The Rain She Comes…
I saw a daunting article this morning (16 November 2024) on the San Francisco Chronicle website. The title of the article — “Atmospheric river may bring significant rainfall and wind risks to Northern California,...
Mike Strickler Geologist
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Barometric Air Pressure 101
Susie and I woke up to quite a storm yesterday morning — the fall rains have finally arrived (and we can only hope they stick around a bit longer this year). Either way, I...
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All Lakes Are Temporary
… for a very good reason. I read an interesting article in the DeseretNews about Lake Powell — the impoundment behind the Glen Canyon dam on the Colorado River. The dam is in Arizona,...
A Search for Alien Life
Are we alone in the universe? Whether you are coming at this as a biologist, anthropologist, or religious scholar, this is a question which has occupied — and befuddled — thinking minds for centuries,...
Disinformation
This one will be short but hopefully very much to the point: The rampant disinformation regarding science really needs to stop. This may be true when we’re talking about climate change (or maybe not),...
The Magic of Density
Before we get started, we need to agree on a couple bits of background information gleaned from the realm of physics (sorry, but it’s gotta be done). First, all matter is composed of tiny...
FEMA and Funding Disaster Relief
This one will be short because I need to get back to work (I am so close to getting Marker Bed off for formatting, and then publishing, that any delay rankles). Anyway, I just...
Yellowstone Hydrothermal Explosion
I must confess that there are some things I really try to avoid, and mechanics is one of them. Without going into any of the gory details about what’s been going on with my...
Follow the money…
Sorry. This one may stray a bit from the earth sciences, but I have to ask: How ridiculous can we be? It reminds me of the early days of the railroad, when the gauge...
Lead in our water and cognitive decline
It’s funny how perceptions and interpretations can change over time. Take the fall of the Roman Empire as an example. When I was in school a hundred years ago, one of the reasons I...
A Brave Man…
It’s all too rare to see true bravery in the face of catastrophe. A couple examples spring to mind: Jesus standing in the dock in front of Pontius Pilate, Davy Crockett at the Alamo,...
What happened to my water?
One of the hot button topics again splashing across the media is the looming global water crisis. The article that prompted this post was gleaned from the CNN website on 25 February 2024, but...
Plastic Water Bottles: Friend or Foe?
I read yet another article about the dangers of plastics (this time from Newsweek on 09 January, 2024). I could go on and on about the possible permutations of the controversy and potential dangers...
