Most of Oregon is igneous rock. Pretty recent igneous rock, as geologists measure time. It’s almost embarrassing. While some of it is pretty well understood, parts of all that volcanism are unexplained. The stratovolcanoes of the High Cascades? Subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate and Pacific Plate. The lava that flowed into the Pacific…
This nifty animated GIF shows movement of the magnetic north pole, the bigger green dot, from 1965 to present. You’ll notice two things immediately: (1) it has moved a long ways over that interval, and (2) the rate of movement has accelerated in the most recent time. A recent survey by a Canadian–French international collaboration…
Archaeologist Robert A. DePalma, working in Southcentral North Dakota, has found the best evidence yet that the dinosaur killer, the huge meteor that struck the Yucatan Peninsula, leaving the Chicxulub crater, did indeed kill the dinosaurs. He has found, entombed in the rocks of the Hell Creek Formation, the archaeological equivalent of a smoking gun.…
The reporting on the spread of the invasive Asian Long-horned Tick, verges on the hysterical. “Vicious species of tick.” “Bloodthirsty hordes.” “Ravenous swarms.” Sounds like a lousy (sorry) Grade-B horror flick. But there are some scary aspects to this recently invasive species. First, unlike native North American ticks, this species can reproduce parthenogenetically; it can…
WC has been distracted by summer, camping trips and the sour meanness of Alaska’s Governor Mike Dunleavy. At least that’s the excuse. Belatedly, here’s WC’s monthly effort at very nearly journalism. Alleged human being, documented pervert and demonstrable creep Jeffrey Epstein was busted for his sexual abuse of young girls. This is the guy who…
The U.S. State Department includes something called the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The Bureau’s primary mission is “to harness intelligence to serve U.S. diplomacy.” Dr. Rod Schoonover is a Senior Analyst in that Bureau, whose work is primarily focused on the implications of environmental and ecological change on national security and foreign policy. Dr. Schoonover…
WC has reported on the unprecedented sea ice melt in Nome, Alaska. Open water, in Nome, on the Being Sea, in mid-March. Today we’ll visit the other end of the planet, Antarctica, where even more climate change is under way. More than four years ago, WC wrote about Antarctica’s frightening melt rate. In December 2014,…
