Posted on 10/20/2020 9:33:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A team of geologists at the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics believes they have found the lost plate in northern Canada by using existing mantle tomography images—similar to a CT scan of the earth's interior. The findings, published in Geological Society of America Bulletin, could help geologists better predict volcanic hazards as well as mineral and hydrocarbon deposits.
"Volcanoes form at plate boundaries, and the more plates you have, the more volcanoes you have," said Jonny Wu, assistant professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "Volcanoes also affect climate change. So, when you are trying to model the earth and understand how climate has changed since time, you really want to know how many volcanoes there have been on earth."
Wu and Spencer Fuston, a third-year geology doctoral student, applied a technique developed by the UH Center for Tectonics and Tomography called slab unfolding to reconstruct what tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean looked like during the early Cenozoic Era. The rigid outermost shell of Earth, or lithosphere, is broken into tectonic plates and geologists have always known there were two plates in the Pacific Ocean at that time called Kula and Farallon. But there has been discussion about a potential third plate, Resurrection, having formed a special type of volcanic belt along Alaska and Washington State.
Using 3-D mapping technology, Fuston applied the slab unfolding technique to the mantle tomography images to pull out the subducted plates before unfolding and stretching them to their original shapes.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
‘Face, just so you aren’t confused, a toaster is not a good surface to set your computer on.
I don’t know how Bob keeps his from overheating. Maybe he doesn’t use his toaster much.
We’re acting as if we’re snowed in. One could make the case that we are, because the driveway is a toboggan run, but we can actually get out.
The adventure comes in trying to get back in.
Or in walking down to the mailbox. Very trepidatious.
We could go off on the difference between a desk and a counter-top. But I would guess that you do more counting at your desk than you do in the kitchen.
Or we could ponder the question, “How is a raven like a writing desk?”
The actual answer, which only I have produced, is that they both have inky plumes. Go ask Alice.
I don’t know if I’m ready for the jocularity today. Perhaps it’s because of Ground Hog Day. I prefer to call it Marmot Day. :o])
I use my toaster far too often to put a computer on top of it, but I agree with Bob’s assessment of countertops and desktops.
Walking around in a store as large as Walmart always makes me feel better, so I’ll go next week. The way home won’t be so hard to find with less light from the cars. One thing about this neck of the woods: When it’s dark, it’s VERY dark!
I’ve managed to get some of the silly little jobs started, at least, but it will be tomorrow before I can really see any headway. Part of this is in preparation for the move, to cut down on the actual volume of stuff to be moved.
Now, of course, I wonder if I should rent some moving pads to protect the bedroom furniture. But I’ll think about it until I’m warm and fuzzy with the idea. And get some wardrobe boxes...
That is odd as I don’t desk in the kitchen either.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again. There is no greater division between two people than the division created by the English tongue.
I still remember, back when I was teaching ESL (which was so long ago it was called ESL) someone asking me about a song by, I think it was Genesis, where the lyric was, “In your arms I feel so safe and so secure.” This poor student from Ecuador was trying to understand the difference between being safe and secure. I don’t think I did very well.
How awful! I live for Trash Day!
Please be very careful!
Today’s special animal friend is the groundhog, Marmota monax. The groundhog is also known as a woodchuck, chuck, wood-shock, groundpig, whistlepig, whistler, thickwood badger, Canada marmot, monax, moonack, weenusk, red monk, and, among French Canadians in eastern Canada, siffleux. They are rodents (order Rodentia) of the squirrel family (family Sciuridae). The Marmota genus includes 15 species found in Asia, Europe, and North America. The groundhog is an unusual marmot in that it lives in lowland rather than mountainous habitats.
The groundhog is one of the largest marmots, with a length up to 27 inches and weight approaching 14 lbs., about the weight of Jake, the cat who sleeps with me. Males are significantly larger than females. Both sexes gain weight during the fall, when they engage in “autumn hyperphagia,” extreme eating, to build up fat reserves for their winter hibernation.
Groundhogs have four large incisors, which grow up to 1.5 mm per week and are worn down about the same amount by gnawing. Unlike the teeth of many rodents, the groundhog’s are white to ivory-colored rather than orange with iron. Mainly herbivorous, they eat wild grasses, berries, agricultural crops, and a wide variety of herbs and greens. Their diet also includes some small invertebrates and baby birds, in season.
Like most small mammals, groundhogs have many predators, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, dogs; birds of prey; wild, feral, and domestic cats; mustelids including mink and badgers; and snakes. They are also hunted as a pest in some states. For defense, the woodchuck has long, strong claws, excellent burrowing skills, and the ability to climb trees and to swim. In the wild, their life span averages about three years; in captivity, they can live over ten years.
A groundhog may have more than one burrow, allowing for many avenues of escape and concealment. The burrows can be over four feet below the surface and more than 40 feet in length. They are solitary dwellers, except when breeding, but sometimes live within sight of other individuals. They are aggressive toward their own species and any others that encroach. Females breed in their second (and sometimes third) year, producing up to six young per litter.
The Groundhog Day tradition is believed to have originated in Germany, where the animal was a badger, and to draw on folk beliefs regarding the Christian holiday of Candlemas, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple forty days after Christmas. The concept was popularized in the United States by the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Wikipedia feels it necessary to inform us that there is no scientific evidence of a correlation between sunshine (or not) on February 2 and future weather patterns.
I was going to look that up but I got side-tracked, either by a squirrel or by something shiny or both.
However, that was a veritable font of information, and I thank you for going to all the trouble to look that up and post the information for us.
Why one of my late brothers would choose to be born on such a day boggles the mind, but since he’s no longer with us, I can’t ask him. Nor can I ask his mother. Who was, incidentally, my mother, as well. ;o]
When my Favorite Daughter and The Guy moved to Colorado, she was all gushy over the first “marMOT” she had ever seen until I told her it was just a rat with a hormonal imbalance.
In other news, I have a Zoom meeting at 1930 tonight, and I wish I knew how to get out of it. At least today is the end of this tea cycle, so I can shut my alarm off for the morning. I think.
Yes, well, if you haven’t grown up in America, where the English language is an amalgam of many different languages, the difference between “safe” and “secure” is subtle. Most Americans don’t understand it, either.
I have meetings tomorrow and Thursday. The special animal friend is a daily project, so I just had to copy it from Word. Yesterday I had the reticulated python.
Neither one can swim.
Thanks for taking the time to post about the groundhog because I really did enjoy it!
This is my first meeting on a one-to-one basis, and I’m not looking forward to it. Especially since I can’t take my evening pills until almost time for the meeting to start. That leaves me vulnerable to a lot of things including pain. I don’t like it when the pain overrides the thinking part of my brain.
Well, it does that a lot, but I dread to think about tonight...
Deep breaths, do your best!
For what it’s worth, I think they look a lot like beavers, but without the flat tail.
I’ve been doing deep breaths since about mid-morning, and it was only about an hour ago that I realized it was the stress of not being able to go to bed according to my schedule.
Then I realized that the person who set up the appointment didn’t pay any attention to the guidelines I suggested due to the severity of CFIDS, even after I explained why I had them. So all I can do is try to make things work somehow. Maybe.
It also explains why I’ve been all over the place today — lots of things started, nothing finished. *sigh*
I would be very careful reticulating a python. I don’t think I’m qualified.
Well, they’re both rodents, if I recall my sophomore biology.
I get that every day about this same time.
My clock says it’s scarcely past 1pm, but I know I’ve got to have dinner on in about ten minutes, the kiddos in bed — with their teeth well-brushed — in just another half hour; and it’s St. Valentine’s Day tomorrow, or the next, then a rash of Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Summer Break, Fireworks, need to pick out a turkey, get the tree and the lights up, and there’s laundry to run through in between...
But, how the heck HAVE you been?
I have a new shed out back to hide in. Planning the wiring, beginning with a 125AC NEMA shore power connector so I can just run a 10AWG extension cord out and plug it in when in-use.
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