Adrian Godsafe MSc

Geology

The speedy magma of Chaiten (and it's still going!) [Eruptions]

Interesting little info bit. Rhyolite magma is under gas pressure at equilibrium with its depth in tyhe crust at ideal conditions. Add a little heat, gas and overpressure from a small basic magma addition to the base of the chamber and the result is a bit of faster movement. increase the depth and gas content and the expanding gas buuble waves driving ascent bump up the speed. A sillar forming rhyolite eruption from the base of the crust will be supersonic on arrival at the surface from formation of a forced fracture at about 20Km depth, and will deflagrate on arrival at the surface. Have a nice day: Ag  (Oct 19, 2009 | post #1)

Astronomy

Astronomers spot new type of 'death star'

About time too. A lot of Planetary nebulae appear to host CO white dwarves and a few host OVI (F**king hot) central stars and are tightly constrained by magnetic fields. Also a little younger are WN and WC central stars of PN where the star is still burning C & O in the core @ the time. O Ne Mg white dwarves without PN surrounds and also extremely hot (hotter than the WR star precursors) are also known. About time we got the missing link between OVI planetary nebulae and O Ne Mg WDs from relatively high mass central stars. The next step is to link them into the stars in our galaxy where the heavy metal dust load is rather higher and ionised Fe tends to overlay the spectrum. Prime target here is the "Bug" nebula in Scorpius with an OVI star in the core. Have a nice day: Ag  (Sep 1, 2009 | post #1)

Astronomy

Suicidal planet seems on death spiral into star

Should make quite a splash. Have a nice day: Ag  (Aug 28, 2009 | post #1)

Geology

New data: Mega-quake could strike near Seattle

Nice idea but wrong place. Area at risk is Nor cal near Petrolia up the cascades to mid Oregon. 2 prior mega quakes in Seattle have already relaxed Seattle crust which is now slowly recompressing. Have a nice day: Ag  (Aug 20, 2009 | post #1)

Astronomy

Low sunspot cycle fascinates scientists, who say there's no rea...

Climate mode#3 and El Nino (cause and effect). The oceans buffer the Earth's climate and they do happen to be warm @ present. Have a nice day: Ag  (Aug 20, 2009 | post #155)

Astronomy

Black Hole Creates Eye in Middle of Cosmic Storm

True. Being a spiral galaxy (albeit with a bar) there is nothing unusual about alignments with objects in the disc (unless it is straight ahead and with distance closing with no drift). This would however not be the case for a star in a giant elliptical where tidal forces from the central mass concentration will cause variations in surface gravity on planets in orbit around the star (and scramble the orbits). Have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 31, 2009 | post #3)

Astronomy

Black Hole Creates Eye in Middle of Cosmic Storm

Very nice pic. That is a good example of the ring that forms at the edge of the "drag & spin disc" of the central black hole. Note: the drag & spin disc is NOT an accretion disc as the net infall is approximately zero, but is instead a result of the collision of charged particles responding to the rotating magnetic fireld around the central black hole which achieves its lowest energy state when all the particles are aligned in the disc and travelling in the same direction. The ring is a result of objects in elliptical orbit colliding with the edge of the drag & spin disc, and the excess energy then fluffs the disc out into a ring. Our own galaxy has just such a ring (in our case GMCs and star clusters in a ring around Sgr A*). The same ring is also in evidence seen edge on in the Galaxy M104 in the avatar pic on the side of the comment, with the drag & spin disc visible within. For the record M104 has a central black hole of 980 million solar masses so the ring in NGC1097 should be just over 1/10 of the size of the ~60,000 lightyear diameter ring in M104. Have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 29, 2009 | post #1)

Astronomy

Low sunspot cycle fascinates scientists, who say there's no rea...

Heating of Earth is buffered by the oceans (which prevent flash frying of the surface). This means that while we ARE in a solar minimum, the global temperature will take a long time to drop, as the change in insolation reaching the Earth is actually rather small, and temperature drops are usually the result of an albedo change caused by an SO2 aerosol from a big volcanic eruption coincident with a minimum. Mode#3 with its E.directed drift of monsoonal flows is a high energy system favoured by polar cooling so it is no surprise that this mode is currently in operation. It IS however drawing on the oceanic heat buffer and the result is a high energy heat distribution mode in a hot earth. Currently we are NOT cooling down but it is raining rather more than it was a few years ago. Have a nice day: Ag ps. Watch out for El Nino, coming soon as a result of the E. drift of the monsoonal flows. After El Nino is over, THEN it may be a mite cooler globally.  (Jul 28, 2009 | post #140)

Astronomy

Milky Way loses two (major) arms

Have noticed. The interesting bit is that the event horizon of a very low mass black hole radiates mass/energy as particles and radiation via the strong nuclear force and electroweak force with the csascade eventually devaying to protons and electrons (and the binding energy within the black hole as radiation). Travel across the universe within an event horizon in "no time" is therefore possible, but arriving at the same place (destination) in one piece is rather more difficult!. Note: the "no time" effect occurs only within the black hole and is viewed from outside as up/down becomes thre time dimension within it; from outside of course, the black hole travels from source to destination in realtime. The mechanism however appears to be energy based so is a last in first out system, based on potential energy accrued while accreting through the gravitational potential well. For fun, accompany my comment with the sound effect of an overripe tomato going through the sound barrier (for amusing background soundtrack). Have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 28, 2009 | post #127)

Geology

Risk Of Huge Pacific Ocean Tsunami On West Coast Of America Gre...

oops almost forgot: The ranges are "mountains " so the runout in the r/lx is less than the recompression distance in metres. The plate lurch in range r/lx will also result in the driving of thre surrounding arcs above young's modulus over a wide spread of the Aleutian arc and the SE.Alaska marginal arcs. Have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 22, 2009 | post #2)

Geology

Risk Of Huge Pacific Ocean Tsunami On West Coast Of America Gre...

The key to the biggies is the Denali range which hosts 2 nappe megathrusts inland and (as an andean type cordillera range) a subduction megathrust, forearc in front, and volcanism behind, to the south of the range. The Young's modulus of a typical range is ~21.5m per megathrust compression) ie. 64.5m of recompression with the interval time between events governed by the convergence rate of the plate and the continental crust. This is a guide as a result of the continental crust ALSO decompression and the presence of backranges (2 megathrusts per nappe pair) behind the Denali range, (ie. 2*21.5m each) and an unknown amount of decompression related to the thrusts inside the continental crust. Also note that the r/lx (rebound/long duration mercalli X) event has a S. vector on breakage in these events, whereas the arc event of 1964 was SE. Have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 22, 2009 | post #1)

Astronomy

New NASA images show scar on Jupiter apparently made by impact ...

Nice pic. Appearance of spot suggests it similar in size to one of the midsize fragments of SL9 ie. somewhere between 500m and 1Km across. It also left on the pic a small outer splash ring, hard to see on the img due to the rather grey effect of the storms close to the pole where it is warmer than the equatorial belts (planet is an ellipsoid shape). Still no idea of who threw the snowball. have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 22, 2009 | post #44)

Astronomy

New NASA images show scar on Jupiter apparently made by impact ...

I like that one. Have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 22, 2009 | post #43)

Astronomy

New NASA images show scar on Jupiter apparently made by impact ...

Ok. Who thew the snowball? Have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 21, 2009 | post #11)

Astronomy

Low sunspot cycle fascinates scientists, who say there's no rea...

Strange & funny, but with global cooling would actually be correct (!). Atmospheric shell thickness currently still increasing @ present so no cooling yet; climate mode is still #3. have a nice day: Ag  (Jul 21, 2009 | post #132)