Emil Wiechert was born 150 years ago (26 December 1861). He not only invented modern Geophysics and Seismology, but he also had the first chair of Geophysics worldwide (1898 in Göttingen, Germany). Wiechert became famous for his seismograph. Now the Deutsche Post released a special stamp showing Wiechert, his seismograph and the original seismogram of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as registered in Göttingen, Germany!
This is, by the way, not the first time that geophysics made it on German stamps. During the “Geophysical Year” 1957/58 three stamps were released in the GDR, showing a satellite (Sputnik?), a deep drilling and a research balloon.
GDR stamps, "Geophysical Year 1957/58". A satellite, a deep-drilling project, a meteorological balloon.
In 1980, a second edition came out. This was even more clearly dedicated to Geophysics (the GDR guys really tried hard to find oil and gas on their territory in order to be independent from imports; the VEB Geophysik was a huge company and they also drilled thousands of exploration wells in northern GDR):
Geophysics stamps: Lignite exploration by gravimetry, borehole logging for hydrogeology, seismics for oil/gas exploration, seismology for investigating the earth's interior.
See also those great articles by Matt Hall on the stamps: gravimetry, logging, seismics, seismology.
There are some nice stamps showing astronomy, including the Horsehead Nebula, the Solar System and the Pleiades.
Ok, something else now. Seth Stein on the New Madrid seismic hazard in a Nature article.
The Oklahoma earthquakes started a new debate whether fracking can cause earthquakes that large. Read some opinions here (they can’t), here (they can), here (they can’t) and this report by the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
One funny thing about this earthquake that it shook the birds off the trees. Really, this was monitored by the NOAA. Reminds me of my favourite band Fink that only published one song in English AFAIK, and this was called “Shake de birds off the tree“.
Eastern Turkey suffered a strong aftershock (M5.6), and again people died and houses collapsed. Here’s a nice website containing a lot of remote sensing data.
Are you also following the news about the yet to be born new island of the Canaries? South of El Hierro there will, hopefully, be a new island soon. The eruptions already reached the Surtsey stage. This site, despite being dedicated to earthquakes, has the latest news. Also make sure to follow Erik Klemetti there at Eruptions.
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If you are working a lot with GoogleEarth and SketchUp, you might be interested in this free software that allows easy rendering. Maybe a nice way to vizualize geophysical data and underground models?
Have a nice weekend!
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