Happy Holidays!

Well, I don't anticipate that I'll post anymore for a while. I'll get a write-up for the Holiday Party written some time next year. But for now, because my Texas roots have made me a big fan of Robert Earl Keen - Merry Christmas from the Family !

Dam Failure in Tennessee

A Tennesse Valley Authority power plant had a dam failure at one its slurry ponds. A few houses were flooded and infrastruture impacted, but now serious injuries are reported.

SR 87 Landslide Moving Again?

Interesting – ADOT is reporting movement at the SR 87 landslide. With a major winter storm, the associated moisture, and freeze thaw pressures, this isn’t really surprising. However, the question is will it become a major issue or not. And will it activate some of the other landslides in the area.

• AZ Republic Article

• AZGS reconnaissance report that shows other landsides in the area

New Earth Fissure Maps Released

The AZGS released two new earth fissure study area maps.

West Valley - Luke Air Force Base Area

Pete's Corner

AZGS is posting pdf images and GIS shape files. Interactive versions of the maps are available at the AZMAP Earth Fissure Viewer web site.

AEG member are invited to participate at the GSA Annual Meeting

From email:

The 2009 GSA Annual Meeting will be in Portland, OR on Oct. 18-21, 2009.

Topical submissions are due by Jan. 6, 2009, and will be reviewed during the month of January 2009.

Field trip and short course ideas are due Dec. 2, 2008.

If you have any ideas for a topical session, field trip, or short course, please submit them as soon as possible by going to http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2009/ and accessing the appropriate link(s) under “Call for Proposals.”

Remember, if a session draws less than 10 abstract submissions, that topical session will be cancelled, but generally, we will try to combine abstracts from other sessions that are sponsored by the Engineering Geology Division (EGD).

Abstracts for these sessions will be due this summer – details will follow later. Please remember that the abstract format has now changed to a limit of 2000 characters (it used to be 350 words.)

Thank you,

J. David Rogers

GSA EGD Chair-Elect

REG Review Courses

From email:

WINTER 2009 REVIEW COURSES for the ASBOG GEOLOGY LICENSING EXAM

The Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG) is pleased to announce the Winter 2009 series of review courses for the ASBOG geology licensing exam taught by REG REVIEW, Inc. AEG and REG REVIEW, Inc. have partnered to provide these courses since 1992. In the Winter of 2009, review courses will be offered in Portland, OR - for the Pacific Northwest region, Orlando, FL and Charlotte, NC - for the Southeast region, Baltimore (BWI), MD - for the Central East Coastal region, Manchester, NH for the Northeast region, Indianapolis, IN - for the North Central region, Kansas City, MO - for the Central Midwest region, Dallas, TX for the South Central region, Denver, CO - for the Central Western region, as well as Northern and Southern California locations in Sacramento and Santa Ana.

Course dates and locations are as follows:

Central US Courses - Winter, 2009

2009NCUS-1 - Indianapolis, IN, January 8, 2009, 8am to 4pm

2009SCUS-1 - Dallas, TX, January 9, 2009, 8am to 4pm

2009CUS-1 - Kansas City, MO, January 10, 2009, 8am to 4pm

2009CWUS-1 - Denver, CO, January 11, 2009, 8am to 4pm

West Coast Courses - Winter, 2009

2009PNW-1 - Portland, OR, January 16, 2009, 8am to 4pm

2009SC-1 - Santa Ana, CA, January 17, 2009, 8am to 5pm

2009NC-1 - Sacramento, CA, January 18, 2009, 8am to 5pm

Eastern US Courses - Winter, 2009

2009SEUS-1 - Orlando, FL, January 23, 2009, 8am to 4pm

2009SEUS-2 - Charlotte, NC, January 24, 2009, 7:30am to 3:30pm

2009CEUS-1 - Baltimore-Washington Area, January 25, 2009, 8am to 4pm
2009NEUS-1 - Manchester, NH, January 31, 2009, 8am to 4pm

We are also teaching a course for the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources

2009PR-1 - February, 2009, 8am to 4pm

California Courses are $515 for AEG members, $530 for nonmembers.

ASBOG Courses are $445 for AEG members, $460 for nonmembers.

Preregistration deadlines for the Winter, 2009 courses are a postmark date of December 18, 2008 for all Central U.S. and West Coast courses, January 2, 2009 for Eastern US courses, and January 16, 2009 for the Puerto Rico course.

REG Review, Inc. has been teaching these courses in California since 1985. In March 2000, we began to direct our teaching towards the ASBOG geology licensing exam. The pass rate for students in classes since then has ranged from 85 to 99%. The courses are taught by Patti Sutch, California PG 3949, CEG1641, and CHG 25, and Lisa Dirth, California PG 3951, CEG 1240, and North Carolina RG by ASBOG exam.

Current information on study manuals, flash cards, and courses, including specific locations, may be found online on REG REVIEW, Inc's website at http://regreview.com To contact REG REVIEW Inc.: e-mail - regreview@aol.com, mailing address - 178 Bowles Rd, Newbury, NH 03255 , telephone - East Coast call Lisa Dirth at603-763-3272, (fax)603-763-3341. West Coast (evenings) Patti Sutch at 916-456-4870.

Please pass this information on to any geologist that you know is taking the state licensure examinations. Thanks.

Lisa Dirth

REG REVIEW

178 Bowles Rd

Newbury NH 03255603-763-3272

Arizona AEG Holiday Celebration

Dear AEG Members, Professional Colleagues, Students, and Friends:

The Arizona Section of AEG is very pleased to announce our First Annual Holiday Party, which will be held on Thursday, December 18th. You are all invited to attend at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa. Registration will begin at 5:30 PM and we will be allowed after-hours access to view the museum's exhibits until 7 PM, at which time the dinner buffet will commence. Dinner will be catered by La Parrilla Suiza, and the menu will consist of mini beef chimichangas, mini chicken flautas, cheese enchiladas, beef tacos, and rice, beans, chips and salsa.

Complimentary beverages will also be served during the reception period from 5:30 to 7. Please refer to the attached flyer for more details.

We are pleased to announce that the meeting will be sponsored by HDR, Basin & Range Hydrogeologists, and EnviroDrill in order to cover some of the costs.

Please bring your loved ones and friends. The meeting dues are as follows:

$5 Students
$25 Members
$30 Non-Members
$15 Spouses/Guests
$10 Kids
$50 Max for Families

We will not be featuring a speaker and presentation since this will be more of a social/networking event. However, we will be hosting a silent auction, which currently includes mineral specimens, maps, and books. We are trying to arrange for sports paraphernalia, as well, to incite interest from our non-geologist guests. We will announce the winners after dinner.

As you can imagine, with an event like this, it will be important to provide an accurate head count to the caterer. Please RSVP to me at hhespeler@ninyoandmoore.com by Tuesday, December 16th. I hope to see all of you there!

AZGS Report on the SR 87 Landslide

The Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) has released a preliminary report about the landslide that closed SR 87 between Phoenix and Payson last March. It's a short and informative report with some interesting findings - most notably the identification of 4 paleo-landslides in the area, and that part of one of those was reactivated to cause the road closure.

While it's still preliminary, we have scheduled the Aecom (formerly DMJM Harris) team to give us a presentation about the remediation of this landslide for our meeting on May 7, 2009.

"Reconnaissance Report on the Easter Weekend Landslide of 21 March 2008, SR-87, Gila County, Arizona." by M. Diaz, B. Gootee and A. Youberg

http://www.azgs.az.gov/hazard_info_hwy87_2008.shtml

A Few Links of Interest

Well, I'm heading out for the holdiay soon and I hope all you have a great Thanksgiving. Here are a few links I've found interesting over the past few days. Enjoy!

• Tucson Congressman Raul Grijalvla is a top contender for Secretary of the Interior.

• Western Governors on energy policy.

• Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold has laid off 637 employees in Arizona.

• How Arizona would be affected by an earthqauke on the San Andreas Fault.

• USGS Landslide Handbook.

• Is Yucca Mountain the solution to Nevada's budget problems?

Environmental & Engineering Geoscience (E&EG) Wants Your Paper

From the email:

We hope you had a busy and interesting summer field season. We wanted to remind our members that if you have worked on an interesting project, we would like to hear about it.

Environmental & Engineering Geoscience (E&EG), a quarterly journal copublished by the Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists and the Geological Society of America, is seeking new manuscripts. E&EG publishes peer-reviewed contributions, based on original work, in the broadly defined areas of environmental and engineering geosciences (including geomorphology, hydrogeology, low-temperature geochemistry,neotectonics, and other earth surface processes). Both theoretical and empirical contributions related to these areas are welcome, although preference will be given to papers of an applied nature. Specifically, E&EG encourages the submission of the following kinds of papers.

• Results of original research in the environmental and engineering geosciences.
• Case histories describing the solution of new or unusually difficult problems in the applied geosciences.
• Review papers that summarize the state of the science or professional practice in a branch of the applied geosciences, including contributions describing relevant aspects of local or regional geology or the history of environmental and engineering geosciences.
• Short technical notes (six published pages or less) describing new techniques, novel case histories or other topics in the environmental and engineering geosciences.
• Brief critical discussions of papers and technical notes published in E&EG.

All manuscript submissions are now electronic via AllenTrack. Authors should visit the AEG website at www.aegweb.org and click on Publications under the Professionals tab for details on submission, and for a link to AllenTrack.

For more information, contact Co-Editor Abdul Shakoor, ashakoor@kent.edu , (330) 672-2968, or Co-Editor Ira Sasowsky, ids@uakron.edu, (330) 972-5389.

You can also submit short technical articles to AEG NEWS for possible publication. Email your article to Allen Shaw at avshaw@bechtel.com.

We at AEG wish you and your family a safe and happy holiday season!