Category Archives: Climate

100 Years of Drift: Part 2

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Ron Miksha

It’s been 100 years since Alfred Wegener proposed his idea of continental drift. Today’s blog continues the story we began yesterday – the tale of Wegener’s life and the development of his grand idea of mobile continents. This time, we’ll … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Geology, History | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hiding Rising Seas in Sunken Deserts

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Ron Miksha

This weekend, a friend asked me if the rise in the oceans could be drained off into the world’s below-sea-level depressions. Could rising ocean waters be diverted to fill the Dead Sea and Death Valley Depressions, for example? It seems … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Engineering, Environment, Oceans | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

200 Years of Volcanic Legacy

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Ron Miksha

I am rather pleased when my favourite non-science journal explains a bit of science – and gets it right! I’ve been reading The Economist ever since I discovered the world, and the magazine has seldom let me down. Here is … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Culture, Geology | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Ethical De-extinction

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Ron Miksha

A South Korean biotech firm pulled blood from a frozen female Siberian wooly mammoth. Found on an arctic island in the East Siberian Sea, the creature is the best preserved mammoth ever discovered. When she was dug out of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Culture, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ghosts of Christmas Cold

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Ron Miksha

What would a modern Christmas be without Charles Dickens? For a lot of Canadians, Americans, and Brits, Dickens’ Christmas Carol is nearly the apex of Christmas culture: the story of a greedy bitter miserly capitalist whose nightmares awaken the spirit … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Culture | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Catastrophic Floods

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Ron Miksha

An interesting blog posting, Catastrophic History, produced on the website The Not So Solid Earth, makes the point that much of future archeology will be marine archeology. During the last ice age, a lot of sea water was captured in … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Culture, History, Oceans, The Book | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Age of Man?

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Well, this is not the Age of Aquarius. Last week, geologists met in Berlin to discuss  renaming our current geological epoch – the Holocene. They say it began when the ice age ended, 11,700 years ago. The geologists in Berlin … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Culture, Oceans, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hot Ash

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Yesterday’s news out of Japan was the unexpected eruption of a volcano. Hikers – some of them weekend strollers taking pictures of fall colours – were overtaken when the sleeping volcano expelled its nasty breath. Witnesses said that they thought … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, History, Religion | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Mud Flood

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Mud at 100 kilometres an hour? It happens. Mount Shasta, in northern California, let loose this afternoon with one heck of a mud flood, apparently caused by a sudden melt of one of its glaciers. Probably not at a hundred … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment