Branner Blog

An interdisciplinary group at MIT has released a report in mid-March on the future of coal and “evaluates the technologies and costs associated with the generation of electricity from coal along with those associated with the capture and sequestration of the carbon dioxide produced coal-based power generation. Growing electricity demand in the U.S. and in the world will require increases in all generation options (renewables, coal, and nuclear) in addition to increased efficiency and conservation in its use.” The full report is available on the MIT Website.

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing Poetry --

This Traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of Toll --

How frugal is the Chariot

That bears the Human soul.

 Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Come to the library.

Check out an environmental classic, like “Cadillac Desert” (Marc Reisner, rev. ed. 1993). Learn how the desert bloomed and the “American Serengeti” (San Joaquin Valley) became a bastion of industrial agriculture.

Propose candidates for addition to the Branner Library Environmental Classics list (by commenting below), and see them posted in future blog entries.

Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images from the Guardian.

Spring break awaits. Looking for something to do? The Grand Canyon Skywalk has its grand opening on March 28th. The cantilevered walkway rises 4,000 feet above the canyon’s floor and is sure to offer a commanding view of the famous strata.

I suspect the structure won’t add much to our understanding of the canyon’s geology, but it does seem to be a boon for welders (the only mention of it I could find in the literature: “Welding the world’s highest walkway: Tandem submerged arc welding technology helps contractor win Grand Canyon Skywalk contract” WELDING JOURNAL 85 (10): 40-41 OCT 2006).

Other offerings, and insight into the project’s controversy:

wikipedia’s synopsis of the controversy.
photos from the Guardian.
“an engineering marvel or a colassal eyesore” from the LA Times.

Branner Library has just received the new Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. You can find the 4 volume tome, as well as other reference materials, in the Reference area directly behind the circulation desk.

The work provides up-to-date articles on the growing field of quaternary science. The description reads, “The quaternary sciences constitute a dynamic, multidisciplinary field of research that has been growing in scientific and societal importance in recent years. This branch of the Earth sciences links ancient prehistory to modern environments. Quaternary terrestrial sediments contain the fossil remains of existing species of flora and fauna, and their immediate predecessors. Quaternary science plays an integral part in such important issues for modern society as groundwater resources and contamination, sea level change, geologic hazards (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis), and soil erosion.”

Would you like to know when Branner receives other new books? Direct your browser to our new books feed, or subscribe yourself.

Questions? Let us know.

Have you wondered when AGU was going to digitize its pre-1994 back issues? They are in the process of doing that very task and expect to complete the digitization by late 2007. Details from their site below:

“We have assembled a preview for AGU member subscribers of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) and Member Journal Library. The preview contains digitized material going back to 1974, volume 1; the remaining volumes will come into the preview by the end of April 2007. The current preview is in the beta stage and does not include linked references or the option for single articles sales, which will be available when the library is complete.”

If you are a member, check out the GRL offerings and feel free to send us your thoughts or give feedback to AGU directly.

The Wall Street Journal reports today of the heavy use of old geology maps of the Congo created during the years when the country was run by the Belgian colonial government. The detailed maps are being used by a variety of companies eager to mine the country’s rich supplies of copper, cobalt, and gold. The article is available through the ABI/INFORM database.
(”Why Miners Look For Buried Treasure In Belgian Museum Legacy of King
Leopold II, Its Maps and Rocks Direct Firms to Congo Hot Spots.” By JOHN W.
MILLER, Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2007 11:14 p.m.; Page A1.)

Use your .edu email address to gain free access to the New York Times TimesSelect as of March 13th. With TimesSelect you can read NYT’s Op-ed and news columnists as well as other features.

Go to this link, enter your .edu email address. Wait for the verification email and click the link within it. You’ll need to fill out minimal information including the university’s name, your status (student or faculty), graduation date (I was able to register as “faculty” without entering a date), and email preferences should you choose to receive the content that way. Quite fast and easy.

Read more about the offer at Editor & Publisher.

Looking for information about GIS? Check out our partner blog: gis | sig for the latest news about GIS at Stanford and beyond.

An article by Jones and Roszelle (1978) was mentioned in an Energy Resources Engineering assignment. A student in the course wanted to find said article.

There are many ways to answer such a question. In this case, we did an advanced search in GeoRef using the GeoScienceWorld interface,* and found the record below:

Title Graphical techniques for determining relative permeability from displacement experiments
Author(s) S. C. Jones and W. O. Roszelle
Affiliation Marathon Oil Co., United States;
Serial Title JPT. Journal of Petroleum Technology
Source 30(5) pp.807-817 (May 1978)
Publisher American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Dallas, TX
Language English
Publication Year 1978

We then checked the call number of JPT in Socrates. The assignment was due soon and the volume was not in the stacks, but we were able to find it on the reshelving truck.

*We also have access to GeoRef via CSA. Take your pick.

John McPhee does it again. For your weekend reading, check out his latest New Yorker article, “Season on the Chalk: From Ditchling Beacon to Epernay,” a really nice discussion of Europe’s chalk deposits. I don’t know who else could mingle geology and terroir, geography and genealogy, the personal and the historic, all the while namedropping geologic time periods and stages like they’re a-list celebrities arriving at the Oscars. Enjoy.

Only a snippet is posted online. Consult: John McPhee, “Season on the Chalk,” The New Yorker, March 12, 2007, p. 58-71 for the rest.