REVEALED: GEOLOGY OF MORE CARBON DIOXIDE, LUNAR SWIRLS

EARTH
KIDNEY STONES LESS NUTRITIOUS CROPS EXPOSE MOON’S PAST

Schools of Robots
Sense the Sea

January 2019
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 The American Geosciences Institute

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AGI Data Sheets The American Geosciences Institute

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F or more than 40 years, AGI’s Data

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NOW AVAILABLE FROM AGI

AERIAL GEOLOGY:
A High-Altitude Tour of North America’s
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 EARTH
January 2019 | vol. 64 no. 1 | www.earthmagazine.org

FEATURES

28 | EYES IN THE SEA:

Swarms of Floating Robots Observe
the Oceans
Swarms of small, inexpensive,
autonomous robots that can be
deployed over a large area for
a long time are changing how
oceanographers work. The robots can
rise and sink to different depths, swim
against vertical currents, synchronize
their movements and be tracked
underwater. The sampling possibilities
are nearly endless. | Bethany Augliere

28
38 | TRAVELS IN GEOLOGY:
Lhasa, Tibet: Journey to the Roof of
the World
On a trip to the Tibetan capital of
Lhasa, one of the world’s highest
cities, you can cross the Eurasian-
Indian collision suture zone, admire
the sparkling turquoise waters of
sacred Yamdrok Lake, tour hidden
monasteries belonging to different
Buddhist sects, and marvel at Mount

38 Everest, the world’s tallest mountain.

| Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

VOICES

8 COMMENT: 64 GEOLOGIC COLUMN:

HOW TO TELL A GOOD SCIENCE STORY MUINNTIR A’ GHLINNE SO

Everyone has a story to tell, including scientists
who make discoveries and solve mysteries about
the world we live in. What better way to convey
that science is relevant and exciting than by telling
a good story? | Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, Heather
Mannix and Stephanie Green
The author examines the idea of lament — for
humanity, Earth and the universe — through the
lens of the “pibroch,” a Gaelic word meaning a
Scottish bagpiper’s variations on a musical theme,
and the title of a Ted Hughes poem. | Ward
Chesworth

ON THE COVER: Autonomous underwater explorers are becoming smaller and more advanced. Read more on page 28. Credit: K. Cantner, AGI
NEWS

14 ANCIENT COLLISION LEFT A BIT OF EUROPE

BEHIND IN BRITAIN

15 ARCTIC WARMING CAUSES SIBERIAN COOLING

19
19 EARLIEST ART FOUND IN SOUTH AFRICA

16 20 OMAN OPHIOLITE SUGGESTS SUBDUCTION

STARTED WITH A SHOVE

16 COLUMBIA RIVER BASALTS ERUPTED FASTER 21 OCEAN CIRCULATION

THAN THOUGHT CHANGE SUFFOCATING
GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE

22 THE GEOLOGY OF
KIDNEY STONES
REVEALED

23 MESOSAURS MAY
22
HAVE SPENT TIME
ON LAND

17 24 QUIRKY LUNAR
SWIRLS EXPOSE THE
17 EARLY MAMMAL REPRODUCED LIKE A REPTILE MOON’S SECRET PAST

18 RISING CARBON DIOXIDE MAY RAISE RISK OF

NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES IN HUMANS
25 MELTING GLACIERS
SHIFT EARTH’S AXIS
23

DEPARTMENTS

4 FROM THE EDITOR 54 DOWN TO EARTH:

With Clay Mineralogist
50 GEOMEDIA: FILM: “First Warren Huff
Man” Navigates Neil
Armstrong’s Journey 57 BENCHMARKS:
Between Two Worlds JANUARY 12, 1888:
52 WHERE ON EARTH? “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard”
Strikes the Great Plains
53 CROSS-SECTION:
A Puzzle 60 CLASSIFIEDS: Career Opportunities

ON THE WEB AT www.earthmagazine.org

From the Editor

I EARTH
t’s often said that we know more about the surface of
Mars than we do about the depths of Earth’s oceans.
Several scientists are trying to change that, one dimin-
utive robot at a time — or maybe actually dozens to
hundreds at a time! 4220 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22302-1507, USA
At the American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences
Phone: (703)379-2480 Fax: (703)379-7563
meeting last February, I met oceanographer Jules Jaffe, www.earthmagazine.org
who developed the optical technology used to discover the earth@earthmagazine.org

Titanic. Jaffe gave a presentation about the miniature robots

PUBLISHER
his lab has recently developed to track and measure all kinds Allyson K. Anderson Book
of cool things in the oceans, from plankton movements in Credit: Jaffe Lab for
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
the tidal zone to oil spill dispersion to seafloor topography. Underwater Imaging, Christopher M. Keane
Scripps Oceanography, UC
He foresees a future in which swarms of such robots advance San Diego
EDITOR
marine science by collecting millions of pictures and data Megan Sever
points, thereby increasing the coverage and density of scientific observations in
SENIOR EDITOR
the oceans. Sara E. Pratt
These will “transform the way we do oceanography,” Jaffe said. Just over a year
NEWS EDITOR
ago, DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — announced Timothy Oleson
a new “Ocean of Things” program (like the “Internet of Things” on land), which
ROVING CORRESPONDENTS
would entail the deployment of thousands of small, inexpensive, robots throughout Terri Cook
the oceans to collect environmental data, as well as data about ship and mammal Mary Caperton Morton

movements. Technology is moving fast, Jaffe told me, and oceanographers are just DESIGNERS
trying to keep up, developing the software to get the data they want and figuring Nicole Schmidgall
Brenna Tobler
out how to best use such robots.
Our cover feature this month explores how Jaffe and his colleagues developed ILLUSTRATOR
Kathleen Cantner
their miniature robots and what scientists have learned so far from using the swarms,
as well as how other researchers are working on their own small ocean-observers. MARKETING/ADVERTISING
John P. Rasanen
From below the seas, we travel to the roof of the world with Terri Cook and
Lon Abbott as they explore Lhasa, Tibet, and take in views of Mount Everest. CONTRIBUTORS
Bethany Augliere
Don’t miss our assortment of news stories too, including a wild one exploring the Mark Carpenter
geology of kidney stones! Rachel Crowell
Sarah Derouin
As 2019 gets underway, we hope you continue to enjoy the compelling content
in EARTH each month, and we wish you a happy and healthy New Year. EDITORIAL EXTERNS
Madeline Bender
Sukanya Charuchandra
Hannah Gavin
Alisia Holland

CUSTOMER SERVICE
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Megan Sever CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

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Comment
How to Tell a Good Science Story
Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, Heather Mannix and Stephanie Green
E
veryone has a story to tell.
Scientists are no exception,
especially given that scientific
studies can take researchers to
far-flung places around the planet, lead
to amazing new discoveries about the
world we live in and produce challenges
that provide the drama that is so import-
ant for a great story. Stories have the
power to transport listeners to the places
and experiences the storyteller is sharing
with them. What better way is there to
show that science is relevant, exciting and
conducted by people who are passionate
about what they do?
Thankfully, a growing number of
scientists and science communicators
are recognizing the value of storytelling
for sharing scientific research with audi-
ences beyond their professional peers
— something that is becoming more
important every day as science helps
people understand the world around us
and how things are changing. However,
storytelling isn’t something that comes
naturally to most people, including
a. Not a Story b.
Prosperity
An average day
Character’s fortune
(e.g., listing
what you ate
for breakfast)
Despair
Start End Start
Time
The relative shapes of selected paradigms for science stories. Solid black lines show the relationship between the main character’s
fortune and the progression of a story from start to finish, relative to an average day (dotted line).
Credit: figure shared with permission from Canadian Science Publishing under CC BY 4.0
page 8 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
scientists who are trained to be concise,
precise and technical. These qualities
are well suited for communicating with
other scientists but are quite different
from those involved in good storytelling.
Thus, for scientists, one major challenge
of storytelling is that the language of
scientific publications and presentations
isn’t the same language you would use
to tell a story. Scientists basically need
to start speaking a different language
at work. Thankfully, making the key
messages of a scientific study widely
accessible, sharing them in ways that
are meaningful to nonscientists and per-
sonalizing research in ways that make
science come alive are all skills that can
be learned.
Five years ago, we started thinking
about how we could use storytelling
to share our own work in the fields of
marine ecology, science communication
and science policy. We took a scientific
approach to this effort — no surprise
there! After diving into the research
and best practices of telling stories, we
Discovery c. Rescue
End Start
Time Time
put together a workshop and wrote a
paper about telling good stories — speak-
ing both the languages of science and
of story­telling. As scientists who are
excited about our newfound skills, we
wanted to share our passion and pass
on a few tips.
Learning from the Best:
Shaping a Story Arc
We were inspired by a decidedly non-
scientific source, iconic American author
Kurt Vonnegut, who in 1980 wrote an
essay called “How to Write With Style”
in the journal Transactions on Profes-
sional Communications. In it, he listed
four primary objectives: Find a subject
you care about; keep it simple; sound
like yourself; and say what you mean.
Vonnegut also put out a video offering
eight tips to writing a good short story
(including the gem: don’t let your reader
feel like their time was wasted by reading
your work), and he suggested that stories
should have shapes that can be graphed.
d. Mystery
End Start End
Time
 Comment

The process of developing a science story: Scientists gain

storytelling skills by learning and practicing tech-
niques and developing a personal science story. We began exploring ways that cer-
Credit: figure shared with permission from tain story types — in particular, stories
Canadian Science Publishing under CC involving mystery, rescue
BY 4.0
and discovery — could
be useful in telling
science stories. For
example, research
that addresses
long-standing ques-
tions in science might
As scientists, we already be told as a nail-biting
care about the subject we’re mystery tale, while an
going to be writing about so unexpected finding
that box is checked. Keep- might lend itself to a
ing it simple, sounding story of discovery.
like ourselves and saying We applied Von-
what we mean are good negut’s technique to
pointers as well — keep map how the main
these in mind with every characters (most
story you tell. What does often scientists in our
he mean by a story shape, or contexts) went through
arc, though? The shapes of different ups and downs over time.
kinds of stories intrigued us from the We found stories from these three
perspective of scientists and communi- paradigms often follow particular shapes,
cation specialists. with distinctive patterns of high and low
fortune for the main character (see figure
on page 8). A discovery story, for exam-
ple, may be shaped like a W; a rescue
Our Top Tips for Adding story like a V; and a mystery story with a
Storytelling to Your Repertoire rise, a fall and then a building rise. A good
story needs a character that experiences
(from Green et al., Facets, February 2018) both highs and lows, moving between
despair and prosperity.
• Identify your take-home message first. Start with the end in mind. Of course, successful storytelling is
not just about the arc. Stories also benefit
• Remember the shape of your story. Tracking the main character’s fortune from important elements like compelling
over time moves the story forward. characters, vivid imagery and moments of
catharsis. And the key to a science story is
• Consider the scale and timing of your story. Cut irrelevant background, the opportunity to include a take-home
processes and methods if they don’t move the story forward in a com- message, sharing the “So what?” of a sci-
pelling way. entific study.

• Use vivid language. Help the reader feel like he or she is there.
Teaching Our New Skills:
• Get feedback. Pause. Reflect. Try again. Find someone you trust to give Practicing Storytelling
you constructive, supportive criticism. To share what we’d learned and help
others develop, practice and tell com-
• Embrace discomfort and transformation. Practice makes perfect. pelling stories about their work, we
ran a two-day storytelling workshop in
KG-C, HM, SG association with the Society for Conser-
vation Biology’s International Marine

page 9 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Comment

Conservation Congress (IMCC) in 2014 participants do in pairs and groups, and and in podcasts such as StoryCorps
in Glasgow, Scotland. creating the space to get feedback so they (storycorps.org), Radiolab (radiolab.
Participants learned about key can reflect on and revise their story arcs org) and Story Collider (storycollider.
aspects of storytelling: They first iden- and messages. org). And opportunities for training are
tified a take-home message from their Storytelling includes a creative ele- offered through science communication
work and a personal experience that ment, and it requires a certain level of organizations like Intermedia Commu-
connected them to their science and vulnerability. As neither of these are nication Training (intermediacomms.
emphasized in scientific com), COMPASS (compassonline.
training — scientists are org), the Alan Alda Center for Com-
typically taught to take municating Science (aldacenter.org),
“[What I learned was] the power and themselves out of their Story Circles (storycirclestraining.
importance of getting feedback. To get work and to remain as com), Screenhouse (screenhouse.co.uk/
feedback from so many people — there objective as possible — screenhouse_story_telling_course.html)
were nine of us — in different stages of it’s not surprising that and the Beakerhead Science Commu-
my story really helped us to grow and to this part of the learning nications Program (beakerhead.com/
get to the “why” of our story. Sometimes process can be especially programs/scicomm).
we just focus on the “what,” and I think challenging. During the Whatever the field, anyone who
to connect with people we need to get most recent workshop, knows about science can craft a great
to the why.” we heard from our sto- science story and share the “So what?”
rytellers that of their work with practice
– Naima Lopez, 2018 workshop the opportu- and passion.
participant nity to share
and receive Grorud-Colvert is an assis-
feedback tant professor at Oregon
their message. Then each storyteller from their colleagues was State University, where
went through the process of mapping what made the process suc- she studies the ecology of
out a story, reflecting on whether its cessful. And the camaraderie marine species and marine
shape matches that of a mystery, rescue that grew from talking about protected areas. She’s still
or discovery tale as well as how drama their passion for their work learning how to share sci-
and catharsis can be used to keep lis- and their personal experi- Credit: Kirsten ence with the wider world,
teners enthralled. ences helped decrease the Grorud-Colvert one good story at a time. As
We have since held the workshop discomfort that many scien- assistant director of policy
at each subsequent IMCC — in 2016 in tists may have with sharing engagement for COMPASS,
Newfoundland, Canada, and in 2018 in their personal stories and Mannix works to facilitate
Kuching, Malaysia. To date, 26 ocean helped build a supportive constructive discussion and
scientists, conservation professionals and environment. In the end, interaction between scien-
other experts have told the stories they the vividness, warmth and tists and decision-makers.
developed through the workshop pro- excitement of a story is what She is based in Washington,
cess at live venues from an open mike helps a listener remember the D.C. Green is an assistant
on a stage. You can see some of the sto- message. At the end of every professor at the University
ries here: https://conbio.org/groups/ workshop, we have hosted Credit: Kenneth Maher of Alberta, where she pairs
sections/marine/stories/. The process public events at which our ecological and social science
of developing an effective science story storytellers get up on stage approaches to understand
is involved and takes time, but workshop with an open microphone the outcomes of conserva-
attendees consistently report that the to share their stories. tion for people and nature.
investment is worthwhile. If you’re interested in More about their work can
Developing storytelling skills involves learning to tell a good story, be found in their 2018 paper
more than just learning the theory and there is a wealth of help- in Facets: www.facetsjournal.
structure of good narrative, however. ful resources for beginners. com/doi/full/10.1139/
It also requires taking time to practice Many examples of good sto- facets​-2016-0079. The views
delivering stories, which our workshop rytelling can be found online Credit: Kristen Weiss expressed are their own.

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Background Image: Unsplash.com/LeonLiu
HOW DO
Klaus K. E. Neuendorf served as editor
for the Oregon Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries for over twenty-
three years, assisting in publishing, and
eventually producing single-handedly,
most of the Department’s geoscience
publications and public-relation materials,
including especially the magazine Oregon
Geology and several bibliographies of
YOU LIKE
the geology of Oregon. He is a Lifetime
Honor Member of the Association of
Earth Science Editors and recipient of the
Award for Outstanding Contributions
to Geoscience given by the Geological
Society of America, Cordilleran Section,
and the Oregon Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries.
James P. Mehl Jr. is currently Associate
Editor of the GeoRef bibliographic
database. He has worked for the
American Geosciences Institute’s
Information Systems Department for
YOUR
the past eleven years in a variety of
editorial roles on various bibliographic
and information products. He received
his Bachelor's degree in Geology and
Russian from James Madison University
and Master's degree in Library and
Information Science from the Catholic
University of America.
Julia A. Jackson, geologist/writer/editor,
works independently on publication
projects in the earth and environmental
sciences. As an editor, she helped produce
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the Association of Earth Science Editors
(1993) and in 2002 she received the
AESE Award for Outstanding Editorial
or Publishing Contributions.
GlossaryCover5thRevised_091311.indd 1
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www.glossaryofgeology.org
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News
Ancient collision left a bit of Europe behind in Britain
G
reat Britain is famously
considered the birthplace
of modern geology, and the
many layers and terranes of
rocks that make up England, Wales and
Scotland have been studied and mapped
for centuries. But that doesn’t mean scien-
tists fully understand the island’s geologic
past. In a new study, researchers looking
at unusual volcanic rocks in southern
England found previously unrecognized
evidence of the island nation’s past con-
nection to mainland Europe.
Cornwall, in southwest England, is
known for its rich mineral deposits, espe-
cially tin and tungsten, which are found
in France and elsewhere in mainland
Europe, but nowhere else in Great Britain.
The region is also studded with unusual
volcanic rocks called lamprophyres that
form dikes and small intrusions, bringing
samples of the deep lithosphere closer
to the surface. Arjan Dijkstra and Cal-
lum Hatch, geologists at the University
of Plymouth in England, collected sam-
ples of these volcanic rocks from several
quarries, thinking the intrusions might
provide a glimpse of the lithospheric base
beneath England and clues about where
these deep rocks originated.
The pair studied the chemistry and
isotopic signatures of the lamprophyre
samples. “As the results came in, it quickly
became clear that these rocks are very
different from the rest of England in
terms of their isotopic geochemis-
try,” Dijkstra says. “In fact, they’re a
perfect match for the basement rocks
in France, directly across the English
Channel.” They reported the findings in
Nature Communications.
About 400 million years ago, as the
supercontinent Pangea was forming, col-
lisions among landmasses were triggering
mountain-building episodes all over the
world. During this period, the landmasses
Laurentia and Avalonia collided, raising
the Caledonian Mountains between what
are now Scotland (a leftover fragment
of Laurentia) and England (a fragment
of Avalonia). This two-part picture has
page 14 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
The ancient landmasses of Lau-
rentia, Avalonia and Armorica
collided 400 million years ago,
contributing pieces to the island
that is today Great Britain.
Credit: K. Cantner, AGI
long been the prevailing model
for Britain’s geologic under-
pinnings. “Other studies have
noted some mild metamorphism
and deformation in southern
England that might have come
from a collision with a third
landmass, but we hadn’t found
clear evidence yet that a piece
of this landmass had remained
with England after the collision,”
Dijkstra says.
The third landmass, Armor-​
ica, is known from previous
studies to have broken off the
ancient supercontinent of Gond-
wana (present-day Africa) as a
microcontinent that today makes up
France, Spain and middle Europe. Dijk-
stra and Hatch’s study suggests that the
mineral-rich, southwesternmost part of
England is a residual piece not of Avalo-
nia, but of Armorica, with the boundary
between the two terranes running from
Camelford in the west, across parts of
Cornwall and Devon, to the estuary of the
River Exe in the east. The lamprophyres
the researchers studied were hidden
under layers of younger Devonian rocks,
which “explains why nobody has found
these foreign rocks before,” Dijkstra says.
Making such a discovery in well-stud-
ied Great Britain is no small feat, says
Brendan Murphy, a structural geologist
at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova
Scotia, Canada, who was not involved
in the new study. “Geologists have been
documenting the tiniest details of this
region’s geology for hundreds of years,”
he says. “This paper draws upon that
wealth of knowledge by asking some
very insightful questions [about the lam-
prophyres of southern Britain] in very
innovative ways.”
Laurentia
Avalonia
Armorica
France
In addition to the similarities seen
between the rocks in southwest England
and in France, Murphy says there may
be parallels between Armorica and rocks
in Nova Scotia, as the two landmasses
would have been neighbors before the
opening of the Atlantic Ocean. “We have
terrain in southern Nova Scotia that is
very similar to the terrain of Armorica.
They may both be derived from the same
part of Africa. That could be an avenue
for future study.”
Dijkstra says he expects to stir up some
controversy with the new findings. “We
like to think we have our house in order
in Great Britain,” he says, so anything
that challenges the established model is
subject to skepticism.
Murphy, for one, thinks the work
will inspire interesting follow-up studies.
“This will probably set off something
of a domino effect, as other people go
back and look in their data for evidence
of Armorica,” he says. “I expect we’ll be
hearing more about this region in the
next few years.”
Mary Caperton Morton

Arctic warming causes Siberian cooling
T
he Arctic is warming faster
than anywhere else on Earth,
and fall sea-ice extents have
been trending downward for
decades. But while the region is heating
up, that northerly warming seems to
be having the opposite effect on some
midlatitude locations: Parts of Siberia
near the Ural Mountains, for example,
have had anomalously cold winters in
recent decades.
Understanding why some midlati-
tude areas are cooling while the Arctic
is warming is a hotly debated topic. Part
of the debate centers on whether the
retreat of sea ice can be linked to abnor-
mally cold winters — commonly caused
by polar vortices dipping into lower lat-
itudes — on nearby landmasses. Now,
researchers have discovered how inter-
actions among atmospheric layers over
the Barents-Kara Sea might be the driving
force behind Siberia’s recent spate of
abnormally frigid winters, and the key
lies in the stratosphere.
Previous studies have shown that
decreased sea-ice cover in the Arctic
can shift stratospheric wind patterns,
including the swirling winds of the
polar vortex, down toward the tropo-
sphere and Earth’s surface. However,
the reasons for this shift are not well
understood, says Pengfei Zhang, a post-
doctoral researcher at Purdue University
and lead author of a new study in Sci-
ence Advances.
Other researchers, Zhang notes, have
suggested that Siberia’s extra-chilly win-
ters may be caused by random internal
variations within the atmosphere that
are unrelated to sea ice. “Our study found
page 15 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
that the role of the stratosphere was
missed in previous studies,” Zhang says.
Zhang and his team used a general
circulation model to simulate the atmo-
sphere over the Barents-Kara Sea and
Siberia. Their modeling showed that Arc-
tic sea-ice loss and related Arctic warming
influence the stratospheric polar vortex
by impacting the behavior of Rossby
waves — giant, meandering high-altitude
wind patterns, like the jet stream — espe-
cially over the Barents-Kara Sea, Zhang
says. These changes impact atmospheric
circulation and sometimes contribute to
an “incursion of cold Arctic air into lower
latitudes, resulting in cold anomalies of
surface air temperature,” he says. The
team found that this influx of cold air
followed a “stratospheric pathway” that
persists through the winter.
“We were surprised that the contri-
bution of the stratosphere is larger than
the tropospheric pathway,” Zhang says,
as weather patterns and convection are
primarily influenced by the troposphere.
Zhang says that his team’s work proves
that the cold winters over Siberia are one
result of overall Arctic warming. But
anomalously cold winters haven’t been
observed over all midlatitude landmasses.
“We have to reconcile the fact that
there is a region over Siberia that has
experienced wintertime cooling over a
period of multiple decades while most
other regions have experienced warming,”
says Nathaniel Johnson, a climate scientist
at Princeton University and NOAA who
was not involved with the study.
This study is “a nice advance,” Johnson
says. Although the stratosphere may not
have much of an impact on day-to-day
News
New research suggests that Siberia’s
anomalously cold winters in recent years
may have been caused by melting sea ice
in the Barents-Kara Sea.
Credit: Dmitry A. Mottl
weather, this study presents a case where
the stratosphere can be important to win-
tertime climates, he says. But more work
is needed on the impact of sea-ice loss on
remote regions, he says. In any case, it
would be good to see more stratospheric
representation in climate models.
“Given the important role of the strato-
sphere in Siberian cold events, seasonal
[weather] predictions could be improved
if we develop and use a model with a more
realistic stratosphere,” Zhang says. He says
the group’s next step is to explore the
impacts of sea-ice loss on North America.
Sarah Derouin
Voyager 2 nearing
interstellar space
In late August, NASA’s Voyager 2
probe — launched in 1977 and
now nearly 18 billion kilometers
from Earth — began detecting
increased levels of cosmic rays,
indicating it may be nearing
interstellar space. The space-
craft has been traveling through
the outermost layer of the helio-
sphere since 2007. Voyager 1
experienced a similar increase in
cosmic rays about three months
before it crossed the heliopause
in May 2012.
JPL press release, October 2018
News

Columbia River basalts erupted faster than thought

I
n the Pacific Northwest, ooz-
ing volcanic basalts erupted over
the landscape during the middle
Miocene, layering a sequence of
43 distinct flows up to 2 kilometers thick
over a roughly 163,700-square-kilometer
area. Scientists have thought the layered
rock, known as the Columbia River Basalt
Group (CRBG), took almost 2 million
years to pile up. But now, in a new study
in Science Advances, researchers show
that most of the massive CRBG was
deposited in less than half that time.
Similar — albeit somewhat larger —
flood basalts have been linked to mass
extinction events, such as the Deccan
Traps, which have been implicated in
the end-Cretaceous extinction 66 million
years ago. There’s no mass extinction
associated with the CRBG, but it’s Lava flows of the Wanapum Basalt, the second-youngest formation of the Columbia
thought that the CRBG eruptions could River Basalt Group (CRBG), are exposed in Palouse Falls State Park along the Palouse
have overlapped in time with, and thus River in eastern Washington. Researchers recently found that most of the CRBG lava
played a role in causing, the mid-Miocene erupted over a period of about 758,000 years, faster than previously thought.
Climate Optimum (MMCO), a period Credit: Jennifer Kasbohm, Princeton University
of elevated sea-surface temperatures,
large-scale vertebrate migrations and the Jennifer Kasbohm and Blair Schoene set flows. “We started collecting massive
emergence of new species between about out to determine more precisely when amounts of these paleosols,” which tend
17 million and 15 million years ago. — and how fast — the CRBG lavas were to be rich in ash and zircons erupted from
To examine how well the CRBG deposited. They concentrated not on the nearby Cascade volcanoes, Schoene says.
eruptions and the MMCO overlapped, basalts themselves, but on sediment layers The zircons, ranging from 50 to
Princeton University geochemists called paleosols between different lava 200 microns across, crystalized in magma
shortly before it erupted and then rained
down as ash over the CRBG flows. As
the zircons contain radioactive uranium
that decays at a known rate, they act as
geological clocks, indicating when they
erupted as well as the age of the paleosols
between adjacent basalt flows. By dating
the youngest zircons in eight different
paleosol layers, Kasbohm and Schoene
better bracketed the timing and duration
of the CRBG flows.
The researchers found that 95 per-
cent of the CRBG lavas erupted within

A thin, light-colored ash layer lies between

flows of the Wanapum Basalt. Zircons
found in such layers were used to con-
strain the timing of the CRBG eruptions.
Credit: Jennifer Kasbohm, Princeton University

page 16 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org


about 758,000 years — or about two and a
half times faster than previously thought.
Understanding the rate of the eruptions is
crucial in determining how much and how
quickly carbon dioxide is released, and how
that gas might affect the climate, Schoene
says. “If [the basalts] all erupt in one day,
then you get all the carbon dioxide at once,”
he says. Alternatively, if it took 2 million or
3 million years, the carbon dioxide would
be emitted more slowly and would “likely
be sequestered in the oceans and not build
up in the atmosphere.”
“There is a lot of debate about the extent
to which volcanic eruptions in general —
and in particular these very large sequences
of volcanic eruptions that produce flood
basalt provinces — could have influenced
climate,” says Kari Cooper, a geochem-
ist at the University of California, Davis,
who was not involved with the study. She
Early mammal reproduced like a reptile
A
mother found fossilized
alongside 38 of her young
is offering a rare glimpse
into early mammalian
reproductive strategies. Unearthed in
northeastern Arizona, the 184-million-
year-old fossils are from specimens of
Kayentatherium wellesi, an early mam-
mal-like tritylodont that falls between
reptiles and true mammals on the evo-
lutionary tree.
A clutch of 38 offspring is a lot for a
mammal, but reptiles tend to be more
prolific reproducers. Additionally, the
skulls of the young K. wellesi are similar
in shape to that of the mother, a growth
pattern more common to reptiles than
mammals, whose skulls tend to lengthen
as they mature.
“These babies are from a really import-
ant point in the evolutionary tree,” said
Eva Hoffman of the University of Texas
at Austin (UT), who co-authored a new
study in Nature about the fossils with UT
colleague Timothy Rowe, in a statement.
In addition to their similarities to rep-
tiles, she said, “they had a lot of features
page 17 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
notes that understanding how long these
eruptions last is the first step in looking
at climate causality. Although the rate of
eruption and gas release isn’t “always a one-
to-one correlation” she says, understanding
the timing is important “because the rate
at which you’re pumping volcanic gases
into the atmosphere can have a really big
effect on climate.”
Kasbohm and Schoene looked at how
their amended eruption timing for the
CRBG may have related to the MMCO,
but “it ended up being a lot harder than we
had hoped,” Schoene says. Miocene cli-
mate is primarily recorded in sedimentary
carbonates from the oceans, he says, many
of which don’t contain any material that
can be dated directly. Instead, their timing
is determined by using paleomagnetic
records of reversals in Earth’s magnetic
field in the rocks and by correlating the
The roughly 1-centimeter-long skull of a juvenile Kayentatherium.
Credit: Eva Hoffman/University of Texas at Austin
similar to modern mammals, features that
are relevant in understanding mamma-
lian evolution.”
The new specimens show that trity-
lodontids retained a primitive pattern
of reproduction despite sharing various
skeletal features with mammals, the team
wrote. The association of large litter sizes
News
carbonate stratigraphy with other rock
packages that have been dated elsewhere.
Moving forward, Schoene says, refine-
ment of the carbonate ages around these
magnetic reversals will improve the cor-
relation between rock units and constrain
the timing of change in the Miocene
climate — a project on which Kasbohm
is currently working.
For now, Cooper says, the researchers
did a really nice job of looking in detail
at a sequence that was previously dated.
She adds that this work shows the value
in re-examining geologic sequences and
questioning assumptions, especially as
new dating techniques are developed.
Cooper says the team’s approach of re-dat-
ing the well-studied CRBG helps refine
the Miocene chronology and “interpret
how this fits into the global climate.”
Sarah Derouin
with uniform cranial growth supports the
notion that the evolution of bigger brains
may have been the driving force behind
later changes in mammalian reproduction
and development, as mammals traded
the advantages of larger clutch sizes for
bigger brains.
Mary Caperton Morton
News
Rising carbon dioxide may raise risk
of nutrient deficiencies in humans
P
lants absorb carbon diox-
ide to fuel their growth. As
humans increase the amount
of the greenhouse gas in the
atmosphere, more will be available to
vegetation around the world. But accord-
ing to a new study, too much carbon
dioxide might eventually lead to plants
that are deficient in key nutrients for
humans, which could be especially det-
rimental in the developing world.
Current atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentrations are more than 400 parts
per million (ppm) and are steadily rising.
Within 30 to 50 years, scientists predict
atmospheric carbon dioxide will surpass
550 ppm, but it is unknown how such
levels will affect the global food supply.
Experiments in the 1990s focused
on greenhouse-grown crops to gauge
what might happen in high-carbon
atmospheres. Samuel Myers, a research
scientist and director of the Planetary
Health Alliance at Harvard and co-au-
thor of the new study, says these studies
showed that some nutrient concentrations
dropped significantly in plants grown
in elevated carbon dioxide conditions.
The reason for the nutrient reductions
isn’t known, Myers says, but researchers
hypothesized that the increased plant
growth spurred by extra carbon dioxide
may act to dilute nutrients. The results of
these early studies were contested in the
scientific community, however, because
of small sample sizes — both in the num-
ber of crops and years of sampling — and
the artificial growing conditions.
To address these issues, in 2014, Myers
and his colleagues tapped a global con-
sortium of researchers to gather data on
page 18 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
open fields of cereal grains and legumes
— two classes of crops humans eat in
abundance. In the 2014 paper in Nature,
they looked at 10 years of data on nutri-
ent levels in 41 cultivars and six staple
food crops from seven locations on three
continents. They found that in most field
crops, elevated carbon dioxide concen-
trations resulted in decreased levels of
iron and zinc — both micronutrients that
affect human immune systems, IQ and
strength — and protein, a macronutrient
that plays an important role in human
mortality and malnutrition.
The multicontinent study raised
another question, Myers says: How many
people will be impacted from a nutrition
standpoint? “That question is a tough nut
to crack,” he says. “You have to estimate
what the entire global population is eat-
ing, then estimate per capita intake of
all the foods they’re consuming, and the
density of nutrients in each one of those
[foods].”
In the new study published in Nature
Climate Change, the researchers esti-
mated how rising carbon dioxide will
impact the risk of iron, zinc and protein
deficiencies for people in those countries
using the Global Expanded Nutrient Sup-
ply (GENuS) database — which quantifies
23 nutrients in 225 food categories (for
example, cereals, fruits and meat) for
people in 152 countries (representing
95 percent of the world population) based
on historical trends in diets.
They again found that levels of
zinc, iron and protein in some grains
and legumes will drop between 3 and
17 percent with higher carbon dioxide
concentrations in the atmosphere. In
In a new study, researchers found that lev-
els of zinc, iron and protein in some grains
and legumes will drop as atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentrations rise.
Credit: public domain
particular, areas in Africa, China, India,
the Middle East and Southeast Asia —
where people consume less meat and
rely on legumes and grains like wheat
and rice for much of their micronutrient
supply — will be at the highest risk of
nutritional deficiencies.
Based on population projections,
the team reported that if carbon diox-
ide levels reach 550 ppm by 2050, an
additional 175 million people worldwide
could experience zinc deficiency and an
additional 122 million people could be
protein-deficient, beyond the roughly
2 billion people globally already thought
to suffer from some sort of nutrient
deficiency. Additionally, a combined
1.4 billion children under 5 and women
of childbearing age would be at a high
risk of iron deficiency. “Chances are we
are talking about more than one defi-
ciency in these populations, which can’t
be good from a human health standpoint,”
Myers says.
Measuring the impacts of rising atmo-
spheric carbon on nutrition is important,
says Frances Moore, an environmental
economist at the University of Califor-
nia, Davis, who was not involved in the
study. “The magnitude of the effect [of
rising carbon dioxide on plants] wasn’t
well quantified” in past work, she says.
And the “full chain of causal connections”
from how changes in carbon dioxide
concentrations affect crops to the ulti-
mate effect on dietary nutrition, “hasn’t
really been made, certainly not for mul-
tiple nutrients.”
Moore says the study is important in
helping us understanding how climate
change will impact human nutrition

but notes that there are some problems
with the projections. For example, the
study projects that diets in 2050 will
be the same as today, which “is a little
strange, because we are reasonably sure
these countries are going to be growing
economically over the next 30 years.”
And dietary improvements could change
the number of those at risk, she notes:
As people get richer, she says, one of the
first things they do is “improve their diet
— they diversify their diet and add meat.”
Still, Moore says, the huge number of
people currently at risk and suffering
from nutritional deficiencies is “a serious
problem already that should be receiving
more attention.”
And the increased risk and sheer
magnitude of potential malnutrition
and nutrient deficiencies with rising
carbon dioxide shown in the new work
is surprising to many scientists, including
Myers and Moore. “It’s a very unantici-
pated consequence,” Myers says.
Earliest art found in South Africa
B
lombos Cave, located along
the South African coast about
300 kilometers east of Cape
Town, has been excavated since
1991, revealing materials left by Homo
sapiens between 100,000 and 70,000 years
ago. A closer look at some curious red
lines on a flake of rock found in the cave
in 2011 has confirmed they were drawn
by humans as early as 73,000 years ago,
predating the earliest-known forms of art
by as much as 30,000 years.
At first, researchers thought the three
red lines cross-hatched by six separate
lines on a smooth flake of lithified soil
called silcrete appeared to be a natural
marking on the rock. But when Luca
Pollarolo of the University of the Wit-
watersrand re-examined the lines using
an electron microscope and Raman spec-
troscopy, he found evidence that the lines
were drawn using an ochre crayon. The
lines run off the edge of the flake, sug-
gesting the drawing might have extended
over a larger surface area.
page 19 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
“Maybe 10 or 20 years ago, the impres-
sion was that [rising] carbon dioxide was
going to be beneficial [to plants],” Moore
says. “The picture emerging now, how-
ever, is that carbon dioxide is somewhat
beneficial, but that those gains are pretty
quickly offset by the negative effects of
high temperatures — which are wide-
spread and large.” Nutrient losses will
especially hit people with lower incomes,
she says, as they tend to get much of their
nutrient supply from vegetables.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions
is “the first-order preventative” step to
avoid compounding the risk to those
already struggling with malnutrition,
Myers says. Regardless of what happens
with emissions, he says he hopes the
new research will be useful in identifying
vulnerable populations. There’s no single
solution, he says, but there are ways to
mitigate vulnerability once you know
where it is.
Sarah Derouin
The earliest-known drawing — made with red ochre as early as 73,000 years ago —
appears on this rock flake.
Credit: University of the Witwatersrand
The marked flake was found among
thousands of similar fragments on the
floor of the cave, in a layer also contain-
ing ochre-colored shell beads and pieces
of ochre engraved with abstract patterns
similar to the pattern on the flake, Pol-
larolo and colleagues reported in Nature.
“This demonstrates that early Homo
sapiens in the southern Cape used different
News
New date rewrites
Pompeii’s history
During ongoing excavations at
Pompeii, which was buried by
the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, researchers recently
uncovered the date of Oct. 17, 79,
written in charcoal on a wall in a
building that was subsequently
buried by the eruption and pre-
served for millennia. Because
charcoal wouldn’t have lasted
long unless preserved by ash,
scientists have now determined
that Vesuvius must have erupted
on or about Oct. 24, instead of
the previously accepted date two
months prior that had been esti-
mated based on the writings of
Pliny the Younger.
Pompeii Archaeological Park, Great Pom-
peii Project statement, October 2018
techniques to produce similar signs on dif-
ferent media,” said co-author Christopher
Henshilwood, also at the University of the
Witwatersrand, in a statement. “These signs
were symbolic in nature and represented an
inherent aspect of the behaviorally modern
world of these African Homo sapiens, the
ancestors of all of us today.”
Mary Caperton Morton
News

Oman ophiolite suggests subduction started with a shove

P
late tectonics is a fundamental
control on how Earth operates
and is important for the planet’s
habitability, but how this crustal
recycling process got started has long
been a mystery. A new study examining
some uniquely coupled metamorphic and
volcanic rocks in Oman is adding some
needed clarity about the initiation of
subduction zones, a critical component
in plate tectonics.
“The driving force of plate tectonics
is the lithosphere sinking into subduc-
tion zones and pulling other plates at the
surface. The million-dollar question is: If
subduction zones are what powers plate
tectonics, how do you start a subduction
zone?” says Robert Stern, a geophysicist
at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Subduction zone initiation is thought
to occur by one of two mechanisms:
spontaneous or forced. In spontaneous
subduction, weaknesses and density con-
trasts in a plate encourage the denser part
of the plate to start sinking under the
force of gravity. As the downgoing slab
sinks, cold rock and sediments formerly
on the seafloor are metamorphosed when
they encounter hot mantle. At the same
time, extensional forces pull on the lead-
ing edge of the upper plate, triggering
volcanism that creates an area of new
crust above the subduction zone called a
forearc. “When dated, these metamorphic
and volcanic materials will be synchro-
nous,” says Carl Guilmette, a geological
engineer at Laval University in Que-
bec and lead author of the new study in
Nature Geoscience.
By contrast, in forced subduction, lat-
eral movement of part of the lithosphere
leads to compression, eventually forcing
a dense slab downward under an adjacent
plate. This convergence takes time to
develop, however, such that new meta-
morphic rock in the down­going plate will
form a few million years before extension
and forearc volcanism in the upper plate
begins, creating a lag between the ages
of the metamorphic and volcanic rocks.
Computer models suggest that Earth’s
first subduction zone may have been
triggered by spontaneous subduction.
“It makes sense that, at some point, a
denser zone [of lithosphere] developed
in one place that [then] started sink-
ing under its own weight,” Guilmette
says. But no clear examples of the early
phases of subduction exist on Earth today
— although evolving transform bound-
aries south of New Zealand and west
of Gibraltar may offer some tantalizing
clues — so geoscientists look for evidence
in the rock record of how slabs might
begin sinking. Guilmette and his col-
leagues focused on the Semail Ophiolite
of Oman in the southeast corner of the
Arabian Peninsula. Here, pieces of both
the overlying and underlying plates of a
fossil subduction zone are exposed at the
surface, enabling scientists to study how
the system evolved.
“In Oman, we have the ultimate
archetype of a subduction zone that
has been very well studied and docu-
mented,” Guilmette says. He and his
colleagues are the first to date the burial
of the lower plate in a fossilized subduc-
tion zone, and the results offer some
clues about the timing of the events sur-
rounding subduction initiation. They
found that the metamorphic rocks in
the downgoing slab started subduct-
ing 104 million years ago, whereas
previous studies determined that the
volcanic rocks in the upper slab dated
to 96 million years ago.
“The new contribution by this study
is this clear understanding of the mag-
nitude of this lag time,” Stern says. “The
geochronology seems robust, with the
lower metamorphism clearly predating
the upper igneous activity.” A study pub-
lished last April in Geoscience Frontiers
reported similar geochronological evi-
dence of forced subduction initiation in
Turkey, in an area that would have been
geographically connected to the subduc-
tion zone forming in Oman. “It looks like

Metamorphic rock formation Volcanic forearc formation

Forced
Steady-state subduction
Forced
Favorably oriented convergence
lithospheric weakness
Crust Simultaneous metamorphic rock Sinking
Lithosphere and volcanic forearc formation

Spontaneous
Sinking

Past research has suggested two mechanisms by which subduction zones may form along an area of lithospheric weakness:
spontaneous sinking of denser crust and lithosphere, and forced convergence driven by lateral movement of a plate. A new study
suggests that the latter was responsible for the formation of a fossil subduction zone off the Arabian Peninsula beginning about
104 million years ago.
Credit: K. Cantner, AGI

page 20 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

 News

a 3,000-kilometer-long convergent plate
margin was forming about this time that
stretched along the southwest margin
of Eurasia from Oman to the island of
Cyprus,” Stern says.
Fossil subduction zones that preserve
materials from both the upper and lower
plates have also been identified in New-
foundland, California and the Himalayas.
“I’d like to see more studies using this
methodology to determine the absolute
timing of subduction initiation settings
around the Mediterranean and else-
where,” Stern says.
Mary Caperton Morton

Ocean circulation change suffocating Gulf of St. Lawrence

E
stuaries are among the most
nutrient-rich and biologically
productive areas of the ocean,
and the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
where freshwater from the Great Lakes
and the St. Lawrence River meets the
salty Atlantic Ocean in eastern Canada, is
the largest estuary in the world. But the
biodiversity and long-thriving fisheries
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence could be
threatened by declines in oxygen levels
over the last half century. A new study
suggests that a large-scale shift in Atlantic
Ocean circulation is dumping warmer,
oxygen-poor water into the gulf.
To protect the gulf, Canada’s Depart-
ment of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)
has been monitoring its health since the
1930s. “It’s quite rare in oceanography
to have such long records,” says Mariona
Claret, an oceanographer at the Univer-
sity of Washington, who led a new study
of the gulf, published in Nature Climate
Change. “We combined these records
with centennial-scale time series of tem-
perature and salinity collected at the Tail
[southern extremity] of the Grand Banks
of Newfoundland, where the Labrador
Current and the Gulf Stream meet, which
is one of the best-sampled areas in the
entire ocean.”
In 2005, a study published in the jour-
nal Limnology and Oceanography and led
by DFO’s Denis Gilbert, also a co-author
of the new study, found a 72-year record
of declining oxygen levels in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. “This deoxygenation trend
was very alarming, but we didn’t know
what was driving it,” Claret says. “Was it
due to a local change in the gulf itself or a
more remote change in the open ocean?”
In the new study, Claret, who was at
McGill University in Montreal at the time
of the work, and her colleagues combined
the long-term datasets with
a high-resolution Geo-
physical Fluid Dynamics
Laboratory (GFDL) cli-
Labrador Current
mate model developed by Cold, oxygen-rich
NOAA. This climate model water from the Arctic
simulates large-scale global
ocean circulation as well as
the coastal circulation that
influences the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. The research-
Gulf of
ers found that the gulf’s St, Lawrence Tail of the
declining oxygen is due in Grand Banks
part to a northward shift of
the Gulf Stream over the
last century. Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream Warm, oxygen-poor water
originates in the Gulf of from the Gulf of Mexico
Mexico, bringing warm, Research suggests that the Gulf Stream is shifting to the
oxygen-poor water from north, such that it’s impinging on the flow of the Labrador
the south up the Eastern Current near the Tail of the Grand Banks and reducing the
Seaboard to the North supply of well-oxygenated water to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Atlantic. Meanwhile the Credit: K. Cantner, AGI
Labrador Current flows
down from the Arctic Ocean, delivering of the Gulf of St. Lawrence have declined
cold, oxygen-rich water to the Gulf of by as much as 50 percent. “This trend of
St. Lawrence. The GFDL climate model declining oxygen in the world’s oceans has
showed that warming has triggered a the potential to affect biodiversity, fisher-
shift in ocean dynamics such that the ies and the cycling of nutrients and other
Gulf Stream is impinging on the Tail of elements that are important to the way the
the Grand Banks, reducing the supply oceans function,” says Denise Breitburg, a
of well-oxygenated Labrador Current marine and estuary ecologist at the Smith-
waters to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. More- sonian Environmental Research Center in
over, based on the model, the researchers Edgewater, Md., who was not involved
traced this shift in large-scale currents to in the new study. “As the American Lung
the slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Association’s catchphrase used to say, ‘If
Overturning Circulation, which is the you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.’”
Atlantic branch of the global thermo- Breitburg says she’d “like to see modeling
haline ocean circulation. Linking these approaches like the one used in this study
global and local systems with the model applied in more places. That will help us
is an important step forward, Claret says. piece together the changes we’re seeing,
Since 1960, oxygen levels in the global and can expect to see in the future, in the
ocean have dropped about 2 percent, while ocean as a whole.”
oxygen in the deeper parts of the interior Mary Caperton Morton

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News

The geology of kidney stones revealed

K
idney stones are an excru- Fouke and his colleagues, including crystal dissolution — something that was
ciatingly painful problem study lead authors Mayandi Sivaguru thought impossible for calcium oxalate
for 10 percent of the world’s and Jessica Saw, both at the University of stones while they’re still in the kidney.
population. In a new study Illinois as well, sliced the kidney stones All the stones the researchers studied
applying geobiological methods to the to a thickness of 20 microns. Then, they contained cross-cutting crystals jutting
study of human kidney stones, research- imaged the thin slices with a recently through the fine layers, a hallmark of
ers have shed light on how the stones developed type of light microscopy called partial dissolution. “The layers show
form, and revealed that they partially Airyscan super-resolution microscopy. a clear history of growing, dissolving,
and repeatedly dissolve inside the kidney The approach yielded a never-before-seen recrystallizing and dissolving, resulting
— which could help in developing new look at kidney stones and highlighted the in more than 75 percent of the original
protocols to treat the pervasive affliction. interior growth patterns of the stones. bulk stone material being dissolved and
Most kidney stones are made of crys- “I’ve never seen another rock deposit replaced,” he says.
tallized calcium oxalate, which has been anywhere on planet Earth — not in caves, “This is really beautiful work,” says
thought to be insoluble in the kidney. To oceans, lakes or hot springs — that has Saeed Khan, a urologist at the University
get rid of kidney stones,
they must be passed nat-
urally through the body
— an extremely painful
process — removed inva-
sively through surgery or
broken up by lithotripsy
using sound waves so
they can be more easily
passed. After removal,
the stones are usually
disposed of, with most
studies and patient-mon-
itoring efforts focused
on urine chemistry, not
the stones themselves.
“It struck me that most
medical doctors don’t
really study the stones, Under a high-resolution light microscope, kidney stones reveal never-before-seen patterns of growth
but I’ve never met a rock and dissolution.
that doesn’t have a his- Credit: both: Jessica Saw
tory,” says Bruce Fouke, a
geobiologist at the University of Illinois at this high of a frequency of layering,” of Florida who was not involved in the
Urbana-Champaign and co-author of the Fouke says. study. “The images are the most detailed
new study published in Scientific Reports. The layers revealed by the micros- ever produced. It’s remarkable to see
As both a geologist and microbiologist, copy technique were between 50 and how kidney stone formation happens,
Fouke primarily studies naturally occur- 100 nanometers thick, and each stone was layer by layer.”
ring mineral buildups such as those that made up of tens of thousands of layers. The evidence for dissolution is
form in coral reefs or oil fields, as well “Using the patient histories, we were intriguing, Khan says. “But dissolving a
as travertine deposits in hot springs and able to surmise that each of those layers few layers of crystals is a long way from
Roman aqueducts — environments where was laid down on the scale of minutes,” dissolving the entire stone.” Still, the
microbes play important roles in miner- Fouke says. “As it turns out, the best finding may open new lines of inquiry
alization. “We decided to work up kidney recorder of the physiology and func- into the conditions that accompany dis-
stones in the same way that we study any tion of the human kidney is the stone solution inside the kidney, he says. Other
naturally occurring crystalline deposit. itself. That’s one of two big revelations studies have shown that stains applied to
This kind of analysis has never before from this study.” The other is that the the outside of kidney stones can find their
been done on kidney stones,” he says. stones also record a history of substantial way into the interior of the stone. “This

page 22 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

 News

means that a change in urine chemistry

can affect the entire stone. We may be
able to change the urine chemistry and
perhaps dissolve the stone, at least par-
tially, in situ,” Khan says.
Fouke and his colleagues plan to
continue their work by pairing patient
histories with records of kidney stone
growth and dissolution to understand the
conditions that trigger layers to be laid
down or dissolved. “We’re also working
on a very detailed analysis of the proteins
and peptides that are trapped within the
layers, some of which might be cata-
lyzing or inhibiting the rate of growth,
much like microbes do in hot springs,”
Fouke says. “These combined approaches
open up a new world of possibilities for
treating kidney stones without painful
passage or surgery. If we can figure out
how to encourage wholesale stone disso-
lution inside the kidney, everyone will be
very happy.”
Mary Caperton Morton
“Flash droughts” on the rise
Scientists have identified two types of “flash droughts” — droughts that
rapidly intensify — that have been growing in frequency and intensity
over the last 30 years. One type occurs over wetter regions and is driven
by high temperatures combined with increased evapotranspiration and
decreased soil moisture. The other occurs over more arid regions and is
driven by lack of rainfall combined with higher temperatures and increased
evapotranspiration. Flash droughts threaten crop yields and water supplies.
Wang and Yuan, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, October 2018
Storm-tossed coral blocks seed new islands
A study of coral reefs on Funafuti Atoll in Tuvalu in the South Pacific has
led researchers to suggest a new mechanism for island formation: nucle-
ation around storm-deposited coral blocks. Radiometric dating of the
coral blocks and boulders that form the underlying structure of Funafuti
revealed they were deposited in four discrete storm phases over the
past 1,100 years, with lags in between, during which coral grew and sand
accumulated, building up the island. The researchers suggest such islands
could be “promising archives for unraveling paleo-storm frequencies at
mid-ocean locations.”
Kench et al., Geology, September 2018

Mesosaurs may have spent time on land

M
esosaurs are famous for analyze individual bones from 40 meso- They compared mesosaur features to
being the earliest-known saurs ranging from juveniles to adults. modern species of aquatic and semi-
fully aquatic reptiles. aquatic animals, identifying subtle
With their whip- similarities that suggest mesosaurs
like tails, webbed feet and nostrils might have spent time on land.
on top of their heads, the 2-meter- Ankle bones in adult mesosaurs
long reptiles appear to have been suggest “a more terrestrial or amphib-
well adapted for life in the water. ious locomotion rather than a fully
But in a new study, scientists have aquatic behavior as widely suggested
found fossil evidence that mesosaurs before,” said lead author Pablo Nuñez
may have spent some of their adult Demarco of the University of the
lives on land. Republic in Uruguay in a statement.
Studying mesosaur fossils pulled “The tail bones also showed similar-
from the 280-million-year-old ities to semi-aquatic and terrestrial
Mangrullo Formation of Uruguay, animals,” Demarco said.
researchers noticed that fossils of How much time adult mesosaurs
larger, mature mesosaurs were may have spent on land remains
often found disarticulated and more unknown. “It is impossible to know
weathered than juvenile fossils, sug- if mesosaurids came onto land only
gesting that the adults may have to bask, like seals or crocodiles, or
died on land, where fossils are not if they were a bit more agile,” the
usually as well preserved. To test Mesosaurs were well adapted to life in the water, but team wrote in Frontiers in Ecology
this hypothesis, the researchers adults may have also spent time on land. and Evolution.
turned to digital morphometrics to Credit: Roman Yevseyev and Graciela Piñeiro Mary Caperton Morton

page 23 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

News
Quirky lunar swirls expose the moon’s secret past
L
unar observers have long noted
mysterious “swirls,” patterns
of alternating bright and dark
shading, adorning the lunar
surface. The popular Reiner Gamma
formation — first described by Renais-
sance astronomers and now beloved by
backyard astronomy enthusiasts — is one
such lunar swirl.
The wispy-edged swirls typically
alternate in brightness over distances of
1 to 5 kilometers and are found in clus-
ters and as isolated features dozens of
kilo­meters across. They look as if they’re
almost painted onto the moon’s surface,
and “seem to be unique to the moon —
there’s no evidence of them anywhere else
in the solar system,” says Douglas Heming-
way, a planetary scientist at the Carnegie
Institution for Science in Washington,
D.C., and a co-author of a new study
investigating the features published in the
Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
Etna’s slope sliding due
to gravity, not magma
The southeast flank of Europe’s
most active volcano, Mount Etna
on Sicily, is sliding into the sea
a few centimeters each year.
Researchers previously attributed
the sliding to pressurization of
the magmatic system based on
satellite measurements. But a
new study using seafloor geo-
detic data has found that the
offshore portion of the flank is
also slipping, and that the defor-
mation increases away from the
magmatic system, suggesting
the motion is instead driven by
gravity. The finding indicates that
a catastrophic collapse of the
flank, which would likely trigger a
large tsunami, could pose an even
bigger risk to the eastern Mediter-
ranean than previously thought.
Urlaub et al., Science Advances, Octo-
ber 2018
page 24 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
The bright and dark
shading characteristic of
lunar swirls is seen in this
oblique view looking east
over the Reiner Gamma
formation. The image was
taken by the Lunar Recon-
naissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space
Flight Center/Arizona State
University
Past lunar swirl research focused on
understanding their relationship with
space weathering. “Swirls are thought
to form where local magnetic fields
shield parts of the lunar surface from
exposure to the solar wind or where
those magnetic fields lead to sorting of
some of the finest lunar soils,” wrote
Hemingway, who was at the Univer-
sity of California, Berkeley, during
the research, and his colleague, Sonia
Tikoo of Rutgers University in New
Jersey. In the new study, the researchers
have discovered surprising connections
between the swirls and the moon’s vol-
canic past.
Due to their association with local
magnetic fields on the moon, which
are themselves created by magnetized
bodies of rock at or below the surface,
lunar swirls serve as “optical magne-
tometers,” offering information about
lunar magnetism at a finer scale than is
available from magnetometers on lunar
orbiting spacecraft, Hemingway says.
He and Tikoo used this information
to explore the size, shape, depth and
magnetic strength of the bodies of rock
responsible for the swirl-forming fields.
They found that those bodies must be
narrow — less than a few kilometers
wide — and situated at shallow depths
within a few kilometers of the moon’s
surface, observations consistent with
the notion that magnetized lava tubes
or dikes are the source of these fields,
the researchers reported. Additionally,
the team’s analysis answers (at least in
part) a long-standing question: “Why
is it that swirls are found at many, but
not all, of the localized crustal mag-
netic anomalies?”
A strong surface magnetic field —
which is produced by highly magnetized
rocks — is needed to generate the swirl-
ing patterns, according to the study. To
achieve this extreme magnetization in
lava tubes or dikes, something must have
enhanced their magnetism, the authors
wrote. It’s possible that the dikes or lava
tubes originated from unusually iron-
rich magmas, which passed this iron
enrichment on to the resulting rocks, but
Hemingway and Tikoo think a different
process is responsible: thermochemi-
cal alteration of the surrounding host
rock when the lava tubes or dikes were
emplaced. Heat from intruding magma
would bake the host rock, which could
strengthen the magnetism from existing
ferromagnetic grains in the rock and/
or cause new such grains to form, the
researchers suggested.
The study is interesting because its
results align with one of several hypoth-
eses for how the magnetic anomalies
form, says David Blewett, a planetary
geologist at Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory who wasn’t
involved in the work, but who studies
 News

lunar swirls using remote sensing meth-

ods. This work supports the idea that
the magnetic anomalies “originate in
volcanic or magmatic rocks that attained
their magnetization … when the moon’s
core was generating a dynamo field,”
he notes. “The degree of magnetization
implied by Hemingway and Tikoo’s cal-
culations is much higher than that found
in any lunar samples,” Blewett says, but
the team addressed this problem. They
cited experiments showing that when
moon rocks are heated under lunar con-
ditions, “the iron in certain minerals can
be reduced to the metallic state, boosting
the ability of the rock to carry a strong
magnetization,” and uncovering “the
exciting possibility” that the moon has
rocks with higher metallic iron contents
Tasmania, U.S. Southwest were once neighbors
Roughly 1.1 billion years ago, during the time of the Rodinian superconti-
nent, Tasmania was connected to the southwestern part of the proto-North
American landmass of Laurentia, according to a new study. Researchers
identified rocks of similar age, stratigraphy and geochemistry in Tasmania
and the Grand Canyon, which today are more than 13,000 kilometers apart.
The finding suggests that Tasmania was situated between Laurentia and
East Antarctica in Rodinia.
Mulder et al., Geology, October 2018
than have been previously observed, Additional mapping of the moon
he says. surface’s magnetic fields is the next
Understanding lunar swirls is import- step in this research, Hemingway says.
ant with respect to “a number of key issues And, he notes, a few research teams are
in planetary science,” Blewett says, from exploring the potential use of either
how swirls interrupt the moon’s inter- ultra-low orbiting spacecraft or rovers
actions with solar wind to clarifying the for this purpose.
moon’s thermal history. Rachel Crowell

Melting glaciers shift Earth’s axis

A
perfectly round desk globe
spins evenly on a fixed axis,
but that’s not the case with
Earth, which wobbles as the
position of its spin axis — the imaginary
line running between the North and
South poles — slowly drifts over time. In a
new study in Earth and Planetary Science
Letters, scientists suggest that there are
three main reasons for the movement
of Earth’s spin axis, called polar motion.
The position of Earth’s spin axis shifts
by about 10 centimeters per year, or
roughly 10 meters over a century. Using
a combination of observational and mod-
el-based data spanning the 20th century, a
team led by Surendra Adhikari of NASA’s The drift of Earth’s spin axis (polar motion) is caused by melting ice, glacial rebound and
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, mantle convection, according to new research. The light blue line shows the observed
Calif., found that melting glacial ice, direction of polar motion, as compared with the sum (pink line) of the influence of
glacial rebound and mantle convection Greenland ice loss (blue), postglacial rebound (yellow) and deep mantle convection (red).
all contribute to this polar motion. The Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
effect of glacial rebound — the land rising
in response to glacial melt after the last a statement. “We identified not one but shifting the spin axis of the planet. The
Ice Age — has been reported previously. three sets of processes that are crucial; and researchers also implicated the mantle,
“The traditional explanation is that one melting of the global cryosphere, espe- in which mass is redistributed by plate
process, glacial rebound, is responsible cially Greenland, over the course of the tectonics and convection, but its contri-
for this motion of Earth’s spin axis. But 20th century is one of them.” bution to polar motion relative to those
recently, many researchers have speculated Melting glacial ice in Greenland has of glacial melting and rebound is not
that other processes could have potentially redistributed more than 7,500 gigatons yet known.
large effects on it as well,” Adhikari said in of water weight into the world’s oceans, Mary Caperton Morton

page 25 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

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Feature

EYES IN THE SEA

Swarms of Floating Robots Observe the Oceans
Bethany Augliere

I
n 1999, Peter Franks, a biological oceanographer at Scripps
Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, published a
hypothesis that, to his knowledge, nobody had previously
considered. Using a mathematical model, he showed how
tiny zooplankton and phytoplankton could interact with ocean
currents driven by internal waves — slow-moving waves within
the ocean that form between water layers of differing density
— and form patchy bands running parallel to shorelines. These
patches of plankton could benefit from being squeezed together
by wave action, he thought, by being better able to feed, survive
or even reproduce.
In addition to illuminating fundamental information about
plankton behavior and movement, understanding plankton
transport mechanisms in the ocean has many other implications,
including for commercial fisheries of lobsters, oysters and crabs,
which rely on ocean currents to transport their larval stages.

When Scripps biological oceanographer Peter Franks needed a way to mimic planktonic movements in the ocean, Scripps research
oceanographer Jules Jaffe created low-cost “miniature autonomous underwater explorers,” or M-AUEs. The M-AUEs can be deployed
in swarms to track planktonic movements as well as small-scale circulation patterns, oil spill dispersion or even sewage movement.
Credit: Jaffe Lab for Underwater Imaging, Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego

page 28 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org


M-AUEs are designed to mimic plankton and other organisms,
such as crab larvae, as they move in the oceans. Franks had
hypothesized that plankton and larvae moved in bands along the
shorelines, and the M-AUE research confirmed his hypothesis.
Credit: above: NOAA; right: Peter Franks
The problem was that Franks couldn’t test his
hypothesis in the field because it required tracking
the movements of plankton patches as they drift.
And the technology to do that simply did not exist.
Looking for help, Franks turned to his Scripps
colleague, Jules Jaffe, an oceanographer with whom
he’d begun collaborating several years earlier. Jaffe’s
work involved building custom instruments and
developing new technologies for use in oceano-
graphic research. For instance, he helped design
the optical system aboard the imaging sled that was
used to find the remains of the Titanic in 1985.
Developing new technologies for scientists is still his
goal today, Jaffe says. He’s motivated to help when
he hears a biologist say, “‘Wow, I really could use
that data because it’s going to tell me something I
would like to know.’”
Franks needed an autonomous robotic technology
that would mimic the movements of the plankton
he was studying, and he paired with Jaffe, who was
already working on prototypes. One early version
resembled Sputnik — a basketball-sized, milled alu-
minum sphere that would drift below the surface.
But to mimic plankton, the robots needed to be
smaller, and they needed to be less expensive. They
also needed to be trackable underwater, and to have
the capability to maintain a specified depth, to adjust
their buoyancy to sink and rise to different depths,
and to swim against vertical currents. These were
significant technical challenges, Jaffe says. For a few
years, he experimented with different designs before
finally coming up with one that would work. After
Jaffe and Franks received a $1 million grant from the
National Science Foundation in 2009, Jaffe set out to
build about 20 miniature autonomous underwater
page 29 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Feature
explorers, or M-AUEs, that could mimic planktonic
movements in the ocean.
Jaffe’s latest version of the tiny robot resem-
bles a Minion, one of the little yellow cartoon
characters from the “Despicable Me” movies. The
1.5-liter cylinders can be programmed to move up
and down in the water column and are equipped
with temperature and pressure sensors, as well as
underwater microphones called hydrophones. By
deploying dozens of these robots at a time, scientists
can capture a three-dimensional picture of the ocean
and marine life.
Biological research in the ocean “suffers badly
from only measuring one point at a time, or one
line at a time,” Jaffe says. “So, how do we figure
out a way to sample this three-dimensional space?
I think that still haunts oceanography. The answer
to me, and I think to a lot of people now, is to build
swarms of robots.”
While Jaffe and Franks built their M-AUEs to
investigate plankton ecology, such M-AUEs have
many other applications as well. The hope is that
one day these coffee can-sized robots can be deployed
across the world to track everything from oil spills
to harmful algal blooms to sewage, or even to look
at how juvenile animals move between marine
protected areas, Jaffe says. So much is unknown
about small-scale dynamics in the oceans that the
possibilities for using swarms of small floats are
nearly endless.
Floating Around the Ocean
In the 20th century, ocean observations came
mostly from shipboard instruments, towed arrays
Feature
The 4,000 or so Argo floats that are deployed across
the world’s oceans today make up one of the earliest
and best-known arrays of autonomous floats. The
battery-powered floats freely drift at 2,000 meters
depth and rise to the surface about every 10 days to
transmit their data back to shore via satellites.
Credit: Veronica Tamsitt, CC BY 2.0
dragged behind ships or from moored buoys. In
addition to these technologies, many robotic tech-
nologies exist today to study the ocean, from floats
of various sizes that drift with currents while also
moving vertically through the water column, like the
M-AUEs, to remotely operated vehicles and self-pro-
pelled autonomous underwater vehicles, like the
REMUS (Remote Environmental Monitoring Units)
craft developed at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. These technologies allow scientists to
measure and understand ocean dynamics, like the
directions and speeds of currents, as well as physical
characteristics like temperature and salinity.
One of the most well-known float systems is the
Argo array, a global collection of 4,000 free-drifting
battery-powered floats that drift at 2,000 meters
depth. Every 10 days, a given float rises to the
surface while measuring temperature and salinity,
and transmits those data back to shore via satellites.
Once the data are transmitted, the floats sink again
and resume their drifting. That cycle continues
until the unit’s battery runs out, typically after
about five years.
page 30 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Each Argo float costs about $15,000 — three times the
cost of the M-AUEs — and weighs about 40 kilograms.
Credit: Veronica Tamsitt, CC BY 2.0
Argo floats were initially deployed in 2000, and
about 800 new ones are deployed each year. Argo
is the first system to provide a broad survey of
information about oceanic characteristics, particu-
larly below the surface, and has improved scientific
understanding of the role of oceans in global climate
and the accuracy of climate prediction.
Argo continues to expand, with researchers add-
ing biological monitoring capabilities to the floats
for the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Obser-
vations and Modeling project (SOCCOM). From
2014 to 2017, the SOCCOM team deployed about
100 augmented Argo floats in the Southern Ocean
that, in addition to salinity and temperature, are
measuring pH, nitrogen and dissolved oxygen. They
are also being used to reassess ocean-atmosphere
carbon dioxide fluxes around the Southern Ocean,
long considered a major carbon sink: Data from
the SOCCOM floats have recently shown that the
Southern Ocean releases significantly more carbon
dioxide than previously thought.
However, the Argo floats do not work for all
purposes. For one thing, they are meant to study
 Feature

processes across large scales, like whole ocean basins.

They’re also expensive to build and deploy — each
one costs $15,000, not including costs to conduct
experiments or analyze the data. And they’re bulky,
weighing 40 kilograms and requiring a large research
vessel to deploy. Additionally, they cannot be tracked
in real time and their data are only relayed when
they surface.
With smaller robots like the M-AUEs that Jaffe
developed, scientists can sample ocean character-
istics on local or regional scales (less than about
10 kilometers), including processes that occur in
minutes and over a few hundred meters, like internal
waves in shallow waters. In the last 10 to 15 years, Studying the dynamics that impact plankton, like these
researchers have begun studying submesoscale flows hydromedusa Solmaris rhodoloma off Southern Cali-
and their dynamics that occur on scales of 1 to 10 fornia, is central to the M-AUE mission.
kilometers. These submesoscale currents are thought Credit: Bob Cowen, University of Miami and Oregon State University
to be important for phytoplankton growth and the
mixing of nutrients in the upper ocean, Franks says. Plankton Impersonators
M-AUEs also have the advantage of being deploy- In their effort to study plankton movement,
able from a small 6-meter boat. In addition, the Franks and Jaffe program the M-AUEs to hover at
devices are trackable in real time at the surface and a various depths within the upper 50 meters of the
their subsea trajectories are mappable. Moreover, water column using buoyancy control. The research-
each one only costs about $5,000, a third of the cost ers regulate the M-AUEs’ depth via movements
of an Argo unit and a price that will likely decrease of a small piston that is controlled by an onboard
in the future, Franks says. Because of the floats’ computer that continuously analyzes data from the
small size and cost, “now, all of a sudden, we can do M-AUEs’ sensors. Each float’s housing consists of
coastal oceanography [studies] with swarms of min- two concentric foam cylinders forming inner and
iature robots,” Jaffe says, which allows researchers outer sleeves that can slide over each other to create
to “measure things in many different places at the large changes in the robot’s volume and buoyancy to
same time — that’s pretty cool.” bring each up to the surface for recovery. They have

Jaffe (left) and Franks developed the M-AUEs together. Franks told Jaffe what he needed to track plankton and larvae
movement in the oceans, and Jaffe created the technology.
Credit: Jaffe Lab for Underwater Imaging, Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego

page 31 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Feature

Jaffe and his team tested the M-AUEs in an experimental water

tank hundreds of times to get the exact specifications needed. It took many incarnations of the M-AUEs, including this
The most recent version of the M-AUEs is a 1.5-liter cylinder that prototype from 2009 (artist’s conception), to create
can be programmed to move up and down in the water column. ones that did exactly what Jaffe and Franks needed.
Credit: Jaffe Lab for Underwater Imaging, Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego Credit: Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego

enough battery power and data storage capacity to
last several days.
One of the biggest challenges in developing the
M-AUEs was figuring out how to track them contin-
uously; equipping them with GPS receivers wouldn’t
work because they’d be underwater, and Jaffe and
Franks did not want the units to have to resurface
during their deployment, as Argo floats do. So Jaffe
designed an acoustic system to track them continu-
ously under water. The system uses GPS-equipped
moorings that float at the water’s surface and send
out sonar pings to the M-AUEs every 12 seconds.
The pings are recorded by the robots’ hydrophones.
The researchers then use those data to calculate the
locations of the robots.
Another major challenge, Jaffe says, was pro-
gramming the computers aboard the M-AUEs to
understand their own changes. Jaffe discovered — via
repeated trial and error in an experimental tank in
his lab — that the M-AUEs are compressed a little
by water pressure as they go deeper, which changes
their buoyancy. When that happens, he says, the
onboard computer must recognize and compensate
for it to maintain the correct depth. Creating an
algorithm by which the computer could make such
corrections wasn’t easy, he says, but after a few hun-
dred attempts, they managed to do it. Another part of
this challenge was keeping the M-AUEs within a half
meter or where the researchers want the robots to be.
“That’s not easy because there are vertical currents

Drew Lucas and Jessica

Garwood prepare the Wire-
walker for deployment.
The Wirewalker is a pro-
filing vehicle powered by
waves and developed by
the Ocean Physics Group
at Scripps. It was used in
experiments in 2016 to
measure water properties
(salinity, temperature, oxy-
gen, fluorescence). Wire-
walker data were transmit-
ted via a cellular network
every 20 minutes and were Using external ports, the target depths of the M-AUEs were
used to inform M-AUE quickly programmed on board, based on the latest water column
deployments. data transmitted by the Wirewalker.
Credit: Captain Ryan Hersey Credit: Devin Ratelle

page 32 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org


in the ocean as well as horizontal ones, along with
buoyancy and density changes,” he says.
All the challenges of this project required tech-
nical innovations, Jaffe says. “We struggled with a
number of different aspects of it, but if you bang your
head against the wall long enough, sometimes the
wall gets soft,” he says with a laugh. And ultimately,
they succeeded. The M-AUEs’ size and affordability,
and the scientists’ ability to program the floats’ buoy-
ancy, meant Franks could finally test his plankton
hypothesis in the field.
In 2015, Franks, Jaffe and a team from Scripps
deployed 16 M-AUEs — programmed to stay
10 meters below the surface, a depth where internal
waves form — off the coast of Southern California
near La Jolla. Over five hours, the team tracked and
followed the floats, which constantly adjusted their
buoyancy to remain at the programmed depth.
The data supported Franks’ hypothesis. With the
pressure and temperature sensors, Franks could see
After a successful deployment in 2016, local fishermen noticed
the M-AUEs surfacing and recovered them before the Scripps
Oceanography team could get to them. As the researchers mon-
itored the location of the M-AUEs, they could not believe how
fast the units were traveling (courtesy of hitching a ride on the
fishing boats, though that was unbeknownst to the team). When
the M-AUEs finally stopped moving, the Scripps team plotted their
location on a map and showed it to Captain Ryan Hersey. “That’s
the marina bar! Looks like the M-AUEs have gone for a drink after
a long day of work,” Captain Hersey commented, laughing. The
M-AUEs were successfully returned to the Scripps team, thanks
to a “Reward for Return” note on the units.
Credit: Devin Ratelle
page 33 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Feature
Garwood, Laura deGelleke and Devin Ratelle (near to
far) deploy M-AUEs.
Credit: Captain Ryan Hersey
that internal waves pushed the M-AUEs together
over the trough of the waves and dispersed the
robots as the wave crests moved past. “It was so
exciting,” Franks says. “I whooped with joy. Just
watching the waves propagate though the swarm
was utterly astounding. It was the coolest thing I’ve
ever seen; it’s still is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
With the results from the 2015 deployment,
Franks felt he had proved that internal waves are
capable of causing plankton to form shore-parallel
bands. The next step was figuring out whether they
could transport plankton onshore. In 2016, Jessica
Garwood, a graduate student working with Franks,
deployed 16 robots twice a day for two weeks off the
coast of San Diego.
Since that 2016 deployment, Garwood has been
combing through the data. She says she is partic-
ularly excited about a 15-minute segment during
her experiments. During this period, she found
that the interaction between the internal wave and
the surface current pushed the M-AUEs to shore
faster than expected. Subject to just the inter-
nal-wave currents, the planktonic impersonators
would have moved to shore at a velocity of less
than 2 centimeters per second. However, when the
internal wave interacted with the surface current,
the floats moved at up to 15 to 20 centimeters
per second. The work has revealed a mechanism
of plankton transport — relevant to swimming
Feature
plankton — not previously described in scientific
literature, Garwood says, noting that she can’t share
all the details because the team’s latest results have
not been published yet. “Nobody has really brought
this idea forward, so I’m really excited about what
I’m working on right now,” she says.
“The more we understand the mechanisms that
transport [plankton], the better we can estimate
how far away from their original populations larvae
might disperse, and how this might be affected by a
warming ocean,” Garwood says.
Other Eyes on Plankton
Like Franks, Steven Morgan, an oceanographer
at the University of California, Davis, is also using
robots to study how and where zooplankton move.
“We put radio collars on mountain lions, deer and all
this wildlife to get an idea of how far they disperse
and how many survive. We just don’t have that
information for [larval] marine organisms,” Morgan
says. “It’s a really fundamental piece of biology that
we don’t [understand].”
Morgan has spent his career studying and sur-
veying the microscopic larval stages of marine
invertebrates and fish along the coast of Northern
California. Surveying can tell him where different
species are at various points in their life cycles, but
not how they are traveling. In recent years, his goal
has been to prove that some of these tiny critters can
in fact swim and control where they go. Without
physical evidence, though, that’s hard to do, he says.
page 34 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Oceanographer Steven Morgan of the University of
California, Davis, is using swarms of robotic floats
called ABLEs (Autonomous Behaving Lagrangian
Explorers) off the coast of Northern California to
study how and where zooplankton move.
Credit: both: Steven Morgan
“Most people think plankton
are just passively transported by
currents — hapless victims of
their environment,” Morgan says. But “these are ani-
mals; they have behaviors, they are adapted to their
environment,” he says. “What we’ve been finding
over the years is that their vertical swimming behav-
ior is pretty effective at enabling larvae to regulate
their movement.” To track that movement, Morgan
is building his own tiny robotic floats.
Morgan is collaborating with retired North Car-
olina State University biologists, Tom Wolcott and
Donna Wolcott, who designed a small seafaring
robot called ABLE (Autonomous Behaving Lagrang-
ian Explorer). Like the M-AUEs, ABLEs, which look
like yellow fire extinguishers, can be tracked in real
time at the surface, programmed to regulate their
depth, and come equipped with sensors to monitor
depth, salinity and temperature every 10 seconds.
They’re also small and inexpensive, so Morgan and
his colleagues can deploy many at a time.
Morgan programs the robots to mimic the nat-
ural behavior of various planktonic larvae. Some
robots are programmed to stay low in the water
column, and others are programmed to rise from
depth at night, simulating how over half of surveyed
species stay close to shore. Other robots simulate a
third common behavioral pattern of residing high
in the water column for the first part of their lives
and descending later in development. Larvae with
this behavior get carried out to sea with surface
currents, and once they mature, they swim deeper

ABLEs, used to track larvae in the oceans, Tom Wolcott and Donna Wolcott, retired North Carolina State University biologists,
look like yellow fire extinguishers. designed the ABLEs.
Credit: Steven Morgan Credit: Steven Morgan
into shoreward-flowing currents. Once they arrive
closer to shore, they metamorphose into juveniles
and grow into adults.
Since 2015, Morgan and his team repeatedly
deployed nine robots in the northern end of Bodega
Bay off the coast of Northern California, which has
a more complex circulation pattern compared to a
straight coastline. When winds are northwesterly,
currents travel southward, but during wind relax-
ations, the water flows out of the bay and northward
along the coast.
The team tracked the ABLEs for 24 hours on
12 different occasions during strong northwesterly
winds, and on 12 more occasions during wind relax-
ations. They programmed each of the ABLEs with
one of three behaviors to mimic larvae: stay 2 meters
off the bottom, stay 2 meters from the surface or
vertically migrate over the day-night cycle.
As Morgan had expected, the plankton-mimick-
ing robots rode the ocean currents like a conveyor
belt, he says, and used the water column to travel in
different directions. After decades trying to deter-
mine if larvae can swim well enough to overcome
the push and pull of currents and to regulate their
movement based on their position in the water
column, “this now is going to be concrete evidence”
that they can, he says.
page 35 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Feature
Now, Morgan’s team is deploying ABLEs simu-
lating multiple behaviors for up to three weeks to
determine how far larvae of species with different
behaviors disperse. He also wants to track them
in estuaries.
Following these larvae will answer fundamen-
tal ecological questions along the California coast,
Morgan says, such as how far and where the larvae
of different species travel. This in turn can help sci-
entists and managers figure out how these animals
disperse and settle along the coast, and the connec-
tion among marine protected areas. Knowing that
information can help address larger conservation
conundrums, such as how to best manage fisheries,
how invasive species are spreading and how climate
change is affecting larval dispersal.
Going Even Smaller
Other researchers are developing swarms of
robots for multipoint oceanographic studies as well.
Under the direction of its founder, Tyler MacCready,
Apium Swarm Robotics, based in Glendale, Calif.,
is building autonomous underwater vehicles. The
prototype of the Data Diver looks like a stick, a lit-
tle less than a meter long, that can coordinate with
other divers to descend on command to the seafloor,
Feature

Other researchers, such as Tyler MacCready, are also devel-

oping swarms of miniature robots for multipoint ocean-
ographic studies. MacCready created stick-shaped Data
Divers that can coordinate with other units to descend on
command and travel along the seafloor. His latest prototype
is the SwarmDiver, which can respond to its environment
and to other robots in the swarm.
Credit: Apium, Inc.

travel up to 7 kilometers, and have a maximum speed
of 7 kilometers per hour. With their streamlined
design, the divers do particularly well in the surf
zone, MacCready says.
The autonomous vehicles are programmed to
respond to their environment and to the other robots
in the swarm in order to act in unison (they’re cur-
rently being produced as SwarmDiver by Aquabotix).
These divers can be deployed from the shoreline
and can cruise around the ocean surface within a
square-kilometer area, MacCready says. At the push
of a button, they all take a vertical nose-dive toward
the seafloor, about 50 meters down, currently their
deepest operational depth. They can be programmed
for different formations as well, such as a line, circle
or uniform area coverage. Once back at the surface,

The size of SwarmDivers — less than a meter long — makes them easy to deploy. Once they are deployed, they dive from the surface
to the seafloor, where they can travel up to 7 kilometers in one hour.
Credit: both: Apium, Inc.

page 36 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

 Feature

Jaffe says the key to understanding how plankton (such as those shown here: left: a
medusa-like plankton from the Gulf of Mexico; above: phytoplankton from McMurdo
Sound, Antarctica) move in the oceans is to build swarms of robots.
Credit: both: NOAA

the vehicles then transmit data, which offers a
three-dimensional snapshot of the ocean relayed in
near real time.
“We can send our vehicles out, and we can do
one of these snapshots in a couple of minutes. Then,
15 minutes later we can do another,” MacCready says.
“We can make a three-dimensional movie of how
things” — like temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen,
sound velocity, chlorophyll and the presence of oil
— “are evolving in a certain volume of water.” These
capabilities can provide information that’s useful for
nearshore mapping of the seafloor or currents, he
says. MacCready says the U.S. Navy is interested in
this technology because the robots could collect data
and do tasks normally done by divers.
While a few scientists are working on using
small autonomous vehicles to mimic plankton, other
researchers are deploying similar robotic craft in
large numbers for a variety of other applications.
Oceanographers at the University of Washington
used surface drifters in the Gulf of Mexico near the
2010 Deep Water Horizon oil spill to understand
how oil disperses. Another study used drifters to
examine how marine debris moves across the ocean
surface, which could help track where trash and
plastic end up.
Meanwhile, Jaffe and Franks are hoping to secure
funding to make the next generation of M-AUEs
even smaller. “I’d like to get these things down to the
size of a Ping-Pong ball,” Franks says. Then, instead
of using 20 at a time, they could put out thousands.
“This combination of technology, physics and biol-
ogy allows us to understand the biology in a much
more insightful and deep way.”
Augliere (www.bethanyaugliere.com) is a freelance
writer and photographer. She is a graduate of the
science communication program at the University of
California, Santa Cruz, and holds a master’s degree in
marine biology from Florida Atlantic University.

page 37 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Feature
Travels in Geology
LHASA, TIBET
Journey to the Roof of the World
Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
F
ew destinations are as alluring as the wild
and windswept Tibetan Plateau. With an
average elevation of 4,500 meters, it is
Earth’s highest tableland and one of the
most isolated regions on the planet. Tibet’s capital,
Lhasa, one of the world’s highest cities, is simply
breathtaking — both literally, given the low oxy-
gen levels at this altitude, and figuratively, with its
mountainous backdrop and the gleaming white-
washed walls of Potala Palace, an enduring symbol of
Tibetan Buddhism, rising high above the Old Town.
As we saw firsthand when our family visited last
summer, Lhasa — with its intricately painted statues,
gilded-dome stupas housing Buddhist relics, and
thousands of prayer wheels glistening in the flick-
ering light of yak-butter candles — is a place that’s
both above and apart from the rest of the world.
page 38 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
No visit to the windswept Tibetan
Plateau would be complete with-
out seeing Mount Everest, the
world’s highest peak.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
As magical as Old Lhasa is, no trip to Tibet,
officially called the Tibet Autonomous Region of
China, would be complete without also experienc-
ing the surrounding countryside. On a four-day
excursion from Lhasa, you can cross the Eurasian-In-
dian collision suture zone, admire the sparkling
turquoise waters of sacred Yamdrok Lake, tour
hidden monasteries belonging to different Buddhist
sects, and marvel at Mount Everest, the world’s
tallest mountain.
Lhasa’s Foundations
Lhasa is tucked in a flat river valley with peaks
rising nearly 2,000 meters on either side. And
with the city itself at an elevation of 3,700 meters
— making the climate balmy by Tibetan standards
 Feature

The southern border of Tibet lies along the Yarlung Tsangpo Suture
Yarlung Tsangpo Suture, the fault zone that
forms the boundary between the Eurasian
and Indian plates.
China
Credit: K. Cantner, AGI

TIBET
— you pass through field after field of Lake Manasarovar Gyantse
cold-tolerant barley, one of the few crops Shigatse Kamba La Pass
that can be widely grown on the Tibetan Ganden Monastery
Nepal Sakya Lhasa
Plateau, while approaching Lhasa. These Tingri Yamdrok Lake
fields then abruptly yield to tracts of ugly Mount Everest
India Bhutan
concrete apartment blocks, the result of
explosive growth produced by China’s
“Great Western Development Strategy” instituted the Jokhang, Tibet’s most important Buddhist tem-
in 1999, the year we last visited Tibet. At that ple, has a storied history and a more traditional
time, independent travel was allowed, but now, Tibetan ambiance.
foreigners must prearrange a tour, which includes Lhasa was established as the capital by Songtsen
transportation and a guide who accompanies Gampo, the leader who unified Tibet in the seventh
you everywhere. century. To solidify his reign, Gampo arranged
The city’s population has grown by more than strategic marriages to Nepal’s Princess Bhrikuti and
100,000 since our last visit; today, 330,000 people China’s Princess Wencheng, both of whom hailed
call Lhasa home. Although the new parts of Lhasa from Buddhist countries. As part of their dowries,
are architecturally identical to hundreds of Chinese both brought important Buddhist statues that the
cities, the Barkhor, the Old Town area built around Jokhang was built to house.

Barkhor Square is the heart of Lhasa’s bustling commercial district.

Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

page 39 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Feature
Thousands of gleaming prayer wheels line the pil-
grimage route around the Jokhang.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
Historians consider these Buddhist princesses to
have been influential in Songtsen Gampo’s decision
to establish Buddhism as Tibet’s state religion, which
remains the central pillar of Tibetan life. This is evident
when you join the throngs of pilgrims performing
the 1-kilometer circumambulation of Jokhang, wind-
ing through a maze of narrow alleys that open onto
the expansive Barkhor Square. The pilgrimage route
passes through the heart of Lhasa’s commercial district,
Pilgrims from across Tibet visit Lhasa to circumambulate the Jokhang.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
page 40 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
creating an intoxicating scene that combines shouting
merchants, bustling noodle stalls, chatting locals and
colorfully dressed pilgrims from the far corners of Tibet
slowly inching their way around the circuit, prostrating
themselves after each and every step.
In addition to the Jokhang, Lhasa hosts three of
the most important monasteries of the Gelug (Yel-
low Hat) Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which is led by
the Dalai Lama, who is also Tibet’s traditional secular
ruler. Two of the monasteries, Sera and Drepung,
are usually included in Lhasa city tours; the third,
Ganden Monastery, is about 50 kilometers from the
city. Drepung Monastery is built on the lower slopes
of Mount Gephel, which offers panoramic views of
the Lhasa River Valley, including the city and Potala
Palace. In addition to offering a wonderful cultural
experience, the monastery is an especially good place
to examine Lhasa’s geologic setting.
The uplift of Tibet occurred along with the Hima-
layan Orogeny, beginning when India first collided
with Asia about 50 million years ago. Prior to this
collision, oceanic crust of the Tethys Ocean was
being subducted beneath the Lhasa Terrane, Asia’s
southernmost boundary during the Cretaceous.
 Feature

The geologic setting was similar to today’s Andes

Mountains, with subduction producing a volcanic
arc that stretched along the continent’s southern
coast. With the onset of the India collision, arc
volcanism shut off. Later uplift of the Lhasa Terrane
resulted in extensive erosion that eventually exposed
the granitic batholith roots that had cooled beneath
the ancient volcanoes. Around Drepung, many of
these granite outcrops host colorful paintings of
the Buddha.

The granite boulders outside Drepung Monastery

Potala Palace
The 17th-century hilltop Potala Palace is an archi-
tectural marvel and Tibet’s iconic symbol. Although
Songtsen Gampo built his palace atop the same hill
in the seventh century, when his Yarlung Empire
fell 250 years later, the center of Tibetan Buddhism
shifted first to Sakya and later to Shigatse, leaving
Lhasa a quiet backwater. Things changed again when
the fifth Dalai Lama vanquished the kingdom of
Shigatse in 1642 and reestablished Lhasa as Tibet’s
capital. The Dalai Lama built his palace, Potala, on
Red Hill atop the ruins of Songtsen Gampo’s orig-
inal structure.
The current palace is 13 stories (117 meters)
tall and — thanks to its hilltop location — rises
300 meters above the valley floor to dominate its sur-
roundings. With whitewashed stone walls, 5 meters
thick at their base, plus more than 1,000 rooms and
10,000 shrines, Potala is massive by any measure.
This palace served as the winter home for the fifth
through 14th Dalai Lamas (Norbulingka, another
Lhasa attraction, served as their summer palace).
The current (14th) Dalai Lama lived there until
1959, when he fled into exile in India
during a Tibetan uprising nine years
after China seized Tibet. The palace
sustained minor damage during that
uprising, but unlike most Tibetan
monasteries, it escaped serious
damage, reportedly because of the
direct intervention of the Chinese
Premier. Potala, along with Jokhang
are remnants of the roots of an Andean-like volcanic
arc that once stretched along Asia’s southern coast.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
and Norbulingka, has been inscribed on the World
Heritage list.
There’s a cap on the number of daily Potala
visitors, and you are required to keep moving
throughout the tour so, unfortunately, you can’t
linger to admire the palace’s many impressive sights.
Room after room contains innumerable statues and
murals depicting Buddhist bodhisattvas — people
who are able to reach nirvana but delay doing so
out of compassion for others — as well as arhats
and Buddhist kings. Eight Dalai Lamas are buried
within the palace in giant dome-shaped shrines
called stupas sheathed in gold and precious jew-
els. The most magnificent of these belongs to the
fifth Dalai Lama. Built of sandalwood in 1690, the
15-meter-tall shrine is decorated with 3,721 kilo-
grams of gold and 20,000 jewels and hosts the thumb
of Sakyamuni, the Supreme Buddha, as well as the
Dalai Lama’s remains.

Potala Palace, Tibetan Buddhism’s

most enduring symbol, is the tradi-
tional home of the Dalai Lama.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

page 41 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Feature
According to local legend, the sparkling waters of
sacred Yamdrok Lake form the shape of a scorpion.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
Yamdrok Lake and the
Yarlung Suture
Most four-day excursions to Mount Everest
start by visiting Shigatse, Tibet’s second city. The
tours typically visit several sites en route, including
beautiful Kamba La Pass, Yamdrok, Tibet’s largest
freshwater lake and one of the plateau’s four sacred
lakes, and an impressive monastery belonging to a
different sect of Tibetan Buddhism.
The tour departs Lhasa heading for Shigatse on
the modern highway to Gonggar Airport, which is
located 65 kilometers south of Lhasa in the Yarlung
River Valley. The headwaters of this river rise in
western Tibet near Lake Manasarovar, another of
the sacred lakes, before flowing eastward and paral-
leling the Himalayan Mountains for 1,200 kilometers
across southern Tibet. Thanks to the valley’s com-
paratively low elevation and mild climate, most of
Tibet’s population lives along the Yarlung, or one of
its major tributaries, such as the Lhasa River.
The Yarlung River flows along the Yarlung
Tsangpo Suture, the fault zone that forms the bound-
ary between the Eurasian and Indian plates. The
page 42 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
A roadside stupa (shrine) perched below Noijin Kang-
sang, a 7,191-meter-tall peak on the road from Yam-
drok Lake to Gyantse.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
precollision histories of the rocks on either side
of the suture are completely different from one
another; the rocks of the Lhasa Terrane to the north
are directly juxtaposed to the south with metamor-
phosed sedimentary rock scraped off the colliding
Indian Plate.
From the airport highway, the route to Yamdrok
Lake, on Road S307, heads upriver a short way
before climbing precipitously up a series of steep
switchbacks on the southern valley wall. En route
to the 4,797-meter-high Kamba La Pass are several
spectacular Yarlung Valley overlooks that you’ll
likely share with hordes of selfie-posing tourists
dressed as Tibetan shepherds and cuddling a freshly
coiffed lamb or Tibetan mastiff dog, provided by
local families who set up shop at each viewpoint,

The ancient fort that towers above the town of Gyantse
was built to protect the southern approach to Lhasa.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
A gleaming Buddha watches over one of the 108 chapels in Palcho
Monastery’s multistory stupa.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
catering to tourists who pay them a few yuan for
each photo op.
After cresting the pass, Road S307 descends to
4,441-meter-high Yamdrok Lake, a narrow, twist-
ing body of sparkling turquoise water whose shape
Tibetans liken to a huge scorpion. Over strong
Tibetan objections, the Chinese constructed a hydro-
power plant here in 1997. The 60-meter-deep lake
is nearly a closed system, with inflow from its tiny
catchment area balanced by evaporation. This situa-
tion means that diversions of water from the lake to
drive the turbines are likely to decrease the lake level,
resulting in ecological damage. For Tibetans, there’s
an equally significant spiritual concern. According
to legend, Yamdrok is Tibet’s “life-power lake,” so if
the water dries up, all Tibetans will die. The Chinese
have explored maintaining the current lake level
by adding water pumped 900 meters uphill from
the Yarlung River. However, not only would that
require more energy than the power plant produces,
but it would also introduce silt-rich river water into
the nearly sediment-free lake, jeopardizing the lake’s
turquoise color and the health of its fish population.
On the trip from Yamdrok to Shigatse is the
Palcho Monastery in Gyantse, a worthwhile stop.
It belongs to the Sakya, or Red Hat, Sect of Tibetan
Buddhism, whose practices and traditions differ
from those of the Gelug Monasteries near Lhasa.
Its kumbun, a multistory stupa into which are built
page 43 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Feature
108 small chapels, is the largest in Tibet — it’s well
worth paying the small additional fee to see the
structure. After visiting a few chapels, climb to
the top story for a magnificent view of photogenic
Gyantse Dzong (fort), one of the best preserved in
Tibet, which occupies a commanding position on
a rocky promontory above the river valley. It was
built in 1390 to guard the southern approach to the
Yarlung Valley and Lhasa.
The highlight of Shigatse is a tour of the expansive
Tashi Lunpo Monastery, the seat of the Panchen
Lama, the Gelug Sect’s second-ranking lama.
Founded in 1447 by the first Dalai Lama, Tashi
Lunpo is one of the largest monasteries in Tibet. You
can easily spend several pleasant hours wandering
through the vast residential complexes, gawking
at the 26.2-meter-tall “Future Buddha” statue and
touring the funeral stupas for the fourth through
10th Panchen Lamas. The stupas were ransacked
during the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s to
mid-1970s, but the 10th Panchen Lama rebuilt them
and reinterred what relics and remains the locals
could recover. This project concluded just six days
before the Panchen Lama died in 1989. His stupa
was completed in 1993.
The Roof of the World
For geology and geography buffs, no trip to Tibet
would be complete without visiting 8,848-meter-
high Mount Everest, which the Tibetans call
Chomolungma, or “Goddess Mother of Mountains.”
The Tibetan side of the world’s most famous peak is
even more striking, and much less visited by West-
erners, than its southern flanks in Nepal.
Feature
The best time to view 8,848-meter-high Mount Everest is at sun-
set, when the last rays illuminate the summit pyramid’s resistant
metasedimentary rock layers.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
Most tours approach Everest Base Camp, the
headquarters for large spring and fall mountain-
eering campaigns, from Shigatse along the so-called
Friendship Highway, which the Chinese built to link
Tibet with Nepal. Along the way, our group stopped
at Sakya Monastery, the seat of the Sakya Sect, whose
Mongolian-inspired architecture varies from most
other Tibetan monasteries. The buildings are also
painted differently; instead of the typical solid red
page 44 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
and white adornment, Sakya’s buildings are instead
painted gray with vertical red and white stripes.
The road to Everest Base Camp leaves the Friend-
ship Highway at the scruffy town of Tingri, which
is set in a barren landscape of contorted schist. The
schist consists of weakly metamorphosed sedimen-
tary layers deposited on the Indian subcontinent’s
northern edge. As India was thrust beneath the
Lhasa Terrane, these sediments were first buried and
metamorphosed, then scraped off the downgoing
Indian Plate and became incorporated into the stack
of thrust sheets that now make up the Himalayas.
When we visited in 1999, Tingri lay at the end of
the pavement; it took hours to drive the last 85 kilo-
meters, jostling the whole way, to the Rongbuk
Monastery and Everest Base Camp. But, like almost
everything in Tibet, that’s changed. Now, a 1.5-hour
drive on a freshly paved highway, which climbs up
and over a 4,500-meter-high pass with jaw-drop-
ping panoramas of the Himalayas, delivers you to a
tourist camp in the upper reaches of the Rongbuk
Valley next to the monastery. The camp is a gaggle
of shepherd’s yurts equipped with cook stoves and
raised sleeping platforms loaded with wool blankets
to keep visitors warm during the frigid nights. The
Sakya Monastery, the seat
of the Sakya Sect, can be
recognized by its distinctive
paint stripes and Mongo-
lian-style architecture.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook

lodging isn’t fancy, but the camp has a friendly, rural
feel and is comfortable, considering the remote
location at 5,000 meters elevation.
At first, you may be disappointed that the view of
Mount Everest is commonly obscured by mist. But
the mist is constantly on the move, so if you keep
popping out of your yurt, there’s a good chance you’ll
see the mountain appear for a few minutes before
its slopes are once again cloaked. When you do see
the mountain, its majesty is awe-inspiring. Because
Everest rises directly above the Rongbuk Valley,
unobscured by foothills, the view is even more dra-
matic than from the Nepalese side. The mountain
is especially breathtaking at sunset, when its bulky
pyramidal summit glows red-brown long after all the
surrounding peaks have fallen into shadow.
Heading back to Lhasa from Mount Everest, you’ll
retrace your route to Shigatse and stay there for a
night, giving you the opportunity to wander the Old
Town’s lively streets. From there it’s just a half-day’s
drive back to Lhasa along the mighty Yarlung River,
which has carved an impressive gorge along this
route. Most tours stop just upstream of the gorge to
visit a traditional Tibetan incense workshop, where
you can observe the Rube Goldberg-like flumes and
waterwheels the incense makers have designed to
page 45 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Feature
With its 4,500-meter average elevation and encircling peaks, the
Tibetan Plateau is often called the “Roof of the World.”
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
On the journey from Shigatse to Lhasa, most tours
stop at a traditional Tibetan incense factory along
the Yarlung River.
Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
crush the sandalwood and other logs into the pulp
they form into fragrant incense sticks. From there it’s
a short trip back to Lhasa, which you’ll depart with
your mind filled with memories of warm Tibetan
hospitality and your camera brimming with images
of stunning landscapes from your journey above and
beyond the rest of the world.
Abbott is a geology professor at the University of
Colorado, Boulder. Cook (www.down2earthscience.
com) is a science and travel writer based in Colorado
and an EARTH roving correspondent.
Feature

GETTING THERE & GETTING AROUND

T ibet is a long way from most everywhere. There are Your tour company will arrange all accommodations
no direct flights from North America, so it’s usually for you. These tend to be modest hotels and guesthouses
cheapest and most convenient to fly into a major Chi- with amenities that are not up to Western standards. In
nese city such as Beijing and then catch the next flight some cases, it may be possible to upgrade to “four-star”
to Lhasa Gonggar Airport (LXA). Air China, Tibet Airlines, hotels, but even these are not luxury experiences.
Sichuan Airlines and China Southern are among the car- One note: Our tour company did not accept credit
riers offering direct and connecting flights to Lhasa from cards; we paid deposits both by PayPal, which charges
most major Chinese cities. Sichuan Airlines and Air China a 4.2 percent transfer fee, as well as by wire transfer, for
also provide nonstop service from Kathmandu, Nepal. which our bank charged us $35. We paid for all transac-
The Lhasa airport is located 65 kilometers south of the tions in China’s official currency, the yuan.
city center and takes about an hour to reach. Another note of warning: The region’s elevation is
Lhasa is also accessible via the long-distance Tibet challenging even for people like us who live in Colorado
Railway from Xi’an, Bei-
jing, Shanghai and other A Tibetan pilgrim enjoys a hard-earned break.
major cities throughout Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
China. The railway sta-
tion is 8 kilometers from
the city center. Most tour
companies will arrange
to pick you up at the air-
port or railway station and
transport you directly to
your hotel, but, if neces-
sary, taxis are available
at both locations.
All foreign visitors
must prearrange tours.
The costs of tours, which
include transportation
and a guide, are typically
about $100 per person
per day and include basic
accommodations and
a few meals. We used
Great Tibet Tour com-
pany and found them Colorful Tibetan prayer flags adorn a bridge
to be excellent, with an across the Yarlung River.
outstanding guide. Credit: Lon Abbott and Terri Cook
Before traveling to
Tibet, U.S. citizens must obtain a visa for China, as well at 1,700 meters elevation. It took us several days to accli-
as a special entry permit for Tibet. Unless you can appear mate to Lhasa’s 3,500-meter altitude, so if you live closer
in person at the embassy, you’ll have to use a visa ser- to sea level, it could take a week or more to adjust. Drink-
vice. We hired the extremely efficient Mile High Visas ing plenty of water, eating salty and carbohydrate-rich
to obtain 10-year tourist visas ($209+ per person). Your meals and avoiding alcohol and caffeine consumption all
tour company should take care of processing the Tibet help in acclimating to the high altitude. Plan for plenty of
permits for you. In our case, they did this but could not acclimation time. Finally, bring plenty of warm and wind-
ship them overseas, so we spent a night in Beijing and proof clothing and be prepared for cold temperatures and
picked up the permits at our hotel there before flying to rain or snow, even in the middle of summer.
Lhasa. The permit cost was included in our tour price. TC & LA

page 46 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Travels in Geology:
On the Road with EARTH
Volume 1: U.S. & Canada

Megan Sever, Sara Pratt, and Erin Wayman

Geology is everywhere, we're surrounded by it. Travels in Geology:

On the Road With EARTH, Volume One: U.S. & Canada, takes you
to exciting destinations known for their geology as well as their
general appeal to the world traveler. A compilation of the popular
"Travels in Geology" feature in EARTH Magazine, this digital exclusive
informs you of exciting and unique aspects of destinations around
North America. From the Upper Peninsula in Michigan to Death
Valley to Nova Scotia, Travels in Geology will give you a view into
your next destination not available in your usual travel guide.

With detailed information and vivid photos, Travels in Geology

can help you plan that unique trip and see the whole picture of https://store.americangeosciences.org/
your destination.

Digital Only ISBN 9780922152971

Available from the following sources:

Direct from AGI (ePub)* $4.99

(ePubs are not PDFs, see below, right)

Amazon Kindle**

Google Play Store

Secure online ordering available at

https://store.americangeosciences.org/
for these and other AGI publications. Photos © Mary Caperton Morton

You may also contact us by phone:
(703) 379-2480, fax: (703) 379-7563 or at:
https://store.americangeosciences.org/contact/.
* ePub files require an ePub reader. Many e-book readers support the
ePub format, such as the Nook and Sony Reader. Or, you may install
software on your computer to read ePubs. Adobe Digital Editions
http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions.html is a free option
for both Windows and Mac.

** Kindle files can be read on a Kindle e-reader. They can also be read in
Amazon Kindle for PC or Amazon Kindle for Mac, software that you can
download for free to your Windows or Mac computer.

page 47 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

GALÁPAGOS
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Geomedia

Film: “First Man” Navigates Neil Armstrong’s Journey

Between Two Worlds
Mark Carpenter

T
he film “First Man” is a vivid
depiction of Neil Armstrong’s
life during NASA’s ambitious
and terrifying program to
reach the moon. It uses exquisite cin-
ematography to portray the crowning
achievement of the space race — Arm-
strong becoming the first human to walk
on the moon on July 20, 1969. Directed by
Damien Chazelle, who won an Academy
Award for his direction of “La La Land,”
the film navigates a fine line among the
triumphs and tragedies of the Gemini and
Apollo missions, while also telling the
story of the home lives of the astronauts
and their families. The dynamics in this
human drama cannot be solely explained
by physics.
“First Man” accepts that viewers  hard that disintegration seems imminent. with any degree of detachment by deny-
already know the outcome of Apollo
11, the mission that first landed humans
on the moon. So the filmmakers instead
focus on immersing viewers in each scene
through sheer production brilliance.
Within seconds of the beginning of
the film — especially if you see it in an
IMAX theater — your blood will be rush-
ing to your feet from the pull of 4 Gs
as you ride along with Armstrong in
his X-15 rocket plane, which shakes so
“First Man” is an intense, immersive experience, especially in IMAX, that puts viewers
in space, and lands them on the moon, along with Neil Armstrong.
Credit: Universal Pictures
You’re at no risk of passing out, but please ing the viewer a wide exterior shot. So,
don’t puke — especially on Chazelle’s when ground control screams, “Neil, hard
lovingly reconstructed cockpit control left turn!” you really hope he makes it.
panel, in all its analog, lightly corroded, Likewise, the Apollo 11 sequence is
well-labeled, but not fully tested glory. an inspiring piece of filmmaking. As the
The payoff is that you get to sit in silence Eagle lander passes low over the moon’s
with Armstrong at the edge of space. But cratered surface, the stunning detail will
unlike you, he’s calm. not fail to give you goosebumps. In the
Once in space, the closeup cam- distance we see the little blue marble
era work will make you feel suitably painted against space. What must it have
claustrophobic. Then, with insufficient been like to be these men in that place?
atmosphere for the X-15 The film, based on James R. Hansen’s
to bite into, the plane book “First Man: The Life of Neil A.
drops into an endless Armstrong,” which contains rare personal
vertigo-inducing spin. interviews with the famously private
The feeling of dropping astronaut, attempts to show us.
to Earth from an altitude In the film, Armstrong is played by a
of 42 kilometers is sure well-cast Ryan Gosling: a subdued actor
to raise your pulse. And playing a man who rarely shares his inner
Chazelle quashes all hope thoughts. Gosling portrays Armstrong
of watching the scene at home — with his wife Janet, played
brilliantly by Claire Foy of “The Crown”
— with sensitivity. It’s touching to hear
Ryan Gosling’s portrayal Neil sing, holding his sick little girl Karen,
of Neil Armstrong in “First “I see the moon, and the moon sees me,
Man” conveys Armstrong’s down through the leaves of the old oak
stoicism and compassion. tree …” We grieve with the family when
Credit: Universal Pictures Karen, just age 3, dies.

page 50 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

 Geomedia

Claire Foy’s dynamic portrayal of Janet

Armstrong drives the domestic plot.
Credit: Universal Pictures

Because of Armstrong’s stoical nature,

for much of the film, viewers will be well
aware of what is not being said outright.
This is especially true in the depictions of
how Neil and Janet cope with the loss of
their daughter, and how the astronauts
interact in dealing with, or rather not
dealing with, the deaths of three of their
colleagues in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire.
As stoic as Armstrong might be, his wry,
straight-faced sense of humor, sprinkled
economically throughout the film, comes
through clearly. Sometimes it’s as if he’s
enjoying a private joke.
The set design, wardrobe and
soundtrack are all so precise that view-
ers are effortlessly transported to 1960s
suburban Houston, the safe, middle-class
world where the families of the astronauts
lived. It’s a world of poolside sun loungers
and kids playing on lawns, plaid shirts,
sleeveless dresses, flat shoes, bobbed
hairdos and the modern conveniences
of midcentury kitchens. But Chazelle
cleverly widens the view to include the
zeitgeist of the era — with protests of the
Vietnam War, Kurt Vonnegut question-
ing the cost of the space program and poet
Gil Scott-Heron lamenting poverty at
home while “Whitey’s on the moon” — to
show how that insular world is built on
a foundation of tension and uncertainty.
The story, told chronologically,
delights in history’s minutiae: for exam-
ple, seeing Neil reading the job ad to
join NASA is both surreal and ordinary.
Overall, the storytelling works well, and
viewers see how Armstrong’s intelligence,
steel nerves and perseverance in the face
of failure makes him a natural choice for
the later missions. Equally impressive is will have to go elsewhere, like HBO’s
Janet’s courage on the ground. After her “From the Earth to the Moon.”
home radio link is cut by NASA to save Chazelle does not rush the film’s finale.
her from hearing her husband’s imminent Shot from the perspective of the ladder
blackout in Gemini 8, she storms over to camera on the lunar lander, viewers see
Deke Slayton, NASA director of flight Armstrong descend into the soft dust
operations, and demands that he turn the of the lunar surface and take the most
box back on. Janet’s steadfast realism is famous step in history. Beyond his visor
the dynamo that drives the domestic plot, lies the silence of space. For that moment,
which sometimes doesn’t show Neil in you can sit back and watch the first man
the best light. Without her demanding on the moon, without needing to ask
that Neil tell their young sons that he was more questions of him.
leaving for the moon, how little might None of us is going to the moon any
he have said? time soon, including Elon Musk and
However, at times, like Janet, viewers Richard Branson. So, head to the movies.
may be left wanting to know more. We You might get a sore neck or wish for a
learn very little about the lives of the little more insight from the dialog, but
other astronauts, for example. Also, little you won’t be disappointed.
tribute is paid to the mountain of science,
mathematics and technology that made Carpenter, based in New York City, is a
possible the spaceflights of Armstrong senior education specialist at the Ameri-
and others. Certainly, viewers will see can Geosciences Institute. When he’s not
plenty of hardware in action — such as writing curricula or giving teacher work-
the G-force limiter that failed in the X-15, shops, he makes short films. He is also
resulting in the tailspin — you just won’t co-author of the 2016 Geoscience Hand-
learn much about it. For that, viewers book, 5th edition.

Directed by Damien Chazelle, who won

an Academy Award for his direction of “La
La Land,” “First Man” navigates a fine line
among the triumphs and tragedies of the
Gemini and Apollo missions, while also
telling the story of the home lives of the
astronauts and their families.
Credit: Universal Pictures

page 51 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Where on Earth?

WHERE ON
EARTH?

SUBMIT
YOUR
PHOTOS!
SEE DETAILS BELOW

October 2018 Answer:

The Green Point Geological
Site in Gros Morne National
Park in Newfoundland, Can-
ada, features a 60-meter-thick
CLUES

♦♦ This Eastern Sierra Nevada lake, the creek that feeds it and sequence formed when tur-
the basin it lies in, share a name that references a gang bidites emplaced layers of
of outlaws who escaped from a Carson City, Nev., prison limestone at the base of a
and hid out here in 1871. deep-sea slope in the Iape-
tus Ocean, which were then sandwiched
♦♦ The cliff towering above the lake displays complex folding between paper-thin layers of shale. Photo is
and faulting of Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks, by Heather McArdle.
including a faulted syncline (middle left in photo) that
bears the same name as the cliff.
October 2018 Winners:
♦♦ The rocks are part of the Mount Morrison Pendant, which Arthur Astarits (Portland, Maine)
consists of Cambrian to Permian sedimentary layers that Ava Bear (Clayton, N.C.)
were altered by intrusion of granitic plutons during the Ian Knight (St. John’s, Newfoundland & Lab-
Mesozoic. The pendant takes its name from the largest rador, Canada)
mountain surrounding the lake (not pictured), which was Frank Mayer (Saratoga, Calif.)
named for a posse member killed in a shootout while Cynthia A. Stiles (Woodland, Calif.)
apprehending the outlaw gang.
HOW TO PLAY

NAME THE LAKE & CLIFF & THEIR HOST STATE.

Where on Earth was this picture taken? Use these clues to guess
and send your answer via Web, mail or email by the last day of
the month (January 31). Subscribers can also view contest photos
and clues in EARTH’s monthly digital editions. From those who
answer correctly, EARTH staff will randomly draw the names of
five people who will win a prize from AGI. Enter the contest at
www.earthmagazine.org/whereonearth.
You can also submit entries to Where on Earth? EARTH, 4220
King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302 (postmarked dates on letters
will be used). EARTH also welcomes your photos to consider
for the contest. Find out more about submitting your photos at
www.earthmagazine.org/whereonearth/submit, and send them to
earth@earthmagazine.org. If we print your photo in EARTH, you’ll
receive a free one-year subscription or renewal.

page 52 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

 Cross-Section: A Puzzle

Across Down 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1. Wing, say 1. Foot pads
5. French romance 2. Small buffalo 14 15 16
10. Fair share, maybe 3. “___ be a cold day
14. The “A” of ABM in hell ...” 17 18 19
15. Hungarian wine 4. Word in the
16. Biblical shepherd Second Amendment 20 21 22
17. Cost to cross 5. Fifth-century
18. Desirable carbonate scourge 23 24 25
20. Ocean measure 6. Deadly
22. Blast from the past 7. “Comme ci, 26 27 28 29
23. Samoan bucks comme ça”
24. Satiny fabric 8. Air drone 30 31 32 33 34 35
26. Wind-up toys 9. “The Catcher
30. Church part in the ___” 36 37 38 39 40 41
31. “Aladdin” prince 10. JFK fashion?
32. Kind of palm 11. Bear 42 43 44 45 46
36. African antelope 12. Red Square figure
37. Snobbery 13. Hightails it
47 48 49 50
41. Moose 19. Automatic
___, Saskatchewan 21. Bead material
51 52 53 54
42. All there 24. Arias, usually
44. “___ we having 25. x, y or z
55 56 57 58 59
fun yet?” 26. Glossy pubs
45. Grammar topic 27. Arm bone
47. Butterfly 28. Bowl over 60 61 62 63
51. California 29. Diminished
marine institution 33. “When it’s ___” 64 65 66
54. Baptism, for one (old riddle answer)
55. Cousin of a raccoon 34. Around the bend 67 68 69
56. Final washes 35. “A Prayer for
60. Tell ___ Meany”
63. Catch 38. Arctic native Puzzle solution appears in the Classifieds section on page 62.
64. “Miss ___ Regrets” 39. Western blue flag,
65. “I give up!” e.g. 49. Brooks Robinson, 53. 16 in Hex, 59. Knocked off, in
66. Plum variety 40. Pound puppies e.g. 10 in Decimal a way
67. Barbershop call 43. Snob 50. Awarding officer? 56. Deep 61. Ocean drone
68. Aromatic solvent 46. Visual perceptions 51. Grafting shoot 57. Indian bread 62. Atlanta-based
69. Falling flakes 48. “Beowulf,” e.g. 52. A wee tale 58. Bad data saying station

Glossary of Geology
Fifth Edition, Revised

GEOWORD
of the Day
A free service of the American Geosciences Institute.
All of the terms and definitions are from the
Glossary of Geology, 5th Edition Revised.
Klaus K.E. Neuendorf
James P. Mehl Jr. SUBSCRIBE at:
www.americangeosciences.org/word
Julia A. Jackson
AMERicA N G EosciE N c Es iN st it u t E

page 53 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Down to Earth

With Clay Mineralogist Warren Huff

Sarah Derouin

T
wo distinct images come to
mind when I think of War-
ren Huff, my former doctoral
adviser: one in which he is
enthusiastically teaching and mentoring
students both in and out of the classroom,
and one in which he is sitting around a
fire, playing guitar and leading a group of
geologists in science-themed sing-alongs.
Both images encapsulate the kind of per-
son he is: a leading scholar in the field of
clay mineralogy who lives life with gusto.
Huff grew up in Michigan, on his
family’s farm, which featured cattle, a
Victory Garden (it was during World
War II) and chickens that provided the
neighbors with eggs. Huff and his broth-
ers spent summers wrangling cattle: “We
rode horses and wore hats, chaps, cowboy
boots and everything,’ he says. Huff’s Clay mineralogist Warren Huff taught at the University of Cincinnati (UC) for 55 years.
father was hoping one of his three boys He is still active as a professor emeritus and is a great supporter of bringing UC alumni
would want to take over the farm, and together, especially at Geological Society of America annual meetings.
Huff planned on returning home after Credit: courtesy of Warren Huff
graduating from Harvard. But a fresh-
man geology class changed everything. “I technology in teaching, and the approach much about it. But he’d graduated from
remember the expression on my father’s to work-life balance that served him well the University of Illinois and there was
face when I said I really wanted to major throughout his career. a fellow at Illinois named Ralph Grim
in geology,” Huff says. who had written the iconic textbook on
He went on to graduate school at the SD: How did you become interested clay mineralogy. Frank took me over to
University of Cincinnati (UC), where he in clay mineralogy — did you take a Champagne and I met with Ralph Grim
completed his master’s project and jumped class about it? and had a lovely chat one afternoon. He
straight into doctoral studies focused on WH: No, there were no classes in clay encouraged me to do some reading, told
clay mineralogy. After his defense, he mineralogy. I had gone on a lot of field me about this book, and told me about
was getting ready to go to Houston to trips around the Cincinnati area, and I some of the literature in the field.
interview with oil companies when the was becoming more familiar with the
head of the department caught him in regional geology. When I was in graduate SD: What is clay mineralogy and why
the hall one day and asked if he’d like to school, the department hired a faculty is studying it useful?
join the department as a faculty member. member named Frank Koucky; Frank WH: Well, you have to think about
Huff met with the dean who asked him was a mineralogist and a specialist in how clay is formed in the first place. Phys-
if he was married. After responding that X-ray diffraction. With Frank’s help and ical and chemical weathering processes
he wasn’t, the dean said, ‘Well, you won’t the department’s funding, we bought our break down surface rocks, and clay is a
need a very big salary then,’ and made first X-ray refractometer. It was installed byproduct. The nature of that clay will
Huff an offer. He accepted, and ultimately in the basement and I was fascinated with depend on the intensity of the weather-
spent his entire career at the school. Last what it could do. ing, the duration of the weathering, and
year, after 55 years, he retired from UC For example, I thought: How do we of course, what the parent material is.
as professor emeritus. study the minerals in shale? Frank was So, clay minerals developed from granite
I sat down with Huff to talk about his aware that there was a whole field of over a long period of time might be dif-
decades of research, his passion for using study of about clay, but he didn’t know ferent from what would develop on, say,

page 54 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org


Huff scrubs carrots while on a UC geology
field trip.
Credit: courtesy of Warren Huff
metamorphic rocks that weathered only
for a short period of time. The nature
of clay minerals changes over time, and
they change as a function of burial as well.
Clay in soil might have certain mineral
characteristics, but if that soil becomes
buried or overlain by some other mate-
rial, compaction and pressure over time
will change the nature of the clay miner-
als. This is one of the big topics of study:
Could you look at clay and, for example,
tell something about what its thermal
history has been?
Clay is used a lot in industries and
manufacturing processes as well. People
in the ceramics industry, for example, like
kaolinite. Kaolinite is the primary ceramic
clay, and they search very hard for areas
where rocks have a lot of feldspar in them
and have been deeply weathered but not
buried. If you go to Georgia today, they
have some of the largest kaolin companies
in the world because the southern part of
the Appalachians has a lot of weathered
rock that has not been deeply buried.
SD: Much of your work has focused
on potassium bentonites, also called
K-bentonites. Can you explain what
those are?
WH: I started studying bentonite lay-
ers in Ordovician rocks in Kentucky, and
what I discovered was that they … were
what we now refer to as mixed-layer
clays. In other words, they are a mixture
of layers of smectite [an expandable clay]
and illite [a nonexpandable clay]. This
was a real puzzle at first. I wasn’t the first
person to start working on this — there
were several other clay mineralogists in
the field who had recognized this char-
acteristic. The conversion of smectite
to illite involves the addition of potas-
sium, which prevents the clay layers from
swelling, so we call them potassium- or
K-bentonites.
Studies have shown that the degree
of potassium interaction increases with
greater depth of burial and higher
page 55 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
temperatures. So you can look at the
ratio of expandable to nonexpandable
layers and get some idea of the tempera-
ture to which this particular layer has
been subjected.
The thing that turned out to be very
interesting was that these K-bentonites
are all over the world, and it seemed like
somebody needed to go and study them
because there wasn’t a global pattern. I
started publishing a lot on this, and that
got other people interested as well. We’re
using them not only to look at the ratio
of illite to smectite. It also turned out
Huff has collaborated with scientists all over
the world to uncover details about past
volcanic eruptions using clay minerology.
Credit: Dennis Kolata, Illinois State Geological Survey
Down to Earth
that if you trace a particularly widespread
bentonite bed, it can act as a good time
line for stratigraphic correlation.
SD: Is clay mineralogy an interdisci-
plinary field?
WH: It’s very interdisciplinary. It’s
more than just geology; it also applies to
engineering, and it applies to agriculture.
Then the whole field of nanoparticle
science has emerged in recent years. At
our annual meetings of the Clay Miner-
als Society, it’s not unusual now to have
chemists or physicists presenting because
they’re dealing with small particles, and
those fields don’t have societies that spe-
cialize in small particles — but the Clay
Mineral Society does.
SD: You were one of the first profes-
sors to offer online classes at UC. How
did that get started?
WH: It started, not because I thought
there was a need for it, but because I
was interested in the technology — it
was totally technology driven. I was at
a conference and saw a short video of
a lecture that somebody had produced
using software you could put on your
computer to capture a video and audio
lecture. I thought I could do that with my
lectures and just post them for students.
So I started doing this just as an experi-
ment, and I’ve continued it since.
The challenge for the instructor is
that online classes take time. My wife
asks me: “Why on a Sunday morning
Down to Earth

are you sitting here at the computer?”
It’s because people are asking questions
about the homework assignments and
this is the time when they can work. A
lot of UC students work part time or full
time. There are lots of reasons why phys-
ically coming to campus is a challenge. I
think [online class offerings] are going
to increase as we go forward.
Classically, the definition of a course
is you have a talking head up in front of
the room and people sitting there listen-
ing and taking notes, but technology is
transforming how people learn. There are
a lot of strategies that are being developed
for online learning, so it’s an interesting
and rapidly developing field.
need to have your personal life too. One
of the hobbies that I have is baking bread.
I like to make no-knead bread. You put
all the ingredients together and let it sit
overnight and it sort of inflates into big
bubbly ball of stuff. Then you plop it in a
Dutch Oven, hike the temperature up to
500 degrees Fahrenheit for half an hour,
and it just expands and makes beautiful,
beautiful bread.
Another hobby I have is playing music:
fiddle and guitar. Usually, every night
after dinner I try to play fiddle for an
hour or so. On weekends, I usually get
together and jam with people and play
music. I’m not a really good fiddle player,
but it’s so much fun.

SD: Is it true you once told another Derouin (www.sarahderouin.com) is a free-

In his spare time, Huff enjoys playing guitar
and fiddle, including on UC geology field
trips, where he often provides the evening
entertainment around the campfire.
Credit: courtesy of Warren Huff
professor that once they had tenure,
they needed to get a hobby?
WH: Yes, that’s true. You need to have
things that fill your life because your life
isn’t just your academic pursuits — you
lance science writer and editor. She is a
graduate of the science communication
program at the University of California,
Santa Cruz, and holds a doctorate in geol-
ogy from the University of Cincinnati.

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page 56 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

 Benchmarks

January 12, 1888: “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” Strikes the

Great Plains
Bethany Augliere

B
y mid-January 1888, the Great
Plains had seen ice storms,
frigid temperatures and
above-average snowfall. On
the morning of Jan. 12, however, the
weather was unseasonably warm and
sunny, with temperatures reaching well
above freezing in places. Many people,
including children on their way to school,
left home without winter coats, hats or
mittens. In a matter of hours, every-
thing changed.
Unbeknownst to them, a fast-moving
Arctic cold front was racing toward the
Great Plains about to unleash a bliz-
zard unprecedented in recorded history.
The storm rolled down from Canada
over the Dakota Territories and Mon-
tana, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas
before reaching as far south as Texas,
where at least one river froze over with
30 centimeters of ice, according to an
1893 account.
In 24 hours, temperatures rapidly
fell to subfreezing and winds gusted
to more than 95 kilometers per hour,
rattling doors and windows and even
ripping roofs off buildings. Fine particles
of snow and ice filled the air, which,
combined with the low temperatures
and howling winds, made breathing dif-
ficult, penetrated clothing and quickly
froze extremities, including ears, nos-
trils and eyelids, of anyone caught out
in the storm. At the time the storm
reached eastern Nebraska and western
Minnesota, children were preparing for
dismissal time from school.
While some teachers attempted to
protect their students and outlast the
storm in their schoolhouses, some of
which were one-room, sod-roofed The Jan. 12, 1888, “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” swept across the Great Plains, killing at
structures ill-equipped to withstand least 235 people — and possibly up to 500, according to some estimates — many of
the extreme conditions, others braved whom were children on their way home from school. Illustrations showing “Scenes and
the whiteout conditions in search of Incidents from the Recent Terrible Blizzard in Dakota” were published in the Jan. 28,
other shelter as fuel to heat the schools 1888, edition of Frank Leslie’s weekly newspaper.
ran out. Credit: public domain

page 57 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org

Benchmarks
The storm lasted 12 to 18 hours and
killed at least 235 people — and possibly
up to 500, according to some estimates.
Some bodies were not found for days,
weeks or even months later when spring
thaw arrived. The “Schoolchildren’s Bliz-
zard” was one of the deadliest storms in
American history due to a combination
of unfortunate circumstances, including
the time it struck and lack of warning
from the Army Signal Corps, which at the
time was tasked with national weather
forecasting duties. The unusual weather
event led, in part, to the creation of the
United States Weather Bureau in 1890.
Whiteout Conditions
A blizzard is more than just a snow-
storm. It’s defined by the National
Weather Service as a storm lasting at
least three hours with sustained winds or
frequent gusts up to at least 56 kilometers
per hour and heavy snow that reduces
visibility to less than 400 meters. The
1888 blizzard was a “ground blizzard,”
which doesn’t produce much snow but
mobilizes snow on the ground to create
whiteout conditions.
Accounts from survivors of the storm
suggest that visibility was less than a
meter. “You could hardly see your hand
before you, or draw your breath and
that with intense cold roaring wind and
page 58 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
darkness it would appall the stoutest
heart,” wrote one farmer who survived,
according to the 2004 book “The Chil-
dren’s Blizzard” by David Laskin.
Reports of people dying just meters
from their homes, unable to find their
way and lost amid the blowing snow,
were common. Frank Bambas, a farmer
in the Dakota Territory, uncovered his
frozen wife while shoveling a path from
his house to his barn. Others survived
the night but later succumbed to their
injuries, including cardiac arrest caused
by shock, severe frostbite or infection.
Etta Shattuck, a 19-year-old school-
teacher from Minnesota, was found alive
78 hours after the storm struck, tucked
into a haystack after she’d gotten lost.
She died almost a month later from com-
plications from surgery to remove her
frostbitten feet and legs.
Blizzard Alley
Blizzards occur more frequently in the
northern plains of the central U.S. than
anywhere else in the country, with the
region spanning from the Front Range
of Colorado to the Dakotas and east to
Minnesota earning the nickname “Bliz-
zard Alley.”
In a 2002 study, researchers analyzed
blizzard occurrence by county across
the Lower 48 states between 1959 and
“The Blizzard of 1888,” a large glass
mosaic by Jeanne Reynal that hangs in the
Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, depicts
schoolchildren led by Minnie Freeman
being guided to safety by a Native Amer-
ican spirit.
Credit: Nebraska Capitol Collections (www.capitol.
nebraska.gov). Photographed by Sid Spelts.
2000. Trail County, in eastern North
Dakota, saw the most recorded blizzards:
74. “Blizzards were most common in a
‘blizzard zone” of North Dakota, South
Dakota and western Minnesota where
each county had 41 or more blizzards in
these 41 winters and the annual probabil-
ity of a blizzard in each county exceeded
50 percent,” the researchers wrote. In
fact, 17 counties in North Dakota and
eight counties in South Dakota had more
than 60 blizzards during the study period.
Part of the reason this region sees
more blizzards than other parts of the
country is its relatively flat terrain, which
is short on trees and broken only by small
hills and streams. Strong, cold winds can
rip southward from Canada across the
northern plains with little to slow them.
Like many Great Plains blizzards, the
1888 storm began in western Canada
where an enormous cold air mass had
formed and began moving southeast
out of Alberta. The temperatures ahead
of the advancing low-pressure system
warmed 20 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (11
to 22 degrees Celsius). As the anticyclonic
system moved south, it encountered
warmer, moisture-laden air from the
Gulf of Mexico.
“Out of nowhere, a soot-gray cloud
appeared over the northwest horizon.
The air grew still for a long, eerie mea-
sure, then the sky began to roar and a wall
of ice blasted the prairie,” Laskin wrote.
The storm brought relentless,
whipping winds, wind chills of minus
40 degrees in places and subfreezing tem-
peratures that remained for days after the
front moved through. Those caught out
in the storm easily became disoriented
in the whiteout conditions and many
quickly suffered frostbite, suffocation
and death.

Heroines of the Storm
As with many disasters, the news cov-
erage immediately following the tragedy
concerned the death and destruction: fro-
zen children, blockaded trains, accounts
of amputations, losses of livestock and the
record cold temperatures. On Jan. 17, the
New York Tribune reported the death toll
at 145 and “growing every hour.” Stories
about the storm remained on the front
page for a full week. Two days later, the
death toll stood at 217; by Jan. 21, it had
reached 235.
It wasn’t until a Nebraska paper, the
Omaha Daily Bee, ran a story on Jan.
18, 1888, that a different angle emerged:
a tale of a young heroine. When the
storm ripped off the roof of her school-
house, 19-year-old schoolteacher Minnie
Freeman rescued her 13 students, the
youngest just 6 years old, by tying them
together with twine and leading them
almost half a kilometer to safety at a
nearby farmhouse in rural Mira Valley.
In an interview after the storm, she
said: “I told them we would all have to
stick together. If anyone was to stop to
rub cold hands, all would stop. We went
two by two, with strict orders to keep
hold of the one just ahead,” according to
an article in the Omaha World Herald.
All the students survived.
For her act of heroism, Freeman
earned both local and national attention.
page 59 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
Lyon & Healy, a Chicago music house,
published a song about her called “Song
of the Great Blizzard of 1888: Thirteen
Were Saved” or “Nebraska’s Fearless
Maid.” She received more than 80 mar-
riage proposals, all from men she had
never met. The Nebraska State Education
Board gave her a gold medal, and a wax
bust of Freeman was exhibited across
the nation.
The story of another heroine emerged
in the aftermath of the storm, though,
tragically, she was not as fortunate in
her rescue efforts. Like Freeman, Lois
Royce was also a teenage schoolteacher
in Nebraska. She was trapped in her
schoolhouse with three students — two
9-year-olds and a 6-year-old. When they
ran out of heating fuel, she attempted
to lead them to safety at her boarding
house just 75 meters away. However, she
became lost in the whiteout conditions.
The children froze to death, and although
Royce survived, her feet had to be ampu-
tated because of frostbite. Eventually, she
learned to walk with artificial limbs.
Minnie Freeman, a 19-year-old school-
teacher in Nebraska managed to get her
pupils to safety during the blizzard, earning
both local and national acclaim. A song
was written about her called “Song of
the Great Blizzard of 1888: Thirteen Were
Saved” or “Nebraska’s Fearless Maid.”
Credit: History Nebraska, Image 8731-50 (history.
nebraska.gov)
Benchmarks
In the 1940s, W.H. O’Gara
compiled stories from a
group of survivors who called
themselves the Blizzard Club
and published them in the
book “In All Its Fury: A History
of the Blizzard of January 12,
1888.” Members of the club
gathered in 1967 in front of
one of the state roadside
historical markers that com-
memorate the storm.
Credit: History Nebraska,
Image RG3139PH-152
(history.nebraska.gov)
In All Its Fury
The blizzard of 1888 left lasting impres-
sions on survivors and the region. In
1940, W.H. O’Gara, Speaker of Nebras-
ka’s House of Representatives and himself
a blizzard survivor, suggested the state
hold a dinner at the Lindell Hotel in Lin-
coln to pay tribute to the survivors. For
decades afterward, people gathered on
Jan. 12 to commemorate the storm. The
assembled group, originally named the
Greater Nebraska Blizzard Club, later
became known as the January 12, 1888,
Blizzard Club.
In 1947, O’Gara authored a book
entitled “In All Its Fury: A History of
the Blizzard of January 12, 1888,” which
contained first-hand accounts of Blizzard
Club members.
“The effects of disaster, no matter how
extreme, do not last forever … Today,
aside from a few fine marble headstones
in country graveyards and the occasional
roadside historical marker, not a trace of
the blizzard of 1888 remains on the prai-
rie,” Laskin wrote. “Yet in the imagination
and identity of the region, the storm is
as sharply etched as ever: This is a place
where blizzards kill children on their way
home from school.”
Augliere (www.bethanyaugliere.com) is a
freelance writer and photographer. She is
a graduate of the science communication
program at the University of California, Santa
Cruz, and holds a master’s degree in marine
biology from Florida Atlantic University.
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CAREER OPPORTUNITIES Applicants should send a full cur- Hydrogeology, Environmental Geology,
riculum vitae; a letter of application and serve in a leadership role in the
CALVIN COLLEGE - that addresses the requirements and nascent, interdisciplinary Environmen-
SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY responsibilities of the position; a 250- tal Sciences degree. The successful
The Department of Geology, Geog- 500 word statement explaining how candidate would ideally serve as the
raphy and Environmental Studies at you seek to express your Christian primary advisor/coordinator for the
Calvin College invites applications for faith in teaching and scholarship; and Environmental Sciences degree and must
a tenure-track, sedimentary geology three letters of recommendation. Send have a commitment to a high-qual-
position beginning September 2019. these documents to: Dr. Deanna van ity undergraduate teaching program
Ph.D. in hand or near completion is Dijk, at dvandijk@calvin.edu. We will that values both field and laboratory
required. The successful candidate will begin reviewing applications starting instruction, involve undergraduate
teach Sedimentation and Stratigraphy, 1 December 2018. students in research, and the ability
Historical Geology, and be a team to work with a diverse student body.
member in teaching GIS as well as SAM HOUSTON STATE Review of complete applications
field courses in Montana. Additional GROUNDWATER HYDROGEOLOGY will begin December 1, 2018 and will
teaching could include Oceanography, The Department of Geography and continue until the position is filled.
Paleontology, Hydrogeology, or other Geology at Sam Houston State Uni- Preference will be given to applicants
topics depending on the candidate’s versity invites applications for a full- who have submitted all required mate-
background and interests. The suc- time, nine-month, tenure-track faculty rials listed below by that date.
cessful candidate will be encouraged position in groundwater hydrogeology Application Process: Interested
to develop a research program with beginning August of 2019. A Ph.D. applicants should submit a letter of
undergraduates. Information about degree in Geology or related Earth interest, current vita, contact informa-
the department can be obtained at Sciences is required. The appointment tion for three professional references,
www.calvin.edu/geo. will be at the Assistant Professor level. and statements of teaching philosophy
Calvin College is a Christian college More experienced candidates may be and research interests online at http://
in the Reformed tradition, and all faculty considered at the Associate Professor shsu.peopleadmin.com/postings/20523.
are expected to support the college’s level. The position will teach a standard Questions regarding the position
religious commitment and educational 3-3 load consisting of two sections may be directed to: Dr. Joseph Hill,
mission. Calvin is building a tradition of an introductory, general education Search Chair (email: geojoe@shsu.edu;
of diversity and seeks faculty who will course and an upper-division specialty 936-294-1560), Department of Geog-
contribute to that effort. More infor- or elective course per semester. raphy and Geology, Box 2148, Sam
mation can be obtained at http://www. The ideal candidates will have Houston State University, Huntsville,
calvin.edu/go/facultyopenings.
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Applicants selected for the on-cam-
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will be required for appointment.
About SHSU: Sam Houston State
University was founded in 1879 and
named after Texas’ greatest hero,
General Sam Houston. With a total
enrollment of approximately 21,000
students, SHSU is classified as a Doc-
toral Research Institution by the Carn-
egie Commission on Higher Education
and offers 79 undergraduate degree
programs, 54 masters programs, and
five doctoral programs. The depart-
ment has approximately 70 geology
majors and offers degrees in geology
and geoscience. More information is
available on the department’s website
at www.shsu.edu/~gel_geo.
Sam Houston State University is an
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Plan Employer and Smoke/Drug-Free
Workplace. All qualified applicants
will receive consideration for employ-
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Sam Houston State University is an
“at will” employer. Security sensitive
SSA Annual Meeting
23–26 APRIL • SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Explore the developments shaping
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Learn more: seismosoc.org
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In any given week or month when you
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2019
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The AGI Foundation’s (AGIF) programs impact young peo-
ple, educators, researchers, the public, and policymakers
who together comprise the geoscientists and informed
citizens of tomorrow. AGIF’s most recognized programs
focus on geoscience STEM educational excellence, work-
force development, public awareness, and government
affairs. Widely acclaimed examples include the prestigious
endowed Fisher Congressional Fellowship, development
of inquiry-based geoscience curricula for elementary and
secondary schools, conducting teacher academies to
improve instruction of the geosciences, and the collec-
tion and analysis of geoscience workforce data.
Currently, AGIF is engaged in a capital campaign to sup-
port the AGI Center for Geoscience and Society. The
Center’s mission is to enhance AGI’s existing partnerships
and build new relationships across all sectors of society,
within and outside of the geosciences.
If you are interested to learn more about AGIF, or
support the Center’s campaign, please contact us at:
agif@agifoundation.org
AGI Foundation Leadership
Chair: Daniel D. Domeracki, Schlumberger Ltd.
Vice Chair: Mark Shuster, Bureau of Economic Geology
Secretary: Stephen M. Cassiani, ExxonMobil (Ret.)
Treasurer: William A. Van Wie,
Devon Energy Corp. (Ret.)
Executive Director: P. Patrick Leahy,
American Geosciences Institute Foundation
AGI Foundation
P. Patrick Leahy, AGIF Executive Director
c/o American Geosciences Institute
4220 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302
agif@agifoundation.org • www.agifoundation.org
Tel: (703) 379-2480
page 63 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
The Center has two distinct, but coordinated efforts:
1 The Critical Issues Program (CIP) provides deci-
sion makers, educators, industry professionals,
and the general public with scientifically-based
information to understand important contem-
porary issues that involve the geosciences.
2 The Education Resources Network (ERN) pro-
vides resources that help teachers and informal
educators build geoscience awareness across
kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) popula-
tions — the people who will make decisions at
personal, societal, and global levels in the future.
Specific programs and services of the Center include:
• Information Resource Development
• Collaboration and Consulting Services
• Stakeholder Meetings
• Innovative Starter Projects
AGI Foundation Trustees: John A. Adamick, TGS-NOPEC Geophysical
Company • Ronald G. Amundson, Univ. of California • Bruce S.
Appelbaum, Mosaic Resources • Michael J. Baranovic, Shell (Ret.)
• Steven R. Bell, CASA Exploration • C. Scott Cameron, GeoLogical
Consulting, LLC • Peter D. Carragher, BP America, Inc. (Ret.) • William
E. Crain, Chevron (Ret.) • Jennifer M. Erich, ExxonMobil Exploration
Co. • Scot Evans, Halliburton • William L. Fisher, Univ. of Texas at
Austin • Michael C. Forrest, Shell (Ret.) • Robert Fryklund, IHS • William
E. Gipson, Gas Investments/Gas Fund Inc. • Priscilla C. Grew, Univ.
of Nebraska State Museum (Ret.) • Elwyn C. Griffiths, ExxonMobil
(Ret.) • Charles G. Groat, The Water Institute of the Gulf • James W.
Handschy, ConocoPhillips (Ret.) • Jeffrey J. Heppermann, Freeport-
McMoRan, Inc. • G. Warfield Hobbs IV, Ammonite Resources • Ralph
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Geologic Column
Muinntir a’ ghlinne so
Ward Chesworth
T
he Gaelic word “pibroch” isn’t
one you come across every
day. It signifies a Scottish pip-
er’s variations on a musical
theme. Although the theme may often
be warlike, many pibrochs are laments
for the “tears of things,” the lacrimae
rerum, or tragedy of existence, of which
the old Romans wrote. In 1966, Dionne
Warwick turned the popular song “Alfie”
— which was composed for the movie
of the same name and opened with the
iconic line “What’s it all about, Alfie?”
— into a poignant lament for human
existence that always reminds me of
a pibroch.
Let’s forget Alfie for now and ask Earth
the same question. In fact, English poet
Ted Hughes did just that in his poem enti-
tled — wouldn’t you know it — “Pibroch,”
although, being an artist, the question in
his mind was probably phrased as, “What’s
it all about, Gaia?” However, before I look
at Hughes’ offering, I’ll go back a few
decades to see what “The Great Explainer,”
prolific American writer and biochemist
Isaac Asimov, had to say.
Here’s Asimov’s recipe for a planet like
Earth: “Weigh out roughly two septillion
kilograms of iron, adding 10 percent of
nickel as stiffening. Mix well with four
septillion kilograms of magnesium sil-
icate, adding 5 percent of sulfur ... and
small quantities of other elements. Heat
in a radioactive furnace and two mutually
insoluble layers separate. Cool slowly till
the crust hardens and a thin film of adher-
ing gas and moisture appears. Place in an
orbit at a comfortable distance from a star
and set to spinning. Then wait. In several
billion years it will ferment at the surface.
The fermented portion [is] called life.”
In modern parlance, we might call the
planet’s fermented layer the biosphere.
Asimov’s narrative, based on the
chemistry of smelting iron ore in a blast
furnace, is clever but lacks a few events
a geologist would likely include, such as
page 64 • January 2019 • EARTH • www.earthmagazine.org
an initial stage of cold accre-
tion before gravitational
compression and heat from
radioactive elements caused
melting, later brought to a
climax in the “iron catastro-
phe” as dense iron, sweated
out from Earth’s silicate
bulk, accumulated to form
the core. Plate tectonics
shuffling continents around
and Jupiter deflecting aster-
oid-sized space missiles are
also both missing, but hey,
Asimov’s recipe is close enough.
So, what did Hughes make of Earth?
“Pibroch” is composed of five stanzas that
present us with a picture of the biosphere
in terms of five elements: sea, land, air, life
and time. First, we hear of the sea crying
“with its meaningless voice” after “so many
millions of nights without sleep, with-
out purpose,” then of the land (or stone)
“created for black sleep” and “dreaming it
is the foetus of God.” Next comes air as
it rushes over the “blind stone,” a wind
“able to mingle with nothing.” Then life
arrives, “drinking the sea and eating the
rock,” and finally time simply accumulates,
“minute after minute … nothing lets up or
develops.” Darwin would certainly have
disputed that last point.
In sum, Hughes’ view sounds like
Nietzsche’s nihilism times 10, and by
extending it, in the final line, to a place
where “the stars bow down,” he manages
to embrace the whole universe in his
bleak picture. It could be argued that it’s
an appropriate vision for these postmod-
ern times, but “Pibroch” is absolutely the
wrong title. Pibrochs are about human
sorrow, not about lamenting “a lack of
purpose in an existential universe,” as
critic Terry Gifford says of the poem.
As an antidote, consider “The Lost
Pibroch” by Scottish author and journalist
Neil Munro. He says that all great pip-
ers must go through an apprenticeship
“Pibroch” signifies a Scot-
tish piper’s variations on a
musical theme.
Credit: Alberto Garcia, CC
BY-SA 2.0
of “seven years of his
own learning and seven
generations before.” In
Munro’s story, Gilian the
Piper plays a lament for
the Massacre of Glencoe,
where Campbells loyal
to William III — he of
the William and Mary partnership that
replaced James II on the British throne —
killed MacDonalds who remained faithful
to the deposed Stuart sovereign. Gilian
conjures up the 1692 scene in graphic
detail, the music revealing a Highland
pass, where the gray day crawled over a
winter’s landscape. Snow choked the pass
and smothered the still smoldering lintels
and joists of destroyed dwellings, and “the
blood of old and young lappered on the
hearthstone, and the bairn, with a knifed
throat, had an icy lip on a frozen teat.” The
tramped snow showed the path that the
Campbell butchers took — “far on their
way to Glenlyon and the towns of paper
and ink and liars.”
Gilian’s pipes throbbed with human
tears — “muinntir a’ ghlinne so, muinntir
a’ ghlinne so! — oh the people, the people
of this glen, this glen!” That’s the sound
of a pibroch, not Hughes’ barbaric yawp
into the void.
You can lament humanity, for sure, but
there is no need to lament Earth itself.
Chesworth is a Fellow of
the Geological Society
of America and Profes-
sor Emeritus of the Uni-
versity of Guelph, Can-
ada. Email: wcheswor@
Credit: Antonio uoguelph.ca. The views
Martinez Cortizas expressed are his own.
 Status of Recent
Geoscience Graduates 2017
By Carolyn Wilson

Photos from AGI's 2017 Life As a Geoscientist. Photographers clockwise from top left Victoria Heather; Mayra Martinez; Rob Thomas; Mary Lide Parker

The American Geosciences Institute’s (AGI) Status of Recent Geoscience

Status of Recent Graduates 2017 provides an overview of the demographics, activities and
Geoscience Graduates experiences of geoscience degree recipients during the 2016-2017 academic
2017
year. This research draws attention to student preparation in the geosciences,
their education and career path decisions, as well as provides other critical
insights into the newly minted geoscience workforce at the bachelor’s,
master’s and doctoral degree levels.

$15.00 (printed copy)

Carolyn Wilson
978-0922152643
Amazon purchase link: http://bit.ly/AmznRecentGraduates2017
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