Earth and Space Science Resources

Earthquake - Sichuan, China May 12, 2008

2008-05-20T14:07:00.019-04:00

At 2:28 p.m local time, a 7.9 magnitudes earthquake struck the Sichuan Province of western China.The major shocks occurred at a shallow depth of 10 to 30 Km, with hundreds of aftershocks, including a 5.1 quake today near Chongqing, throughout the mountainous region and the adjacent valley. These have lead to severe surface and structural damage in a highly populated region of over 10 million

Earth Day 2008

2008-04-18T15:36:00.008-04:00

Earth Day 20008 is next Tuesday the 22nd, however many events are taking place worldwide beginning this weekend. The EarthDay Network, established by the original founders of Earth Day, provides an abundance of information and resources for getting active.In addition, The National Academies has released it's 2008 version of "Understanding and Responding to Climate Change" (pdf, 3.3 MB) and is

Science as a Democratizing Activity

2008-04-08T21:30:00.006-04:00

Science Debate 2008 is an initiative aiming to bring the U.S. Presidential candidates together to discuss the role science plays in all of the issues that dominate the election, U.S society and its citizens.Why is science important for anyone but the scientists? "Science as a democratizing activity" is a phrase presented by Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Jules Verne, the Cargo Spaceship

2008-04-05T14:13:00.011-04:00

Jules Verne, the Automated Transfer Vehicle Spaceship, docked with International Space Station this week. Below is a video (5:24 min/sec) that explains the importance, plans, and potential for this type of ATV/cargo spaceship.The ship itself is simply a vessel delivering equipment, fuel and supplies. Here is an image taken from the ISS of the Jules Verne on approach.Credit: ISS Expedition 16

Earth Hour 2008

2008-03-29T19:36:00.006-04:00

OK, Earth Hour is just about upon us here in the U.S. Eastern time zone (daylight savings or GMT/UT -4:00). I have a feeling few people in my neighborhood will paticipate, although it was publicized on the evening news.But this idea is spreading, and I believe it will catch on in years to come, more and more so. It is so simple and easy to join in, plus you can easily tell who hasn't joined.A

Flight into Mariner Valley - Mars

2008-03-24T11:31:00.001-04:00

In 2001 the Mars Odyssey Mission began its orbit and survey of the entire planet Mars. 2002 saw the official mapping of the surface begin to supplement the work of the Mars Global Surveyor which last communicated with Earth on Nov. 2, 2006. The video below is an example of some of the data that has been gathered and processed at Jet Propulsion Laboratories and Arizona State University.In the

What Will We Do With Our Waste?

2008-03-11T13:23:00.008-04:00

To create all of our stuff, our belongings, even our food and medicine, means we create waste products. That's what is left over when we are finished making and using our stuff, food and medicine. From mining and agricultural waste to electronic and plastic waste, it all goes somewhere and that place is then greatly affected. For example, watch the British video below:Therefore we recreate the

Science, Evolution and Creationism

2008-01-05T13:11:00.002-05:00

Science, Evolutionand CreationismRead this FREE online!Full BookThe National Academies of Science and the Insitute of Medicine have released a book titled, SCIENCE, EVOLUTION AND CREATIONISM, along with a PDF summary brochure available for download."Teaching creationist ideas in science class confuses students about what constitutes

Volcano Llaima Eruption

2008-01-02T13:31:00.000-05:00

One of the most active volcanoes in Chile erupted today. A NOAA GOES satellite image provides a good map for the location of Llaima and a clear view of its ash plume taken around sunrise this morning. According to the Global Volcanism Program website the plume reached heights of 12.5 km (41,000 ft).Llaima Volcano, Chile (via Wikimedia Commons & Feffef)A local amateur video of the eruption is

The Beginning of Your Stuff

2008-01-01T20:32:00.000-05:00

The Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard may be a bit dramatic and preachy, but the theme is right on track. A wonderful post at WorldChanging.com by Jeremy Faludi titled, Your Stuff: If It Isn't Grown, It Must Be Mined, gets to the source of all our stuff. Most of what follows is directly inspired by these two.Let's begin with Ms. Leonard's introduction to The Story of Stuff:Well, we the people of

Wildfires

2007-10-27T16:23:00.000-04:00

The wildfires in Southern California garnered a lot of media attention this week. Coincidently, my attention was first captured by a CBS 60 Minutes segment, The Age of Mega-Fires, by Scott Pelle this past Sunday evening. Likewise, there was a Sunday New York Times Magazine article, The Future is Drying Up, by Jon Gertner that discusses water issues in the Western U.S.Those stories lead to a

Global Warming and Politics

2007-10-18T13:41:00.000-04:00

In the previous post I mentioned that if the debate on the melting Arctic ice was to remain scientific it will focus on observations and data. Yet, at the beginning of the post (and it may be playing right now) is a video from the United Nations Environment Program. In it there are statements predicting future outcomes. This is not purely scientific, the question of global warming is so complex

Arctic Sea Ice (revisited)

2007-10-17T13:47:00.000-04:00

After the last post raised my awareness and a little web research, it appears the Arctic sea ice melt this year is quite the controversial subject. The audio/visual presentation above is by the United Nations Environment Program.First, apparently the opening of the Northwest Passage isn't such a big deal after all. It has happened in past history, though not the recent past. But the melting of

Arctic Sea Ice

2007-09-20T16:13:00.000-04:00

As of September 14, 2007 the Arctic Sea Ice cap is at its smallest extent since satellite data has been monitoring changes. This has opened the Northwest Passage. A montage of visualizations from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, Google Earth and NASA World Wind is presented below: Technorati Profile

Felix, Henriette and ...?

2007-09-05T12:26:00.000-04:00

A trio of storms are visible in this image from NASA World Wind. Felix has been downgraded to a tropical depression, Henriette is a Category 1 hurricane at this writing, and a non-tropical low is located about 400 miles west-southwest of Bermuda.

Hurricane Felix

2007-09-04T12:49:00.000-04:00

Took a look at World Wind this morning and saw a dramatic visual of hurricane Felix making landfall in Nicaragua while hurricane Henriette was approaching Cabo, Mexico. So, I put together this mashup video/visualization on hurricane Felix (notice the cloud pattern off West Africa). With hurricane Dean forming two weeks ago, this is the first time two Category 5 hurricanes occurred one after the

Visible Earth

2007-08-21T21:36:00.000-04:00

Another mashup video/visualization here. This one uses all NASA data/images. First is an animation captured from World Wind with today's live cloud cover showing hurricane Dean on the Yucatan, Mexico peninsula. World Wind uses data from the Visible Earth - Blue Marble archive. Blue marble images are then presented in an animated montage. Watch below:

2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season and U.S. Streamflow Visualization

2007-08-15T21:22:00.000-04:00

... Decided to make earth and space science content mashups. This first effort takes some free government resources (NOAA data & images) about the record setting 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season and juxtaposes it with USGS Streamflow data from the same time period. Why? Because, it's the flooding that can last for days and take the most lives, not just hurricane force winds. Below is the video/

Space Science Education Resource Directory

2007-05-14T14:34:00.000-04:00

Another one of many terrific resources from NASA. The Space Science Education Resource Directory provides the following directory search capabilities:Grade/Subject -- Broken down into sub-categoriesK-56-89-12Subject searchesSpace sciencePhysical scienceEarth scienceTopics254 topics that can be filtered by grade and subject, including topics in mathematicsCustom search capabilitiesSearch by any

Cassini-Huygens

2007-05-13T21:21:00.000-04:00

Cassini is the NASA/ESA space probe exploring Saturn, its rings and moons. The moon Titan has a thick haze layer that surrounds it and is thought to consist of complex organic molecules.Reported in Science magazine Friday, new Cassini results point to a possible source for formation of the organic haze particles. Hmmm, if there are organic compounds ...The European Space Agency (ESA) has some

NASA World Wind 1.4

2007-05-12T16:54:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard of NASA World Wind 1.4, watch the video below. It is more than just a 3D animation of the Earth, although the elevation data and manipulation capabilities in themselves are worth the download. World Wind also presents data from other worlds, here on Earth and in our solar system.Data from the GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio is integrated into its dynamic capabilities.

Scientific Visualization Studio

2007-05-07T20:21:00.000-04:00

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio has over 2,700 visualizations available including narrated movies, high definition visualizations, and "Great Zooms". A variety of formats are provided, so be sure to visit the How to View Imagery page for clearly explained details. Below is an example of one visualization about the record setting 2005 hurricane season titled, 27

Digital Library for Earth System Education

2007-05-06T20:25:00.000-04:00

DLESE is a geoscience community resource, funded by the National Science Foundation(US), that supports teaching and learning about the Earth. You can browse the resources and collections by subject, grade level, resource type, and standards.A real treasure of the site is the Evaluation Toolkit. It provides a wealth of resources to assess learning and evaluate program effectiveness. The toolkit

National Science Digital Library

2007-05-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

NSDL is the Nation's (US) online library for education and research in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM). This wonderful gadget helps you to quickly search for resources that will be presented as a results page at the NSDL website.