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One more week for the "art" theme, this time the desert and coastal landscape of Namibia, again from Frantisek Staud.

SIERRA VISTA — Fon B. Huffman, the last survivor from the international Panay Incident of 1937, died Thursday, his family announced. Huffman, born in 1913, celebrated his 95th birthday on Aug. 19. He died peacefully in his sleep at noon in Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center. His daughter, Nancy Ferguson, was by his side. The Iowa farm boy who joined the Navy at age 16 was a 24-year-old sailor aboard the USS Panay when it was attacked near Nanking, China, on Dec. 12, 1937, by Imperial Japanese warplanes. In those days, the American gunboat, part of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet,...

A number of Chippewa County residents are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to a sand mine. As we first reported two weeks ago, a Canadian company is looking to build a sand processing plant in the Town of Howard. If a permit is approved, the sand mine will operate for 40 years. During that time, it's estimated 60 to 90 trucks will haul 16 hours a day in the summer and ten hours a day in the winter. That's why a committee has been formed to stop construction. Kasey Schindler, the Stop Mine Committee spokesperson says,...

Nearly 80 rail cars loaded with contaminated sand from Kuwait are headed toward a dump in southwestern Idaho. American Ecology Corp. is shipping about 6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longview, Wash., this week and company officials say loads are scheduled to begin arriving in Idaho by rail in two weeks. Transfer of the sand to the United States was first reported this week by The Daily News in Longview. The company has previously disposed of low-level radioactive...

Forecasting Tsunami Threats Through Layers of Sand and Time Map Of The Bay Of Bengal The catastrophic Indian Ocean event in December 2004 that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries – including 15,000 in India – was hardly a one freak occurrence. It could happen again. Newswise — Azhii peralai: from the deep … large waves. This is the expression for ‘tsunami’ in Tamil, the oldest language in southern India. For an ancient dialect to have its own phrase for destructive waves triggered by earthquakes, the people of Tamil Nadu likely experienced tsunamis periodically through the centuries, says Halifax...

I know that I've provided previous images of Great Sand Dunes both from space and on the ground. But when I saw this one, I knew it was the one for this week. What it shows very nicely is why the sand dunes are where they are -- winds blow across the Rio Grande valley through the pass in the Sangre de Cristo range, and the sand carried by the winds has to stop at the base of the mountains. The gap in the mountains is fairly easily seen in this image. I actually had a view from a fairly...

A few images of sand dunes, artistically-viewed: Click on this one for full-size:

My thread title says it all. My FRiends, we have turn the Middle East's black gold back into sand; sorta like anti-alchemy. And the fact that it took me 6 years after 9/11 to come to that metaphor should be a TON of fun for ya'll to make fun of me. I put it on a tee for you.....so have at it. Oh. and if anyone has any ideas on how to make 10 trillion barrels of oil worthless....please say so. No reason to turn the WHOLE thread into a joke at my expense.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 – While working as a nuclear repair mechanic for the Navy, Caleb Duke traded sea for sand when he volunteered to take on an Army position that took him to Afghanistan. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Caleb S. Duke is an eight year veteran of the United States Navy and is currently serving as part of the Why We Serve speakers program. Defense Dept. photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In 1998, at the age 20, Scranton, Pa., native Caleb Duke enlisted in the Navy. “I wanted to be a part of something bigger...

Waves and sharks aren't the only dangers at the beach. More than two dozen young people have been killed over the last decade when sand holes collapsed on them, report father-and-son doctors who have made warning of the risk their personal campaign. Since 1985, at least 20 children and young adults in the United States have died in beach or backyard sand submersions. And at least eight others died in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, according to a letter from the doctors published in this week's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Among them was Matthew...

Mining the Natural Arch and Bridge Society site for fun found this: "Mask Rock is located in the Ouadi Archei region of Ennedi [Chad] about 39 kilometers SSE of Fada. The left opening has a span of 36 feet and a height of 57 feet. The right opening has a span of 27 feet and a height of 50 feet. Photo by Gunter Welz." Just for the heck of it, Googling on "Turkey Rock" discovered this, apparently somewhere around Aspen (Independence Pass, wherever that is): Another Web site, mostly written in Czechoslovakian, calls the images below Turkey Rock and Turkey...

For years desert nomads have spoken of the haunting songs of sirens which lure travellers to a waterless doom. Now, a French scientist has replicated the effect in his lab using grains of sand A strange sound rises from the cinnamon-coloured sand: a deep, almost hypnotic rhythm. It could almost be the chanting of Tibetan monks, yet the setting is rigorous and clinical – the laboratory of French physicist Stephane Douady, where a robot arm is pushing small, precisely measured amounts of sand down a plexiglass ring. Douady is a leading expert in a very narrow field. He is investigating...

Active lava pond in the East Pond Vent, Pu'u O'o, Kilauea, Hawaii: CHALLENGE: Find a good picture of a freshwater spring sand boil. This is where the water of a spring is emerging from a sandy bottom, and the sand "boils" where the water flow is strongest. Example: The white area is a sand boil in a Florida freshwater spring. What I need is a high-quality close-up example of this for a demonstration. (Not critical, but it would be helpful.)

I know I've posted pictures of this place before, but the full-size version of this picture (unlabeled) gives me a weirdly vertiginous feeling. The source article is linked above; a click on the picture below will go to the full-size version. For those who haven't heard before, Medano Creek has a strange property (when it's flowing, mainly in the spring) due to the sandy bed; it pulsates. The sand bed constantly builds up little dams and bars, that break down with the water flow, sending waves downstream. An Ocean in Colorado? (note link to cartoon animation) Here's a nice picture...

This started as a question to myself: "I wonder if there are sand dunes in northern climates?" Googling on "sand dunes" + Canada revealed another heretofore unknown (at least to me) geological location -- Athabasca Sand Dunes in Saskatchewan. I've heard of Athabasca before in association with tar sands, but this is a the first time I'd heard of a provincial Athabasca Sand Dunes Park. The Web site says that is only accessible by air. So I'm guessing not a lot of people have been there or visit there. Since this is very new to me and perhaps others, first...

Out of the sand It was built in 1504, but abandoned 13 years later and left to crumble. Now, after a huge restoration project, Yemen's Amiriya palace is considered the world's most beautiful mosque. By Rory McCarthy Saturday March 11, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Amiriya palace ... the exterior during restoration and (right) paintings inside one of the domes. Photographs: Yahya Arhab/EPA There is a photograph of a small town in Yemen taken a century ago by a German photographer called Hermann Burchardt. It is one in a series of remarkable pictures taken during an expedition through the southern tip...

WAILUKU, Hawaii - Maui may be running out of sand, threatening not only its famous year-round beaches but the state's booming construction industry. Sources of readily available sand may run out within five to seven years, according to a report being prepared for Maui County. The vast system of sand dunes from Waihee to Waikapu has largely been covered by development, and what's left is being mined, the report says. Maui sand is in high demand because it's a key ingredient in concrete and the only material now available for beach restoration projects. About 318,000 tons of sand are dug...

SALT LAKE CITY - Heralding oil shale as “a domestic resource with staggering potential,” the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has selected the first companies likely to earn a chance to start exploiting federal lands in Colorado and Utah. BLM Director Kathleen Clarke announced the bureau had narrowed a field of 16 contenders for experimental projects, choosing six companies that, subject to environmental reviews, could be awarded leases to work 160-acre parcels of federal land by summer. Taking direction from President Bush's Energy Act, Clarke said the reserves contain a 100-year domestic supply of oil, although it's locked up in...

Off for Thanksgiving week, back with an Earth Observatory three-fer. Click each picture for the article about it. On the nature side, I saw an owl on Saturday as twilight approached. Probably only the third live wild owl sighting of my lifetime. Number one: the Algodones dune field in California, which has starred in many Hollywood movies (not just Star Wars). I'm sure that the dune-walking sequence in "Kung Fu" was shot here, and many, many westerns. Number two: the Sand Hills of Nebraska. Sand Hills from the ground (I couldn't find a high-quality Sand Hills picture, but nature photographers...

The Army tells NBC News its Criminal Investigation Division is looking into an Australian broadcast report with video that allegedly shows U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burning the bodies of two Taliban fighters, then using the incident to taunt Taliban forces. SBS, an Australian public broadcast network, aired the story Wednesday night. U.S. Army officials confirm that a free-lance cameraman working for the network was embedded with the 82nd Airborne at the time of the alleged body burning. According to the network report, one American, one Afghan soldier and two Taliban fighters were killed in a firefight near the village of...

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, Ariz. (Sept. 15, 2005) -- The main body of Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 returned to the station Sept. 8 after a seven-month deployment to Al Anbar Province of Iraq. The Marines and sailors arrived at 6 a.m. at Hangar 220, where a crowd of family and friends, including Marines from the two MWSS-371 advance parties that returned Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, greeted them. During the deployment, MWSS-371 performed all of the standard duties of a wing support squadron, including heavy equipment operation, motor transportation, aircraft rescue and firefighting, weather services, expeditionary airfield operations,...

Sands dunes on Mars imaged by MGS (Nasa) Sands dunes: Another part of the water story on Mars Scientists have found evidence that large amounts of water-ice hide within massive sand dunes on Mars. One of the dunes, which spans 6.5km and rises 475m above the Martian surface, may be the single largest sand dune in the entire Solar System. The icy dunes could be a valuable resource for any future manned missions to the planet, said Dr Mary Bourke. The researcher presented her results to a science conference in Dublin. "If you're looking for a source of water...

The linked source above provides the article and a link to a full-size image. Here's the smaller version: Here's a "where is it?" context map: and here are various images from Farewell Spit (apparently -- not absolutely certain in the case of the first two, but very likely). This appears to be one of the world's ultimate natural beaches. and finally, found on the page that provided the last image above, these "Pancake Rocks" are somewhere in the vicinity:

Drivers in the drink after beer truck flips TORONTO (Reuters) - A truck hauling 2,000 cases of beer flipped over and unleashed a sea of suds onto Canada's busiest highway on Wednesday, in a scene that could have been lifted from the Canadian cliche handbook. The early morning accident brought rush hour traffic to a standstill on highway 401 in north Toronto, as rescuers worked to free a woman trapped in the small car that collided with the tractor trailer. "Believe it or not with this crushed car, the young lady driving it is going to be okay," Ontario Provincial...

Dust in the wind: A wall of sand moves through Al AsadSubmitted by: 2nd Marine Aircraft WingStory Identification #: 2005426134811Story by Gunnery Sgt. Shannon Arledge AL ASAD, Iraq (April 26, 2005) -- A dust storm similar to special effects on the big screen bellowed across the western desert of Iraq on April 26. The storm was spawned near the border of Syria and Jordan. Forward Operating Base Korean Village experienced tornadoes around 2 p.m. The storm moved in a northeasterly direction until it reached Al Asad, around 6:45. Weather forecasters here described the storm as a downburst. "A downburst...

Scientists Interrupt Search for the “Mayan Atlantis" in the Caribbean. Cuban Newpaper: GRANMA Mexico City, November 6, 2004 Forwarded by David Drewelow This story updates this prior story . - A group of scientists searching for a hypothetical “Mayan Atlantis" found a pyramid of 35 meters under the waters of the Caribbean, but it had to interrupt the mission due to technical problems, as reported by the Mexican newspaper Millenium, today. After 25 days of work in the sea, near the southwestern end of Cuba, the investigations deeper than 500 meters had to be abandoned due to problems with the...

The Sand Dune Forgotten by Time Archaeologists working in the extreme desert terrain of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have moved a step closer to unraveling the mystery of a 40-century-old civilization. They unearthed 163 tombs containing mummies during their ongoing and long excavation at the mysterious Xiaohe tomb complex. And it's all thanks to the translation of a diary kept by a Swedish explorer more than 70 years ago. "We have found more than 30 coffins containing mummies," said Idelisi Abuduresule, head of the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute and the excavation team. The complex is believed to...

Season 9 of South Park begins this Wednesday on Comedy Central!Time: 10:00pm / 9 CentralRerun: Sunday, 11:00pm / 10 Central For a description of this week's episode, please see the website. As usual, the season will be split into two parts. However, this season will have 16 episodes instead of the usual 14 episodes of past seasons. That's right, two extra episodes. Updated schedule: Already available! - Season 5 on DVD (US) Mar 9 - Season 9 starts on Comedy Central Mar 29 - Orgazmo: Special Edition on DVD May 17 - Team America on DVD (I understand that this...

Sudarsan Patnaik of Orissa thought of a novel way to greet fellow artists and spread the message of Christmas. On Thursday, Patnaik crafted a image of Jesus Christ in sand. "The image, build on the sands of Puri beach, is about 15-foot-high and it took us 20 hours to complete," Patnaik, who hails from Puri in Orissa, told rediff.com. The sculpture will remain till the New Year. "The world is facing tumultous times and we want peace. Under such circumstances, we must remember Jesus' messages," he said. Patnaik, who has already represented India in 23 international sand sculpture festivals, recently...

Powerful poem for the holidays ~! Please pass on, and Merry Christmas to you and yours, wherever you are this season ~! THE SANDS OF CHRISTMAS By Michael Marks I had no Christmas spirit when I breathed a weary sigh, and looked across the table where the bills were piled too high. The laundry wasn't finished and the car I had to fix, My stocks were down another point, the Chargers lost by six. And so with only minutes till my son got home from school I gave up on the drudgery and grabbed a wooden stool. The burdens that...

I just got this, this morning. Thought some of you might be interested.

Link post: go to the thread below for images and discussion/commentary. The article link is to the Washington Post article about the now-official upgrade of Great Sand Dune National Monument to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Geology Picture of the Week, September 12-18, 2004: Great Sand Dunes National PARK

The link to the Washington Post article above is about the new designation, promoting Great Sand Dunes from National Monument to National Park. The picture below I found searching on Google; it's not from the WashPost. I'm sure that I've done a previous Geology Picture of the Week on Great Sand Dunes (one of the most fascinating places I've ever visited, but I didn't get to see the pulsating Medano Creek - best time to see it is during spring melt season - I was there in January. So here's a really nice picture of creek, dunes, and mountains: Link...

In a state which went for George Bush in 2000 with 61%, can two young and attractive Republican candidates raise the funds to upset a couple of Democrat incumbents? Duane Sand, doing well in fund raising, a 1990 Naval Academy graduate with a creditable Senate race behind him is opposing Democratic At-Large Cong. Earl Pomeroy...who in 2002 made it through with just 52%, and was held to 53% in the 2000 election. Sand has a real chance, for information see: http://www.duanesand.com/index.html Perhaps a bit more under the radar screen is Mike Liffrig, 45 year old Republican candidate for Senate against...

I discovered freerepublic.com today when searching to find any ap news related to the source photos. When I came across the photos, I wanted to know what I missed in the media news. I had not seen or heard anything about burried MIGs being found in Iraq. Apparantly our media did not bother to widely carry the story, as I have not been able to find anyone locally that already knew about it. Freerepublic did have a post of an ap article though! www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/956445/posts There, many of the posts wanted to see pictures. So, here they are. Http://216.162.108.58/Forms/Default.asp?*105087 Click on...

Saudi Arabia has reportedly imposed strict border checks to enforce a ban on the export of sand. There are fears that the growing demands of the construction industry could lead to a shortage in the desert kingdom. The Arab News newspaper reports that neighbouring Bahrain needs to import large quantities of sand for reclaiming land from the sea. Demand is also expected to grow as the process of reconstruction in Iraq gathers pace. Although sand remains plentiful in Saudi Arabia, construction experts say the high costs of bagging and transporting make exploiting it difficult. Experts have told the newspaper that...

Link post (provided to direct interested parties to the Geology Picture of the Week in the FR "chat" section): Geology Picture of the Week, August 17-23, 2003 Reply if you would like to be added to the ping list.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago, and kept it in mind for a Geology Picture of the Week. I think this is one of the most fascinating National Monuments in our country. I've been here, but I haven't been to White Sands NM. Link to page with larger versions of the image: Image of the Week: February 23, 2003

Just now on MSNBC: Military source says war may not start for at least two more days, largely due to high winds and sandstorms. Developing...

A SCOTTISH archaeological expedition, operating on a shoestring budget, has uncovered an ancient Egyptian city, buried by the sands of time. The expedition, which scrapes together £10,000 a year to maintain its dig near Memphis, the ancient Pharaonic capital, has written a new page of Egypt’s history. For the newly-discovered town, situated near the necropolis of Saqqara, 15 miles from Cairo, is almost certainly where the workmen who built the pyramids lived with their families. The presence of large temples, some nearly 200ft square, a number of tombs and the mix of large and small dwellings indicate a place...

Link post: Geology Picture of the Week, February 2-8, 2003

A combined oceanographic and geologic image today. Click the image below to see the larger image, which is only 515 MB. I was struck both by the phenomenon caught by the satellite and also the amazing colors of the Namibian landscape. See the link at the bottom for another Namibian feature of note, which is north of the area seen in this image. Web page: Sulfur plume off Namibia Brandberg Massif The Brandberg Massif is a highly- visible geologic feature that is familar to astronauts.

The missing sun temples Six Pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty built massive sun temples at Abu Sir in addition to their pyramids, but only two have so far been found.Jill Kamil talks to the head of the Czech archaeological mission In a presentation on Abu Sir given at the American University in Cairo last week head of the Czech mission Miroslav Verner told the audience that his team had recently been focusing on the "vast and remarkable monuments", the sun temples raised by the Pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty who ruled from 2494 to 2345 BC. "Their plan (main...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 24 Spring Dust Storms at the North Pole of Mars Credit: MSSS, JPL, NASA Explanation: Spring reached the north pole of Mars in May, and brought with it the usual dust storms. As the north polar cap begins to thaw, a temperature difference occurs between the cold frost region and recently thawed surface, resulting in swirling winds between the adjacent regions. In the above image mosaic...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 16 Night and Day in Melas Chasma on Mars Credit: Arizona State U., JPL, NASA Explanation: What types of terrain are found on Mars? Part of the answer comes from thermal imaging by the robot spacecraft 2001 Mars Odyssey currently orbiting Mars. The above picture is a superposition of two infrared images, a black and white image taken during Martian daylight and a false-color image taken...

Sand-covered Huns city unearthed 10/08/2002 XI'AN: Chinese archaeologists recently discovered a unique, ancient city which has lain covered by desert sands for more than 1,000 years. It is the first ruined city of the Xiongnu (Huns) ever found, said Dai Yingxin, a well-known Chinese archaeologist. The Xiongnu was a nomadic ethnic group, who for 10 centuries were tremendously influential in northern China. The unearthed city occupies 1 square kilometre in Jingbian County, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, adjacent to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north of the country. It is believed that the city was built by more...

<p>SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) --Captain Cook fans who credit the English explorer-adventurer with the formal "discovery" of eastern Australia may have to think again.</p> <p>History teacher Greg Jefferys said on Tuesday he believed he had found remains of a Portuguese warship buried under a beach in what is now the state of Queensland and he had dated the wreck to as much as 200 years before James Cook landed in Botany Bay.</p>

<p>VIRGINIA BEACH - In the Sandbridge resort community, the beach is so eroded that during high tide waves crash against bulkheads protecting summer cottages and million-dollar mansions from the sea.</p> <p>Now, after years of negotiation between the city and the federal government, an agreement has been reached to have the federal government pay 65 percent of the cost of beach replenishment for at least the next 46 years. Sandbridge residents and renters will pay the remaining 35 percent from property taxes and taxes on rental homes.</p>

Stock Rally Runs Into Sand Tue Jul 30, 6:01 AM ET By Gerrard Raven LONDON (Reuters) - A spectacular stock market rally shuddered to a halt in Europe on Tuesday, leaving investors divided over whether the tide has finally turned on the grimmest bear run for decades. But with Wall Street staging a dizzying revival overnight, the dollar pushed ahead to erase more of its recent losses. The 24 hours before European markets opened had provided investors despairing at their dwindling fortunes with the recently elusive elixir of hope. The FTSE Eurotop 300 index ended Monday 5.9 percent higher, its...

Mystery shrouds IOP's floating orb Thursday, June 13, 2002 BY GLENN SMITHOf The Post and Courier Staff      <!summ!>ISLE OF PALMS-When a giant silver orb washed up in front of her rented beach house Monday night, Marie Segneri wondered for a moment if aliens had landed in the middle of her family reunion.<!end!>     The smooth, metallic ball was at least 3 feet in diameter and weighed a couple hundred pounds or more. Aside from a series of numbers stamped on its slightly dimpled surface, the sphere offered few clues as to its origin.     "It looked like it may have...