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Field Trip to the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, California

5/31/2018

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Matthew Johnson ​​
This post is part two of a field trip series where Matthew writes about his visits to raw materials extraction sites and how he understands them as an environmental historian.  Read part one here.
PictureLakeview No. 1 gusher, 1910. Photo by San Joaquin Valley Geology.
On March 15, 1910, the earth thundered underneath a crew of Union Oil geologists who were drilling for petroleum in a dusty patch of semi-arid desert and chaparral, a shrubland plant, on the southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley. The Lakeview No. 1 derrick rumbled and a huge column of oil and sand twenty-feet wide and two-hundred-feet tall shot into the air.

​The geologists had struck oil. For the next eight months, the Lakeview No. 1 gusher spewed oil uncontrolled, coating the surrounding countryside in petroleum and creating a huge lake of oil and sand at the derrick’s base that soon swallowed the derrick and drilling equipment. Workers eventually contained the lake using sandbags, but for ten more months oil continued to pour out of the well. Very little of the oil was saved and most evaporated or seeped into the ground. On September 10, 1911, the bottom of the crater caved in and the well ceased gushing oil. Workers have since filled in the crater and erected a plaque to mark the site. Read more on the blog.

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Georgetown's Dr. Dagomar Degroot and Dr. Bathsheba Demuth introduce "Tipping Points Project"

5/3/2018

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Picture
Co-directors Dr. Dagomar Degroot and Dr. Bathsheba Demuth have launched their "Tipping Points Project."  The project includes an interactive map where visitors can click on marked locations and read in-depth, mostly undergraduate-written descriptions of past, present, and future impacts of climate change.

The articles linked to the map give information about the impacts of these shifts for local environments and populations.  The directors hope their project "turns climate change from an abstraction to a tangible force in people's lives." 

Each write-up explains how the authors reached their conclusions and what information they used to do so.  In addition, the website provides  guests with the tools authors used in order for visitors to understand how climate change might impact them.  Through transparency and a push for participation, the project helps promote accessibility to what often seems like a large and incomprehensible topic.

"Tipping Points Project" has already sponsored one successful and informative event at Georgetown, "The Arctic: Past, Present, and Future," with plans for more in the future.

To learn more about the project, discover great research tools, read some of the fantastic articles, visit the website here.
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