T H E O R E D I G G E R Volume 91, Issue 22 April 11, 2011 The student voice of the Colorado School of Mines Athlete of the Week: Mark Schiechl Sports 4 w w w . O R E D I G G E R . n e t Opinion 10 Features 7 News 3 Satire 12 Efciency and sustainability in engineering Cooking Corner: Kabobs Buying local and the local economy It’s Friday! We we we so excited! Of all of the themes covered in this year’s Van Tuyl lecture series, one of the more pervasive and intriguing concerns the intersection between two or more disciplines. The multidisciplinary intersection was on the display of hydrogeology and geophysics as pres ented by Dr. Kamini Singha of Pennsylvania State University. Singha and her team have used innovative approaches to analyze an area of the hydrologic system termed the hyporheic zone. The hyporheic zone is the inter- mediate zone between the ground- water aquifers and the actual stream or river and, for the purposes of the presentation, serves as a transient storage for water and particulate material. Studying the hyporheic zone is convenient as it exists as part of the near surface stream system. “It’s fun to work in stream systems,” said Singha, “you can actually see what is happening.” What goes on in the subsurface John Bristow Staff WriterCOURTESY U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY In the midst of the nation-wide recovery after the March 11 earth- quake that struck Japan, another earthquake hit late Thursday night. The quake was measured at mag- nitude 7.1, which puts it far beyond any of the aftershocks since the March 11 quake. Two people were reported dead, with many injured. No serious structural damage has been reported as a result of this new quake, and concerns about the nations nuclear power plants have largely been put to rest by reports that the plants are doing ne, and nothing has been damaged further. The nuclear power plant hit hardest by the March 11 earth- quake, Fukushima Daiichi, is un- dergoing remediation strategies and is apparently being gradually brought back under control. Nitro- gen is being pumped into reactor chamber number one, the reactor that reached a partial meltdown, to try to control the heat and eliminate oxygen from the environment. The combination of hydrogen and oxy- gen in the high heat of the reactor chamber is a recipe for a massive explosion, and is likely what caused the initial explosion only days after the earthquake. As a result of the continued radiation exposure in the area around the Fukushima plant, the Japanese government is planning on expanding the exclusion zone around the reactors. Currently, the zone extends 20 kilometers from the plant. The US regulations for nuclear power plants require a 80-kilometer radius around any reactors. This measure would be to keep radiation exposure under the maximum allowable limit for a plant worker for a full year, which is 50 millisieverts. Fisherman in the northeastern part of Japan are protesting Tokyo Electric Power Co’s decision to dump water with low levels of ra- dioactive material into the ocean, saying that it will further worsen the already bad situation of Japanese sherman. Of the 10 shing ports in Fukushima, total losses sustained from the March 11 tsunami have reached a total of nearly $1 billion. Fisherman found fish swimming with high levels of radioactive materials last week, making many doubt the safety of consuming any sh or marine animals from that part of the ocean. The ofcial death toll has risen to 11,800, as of April 8. As aftershocks and new earthquakes continue to occur, many fear the death toll will continue to rise. Reconstruction efforts continue, and the Japanese people are beginning to resume normal life again. Joshua Kleitsch Staff WriterJapan earthquake continues to cause turmoil in Pacific The hyporheic zone sits in between the stream and the aquifer and provides some interesting geophysics Continued atsubsurface on page 3 Springtime in Colorado often feels more like a rapid alternation between winter and summer. This spring is no exception. OREDIGGER
