GeoSphere

Nuclear

Tracking the Fallout and Fate of Fukushima Iodine-129 in Rain and Groundwater

Matt Herod December 21, 2015

A recently published paper (by myself and colleagues from uOttawa and Environment Canada) investigates the environmental fate of the long lived radioisotope of iodine, 129I, which was released by the Fukushima-Daichii Nuclear Accident (FDNA). Within 6 days of the FDNA 129I concentrations in Vancouver precipitation increased 5-15 times above pre-Fukushima concentrations and then rapidly returned to background. The concentrations of 129I …[Read More]

Photo of the Week #49

Matt Herod October 19, 2015

This week’s photo is from my personal research and shows a precipitate that I generated in the lab one day of AgI (silver iodide) for analysis of 129I by accelerator mass spectrometry. I felt though that I wanted to verify the purity of the AgI so I quickly threw in on our scanning electron microscope …[Read More]

ATTA and the Curious Case of Krypton-81

Matt Herod September 14, 2015

Ok, so I took some license with the title. This isn’t really a curious case and neither Krypton-81 nor ATTA are actually people. In fact, Krypton-81 (81Kr) is a radioisotope of the noble gas krypton and ATTA, which stands for atom trap trace analysis, is the revolutionary technique that has made its analysis possible. I …[Read More]

GeoPoll: What should we do with radioactive waste?

Matt Herod February 2, 2015

I don’t think it is any secret that the world is facing an imminent energy crisis. We are trying to generate more power than ever before, but at the same time, we now realize we have to do it in a sustainable way that does not harm the environment or exacerbate any existing issues such …[Read More]

#AESRC2014 Highlights

Matt Herod April 8, 2014

Well, AESRC is done for another year and with it my role as co-chair of the organizing committee! Thank goodness for that! Hopefully, I can finally get some actual thesis related work done in the coming months…and maybe get back to blogging a bit as well. However, as grateful as I am that AESRC is …[Read More]

The Most Epic Unboxing Ever

Matt Herod February 18, 2014

There is a strange phenomenon on the internet called unboxing. Unboxing is when a person receives a new package of something and takes a video or pictures of the process of opening it for the first time and posts it online. Mostly, from what I can see, people “unbox” electronics or hockey cards or things …[Read More]

AW# 60 – Radioactivity: What’s the use?

Matt Herod October 1, 2013

I am very excited to be hosting the 60th Accretionary Wedge at GeoSphere! Sorry my own contribution is so slow in coming…it has been a busy month PhD wise. In fact, I expect it will be a busy year PhD wise since I am hoping to submit in the Fall of 2014 and I have …[Read More]

The Mysteries of Maqarin

Matt Herod July 19, 2013

We all know that cement is a man-made substance and therefore cement is always synthetic right? Wrong! In the unusual case of Maqarin, Jordan the stars aligned to produce natural cement and many of the “synthetic” minerals found therein. The Maqarin site has been the subject of an intense geological investigation by a consortium of …[Read More]

Guest Post – Mike Power – Using surficial geochemistry to detect buried mineral deposits

Matt Herod June 27, 2013

Finding the next big mineral deposit is a dream of many geologists past, present and future. However, in the past hundred years or so, many of them close to surface have already been found and developed. This is because they can be found relatively inexpensively by traditional methods such as geochemical surveys, shallow geophysics, drilling, …[Read More]

Back in Colborne Quarry!

Matt Herod June 10, 2013

It finally happened! After 10 years of being denied access to one of the all time best fossil collecting spots in North America myself, and a few other lucky geologists were allowed into the quarry with unrestricted access for the day last Thursday! The last time I visited Colborne Quarry was before I had started …[Read More]

About

The term geosphere is an all-encompassing word that incorporates just about every aspect of the earth sciences. This means that topics ranging from geophysics to geochemistry to geobiology are part of the geosphere. The blog Geosphere honours its namesake by covering any and every topic in the geosciences. The principal goal of Geosphere and its author, Matt Herod, is to make science clear for anyone that should stumble in and enhance awareness of the geosphere for all. With this in mind I encourage any who have questions to post, comment or email me.