Perhaps enamored by such “scientific” “triumphs” as The Core and 2012, the main stream media decided to employ superlatives, overtly panicky headlines and outright lies to gain hits and advertising dollars. Had they simply asked a geologist what to expect, perhaps this page wouldn’t have been necessary. The time for giving a pass for scientific ignorance and lying is over. If your organisation appears in the list below, which has been amassed by a massive range of geologists and other scientists online, you should be absolutely ashamed.

Reuters – Tsunami brings flooding to Australia (as it appeared on stuff.co.nz) – If you read the article, it says nothing of the sort. (via @Yorrike / www.goodschist.com)

Garry at Geotripper bemoans the expectation of the MSM with What? You Were Expecting This? (via Geotripper)

Erik at Eruptions posts Chilean earthquake fallout: MSNBC implies nature is “out of control” – which is an astonishing headline for MSNBC to post. Astonishing in it’s stupidity (via Eruptions).

Lockwood posted this staggering video of CNN reporter Rick Sanchez asking “9 Meters In English Is What?” It’s 9 meters you twit. Or for a rough calculation in feet times it by 3 (via Outside the Interzone). There’s a takedown of Sanchez at Phreatic: Anchorperson Science Stupidity Award.

Reuters (again) – reports that Japan nuclear plants continue ops after tsunami. The height of the Tsunami waves that his Japan? 0.6 metres (22 inches in English). What a pointless article. A more interesting article would have been along the lines of “Japan shuts down nuclear plants in preparation for tsunami,” but then again, that’d be a worthwhile thing to read about.

The Mirror is so blasé about the whole topic, it’s reports on the Millions in fear of tsunami that never came following Chile quake. Yeah. All of us who live around the Pacific look pretty stupid being prepared for a natural disaster.  Here’s a quote for that article:

They battened down the hatches or simply prayed after one of the planet’s most powerful earthquakes struck South America.

But experts’ predictions of huge waves sweeping across the Pacific and smashing 53 countries proved to be a false alarm last night.

[...]

California, Tonga, Samoa and New Zealand there were small waves and flooding with little damage. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology cancelled its tsunami warning last night.

Really? Experts predicted that? I have to be honest, I have serious doubts you actually listened to an expert on the topic. And a false alarm? “There’s a possibility of large, damage-causing event happening in the coming hours” is a false alarm now? It’s not a real alarm unless it happens? It’s not a false alarm, it’s a triumph of scientific intrigue, investigation and monitoring which could have resulted in saving millions (MILLIONS!) of lives. And the last quoted line there – I live in New Zealand, there was NO flooding and NO damage, liars.

The Associated Press notes that it’s now necessary that Scientists defend warning after tsunami nonevent. Again, it was a warning and something that’s only been possible in the last 50 years. You’d prefer nothing? This story does have a good point at the end, though:

But Okamoto said his family understands the tsunami threat better than most because some of his relatives lived through the tidal surge in 1960. They remember how the water was sucked down the beach moments before the wave hit.

“My uncle was on the top floor when all the water washed away and all the kids ran out to grab the fish and before they could get back, the wave came. He was way up top, he saw all his friends get washed away and none of them were found, ever,” Okamoto said, as he sat with his father in a hotel lobby. “They did the right thing.”

And that’s the only conclusion you can reach on this story. There was a warning, luckily it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but had it been the worst case scenario, you’d be thankful there was a warning at all. Perhaps the article should have been titled “Scientists pleased with warning system and response, urge countries at risk not to become complacent”.

Have you seen any other panic-inducing anti-scientific howlers like those above? Post a link int he comments section here, or Tweet it with the hashtag #tsunamistupid

Now I realise that many of my readers are experienced scientists with either undergraduate degrees or published research papers behind them, and this article is not for you. For those of you out there who may have a passing interest in science or geology and find yourself intimidated by the overwhelming barrage of terminology I tend to stuff into my articles, I thought I’d lay out some basics for future reference.

Today, it’s a pretty easy concept with far reaching and extremely important consequences, and that is the concept of an isotope.

Hopefully you know what an atom is. If not, there’s plenty of resources online to help you. Every atom, except your standard Hydrogen nucleus, contains both positively charged protons and neutrally charged neutrons. The chemical element an atom is, is dependent entirely on the number of protons. Hydrogen has one proton, Helium 2, Lithium 3, for example. What can vary, however, is the number of neutrons, and this variation in neutrons in an atomic nucleus is what defines an atom’s isotope.

Take Helium for example. Your standard Helium atom, such as the one many people would have inhaled, contains two protons (making it Helium) and two neutrons. This combination makes it a ⁴He, pronounced “Helium 4,” isotope. It’s 4 because that’s the total count of protons and neutrons in the nucleus: 2 protons + 2 neutrons = ⁴He. The nuclei of these atoms can be visualised like this (blue are neutrons, orange are protons):

Helium also comes in the form of ³He, which has two protons and one neutron. How and why there are different isotopes is due to the process which formed the atom in the first place, be it a big bang, the nuclear decay of bigger atoms, or the fusion of smaller atoms (in this case, two hydrogen atoms will fuse, in a process, to form Helium). ³He can be visualised like this:

Both ³He and ⁴He are what’s know as stable isotopes. This means they’re quite happy sitting in the 3 or 4 isotopic states for ever and ever without decaying, i.e, having sections of the atomic nucleus splitting away. Helium has 8 know isotopic states, but none of these 6 other isotopic states are physically stable, and tend to split into lighter Helium isotopes and eventually Hydrogen and a hail of neutrons after a very short amount of time. ⁵He, for example, has a halflife (the time it takes half of any given quantity to decay away) of 0.7 zeptoseconds, which is 7×10^-22, or 0.0000000000000000000007 seconds. That’s incredibly quick, meaning ⁵He, whenever it happens to form, isn’t around long enough to do anything before effectively exploding into two Hydrogen atoms.

These unstable isotopes, such as ⁵He or ²⁶Al (Aluminium is stable with 13 protons and 14 neutrons, i.e, ²⁷Al) and big, heavy elements like Uranium and Plutonium (which are unstable simply due to their large nucleus size) are not able to hold together their atomic nuclei and after a time, each atom does something called decay – i.e, split into smaller atoms by radiating away parts of their atomic nucleus (hence, nuclear radiation). This is the basis of nuclear power – as the splitting of Plutonium, Uranium and Thorium atoms into smaller atoms releases a lot of energy.

And this is where the really useful part of isotopes comes from. The decay of unstable isotopes is constant, predictable and measurable. After 0.7 zeptoseconds, half of all ⁵He atoms produced 0.7 zs previously, would have decayed. Guaranteed. So if you know the ratio of ⁵He produced in a reaction in relation to the quantity of something stable like ⁴He, produced in that same reaction, and you can measure them both, you can very easily work out how long it’s been since the reaction took place. That’s the basis radiometric dating, and the subject of a future science basics post.

This week’s podClast is the Geobloggers in the Pub: San Francisco edition. We talk in a slightly intoxicated way about what makes a geologist, human exploration of the planets, the importance of primary research and more.

Participants (links in brackets are Twitter feeds)

Chris - goodSchist (@yorrike)

Sandra – Looking For Detachment (@sfoxx)

Dave – Geology News (@rockbandit)

Andrew – About:Geology (@aboutgeology)

Cian – @cbdawson

Brian – Clastic Detritus (@clasticdetritus)

Next Episode

We like to have a new episode of the podClast every fortnight. So episode 15 of the podClast will be recorded from at 2300 GMT the 17th of October 2009. Either comment in this post if you’d like to join me, or if you’re on my email list, I’ll send you the details cloder to the 17th.

Contributing

If you’re keen to hear a specific topic talked about, or would like to join the discussion during the next episode, either leave a comment below or email chris [the at symbol] goodschist.com. You’ll probably also do well reading the details on joining the podclast. If you don’t have the time to join us but would like to contribute a 3-5 minute audio clip to the show simply record it, make sure it’s an mp3, and send it to the address above.

Credit

The intro and exit music was Roots Fi Cool by Burning Babylon.

Text Addresses

The post that accompanies this podcast can be found at http://www.goodschist.com/2009/10/03/the-podclast-episode-14/ or http://bit.ly/fefXt and an archive of all podClasts can be found at http://www.goodschist.com/category/podclast/

Bart Hanson (09:08 pm Sep 18 2009) This article epitomizes my disgust for experts who cannot tell us when the next huge natural disaster will hit and merely being in a particular place at that moment will decide who lives and who dies, but still we are being told not to be complacent? Like hell, get stuffed I’ve got better things to worry about.

You are beyond ignorant if you think the experts can even start to accurately predict earthquakes or many other major natural disasters. Even having a basic grasp of geology of seismology will tell you that these things are not predictable to within a useful accuracy or precision. We had a discussion about the dangers, and inadequacies, of earthquake prediction in Episode 11 of the podClast.

Other things science can’t do: accurately predict when the next killer asteroid will strike the Earth. The reasons are the same, there’s not enough data on either scenario in order to make an accurate, down to the minute-, hour-, month-, year- or decade-accurate forecast or as to exactly where either event will exactly occur.

The best geologists can do is look to the past, i.e, the old geology phrase “The past is the key to the future.” If a fault has ruptured roughly once every 100 years (and you’d be able to see this in the geological record), you should expect it to do so again in 100 years since the previous event. Or 150 years. Or 80 years. Earthquakes don’t run on a precision clock, and thus are never “early” or “overdue”. They occur when they occur.

If you’re caught out by having “better things to worry about”, Mr Bart Hanson, don’t go crying to others for food, shelter or clean water when you are caught in a natural disaster. Obviously the tiny amount of effort it takes to store some water, canned food and other supplies somewhere (details here at the USGS) is far outweighed by your necessity to spend time complaining on the internet.

Being prepared for natural disasters is important. Like not paying tax, not taking medication or indulging in smoking, you may think you’re getting away with it, but after a while, it could catch up with you, and the results could, literally, be deadly.

If you live in an earthquake zone, like I and many others do, the seriousness of being prepared cannot be overstated. Again, a list of the things you need can be found at the USGS. It’s not difficult and it could well save your life.

Although I haven’t posted here in a while, I’m still actively working on the site and this brand spanking new theme is proof.

Have a look around. If you feel like it, tell me of anything you spot that looks wrong either in the comments, or just by tweeting it to me on Twitter @Yorrike . If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, try using the “tweet this” link below and watch in delight as any tweets regarding this post will appear in the “tweetbacks” section of this post.

If you’re using Internet Explorer, you can wait a few days until I get around to fixing any display bugs you’ll no doubt be seeing (even though it’s all perfectly valid XHTML and CSS, which is displayed properly in Safari, Firefox and Opera).

freshphotons:
via USGS

freshphotons:

via USGS

You can have a look at all of my links, geology related and not, at yorrike.tumblr.com

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Hello everyone.

Sorry for the long hiatus here on goodSchist and on the podClast, I’ve been traveling to various places in Europe for the past month and I’m about to head out on the second leg of my long trip home later this morning with a flight to San Francisco.

This will, of course, bring about the long talked about San Francisco GeoBloggers in the Pub event that I’ve hinted at to various people over the last few months.

So, if you’d like to come along, have a few beers or drinks of various other types with geologists and geobloggers, and participate with a live recording of the podClast, here are the details you’ll need:

Date: Saturday the 25th of July
Time: from 1400 (2pm) onwards (podClasting from about 1500 I reckon)
Place: The 21st Amendment Brewery, 563 2nd St, San Francisco (Google Map)

If you’re intending on joining us for the podClast recording and you have an iPhone, it’d be really handy if you loaded a copy of the Griffin iTalk app (website here). It’s free and means we can have a few recordings going on at once for prosperity/volume levels. Also, if people could suggest topics for discussion in the comments section below, that’d be great too (although a free flowing discussion will no doubt ensue).

Hopefully see a reasonable group of you there.

(I’m not going to be offering zip version anymore in order to save on server space)

This week’s podclast concentrates on nuclear waste, helping physically challenged students with the MIS:TIQUE project, and a whole lot of geo-technology.

Participants (links in brackets are Twitter feeds)

Chris - goodSchist (@yorrike)

Ron – Ron Schott’s Geology Home Companion Blog (@rschott)

Jess – Magma Cum Laude (@Tuff_Cookie)

Ian – Hypo-Theses (@hypocentre)

Yucca Mountain and Nuclear Waste

You can read about Yucca mountain on the Wikipedia page. And there’s the extensive page on the nuclear waste storage project too.

And Lee Allison talks about Yucca Mountain ’stalemate’. which refers to the Chicago Tribune article arguing to Keep Yucca Mountain Project Alive.

And there’s an article about France’s nuclear waste storage program, and its problems, at Energy Priorities.

MIS:TIQUE

You can read about the MIS:TIQUE project over at Ian’s blog.

And, of course, Gigapan gets a few mentions too : )

Next Episode

We like to have a new episode of the podClast every fortnight. I will be away in Edinburgh next recording day, however, so episode 14 maybe early, or late. I’ve yet to decide.

Contributing

If you’re keen to hear a specific topic talked about, or would like to join the discussion during the next episode, either leave a comment below or email chris [the at symbol] goodschist.com. You’ll probably also do well reading the details on joining the podclast. If you don’t have the time to join us but would like to contribute a 3-5 minute audio clip to the show simply record it, make sure it’s an mp3, and send it to the address above.

Credit

The intro and exit music was Roots Fi Cool by Burning Babylon.

Text Addresses

The post that accompanies this podcast can be found at http://www.goodschist.com/2009/05/22/the-podclast-episode-13/ or http://is.gd/Cabz and an archive of all podClasts can be found at http://www.goodschist.com/category/podclast/

This week’s podclast is the Geobloggers in the Pub episode. We talk about the KT boundary, including new research relating to it. Plus we lay into creationism in a pub-style chat fest.

Participants (links in brackets are Twitter feeds)

Chris - goodSchist (@yorrike)

Julia – The Ethical Palaeontologist (@morphosaurus)

Michael – Through the Sandglass

Dhiresh – A friend of mine and a geologist/geophysicist

The K-T Boundary and What Caused It

The paper we were discussing is by G. Keller et al. in Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. 166, 2009 [of London]. I can’t find the full name of the paper but I’ll keep looking.

Kim at All My Faults are Stress Related has a post on K-T extinction debates: cranky “skeptics” or reasonable science?

And the press release is available in various mass-media-filtered forms at Time, and the BBC.

Ethan Siegel’s Starts with a Bang has an article called What Wiped Out the Dinosaurs?, which is a superb run-through of the Chicxulub/KT impact. And you may want to read up on the Deccan Traps and how they relate to the KT extinction too. Also of interest, not because it explains the extinction, but because it’s another narrowly thought-out idea (or at least that’s how it’s been presented) is Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs which talks about the research from the book What Bugged the Dinosaurs?.

Creationism

You can look up Answers in Genesis yourself, as I won’t be linking to them, however the Talk.Origins Archive is a great place to look for basic questions and answers regarding the Evolution/Creationism debate.

Extra Note

The fossil of the seal ancestor is called the Pinniped, and information on the find can be found at the BBC and Eureka Alert.

Next Episode – Geoblogger in the Pub

We like to have a new episode of the podClast every fortnight. The next episode will be recorded at 1900 GMT on the 16th of May.

Contributing

If you’re keen to hear a specific topic talked about, or would like to join the discussion during the next episode, either leave a comment below or email chris [the at symbol] goodschist.com. You’ll probably also do well reading the details on joining the podclast. If you don’t have the time to join us but would like to contribute a 3-5 minute audio clip to the show simply record it, make sure it’s an mp3, and send it to the address above.

Credit

The intro and exit music was Roots Fi Cool by Burning Babylon.

Text Addresses

The post that accompanies this podcast can be found at http://www.goodschist.com/2009/05/07/the-podclast-episode-12/ or http://is.gd/xB3V and an archive of all podClasts can be found at http://www.goodschist.com/category/podclast/

More thorough details can be found in this post, I’ll be placing an piece of A4 paper on the table which looks like the following image so you can find us (or just me, depending on turnout).

See some of you there!