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 ...
A Bird with a Boyd Coddinton paint job!
Yes, that’s about right.
Evening, moose07.
Got my foot meds. I’ll start taking them tomorrow.
Fingers crossed.
Hopefully nothing too complicated.
Good Evening TC.
Hiccups have been the order of the evening.
Tendonitis. Anti-inflammatory meds and an ankle brace, which my husband can order for me when he’s done with the current work crisis.
I typically have Tom the Son order things from Amazon - I put things in his cart and text him to do the order - but I got a new credit card and he hasn’t updated his account.
Just a small footnote on the Anti-inflammatory (sorry)
I used them some years ago, my BP went through the roof.
It was some Organic Hippy stuff (Pine apple cores) ,but it worked well on the inflammation.
I have tons of friends who moved to Texas-not necessarily for the weather-over the past few years.
I can't believe they're dealing with this situation rn.
The shock of moving to TX and running in to this must be mind bending.
Living at 52 degrees North I’ve been watching with interest , from a prepping perspective.
If it can do this much damage to TX, here it would be Game over.
The podiatrist said I should be on these meds for only about 3 weeks.
Howya!
My forecast shows temperatures just above freezing for the next several days, and lots of rain starting early tomorrow morning.
We're supposed to get another blizzard coming in tomorrow. I haven't checked, but I think we've already gotten close to or over 3 feet of snow for this month, which isn't even over.
:/
Good luck! Just rain here. Rain, rain, rain.
Awww... That looks like Hobbes!!
Good morning.
I slept in.
It seems I’m getting dressed in very slow stages.
It’s 29° out.
I’m not going anywhere this day, unless I absolutely, positively, matter-of-life-and-death have to.
I hate when I sleep in... The entire day goes sideways.
Good morning. It’s pouring here. It would be nice if we could all catball the day away, but I don’t see it.
Nope. Catballing won’t get the cows milked. Or the books packed.
I got side-tracked by a couple of uplifting talks, so I apologize for not being more attentive.
In a few minutes, I’ll pack some books because I have to. I’m also going to toss several of the smaller boxes that Kate gave me. They’re just in the way, and won’t hold enough. Perhaps if I had a lot of food storage like she did, it might be a different story. For the most part, I have enough boxes of the right sizes for the rest of the packing.
One should have as many uplifting talks as it takes to get the day going. I plan to get back to Bible reading after I write the Special Animal Friend column. I’ve assigned James a research project to answer a question from one of my readers about neighborhood bird and bat habitats. It made him grumpy, but if he doesn’t want to do some academic activity involving wildlife, he can call the Army or Marines recruiter.
Yes, I think calling the Army or Marines recruiter would be a very good research project, and he might also call the Navy.
I have no idea what wildlife is common in this area, and I have no clue where to look for the info.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m92joTzmSCo
Today’s special animal friend is the giraffe, because some days call for charismatic megafauna. One common species is the Masai giraffe, Giraffa tippelskirchi. “What!?” you may be saying. “I thought Giraffa camelopardis included all the giraffes, and the other taxa were subspecies!” So did I, but the book about large, hoofed animals that I read to Daughter D a few years ago was out of date. Genetic research has upended biological taxonomy, and giraffes are no exception.
The most recent genetic studies indicate more species and fewer subspecies. (There is some dispute among scientists on the details.) For more information on the studies, see https://giraffeconservation.org/. There is also a nice chart at the Wikipedia article on “Giraffe,” breaking down the different classification possibilities.
There are about 35,000 Masai giraffes in the wild. They are found mainly in Tanzania and Kenya and are the largest – not most numerous – of the giraffe species. The tallest known male was 19.3 feet tall, and the tallest recorded female was 17 feet tall. The Masai giraffe is the tallest land animal on earth. A male’s average weight is over 2,500 lbs., and the heaviest recorded is 4,250 lbs. (females: 1,825 avg./2,600 heaviest). Really, really big.
The front and back legs are about the same length. What appears to be their knee is actually a carpus joint, similar to our wrists. The legs are strengthened by suspensory ligaments to support the body weight. Giraffes have two gaits, walking and galloping. When walking, the two legs on one side move at the same time, followed by the two legs on the other side. When galloping, the rear legs reach forward of the front feet before the latter move forward again. Movements of the head and neck maintain balance and control momentum when galloping. Their top speed has been measured at 37 mph, and they can maintain a speed over 30 mph for several kilometers.
A selection of cool giraffe facts:
The long neck (up to 7.9 feet) has the same number of vertebrae as those of smaller ungulates, but the vertebrae are much larger. Vertebrae are up to 11 inches long and are connected by ball-and-socket joints.The survival advantage of the long neck is disputed by scientists.
Each giraffe has a unique pattern of dark and light areas which is recognizable to others in its family/herd. The patterns are believed to aid in thermoregulation, as some areas allow more heat to dissipate through the skin.
The giraffe’s tongue is up to 18 inches long and extremely tough, allowing the animal to feed on prickly leaves and thorny branches.
Giraffes’ skin is gray, under the fir, and very thick, allowing the animal to run through forest and scrub without injury. The fur contains at least 11 different aromatic chemicals, some of which serve as deterrents to parasites such as ticks, while others may relate to mating.
I could go on about these astounding animals. Please take some time – for your own mental health! – to look up more about these animal friends! As a group, giraffes are considered Vulnerable by conservationists. The Masai giraffe is endangered. Major threats include habitat loss and hunting to reduce competition with domestic herds as well as for “bushmeat.”
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