Scribal Terror

Round ice

Like lily pads but really, really cold. Via English Russia

More -- and bigger -- midwest earthquakes inevitable

Amr Elnashai, a professor of civil engineering and director of the Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAE), says the recent 5.2 earthquake is neither the last nor the largest the midwest can expect. According to an article in Engineering at Illinois,

In considering future earthquake events, Elnashai noted that there are two seismic mechanisms that affect the Midwest--the Wabash Valley, with a calculated capability of a 7.1 magnitude, which will shake the region about 900 times more violently than the West Salem earthquake in April 2008, and the New Madrid Zone, which is capable of up to magnitude 8, which will shake the region more than 2,700 times more violently.

"Under such earthquakes, the ground in some critical regions will liquefy, as it did in 1811-1812," he added. As with other disaster scenarios, untold indirect consequences also await populations in the region. In winter, power--and heat--will be out for weeks, as well as water and telecommunications. Highways and bridges will be closed along with rail lines and major metropolitan airports in Chicago, St. Louis, and Memphis. High-rise buildings in Chicago will lose windows and other attachments such as TV towers.

Hole-punch clouds over Nashville

According to the Athanasius Kircher Society:

Hole punch or fallstreak clouds, like this one sighted recently over Nashville, occur when high-altitude ice crystals fall through lower clouds. They can be seen from space:

"Multiple suns"

Eliyahu at English Russia is featuring some neat photos of what he calls "multiple suns." These are also known as sun dogs, mock suns, or parhelia. According to the Department of Atmospheric Sciences here at the University of Illinois:

Sundogs form as sunlight is refracted  by hexagonal plate-like ice crystals with diameters larger than 30 micrometers and their flat faces horizontally oriented.

Sundogs are visible when the sun is near the horizon and on the same horizontal plane as the observer and the ice crystals. As sunlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent by 22 degrees before reaching our eyes, much like what happens with 22-degree halos . This bending of light results in the formation of a sundog.

The difference between sundogs and halos is the preferential orientation of the ice crystals through which the light passes before reaching our eyes.  If the hexagonal crystals are oriented with their flat faces horizontal, a sundog is observed.  If the hexagonal crystals are randomly oriented, a halo is observed.

Here's a 22-degree halo for comparison:

Cloud streets

Via Pink Tentacle. According to Wikipedia, cloud streets are

rows of cumulus or cumulus-type clouds aligned parallel to the low-level wind. The most favorable conditions for their formation occur when the lowermost layer of air is unstable, but is capped by an inversion -by a stable layer of air. This often occurs when upper air is subsiding, such as under anticyclonic conditions, and is also frequently found when radiation fog has formed overnight. Convection occurs below the inversion , with air rising in thermals below the clouds and sinking in the air between the streets.

How eclipses happen

Neat demonstration available  here.

Lunar eclipse tonight

See NASA eclipse website for more info. Thanks, Scott

Papal astronomy

The BBC reports on one little-known but long-term papal pursuit:

For the second time in seven years the Vatican is hosting a scientific conference for astronomers.

More than 200 scientists from 26 countries including the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany, Russia, and Japan have gathered in Rome for a five-day meeting on disc galaxies. . . .

Father Jose Funes, the head of the Vatican Observatory, said exciting new discoveries have been made with the help of space telescopes since the Holy See's last meeting on galaxies in 2000.

"Disc galaxies are a hot topic," he said. . . .

What could be called the Vatican's first scientific astronomical observatory was finally set up in 1789 in a building which still exists near the Apostolic Palace, called the Tower of the Winds.

The Holy See's observatory is now located near Tucson -- light pollution having moved it out of Rome long ago -- and features the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. Photo © 2002-2007 Scott Reynen

Liiiiice in Spaaaace

Ok it's a tardigrade, or water bear, not a louse, but it still makes me itch to look at it. Deep Sea News reports that these things can live in just about any conditions and therefore some researchers want to see if they can live in space. I just hope the highly intelligent advanced civilizations that watch us with such interest (according to certain websites I've seen) don't catch wind of it or we might find ourselves swimming in a giant bath of RID.

Lightning

Via Crystal Links. If anyone knows anything about the photographer, please let me know. It's not specified at the link.