Graduate student Matthew Jackson traveled to Samoa to learn more about how the islands formed. Read about his experience from Oceanus magazine.

Last year, the amount of Arctic sea ice that melted had an area equal to that of Texas and California combined. The forecast for 2008 is even more severe - the worst year yet for Arctic ice melting.

Conventional wisdom says that Daylight Saving Time cuts energy costs and conserves resources. However, a new study suggests that it might cost more money than it saves. This article looks at the history of DST and how it works today.

Earth Observatory has a track map for Cyclone Nargis that shows its location and intensity between April 28 and May 4. A color overlay shows rainfall totals from the storm. As of May 7, 2008, the number of people killed was estimated at more than 22,000, according to news reports citing the Myanmar [...]

Chaiten Volcano is pumping out such an intense amount of ash that its plume visibly extends on satellite images from Chile, across Argentina and over the Atlantic Ocean. Earth Observatory has natural color and infrared images of the plume.

A large sinkhole that seems to have formed near an injection well site has grown to over 400 yards wide. Reports say that Route 770 near Daisetta, Texas (about 40 miles northeast of Houston) is threatened by the expanding hole. Sinkhole Report from KNBC Texas

Millions of people in Myanmar are waiting for aid to arrive. The cyclone that hit last weekend washed a 15-foot high storm surge onto the coastline that drowned thousands and swept away the homes of a million.

The most obvious difference you’ll see when you first run version 7.1 is a redesigned start page. A: Click “New” to create a new file. You can choose to create from a template or start with an analysis of a particular kind. B: Click “Open” to open an existing file. You can browse for one on your [...]

Repairs to cracks found along a rdaddphp.4-billion, 20-mile Phoenix-area light-rail project are nearly complete, but deciding who's to blame is still far from done.

A large earthquake occurred off the east coast of Honshu, Japan. USGS reports a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 and their shakemap estimates intensity VII effects in areas of the coastline near the epicenter. It occurred at 1:45 local time and was preceded by smaller earthquakes.

A review article in the current issue of Science shows what are interpreted as "isolated pockets of ultralow seismic velocities" that may denote Earth's deepest magma chamber.

The study is by Edward J. Garnero and Allen K. McNamara at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration.

On our Local Chapters and Groups page:

May Meeting -- ASCE National Capital Section, Geotechnical Executive Committee
Guest Speaker: John Sankey, P.E., V.P. of Engineering, The Reinforced Earth Company
"Engineers without Borders—Project by the Chesapeake Chapter"
May 21, 2008, 11:30 – 1:30 PM
Tyson's Corner, Virginia

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Update: ITV have a low res video of the landslide site here. This confirms the general location and shows that the failure is indeed large.
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Update 2: The BBC now have some good aerial footage of the landslide here. It is slightly intriguing as it appears that the slide is wide but not very long. From a preliminary view there should be real concern about what might happen here in the next heavy rainfall event.
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Update 3: Based upon the BBC footage, the failure area appears to be the lower part of the slope highlighted by the red box on Fig. 3 below. The landslide appears to be a 400 m wide section of this lower cliff, extending about 100 m inland. This is a really intriguing development. It will be interesting to see how the sections upslope now behave as they have lost their toe support. This will be a fascinating landslide to watch over the next few months. I suspect that we have not seen the last movement at this site as yet.
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Original text:
Timed to perfection to coincide with the launch of the Durham University Institute of Hazard and Risk Research tomorrow, news reports indicate that there as another major landslide in the UK overnight. This time the failure occurred on the well-known Black Ven landslide system in Dorset, the site of a great deal of landslide research over the last few years.

Black Ven is shown by the arrow on the Google Earth image to the left, located on the south coast of England, just east of the town of Lyme Regis in Dorset. It is a big, active landslide complex consisting of an upper section in a glauconitic sandstone known as Foxmould. The lower part consists mainly of a series of shales and marls with thin limestone bands that form benches in the landscape. This is quite well shown in the cross section in Fig. 1 (Koh 1992). NB Click on any image for a better view.

Figure 1: Indicative cross section of Black Ven landslide in Dorset, showing the permeable sandstones of the Foxmould overlying the impermeable shales and marls (Koh 1992). NB Click on any image for a better view.

Figure 2: Photograph of Black Ven landslide in Dorset, showing the permeable yellow sandstones of the Foxmould overlying the impermeable shales and marls (Brunsden et al. 1988). Rotational failures in the Foxmold transition to flows that run across the lower benches. NB Click on any image for a better view.

Figure 3: Google Earth image of the Black Ven landslide. The red area highlights the zone known as the Spittles, which appears to be the area that has failed in early May 2008. Update: The BBC film footage suggests that the failure has occurred in the lower left side (i.e. SE corner) of this box. NB Click on any image for a better view.

Figure 4: Google Earth image of the Black Ven landslide zoomed in on the upper part of the Spittles. Note the multiple tension cracks and scarps indicating that failure was likely. NB Click on any image for a better view.

• NBA Destination - The National Basketball Association and ESPN have commissioned a Google Earth visualization showing all kinds of NBA and basketball content including 3D models of stadiums, placemarks with trivia and history, and a few little basketball "easter eggs" (Tip: try looking to the east of Mt. Hood, Oregon after loading the KML). You can go to their fancy flash-based web site NBAEarth.com which includes a video introduction, or you can go straight to the KML file . Thanks to Anandaroop Roy, the author of the KML content, for telling me. This is a well done KML file with lots of interesting content.

• EarthNC 2.0 - EarthNC has celebrated their one year anniversary by releasing version 2.0 of their online and Plus versions of EarthNC electronic charts and other marine data for Google Earth. If you're a boater (particularly in US waters) you should definitely check out this fantastic resource of marine data. EarthNC has some of the best KML, and most thorough, content available for Google Earth. And, their rates are very reasonable, especially compared to other data providers in the marine industry.

• Google Geo Education - Google has released a new web site to help educators find their geospatial related educational tools and content I'm a little disappointed they don't highlight more examples of Google Earth content. But, they do have some interesting classroom ideas, and on that page they link to a post I did last September with more relevant links for educators.

Resolution Copper has drilled about 90 feet of the proposed 7,000 foot shaft for the huge underground copper project near Superior. This keeps the drilling contractor engaged while negotiations continue on the federal land exchange Resolution needs to commit to full development.

Adam Schwarz (right), geologist with Resolution, spoke last night at the Arizona Geological Society dinner meeting on the geology of the copper-moly deposit. Adam described the ore body as structurally, geochemically, and compositionally complex, with an unusually long period of mineralization. He attributed the deposits richness to three factors: no late, barren intrusive phase, favorable host rocks (diabase, skarn, and others), and hypergene mineralization.

During the questions after his talk, he said they were keeping the drilling contractor busy with the pre-shaft work. A few months ago, former Resolution president John Rickus told AGS that if the driller left for other projects, it might be 2 years or more before they could get them back to Resolution, delaying the project.

Adam spoke to one of the largest crowds at an AGS talk in the past couple of years. A crowd of questioners surrounded him for a long time after the talk was over.

Can you name the volcano? It was three times as powerful as Pinatubo and thirty times the power of St. Helens. If your answer was Katmai, that is incorrect. Forty years after the eruption the volcanic vent responsible was finally realized. This is the most important story of mistaken identity in [...]

The need for skilled mining industry professionals in Canada is going up faster than Canadian schools can gradate students. They need 600 engineers per year but schools only graduate between 120 and 150. The nine schools granting those degrees do not have the capacity needed to meet the demand.

The long-dormant Chaiten volcano blasted ash some 20 miles (30 kilometers) into the Andean sky on Tuesday, forcing the last of thousands to evacuate and fouling a huge stretch of the South American continent.(AP)

Note to editors: As more information is received and the data are further analyzed, we may issue updates or clarifications on this event.

A magnitude 1.8 earthquake occurred in northern Virginia at 1:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time.  The epicenter was about 1 mile west-southwest of Annandale, VA and 13 miles west-south-west of Washington, DC. The USGS has received no reports of damage at this time. 

"This earthquake is just large enough to be felt, but not large enough to cause damage," said USGS scientist Bill Leith.

The most recent earthquake recorded in the Northern Virginia area was a magnitude 2.5 earthquake near Manassas, Va., on Sept. 29, 1997.                                                                                     

On Feb. 23, 2005, there was a similar type event in the Baltimore metropolitan area, as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake was felt strongly and widely. There was a series of seismic events in March and April 1993, in Columbia, Maryland, ranging from 0.5 to 2.5 in magnitude.

The largest recorded earthquake centered in Virginia occurred on May 31, 1897 near Giles County.  The magnitude was 5.9 and extended from Lynchburg, VA west to Bluefield, WV and from Giles County south to Bristol, TN.                      

Information on the earthquake history of each U.S. state is available on the Earthquake Hazards Program Web site or contact 303-273-8500.

The new issue of Southwest Hydrology has a set of 8 articles looking at aquifer recharge, storage, and recovery, covering hydrogeology to legal issues to water quality and more.

Next week, I will be attending the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. If you're planning to go, and you regularly read this blog, please make sure to look for me and let me know you're a GEB reader. I'm planning to give away one free SpaceNavigator for Notebooks on Wednesday May 14th to a random pick from GEB readers who give me their business card while at Where 2.0 (like GEB did last year).

Also, if you want to attend Where 2.0, but the cost is causing you to hesitate, GEB is giving away two free passes to Where 2.0. Leave a comment to this post if you're interested (the comments won't be posted). Ardent Google Earth fans are more likely to get the passes, but tell me why you want to attend Where 2.0 in your comment and include your e-mail address. I'll select the winners by Thursday (May 8th) afternoon.

China has instituted a ban on mining in regions around Beijing in preparation for the Olympic Games in August, according to a report in IM - Industrial Minerals magazine (www.indmin.com). Although the Chinese central government has not confirmed it, reports from local jurisdictions and people in the mining business, no mining explosives can be used in a 600-km radius around Beijing from April through September. Other mining operations are reportedly being shuttered to reduce pollution during the games. IM says suppliers call the situation "complete chaos" with reductions of key minerals for domestic use and export. The areas affected produce bauxite (for aluminum), flint clay, kaolin, magnesite, talc, and graphite.

Chinese mineral production has been hit by huge snowstorms, power outages, and supply problems this past winter, putting strain on a system already under great pressure to expand to meet ravenous demands.

Over the weekend, Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar as a category 4 storm with winds greater than 115 knots. The storms caused terrible flooding as well, and thousands of lives were lost. The UN Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) regularly creates maps to track disaster situations and has released a visualization for Google Earth showing the track and strength of the storm and the extent of flooding which resulted. via Google LatLong Blog.

[UPDATES: More KML visualizations of Cyclone Nargis]

Also, here are a couple of NASA satellite photos of the storm before it struck and as it was over Myanmar . via GEarthHacks and NASA.

Google provided a new KML showing an animation of Cyclone Nargis from the Naval Research Laboratory's satellite imagery. You have to wait for each set of images to load (it takes a minute or two) before the animation plays smoothly. Also, adjust the animation speed for smoother playback (click on the clock icon on the left of the time slider). Google also linked to an NRL KML which shows more details during the timeline of the hurricane. via Google LatLong Blog.

HurricaneMapping.com sent me a Nargis KML which shows the track of the storm along with wind swaths, and details at various stages of the path.

Big Island crops are shriveling as sulfur dioxide from Kilauea wafts over them and envelops them in "vog," or volcanic smog. People are wheezing, and schoolchildren are being kept indoors during recess.(AP)

The Los Angeles Times ran a feature story Sunday, about uranium exploration in five Western states with attention to those near the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. [above: Pigeon Mine, Snake Gulch. Top during production 1989; bottom after reclamation, 1993. Photo by Pam Hill, from testimony by Karen Weinrich]

They report that there are more than 1,100 uranium claims on public lands within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park, compared with 10 in January 2003. Most of the increase began in 2004, when 4,333 new claims were filed. By 2007, the total number according to the Interior Department, was at 43,153.

The number of claims in Arizona grew from 1,618 in 2001 to 12,068 in 2007. The other states are Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

Kris Hefton, Tucson-based geologist and chief operating officer with Vane Minerals, is quoted as describing the breccia pipes hosting the uranium as being small (20 acres or less) and the most easily reclaimed type of deposit.

The geoblogosphere is abuzz this weekend thanks to a post from Brian Romans this past weekend, showing the most popular words used in a paper he has published. Since then, almost every other website of note in the geoblogosphere has posted similar entries on papers they’ve written or books they have or will soon publish. I [...]

The recently created vent on the Big Island of Hawaii has seen a lot of activity and has forced the closure of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park multiple times over the past few months. The Volcanism Blog has had some excellent posts about Hawaii and the new activity as well. An article out today, written by [...]

Last week, NASA announced the release of an amazing dynamic Google Earth resource which shows time animated condition of the Earth's Ionosphere. The ionosphere is used to bounce radio signals over the horizon for long distance communication. But, when storms occur on the sun's surface they can mess up parts of the ionosphere and disrupt ionosphere-based communications. The new NASA Google Earth data can be used to quickly understand where and when there may be radio communication issues.

See for example their primary network link which shows the current condition of the ionosphere in the form of total electron content. Then, check out an animation of the total electron content for the past 24 hours . You use the time slider to see the animation, but note that it will take a while to load each image overlay which covers the entire Earth. Red means area of strong atmospheric disturbance where communications problems are likely to occur. Blue/dark means communications will be fine. You will notice that the night side of the Earth is the best time for radio communications.

This NASA information not only makes for cool looking Google Earth visualizations, but is very useful to anyone with a profession or need for using short-wave radio (e.g. HAM radio operators, mariners, coast guards, etc.). Airliners are increasingly flying over the arctic regions to take shorter routes, but in this area they can't use satellite communications based on geosynchronous satellites. So, they resort to short wave radio over the poles. If the ionosphere is important to you, check out the full list of GE ionosphere visualizations from NASA here. NASA also has a communications alert and prediction system which uses this data.

NASA has done many other Google Earth visualizations. Here are just a few:

• NASA Earth at Night Layer

• NASA Annual Lightning Flash Map

• NASA Sea Surface Temperature and more

• NASA Earth Day Top Photos

Browsing through some random links on StumbleUpon (for those interested, my StumbleUpon profile is located here), I found this page on the Mexican volcano Parícutin. Parícutin is famous for its unexpected and sudden birth in a cornfield on February 20, 1943. It began as a large fissure that opened in Dionisio Pulido’s field and quickly [...]

One of the things that the island of Kauai is famous for, is its very vibrant (and somewhat annoying - if you get it on your clothes) deep red dirt. One popular application of the dirt is its use in dyeing t-shirts, the most well known of which are Dirt Shirts. Image credit: Richard Puzio on [...]

Scientists probing volcanic rocks from deep under the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean have discovered a special geochemical signature until now found only in the southern hemisphere. The rocks were dredged from the remote Gakkel Ridge, which lies under 3,000 to 5,000 meters of water; it is Earth's most northerly undersea spreading ridge.(ScienceDaily)

Last summer I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days with my friends from GNS Science who are undertaking a monitoring project on the Taihape landslide in New Zealand (see Google Earth image right). Taihape, which is located as -39.68°, 175.80°, is described on Wikipedia as "a small, picturesque town near the middle of the North Island . It services a large rural community and lies on the main north-south route through the centre of the North Island." It has a population of about 2000 people and is in general a very nice little place. Unfortunately, the area around the town is somewhat landslide prone (actually, mapping landslides here would probably involve trying to find those few areas that have not been affected by mass movements!).

Perhaps not surprisingly, part of the town is built on a landslide, which moves (slowly) during periods of wet weather. The landslide is certainly not new - dating suggests that it first moved over 1,800 years ago. Nonetheless, the level of recent movement, although slow and gentle, can cause some damage to buildings and roads in the affected area of the town. The landslide is a translational block slide with a shear surface at about 25 - 35 m depth. It's pretty big - over 200 houses and a school are sited on it. Movement appears to be associated primarily with rainfall. Details of the landslide are available here.

Hence for the last year or so the hugely impressive chaps from Geonet have been working with GNS Science to monitor the movement of the landslide. In my view this is about the most impressive monitoring project I have seen to date. The data are collected by an automated laser monitoring system that sights onto prisms located on the landslide. This is supplemented by two rain gauges and four borehole piezometers. Excitingly, the data are available in graph form online in real time, so that anyone can see how the landslide is behaving. The data are available here, which uses a Java graphing tool. It takes a few minutes to load, but stick with it as it is fantastic. The results are great fun. You can plot side by side the movement recorded by different prisms and relate this to the groundwater level and the amount of rainfall. Although there hasn't been much rainfall since the monitoring started, it is already possible to see the link between rainfall, groundwater and movement. It is really worth playing with the graphing function.

The strength of this project is in its thoroughness and its transparency. The monitoring system being used is about as good as is possible using current technology, and the team are taking great care to quantify and deal with the potential errors. The fact that the results are online is hugely impressive. I can only wish that more landslide movement data was available in this way.

Contact: Amy Kober, American Rivers, (206) 213-0330 ext. 23; Julie Murphy, CGPR, (781) 639-4924; Amy Terai, Filson, (800) 778-5111 ext. 3767  

Seattle, WA -  Filson, long known for its classic fly fishing line, is introducing Stockingfoot Waders at retail this month. In celebration of this product launch, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Filson will donate 1% of the sales of the new Waders to the American Rivers Wild and Scenic River Campaign.

Filson Stockingfoot Waders, featuring a proprietary five-layer construction, are waterproof, breathable and salt water resistant. Performance elements include a gusseted crotch and articulated knees for freedom of movement, outer leg seams for greater durability, neoprene booties to accommodate a large range of foot sizes and Mackinaw wool lined handwarmer pockets. The suspenders are removable for quick conversion to waist-high waders with a removable belt and drawstring top closure. Classic Filson design elements include bridle leather trim and Filson brass snaps on the mesh front pocket.

“Filson customers will be wearing our new waders on the many rivers protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act,” said Bill Kulczycki, president and CEO of Filson.  “It is our responsibility to preserve the wild places where our customers play.”

Proceeds from Filson’s initiative will be utilized by American Rivers to support its Wild and Scenic River campaign which increases the protection of the nation’s most outstanding rivers through Wild and Scenic designations.

“Filson’s reputation as a heritage outdoor brand known for quality and commitment to the outdoors makes it an ideal partner for American Rivers,” said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers. “We appreciate their support for our mission of standing up for healthy rivers and the communities that depend on them.”

Other keystone items from Filson’s fishing line include:  Men’s and Women’s Feather Cloth Fly Fishing Shirt (long and short sleeved); Oil Finish Cover Cloth Wading Jacket; Foul Weather Fly Fishing Vest; Fly Fishing Strap Vest; and Fishing Waist Pack.

The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. A Wild and Scenic designation forever protects the free-flowing condition and outstanding values of our country's most precious rivers. To qualify, a river must be free-flowing with outstanding scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values. There are currently more than 165 Wild and Scenic rivers (totaling 11,000 miles) in 38 states.

About Filson:  Filson, a leading outfitter for outdoor enthusiasts, is committed to providing the highest performance apparel that stands up to the toughest conditions. The company’s 111 year legacy is built upon its reputation for honesty, quality and durability.  The brand’s tough yet comfortable outdoor clothing is a favorite among hunters and fishermen, engineers and explorers, mariners and miners, and anyone who has a passion for the outdoors.  Renowned for proprietary fabrics such as heavyweight Tin Cloth and warm, rugged Mackinaw Wool, Filson’s quality apparel and accessories have made it a trans-generational brand.  The company’s flagship retail store is located in Seattle, Washington, where the company is headquartered, and another retail store is located in Denver, Colorado.  For information or a free catalog, call #800-624-0201 or visit http://www.filson.com/.

About American Rivers: American Rivers is the only national organization standing up for healthy rivers so our communities can thrive. Through national advocacy, innovative solutions and our growing network of strategic partners, we protect and promote our rivers as valuable community assets that are vital to our health, safety and quality of life. Founded in 1973, American Rivers has more than 65,000 members and online supporters nationwide, with offices in Washington, DC and the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, California and Northwest regions. www.AmericanRivers.org.

Levees reinforced with geosynthetic materials in New Orleans withstood Hurricane Katrina and flooding. Geosynthetics stablize the ground, reduce use of traditional stabilizers, conserve natural resources and provide a reliable building base.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield are helping to solve the long-term problem of how to dispose of Britain's nuclear waste.

Recent earthquakes have not damaged bridges or roadways, but a larger one could result in heavy damage, particularly to old brick or concrete buildings, inspectors said Monday.

The companies that eventually will employ many of the program's graduates are donating million worth of renovations to the circa 1883 Industrial Sciences Building, aimed at giving students the most realistic learning environment possible.

A collaborative research team from The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering and School of Information has received a rdaddphp million grant from the National Science Foundation to teach construction professionals to incorporate cutting-edge technology into everyday tasks.

If you have a nagging feeling that life is getting increasingly hazardous, you may be interested in the new book, “Operational Risk Management,” by Mark D. Abkowitz, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University.

The self-cleaning paint is an ecologically friendly product, Giancaspro says, which has the ability to keep walls clean and maintenance free by repelling dirt, smog, bacteria, algae and fungus that normally accumulates on surfaces, eliminating toxic odors at the same time.

An independent inspection of the Longfellow Bridge found the span to be in worse condition than the state had previously determined, but officials dispute the findings and refused to release the report to the public for several months.

I figure since there is an unofficial blog carnival going on this weekend (see for example posts at Looking for Detachment, Clastic Detritus and The Dynamic Earth), I figured I’d get in on the action myself with a geology picture of the day. Image Credit: mm-j on flickr. Of course this picture isn’t of Death Valley, my [...]

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold is #140 on Fortune magazine's top 500 U.S. corporations, up 258 positions in the rankings from last year, making it the company that moved up the most.

Freeport was also 16th best performing company in the 500 with an 86.9% increase in total shareholder return for 2007, from .73 to 2.44. Freeport saw a 208.7% growth in revenues for 2007, putting them at #1 among the 500.

Arizona has 6 companies in the Fortune 500 list (making Arizona 21st in the nation in terms of numbers of headquarters), with Freeport at the top of the list (others are Avnet, US Airways, Allied Waste, Insight Enterprises, and Petsmart). Freeport merged with Phelps-Dodge last year, and is based in Phoenix.

Working with colleagues from NASA, a Florida State University researcher has published a paper that calls into question three decades of conventional wisdom regarding some of the physical processes that helped shape the Earth as we know it today.(ScienceDaily)

You know Earth's schematic: core, mantle, crust, right? Sorry, not so simple.(LiveScience)

The USGS released a new report (right, cover photo from Prof. Paper 1703) yesterday entitled, "Ground-Water Recharge in the Arid and Semiarid Southwestern United States," with two study areas in southeast Arizona.

The editors conclude, "Analysis of recharge patterns shows that large expanses of alluvial basin floors are drying out under current climatic conditions, with little to no recharge to underlying ground water. Ground-water recharge occurs mainly beneath upland catchments in which thin soils overlie permeable bedrock, ephemeral channels in which flow may average only several hours per year, and active agricultural areas."

They also note that conditions produce "up to millennial time lags between changes in hydrologic conditions at the land surface and subsequent changes in recharge to underlying ground water."

RESTON, VA -The United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced the award of three multi-year acquisition contracts for high and moderate-resolution satellite imagery to GeoEye of Dulles, VA, DigitalGlobe of Longmont, CO and SPOT Image Corporation of Chantilly, VA. 

The contracts will to provide the USGS and other Federal agencies access to commercial satellite data from the U.S. and international marketplace for use in environmental monitoring, land management, energy development, natural hazards mitigation and many other purposes.  USGS makes this data electronically accessible to any Federal agency or other user group that falls within the data licensing agreements. 

"These contracts directly support the objectives of the recently announced National Land Imaging Program (NLI) and the President's National Space Policy, signed in 2006, by providing a centralized mechanism to meet land imaging requirements for commercial data in an efficient and coordinated fashion. Several additional contract awards are expected this spring" stated Barbara Ryan, USGS Associate Director for Geography.

"Our USGS office in Rolla, Missouri will administer commercial satellite and airborne data contracts as well as other complementary geospatial services contracts. The USGS contracting team is committed to providing the highest quality products and services to the USGS and its partner agencies by building and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with the commercial sector."  Ryan added.

The National Land Imaging Program will be responsible for the deployment and operation of future U.S.-owned, civil operational land imaging satellites and ground system assets and will facilitate the development and promotion of future land imaging technologies, applications and services to support the growing number of users.

Users will also benefit from changes to the USGS Landsat imagery distribution practices announced earlier this month. The change results in expanding the availability of the USGS Landsat data holdings through web-enabled access at no cost to the user. The change is the latest effort made by USGS designed to improve user access to National and global land imaging products and services beyond the life of Landsat 5 and Landsat 7.  

The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life.  

For additional information on USGS Land Remote Sensing please visit our website: http://remotesensing.usgs.gov

A new on-line map makes it possible, for the first time, to track news articles about disease outbreaks around the world that threaten the health of wildlife, domestic animals, and people.

The Global Wildlife Disease News Map, developed jointly by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the U.S. Geological Survey, can be accessed at http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov

Updated daily, the map displays pushpins marking news stories of wildlife diseases such as West Nile virus, avian influenza, chronic wasting disease, and monkeypox. Users can browse the latest reports of nearly 50 diseases and other health conditions, such as pesticide and lead poisoning, by geographic location. Filters make it easy to focus on different disease types, affected species, countries, and dates.

The map is a product of the Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN), a five-year-old collaboration between UW-Madison and two federal agencies, the National Wildlife Health Center and the National Biological Information Infrastructure, that are part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). WDIN is housed within the university's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the USGS. 

A powerful feature of the wildlife disease map is its ability to tap into the WDIN's large and growing electronic library of information from around the globe.

"If you click on the name of a particular disease, it takes you to our main Web site and does a quick search of everything that we have on that topic," says Cris Marsh, a librarian who oversees the wildlife disease news services for the WDIN. 

State and federal wildlife managers, animal disease specialists, veterinarians, medical professionals, educators, and private citizens will all find the new map useful for monitoring wildlife disease, adds Marsh.

Produced by WDIN staffer Megan Hines, the map is the latest addition to a suite of tools aimed at keeping users abreast of wildlife disease news. The WDIN gathers news from more than 20 on-line sources and makes it available in a number of handy formats, from a Wildlife Disease News Digest at wdin.blogspot.com to desktop widgets, e-mail, and RSS feeds. Subscription information for these news delivery services can be found at http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/wdindigest.html.

Ultimately, the WDIN seeks to provide a comprehensive on-line wildlife disease information warehouse, according to project leader Josh Dein, a veterinarian with the Madison-based USGS National Wildlife Health Center.

"People who collect data about wildlife diseases don't currently have an established communication network, which is something we're working to improve," says Dein. "But just seeing what's attracting attention in the news gives us a much better picture of what's out there than we've ever had before."

Concerns about the emergence and spread of diseases that can pass between species have forged new links in recent years between wildlife health, human health, and domestic animal health professionals.

"It all ties in together, the 'One-World, One-Health' idea," says Marsh. "The West Nile virus acted as one of the catalysts for that connection. People in different areas in the eastern U.S. began to see isolated incidences of dead and dying crows that seemed abnormally high, but nobody knew other areas were experiencing the same thing."

Because West Nile virus also affects humans and other mammals, it became apparent to scientists that disease outbreaks of this kind need to be addressed as quickly as possible, explains Marsh. Outbreaks of monkeypox and highly pathogenic avian influenza soon afterward underscored the importance of linking information about emerging diseases across all species.

"If scientists share with one another the information they're collecting on the patterns of diseases like these, we can respond to outbreaks much more efficiently," says Marsh.

Besides providing news services, WDIN collaborates with a wide variety of public and private entities to gather and provide access to important wildlife disease data.  Because of the global significance of these diseases, WDIN encourages others to become involved with the project.

"The more information we can link," says Marsh, "the more robust our service becomes."

I posted this on the COPUS blog (http://blogs.aibs.org/copus/) a few days ago, where I'm one of the group of guest bloggers, and thought it appropriate for cross-posting here:

My colleague Daniel Sarewitz, who heads up the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, at Arizona State University, argues against the idea of a presidential debate (ScienceDebate2008) in a recent letter to the journal Nature. Dan writes, ?It?s hard to imagine anything worse for the cause of science than to subject it to the sort of high-profile demagogic posturing now reserved for immigration, medical care, social security, the economic downturn and the war in Iraq.

Science continues to enjoy a protected and privileged status in American politics, in no small part because of its absence from the national political stage??

This is a powerful and thoughtful argument. Science issues don?t usually get resolved with 30-second sound bites. But I have to disagree with Dan?s underlying thesis. One can argue that science has become caught up in demagogic politics for some time now, and if we don?t take aggressive action, science and scientists will continue to be demonized and marginalized, to the long-term detriment of national economic well-being and security. Science in America is losing ground and the economy with it. The golden age Dan refers to following World War II and Sputnik, put science in that so-called privileged status, precisely because it was on the national political stage. Science won the war and was expected to protect us from the Communists as well.

Today there are groups attacking science for political ends. Unless the public and political leaders are re-engaged in understanding the scientific process and its benefits, the nation will lose the goose that laid the golden egg.