LIDAR maps the impacts of Hurricane Sandy

The USGS has mapped change in the coast of Fire Island, New York as a result of Hurricane Sandy. The image below shows the key differences in topography before and after the hurricane hit. Check their results in more detail at: http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/sandy/lidar/

Burrowing badgers shift soil fast

Badgers are known to be efficient agents of geomorphological change.  This video illustrates the magnitude and rate of American badger burrowing...

Fulgerites - the beauty of geomorphology

Amazing picture on the  aggressively named 'I fucking love science' Facebook page of a fulgerite.  The description reads:

This is what happens when sand gets struck by lightning!

Fulgurites are natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, silica, or soil by lightning strikes (at 3,270 °F), which instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together over a period of around one second. 
Photographed by Ken Smith.

USGS predicts coastal change from Hurricane Sandy

The USGS has already released a series of maps predicting how Hurricane Sandy will have caused rapid coastal change along sensitive sections of the USA East Coast.  Look at the maps on their website and see how the predictions correlate as they release the actual datasets:

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/sandy/coastal-change/

According to the USGS well over 90% of key parts of the coast will very likely suffer from dune erosion as a result of the Hurricane.

Percentage of sandy coast very likely (probability > 90%) to experience coastal change during Hurricane Sandy landfall.

	Collision (dune erosion)	Overwash	Inundation
Long Island, NY	93	12	4
New Jersey	98	54	9
Delmarva	91	55	22

Geomorphology has reached Mars!

The arrival and successful deployment of the Curiosity rover on Mars marks a key step in the advancement of geomorphological science.  The sophisticated equipment that Curiosity carries is already making observations of the Mars surface (which extend the records sent back from other areas on Mar by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on a previous mission).

Geomorphological observations are vital to the interpretation of the Martian surface and whether it has ever contained enough water to support life.  An early story on the mission with a good video is reported in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/sep/28/mars-rover-curiosity-evidence-water?newsfeed=true

Today the BBC report on the latest findings on the make-up of Martian soils at the landing site http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20151789

Just like Hawaii apparently...

Curiosity heads off to Mars

On Saturday 26th November the Mars Science Laboratory mission launched safely from Florida. It should land on Mars in early August next year, ready for the amazingly well-equipped Curiosity rover vehicle to start its exploration of Gale Crater.  The aim of the mission is to search for signs that conditions  might once have been favourable for life, by looking for evidence in the sedimentary rocks found in the crater.  Geomorphology will play an important part of this mission, and geomorphologists will also learn a lot from it.  Already there are many links between planetary science and terrestrial geomorphology. For example, much of our understanding of the surface conditions on Mars comes from looking at what the Americans call 'analog' environments - i.e. places on Earth that are similar to places on Mars, such as Antarctica and hyper-arid deserts such as the Atacama and the Namib deserts.

HiRise image of barchan dunes on Mars

Also, as the above image shows we can now see an amazing range of landforms on Mars which are leading geomorphologists to ask all sorts of questions about how they are formed.

The IAG Planetary Geomorphology Working Group posts monthly images with accompanying  explanations most of which deal with some aspects of comparisons between landforms and processes on Earth and Mars.  Check out the collection at the following address - especially the one from December 2010 on rock breakdown on Earth and Mars which I put together.

http://www.psi.edu/pgwg/images/index.html

Geomorphologists on Earth are highly envious of the equipment that the Mars Science Lab mission has on-board the Curiosity Rover.  Have a look at the NASA factsheet (link below) to find out all the information about the physical and chemical make-up of the rocks that Curiosity will be able to glean in the field.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-laboratory.pdf

Fingers crossed, if all goes to plan, Curiosity and the Mars Science Lab mission should start sending back some new and intriguing data next summer, which will not only throw further light on its geological, geomorphological and possibly biological history.

San Pedro landslide - a slow build up to a dramatic event

San Pedro is on the Palos Verdes peninsula just south of Los Angeles - and in Sunday 20th November 2011 a slow-moving landslide which had been moving at a few 10s of mms per day for several months suddenly failed dramatically in a few minutes. A 200m stretch of the main Paseo del Mar road slid away from the clifftops, dropping some 30m.  It's a beautiful hilly area, with upmarket housing and fantastic coastal views.  It's also a hotspot for landslides, as evidenced by the excellent California Geological Survey landslide map produced in 2007 which you can access at:
ftp://ftp.consrv.ca.gov/pub/dmg/pubs/lsim/LSIM_PalosVerdes.pdf
Be patient as it is a large file and takes some time to download.  if you read the text on the right hand side of the map you'll find out more about why the area is prone to landslides.  The essential reasons are:

1. The peninsula is underpinned by Miocene rocks, including shale.  Many of the landslides are located on the easily erodible shale.
2. The peninsula is crossed by the Palos Verdes fault and folded into a complex anticlinal structure.

Human activities have also been blamed for the high occurrence of landslides here. Not only building extensively on the clifftops, but also mis-managing drainage systems and, one factor quoted in the local news as being responsible for the most recent event - cold war underground missile silos are allegedly found in the area.  On Sunday 20th November 2011 it was a horrendously rainy day in Los Angeles - over 20mm of rain fell in a few hours.  

You can explore the coast on Google Maps below - the site of the 20th November 2011 landslide is at the centre of the view - but if you head N and W up the coast you can see vast numbers of houses and impermeable concrete structures along the clifftops.  Surely asking for trouble?


View Larger Map

Think about how would describe the causes of this landslide, using Mike Crozier's predisposing, triggering and maintaining factors framework. Was the rainstorm on November 20th the trigger? Or not?