Meteor Showers: Fire and Water

A flash of our past and our future: the meteor impact near Chelyabinsk, Russia, early Friday morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=thQ2PDE3rnU&feature=endscreen

This meteor was about 55 ft. in diameter, weighed 10,000 tons, and is a remnant of the dust and rocks that swirled around the early sun 4.5 billion years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323764804578312264130040432.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories

Comets hitting Earth brought our water, eventually building to our oceans.  

Meteors peppered earth early in its 4.45 billion year history, one impact causing a chunk of earth and debris to rebound away and become our moon.  

Even now 100 tons of material the size of sand or smaller still hits Earth every day, reports Phil Plait on on Slate.   http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/11/asteroid_2012_da14_space_rock_will_miss_the_earth_by_17_000_miles.html 

When I walk on the beach tomorrow morning, I'll thank God for the gift of oceans.

I'll be waiting for the sunset bypass of Asteroid 2012DA14--17,000 miles from Earth and the size of a football field.

In 1908 a meteor exploded above Siberia, flattening trees over a 25-mile area.

The meteor that caused extinction of the dinosaurs about 60 million years ago was about the same size as the asteroid that will pass us by on Friday.

"It is only every 2,000 years or so that an object the size of a football field descends to Earth and causes significant damage, according to NASA," reports the Wall Street Journal, referring to the meteor fly-by on Friday.


As if humans were keeping a list in 4,000 BCE, 2000 BCE, and the turn of the first millennium CE.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324162304578305163574597722.html

In contrast, a much smaller meteor like the one over Chelyabinsk causes damage on Earth about once every one hundred years.

Thank God that 2012DA14 will not be returning us to the dust from which we were formed.

Note of correction: 

In the first hours after the meteor passed over Chelyabinsk, some pranksters posted on YouTube videos of a gas crater in Darwaza, Turkmenistan, claiming it to be the site of impact of a part of the meteor.  I fell for it and posted the link below on my blog.  The footage also appears in the first link above of various Chelyabinsk videos pasted together, some from news broadcasts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cd47Q44igI

In this YouTube video someone walks through the snow around the edge of gas crater nicknamed "Gates of Hell."

Weratu Nectur posted this explanation of the 1971 crater on YouTube on Feb. 16:

In 1971 near the village of Darwaza, geologists discovered an accumulation of underground gas.  As a result of excavation and drilling, they stumbled on an underground void.  Then the earth collapsed and formed a large hole filled with gas.  

The fumes did not go out, so they decided to burn.  Geologists expected the fire would go out after a few days, but they were mistaken.  Since 1971, the natural gas coming from the crater stays lit day and night.

At any rate, this gas crater gives us a glimpse of what the meteor crater in Arizona near Flagstaff may have looked like when it happened between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago.  http://www.universetoday.com/32619/arizona-crater/

Grey on Grey

                                                                                                                                                                                    Back to jogging on the beach today after three months of rest under doctor's orders.

At 8 am it was raining--not good for my return to beach walking.

By noon the day had turned spectacularly sunny with fast-moving huge clouds.  Just a trip to the post office and a few errands before the beach, I promised myself.

But by 3 pm a bank of fog had rolled over Santa Monica Bay.  Visibility was about fifty feet at the beach.

Grey on grey.  

At least it was low tide--a low of -0.7 feet at 3:14 pm--plenty of wide flat soaked sand to run on.  In fact, you could have put a four-lane highway between the waves and the high-tide level of the rest of the beach.  

On the subject of knee problems: I had no idea that being left-handed could also mean being left-legged.  As it turned out, my right knee had been taking a beating because muscles in my right leg are so much weaker and less used than those in my left leg.  

I'm doing exercises and physical therapy to strengthen my quads and other muscles so the patella won't grind against the tibia so much.  Getting old--it's a challenge!

Hatred and Violence on the Beach

A woman went for a jog on the Santa Monica beach today very early, before going to work.

She was attacked and raped at 5 am.  She survived, at least. 

A place of beauty, desecrated.

http://www.smdp.com/cops-jogger-sexually-assaulted-on-beach/112942




A place of beauty becomes the scene of a crime.



Stormy Day, Empty Beach

Last weekend the beach was full of college students lying on the sand in bikinis, children splashing in the water, families picnicking under beach umbrellas.


Today there's no one on the beach at noon.  Dark clouds have scared everyone off.  I took photos of the empty beach and threatening clouds.


https://picasaweb.google.com/102150538747404124091/StormyDayInSantaMonica


As I jogged toward the Venice breakwater, strong wind pushed against me, making it hard to run.


I licked salt off my lips from the moist wind in my face.


Then it started to rain and I was getting soaked.


The rain turned into sleet or small bits of hail, biting into my face.


When I returned, the wind on my back gave me an extra push.


Hearing the roar of jets taking off from LAX, I wondered at them being louder than the storm but then realized it was thunder.  A crack of lightning split the sky as I was just turning back to the parking lot--a good time not to be running on the beach.


This kind of a day is fun for Angelenos--we may not get rain again until next November.

Good Friday Brunch

BRUNCH TODAY

SANTA MONICA BAY

Pelicans, sea gulls and others invited.

Twenty or more pelicans were diving and fishing this morning.   

Usually I just see 7-8 flying low over the water in V formation, but today there must have been a school of fish close to the water's surface.

Third photo is the splash of one diving headfirst into the water.

Clear and beautiful day!

Chariots of Fire

When I was in Agoura Hills for the 10K on Saturday, the theme to Chariots of Fire was being played on a loudspeaker at one of the houses on the route just before the finish line.


I had to laugh at myself running to that theme--I never expected that to happen.  


Today on the Santa Monica Beach the theme was still playing in my mind as I jogged, and I wondered if there are words to it.


At any rate, instead of la-la-la I began singing words that came to mind:


With all of Your beauty 
I run by the sea.
With all of Your beauty
Spread out around me. (repeat)


Oh may I forever walk with You
For all of my days!
Oh may I forever walk with You
And always give praise.
https://picasaweb.google.com/102150538747404124091/2012DawnAtSMBeach
 Link to more photos on Picasa

A Few Good Terns

Rain last night and a sky full of spectacular clouds at 8 am today... the beach full of seagulls and sandpipers, but also a few royal terns...  So spiffy with their fluffy upturned black feathers behind their ears, like Jimmy Dean or some other '50s rock star.  The one on the right kept squawking at the guy in the center... he was imperturbable.  (Or was he squawking and she impertubable?)