Jet Pack Pilot Suffers Crash

The 27-year old Vice President of Jet Pack International was released from the University of Colorado Hospital on Saturday afternoon after a his jet pack crash a day earlier.

Nick Macomber was doing a test flight on the property of “Go Fast,” a Denver Energy drink company in the 2600 block of W. 8th Avenue, when he lost control of the jet pack and fell 20-feet to the ground Friday morning.

“The guy was bleeding, he had head wounds where he had blood gushing on his face, he was spitting out blood, it looks like he had landed on his knees and he couldn`t get up,” said Alison McCoy who works next door at Premier Roofing and came running over moments after the accident. “They always have protective gear, helmet the whole shebang but nobody seemed to notice that this time,” said McCoy.

FOX31 Denver’s Rob Lowe talked to Macomber by phone. The pilot said he landed on his head, has a broken jaw, 27 stitches, and was scalped on the right side of his head.

link.

more here.

Paleo Awesomeness: Physical Trace Fossil Evidence of Nonavian Theropod Display Arenas for Breeding From Cretaceous Colorado

Theropod courtship: large scale physical evidence of display arenas and avian-like scrape ceremony behaviour by Cretaceous dinosaurs

Authors:

Lockley et al

Abstract:

Relationships between non-avian theropod dinosaurs and extant and fossil birds are a major focus of current paleobiological research. Despite extensive phylogenetic and morphological support, behavioural evidence is mostly ambiguous and does not usually fossilize. Thus, inferences that dinosaurs, especially theropods displayed behaviour analogous to modern birds are intriguing but speculative. Here we present extensive and geographically widespread physical evidence of substrate scraping behavior by large theropods considered as compelling evidence of “display arenas” or leks, and consistent with “nest scrape display” behaviour among many extant ground-nesting birds. Large scrapes, up to 2 m in diameter, occur abundantly at several Cretaceous sites in Colorado. They constitute a previously unknown category of large dinosaurian trace fossil, inferred to fill gaps in our understanding of early phases in the breeding cycle of theropods. The trace makers were probably lekking species that were seasonally active at large display arena sites. Such scrapes indicate stereotypical avian behaviour hitherto unknown among Cretaceous theropods, and most likely associated with terrirorial activity in the breeding season. The scrapes most probably occur near nesting colonies, as yet unknown or no longer preserved in the immediate study areas. Thus, they provide clues to paleoenvironments where such nesting sites occurred.

pop sci writeup.

Earth Observing Satellites Note Large Methane Leaks From American SouthWest/Four Corners Regions

An unexpectedly high amount of the climate-changing gas methane, the main component of natural gas, is escaping from the Four Corners region in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new study by the University of Michigan and NASA.

The researchers mapped satellite data to uncover the nation's largest methane signal seen from space. They measured levels of the gas emitted from all sources, and found more than half a teragram per year coming from the area where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet. That's about as much methane as the entire coal, oil, and gas industries of the United Kingdom give off each year.

Four Corners sits on North America's most productive coalbed methane basin. Coalbed methane is a variety of the gas that's stuck to the surface of coal. It is dangerous to miners (not to mention canaries), but in recent decades, it's been tapped as a resource.

"There's so much coalbed methane in the Four Corners area, it doesn't need to be that crazy of a leak rate to produce the emissions that we see. A lot of the infrastructure is likely contributing," said Eric Kort, assistant professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the U-M College of Engineering.

link.

Dating the Rock Art of the Colorado Plateau

Age of Barrier Canyon-style rock art constrained by cross-cutting relations and luminescence dating techniques

Authors:

Pederson et al

Abstract:

Rock art compels interest from both researchers and a broader public, inspiring many hypotheses about its cultural origin and meaning, but it is notoriously difficult to date numerically. Barrier Canyon-style (BCS) pictographs of the Colorado Plateau are among the most debated examples; hypotheses about its age span the entire Holocene epoch and previous attempts at direct radiocarbon dating have failed. We provide multiple age constraints through the use of cross-cutting relations and new and broadly applicable approaches in optically stimulated luminescence dating at the Great Gallery panel, the type section of BCS art in Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah. Alluvial chronostratigraphy constrains the burial and exhumation of the alcove containing the panel, and limits are also set by our related research dating both a rockfall that removed some figures and the rock’s exposure duration before that time. Results provide a maximum possible age, a minimum age, and an exposure time window for the creation of the Great Gallery panel, respectively. The only prior hypothesis not disproven is a late Archaic origin for BCS rock art, although our age result of A.D. ∼1–1100 coincides better with the transition to and rise of the subsequent Fremont culture. This chronology is for the type locality only, and variability in the age of other sites is likely. Nevertheless, results suggest that BCS rock art represents an artistic tradition that spanned cultures and the transition from foraging to farming in the region.

Paleoenvironmental Analysis of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway in Colorado

Integrated paleoenvironmental analysis of the Niobrara Formation: Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, northern Colorado

Authors:

Da Gama et al

Abstract:

This study presents a regional chronostratigraphic framework and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Niobrara Formation in northern Colorado based upon multidisciplinary biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic data. A local biostratigraphic zonation is described for the Coniacian to earliest Campanian of this region of the Western Interior Seaway based primarily upon the distribution of calcareous nannofossils. Three key paleoenvironmental packages are also identified and linked to the evolution of regional sedimentary facies.

During the Early to Late Coniacian, Tethyan water masses interacted with Boreal surface currents to produce regional upwelling along tectonically-controlled bathymetric highs. A well mixed, relatively well oxygenated water column with warm surface water temperatures and high fertility sustained a rich microflora/fauna and promoted higher carbonate production.

Enhanced fluvial input and a weakening of Tethyan influence during the Early Santonian marks the onset of a regional environmental shift. This period of transition extends through the Middle Santonian and is characterized by pulses of transported material and relatively frequent turnover of faunal associations. Increased terrigenous runoff likely produced eutrophic surface waters and intensified water column stratification, leading to a general deterioration of the bottom water environment in a progressively dysoxic setting.

Continued strengthening of fluvial input during the Late Santonian to Early Campanian resulted in surface water freshening and sustained primary productivity. This surface water environment—in conjunction with stifled vertical mixing—promoted the development of a stagnant and intensely stratified water column. The basin was therefore severely dysoxic (possibly anoxic) and corrosive with chemically reducing bottom waters and an expanded oxygen minimum zone, thereby limiting biotic development and causing the deposition of finely laminated, mid rich (carbonate poor) sediments.

They Ought to Have Called Themselves 'East Colorado'

link.

Changes to Trade and Social Connectivity in the Pre Hispanic American Southwest

Transformation of social networks in the late pre-Hispanic US Southwest

Authors:

1. Barbara J. Mills (a)
2. Jeffery J. Clark (b)
3. Matthew A. Peeples (b)
4. W. R. Haas, Jr. (a)
5. John M. Roberts, Jr. (c)
6. J. Brett Hill (b,d)
7. Deborah L. Huntley (b)
8. Lewis Borck (a)
9. Ronald L. Breiger (e)
10. Aaron Clauset (f,g)
11. M. Steven Shackley (h)

Affiliations:

a. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

b. Archaeology Southwest, Tucson, AZ 85701

c. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53201

d. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hendrix College, Conway, AR 72032

e. Department of Sociology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

f. Department of Computer Science and BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309

g. Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501

h. Archaeological XRF Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM 87113

Abstract:

The late pre-Hispanic period in the US Southwest (A.D. 1200–1450) was characterized by large-scale demographic changes, including long-distance migration and population aggregation. To reconstruct how these processes reshaped social networks, we compiled a comprehensive artifact database from major sites dating to this interval in the western Southwest. We combine social network analysis with geographic information systems approaches to reconstruct network dynamics over 250 y. We show how social networks were transformed across the region at previously undocumented spatial, temporal, and social scales. Using well-dated decorated ceramics, we track changes in network topology at 50-y intervals to show a dramatic shift in network density and settlement centrality from the northern to the southern Southwest after A.D. 1300. Both obsidian sourcing and ceramic data demonstrate that long-distance network relationships also shifted from north to south after migration. Surprisingly, social distance does not always correlate with spatial distance because of the presence of network relationships spanning long geographic distances. Our research shows how a large network in the southern Southwest grew and then collapsed, whereas networks became more fragmented in the northern Southwest but persisted. The study also illustrates how formal social network analysis may be applied to large-scale databases of material culture to illustrate multigenerational changes in network structure.

Southwestern Monsoon Projected to be Delayed Under Global Warming

A delay in the summer monsoon rains that fall over the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico is expected in the coming decades according to a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The North American monsoon delivers as much as 70 percent of the region's annual rainfall, watering crops and rangelands for an estimated 20 million people.

"We hope this information can be used with other studies to build realistic expectations for water resource availability in the future," said study lead author, Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist with joint appointments at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Much of the arid U.S. Southwest is expected to get even drier as winter precipitation declines under climate change, but the present modeling study predicts that summer rain levels will stay constant over southern Arizona and New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico. What will shift is the arrival of the heaviest rains, from July and August or so, to September and October, the study says. "There still will be a healthy monsoon which is good news for agriculture in the southern U.S. and northwestern Mexico—the timing is the problem here," said study co-author Richard Seager, a climate scientist at Lamont-Doherty.

A delayed monsoon could potentially lower crop yields as rains come later in the growing season, when the days are getting shorter. By prolonging hot and dry conditions during spring, a late monsoon could also trigger more wildfires and force cities to stretch diminished water supplies. The study makes use of the latest climate change models (those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Fifth Assessment Report due out next fall), to estimate monthly changes in precipitation by the end of the century, 2080-2099. The researchers hypothesize that future warming will make it more difficult to form clouds and rainfall early in the monsoon when soils are dry, followed reduced winter rain and snowfall, thus delaying the onset of the monsoon rains until enough moisture can be moved in from the oceans.

NCAR Paleoclimate PostDoc Available

Job Description: Postdoctoral Fellow, Volcanism in the Arctic System INSTAAR, University of Colorado at Boulder and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder

Supervisors: Gifford Miller (INSTAAR), Bette Otto-Bliesner (NCAR) Salary Range: $55k - $57k

This is a new, full-time, two-year term position with a start date of January/February 2009. Initial consideration will be given to applications received prior to Friday, Nov. 7 2008. Thereafter, applications will be reviewed on an as-needed basis.

Basic job functions:
Successful applicant will participate in a multi-national/multi-institutional interdisciplinary team focusing on the impact of volcanism on the Arctic System.

Duties include:
Conducts research using the NCAR Community Climate System Model (CCSM) and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to understand and predict climate impacts on the Arctic System from tropical and high-latitude explosive volcanism. Timescales include the Holocene, with possible extensions to the Last Interglaciation. Postdoctoral Fellow will be responsible for designing, running and analyzing ensembles of CCSM and WACCM simulations to assess the immediate impacts of stratospheric loading from explosive volcanism, and possible feedbacks that might lead to a change in state across the Arctic, particularly during the Little Ice Age and the early Holocene. Additional simulations may evaluate climate impacts of long-duration effusive eruptions. Research to be conducted in collaboration with PIs from NCAR and several US and international universities.

Requirements include:
Education and experience:
• Recent PhD in atmospheric science, earth science, or related field

Knowledge, skills and abilities
• Experience working with large-scale climate models and/or large-scale climate-proxy data sets
• Experience working with the impacts of volcanic aerosols on the climate system or volcanic signals in ice cores
• Strong quantitative skills
• Ability and keen interest in collaborative interdisciplinary research
• Experience working in a UNIX computing environment
• Proficiency in software diagnostic tools and experience in scientific computing
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and independently
• Strong written and oral communication skills; strong publication record

For additional information contact:
Gifford Miller gmiller@colorado.edu or
Bette Otto-Bliesner ottobli@ncar.ucar.edu

Pass the word. I am sure that there are plenty of climate PhD's looking for postdocs and my readers know some of them (!) at least.

Gack! Yet Another Los Alamosian

This must be the season or something.

Toby Rush, a former schoolmate and very talented composer, is a professor of music and a father of four. There must be something about this time of year and Los Alamosians...