2015 Catch-All thread

[southsider2k5]

Two things I have learned.

 

Our moon is bigger than Pluto.

Pluto's polar ice cap looks amazingly like the shape of Disney's Pluto's head.

[Jenksismyhero]

I read an article yesterday somewhere that linked to this site:

 

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixels...olarsystem.html

 

It took me like 20 minutes to get to Pluto.

 

[Balta1701]

Two things I have learned.

 

Our moon is bigger than Pluto.

Pluto's polar ice cap looks amazingly like the shape of Disney's Pluto's head.

That's actually at the equator.

[southsider2k5]

It will take months to get back all of the info from Pluto

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/project...s&smtyp=cur

[Balta1701]

It will take months to get back all of the info from Pluto

 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/project...s&smtyp=cur

Right now we're all waiting until just before 9:00 EDT tonight because that's when we're supposed to receive the initial spacecraft message saying "I'm healthy". It's out of contact for about 24 hours to collect data (can't point the antenna at Earth at the same time as pointing cameras at Pluto) and then it takes 4.5 hours for a signal from it to reach Earth.

[southsider2k5]

As a natural disaster nerd, this was a great read on the real danger of The Big One on the west coast, only it is in the Cascadian Subduction Zone, and not the San Andreas.

 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/...-really-big-one

[Balta1701]

So you're dropping space and geology links with the geologist here?

 

Any questions? Something you'd like to hear more about?

[southsider2k5]

So you're dropping space and geology links with the geologist here?

 

Any questions? Something you'd like to hear more about?

 

Ha. I think it all started over the period of a few years when I was young and Mt St Helens erupted, and a few years later I got to ride out a hurricane in Texas. I have always been interested in natural disasters. I can't tell you how much reading and watching I have done on earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, etc over the years. Even the only prize I ever won in a science fair was a project on the reforestation of Mt St Helens.

 

The article on Cascadia was spectacular. I have seen it mentioned on a couple of different programs over the years, including the clues of the saltwater-killed forests hundreds of feet above the water line, but this article was great in its detail and length.

 

If you have more on that, I'd be most interested to hear. I am finding a ton of good and interesting stuff on Pluto. I am a pig in mud right now.

[shysocks]

Ha. I think it all started over the period of a few years when I was young and Mt St Helens erupted, and a few years later I got to ride out a hurricane in Texas. I have always been interested in natural disasters. I can't tell you how much reading and watching I have done on earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, etc over the years. Even the only prize I ever won in a science fair was a project on the reforestation of Mt St Helens.

 

The article on Cascadia was spectacular. I have seen it mentioned on a couple of different programs over the years, including the clues of the saltwater-killed forests hundreds of feet above the water line, but this article was great in its detail and length.

 

If you have more on that, I'd be most interested to hear. I am finding a ton of good and interesting stuff on Pluto. I am a pig in mud right now.

I'll echo that. My job involves natural disasters pretty heavily so I already knew some of that stuff, but the salt water killing the forests specifically was something I had never heard and found fascinating. Really well-written piece.

[StrangeSox]

As a natural disaster nerd, this was a great read on the real danger of The Big One on the west coast, only it is in the Cascadian Subduction Zone, and not the San Andreas.

 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/...-really-big-one

thanks for the link

[Balta1701]

I'll echo that. My job involves natural disasters pretty heavily so I already knew some of that stuff, but the salt water killing the forests specifically was something I had never heard and found fascinating. Really well-written piece.

As the plate bends those forests are actually popping back out. We saw something similar happen with coral reefs in the Indonesia quake.

[Balta1701]

Ha. I think it all started over the period of a few years when I was young and Mt St Helens erupted, and a few years later I got to ride out a hurricane in Texas. I have always been interested in natural disasters. I can't tell you how much reading and watching I have done on earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, etc over the years. Even the only prize I ever won in a science fair was a project on the reforestation of Mt St Helens.

 

The article on Cascadia was spectacular. I have seen it mentioned on a couple of different programs over the years, including the clues of the saltwater-killed forests hundreds of feet above the water line, but this article was great in its detail and length.

 

If you have more on that, I'd be most interested to hear. I am finding a ton of good and interesting stuff on Pluto. I am a pig in mud right now.

Interestingly, the actual shaking along the San Andreas fault when it goes will likely be more intense than any shaking felt in the Pacific Northwest when Cascadia goes, but it will be over a much larger area and California generally does have better building codes for recent structures.

 

[StrangeSox]

Since they're not on a plate boundary, what's the source of Hawaii's earthquakes? Volcanic activity?

[Balta1701]

Since they're not on a plate boundary, what's the source of Hawaii's earthquakes? Volcanic activity?

Generally yes, it has something to do with volcanoes.

 

When magma rises up, it has to break solid rocks in order to move upwards. Cracking and splitting rocks produces earthquakes, those are directly related to the molten rock rising up. They generally aren't strong, but there's a lot of them.

 

Those aren't the only ones though. If you drive down by the active eruption site on Kilauea, you'll see there's a huge scarp, known as the Hilina Pali.

 

That scarp is actually one of a great number of large faults on the island produced by the growth of the volcanoes.

 

When you pile up dirt on top of a central spot to build a hill, eventually things break off and avalanche down the sides once it gets too steep. Rock has a little bit more trouble doing that, solid rock can't avalanched downward without cracking. Hawaii is kind of like that - the volcanoes want to grow upwards and gravity wants to drag them back down. If there's a weak layer beneath the surface, those weak layers can serve as breakaway points where the rocks above them start sliding downwards.

 

Those cracks, therefore, form normal faults - the kind where one set of rocks slides downward compared to the other side. The Hilina Pali is a giant normal fault scarp that keeps getting covered by Lava. A magnitude ~7.9 earthquake occurred on this fault in the 1800s.

 

Those aren't the biggest things they can do though. Once the islands start growing, sometimes they actually collapse along those faults. Off the coastline of the Hawaiian Islands there are huge landslide deposits, formed when parts of the Island actually broke off and slid into the sea. The map view of Molokai shows these really well, the north and south sides of the island are pretty close to straight lines and each of them is the remnant of a giant landslide that broke away on a fault like the one on Kilauea. When those happen, they're probably very large earthquakes and they probably produce tsunami waves large enough to devastate the islands. Thankfully those are rare, probably every few hundred thousand years or so.

[southsider2k5]

Interestingly, the actual shaking along the San Andreas fault when it goes will likely be more intense than any shaking felt in the Pacific Northwest when Cascadia goes, but it will be over a much larger area and California generally does have better building codes for recent structures.

 

[stakes claim to Otisburg.]

[Balta1701]

[stakes claim to Otisburg.]

(still won't have any water).

[southsider2k5]

(still won't have any water).

 

I WILL NOT LET YOU RUIN THIS FOR ME!

[StrangeSox]

Generally yes, it has something to do with volcanoes.

 

When magma rises up, it has to break solid rocks in order to move upwards. Cracking and splitting rocks produces earthquakes, those are directly related to the molten rock rising up. They generally aren't strong, but there's a lot of them.

 

Those aren't the only ones though. If you drive down by the active eruption site on Kilauea, you'll see there's a huge scarp, known as the Hilina Pali.

 

That scarp is actually one of a great number of large faults on the island produced by the growth of the volcanoes.

 

When you pile up dirt on top of a central spot to build a hill, eventually things break off and avalanche down the sides once it gets too steep. Rock has a little bit more trouble doing that, solid rock can't avalanched downward without cracking. Hawaii is kind of like that - the volcanoes want to grow upwards and gravity wants to drag them back down. If there's a weak layer beneath the surface, those weak layers can serve as breakaway points where the rocks above them start sliding downwards.

 

Those cracks, therefore, form normal faults - the kind where one set of rocks slides downward compared to the other side. The Hilina Pali is a giant normal fault scarp that keeps getting covered by Lava. A magnitude ~7.9 earthquake occurred on this fault in the 1800s.

 

Those aren't the biggest things they can do though. Once the islands start growing, sometimes they actually collapse along those faults. Off the coastline of the Hawaiian Islands there are huge landslide deposits, formed when parts of the Island actually broke off and slid into the sea. The map view of Molokai shows these really well, the north and south sides of the island are pretty close to straight lines and each of them is the remnant of a giant landslide that broke away on a fault like the one on Kilauea. When those happen, they're probably very large earthquakes and they probably produce tsunami waves large enough to devastate the islands. Thankfully those are rare, probably every few hundred thousand years or so.

Thanks! We were wondering what caused that huge "ledge." I posted it several pages back, but my wife and I were staying just outside of Volcanoes NP a couple of weeks ago when they had a 5.2 magnitude hit, probably right along or near that scarp. Unfortunately, the area in your pic is no longer the active area--lava hasn't been flowing into/towards the ocean since late 2013. Crater's still active, though, and the glow coming off of it at night is surreal.

[LittleHurt05]

Was the point of Amazon Prime Day to show everyone how much useless crap they have for sale?

[Jenksismyhero]

Was the point of Amazon Prime Day to show everyone how much useless crap they have for sale?

 

Yeah i've been pretty disappointed so far. Most of the items are crap and the deals aren't even that good.

[RockRaines]

Was the point of Amazon Prime Day to show everyone how much useless crap they have for sale?

I found one or two decent deals, and if you want to drop big dollars they have really nice Sammy 4k's for sale but overall its the crap bin put on lightning deals.

[RockRaines]

I'm with you, Rock. I'm not a huge car guy from the engineering or mechanical standpoint, but I love and admire cars from the design standpoint. Love to look at and drive a beautiful machine.

 

Currently, we have a Honda Pilot (my daily driver) and an Audi A6 (my wife's daily driver). I allow my wife to take the Audi during the week because the dogs have turned the Pilot into a bit of a, well, dog car, and so I feel bad asking her to drive it. But I drive the A6 whenever I can (nights, weekends) and I just am continually more and more impressed with that car. I don't think I have ever enjoyed driving as much as I do that vehicle.

 

Now that the kid is here, eventually we'll probably get another SUV (I'll give that to her and take the A6 as my dd) and retire the Pilot strictly for the dogs, since I'm sure my wife won't allow me to drive the baby in it.

 

I've been eyeing up the '16 Q7, but not sure I can convince the wife. She likes those damn Pilots.

I like the Audi SUV's it just seems they consistently underpower them. Of course everyone who has kids LOVES that Honda Pilot.

[Jenksismyhero]

That 32 inch tv for $75 i was going to get as a computer monitor. Nope, sold out in seconds.

[DrunkBomber]

I got a slickdeals alert that Best Buy was selling $200 gift cards for $15 (Obviously some type of mistake but w/e) I ordered 3 and got a confirmation email that says its preparing to ship. Definitely not expecting to get these but if I did that would be pretty cool. Reading the thread on slickdeals and it seems like a lot of people who ordered 10 or more or used expedited shipping already got cancellation emails which I still havent got so fingers crossed.

[Balta1701]

I got a slickdeals alert that Best Buy was selling $200 gift cards for $15 (Obviously some type of mistake but w/e) I ordered 3 and got a confirmation email that says its preparing to ship. Definitely not expecting to get these but if I did that would be pretty cool. Reading the thread on slickdeals and it seems like a lot of people who ordered 10 or more or used expedited shipping already got cancellation emails which I still havent got so fingers crossed.

Reports said they were going to honor some of them, not sure what the exact setup was but it was their mistake.