Mt. St. Helens Eruption of 1980

I remember this happening...  Glad I wasn't directly downwind!

High speed video

Insanity throughout


Insanity starts just after 2:30


Insanity starts at 2:50

Geological Cataclysm - The Missoula Floods

Eastern Washington state has a very interesting, if barren, landscape.  It took a fascinating geological detective story to understand how it got this way.  What is amazing is how awesome and violent the process was that produced this landscape!

The image below shows an area known as the Channeled Scablands.  Spokane, Washington is the city at the upper right.

Geological Cataclysms - The Cascadia Earthquake of 1700

This is another successful and impressive geological detective story.

The largest earthquakes in the world occur at subduction zones.  A subduction zone is where one continental plate is being pushed underneath another.  Only a subduction zone can generate an earthquake greater than magnitude 8.5 (a "great earthquake")

Spring Cleaning the forest - 2015

Taking a break from natural catastrophes for a moment.

I recently finished a two-week "vacation".  I work the DuPont shift schedule, which runs you in circles for three weeks before giving you 7 days off.  If you take the last four 12-hour day shifts off, you end up getting two weeks.

I put "vacation" in quotes, because I didn't go anywhere, and worked quite a bit harder than if I had remained at work.  I had to take the vacation though, because I was up against the maximum limit.  Also the property needed some work.  Quite a bit, in fact.

Geological Cataclysm - The Chixulub meteor impact

When I was growing up, everyone knew about dinosaurs and their sudden extinction.  No archaeologist or geologist could come up with a valid explanation of what caused that extinction.  All anyone knew was that the Mesozoic Era abruptly ended and the Cenozoic Era ("The Age of Mammals") began.  Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrate for 135 million years - and then one day, pffft... they were gone.  But why???

Goodwood Festival of Speed

Before I get going on Geological Cataclysms of the past, I want to bring this to your attention:

Geological Cataclysms

I'm interested in cataclysmic geological events in history.  I find it fascinating how scientists manage to gather data from a handful of clues available in the current day and make a solid case for an epic event that almost defies imagination.

I will be posting about three of them in the near future, and those are the Chixulub asteroid impact, the 1700 Cascadia Earthquake, and the Missoula Floods.  Each of these events is absolutely fascinating.  More fascinating is the effort and research that went into convincing a dubious scientific community that these events occurred.

How military submarines find their way around

It occurred to me that a person finding this blog after a text search might have noticed that a fair number of the posts are about submarines.  Random readers may not be familiar with military subs, and they might wonder how subs move around the ocean without banging into stuff, or how they know which way they are going, etc, etc.  Sometimes submarines *DO* bang into stuff, but that's the exception, not a normal daily event.

So in that spirit, I thought I would share what little I know about underwater navigation.  Confession time:  I worked in propulsion, not navigation, so I will have to find this information before I can post it.  I have a general idea, but I will use the internet for more clarity before exposing my ignorance!

Update to an older post

Link: How to irradiate a topaz to get the color you like!