FEATURES

32 Balance of Power: A Warming Climate Could Affect Electricity
Climate affects all major aspects of the electric power sector, from electricity generation, transmission and distribution systems to consumer demand. Because climate models predict that change will vary by region, it is likely that future effects on the electric grid will vary by region as well. The picture is not pretty.
Thomas D. Veselka

40 Seeding the Sea
Adding human-generated greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has arguably caused the problem of a warming climate; now some researchers say that altering nature further can fix it. They want to solve the planet’s carbon problem through ocean iron fertilization. But will releasing iron into the oceans to combat climate change help or harm the planet?
Erin Wayman

48 Travels in Geology: Two Options in Oregon
As anyone who has ever spent time in Oregon knows, there’s something for everyone. Traveling to or through Oregon this summer? Be sure to check out John Day Fossil Beds in Eastern Oregon and the massive dunes along the coast in Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.
Mary Caperton Morton and Jay Chapman

NEWS NOTES

7 News Shorts
8 Midwest deluge: another 500-year flood?
10 Forensic seismologists: Utah mine collapse source of “earthquake”
11 A backdoor approach to creationism in the classroom
12 Chemicals melt out of glaciers
13 Mammoth DNA proves cause of death?
14 Why China quaked: a perfect seismic storm
15 New England “Dark Day” mystery solved
15 Did you know?
16 Reopening the door to foreign oil companies
18 Redrawing Australia
19 When the sky rained beads of carbon
20 Big quake … little quake
21 Oil production dropped last year
22 Going platinum
23 Predicting Old Faithful’s fidelity
24 Temperature drop due to measurement error
25 An unnatural disaster in Indonesia
26 Time to build Yucca
27 Mineral resource of the month: strontium

VIEWS

74 A POLITICAL COMMENT ON...
Opportunity in Change: Telling the Next Administration What it Needs to Know
The next presidential administration probably represents the best opportunity in a generation for the geosciences to be heard by federal decision-makers, regardless of which party wins the White House.
P. Patrick Leahy

75 A COMMENT ON...
It’s the Energy, Stupid!
It is not singularly politics, the economy or the environment that matters most, as many people think. Although each is a vital issue, our focus must be on energy.
Rasoul Sorkhabi

76 GEOLOGIC COLUMN
Catching Humpty Dumpty
We put off preventative maintenance of our “personal infrastructure” as long as possible, begrudgingly digging into our wallets often only after catastrophe strikes. Our nation is just as irresponsible at maintaining its infrastructure.
Fred Schwab

DEPARTMENTS

4 FROM THE EDITOR
5 LETTERS: Perspectives from readers

28 TRENDS & INNOVATIONS
Tracking Deadly Lahars
Researchers knew a torrential mudflow on New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu was imminent, so they set up monitoring equipment. When the lahar struck last year, they captured the world’s most complete dataset of just what happens when mudflows cascade down volcanic slopes. The new data should help researchers better predict this sleeping danger.
Nicole Branan

57 GEOMEDIA
Movies: Wall-E: Save the Robot, Save the World
Books: Africa Atlas: Worth a Thousand Words
Web: Ten Sure-Fire Ways to Spot a Geologist
TV: When NASA Left Earth
Books: The Great Warming: The Climatic Rise and Fall of Civilizations

62 CROSS-SECTION: A puzzle
63 WHERE ON EARTH?

64 BENCHMARKS
August 3, 1908: Priests Uncover the “Old Man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints”

65 DOWN TO EARTH WITH...
Astronaut and planetary scientist Stanley Love

66 GEOMARKETPLACE
67 CLASSIFIEDS: Career opportunities

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