Geotimes - March 2008

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The Impending Coastal Crisis
By 2050, more than half of the U.S. population will live within a day’s drive of a coastline or lakeshore. But with sea-level rise and increasing storm intensity and frequency, is that development such a good idea?
Nicholas K. Coch

Down with the Dams: Unchaining U.S. Rivers
As dam permits expire and environmental considerations grow stronger, some operators are choosing to tear down the dams. Oregon’s Marmot Dam serves as an experiment, showing what can happen when a large dam is removed from a river.
Jim O’Connor, Jon Major and Gordon Grant

Salinity in the Landscape: A Growing Problem in Australia Print Exclusive
In Australia and many other arid climates around the world, salinity is a growing problem. Whether brought about by groundwater, irrigation, land-use practices or encroaching seawater, researchers are working to help combat the problem before it's too late and farmland — and food sources — are lost.
Pichu Rengasamy

webnews

Early human bipedalism confirmed posted 3/21/08
Travels in Geology: John Day, Oregon posted 3/19/08
The Grand Canyon's shifting sands posted 3/14/08
Where's the wheat? posted 2/28/08
Meteor shocks Pacific Northwest posted 2/20/08
Travels in Geology: Abruzzo, Italy posted 2/19/08
The Anthropocene: Humans tread heavily posted 2/08/08
Tungurahua gets violent posted 2/06/08
2009 budget tightens purse strings posted 2/06/08
Travels in Geology: Northern Ireland posted 1/25/08
Will the candidates talk science? posted 1/18/08
Blues' clues: UV shows diamonds' fingerprints posted 1/11/08
Travels in Geology: Valkenburg posted 12/19/07
Congress passes energy bill posted 12/18/07
Travels in Geology: Copahue, Argentina posted 11/19/07
Powerful quake rumbles through Chile posted 11/14/07
Fires' carbon contribution posted 11/12/07
Travels in Geology: Pine Creek Gorge posted 10/25/07

More WebExtras >>>
More Travels in Geology >>>

The answer is blowing in the wind
Switching to switchgrass
A fleshy fossil find
Afghanistan’s untapped wealth
Algae eat up mercury in Chinese lake
Quake shakes lake
Dust in the wind
Impact = heat?
Dunes: They’re electric
Ice where no ice should be
Plumbing the deep

Available exclusively in print...
Battle over Bones in China
Pangea stayed put
A break between plate breakups?
Sierra Leone wants more from mining
Mineral resource of the month: vermiculite

departments DOWN TO EARTH WITH...
Documentary filmmaker, author, population geneticist Spencer Wells

GEOMEDIA
Exploration: A Longer Walk in the Woods
Books: Q&A with Sidney Perkowitz, author of Hollywood Science: Movies, Science, and the End of the World
Books: The Evolving Presentation of Evolution: Science, Evolution and Creationism

BENCHMARKS
March 1, 1872: Yellowstone National Park Established Print Exclusive

TRENDS & INNOVATIONS
Fantastic Fossilized Finds Fill Farmhouse Print Exclusive
An amateur paleontologist has amassed such a collection of important dinosaur footprints in his Maryland farmhouse that his floorboards are caving in.
Mary Caperton Morton

EDUCATION & OUTREACH
Bringing the Mars Science Laboratory into the Classroom
A teacher has her students research and plan where NASA should land its next Mars rover. They picked the right sites before: Can they do it again?
Nicole Branan

views

A POLITICAL COMMENT ON...
Oil: Is Now the Time to Fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
Economics adds perspective to the discussion about whether President Bush’s plan to double the capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a good idea when oil prices are this high.
Benjamin A. Eisterhold and Michael E. Webber

A COMMENT ON ...
Mining: A New Challenge for the Philippines
The Philippines holds some $90 million worth of minerals just waiting to be developed. However, a lot of issues remain before such development can occur.
CP David

GEOLOGIC COLUMN
Trash Talking
Several new books have the author thinking about trash — how much we produce and just where it all goes.
Fred Schwab

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ON THE COVER
Marmot Dam was removed from the Sandy River in 2007. Photo is courtesy of Portland General Electric.

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