Tag Archive | "california"
The Firefalls of Yosemite National Park
Natural phenomena are always best appreciated when they are rare. Niagara falls? Big deal. Grand Canyon? It's just some gap. The Great Barrier Reef? A bunch of stupid colours and some water. Whatever. You can see them anytime. What's REALLY going to make people jealous is witnessing the Firefalls of Yosemite Park. Join us, folks, as we take a trip there.
Continue reading...The San Andreas Fault from Above
Friday, June 19, 2009
The name of the San Andreas Fault precedes itself like, well, like an unavoidable rift in the earth's surface. Running some 1,300 kilometres through the US state of California, and reaching a depth of 15 to 20 kilometres, the San Andreas forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific and North American Plates. Yet because of its vast size, it's difficult to grasp this giant geological feature; except, that is, when you look at it from above.
Continue reading...Geological Faults that Tear the Earth Apart
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
An earthquake shaking the very foundations you live on would be jeopardy enough for most people to endure, but if upon stepping outside your home you were also to find massive fissures riddling the earth, cathedral-sized alarm bells would start ringing. Cracks appearing in the ground during major seismic events is picture book stuff, but let's see how they look for real, while considering the forces that cause them – and the effects they have.
Continue reading...Enter Sand Dragon: The $40m Floating Mexican Border Fence
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
In the dusty, hot land between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California, the US Border Patrol faces regular attempts by Mexican drug smugglers trying to enter the land of the free quite illegally. With the installation of a 15 foot, seven mile long fence that simply floats on top of the sand, guards now hope that things will be different. Like a serpent lying in wait to pounce on an unsuspecting prey, this impressive barricade also yields dire consequences for anyone who dares to cross its path.
Continue reading...10 Landscapes of Smoke and Mirrors
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Mirages have long left us spellbound. Their power to play tricks on our minds endlessly fascinates, while the image of an exhausted traveller in a desert being fooled into seeing an oasis in the distance is part of popular folklore. Modern science has made the way these bewildering optical phenomena work less hazy, but mirages continue to captivate the imagination – and no more so than Fata Morgana, that most bizarre of superior mirages.
Continue reading...Deadly Lunchbox: Healthy Living With a Twist of Lead
Friday, May 23, 2008
Mmmm, lead! Image from taiyofjs A California company was punished with what might have been the highest settlement in state history after selling 100,000 lunchboxes to children that were tainted with lead.
Continue reading...Unmanned Robot Drone Spying on California Smog
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Not the actual plane, but similar. Image from Jasmic We all know that smog is a problem in Southern California. Los Angeles is one of the worst places on earth for it. However, the problems posed by smog and the myriad of other bits of junk that we [...]
Continue reading...California Man Has 7,000 Skulls In His House
Monday, May 5, 2008
Image from Wikimedia Commons Remember that weird teacher you had in high school? No matter what, I promise you they weren’t as strange as Ray Bandar, a retired high school science teacher in California who has taken up collecting skulls as a hobby and currently has over [...]
Continue reading...5 Catastrophic Earthquakes in Major Cities
Monday, April 28, 2008
Paso Robales, California, 2003. Image from Hey Paul Earthquakes are a perfect representation of the age-old riddle: if a tree falls in a forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a noise?
Continue reading...California is Screwed: Major Quake by 2037
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
George Strait might get his ocean front property in Arizona , after all – California is expected to have a magnitude 6.7 or higher quake in the next 30 years, the rough equivalent of the 1994 Northridge earthquake that collapsed freeways and shattered water mains. This was a [...]
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Thursday, July 23, 2009
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