Branner Blog

As the people of central Peru continue to struggle with the after effects (and aftershocks) of this week’s 8.0 earthquake, information is being posted online to keep up with events.

The US Geological Survey has created a number of maps showing the location, intensity, density, and historical quakes in the area. The shake map shown above locates the epicenter of the quake off the coast of Chincha Alta.

The Perry-Castenada Map Collections has posted a number of maps of Peru that are helpful in locating place names mentioned in the news.

CNN.com has created a Hot Topics page on earthquakes. Included are news accounts, videos, and pictures of the Peruvian earthquake as well as others. This page allows you to set up an RSS feed in order to remain current about recent events.

The result of one of your requests, our subscription to the conference proceedings of the International Rainwater Catchment Systems Association is now live.

Stanford readers can access the content through the proceedings page of the IRCSA website.

Non-Stanford readers can browse the conference abstracts.

The International Rainwater Catchment Systems Association grew out of a series of international conferences held in Hawaii 1984, Virgin Islands 1984, Thailand 1987 and the Philippines 1989. Since its formation, the association has run conferences every two years, in Taiwan 1991, Kenya 1993, China 1995, Iran 1997, Brazil 1999, Germany 2001, Mexico 2003 and India 2005. The next conference will be held in Australia this year.

Nature’s new preprint server is up and running at: http://precedings.nature.com/

Background and details.

Coverage to amass on connotea.

Thanks for the tip-off, reader(s).

As of June 4, 2007, the USGS released selected Landsat 7 image data of the United States through the Web (glovis.usgs.gov or earthexplorer.usgs.gov), high quality data with limited cloud cover.

From the USGS news release:

“This Web-enabled distribution of new and recently acquired data is a pilot project for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), currently projected for launch in 2011. The project will allow the Landsat data user community to help refine the distribution system planned for the upcoming LDCM. Each scene will be registered to the terrain, or ortho-rectified, prior to being placed on the Web. Copies of these data will also be available on CD or DVD at the cost of reproduction.”

The current issue of Stanford Magazine (May/June 2007) features School of Earth Sciences Dean Pamela Matson, in its lead article. Read about the career and work of an inspiring and influential biogeochemist.

Today is the first day of the Lyell Collection trial period. It runs from today, 5/17 through 6/18.

The collection is offered by the Geological Society of London in commemoration of its 200th anniversary, and includes electronic access to the Journal of the Geological Society, Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, Special Publications, Memoirs, and Engineering Geology Special Publications.

Read more about the collection here.

We welcome feedback and questions from Stanford users regarding the collection.

If you, like me, have been waiting to hear an engineer’s take on April 30th’s MacArthur maze collapse, check out the John A. Blume Distinguished Lecture Series on Friday. Dean Frieder Sieble from UC San Diego’s School of Engineering will give a talk entitled “Protecting our Infrastructure Against Natural and Man-made Hazards.” I assume there will be some talk of the maze.

Details:
May 10, 2007
4:15pm
Bldg. 320, Room 105
Stanford University

If your life doesn’t revolve around the state of Bay Area bridges, follow the links below to read what happened and how it will be fixed:
From the SF Chronicle.

From Caltrans.

Berkeley Civil Engineering Professor will study MacArthur Maze collapse.

a preview of the new blog poster, a take off on the old library “READ” posters.
borrow it, adapt it, or hang it on your wall. enjoy.

An effort to create an early warning earthquake system for the Bay Area is highlighted in today’s San Jose Mercury News. The warning system would be activated when a series of monitoring systems detected the faster moving P-waves from a quake. The computer could estimate the expected magnitude of the quake and send out a warning. For example, in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, those living in Redwood City would have received 10 seconds’ warning while those in San Francisco 20 seconds’ warning. The system is expensive and scientists across California are debating its value.

This is still quite new, but from an initial glance, the Encyclopedia of Earth looks pretty interesting. The EoE is intended to be the wikipedia for the earth and environmental sciences, but with restricted access and oversight. The premise is that although the Internet is great, it’s also vast and unreliable. The EoE on the other hand, promises to be something of an antidote (as we hope to be here at Brannerblog as well).

Some details from the site:
“The Encyclopedia is a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by scholars, professionals, educators, and experts who collaborate and review each other’s work.”

“digital information on the environment is characterized by an abundance of “great piles of content” and a dearth of “piles of great content.” In other words, there are many resources for environmental content, but there is no central repository of authoritative information that meets the needs of diverse user communities. Our goal is to make the Encyclopedia of Earth the largest reliable information resource on the environment in history.”

See the about page for even more.

It’s an interesting idea. I have some initial critiques (like: limited searching capability–why no advanced search?), but I’m going to temper them until I’ve had more time to play with it.