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A Look at Olympic Ice
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 @ 12:01 pm by Dave Schumaker
Peter Wasilewski, a NASA scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, has been studying various properties of ice and snow for the past 25 years. A new feature posted on the NASA website talks about Wasilewski’s studies. Using polarized light (which conjures up images of many a petrology lab), he can differentiate different types of ice and snow.
“Ice is different for the various Olympic sports,” Wasilewski said. “The ice is softer for figure skaters than it is for hockey players. Figure skaters need to dig in with their toe picks for jumps. Ice hockey players want the hard ice that makes the ice fast and easier to skate on. With a microscopic look at the ice using the spectrum, I’m able to see how the ice differs.”
Another interesting tidbit according to the article is that in many skiing events, Olympians prefer man made snow over that of mother nature. “Wasilewski also knows a lot about snow. He noted that snow from snow guns is not in a crystal shape, but is more like tiny snowballs. In fact, he said that sometimes Olympic events are cancelled whenever there is a lot of natural snow, because it tends to be too powdery. Powder snow tends to slow skiers and snowboarders down, so the preference is for the manmade (icier) snow or natural snow that has been processed to ensure a hard, almost icy surface for the downhill events.”
Large Quake Strikes Mozambique
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 @ 12:37 am by Dave Schumaker
A M7.4 earthquake struck the African nation of Mozambique yesterday, centered 330 miles north of the capital of Maputo. According to Reuters, two people were killed in what was the strongest earthquake to hit southern Africa in over 100 years.
“It sounded like an explosion, but I haven’t heard of any casualties,” said a journalist in Mutare who spoke to Reuters news agency by telephone.
Major earthquakes are unusual in southern Africa.
“It’s a significant and unexpected earthquake in this region,” William Leith of the United States Geological Survey told Reuters.
According to the USGS, this quake occurred in a region that has had relatively little seismicity.
The Next New Orleans - Northern California
Posted on Sunday, February 19, 2006 @ 8:27 pm by Dave Schumaker
The next Katrina / New Orleans type of disaster may be along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers that flow through Northern California, according to Dr. Jeffrey Mount of UC Davis.
He said one of the frequent earthquakes in California could destroy the levee system that has been built up since the middle of the 19th century, sending flood water over a wide area. Mount said it could have a similar impact to the Asian tsunami in 2004.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin delta takes more than 40 percent of California’s rainfall and covers some 280,000 hectares (700,000 acres). It is the main source of water for about 23 million people, of California’s 34 million population. But most of the land is below sea level and is protected by more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) of levees.
The chance of a M6.7 or greater earthquake striking the San Francisco Bay Area in the next 25 years is roughly 62% according to the USGS.
Deadly Phillipine Landslide
Posted on Friday, February 17, 2006 @ 10:57 am by Ron Schott
Hundreds are dead and over a thousand are reported missing in a devestating landslide in the central Philippines. It appears that the mudslide was caused primarily by heavy precipitation in the region, although a small earthquake reported by PHIVOLCS preceeding it may have been the immediate trigger.
(Update: 2/21/06) Here’s a follow-up article from the New York Times. It seems the danger from landslides was well understood and communicated by Philippine geologists. The breakdown in reacting to these warnings appears to fall elsewhere in the system.
Rock of Ages - Abandoned Rock Quarry Images
Posted on Friday, February 17, 2006 @ 12:03 am by Dave Schumaker
Here is some seemingly random geology news (in the same vein as the erupting volcano cake) that I’ve had in my “Post to Geology News” folder for quite sometime now.
Photographer Edward Burtynsky has a special series of pictures he’s taken of abandoned rock quarries in the United States. The series is entitled Rock of Ages. There are some very dramatic and impressive pictures in the collection.