Today marks the one-year anniversary since the WHO declared a pandemic around the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. This has changed the way we work, live, and socialize. In the short term, this has created a tremendous burden of pain and hardship for people around the world. In the long term, I imagine it will change … Continue reading Earth Sciences on the Divide
2020: A Year for the Books
As an historic pandemic ravaged the globe, Earth science as a whole has had to deal with major changes and delays...In spite of all the churn and change and challenges, we were still able to do some great work in geophysics and hydrogeology.
Earth Sciences: The World is at Your Feet
To finish out their semester, I facilitated a presentation at Monticello Middle School's Science Cafe in Monticello, IL in December 2019. Science Cafe is an excellent program that allows students to bring their lunch into one of the science classrooms to hear a presentation from a practicing science about what they do and why it matters to the students.
3D Imaging of Landslides
One of the areas of applied research we have been doing more of lately at the ISGS is delineation of landslides and creep failures. These occur on steep slopes where water works its way into the subsurface and reduces the friction that is holding the slope up. Creep Failure, where land moves slowly over time. … Continue reading 3D Imaging of Landslides
Aguacate: Water and Avocados in San Diego
Water-resource related issues—especially the cost of water—are the most important issues facing avocado growers, but socioeconomic drivers and environmental drivers are as well, including land resources, drought conditions, tax laws, zoning ordinances, and commodity markets. San Diego County has more farms than any other county in the United States, with over 5,700 operations, but is losing over 8% of its farmland every year, much of that land considered “prime.” This land is among the most productive farmland in the United States in terms of crop production value, and is some of the last remaining land in agriculture in southern California.
Creeping Hazards: Towards a Framework for Transformability and Resilience
Geohazards have generally been understood and defined as events that take place on short human timescales, from milliseconds to a several months. However, both human- and naturally-induced events can develop and occur over the course of several years or longer. “Creeping hazards”—a term used as early as 1979 and referenced, though sparingly, in subsequent works—are a subset of events that exhibit the characteristics of geohazards (i.e., in terms of vulnerability, risk, and exposure). Distinct, but related to, “slow-onset” disasters, creeping hazards reflect permanent changes to a system. For example, although drought is often included as an example of such a hazard, drought is better understood as a slow-onset disaster. Better examples of a creeping hazard as defined here include aquifer depletion (and associated land subsidence), desertification, land degradation, certain hazards associated with climate change, and soil creep.
UPDATE Winter Hibernation (AKA Data Processing)
Winter at the ISGS means field work slows down, and especially since the last week or two have been frigid! For now, we have several things we are working on that will take plenty of time in-office to complete. I have been working the past week or so on developing an automation code (Visual basic … Continue reading UPDATE Winter Hibernation (AKA Data Processing)
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