The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

The 1,700-Foot Tusnami That Struck Alaska -Can It Happen Again?

On the night of July 7th, 1958, the world’s largest wave in recorded history engorged Alaska's Lituya bay, located about 250 miles west of Juneau in the Gulf of Alaska. It was 1,700 feet, or 520 meters -almost twice the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake, which caused an enormous landslide along the Fairweather Fault. The resulting crash of rock into water caused the largest wall of water in human history. The deadly wave hurtled at jet speeds and wiped out everything within a four mile radius.

A Rosetta Stone of Planetary Rainfall Discovered

Ohio researchers have discovered that the sun affects the Earth.  So far, so not-exactly-news.  The interesting part is that they've discovered a perfectly a preserved rock record of solar activity on water cycles dating back over seven thousand years -a Rosetta stone of planetary rainfall.

"Chemical Equator" Divides Northern & Southern Hemispheres

Scientists have discovered a "chemical Equator" that divides the polluted air of the Northern Hemisphere from the largely uncontaminated atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere. Researchers from Britain's University of York found evidence for an atmospheric chemical line about 50 kilometers (30 miles) wide in cloudless skies in the Western Pacific, with levels of carbon monoxide four times higher on the northern side.

Earth’s Atmosphere Being Slingshot Into Space

Oxygen is constantly being evacuated out of Earth’s atmosphere and into space. Thankfully, at the moment, we have enough oxygen to spare, so there is nothing to worry about. But as a result of the European Space Agency’s Cluster mission, scientists have discovered that sometime in the future, into our Sun’s old age, there might be cause to worry.

Ocean Sucking Up More Ozone than First Thought

The day that someone finally manages to create a climate model that accurately predicts the full range of planetary weather systems, I think we will probably be a hundred years too late. It is such a tough challenge, attempting to pin together the whole range of influences that go in to making our planets weather what it is.

More proof of this difficulty is found in a recent discovery by researchers working off the west-African coast of Cape Verde. What the researchers found has totally shifted the thinking concerning two types of greenhouse gases: ozone and methane.

Inside a Tsunami Factory

Known as the Nankai Trough, the 500 mile long boundary between a pair of tectonic plates off the southwestern coast of Japan is now the focus of intense scientific attention. For a long time the Nankai Trough has produced tsunami after tsunami, and now scientists involved in the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment hope to find out just what makes it work.

La Niña Persists, Fueling Drought Conditions

"After eight very dry years on the Colorado River watershed and a record-breaking dry winter in Southern California in 2006-2007, the situation in the American Southwest is dangerously dry. This La Niña could deepen the drought in the already parched Southwest and Southeast United States."

Bill Patzert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Can Man Control Weather? Scientist Are Getting Closer

Humanity has had a historic obsession with the idea of controlling weather. In Greek mythology the Gods were responsible for weather conditions. As the sky god Zeus had control over weather, especially rain and lightning. Various American Indians had rituals which they believed had the power to summon rain. During the time of the Vikings, it was believed that Finnish people could control weather. In fact, Vikings would sometimes refuse to take Finns on their seafaring raids. This particular superstition lasted into the twentieth century, when ship crews were somewhat reluctant to accept Finnish sailors. Even now the US, Russia and China, among other nations, practice “cloud seeding” in some regions in a dubious effort to induce rain.

Another Katrina (or Hypercane) a Possibility? New Study Raises Concerns For the Hurricane Season

MIT's Kerry Emanuel describes the worst nightmare hurricane that could ever happen -a "hypercane" with  winds raging around its center at 500 miles an hour. Water vapor; sea spray and storm debris are spewed into the atmosphere, punching a hole in the stratosphere 20 miles above the Earth's surface; at landfall, its super-gale-force winds would flatten forests and toss boulders with a  60-foot tsunami-like storm surge flooding nearby shores. The water vapor and debris could remain suspended high in the atmosphere for years, disrupting the climate and the ozone layer.

NASA: Pacific Cooling to La Nina

New data on sea-level heights from February 2007 show that the tropical Pacific Ocean has transitioned from a warm (El Nino) to a cool (La Nina) condition during the prior two months.

La Nina often follows an El Nino episode and the two are essentially opposites. During a La Nina, trade winds are stronger than normal, and the cold water that normally exists along the coast of South America extends to the central equatorial Pacific. La Nina changes global weather patterns and is associated with less moisture in the air, resulting in less rain along the coasts of North and South America.

In this image, places where the Pacific sea surface is warmer than normal are yellow and red, and places where the sea surface is cooler than normal are blue and . Green shows where conditions are near normal. Source NASA Science. Posted by Jason McManus.

The 1,700-Foot Tusnami That Struck Alaska -Can It Happen Again?

On the night of July 7th, 1958, the world’s largest wave in recorded history engorged Alaska's Lituya bay, located about 250 miles west of Juneau in the Gulf of Alaska. It was 1,700 feet, or 520 meters -almost twice the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake, which caused an enormous landslide along the Fairweather Fault. The resulting crash of rock into water caused the largest wall of water in human history. The deadly wave hurtled at jet speeds and wiped out everything within a four mile radius.

A Rosetta Stone of Planetary Rainfall Discovered

Ohio researchers have discovered that the sun affects the Earth.  So far, so not-exactly-news.  The interesting part is that they've discovered a perfectly a preserved rock record of solar activity on water cycles dating back over seven thousand years -a Rosetta stone of planetary rainfall.

"Chemical Equator" Divides Northern & Southern Hemispheres

Scientists have discovered a "chemical Equator" that divides the polluted air of the Northern Hemisphere from the largely uncontaminated atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere. Researchers from Britain's University of York found evidence for an atmospheric chemical line about 50 kilometers (30 miles) wide in cloudless skies in the Western Pacific, with levels of carbon monoxide four times higher on the northern side.

Earth’s Atmosphere Being Slingshot Into Space

Oxygen is constantly being evacuated out of Earth’s atmosphere and into space. Thankfully, at the moment, we have enough oxygen to spare, so there is nothing to worry about. But as a result of the European Space Agency’s Cluster mission, scientists have discovered that sometime in the future, into our Sun’s old age, there might be cause to worry.

Ocean Sucking Up More Ozone than First Thought

The day that someone finally manages to create a climate model that accurately predicts the full range of planetary weather systems, I think we will probably be a hundred years too late. It is such a tough challenge, attempting to pin together the whole range of influences that go in to making our planets weather what it is.

More proof of this difficulty is found in a recent discovery by researchers working off the west-African coast of Cape Verde. What the researchers found has totally shifted the thinking concerning two types of greenhouse gases: ozone and methane.

Inside a Tsunami Factory

Known as the Nankai Trough, the 500 mile long boundary between a pair of tectonic plates off the southwestern coast of Japan is now the focus of intense scientific attention. For a long time the Nankai Trough has produced tsunami after tsunami, and now scientists involved in the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment hope to find out just what makes it work.

La Niña Persists, Fueling Drought Conditions

"After eight very dry years on the Colorado River watershed and a record-breaking dry winter in Southern California in 2006-2007, the situation in the American Southwest is dangerously dry. This La Niña could deepen the drought in the already parched Southwest and Southeast United States."

Bill Patzert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Can Man Control Weather? Scientist Are Getting Closer

Humanity has had a historic obsession with the idea of controlling weather. In Greek mythology the Gods were responsible for weather conditions. As the sky god Zeus had control over weather, especially rain and lightning. Various American Indians had rituals which they believed had the power to summon rain. During the time of the Vikings, it was believed that Finnish people could control weather. In fact, Vikings would sometimes refuse to take Finns on their seafaring raids. This particular superstition lasted into the twentieth century, when ship crews were somewhat reluctant to accept Finnish sailors. Even now the US, Russia and China, among other nations, practice “cloud seeding” in some regions in a dubious effort to induce rain.

Another Katrina (or Hypercane) a Possibility? New Study Raises Concerns For the Hurricane Season

MIT's Kerry Emanuel describes the worst nightmare hurricane that could ever happen -a "hypercane" with  winds raging around its center at 500 miles an hour. Water vapor; sea spray and storm debris are spewed into the atmosphere, punching a hole in the stratosphere 20 miles above the Earth's surface; at landfall, its super-gale-force winds would flatten forests and toss boulders with a  60-foot tsunami-like storm surge flooding nearby shores. The water vapor and debris could remain suspended high in the atmosphere for years, disrupting the climate and the ozone layer.

NASA: Pacific Cooling to La Nina

New data on sea-level heights from February 2007 show that the tropical Pacific Ocean has transitioned from a warm (El Nino) to a cool (La Nina) condition during the prior two months.

La Nina often follows an El Nino episode and the two are essentially opposites. During a La Nina, trade winds are stronger than normal, and the cold water that normally exists along the coast of South America extends to the central equatorial Pacific. La Nina changes global weather patterns and is associated with less moisture in the air, resulting in less rain along the coasts of North and South America.

In this image, places where the Pacific sea surface is warmer than normal are yellow and red, and places where the sea surface is cooler than normal are blue and . Green shows where conditions are near normal. Source NASA Science. Posted by Jason McManus.