25 November 2018

The Richat Structure – Earth’s Bull's-Eye

Imagine if you were an alien species intent on conquering the earth by force.  Now, you might just appear over the various capital cities of the world and wait for your countdown to get to zero or you might, being a little timid of the explosive force that you are about to unleash, wish to do it from a safe distance.  What you would need to look for, then, is a handy bull's-eye – on the bull's-eye that is the Earth itself.

Look no further, alien invader.  The Richat Structure in Mauritania provides the perfect target towards which you can aim your death ray, annihilation laser or whatever you call your extraterrestrial weapon of mass destruction.  It’s almost as if another species, in a previous visit, had chalked in a target already and then become bored and wandered back to Betelgeuse.
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7 September 2011

Forget Aquarius - Is this the Dawning of the Age of the Anthropocene?

Human history on a geological scale is miniscule, tiny – a blip.  The geological time scale goes back four and a half billion years from the fiery birth of the earth to the present day.  Now, however, some scientists are calling for an end to the current epoch – the Holocene.  They are suggesting we have moved in to a new epoch altogether – the Anthropocene.  This translates literally to the Human Epoch.  So why the need for change?

The term Anthropocene was only coined ten years ago by Paul Crutzen.  The Nobel Prize winning atmospheric chemist, best known for his groundbreaking work on ozone depletion coined the term to satisfy his need to describe the age in which we are now living.  It is different from the Holocene, he argues (image of the Early Holocene left). The Anthropocene is the representation of the effect a single species has had on the planet.  That species is, of course, us.

His case is that by our actions we are going to leave a permanent signature in our earthly geology. These actions will be traceable back to us even millions of years in the future when scientists (possibly not us by that time) will be able to see the point at which we changed the earth’s oceans and biosphere irreversibly.

The geological time scale is vastly important in terms of understanding what has happened to the earth over hundreds of millions of years.  As rock is penetrated it delivers revelations about what life was like ten thousand, ten million or at its very beginnings billions of years ago.

The changes to the time scale have to this point always been natural.  The great big meteoric rock that killed off the dinosaurs for example was one point at which the time scale changed.

So indeed was the Ice Age which resulted due to a shift in the earth’s orbit.   There are many different epochs and their records are in the rocks.  Imagine them like pages in a book, each one making a chapter telling its own part of the planet’s lengthy and complex history.

Not just one book, though – think volumes.  It’s like one of those huge episodic Dickens novels but about stone instead.

Each epoch is only a small part of the scale.  They are subdivisions of a Period – the one in which we find ourselves currently is the Quaternary Period.  Each Period is a subdivision of an Era.

We are in the Cenozoic Era.  Still with us?

We are currently in the Holocene epoch, which has only been around since the last Ice Age twelve thousand years and is in terms of geological eras still pretty wet behind the ears itself.  Even its name translated from the Greek means entirely new.  So, why bother with the change at all – couldn’t we, shouldn’t we simply be included in the Holocene?

Well, that sets the scene for what will no doubt become the hottest of heated debates in geological circles.  Like Knights Templar of stones and rocks, there is a body which guards the integrity of the geological time scale.  They go under the marvellous title of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (image in the head of a certain Time Lord flashing his telepathic paper and saying I’m with the ICS – cool).

In May they will meet up to discuss the findings of their Anthropocene Working Group (no doubt referred to as the AWG).

The battleground is set – with it seems just under half of the ICS agreeing with the need to change and slightly over half of them in favour of giving the idea the old heave ho.  Most foresee, however, that we are living in an age which may well see a massive shift in the contents of the fossil record. However, it was only a few years ago that scientists were predicting a new Ice Age and look what came of that.

It is possible of course (and many geologists agree) that it is way too early to tell if this will truly be the case as – to put it simply – we just haven’t been around long enough to leave anything but a thin sliver on the fossil record.

Although they use the term informally they see no need to, ahem, set it in stone.

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Image Credits
Ammonite - Flickr User Kevin Zim
Fossil Frog Flickr User Kevinzim
Early Holocene
Meteor Collision
Ice Age House

The Man With Einstein's Brain

Pictured here is Dr Thomas Harvey, who died three years ago. He had the rather dubious claim to fame of bein the pathologist who was responsible for the autopsy on Einsten (after his death in 1955).

He was just a little naughty because he removed Einstein's brain - not completely necessary as the scientist had expired from heart failure. He then sliced it up and kept the pieces for many years after - in order to perform research on to what had made the world famous scientist tick.

This picture was taken on the very day that Einstein died. However, the photographer, Ralph Morse, always maintained that the stuff under the knife in the photograph is most definitely not Einstein's brain.

Absolutely, definitely, without a shadow of a doubt. Yes, right!

This is one of a series of remarkable photographs taken by Morse on that day and now up on the Time website for the first time.

Link thanks to Neatorama.

15 August 2011

Baatara Gorge – the Waterfall that Drops into a Cave

Only discovered in 1952 the Baatara Waterfall in Lebanon is something more than a little unusual.  If waterfalls can be said to have a trick up their sleeve then this one has one of the best.  The waterfall drops a staggering 837 feet (255 meters) in to an enormous cave of Jurassic limestone.

Situated on the Lebanon Mountain Trail the abyss in to which the waterfall drops is also known as the Three Bridge Chasm. It gets this name because the journey in to the valley below takes in three naturally formed bridges, each rising above the one below.

The waterfall is at its peak when the winter snows begin to melt and the water cascades in to the chasm. Scientists in the eighties dyed the water and showed that it eventually came back in to daylight in the nearby village of Mgharet al-Ghaouaghir.

One of the most remarkable geological formations on the planet, the installation of safety equipment was considered to equip the site with a Tyrolienne or other such climbing facilities to cater for sports enthusiasts. Fortunately, this idea was discarded as the authorities decided that the installation of such equipment would degrade the outstanding beauty of the place.

It must have been a day to remember for Henri Coiffait, the French bio-speleologist who discovered the Pothole in 1952.  Strange that it took until the twentieth century to discover something that was within walking distance of the town of Tannourine and the little village of Balaa. Perhaps it was obscured from view - walking across the meadow towards it, one might not guess what was about to reveal itself. However, that very year the local potholing club explored the pothole, reaching the bottom. It was not, however, fully mapped until thirty years later.

The Jurassic limestone at the top sequence of the pothole is over 160 million years old.  The formation is vital to the locality as it is from here that mush of the fresh water in the area is sourced.  Water from the stream slowly infiltrated the limestone over the millennia.

The top bridge was revealed, then over a vast period of time vertical and circular erosion, combined with a series of collapses created the middle and bottom two bridges.  Even today the development of the pothole is not complete – neither will it ever be while water flows in to it.  Most destructive are the winter freezes which, when the ice melts, often cause large chunks of the side of the pothole to break away.

There is nothing to mark the waterfall and the chasm except a sign post which very strictly instructs visitors not to go too close to the edge as they are slippy and a fall would lead to almost certain death.  Likewise, walking on the middle bridge is prohibited as it would be in danger of collapse with the added weight of an unwary tourist.

The length of time that this remarkable geological site has left, before erosion does it work, is something that can only be guessed at.  However, in the interim this outstanding waterfall and pothole is something which can be enjoyed by visitors to Lebanon.

26 December 2010

One Year in 120 Seconds


As we near the end of another year it is more than easy to scratch the head and wonder where on earth did it all go? It only seems five minutes since we were preparing for the beginning of 2010.  With that in mind, this excellent time lapse shows a whole year in just one hundred and twenty seconds.

Now it takes some patience, time lapse - when it is done in a studio at least you can control the environment.  This is the view from a house over the course of a year and it really must have taken superhuman patience (certainly of the kind which I do not possess) to painstakingly put this together.

Hats off then to its creator, Eric Solheim.  If you want to find out more about how this amazing footage was put together then head over to his website where the full story is waiting to be told.

12 September 2010

California and Arizona Time Lapse - Stunning


I have to admit - I get out quite a lot - but this is one of the most stunning pieces of time lapse movie making I have ever seen.  In other words, I kid thee not.  Put simply, this is amazing and the camera work is incredible - the camera pans out and along while the film lapses (probably not the technical term, but you get what I mean).

It takes to the desert vistas (with some small visits to civilsation) of California, along Highway 395 but does take the occasional sojourn in to Arizona along the way.

Some of the clips are long or hyper lapse as they are known which is a technique which is catching on in the world (yes there is one) of time lapse photography.  It is the creation of Dan Eckert who is a photographer of great experience (it shows) and who says that he has have designed camera mounts for cameras that haven't been made yet.

If I wasn't able to see superb quality when I see it, I could have taken a look at the masses of comments that have been left on Mr Eckert's Vimeo page where this video has its home.  So, sit  back and take a journey through the wilds of California and Arizona...

21 July 2010

Tesseract 101

Admit it. You can’t take your eyes off this object. This is a tesseract and as such is a 4 dimensional shape. Wait, though. We only live in three dimensions, don’t we? So although this object is beautiful, hypnotising almost – what on earth is it and what is it doing here, confounding our lovely three dimensions with its impertinent fourth? Strictly speaking, what you can see above is a two dimensional projection of a three dimensional simulation of a four dimensional tesseract, that’s what.

OK, at the risk of sounding like a certain Miss Anniston, now for the science bit. Tesseracts are pretty difficult things to describe, let alone understand. Here we go. Essentially a tesseract is the equivalent of a cube, only it is represented within four dimensions (more of that trickster later). 

Think of the space with which you are familiar. Put simply; think of the ways in which you can move. There is left to right, forwards and backwards. Finally there is up and down. Three ways, three dimensions. You can pinpoint your location by working out your coordinates in those three directions.

This particular type is known as a Runcitruncated tesseract.
If your partner throws you off a cliff (for whatever reasons) you would be moving forwards, downwards and, depending on the direction of their thrust, either to the left or right. You would be moving within three dimensions.
Oh and this beauty is known as a Cantellated Tesseract
Now, these dimensions are all at right angles to each other – that is, a 90 degree angle (see left). Think of a capital L that you can rotate in any direction you want and you have a right angle. Let’s go now to the fourth dimension (and take it out of your head that the fourth dimension is time, it isn’t).
This gorgeous thing is an omnitruncated tesseract, just in case you didn't already know.
When you go to the fourth dimension (cue Twilight Zone music) you have another direction. That direction is (wait for it) at right angles to each and every one of the three original directions. If your head just exploded, don’t worry. That is quite a normal reaction. Just take it from me that the math works.
OK. So first we go from a two-dimensional cube (which we call a square) to one made of three dimensions (a normal cube). Lay a square flat on whichever surface you want. A flat surface. Next, add another square above it (that is separated along the vertical direction). This is at right angles to any line you can imagine within the square. So now, just bring those corners together. The tesseract cometh. This is exactly the same idea. Bring another (but smaller) cube along and place it inside the first, so any line along the first cube is at right angles to the lines of the second. Did your head just explode again (even though that’s impossible)? This is what is known as separation along the fourth dimension. What we get is a tesseract. It is impossible to properly visualise in our three dimensional world but what we normally get to see is a small cube inside a bigger one.  Much like this.
As for the pesky fourth dimension, most people when asked will answer that it is time. In fact it is an abstract concept (as if you hadn’t already guessed from the above). Mathematicians (not to mention those philosopher types) have been generalizing the rules of 3D space for a couple of hundred years. For fun. Oh, and also for the insights that such a mind (expletive deleted) can offer.  So, here, just use your imagination - go with the flow.
Image Credit Wikimedia 1 2
A cantellated and a runcinatedtesseract respectively
It was Charles Howard Hinton, British mathematician, bigamist, jail bird and continent hopper who in 1888 first used the term. So if you are bewildered and want to blame anyone, go spit on his grave. You might also have heard tesseracts referred to as hypercubes, but that is a story to generalize another day. Yet, when in doubt, turn to Carl Sagan.  Although some argue with the shadow explanation, this is the closest that popular television has come to explaining the tesseract. Any clearer? Well, whether or not you get any of the above, you have to admit. They sure are purdy. Additional Image Credit Right Angle