Category Archives: Exploration

The Audacity of Exploration

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Originally posted on Write Science:
by Shane L. Larson We are perhaps the most audacious species to ever inhabit the Earth. Our audacity is not defined by our weird physical features (as perhaps defines our cousin the duck-billed platypus), nor…

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We Love Comets… but it wasn’t always that way

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Ron Miksha

So, today we kissed a comet. Many of us shared the excitement of the European Space Agency’s successful landing. Something built on the Earth is now sitting on a comet, traveling at 135,000 kilometres an hour, heading towards an even … Continue reading →

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Russia’s Growing Pains

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Russia plans to grow. It may do this by annexing 1.2 million square kilometres of Arctic Ocean. That’s a piece of Earth more than twice the current size of the Ukraine. This includes the North Pole. And potentially a lot … Continue reading →

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Shutting Down the Plumes?

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Near an Indian Ocean island that regularly exhausts smoke and lava, a group of scientists are trying to unravel one of the great mysteries of the Earth. Their riddle involves the planet’s largest basalt field, dinosaur extinction, and the birth … Continue reading →

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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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Oklahoma – An Earthquake Hot Spot?

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Ron Miksha

When we think of American earthquakes, we think of California where the huge plates of the San Andreas are slip-sliding past each other. Or maybe the south coast of Alaska, near the subduction zone that formed the Aleutian and Kuril … Continue reading →

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Searching for Haida Gwaii

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Haida Gwaii. Totem poles and sea mist shroud the west coast islands of Canada. Rain is occasionally heavy enough to drown a duck. (30 cm a day is possible.) Or maybe the ducks drown in the tsunamis – earthquakes give … Continue reading →

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Columbus rides again

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Ron Miksha

    It seems the Santa Maria has been found. Marine archaeologist Barry Clifford and his team believe they have found the sunken vessel. Columbus left Europe in August, 1492, with three ships – La Pinta, La Nina, and Santa Maria, … Continue reading →

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The Dustbowl Oceanographer’s Birthday

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Ron Miksha

William Maurice Ewing was a Texas farmboy from the state’s desert panhandle. Somehow he became one of America’s greatest oceanographers. Today we remember his birthday (May 12, 1906) and remember a bit about what he did for the study of … Continue reading →

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