Miscellaneous

Have some GeoNews that doesn't fit in another category? Here's the place. Try to keep it at least somewhat on topic.

Figure 1 This cut slope in massive, unfractuired conglomerate was smooth blasted. Treatment consisted of only drill trace removal on the main slope, but ledges were cut in natural boulder lenses at the cut end where similar features are in the adjoining natural terrain.
Miscellaneous

FHWA State Geotechnical Workshops

August 28, 2007 rockman Comments Off on FHWA State Geotechnical Workshops

The FHWA has recently updated its geotechnical engineering site related to their annual State Geotechnical Workshops. All regions with the exception of the Southwest have their Workships this September and October. The next Southwest Geotechnical Engineers Conference will be in April of 2008. The 2007 SGEC was on April 23 – 27, 2007 in Overland Park, Kansas. They have posted PDF versions of the presentations at the conference on their FTP site. Read on for the dates of the upcoming workshops, as well as a link to the FHWA site and the presentation downloads.

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Miscellaneous

Engineering Geology in World War 1

August 21, 2007 rockman 2

People (including myself) tend to forget the origins of the term "Land Mine". Mines in medieval times referred to excavations for the purpose of undermining an enemy’s fortifications. In World War 1, before the age of aerial bombardment and cruise missiles, underground mines were used to plant explosives under enemy lines. In addition to British, German and American sappers that performed these tasks, the Australians had a contingent of miners and geologists who were involved in the Western Front of the War in France and Belgium and were responsible for what was then the largest man-made explosion in history. I hope you enjoy this interesting article. Thanks to Geology.com for the link.

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Miscellaneous

New Device for Detecting Bridge Damage from 30-ft away

June 13, 2007 rockman Comments Off on New Device for Detecting Bridge Damage from 30-ft away

Engineers at MIT have developed a new technique for detecting damage in concrete bridges and piers that could increase the safety of aging infrastructure by allowing easier, more frequent, onsite inspections that don’t interfere with traffic or service.

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Miscellaneous

Drilling Accident Fatality

May 3, 2007 rockman Comments Off on Drilling Accident Fatality

This is old news, but we just recently became aware of it. On January 17 of 2007, Ezra Gordon, 25 was killed in a drilling accident. Ezra was an employee of Crux Subsurface, Inc. of […]

Miscellaneous

Seismic Firms see Business Booming thanks to “Big Oil”

April 18, 2007 rockman Comments Off on Seismic Firms see Business Booming thanks to “Big Oil”

"The age of easy oil is over," Schlumberger Chairman and CEO Andrew Gould said at a recent energy conference in New Orleans. This fact and rising oil prices has led to a dramatic surge in oil exploration, and therefore work for seismic firms. According to Yahoo! news, WesternGeco, Schlumberger’s seismic division has over $1.1 Billion (yep, Billion) in backlog work. (Image by EnviroScan Inc.)

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Miscellaneous

From Utah: March a “disaster for snowpacks”

April 18, 2007 rockman Comments Off on From Utah: March a “disaster for snowpacks”

Abysmal may be the best description of the spring runoff, with no part of the state retaining more than 50 percent of the typical snowpack for this time of year. For some places, "it’s a new record-low snowpack," said Randy Julander, snow survey supervisor with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service in Salt Lake City. Read on for more info. (Photo by tuchodi)

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