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 ...
Not a bad summary.
Wellden.
Sorry to hear about Drama Queen’s diagnosis. Am I to assume that this is a side-effect of an injection?
(I’m not nearly as emotionally invested as you. I HAVE met her, and that was enough investment.)
However, I’m very happy to hear that His Tallness is feeling better.
When I went to the library, I also stopped at Ernie’s Too to get gas, and the vehicle behind me as I crossed State Street, whipped into the service station by the first set of pumps while I chose the single pump closest to the library. (Third row of pumps.)
I stopped the Tracker and there was this big Chevy SUV right in front of me, that had been behind me, complete with rickety wooden trailer. I guess he expected me to move. But I’m looking at him, and his passenger flipped me off.
I got out of the car and walked as close to the passenger side as I could get, and just kept going into the store to pay for the gas. The guy was almost apoplectic. He went through all kinds of contortions, obviously very angry that he didn’t intimidate me and my gray hair, whipped his rig around the Tracker and the pump and pulled up to the other side of it.
The manager of the store was watching him from inside, with a couple of other people and me. I can’t quit seeing that overweight troglodyte flipping me off. I wanted to laugh so much!! However, I think under the circumstances, ignoring them was the perfect reaction.
It’s possible it’s a side effect of the injection. It’s also possible that it’s related to moving things around at work, or maybe some unusual exercise, or even nerves. She’s prone to internally generated symptoms.
When last heard from, she was interpreting “a chest muscle” as “something wrong with my heart.” Whatever. I’m sure she’ll get plenty of sympathy on Facebook.
I’m glad there were witnesses. People are crazy these days!
Yes. Well. She’s not been dubbed “Drama Queen” for nothing.
(I’d like to be a fly on her FB wall...)
Perhaps if I had given in to the impulse to laugh, the story might have had a different ending.
I’m glad you’re okay and got your gas.
What a sweet little pair of squee.
Good morning. Finally. I keep forgetting that it’s morning when I get up because no one else is online.
Harley woke me up at 0120-something. And he wouldn’t shut up. Rocky has been having problems with insomnia for the last 16 months so I’m thinking, if she’s finally getting some sleep, good for her. (I think it’s one of those cases where she has, over so many re-tellings, convinced herself that she can’t sleep, and therefore, she can’t sleep. I don’t know how to tell her to reverse it — it can be done, but I’d come off sounding rude because CFIDS does that.)
Anyway, there wasn’t much sense in just lying there and listening to Harley bark. He’s going blind and he’s scared of the dark, so the back yard is a scary place. I have a yellow light by my door that I never shut off because that large area is VERY dark with no security lights!
However, since I was also up in the middle of my night, checking for my iHerb order, I lost another almost three hours of sleep. (OnTrac never rings the doorbell, and I don’t even think they knock!) Now I want a nap!!
Yes, some people are just “poor white trash” no matter where they live.
We’re not that close to Memorial Day, but gas is still at $3.17 with my discount for unleaded. Several places in town are much higher, but Ernie’s is convenient, and I prefer a place that knows me, at least by sight. I could go to 7-11, as they know me, too, but their gas prices start at around $3.45. *shudder*
I’m paying in the $2.40s for gas. You’ll find gas much more reasonable in Arkansas.
I’m really out of patience with barking dogs, and we’re not as near to any as you are.
IMHO: Most of the time ignoring fruitcakes is the best policy.
Happy Friday Eve, everyone!
Friday Eve hugs for everyone compliments of the morning kitteh.
I don’t think we’ve broken $3/gal here yet. They have in PA. When I drove across to Ohio - I mean extreme western NY - last month the prices in Ohio were still very reasonable.
Oh, it’s puppy’s birthday today. I guess we have to start referring to her as doggie now.
Everything will be more reasonable in AR. I think Perfect Wife said gas was around $1.97 a while ago. I can live with that! The laundry machines will go from $1.50 for wash and $1.25 for dry to $1.25 for wash and $1.00 for dry. Rent will be about the same, as it’s income based.
Sorry. I took a nap. And did another “I’ll just lie here for a minute” tricks, so a full two hours later...
Happy Friday Eve!!
I've found that for the most part, they want attention, and are just waiting to "show who's boss" if one responds to them. It deflates their egos when they're ignored, especially in public.
I believe in taking naps!
I found some underwear I liked at Walmart yesterday, so I ordered more of the same. I need to return the one I didn’t like.
Today’s special animal friends are found on the island of St. Vincent, the eponymous main island of St. Vincent and Grenadines (SVG), a Caribbean nation of 32 islands, nine of which are inhabited. St. Vincent is currently experiencing an eruption of La Soufriere, its volcano. About 20,000 people have been displaced by the eruption.
One of St. Vincent’s iconic animals is the St. Vincent Amazon parrot, Amazona guildingii. This is a large, very colorful bird, with a distinctive gray-white face leading to a bright yellow, then green, neck. Its wings are bronze, green, and blue, and its tail is blue with bright yellow tips.
https://www.birdscaribbean.org/2020/03/the-glorious-sight-of-st-vincent-parrots-in-the-wild/
These parrots are Vulnerable, according to IUCN, because of habitat loss, poaching, and illegal capture for the pet trade, but conservation efforts have doubled the population to 400 from its historic low of 200. The Lesser Antillean Tanager is a rainforest bird found on St. Vincent and Grenada (which is a separate country, not part of SVG). It has a black head, gray body, and pretty blue wings and tail; it is a species of Least Concern.
Another endemic species is the critically endangered Union Island gecko, Gonatodes daudini, also known as the Grenadines clawed gecko. Found only on Union Island, this tiny lizard has colorful, beadlike scales in elegant patterns. Less than 1-1/2 inches long, the gecko lives on the ground in dry forests, eating termites and other small insects. Collection for the international pet trade has reduced the population by about 80% during this century. Although protected by SVG law, it has not yet been listed by CITES.
Another critically endangered species unique to St. Vincent is the St. Vincent black snake, Chironius vincenti. This nonvenomous snake grows over three feet in length. It is slate black on its back with a lighter mouth and underside. They eat rats and other small mammals such as the agouti, a common rodent species.
The main threat to the black snake and St. Vincent’s other, critically endangered, endemic snakes - Barbour’s tropical racer (Mastigodryas bruesi) and Cook’s tree boa (Corallus cookii) – is ophidiophobia. There are no venomous snakes in SVG. The only Caribbean islands with venomous snakes are Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, and Trinidad. Competition from introduced mongooses (Why?) and domestic/feral cats is an additional threat to these nice reptile friends who never hurt anyone.
Sea life around St. Vincent and the Grenadines includes dolphins, sea turtles, moray eels, octopi, nurse sharks, and many coral reef fish species.
I’d like to do it every day, like my mother did, but the best I can do is “Quiet Time,” most days!
I’m a firm believer if buying things that I’ve used and like. I like Fruit Of The Loom. Nothing fancy. Their elastic doesn’t get waffly.
I just printed up a list of the wagon train and handcart companies that came West, not just the “Mormons,” for my records. (So MANY were names of kids I went to school with, and now I know why! LOL!) Folks that were headed for CA and OR were included in the “Pioneers” because they all came before the railroads.
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