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Updated: 4 years 23 weeks ago

Reports of multiple fatal landslides in the Wenchuan area of China

Wed, 08/21/2019 - 10:43pm

Various news agencies in China are reporting multiple landslides triggered by extreme rainfall in the Wenchuan area, and adjacent regions, of China. Reports suggest 44 people have been killed or are missing.

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This May be the Best Cloud Formation Picture Ever!

Wed, 08/21/2019 - 10:42pm

Don Burdick took a photo in Rehoboth Beach Tuesday afternoon that just may be the most stunning cloud image I’ve seen. This image makes a meteorologist’s jaw drop but Don’s partner, who works at NOAA in Washington, had to convince him that it really was one of the all-time great images of what is called a shelf cloud! What you are seeing is the shelf cloud from one storm (in …

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Study provides new clues to source of methane gas on Mars

Wed, 08/21/2019 - 4:52pm

A team of researchers led by scientists at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering has created a model of how methane changes on Mars throughout the day by using data from a satellite, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Curiosity Rover. In the past, each had measured significantly different amounts of methane on Mars. The new measurements provide more clues that could help to understand what processes are important in creating the methane coming from a large 154 km- wide crater on the planet, Gale crater.

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Practicing Leadership as an Introvert

Wed, 08/21/2019 - 12:07pm

In higher ed, the weight of the word “leadership” has ballooned over the years, with growing pressure for undergraduate as well as graduate students to somehow demonstrate the quality. Given the challenge of breaking into the workforce after graduation, it does wonders to have a strong quality like leadership help boost a resume. Now, some people are born with leadership qualities, some get unexpectedly thrown into the position, while some people …

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The Kavalappara landslide in the western Ghats of India

Tue, 08/20/2019 - 9:54pm

At 7:30 pm on 8th August 2019 the large Kavalappara landslide in Wayanad District in India buried a small community, killing 59 people.

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Sol 2502-2503: Science to Exhaustion

Tue, 08/20/2019 - 3:00pm

Mars is about to be hidden behind the Sun, so Curiosity is rushing to get science done before communications are temporarily lost.

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Scientists Roast Heartland Twitter Post

Tue, 08/20/2019 - 4:02am

“Twitter is the only invention in human history that makes it possible to show the entire world your ignorance in two sentences.”- Me The Heartland Institute got roasted by a lot of scientists on Twitter this past weekend, and it was well deserved. I wish they would do more of these because these tweets show how the denial of climate change has become the province of conspiracy theorists (and perhaps …

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A high resolution Planet Labs image of the Pingdi landslide in China

Mon, 08/19/2019 - 10:39pm

A Planet Labs high resolution satellite image of the 23rd July 2019 Pingdi landslide in Liupanshui, Guizhou, China, which killed 51 people

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When biologists stocked Alaska with wolves

Mon, 08/19/2019 - 1:38pm

Alaska had been a state for one year in 1960 when its department of fish and game conducted a wolf-planting experiment on Coronation Island in southeast Alaska. At the time, the remote 45-square-mile island exposed to the open Pacific had a high density of blacktailed deer and no wolves.

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Centennial E9 – The Sun and the Exploding Sea

Mon, 08/19/2019 - 4:30am

In 1972, in the waning years of the Vietnam War, U.S. military pilots flying south of Haiphong harbor in North Vietnam saw something unexpected. Without explanation, and without warning, over two dozen sea mines suddenly exploded. While the phenomenon was never officially explained, it piqued the interest of space scientist Delores Knipp.

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Alpine Glaciers-BAMS State of Climate 2018

Sat, 08/17/2019 - 2:45pm

Figure 1. Global Alpine glacier annual mass balance record of reference glaciers submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, with a minimum of 30 reporting glaciers. For the last decade I have written the section on Alpine Glaciers for the BAMS State of the Climate report, the 2018 report was published this week, below is the section on alpine glaciers.  The key data resources is  the World Glacier Monitoring Service …

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Friday fold: near Mistaya Lodge in the Canadian Rockies

Fri, 08/16/2019 - 5:03pm

Quick, awesome Friday fold here from the Canadian Rockies and Maggie Romuld: Maggie also posted another intriguing image of her hiking in the Canadian Rockies – and set geoTwitter abuzz with a discussion of whether she had captured load casts bulging out of the bottom side of a bed or stromatolites projecting upward from the top of a bed. Have a look & read the ensuing discussion here. Happy Friday!

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Sol 2499-2501: More SAMple analysis

Fri, 08/16/2019 - 10:00am

Conjunction is the few-week period when Mars goes behind the sun and we stop communicating with our spacecraft that are there. Our last planning day before conjunction will be next Friday, and thinking about that fast approaching day feels very similar to thinking about getting ready to leave for vacation.

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Help students with a “gravity assist”

Thu, 08/15/2019 - 10:11pm

This semester, think about providing students a "gravity assist", a moment in their lives where something or someone helps propel them to their goal(s)

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Unprecedented 2018 Bering Sea ice loss repeated in 2019

Wed, 08/14/2019 - 3:07pm

Sea ice in the Bering Sea reached record-low levels during winter 2018, thanks to persistent warm southerly winds. These conditions caused the ice to retreat to the northern reaches of the 800,000 square mile body of water. By the end of April 2018, sea ice was about 10 percent of normal. And then, much to scientists’ surprise, 2019 just missed eclipsing the record set in 2018.

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Wakelet – the new (& in my opinion better) Storify

Wed, 08/14/2019 - 10:23am

I spend a lot of time on social media, specifically Twitter. It's my job. Our @AGU_SciComm account is one of the primary ways to disseminate Sharing Science information, AGU happenings, new science in the field of scicomm, popular science pieces around policy and communication, and more. Twitter is also where I turn to for hashtag campaigns, especially those centered around AGU.

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Science aboard the R/V Falkor: July 30-August 8

Tue, 08/13/2019 - 11:52am

A week and then some of blog posts from people at work doing science at sea...

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Sols 2495-2496: A slight change of plans

Tue, 08/13/2019 - 9:00am

It's the end of another week on Mars, and today we put together a 3 sol weekend plan for Curiosity. Given the RSM-related issues that we incurred this past week, we are still being cautious, but the diagnostic testing that ran in the last plan was successful.

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Sols 2492-2494: Just Another Week on Mars…

Mon, 08/12/2019 - 8:00pm

It's the end of another week on Mars, and today we put together a 3 sol weekend plan for Curiosity. Given the RSM-related issues that we incurred this past week, we are still being cautious, but the diagnostic testing that ran in the last plan was successful.

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Special Release: Deviations from the Norm

Mon, 08/12/2019 - 4:30am

One of the most alluring parts of Earth and space science is that much of the key research takes place in the field, in some of the most incredible – and inhospitable – environments on the planet: on treacherous polar ice sheets, aboard sea tossed ships, at the mouths of active volcanoes, beneath turbid ocean waters, and atop the highest windswept peaks. Under these often less than ideal conditions, instruments …

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