As you've probably heard by now, there was a 5.8 earthquake that struck in rural Virginia, southwest of Washington DC, on August 23rd. You can read more details about the event here, via Yahoo! News.
Here in California, a 5.8 might only be cause for some dinner conversation. Back East, though, earthquakes work a little differently....
Naturally, we see a lot more earthquakes through California than they see elsewhere in the country. This is because we sit astride the San Andreas fault system, one of the largest and most active tectonic boundaries in the world. That doesnt mean that other parts of the country are "earthquake-free", though. Fault systems of various sizes exist pretty much throughout the United States. In the Midwest, for example, the New Madrid fault system runs through southern Missouri, and had a major earthquake in the early 19th century.
Many fault systems run along the eastern seaboard. Though not as active today as the faults along the West Coast, hundreds of millions of years ago these faults were created when what is now Africa collided with North America, pushing up the Appalachian mountains, which at the time may have rivaled the Himalays in height. Though those mountains have eroded over time to the modest heights they have today, some of those faults created still remain, and do still occasionally trigger earthquakes.
When an earthquake occurs along the East Coast, it moves through the ground differently than it does here. The ground in California is riddled with fault lines of all sizes, cracked like a broken windshield. The bedrock along the East Coast is much less broken-up, with time and heat and pressure sealing many old fault lines and annealing the bedrock together.
When a vibration, like an earthquake, travels through the ground in California, it's like trying to ring a cracked bell; the vibration doesnt travel very well, or very far. Along the East Coast, however, the bedrock is more like a solid bell, and when an earthquake "rings" that bell, the vibration can travel much farther, which is why such a relatively small quake was still felt from Georgia to Toronto.
The Easter quake of 2010 near El Centro (magnitude 7.2) released about 25 times as much energy as yesterday's Virginia quake. The Japanese quake (9.0) released over 1500 times as much energy. Fortunately, though, it looks like the most that the Virginia quake did was rattle the nerves of some Easterners who arent used to a little temblor now and then :)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Earthquake and Tsunami Facts
Last night, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake hit off the northeast coast of Japan, causing widespread damage and triggering a tsunami reported up to 23 feet in height. You can read more about the earthquake and its effects on Japan in this article from Yahoo! News.
While California seems to have avoided any significant tsunami threat from this earthquake, you may be wondering if something like this could ever happen somewhere near us. Here are some common questions about earthquakes and tsunamis that you might like to know:
What is a tsunami?
Tsunami is japanese for "Harbor Wave". Tsunami is the preferred term over "tidal wave", as tsunamis have nothing to do with the daily cycle of tides. However, while many people might still envision a tsunami as a giant, cresting breaker crashing onto the shore, when it hits land it behaves much more like a very high "tide", where the water level rises significantly and rushes inland, then ebbs back out. Tsunamis are also immediately preceded by an extreme drop in the ocean level, much like a very low "tide".
Tsunamis are caused when the sea floor shifts upwards, like during an earthquake, and raises up all the water above it. This "bump" of water spreads outwards in all directions and becomes a tsunami. Normal waves are caused by wind and only flow a few dozen feet deep, while tsunamis move through the entire depth of the ocean. They may only be a few inches in height in the open ocean, but as they approach shore and the ocean shallows, the energy gets concentrated and the height of the wave increases.
How do tsunami detectors work?
Since only tsunami waves can be felt at the bottom of the ocean, tsunami sensors are sunk down to the sea floor. Any time they notice a change in pressure, they send a signal to monitoring centers. If it's just a fish swimming too close, then no other sensors will go off - but if many sensors all start detecting the same thing, the tsunami can be tracked as it progresses through the ocean.
Tsunamis can travel very fast through the open water, as fast as a commercial jetliner flies. Seismologists tracking a tsunami can make fairly accurate predictions as to when it will hit land at any given point, but predicting the intensity of a tsunami is less accurate, since many factors such as the shape and topography of the coastline can play a role in tsunami behavior once it hits land.
How big was the quake?
The magnitude is currently being reported at 8.9, which places it among the top 5 magnitude earthquakes since 1900. The magnitude measures the amount of energy released by an earthquake, similar to how we measure atomic blasts. Each full point on the scale represents a tenfold increase in the energy of an earthquake. The energy of the Japanese quake was over 100 times that of the Northridge quake, measured at magnitude 6.8.
Many people commonly believe that the magnitude given is measured on the Richter scale, but this is no longer true; sesimologists now use the similar but more accurate moment magnitude scale. The Richter scale becomes less accurate when measuring extremely powerful earthquakes like the one experienced in Japan.
Can we have a similar earthquake in California?
Based on our current understanding of seismology, the biggest quake we ever expect along the San Andreas and related faults is somewhere in the low 8 magnitude range, significantly less energetic than the Japanese quake. California's fault system is a strike-slip system, where two tectonic plates move side-by-side. Japan, and other areas like the west coast of South America and Indonesia, lie over subduction zone systems, where one plate lies on top of another. This "double-stacked" arrangement of tectonic plates places much more weight and pressure along the faultline, allowing much deeper and more powerful earthquakes to build up.
Strike-slip systems also have a lower risk of triggering catastrophic tsunamis. Since the plates are moving side-to-side, not up-and-down, submarine earthquakes will disturb the ocean less.
The biggest earthquakes ever recorded - 9.5 in Chile, 9.3 in Sumatra, 9.2 in Alaska, and other similar earthquakes - all occur within subduction zone systems.
What happens when a big earthquake does hit us?
Despite the death and destruction this earthquake and tsunami did cause along the Japanese coastline, things could have been a lot worse. Japan is one of the most densely populated areas of the world, over 3.5 times as densely populated as California. The current death toll numbers being reported are over 10,000; compare this to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis that claimed over 200,000 lives, or the 2010 Haiti earthquake that claimed over 300,000. Sadly, the greatest danger from major seismic events, it turns out, is poverty and ignorance.
Building codes in developed countries such as Japan, the US or Mexico ensure that buildings can safely withstand most earthquakes they might experience. These codes and standards are updated with new knowledge gained in every major quake, and have led to a general decrease in the fatality rate for every major earthquake, from over 3000 in the 1906 San Francisco quake to just 4 in the 2010 Easter Sunday quake. Countries without well-enforced building codes, such as Haiti or Indonesia, suffer much greater loss of property and life.
Tsunamis - incredibly destructive and impossible to stop - are much more dangerous due to the dual threat of flooding and physical damage. Much like a tornado, most of the damage is not caused by the water itself, but by all the churning debris it carries. Loose objects such as cars, or weak buildings like sheds and garages, can be easily swept up, but stronger buildings with good foundations can withstand the tsunami. The destruction is limited to the height of the tsunami, so anyone caught in it can make it to safety just by getting above the top of the flood, by heading for high ground or to the second or third floor of a building.
While California seems to have avoided any significant tsunami threat from this earthquake, you may be wondering if something like this could ever happen somewhere near us. Here are some common questions about earthquakes and tsunamis that you might like to know:
What is a tsunami?
Tsunami is japanese for "Harbor Wave". Tsunami is the preferred term over "tidal wave", as tsunamis have nothing to do with the daily cycle of tides. However, while many people might still envision a tsunami as a giant, cresting breaker crashing onto the shore, when it hits land it behaves much more like a very high "tide", where the water level rises significantly and rushes inland, then ebbs back out. Tsunamis are also immediately preceded by an extreme drop in the ocean level, much like a very low "tide".
Tsunamis are caused when the sea floor shifts upwards, like during an earthquake, and raises up all the water above it. This "bump" of water spreads outwards in all directions and becomes a tsunami. Normal waves are caused by wind and only flow a few dozen feet deep, while tsunamis move through the entire depth of the ocean. They may only be a few inches in height in the open ocean, but as they approach shore and the ocean shallows, the energy gets concentrated and the height of the wave increases.
How do tsunami detectors work?
Since only tsunami waves can be felt at the bottom of the ocean, tsunami sensors are sunk down to the sea floor. Any time they notice a change in pressure, they send a signal to monitoring centers. If it's just a fish swimming too close, then no other sensors will go off - but if many sensors all start detecting the same thing, the tsunami can be tracked as it progresses through the ocean.
Tsunamis can travel very fast through the open water, as fast as a commercial jetliner flies. Seismologists tracking a tsunami can make fairly accurate predictions as to when it will hit land at any given point, but predicting the intensity of a tsunami is less accurate, since many factors such as the shape and topography of the coastline can play a role in tsunami behavior once it hits land.
How big was the quake?
The magnitude is currently being reported at 8.9, which places it among the top 5 magnitude earthquakes since 1900. The magnitude measures the amount of energy released by an earthquake, similar to how we measure atomic blasts. Each full point on the scale represents a tenfold increase in the energy of an earthquake. The energy of the Japanese quake was over 100 times that of the Northridge quake, measured at magnitude 6.8.
Many people commonly believe that the magnitude given is measured on the Richter scale, but this is no longer true; sesimologists now use the similar but more accurate moment magnitude scale. The Richter scale becomes less accurate when measuring extremely powerful earthquakes like the one experienced in Japan.
Can we have a similar earthquake in California?
Based on our current understanding of seismology, the biggest quake we ever expect along the San Andreas and related faults is somewhere in the low 8 magnitude range, significantly less energetic than the Japanese quake. California's fault system is a strike-slip system, where two tectonic plates move side-by-side. Japan, and other areas like the west coast of South America and Indonesia, lie over subduction zone systems, where one plate lies on top of another. This "double-stacked" arrangement of tectonic plates places much more weight and pressure along the faultline, allowing much deeper and more powerful earthquakes to build up.
Strike-slip systems also have a lower risk of triggering catastrophic tsunamis. Since the plates are moving side-to-side, not up-and-down, submarine earthquakes will disturb the ocean less.
The biggest earthquakes ever recorded - 9.5 in Chile, 9.3 in Sumatra, 9.2 in Alaska, and other similar earthquakes - all occur within subduction zone systems.
What happens when a big earthquake does hit us?
Despite the death and destruction this earthquake and tsunami did cause along the Japanese coastline, things could have been a lot worse. Japan is one of the most densely populated areas of the world, over 3.5 times as densely populated as California. The current death toll numbers being reported are over 10,000; compare this to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis that claimed over 200,000 lives, or the 2010 Haiti earthquake that claimed over 300,000. Sadly, the greatest danger from major seismic events, it turns out, is poverty and ignorance.
Building codes in developed countries such as Japan, the US or Mexico ensure that buildings can safely withstand most earthquakes they might experience. These codes and standards are updated with new knowledge gained in every major quake, and have led to a general decrease in the fatality rate for every major earthquake, from over 3000 in the 1906 San Francisco quake to just 4 in the 2010 Easter Sunday quake. Countries without well-enforced building codes, such as Haiti or Indonesia, suffer much greater loss of property and life.
Tsunamis - incredibly destructive and impossible to stop - are much more dangerous due to the dual threat of flooding and physical damage. Much like a tornado, most of the damage is not caused by the water itself, but by all the churning debris it carries. Loose objects such as cars, or weak buildings like sheds and garages, can be easily swept up, but stronger buildings with good foundations can withstand the tsunami. The destruction is limited to the height of the tsunami, so anyone caught in it can make it to safety just by getting above the top of the flood, by heading for high ground or to the second or third floor of a building.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Helloooo Dolly!
The Western Science Center strutted and swayed their way to 2nd place for the 2nd year in a row at the Annual Soboba Casino Lip Sync Contest! The Western Science Center brought home the $1,500 2nd place award with a rousing and hilarious performance of a scene from Barbara Streisand's classic musical Hello Dolly played by staff members, Peter Klienpass, Sue Tatosian, and Jethro Brown, as well as museum volunteers Tom and Jo Jones, and Amy Ledbetter.
With representatives from organizations such as Our Nicholas Foundation, The American Cancer Society, San Jacinto Education Foundation and the Veterans Alliance Group, this annual competition presented by Soboba Casino supports local Nonprofit Organizations in a fun and fabulous way!
We're already planning for next year!
With representatives from organizations such as Our Nicholas Foundation, The American Cancer Society, San Jacinto Education Foundation and the Veterans Alliance Group, this annual competition presented by Soboba Casino supports local Nonprofit Organizations in a fun and fabulous way!
We're already planning for next year!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wildlife Runs Wild at WSC!
Summer is here, and at the WSC, the wildlife is active all day long. Our location along the edge of the Southwestern Riverside County Multi-Species Preserve means we enjoy all the benefits - and drawbacks - of having Nature as our next-door neighbor!
While we do have to endure the occasional invasion of the museum by the likes of the Chapparal Whipsnake or Wolf Spider, we also get to enjoy the many species of birds and mammals that call the DVL area their home. In the dawn or sunset hours, visitors might see a family of Desert Cottontails or a Black-tailed Jack Rabbit. Many ground-nesting birds have settled down in the bushes near the WSC, including Mourning Doves and several families of California Quail, and their distinctive calls can be clearly heard in the morningtime. The nearby lake attracts waterfowl like Killdeer, and even bald eagles have been reportedly seen nearby, though they've likely flown north until cooler weather returns later this year.
The WSC is also playing host to a small flock of Cliff Swallows, who have made themselves at home under the alcove at the south end of the building. San Juan Capistrano can eat its heart out, because you can come view this active swallow colony right here in the Inland Empire! These fascinating birds build nests out of mud that attach to cliffs and overhangs, and they're constantly active around them, moving in and out and around - it's amazing to see their aerial agility. Below are some pictures of the nests, courtesy of Larry Knoepfel at the DVL Visitor's Center. If you're here to visit anytime soon, make sure to take a stroll south down the path towards the Simulated Dig Site, and tell these red-throated beauties hello!
DJ
While we do have to endure the occasional invasion of the museum by the likes of the Chapparal Whipsnake or Wolf Spider, we also get to enjoy the many species of birds and mammals that call the DVL area their home. In the dawn or sunset hours, visitors might see a family of Desert Cottontails or a Black-tailed Jack Rabbit. Many ground-nesting birds have settled down in the bushes near the WSC, including Mourning Doves and several families of California Quail, and their distinctive calls can be clearly heard in the morningtime. The nearby lake attracts waterfowl like Killdeer, and even bald eagles have been reportedly seen nearby, though they've likely flown north until cooler weather returns later this year.
The WSC is also playing host to a small flock of Cliff Swallows, who have made themselves at home under the alcove at the south end of the building. San Juan Capistrano can eat its heart out, because you can come view this active swallow colony right here in the Inland Empire! These fascinating birds build nests out of mud that attach to cliffs and overhangs, and they're constantly active around them, moving in and out and around - it's amazing to see their aerial agility. Below are some pictures of the nests, courtesy of Larry Knoepfel at the DVL Visitor's Center. If you're here to visit anytime soon, make sure to take a stroll south down the path towards the Simulated Dig Site, and tell these red-throated beauties hello!
DJ
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Space Spot!
We are back with a bang. A Big Bang! The Space Spot, the latest exhibition at the Western Science Center, opened May 28! The Space Spot allows visitors to discover astronomy with fun interactive exhibits that bring the stars, constellations and planets down into your hands! This fantastic exhibit was put together by the Pacific Science Center in Seattle Washington, and they traveled down to help us with the install.
Trucks arrived from Georgia at 7:00 am to unload the traveling exhibit. With in a few hours we were unpacked and placing the stations in thier new spots. We were quickly able to see how exciting this exhibit was really going to be! After a long day of extension cords and finishing touches we turned on the stars, inflated the planetarium, and opened The Space Spot!
DA
Trucks arrived from Georgia at 7:00 am to unload the traveling exhibit. With in a few hours we were unpacked and placing the stations in thier new spots. We were quickly able to see how exciting this exhibit was really going to be! After a long day of extension cords and finishing touches we turned on the stars, inflated the planetarium, and opened The Space Spot!
DA
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
New developments in Ice Age climate research
Mega-flood Triggered Cooling 13,000 Years Ago
From Yahoo! News
There's been an interesting development in our understanding of the changes in the climate at the end of the Pleistocene era; more evidence to point to the draining of a massive Canadian lake at the end of the Ice Age, which triggered a short but sharp global cold period called the Younger Dryas.
This cooling event was critically important, as the period that immediately followed - the Holocene - marked the development and spread of modern humans. Some anthropologists have speculated that the environmental stresses of the Younger Dryas, which led to cooler, drier conditions globally, forced previously nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to settle and develop agriculture, one of the key milestones in the development of civilization.
What caused this unusual centuries-long cold snap has been debated in the scientific community. One theory, that this study has found physical evidence to support, is that a massive lake in North America drained into the Atlantic, flooding it with fresh water and shutting down the "thermohaline convection belt" (thermo- meaning heat, -haline meaning salt). This is an ocean current that carries warm water from the Equator along the surface to the North Atlantic, where it freezes into freshwater ice. The remaining cold water, laden with excess salt, sinks to the bottom and returns south to the Equator. This convection circuit is very important for Europe, as it carries heat from the tropics that keeps Europe warmer than other landmasses at the same latitude.
What could stop a whole ocean from circulating? It would take a lot of fresh water to dilute the entire North Atlantic enough to halt thermohaline convection. Lake Agassiz, a huge inland lake formed by the melting of the North American ice sheets towards the end of the Ice Age, had an awful lot of fresh water. Take a look (from UCAR):
It's hard to imagine lakes as big as the ones that can form only after a global ice age. Agassiz was a lake that could submerge the entire United Kingdom. It held more fresh water alone than all the current lakes in the world put together. And, around 11,000 years ago, this new study shows, that fresh water drained from central Canada to the ocean, shutting down thermohaline convection and chilling the world's climate.
What's even more interesting is that this study discovers a new twist: the water didnt drain down the St. Lawrence Seaway, which heads through the Great Lakes and down the St Lawrence River to its mouth north of Maine, as first thought, but rather down the Mackenzie River, north to Canada's Arctic Sea coast near Alaska.
One can hardly imagine the cataclysm that must have occurred in Northwest Canada, millenia ago, when this "mega-flood" first roared down the Mackenzie to the sea.
DJ
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Simulated Dig Site
With help from our friend Justin Jones at Watermoore Imagery and the students of MSJC's Anthropology 205, the Western Science Center's Simulated Dig Site makes its video premiere!
The dig site education project is supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Out with the bugs, in with the new
Our new traveling exhibit, Sustainable Choices, opens on Jan. 22 and runs through Mother's Day Weekend. It's a terrific and informative exhibit on the ecological implications of the choices you make in day-to-day life, and a wonderful addition to our role as one of Southern California's premiere science education institutions.
There weren't any 12-foot robot bugs to install this time, so we were able to complete installation quickly once Backyard Monsters was on its way. The exhibit features several information panels on themes such as laundry, electricity, transportation, shopping, and bathing - each one providing quick facts and figures about how the choices we make affect the sustainability of natural resources. There are also several interactive exhibits that help bring these ideas to life. You can even plant a seed to bring home and grow!
Our exhibit space also gave us the opportunity to supplement the standard Sustainable Choices exhibit with some fascinating information about the Western Center campus - one of the most eco-friendly museums in the country. If you've ever wondered what our LEED Platinum rating really means, you'll be surprised to find out just how many intriguing and creative ideas went into the design and construction of our buildings - and you can see it as it came to life, through photos from the Water + Life Campus' construction.
Our new traveling exhibit, Sustainable Choices, opens on Jan. 22 and runs through Mother's Day Weekend. It's a terrific and informative exhibit on the ecological implications of the choices you make in day-to-day life, and a wonderful addition to our role as one of Southern California's premiere science education institutions.
There weren't any 12-foot robot bugs to install this time, so we were able to complete installation quickly once Backyard Monsters was on its way. The exhibit features several information panels on themes such as laundry, electricity, transportation, shopping, and bathing - each one providing quick facts and figures about how the choices we make affect the sustainability of natural resources. There are also several interactive exhibits that help bring these ideas to life. You can even plant a seed to bring home and grow!
Our exhibit space also gave us the opportunity to supplement the standard Sustainable Choices exhibit with some fascinating information about the Western Center campus - one of the most eco-friendly museums in the country. If you've ever wondered what our LEED Platinum rating really means, you'll be surprised to find out just how many intriguing and creative ideas went into the design and construction of our buildings - and you can see it as it came to life, through photos from the Water + Life Campus' construction.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Old Fashioned Holiday
The Western Science Center, in conjunction with the Diamond Valley Lake Visitor's Center, opened its doors to the community to usher in an "Old Fashioned Holiday". Visitors young and old explored the museum, took pictures with Santa and had a hand at our holiday crafts. 
The Western Science Center, in conjunction with the Diamond Valley Lake Visitor's Center, opened its doors to the community to usher in an "Old Fashioned Holiday". Visitors young and old explored the museum, took pictures with Santa and had a hand at our holiday crafts. It was a great event and we hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!
DA
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Atom smasher catches 1st high-energy collisions (from Yahoo! News)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_sc/eu_big_bang_machine
Its a big day in the world of subatomic physics. CERN's Large Hadron Collider, located in Geneva, Switzerland, had its first successful collision. This marks the first major functioning milestone for the reactor, the successful end of a long and interesting journey rife with enough political intrigue and technical miracles to fill a season of The West Wing and Star Trek.
The mere existence of the LHC is remarkable in itself. At a cost of about $9 billion (the same amount as the largest check ever written), its the most expensive scientific experiment in history. It's also, naturally, the largest particle accelerator ever built - a huge metal doughnut 17 miles around, kept at a vacuum so powerful that there is actually more air in interplanetary space than there is within the LHC.
All 9300 of its superconducting magnets are kept at a temperature colder than outer space, while the energies of the collisions produce temperatures 100,000 times that of the core of the Sun.
The initial test collision accelerated protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV (1.18 trillion electron volts), edging out the previous record of 0.98 TeV. 1 TeV is about the energy of a mosquito flying - but all packed down into the size of a proton. When fully charged, the LHC can achieve a remarkable collision energy of 14 TeV - allowing scientists for the first time to recreate the conditions jsut moments after the Big Bang.
One thing scientists are hoping to discover is the Higgs Boson, an elusive little subatomic particle first predicted in the 1960s - the particle that gives things mass. The physicists at the LHC hope, to oversimply it, to smash together protons so hard that they knock the very mass out of them.
There still remains several obstacles for the scientists of CERN to overcome before they can achieve that goal. The technical precision needed to handle the unfathomable energies of the LHC means that they have zero room for error or variance, and the technology has already failed several times, even at "low" energies. Some people even worried that the massive energies of the collisions would create tiny black holes (dont worry, even the LHC doesnt nearly approach the energies you'd need to crunch a proton down THAT much). But for now, we can celebrate a success in one of the latest great undertakings of Big Science.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_sc/eu_big_bang_machine
Its a big day in the world of subatomic physics. CERN's Large Hadron Collider, located in Geneva, Switzerland, had its first successful collision. This marks the first major functioning milestone for the reactor, the successful end of a long and interesting journey rife with enough political intrigue and technical miracles to fill a season of The West Wing and Star Trek.
The mere existence of the LHC is remarkable in itself. At a cost of about $9 billion (the same amount as the largest check ever written), its the most expensive scientific experiment in history. It's also, naturally, the largest particle accelerator ever built - a huge metal doughnut 17 miles around, kept at a vacuum so powerful that there is actually more air in interplanetary space than there is within the LHC.
All 9300 of its superconducting magnets are kept at a temperature colder than outer space, while the energies of the collisions produce temperatures 100,000 times that of the core of the Sun.
The initial test collision accelerated protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV (1.18 trillion electron volts), edging out the previous record of 0.98 TeV. 1 TeV is about the energy of a mosquito flying - but all packed down into the size of a proton. When fully charged, the LHC can achieve a remarkable collision energy of 14 TeV - allowing scientists for the first time to recreate the conditions jsut moments after the Big Bang.
One thing scientists are hoping to discover is the Higgs Boson, an elusive little subatomic particle first predicted in the 1960s - the particle that gives things mass. The physicists at the LHC hope, to oversimply it, to smash together protons so hard that they knock the very mass out of them.
There still remains several obstacles for the scientists of CERN to overcome before they can achieve that goal. The technical precision needed to handle the unfathomable energies of the LHC means that they have zero room for error or variance, and the technology has already failed several times, even at "low" energies. Some people even worried that the massive energies of the collisions would create tiny black holes (dont worry, even the LHC doesnt nearly approach the energies you'd need to crunch a proton down THAT much). But for now, we can celebrate a success in one of the latest great undertakings of Big Science.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Honoring America's Heroes
With the help of the VFW and the Hemet Fire Department, the Western Science Center proudly raised our new flag over the campus on November 10, 2009. The flag, flown over the United States Capitol on October 15, 2009, was provided by the Honorable Mary Bono Mack of the US House of Representatives.Set at half mast in rememberance of our nation's recent tragedy at Fort Hood, the Western Science Center flag will be raised on Veteran's Day to honor those who have served our country.
This Veteran's Day, it is our honor to offer free admission to all veterans and active military.
DA
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A Goodbye to the "Father of Modern Anthroplogy"
October 31, 2009 anthropology lost one of its greatest contributors, Claude Levi-Strauss. At the age of 100, the "father of modern anthropology" quietly passed away in his Paris home. Levi-Strauss was a leading post-war intellectual who inspired academics in multiple fields with his studies in structuralism, and is the leading contributor to the structural anthropology school of thought.Defined as an approach to studying the structures and oppostions that make up human phenomenon, Levi-Strauss used strucutralism to analize myth, language, religion and food preparation of serval cultures. He proposed that all humans see things in binary opposites and that culture interpretes those opposites in a way that is unique and logical to its members. He went on to study commonalities between tribal and industrial communities, and a better understanding of universal human patterns of thought. With his research, Claude Levi-Strauss published some of the most influential academic works of the post-war era, including The Savage Mind, Tristes Tropiques and The Elemental Structures of Kinship.
A noted and respected author, teacher, and academic, Claude Levi-Strauss will be remebered for his great contributions to the study of anthropology and the humanities as a whole.
DA
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Megaquake in Seattle?
Megaquake Looms Over Seattle from Discovery News
Southern California isnt the only part of the US that lives in fear of a major earthquake. This new study suggests that a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest might occur much closer to major population centers in the Seattle area than previously thought. As Southern Californians, we all know what kind of dangers earthquakes can pose near major metropolises.
The Cascadia fault in Washington is a different type than the faults we have in Southern California. It's a thrust fault - where two continental plates are converging, and one slides underneath the other. As they grind along each other, they can produce earthquakes. In Southern California, our major faults are transform faults - where two plates are sliding past each other. Thrust faults typically generate deeper and more powerful earthquakes than transform faults - while the study estimates a 9.0 magnitude quake on the Cascadia fault, the largest that the San Andreas fault can support in this area is about 8.6, about 2.5x less energetic.
The Northridge earthquake of 1994 was also triggered along a much smaller thrust fault that ran underneath the Los Angeles area. Although that quake was only of moderate intensity (6.7 magnitude), it exemplifies the type of damage that an earthquake along a thrust fault can wreak near a major city.
This might actually be good news, though, for those not in the immediate earthquake area - the new "hot zone" for the fault has moved from offshore to under the Olympic peninsula. A suboceanic earthquake would pose a higher risk of generating devastating tsunamis that would propagate up and down the Pacific seaboard; the last major earthquake on the fault, around the year 1700, caused destructive tsunami waves that traveled as far away as Japan.
Southern California isnt the only part of the US that lives in fear of a major earthquake. This new study suggests that a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest might occur much closer to major population centers in the Seattle area than previously thought. As Southern Californians, we all know what kind of dangers earthquakes can pose near major metropolises.
The Cascadia fault in Washington is a different type than the faults we have in Southern California. It's a thrust fault - where two continental plates are converging, and one slides underneath the other. As they grind along each other, they can produce earthquakes. In Southern California, our major faults are transform faults - where two plates are sliding past each other. Thrust faults typically generate deeper and more powerful earthquakes than transform faults - while the study estimates a 9.0 magnitude quake on the Cascadia fault, the largest that the San Andreas fault can support in this area is about 8.6, about 2.5x less energetic.
The Northridge earthquake of 1994 was also triggered along a much smaller thrust fault that ran underneath the Los Angeles area. Although that quake was only of moderate intensity (6.7 magnitude), it exemplifies the type of damage that an earthquake along a thrust fault can wreak near a major city.
This might actually be good news, though, for those not in the immediate earthquake area - the new "hot zone" for the fault has moved from offshore to under the Olympic peninsula. A suboceanic earthquake would pose a higher risk of generating devastating tsunamis that would propagate up and down the Pacific seaboard; the last major earthquake on the fault, around the year 1700, caused destructive tsunami waves that traveled as far away as Japan.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Mammoth Discovery
Baby mammoth yields secrets after 40,000 years in Siberian Tundra
from the Times UK
A woolly mammoth was discovered in 2007 in the Arctic tundra, and is making news this week. What's truly fascinating about this is the age of the mammoth - only a month old when she died. She was amazingly well preserved, as well; the best-preserved woolly mammoth mummy yet found. Her eyes, her organs, even the food in her stomach were all preserved by the clay that trapped and suffocated her.
Scientists hope that this exceptional preservation will let them explore details that might shed new light on mammoth physiology and the changing environment of her times - about 40,000 years ago.
Lyuba is a woolly mammoth - different than the Colombian mammoths that inhabited the Diamond Valley area in the Pleistocene. They lived in colder, more northern, tundra-like environments, and grew the shaggy wool coat that gives them their name. Colombian mammoths inhabited more temperate lower-latitude grasslands, and while they had some hair, it was not the full, thick coat you see in Woolly mammoths.
One similarity between Lyuba and mammoths in this region, though, is how she was first found. She was discovered by a Siberian reindeer farmer, having eroded partway out of a riverbank. Similar finds pop up in Southern California every year - mammoth tusks or horse bones that may have lain under the surface for millenia, peeking out after a rainstorm or catching the toe of some lucky hiker passing by. Fortunately for paleontologists, the Siberian farmer got in contact with scientists before she was tampered with any more, and they were able to excavate Lyuba carefully to ensure this unique discovery will tell us all it can about the world of the woolly mammoth.
DJ
from the Times UK
A woolly mammoth was discovered in 2007 in the Arctic tundra, and is making news this week. What's truly fascinating about this is the age of the mammoth - only a month old when she died. She was amazingly well preserved, as well; the best-preserved woolly mammoth mummy yet found. Her eyes, her organs, even the food in her stomach were all preserved by the clay that trapped and suffocated her.
Scientists hope that this exceptional preservation will let them explore details that might shed new light on mammoth physiology and the changing environment of her times - about 40,000 years ago.
Lyuba is a woolly mammoth - different than the Colombian mammoths that inhabited the Diamond Valley area in the Pleistocene. They lived in colder, more northern, tundra-like environments, and grew the shaggy wool coat that gives them their name. Colombian mammoths inhabited more temperate lower-latitude grasslands, and while they had some hair, it was not the full, thick coat you see in Woolly mammoths.
One similarity between Lyuba and mammoths in this region, though, is how she was first found. She was discovered by a Siberian reindeer farmer, having eroded partway out of a riverbank. Similar finds pop up in Southern California every year - mammoth tusks or horse bones that may have lain under the surface for millenia, peeking out after a rainstorm or catching the toe of some lucky hiker passing by. Fortunately for paleontologists, the Siberian farmer got in contact with scientists before she was tampered with any more, and they were able to excavate Lyuba carefully to ensure this unique discovery will tell us all it can about the world of the woolly mammoth.
DJ
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Backyard Monsters!
The new exhibit is up! Backyard Monsters opened last Saturday, and even though it was a whirlwind installation, everything found a place and was up and operational in time. Getting the dragonfly hung in place was a particular challenge, but it was worth the effort and looks great, hovering over the entrance to the exhibit with its 10 foot wingspan.The exhibit really fills in the gallery with a lot of information and entertainment. The giant robot insects are impressive, of course - when we first turned them on, I was impressed by how nuanced and complex their movement was. They definitely are more than just bugs on a stick!
I was equally impressed by the diversity of the specimen collection. There are dozens of very impressive specimens of insects from all over the world. Beautiful, iridescent Morpho butterflies, spiny walking sticks almost as long as your arm, giant bees, and even bigger tropical beetles...the exhibit has just about every cool bug you can think of. It'll make you glad you live in Southern California, and dont ever have to worry about finding one on your pillow in the morning!The interactive exhibits have a lot of good information and really make it easy to understand how these bugs are put together and what makes them work.
The robobugs are lots of fun to play with, too!I think this exhibit is going to be a tremendous success here at the Western Center. The schoolkids that have been through the exhibit love it right away, and they're learning a lot as they go through. If you're close enough to make the drive to Hemet, we really hope you'll come out and visit, you cant really appreciate how impressive it is until you see it for yourself!
DJ
Monday, September 14, 2009
Anth 205
The Western Center is pleased to open its simulated dig site to the class of ANTH 205. The course, offered by Mt. San Jacinto College, focuses students on archaeological excavations. Anthropology professor Pam Ford, who is teaching the class, believes that "the simulated site is a unique opportunity for college students to learn excavation without damage to the archaeological record as well as to have fun in hands-on learning. The partnership between the college and the Western Center is a benefit to the entire community". The flagship class of 10 has met the required prerequisites and seems to be enthusiastically tackling the job at hand.
For more information please visit the Mt. San Jacito College website: www.msjc.edu or contact the Western Center for Archaeology & Paleontology at (951) 791-0033.
DA
For more information please visit the Mt. San Jacito College website: www.msjc.edu or contact the Western Center for Archaeology & Paleontology at (951) 791-0033.
DA
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Excavation Summer Camps
We once again put our Simulated Dig Site to use, this time for our Excavation Summer Camps. We offered week long archaeology and paleontology camps that gave middle school-aged students the opportunity to learn how to properly excavate, record and catalog artifacts as well as a chance at some hands-on dirty work. With Doug teaching the paleontology camp and Darla teaching the archaeology camp, we certainly had our hands full. We went through lots of water, sunscreen and snacks, and although the heat was not always on our side, we had a great turn out and the kids seemed to have a good time and they did a great job. We look forward to the continuation and growth of our excavation programs and hope to be offering adult excavation courses soon!
For more information please contact us at (951) 791-0033 or visit the website.
DA
For more information please contact us at (951) 791-0033 or visit the website.
DA
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Ask the Experts: How do you know the animals are extinct?
This is a very interesting question - how can we be sure that an animal is really extinct? How do we know there aren't still some lost mammoths - or even dinosaurs - hidden in a Lost World in some remote corner of the globe? Well, the most honest answer is we really can't ever be totally sure - but we can say that the chances of a species surviving are so amazingly slim that it would be virtually impossible to find one remaining.
That's not to say it still can't happen, though - and in fact it has, several times! Famously, in 1938, fishermen off the east coast of Africa caught a kind of fish, called a coelacanth, that scientists had thought went extinct with the dinosaurs. Other animals, like a certain type of ant and a certain type of shellfish, as well as several types of plants, have also been rediscovered by science after they were presumed long extinct. When a species or group reappears after disappearing from the fossil record for a long period, scientists call it a Lazarus taxon.
Still, its one thing to rediscover a type of ant, and another to rediscover a 12,000 pound mammoth. It might be possible to hide from scientists and explorers in the far recesses of inaccessible rainforest, or down in the deepest depths of the ocean, but mastodons and giant sloths roamed the same hills and plains and woodlands that humans visit and inhabit.
If they still exist somewhere, where is the evidence of them? Why do we suddenly stop finding bones and other evidence of Ice Age mammals at the end of the Pleistocene? Where could they have been hiding for the last 12,000 years? Even the very last mammoth bones we see anywhere on Earth, from remote and sheltered Wrangel Island in Siberia, are still at least 4000 years old - and those mammoths only managed to survive that long by changing dramatically.
In short, it always may be possible to discover a member of some Lost World in the remote Arctic or at the bottom of the sea. But the larger the animal, the less remote its natural habitat, and the longer its been since we stop finding evidence of it, the more certain we can be that it really has gone extinct.
DJ
That's not to say it still can't happen, though - and in fact it has, several times! Famously, in 1938, fishermen off the east coast of Africa caught a kind of fish, called a coelacanth, that scientists had thought went extinct with the dinosaurs. Other animals, like a certain type of ant and a certain type of shellfish, as well as several types of plants, have also been rediscovered by science after they were presumed long extinct. When a species or group reappears after disappearing from the fossil record for a long period, scientists call it a Lazarus taxon.
Still, its one thing to rediscover a type of ant, and another to rediscover a 12,000 pound mammoth. It might be possible to hide from scientists and explorers in the far recesses of inaccessible rainforest, or down in the deepest depths of the ocean, but mastodons and giant sloths roamed the same hills and plains and woodlands that humans visit and inhabit.
If they still exist somewhere, where is the evidence of them? Why do we suddenly stop finding bones and other evidence of Ice Age mammals at the end of the Pleistocene? Where could they have been hiding for the last 12,000 years? Even the very last mammoth bones we see anywhere on Earth, from remote and sheltered Wrangel Island in Siberia, are still at least 4000 years old - and those mammoths only managed to survive that long by changing dramatically.
In short, it always may be possible to discover a member of some Lost World in the remote Arctic or at the bottom of the sea. But the larger the animal, the less remote its natural habitat, and the longer its been since we stop finding evidence of it, the more certain we can be that it really has gone extinct.
DJ
Friday, July 10, 2009
2nd Place in 2009 "Battle of the Boards"
The Western Center took 2nd place in the 2nd Annual Romona Bowl Amphitheater "Battle of the Boards" Lip Sync competition held at Soboba Casino on June 26th. Thanks to a rousing and hilarious Cher performance by our own Peter, Sue and Darla, $1,500 was won for the Western Center Community Foundation. All the boards represented put on a wonderful show and all proceeds went to the Ramona Bowl Amphitheater. It was a great event!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Ask the Experts: How did paleontology start?
The study of animals' remains, both living and extinct, goes back to the beginning of human civilization itself. Several ancient cultures such as the Greeks, Chinese and Persians studied the natural world, including preserved animal remains, and made many discoveries, such as that climates and environments could change over time. However, the modern science of paleontology did not emerge until the 1800s.
Fossils themselves have been found throughout history around the world - what modern paleontology provides is the understanding of what they are and what they can tell us. What we call dinosaurs and mastodons today, ancient cultures called dragons and cyclopes, because they lacked all the basic information needed to understand their true nature.
Throughout the 19th Century, the understanding of the natural sciences in Europe became increasingly more advanced as scientists made discoveries that let them explore more and more complex questions. Scientists began putting forth ideas that would become the foundations of the modern sciences: James Hutton in Scotland put forth theories about rock formation that would lead to the understanding of geologic time; George Cuvier of France would provide conclusive evidence that animals could go extinct; and Charles Darwin would propose the idea of natural selection and adaptation. Even President Thomas Jefferson had a keen interest in paleontology and was perhaps the first vertebrate paleontologist in America, with a species of giant ground sloth named for him (Megalonyx jeffersoni, which can be seen at the Western Center).
As more and more of the pieces fell into place, the picture we understand today of the biologic and geologic history of Earth became more clear. This gave scientists the background they needed to figure out what all those dragon and cyclops bones really were. Comparisons to other animals let scientists classify fossil animals and determine their relationships with other organisms. Geology provided a timeframe for the fossil record and suggested how bones might be preserved as fossils. The ideas of extinction and evolution suggested that animals could change over time, and that not all animals that ever existed are still alive today.
The modern fossil craze that continues through today can trace its origins back to 1822, when an English doctor and paleontologist named Gideon Mantell first described a dinosaur, Iguanodon. This started a public fascination with dinosaurs that continued through the Great Exhibition of 1851, when concrete statues of dinosaurs were displayed - the first major paleontology exhibit - and the Bone Wars in America in the 1870s-1890s, when rival paleontologists O. C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope fought bitterly to see who could describe more new species of dinosaurs, discovering almost 140 between them.
From there, understanding of Earth's paleontological history became ever more thorough as more new discoveries and studies were made, leading to the level of knowledge we have today and share at the Western Center.
DJ
Fossils themselves have been found throughout history around the world - what modern paleontology provides is the understanding of what they are and what they can tell us. What we call dinosaurs and mastodons today, ancient cultures called dragons and cyclopes, because they lacked all the basic information needed to understand their true nature.
Throughout the 19th Century, the understanding of the natural sciences in Europe became increasingly more advanced as scientists made discoveries that let them explore more and more complex questions. Scientists began putting forth ideas that would become the foundations of the modern sciences: James Hutton in Scotland put forth theories about rock formation that would lead to the understanding of geologic time; George Cuvier of France would provide conclusive evidence that animals could go extinct; and Charles Darwin would propose the idea of natural selection and adaptation. Even President Thomas Jefferson had a keen interest in paleontology and was perhaps the first vertebrate paleontologist in America, with a species of giant ground sloth named for him (Megalonyx jeffersoni, which can be seen at the Western Center).
As more and more of the pieces fell into place, the picture we understand today of the biologic and geologic history of Earth became more clear. This gave scientists the background they needed to figure out what all those dragon and cyclops bones really were. Comparisons to other animals let scientists classify fossil animals and determine their relationships with other organisms. Geology provided a timeframe for the fossil record and suggested how bones might be preserved as fossils. The ideas of extinction and evolution suggested that animals could change over time, and that not all animals that ever existed are still alive today.
The modern fossil craze that continues through today can trace its origins back to 1822, when an English doctor and paleontologist named Gideon Mantell first described a dinosaur, Iguanodon. This started a public fascination with dinosaurs that continued through the Great Exhibition of 1851, when concrete statues of dinosaurs were displayed - the first major paleontology exhibit - and the Bone Wars in America in the 1870s-1890s, when rival paleontologists O. C. Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope fought bitterly to see who could describe more new species of dinosaurs, discovering almost 140 between them.
From there, understanding of Earth's paleontological history became ever more thorough as more new discoveries and studies were made, leading to the level of knowledge we have today and share at the Western Center.
DJ
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
