The Science Thread

[Banedon]

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mi ... mg00000009

A self-taught rocket engineer who claims he believes the earth is flat plans to launch himself nearly 2,000 feet in the air on a homemade steam rocket this Saturday.

“Mad” Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, told The Associated Press that he’ll be lifting off over the California ghost town of Amboy, traveling about a mile at 500 mph, reaching 1,800 feet in altitude and then exiting via parachute.

“I don’t believe in science,” Hughes told AP. “I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that’s not science, that’s just a formula. There’s no difference between science and science fiction.”

[Enn Tea]

That dude is definitely gonna die attempting that.

[jersey cubs fan]

[Enn Tea]

Oh, he's taking advantage of hopelessly stupid people for monetary gain? I actually respect that. He's still getting arrested for unlawful entry into US airspace tho.

[Derwood]

Some days I wish that I lacked morals and could just grift these flat-earth idiots into poverty

[Banedon]

[Banedon]

Falcon Heavy's booster rockets simultaneously landing...

Tesla car with dummy driver (named Starman) that Falcon Heavy sent to orbit the sun and then head toward Mars...

[minnesotacubsfan]

I love the fact Musk is calling this rocket B.F.R.

[Banedon]

Giant net/harpoon being tested to clean up space junk.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/ ... vi-BBKgyYI

[Brian707]

Oh, he's taking advantage of hopelessly stupid people for monetary gain? I actually respect that. He's still getting arrested for unlawful entry into US airspace tho.

Reminds be of DJT and pretty much the entire GOP

[Sammy Sofa]

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... untreatabl

A man in the U.K. has contracted a strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to the two main drugs used to treat it, according to British health officials.

This is the latest in a long history of gonorrhea developing resistance to antibiotics – in fact, the World Health Organization has warned that doctors are running out of ways to treat it.

[Banedon]

This Hawaii volcano stuff is fascinating. If it wasn't for all the people in the area, I'd definitely be rooting for more lava explosions, and whatnot though.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

This Hawaii volcano stuff is fascinating. If it wasn't for all the people in the area, I'd definitely be rooting for more lava explosions, and whatnot though.

Me and the fam have tickets to Kona and air bnb reservations to an area 5 miles to the East of the new fissures in mid July. I'm also a geophysicist. I'm past facinated.

[Sammy Sofa]

I'm also a geophysicist.

[Banedon]

Spoiler: show

Spoilered for size, but if you look at the bottom, you can see placards of information for tourists visiting. A good friend of mine is pretty excited cuz he was just there last summer. To have been that close to something natural that is that violent is pretty amazing.

[Banedon]

This Hawaii volcano stuff is fascinating. If it wasn't for all the people in the area, I'd definitely be rooting for more lava explosions, and whatnot though.

Me and the fam have tickets to Kona and air bnb reservations to an area 5 miles to the East of the new fissures in mid July. I'm also a geophysicist. I'm past facinated.

Please give us all of the nerdy information you get while you're there.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I'm also a geophysicist.

Well, I'm not a vulcanologist, but I'll do my best.

Any of the stuff you might read about this activity meaning an increase in the liklihood of an eruption anywhere else, such as the West Coast, is complete garbage. It doesn't work like that. Hawaii is a hot spot (a lot like Yellowstone, but under thinner oceanic crust than continental). Its volcanoes don't tend to be dramatic events like volcanoes that erupt along plate boundaries/subduction zones/the ring of fire.

Apart from new fissures and lava flows destroying stuff and the air quality issues of the SO2 and the ash plumes, there isn't too much to worry about. The place I'm staying is so close to the new fissures and my 3 year old has athma, so I'm mildly concerned about that, but the trade winds should blow all of that away from us for the most part, at least by the time we get there. What mildly concerns me is the increased possibility for a land slide moving down rift and triggering a tsunami.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

This guy seems to know what he is talking about:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38131262/uh-geophysics-professor-explains-recent-eruptions

[Ding Dong Johnson]

oh look we have Ryan Zinke up in here

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

oh look we have Ryan Zinke up in here

That is highly offensive, even as a joke. Now I'm triggered.
I've mostly worked in oil and gas seismic stuff, but I have seismology cred too. I worked for this lady for a few years and you can actually see my narrow a$$ wearing a green helmet at 14:00. I'm basically famous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhMoQrLEJe0

[TBS Playoffs Insider]

I'm also a geophysicist.

Well, I'm not a vulcanologist, but I'll do my best.

Any of the stuff you might read about this activity meaning an increase in the liklihood of an eruption anywhere else, such as the West Coast, is complete garbage. It doesn't work like that. Hawaii is a hot spot (a lot like Yellowstone, but under thinner oceanic crust than continental). Its volcanoes don't tend to be dramatic events like volcanoes that erupt along plate boundaries/subduction zones/the ring of fire.

Apart from new fissures and lava flows destroying stuff and the air quality issues of the SO2 and the ash plumes, there isn't too much to worry about. The place I'm staying is so close to the new fissures and my 3 year old has athma, so I'm mildly concerned about that, but the trade winds should blow all of that away from us for the most part, at least by the time we get there. What mildly concerns me is the increased possibility for a land slide moving down rift and triggering a tsunami.

This owns bones

[Sammy Sofa]

Yeah, this dude easily has the coolest job of any NSBBer.

Besides da Bum, of course.

[CoolHandLuke]

I want to know more! I teach Earth science to sixth graders, even though my background is biology (not that I know much about that) but seismology fascinates me. I love finding seismograms through usgs or Iris or elsewhere, but reading them and understanding what is going on, past the basics, still mostly baffles me.

For my first question, the curriculum we are using comes with a seismogram of the 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake, taken in Washington state. The main quake only lasted for a few minutes, but the seismogram seems to be going crazy for several hours before you can see legible data again. What's going on there?

I was able to measure the p-s lag time of aftershocks, refer to their speeds, and come up with an estimated distance, which was really rewarding when it turned out to be fairly close to the actual distance.

Any other tips/resources/books to help a layperson understand seismology would be greatly appreciated!

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I want to know more! I teach Earth science to sixth graders, even though my background is biology (not that I know much about that) but seismology fascinates me. I love finding seismograms through usgs or Iris or elsewhere, but reading them and understanding what is going on, past the basics, still mostly baffles me.

For my first question, the curriculum we are using comes with a seismogram of the 1964 Prince William Sound earthquake, taken in Washington state. The main quake only lasted for a few minutes, but the seismogram seems to be going crazy for several hours before you can see legible data again. What's going on there?

I was able to measure the p-s lag time of aftershocks, refer to their speeds, and come up with an estimated distance, which was really rewarding when it turned out to be fairly close to the actual distance.

Any other tips/resources/books to help a layperson understand seismology would be greatly appreciated!

Well, if you are using p-s lag and triangulation to estimate epicenter locations, that's advanced enough for an educator, imo. For seismology and seismic surveys, I've mostly only dealt with really low amplitude waveforms, so I'm only guessing for your particular case, but when you have a seismogram close to a serious business earthquake, you can record all kinds of crazy things. You'll record p wave first arrivals, p wave "multiples" which are akin to echoes, same thing for the s waves, converted waves, where p waves create s waves at significant geologic layers, and then there are all kinds of guided and surface waves scattering all over the place. That shouldn't last for an hour though. You might have just recorded a lot of "tremor" which is a kind of mono-frequency rumbling. I can't even remember what causes that to be honest. I think its like preshocks and aftershocks on a very small scale, and not technically cause by an earthquake.

My current job is kind of on the boring side now a days. No fieldwork. Just testing algorithms for seismic survey processing on a computer all day. Not nearly as cool as kicking half ton multimillion dollar instruments off boats.

But I'll check and see what kind of books look good. Mostly earthquake seismology? This book is more entertaining than educational, but its a fun read and one of my former coworkers is the main sidekick, Ted.
https://www.amazon.com/Fieldwork-Christopher-Scholz/dp/0691012261

[CoolHandLuke]

I guess what drives me crazy is the seemingly insurmountable gulf between "Middle School student textbook level" understanding and really getting it. (I care more for my own curiosity than to help me teach students - I definitely get it enough for sixth graders)

This is the sort of picture that you find to learn about seismograms that gives you the basics but doesn't really help much when you look at the real ones:


Thanks for posting that video! I had no idea that tidal stress influences earthquakes.