12 March 2010

How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear

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How the Chile Earthquake Went Nuclear

By Michael Reilly | Thu Mar 11, 2010 03:47 AM ET

If you want to grow a truly massive earthquake, you've got to give it space.
Scientists have known this basic fact for years -- more powerful earthquakes ramp up the shaking by breaking along huge stretches of faults. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake just outside Port-Au-Prince in January unzipped a 65-kilometer (40.4-mile) long section of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault. Despite the unfathomable devastation it caused, it was a second-tier quake at best.
As has been widely reported, the Chile quake was a megathrust earthquake, the largest class of tremor we know of. At magnitude 8.8, it was over 500 times more powerful than the Haiti quake.
In a preliminary analysis of data from the quake, researchers from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences are starting to unravel how it got to be such a monster. Turns out, it was a chain reaction of sorts. In the first minute, activity was confined to the area around the epicenter of the quake, about 200 miles south of Santiago. In the second minute, it tore north toward Santiago and stopped, before rearing its ugly head again south of the epicenter and racing toward the city of Concepcion.

As the animation shows, the quake was a string of different activity all popping off at roughly the same time. How this happens is a mystery of science. Stress builds ever so slowly, gradually for centuries and then -- Blam! -- a tear in the crust forms and propagates as fast as a bullet shot from a gun. In the latest Chile quake, a ribbon of Earth 700 kilometers (435 miles) long was shredded in a matter of about two minutes.
It's like nuclear fission: if just one atom goes, no big deal. But string enough together and suddenly...mushroom cloud.
Studying huge, sprawling forces operating at such high speeds tens of miles underground is tough work, which is what makes a study like this so useful. If scientists can figure out how ruptures propagate through faults to form giant quakes, they may be able to predict the impending final chapter in this round of Chilean megathrust quakes, as well as others around the world.

11 March 2010

Unemployment: State by State

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Unemployment: State by State

Jobless Rate Rose in 30 States inJanuary, Five Hit Records

by By Joseph Pisani, CNBC.com

Unemployment rose in most states in January--even breaking records in several states, according to government data released Wednesday.Joblessness in five states--California (12.5 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent), Florida (11.9 percent), Georgia (10.4 percent), and North Carolina (11.1 percent)--hit a record high. The District of Columbia, at 12.0 percent, also reached a record high.
In all, 30 states and the District of Columbia saw their rates increase in January over the previous month. Nine states reported a decrease and 11 states had no change in their unemployment, according to the Labor Department.
Fewer states showed an increase in their unemployment rate in January compared with December, when 43 states showed an increase in jobless rates.
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"It shows that the labor market is virtually frozen," said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group. Although the data is from January, he said that "there has not been any dramatic change in these past six weeks."
The national unemployment rate was at 9.7 percent in January, down from 10 percent in December 2009. The unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent in February.
Michigan, again, had the highest jobless rate in the nation, though it eased to 14.3 percent from 14.5 percent in December. Michigan's unemployment rate has hovered over 14 percent since July 2009.
"Michigan's unemployment rate fell slightly, as typical January auto industry job cuts did not occur in January 2010," said Rick Waclawek, director of Michigan's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives in a statement. "Also, jobs in a number of Michigan industry sectors, including manufacturing, have stabilized since the summer of 2009."
Behind Michigan, Nevada had the second highest jobless rate in the country with 13 percent, followed by Rhode Island (12.7 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent), and California (12.5 percent).
North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate in country at 4.2 percent in January, followed by Nebraska (4.6 percent) and South Dakota (4.8 percent).
Separately on Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a sharp increase in job openings in January. There were 2.7 million job openings in that month, up 7.6 percent from December. That was the highest number of openings since February 2009.

03 March 2010

Nasca

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Animation

Constructing the Geoglyphs

See how ancient people created the designs, beginning more than 2,000 years ago.

Published: March 2010

Nasca

Spirits in the Sand

The ancient Nasca lines of Peru shed their secrets.

By Stephen S. Hall

Photograph by Robert Clark

From the air, the lines etched in the floor of the desert were hard to see, like drawings left in the sun too long. As our pilot cut tight turns over a desert plateau in southern Peru, north of the town of Nasca, I could just make out a succession of beautifully crafted figures.
"Orca!" shouted Johny Isla, a Peruvian archaeologist, over the roar of the engine. He pointed down at the form of a killer whale. "¡Mono!" he said moments later, when the famous Nasca monkey came into view. “¡Colibrí!” The hummingbird.

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Since they became widely known in the late 1920s, when commercial air travel was introduced between Lima and the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, the mysterious desert drawings known as the Nasca lines have puzzled archaeologists, anthropologists, and anyone fascinated by ancient cultures in the Americas. For just as long, waves of scientists—and amateurs—have inflicted various interpretations on the lines, as if they were the world's largest set of Rorschach inkblots. At one time or another, they have been explained as Inca roads, irrigation plans, images to be appreciated from primitive hot-air balloons, and, most laughably, landing strips for alien spacecraft.
After World War II a German-born teacher named Maria Reiche made the first formal surveys of the lines and figures—called geoglyphs—outside Nasca and the nearby town of Palpa. For half a century, until her death in 1998, Reiche played a critically important role in conserving the geoglyphs. But her own preferred theory—that the lines represented settings on an astronomical calendar—has also been largely discredited. The ferocity with which she protected the lines from outsiders has been adopted by their caretakers today, so that even scientists have a hard time gaining access to the most famous animal figures on the plain, or pampa, immediately northwest of Nasca.
Since 1997, however, a large Peruvian-German research collaboration has been under way near the town of Palpa, farther to the north. Directed by Isla and Markus Reindel of the German Archaeological Institute, the Nasca-Palpa Project has mounted a systematic, multidisciplinary study of the ancient people of the region, starting with where and how the Nas ca lived, why they disappeared, and what was the meaning of the strange designs they left behind in the desert sand.
As our plane banked into another turn, Isla, a native of the highlands who works at the Andean Institute of Archaeological Studies, kept his broad, high-cheeked face pressed to the window. "Trapezoid!" he shouted, pointing out a huge geometrical clearing looming into sight. "Platform!" he added, gesturing with his finger. "Platform!"
Platform? He was pointing at a small heap of stones at one end of the trapezoid. If Isla and his colleagues are right, such unprepossessing structures may hold a key to understanding the true purpose of the Nasca lines. The story begins, and ends, with water.
The coastal region of southern Peru and northern Chile is one of the driest places on Earth. In the small, protected basin where the Nasca culture arose, ten rivers descend from the Andes, to the east, most of them dry at least part of the year. These ten fragile ribbons of green, surrounded by a thousand shades of brown, offered a fertile hot spot for the emergence of an early civilization, much as the Nile Delta or the rivers of Mesopotamia did. "It was the perfect place for human settlement, because it had water," says geographer Bernhard Eitel, a member of the Nasca-Palpa Project. "But it was a high-risk environment—a very high-risk environment."

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OKLAHOMA Posted on 2015/06/27 Eram in America, in toamna anului 2009, cind, am calatorit cu autocarul interstatal „Greyhound”.Am pornit din Falstaff, Arizona, in sud vestul Americii si a fost o experienta deosebita, dar, foarte obositoare… La inceput, cred ca ar trebui a spun citeva cuvinte despre acest autocar. Este aidoma unui autobuz , mai mare, cu toaleta, care transporta calatori, in toate statele Americii. Majoritatea ofera servicii de transport pentru cei care nu au masina personala, sau, care doresc sa mearga dintr-un stat in altul. Este ca si autobuzul nostru, obisnuit, care opreste in diferite locuri, doar ca in acest caz, statiile sunt in state diferite… Si, mare mi-a fost mirarea, cind, urcindu-ma in greyhoud (ogar), sa vad persoane care, pe linga bagaje, aveau si o pernuta la ele. N-am inteles de ce, insa, am aflat mai tirziu, cind am vazut cit de bune erau…Pentru ca, trebuie sa spun ca autocarul ruleaza tot timpul, zi si noapte. Se schimba doar in statii foarte importante, cind, oamenii isi schimba si rutele de calatorie. Astfel, in Oklahoma, am ajuns cam pe la ora 2 p.m., si urma sa asteptam un alt autocar, care sa ne duca in Michigan. Era foarte cald! In sala de asteptare, am vazut trei femei, imbracate mai ciudat: aveau rochii lungi, pina la glezne, largi in partea de jos, strinse pe corp in partea de sus si inchise pe linga git. Erau de un albastru intens. La guler si la mineci, aveau dantela alba. Pe cap, aveau palarii albastre ca rochiile, cu un cozoroc amplu, ce inconjura intreaga fata, cu dantele albe pe interior. Cind s-au asezat pe banca, in fata mea, si-au pus palariile in cutii speciale, cu capac. Toate miscarile erau bine studiate. In picioare, aveau pantofi negri, fara toc. Una dintre femei era cam de 50 de ni, iar celelalte doua, probabil surori, cam de 20-25 de ani. Aveam impresia ca „aterizasem” in secolul XIX, desi eram in secolul XX. Mi-am dat seama ca sunt din comunitatea Amish. Cu mult timp in urma, pe cind eram dascalita la o scoala generala la Cugir, am avut intr-un manual de limba engleza, o lectie cu aceasta comunitate. Desi stiam de ei, cind le-am vazut pe cele trei femei, am avut un soc… Credeam ca visez… Cam o ora, ma straduiam din rasputeri sa nu le privesc tot timpul… Apoi, seful statiei din Oklahoma, a venit special, sa le conduca pe cele rei femei, la autocarul pe care il asteptau… Dupa inca o ora, a venit si Greyhound-ul nostru…Am calatorit mai departe, am trecut si prin Chicago, si, seara, am ajuns in Detroit. Am stat acolo , in statie, toata noaptea, iar a doua zi, la ora 6 dimineata, am urcat pe autocarul care mergea in Ann Arbor! In sfirsit, eram acasa, dupa o saptamina de aventuri de tot felul! Amish people, Chicago Greyhound StationChildhood/Copilarie Imi amintesc cu mult drag, de perioada in care inca nu eram la gradinita...Aproape tot timpul eram singura sau cu parintii. Dar, ei aveau un serviciu care le rapea aproape tot timpul. Asa ca, eram singura. Uneori, stateam la bunica mea, Rojica, mama tatalui meu. Locuia tot in Cugir, impreuna cu fiica sa, Laura si ginerele ei, Mircea. Erau citeva blocuri,fara etaj, dar cu 2 camere mari, doua intrari, o pivnita mare, in care imi era frica sa intru si o gradina mica, cu zarzavaturi... pe strada Nicolae Balcesu, acolo unde acum sunt citeva cabinete medicale, iar in spate, este un servis auto. La poalele Cetatii, linga un piriu. Eram , deci, cam de 4 , 5 ani si pe straduta dintre blocuri, ne-am adunat citiva copii: Nicusor si Mioara Boieru (de care nu mai stiu nimic, Emil Pacurar (daca mai tin bine numele de familie), Tori Ileasa si fratii ei, Ani Levai (locuieste in Deva, acum) si, Gigi Balint , un copil al prietenilor matusii mele Laura si a sotului ei. Noi, copiii, adesea ne ascundeam prin imprejurimi, sau ne jucam in nisip...Ne intelegeam bine. Mioara era mai mica decit mine, ca si Emiluca, insa Nicusor si Gigi, erau mai mari.De multe ori mergeam cu totii la "rampe", cum le spuneam noi, locuri in care masinilor li se schimba uleiul sa erau reparate.Erau doar doua pasaje, sa spun asa, cu un loc mai jos intre ele, minunate pentru jocurile noastre. Cind ne plictiseam, ne indreptam spre piriu, care era mic, dar mai curat decit acum, cind iti este frica sa treci pe acolo. Mioara si Nicusor, au primit o tricicleta, pe care se dadeau cit era ziua de lunga. Nici Mioara nu prea ajundgea la ea, pentru ca, stiti si voi, baietii au intietate. Asa a fost si va mai fi pe meleagurile noastre.Ma uitam cu "jind", cum se plimbau...Cind o ceream si eu, era sau ocupata sau era in casa...Si uite asa, am ramas cu dor, pina intr-o dupa-amiaza de vara: a fost inorat, dar totusi au iesit cu tricicleta. M-am rugat din nou sa mi-o dea, si, cind a inceput sa picur, o ploaie marunta, au cedat! Mi-au dat-o si mie pentru doua ture...Chiar daca ploua, eram triumfatoare: in sfirsit, am ajuns sa "stapinesc" tricicleta! M-am urcat repede pe ea, si, cu viteza, m-am indreptat spre straduta (neumblata de masini pe atunci...). Doamne, ce mindra eram, si goneam cit puteam de repede! Ploua, dar mie nici ca imi pasa! Era a mea pentru doua ture si trebuia sa le fac repede...Nici nu am terminat de facut turele, ca mama lui Mioara a stigat sa ia tricicleta si sa intre in casa...Da, dar am reusit! Pe atunci parintii mei nu isi permiteau sa-mi cumpere una...

Aldenn's photos

12 March 2010