Don't Panic Geocast

This week we’re going underground…to caves that is. We review the basics of how caves form, some unique features, and a lot of fun vocabulary. We also talk about the latest and greatest scientific discovery! How caves form Carbonic Acid Hydrogen Sulfide Video of Limestone vs. Acid Carlsbad Caverns Formation White-Nose Syndrome Karst Speleothems Stalactites vs. Stalagmites Cave Bacon (Flowstone) Ca...

This week a special guest takes us to the moon by talking about lunar rocks and meteorites! The moon turns out to be a fascinating place, but probably won’t break up like in Seveneves. Brad’s Website Jim Papike Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Mars Exploration Rovers Apollo Lunar Rocks and Soils Collection Impact Basin Geology South Pole-Aitken Basin Yutu Rov...

Why do mountains form, earthquakes happen, and volcanoes form where they do? The answer is plate tectonics. This week we explore the history of being wrong about how the Earth works. Shannon’s Keyboard Plate Tectonics Tectonics is from the Greek tekton or “builder” Ben Franklin’s Letter Alfred Wegener The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Book by Wegener) Mesosaurus Arthur Holmes (1928) NOAA Seaflo...

We’ve already talked a little bit about the Earth’s magnetic field, but where does that fall in terms of geoscience? Lots of physicists look at the magnetic field, but so do geologists. Not just our current field, but the ancient magnetic field, which is called paleomagnetism. Paleomagnetism Continental Position Video Butler’s Pmag Webpage Apparent Polar Wander True Polar Wander Magnetism in rocks...

With the first winter storm of 2016 over with, we figured we would jump on the bandwagon and talk about some different types of winter precipitation. Feedback Bending Spacetime in the Basement (Thanks Mark!) Cavendish Experiment Winter Precipitation Snowtron John’s Drone Experiments Pickle Juice and Cheese brine! Atmospheric Temperature Profiles Freezing Rain Freezing Fog Sleet Ice Storms Types of...

Last week we talked about glaciers, a basic staple of any geology education. That means it’s only fair to talk about a geophysics staple this week. We can measure gravity at different locations and use it to help figure out what’s under our feet. That and another great Fun Paper this week! It’s All About Pentiums (Weird Al) Gravity Basics All geophysical methods are based on measuring some kind of...

Last known survivor of the 1906 San Fran. EQ/Fire passes away Ice is a mineral National Snow and Ice Data Center Great USGS informational publication on ice ages Mendenhall Glacier Video of 1 year of Mendenhall melting Chasing Ice Firn Pressure melting point Regelation Video of Regelation Experiment Weertman 1957 (Paper on ice movement) Great Lakes Glacial erratic Ice age Drumlin Esker Moraine Ket...

Last week we told you about many different map projections and talked about why they are all wrong. This week we’ll discuss a few of our favorites, why we like them, and when they fail us. We also have another Star Wars themed Fun Paper Friday! How’s your 2016 so far? (PhD Comics) Nuclear Test John’s Particle Motion Movie How To Detect A Secret Nuclear Test Picking a Projection Consider what you n...

Maps are useful things, but it turns out that projecting a 3D object on a 2D map can cause a lot of unexpected problems. They even inspired an XKCD comic . This week we explore maps and map projections. We also chat about machine learning as part of #FunPaperFriday. What’s the big problem? The Earth is a sphere, actually it’s an ellipsoid, actually it’s really bumpy and messy Taking 3D information...

We want to wish you happy holidays and invite you to join us while John was at AGU. This show should have been released a week ago, but John got very ill at AGU and took several days to recover. Thank you for the well wishes and sticking with us! AGU Fall Meeting 5 Tips for Surviving your First Conference John didn’t get to see the Elon Musk lecture. He did get to sit in a car from Tesla Motors th...

The holiday season is approaching and you may be wondering what to get that geoscientist or science nerd in your life. Look no further as we discuss our recommendations on the Don’t Panic gift guide! John’s Picks Gear Pedco UltraPod II AmScope SE400-Z Microscope Shower Mate Speaker MakerBeam Lowepro Extreme Padded Sport Backpack Books Thing Explainer What If? The Annotate Build-It-Yourself Science...

This week we continue our discussion of posters, presentation, and talk about splashing around with our fun paper Friday! Graphing Software Igor Pro KaleidaGraph Matplotlib Bokeh Veusz Poster Tools Inkscape Adobe Illustrator Adobe InDesign Adobe Color (Formerly Kuler) John’s AGU Talk Fun Paper Friday This week we talk about urine splashing and industrial uses of carbon nanotubes. Abstract: M32.000...

This week we re-visit one of our favorite shows while everyone is outside or in their turkey food-coma here in the US. We also read some listener mail about last week's episode on earthquake magnitudes!   Time is a very complex subject that you can devote your entire life to. Today we’ll cover a few of the basics and enough to get your interest up! We’ll see that it’s difficult to know what a...

This week we talk about Bill Nye, earthquake magnitudes, and coffee. Bill Nye John got to see Bill Nye ( @BillNye ) talk at Penn State! News article with photos! Earthquake Magnitudes Earthquake Size (C. Ammon) Challenge is that earthquakes span a huge dynamic range. We measure ground displacements over about 9 orders of magnitude. Largest Earthquakes in the World Since 1900 Kiyoo Wadati Richter m...

This week Shannon is grading, John is modeling (numerically), and they both are mad about some graphs they have seen. Data Visualization We are colorblind Tableau20 Colors Rainbow Color Map (Still) Considered Harmful A Better Default Colormap (video) Perceptual Color Maps in matplotlib for Oceanography (video) Evaluation of Artery Visualization for Heart Disease Diagnosis (Borkin et al.) Make ever...

Shannon was at the GSA 2015 meeting in Baltimore Maryland. She also won a raffle there for a Rite in the Rain notebook and holder. The meeting app worked well, but we’re both nervous after the AGU app last year. This is episode 42 . A very important number to the show! Life Art of the Hadean Era The Hadean sounds kind of like Seveneves Geologic Time Scale Shark Bay Stromatolites Cambrian Explosion...

This week we talk about El Nino, what it is, how it works, and what it means for this winter. We also discuss pumpkin carving injuries on this week’s Fun Paper Friday! Spanish for “the Nino” reference Bill Nye El Nino Skit ENSO The Southern Oscillation and Its Link to the ENSO Cycle (NOAA) ENSO Current Status (NOAA Slide Deck) The ENSO Cycle (NOAA) ENSO Blog ENSO General Info El Nino Indices of El...

This week Shannon talks about back to back field trips, broken airplanes, and rain. John relates a story about a strange northeast tradition and shares a traffic related fun paper. Shannon’s Trip Paper about zebra dolomite Sand Bar Videos Glen Canyon Dam Hoover Dam Riffle Lee’s Ferry Kring Paper in Episode 30 Meteor Crater Lowell Observatory Punkin’ Chunkin’ Howard, PA Chunkin’ Website Graupel Wor...

This week we talk about water on Mars and aeroelastic flutter of bird wings. John got married with drones and garter cannons . Keep an eye on his Twitter feed for more videos soon. We have a GSA poster and AGU Talk! Mars Mars facts from NASA Mars Cultural Fascination The Martian Way Seveneves The Martian Elon Musk Bio Water on mars Recurring Slope Linea (RSL), identified in 2011 by Lujendra Ojha (...

This week we interview Kina McAllister to talk about her science activity kits for girls and then talk about the optimal office temperature setting in this week’s Fun Paper Friday! STEMBox Website @STEMBox Twitter STEMBox Facebook Original KickStarter @KinaButterJelly on Twitter Woodland Park Zoo HiveBio EDC Show with Bullet Journal Links Fun Paper Friday This week we have a paper with a horrible...

Open Hardware Summit 2015 Hackable badge! Talks AnnMarie Thomas (Univ. St. Thomas) “Making Makers” Jason Kessler and Jon Ruston talked about ULTRASCOPE Mach 30 president J. Simmons showed new cad/modeling linked tools that they are using to create open thrusters, rockets, etc. Yavin cold gas thruster as test bed Joshua Pearce showed how open hardware in science can save us a bundle think of all th...

This week special guest Prof. Charles Ammon joins us to discuss the recent magnitude 8.3 Chile earthquake. We then talk about coffee and how it can move your body clock around. Show Links USGS Earthquake Page Shaking from several views (YouTube) IRIS Teachable Moment PDF USGS Finite Fault Model PAGER for this Event @CharlesAmmon on Twitter Prof. Ammon’s Epicentral Blog Epicentral (iPhone App) Epic...

This week we discuss how geoscience can enrich anyone’s life. Join the discussion and then learn about how much cosmic dust falls on us every day! John was on The Orbital Mechanics Episode 24 talking about SMAP. Why Learn Geology Your World Rocked (Slate) Spatial thinking/reasoning Thinking in 3D is hard… 4D is harder 3D Mouse Resources We need resources for our modern lifestyle Earth is continuou...

Join us to talk about the Earth’s magnetic field. It protects us and has complication on more levels than you think. It produces the aurora and helps us date rocks and structures! Three Cat.4 Hurricanes in the Pacific Godzilla El Nino Magnetic Field History William Gilbert On the Magnet OU Galileo Exhibit Geodynamo Dynamo theory Inner core Outer core Magnetohydrodynamics Geocentric Axial Dipole Hy...

This week we thought we would go through our every day carry (EDC) essentials for braving the academic jungle. As most of us go back to the academic year, it’s important to fine tune what we carry to do our job anywhere. John Nothing Special Notebook(s) Pencil/Pen Bag iPad iPhone MacBook Air Apple Watch Unusual Grid it for cables USB cables of every type USB to DC breakout cable Arduino Wildfire S...