fees.” These are theoretical administrative charges to property owners, possibly based on how much groundwater they pump. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the regulators can’t make this happen themselves. These ideas will have to coalesce into a groundwater bill that lawmakers can make stick. The current version of the Pavley bill contains a definition of “sustainability” but leaves it up to local districts to determine the volume of groundwater pumping that is sustainable in each are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the lingering uncertainties, even some water policy insiders have expressed surprise at what Jonas Minton of the Planning and Conservation League calls, the “unprecedented consensus” on a possible approach to groundwater management. At that state hearing last week, he pronounced, “This is the year to do it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/16327/california-edging-closer-to-regulating-groundwater-for-the-first-time",
"authors": [
"221"
],
"series": [
"science_1151"
],
"categories": [
"science_31",
"science_35",
"science_38",
"science_40",
"science_98"
],
"tags": [
"science_568",
"science_686",
"science_490",
"science_1487"
],
"featImg": "science_16770",
"label": "science_1151"
},
"science_16637": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_16637",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16637",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1397764921000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1397764921,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Biologists' Paradox: Killing and Collecting Rare Creatures to Prove They're Not Extinct",
"headTitle": "Biologists’ Paradox: Killing and Collecting Rare Creatures to Prove They’re Not Extinct | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16638\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16638\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" alt=\"Endangered toads\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The critically endangered Panamanian golden frog (\u003cem>Atelopus zeteki\u003c/em>) stands in for thousands of rare organisms. Should scientists kill one of these just to prove it’s not extinct? (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/warriorwoman531/\">Heather Paul/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “observer effect” is a 20th-century truism that observations can affect the phenomenon being observed. It’s common sense that taking a measurement affects what’s being measured. Sticking a thermometer in a bit of hot water cools the water at the same time the thermometer registers its temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists work hard to avoid observer effects in their science. They hide in blinds to observe wildlife, or use unobtrusive sensors to track a creature’s behavior instead of tromping around behind it. In today’s issue of the journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/\">\u003cem>Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, biologist Ben Minteer of Arizona State University and three coauthors ask whether one traditional practice is too harsh for today—”collecting voucher specimens,” or killing a creature to prove that it lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem can be acute when a species is almost extinct. Minteer cites the great auk, which died out in 1844. “As the bird’s numbers dwindled in the 19th century, ornithologists and curators increasingly prized great auk skins and eggs, with museums and universities sending out collection parties to procure specimens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then we’ve learned to prize biodiversity, but old habits die hard. For instance, when the \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/fossilcreatures/a/coelacanths.htm\">coelacanth\u003c/a>, an order of primitive fish thought extinct for 60 million years, was found alive in the waters off South Africa in 1938, it’s fair to say that hundreds of museums craved one, and yet we all knew that coelacanths were rare. Fortunately they’re deep-water fish that taste bad and hide in caves, but private collectors are out there who would want one anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer cites the isolated \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socorro_Elf_Owl#Subspecies\">Socorro elf owl\u003c/a> as an example where “both professional and amateur scientists” were guilty of pressuring a rare population toward extinction. Plants are not immune either, especially species that live only on certain islands. Although ivory poachers and \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/03/05/redwood-poaching-increasing/\">redwood-burl thieves\u003c/a> are more deplorable people, scientists set examples and ought to reconsider their own ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer studies tropical frogs and is well aware that many species have disappeared over the past century. When a surviving population of one of these species is found again (and Minteer points out that more than 350 species have been “rediscovered”), the temptation is strong to plop a specimen in alcohol and carry it out of the woods in triumph. It’s simple and traditional, but when every single individual is precious, there should be substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer names several up-to-date ways of documenting species. Good photos, recordings of mating calls, and genetic data from discarded feathers or a skin swab are all that science really needs—and sharing the information publically helps other institutions refrain from doing their own collecting. “Collecting specimens is no longer required to describe a species or to document its rediscovery,” Minteer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In my own field of geology, there are similar pressures when it comes to fossils, and even rare minerals or unusual features in outcrops. Paleontologists in places like Grand Canyon National Park often rely on photographs to document a fossil that’s naturally weathering out of the rocks—if only to avoid the paperwork needed to excavate it legally. As an amateur geologist, I’ve found the value in \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/rockcollecting/qt/Code-Of-Hammering.htm\">leaving my hammer in the car and bringing home fewer rocks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Science exerts an influence on society by making certain things interesting and popular. It owes society the good example of practicing restraint to protect the commons.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 623,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 11
},
"modified": 1704933819,
"excerpt": "A group of biologists asks their peers to start documenting newly discovered and \"rediscovered\" species by non-destructive techniques instead of killing a specimen to bring home.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A group of biologists asks their peers to start documenting newly discovered and "rediscovered" species by non-destructive techniques instead of killing a specimen to bring home.",
"title": "Biologists' Paradox: Killing and Collecting Rare Creatures to Prove They're Not Extinct | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Biologists' Paradox: Killing and Collecting Rare Creatures to Prove They're Not Extinct",
"datePublished": "2014-04-17T13:02:01-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:43:39-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "biology-paradox-killing-and-collecting-rare-creatures-to-prove-theyre-not-extinct",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/16637/biology-paradox-killing-and-collecting-rare-creatures-to-prove-theyre-not-extinct",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16638\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16638\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/panamafrogs.jpg\" alt=\"Endangered toads\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The critically endangered Panamanian golden frog (\u003cem>Atelopus zeteki\u003c/em>) stands in for thousands of rare organisms. Should scientists kill one of these just to prove it’s not extinct? (\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/warriorwoman531/\">Heather Paul/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “observer effect” is a 20th-century truism that observations can affect the phenomenon being observed. It’s common sense that taking a measurement affects what’s being measured. Sticking a thermometer in a bit of hot water cools the water at the same time the thermometer registers its temperature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists work hard to avoid observer effects in their science. They hide in blinds to observe wildlife, or use unobtrusive sensors to track a creature’s behavior instead of tromping around behind it. In today’s issue of the journal \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/\">\u003cem>Science\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, biologist Ben Minteer of Arizona State University and three coauthors ask whether one traditional practice is too harsh for today—”collecting voucher specimens,” or killing a creature to prove that it lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem can be acute when a species is almost extinct. Minteer cites the great auk, which died out in 1844. “As the bird’s numbers dwindled in the 19th century, ornithologists and curators increasingly prized great auk skins and eggs, with museums and universities sending out collection parties to procure specimens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then we’ve learned to prize biodiversity, but old habits die hard. For instance, when the \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/fossilcreatures/a/coelacanths.htm\">coelacanth\u003c/a>, an order of primitive fish thought extinct for 60 million years, was found alive in the waters off South Africa in 1938, it’s fair to say that hundreds of museums craved one, and yet we all knew that coelacanths were rare. Fortunately they’re deep-water fish that taste bad and hide in caves, but private collectors are out there who would want one anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer cites the isolated \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socorro_Elf_Owl#Subspecies\">Socorro elf owl\u003c/a> as an example where “both professional and amateur scientists” were guilty of pressuring a rare population toward extinction. Plants are not immune either, especially species that live only on certain islands. Although ivory poachers and \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/03/05/redwood-poaching-increasing/\">redwood-burl thieves\u003c/a> are more deplorable people, scientists set examples and ought to reconsider their own ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer studies tropical frogs and is well aware that many species have disappeared over the past century. When a surviving population of one of these species is found again (and Minteer points out that more than 350 species have been “rediscovered”), the temptation is strong to plop a specimen in alcohol and carry it out of the woods in triumph. It’s simple and traditional, but when every single individual is precious, there should be substitutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minteer names several up-to-date ways of documenting species. Good photos, recordings of mating calls, and genetic data from discarded feathers or a skin swab are all that science really needs—and sharing the information publically helps other institutions refrain from doing their own collecting. “Collecting specimens is no longer required to describe a species or to document its rediscovery,” Minteer says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In my own field of geology, there are similar pressures when it comes to fossils, and even rare minerals or unusual features in outcrops. Paleontologists in places like Grand Canyon National Park often rely on photographs to document a fossil that’s naturally weathering out of the rocks—if only to avoid the paperwork needed to excavate it legally. As an amateur geologist, I’ve found the value in \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/rockcollecting/qt/Code-Of-Hammering.htm\">leaving my hammer in the car and bringing home fewer rocks\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Science exerts an influence on society by making certain things interesting and popular. It owes society the good example of practicing restraint to protect the commons.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/16637/biology-paradox-killing-and-collecting-rare-creatures-to-prove-theyre-not-extinct",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_30",
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_5196",
"science_261",
"science_260",
"science_349"
],
"featImg": "science_16638",
"label": "science"
},
"science_16397": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_16397",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16397",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1397160176000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1397160176,
"format": "aside",
"title": "New Stanford Study Examines Geologic Impact of a Massive Asteroid Collision on Ancient Earth",
"headTitle": "New Stanford Study Examines Geologic Impact of a Massive Asteroid Collision on Ancient Earth | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonchert.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16399\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16399\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonchert.jpg\" alt=\"Barberton cherts\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chert-filled cracks in these 3-billion-year-old sediments are interpreted as the result of an asteroid impact that created a crater 500 kilometers across, somewhere far away on Earth. Photos courtesy Donald Lowe\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stanford geology professor Donald Lowe has been haunting the ancient hills of South Africa for a long time. In the 1980s, he first found evidence in the Barberton greenstone belt—located east of Johannesburg—of enormous events that occurred there more than 3 billion years ago during the Archean Eon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were networks of large cracks in solid rocks that had sucked the overlying sediment (now turned to \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/more_sedrocks/qt/About-Chert.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chert\u003c/a>) down into them. There were signs of great tsunamis that had torn up the seafloor and strewn its pieces far and wide. Most telling were layers of sand-size droplets of formerly molten rock—spherules—with the chemistry of extraterrestrial material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lowe put the evidence together into a story of asteroid collisions, like the one that killed off most of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period, only much bigger. Whereas the Cretaceous impactor was about 10 kilometers across, the Archean one was more like 45 km.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lowe has documented his findings in a series of major papers. In his latest one, \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GC005229/abstract\">just published in the journal \u003ci>Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, he teamed up with Stanford physicist Norm Sleep to attack the problem from the other direction. Instead of using field evidence to infer the asteroid collision, they applied the raw physics of great impacts on solid bodies to predict what the actual geology might look like after that asteroid collision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 50 years of interplanetary research, we’re pretty sure of what giant impacts do around the solar system. It’s just a matter of finding the right equations, feeding them the right numbers and cranking out the astounding answers. Norm Sleep is good at that kind of thing, being a major contributor to a wide variety of early-Earth studies. Their paper is the first to go from the cosmic scale of model impacts all the way down to the sediment-sucking cracks and spherule beds of the Barberton greenstone belt in plausible detail—a visualization of the unimaginable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 45-km asteroid is big enough to make a crater the size of the great dark \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_mare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">maria\u003c/a> on the Moon’s surface. On Earth, the resulting crater would have been roughly 500 km across (think of San Francisco on one edge and Los Angeles on the other). At the time, about 3.26 billion years ago, the Barberton belt was apparently a submarine volcanic plateau covered in shallow water, something like the Kerguelen archipelago of the southern Indian Ocean. It was not at the actual impact site but at least several thousand kilometers away. Any closer and all evidence would have been wiped out entirely, but it could have been anywhere else on Earth because the effects must have been global.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what Sleep and Lowe figure happened. First, “extreme seismic waves” literally shattered the Earth’s crust within a couple of hours, shaking the ground continuously for tens of minutes. The sediments lying on the crust turned to liquid. On the magnitude scale of earthquakes, this would have rated approximately 10.8 (that’s for a 30-km impactor, so we could say that a 45-km one truly would “go up to 11”). Mountains would literally have crumbled in massive slumping landslides, opening spreading-related cracks called sackungen. At Barberton, pervasive sediment-filled cracks formed in the volcanic rocks, like those seen in the outcrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonhillside.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16401\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16401\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonhillside.jpg\" alt=\"Barberton hillside\" width=\"600\" height=\"429\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Large chert-filled fractures stand out on this South African hillside where erosion has removed the softer sediments around them\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While this was happening, the cratering produced a global cloud of vaporized rock, half from the impactor and half from Earth. This cloud condensed into a universal rain of red-hot grit that would have quickly carpeted the whole world, even while the shaking was going on. That’s how the spherules were sucked down into the cracks along with the sediment they lay upon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the tsunamis arrived, washing over everything early near the impact and later farther away. The precise location matters for the timing of this part. Sleep and Lowe’s model assumed, for the sake of calculations, that Barberton was about 5000 km away. The results were consistent enough with the field evidence to be worth publishing. But their modeling method could be used to give insight whenever new Archean spherule localities are found (so far we’ve only looked thoroughly at the Kaapvaal craton, where Barberton sits, and the 2.5-billion-year-old Pilbara craton in Australia).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are two larger problems in Earth history on which this paper may shed light. One is that we aren’t sure when the constant flood of large asteroid impacts ended. For a while it looked like the “Late Heavy Bombardment” ended abruptly around 3.8 billion years ago, but the Archean spherule layers (there are seven in Barberton alone) suggest that the bombardment tailed off more gradually. This is important, as you might imagine, for the history of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other problem is how and when plate tectonics began on Earth. Raw physics doesn’t predict an inevitable progression to plate tectonics, and there’s almost no geological evidence that everyone agrees on. Late Archean impacts, Sleep and Lowe suggest, could have kick-started the circulation of the crust that keeps our world of drifting continents the way it is today.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 946,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 13
},
"modified": 1704933854,
"excerpt": "A new paper attempts to describe a realistic picture of the unimaginable: a colossal cosmic impact that left a crater 500 kilometers across on the ancient Earth.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A new paper attempts to describe a realistic picture of the unimaginable: a colossal cosmic impact that left a crater 500 kilometers across on the ancient Earth.",
"title": "New Stanford Study Examines Geologic Impact of a Massive Asteroid Collision on Ancient Earth | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "New Stanford Study Examines Geologic Impact of a Massive Asteroid Collision on Ancient Earth",
"datePublished": "2014-04-10T13:02:56-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:44:14-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "new-study-examines-geologic-impact-of-a-massive-asteroid-collision-on-ancient-earth",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/16397/new-study-examines-geologic-impact-of-a-massive-asteroid-collision-on-ancient-earth",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonchert.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16399\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16399\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonchert.jpg\" alt=\"Barberton cherts\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chert-filled cracks in these 3-billion-year-old sediments are interpreted as the result of an asteroid impact that created a crater 500 kilometers across, somewhere far away on Earth. Photos courtesy Donald Lowe\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stanford geology professor Donald Lowe has been haunting the ancient hills of South Africa for a long time. In the 1980s, he first found evidence in the Barberton greenstone belt—located east of Johannesburg—of enormous events that occurred there more than 3 billion years ago during the Archean Eon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were networks of large cracks in solid rocks that had sucked the overlying sediment (now turned to \u003ca href=\"http://geology.about.com/od/more_sedrocks/qt/About-Chert.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chert\u003c/a>) down into them. There were signs of great tsunamis that had torn up the seafloor and strewn its pieces far and wide. Most telling were layers of sand-size droplets of formerly molten rock—spherules—with the chemistry of extraterrestrial material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lowe put the evidence together into a story of asteroid collisions, like the one that killed off most of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period, only much bigger. Whereas the Cretaceous impactor was about 10 kilometers across, the Archean one was more like 45 km.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lowe has documented his findings in a series of major papers. In his latest one, \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GC005229/abstract\">just published in the journal \u003ci>Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, he teamed up with Stanford physicist Norm Sleep to attack the problem from the other direction. Instead of using field evidence to infer the asteroid collision, they applied the raw physics of great impacts on solid bodies to predict what the actual geology might look like after that asteroid collision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After 50 years of interplanetary research, we’re pretty sure of what giant impacts do around the solar system. It’s just a matter of finding the right equations, feeding them the right numbers and cranking out the astounding answers. Norm Sleep is good at that kind of thing, being a major contributor to a wide variety of early-Earth studies. Their paper is the first to go from the cosmic scale of model impacts all the way down to the sediment-sucking cracks and spherule beds of the Barberton greenstone belt in plausible detail—a visualization of the unimaginable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 45-km asteroid is big enough to make a crater the size of the great dark \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_mare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">maria\u003c/a> on the Moon’s surface. On Earth, the resulting crater would have been roughly 500 km across (think of San Francisco on one edge and Los Angeles on the other). At the time, about 3.26 billion years ago, the Barberton belt was apparently a submarine volcanic plateau covered in shallow water, something like the Kerguelen archipelago of the southern Indian Ocean. It was not at the actual impact site but at least several thousand kilometers away. Any closer and all evidence would have been wiped out entirely, but it could have been anywhere else on Earth because the effects must have been global.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what Sleep and Lowe figure happened. First, “extreme seismic waves” literally shattered the Earth’s crust within a couple of hours, shaking the ground continuously for tens of minutes. The sediments lying on the crust turned to liquid. On the magnitude scale of earthquakes, this would have rated approximately 10.8 (that’s for a 30-km impactor, so we could say that a 45-km one truly would “go up to 11”). Mountains would literally have crumbled in massive slumping landslides, opening spreading-related cracks called sackungen. At Barberton, pervasive sediment-filled cracks formed in the volcanic rocks, like those seen in the outcrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonhillside.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16401\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16401\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/Barbertonhillside.jpg\" alt=\"Barberton hillside\" width=\"600\" height=\"429\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Large chert-filled fractures stand out on this South African hillside where erosion has removed the softer sediments around them\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While this was happening, the cratering produced a global cloud of vaporized rock, half from the impactor and half from Earth. This cloud condensed into a universal rain of red-hot grit that would have quickly carpeted the whole world, even while the shaking was going on. That’s how the spherules were sucked down into the cracks along with the sediment they lay upon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the tsunamis arrived, washing over everything early near the impact and later farther away. The precise location matters for the timing of this part. Sleep and Lowe’s model assumed, for the sake of calculations, that Barberton was about 5000 km away. The results were consistent enough with the field evidence to be worth publishing. But their modeling method could be used to give insight whenever new Archean spherule localities are found (so far we’ve only looked thoroughly at the Kaapvaal craton, where Barberton sits, and the 2.5-billion-year-old Pilbara craton in Australia).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are two larger problems in Earth history on which this paper may shed light. One is that we aren’t sure when the constant flood of large asteroid impacts ended. For a while it looked like the “Late Heavy Bombardment” ended abruptly around 3.8 billion years ago, but the Archean spherule layers (there are seven in Barberton alone) suggest that the bombardment tailed off more gradually. This is important, as you might imagine, for the history of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other problem is how and when plate tectonics began on Earth. Raw physics doesn’t predict an inevitable progression to plate tectonics, and there’s almost no geological evidence that everyone agrees on. Late Archean impacts, Sleep and Lowe suggest, could have kick-started the circulation of the crust that keeps our world of drifting continents the way it is today.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/16397/new-study-examines-geologic-impact-of-a-massive-asteroid-collision-on-ancient-earth",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_144",
"science_427",
"science_5187"
],
"featImg": "science_16399",
"label": "science"
},
"science_16098": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "science_16098",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16098",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1396552005000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1396552005,
"format": "aside",
"title": "Study Reveals New Suspect in the 'Great Dying' Mass Extinction Murder Mystery",
"headTitle": "Study Reveals New Suspect in the ‘Great Dying’ Mass Extinction Murder Mystery | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/permian-glossopteris.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16099\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/permian-glossopteris.jpg\" alt=\"Permian Glossopteris fossils\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16099\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Late Permian fossils include \u003ci>Glossopteris\u003c/i> leaves at left, representing a widespread forest community that vanished in the “Great Dying” \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/people/22616984@N07/\">Flickr/Creative Commons\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “\u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Great Dying\u003c/a>” is a monstrously deadly event that occurred about 250 million years ago. Whatever it was drove some 90 percent of the world’s species to extinction. It is geology’s leading murder mystery, and just like some dinner-theater production, a new theory about the killer has the diners around the table murmuring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About two centuries ago, early geologists could see that in the record of the rocks there was a big, sudden shift in the world’s fossils. It was a significant marker that they declared to be the boundary between two large-scale periods of time, the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras (think of these as the Trilobite Era and the Dinosaur Era, respectively). As our knowledge grew, it became clear that this event was the greatest episode of mass extinction in the whole geologic record. Lately, new evidence and more sophisticated thinking about it has created a scientific ferment around the Permian-Triassic extinction, named for the last time period of the Paleozoic and the first of the Mesozoic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In thinking of mass extinctions, we have a list of the usual suspects. They’re the same threats you read about in the paper, only much larger—climate changes, volcanoes, upsets of ocean chemistry, cosmic impacts. We’ve had a hard time gathering evidence because in the 250 million years since the Permian-Triassic event many rocks have been lost to erosion or warped out of recognition by heat and pressure. But also, it seems that the world was in such an uproar that the formation of rocks themselves was interrupted in many places, leaving gaps in the record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently the research community has been converging on a scenario involving monstrous volcanism. There was a colossal series of eruptions during the latest part of the Permian in present-day Siberia that covered a Europe-sized area deep in fresh lava. (If you’ve heard of the huge Columbia River flood basalts in Washington and Oregon, the Siberian Traps covered more than 10 times as much ground.) That would be bad enough on its face—volcanic gases and water vapor would seriously perturb the atmosphere—but the lavas burned their way through enormous beds of coal and carbonate rocks too, multiplying their effect. And as the great \u003ci>Glossopteris\u003c/i> forests and peat swamps of the time dried out and died, their carbon too entered the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As this blanket of carbon dioxide and volcanic haze smothered the globe, the ocean died too, its surface waters heated to hot-tub levels. Massive erosion of the now-bare land flushed the seas with unaccustomed nutrients and toxins. It was millions of bad years before the planet regained its poise, the forests returned and the habitats refilled with species. The causes and mechanisms of this scenario are not certain, but it’s the current working consensus. Additionally, the continental movements of plate tectonics were a long-term influence, and the exact short-term killing mechanism is somewhat conjectural. The mystery is still open to new ideas that in turn suggest fresh evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new suspect was proposed on March 31 in the \u003ci>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003c/i>: the culprit was an outburst of evolution in sea microbes. The paper, “\u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/26/1318106111\">Methanogenic burst in the end-Permian carbon cycle\u003c/a>,” is by Daniel Rothman and a group of fellow scientists at MIT. It has some aspects that the general run of geologists may find theatrical, but in a good way. For one thing the paper is open-access, a step that costs the authors extra but guarantees a good crowd of readers (including the general public) and increases buzz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors open with a flourish by dismissing the consensus as “difficult to reconcile with observed geochemical changes.” Then they propose to their fellow-diners a plausible argument with three prongs, like an old-fashioned dinner fork. First, they use a simple numerical model, based on several reasonable simplifying assumptions, to suggest that carbon compounds of some kind were entering seawater at a “superexponential rate,” much faster than fires or lava could accomplish. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, they suppose that this burst could have come from the seafloor, where carbon compounds had been building up for many years in the low-oxygen conditions of the time. Their logic points them to a sudden evolutionary change in the \u003ci>Methanosarcina\u003c/i> group of microbes. Due to a gene transfer from another set of microbes, \u003ci>Methanosarcina\u003c/i> suddenly found itself capable of eating this carbon and releasing the waste product as methane gas. As the microbes gorged themselves in a runaway carbon feast, they threw gigantic amounts of methane into the atmosphere to cause ruinous global warming. Rothman’s team uses “molecular clock” calculations, a recently developed method based on genetic evolution, to pin the time of this gene transfer down to 240 plus-or-minus 40 million years ago, “strikingly close to the end-Permian extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Third, they introduce the deadly metallic implement: nickel. Levels of the element found in the key rock sequence of Emeishan, China, rise strongly at this time, indicating that the Siberian lavas were releasing it to the environment in high volumes. And aha! the key atom in the enzyme that \u003ci>Methanosarcina\u003c/i> uses to create methane is, you guessed it, nickel. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with that, they sit back down at the murder-mystery table to polite applause. The scheme is clever and novel. It can be addressed with more research, which is its most important feature. And it doesn’t really displace anything in the rest of the consensus scenario. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rothman’s proposal offers a timely implication from the remote Permian Period: Haven’t we been hearing lately about another species finding a new way to exploit carbon that inadvertently causes global warming? Something to chew upon as the conversation continues. “Although such implications remain speculative,” their paper concludes, “our work makes clear the exquisite sensitivity of the Earth system to the evolution of microbial life.” And who is smarter, a mere microbe or us?\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1054,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 13
},
"modified": 1704933896,
"excerpt": "The latest microbial hypothesis published in a recent paper addresses the ongoing drama of the \"Great Dying\", a monstrously deadly event that occurred about 250 million years ago and drove some 90 percent of the world's species to extinction.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "The latest microbial hypothesis published in a recent paper addresses the ongoing drama of the "Great Dying", a monstrously deadly event that occurred about 250 million years ago and drove some 90 percent of the world's species to extinction.",
"title": "Study Reveals New Suspect in the 'Great Dying' Mass Extinction Murder Mystery | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Study Reveals New Suspect in the 'Great Dying' Mass Extinction Murder Mystery",
"datePublished": "2014-04-03T12:06:45-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-01-10T16:44:56-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "study-reveals-new-suspect-in-the-great-dying-mass-exinction-murder-mystery",
"status": "publish",
"sticky": false,
"path": "/science/16098/study-reveals-new-suspect-in-the-great-dying-mass-exinction-murder-mystery",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_16099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/permian-glossopteris.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16099\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/04/permian-glossopteris.jpg\" alt=\"Permian Glossopteris fossils\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16099\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Late Permian fossils include \u003ci>Glossopteris\u003c/i> leaves at left, representing a widespread forest community that vanished in the “Great Dying” \u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/people/22616984@N07/\">Flickr/Creative Commons\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The “\u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Great Dying\u003c/a>” is a monstrously deadly event that occurred about 250 million years ago. Whatever it was drove some 90 percent of the world’s species to extinction. It is geology’s leading murder mystery, and just like some dinner-theater production, a new theory about the killer has the diners around the table murmuring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About two centuries ago, early geologists could see that in the record of the rocks there was a big, sudden shift in the world’s fossils. It was a significant marker that they declared to be the boundary between two large-scale periods of time, the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras (think of these as the Trilobite Era and the Dinosaur Era, respectively). As our knowledge grew, it became clear that this event was the greatest episode of mass extinction in the whole geologic record. Lately, new evidence and more sophisticated thinking about it has created a scientific ferment around the Permian-Triassic extinction, named for the last time period of the Paleozoic and the first of the Mesozoic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In thinking of mass extinctions, we have a list of the usual suspects. They’re the same threats you read about in the paper, only much larger—climate changes, volcanoes, upsets of ocean chemistry, cosmic impacts. We’ve had a hard time gathering evidence because in the 250 million years since the Permian-Triassic event many rocks have been lost to erosion or warped out of recognition by heat and pressure. But also, it seems that the world was in such an uproar that the formation of rocks themselves was interrupted in many places, leaving gaps in the record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently the research community has been converging on a scenario involving monstrous volcanism. There was a colossal series of eruptions during the latest part of the Permian in present-day Siberia that covered a Europe-sized area deep in fresh lava. (If you’ve heard of the huge Columbia River flood basalts in Washington and Oregon, the Siberian Traps covered more than 10 times as much ground.) That would be bad enough on its face—volcanic gases and water vapor would seriously perturb the atmosphere—but the lavas burned their way through enormous beds of coal and carbonate rocks too, multiplying their effect. And as the great \u003ci>Glossopteris\u003c/i> forests and peat swamps of the time dried out and died, their carbon too entered the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As this blanket of carbon dioxide and volcanic haze smothered the globe, the ocean died too, its surface waters heated to hot-tub levels. Massive erosion of the now-bare land flushed the seas with unaccustomed nutrients and toxins. It was millions of bad years before the planet regained its poise, the forests returned and the habitats refilled with species. The causes and mechanisms of this scenario are not certain, but it’s the current working consensus. Additionally, the continental movements of plate tectonics were a long-term influence, and the exact short-term killing mechanism is somewhat conjectural. The mystery is still open to new ideas that in turn suggest fresh evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new suspect was proposed on March 31 in the \u003ci>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003c/i>: the culprit was an outburst of evolution in sea microbes. The paper, “\u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/26/1318106111\">Methanogenic burst in the end-Permian carbon cycle\u003c/a>,” is by Daniel Rothman and a group of fellow scientists at MIT. It has some aspects that the general run of geologists may find theatrical, but in a good way. For one thing the paper is open-access, a step that costs the authors extra but guarantees a good crowd of readers (including the general public) and increases buzz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors open with a flourish by dismissing the consensus as “difficult to reconcile with observed geochemical changes.” Then they propose to their fellow-diners a plausible argument with three prongs, like an old-fashioned dinner fork. First, they use a simple numerical model, based on several reasonable simplifying assumptions, to suggest that carbon compounds of some kind were entering seawater at a “superexponential rate,” much faster than fires or lava could accomplish. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, they suppose that this burst could have come from the seafloor, where carbon compounds had been building up for many years in the low-oxygen conditions of the time. Their logic points them to a sudden evolutionary change in the \u003ci>Methanosarcina\u003c/i> group of microbes. Due to a gene transfer from another set of microbes, \u003ci>Methanosarcina\u003c/i> suddenly found itself capable of eating this carbon and releasing the waste product as methane gas. As the microbes gorged themselves in a runaway carbon feast, they threw gigantic amounts of methane into the atmosphere to cause ruinous global warming. Rothman’s team uses “molecular clock” calculations, a recently developed method based on genetic evolution, to pin the time of this gene transfer down to 240 plus-or-minus 40 million years ago, “strikingly close to the end-Permian extinction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Third, they introduce the deadly metallic implement: nickel. Levels of the element found in the key rock sequence of Emeishan, China, rise strongly at this time, indicating that the Siberian lavas were releasing it to the environment in high volumes. And aha! the key atom in the enzyme that \u003ci>Methanosarcina\u003c/i> uses to create methane is, you guessed it, nickel. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And with that, they sit back down at the murder-mystery table to polite applause. The scheme is clever and novel. It can be addressed with more research, which is its most important feature. And it doesn’t really displace anything in the rest of the consensus scenario. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rothman’s proposal offers a timely implication from the remote Permian Period: Haven’t we been hearing lately about another species finding a new way to exploit carbon that inadvertently causes global warming? Something to chew upon as the conversation continues. “Although such implications remain speculative,” their paper concludes, “our work makes clear the exquisite sensitivity of the Earth system to the evolution of microbial life.” And who is smarter, a mere microbe or us?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/science/16098/study-reveals-new-suspect-in-the-great-dying-mass-exinction-murder-mystery",
"authors": [
"6228"
],
"categories": [
"science_38"
],
"tags": [
"science_260",
"science_349",
"science_944"
],
"featImg": "science_16099",
"label": "science"
}
},
"podcastsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"podcasts": {}
},
"radioProgramsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"radioPrograms": {}
},
"radioSearchSegmentsReducer": {},
"programsReducer": {
"all-things-considered": {
"id": "all-things-considered",
"title": "All Things Considered",
"info": "Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/all-things-considered"
},
"american-suburb-podcast": {
"id": "american-suburb-podcast",
"title": "American Suburb: The Podcast",
"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 19
},
"link": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"
}
},
"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.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Bay Curious",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9a90d476-aa04-455d-9a4c-0871ed6216d4/bay-curious",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"
}
},
"bbc-world-service": {
"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"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",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-the-california-report/id79681292",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432285393/the-california-report",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-the-california-report-podcast-8838",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
"californiareportmagazine": {
"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"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",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report Magazine",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 10
},
"link": "/californiareportmagazine",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564733126/the-california-report-magazine",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-california-report-magazine",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"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": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Close All Tabs",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-all-tabs/id214663465",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/92d9d4ac-67a3-4eed-b10a-fb45d45b1ef2/close-all-tabs",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6LAJFHnGK1pYXYzv6SIol6?si=deb0cae19813417c"
}
},
"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"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 />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
"forum": {
"id": "forum",
"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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"
}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"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",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
},
"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
"title": "Here & Now",
"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.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/here-and-now",
"subsdcribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=426698661",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Here--Now-p211/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/How-I-Built-This-p910896/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hyphenaci%C3%B3n/id1191591838",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
"youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/c/kqedarts",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"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",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/790253322/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/jerrybrown/feed/podcast/",
"tuneIn": "http://tun.in/pjGcK",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/44420f75-3b0e-4301-ab3b-16da6b09e543/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown"
}
},
"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": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/",
"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",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201853034&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/APM-Marketplace-p88/",
"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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"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",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
}
},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/political-breakdown/feed/podcast"
}
},
"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
}
},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "PRI"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pri-the-world",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pris-the-world-latest-edition/id278196007?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
"rss": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/pri/theworld"
}
},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/radiolab1400.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/radiolab",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLab-p68032/",
"rss": "https://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab"
}
},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/",
"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
}
},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rightnowish-Podcast-Tile-500x500-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Rightnowish with Pendarvis Harshaw",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/rightnowish/feed/podcast",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMxMjU5MTY3NDc4",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I"
}
},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
"airtime": "FRI 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/science-friday",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/science-friday",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=73329284&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Science-Friday-p394/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/science-friday"
}
},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
"airtime": "SAT 1pm-2pm, 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Snap-Judgment-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Snap Judgment",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 4
},
"link": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snap-judgment/id283657561",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/449018144/snap-judgment",
"stitcher": "https://www.pandora.com/podcast/snap-judgment/PC:241?source=stitcher-sunset",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cct7ZWmxHNAtLgBTqjC5v",
"rss": "https://snap.feed.snapjudgment.org/"
}
},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sold-Out-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/soldout",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 13
},
"link": "/podcasts/soldout",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/911586047/s-o-l-d-o-u-t-a-new-future-for-housing",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/soldout",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america",
"tunein": "https://tunein.com/radio/SOLD-OUT-Rethinking-Housing-in-America-p1365871/"
}
},
"spooked": {
"id": "spooked",
"title": "Spooked",
"tagline": "True-life supernatural stories",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Spooked-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Spooked",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 7
},
"link": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spooked/id1279361017",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/549547848/snap-judgment-presents-spooked",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/76571Rfl3m7PLJQZKQIGCT",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/TBotaapn"
}
},
"tech-nation": {
"id": "tech-nation",
"title": "Tech Nation Radio Podcast",
"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
"airtime": "FRI 10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tech-Nation-Radio-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://technation.podomatic.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "Tech Nation Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tech-nation",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://technation.podomatic.com/rss2.xml"
}
},
"ted-radio-hour": {
"id": "ted-radio-hour",
"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm, SAT 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/tedRadioHour.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-06-22",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/ted-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/8vsS",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=523121474&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/TED-Radio-Hour-p418021/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510298/podcast.xml"
}
},
"thebay": {
"id": "thebay",
"title": "The Bay",
"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Bay-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Bay",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/thebay",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 2
},
"link": "/podcasts/thebay",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d800ea4c-7a2c-42f2-b861-edaf78a5db0b/the-bay",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/586725995/the-bay",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-bay",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4BIKBKIujizLHlIlBNaAqQ",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC8259786327"
}
},
"thelatest": {
"id": "thelatest",
"title": "The Latest",
"tagline": "Trusted local news in real time",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Latest-2025-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Latest",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/thelatest",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 6
},
"link": "/thelatest",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latest-from-kqed/id1197721799",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1257949365/the-latest-from-k-q-e-d",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/5KIIXMgM9GTi5AepwOYvIZ?si=bd3053fec7244dba",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9137121918"
}
},
"theleap": {
"id": "theleap",
"title": "The Leap",
"tagline": "What if you closed your eyes, and jumped?",
"info": "Stories about people making dramatic, risky changes, told by award-winning public radio reporter Judy Campbell.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Leap-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Leap",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/theleap",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 17
},
"link": "/podcasts/theleap",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-leap/id1046668171",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/447248267/the-leap",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-leap",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3sSlVHHzU0ytLwuGs1SD1U",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/programs/the-leap/feed/podcast"
}
},
"the-moth-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-moth-radio-hour",
"title": "The Moth Radio Hour",
"info": "Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country. For information on all of our programs and live events, visit themoth.org.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm and SUN 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/theMoth.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://themoth.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "prx"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-moth-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moth-podcast/id275699983?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/The-Moth-p273888/",
"rss": "http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast"
}
},
"the-new-yorker-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"title": "The New Yorker Radio Hour",
"info": "The New Yorker Radio Hour is a weekly program presented by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, and produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Each episode features a diverse mix of interviews, profiles, storytelling, and an occasional burst of humor inspired by the magazine, and shaped by its writers, artists, and editors. This isn't a radio version of a magazine, but something all its own, reflecting the rich possibilities of audio storytelling and conversation. Theme music for the show was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YArDs.",
"airtime": "SAT 10am-11am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-New-Yorker-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/tnyradiohour",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1050430296",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/New-Yorker-Radio-Hour-p803804/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/newyorkerradiohour"
}
},
"the-sam-sanders-show": {
"id": "the-sam-sanders-show",
"title": "The Sam Sanders Show",
"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
"airtime": "FRI 12-1pm AND SAT 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Sam-Sanders-Show-Podcast-Tile-400x400-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "KCRW"
},
"link": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feed.cdnstream1.com/zjb/feed/download/ac/28/59/ac28594c-e1d0-4231-8728-61865cdc80e8.xml"
}
},
"the-splendid-table": {
"id": "the-splendid-table",
"title": "The Splendid Table",
"info": "\u003cem>The Splendid Table\u003c/em> hosts our nation's conversations about cooking, sustainability and food culture.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Splendid-Table-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.splendidtable.org/",
"airtime": "SUN 10-11 pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-splendid-table"
},
"this-american-life": {
"id": "this-american-life",
"title": "This American Life",
"info": "This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.",
"airtime": "SAT 12pm-1pm, 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/thisAmericanLife.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wbez"
},
"link": "/radio/program/this-american-life",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201671138&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"rss": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/rss.xml"
}
},
"tinydeskradio": {
"id": "tinydeskradio",
"title": "Tiny Desk Radio",
"info": "We're bringing the best of Tiny Desk to the airwaves, only on public radio.",
"airtime": "SUN 8pm and SAT 9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/300x300-For-Member-Station-Logo-Tiny-Desk-Radio-@2x.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-52030/tiny-desk-radio",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tinydeskradio",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/g-s1-52030/rss.xml"
}
},
"wait-wait-dont-tell-me": {
"id": "wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"title": "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!",
"info": "Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis host the weekly NPR News quiz show alongside some of the best and brightest news and entertainment personalities.",
"airtime": "SUN 10am-11am, SAT 11am-12pm, SAT 6pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wait-Wait-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/Xogv",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=121493804&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Wait-Wait-Dont-Tell-Me-p46/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/344098539/podcast.xml"
}
},
"weekend-edition-saturday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-saturday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Saturday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Saturday wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.",
"airtime": "SAT 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-saturday"
},
"weekend-edition-sunday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-sunday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Sunday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.",
"airtime": "SUN 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-sunday"
}
},
"racesReducer": {},
"racesGenElectionReducer": {},
"racesGenElection2026Reducer": {},
"racesGeneralEl2026Reducer": {},
"radioSchedulesReducer": {},
"listsReducer": {
"posts/science?category=geology": {
"isFetching": false,
"latestQuery": {
"from": 156,
"size": 12
},
"vitalsOnly": false,
"totalRequested": 12,
"isLoading": false,
"isLoadingMore": true,
"total": {
"value": 311,
"relation": "eq"
},
"items": [
"science_19004",
"science_18742",
"science_18307",
"science_18297",
"science_17845",
"science_17522",
"science_17114",
"science_17039",
"science_16327",
"science_16637",
"science_16397",
"science_16098"
],
"complete": true
}
},
"recallGuideReducer": {
"intros": {},
"policy": {},
"candidates": {}
},
"savedArticleReducer": {
"articles": [],
"status": {}
},
"newslettersReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"newsletters": {},
"isSubscribing": false,
"isUnsubscribing": false,
"subscribedNewsletters": {}
},
"termsReducer": {
"about": {
"name": "About",
"type": "terms",
"id": "about",
"slug": "about",
"link": "/about",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts": {
"name": "Arts & Culture",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"description": "KQED Arts provides daily in-depth coverage of the Bay Area's music, art, film, performing arts, literature and arts news, as well as cultural commentary and criticism.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts",
"slug": "arts",
"link": "/arts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"artschool": {
"name": "Art School",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "artschool",
"slug": "artschool",
"link": "/artschool",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareabites": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareabites",
"slug": "bayareabites",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareahiphop": {
"name": "Bay Area Hiphop",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareahiphop",
"slug": "bayareahiphop",
"link": "/bayareahiphop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"campaign21": {
"name": "Campaign 21",
"type": "terms",
"id": "campaign21",
"slug": "campaign21",
"link": "/campaign21",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"careers": {
"name": "Careers",
"type": "terms",
"id": "careers",
"slug": "careers",
"link": "/careers",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"checkplease": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "checkplease",
"slug": "checkplease",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"education": {
"name": "Education",
"grouping": [
"education"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "education",
"slug": "education",
"link": "/education",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"elections": {
"name": "Elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "elections",
"slug": "elections",
"link": "/elections",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"events": {
"name": "Events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "events",
"slug": "events",
"link": "/events",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"event": {
"name": "Event",
"alias": "events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "event",
"slug": "event",
"link": "/event",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"filmschoolshorts": {
"name": "Film School Shorts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "filmschoolshorts",
"slug": "filmschoolshorts",
"link": "/filmschoolshorts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"food": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "food",
"slug": "food",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"forum": {
"name": "Forum",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/forum?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "forum",
"slug": "forum",
"link": "/forum",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"futureofyou": {
"name": "Future of You",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "futureofyou",
"slug": "futureofyou",
"link": "/futureofyou",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"jpepinheart": {
"name": "KQED food",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/food,bayareabites,checkplease",
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "jpepinheart",
"slug": "jpepinheart",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"liveblog": {
"name": "Live Blog",
"type": "terms",
"id": "liveblog",
"slug": "liveblog",
"link": "/liveblog",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"livetv": {
"name": "Live TV",
"parent": "tv",
"type": "terms",
"id": "livetv",
"slug": "livetv",
"link": "/livetv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"lowdown": {
"name": "The Lowdown",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/lowdown?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "lowdown",
"slug": "lowdown",
"link": "/lowdown",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift": {
"name": "Mindshift",
"parent": "news",
"description": "MindShift explores the future of education by highlighting the innovative – and sometimes counterintuitive – ways educators and parents are helping all children succeed.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift",
"slug": "mindshift",
"link": "/mindshift",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news": {
"name": "News",
"grouping": [
"news",
"forum"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "news",
"slug": "news",
"link": "/news",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"newsletters": {
"name": "newsletters",
"type": "terms",
"id": "newsletters",
"slug": "newsletters",
"link": "/newsletters",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"perspectives": {
"name": "Perspectives",
"parent": "radio",
"type": "terms",
"id": "perspectives",
"slug": "perspectives",
"link": "/perspectives",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"podcasts": {
"name": "Podcasts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "podcasts",
"slug": "podcasts",
"link": "/podcasts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pop": {
"name": "Pop",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pop",
"slug": "pop",
"link": "/pop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pressroom": {
"name": "Pressroom",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pressroom",
"slug": "pressroom",
"link": "/pressroom",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"quest": {
"name": "Quest",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "quest",
"slug": "quest",
"link": "/quest",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"radio": {
"name": "Radio",
"grouping": [
"forum",
"perspectives"
],
"description": "Listen to KQED Public Radio – home of Forum and The California Report – on 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento, 88.3 FM in Santa Rosa and 88.1 FM in Martinez.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "radio",
"slug": "radio",
"link": "/radio",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"root": {
"name": "KQED",
"image": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"imageWidth": 1200,
"imageHeight": 630,
"headData": {
"title": "KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California",
"description": "KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We’re the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California."
},
"type": "terms",
"id": "root",
"slug": "root",
"link": "/root",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science": {
"name": "Science",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"description": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "science",
"slug": "science",
"link": "/science",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"stateofhealth": {
"name": "State of Health",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "stateofhealth",
"slug": "stateofhealth",
"link": "/stateofhealth",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"support": {
"name": "Support",
"type": "terms",
"id": "support",
"slug": "support",
"link": "/support",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"thedolist": {
"name": "The Do List",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "thedolist",
"slug": "thedolist",
"link": "/thedolist",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"trulyca": {
"name": "Truly CA",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "trulyca",
"slug": "trulyca",
"link": "/trulyca",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"tv": {
"name": "TV",
"type": "terms",
"id": "tv",
"slug": "tv",
"link": "/tv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"voterguide": {
"name": "Voter Guide",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "voterguide",
"slug": "voterguide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"guiaelectoral": {
"name": "Guia Electoral",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "guiaelectoral",
"slug": "guiaelectoral",
"link": "/guiaelectoral",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science_category_geology": {
"isLoading": true
},
"science_38": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_38",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "38",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Geology",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Geology Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 40,
"slug": "geology",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/geology"
},
"science_33": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_33",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "33",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Energy",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Energy Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 35,
"slug": "energy",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/energy"
},
"science_427": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_427",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "427",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "earthquakes",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "earthquakes Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 433,
"slug": "earthquakes",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/earthquakes"
},
"science_429": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_429",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "429",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "fracking",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "fracking Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 435,
"slug": "fracking",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/fracking"
},
"science_1712": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1712",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1712",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "oil and gas production",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "oil and gas production Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1722,
"slug": "oil-and-gas-production",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/oil-and-gas-production"
},
"science_28": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_28",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "28",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Astronomy",
"description": "Explore the universe with KQED Science! Dive into the latest astronomy news, discover celestial events, and unravel the mysteries of outer space.",
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "Explore the universe with KQED Science! Dive into the latest astronomy news, discover celestial events, and unravel the mysteries of outer space.",
"title": "Astronomy Articles | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 30,
"slug": "astronomy",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/astronomy"
},
"science_1073": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1073",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1073",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "astronomy",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "astronomy Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1081,
"slug": "astronomy-2",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/astronomy-2"
},
"science_5186": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5186",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5186",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "James Webb space telescope",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "James Webb space telescope Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5186,
"slug": "james-webb-space-telescope",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/james-webb-space-telescope"
},
"science_25": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_25",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "25",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "planet",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "planet Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 26,
"slug": "planet",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/planet"
},
"science_1272": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1272",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1272",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "planets",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "planets Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1281,
"slug": "planets",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/planets"
},
"science_591": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_591",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "591",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "plate tectonics",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "plate tectonics Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 597,
"slug": "plate-tectonics",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/plate-tectonics"
},
"science_35": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_35",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "35",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Environment",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Environment Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 37,
"slug": "environment",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/environment"
},
"science_16": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_16",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "16",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Import",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Import Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 17,
"slug": "import",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/import"
},
"science_64": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_64",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "64",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "full-image",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "full-image Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 67,
"slug": "full-image",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/full-image"
},
"science_1189": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1189",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1189",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "plastic",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "plastic Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1198,
"slug": "plastic",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/plastic"
},
"science_554": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_554",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "554",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "pollution",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "pollution Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 560,
"slug": "pollution",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/pollution"
},
"science_529": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_529",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "529",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "earthquake prediction",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "earthquake prediction Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 535,
"slug": "earthquake-prediction",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/earthquake-prediction"
},
"science_5182": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5182",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5182",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "NOAA",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "NOAA Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5182,
"slug": "noaa",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/noaa"
},
"science_87": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_87",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "87",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta",
"description": "\u003cp>[caption id=\"attachment_11894\" width=\"1180px\"]\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/12/deltadiablo.jpg\" alt=\"The Delta at sunset.\" align=\"none\" width=\"1180px\"/> The Delta at sunset. (\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/artolog/315963076/\">Art Siegel/Flickr\u003c/a>)[/caption]\u003c/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp>If you live in California, chances are that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta matters to you. It’s the hub for California’s water supply. Two-thirds of Californians get their water from the vast inland Delta, which lies east of San Francisco Bay, at the confluence of California's two largest rivers, the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The water reaches cities from Silicon Valley to San Diego, and supplies millions of acres of Central Valley farmland through sprawling infrastructure projects built over the past century.But the Delta’s natural ecosystem has declined and it's become ground zero for the state’s most contentious battles over water and endangered species.\u003c/p>\u003cstrong>The Problem\u003c/strong>\u003cp>The Delta is home to a number of threatened or endangered species, including Delta smelt and Chinook salmon. Biologists point to a number of reasons for their decline. After the gold rush, farms replaced what was once a rich network of tidal wetlands. About \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/delta-map/\">95 percent of the Delta’s historic habitat\u003c/a> has been lost. Upstream dams have altered the rivers’ flow, and fish die when they’re drawn toward the large pumps that divert water to the Bay Area and Southern California.\u003c/p>\u003cstrong>The Latest\u003c/strong>\u003cp>To protect fish species, limits were placed on how much water could be pumped out of the Delta. Now, Governor Jerry Brown is proposing a $24.5 billion fix, known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Two 35-mile water tunnels would cross the Delta, bypassing the ecosystem from below. More than 100,000 acres of habitat would be restored. The majority of the costs would be covered by the water users.Concerns remain about whether the plan would help the Delta’s ecosystem recover. Farmers and other residents in the Delta region fear permanent changes to their way of life. And water consumers south of the Delta are reluctant to pay for the project if it doesn’t include assurances that adequate volumes of water are delivered.\u003c/p> \r\n",
"taxonomy": "series",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "[caption id=\"attachment_11894\" width=\"1180px\"] The Delta at sunset. (Art Siegel/Flickr)[/caption] If you live in California, chances are that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta matters to you. It’s the hub for California’s water supply. Two-thirds of Californians get their water from the vast inland Delta, which lies east of San Francisco Bay, at the confluence of California's two largest rivers, the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The water reaches cities from Silicon Valley to San Diego, and supplies millions of acres of Central Valley farmland through sprawling infrastructure projects built over the past century.But the Delta’s natural ecosystem has declined and it's become ground zero for the state’s most contentious battles over water and endangered species.The ProblemThe Delta is home to a number of threatened or endangered species, including Delta smelt and Chinook salmon. Biologists point to a number of reasons for their decline. After the gold rush, farms replaced what was once a rich network of tidal wetlands. About 95 percent of the Delta’s historic habitat has been lost. Upstream dams have altered the rivers’ flow, and fish die when they’re drawn toward the large pumps that divert water to the Bay Area and Southern California.The LatestTo protect fish species, limits were placed on how much water could be pumped out of the Delta. Now, Governor Jerry Brown is proposing a $24.5 billion fix, known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Two 35-mile water tunnels would cross the Delta, bypassing the ecosystem from below. More than 100,000 acres of habitat would be restored. The majority of the costs would be covered by the water users.Concerns remain about whether the plan would help the Delta’s ecosystem recover. Farmers and other residents in the Delta region fear permanent changes to their way of life. And water consumers south of the Delta are reluctant to pay for the project if it doesn’t include assurances that adequate volumes of water are delivered.",
"title": "California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 90,
"slug": "ca-delta",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/series/ca-delta"
},
"science_1151": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1151",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1151",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Drought Watch",
"description": "\u003cem>What California's reservoirs look like right now (From KQED's \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/\">The Lowdown\u003c/a>)\u003c/em>\r\n\r\n[iframe src=\"http://kroodsma.com/KQED/water-supply-master/public/map.html\" width=\"640\" height=\"720\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"]\r\n\r\n\u003cem>We’re collecting all of our California drought coverage here, starting with the current state of the drought, then providing the \u003ca href=\"#background\">background\u003c/a> and rounding up \u003ca href=\"#river\">all the stories\u003c/a> we’ve produced.\u003c/em>\r\n\r\n\u003cstrong>Relief at Last\r\n\u003c/strong>\r\n\r\nIn early April, after more than five years of the most withering drought on record, California Governor Jerry Brown finally lifted the emergency drought order he issued in January of 2014. By that time, the record-setting winter of 2016-17 had removed all doubt that the drought was over, though concerns over depleted groundwater levels still remain. According to the \u003ca href=\"http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Drought Monitor\u003c/a>, less than 10 percent of California remains in “moderate drought” — compared to nearly 100 percent of the state a year ago.\r\n\r\n[http_redir]",
"taxonomy": "series",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "What California's reservoirs look like right now (From KQED's The Lowdown) [iframe src=\"http://kroodsma.com/KQED/water-supply-master/public/map.html\" width=\"640\" height=\"720\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"] We’re collecting all of our California drought coverage here, starting with the current state of the drought, then providing the background and rounding up all the stories we’ve produced. Relief at Last In early April, after more than five years of the most withering drought on record, California Governor Jerry Brown finally lifted the emergency drought order he issued in January of 2014. By that time, the record-setting winter of 2016-17 had removed all doubt that the drought was over, though concerns over depleted groundwater levels still remain. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, less than 10 percent of California remains in “moderate drought” — compared to nearly 100 percent of the state a year ago. [http_redir]",
"title": "Drought Watch Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1160,
"slug": "california-drought-watch",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/series/california-drought-watch"
},
"science_31": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_31",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "31",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Climate Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33,
"slug": "climate",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/climate"
},
"science_89": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_89",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "89",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Engineering",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Engineering Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 92,
"slug": "engineering",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/engineering"
},
"science_40": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_40",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "40",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "News",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "News Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 42,
"slug": "news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/news"
},
"science_98": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_98",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "98",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Water",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Water Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 102,
"slug": "water",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/water"
},
"science_1548": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1548",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1548",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "flood control",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "flood control Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1557,
"slug": "flood-control",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/flood-control"
},
"science_568": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_568",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "568",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "aquifers",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "aquifers Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 574,
"slug": "aquifers",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/aquifers"
},
"science_686": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_686",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "686",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "central valley",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "central valley Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 693,
"slug": "central-valley",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/central-valley"
},
"science_490": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_490",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "490",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "groundwater",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "groundwater Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 496,
"slug": "groundwater",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/groundwater"
},
"science_1487": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_1487",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "1487",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "San Joaquin Valley",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "San Joaquin Valley Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1496,
"slug": "san-joaquin-valley",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/san-joaquin-valley"
},
"science_30": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_30",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "30",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Biology",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Biology Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 32,
"slug": "biology",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/category/biology"
},
"science_5196": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5196",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5196",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "biology",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "biology Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5196,
"slug": "biology",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/biology"
},
"science_261": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_261",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "261",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "endangered species",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "endangered species Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 265,
"slug": "endangered-species",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/endangered-species"
},
"science_260": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_260",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "260",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "extinction",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "extinction Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 264,
"slug": "extinction",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/extinction"
},
"science_349": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_349",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "349",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "fossils",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "fossils Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 355,
"slug": "fossils",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/fossils"
},
"science_144": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_144",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "144",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "asteroid",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "asteroid Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 148,
"slug": "asteroid",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/asteroid"
},
"science_5187": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_5187",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "5187",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Stanford University",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Stanford University Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 5187,
"slug": "stanford-university",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/stanford-university"
},
"science_944": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "science_944",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "science",
"id": "944",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "volcanoes",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "volcanoes Archives | KQED Science",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 951,
"slug": "volcanoes",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/science/tag/volcanoes"
}
},
"userPermissionsReducer": {
"wpLoggedIn": false
},
"eventsReducer": {},
"fssReducer": {},
"tvDailyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvWeeklyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvPrimetimeScheduleReducer": {},
"tvMonthlyScheduleReducer": {},
"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
"startDate": null,
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null,
"lastDonationAmount": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
"isOpen": false,
"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {
"region": {
"key": "Restaurant Region",
"filters": [
"Any Region"
]
},
"cuisine": {
"key": "Restaurant Cuisine",
"filters": [
"Any Cuisine"
]
}
},
"restaurantDataById": {},
"restaurantIdsSorted": [],
"error": null
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
},
"requestOutcomesReducer": {
"notFound": []
},
"navPromosReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": true,
"promos": {
"news": {
"name": "2026 Voter Guide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"imageURL": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nav-News-Nov2026ElectionCoverage@2x-7bd4aad4.png",
"description": "Get informed in minutes with our Voter Guide for California’s November 3 election."
},
"podcasts-radio": {},
"video-tv": {},
"events": {},
"support": {}
}
}
}
