Quality Earth Science blogging

Three quarks daily has announced its nominations for the 2011 3QD science blogging prize. Several Earth and planetary science blogs are represented. While I would certainly appreciate some support, my only request is that anyone wishing to vote read at least two of the nominated posts before voting. If you have already read two, then find at least one you haven’t seen, even if you have to stoop to browsing through the entries from other forms of science. There’s some good writing out there.

In geochronological order, the Earth and planetary science nominations are:

Reflections on the Gulf Oil Spill - Conversations With My Grandpa, by Christie Wilcox at Observations of a Nerd gives an oil-cleanup insider’s view on the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

Ocean acidify-WHAT!? By Sheril Kirshenbaum at Convergence (originally posted at the Intersection) explains how increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations make the ocean more acidic.

The Pelican's Beak, by Brian Switek at Laelaps, describes the evolution of pelicans, crocodiles, and other slowly changing species.

Rare Earth elements aren’t rare, just playing hard to get, by Sarah Zielinski at Surprising Science explains the basic economic geology of the rare Earth elements.

Prehistoric Clues Provide Insight into Climate’s Future Impact on Oceans, by Allie at Oh for the love of science describes the oceanic apex predators of the Miocene.

Geology word of the week: O is for Ophiolite, by Evelyn Mervine at Georneys describes what ophiolites are.

A plethora of Planets by Mr. Temple at Is this your Homework? describes the Kepler exoplanetary mission and some of the early results.

Super Moon, by Steven Schimmrich, the Hudson Valley Geologist, talks about the Moon’s orbital characteristics.

Finding my tears; when 1 is worse than 10,000 by Brian Ziemund-Fisher at the Risk Science Blog explains a personal tragedy related to the Japanese tsunami.

Dear Hypothesis by me at Lounge of the Lab Lemming is a breakup letter to a hypothesis that didn’t fit the data.


Levees and the illusion of flood control, by Anne Jefferson at Highly Allochthonous describes how levees simultaneously protect towns and increase flood heights in the Mississippi river.

Although those individual blog posts are the official entries, several commenters on the voting page have mentioned the excellent coverage by Georneys of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster as a highlight as well.

*Update: Laelaps nomination added (sorry Brian).