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Holiday Tidbits You Didn't Have Time To Think About

Winter can be so dark and dreary. So let’s brighten it up a bit with some interesting after-the-holiday science facts.

Through Frosty’s Eyes - A Look at the importance of coal. In addition to its use for snowmen’s features and filling the stockings of the naughty, coal serves as an important energy resource for the United States. In this frosty time of year, coal is used to heat homes. In fact, coal is used as fuel to generate more than half of our country’s electric power. Many of the materials we use daily - dyes, antiseptics, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and perfumes - contain compounds that are derived from coal. Do you know how coal forms or what the different types of coal are? The USGS conducts research around the world to provide information about energy resources, including coal. So come in from the cold and visit www.pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1143 to learn what Frosty already knows: coal is a complex and important natural resource.

A Chilly Clue To Global Climate Change - Glacier ice that was already middle-aged when Neanderthal man roamed the earth holds clues to what the atmosphere was like hundreds of thousands of years ago - long before scientists began studying the climate. At the National Ice Core Lab in Denver, CO, which is jointly funded and operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the USGS, more than 16,000 meters of ice cores from Antarctica, Greenland, and other locations are carefully preserved at -32 degrees F. These cores are providing an abundance of information, such as temperature, precipitation, atmospheric gas composition, volcanic eruptions and solar variability that is helping researchers to better understand our changing climate. One of the lab’s ice cores from Antarctica contains atmospheric information from about 450,000 years ago. To learn more or to view the lab’s inventory, check out www.nicl.usgs.gov/index.html.

Deck The Halls With Boughs Of - Minerals? Are cobalt oxide, sulfur, and cadmium sulfide used to make the traditional holiday hues in your seasonal decorations? Of course they are! According to USGS scientists who collect worldwide data on almost all mineral resources, holiday lights are made with these and other minerals from around the world. The world’s supply of minerals - such as salt, manganese, and lime - lights up the holiday season, helping many nations and cultures to celebrate their long-time traditions. To learn more about how minerals make the holidays shine, visit www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1584.

A Kiss Is Just A Kiss - Mistletoe and so much more. This Christmas while you puckered up under the mistletoe consider this: while festive and fun, mistletoe also provides essential food, cover, and nesting sites for an amazing number of birds, butterflies, and mammals in the United States. There are more than 1,300 types of mistletoe worldwide, and more than 20 of them are endangered. According to USGS researchers, “mistel” is the Anglo-Saxon word for “dung”, and “tan” is the word for “twig.” Thus, mistletoe means “dung-on-a-twig” - talk about taking the romance out of that next kiss under the mistletoe! For more information, check out www.usgs.gov/mistletoe.

Mountain Frogs A Leaping - Since their August rescue from near-dry pools, endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs of southern California have been doing a lot less hopping than the USGS scientists participating in the multi-agency conservation effort to save amphibians. There are high hopes that several dozen frogs-in-waiting will one day become frogs that are large enough to avoid predators and be returned to the wood, while others will remain to form the core of a breeding program to help restore these endangered frogs to their mountain homes.

Santa Citings Across The United States - ‘Twas the night before Christmas in the U.S. of A. and “Santa” was spotted, but not with his sleigh. He was spotted in Georgia and Texas and Maine. In Nevada and Utah, he was spotted again. Arizona, Oregon, and on up the West Coast, but Indiana is where he’s cited the most. A stream, a dam, and a Minnesota lake, all carry his name for goodness sake. If you’re looking for Santa, you can find his name on natural features such as reservoirs, springs, a dam, a lake, a stream, and a pillar, as well as on buildings and populated places. Santa Claus is everywhere in the Geographic Names Information System. Check holiday-related geographic names at www.geonames.usgs.gov/.

Putting Holiday Harvests On The Map - Kwanzaa is translated to mean “first fruit of the harvest,” and the International Water Management Institute is pleased to offer assistance to harvesters all over the world with the release of the Global Irrigated Area Mapping Knowledge Gateway at. www.iwmigiam.org. The Web site provides the first satellite-sensor-based global map for irrigation purposes, and gives country-by-country statistics of irrigated areas. The Web site was created using high quality spatial datasets available for free from the USGS and NASA. The site allows you to zoom in on your area of interest and find out what crops are being grown and specific data, such as surface water and ground water levels, on the area’s irrigation.

Santa Plans His Christmas Route - When Santa plans his night ride around the Earth, he has a host of natural hazards to consider. Earth is made up of more than 1,500 volcanoes and 170 impact craters, and it has survived at least 44,000 earthquakes. This Dynamic Planet is an interactive map that shows many of the features that have shaped and continue to change the Earth. Log onto www.minerals.si.edu/tdpmap/ to discover the natural hazard history of your holiday destinations.

Sit Back and Relax - The USGS has some natural science entertainment to take the winter blues off your mind. Check out the “Living Rock: the Earth’s Continental Crust,” mms://video.wr.usgs.gov/movies/living_rock.wmv, and a primer on the Nation’s energy use and resources, mms://video.wr.usgs.gov/movies/future_of_energy_gases.wmv.

Society and The City Spread - How is the country handling the increase? Nearly 80 percent of Americans live in the city - that’s almost 240 million people! As populations grow, so does the land dedicated to urban areas. What effects does this growth have on our environment? A new USGS publication, Rate, Trends, Causes, and Consequences of Urban Land-Use Change in the United States, tackles this question on the local, regional, and national levels. The full report is available at www.pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1726.

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