climate_change - Through the sandglass

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel wildlife

The mother of all extinctions and the perils of correlation (1)

Nature abhors a vacuum, continuity and the status quo. Variety is the spice of life and change is the order of the day. Such things make life complex for a geol...

August 1, 2009 10 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel wildlife

The mother of all extinctions and the perils of correlation (2)

The previous post, instalment one of this saga, looked at what a geologist must do, faced with rock exposures in, say, a cliff face, to read the ledgers of our...

August 1, 2009 14 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel wildlife

The Poetry of Sand: Guest Writer, Richard Bready

Times of Sand Richard Bready In science one tries to say something that no one knew before in a way that everyone can understand. Whereas in poetry . . . - Dira...

August 1, 2009 13 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel wildlife

August 2009

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

August 1, 2009 9 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel wildlife

USGS beach health advice - but let's hear it for meiofauna

The US Geological Survey newsroom has just put out an advisory on the importance of washing your hands after playing in the sand on the beach: By washing your h...

August 1, 2009 7 min read

art books climate_change coastal environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Rivers Run Dry - but why?

This map shows the change in runoff inferred from streamflow records worldwide between 1948 and 2004, with bluish colors indicating more streamflow and reddish...

July 1, 2009 5 min read

books climate_change coastal environment history photography rivers_water sand science travel wildlife

The sandfish - "like a man diving into water"

My aspiration for the book and this blog, beyond the hope that they would be read at all, has always been that readers would be surprised. This arose simply bec...

July 1, 2009 6 min read

art climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Granular segregation and the Gold Rush

Anyone walking on the beach or through the dunes will often notice areas of dark gray smeared across the surface, often outlining ripples, as if an artist had h...

June 1, 2009 15 min read

art climate_change environment geomorphology history photography sand

On the road in California 3 - tafoni yet again

I’ve done a couple of posts on tafoni, the exotic and wonderful natural sculpturing of, commonly, sandstones. As I was putting together the piece on the ways in...

June 1, 2009 2 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Streams of grains - some more amazing granular research

As I’m sure I’ve said before, to watch the sands of an hourglass in action is to observe all kinds of natural phenomena at work - and all kinds of questions to...

June 1, 2009 6 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

June 2009

Musings and news on the extraordinary stories sand has to tell of our planet and daily lives

June 1, 2009 6 min read

art books climate_change coastal education environment geology geomorphology history photography rivers_water sand science travel

Beach Nourishment and Sediment Budgets

I’m in the US at the moment (outside Philadelphia to be more precise), visiting family and preparing to give a talk in a couple of weeks time at the aquarium in...

May 1, 2009 6 min read