August 2008 Geology and GSA Today media ...( Boulder CO USA GEOLOGY topics in...)

Boulder, CO, USA GEOLOGY topics include confirmation that East Java's "Lusi" mud volcano was most likely triggered by a blowout in the Banjar Panji-1 well; evidence of the oldest human presence yet discovered along Egypt's northern Nile delta; analysis of Yellowstone's hotspot; and GPS measurements that show why no large earthquakes occur in the Snake River Plain. GSA Today's science article studies the impact of Glen Canyon dam in Grand Canyon on sandbar ecosystems along the Colorado River.

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Jean-Daniel Stanley et al., Smithsonian Institution, Rm. E-205 NMNH, Paleobiology, 10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20013, USA. Pages 599-602.

A small but significant find made during a geological survey provides evidence of the oldest human presence yet discovered along the northernmost margin of Egypt's Nile delta. A rock fragment carried by humans to the site was discovered in a sediment core section north of Burullus lagoon near the Mediterranean coast. Radiocarbon analysis of plant-rich matter in the mud surrounding the object provides a date of 3350 to 3020 B.C., the late Predynastic period. This long, thin object, formed of dolomite, had not been deposited by the Nile or the sea,
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