January 29, 2005

Deciphering an Estuarine Ecosystem
35 Years of San Francisco Bay Studies

• USGS research in the Bay system began in the 1960s with a search for underwater earthquake faults
• In the 1970s, the research team expanded to cover studies of water properties and quality, water mixing and flow, and estuarine ecology
• Early scientifc findings clashed with assumptions behind massive and unbridled modifcations of the Bay system and served to stimulate much public debate
• The USGS Bay research program and its scientists became renowned-- they have set the standards for the study of estuaries
• Thirty-five years of scientifc data and publications form a unique resource for decisions by legislators, planners, and coastalzone managers

February 24, 2005

When Rocks Fall and the Land Slides
Hear why California makes an ideal environment for landslides North face

• Hear why California makes an ideal environment for landslides North face
• Learn about rock falls, debris flows, and other landslides Rocks fall
• There have been more than 500 documented rock falls and other slope failures in Yosemite National Park what triggers these? How do park rangers deal with this hazard?
• John Muir gave a remarkable account of an 1872 rock fall in Yosemite Valley
• Large rock falls in Yosemite can generate air blasts potentially dangerous to campers and hikers
• How did ancient glaciers help create the rock-fall hazard in Yosemite? ascent

March 31, 2005

Commotions in the Oceans
USGS Shipboard Research Sparked Scientific Advances

• Alaskan work from the Survey's M/V Eider in the 1950's led to visualizing how great earthquakes and tsunamis originate along trenches
• In the 1970's, researchers discovered deep-sea "black smokers" and the Survey's R/V S.P. Lee found massive sulfide deposits on the Juan de Fuca Ridge
• USGS scientists on the R/V Farnella confirmed and mapped humongous submarine landslides off Hawaii's coasts in the 1980's
• Extensive international Pacific Ocean expeditions of the Lee in 1982-84 yielded a rich harvest of discoveries, including sea-floor cobalt concentrations
• Where we are heading-what are the challenges for future discoveries in the oceans?

April 28, 2005

Earthquakes at the USGS
Blowing the Lid off Seismic Science for 40 Years

The Parkfield earthquake of 1966 launched a torrent of research at the USGS in Menlo Park. With the San Andreas Fault as a backyard lab and global earthquakes as a guide, the USGS has changed the landscape of earthquake science in:

• MAKING RAPID EARTHQUAKE ASSESSMENTS
• PROMOTING PUBLIC SEISMIC SAFETY
• DISCOVERING NEW AND HIDDEN FAULTS
• MEASURING FAULT STRESS AND STRAIN
• IMPROVING SEISMIC ENGINEERING
• UNDERSTANDING GROUND SHAKING
• FORECASTING FUTURE EARTHQUAKES

May 26, 2005

Sonoran Desert
Fragile Land of Extremes
A video presentation and discussion

• Learn about the fantastic biodiversity in North America's lushest desert
• The venomous Gila Monster is turning out to be a medical miracle
• Why is the saguaro cactus, icon of the Sonoran Dessert, going up in smoke?
• Scientists hop to it!--to help the lowland leopard frog face the challenges of fire, flood, drought, and disease
• What can we do about the threat posed by buffelgrass, an aggressive invasivespecies fr om Africa?

June 14, 2005

Deep Freeze
The Impact of Science on U.S. Climate-Change Policy

• Why have science and scientiests had so little impact on U.S. climate-change policy?
• Hear about the present implications of past societal collapses resulting from climate change
• Can citizens and scientists work together to find creative and durable solutions to th e climate-change crisis?
• Learn how flood-management projects in the San Francisquito watershed may be affected by climate-change policy
• How can programs like the MIT-USGS Science-Impact Collaborative help thaw the deep fre eze?

June 30, 2005

Tsunamis
Lessons and Questions from the Indian Ocean Disaster

• What do computer animations reveal about transoceanic tsunamis?
• What varied marks of its force and height did the December 26 tsunami leave in the coa stal environment?
• Why did waves 100 feet high strike norhtern Sumatra in December, while low-lying Bangl adesh was spared?
• Can a Sumatra-size tsunami occur on the U.S. Pacific coast?
• What is the tsunami threat to central California, and how is this region getting prepa red?

July 21, 2005

California Rock and Roll
Viewing and Touring the San Andreas Fault system in 3-D *
*3-D glasses will be provided at the lecture

• Experience a virtual tour of the San Andreas Fault with classic 1950s 3-D* images
• Discover some basic facts and features of California geology
• Learn of public places to explore the San Andreas Fault in the Bay Area- and beyond
• Grasp how 3-D* images can markedly enhance remote interpretation of landscapes

August 25, 2005

A Delicate Balance
Salt Ponds, Wetland Restoration, and Wildlife in San Francisco Bay

• Nearly 15,000 acres of salt ponds were purchased in 2003 for restoration by a partners hip of Federal, State, and non-profit organizations
• How important are the salt ponds for migration and wintering of waterfowl and shorebir ds?
• Restoration of wetland in the Nation\x92s most urbanized estuary faces many challenges
• Will it be possible to manage concentrated salts, low dissolved oxygen, and toxicity o f sequestered mercury as pond levees are opened?
• Restoring wetlands while controlling invasive species, such as smooth cord grass, may prove very difficult

September 29, 2005

Toxic Mercury in Aquatic Ecosystems
Why Quality Trumps Quantity

• Different mercury sources generate different forms of mercury with different environmental consequences
• Learn how mercury is transported and transformed in air and water, and how it ultimately accumulates as toxic methylmercury in wildlife and humans
• How do mercury-methylating bacteria react with "new" mercury from atmospheric deposition and with "old" mercury from remobilized sediments?
• Why are fish in Florida's Everglades as contaminated with mercury as those in San Francisco Bay, even though total mercury inputs are much higher in the Bay?
• How do differences in landscape and vegetation type affect mercury cycling and bioaccumulation pathways?

October 21, 2005

A Crack in the Edge of the World
America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906

• The international bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and Kra katoa vividly brings to life the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashion ed an enthralling and informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force.
• In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to i ts north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on th e Richter scale. The quake resulted from a rupture in a part of the San Andreas fault, which lies underneath the earth's surface along the northern coast of Calif ornia. Lasting little more than a minute, the earthquake wrecked 490 blocks, toppled a total of 25,000 buildings, broke open gas mains, cut off electric power lines th roughout the Bay area, and effectively destroyed the gold rush capital that had stood there for a half century.^M
• Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities -- as well as his unique understanding of geology -- to this extraordinary event, exploring not only what happened in northern California in 1906 but what we have learned since about the geologica l underpinnings that caused the earthquake in the first place. But his achievement is even greater: he positions the quake's significance along the earth's geolo gical timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of twentieth-century California and American history.
• A Crack in the Edge of the World is the definitive account of the San Francisco earthquake. It is also a fascinating exploration of a legendary event that changed the way we look at the planet on which we live.

October 27, 2005

Earthquake Storms
The Very Long Reach of Very Large Earthquakes

• How did the 1992 Landers quake in the remote Mojave Desert change scientists' thinking about earthquake sequences?
• What is the explanation for "aftershocks" of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake reported in Arizona?
• How do large quakes shake up distant faults and volcanic areas ?
• Are new theories of earthquake interactions making the conventional terminology-- foreshock, mainshock, aftershock--inadequate?
• Do large earthquakes have a long reach on human cultures as well?

November 17, 2005

Shifting Shoals and Shattered Rocks--
HOW MAN HAS CHANGED THE FLOOR OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY

• San Francisco Bay is one of the world's finest natural harbors and a major center of maritime trade
• All ships visiting bay ports are funneled through the central bay
• Bedrock knobs that rise from the central bay floor have been repeatedly blasted to accommodate vessels of increasingly deeper draft
• Sediment dredged from harbors and shipping channels has been disposed of on the bay floor
• Since the early 1900s, the bay floor has been mined for sand and gravel
• New tools are allowing scientists to create detailed views of the bay floor, revealing changes that man has made since the Gold Rush

December 8, 2005

Frozen in Time
How Ice Cores Are Revealing the Composition and Temperature of Earth's Atmosphere During the Past Million Years

• Scientifically invaluable ice cores taken from Antarctic and Arctic ice are stored and safe guarded at the U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory, operated by the U.S. Geological Su rvey
• These ice cores are the only systematic record of the composition (including "greenhou se" gasses) and temperature of the Earth's atmosphere over the past million years
• The ice cores show that most of Earth's geologically recent climate history has been characterized by great instability and rapid, extreme swings of temperature, beyond anything we have experienced in historical times
• These ice cores are our only source of information about natural, pre-industrial levels of toxic trace metals and other substances deposited from the atmosphere into the world's ecosystems