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One more week for the "art" theme, this time the desert and coastal landscape of Namibia, again from Frantisek Staud.

SIERRA VISTA — Fon B. Huffman, the last survivor from the international Panay Incident of 1937, died Thursday, his family announced. Huffman, born in 1913, celebrated his 95th birthday on Aug. 19. He died peacefully in his sleep at noon in Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center. His daughter, Nancy Ferguson, was by his side. The Iowa farm boy who joined the Navy at age 16 was a 24-year-old sailor aboard the USS Panay when it was attacked near Nanking, China, on Dec. 12, 1937, by Imperial Japanese warplanes. In those days, the American gunboat, part of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet,...

A number of Chippewa County residents are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to a sand mine. As we first reported two weeks ago, a Canadian company is looking to build a sand processing plant in the Town of Howard. If a permit is approved, the sand mine will operate for 40 years. During that time, it's estimated 60 to 90 trucks will haul 16 hours a day in the summer and ten hours a day in the winter. That's why a committee has been formed to stop construction. Kasey Schindler, the Stop Mine Committee spokesperson says,...

Nearly 80 rail cars loaded with contaminated sand from Kuwait are headed toward a dump in southwestern Idaho. American Ecology Corp. is shipping about 6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longview, Wash., this week and company officials say loads are scheduled to begin arriving in Idaho by rail in two weeks. Transfer of the sand to the United States was first reported this week by The Daily News in Longview. The company has previously disposed of low-level radioactive...

Forecasting Tsunami Threats Through Layers of Sand and Time Map Of The Bay Of Bengal The catastrophic Indian Ocean event in December 2004 that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries – including 15,000 in India – was hardly a one freak occurrence. It could happen again. Newswise — Azhii peralai: from the deep … large waves. This is the expression for ‘tsunami’ in Tamil, the oldest language in southern India. For an ancient dialect to have its own phrase for destructive waves triggered by earthquakes, the people of Tamil Nadu likely experienced tsunamis periodically through the centuries, says Halifax...

I know that I've provided previous images of Great Sand Dunes both from space and on the ground. But when I saw this one, I knew it was the one for this week. What it shows very nicely is why the sand dunes are where they are -- winds blow across the Rio Grande valley through the pass in the Sangre de Cristo range, and the sand carried by the winds has to stop at the base of the mountains. The gap in the mountains is fairly easily seen in this image. I actually had a view from a fairly...

A few images of sand dunes, artistically-viewed: Click on this one for full-size:

My thread title says it all. My FRiends, we have turn the Middle East's black gold back into sand; sorta like anti-alchemy. And the fact that it took me 6 years after 9/11 to come to that metaphor should be a TON of fun for ya'll to make fun of me. I put it on a tee for you.....so have at it. Oh. and if anyone has any ideas on how to make 10 trillion barrels of oil worthless....please say so. No reason to turn the WHOLE thread into a joke at my expense.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 – While working as a nuclear repair mechanic for the Navy, Caleb Duke traded sea for sand when he volunteered to take on an Army position that took him to Afghanistan. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Caleb S. Duke is an eight year veteran of the United States Navy and is currently serving as part of the Why We Serve speakers program. Defense Dept. photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In 1998, at the age 20, Scranton, Pa., native Caleb Duke enlisted in the Navy. “I wanted to be a part of something bigger...

Waves and sharks aren't the only dangers at the beach. More than two dozen young people have been killed over the last decade when sand holes collapsed on them, report father-and-son doctors who have made warning of the risk their personal campaign. Since 1985, at least 20 children and young adults in the United States have died in beach or backyard sand submersions. And at least eight others died in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, according to a letter from the doctors published in this week's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Among them was Matthew...

Mining the Natural Arch and Bridge Society site for fun found this: "Mask Rock is located in the Ouadi Archei region of Ennedi [Chad] about 39 kilometers SSE of Fada. The left opening has a span of 36 feet and a height of 57 feet. The right opening has a span of 27 feet and a height of 50 feet. Photo by Gunter Welz." Just for the heck of it, Googling on "Turkey Rock" discovered this, apparently somewhere around Aspen (Independence Pass, wherever that is): Another Web site, mostly written in Czechoslovakian, calls the images below Turkey Rock and Turkey...

For years desert nomads have spoken of the haunting songs of sirens which lure travellers to a waterless doom. Now, a French scientist has replicated the effect in his lab using grains of sand A strange sound rises from the cinnamon-coloured sand: a deep, almost hypnotic rhythm. It could almost be the chanting of Tibetan monks, yet the setting is rigorous and clinical – the laboratory of French physicist Stephane Douady, where a robot arm is pushing small, precisely measured amounts of sand down a plexiglass ring. Douady is a leading expert in a very narrow field. He is investigating...

Active lava pond in the East Pond Vent, Pu'u O'o, Kilauea, Hawaii: CHALLENGE: Find a good picture of a freshwater spring sand boil. This is where the water of a spring is emerging from a sandy bottom, and the sand "boils" where the water flow is strongest. Example: The white area is a sand boil in a Florida freshwater spring. What I need is a high-quality close-up example of this for a demonstration. (Not critical, but it would be helpful.)

I know I've posted pictures of this place before, but the full-size version of this picture (unlabeled) gives me a weirdly vertiginous feeling. The source article is linked above; a click on the picture below will go to the full-size version. For those who haven't heard before, Medano Creek has a strange property (when it's flowing, mainly in the spring) due to the sandy bed; it pulsates. The sand bed constantly builds up little dams and bars, that break down with the water flow, sending waves downstream. An Ocean in Colorado? (note link to cartoon animation) Here's a nice picture...

This started as a question to myself: "I wonder if there are sand dunes in northern climates?" Googling on "sand dunes" + Canada revealed another heretofore unknown (at least to me) geological location -- Athabasca Sand Dunes in Saskatchewan. I've heard of Athabasca before in association with tar sands, but this is a the first time I'd heard of a provincial Athabasca Sand Dunes Park. The Web site says that is only accessible by air. So I'm guessing not a lot of people have been there or visit there. Since this is very new to me and perhaps others, first...

Out of the sand It was built in 1504, but abandoned 13 years later and left to crumble. Now, after a huge restoration project, Yemen's Amiriya palace is considered the world's most beautiful mosque. By Rory McCarthy Saturday March 11, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Amiriya palace ... the exterior during restoration and (right) paintings inside one of the domes. Photographs: Yahya Arhab/EPA There is a photograph of a small town in Yemen taken a century ago by a German photographer called Hermann Burchardt. It is one in a series of remarkable pictures taken during an expedition through the southern tip...

WAILUKU, Hawaii - Maui may be running out of sand, threatening not only its famous year-round beaches but the state's booming construction industry. Sources of readily available sand may run out within five to seven years, according to a report being prepared for Maui County. The vast system of sand dunes from Waihee to Waikapu has largely been covered by development, and what's left is being mined, the report says. Maui sand is in high demand because it's a key ingredient in concrete and the only material now available for beach restoration projects. About 318,000 tons of sand are dug...

SALT LAKE CITY - Heralding oil shale as “a domestic resource with staggering potential,” the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has selected the first companies likely to earn a chance to start exploiting federal lands in Colorado and Utah. BLM Director Kathleen Clarke announced the bureau had narrowed a field of 16 contenders for experimental projects, choosing six companies that, subject to environmental reviews, could be awarded leases to work 160-acre parcels of federal land by summer. Taking direction from President Bush's Energy Act, Clarke said the reserves contain a 100-year domestic supply of oil, although it's locked up in...

Off for Thanksgiving week, back with an Earth Observatory three-fer. Click each picture for the article about it. On the nature side, I saw an owl on Saturday as twilight approached. Probably only the third live wild owl sighting of my lifetime. Number one: the Algodones dune field in California, which has starred in many Hollywood movies (not just Star Wars). I'm sure that the dune-walking sequence in "Kung Fu" was shot here, and many, many westerns. Number two: the Sand Hills of Nebraska. Sand Hills from the ground (I couldn't find a high-quality Sand Hills picture, but nature photographers...

The Army tells NBC News its Criminal Investigation Division is looking into an Australian broadcast report with video that allegedly shows U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burning the bodies of two Taliban fighters, then using the incident to taunt Taliban forces. SBS, an Australian public broadcast network, aired the story Wednesday night. U.S. Army officials confirm that a free-lance cameraman working for the network was embedded with the 82nd Airborne at the time of the alleged body burning. According to the network report, one American, one Afghan soldier and two Taliban fighters were killed in a firefight near the village of...