Monthly Archives: August 2014

The Old Bird Sits Up

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Readers of this blog know that I have sometimes pointed at Emperor Lord Kelvin’s fragile suit of clothing. Although his early life was crammed with brilliant science, he was a fumbling troglodyte by age 50.  He became resistant to scientific … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, How Geophysics Works, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Conversation with the Earth

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Ron Miksha

How many of us recognize the most important moment in our career? The instant when you realize exactly what you should work on, even if you don’t know where that might lead. It happened to a young theoretical physicist. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, History, People, Philosophy, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

A Bad Day at the Beach

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Today marks the death of Gaius Plinius Secundus, aka Pliny the Elder. He died along with 20,000 of his friends and neighbors. On August 24, 79, Mount Vesuvius exploded and Pompeii and Herculaneum were no more. From the book, The … Continue reading →

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Earth Rising

Posted on August 23, 2014 by Ron Miksha

I was a child when the first photograph of the Earth, as seen from orbit around the Moon, arrived at NASA. Lunar Orbiter 1 was up there, scouting places for a future landing party of American astronauts. As an afterthought, … Continue reading →

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Dry Rising Crust

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Dry, rising crust? No, not the morning toast coming up.  A paper released today by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows that the American southwest, in the grips of a “once-in-a-century” drought, is rising because groundwater which normally keeps … Continue reading →

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Chile Shaking. . . it will happen again, of course

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Earlier this week, geophysicists reported an analysis of the April 1, 2014, Chilean earthquake which killed six and displaced tens of thousands close to the epicenter near the Peru border. They said the new study is yielding information which may … Continue reading →

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Who’s Got Mantle?

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Ron Miksha

NASA has reprocessed the Apollo missions’ old lunar seismic data. The data is from 1969 through 1977, the latter being recorded by equipment still active long after the last astronaut went home. This is old seismic data. Reprocessed, it tells … Continue reading →

Posted in History, How Geophysics Works, Space | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Who gave Santa all that Oil?

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Ron Miksha

This weekend Russia announced that the world’s most northerly oil well was about to spud.  Vladimir Putin did the actual announcing himself from his summer vacation palace in Sochi. (He is the guy behind the big desk, above.) He was … Continue reading →

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All Aboard the Barracuda

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Maurice Ewing was a Texas-panhandle farm boy,  became a geophysicist, and then and oceanographer. He conducted the first marine seismic acquisition, inventing the equipment he needed as he sailed the oceans. I find it odd that a lad from the … Continue reading →

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Zero Degrees of Kelvin

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Ron Miksha

My book, The Mountain Mystery, is not kind to the great physicist Lord Kelvin. I feel a bit uneasy admitting that in my research on the brilliant fellow, I just could not get comfortable. I wouldn’t have been his friend. … Continue reading →

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