What if the Earth stopped spinning?

Using computer modeling, it's possible to take a crack at answering that question.

If the earth stood still, the oceans would gradually migrate toward the poles and cause land in the equatorial region to emerge. This would eventually result in a huge equatorial megacontinent and two large polar oceans.

There's going to be a floodie floodie

Five million years ago, a flood filled the Mediterranean Sea in only two years.

In a period ranging from a few months to two years, the scientists say that 90% of the water was transferred into the basin. "This extremely abrupt flood may have involved peak rates of sea level rise in the Mediterranean of more than 10m per day," he and his colleagues wrote in the Nature paper.

Planning for a million years

BLDGBLOG has a fascinating interview with geoscientist Abraham Van Luik about how to confine nuclear waste for 1,000,000 years at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. One of the problems is keeping people away from the site in the far future:

We have looked very closely at what WIPP is doing -- the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. They did a study with futurists and other people-sociologists and language specialists. They decided to come up with markers in seven languages, basically like a Rosetta Stone, with the idea that there will always be someone in the world who studies ancient languages, even 10,000 years from now, someone who will be able to resurrect what the meanings of these stelae are. They will basically say, "This is not a place of honor, don't dig here, this is not good material," etc.

New ocean!

A 35-mile-long rift in Ethiopia will eventually become a new ocean.

Using newly gathered seismic data from 2005, researchers reconstructed the event to show the rift tore open along its entire 35-mile length in just days. Dabbahu, a volcano at the northern end of the rift, erupted first, then magma pushed up through the middle of the rift area and began "unzipping" the rift in both directions, the researchers explained in a statement today.

We should name it Billy. (via clusterflock)

Instant walls of sand

Magnus Larsson has proposed building an ingenious structure in the Sahara Desert: a 6,000 km-long wall of sandstone made by flushing bacillus pasteurii through loose sand. The bacteria quickly solidifies the sand, thereby providing a wall to stop the advance of the desert or even structures for people to live in.

I researched different types of construction methods involving pile systems and realised that injection piles could probably be used to get the bacteria down into the sand -- a procedure that would be analogous to using an oversized 3D printer, solidifying parts of the dune as needed. The piles would be pushed through the dune surface and a first layer of bacteria spread out, solidifying an initial surface within the dune. They would then be pulled up, creating almost any conceivable (structurally sound) surface along their way, with the loose sand acting as a jig before being excavated to create the necessary voids.

This sounds more like sculpting or baking than architecture.

Obama elected by "rich loamy soils" of Cretaceous seas

The 2008 election voting patterns in the southern United States followed the big cotton production areas in 1860 which in turn followed the shoreline of the shallow tropical seas that covered the southern part of the US 85 million years ago.

This is not a political blog. However, this is a story I couldn't pass up: the story of how voting patterns in the 2008 election were essentially determined 85 million years ago, in the Cretaceous Period. It's also a story about how soil science relates to political science, by way of historical chance.

Headline I'd like to see in 96 pt. type in the NY Times: Obama Elected By Rich Loamy Soils of Cretaceous Seas.

Five ways to trigger a natural disaster

Human activities can trigger natural disasters such as earthquakes and flooding.

"Dams are the most dangerous man-made structure likely to cause quake," says David Booth of the British Geological Survey. By artificially holding a large volume of water in one place, dams increase pressure on fractures beneath the surface of the earth. What's more, water has a lubricating effect, making it easier for the fractures -- or faults -- to slip.

The sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa.

The sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa.

These rocks can be found on the floor of the playa with long trails behind them. Somehow these rocks slide across the playa, cutting a furrow in the sediment as they move. Some of these rocks weigh several hundred pounds. That makes the question: "How do they move?" a very challenging one.

Includes some nice photos at the end. (via clusterflock)

Geological features called chevrons could be evidence

Geological features called chevrons could be evidence of violent comet/asteroid impacts as recently as 1000 years ago. The chevrons are formed by massive tsunamis; scientists believe one such tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean 4,800 years ago and was 600 feet high. These impact-caused tsunamis may also be responsible for the various flood myths found in world religions. (thx, matt)

Satellites measuring the earth's gravity from orbit

Satellites measuring the earth's gravity from orbit detected a change in gravity from the massive earthquake that caused the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. "The gravity at the earth's surface decreased by as much as about 0.0000015 percent, meaning that a 150-pound person would experience a weight loss of about one-25,000th of an ounce."

BLDGBLOG posts a series of maps showing

BLDGBLOG posts a series of maps showing how, through the movement of the earth's tectonic plates, North America came to its present position and shape. Full set of maps here.

Update: Mike Migurski combined the maps into an awesome movie spanning 550 million years. It's....wait for it.....the longest movie ever made!

A convergence of fault lines in Africa

A convergence of fault lines in Africa near Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti is shifting the land so much that eventually the Red Sea will flow in and create a new ocean. (thx, brian)

Is Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, causing

Is Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, causing earthquakes? "The considerable stress might be transferred into the upper crust due to the extremely soft sedimentary rocks beneath the Taipei basin. Deeper down this may have reopened an old earthquake fault". (thx, malatron)