We’re devoting this episode to the season’s most dreaded stocking stuffer, coal. Travel back in time to the Paleozoic era, where coal starts as rotten plants. Add heat, pressure, and time, and quick as a wink from old Saint Nick - you’ve got coal! And like Santa’s naughty or nice list, learn how coal is graded into four types: lignite, sub bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. Return to the present, where coal provides 38.5% of the world’s electrical power, and glimpse at the future of alternative fuels. BYO hot chocolate. Sources:
How is Steel Produced? by the World Coal Association: https://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-coal/how-steel-producedAnnual Energy Review by the US Energy Information Administration: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/ How Much Do You Consume? by the US Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov/articles/how-much-do-you-consume  Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Episode 9: Baby, It’s Coal Outside

Are curious about your home — your home planet, that is? Welcome to the podcast that explains it all, It’s Sedimentary, My Dear. Every other week, hosts Jane and Ellen “dig deep” into the secrets buried in the rocks and minerals that make up planet Earth.

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After an unexpected hiatus, hosts Jane and Ellen return with a down and dirty episode about soil. Jane reveals her childhood experiences with a DIY mud spa before digging into the agricultural and geological definitions for soil. They discuss the four main components of soil: inorganics, organics, water, and air or gas. They talk about how to identify soil texture and soil structure. They also discuss soil profile and soil horizons (which are similar to cake layers, but less delicious). They review the processes and factors that form soil. And finally, they explain the 12 basic soil orders used for soil taxonomy by USDA scientists. Note: this dirty, filthy episode is approved for audiences.Our main source for this episode is: The Nature and Properties of Soils (14th ed.), Nyle C. Brady, and Ray R. WeilMusic for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Episode 11: Soil Petrology - Dishing the Dirt on Soil

Hosts Jane and Ellen finish each other’s… sandwiches in this “Frozen” episode about glaciers. Glaciers are a body of moving ice that has been formed on land by the compaction and recrystallization of snow. They take forms like valley, ice sheet, or outlet, because, really, who’s going to tell them not to. Learn why glaciers are more likely to form at the equator than at 30 degrees latitude north and south, and find out how glacial budget has its pluses and minuses. Let it go and enjoy this frosty episode.Our main source for this episode is Process geomorphology (5th ed.), Ritter, Kochel, & Miller.Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Episode 10: Glaciers - Do you want to build a really big snowman?

What’s big and deadly, and travels faster than a jet plane? It’s a tsunami. Hosts Jane and Ellen explain how ocean waves become tsunamis. They talk about the basic properties of waves, and the differences between tidal waves and tsunamis. They also talk about some famous tsunamis. (Spoiler alert - don’t expect a happy ending.)
Sources:Introduction to Oceanology by Paul Webb, offered online by Roger Williams University
https://rwu.pressbooks.pub/webboceanography/chapter/chapter-10-waves/ Japan Revives a Sea Barrier That Failed to Hold by Norimitsu Onishi for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world/asia/japan-revives-a-sea-barrier-that-failed-to-hold.html Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011 by Kenneth Pletcher for Encyclopedia Brittanica Online
https://www.britannica.com/event/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011
Tsunami alert twitter feeds from the US National Weather Service:https://twitter.com/NWS_NTWC https://twitter.com/NWS_PTWC Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Episode 8: Tsunamis

Jane interrupts our scheduled discussion of tsunamis to take us on a Magic Schoolbus-like field trip to Missouri’s Elephant Rocks State Park. Along the way we learn a bit about Missouri’s history, and culture (mort importantly the three Bs of St. Louis: Beer, Blues, and Barbeque). We also learn cool stuff about the geology of this Gateway to the West state. Granite domes & tors abound! And in the immortal words of Miss Frizzle, “Seatbelts, everyone!”
Our sources for this episode are:Process geomorphology (5th ed.), Ritter, Kochel, & Miller.Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology (9th ed.), by Tarbuck & LutgensThe Missouri State Parks page for elephant rocks state park: https://mostateparks.com/park/elephant-rocks-state-parkField Trip No. 6: Rapakivi Granites and Related Rocks in the St. Francois Mountains Southeast Missouri by Kisvarsanyi and HebrankGeologic Wonders and Curiosities of Missouri, 2nd ed, revised by VineyardMusic for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Episode 9: Baby, It’s Coal Outside

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