Faulting and Earthquakes in Kazakhstan Not Just Software
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
GeoscientistThe Fellowship magazine of The Geological Society of London | www.geolsoc.org.uk | Volume 22 No 7 | August 2012 INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT How geology can help FRACKING REPORT Regulation & best practice key society on facebook [www.facebook.com/geolsoc] ASIA’S BROKEN FORELAND Faulting and earthquakes in Kazakhstan Not Just Software. RockWare. For Over 29 Years. RockWorks® RockWorks LogPlot® PetraSim™ Utilities™ 3D Data Management, Powerful, Flexible, A Preprocessor and Analysis and Visualization An Indispensible Collection Easy-to-Use Borehole and Postprocessor for TOUGH2, • Powerful measured-sec- of Modeling, Analysis, and Well Log Software T2VOC, TMVOC, TOUGHREACT tion/borehole database Display Tools • Dozens of templates and TOUGH-FX/HYDRATE for managing: available or design your • Model multi-component • Point maps own in the drawing-style fl uid fl ow, heat transfer - Lithology • Contour maps - Stratigraphy log designer window and reactive transport processes - Hydrology • 3D surfaces • Tabbed data sheets - Fractures • Gridding tools • Saturated and unsaturated • Import/Export data from - Hydrochemistry (e.g. conditions • Solid models LAS, Excel, RockWorks Contaminants) • Fractured and porous media • Volumetrics - Geophysics • Paginated and continuous • Mesh generation, param- - and more • Piper/Stiff plots logs at any vertical scale eter defi nition, and display • Create striplogs, • Rose & Stereonet diagrams • Export to a variety of of results cross-sections, fence formats • Now supports TOUGH2-MP diagrams, and (parallel version of the block models • Free viewer can be TOUGH2 simulator) distributed to clients • Contour data in 2D and • Applications include 3D (isosurfaces) geothermal studies, • Extensive on-line help and carbon sequestration, sample data sets contaminant transport modeling, vadose zone • Includes RockWorks Utilities hydrology and more $3,000 $599 $699 Call for pricing RockWare.com Free trials for most of our products available European Sales at www.rockware.com ++41 91 967 52 53 • F: ++41 91 967 55 50 Follow us on: [email protected] MapInfo Professional® US Sales Blog 303.278.3534 • F: 303.278.4099 [email protected] CONTENTS GEOSCIENTIST IN THIS ISSUE AUGUST 2012 FEATURES 18 INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Geoscience is crucial in the worldwide fight against poverty, says Joel Gill REGULARS 05 WELCOME Ted Nield finds the spirit of King Canute alive and well and living in North Carolina 12 COVER FEATURE: BROKEN FORELAND 06 SOAPBOX Successful exploration still depends on a bit Richard Walker reports on a Kazakhstan of that old black magic, says Iain Bartholomew research project to relate faults to earthquakes 08 GEONEWS What’s new in the world of geoscientific research 10 SOCIETY NEWS What your Society is doing at home and abroad, in London and the regions 21 BOOK & ARTS Two reviews by Chris Hawkesworth and Duncan Woodcock 22 LETTERS We welcome your thoughts 24 PEOPLE Geoscientists in the news and on the move 26 OBITUARY Two distinguished Fellows remembered 27 CALENDAR Society activities this month 08 18 29 CROSSWORD Win a special publication of your choice AUGUST 2012 03 ~ EDITOR’S COMMENT GEOSCIENTIST TIEN SHAN, KAZAKHSTAN. UNDERSTANDING THE RULES OF CONTINENTAL DEFORMATION FROM THE CO-EVOLUTION OF FAULTS AND MOUNTAINS CANUTE FACTOR Front cover: Maxim Petrichuk/ Shutterstock.com ~ hen Richard Feynman was called in to help investigate the 1986 Challenger disaster he famously conducted a simple demonstration Geoscientist is the F 01727 893 895 Fellowship magazine of E enquiries@centuryone to show how cold affected the the Geological Society publishing.ltd.uk elasticity of the rubber O-ring seals of London W www.centuryone publishing.ltd.uk between sections of the solid rocket The Geological Society, Wboosters, which had failed. However, as he later pointed Burlington House, Piccadilly, CHIEF EXECUTIVE London W1J 0BG Nick Simpson out, that was only the accident’s proximal cause. At root T +44 (0)20 7434 9944 T 01727 893 894 lay an institutional failing - NASA’s persistent adjusting F +44 (0)20 7439 8975 E nick@centuryone of safety envelopes, to help speed up its processes in E [email protected] publishing.ltd.uk (Not for Editorial) order to keep to its launch schedule. NASA was ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE confusing what was, with what it believed. This never Publishing House Jonathan Knight The Geological Society T 01727 739 193 works because, as Feynman famously put it, ‘nature isn’t Publishing House, Unit 7, E jonathan@centuryone fooled’. Nature doesn’t care what we believe. Brassmill Enterprise Centre, publishing.ltd.uk Brassmill Lane, Bath Well, new research indicates that the coast between BA1 3JN ART EDITOR North Carolina and Massachusetts is undergoing the T 01225 445046 Heena Gudka F 01225 442836 world’s fastest sea-level rise. The result, published in DESIGN & PRODUCTION Nature Climate Change by Asbury Sallenger1 (USGS, Library Sarah Astington St Petersburg, Florida) and colleagues suggests that sea T +44 (0)20 7432 0999 F +44 (0)20 7439 3470 PRINTED BY level between Cape Hatteras and Boston is rising at E [email protected] Century One Publishing Ltd. between three and four times the global average. Barely EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Copyright a fortnight before appeared however the North Carolina Professor Tony Harris FGS The Geological Society of Senate tried to ban state agencies from reporting that London is a Registered Charity, EDITOR number 210161. sea-level rise is accelerating. Dr Ted Nield NUJ FGS ISSN (print) 0961-5628 The law, approved by the North Carolina Senate on E [email protected] ISSN (online) 2045-1784 June 12, banned state agency scientists from using EDITORIAL BOARD The Geological Society of London exponential extrapolation and insisted they stick to Dr Sue Bowler FGS accepts no responsibility for the views linear instead. International ridicule led to its being Mr Steve Branch FGS expressed in any article in this Dr Robin Cocks FGS publication. All views expressed, rejected a week later; but North Carolina’s agencies now Dr Joe McCall FGS except where explicitly stated have to wait between three and four years for a new, Prof. Peter Styles FGS otherwise, represent those of the author, and not The Geological home-grown sea-level study to report before they can Dr Jonathan Turner FGS Society of London. All rights reserved. Dr Jan Zalasiewicz FGS No paragraph of this publication may say anything. be reproduced, copied or transmitted Trustees of the Geological save with written permission. Users In true disaster-movie style, local industries and Society of London registered with Copyright Clearance coastal communities fearing loss of investment were Center: the Journal is registered with Mr D T Shilston (President); behind the political move, citing a single published Mrs N K Ala; Dr M G CCC, 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970, USA. 0961-5628/02/$15.00. 2 Armitage; Miss S Brough; Every effort has been made to trace paper from 2011 that suggested, contrary to the vast Professor R A Butler; copyright holders of material in this majority of research, that sea-level rise had slowed since Professor N A Chapman; publication. If any rights have Mr D J Cragg; Professor J been omitted, the publishers offer the 1930s. Francis (Secretary, Science) their apologies. It is natural, perhaps, for politicians to confuse dreams Professor A J Fraser; No responsibility is assumed by the and reality. Unless they were so deluded, they surely Dr S A Gibson; Mrs M P Publisher for any injury and/or Henton (Secretary, damage to persons or property as a wouldn’t want the job in the first place. What is odd Professional Matters); matter of products liability, about this story is that it reveals how many legislators Dr R A Hughes; Mr D A negligence or otherwise, or from any Jones; Dr A Law use or operation of any methods, manage to preserve their delusion despite all the (Treasurer), Professor R J products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. evidence to the contrary that life must by now surely Lisle; Professor A R Lord Although all advertising material is (Secretary, Foreign & expected to conform to ethical have thrown at them. Imperviousness to evidence is External Affairs); Mr P (medical) standards, inclusion in this perhaps another way of saying ‘conviction politics’. Maliphant (Vice president); publication does not constitute a Dr B R Marker OBE; guarantee or endorsement of the Sadly, while it may be possible to fool all the people Professor S B Marriott quality or value of such product or of all the time, we forget Feynman’s dictum at our peril. (Vice president); Dr G the claims made by its manufacturer. Nichols; Dr C P Subscriptions: All correspondence DR TED NIELD EDITOR Summerhayes relating to non-member subscriptions (Vice president); Professor should be addresses to the Journals J H Tellam; Dr J P Turner Subscription Department, Geological REFERENCES (Secretary, Publications) Society Publishing House, Unit 7 Brassmill Enterprise Centre, Brassmill Lane, Bath, BA1 3JN, UK. Tel: 01225 1 Hotspot of accelerated sea-level rise on the Atlantic coast of Published on behalf of the 445046. Fax: 01225 442836. Email: North America, by Asbury H Sallenger Jr, Kara S Doran & Peter A Geological Society of [email protected]. The Howd. Nature Climate Change(June 2012) doi:10.1038/nclimate1597 London by subscription price for Volume 22, Century One Publishing 2012 (11 issues) to institutions and 2 Sea-Level Acceleration Based on U.S. Tide Gauges and Alban Row, 27–31 Verulam non-members is £108 (UK) or £124 / Extensions of Previous Global-Gauge Analyses by J R Houston US$247 (Rest of World). Road, St Albans, Herts, and R G Dean. Journal of Coastal Research: Volume 27, Issue 3: 409- AL3 4DG © 2012 The Geological Society 417. 2011 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-10-00157.1 T 01727 893 894 of London AUGUST 2012 05 GEOSCIENTIST SOAPBOX Intuition counts BY IAIN BARTHOLOMEW Successful exploration still depends, at the highest level, on a bit of that old black magic, says Iain Bartholomew* SOAPBOX CALLING! What makes a successful exploration ranging regional studies are crucial.