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Pictured: Dr. Peter Alagona

2013 marks the 40-year anniversary of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), an event both commended and critiqued at the third SNARL (Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory) lecture on Tuesday night at the Green Church off U.S. 395. On hand to discuss the history of the ESA, and species conservation in the United States, was University of California, Santa Barbara Assistant Professor Dr. Peter Alagona.

Dr. Alagona opened the lecture with a question to the audience: “who’s heard of environmental history?” he asked. By the crickets in the room, he had his answer. Dr. Alagona explained that his field, environmental history, emerged from the environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s as a study of environmental policies and practices over time. Environmental history focuses on social, political, and scientific approaches to the natural world.

The ESA offered a perfect example of an environmental policy within a historical context: “The landmark ESA passed in 1973 with nearly unanimous Congressional support,” he explained. “By the end of the 1970s, however, it became one of the country’s most controversial laws.” Much of that controversy stemmed from bitter struggles to classify, or resist classification, of endangered species. Dr. Alagona argued  that these “endangered species debates are as much about the politics of places as they are about the creatures that live there.”

Dr. Alagona proceeded to illuminate the history of species conservation in the United States, beginning with a debate between eighteenth century naturalists over whether species could even become extinct. “By the 1880s, it became abundantly clear that human actions, not just natural forces, could drive species to extinction,” he said, demonstrating with a sobering image, circa 1870, of a colossal pile of bison skulls in the American Southwest.

He pointed to another example, the California grizzly, noting that in 1848, the state boasted one grizzly to every 11 settlers. By the 1880s, California grizzlies were rare; the last recorded sighting of a grizzly was in 1924. “The decline of the grizzly helped inspire the State’s first grassroots conservation movement,” said Dr. Alagona.

Conservation, a concept crucial to the Endangered Species Act, “is an idea that [nature] reserves could be store houses for biological diversity,” he said. He dated the concept “from around 1880.” The notion of conservation expanded in the 1930s under the New Deal with the formation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Roosevelt’s “tree army,” which was intended to promote environmental conservation among other projects. “By the 1960s, the notion that habitat conservation should form some part of any environmental movement was widely accepted,” he said.

Today, conservation is one of the principle goals of the ESA, and one of its primary tools for protecting endangered species from extinction. The ESA requires a habitat conservation plan (HCP) for any area inhabited by a species listed as threatened or endangered, should private citizens, Native American tribes, State, or Federal organizations wish to develop property in that area. Here in the Eastern Sierra this requirement, along with requirements by California statutes like CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), present a challenge to renewable energy and other interested developers. That challenge is both good and bad, Dr. Alagona argued; it gets to the core of why the ESA remains controversial.

“Reserves are no panacea for complex social and ecological problems,” Dr. Alagona argued.

California, an area along with Arizona, the Desert Southwest, Florida, and the Southern Appalachians, of high biological diversity, has 14,000 protected areas of some kind, said Dr. Alagona. This land is set aside for the preservation of endangered or threatened species like the California golden eagle, San Joaquin kit fox, Mojave Desert tortoise, and Mountain yellow-legged frog. California has the second highest number of endangered species, 303 listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the largest number of at risk species in the country, Dr. Alagona said.

So how has the ESA worked out for the endangered species it seeks to preserve?  Of the nearly 1500 species ever listed under the ESA, Dr. Alagona said, just 10, or .6%, have gone extinct. But only 29, or 1.9%, have been delisted due to recovery. “De-listing efforts have been controversial; how recovery is measured is not certain; not to mention, 40 years is not enough time to expect full recovery,” Dr. Alagona said. Nevertheless, he argued, while the ESA has done much to prevent the extinction of endangered species, “it has done much less to aid recovery.”

He noted the challenges of aiding the recovery of endangered species with complex habitat issues, offering the example of the Steelhead trout, listed as threatened and endangered all along the West Coast. “Many factors have effected the Steelhead population, but none more than the loss of habitat due to dams,” he said. Of the 1400 named dams in California, most were built for a different kind of conservation: the conservation of water. Given the importance of water to this state, there is therefore no easy solution to the Steelhead’s habitat problems.

Meanwhile the Mojave Desert tortoise, which has an area the size of Massachusetts set aside as protected habitat in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, “has continued to decline due to complex, synergetic factors,” Dr. Alagona said. Some of these factors include disease, the introduction of exotic species, and climate change.

His final argument: the ESA represents a historic shift in our nation’s approach to protecting the environment. Yet, like any system of thought, it belongs to a particular historical period. After 40 years, he said, it’s time to reassess the policies and practices put forth by the ESA.

“The traditional approach to conservation starting in the 1930s has been to protect species by setting aside nature preserves,” he said. “It’s time to rethink the meaning of habitat, itself.” The future of conservation requires not just creating more habitats, he argued, but reconsidering ‘habitat’ “not so much as protected places, but as protected processes. This will require creating not just more habitats, but creating more sustainable landscapes.”

Sporting a mushroom t-shirt that he later explained was a Bolete, Dr. Jonathan Bourne, who many may know as an anesthesiologist at Mammoth Hospital, took the pulpit Tuesday evening at the Green Church off of U.S. 395.

As the evening’s speaker for the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory’s (SNARL) lecture series, Bourne brought something new to the table — a disclaimer that he wasn’t an expert.

“Unlike most Americans, I’m not afraid to eat mushrooms,” he said. “But I’m not an expert, it’s just one of my many interests. Preparing for this lecture made me a lot more informed than I was.” (His disclaimer also included a statement that he had never used, and did not advocate the use of any hallucinogenic mushrooms, but he did later explain which ones would do the job.)

Bourne was born an Australian and grew up picking mushrooms in New York. Later, he joined the San Francisco Mycological Society and has been to the “Fungus Fair,” which is held each December and puts mushrooms on display.

In his mushroom exploration, Bourne has found two things: first, the further East in Europe that you go the more enthused people are about mushrooms. Bourne explained that in Russia, mushroom hunting is more popular than many sports. Second, there is no great resource to study the mushrooms of the Eastern Sierra. He referenced the Internet often as a source of mushroom identification and study.

Breaking up his talk with the occasional mushroom joke (“Why is the mushroom invited to all the parties? Because he was such a fungi [fun-guy].”), Bourne covered the mushroom gamut from definition, to identification, to edibility.

Mushrooms are the reproductive structures, or fruit, of certain fungi. They are built to release spores and are attached to a giant, spider web-like structure hidden underground or in a substrate. To identify mushrooms, Bourne suggested either going out with someone who knows what they are doing or joining a mycological society. Methods of identification include looking at the mushrooms appearance, size, season of growth, habitat, spore prints, which trees or substrates it attached to, and by dissection.

“People compare mushroom hunting to bird watching because you get outside,” Bourne said. While birds are more difficult to photograph, once you are able to snap a shot, the bird is usually easy to identify, Bourne explained. “Mushrooms are tougher to identify.”

Indeed, there was a whole segment of mushrooms he simply called “LBMs,” or “Little Brown Mushrooms.” Included in the LBM were edible, hallucinogenic and poisonous mushrooms, so eating LBMs should be done at your own risk.

“It’s hard to identify LBMs and most people don’t,” Bourne explained.

Types of fungi discussed included parasitic, saprophytic, and mycorrhizal fungi, also known as “wild mushrooms.” Mycorrhizal fungi live in mutually beneficial relationships with trees and plants.

As for edibility, Bourne emphasized identification as the most important way to decide whether or not to eat the mushroom you have harvested.

“Identify, identify, identify,” he stressed. “Only a few species can kill you but many can make you sick.” Bourne said there had been less than 100 deaths in the past 25 years from mushroom poisoning.

Eating only young, fresh and firm mushrooms was another piece of advice he offered, as well as cooking all wild mushrooms before consumption.

Mushrooms can be dried or frozen, and they can also cause idiosyncratic reactions; some people could get sick from a mushroom while other don’t, so be wary serving them at dinner parties. Not becoming ill right away from a mushroom doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, either.

“If you get sick in less than six hours after eating the mushroom, you’ll most likely be ok,” Bourne explained. “The deadly mushrooms take a day or two to make you sick.”

It is illegal to pick mushrooms in state and national parks, similar to the illegality of picking a flower or grabbing a rock. On the Inyo National Forest, Bourne said mushroom enthusiasts were allowed to pick mushrooms for personal use only.

He then went over many of the mushroom species, many of which grow in the Eastern Sierra.

The Amanita Muscaria, or toadstool, is common in the Eastern Sierra. It has an orange or yellow cap and is the mushroom of literature, as Bourne described. It’s the mushroom used in Alice in Wonderland and for good reason. The Amanita Muscaria is a hallucinogenic and is said to make things look bigger or smaller.

“Death is rare, except for one case I found where someone ate 24,” Bourne said.

Other amanitas, such as the Death Cap and the Destroying Angel are deadly, but Bourne did not believe these grow in the Eastern Sierra.

The Coprinus or “Inky Cap” mushroom will only make you sick is you drink alcohol along with it, while a Slippery Jack has a frog-like skin that should be removed before consumption.

Boletes, like the one on Bourne’s shirt have no gills and should always be cooked. The King Bolete, or as Bourne described it, the “Arnold Schwarzenegger of mushrooms,” has a higher protein content than any vegetable other than a soybean.

Bourne’s favorite mushrooms to pick and eat in the Eastern Sierra are the Puffballs, which come in many varieties.

From deadly to delicious, Bourne covered the topic of mushrooms in the Eastern Sierra with depth and clarity, as well as a little humor. In fact, if he hadn’t told us he wasn’t an expert, we never would have known at all.

The next SNARL lecture is scheduled for May 14, at 7 p.m. at the Green Church. Dr. Peter Alagona of UC Santa Barbara will present “40 Years of Endangered Species: Conflict and Conservation in California.” Lectures are free, but seating is limited so don’t be late. Videos of past lectures can be viewed at vimeo.com/channels/SNARL.

Pictured: A California Brown Bat … in black and white/

Threats could “SNARL” western bat habitats in near future

Bats are probably one of the most misunderstood creatures on the planet. Their historically bad rap paints them as bloodsuckers that generate public health scares of rabies transmission. In pop culture, they’ve been linked to vampires and vigilante superheroes.

But, according to bat expert Patricia Brown PhD, who presented “Bats in Peril” during this week’s Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab’s popular lecture series, reality is that bats are a special and unique part of our ecosystem. “Apart from their intrinsic beauty, they’re major predators of night bugs,” Brown said. One bat, she went on to detail, can consume as many as 6,000 mosquitoes in one night.

Bats have been key in controlling certain types of pests, aiding in agriculture. They also help pollinate certain types of cactus. Brown, who does mine surveys for various government agencies, said the species is also of major interest to medical science, which is studying the anti-coagulant properties of its saliva.

Other winged animals get more attention from ecological and animal groups, but Brown submitted that the bat is also coming under threat from both man and nature. Major threats to the bat include urbanization, the green/renewable energy sector, mine closures and a curious white fungus, that has led to White Nose Syndrome.

In the case of the green energy market, one obvious threat comes from large wind turbines, which Brown explained can cover an area the size of a football field. They create vortexes that suck in the bats, and can kill them either through contact or by bursting sensitive capillaries in their lungs with radical air pressure changes.

Solar farms are another problem. In addition to man’s encroachment into historic living areas to set up cities and residential developments, large solar array complexes are intruding on foraging areas. “I believe in solar, but I don’t think we need to tear up large chunks of the desert for it,” she opined.

Urbanization has also taken its toll. “We’ve already seen a marked decline in the Red Bat,” Brown pointed out. “In John James Audubon’s day, there were accounts of the skies being red with the bats during migration periods. You don’t see that today.”

White nose, black threat

White Nose Syndrome, as it’s become known, isn’t really about noses turning white. It’s a white fungal growth that invades the tissue of certain types of bats, typically attacking the wings and ears. Under a microscope, it looks almost pretty, rather like a work of Asian art, but Brown said it’s very deadly. “Think of it as form of athlete’s foot that can cover much of the body,” she said. “The bats are very uncomfortable. It awakens them too early from hibernation, causing them to burn off food stores too soon and go foraging for bugs that aren’t out yet.”

In essence the bats starve to death. One problem with the fungus is it’s psychrophillic, or cold-loving, completely at home in the same temperatures bats like for hibernation during winter. First discovered in the U.S. during the winter of 2005-2006, it’s still only found in the eastern part of the country. Brown and other bat experts are concerned about a decided westward migration that could threaten species out west, such as the Little Brown Bat, which is found in the lower 48 states, and has large population in the Eastern Sierra.

Brown said the fungus is the same as one found in Europe, and the working theory is that it’s likely from there. It was, experts think, transported via spore by an unsuspecting tourist or explorer who picked it up in a tour cave somewhere on that continent. Since 2005, it’s been turning up on these shores in coal mines along the Blue Ridge range, in Pennsylvania, and has been moving into the midwest and Oklahoma, and into the south into Alabama.

Bat researchers are concerned about threats to endangered bats, such as the Grey Bat, which is found in only 9 mines and caves in the U.S., and the midwest Indiana Bat. In several caves examined, entire populations have been completely decimated. “No other wildlife disease known has caused this much mortality in such a short time,” Brown laments, adding it has claimed as many as 7 million bats in the northeastern U.S.

Not all bats, however, seem to be affected, though there is no apparent prevention or cure, and no active surveillance method for detecting the disease before onset, short of specific tests in lab settings. Curiously, Big Eared Bats common to Virginia, don ‘t seem immune to the fungus.

Out west, finding bats is the biggest challenge, since data and documentation of bat hibernation sites is much better in the east. In the short term, until research here catches up with the rest of the country, Brown and her colleagues are pushing for more awareness, forging partnerships and developing decontamination procedures.

In the bat cave … 

More than half of all U.S. bats roost in mines, which are as prevalent in many parts of the country as caves, and mimic the climatic conditions. Agencies, however, tend to overreact when considering mine closures, be it for economic, environmental or safety reasons.

Mines are fraught with all sorts of dangers to humans, such as dilapidated wood and structures, old dynamite and blasting caps left behind, and rattlesnakes. And humans squatting in mines have led to vandalism and wanton killings of bats by uncaring marauders.

Brown is pushing for more “bat-friendly” gated closures for mines currently used by bats, and better eviction practices for mines that are to be sealed. Bats are “mobile” creatures and can use multiple roosting sites, thus a need for more banding and tracking to more accurately map where bats are living.

Meanwhile, various agencies have started adopting some of Dr. Brown’s mitigation suggestions, but her best recommendation is simply staying out of caves for our safety, and hopefully that of the bats.

Brown, formerly on staff at UCLA, is a partner in Brown-Berry Biological Consulting. The SNARL series concludes this Tuesday with a program on the recent new sightings of the Sierra Nevada Red Fox. The program is free, and starts at 7 p.m. at the Green Church, just off U.S. 395 south of Mammoth Lakes.

Photo: Ron Oriti

Droughts can often change the course of history; even someone’s personal history.

A retired Astronomer and Planetarium Director at Santa Rosa Community College, Ron Oriti currently resides in Bishop, Calif. with his wife Barbara.

In 2004, Ron got his mitts on his first digital camera, and was sucked into a brand new passion — outdoor photography.

His favorite subjects from 2004 through 2006 were butterflies. Then, in 2007, the Eastern Sierra experienced a drought.

“And there were no butterflies,” Oriti explained.

Frustrated without his favorite muse, Oriti wasn’t sure what to do until his wife suggested he try to photograph dragonflies.

“I didn’t think I could do it because I thought they moved too much,” Oriti said. But, as is often the case in many a marital relationship, his wife was right.

Oriti has captured somewhere around 50 species of dragonfly with his SLR (single lens reflex) camera, including a Striped Saddlebag dragonfly, which is a species that isn’t suppose to reside in the Eastern Sierra. Barbara spotted it with her eagle eyes and “really shook up the whole dragonfly world,” Oriti said.

On Tuesday, May 29, Oriti spoke at the Green Church on Benton Crossing Road as the fourth lecturer in the annual SNARL (Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory) spring lecture series.

With an Italian background, Oriti couldn’t help but use his hands during his lecture. Here he demonstrates how to sneak up on and photograph a dragonfly. (Photo: Kirkner)

Admittedly not a trained biologist, Oriti explained what he knew of the dragonfly’s biology and honestly acknowledged what he didn’t.

Some of the interesting points he did divine included the fact that dragonflies chew their food and love to dine on mosquitoes. So if you have a pest problem at your home, see if you can get some dragonflies over for a visit, but beware, they will also eat almost any other insect, including each other.

A little dragonfly sex education: the male genitalia are located in its thorax. The male grabs the female just behind the head with the end of its abdomen. The female then curves her body up to the male’s thorax and genitalia, forming a wheel, and the two mate. Females then lay their eggs in the water.

There are three types of dragonflies: clubtails, darners and skinners. The eyes on darners and skinners touch.

There are approximately 5,700 species of dragonflies, worldwide, Oriti continued, 500 in the United States, and 75-80 in California. Forty-one or 42 of those in California are found in the Eastern Sierra. (Oriti says 41 or 42 in the Eastern Sierra because he and Barbara are convinced that two of the recorded species are actually the same). Of those 41 or 42 Eastern Sierra species, Oriti has photos of 34.

“If you love dragonflies, the Eastern Sierra is a good place to be,” he said.

In addition to a little biology lesson on dragonflies, Oriti also provided helpful tips on how to photograph the creatures and shared his own stunning imagery.

“You have to learn by experience what works best,” he said. “But film is cheap in a digital camera, so just keep shooting.”

One tip: if you do scare off the dragonfly you’d like to photograph, just back up and wait. According to Oriti, they like to come back to the same spot.

Common Green Darners just after mating. The female is laying her eggs in the water. (Photo: Ron Oriti)

As has been the case in the past, Mother Nature is having an impact on Oriti’s subjects. So far he’s seeing fewer dragonflies this year, which he said he could only assume was due to the weather. Luckily, this time around he has a back up and has also been photographing lizards.

The next SNARL lecture is scheduled for June 5 at 7 p.m. at the Green Church. The topic will be “Bats in Peril” presented by Dr. Patricia Berry-Brown, Dept. of Physiological Sciences, UCLA, retired.

New this year is the ability to view lectures on the web. Simply visit vimeo.com and subscribe to the “SNARL” channel.

Local renewable energy company, Sierra Solar, began work this week on a solar panel installation project at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab, or SNARL. Read more about this project, as well as a lot more green news in this weekend’s edition of The Green Sheet, inserted into The Sheet from Bishop to Bridgeport, and posted online here at thesheetnews.com. (Photo: Kirkner)

What’s the most likely location of the area’s next volcanic eruption?

“I can tell there are a lot of geologists in the room because of the facial hair. I’ve always been told I would be a lot more believable with facial hair,” opened the clean-shaven Dr. Brandon Browne at Tuesday evening’s SNARL (Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory) lecture held at the Green Church.

Browne, a volcanologist, then began a presentation on one of his case studies – Mammoth Mountain. When did it erupt last, and when can it be expected to erupt again?

An Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Fullerton, Browne’s research looks at understanding magma reservoir processes and volcanic eruption styles as recorded by mineral compositions and textures as well as the physical characteristics of the resulting deposits. His current projects are focused on Augustine Volcano (Alaska) and several Quaternary volcanoes in the southern and central Sierra Nevada (California), according to the Cal State Fullerton website.

In his talk, “Mammoth Mountain’s Shaky Past,” Browne explained that the last time Mammoth Mountain erupted was approximately 57,000 – 67,000 years ago, but it was a Plinian eruption 90,000 years ago that left all the pumice still seen in the area today.

“A Plinian eruption shoots pyroclastic material up in the air, which then gets carried everywhere,” Browne explained. [So when you are out mountain biking this summer, blame any frustrations you have as you ride through the pumice on that darn Plinian eruption.]

Browne explained further that Mammoth Mountain is not a caldera like Long Valley. It is more of a dome and crater volcano. Whereas the magma in a caldera pulls the crust down and then the edges erode out, leaving a depression in the ground, a dome and crater volcano pushes the ground up.

“Domes are dangerous because the magma ascends slowly and often gets stuck,” Browne explained. “Then the gases build up and explode.”

According to the volcanologist, it is basalt that excites the magma into an eruption in the first place. Basalt comes from partially melted mantle. Areas like the Red Cones near Devils Postpile are visible signs that there is still basalt in the area, and Browne predicted that if there were to be another explosion in the Sierra Nevada, it would come from Red Cones, not Mammoth Mountain.

Which is a good thing for residents living here. An eruption at Red Cones, or Pumice Butte or Horseshoe Lake (other areas Browne predicted might be next) would have a low flow of lava and the eruption and dispersal of the lava would be over quickly.

“Much different than if Mammoth Mountain itself erupted,” Browne said, alluding that an eruption from Mammoth would be a much worse scenario.

With any eruption, however, there is time to get away. It’s not like the movies where you are instantly swept away in a lava flow.

“It can take a month to a couple of years for the magma to get activated,” he said. “Then it would take a week to a month for the magma to ascend to the surface. So you have about two months before the eruption would start. You could sell your house and no one would know.”

The length of the eruption once it begins, however, is completely variable. It could last a few years to a decade, according to Browne.

Of course, can you really trust a guy without facial hair from Southern California?

Please note, next week’s SNARL lecture, the final one of the 2011 series, takes place on Friday, June 3 (not Tuesday) at 7 p.m. The speaker will be Dr. Mark Chappell from the Department of Biology at UC Riverside. His talk is titled, “Combining Science and Art: A Biologist’s Images of the Natural World.”

SNARL lecture explains the difference between intensity and magnitude

When it comes to documenting earthquakes, there’s magnitude, and then there’s intensity … and the two aren’t the same thing. During Tuesday evening’s Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab (SNARL) lecture at the Green Church, Susan Hough, earthquake specialist with the US Geological Survey in Pasadena, detailed the difference between the two as part of her talk, “The 1872 Lone Pine Earthquake and Recent Activity in Long Valley.”

Hough, who was hounded by TV news media for information following the recent earthquake in Japan, has a resume which includes studies of the 1995 Ridgecrest quakes and their aftershocks, and the period of unrest that rumbled through the Eastern Sierra in 1998.

During the 1872 Lone Pine quake, one observer happened to be no less than John Muir, who reportedly ran out to experience what he called “a noble earthquake.” How big was it? Good question. In 1872, seismometers hadn’t been invented yet, and wouldn’t appear until the turn of the century. Pre-seismometer magnitudes can only be estimated, but researchers have other ways to figure out intensity. And, yes, there is a difference.

Magnitude, as per Charles Richter’s scale, characterizes the size of an earthquake by measuring (indirectly) the energy released. By contrast, intensity sizes up the local effects and potential for damage produced by an earthquake on the Earth’s surface as it affects humans, animals, structures, and natural objects, including everything from trees to bodies of water.

The Mercalli intensity scale, which dates back to the late 1800s, started with the widely used simple 10-degree Rossi-Forel scale, and today is based on a 12-degree Roman numeral system, in which I is virtually unnoticed, V corresponds to feeling the quake, buildings shaking and so on, VII denotes average amounts of damage, and X-XII indicate almost or complete destruction.

“We look at accounts,” Hough explained. “What was damaged, what did people feel?” Those are then lined up against maps of damages and comparisons of similar events that were able to be measured later, such as the 1992 Landers quake, and perhaps a closer match: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

“You can get an intensity value from anyone who was there to document what happened,” Hough said. “Intensity seems subjective, but it’s really about how buildings respond to various levels of shaking.” One Pacific Northwest quake, she said, was assessed by the amount of damage sustained to various chimneys in the area. “You have to interpret the accounts consistently, and not be swayed by any ‘drama’ that can be involved in some of them.”

In the case of the 1872 quake, there are about 150 accounts that can be used, as well as some photographic accounts of the aftermath.

Did you feel it?

Up until the proliferation of the Internet, the USGS fielded postcards to document intensity accounts. In 1999, for example, the USGS received 25,000 postcard accounts of the Hector Mine quake near Barstow in 1999. That temblor, which hit at about 2:30 a.m., “woke up everyone but the dead, and shook like gangbusters,” yet only ended up with an intensity rating of 2-3.

Drama queens.

Hough pointed out one interesting feature about earthquakes that most of us probably never considered: big earthquakes don’t necessarily require big faults. The assumption, she said, is that major events only happen along major fault lines, but the 1872 Lone Pine quake occurred along a fault that wasn’t even close to the size and complexity of the San Andreas Fault, which spawned the 1906 San Francisco disaster.

In a head-to-head comparison, Hough showed that both were felt in many of the same places, even though the geographic area was much larger during the 1906 event.

The 1872 event was felt in many parts of San Diego, Los Angeles and other parts of southern and northern California, as far north as Sacramento and as far east as Elko, Nev. Whereas in 1906, people 200 miles or more away from the San Andreas Fault really didn’t notice the quake much, and intensity accounts drop off dramatically beyond that point.

In terms of magnitude, Hough argues that a M7.6 for the 1906 San Francisco is “implausibly low,” given the evidence suggests more than that. The 1872 Lone Pine event, 1872, however, Hough thinks was bigger, perhaps as much as an M7.9.

Can any of this research help predict a quake? No, but there might be ways to find some possible areas of likelihood. After an earthquake happens, it releases a lot of stress and things go quiet for a while. Renewed activity along a fault has prompted geologists to consider the hypothetical possibility of “stress shadows.” Increased stress can build up at the ends of a section where lots of stress was released, essentially moving some of the stress from one place to another due to sheer mechanics.

If a major intensity event occurred in Lone Pine, where else could one pop up? For example, more than 100 years after the Lone Pine quake, the entire corridor has been really quiet, but on Tuesday, just before Hough’s lecture, she said a M4.5 occurred near Keeler, Calif., a ghost town located 13 miles east of Lone Pine. “That got my attention,” she quipped.

Music to our ears?

The last major volcanic event locally happened about 760,000 years ago, though smaller events have been documented as early as 500 years ago, and most of those were north of  Mammoth Lakes. Domes rising can lead to “earthquakes” and faults, which are really crust cracks due to the dome uplift.

In 1998, Hough placed several instruments at various points in the area, including the SNARL lab headquarters, Hot Creek, the Sheriff’s Substation below Mammoth, Tom’s Place and June Lake and recorded many quakes.

A few down to the south didn’t exhibit the normal wave patterns, and looked “messy.” Earthquakes are not unlike musical instruments and produce certain “tones.” Energy in those indicated that fluid was moving underground and causing cracks, giving off different “harmonics.”

Eruptions, unlike earthquakes, produce an escalating series of events that help geologists predict them. The episodes of unrest, however, can happen pretty suddenly. “When things get going, they get going pretty fast!” Hough said the long-term evolution, following historic eruptions in the north, could mean an eruption in the south, but more than likely in the distant future, not any time soon. “Don’t expect an eruption at Tom’s Place tomorrow,” she advised.

Check out tomorrow’s (May 10) SNARL lecture at 7 p.m. at the Green Church. Dr. Thomas Stephenson, Program Leader for the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery will discuss “Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep: The Science of Recovery.”

How a deadly substance may someday cure you of cancer

The first 30 minutes of Dr. Ron Oremland’s SNARL (Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab) lecture on Tuesday transported listeners back to a high school or college chemistry class. For those of us who weren’t any good at chemistry, eyes began to glaze over and the mind began to wander as the “professor” discussed the periodic table, electrons, and redox reactions, just as he had in our teenage years.

Thankfully, Dr. Oremland, a Senior Research Scientist for the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS), seemed to understand that his audience wasn’t full of biochemists. He worked some comedic relief into his talk, at times gesturing wildly, speaking with a Brooklyn accent and making bawdy references to the deadly effects of arsenic (the main topic of his lecture) in order to hold the interest of everyone in the room while conveying the facts.

Dr. Oremland’s talk on “Arsenic and the Meaning of Life” kicked off the annual lecture series presented by the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab (SNARL). Each spring, SNARL hosts about a half dozen lectures for the public at the Green Church at the intersection of Benton Crossing Rd. and Highway 395 at the south end of the airport runway. Each lecture is free and lasts about an hour. Lectures are always presented by the top brass in scientific fields. Dr. Oremland, for example, worked side by side with Dr. Felise Wolfe-Simon, guiding her during the discovery of the bacteria in Mono Lake that is able to use arsenic instead of phosphorous to survive. The discovery received a lot of attention when Wolfe-Simon held a press conference with NASA to explain the findings on Dec. 2, 2010.

During the second half of his lecture, when Dr. Oremland moved away from the scientific elements and electrons, he explained that the bacterium found in Mono Lake was not a new organism. Halomonas, or the bacteria that can make do with arsenic rather than phosphorous, has been found before. GFAJ, as the microbe in Mono Lake was named, is a strain of Halomonas.

“The way the information was disseminated upset a lot of people, but we stand by our results,” Dr. Oremland said, referring to the media storm that followed Wolfe-Simon’s press conference, which led to the release of a lot of misinformation and a lot of criticism from other scientists.

Dr. Oremland explained the experiment in very simple terms. “I told Wolfe-Simon to test the bacteria by either removing phosphorous and replacing it with arsenic or removing oxygen and replacing it with selenium,” he said. “Replace it and see what crawls out.”

For those chemistry buffs, phosphorous would be replaced by arsenic and oxygen by selenium because of the way these elements line up on the periodic table. The scientists chose to try the phosphorous replacement with arsenic.

“What we found was that the bacteria with the arsenic doesn’t grow as well as with phosphorous, but it still does pretty well,” Oremland explained. “The bacterium doesn’t grow at all when neither [elements] are present.” He also clarified that when arsenic is substituted for phosphorous in DNA, the genetic code stays the same but the framework changes.

Dr. Oremland then hypothesized on larger implications of arsenic.

“I’m always telling my wife, Fran, not to eat so much lobster because there’s a lot of arsenic in lobster,” Dr. Oremland explained in his jovial tone. “Luckily we pee most of it out.” However, the arsenic in creatures such as lobster made Dr. Oremland question why these animals would be carrying around such a toxic substance in their bodies.

“Maybe animals in the ocean [where phosphorous can be low] use arsenic when they are low on phosphorous,” Dr. Oremland said. “Perhaps they carry it in reserve for a rainy day to make due until things get better [and they can find more phosphorous].”

On an even grander scale, Dr. Oremland pointed to arsenic’s anti-cancer properties. Certain arsenic compounds are used as chemotherapy treatments, but Dr. Oremland wondered aloud whether or not replacing phosphorous with arsenic in cancer cells would confuse the cancer cells enough to slow them down. Since the rapid growth of these cells is often a big factor for cancer patients, slowing down that growth could be a key component to a patient’s survival.

Dr. Oremland left the audience with this thought as well as the realization that an element that can be quite deadly in most forms could potentially be harnessed to rid our bodies of something else just as toxic.

SNARL lectures take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. (except for the final lecture this year, which will be held on Friday, June 3 to accommodate the speaker’s schedule).

Next week’s speaker is Dr. Susan Hough from the USGS. Her lecture is titled “The 1872 Lone Pine Earthquake and Recent Activity in Long Valley.” Hough has recently been the lead spokesperson from USGS for the LA Times on the recent earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand and in Japan.

The SNARL lecture scheduled for this evening, May 18, “Can We Simulate the Liquid Core of a Planet” has been canceled because the speaker was unable to make it up from UCLA and could not reschedule. A replacement was unable to be found at such short notice.

Look for the next lecture on May 25 at 7 p.m. at the Green Church. The topic will be “Understanding a Declining Mule Deer Herd in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.”