News stories tagged with "geology"

(12/01/11) Pencil leads and diamonds are chemically identical--the difference is in the crystal structure. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about carbon crystals, and what it take to form a natural diamond.

(08/19/10) A SUNY Potsdam student found a rare fossil during a geology field trip out west this summer. Owen Brown, a senior from Beekmantown, was one of seven students studying the Great Basin in Utah and Nevada. They visited caves, mining operations and studied geologic formations. Todd Moe spoke with Owen and his mentor, Dr. Chris Kelson, an assistant professor of geology at SUNY Potsdam, about the trip and the fossil. They say it's a rare fossil of a 500-million year old invertebrate called Anomalocaris, a long-extinct marine species that fed on ancient trilobites. It was a lucky find.

(06/23/10) A magnitude 5.0 earthquake rumbled through Ontario and Quebec shortly before 2 o'clock this afternoon, shaking much of northern New York. There was no word of injuries as of 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.

But damage reports are starting to come in. According to the CBC, The town of Gracefield, Quebec near the epicenter of the quake is calling for emergency help after tremors felled the steeple of its church and damaged several other buildings, including the town hall.

The Ottawa Sun reports a 150-foot section of road collapsed in provincial Quebec, approximately 75 kilometers north of Ottawa.

The epicenter was near Val de Bois, Quebec, about 40 to 50 miles north of Ottawa. That's according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which pinpointed the quake at 11 miles below the earth's surface.

Shaking was reported across Ontario and Quebec and as far away as Michigan and Boston. According to the CBC, buildings in Ottawa were evacuated.

Again, no reports of injuries or damage in northern New York.

For some scientific and historic data on earthquakes in the area, we reached associate professor Mike Rygel in SUNY Potsdam's geology department:

(05/20/10) The theory of continental drift--the idea that the continents are islands of rock adrift on the earth's molten core--first gained acceptance in the 1960s. Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley talk about the consequences of their extreme slow motion collisions--earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

(04/08/10) "Old as the hills" is a relative term. The Adirondacks may be relatively young mountains, but their distinctive grey granite, anorthosite, originated 1.1 billion ago, so deep in the earth's crust that only continental collision could have formed it. Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley discuss Adirondack geology.

(02/11/10) Water is not what comes to mind when thinking of volcanoes, but steam can be up to 90 percent of the output, "virgin water" from deep in the earth's cust. Geologists speculate that volcanoes may be the source of all the surface water on earth. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about what happens when lava and water meet.

(09/17/09) Anorthosite, the signature grey rock familiar to climbers and hikers in the Adirondacks is an ancient form of granite formed 15 miles below the surface more than a billion years ago. Pushed to the surface by recent mountain building activity, its deep cracks form the valleys and deep lakes of the region. Martha Foley and Curt Stager talk about the area's "ancient bones."

(11/30/06) Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley talk about what makes a gemstone instead of a lump. How do high-school chemistry terms such as carbon and aluminum oxide become the stuff dreams--and bling--are made of?

(10/20/05) Planetary probes continue to bring us remarkable images of other worlds. Images of Venus show a blast furnace environment crossed by rivers of molten rock. On Mars one can see a shield volcano the size of Arizona. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager take us out of this world.

(10/13/05) The power of volcanos comes from more than the intense heat and pressure found beneath the earth. The force behind violent eruptions often comes from steam created when molten lava vaporizes underground water. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about nature's blowouts.