Earth Science Week 2013

Earth Science Week, organized yearly since 1998 by AGI, began yesterday. This year's theme, "Mapping Our World," is designed to highlight "the many exciting uses of maps and mapping technologies in the geosciences."

For my small part this year, I noticed a map at ESW that shows links to a Google Maps map showing earth science organizations for each state. The one for Nevada, for example, can be seen here.

I went a little bit farther and added each organization and location on the map (generated originally by user ESW, Earth Science Week) to a map of my own, to which I added a few other organizations. That map is embedded below.

View Nevada Geological Organizations in a larger map

I was working on this post last week, when at some point my computer or browser or both went into overload or freezing mode, and I had to reboot, somehow losing the draft of the post in the process. I had added only a few Nevada geological organizations to my embedded map; all the ones I added consist entirely of statewide and chapter meeting places of the Geological Society of Nevada.

The GSN website has a large number of geological links — to state, U.S., Canadian, and other foreign geological surveys, to various professional organizations, and to various State of Nevada departments and divisions. You will also find many other geological links, including several for the USGS. I had started to add the location of the USGS Nevada district office to my map, when I realized my small but increasingly time consuming project had been put in jeopardy by the U.S. government #shutdown. I couldn't find out where the district office in Nevada is located! (The district office referred to may be the USGS Nevada Water Science Center office in Carson City rather than a geologic field office, not sure.) Instead of the website linked to at this URL, I got the main USGS page and the following announcement:

Current USGS main page, retrieved 14Oct2013.

In any case, check out the other geological links at the GSN. And check out their interactive map showing locations in Nevada where their publications (mostly field trip guides from the many GSN symposia and biannual to yearly field trips.

Geologic Map Day

As part of Earth Science Week, today is Geologic Map Day!

Long before I became a geologist, I had already developed a love of maps, a love dating back to a cross-country trip I took with my family when I was five. Besides the road maps we traveled with, I had a large wall map of the U.S., on which I kept track of the states I had visited and the roads that had taken me there—these were the major highways of the day, like U.S. Highway 40, now replaced by I-80 in most places. As time went on, I learned more about other types of maps, in part thanks to National Geographic, and eventually, maybe in high school, learned how to read topographic maps and came to know the basics of reading a geologic map.

I got my first real taste of geologic mapping at field camp. I found it fairly challenging: I was still getting up to speed on the tools in use—simple tools like a quadrant-based Brunton compass—and I was also becoming gradually familiar with following contacts up and down and around hills, and across broad and hot expanses, mostly of desert.

Geologic mapping really became fun for me on our second mapping project during the summer of 1978 (several early stories are listed here), when I found that I could do it well and that a good geologic map tells a story about what has taken place in an area during past geologic times. I learned then that preconceived ideas about how the geology of an area might be such and such, accompanied by ideas that certain processes or events couldn't have taken place, or that others must have taken place, often didn't fit with the story the rocks were trying to tell me.

As geologic mappers, we must follow the contacts, over hill and dale as necessary; we must check out, ascertain, and describe the textures and rock types; we must follow basic geologic principles, while observing obvious signs and vague hints in the rocks that point to the order of events as shown by the principles of superposition and cross-cutting relationships. If the rocks are telling us something unexpected—or something thought to be unlikely or even impossible—we must listen to them. For myself, geologic mapping became much easier after I was willing to give up my limited preconceived ideas about what I should find out there in the field.

Geology of the Conterminous United States,
Digital version at 1:2,500,000 scale, courtesy USGS.

A geologic map is a thing of true beauty—although I don't really like the use of gray for Quaternary in this particular rendition of the geology of the 48 states.

Map courtesy USGS Geologic maps of US states.

Maps and Mapping Resources:

Geologic Map Day resources at AGI

FAQs about geologic maps at AGI

What is a geologic map? USGS at National Park Service

Introduction to geologic mapping, by the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program at the USGS

Geologic maps of US states at the USGS

Geology of the Conterminous United States, at the USGS

Nevada geologic map at the USGS

A puzzle of geologic regions at the USGS

The Basin and Range province at the USGS, Tapestry of Time and Terrain

Tuff All Over: ESW field trip by the NBMG on Saturday or Sunday, October 20 or 21, 2012

A Quick Note about Earth Science Week

Yes, it's Earth Science Week, has been all week since the 10th, will be all week through the 16th. As usual, the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology is doing it's own thing for Earth Science Week: a one-day field trip, held both this coming Saturday and Sunday, the 16th and 17th. The field trip is called, "In Search of Tufa, Tuff, and Tough Rocks." Go to that link to sign up.

These field trips are always good, are open to the public, and often have several geologists besides the main field trip leaders along for question answering. I'm sorry to say that I won't be making it this year.

For anyone interested, whether going or not, the road log for the field trip is already available online, check out some great pictures of tufa domes! On the trip - or if you follow the trip guide at a later time - you'll see tufa, tuff, and some granodiorite (the tough rocks). You'll also travel across some old Lake Lahontan shorelines, northeast of Reno, NV, near Pyramid Lake.

Earth Science Week 2009

Earth Science Week started yesterday, and I noticed that not a single thing is listed under "What's Going On" for the entire state of Nevada. (I also noticed in general that much of the Earth Science Week website is still focused on 2008, with many links either broken or linking to events and sites from last year.)

Actually, I've been a little bamboozled by Earth Science Week this year. It almost always overlaps with the Annual GSA meeting, which is of no concern to me in years when I don't go. This year, however, I am going, so I inconveniently didn't plan anything for Earth Science Week.

I belatedly noticed that the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) scheduled their Earth Science Week field trips for this last weekend, meaning that the field trips ran on Saturday and Sunday, October 10th and 11th. And I missed out! I have gone on these field trips on more than one occasion, and have found them enjoyable. They are open to the public, and kids, families, and school teachers are especially welcome. Local geologists from the Geological Society of Nevada (GSN), accompany the trip as informal field trip guides to help answer questions (and to learn more about new areas they might not have visited).

This year's field trip was called "Digging Deeper into the Comstock." An online road log is available, so you can take the trip on your own sometime (or at least part of it), whenever it is convenient.

Next year, I'm going to have to mark my calendar much earlier in the year. I had assumed that the field trips would run while I was away at GSA, so by the time the announcement came out, I had already made other plans. And, anyway, the last month turned out to be a little hectic in some ways.

Because I'm not doing anything for Earth Science Week myself this year, I'd like to point you to a few sites of interest:

• Kim at All My Faults are Stress Related has a few ideas, including:
• Donating to the Geobloggers DonorsChoose challenge, which is highlighted and described by Anne at Highly Allochthonous, and
• Michael at Through the Sandglass describes the Earth Science Literacy Initiative's (ESLI) nine Big Ideas in terms of, you guessed it, sand!

I hope you find something of interest!

UPDATE: This post has been submitted to Accretionary Wedge #21 on Earth Science Outreach.

Accretionary Wedge #21: Earth Science Outreach

Earth Science Week

Taking a clue from GeologyJoe at Slingshot Thought, I realized that today is the first day of Earth Science Week! The theme this year is No Child Left Inside, so go out and check out something related to Earth Science. The official Earth Science Week 2008 website has quite a number of ideas.

If you happen to be in Nevada, and especially if you are in the Reno area, you can go on one of NBMG's Earth Science Week field trips, which will be held October 18th and 19th. If you are a geo-type, you can usually sign up to be an unofficial field trip leader. Either way, sign up and go! I will not be able to make it this year because of previous commitments (think: work), but know from previous experience that many of these stops are well worth going to!

UPDATE: Kim lists a number of contests for Earth Science Week, with deadlines coming up shortly - so get cracking if you're interested!

UPDATE AGAIN: MJC Rocks at Geotripper is plugging for taking children on geology field trips; Geology Happens takes some 4th-graders out on a field trip; Tuff Cookie has described Earth Science Week in great detail and with a lot of links, and Lee Allison at Arizona Geology thinks we should all do more for Earth Science Week next year.