Somehow, I've gotten a lot of reading done over the past six months. A lot of this reading consisted of books on climate change -- more on that in another post. But I wanted to share my thoughts on a few other books:

Sand - Michael Welland [blog]

Awesome. The perfect little book for those interested in geology. Looking at the world through a grain of sand. Very diverse, chock full of fascinating stuff that appeals to the intellect on many levels. Smart, erudite, funny. Recommended.

Stories In Stone - David Williams [blog]

A good read; like reading a compliation of feature stories in EARTH magazine; however, unlike Sand, no single unifying theme ties them all together. The overall idea is that the rocks we make our buildings out of have interesting backstories. The book is organized into a dozen or so chapters, each about a different building stone. Some are common (Indiana limestone), some are rare (petrified wood). All have got interesting stuff going on in terms of their geological history, human tie-ins, and architectural tweaks. If you live or work in a building, it's worth reading.

Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin

Superb. Learned a ton about evolution's lingering fingerprints on our bodily blueprint. Did you know that the nerve which controls our larynx runs from the brain to the larynx via the heart? This unintelligent design is a vestige of the way our body develops from an embryo -- and can be traced directly to fish. There wasn't as much about Tiktaalik in here as I expected, but just enough to make the point.

Bones, Rocks, and Stars - Chris Turney [blog]

Really interesting, though the chapter on King Arthur didn't do much for me. But the rest of it is a great introduction to the various ways we figure out how old things are (Subtitle: "The Science of When Things Happened"). Great chapters on the orbital forcing of ice ages, carbon dating of Homo florensis (which Turney did), and Pleistocene megafauna extinctions. Recommended.

Glacial Lake Missoula - David Alt

Not so great as a book. Really more of a field guide, but not even all that great on that level. It essentially traces the geologic evidence of GLM "and its humongous floods" from Missoula north, west, south, and west again -- the path of the big Channeled Scablands-forming megafloods. A good resource for specific outcrops that illustrate parts of our understanding of this huge event, but not especially enjoyable to read.

Bretz's Flood - John Soennichsen

Much better -- a lovely biography of J. Harlan Bretz, the geologist from the University of Chicago who first documented the Channeled Scablands and deduced that they must have been carved by an enormous flood. A perfect little portrait of an academic's career. Bretz appears to have been quite a character! I really enjoyed the perspective this gave me on the whole "megaflood" idea.

Labels: books, evolution, floods, geologic time, sediment

...from Geo Slice. Watch the whole thing. I recommend Yo La Tengo for the soundtrack, but regardless of your particular musical background, you will be impressed.

Labels: floods, music, rivers

Today's NASA Earth Observatory image of the day is of a place that is near and dear to my heart, the Etosha Pan of Namibia:



In late 1996, my father and I took a trip to Namibia to study termite mound gas exchange as part of an Earthwatch expedition, and afterwards we rented a car and went off on a little safari. Up in Etosha National Park, the wildlife was pretty amazing. Here's a leopard that crossed the road in front of us, immediately followed by a second leopard:



An oryx (or gemsbok):


...And an elephant, drinking from one of the watering holes that fringe the main salt flats:


Namibia has been getting a lot of water lately, as evidenced in compare/contrast images like these, also from NASA's Earth Observatory:

June 2007:


Last week:


And that brings us back to the first image:


In this picture, you can see a new package of river water coming south into the Etosha Pan from the Oshigambo River of Angola. This is "fresh" water, but it has a dissolved load of sediments in it. As the water hits the hot, baking expanse of the Etosha Pan, it evaporates, but the dissolved ions within don't have that option. So they become more and more concentrated, and settle out in a chemical precipitate. This is where all the salt comes from: even freshwater is a little bit salty, and when you evaporate it repeatedly in an enclosed drainage basin, evaporite minerals accumulate there.

Labels: africa, critters, floods, mammals, namibia, national parks, salt, travel

Latest gage information from the Potomac River near Little Falls. Looking out my window at Rock Creek this morning, I can see the water is way up, moving fast, and the color of teh tarik.

DC (and many other surrounding municipalities) are under flood warnings this morning as a result. The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang is impressed by it all.

(Fortunately Saturday's field trip happened to be scheduled between downpours.)

Labels: dc, floods, rain

Thanks to Andrew Alden for addressing the issue of the tidal influence on recent Cyclone Nargis' flooding of southern Burma. NASA recently published this before/after image online:

Thought I would pass it on.

Labels: asia, floods, hurricanes, news