revealed in stunning detail in latest LRO images (click to enlarge). The descent stage of the lunar module Challenger, and footprints by astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt - the only geologist to fly to the Moon - as well as various scientific instruments, show clearly in the high-resolution images of the last place we visited on our nearest neighbor in 1972."Quinn expects the winter of 2009-10 to produce about 25 inches of snow in places like Cheney. 'That’s half to less than half of normal snowfall at lower elevations,' he said."I'd warn you, however, not to bank on this. EWU geography professor Quinn was in error by more than 100 percent in his forecast for last winter when the Spokane region received nearly 94" of snow.
"A city landslide study found that 86 percent of landslides were caused by human activity such as excavation, fill placed on steep slopes, broken pipes and uncontrolled stormwater."Recent years haven't been as bad as the winter of 1996-1997 which this on-line report details: Landslides Triggered by the Winter 1996-97 Storms in the Puget Lowland, Washington.
"We are totally different from the Museum of the Rockies in that we present fossils and all the exhibits in the context of biblical creation," said Otis E. Kline Jr., the museum's founder and director.
It's ironic that this so-called museum exists smack in the middle of an area in western Montana rich with paleontological sites that have yielded tremendous scientific information about dinosaurs. But perhaps that's exactly why it is there.Jack Horner, the curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies, agrees the two museums are fundamentally different.
"It's not a science museum at all," Horner said. "It's not a pseudo-science museum. It's just not science. …There's nothing scientific about it."
quite the chompers. Indeed, the wrinkle-faced bat (Centurio senex; shown above - click to enlarge) is less than attractive, but calling it ugly only hurts its self esteem.
at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The image above (click to enlarge) shows the space shuttle Atlantis on pad 39A (foreground) and the Ares I-X on pad 39B (background) during the rare circumstance of two different launch vehicles being readied for lift-off at nearly the same time.
Martian microbial underworld imaged on Arsia Mons (click to enlarge) that is estimated to be 160 to 200 ft (50 - 60 m) across. It is hypothesized that this is a skylight into a lava tube that could potentially protect life - if it exists - from "radiation, extreme temperatures and dust storms" that occur on the surface of Mars.
from space showing the expansive Snake River Plain (click to enlarge). Where to begin to highlight the various physiographic and geologic features shown on this satellite image?
is tomorrow, Thursday, at 11 am. Good luck to my fledgling sedimentologists; be sure to study hard tonight.
to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early this morning, shown here outside the Vehicle Assembly Building (click to enlarge). This is NASA's first new rocket in more than a generation, and its first test launch is scheduled for 27 October. This launch vehicle is enormous, standing 327 ft (100 m) tall, more than twice the height of the space shuttle. Link to NASA's Ares I-X web page.
diagrammed on a map of the solar system (click to enlarge). Very, very cool visual.
from space showing more than 60 lava flows emanating from the Craters of the Moon area on the eastern Snake River Plain in southeastern Idaho (click to enlarge). Highly fluid basalts extruded in this region have been dated from 15,000 to 2,100 years before present and cover an area of ~1,600 sq km (620 sq mi) with a total volume of 30 cubic km (7.2 cubic mi).
of vapor and fine debris from the Centaur impact was indeed caught by LCROSS instruments (click to enlarge). The high-contrast image shown above was captured 15 sec after the impact and shows a plume 6-8 km in diameter. Still no word on the analysis of the spectra and the composition of the ejecta.
is the name given to the recent mass movement near Naches, Washington by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). The slide diverted the Naches River, blocked State Route 410 in Yakima County, and forced the evacuation of several residences. Updated information:
occurred this Sunday morning, diverting the Naches River and closing a state highway."Microfossils that show up in large quantities in ancient rocks deposited during Earth’s largest mass extinction are fungal spores, not algae as some recent studies had proposed, new research suggests.
About 251 million years ago, at the end of the Permian Period, life on Earth had its closest call: In a geologically short period of time, a mass extinction claimed more than 95 percent of species in the oceans and 70 percent of those on land."
on Europa? Article: Europa Capable of Supporting Life, Scientist Says. The global ice-covered ocean, coupled with an abundance of oxygen, could provide optimum conditions for life.
"Updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036, for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a million."That doesn't mean we can't party like it's 2012, at the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar.
yet another meteorite, this one tagged "Shelter Island." The pitted rock is about 47 cm (18.5 in) long (click to enlarge.)
from space showing an enormous dust storm sweeping the semi-arid plains of the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington on 4 October 2009 (click to enlarge.) A local news report said that wind gusts reached 43 miles per hour and Interstate 90 was closed for a period of time due to a number of accidents.
"A 66-million-old Tyrannosaurus Rex named Samson failed to sell at a Las Vegas auction after the top bid of 3.6 million dollars fell way below the minimum price [$6 million].I guess the economy is tough on everyone, even dinosaurs.Samson, a female T-Rex found on a South Dakota ranch in 1992, also trailed the record 8.36 million dollars that Sue, another T-Rex, sold for at a 1997 auction."
from space showing a smoky Pacific Northwest region on 19 August 2009 in a true-color image (click to enlarge.) Smoke from fires burning in British Columbia, Canada (red dots on enlarged image) obscures Vancouver Island, the Puget Sound lowland and parts of eastern Washington."Well, she was annoying me."There were 27 bids reaching $3,500 before eBay removed the listing.
