Big Sunspots

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be looking at the Sun with my observational astronomy students.

We have a solar filter (it basically looks like the one at right) for our telescope which passes only a small fraction of the visible light and cuts the harmful infrared and ultraviolet radiation.  Without it, looking at the Sun with a telescope will result in instant damage to your eyes.

The reason we're going to take a look at the Sun (other than the fact that it's interesting), is to observe a large group of sunspots that have been rotating into view.  It's called Active Region (AR) 1339.

Below is a solar image from 2345 UTC (7:45 pm EDT) on November 5 showing the large active region around the 10 o'clock position on the face of the Sun.

Check out this image of AR 1339 from Mexican amateur astronomer César Cantú (click here for a higher resolution image on his website).

When looking at this sunspot group, keep in mind that each of those darker dots is about the size of the Earth!  They're incredibly beautiful close up - almost looking like abstract art.

Sunspots often flare up, causing coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that send billions of tons of ionized gas screaming out into space.  If the sunpot is facing toward the Earth, this ionized gas interacts with the Earth's magnetic field and outer atmosphere resulting in a geomagnetic storm and strong auroral activity.

Keep an eye on SpaceWeather.com which will issue alerts if there are any CMEs in the next few days and the possibility of seeing an aurora.

Sunspots are fascinating phenomenon, I think I'll write more about them later this week.

Oklahoma Earthquake

On Saturday, November 5, at 2:12 am CDT, a 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit central Oklahoma (about 45 miles east of Oklahoma City between the towns of Prague and Sparks).  It was a foreshock followed by 7 others ranging from magnitude 2.7 to 3.6 and then culminating in a 5.6 magnitude quake at 10:53 pm CDT.  As of 8:00 am CST, there have been a dozen aftershocks ranging from 2.7 to 4.0 on this fault according the the National Earthquake Information Center (only quakes above magnitude 2.5 are reported).

From Oklahoma Geological Survey Observatory

On February 27, 2010, there was a magnitude 4.3 earthquake near this location as well.  The largest earthquake in Oklahoma, previous to Saturday's, was a 5.5 magnitude quake near El Reno just west of Oklahoma City back in 1952.  Moderate earthquakes, while not common, do occasionally occur in Oklahoma (as they do in other places in the continental interior - remember the 5.8 magnitude Virginia earthquake in August?).

 

From Oklahoma Geological Survey Observatory

All of these recent earthquakes were relatively shallow at 5 km (3 miles) or so of depth.  According to the Oklahoma Geological Survey, these earthquakes appear to have occurred on the Wilzetta Fault (line with red squares in the above map).  For those of you who know something about geology, the focal mechanism seems to indicate dextral strike-slip movement.

Not much information online regarding the Wilzetta Fault and associated Seminole Uplift (it's an area that's been studied, however, since there's oil and gas there).  Looks to me like strike-slip reactivation of an older basement thrust fault associated with the Pennsylvanian/Permian Alleghanian-Ouachita Orogeny.

Professor or Hobo?

Professor or Hobo?  Take the quiz!

I dedicate this to the late Dr. Russell Waines of SUNY New Paltz, a former professor of mine who would have fit right into this quiz.

Never judge a book by its cover or a man by his clothes (or scraggly beard).

Stupid geologists

This comment was recently submitted anonymously to my post Pretty all right, pretty stupid  from last May.

When I googled "fuck geologists" this site came up. Not only do geologists have the most boring profession of any academic circle, they are terrible at organizing their information. They don't make any practical discoveries, they simply state the obvious and create names for things that are already named! They then proceed to categorize the information many times over just for the sake of having something to do. I think the world would be a better place if Geology was never studied or practiced ever again.

I had to laugh (and then wonder why this person hates geology so much).  I'm guessing they're a high school or college kid taking an introductory geology course and hating it (not that I can understand why anyone would hate something as interesting as geology!).

Would "the world be a better place if geology were never studied or practiced ever again" as this poster claimed?

In my introductory classes, I always have the "Why study geology?" part of the lecture.  Why is geology useful?  Here are a few simple examples.

Ever use anything with metal in it?  Copper, aluminum, steel (iron), zinc, etc?  Guess where it came from... A mineral!  Someone had to find the mineral deposit, it was mined or quarried, and turned into a hunk of metal and manufactured into some material.  Like your computer, TV, cell phone, electric lines, indoor plumbing, etc.  All made from minerals.

Nonmetallic Earth resources are important too.  Gypsum wallboard (Sheetrock) in your home?  A porcelain toilet (manufactured from clay).  Like salt on the roads in the winter?  Want to give a gold wedding band or diamond to your sweetheart (or rubies, emeralds, garnets, aquamarines, etc.)?  Drive on roads?  Sand, gravel, and petroleum are used to make asphalt.  Concrete?  Comes from limestone.  Building stone like granite or marble?  Directly from the Earth.

Ever use energy?  Electricity, heating oil, gasoline, etc?  Guess where it cam from... Coal, petroleum, natural gas that someone had to find, it was mined, quarried, or drilled, and turned into a product used for electricity generation, transport, heating, manufacturing, etc.  All Earth materials.  What to use green energy from solar cells and batteries?  They're loaded with rare-earth elements all mined from the ground (and need plenty of copper wire).

Ever use anything made of plastics or wore synthetic fibers?  Most of them are derived from petroleum.

Who studies and monitors earthquakes in California?  Who studies and monitors volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest?  Who studies coastal erosion along the east coast?  Who studies landslide hazards?  Flooding hazards?  Good deal on a home in La Conchita, California?  Google it - a geologist would never have bought a house there!

How do civil engineers know what soils and rocks are suitable or unsuitable for foundations of walls, bridges, dams, buildings, etc?  Google "Vajont Dam" sometime to see what happens if civil engineers ignore geology.

Ever buy a house?  When I was in the market for a home a number of years ago, we were shown places on the floodplain of the Esopus Creek here in Ulster County.  I told my wife "No way" since I'm a geologist and a few years later we saw this house completely flood damaged.  Knowing what kind of soil you have on your property can mean the difference between a simple or specially engineered septic system (a several thousand dollar difference).  Knowing a bit about groundwater can clue you in on how deep your well has to be (and drillers charge by the foot - it makes a difference).  Any potential that your groundwater may be contaminated?  A little knowledge of groundwater geology will help you figure that out.

Who studies and helps remediate areas of contaminated soil or groundwater?  Where is that plume in contaminated groundwater going?  Better know something about the subsurface geology.  Where do you place a landfill such that it will have the least risk of contaminating the surrounding area?  Ask a geologist.

Global climate change is a big issue.  Guess what?  Climate's been changing on Earth from the time it formed.  How do we know that?  Geologists who've learned to decipher paleoclimate data from rocks and fossils.  This knowledge allows us to separate natural rates of climate change from anthropogenic ("man made") contributions.  The rock cycle, the carbon cycle, the hydrologic cycle are all directly relevant to our lives.

The Earth is four and a half billion years old.  Many people in this country are dumb asses and don't care about things like that (or believe in the particular mythology of a particular group of bedouin Hebrews thousands of years) but I think it's a great thing to gain knowledge about the world around us.  Think dinosaurs are cool?  How the hell do you think we know about dinosaurs?  Those damn geologists sitting in the hot Montana sun digging through layers of sandstone to expose those bones to the light of day and then patiently studying them in the laboratory to reconstruct them and their place in an ancient ecosystem.

Just about everything we know about the Earth is from geologists!  If all you care about is who is fucking who on Jersey Shore, this information may not seem "relevant" to you but that's because you're a moron.

Geologists Rock!