geology
geology
Scientists find that some geologic faults are weaker than they appear
12/16/09
Some geologic faults that appear strong and stable, slip and slide like weak faults. Now an international team of researchers has laboratory evidence showing why some faults that "should not" slip are weaker than previously thought. "Low-angle normal faults -- faults that dip less than 45 degrees -- are a problem," said Chris Marone, professor of geosciences, Penn State. "Standard analysis shows that these faults should not slip because it is easier to form a new fault than to slip on this orientation."
Penn State professor channels rock stars to teach rock science
1/30/09
The music may come out of the 1960s, but an open courseware class available at Penn State that includes a guitar playing and singing professor is definitely designed for the Millennial Generation. Highlighted with video clips, animations and song parodies, Professor Richard Alley's online course "Geology of the National Parks" (GEOSC 10) not only instructs, it also entertains and fulfills general education requirements for undergraduates not majoring in geoscience.
College of EMS launches open educational resources initiative
7/29/08
Everywhere teachers and learners have access to the Internet, they now also have access to a rich collection of educational resources created for the popular Penn State course "Geology of the National Parks." Professor Richard Alley, principal author of the course, observed that "some of the world's best geological features are enshrined in the U.S. National Parks. Geology of the National Parks is a tour of important geological ideas as well as a virtual tour of some of the beautiful places in which these ideas are revealed."
Chinese earthquake provides lessons for future
7/21/08
The May 12 Sichuan earthquake in China was unexpectedly large. Analysis of the area, however, now shows that topographic characteristics of the highly mountainous area identified the mountain range as active and could have pointed to the earthquake hazard. Topographic analysis can help evaluate other, similar fault areas for seismic risk, according to geologists from Penn State and Arizona State University.
Featured Site: Venture Deep Ocean
6/8/05
Biology professor Charles Fisher will spend most of June far from land, leading a research expedition to the Lau Basin between Tonga and Fiji in the South Pacific. The three-week cruise aboard the research vessel Melville is the latest in a series funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
What is deep time?
5/25/05
Richard Alley explains deep time and how it tells the story of our planet in the accompanying videos.
Messengers from the Mantle
12/1/04
The rocks on Chuma Mbalu-Keswa's table, she admits, are not exactly eye-catching. "They look uninteresting, I know," she writes in a note penciled neatly on the back of a departmental announcement.
"But," the note continues, "look at the photographs!"
Lined up at the table's edge are five rugged chunks of kimberlite. They are blue-gray—sooty, which makes sense since they were lately rescued from a coal mine in southwestern Pennsylvania. Flecks of mica shine through the grime of their surfaces, glittering like nightclub chic.
The Waters of the Nile
9/1/02
As the sun sets, a donkey gazes at its reflection in the calm waters of the longest river in the world. Upstream, a young woman in a bright red dress crouches beneath a dusty palm tree, washing pots and pans in the cool blue water. A scorpion hides beneath a clump of lotus flowers as a white-haired man steps into the river to bathe.
Knocking the World on Its Side
5/1/01
Gregory Jenkins remembers looking at the surface of the moon through his son's telescope, his eyes tracing the craters and crevices. "I was thinking, 'Man, things were really violent early on,'" says Jenkins. "If objects this big were slamming into the moon, than larger things must have been slamming into the Earth."
Whole Brain Workout
5/1/00
The CAUSE seminar allowed undergraduate Kristy Fruit to take her liberal arts education and "smash it together with the technical stuff," she says.
In the Interest of Public Safety
3/1/90
"It would take us four, maybe five hours to hike to the crater," Barry Voight remembers. "Then to get into position which meant going up and around and down the other side.
"There were places we had to rappel.
"It's not impossible to go up and down the volcano, it's just a question of—
"The weather conditions are such that you don't have the whole day to work with.
"You have a couple of hours. It's not a big deal."
Fragile Barriers
6/1/84
Articles on the research follow.
Retreating
6/1/84
"During those long ages of geologic time, the sea has ebbed and flowed over the great Atlantic coastal plain. It has crept toward the distant Appalachians, paused for a time, then slowly receded, sometimes far into its basin; and on each such advance it has rained down its sediments and left the fossils of its creatures over that vast and level plain.
Scientists find that some geologic faults are weaker than they appear
12/16/09
Some geologic faults that appear strong and stable, slip and slide like weak faults. Now an international team of researchers has laboratory evidence showing why some faults that "should not" slip are weaker than previously thought. "Low-angle normal faults -- faults that dip less than 45 degrees -- are a problem," said Chris Marone, professor of geosciences, Penn State. "Standard analysis shows that these faults should not slip because it is easier to form a new fault than to slip on this orientation."
Penn State professor channels rock stars to teach rock science
1/30/09
The music may come out of the 1960s, but an open courseware class available at Penn State that includes a guitar playing and singing professor is definitely designed for the Millennial Generation. Highlighted with video clips, animations and song parodies, Professor Richard Alley's online course "Geology of the National Parks" (GEOSC 10) not only instructs, it also entertains and fulfills general education requirements for undergraduates not majoring in geoscience.
College of EMS launches open educational resources initiative
7/29/08
Everywhere teachers and learners have access to the Internet, they now also have access to a rich collection of educational resources created for the popular Penn State course "Geology of the National Parks." Professor Richard Alley, principal author of the course, observed that "some of the world's best geological features are enshrined in the U.S. National Parks. Geology of the National Parks is a tour of important geological ideas as well as a virtual tour of some of the beautiful places in which these ideas are revealed."
Chinese earthquake provides lessons for future
7/21/08
The May 12 Sichuan earthquake in China was unexpectedly large. Analysis of the area, however, now shows that topographic characteristics of the highly mountainous area identified the mountain range as active and could have pointed to the earthquake hazard. Topographic analysis can help evaluate other, similar fault areas for seismic risk, according to geologists from Penn State and Arizona State University.
Featured Site: Venture Deep Ocean
6/8/05
Biology professor Charles Fisher will spend most of June far from land, leading a research expedition to the Lau Basin between Tonga and Fiji in the South Pacific. The three-week cruise aboard the research vessel Melville is the latest in a series funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
What is deep time?
5/25/05
Richard Alley explains deep time and how it tells the story of our planet in the accompanying videos.
Messengers from the Mantle
12/1/04
The rocks on Chuma Mbalu-Keswa's table, she admits, are not exactly eye-catching. "They look uninteresting, I know," she writes in a note penciled neatly on the back of a departmental announcement.
"But," the note continues, "look at the photographs!"
Lined up at the table's edge are five rugged chunks of kimberlite. They are blue-gray—sooty, which makes sense since they were lately rescued from a coal mine in southwestern Pennsylvania. Flecks of mica shine through the grime of their surfaces, glittering like nightclub chic.
The Waters of the Nile
9/1/02
As the sun sets, a donkey gazes at its reflection in the calm waters of the longest river in the world. Upstream, a young woman in a bright red dress crouches beneath a dusty palm tree, washing pots and pans in the cool blue water. A scorpion hides beneath a clump of lotus flowers as a white-haired man steps into the river to bathe.
Knocking the World on Its Side
5/1/01
Gregory Jenkins remembers looking at the surface of the moon through his son's telescope, his eyes tracing the craters and crevices. "I was thinking, 'Man, things were really violent early on,'" says Jenkins. "If objects this big were slamming into the moon, than larger things must have been slamming into the Earth."
Whole Brain Workout
5/1/00
The CAUSE seminar allowed undergraduate Kristy Fruit to take her liberal arts education and "smash it together with the technical stuff," she says.
In the Interest of Public Safety
3/1/90
"It would take us four, maybe five hours to hike to the crater," Barry Voight remembers. "Then to get into position which meant going up and around and down the other side.
"There were places we had to rappel.
"It's not impossible to go up and down the volcano, it's just a question of—
"The weather conditions are such that you don't have the whole day to work with.
"You have a couple of hours. It's not a big deal."
Fragile Barriers
6/1/84
Articles on the research follow.
Retreating
6/1/84
"During those long ages of geologic time, the sea has ebbed and flowed over the great Atlantic coastal plain. It has crept toward the distant Appalachians, paused for a time, then slowly receded, sometimes far into its basin; and on each such advance it has rained down its sediments and left the fossils of its creatures over that vast and level plain.