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Ceramics Tell the Story of an Ancient Southwest Migration

By Guest PostJune 5, 2012Culture, Scienceancient, archaeologist, arizona state museum, byron cummings, ceramics, charles adams, colorado plateau, confluence, diaspora, doctoral dissertation, east central arizona, emil haury, excavations, four corners region, gila, grasshopper, homolovi, jannelle weakly, jeff harrison, kayenta polychrome vessel, kayenta region, kinishba, masters theses, mogollon rim, patrick lyons, perforated plates, point of pines, river, san pedro, social unrest, southwest migration, university of arizona, vessel, winslow

Another look at a nearly 80-year-old pottery collection at the Arizona State Museum is yielding new information about migrants who abandoned the Four Corners region.

Approximately eight centuries ago, people living along the Colorado Plateau in what is now the Four Corners area faced a crisis. Environmental changes that devastated their agricultural practices and likely aggravated social unrest forced significant numbers of these people to move away.

Many of them headed south into central and southern Arizona and western New Mexico, into lands already inhabited by well-established groups.

What is remarkable about this diaspora is that while there is no written record of what happened, much of what archaeologists know is told in the ceramic bowls, plates and figurines that were created and left behind when those civilizations later collapsed. (more…)

Amateur Astronomers to ‘Target Asteroids!’

By Guest PostApril 21, 2012Science1999 rq36, amateur astronomer, asteroid, carl hergenrother, catalina sky survey, ccd camera, colorado plateau, dante lauretta, dolores hill, earth orbit, ed beshore, image, meteor crater, meteorites, northern arizona, nubian desert, osiris rex, primitive asteroid, rotation rate, solar system, space mission, sudan, target asteroids, tim hunter

Researchers on NASA’s robotic asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx, are turning to amateur astronomers for new data on near-Earth asteroids in a citizen science observing campaign called Target Asteroids!

Amateur astronomers are about to make observations that will affect current and future space missions to asteroids.

Some will use custom-made, often automated telescopes equipped with CCD cameras in their backyards. Others will use home computers to make remote observations with more powerful telescopes states or continents away. Many belong to leading national and international amateur astronomy organizations with members ranging from retirees to school kids. (more…)

Some Earthquakes Expected Along Rio Grande Rift in Colorado And New Mexico, New Study Says

By Guest PostJanuary 15, 2012Environmentactive, anne sheehan, anthony lowry, colorado plateau, earth, earthquake hazards, earthquakes, fault bounded basins, fort collins, frederick blume, garden city, geologically alive, geologists, global positioning system, gps, magnitude, mark murray, Mexico, molten rock, nanostrain, new mexico tech, rates of deformation, rio grande rift, rise of magma, spreading motion, steven nerem, surface coloradom rocky mountains, unavco, university of colorado boulder, university of new mexico, western great plains

The Rio Grande Rift, a thinning and stretching of Earth’s surface that extends from Colorado’s central Rocky Mountains to Mexico, is not dead but geologically alive and active, according to a new study involving scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

“We don’t expect to see a lot of earthquakes, or big ones, but we will have some earthquakes,” said CU-Boulder geological sciences Professor Anne Sheehan, also a fellow at CIRES. The study also involved collaborators from the University of New Mexico, New Mexico Tech, Utah State University and the Boulder-headquartered UNAVCO. The Rio Grande Rift follows the path of the Rio Grande River from central Colorado roughly to El Paso before turning southeast toward the Gulf of Mexico. (more…)

Tag Archives: colorado plateau

Ceramics Tell the Story of an Ancient Southwest Migration

Amateur Astronomers to ‘Target Asteroids!’

Some Earthquakes Expected Along Rio Grande Rift in Colorado And New Mexico, New Study Says