55 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unusual Wave January 14, 1998. Indian Ocean. Aboard the m.v . Oriental Bay , enroute Port Klang to Suez. "At 2230 UTC the vessel was on a course of 269 at 23 knots when a line was observed on the radar at a range of 3 n mile, travelling from northwest to southeast at an estimated speed of 15 knots, as indicated on the sketch. The line was observed to be a wave. "It was about 10 minutes after the first sighting that the vessel passed over the wave, which was approximately 4 m [13 feet] high, and she heeled 5 to port while the autopilot deviated 3 off course. At the time of the event, there was a low swell of 1.0 m from 320 and the sea was 0.5 m from 360 . The current was estimated to be 2.5 knots running to the west." (Talbot, A.P .; "Unusual Wave," Marine Observer, 69:10, 1999.) Comment. The wave could not have been a tsunami because it was travelling too slowly. Tsunamis travel at jet speed and are rarely visible on the deep ocean. Since the wave was solitary and four times the height of the gentle swells, it is unlikely that it was a chance combination of the swells. Most likely it was a surface manifestation of an internal wave that had been reflected from ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf122/sf122p12.htm
... colossal forces. Pure as it is, LDG does contain tiny bubbles, white wisps, and inky black swirls. The whitish inclusions consist of refractory minerals, such as cristobalite. The ink-like swirls, though, are rich in iridium, which is diagnostic of an extraterrestrial impact -- meteorite or comet. The iridium leads to the heart of the LDG problem: Where did this immense amount of widely dispersed glass shards come from? Was it really created during the searing, sand-melting impact of a cosmic projectile? This is how today's catastrophists would have it? At least three "minor" problems bedevil the accepted impact theory. The surface of the Great Sand Sea shows no sign of a giant crater. Neither do microwave probes deep into the sand by satellite radar. LDG seems too pure to be derived from a messy cosmic collision. Known impact craters, such as that at Wabar in Saudi Arabia, are littered with bits of iron and other meteorite debris. Not so at the LDG sites. LDG is concentrated in two areas. One is oval-shaped; the other is a circular ring 6 kilometers wide and 21 kilometers in diameter. The ring's wide center is devoid of LDG. Could there have been a "soft" projectile impact; that is the detonation of a meteorite, perhaps 30 meters in diameter, 10 kilometers or so above the Great Sand Sea? The searing blast of hot air might have melted the sand beneath. Such a craterless impact is thought to have occurred in the 1908 Tunguska Event in Siberia. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf126/sf126p06.htm
... their relatives living near the surface. (Or did deepsea fish come first?) But there is more to this story. Many dwellers in the black abysses generate their own light. They sport bioluminescent organs so they can be seen by others of their own species and, in addition, illuminate prey for easier capture. In another remarkable example of evolutionary convergence, these bioluminescent organs emit light spectrally matching the eye sensitivity of deepsea fish! So far, though, this story is not any more amazing that many others woven into evolution's fabric. But suppose that a deviant species of deepsea fish upset this cosy status quo by evolving visual pigment and bioluminescent organs operating in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that other deepsea fish could not perceive. It would be as if this species had radar but the others did not! Well, three genera of dragon fish do have organs (photophores) that emit far-red light, and their eyes are correspondingly red-shifted by new visual pigments. Thus, these dragon fish can communicate with each other without being detected by other species. When hunting, they can prowl the depths with lights on, illuminating prey surreptitiously. Lab tests indicate that these dragon fish can detect a meal much father away than possible with their lateralline sense. (Partridge, Julian C., and Douglas, Ron H.; "FarRed Sensitivity of Dragon Fish," Nature, 375:21, 1995) Comment. Note that the innovative spectral shift had to occur synchronously in both eyes and bioluminescent organs to be useful; i.e . ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf101/sf101b06.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The shorter, the stranger Just a few months ago (in SF#85), we held forth on biology's Big Bang: that Cambrian paroxysm of biological creativity about 570 million years ago. Until now, biologists had opined that this "explosion" required a rather leisurely 20-40 million years (still very short in geological terms). After all, biological creativity must take time if it is powered only by stepwise random mutations. But the recent dating of Cambrian formations in northeastern Siberia (which was previously off limits to Western scientists because of its Soviet radar installations) has now compressed this great event to a veritable flash. S.A . Bowring et al, in their startling report in Science, have measured the length of this period of unparalleled biological diversification at only 5-10 million years, possibly as short as a mere 1 million years! What wand of biological creativity was waved at this magical moment? It had to be something that has not happened again down the long eons that followed, for never again has nature favored our planet in this way. Never again were any more of life's major body plans (the phyla) synthesized. Even ardent evolutionists marvel at the newly measured intensity of this moment. For example, S.J . Gould has remarked: "You've taken the most accelerated period of evolutionary rates and made it a whole lot shorter. The ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf090/sf090b05.htm
... ISBN 0-915554-48-8 , 7 x 10-in Geophysics Catalogs For a full list of geophysics subjects, see here . Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights: A Catalog of Geophysical Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Nothing catches the human eye and imagination as quickly as a mysterious light. All down recorded history, scientists and laymen alike have been seeing strange lightning, sky flashes, and unaccountable luminous objects. Typical subjects covered: Horizon-to-horizon sky flashes * Episodes of luminous mists * Mountain-top glows (Andes glow) * Earthquake lights * Ball lightning with tails * Rocket lighting * Lightning from a clear sky * Ghost lights; ignis fatuus * Darting streaks of light (sleeks) * The milky sea and light wheels * Radar-stimulated phosphorescence of the sea * Double ball lightning * Luminous phenomena in tornados * Black auroras * [Picture caption: Luminous display over Mt. Noroshi during earthquake swarm] Comments from reviews ". .. the book is well-written and in places quite fascinating", Science Books. Contents also included in Remarkable Luminous Phenomena in Nature 248 pages, photocopied edition, $16.95, 74 illustrations, 5 indexes, 1982. 1070 references, LC 82-99902, ISBN 915554-09-7 , 7x10-in format. Hardcover edition, $24.95: out of stock Tornados, Dark days, Anomalous Precipitation: A catalog of Geophysical Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Here is our "weather' Catalog. As everyone knows ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 6 - 10 Oct 2021 - URL: /sourcebk.htm
