UA geosciences professor Rick Bennett has been awarded funding from NSF for the project "Collaborative Research: Geodetic Constraints on the Kinematics of the Colorado Plateau and its Western and Southern Margin," which will allow him to deploy over 30 high-precision continuous GPS units to measure crustal strain in the region.
Among an array of projects, Rick's team uses GPS [right] "to detect crustal motions throughout Arizona. Our goal is to determine how the crust is actively deforming. The changes in crustal velocities that we seek to discriminate are very small (<>
UA mining engineering professor Mary Poulton says developing Afghanistan's recently revealed mineral resources will require building new national infrastructure including a university-level mining program. Even with that, she estimates that it will be a decade or more with investments of of billions of dollars before mines could be operating
Mary was interviewed for a story on the Daily Finance web site.
Okay, I admit it. I love cheesy horror/monster/scifi movies with a geology subtheme. How many of you remember "Monolith Monsters"?
The new one I've been following is "Piranha 3D" which is due to be released August 20. It was filmed at Arizona's Lake Havasu (cleverly renamed Lake Victoria in the film). The plot is that an earthquake unleashes hordes of giant prehistoric piranha from their ancient habitat under the lake. During spring break. Amidst hundreds of drunk teens.
The trailer for the movie is now out and you can get a glimpse of what these 2 million-year-old critters look and act like. It ain't pretty.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake about 9:30 pm last night occurred in California near the Mexico border in the midst of a cluster of aftershocks from the Easter El Mayor-Cucapah quake in Baja California. Last nights event was felt across western Arizona including the Phoenix area, but with ground shaking only in the 1-3 MMI range.
There have been a number of aftershocks to this event, in the 4 magnitude range. So far, I've seen no reports of damage.
