Earth Science

I've never been to California but based on what I've seen on BBC's Natural History Unit television series called Planet Earth, coastal California is home to the largest trees in the world, called douglas firs and giant redwoods. But the funny thing is that these giant trees in coastal California are only there because of the heavy summer fog and heavy winter rains. There is no rain during the summer months in California so even if the winter rains fail these kind of trees can extract enough moisture from the fog. So my question is: What actually causes the heavy summer fog in coastal California which allows for the growth of such big trees as opposed to other coas…

Can anyone explain all this in terms of CALCIUM ? Thanks . Mike IS THIS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT . A glut of calcium (among other minerals ) was dissolved over a period of 1 billion years from deep seated rock and available en mass at the Pre-cambrian/cambrian border period and thus available in the SEA for the construction of spines, teeth, shells, bones , Skulls etc. . .

To complete my project at uni, I'm seeking data sets showing observed weather conditions at European capital cities since 2009. The minimum data I need is temperature, rainfall and wind speeds. I have managed to get UK data from http://www.weatherlab.co.uk and collected the majority of France, Spain and Germany cities from http://www.wunderground.com but struggling to find any more. If possible, I would like to avoid writing to all the national meteorological organisations in Europe as English is probably not their first language Any help appreciated and I've got about a month until I have to publish my findings! Ben, Leeds Uni

When looking at Great White Cliffs, stacks or other limestone outcrops a question arises . What proportion of what one sees, comes about by precipitation from the ocean water without living intervention? Is this origin purely chemical ( NOT of Plant or Animal origin ) Half, 10 % 75 % 2% or what ever ? Clearly a lot comes from living origin; Coral, Plankton , Algae and other calcite ooze or slime, but what proportion is from once NON living origin ? Calcium as an element must have come from an exploding star at some stage. Did it go molecular while still in space , or was there some form of processing in the earth mantle or core ? I believe this ha…

please mods put this in the right place as i dont no where to place. my friend may actuall have two moon rocks.we have both looked at every photo we could find of meteors and moon rocks and this just may be the real deal. what are the exact steps to go about verification.if they are real then the value could be around a million $.so he wants to make sure.this is not a joke. we have some photos of them but they are not highly detailed.phone camera. thankyou for your time.we live in northeast texas for reference of closest lab or what not.

I find this very worrying. all the deserts are always getting bigger and consuming more land, and I heard that there are huge areas of burnt trees to act as a barrier to the desert. I believe that we can reverse the desertification process. if we were to observe how desertification works, it dries all the plants out and then they simply wither and die. well that is how I think it works... If we were to see though that the biomass is left there, and biomass leads to nutrients I think, then there if we plant a new tree there quickly, we could see it grow anyways, using the dead bio mass in the soil. Now, if we were to look out into the desert, well, there must b…

Here we're having a really hot dry summer, and today was a cooler overcast/cloudy day. Now, at 12:51 at night, we're having this odd thunderstorm where there are more flashes of light then noticeable thunder. Maybe I'm missing it, but I wanted to ask if this was typical.

Fresh news in about the Temperature of the core of the Earth. link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22297915 given to me by a University of the Third Age member U3A Geologists.

i suggest that the resent magneticfield weakning and shifting is a warning that should be combined with these factors many hotspots i prown to bursting and the timeline is parralel to a great comming event im no doomsday profet but the cores pulse is relatet to the signs we see in the crust and the polar great shift creates a elektric field vaccum that makes the magma sizzle like mentos in a cola and we are sitting on it i hope science will look to the matter cola=carbon/iron=magma=mass=greatly effectet by magnetism

is isis not posting some earthquakes that happen in the united states.my local news program talks of quakes but even after a day.i dont see them posted. whats up with that? is usgs not giving us the full truth? what are they trying to hide? is there a very high chance of a major earthquake from washington dc to missouri?

Hello, I do not really understand how one can determine the flow direction of a river by looking at a topographic map (see attachment). Does the river flow from north to south or from south to north? I think it has to do something with the steepness of the meanders on either side, but I do not really understand the full process. Can anyone help me figure it out? Thanks already!

Hello! I am magnets assemblies engineer,now I have task to develop some kinds of assemblies of eletric motor assemblies. I never work in a professional motor factory, I really don't have ideas for what's these producers really need. éœçˆ¾IC.pdf

I have seen a few interesting small documentaries and read information about the earth growing. They sound quite fasinating and plausible. It makes sence how the earth could be growing and they say that the contenants are streatching apart. I have seen their argument on how all the contenants fit together if you were to make earth smaller. But one thing doesn't quite make sence to me, where does all this water come from that we have. Is it that when our planet was smaller that is was all water on the surface and after millions/billions or years the contenants emarged from stretching/growing apart as they say. Please let me know what you think.

I just found this outside and am wondering as to it's classification and minerals. Sorry if two pictures aren't nearly enough, thanks!

What does Earth Day mean to you?

Hello all. I am trying to understand the difference between altitude and density altitude. The only difference is that density altitude depends on my position's current air temperature and altitude does not? If my position's current air temperature is increased, then the density altitude is also increased, but the altitude remains fixed. If my position's current air temperature is decreased, then the density altitude is also decreased, but the altitude remains fixed. I am right? According barometric formula of wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_pressure#Altitude_atmospheric_pressure_variation), the altitude depends on my position's current atmoshperic p…

245-180 Mya 180-115 Mya 115-80 Mya 150-140 Mya The following figures depict earth's tectonic plates, in the early Jurassic period. Although not explicitly depicted, the Insular Islands resided off the western coast of North America (above & right of the words 'Farallon Plate' in part B of figure 1). The Insular Islands formed c.325-300 Mya, in the late Carboniferous period. Retracing their journey, atop the Farallon plate, northeastwards across the ancient Pacific ocean, the Insular Islands apparently formed near earth's equator, at low latitudes, perhaps in the middle of the ancient Pacific ocean. Fossilized foraminifera, simila…

Strong high pressure areas are forming over regions in the Arctic which disturbs the normal temperature distribution on the Northern hemisphere, or at least the northern regions. Western Europe experiences a very cold spring (it's still freezing in the Netherlands, we had an all-time record low for March just a week ago), but in certain regions in the Arctic, these same strong weather systems blow hot air and increase temperatures to well above the normal. Links I found on the topic suggest that this is not your every-day weather event. This link predicts that Arctic melting might be quite severe this summer. But the patterns are also similar to the ones that caused d…

1) What makes the difference if a soil will leach out completely or a soil where clay or other material illuviation will take place? 2) Why are podzolic soils acidic? 3) Why is there an upward movement of groundwater in arid areas (what causes this)? 4) Why is kaolinite often formed at the base of tropical soils? Thanks!

we are in times of geologicly low activity consittering past history but the silence can be broken in short notice ofcurse there is signs that can be ritten from the rising activity in and around thise hotspots as increase in eathquakes ore rising ground the list is long but still these technics are all relaying on what can be translatet from seismolygic messurements and ground based observers instruments as all with a little scientific knowledge knows there is more then meets the eye and even to begin understanding an unexplored unseen mattter there must be preaccorded theories that allows for new simulations and innovations that ables the matter to be confirmed ore reje…

From what i understand, large volcanic eruptions occur when the preassure below the surface is too great and the volcano blows it's top and spews out huge amounts of matter. My question is, why can't we drill into the chamber and slowly release the preassure? The side benefit of this would be that we could use this preassure to generate huge amounts of electricity. So what's the problem?

Where can I find a copy of the paper John Joly made about the age of the oceans, when he calculated the upper bound of their age to be around 100 million years old? I tried googling it, but couldn't find it, so hopefully someone here may know where to look? Cheers.

Is There any clear ideas or fossil evidence for life in some form or other in the Pre- Cambrian period ?. I have recently read of half plant/ half animal Ediacaran fossils being found in Mexico. (Supercontinent by Ted Nield 2007 ). Has anyone any idea what they looked like , and were they turbid mud dwellers or what. Was there any other life, Algal slime or creeping things ? Which part of the 4,000,000,000 years of Pre-Cambrian period did these life forms exist in ? I am trying to Paint these " things " so even a verbal description would be appreciated .

The sciences of Physics and Chemistry seem to have lead industry to a situation that is putting the worlds systems into a strained condition. Should we possibly be using Geology as a way out of this current state. Perhaps diverting attention more in the direction of how the world was made over the last eons ( 4.5 billion years). And thus learning how humans can best be accommodated within the geological working structure. Could we use a knowledge of Geology in a new active discipline, endeavor and enterprise . This as opposed to using yet more and more effort in the direction of " conventional industry based on physics and chemistry mainly " , as a wa…

Hi, I was asked to evaluate the following article, concerning the disadvantages of biofuels: http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/ecampbell3/duane/Fargione-carbondebt-2008.pdf But there are some things about figure 1 that I do not completely understand: 1) In the text it says: "Converting lowland tropical rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia to palm biodiesel would result in a biofuel carbon debt of ~610 Mg of CO2 ha−1 that would take ~86 years to repay (Fig. 1D)" while the figure shows 702? 2) Figure 1C and D: "Number of years after conversion to biofuel production required for cumulative biofuel GHG reductions, relative to the fossil fuels they displace, to rep…