Good Tuesday Morning!

1. Question – What is the greatest unanswered geological question?

2. Thought – We know that the Earth’s magnetic field changes in power from time to time: during the age of dinosaurs it was up to three times as strong as now. We also know that it reverses itself every 500,000 years or so on average, though that average hides a huge degree of unpredictability. The last reversal was about 750,000 years ago. Sometimes it stays put for millions of years – 37 million years appears to be the longest stretch – and at other times it has reversed after as little as 20,000 years. Although in the last 100 million years it has reversed itself about 200 times, and we don’t have any real idea why. It has been called “the greatest unanswered question in the geological sciences.” (Bill Bryson – A Short History of Nearly Everything)

“Class warfare is an artificial division created for political advantage, and it should be rejected outright by the American people – for we have far too many real problems to devote energy to artificial ones.” (Dr. Ben Carson)

Good Friday Morning!!!

1. Question – Have you ever thought about the finite amount of water here on Earth?

2. Thought – There are 320 million cubic miles of water on Earth and that is all we’re ever going to get. The system is closed: practically speaking, nothing can be added or subtracted. The water you drink has been around doing its job since the Earth was young. By 3.8 billion years ago, the oceans had (at least more or less) achieved their present volumes.

The water realm is known as the hydrosphere and it is overwhelmingly oceanic. 97% of all the water on Earth is in the seas, the greater part of it in the Pacific, which covers half the planet and is bigger than all the land masses put together. Altogether the Pacific holds just over half of all ocean water (51.6% to be precise); the Atlantic has 23.6% and the Indian Ocean 21.2%, leaving just 3.6% to be accounted for by all the other seas. The average depth of the ocean is 2.4 miles, with the Pacific on average about a 1000 feet deeper than the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Altogether 60% of the planet’s surface is ocean more than a mile deep. As Philip Ball notes, we would better call our planet not Earth but Water. (Bill Bryson – A Short History of Nearly Everything)

“Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid at night; God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.” (Alexander Pope)

Just don’t text and drive. Enjoy the weekend. So far air is free. Ever wonder what Thomas Jefferson meant about the ‘Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God’ in the Declaration of Independence?