Tag Archives: asteroids

The Bad Luck of Extinction

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Bad genes or bad luck? That’s the subtitle of Extinction,  David Raup’s romp through Earth history from his viewpoint as a preeminent palaeontologist. Raup (along with colleague Jack Sepkoski) became somewhat well known for their theory that extinctions occur in … Continue reading →

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Sunday, September 7, 2014: Will it be Armageddon Day?

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Ron Miksha

This Sunday, nature is throwing an unexpected surprise our way. Scientists have just discovered that an asteroid the size of a house will narrowly miss striking the Earth. If it should hit us, it would almost certainly spoil your weekend. … 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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Kickstarting Tectonics

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Ron Miksha

The Mountain Mystery. tells the story of how (most) geologists and geophysicists finally agreed that plate tectonics moves the continents, opens ocean basins, and scrunches crust into mountains. But what started the tectonic motion? Most of us assume that the scheme … Continue reading →

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