In 1892, an immense amount of floodwater broke free from an Alpine glacier, engulfing a nearby village. Today, after the discovery of more water accumulated beneath the glacier, engineers in France are taking novel steps to prevent such a disaster from recurring.
The team of specialists plans to drill beneath the Tete Rousse glacier and extract about 65,000 cubic meters of water (that’s enough to fill about 26 Olympic-sized pools!).
Engineering students Victor Correa Schneider, Trevor Owen, Julia Tsai, Dan Ferguson, and Benjamin Thompson of UC San Diego
Duuuude, how’s this for a Ph.D. project: Benjamin Thompson, a structural engineering student at UC San Diego, is on a quest to formulate the science of surfboards. He enlisted the help of four undergraduates in the mechanical engineering department to help him out, and together they hit the beach to find out more.
The oil-eating microorganism Alcanivorax borkumensis
Nearly two weeks after BP capped the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, the millions of gallons that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico are disappearing, and oil is no longer washing up on the beaches and marshes along the Louisiana coast.
This reversal, which may seem surprising, can actually be explained by a number of different factors, including the presence of microbes that break down oil in order to grow and reproduce.
NASA satellite image of the oil slick from July 12, 2010
The New York Times is reporting that a cap placed yesterday on the exploded BP oil well appears to be holding steady. After the disastrous oil rig explosion on April 20 off the Gulf of Mexico, BP has struggled to find a solution to stop the deadly leak.
See this graphic for a timeline of previous attempts to cap the leak, and this video for views of the current containment apparatus.
The oil-eating microorganism Alcanivorax borkumensis
