A number of materials from beyond Earth have been used as gemstones. In addition, impacts have transformed Earth materials into beautiful glasses.

USGS has released new topographic maps for West Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia.

The new USGS topos are beautiful. If you want to see a sample we have Mammoth Cave, Kentucky unzipped and ready for you to download as a .pdf document (30 megs). Click here to download. Be sure to zoom in to see the great detail.

During 2013 the Utica Shale saw very large increases in natural gas production, oil production, number of wells drilled and much more.

Related: Utica Shale well density

Troglobites are small creatures that have adapted to a permanent life in a cave. They are so well adapted to life in a cave that they would be unable to survive in the surface environment. To survive in the darkness troglobites have highly-developed senses of hearing, touch and smell.

Today the State Senate of New York is scheduled to vote on a bill that will make the Herkimer Diamond the official state mineral. The name “Herkimer Diamond” is a little misleading – instead of being mineralogical diamonds, they are actually composed of quartz.

“Norway is an important suppler of oil and natural gas to Europe. Although Norway’s crude oil production has been declining since 2001, Norway has made several new oil field discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and is focused on increasing oil recovery in producing fields. Norway’s natural gas production declined slightly in 2013 from the previous year; however, the country is the third largest natural gas exporter in the world.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration country report.

In North Carolina, a number of industrial natural gas customers had to pay incredible rates for burning natural gas after they were asked to curtail use during the winter gas shortage.

Dave Petley, author of The Landslide Blog, summarizes some recent landslide losses in the United States.

There are hundreds of gem and mineral shows between now and the end of August. The-Vug.com has the largest list of shows on the web. There is probably one near you.

Some of the largest fancy diamonds in the world have been recently sold or scheduled for auction. “The Blue”, a 13.22 carat vivid blue diamond has an expected price of over $20 million will be sold next month. “The Orange”, a 14.82 carat orange diamond was sold for $35.5 million, and, the “Pink Star”, a 59.60 carat vivid pink diamond was sold for $83 million.

“A National Science Foundation scientist is experimenting with “crumb” rubber — ground up tires of different sized particles — and other components to improve the rubberized road materials that a number of states already are using to enhance aging asphalt.” quoted from the NSF press release.

In 2012, temperatures at the summit of Greenland rose above freezing for the first time since 1889, raising questions about what led to the unusual melt episode.

Yes it is. No it isn’t. It all depends how you measure. In absolute speed, the cheetah is the fastest. But which animal can cover 20x more body lengths per second?

“Before this month’s big rumble, many Mexicans had already filed outside to await the wobble in safety, away from falling ceilings. Nowhere else in the world is able to forecast earthquakes in this way. How do the Mexicans do it?” Quoted from The Economist article.

The folks at MyTopo.com are now printing TopoPhotos. They are aerial photographs with contour lines and topographic map annotations lightly superimposed. They give you the advantages of an aerial photograph but also include the elevation, road and place name details of a topographic map. You can use their website to order a TopoPhoto centered anywhere in the United States and have it printed in a variety of sizes in either landscape or portrait orientation. You can print them up to a huge 8′ x 5′ (or 5′ x 8′) in size.

We are affiliates of MyTopo.com and receive a commission on sales.