| Huge Demand for Gold Coins December 2, 2009 | Wall Street Journal Rising gold prices have excited the public about owning the metal. The US Mint produces a one ounce gold coin and sells it to the public for a few hundred dollars over the price of contained gold. They can’t keep them in stock. |
| More Ethanol in Gasoline? December 2, 2009 | KansasCity.com The Environmental Protection Agency could increase the amount of ethanol that can be added to gasoline from ten percent to fifteen percent. This is based upon studies suggesting that increased ethanol would not have adverse effects on emissions or vehicles. |
| Somali Pirates Are Still Seizing Tankers December 2, 2009 | Canadian Press on Google.com Somali pirates seized the Maran Centaurus, a Greek tanker with 28 crew members and a capacity to carry 300,000 tons of crude oil. |
| Oil From North Dakota’s Birdbear Formation December 2, 2009 | Washington Post The Upper Devonian Birdbear Formation is a thin rock unit about two miles beneath some parts of North Dakota. One oil company has drilled dozens of horizontal wells through it that produce commercial quantities of oil. NDGS report. |
| Petroleum Prices, Market Data, Graphs December 1, 2009 | Energy Information Administration The Energy Information Administration has posted its “Petroleum Marketing Monthly” – a publication that is rich in data, graphics and narrative about the United States and world oil markets.  |
| 2010 GeoCorps Positions December 1, 2009 | Geological Society of America  The GeoCorps Positions for 2010 have been posted. Applications for the 65 positions must be submitted by February 1, 2010. These are paid short-term positions with agencies such as the National Park Service, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Positions include: cave resource technician, coastal geology assistant, education specialist, environmental geologist, fluvial geomorphologist, field paleontologist, GIS technician, hydrogeologist, interpretive geologist, karst technician, oil and gas monitor, video and web content developer, soil scientist and more. |
| How Powerful Was Toba? December 1, 2009 | University of Illinois  Researchers have evidence that the eruption of Toba Supervolcano, on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago had numerous impacts which include: deforestation of central India (about 3000 miles away), ejection of 800 cubic meters of ash into the atmosphere, an instant ice age, the near-extinction of humans, vegetation changes, climate changes and the creation of the world’s largest volcanic lake. |
| Wellhead Natural Gas Price Decline December 1, 2009 | Energy Information Administration  The Energy Information Administration reports that the wellhead price of natural gas fell in September to $2.92 per thousand cubic feet. That is its lowest level since August, 2002. |
| Raptor Claws and Predatory Dinosaurs December 1, 2009 | Montana State University A group of students at Montana State University have been comparing raptor claws to learn more about how the birds hunt and kill their meals. The macabre research also provides insight on how predatory dinosaurs with similar claws may have functioned – which is the focus of the students’ next project. |
| Thousands of Flints found in England December 1, 2009 | University of Leicester Over 5,000 flints have been discovered in Asfordby, Leicestershire, England. The site appears to have been used by Mesolithic people as a workstation for creating and mending tools and weapons made of flint. |
| Thermoelectricity: Heat to Energy December 1, 2009 | MIT News What if the waste heat produced by power plants, automobiles and electronics was captured and converted into energy? This article from MIT discusses the future of thermoelectricity. |
 Younger Dryas Occurred Abruptly December 1, 2009 | European Science Foundation Isotopes in a mud core from Lough Monreach, Ireland, show that the Younger Dryas may have occurred very abruptly. When glacial Lake Agassiz flowed into the North Atlantic Ocean almost 13,000 years ago, the “Big Freeze” set in at once, possibly chilling the ocean within mere months. Could a rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet in current times could produce a similar effect? Source: http://geology.com/news/ |
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Geology.com | Headlines - December 2, 2009
