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Post by oldpop2000 on Oct 17, 2019 14:40:55 GMT -6
There is a new app from the UC Berkeley Seismological Lab titled MyShake. It is on the Google Play store and it is free. This is a very important app for those concerned about earthquakes.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Oct 30, 2019 10:24:58 GMT -6
Well, I got to use the new MyShake app yesterday. We had a 3.6 earthquake here. It was centered on Lake Henshaw about 26 miles NE of us. It was close to Julian which had two more earthquakes of 2.7 and 1.7 within a couple of minutes. I was able within a few minutes to see the actual readings from the seismographs. I did provide my feedback on what I felt. We have had no other earthquakes since. The quake was centered on the Elsinore Fault which is a left lateral strike slip fault, one of the faults associated with the San Andreas. Could we have more? We might, but as time moves away from the actual move, it lessens. This was great.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Nov 15, 2019 11:36:57 GMT -6
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Post by oldpop2000 on Nov 15, 2019 11:37:52 GMT -6
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Post by oldpop2000 on Nov 27, 2019 16:50:43 GMT -6
Another scientific and historical event that might be interesting to study is the 535 AD explosion of the Volcano Krakatoa in the Sunda Straits. The explosion caused a world-wide drought, volcanic dust circling the atmosphere which blotted out the sun causing snow storms. It was the beginning of the Dark Ages or the Medieval period. Rome had been sacked but the Roman Empire's capital was not at Constantinople. It took about five years for plant and animal life to restart. It completely destroyed or led to the destruction of empires and cities. The TV program is Catastrophe by Michael Keys with a book upon which it is based. Here is link with the two scripts to read. customers.hbci.com/~wenonah/history/535ad.htmMy interest is because I am studying Medieval history and I am a geology minor in college. Merging the two is fascinating to me.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Dec 9, 2019 15:13:54 GMT -6
Here is an article about the eruption of the volcano on White Island which has killed five people. It is a stratovolcano and has erupted many times. The crater wall collapsed in 1914 and it produced an avalanche of debris which buried workers and buildings at sulfur-mining project. The island is privately owned and there were people walking through the volcano crater. It's not nice to fool mother nature. The island is in a bay on the northern island of New Zealand. It is a Holocene volcano. www.livescience.com/new-zealand-volcano-eruption-deaths.html
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Post by oldpop2000 on Dec 13, 2019 20:58:00 GMT -6
The New Zealand Army has conducted a very dangerous mission to recover six bodies. Unfortunately, it was far too dangerous to find the last two so it was called off. The island, White, is the tip of an under-sea volcano that is 30 miles off of the coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It was considered on the most active and dangerous volcanoes in the world
This story reminds me of my wife and myself, visiting the Kilauea Volcano during our Hawaiian cruise. I remember smelling the Sulfur Dioxide gas coming out of the volcano. I commented to my wife that I hope that this volcano doesn't erupt while we were there. As we all know, it eventually did, some years later.
While volcanologist have learned much over the years with their theories and instrumentation used to monitor seismic activity and gases, they still don't have the ability to get the timing of an eruption or its violence completely figured out. But they are trying. These volcanoes are dangerous. In the US, Yellowstone is dangerous, as are the volcanoes on Oahu. There are more: Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainer, Redoubt in Alaska, Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hood, Three Sisters in Oregon, Lassen in California, Augustine in Alaska, Akutan Island in Alaska, Mauna Loa in Hawaii, Crater Lake in Oregon, Long Valley in California, Newberry in Oregon. This is the list of some of the most dangerous, there are eighteen in all.
Most people in San Diego feel they are safe. Well, they aren't. There is the Salton Sea Volcanic buttes which erupted about 940 BC and 0 BC. This group of five volcanic peaks is about 76 miles from my house.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Dec 14, 2019 15:48:02 GMT -6
New information on the White Island eruption, the divers have recovered a female body which brings the death toll to fifteen. The mother of the young lady stayed on the ship.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Dec 21, 2019 8:40:16 GMT -6
Well, we made to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. In my city, it is a 9 hr. 58 min. day. No change tomorrow, but then the days get longer.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 9, 2020 11:28:11 GMT -6
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Post by vonfriedman on Jan 15, 2020 7:24:01 GMT -6
I decided to start a thread dedicated to science. I recently read on a magazine dedicated to naval issues the following passage, relating to the risks of close exposure to the radar beam of a naval anti-aircraft Tartar or Terrier missile system: "Given the power of the impulses (about 1MW) of the target illumination radar beam, if the insulation [of the man] was less than perfect, that is, without wearing heavy rubber boots and rubber gloves, death was safe." (*) The mention of the death risk left me puzzled. I would also like to know if wearing rubber (?) boots and gloves is commonly prescribed to radar personnel aboard warships. (*) Rivista Marittima - november 2019, page 86
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 15, 2020 9:07:21 GMT -6
I decided to start a thread dedicated to science. I recently read on a magazine dedicated to naval issues the following passage, relating to the risks of close exposure to the radar beam of a naval anti-aircraft Tartar or Terrier missile system: "Given the power of the impulses (about 1MW) of the target illumination radar beam, if the insulation [of the man] was less than perfect, that is, without wearing heavy rubber boots and rubber gloves, death was safe." (*) The mention of the death risk left me puzzled. I would also like to know if wearing rubber (?) boots and gloves is commonly prescribed to radar personnel aboard warships. (*) Rivista Marittima - november 2019, page 86 Interesting, I will have to investigate that. We had very powerful search and height finders; FPS-24 Search and the FPS-26 Height Finder. They were far more power than the missile systems that you quoted and we never had to wear anything on our feet or hands. I know that rubber gloves, face masks and rubber boots are needed around chemical weapons or during chemical weapons attacks. The radar is up at the top of the superstructure probably 120 feet, I don't see a problem except for static electricity. Our radar set beam actually scanned over the tops of our barracks on the other side of the mountain top where I was stationed. The beam they are referring to, is the tracking beam. There are three sections to a radar section for missiles; Search, acquisition and track. Once the search has discovered the target, the target is acquired into the computer system and tracked. once the missile is fired, the beam reflection is used to guide the missile. Here is a link that might help you understand. It was a beam rider like the SA-2 that was fired at our aircraft in Vietnam. www.ussleahy.com/55B.html
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Post by vonfriedman on Jan 15, 2020 13:37:11 GMT -6
I have found on the net a document of the US Army (1979): "PROTECTING MILITARY PERSONNEL AND THE PUBLIC FROM THE HAZARDS OF ELECTROiMAGNETIC RADIATION FROM MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS AND RADAR SYSTEMS". See: www.hsdl.org From a quick reading, it does not appear that rubber gloves and boots can offer particular protections. The article, written by a civilian, that I mentioned earlier seemed to me to be popular and anecdotal, so it could countain also some fake news.
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 17, 2020 21:46:48 GMT -6
As most of you should already know, Australia has been suffering through some terrible fires. I don't need to go into the source or the actual events but I would like to provide a bit technical information about the cause of such fires. Apparently, fires like these are normal, but not this severe. The cause is atmospheric and oceanic changes. It has been called the IOD or the Indian Ocean Dipole or Indian Ocean nino. It has similar and in fact is connected to the El Nino/ La Nina events in the eastern Pacific near the Western Coast of South American. The movement of surface water both east and west is called the Southern Oscillation. The complete name given by NOAA is ENSO or El Nino/Southern Oscillation. It is caused by winds blowing warm water eastward and the warm water causing the Jet stream to move farther south cause high rain totals in the SW US and Southern United States. The IOD is a similar natural phenomenon, that occurs in the Indian Ocean. It is the difference in ocean temperatures between the west and east tropical Indian Ocean. This movement can shift moisture away from Australia and cause droughts. These can cause the fires in the SW and other portions of Australia. Under the current excessive IOD conditions, Australia is experiencing an excessively dry year. This has made the fire season even worse but it is changing and getting better. Here is a short PDF about this issue. IOD-in-Australia_compressed.pdf (151.97 KB)
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Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 19, 2020 10:21:10 GMT -6
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