Science picks-leads, feeds and story seeds ...( LEADS Honoring Heroes and Their ...)

LEADS
Honoring Heroes and Their Enshrined Environment - USGS scientists and archaeologists from the National Park Service are developing ways to evaluate the effect of seawater on the structural integrity of the USS Arizona, sunk Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and rests today in about 40 feet of water. Visitors to the battleship notice the black fuel about a quart a day that leaks from the hull. More than a half a million gallons of fuel oil are still trapped in the damaged hull and, as it further degrades in the salty environment, the oil poses an environmental risk. The USGS is advising the National Park Service on placing oceanographic instruments on the Arizona to study the seawater environment around the ship. USGS scientists are using data from these instruments deployed last fall to study the ocean environment and predict the life expectancy of the hull and the fate of the fuel still trapped. Butch Kinerney,bkinerney@usgs.gov, 703-648-4732.

How wet were they? It's taken 'em 16,000 years to dry out! - Are deserts still drying out since the ice age? The answer appears to be yes. And this information could influence how we dispose of hazardous wastes. USGS scientists and university partners have found that sediments beneath the Nation's southwestern deserts have been drying out for 16,000 years, since the cold and wet conditions of the ice age began to change to the hot and dry conditions of today. What does this drying out mean for hazardous waste disposal? Check out http://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/drying_deserts.html (There's also a neat photo of desert vegetation at the Amargosa Desert Research Site where USGS scientists are studying methods for characterizing the mechanisms that control subsurface migration and fate of contaminants in arid environments.) Gail Wendt,

Contact: USGS Office of Communications
703-648-4460
United States Geological Survey
6-May-2003