Tag Archives: pacific ocean

CU Mathematicians Show How Shallow Waves May Help Explain Tsunami Power

While wave watching is a favorite pastime of beachgoers, few notice what is happening in the shallowest water. A closer look by two University of Colorado Boulder applied mathematicians has led to the discovery of interacting X- and Y-shaped ocean waves that may help explain why some tsunamis are able to wreak so much havoc.

Professor Mark Ablowitz and doctoral student Douglas Baldwin repeatedly observed such wave interactions in ankle-deep water at both Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, and Venice Beach, Calif., in the Pacific Ocean — interactions that were thought to be very rare but which actually happen every day near low tide. There they saw single, straight waves interacting with each other to form X- and Y-shaped waves as well as more complex wave structures, all predicted by mathematical equations, said Ablowitz. (more…)

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New Book Explores Noah’s Flood; Says Bible and Science Can Get Along

“I doubt the historic truth about Noah’s Flood will ever be known with certainty. And I don’t think it really matters. The discoveries of science have revealed the world and our universe to be far more spectacular than could have been imagined by Mesopotamian minds. To still see the world through their eyes is to minimize the wonder of creation.”

David Montgomery, “The Rocks Don’t Lie”

David Montgomery is a geomorphologist, a geologist who studies changes to topography over time and how geological processes shape landscapes. He has seen firsthand evidence of how the forces that have shaped Earth run counter to some significant religious beliefs.

But the idea that scientific reason and religious faith are somehow at odds with each other, he said, “is, in my view, a false dichotomy.” (more…)

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Sailing in a Sea of Microbes

Researchers led by Matt Sullivan at the UA are among the first to dive into the world of viruses drifting through the world’s oceans.

Surrounded by the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean stretching from horizon to horizon, a lonely dot is glinting in the sun. It is the aluminum hull of a sailboat, a 118-foot schooner with white sails billowing from two masts.

On the deck, crewmembers and scientists are milling about. Commands are flying back and forth, and soon a strange contraption consisting of tubes clustered around an array of sensors dangling from a crane is lowered into the water, until it disappears in the clear blue depths. (more…)

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Evidence Emerges of Ancient Lake in California’s Eel River

*Ecological changes from lakebed may have led to two different populations of once-related steelhead trout*

A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of northern California’s Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake which has since disappeared. It left a living legacy found today in the genes of the region’s steelhead trout.

Using remote-sensing technology known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and hand-held global-positioning-systems (GPS) units, scientists recently found evidence for a late Pleistocene, landslide-dammed lake along the river. (more…)

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UFO for American Presidents

Many U.S. presidents during their terms were seriously interested in UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence issues, and some of them even had a chance to make contact with aliens. We turn to the recently declassified archives of ufology. Let’s start with 1948, when President Harry S. Truman summoned his Assistant Robert Landry to the Oval Office.

Truman gave him the order to make reports every three months on the flying saucers observed over the country. Once, Truman asked to investigate the case of the appearance of mysterious object over Washington that he observed through his window. (more…)

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NASA’s Galileo Reveals Magma ‘Ocean’ Beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Moon

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has revealed that beneath the surface of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io is an “ocean” of molten or partially molten magma.

The finding, from a study published May 13 in the journal Science, is the first direct confirmation of such a magma layer on Io and explains why the moon is the most volcanic object known in the solar system. The research was conducted by scientists from UCLA, UC Santa Cruz and the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. (more…)

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NASA Shows Topography of Tsunami-Damaged Japan City

The topography surrounding Sendai, Japan is clearly visible in this combined radar image and topographic view generated with data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) acquired in 2000. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck offshore about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, the capital city of Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture, generating a tsunami that devastated the low-lying coastal city of about 1 million residents.

The city is centered in the image and lies along the coastal plain between the Ohu Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The eastern part of the city is a low-lying plains area, while the city center is hilly (the city’s official elevation is about 43 meters, or 141 feet). Sendai’s western areas are mountainous, with its highest point being Mt. Funagata at an elevation of about 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) above sea level. (more…)

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Epic Journeys of Turtles Revealed

The epic ocean-spanning journeys of the gigantic leatherback turtle in the South Atlantic have been revealed for the first time thanks to groundbreaking research using satellite tracking. 

Experts at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter led a five-year study to find out more about these increasingly rare creatures and inform conservation efforts.  (more…)

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