Lemming Tracks: Solar Double Header

The Lemming has a pair of articles again. ("Asteroid Double Header" (October 6, 2010)) This time they're about the sun, Earth, some new data, and what folks who study such things think of it.

That's the interesting part of this post.

The Lemming's also got a rant - but that's at the end, starting with "On the other hand," after the second article's excerpt.

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"Sun's Surprise: Even As It Relaxes, It May Heat Earth's Climate"
Space.com (October 6, 2010)

"As the ultimate source of all the energy on Earth, the sun has an inextricable hand in driving our planet's climate and atmosphere. But a new look at the sun's connection to Earth's climate has returned some surprising results.

"The study finds that during the most recent lull in the sun's weather cycle, the amount of energy that reached Earth increased, instead of decreasing as predicted. The planet may have experienced a slight warming effect as well, researchers said....

"...As the sun becomes less active, it typically releases less energy in the form of radiation. Previously, this was understood as a decrease in the total amount of radiation that reaches the top of the Earth's atmosphere.

"In examining solar emissions during this declining phase, however, the researchers found that a large decrease in ultraviolet radiation was roughly compensated for, by an increase in visible radiation.

" 'Visible radiation is the only kind that, in any substantial quality, gets to the Earth's surface and heats the lower atmosphere,' Haigh told SPACE.com. 'We found that as the sun's activity declined from 2004 to 2007, more of this radiation was entering into the lower atmosphere.'..."

There's more in the article - detail on what's been noticed recently, and what we're pretty sure about when it comes to the sunspot cycle on our star. Interesting stuff, for folks who find that sort of thing interesting.

The Lemming thinks that this new set of data suggests that the sun has an effect on Earth's climate.

As if that wasn't enough shocking news for one day, here's something from another source:

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"When the Sun Heats Up, Earth...Cools?"
John D. Cox, Earth News, Discovery News (October 6, 2010)

"The Earthly impact of the Sun's 11-year solar cycle has always seemed like one of the more reliable and straightforward elements in the vast array of climate variables. On the rise, solar radiation increases and so warms the planet a little -- the thinking goes -- and on the way down a subtle cooling takes place.

"Now, a new piece of research argues that's not necessarily so. Looking inside at the individual wavelengths of solar radiance as measured by a satellite-borne device called the Spectral Irradiance Monitor, scientists report that in their study of these measurements during the declining phase of the solar cycle between 2004 and 2007, the opposite pattern emerges...."

Seriously? This is a relatively short, fairly non-technical writeup about some new data and analysis - and includes this statement:

" 'We cannot jump to any conclusions based on what we have found during this comparatively short period and we need to carry out further studies to explore the Sun's activity, and the patterns that we have uncovered, on longer timescales. However, if further studies find the same pattern over a longer period of time, this could suggest that we may have overestimated the Sun's role in warming the planet, rather than underestimating it.' "
(Physicist Joanna Haigh of Imperial College, via Discovery News)

The Lemming takes that statement with a grain of salt. The caution is commendable - assuming that it stems from an unwillingness to start reasoning ahead of the data.

On the other hand, the idea that something other than Big Oil and capitalists is behind global warming is - well, not exactly welcome in much of academia. Physicists and other academic professionals have their careers to consider, as well as facts. (Another War-on-Terror Blog (April 29, 2008))

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Science, Change, Assumptions, and the Lemming

The Lemming isn't on the same page as folks who take Bishop Ussher seriously. He's the chap who decided that the world was created over a particular six-day period in 4004 BC. He used references to the Bible: which proves, for some folks, that he's right. And that nothing much has changed since then. At all. Except for some details of human society - that'd be hard to ignore.

The Lemming also isn't on the same page as folks who think that the universe popped into existence billions and billions of years ago and went through ages and ages of cataclysmic evolutionary change. Until somewhere in the 19th century, after which all change was somebody's fault.

Actually, the Lemming is okay with that second paragraph - until the last sentence. I've discussed this in another blog. (A Catholic Citizen in America (September 23, 2010))

(If you think the Lemming is trying to spark interest in his other blogs, with these links - you're probably right.)

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Change Happens

Earth may be warming at the moment. That's likely enough: We're coming out of (or still in) the most recent of Earth's periods of continental glaciation. (July 30, 2010)

Or, maybe Earth is cooling - that's what available data showed about a half-century back. We got some dandy 'scare' articles and several pretty-good science fiction stories out of that set of data.

I've noticed that, these days, the coming ice age is discussed about as much as that famous butterfly expert's apocalyptic visions of impending doom. (April 20, 2010)

I think that what both folks who take Bishop Ussher seriously, and those who are convinced that we're doomed by whatever crisis is now and wow, have in common is a very human reaction to change. Most of us, I think, got used to the world as it was when we were young(er).

For example, I got used to seeing a particular lake, here in central Minnesota. I've been watching it change into a meadow with a few ponds. I miss that lake: during the seventies its reflective surface was a treat for the eyes as I made regular trips on Interstate 94. Another few decades, and it'll be all meadow.

I don't think it's anybody's fault, though. That's what happens to these bodies of water, left over from the last glaciation in this part of the world. Another few centuries or millennia - and all of Minnesota's lakes will be gone.

Like I said, change happens.

Looking at what we've discovered about what's happened in the last few billion years - and assuming that the nature of reality didn't change about a hundred and fifty years back - isn't a popular idea in some quarters.

Earth is Changing

One of the few things the Lemming is fairly certain of is that, a thousand years from now, things won't be just like they are now.

Does that mean that I care not for the environment and cute fuzzy animals? Certainly not. I like cute fuzzy animals. And I think it's stupid to act as though we don't need to be careful about what we do with waste products.

But I also think it's a trifle daft to act as if all of delicate, frail little Mother Nature is doomed, dooooomed, unless we whack the human population down to some arbitrary number, outlaw SUVs, go vegetarian, or whatever the current 'gotta do' thing is. (December 20, 2009)

Don't worry - the next post will be lighter.

Sort-of-related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Observations by an Opportunistic Omnivore"
  (April 20, 2010)
• "'Snowball Earth,' Evolution, and Really Old Rocks"
  (March 16, 2010)
• "Global Warming: on Pluto. And Mars"
  (December 14, 2009)
• "The Unchanging Sun and Earth's Climate"
  (August 28, 2009)

More:

• "Change, American Culture, Trilobites, Humanity's History, and the Big Picture"

Our Sun's Sunspot Cycle Isn't All That Predictable

"Sun's Strange Behavior Baffles Astronomers"
Space.com (June 14, 2010)

"The sun's temper ebbs and flows on what scientists had thought was a pretty predictable cycle, but lately our closest star has been acting up.

"Typically, a few stormy years would knock out a satellite or two and maybe trip a power grid on Earth. Then a few years of quiet, and then back to the bad behavior. But an extremely long stretch of low activity in recent years has scientists baffled and scrambling for better forecasting models.

"An expected minimum of solar activity, between 2008 and 2009, was unusually deep. And while the sun would normally ramp up activity by now, heading into its next cycle, the sun may be on the verge of a weak solar cycle instead, astronomers said at the 216th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Miami last month...."

I don't know that our Sun's behavior is "strange" - but it isn't quite as regular just now as it has been for the last 100 years or so. Which shouldn't be too surprising, since that's a tiny fraction of the 4,500,000,000 or so years that the star has been around. (1/45,000,000, of course)

I suspect that what's being observed now won't seem all that "strange," after researchers have another 100 - or 1,000 - or 10,000 years of observations to study.

We've learned a great deal about how the universe works, since Nicolaus Copernicus and others jump-started contemporary astronomy. We're also learning a little more about how much we don't know: which keeps things interesting.

As I quoted last year:

" 'Your mistake is to think that the little regularities we have observed on one planet for a few hundred years are the real unbreakable laws....' "

Grace Ironwood, Chapter 17.4, "That Hideous Strength" C. S. Lewis (1946)

Related posts:

• "Early Earth Didn't Freeze: Why?!"
  (June 6, 2010)
• "Global Warming: on Pluto. And Mars"
  (December 14, 2009)
• ""Little Regularities" - A Thought for the Day"
  (September 23, 2009)

---

Related posts, at

• "Change, American Culture, Trilobites, Humanity's History, and the Big Picture"

Not Many 2010 Tornadoes So Far: Good News or Crisis

"Record Slow Tornado Start"
Dr. Greg Forbes, Severe Weather Expert, WeatherInsights®: The Weather Channel Blog (April 16, 2010)

"Does it seem like there haven't been many tornadoes so far in 2010? You're right! In fact, in terms of what is expected, it's a record slow start.

"By my count that have been just 73 tornadoes in the United States through April 15, versus a 10-year average of 231. That's only 32% of the average over the last 10 years.

"If tornadoes continue at this pace through the end of April, then..."


(from weather.com, used w/o permission)

Central Minnesota, where I live, is well north of 'Tornado Alley,' but we do get twisters here from time to time. I'm not at all sorry that America hasn't seen many tornadoes so far in 2010. Those are very destructive storms.

I see that the previous record slow start for tornadoes in this country was set in 1987: 23 years ago. That's just over twice the length of an average solar cycle: which may or may not be a coincidence.

Since disasters that don't happen aren't likely to get people's attention, I doubt that there will be earnest articles, ranting blog posts, and anonymous experts telling us that the 2010 tornado deficit crisis is caused by - whatever it is the person believes things are caused by.

Back in my 'good old days,' quite a few people were convinced that 'the commies' were behind just about everything they didn't like. We got the character Frank Burns (M*A*S*H) out of that, so I suppose McCarthyism wasn't a total waste of time.

I don't hear rants about "the communist menace" so much now. These days, it's global warming that we're supposed to be scared silly about. The fans of that impending doom are from a different demographic - but I'm getting off-topic.

Well, I suppose the global warming crisis on Mars (no kidding) could be psychically suppressing North America's tornado gnomes (kidding).

Or, maybe the tornado dearth this year is caused by all that lint caught in America's dryer filters!

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Recycle Lint and Save Earth!"
  (April 17, 2010)
• "Death Map: If the Cold Doesn't Get You, the Heat Will"
  (December 17, 2008)
• "Memorial Day Weekend Tornadoes: Minnesota and Iowa "
  (May 26, 2008)
• "Memorial Day Weekend Tornado: Hugo, Minnesota"
  (May 26, 2008)
• "'My Mind's Made Up: Don't Confuse Me With the Facts'"
  (March 3, 2008)

More:

• "A Good Tornado Record"
  Dr. Greg Forbes, Severe Weather Expert, WeatherInsights®: The Weather Channel Blog (March 1, 2010)

'Perfect Solar Storm' 150 Years Ago Today: Good News; Bad News

"150 Years Ago: The Worst Solar Storm Ever"
Space.com (September 2, 2009)

"On Sept. 2, 1859, an incredible storm of charged particles sent by the sun slammed into Earth's atmosphere, overpowered it, and caused havoc on the ground. Telegraph wires, the high-tech stuff of the time, suddenly shorted out in the United States and Europe, igniting widespread fires. Colorful aurora, normally visible only in polar regions, were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii.

"Earth's magnetic field normally protects the surface of the planet from some storms. In 1859, the planet's defenses were totally overwhelmed. Over the past decade, similar but less powerful storms have likewise busted through, giving scientists insight into what will eventually happen again.

"The outlook is not rosy.

"The solar storm of 1859 was three times more powerful than one that cut power to an entire Canadian province in 1989. Experts say if it happened today - and it could - the result might be unthinkable...."

The results are obviously not "unthinkable," since quite a number of people have thought about them. Really bad news, yes. Unthinkable, no.

Katrina, that big hurricane a few years back, did between $80,000,000,000 and $125,000,000,000 of damage. If the 1859 storm happened today, the price tag could be as high as $2,000,000,000,000. Maybe fifteen or twenty times Katrina's, but not that bad, actually. Compared to an asteroid impact or a Deccan-Traps-scale volcanic eruption, anyway.

(I'm guessing that Space.com intends United States usage for "billion" and "trillion:" 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 respectively.)

That's the bad news. Did I mention? Those experts figure it'd take between four and 10 years to recover.

The good news is that we know more about the sunspot cycle, solar flares, and the storms that come with them, than we did a hundred and fifty years ago.

Bad news, again: We still can't predict the storms. Not with any reasonable degree of accuracy.

This article does a pretty good job of summarizing and presenting background for this anniversary, and has links to related articles on the website.

Related posts:

• "Sunspots are Back: This Cycle Could be Bad News"
  (July 6, 2009)
• "Earth Day 2009: Don't Stop Breathing to Save Earth"
  (April 22, 2009)
• "Antarctic Ice Cap Didn't Get the Memo"
  (April 18, 2009)
• "Has the Sun Found Cosmic Acne Cream?"
  (June 25, 2008)
• "Sunspots? What Sunspots?"
  (April 25, 2008)
• "Sunspots, Flares, and Radio Troubles"
  (March 29, 2008)

The Unchanging Sun and Earth's Climate

"Sun's Cycle Alters Earth's Climate"
Space.com (August 27, 2009)

"Weather patterns across the globe are partly affected by connections between the 11-year solar cycle of activity, Earth's stratosphere and the tropical Pacific Ocean, a new study finds.

The study could help scientists get an edge on eventually predicting the intensity of certain climate phenomena, such as the Indian monsoon and tropical Pacific rainfall, years in advance.

"The sun is the ultimate source of all the energy on Earth; its rays heat the planet and drive the churning motions of its atmosphere.

"The amount of energy the sun puts out varies over an 11-year cycle (this cycle also governs the appearance of sunspots on the sun's surface as well as radiation storms that can knock out satellites), but that cycle changes the total amount of energy reaching Earth by only about 0.1 percent. A conundrum for meteorologists was explaining whether and how such a small variation could drive major changes in weather patterns on Earth...."

I suppose growing up in the Red River Valley of the North and living in Central Minnesota affects my perceptions. There's a rather obviously direct connection between that 800,000-mile-plus wide naturally occurring fusion reactor in the sky and the local climate. When the sun slides southwards in the sky, things cool off and water becomes a mineral.

Of course, that's the alignment of this patch of Earth's surface, in relation to the sun.

This article discusses what's been discovered about the (known) 11-year cycle that our star goes through, and the effect it has on Earth's climate. Specifically, "...the Sun's impact on two seemingly unrelated regions: water in the tropical Pacific Ocean and air in the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere that runs from around 6 miles (10 km) above Earth's surface to about 31 miles (50 km)...."

the stratosphere and the tropical Pacific Ocean - "seemingly unrelated?" As the article says, they're only six miles apart, separated by a rather turbulent part of this planet's atmosphere. Never mind. Years and years in academia taught me that specialists tend to be, well, specialized. They tend, I think, to forget that the universe doesn't consist of boxes, with what they're interested in one, what other researchers study in another, and lots of nothing in between.

While I'm in a nit-picking mood, one more thing: The sun is "the ultimate source of all the energy on Earth...." ?! The last I heard, cosmologists figure our star is at least second-generation, formed from material blown out of earlier stars - and that the 'ultimate source' of energy and matter is the kick-start this universe got a dozen billion years or so ago.

Again, never mind. Locally, the sun is the source of energy on Earth: including fossil fuels, where energy from sunlight got stored by plants quite a long time ago. Unless, that is, that applies to coal: and petroleum is something else.¹

Bottom line: this is a pretty good article about one facet of a subject that's fairly new.

I remember how some my textbooks said that Galileo and company were persecuted something dreadful because they said that the moon and the planets weren't perfect and unchanging. Looks like we're going through a learning experience now, discovering that the sun changes - and that when the sun changes, Earth changes. Whoda thunk?

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¹ There's some rather interesting research being done, looking into the possibility of abiotic organic synthesis being involved in the origins Earth's petroleum - and maybe life. ("Sloan Deep Carbon Cycle Workshop Summary Report" Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution (May 15-17, 2008)

Unlike the college geography professor I had, who knew that continental drift didn't exist because he said it didn't, I'm willing to assume that what people knew about how the universe works a thousand years ago, a hundred years ago, and ten years ago isn't quite as complete a picture as what we have today - and that there might, maybe, possibly, be more to learn.

Sunspots are Back: This Cycle Could be Bad News

"The Sun Has Spots, Finally"
Space.com (July 6, 2009)

"After one of the longest sunspot droughts in modern times, solar activity picked up quickly over the weekend.

"A new group of sunspots developed, and while not dramatic by historic standards, the spots were the most significant in many months.

" 'This is the best sunspot I've seen in two years,' observer Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, Calif., said on Spaceweather.com.

"Solar activity goes in a roughly 11-year cycle. Sunspots are the visible signs of that activity, and they are the sites from which massive solar storms lift off. The past two years have marked the lowest low in the cycle since 1913, and for a while scientists were wondering if activity would ever pick back up...."

The article gives a brief background on sunsets, the solar flares they're associated with, and the solar sunspot cycle, along with an explanation of why sunspot activity on the sun is of interest to more than some astronomers and physicists.

People working in the International Space Station could be affected by what solar flares kick out: and nearly all of us depend to some extent on information from weather satellites. Strictly ground-based technology is affected, too.

"...All this matters because ... a major solar storm nowadays could cause up to $2 trillion in initial damages by crippling communications on Earth and fueling chaos among residents and even governments in a scenario that would require four to 10 years for recovery. Such a storm struck in 1859, knocking out telegraph communications and causing those lines to erupt in flames. The world then was not so dependent on electronic communication systems, however."

In American English, when "trillion" is used to designate a specific number, one trillion is a million million, or a one followed by 12 zeroes. (Princeton's WordNet) So, that's $2,000,000,000,000. That's a lot of money.

More, about the effects of a severe solar storm, at:

• "Perfect Space Storm Could be Catastrophic on Earth, Study Concludes"
  Space.com (January 7, 2009)

Earth Day 2009: Don't Stop Breathing to Save Earth

Today's news has quite a few articles about how America's president is saving the Earth.

I realize that there have to be rules about what we do with trash. Decades ago, I read that paleontologists and archeologists use trash heaps and garbage dumps to learn about how people live: and that just about everybody has had a place where junk is put. So, environmental regulations of some kind are thousands of years old.

I remember the first Earth Day, back in 1970. A green flag flew over the campus, and there was a groovy vibe to saving Earth from The Man.

I didn't change my lifestyle all that much, though. My parents had grown up in the Great Depression, so recycling and avoiding waste were habits I wasn't even aware I had: until I saw how much my contemporaries threw away.

Earth's a Tough Old Mother

"Mother Nature" has been portrayed many ways. One of my favorites is the version played by Dena Dietrich in the 1970s Chiffon margarine commercials: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."

I get the impression that some of the more enthusiastic environmentalists see her as a sort of ancient 1920s flapper: all big eyes and scrawny legs. A helpless damsel who needs constant rescuing.

If life on Earth were like that frail waif, we wouldn't be here now.

Our Debatably Dependable Sun

Earth circles a slightly variable star. The most obvious change over time is the sunspot cycle that affects the auroras and the ionosphere, and makes life interesting for people who maintain radio communications.

We still, as far as I know, don't know why the Maunder Minimum happened - so it's possible that there's still more to learn about the sun and its cycles.

Occasional Ice Ages

For whatever reason, Earth goes through ice ages at not-exactly-regular intervals. Six of them were big ones. We may be in the 6th now: It was a 'known fact' that we were headed for another glacial period when I was growing up, but fashions have changed.

Whatever point we're at in Earth's big freezes now, it's not as bad as the cold period that started around 800,000,000 years ago. Glaciers got to within 15 degrees of Earth's equator that time.

Asteroid Impacts Now and Again

Then there are the occasional asteroid and comet hits: the last big one may have wiped out the dinosaurs and made room for us.

And Yet, Life is Still Here

From my point of view, Mother Nature seems to have more in common with Queen Boudicca than a 1920s flapper: all big eyes and narrow legs, like Clara Bow. This isn't a value judgement: Clara Bow had a successful film career. On the other hand, Queen Boudicca left a deep impression on the Romans of her day. Figuratively and literally.

I'm Not Worried About Earth and Nature: But I Live Sensibly

I don't have quite the faith in Man And His Technology that many people do. The idea that "now we are in control of the forces of nature" wears a little thin when set up against something like the Mt. St. Hellens eruption. And that was a hiccup compared to Earth's more noticeable volcanic events: like the last eruption of the Yellowstone caldera, that covered about 2/3 of today's 48 contiguous states with ash. Then there was the Mount Toba event that may have come close to wiping out humanity.

I think that getting lead out of gasoline is a good idea, and that it makes good sense on several levels to buy what you need, and recognize everything beyond that as luxury. My household uses water and power in moderation - for financial reasons if nothing else - and we recycle.

But that doesn't mean that I'm going to go crazy over whatever today's intellectual fashion dictates.

Related posts

• "Ancient Antarctic Ecosystem: Isolated for Millions of Years"
  (April 16, 2009)
• "Life is Left-Handed on Earth (Caution: Geeky Content)"
  (March 23, 2009)
• "The Purple Hills of Earth?"
  (September 6, 2008)
• "How to Destroy Earth (It Ain't Gonna be Easy)"
  (July 9, 2008)
• "Old Articles About Old Stuff: History of Earth's Continents"
  (May 18, 2008)
• "The Sun as a Swinger? Cardiff U's Title is Better for Mass Extinction Article"
  (May 12, 2008)
• "Sunspots? What Sunspots?"
  (April 25, 2008)
• "And Now, for Something Completely Different: The Medieval Climatic Optimum, The Little Ice Age, and Other Changes"
  (April 20, 2008)
• " 'My Mind's Made Up: Don't Confuse Me With the Facts' "
  (March 3, 2008)
• "Climates in the Inner Solar System"
  (February 28, 2008)
• ""Journey of Mankind:" 160,000 Years of Ups and Downs"
  (November 1, 2007)
• "A Blogging Blog for Bloggers"
  (September 13, 2007)

More at

• "Glacier"
  Encyclopedia of Earth
• "Fossile Mysteries"
  San Diego Natural History Museum
  • Timeline of Earth's most recent 2,500,000,000,years

Antarctic Ice Cap Didn't Get the Memo

"Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away"
news.com.au (April 18, 2009)

• "Ice expanding in much of Antarctica"
• "Eastern coast getting colder"
• "Western section remains a concern"

"ICE is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.

"The results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicate there is no large-scale melting of ice over most of Antarctica, although experts are concerned at ice losses on the continent's western coast. "

If you're into being scared silly over something, there's still hope: the Wilkins ice shelf isn't all that stable, and some of the western ice sheet is melting.

Meanwhile, over on the eastern part of Antarctica (I know: it's on the pole, but that's the conventional way of dividing the real estate), it's getting colder. That's where Australia has its slice of the Antarctic pie. Which probably explains why this article showed up in an Australian news outlet.

Near the end of the article is a remarkable couple of paragraphs:

"Dr Allison said there was not any evidence of significant change in the mass of ice shelves in east Antarctica nor any indication that its ice cap was melting. 'The only significant calvings in Antarctica have been in the west,' he said. And he cautioned that calvings of the magnitude seen recently in west Antarctica might not be unusual.

" 'Ice shelves in general have episodic carvings and there can be large icebergs breaking off - I'm talking 100km or 200km long - every 10 or 20 or 50 years.' "

Cycles in natural phenomena: who could have guessed?

Vaguely related posts:

• "Peta Protests on World of Warcraft - I am Not Making This Up"
  (April 17, 2009)
• "Ancient Antarctic Ecosystem: Isolated for Millions of Years"
  (April 16, 2009)
• "Big Changes on a Big Planet: Red Spot on Jupiter Has Company"
  (May 27, 2008)
• "Sunspots? What Sunspots?"
  (April 25, 2008)
• "'My Mind's Made Up: Don't Confuse Me With the Facts' "
  (March 3, 2008)
• "No Hope of Nobel Prize for This Lot: U.S. Senators and Global Warming"
  (December 25, 2007)
• "Stop Global Warming: Upgrade Trees?"
  (November 6, 2007)
• " 'Journey of Mankind:' 160,000 Years of Ups and Downs"
  (November 1, 2007)
• "Climate Data, Global Warming, and a Y2K Bug"
  (August 15, 2007)

Ancient Antarctic Ecosystem: Isolated for Millions of Years

"Ancient Ecosystem Found in Ice Pocket"
Discovery (April 16, 2009)

"Beneath a glacier in Antarctica, scientists have discovered a community of microbes growing in frigid pools of salty water.

"It's a particularly tough environment, with no light, no oxygen, and extremely cold temperatures. But the microbes appear to live -- and thrive -- off a combination of iron and sulfur, according to a new study. The result of that strange metabolism is a brilliant red streak of cascading ice called Blood Falls...."

This patch of anaerobic things is interesting because it's in an environment that's a bit like subsurface Europa (one of Jupiter's moons). And, since it's been isolated for millions of years, studying it may help biologists understand how life handles Earth's glacial periods.

Earth's climate isn't exactly stable. There have been a half-dozen major glacial periods in the last 1,000,000,000 years. Here's a rough chronology:

• 925,000,000 years ago
  • 125,000,000 years pass, then
• 800,000,000 years ago
  • 120,000,000 years pass, then
• 680,000,000 years ago
  • 230,000,000 years pass, then
• 450,000,000 years ago
  • 120,000,000 years pass, then
• 330,000,000 years ago
  • 328,000,000 years pass, then
• 2,000,000 years ago

It's too early to tell, but we may be coming out of the one that started about two million years ago. Or, maybe we're just in an interglacial period, with another big freeze on the way: I've read it both ways.

That ice age that started 800,000,000 years back, by the way, was a bad one: glaciers got to within 15 degrees of the equator.

Another thing: Those dates are rather approximate. One thing that keeps scientists busy is working out more accurate (or less inaccurate) ways of telling how long ago something happened. I got those numbers from the Glacier article on Encyclopedia of Earth: which are pretty close to other best-estimate approximations.

Attention Earthlings: Change Happens

Earth's a big place, with a long history. Quite a bit has changed since microorganisms started metabolizing CO₂, with O₂ as a byproduct.

When I was growing up, civilization was going to end when the next ice age started. Now, there's another version of 'and we're all gonna die' making the rounds. I don't know what the Earth my great-great-great-great grandchildren live on will be like, but I'm pretty sure that it won't be exactly the way it is now.

Change happens.

Related posts

• "Life is Left-Handed on Earth (Caution: Geeky Content)"
  (March 23, 2009)
• "The Purple Hills of Earth?"
  (September 6, 2008)
• "How to Destroy Earth (It Ain't Gonna be Easy)"
  (July 9, 2008)
• "Old Articles About Old Stuff: History of Earth's Continents"
  (May 18, 2008)
• "The Sun as a Swinger? Cardiff U's Title is Better for Mass Extinction Article"
  (May 12, 2008)
• "Sunspots? What Sunspots?"
  (April 25, 2008)
• "And Now, for Something Completely Different: The Medieval Climatic Optimum, The Little Ice Age, and Other Changes"
  (April 20, 2008)
• " 'My Mind's Made Up: Don't Confuse Me With the Facts' "
  (March 3, 2008)
• "Climates in the Inner Solar System"
  (February 28, 2008)
• ""Journey of Mankind:" 160,000 Years of Ups and Downs"
  (November 1, 2007)

More at

• "Glacier"
  Encyclopedia of Earth
• "Fossile Mysteries"
  San Diego Natural History Museum
  • Timeline of Earth's most recent 2,500,000,000,years

Has the Sun Found Cosmic Acne Cream?

"Sun goes longer than normal without producing sunspots"
Astronomy Report (June 10, 2008)
Has the Sun Found Cosmic Acne Cream?
"The sun has been laying low for the past couple of years, producing no sunspots and giving a break to satellites.

"That's good news for people who scramble when space weather interferes with their technology, but it became a point of...."

Something I've noticed, in my half-century-plus in this world, is that one of the few constants is change.

Sunspots? What Sunspots?

"Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh"
The Australian (April 23, 2008)

"THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

"What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot."

Today's hot issue is Global Warming.

A few decades back, kids got chilling warnings about the coming ice age. I was Born in 1951, and remember those textbooks and magazines that said another ice age was coming. I remember thinking, 'cool!'

Now, the hot issue is Global Warming.

Phil Chapman, the fellow who wrote that article, is a geophysicist, astronautical engineer, and astronaut, took a look at sunspot activity. He's aware of how much the sun affects us, and has some very interesting points.

Maybe it's time to rewrite the textbooks again?

Sunspots, Flares, and Radio Troubles

"Surge of solar activity"
Astronomy Now Online (March 26, 2008)

"With little warning, three large sunspots have materialised [sic] in the last 24 hours, one of which unleashed the biggest solar flare so far this year."

More, with photos.