http://www.equipmentworld.com/portland-begins-cleaning-sand-and-gravel-off-roadways-after-recent-snow-storm/ This link brings you to an article about the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and how they use sand and gravel to provide traction for cars on the road, and the cleanup afterward. While cleaning up the sand and gravel may seem tedious, I believe that it is a much better alternative than an excessive […]

How did the mighty Sahara Desert form? This huge desert, the largest in the world not counting the Arctic or Antartica, covers roughly 10% of Africa. How does such a structure form? According to this article: (http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/paleoclimatology/science-sahara-desert-formed-7-million-years-ago-02160.html) the region in the north of Africa first started experiencing desertification over 7 million years ago during the […]

http://www.loyolamaroon.com/10012165/worldview/state/christmas-trees-stop-coastal-erosion-in-jefferson-parish/ I came across this article recently and, while a little late for this winter, it may get people thinking about what to do when the holidays are over in future years.  Louisiana is very susceptible to coastal erosion, which can affect both domestic and commercial structures and activities.  To combat this, a state project […]

The National Parks website explains how the White Sands National Monument was created over the last 280 million years.  From a sea, to a mountain range, to a rift basin, to a lake, to a playa, to a desert, to the dunes.  More sediment is added to the dunes by wind and water breaking down […]

https://phys.org/news/2017-01-invasive-sedge-dunes-native-grass.html I saw this article about invasive species being better at protecting a dune from erosion than native species, and it got me to thinking. When we were outside Wilbur Cross we talked about two different types of dunes, barchan dunes, and parabolic dunes. Barchan dunes move with the limbs first, while parabolic dunes move […]

Below are two different articles about different rivers located in very different parts of the country, both bodies of water have issues with sediment in the flow of the river. The south river located in Maryland will have less sediment in the water, as the current load of sediment has clouded up the water, and […]

http://sfist.com/2017/02/01/video_lava_stream_dramatically_pour.php Check out the video from this link. In Hawaii, the Kiluea volcano has been producing an igneous delta with non-viscous magma. Recently there was a landslide of sorts, which exposed a huge opening adjacent to an active lava tube. The result is this incredible outpouring of liquid rock…some of the most incredible nature footage […]

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/2016-the-year-in-volcanic-activity/510641/ http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/volcanic-lightning While this article from The Atlantic was more of a slideshow, the captions for many of the photos did a good job simplifying complex processes.  The image that really captured my attention was the first image in the slideshow.  This was a picture of volcanic lightning forming above the erupting Sinabung volcano in […]

My parents just got back from a trip to Arizona, and the Grand Canyon. They brought me back this stone candle holder. I find the different layers incredibly interesting, but I’m wondering what all the dark lines between the different sections/top could be-they are slight ridges that stick out of the side of the holder. […]

http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/01/mid-baratara_sediment_diversio.html One of the last few things President Barack Obama did was approve this sediment diversion on the west bank of the Mississippi River. This sediment diversion is a beginning part of the 50 year, $50 billion project to stabilize the wetlands and coastline of Louisiana. The diversion will move 75,000 cubic feet per second […]

This article discusses a new way people are determining if salt marshes are vulnerable to erosion. The system that they used creates estimates with large margins of error, meaning that this ratio can only truly be used to predict whether a marsh has enough incoming sediment to thrive or disappear. Perhaps this ratio can be […]

  We attempted to generate the highest incision rates as possible in this sediment simulation. By increasing the flow rate and making the channel as narrow as possible, the water will flow extremely rapidly. However, the channel continues to widen as the canyon walls collapse. This is especially true along the edge of the outside […]

  I was surprised to notice that, while we were playing with the flume, cross bedding had formed. The first layer of bedding was already there at the start of the lab. The next two layers formed once we changed the velocity of flow, causing the water levels to sink and rise. I thought it […]

The Ganges River is one of the world’s largest, and feeds the largest delta in the world. This river starts in the Himalayas, getting fed by the melting glaciers there. Scientists estimate that the Ganges River and Delta, which have already seen their fair share of natural disasters, may become even more dangerous when climate […]

http://science.time.com/2012/11/02/manhattan-goes-dutch-building-levees-in-gotham/ In his discussion of the plan to build levees to protect New York City, Jeffery Kluger discussed the possible structural and economic impact posed by another storm such as Hurricane Sandy.  In his article, he focused on Manhattan, discussing how the geology of the island is primarily granite.  Due to this, if storm surge […]

On January 18, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority had a meeting to discuss repairing the 1,800 square miles of land lost between 1932 and 2010. Unfortunately, complete restoration is impossible. “As much as we would like to have the coast that we had in 1932, there’s no question we can’t get there,” Haase said. […]

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4267539-155/dam-project-fills-american-fork-with http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/american-fork/monitoring-clean-up-plan-for-tibble-fork-sediment-spill-still/article_20f70fe9-f9b9-59ea-90ca-89cc55c750ac.html These are links to articles that talk about a sediment spill in August 2016 that killed fish in the American Fork River. The sediment (which was accidentally spilled) was laden with heavy metals, and was part of a dam rehabilitation project upstream. As the fine grain sediment settled, in some places it made […]