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You are browsing the archive for September 2009 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

30 September 2009

Another Quake!

Sumatra was hit by a magnitude 7.7 quake at 10:18 GMT this Wednesday morning. This quake was on a different fault zone and was likely not related to yesterday’s quake in Samoa. Here is a seismogram from Washington State in the USA. The seismograph picked up the quake from half a world away.

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29 September 2009

Quake and Tsunami in Samoa

The BBC is reporting the death toll rising in Samoa tonight, from the massive quake earlier in the day. The quake registered 8.3 with a very shallow depth of 18km. A quake that strong and that shallow can produce deadly tsunamis and is capable of great destruction. The quake hit at 17:48 GMT. This is 1:48pm U.S. East Coast time, and 6:48pm in London. This was 6:48am Wednesday in American …

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Swimming At The Pole & American Climate Literacy (or lack of same)

The Guardian newspaper has a story on American climate illiteracy. Being on air, and talking about climate change, I suspect it’s correct. Some of the comments I get after writing or airing something related to climate science truly amaze me. Worth a read: Now watch this incredible video of the first ever swim at the North Pole. I can tell you first hand that you cannot imagine how cold that …

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28 September 2009

Today is The Day We See Mercury Closeup!

Most likely you have never seen Mercury. It’s not easy to see because it is so close to the sun. Your only chance is just before sunrise or just after sunset, and you will need to be in a really flat place or on a high mountain with a clear view of the horizon. It’s also one of the planets we know little about. The picture above is a view …

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27 September 2009

Amazing Dust Down Under- NASA's View!

You probably have seen the pictures of the dust storm in Sydney last week, but NASA has weighed in, with the view from the Modis sensor on the Terra and Aqua satellites. These satellites can produce stunning true colour images of the Earth. So here they are, and I am uploading the 500 meter resolution, so mouse on the image and you can make your video card whimper! Here is another shot. The …

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26 September 2009

Darwin's Darkest Hour Coming on NOVA

I always joke that PBS (The public broadcaster here in America) is like the BBC. Just without the BBC’s money! Jokes aside, the best science on TV in the States continues to come from PBS with such fabulous programs as NOVA. This being the 200th year of Charles Darwin’s birth, there have been a great many programs worldwide on his life and discoveries. The BBC has had several excellent series. …

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25 September 2009

Tons of Climate News – None Good

There are two posts I’ve been wanting to write about. The incredible dust storm in Sydney, and the upcoming LCROSS mission that will slam into the South Pole of the Moon on live TV in October. (Who says science is boring!) Those will have to wait until Sunday because of a slew of climate change news today that I want to share. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released a …

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24 September 2009

Are The Southeast USA Floods Climate Change Related??

Usually when I am asked a question about whether a weather event was caused by climate change, I respond with the standard answer of “You cannot blame any individual event on climate change, you can only say whether climate change made it more likely to occur.” I see Hurricane Katrina blamed on Climate change frequently and the same applies. That said, what about the incredible flooding rains over the Southeast …

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22 September 2009

Rumblings on Rainier??

I did a geological field trip to the Pacific Northwest in 2006. It was two fabulous weeks and I got some great snaps of beautiful Mount Rainier. This past Summer, while at the American Meteorological Conference in Portland, I returned to Mount Saint Helen’s as well. When St. Helen’s exploded in May 1980, the volcanic dust was tracked on satellite imagery across the country. I had only been doing weather …

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19 September 2009

Climate Change in a 10 Second Movie

August2009-ClimateAnom The data for the Summer of 2009 is in from NASA and NOAA. Just when I think the news has to get better on climate change, it gets worse. Surely some of the predictions will turn out to be too warm and some will turn out to be too cool. Unfortunately, the predictions all keep turning out to be too low. The planet is warming faster, and the ice …

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