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Geology Year End Review

© Geoff Habiger

2001 has come and gone, and while the vision presented by Arthur C. Clarke in 2001, A Space Odyssey did not come true, the year has seen its share of drama. Geology has topped the headlines more than a couple of times during the year, and while the events of September have overshadowed our world, even then geology helped to play a role.

The year began violently for the Earth as several strong and deadly earthquakes struck around the globe during the first two months of the year. On January 13, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred of the coast of El Salvador. This quake, and a major after shock one month later resulted in over 1,000 deaths from landslides and collapsed buildings. The deadliest earthquake of the year took place 13 days later on January 26 as a magnitude 7.7 earthquake created near total devastation in Gujarat, India. Over 20,000 lives were lost in this quake. Even the United States was not spared as a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit Washington state. While the Nisqually earthquake did not result in any deaths, over 4 billion dollars in damage resulted from the quake.

As the events of September 11 played out on the world stage, geology (and specifically seismology) helped to record the tragedy. A seismic network located Palisades New York recorded the impacts of both airliners, and the collapse of both towers of the World Trade Center. The collapse of the towers was the equivalent of a magnitude 2.1 and 2.3 earthquake for the south and north tower, respectively.

2001 was by no means only headlined by tragic geological events. New advances within the field helped to expand our knowledge of geology on our planet, and on other planets in our solar system. In October the latest exploration mission to Mars was begun in earnest as the Mars Odyssey made orbit and began to take high-resolution images of the surface. This orbiter will take thermal imagery that will help planetary geologists to identify the types of rock found on the Martian surface.

Geology also entered the political arena. President Bush’s proposal to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge caused heated debate between proponents of the idea, who want to allow for the drilling of oil within the refuge, and environmentalists who are fighting to keep the oil companies out of the refuge. The increased attention on ANWR made the release of the information collected for the 1998 Petroleum Assessment by the USGS a well-read document in the halls of Congress.