#geoscience

[monarchbutt]

whenever i can't picture dinosaurs existing i just humble myself by looking at birds alive today. what the actual fuck is that thing

[drrockclub]

Ripples from ~ 2-bilion-years ago

These ripples are preserved in this sandstone rock and are now lining a dry creek bed in Australian outback. But, it was around 2 billion years ago when motion of water formed these sand ripples on the bottom of a shallow sea. Note that orientation of ripples is different between sedimentary layers which indicates changes to water current direction.

[elizabugz]

[mindblowingscience]

The melting of Greenland’s glaciers have increased fivefold in the past 20 years, a new study shows. They are currently losing 25 meters (around 82 feet) every year. In the 80s and 90s, glaciers shrank by an average of about five meters a year. Researchers say the finding eliminates any lingering doubts about the impact of climate change on Greenland’s more than 20,000 glaciers. The study appears in Nature Climate Change. The new study shows the response of Greenland’s glaciers to climate change over a 130-year period. The past two decades stand out in particular, as melting during this period increased even more dramatically. A number of studies in recent years have shown that Greenland’s largest glaciers are under massive pressure due to climatic changes and rising temperatures. However, doubts remained about the extent of the melting glaciers, of which there are approx. 22,000 in Greenland, partly due to inadequate measurement methods.

Continue Reading.

[iamthepulta]

I was in a conversation about getting people into geoscience as more and more programs close across the world, and I have a hypothesis that most people in geology now were either able to travel, or experience different landscapes as they grew up.

-=-

[typhlonectes]

Flip it and reverse it: How the moon ‘turned itself inside out’

A study suggests that dense minerals (grey), left over from the Moon’s early history, are likely responsible for the satellite’s odd gravity.

Some 4.5 billion years ago, a small planet collided with Earth. This explosive impact, sometimes called the “big whack,” launched bits of molten debris into space. They eventually cooled and coalesced to form our Moon. This hypothesis is widely accepted among scientists, but many details remain fuzzy, including exactly how the lunar interior evolved, or why its current geology is so “lopsided.” Now, scientists may have put this long-standing mystery to rest. Using a combination of rock samples, satellite data, and computer simulations, researchers demonstrate how magma oceans on the surface of the young Moon crystallized into dense minerals like ilmenite. Because this layer was so heavy, huge slabs sank into the lunar interior, melted into the churning mantle, and eventually resurfaced as titanium-rich lava flows. “Our moon literally turned itself inside out,” planetary scientist and study co-author Jeff Andrews-Hanna said in a press release...

Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceadviser-vaccine-mrsa-flagging-bacterial-proteins-could-make-it-possible

[saytrrose]

Listening to everyone do their introductions and share their majors “Enviromental Science!” “Communications” “Business” “Economics”

And mine is rocks

[kimblestudies]

08.31

-> prepping a canvas for a figurative piece

-> geoscience reading

-> literature meme that i got my teacher to laugh at

-> doing complex trig integrals right now. not having a good time i'll be real chief.

[slightlymessystudyblr]

Took a 4 day trip to Death Valley for my Field Geology class. I learned a ton about volcanism, paleolakes, ventifacts, and more. The world is a beautiful place.

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

Idk who needs to hear this, but if you think you are annoying and that no one likes you, just be glad you aren't my Earth Surface Processes professor who is so awful at his job and so hated by his students that we had an insult tally on the whiteboard during our 2 hour study session.

(Do not feel bad for this man. He absolutely deserves it.)

[monarchbutt]

[cosmic-tuna]

i am smashing my head against a wall. please for the love of god, stop making me identify minerals.

[geosgaymer]

In honor of me running away for three weeks to do fieldwork, here is a photo dump of my field site for my Master's Thesis from last summer:

Gravelly Range, Montana

[mindblowingscience]

Paleontology enthusiasts have unearthed one of the world's richest and most diverse fossil sites from the Lower Ordovician period (around 470 million years ago). Located in Montagne Noire, in the Hérault department of France, this deposit of over 400 fossils is distinguished by an exceptionally well-preserved fauna. In addition to shelly components, it contains extremely rare soft elements such as digestive systems and cuticles, in a remarkable state of preservation. Moreover, this biota was once located very close to the South Pole, revealing the composition of Ordovician southernmost ecosystems.

Contine Reading.

[iamthepulta]

How much outdoor experience did you have BEFORE choosing Geoscience as a major? Poll Results and Analysis

Despite total response at 67 people, I think the curve is very interesting. Traveling and being outdoors does seem to be a reason people choose geology.

If I could run the poll again with a larger sample size, I would include Year of Graduation (if possible), to see if there are changing trends over time, and also a Rural Travel/Rural Non-Travel to see if there are specific trends within Rural community responders.

-=- Discussion -=-

Geoscience programs show declining enrollment across the world and many smaller programs have closed due to that lack of enrollment.

I argue from the poll results that this trend might reflect larger cultural trends. The people who choose geoscience are driven by curiosity in the differences of the world around them. Exposure to those differences is enhanced by Travel, second only to the outdoors being readily available in rural areas.

Yet in America at least, travel is often cost-prohibitive except to Middle Class to Upper-Middle Class families. I propose that the decline of geoscience as a major might be connected to a decline in outdoor exposure, whether than be in time available to go hiking, outdoor access, travel being cost-prohibitive, school field trip funding, or suburban areas.

-=- Description of Options Given -=-

Not a lot (grew up in the suburbs/city; no hiking)

Urban Exposure (grew up in the suburbs/city; outdoors a lot)

Travel Exposure (grew up in the suburbs/city; traveled and was outdoors a lot)

Rural Exposure (grew up in a smaller city/town; outdoors a lot)

Familial Exposure (urban or rural community; family member was in geosci)

Familial and Natural Exposure (Lots of outdoor experience with family member in geosci)

[propalitetz]

these CATS are figuring out REFLECTION SEISMOLOGY with a HAMMER