President Obama’s decision to cut funding to Yucca Mountain has, for me, been the most disappointing decision he has made so far in his presidency. And yet he has also professed his desire to increase the use of Nuclear Power Plants to meet the United States’ energy needs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Well, in my opinion, you can’t have it both ways.

People are concerned about the security risks of transporting spent nuclear fuel, and possible long term environmental risks. What about the risks of hundreds of “Obama Barrels” (to borrow a phrase by geoblogger Ontario-geofish) littered around our nuclear power plants for the next hundred years. Geology.com posted this CNN video showing the dry storage of spent Nuclear Fuel at a Chicago area nuclear power plant. Check it out. Sorry about the rant, but this topic is a hot button with me.

Moretrench is pleased to announce that Joseph A. Sopko, Ph.D., P.E., has joined the company as Regional Manager for its Midwest operations. Strategically located just north of Milwaukee in Port Washington, Wisconsin, the new office will offer the full range of Moretrench’s technologies to the Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis areas. These include dewatering and groundwater control, ground freezing, earth retention and excavation support, deep foundations, underpinning systems, grouting systems and environmental remediation.

[Editor] Click through for the rest of this press release from GeoPrac.net premier sponsor Moretrench. [/Editor]

Colorado governor Bill Ritter declared a disaster emergency Monday after a slide in Glenwood Canyon struck near midnight Sunday. It was located near Hanging Lake Tunnel, spot of a 2004 rockfall event that damaged a portion of cut and cover tunnel and required some innovative repair techniques. (Photos by CDOT via 9 News)

No injuries were reported, but the slide did some significant damage to median barriers, pavement, guardrails and even a bridge. Boulders up to 10-ft in diameter and up to 66-tons in weight fell into the westbound lanes. But perhaps the most impressive damage was the large hole or possibly holes that it punched through the bridge.

Repairs are currently underway, but the freeway will likely remain closed for some time. The closest detour is on the order of 200-miles.

I-70 Glenwood Canyon Rock Slide Links

• AP Article - Colo. rock slide rains boulders on bridge, highway
• 9 News Slideshow of I-70 Rockslide

• Geo-Florida Presentation by Steve Dapp, Tip-Grouted Drilled Shaft Foundations for the Audubon Bridge - Dan Brown and Associates, PLLC
• News 8 Austin - At least one injured in drilled shaft rig accident
• Direction drilling method comes under scrutiny in Minnesota after two recent gas explosions - Minnesota Public Radio NewsQ
• Drilling rig traps worker near I-35 and 51st | KXAN.com
• USDOT Furloughs to Shut Down Critical Construction Projects - USDOT Press release
  Secretary LaHood Denounces Political Games During Tough Economic Times

... and 27 more. Click through for the rest.

In early January of this year, Florida experienced some unusually cold temperatures that forced Plant City area strawberry farmers to pump extra groundwater to try to protect their crops. Over the course of about 11 days, the groundwater table in areas of Plant City was lowered by as much as 60-ft.

Almost immediately as many as 80 sinkholes began opening up around that region. Including ones that jeopardized a 500,000-gallon water tower, several that shut down an elementary school and numerous ones that shut down roads and highways and affected individual property owners. Around 20 local homeowners were left homeless after sinkholes left their house uninhabitable. For comparison, based on data from Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Sinkhole Database for the period of 1998 to 2008 (the last year for which data is available), 77 sinkholes were reported to have opened up in Polk, Pasco and Hillsborough counties combined.

Local officials are seeking help from the State and FEMA to cover the estimated $3 million in damages.  That figure is double what Plant City received from FEMA for the particularly bad 2004 hurricane season. And that dollar amount does not include what individual homeowners and property owners will be seeking from their insurance carriers. (Photos by Tampa Bay Online)

Read on for maps of Plant City sinkhole locations and more information.

A short 25-second video showing an impressive rock slide event. Credit to Dave’s Landslide Blog.

Rock slide on Hwy 96 in Northern California near the Humboldt/Siskiyou County line. from Paul Hailey on Vimeo.

An excavator mounted drill rig drilling shafts as part of a project to pass utilities under I-35 near 51st Street toppled over while trying to move in soft, rain soaked soil. The Austin Fire Department was able to extract the operator from the cab and he was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, a minor miracle. I’m not sure what the purpose of the drilled shafts were for. Since the project was for some kind of utility pipe jacking under the freeway, I’m speculating it was drilling holes for temporary shoring for the jacking pit or something along those lines. I’m sure OSHA will be looking into the incident. Video news story after the break. (Photo from Austin KXAN.com).

A few interesting links related to the Chile Earthquake. Over the next days and weeks, I will try to highlight interesting news and blog posts related to this event.

• Chile Earthquake: Soft ground bites the hand that builds on it - Ontario-geofish
  Harold is an expert in earthquake engineering, and this post discusses the limitations of current seismic codes around the world that are based on using a "peak ground acceleration" or PGA for the design earthquake event as opposed to a "peak ground velocity" or PGV approachl. Harold notes one of the problems with the PGA code-based designs is that 'Nobody takes soft soil seriously!'. He wonders if this earthquake in Chile will be a catalyst for changes in seismic codes around the world.
• Chile quake toll limited by good planning - Washington Post- msnbc.com
• Scientists defend warning after tsunami nonevent - Yahoo! News
• Chilean earthquake hints at dangers of 'Big One' for USA - USATODAY.com via ASCE SmartBrief
• Sizing Up The Tsunami: Why It Wasn't So Big - NPR
• How big was that EQ? Magnitude vs intensity in Chile and Haiti - All of My Faults Are Stress-Related

• Dam Safety News for January and February - Association of State Dam Safety Officials
• Illustrated Guide to Nonprofit GIS and Online Mapping - Slashgeo
  "The Guide includes: * a brief introduction to mapping and GIS (geographic information systems) technology and concepts. * examples of successful nonprofit projects using GIS and/or mapping technologies. * helpful strategies for planning your own mapping/GIS project. * a review of public data sources with freely available data. * a brief review of free and low-cost tools for nonprofit mapping and GIS projects."
• New Training Video on How to Heat Seam and Field Test Geomembranes - Cadwaller Technical Services via GeosyntheticsMagazine.com
  See the techniques of hot wedge welding, extrusion welding, hot air welding, destructive testing, and non-destructive testing demonstrated and discussed by one of the industry's most experienced and qualified training teams. Includes information relevant to all geomembrane materials and all forms of heat seaming and heat seaming equipment. $80 plus $10 shipping for an 80-minute DVD broken up into 25 sections.
• Polk County US-64 Rockslide Update - WTVC NewsChannel 9
• Lessons to be learned from Haiti's tsunami - BBC News via Ontario-geofish

... and 10 more. Click through for the rest.

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile on Saturday, centered about 200 miles southwest of the capital, Santiago and 70 miles north-northeast of Concepcion, one of the worst hit areas. According to the USGS event page, it occurred at about 3:30AM local time, with the epicenter about 21-miles below the ground, on the boundary between the subducting Nazca plate and the South American Plate (if you remember your plate tectonics). The earthquake prompted tsunami warnings around the Pacific Rim but the waves that materialized were relatively minor. As of Sunday night, the death toll for this earthquake is around 700. (Photo from the Daily Mail)

According to Geology.com, this earthquake was the 5th most powerful ever recorded. The most powerful earthquake ever recorded was the 1960 earthquake in Chile at 9.5 magnitude. Surprisingly, there was not as many casualties in the immediate vicinity of the 1960 quake as you would expect for one of that size.  The reason is that it occurred in the middle of the day and was preceded by a powerful foreshock that frightened people out of buildings, many of which were leveled when the main quake hit. However, some 2 million people were left homeless.

The resulting tsunamis from the 1960 quake were responsible for perhaps a larger number of casualties, including 61 people killed in Hawaii with wave amplitudes of 35-ft. 185 people in Japan were killed by the tsunamis, and 32 people in the Phillipines. Waves up to 1.7-m high were measured at locations along California’s coast.  All of these things put into perspective why they called for a tsunami warning around the pacific rim after this earthquake.

• Experts warn of new landslides in populated areas of Italy - AFP
• Portugal Landslide Death Toll Rises to 42 - CBS News
• Company fined following rock-drilling accident in Marathon - SOOTODAY.com
• 2 workers killed when trench collapses in Oklahoma - AP via ASCE SmartBrief
• New Haiti earthquake links - Arrowsmith blog

... and 13 more. Click through for the rest.

Newport Bridge, Newport, R.I., much of the BART subway system and Boston’s Big Dig were among the numerous significant projects worked on by the late Thomas R. Kuesel. He was a well known civil engineer and tunneling expert, co-editor of the “Tunnel Engineering Handbook,” a standard reference for design and construction used worldwide. One of his most noteworthy tunneling projects was the NORAD Combat Operations Center beneath Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs, built during the height of the Cold War and designed to withstand a nuclear blast. Read on for a full obituary chronicling his distinguished career.