Submitted by Steve on Fri, 02/12/2016 - 11:43
“If
you didn’t grow it, you mined it,” I’ve heard said. Many countries of the world heavily depend on
mineral extraction to keep their economies afloat. Brazil, the locale for this blog, is no
exception. Iron ore is Brazil’s leading
export. Brazil ranks third in the world in this regard, just behind China and
Australia. Multinational Vale S.A. dominates Brazil’s diversified
metal industry. Vale S.A. holds about
half of Samarco S.A., an iron ore
extraction company.
Submitted by Steve on Tue, 09/08/2015 - 10:36
Who
doesn’t marvel at those wonderful travel pictures of the fiords of Norway? Waterfalls, quaint houses perched on green
slopes, snowy glaciers far above and likely, a cruise ship sailing far
below.
One
hesitates to sully this image with negative mentions, but steep-sided fiords do
present a real and present danger in the form of rockfalls and rockfall-generated
waves. “Fiord tsunami” I call the latter, however some find this liguistic mixture
ludicrous as ‘lutefisk sushi’.
Submitted by Steve on Thu, 06/11/2015 - 11:24
Submitted by Steve on Tue, 04/14/2015 - 16:21
Most
people have heard of the Jet Stream -- those high-speed "rivers of
air" several miles up in the sky.
True, our exposure to it amounts largely to seeing a long wavy arrow on
the newspaper’s weather map or hearing it blamed by the lady on the Six O'clock
News for extended wet or dry spells. Frequent airplane travelers might hold responsible
the Jet Stream for taking longer to fly from New York to San Francisco than
from San Francisco to New York.
Submitted by Steve on Mon, 03/30/2015 - 08:26
Do
you know Muddy Waters? He was a famous
Blues Musician, largely of Chicago in the 1940’s and 1950’s, but finishing
strong through the 1970’s. “Hoochie
Coochie Man” and “I’ve Got My Mojo Working” his hand penned.
For
today’s blog, Muddy’s song -- Rollin’ and Tumblin’ -- might best fit.
Submitted by Steve on Wed, 12/03/2014 - 08:03
In
August 1791, the twelfth California Mission was established in my town of Santa
Cruz. Why bring this up? Well, the very next year hosts today’s topic, The Shimabara
Disaster. Let’s set the date on the “way back machine” at 1792; the place – Shimabara
Peninsula, southern Kyushu, Japan.
Submitted by Steve on Fri, 10/17/2014 - 08:41
As I
write this, hurricane Gonzalo is 150 miles SSW of Bermuda. Its winds have
weakened a bit to 125 MPH with a central pressure of 947 mb. It appears to be shaping up similar to
hurricane Fabian in 2003. Fabian passed
Bermuda with sustained winds of 115 MPH and a central pressure of 950 mb.
Submitted by Steve on Fri, 10/10/2014 - 14:51
Submitted by Steve on Fri, 08/29/2014 - 10:40
I’ve
blogged here many times about dam breaks, both real and hypothetical. Three of
the best known ones in America were the Johnstown Flood of 1889, the
Saint Francis Dam failure of 1928 and the Teton Dam collapse of 1976. Those
disasters released 16 million, 45 million and 330 million cubic meters of water
respectively.
Submitted by Steve on Fri, 08/01/2014 - 10:51
It is
said that “A bad day of fishing is
better than a good day of work”. I won’t
argue, but if you were trolling for trout at Chehalis Lake, British Columbia on
December 4, 2007, you’d have had a bad day. Chehalis Lake, 50 miles east of Vancouver is a lovely spot nestled in
the mountains. Prior to that date, it was
known mostly to fisher folk and 4 wheel drive enthusiasts.
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