Venus has often been called Terra's twin (yes, I go with the original Latin name for our planet) because of the similarity in size to our own homeworld. Its diameter is 12,103 kilometres, as opposed to Terra's 12,756 waist line. Its mass is a noteworthy 82% of our planet, giving it a surface gravity of 0.91 G. Though the point could, and has been, heavily debated in the past, it's believed to orbit just inside Sol's habitable zone. (Yes, that's the Latin name for our local star.)
But that's where the similarities end. If Venus is our twin, it gives evidence to the whole idea of one good and one evil twin. The planet's atmosphere is about 96.5% carbon dioxide, as opposed to 0.039% in our atmosphere. The surface temperature on Venus is about four and a half times hotter than the boiling point of water. And let's not forget the atmosphere weighs down at 92 times heavier than our own. So, what is it that caused such a fundamental shift away from Terra?
The major difference is the geomagnetic field of Venus. It's different, in that it doesn't exist. In 1947, American physicist Walter Elsasser first proposed that our planet's geomagnetic field is created by electrical currents running through the planet's iron-rich molten outer core, otherwise known as a dynamo. His mathematical models showed that three things were required for this to happen: a solid inner core; a rotating, and electrically conductive, molten outer core; and, thermal convection from the core to the mantle.
Venus is believed, though the point is debated, to have a solid inner core. Evidence of lava flows on the surface shows it has a liquid mantle, and therefore likely to have a molten outer core. But what about heat transfer away from the planet's centre? The answer comes from a slightly surprising direction: plate tectonics.
The driving force of plate tectonics is convection currents in the mantle. Magma pushed up by these currents from the core slams into the underside of the crust, what is called the lithosphere, and spreads out, pushing the plates along with the current. The same physics that drives a summer thunderstorm is also responsible for earthquakes. But earthquakes are another thing Venus is missing - there's no active plate tectonics.
Because there's no great moving rafts of rock on the planet, it's fairly safe to assume there's no thermal convection in the mantle. Thermal convection currents, like wind, requires areas of both hot and cold for heat transfer to actually happen. If the heat on both sides is the same, no convection occurs. In 1995, a family trip to Pennsylvania led us to the Laurel Caverns. While there, I learned that the caves stay a constant temperature, even in winter, because of heat transferred up from several kilometres below.
But with Venus under a greenhouse effect gone psychotic, the transfer of heat stops cold. (No pun intended.) If no heat can be transferred from the mantle, then no heat can be transferred to the mantle, from the core itself. The field itself protects our atmosphere from the solar winds. Without it, the atmosphere would be stripped away, starting with hydrogen, which itself is required for that most basic substance, water.
So, the next obvious question is, could anything theoretically be done to cool Venus down enough for convection to resume? To answer that, I give a quote from the movie, I, Robot.
"That, detective, is the right question."
13 December 2012
08 November 2012
Elephants and Lemmings
"You know your party's in trouble when you read this: A: The rape guy lost. B: Which one?"
~ Alec Baldwin
And thus ends another election cycle in the United States, and with it a plethora of lessons to take to heart. To start off the list is Todd Akin, the now former Republican candidate for Missouri's 2nd Congressional District, and his lessons regarding the anatomical defenses of women to guard against becoming pregnant as a result of rape. Needless to say, the fiery death of this lesson, and Akin's political career as a result, was bright enough to see from orbit.
Next is Richard Mourdock, the defeated Republican senate candidate for Indiana, who many would say led himself to the gallows when he stated that a pregnancy that resulted from rape was 'a gift from God.' I will submit that I have known two women who became pregnant as the result of a rape, and carried their pregnancies to the full term, and none who chose an abortion. This fact can easily be skewered by the fact both girls were in their early teens, and their families forbid them to have an abortion, despite the girls' pleas to the contrary. Now, I may be only a simple male, and relatively unable to fully understand the mental trauma of rape, but situations like this don't seem to ring of divine providence.
The list goes on, across a wide range of topics, from lunar bases to 'job creators,' but I think the point can be made simply from looking at the psychology behind these two ideas, and the psychology of the party itself.
Many years ago, many more than I care to count, I first learned about the animals used to symbolize the Democrats and Republicans. One was symbolized by the elephant, a strong but nurturing animal, aged and wise. The other was an ass. I thought these two were a very fitting representation of the two American parties - until I realized I had it backwards. The Republicans have disjointed themselves so much from the mood of the United States as a whole so much that to my eyes, they can't help but look like a bunch of braying donkeys.
The problem the Republicans face is one of fundamental values. Even in generally hardened Republican strongholds, previous attempts at so-called 'personhood amendments' to write into law that life begins at conception (effectively equating abortions to homicide) failed miserably, and yet they still had several people running for office that blasted the airwaves with promises they would allow for no abortions in cases of rape, incest, or the health and survival of the mother. It was surprising to me, a vociferous defendant of a woman's right to elect for abortion, that so many people would thus choose to vote for a party whose presumptive leader, Willard 'Mitt' Romney (yes, Willard is his given name) sided with this policy more times than he denounced it. And with this, we come to the heart of the matter.
Mitt Romney raced back and forth so often between mutually exclusive points of view that it's a small wonder he made it past the primaries early this year. (Speaking of which: Yeti, I think I still owe you that $20 from betting Rick Perry would be the Republican candidate.) In his defense, he really had no choice, if choice it was at all. At the same time he had to appear acceptable to those Democrats that may be receptive to a different direction from Barack Obama and, as Kelsey Grammer said on an episode of 'The Simpsons,' '...a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king.' And the direct result of this was him tripping over his own feet time and time again, giving the Democrats more ammunition than they could use.
So the question becomes how the Republicans will act in the future. They spent the last two years, at least, since Mitch McConnell's notorious 'one-term President' remarks, obstructing everything that could breathe new life into the American economy. Will this become the norm for how they conduct themselves going forward? Worse yet is the question that prompts me to write this diatribe: do they have a choice? The Republicans have effectively, and for far more reasons than I've listed here, labelled themselves as a fanatical group of right-wing zealots. In this election cycle, it's become more and more apparent that this is the behaviour their base expects of them. Birtherism still rears its ugly head from time to time, and their demagoguery of 'socialist policies' that we Canadians treasure above all else, our health care system chief among them, continues a rampant charge. The Republicans in the end have no choice but to follow the policies demanded upon by those that elect them.
In the end, I can't help but consider the Republicans going forward to be a group of lemmings, walking across a tightrope stretched over the Grand Canyon, with a pack of wolves waiting on the other side. They can follow their instincts, trying to appease 50.1% of the voting population in their own radical way, and run the risk of falling off the rope. Or, they can fight their instinct, break conformity, and run on policies that will in many cases run contrary to political doctrine in their party, only to be torn to shreds by the wolves in their own party.
I will grant that some of them will make it over the rope and past the fangs - it's a near inevitability. What worries me is that one day, one of the more fanatical, and potentially psychotic ones, may manage to run the gauntlet and move into 1600 Pennsylvania. One of them nearly made it four years ago, and only needed a 72-year-old cancer survivor to win the election, and have his heart conk out to reach the pinnacle of power. Now, as a Canadian, I find myself asking if that is the kind of person I want guarding the world's largest nuclear stockpile?
May God grant me the opportunity to move to New Zealand.
~ Alec Baldwin
And thus ends another election cycle in the United States, and with it a plethora of lessons to take to heart. To start off the list is Todd Akin, the now former Republican candidate for Missouri's 2nd Congressional District, and his lessons regarding the anatomical defenses of women to guard against becoming pregnant as a result of rape. Needless to say, the fiery death of this lesson, and Akin's political career as a result, was bright enough to see from orbit.
Next is Richard Mourdock, the defeated Republican senate candidate for Indiana, who many would say led himself to the gallows when he stated that a pregnancy that resulted from rape was 'a gift from God.' I will submit that I have known two women who became pregnant as the result of a rape, and carried their pregnancies to the full term, and none who chose an abortion. This fact can easily be skewered by the fact both girls were in their early teens, and their families forbid them to have an abortion, despite the girls' pleas to the contrary. Now, I may be only a simple male, and relatively unable to fully understand the mental trauma of rape, but situations like this don't seem to ring of divine providence.
The list goes on, across a wide range of topics, from lunar bases to 'job creators,' but I think the point can be made simply from looking at the psychology behind these two ideas, and the psychology of the party itself.
Many years ago, many more than I care to count, I first learned about the animals used to symbolize the Democrats and Republicans. One was symbolized by the elephant, a strong but nurturing animal, aged and wise. The other was an ass. I thought these two were a very fitting representation of the two American parties - until I realized I had it backwards. The Republicans have disjointed themselves so much from the mood of the United States as a whole so much that to my eyes, they can't help but look like a bunch of braying donkeys.
The problem the Republicans face is one of fundamental values. Even in generally hardened Republican strongholds, previous attempts at so-called 'personhood amendments' to write into law that life begins at conception (effectively equating abortions to homicide) failed miserably, and yet they still had several people running for office that blasted the airwaves with promises they would allow for no abortions in cases of rape, incest, or the health and survival of the mother. It was surprising to me, a vociferous defendant of a woman's right to elect for abortion, that so many people would thus choose to vote for a party whose presumptive leader, Willard 'Mitt' Romney (yes, Willard is his given name) sided with this policy more times than he denounced it. And with this, we come to the heart of the matter.
Mitt Romney raced back and forth so often between mutually exclusive points of view that it's a small wonder he made it past the primaries early this year. (Speaking of which: Yeti, I think I still owe you that $20 from betting Rick Perry would be the Republican candidate.) In his defense, he really had no choice, if choice it was at all. At the same time he had to appear acceptable to those Democrats that may be receptive to a different direction from Barack Obama and, as Kelsey Grammer said on an episode of 'The Simpsons,' '...a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king.' And the direct result of this was him tripping over his own feet time and time again, giving the Democrats more ammunition than they could use.
So the question becomes how the Republicans will act in the future. They spent the last two years, at least, since Mitch McConnell's notorious 'one-term President' remarks, obstructing everything that could breathe new life into the American economy. Will this become the norm for how they conduct themselves going forward? Worse yet is the question that prompts me to write this diatribe: do they have a choice? The Republicans have effectively, and for far more reasons than I've listed here, labelled themselves as a fanatical group of right-wing zealots. In this election cycle, it's become more and more apparent that this is the behaviour their base expects of them. Birtherism still rears its ugly head from time to time, and their demagoguery of 'socialist policies' that we Canadians treasure above all else, our health care system chief among them, continues a rampant charge. The Republicans in the end have no choice but to follow the policies demanded upon by those that elect them.
In the end, I can't help but consider the Republicans going forward to be a group of lemmings, walking across a tightrope stretched over the Grand Canyon, with a pack of wolves waiting on the other side. They can follow their instincts, trying to appease 50.1% of the voting population in their own radical way, and run the risk of falling off the rope. Or, they can fight their instinct, break conformity, and run on policies that will in many cases run contrary to political doctrine in their party, only to be torn to shreds by the wolves in their own party.
I will grant that some of them will make it over the rope and past the fangs - it's a near inevitability. What worries me is that one day, one of the more fanatical, and potentially psychotic ones, may manage to run the gauntlet and move into 1600 Pennsylvania. One of them nearly made it four years ago, and only needed a 72-year-old cancer survivor to win the election, and have his heart conk out to reach the pinnacle of power. Now, as a Canadian, I find myself asking if that is the kind of person I want guarding the world's largest nuclear stockpile?
May God grant me the opportunity to move to New Zealand.
15 September 2012
The Work-A-Day World: The Return of the Copper Anaconda
Some of you, however few you may be, have heard the recent events of the last week. For those who don't know what's been going on in the North, give me a moment to explain. First off, I finally got a solid, gold-plated line on a job, back in the electrical field. No, not at that godforsaken pellet plant - if that place ever gets off the ground, I'm no longer sure I'll be heading back there. (Sorry, Boss, but an industrial start-up just seems too unpredictable to earn a ticket in.)
No, the job's not back in Atikokan. In fact, it's not so much in one place as potentially in several places across Northern Ontario. To put it bluntly, I'm now signed on with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 402. Yes, I'm on my way to being a union boy.
But, as it always must be, some things from the past must always rear their ugly heads, threatening to put a damper on a good day's work. And so it was today I found myself faced with a true monster: nearly 80 metres of 750 kcmil high-voltage TECK 90 tri-phase conductor. At nearly nine kilograms per metre, it is by far the single largest power cable I've yet to handle. And it took 14 guys (of which myself and Tesla were the lightweights) to dead-lift it onto a cable tray - which it summarily began to destroy. Oops.
Anyway, after eight solid hours of effort, we managed to put this beast to bed in four pieces, twin runs of 23 and 15 metres. Of course, it's never so easy as just that. Yes, there were complications beyond the cable tray. (Anyone that knows me knows it's never one thing that goes wrong around me.) TECK 90 requires a specific type of connector to attach it to whatever switch gear, motor control console and/or junction box it's meant to power. And the ones we had, valued at $400 each, were the wrong size. Specifically, they were too small.
So, while the majority of us were dealing with the last cable, a small group grabbed the connectors, along with power drills and some type of metal grinding bits I've never encountered before, and started doing what they could to widen the openings on the connectors. Can you guess what group I wound up in? (If you say the metal grinding group, call me - I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.)
After the day's labour, me and Tesla decided to hit KFC before ordering a full retreat to my place in Thunder Bay. While he spent half the time bitching about house insurance and property tax in Barrie and avoiding mentioning what I think is the root of the problem (Barbatos) I sat there in bliss at the thought of the day. Only part of my thoughts were about me being back to work.
The other part? As I understand it, under the rules of the union, work on a weekend is double rate.
No, the job's not back in Atikokan. In fact, it's not so much in one place as potentially in several places across Northern Ontario. To put it bluntly, I'm now signed on with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 402. Yes, I'm on my way to being a union boy.
But, as it always must be, some things from the past must always rear their ugly heads, threatening to put a damper on a good day's work. And so it was today I found myself faced with a true monster: nearly 80 metres of 750 kcmil high-voltage TECK 90 tri-phase conductor. At nearly nine kilograms per metre, it is by far the single largest power cable I've yet to handle. And it took 14 guys (of which myself and Tesla were the lightweights) to dead-lift it onto a cable tray - which it summarily began to destroy. Oops.
Anyway, after eight solid hours of effort, we managed to put this beast to bed in four pieces, twin runs of 23 and 15 metres. Of course, it's never so easy as just that. Yes, there were complications beyond the cable tray. (Anyone that knows me knows it's never one thing that goes wrong around me.) TECK 90 requires a specific type of connector to attach it to whatever switch gear, motor control console and/or junction box it's meant to power. And the ones we had, valued at $400 each, were the wrong size. Specifically, they were too small.
So, while the majority of us were dealing with the last cable, a small group grabbed the connectors, along with power drills and some type of metal grinding bits I've never encountered before, and started doing what they could to widen the openings on the connectors. Can you guess what group I wound up in? (If you say the metal grinding group, call me - I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.)
After the day's labour, me and Tesla decided to hit KFC before ordering a full retreat to my place in Thunder Bay. While he spent half the time bitching about house insurance and property tax in Barrie and avoiding mentioning what I think is the root of the problem (Barbatos) I sat there in bliss at the thought of the day. Only part of my thoughts were about me being back to work.
The other part? As I understand it, under the rules of the union, work on a weekend is double rate.
13 August 2012
The Lost Eruption
"...at last the mountain Kapi with a tremendous roar burst into pieces and sank into the deepest of the earth. The water of the sea rose and inundated the land... The water subsided but the land on which Kapi stood became sea, and Java and Sumatra were divided into two parts."
~ Javanese Book of Kings
Historical records can paint a terrifying image, but those of legend can be all the more frightening. But there are instances where the line between myth and fact can become slightly distorted. Take as an example the Native American mythology of the Thunderbird.
"At the time of the Great Flood, Thunderbird fought a long, long battle with Killer Whale. He would catch Killer Whale in his claws and start with him to the cave in the mountains. Killer Whale would escape and return to the water. Thunderbird would catch him again, all the time flashing lightning from his eyes and flapping his wings to create thunder. Mountains were shaken by the noise, and trees were uprooted in their struggle. Again and again Killer Whale escaped."
Under normal circumstances, this would seem to match up in fashion with other flood mythologies from around the world. Except that geological records have shown a correlation between this mythology and a Japanese record from 26 January 1700 showing a tsunami hitting the islands, but with no corresponding earthquake. The earthquake, estimated at 9.0 on the Richter Scale, had in fact been generated across the Pacific Ocean, in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
While many would never call into question that this event occurred, it would hardly convince skeptics that the Book of Kings could be correct in its assertions. The book tells that the two islands had once been a single mass, split in half by the explosion of a single mountain, around 416 AD. While there is no evidence yet located of such an eruption, an eruption large enough to tear a gaping hole in the island, creating what is now the Sunda Strait should have left some mark behind.
Though nothing is shown from 416, there is a slight curiosity in both Antarctic and Greenlnd ice cores around 535 AD: a large spike in sulfur dioxide content, far larger than any other in recorded history. Such a spike could only be generated from a volcanic eruption, and one of such magnitude, it would cause far-reaching, perhaps global, consequences.
And the records exist, showing a severe series of meteorological events at the same time. In 536, the Byzantine historian Procopous recorded that "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness." Other events have been catalogued worldwide, including crop failures from Ireland to Sweden, snow in August in China, and a severe drought which led to the collapse of the Moche natives in Peru.
While there is no conclusive geological evidence showing where this eruption could have been, there is that passage from the Book of Kings, and its inference to the Sunda Strait. What is does not mention specifically is the monster that resides there to this day.
On 27 August 1883, the volcanic island Krakatau erupted with such a force, the explosion was heard over 3,000 kilometres away in Perth, Australia. Tsunamis and pyroclastic surges slammed nearby shorelines, killing 36,417 people. Devastated by its own destructive force, fully two thirds of the volcano collapsed in on itself, forming a caldera. From such a ferocity, people could easily believe the volcano would never return. But as we all know, history often repeats itself.
In 1927, the Sunda Strait were disturbed once again with a new power rising. Anak Krakatau now rises over a thousand feet above the strait, with no signs of slowing down. But if this new volcano had risen from the ashes of its father, could Krakatau in turn have risen from the grave of something even larger?
The rating scale for volcanic eruptions, the Volcanic Explosivity Index, reserves the top rating of 8 for volcanoes which throw out more than 1,000 km³ of material. It is this class alone which stands uncontested for its capacity to change global weather. The Toba eruption, 74,000 years ago, has been accused of changing the climate so radically, all but two thousand members of the early species of man were wiped out.
47 eruptions of such magnitude are known to have happened, from the Pacana Caldera of Chile, to the famous Yellowstone eruption 640,000 years ago. But through all this, I find myself asking an ominous question: did we have one slip past right under our noses?
UPDATE: 23 August 2012, 13:57
A recent e-mail from a representative of the United States Geological Survey has confirmed privately that there is "substantial, yet still circumstantial evidence" for a VEI 7/8 eruption of Krakatau in 535 AD.
~ Javanese Book of Kings
Historical records can paint a terrifying image, but those of legend can be all the more frightening. But there are instances where the line between myth and fact can become slightly distorted. Take as an example the Native American mythology of the Thunderbird.
"At the time of the Great Flood, Thunderbird fought a long, long battle with Killer Whale. He would catch Killer Whale in his claws and start with him to the cave in the mountains. Killer Whale would escape and return to the water. Thunderbird would catch him again, all the time flashing lightning from his eyes and flapping his wings to create thunder. Mountains were shaken by the noise, and trees were uprooted in their struggle. Again and again Killer Whale escaped."
Under normal circumstances, this would seem to match up in fashion with other flood mythologies from around the world. Except that geological records have shown a correlation between this mythology and a Japanese record from 26 January 1700 showing a tsunami hitting the islands, but with no corresponding earthquake. The earthquake, estimated at 9.0 on the Richter Scale, had in fact been generated across the Pacific Ocean, in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
While many would never call into question that this event occurred, it would hardly convince skeptics that the Book of Kings could be correct in its assertions. The book tells that the two islands had once been a single mass, split in half by the explosion of a single mountain, around 416 AD. While there is no evidence yet located of such an eruption, an eruption large enough to tear a gaping hole in the island, creating what is now the Sunda Strait should have left some mark behind.
Though nothing is shown from 416, there is a slight curiosity in both Antarctic and Greenlnd ice cores around 535 AD: a large spike in sulfur dioxide content, far larger than any other in recorded history. Such a spike could only be generated from a volcanic eruption, and one of such magnitude, it would cause far-reaching, perhaps global, consequences.
And the records exist, showing a severe series of meteorological events at the same time. In 536, the Byzantine historian Procopous recorded that "during this year a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness." Other events have been catalogued worldwide, including crop failures from Ireland to Sweden, snow in August in China, and a severe drought which led to the collapse of the Moche natives in Peru.
While there is no conclusive geological evidence showing where this eruption could have been, there is that passage from the Book of Kings, and its inference to the Sunda Strait. What is does not mention specifically is the monster that resides there to this day.
On 27 August 1883, the volcanic island Krakatau erupted with such a force, the explosion was heard over 3,000 kilometres away in Perth, Australia. Tsunamis and pyroclastic surges slammed nearby shorelines, killing 36,417 people. Devastated by its own destructive force, fully two thirds of the volcano collapsed in on itself, forming a caldera. From such a ferocity, people could easily believe the volcano would never return. But as we all know, history often repeats itself.
In 1927, the Sunda Strait were disturbed once again with a new power rising. Anak Krakatau now rises over a thousand feet above the strait, with no signs of slowing down. But if this new volcano had risen from the ashes of its father, could Krakatau in turn have risen from the grave of something even larger?
The rating scale for volcanic eruptions, the Volcanic Explosivity Index, reserves the top rating of 8 for volcanoes which throw out more than 1,000 km³ of material. It is this class alone which stands uncontested for its capacity to change global weather. The Toba eruption, 74,000 years ago, has been accused of changing the climate so radically, all but two thousand members of the early species of man were wiped out.
47 eruptions of such magnitude are known to have happened, from the Pacana Caldera of Chile, to the famous Yellowstone eruption 640,000 years ago. But through all this, I find myself asking an ominous question: did we have one slip past right under our noses?
UPDATE: 23 August 2012, 13:57
A recent e-mail from a representative of the United States Geological Survey has confirmed privately that there is "substantial, yet still circumstantial evidence" for a VEI 7/8 eruption of Krakatau in 535 AD.
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