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From the Top of the Hill

Bill Humphries — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 04:45:52 +0000

Spirit, one of the Mars Exploration Rovers, reached the top of Husband Hill. Great view, huh?

Haleakala Panorama

Bill Humphries — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 08:15:08 +0000

An Autostitch panorama made from several photos of Haleakala looking southeast from a point overlooking Maalaea Bay during a visit to Maui last October.

Magnitude Five or Greater Quake RSS Feed

Bill Humphries — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 08:00:00 +0000

From Fluid Flow an RSS feed from the USGS of earthquakes measuring at least magnitude 5.0.

A Big One near the Central Coast

Bill Humphries — Mon, 22 Dec 2003 08:00:00 +0000

This quake was 200 miles south of us, but we felt it here as a series of slow, rolling waves. Hope everyone’s okay down there.

Update: Doc reports. Power and phones are down, but no major damage or casualties.

Update 2: Spoke too soon. Reports of deaths in Paseo Robles.

360 degree panorama from the top of Mt. Everest

Bill Humphries — Tue, 03 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000

[ via Memepool ] Wow. Someone took a 360 degree panoramic photo from the summit of Mt. Everest. That’s a view. [ QuickTime ]

Martian Pond Scum?

Bill Humphries — Fri, 14 Mar 2003 08:00:00 +0000

[ via Joshua ] Evidence of brackish water on Mars. Not in the past, but now.

That water is probably brackish, the Wiezmann Institue’s found some varieties of bacteria that do well in such an environment.

I wonder if that’s permafrost melting under pressure as the billions of tons of rock atop it occasionaly shifts and settles.

Mars, baby, Mars. Let’s go now.

Some Old Footprints

Bill Humphries — Wed, 12 Mar 2003 08:00:00 +0000

[ via Laura V. ] A group of proto-humans, running across a field of ash on the slopes of a volcano some 350,000 years ago, left the oldest known footprints.

Corrected from 600,000 years ago.

An Old Planetary Bruise

Bill Humphries — Tue, 11 Mar 2003 08:00:00 +0000

NASA announced a recent visualization of the Chicxulub impact (65 Million Years BCE) on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. The rendering was made from radar data collected from a recent Space Shuttle flight, and shows a semi-circular area of sedementary rock, accumlated after the impact, that eroded in a such a way as to betray the underlying rock that had been distressed by the impact.

Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Bill Humphries — Mon, 10 Mar 2003 08:00:00 +0000

The USGS Flagstaff center maintains a Gazetteer index of named features on worlds throughout the Solar System. There’s a set of rules for what you name features (craters, etc.) after. The site also has a set of topgraphic maps of Mars, made using the Mars Observer’s laser altimeter. I found the site reading Oliver Morton’s Mapping Mars, which is a great book on planetary exploration and geology.

4.3 Quake in San Ramone

Bill Humphries — Sun, 02 Feb 2003 08:00:00 +0000

I leave for two days and what happens?

Update of the Kilauea Volcano Eruption

Bill Humphries — Thu, 28 Nov 2002 08:00:00 +0000

[ via Ctein ] The chief geologist of the Kilauea Volcano site goes out every morning and takes photos of the most impressive flows, then posts them to the USGS site. So it’s a Volcano Weblog!

We thought this photo was impressive.

I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet

Bill Humphries — Mon, 13 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000

The room shook, but no damage. There was a 5.2 tremblor centered just outside of Gilroy.

I’m jaded, so read Cory for a reaction from someone fresh from the stable core of the North American Plate.

And from Cory’s discussion group:

Under California Law, you are not allowed to howl like a little girl unless the quake is over 6.0 on the Richter Scale.

Damn, I need to find a “Best of” Carole King CD… .

Don’t be at Costco when the Big One hits

Bill Humphries — Mon, 07 Aug 2000 07:00:00 +0000

To tons of merchandise piled high on metal shelving, apply shearing and shaking forces. Don’t go warehousing in earthquake weather.

The Wedding Earthquake

Bill Humphries — Wed, 20 Oct 1999 07:00:00 +0000

For my friends Lucy and John, the Loma Prieta quake could not have happened at a worse time: four days before their wedding.

USGS Loma Prieta Site

Bill Humphries — Sun, 17 Oct 1999 07:00:00 +0000

The US Geological Survey launched a new site to present their work in the ten years after Loma Prieta.