Geology and Earth Science News

Geology News

• Smoke Over the Bering Sea
  “A plume of smoke stretched across the Bering Sea on May 11, 2012, just off of far eastern Russia. [...] The smoke may have arisen from wildfires in the region around Lake Baikal, where numerous wildfires burned in early May.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory image release.
  
  
• Survey of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
  “Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids. The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth’s, coming within five million miles, and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth’s atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
  
  
• Solar Eclipse: Sunday, May 20th
  An annular solar eclipse will occur on Sunday, May 20th. Some of the best viewing areas will be in the southwestern United States.
  
  
• Hydraulic Fracturing Banned in Vermont
  Although Vermont is one of the last places that might be drilled for oil or natural gas, Governor Peter Shumlin signed a bill that will ban hydraulic fracturing. At the same time a bill in the North Carolina legislature would legalize hydraulic fracturing.
  
  
• Super Solar Flares
  Solar flares from our Sun erupt with enormous power. However, solar flares on other stars can be 10 million times more powerful.