Monthly Archives: January 2013

Loose Fire Hose and the Aborted Nino

Posted on January 26, 2013 by gymnosperm

The Antarctic vortex is a whirling dervish that extends from the stratosphere to the deep ocean. Inside the steep gradients that drive this circulation everything is reflected inward and contained. Outside the dervish everything that contacts it receives angular momentum. … Continue reading →

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Global Average Temperature and Whirled Peas

Posted on January 21, 2013 by gymnosperm

Can you visualize whirled peas? Yes, unfortunately. And what do whirled peas mean? Both the mean and the average and everything else.. Everything is nothing. So what if the diurnal temperature spread were the difference between a snowcone and a snowfree … Continue reading →

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Adventure and Science

Posted on January 20, 2013 by gymnosperm

What exactly is the distinction between play and work? The things some people do for recreation would seem like bloody hard work to others.I’ve spent a good part of my life climbing mountains and rafting rivers, and a good part … Continue reading →

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Carbon and Freight Trains

Posted on January 13, 2013 by gymnosperm

Everyone seems to think that carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere and sort of sits there like some invisible smoke, trapping outgoing IR like our automobile windshields and heating us up. Carbon dioxide is more like a freight train. Humans … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Geography, Oceanography | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Ring Around Antarctica

Posted on January 8, 2013 by gymnosperm

There are lots of rings around Antarctica. Sailors know the circum-Antarctic winds as the fearsome fifties, the screaming sixties, etc. These winds are not impeded by any land and they drive the circum-Antarctic currents in the Southern Ocean. The surface currents … Continue reading →

Posted in Geography, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics, True Polar Wander | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Seafloor Isochrons Place a Hard Limit on Crustal Disintegration from the Chicxulub Impact

Posted on January 6, 2013 by gymnosperm

I always thought the entire form of the Gulf of Mexico might be the crater from the Chicxulub impact reputed to have wasted the dinosaurs. My imagination runs with that name. So much to work with. Chicxyclub…well, Club Med impact … Continue reading →

Posted in Asteroid Impacts, Geography, Geology, Magnetic Reversals, Oceanography, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Charybdis and the Oldest Ocean Floor on Earth

Posted on January 6, 2013 by gymnosperm

A few years back there was a much ballyhooed drilling effort to find some 175 million year old sea floor touted as the “oldest”. Incorrecto qui mo sabe. That particular ocean floor is interesting in its own right (see our … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Geography, Geology, Paleogeography, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Global Warming and Prohibition

Posted on January 3, 2013 by gymnosperm

We like to think we live in an enlightened era, but even modern history keeps reminding us that a rigid and intolerant side of human nature lies just beneath the surface. It is ironic that Prohibition, and a corresponding amendment … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropology, Carbon Theology, Climate, Climate Change, Global Warming | Tagged | 6 Comments