Meteors and Volcanoes and Earthquakes, oh my!

[darksumomo]

Here are the news excerpts about geologic and astronomical phenomena in the news that I included in last night's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday on Daily Kos.

First up, the one that I observed.

AP via Discovery News: Piece of Midwestern Meteor Found

THE GIST:

A peanut-sized rock may be part of a meteor that lit of Midwestern skies this week

Comments

[manekikoneko]

Earthquake-related but not exactly:

(I posted this to Tumblr, which posts to Twitter, so you might have seen this already, but I thought people might get a kick out of it.)

[darksumomo]

Thanks for posting that. I was able to use it over on Daily Kos. And, no, I hadn't seen it yet. I'm not such a Twit that I read Twitter all the time.

[manekikoneko]

If anyone is curious, I found the video on Language Log, and they have a follow-up post on Icelandic and why, exactly, Eyjafjallajökull is pronounced the way it is.

(Also, I totally wrote 'earthquake' instead of 'volcano' to make a point and not at all because it was late and I was making one last lap around the internet before bed, and I was too sleepy to pay attention to what I was writing. Totally.)

[sissyhiyah]

Loved this! I needed a good giggle and this certainly made me laugh like hell. Thanks!

[be4u]

Scientists say 2010 is not showing signs of unusually high earthquake activity. Since 1900, an average of 16 magnitude 7 or greater earthquakes - the size that seismologists define as major - have occurred worldwide each year. Some years have had as few as 6, as in 1986 and 1989, while 1943 had 32, with considerable variability from year to year.

With six major earthquakes striking in the first four months of this year, 2010 is well within the normal range. Furthermore, from April 15, 2009, to April 14, 2010, there have been 18 major earthquakes, a number also well within the expected variation.

Interesting! I wonder why it *seems* like it's so much more now (this year). Have the previous large earthquakes happened in places we just didn't hear about or care about?

[underlankers]

Because they all happened to co-incide with points in the news cycles which were low in the Western World for other, human, stories. At least IMHO.

[be4u]

That certainly seems reasonable...

I went to the USGS site and counted 16 7.0+ for 2009. It looks like, also, that the locations (remote verses heavily populated) of the major earthquakes may have something to do with the "emotional impact" and general news-worthiness.

[underlankers]

What happens if the bigger volcano goes boom?