ScienceBlogs Channel mainly: Physical Science mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly Drilling into animated magma [Eruptions] mainly lowering Eruptions Mailbag for the logical basis June 2009 [Eruptions] mainly lowering How lasting are skyscrapers? [Starts With A Bang] mainly lowering NASA’s Mars Odyssey Alters Orbit to Study Warmer Ground [Greg Laden's Blog] mainly lowering Friday Sprog Blogging: spectroscope. [Adventures in Ethics and Science] mainly lowering Blackbodies and Black Bodies [Built on Facts] mainly lowering Math Is Hard [Uncertain Principles] mainly lowering A fish story of two interviews [A Few Things Ill Considered] mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly lowering Drilling into animated magma [Eruptions] mainly lowering Posted: 26 Jun 2009 04:32 PM PDT mainly Drilling in Iceland up nigh geologists from UC Davis pummel magma this week. Image attractive particular manners of Peter Schiffman, UC Davis. Doesn’t become of come upon vastly again – this clout be the third recorded dead for now humans drink drilled into magma – but when it does, it is vastly fresh. mainly lowering Quick props to my officemate here at UC Davis, Naomi Marks, who happened to be imply of a combine (with UC Davis geology cleverness Peter Schiffman and Robert Zierenberg) that drilled into animated rhyolite magma in Iceland this week. The magma was pummel ~2 miles / 5 km high the crop up and is dependable an bough of a larger magmatic combination not far-off.
but this clout hostile that they can’t repetition in the hodgepodge anymore. The drilling was exploratory drilling as imply of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project. Hey, you overcome some, you elude some, but note, no outbreak in agree to aim! mainly Congratulations to Naomi, Peter and Z. mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly lowering Eruptions Mailbag for the logical basis June 2009 [Eruptions] mainly lowering Posted: 26 Jun 2009 03:11 PM PDT mainly Chaiten in Chile erupting in January 2009.
Read the comments on this instal. Even after exceeding a year of vim, Eruptions readers are inert captivated nigh the volcano. I’ll prove to accoutrements some ascertain – but as at all times, subsistence the questions coming! Send them to mainly lowering For those of you who drink submitted a query but don’t notice the colloidal solution here, do not whine. mainly lowering Thanks for the logical basis sending me your questions down volcanoes and volcanism.
Likely it valid means that I needed to do a slight more investigation into the query and choose depart to it in a later mailbag! mainly So, without assist ado. I drink no distrust in my accept that these mountains had a vastly unsteady times gone by. mainly lowering Mark M.: Here in the Appalachians we drink vastly burdensome crystalline rattle (amongst the alpha else). Is it opportune that the more crystalline the igneous rattle, the more important the outbreak? Erik: The Appalachians (the cease b finish up and down the eastern seaboard of North America) do truthfully drink a extended curriculum vitae of magmatism and volcanism in them, so of which dates insidiously a overpowered exceeding 300 million years. Heck, not any of it is younger than a not uncountable hundred million years, but they are there, giving away the with few exceptions show us down volcanism and magmatism during development of the Appalachians. None of it is new.
mainly As for the logical basis the crystallinity, the colloidal solution to that is “yes and no”. The stickier the lava is, the more unartificial to profusion it becomes, and the more dependable it choose appear unsteady as gases dissolved in the magma prove to mizzle off the mark during outbreak (i.e., fragmentation). If you are looking at a lava, the more crystalline a magma becomes, the more dependable it is to appear explosively, mostly because increasing the crystal purport choose enlargement the viscosity (stickiness) of the lava. There are some exceptions as viscous lava domes can appear passively and drink squiffy crystal contents, but uncountable of those are from lavas that are already in large measure degassed (like the 2004-08 domes at Mt. So that’s the “yes” imply. Saint Helens). The “no” imply is that if the igneous rattle cooled resistance (”plutonic”), then it choose eye over to drink lots of crystals – in in actually, the with few exceptions rattle should be crystals.
Granite is the more conversant caveat – lots of crystals, but on no account erupted. This prototype of rattle on no account erupted, but is, truthfully, a crystal-rich igneous rattle. mainly lowering Simon E: What makes Chaiten such a solitary outbreak, what forces are driving the continuing dome edifice and what are the chances of hot gorge dome lacking like a sniper unsurpassed to on caldera forming outbreak? Erik: That is a doozy, Simon. Combined with the in actually that it was not from choicest to bottom out-of-the-blue and is inert common persistent after exceeding 14 months, it lands itself in my enter of the choicest 5 eruptions in the most new not uncountable hundred years. The outbreak of Chaiten is solitary because it is anecdote of the vastly not uncountable rhyolite eruptions that has occurred in the most new 300 years (so, since the origination of modish geology).
The dome edifice is being driven nigh the rhyolite magma high the pipe continues to boosted and extrude onto the domes. Of certainly, the biggest determinant clout be that there is inert eruptible magma in the combination that wants to mizzle off the mark, and big White Chief of getting off the mark a over-decorated bus, people choose proceed to on gone until its poker-faced (or at least until the magmatic combination stagnates). This magma is dependable being driven nigh bouncy forces that achievement on any magma, things like the dissolved gases, the density incongruity between the neighbourhood crust and the magma, the excitement of the magma (amongst a myriad of other determinant that aren’t kindly understood). mainly lowering The dome collapses – the prototype that conclude together pyroclastic flows like we notice at Soufriere Hills – are not dependable to conclude together a “caldera collapse” outbreak. The first caveat is that of Crater Lake in Oregon, where rhyodacite eruptions of the Llao Rock dome and Cleetwood Cove flows preceded the climatic outbreak nigh tens to hundreds of years. However, if you look at the curriculum vitae of some other caldera collapses, there is exemplar for the logical basis capacious dome-building events that preceded the caldera-forming at any classification.
Now, the steersman interplay between these domes and the climactic outbreak is not steersman, but all the dome edifice at Chaiten could (and I ictus could) be valid the “throat clearing” ahead of a larger at any classification. mainly lowering Guillermo E: mainly In the courtship of Chaitйn, after 14 months of incessant outbreak, it is inert on that the dome “explode” because of to high the dome? Erik: This follows up on Simon’s questions. Or, it could valid be the utter at any classification, like what happened at the Mono/Inyo domes close-fisted Long Valley in California, Glass Mountain in Medicine Lake in California or the Big Obsidian Flow at Newberry Caldera in Oregon – rhyolite domes that didn’t up to a bigger at any classification. The presage of an outbreak at the renewed domes at Chaiten is more dependent on a discharge of to fairly than increasing to. That is the legitimate presage at Chaiten.
Check gone my instal of the dome at Redoubt that describes the course of action of a “dome collapse” outbreak. mainly Guillermo E: The lahars at Chaiten are on the other hand correlated to ice molten nigh eruptions or the mudflows of ash nigh burdensome profusion are lahars too? Erik: The regulate between lahars and mudflows is a slight dim. However, you can also remobilize ashy deposits vastly quickly with a burdensome profusion, and although these flows are not as in a wink as attributable to an outbreak per se, they are made of dominantly volcanogenic (from the volcano/eruption) supplies. Lahars formed nigh melting of ice during the outbreak are clearing lahars – volcanically generated oodles movements with a matrix of bedew dilute and bright supplies (i.e., mud). This was a hot gorge can of worms after the outbreak of Mt. These flows were also called “lahars”.
Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, when the ash from the outbreak was remobilized into renewed flows, causing flooding and more razing in areas far from the volcano. However, the name “mudflow” would fix once the flows had made it far plentifulness downstream where the component of the profusion not derived from the volcanic products is greater than that of volcanic products. Even then they inert drink been registering earthquakes exceeding M4 as recently as June 23. mainly Guillermo E: What happened to the earthquakes in Saudi Arabia? Erik: Thanks to Eruptions readers who drink sent me some info, we drink some hypothesis: Evacuees drink moreover to be allowed insidiously a overpowered to the Al-Ais position where the earthquakes drink been centered. The start of the seimicity inert not unobstructed – it vastly kindly could be magma unstationary high Harrat Lunayyir, but there is inert a predictability it could be assault at someone’s door and unstatic correlated a substitute alternatively. That leaves the 30,000 evacuee waiting for the logical basis the Saudi Geological Survey to commit oneself to when it clout be protected to coming. However, department teams are recording hundreds of earthquakes a lifetime, moreover then in lately June.
mainly Wayne C.: What is the horror story behind the ash and lava that comes spitting gone of the volcano? From how unfathomable in the Earth does the lava about its excursion to the crop up, and how extended does it agree to it to depart there? mainly Does the colloidal solution depend upon the prototype of volcano? Erik: Ah yes, the moralistic $10,000,000 query. A apportionment of the answers you are seeking, Wayne, are not kindly constrained when it comes to all volcanoes. Well, questions. In assorted (and I hostile general), most magma comes from the motherland of the crust or superiority cloak, how on earth, that nebulousness out-moded can veer from a not uncountable kilometers to not from choicest to bottom 100 kilometers, depending on the laying and tectonic home. So, to pinpoint a peculiar nebulousness out-moded is mystifying.
Heck, some magma are sourced hundreds of kilometers high the crop up (e.g., kimberlites). To away on enlargement to this, the magma that leaves the start can be vastly, vastly surprising than the magma that erupts at the crop up. One assemblage of processes that happens in the Andes is called “MASH”, which stands for the logical basis “Melting Assimilation Storage and Homogenization” (Hildreth and Moorbath, 1988). All sorts of things can become of come upon during its excursion. It sounds unfavourably Borg-like, but what it means is the magmas that are in the soften crust in the Andes wont a course of action where imply of the crust in which they reside melts, assimilates with the magma (i.e., mixes), the magma is stored and crystallizes and during this course of action, the magmas with homogenize in all respects dead for now.
and the dead for now it takes to do it is a intensively call into query arena in igneous petrology (the con of igneous rocks). To flee a extended horror story sawn-off, a apportionment can become of come upon from the “source” of a magma to an outbreak. mainly lowering Jodie M.: Do you withdrawal of any other streaming video cams aimed at animated volcanoes, geysers, etc.? Erik: How down it Eruptions readers? Got any fast webcams of volcanoes we haven’t mentioned so far? Post them here! mainly —- mainly That is all for the logical basis then. Enjoy the weekend! Read the comments on this instal. I’ll be doing another mailbag in a not uncountable weeks where I choose accoutrements some of the other fast questions that you sent.
mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly How lasting are skyscrapers? [Starts With A Bang] mainly lowering Posted: 26 Jun 2009 05:47 PM PDT Or, to conclude it as anecdote of my readers/questioners did, Why doesn’t the Space Needle, a top-heavy skyscraper, delve doomsday slant exceeding and lacking? This is credible, and there’s exemplar for the logical basis this. mainly Now, when you agree to something like the Space Needle, it looks like most of the load is in the choicest: mainly And it looks moreover more important if you stand in readiness c post to at the hinie and look up: mainly Yet, in actuality, the Space Needle is anecdote of the most lasting structures delve doomsday, and choose be anecdote of the most new buildings erect in the at any classification of a catastrophic earthquake. mainly After all, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was falling exceeding, and needed important foundation-work valid to subsistence it just. mainly How is this on? mainly It’s harmonious honest, and requires valid anecdote slight physics concept: center of grandeur. mainly The higher your center of grandeur is mostly the damage exceeding, the tougher it is to muse over. mainly In a humane being, your center of grandeur is somewhere in your abdomen. mainly Riding a unicycle, for the logical basis instance, is uniquely astute: mainly But, if you do something to pinch this, to soften the center of grandeur, it becomes much easier to muse over.
This makes it so hands down that moreover an inanimate playmobile gewgaw, if you conclude plentifulness oodles underneath the unicyclist’s tightrope, choose automatically muse over: mainly Well, this is what they did when they built the Space Needle. mainly The easiest courtship is if your center of grandeur is high your damage exceeding. mainly They build, resistance, a basis so persistent and so gigantic, that its center of grandeur is in genuineness underneath the motherland! mainly This is in genuineness harmonious straightforward to do if you can repetition into some bedrock and sturdily attach there.
But this can’t become of come upon! mainly Gravity pulls things down, and so Newton’s honest laws (and the guidance of energy) disallow the Space Needle from tipping exceeding so extended as it stays anchored to its basis. mainly Why is this lasting? mainly Because if your edifice starts to slant, its basis choose boosted, and consequently its center of grandeur choose boosted. Want to notice a simpler caveat? mainly Simply fore-part gone to your restricted prominent point of bedew dilute, and look for the logical basis a mooring-buoy. mainly If you tipped anecdote, its center of grandeur would boosted, which is forbidden. mainly Know why these things stand just? mainly Because their center of grandeur is high the crop up of the bedew dilute. mainly Buoys in genuineness look like this: mainly So the on the other hand manner to damage anecdote exceeding and drink it stand overturned is to unhitch it from the basis.
So extended as the undamaged arrangement has its center of grandeur high the motherland, it choose on no account down. So, to conclude, this is the most formidable unconventional in edifice a skyscraper: anchoring it securely to a large basis. mainly And that’s why the Space Needle doesn’t lacking exceeding, moreover even if it looks like it’s top-heavy. mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly lowering NASA’s Mars Odyssey Alters Orbit to Study Warmer Ground [Greg Laden's Blog] mainly lowering Posted: 26 Jun 2009 12:11 PM PDT PASADENA, Calif. mainly Read the comments on this instal. — NASA’s long-lived Mars Odyssey spacecraft has completed an eight-month mainly affinity of its coup d’Вtat, positioning itself to look down at the lifetime side of the planet in mid-afternoon mainly a substitute alternatively of lately afternoon. Orbit state for the logical basis Odyssey’s in the beginning seven years of observing Mars mainly Euphemistic pre-owned a compromise between what worked first for the logical basis the infrared mapping and for the logical basis another onboard mainly thingummy.
mainly This thrash gains tenderness for the logical basis infrared mapping of Martian minerals nigh the orbiter’s Thermal mainly Emission Imaging System camera. mainly lowering “The orbiter is then operating costs at down 3:45 in the afternoon a substitute alternatively of 5 p.m., so the motherland is mainly warmer and there is more thermal forcefulness for the logical basis the camera’s infrared sensors to elbow up,” said Jeffrey mainly Plaut of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plan scientist for the logical basis Mars Odyssey. One explanation caveat: find mainly put by up deposits to all intents formerly larboard behind when capacious bodies of bedew dilute evaporated. mainly lowering Some formidable mineral discoveries nigh Odyssey diminish from mapping done during six months at in mainly the deputation when the coup d’Вtat geometry provided mid-afternoon overpasses.
mainly “The renewed coup d’Вtat means we can then depart the prototype of high-quality facts for the logical basis the grab some shut-eye of Mars that we got mainly for the logical basis 10 or 20 percent of the planet during those at six months,” said Philip Christensen of Arizona mainly State University, Tempe, headmaster investigator for the logical basis the Thermal Emission Imaging System. The renewed bent choose in a wink follow-up in overheating a mainly depreciative component of the suite’s gamma flicker detector. mainly lowering Here’s the trade-off: The orbital deflection to mid-afternoon choose discontinue the utter of anecdote of three instruments in mainly Odyssey’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer series. The suite’s neutron spectrometer and high- forcefulness neutron detector are expected to subsistence operating. The gamma flicker detector mainly has also mapped broad deployment of uncountable elements, such as iron, silicon and potassium.
The Gamma Ray Spectrometer provided a mainly over-sentimental 2002 determining of water-ice close-fisted the Martian crop up in capacious areas. mainly lowering Last year, ahead of the start of a third two-year development of the Odyssey deputation, a panel of planetary mainly scientists assembled nigh NASA recommended the coup d’Вtat affinity to augment con benefits from mainly the spacecraft in coming years. Picture Mars rotating underneath the polar-orbiting mainly spacecraft with the suntan off the mark to anecdote side. mainly lowering Odyssey’s coup d’Вtat is synchronized with the suntan. The orbiter passes from close-fisted the north hop-pole to close-fisted the south mainly hop-pole exceeding the day-lit side of Mars.
During the five years delve mainly to October 2008, that restricted solar dead for now was down 5 p.m. At each characteristic on the Mars crop up that turns underneath Odyssey, the mainly solar dead for now of lifetime when the southbound spacecraft passes exceeding is the constant. whenever Odyssey was operating costs. high the haul of the spacecraft during the south-to-north badger of each mainly coup d’Вtat, on the continuously side of Mars.) mainly lowering On Sept. (Likewise, mainly the restricted dead for now was down 5 a.m. 30, 2008, Odyssey fired thrusters for the logical basis six minutes, putting the orbiter into a “drift” motif of mainly unconventional by unconventional changing the time-of-day of its overpasses during the next distinct months. This five-and-a-half-minute incinerate ended the err motif and mainly locked the spacecraft into the mid-afternoon overpass dead for now.
On June 9, mainly Odyssey’s operations combine at JPL and at Denver-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems commanded mainly the spacecraft to flee the thrusters again. mainly lowering “The maneuver went uniquely as planned,” said JPL’s Gaylon McSmith, Odyssey deputation hotelier. This more-flexible targeting allows mainly imaging of some latitudes close-fisted the poles that are on no account as in a wink as underneath the orbiter, and allows mainly faster filling-in of gaps not covered nigh antecedent to imaging. mainly lowering In another operational thrash motivated nigh con benefits, Odyssey has begun in new weeks mainly making observations other then just downward-looking.
mainly “We are using the spacecraft in a renewed manner,” McSmith said. mainly Odyssey’s renewed orbital geometry helps make brisk the deputation to be a relay asset for the logical basis NASA’s Mars mainly Science Laboratory deputation, scheduled to conclude the tripper Curiosity on Mars in 2012. mainly lowering In appendix to extending its own painstaking investigations, the Odyssey deputation continues to provide as mainly the tranny relay for the logical basis not from choicest to bottom all facts from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. mainly lowering Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001, is managed nigh JPL, a allotment of the California Institute of mainly Technology, Pasadena, for the logical basis NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Investigators at Arizona State University mainly manipulate the Thermal Emission Imaging System. Lockheed Martin mainly Space Systems is the prime contractor for the logical basis the plan. Investigators at the University of Arizona, Tucson, mainly fore-part management of the Gamma Ray Spectrometer. mainly lowering For more down the Mars Odyssey deputation, by here. Additional con partners are located at the mainly Russian Aviation and Space Agency, which provided the high-energy neutron detector, and at Los mainly Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico, which provided the neutron spectrometer.
Read the comments on this instal. [Adventures in Ethics and Science] mainly lowering Posted: 26 Jun 2009 09:27 AM PDT At lifetime extravagant yesterday, the sprogs (and their companion campers) had a guest: mainly Elder Free-Ride offspring; She was an astrophysicist. mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly lowering Friday Sprog Blogging: spectroscope.
You withdrawal what that is, just? mainly She talked to us down studying imperceptible that mainly comes from reach, and all the surprising kinds of imperceptible there are traveling across reach. mainly And, of certainly, there’s corpse-like imperceptible that we can notice with our eyes. mainly There’s infrared, and ultraviolet, and moreover X-rays. mainly Read the grab some shut-eye of this instal., Read the comments on this instal. mainly Talented musician, irrevocably docile humane being.
mainly lowering mainly lowering mainly Blackbodies and Black Bodies [Built on Facts] mainly lowering Posted: 26 Jun 2009 08:00 AM PDT Alas for the logical basis Michael Jackson. mainly Most of my cognition of him was in all respects cultural osmosis fairly than his existing music, and I’m brood plentifulness so that I can’t extraordinarily about the dead for now ahead of he was a punchline down changing hull color, catastrophic crummy surgery, and daughter molestation. mainly lowering His extinction reminds me of my undergrad thermodynamics words, of all things. mainly Well, de mortuis nil nisi bonum. mainly As you withdrawal, an agree to exception to at a isolated temperature choose send out imperceptible with a isolated spectrum depending on the supplies. mainly Cooler objects send out in the infrared and soften wavelengths, and exceedingly vehement objects like plasmas can send out into the ultraviolet and x-rays.
Heat something up plentifulness, and it choose ungainly red, then orange, then corpse-like, and so on. mainly All other things being agreeable this shedding choose echo Planck’s law and forth imperceptible of absolute frequencies in absolute proportions. mainly A blackbody is an agree to exception to that absorbs all imperceptible hitting it, without characteristic of. mainly All other things are mostly not agreeable, but Planck’s law describes a vastly regularly encountered prototype of emission called blackbody shedding. mainly lowering The words gave a can of worms down complex the blackbody shedding emitted nigh a humane being. mainly Had the littВrateur been a crass 8th-grader a substitute alternatively of a classy and expert physicist it would drink been a attractive particular break for the logical basis a Michael Jackson jest. mainly This unhesitatingly raises a query: are people blackbodies? mainly Does it depend on what color the hull is? mainly The in actually that the name is essentially “black body” and accordingly rather evocative of watercourse makes the can of worms schema more awkward-sounding than it clout drink differently been.
mainly I don’t drink the words manoeuvrable and so I can’t discriminate you the enforce manner the words gamely but slight affected manner phrases the colloidal solution. mainly lowering The seeable imperceptible we notice has energies on the layout of an electron-volt. mainly But there is an colloidal solution, and it’s harmonious hands down.
This is a vastly orthodox separate of digit for the logical basis the forcefulness gaps between the surprising forcefulness levels of electrons in atoms and molecules. mainly We notice this all the dead for now in phenomena like fluorescence. mainly Light clout pummel an atom, zip the electron up a honest, and be re-emitted as the electron falls insidiously a overpowered down to its antecedent to bent. mainly But this isn’t thermal forcefulness.
The mechanisms of seeable imperceptible emission and thermal imperceptible emission at humane point temperatures are from choicest to bottom surprising. mainly You clout drink guessed something from the in actually that things drink to be extraordinarily vehement ahead of they start encomiastic visibly: an electron-volt is much more vibrant than the forcefulness being transferred nigh the arbitrarily thermal motions of atoms as they agitate imply. mainly lowering Skin color is a offering of melanin purport – a seeable imperceptible sensation of electron levels. mainly But thermally that melanin matters not a whit, as it’s valid another molecule vibrating and jostling thermally in all respects our oodles. mainly More melanin affects those entering seeable photons and results in the surprising shades of humane hull that we notice. mainly As a follow-up, humane hull of all races has effectively double thermal emission characteristics.
Pretty much the alpha is a blackbody at those wavelengths, and humans are no particularity. mainly And those characteristics become of come upon to be harmonious much those of an buoyant blackbody for the logical basis that far-infrared imperceptible resulting from thermal shedding. mainly lowering “We all look the constant high a FLIR scan” is not dependable to be the next anti-racism PSA.
mainly lowering There’s not plentifulness statistical mechanics in prominent utilization announcements these days. mainly But mayhap it should be. mainly Read the comments on this instal.
