What’s up? The Friday links (34)

One of the best blog articles I recently read deals with the problems scientists face when they are interested in public outreach. Scicurious perfectly summarizes our situation.

The transit of Venus was a spectacular event, unfortunately not visible from Aachen. A really great photo collection is here at The Big Picture (Boston.com). A cold comfort for those who missed it (like me). They always have the best pictures there, by the way.

Seismic Duck! There is a game called Seismic Duck. You can direct a duck acting as a seismic source on the surface and then choose a drilling location based on the seismic reflections you receive. Your aim is to gather as much gas and oil as possible, more or less. It’s a great way to teach the principles of seismic exploration to undergrads or in school. I am not exactly sure why the seismic source is a duck, but it’s fun.

Manuel Sintubin wrote an article in Dutch on the Finale Emilia earthquake at Scilogs.be: Manuel on Finale Emilia EQ. Also, make sure not to miss the liquefaction photos from our colleagues Riccardo Caputo and George Papathanassiou, who are currently doing fieldwork in the epicentral area. And we are glad that our Spanish colleagues Pablo, Joprge, Miguel and Raúl were not harmed by the strong aftershocks! They also told me about the fallen columns of Parmesan cheese and mentioned that there was a directed collapse. Very very sad but, suprisingly, the columns were not acting as random as modelled by Hinzen, 2009…

SciMag came up with an article on a recent Nature publication, describing a jump in C14 content of the atmosphere by 1.2% between 774 and 775 AD. The data was derived from Japanese cedar tree rings. What caused the sudden increase? Sciencemag on the mystery of the 775 event.

UK Government adviser Bill McGuire says global warming is causing earthquakes and landslides. No comment.

Alex Chatzipetros pointed me to this great excavator. Looks like a must for paleoseismologists, seems to make a 30 m trench in one minute. Great. Unfortunately, I haven’t found the video on YouTube, only on Facebook.

Time World discusses if an earthquake can bring about the fall of Rome in this article. Why not? Sounds reasonable.

If you haven’t already heard about the IGCP588 “Preparing for Coastal Change”, check out the official homepage. There, you can also find the announcement for their 3rd International Conference in Kiel, Germany, from 4-10 September 2012.

Dana Hunter wrote a great article for Scientific American about the Mount St. Helens catastrophe 1980. Imagine yourself being an extraterrestrial geologist looking at the US west coast in the late 1970s. That’s where the story starts. Now see where it’s taking you to.

And last but not least, check out the hint Max has posted for his Where on Google Earth WoGE #347!

Have a nice weekend!

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