Saturday, February 1, 2014

[Geology2] Never Forget End-Cretaceous!

Eclectic Arcania Remembers It Like It Was Just Yesterday:

http://eclecticarcania.blogspot.com/2014/01/never-forget-end-cretaceous.html

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[californiadisasters] On This Date In California Weather History (February 1)

1986: 16 foot waves hit San Diego County, but no drownings or serious injuries resulted.

1979: 56" of snow fell in Big Bear Lake from 1.31 to 2.2, the greatest storm snowfall on record.

1963: Big Sur had received a record 20.18" of rain over the past three days.

1963: Heavy rainfall over a 4-day period produced extensive flooding across northeast California and northwest Nevada.

1963: A flood swept through the animal cages in Kiddieland at Lake Redding Park.
Roy Wilsey, former owner and now park attendant, saved the animals from drowning.
Wilsey operated the playground as a hobby for 13 years before giving it to the YMCA’s Men’s Club last year.

1956: The morning low temperature at Reno was -11°.

1916: Fresno recorded its’ highest barometric pressure ever, 30.64" (also recorded on December 9, 1978 and December 25, 1932).

Source: NWS Hanford, Reno, San Francisco/Monterey, & San Diego and the Redding Record-Searchlight

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Be sure to check out our Links Section at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters/links Please join our Discussion Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/californiadisasters_discussion/ for topical but extended discussions started here or for less topical but nonetheless relevant messages.

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Friday, January 31, 2014

[californiadisasters] If You Like To Eat, You Should Really Be Worried About California's Drought

If You Like To Eat, You Should Really Be Worried About California's Drought

Alissa Scheller | Huffington Post

Posted: 01/31/14 EST | Updated: 01/31/14 EST

California had record low rainfall in 2013. It was potentially the driest year in the last 500 years, according to tree rings, and dry weather is expected to last through 2014. The state's $44.7 billion agriculture industry may take a significant hit, and prices for foods that are water-intensive to produce -- such as beef, milk, and tomatoes -- might start reflecting California's water woes.

See full size image here.

Infographic by Alissa Scheller for the Huffington Post.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/31/california-drought-food-p_n_4704299.html

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[californiadisasters] California drought prompts first-ever 'zero water allocation'

California drought prompts first-ever 'zero water allocation'

By Bettina Boxall | Los Angeles Times

January 31, 2014, 2:04 p.m.

Officials Friday said that for the first time ever, the State Water Project that helps supply a majority of Californians may be unable to make any deliveries except to maintain public health and safety.

They also said they were cutting releases from large reservoirs in the northern part of the state to preserve supplies in the face of what could be the worst drought in modern California history.

“It’s about holding back water so we’ve got it tomorrow,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The zero allocation for the State Water Project is the first in the sprawling system’s 54-year history. It will be reassessed monthly and could be adjusted upward if storms drop snow and rain on the parched state in the next three months.

Most of the contractors that get water from the project have other sources, such as storage and groundwater, and state Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin stressed that the delivery cut did not mean faucets would run dry.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the state project’s largest customer, has said it has enough supplies in storage to get the Southland through this year without mandatory rationing.

Cowin said it was necessary to take aggressive action now to ensure water would be available later for people, farms and fish. “This is not a coming crisis. ...This is a current crisis,” he said.

The State Water Resources Control Board announced that it is temporarily dropping requirements for reservoir releases to maintain environmental standards in California’s water hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The board is also telling junior rights holders in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins that they will have to curtail diversions from rivers and streams. Officials said most of the 5,800 junior diverters, who are primarily agricultural, have access to groundwater or other sources.

In another step, the board is limiting pumping from the delta to exports necessary for human health and safety, an action that in effect eliminates irrigation deliveries from the delta to the San Joaquin Valley.

Cowin called the actions “largely unprecedented but also unavoidable.”

Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-drought-zero-water-allocation-20140131,0,4678128.story

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[Geology2] Volcanic Lake Database Launches 28 Years After Nyos Disaster

Volcanic Lake Database Launches 28 Years After Nyos Disaster

by Daniel Kelly
— January 30, 2014

Cameroon’s Lake Nyos in western Africa. (Credit: Flickr User jbdodane via Creative Commons)

The 1986 carbon dioxide release from Lake Nyos in Cameroon killed 1,700 people by some estimates. Others place the number higher.

The unusual natural disaster was highly publicized, as people around the world struggled to make sense of the lake’s sudden gas release. Government officials in the African nation were stumped. They interviewed witnesses, surveyed the land nearby and even dared to step near the shore of a lake that had just suffocated every living animal within a 15-mile radius.

Cow killed by Lake Nyos gasses. (Credit: Jack Lockwood, U.S. Geological Survey)

Nyos rests in a crater on the flanks of an inactive volcano. A pocket of magma runs beneath, and its CO2-saturated water comes from the same area underground. Investigators looked at those features, guessing that a small eruption from the dormant volcano could have caused a limnic eruption – a very rare form of overturn that causes a lake to release its dissolved carbon dioxide into the air.

But scientists weren’t sure. Some theorized a landslide or earthquake was involved. Or that cool rainwater falling on one side of the lake caused a turnover. The precise cause of the release is still unknown, but the event laid bare a scientific shortcoming: Lake Nyos and very few volcanic lakes had been studied enough.

This is possibly because much of the world’s population doesn’t live near volcanic lakes – and neither do leading researchers. Much of research funding goes to projects that have clear, quick benefits for those populous societies: clean drinking water, air or soil. And the costly, sometimes dangerous, travel to remote locations near volcanoes is discouraging.

Sabalan Volcanic Lake, northwestern Iran. (Credit: Omid Jafarnezhed via Wikimedia Commons)

The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) – an organization that studies everything around volcanoes and the earth’s crust – formed a commission to advance the study of volcanic lakes. It has supported expanded research ever since. Before the Nyos event, there was none.

The IAVCEI publishes results of the commission’s findings in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research – the February 2014 edition features a promising announcement. Almost 30 years after the Nyos disaster, scientists have compiled a database of volcanic lakes.

Chadburn Lake as seen from a helicopter, Yukon Territory. Volcanic ash gives its water different hues. (Credit: Flickr User grampymoose via Creative Commons)

It’s called VOLADA and it’s the first database of its kind. It covers 474 lakes, a number that was surprisingly high to the scientists, which just goes to show the still-extensive lack of knowledge about these lakes. Authors note in the journal: “Many of the compiled lakes were almost unknown, or at least unstudied to date.” They hope their open-access database, complete with interactive working tools, will reduce that number.

http://www.lakescientist.com/volcanic-lake-database-launch-28-years-after-nyos-disaster/
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[californiadisasters] 314 years ago Sunday, a megathrust earthquake devastated the region ... ready for another?

314 years ago Sunday, a megathrust earthquake devastated the region … ready for another?

Posted by James Smith on January 29, 2014

Digging into the soil at the Effingham Inlet in British Columbia, Canadian scientists have confirmed that a city-destroying megathrust earthquake in the Northwest is due.

314 years ago Sunday, a megathrust earthquake devastated the region … ready for another?

January 28, 2014 | By Jake Ellison

Never missing the opportunity to scare the living daylights out of us, earthquake experts in Washington remind us that this past Sunday was the 314th anniversary of the last megathrust quake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone that would have wiped out a big part of Seattle and the infrastructure of the region had we all been there.

And we are due for another one.

So, the Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup has updated its scenario document for what that magnitude of quake would do to us now.

big quake zone 600x503 314 years ago Sunday, a megathrust earthquake devastated the region … ready for another?

THE CASCADIA SUBDUCTION ZONE: The geography of northern California, Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia is shaped by the Cascadia subduction zone, where the North American Plate collides with a number of smaller plates: the largest of these is the Juan de Fuca Plate, flanked by the Explorer Plate to the north and the Gorda plate to the south. These smaller plates “subduct” (descend) beneath the North American Plate as they converge along a 700-mile long (1,130 km) boundary. A large portion of the boundary between the subducting and overriding plates resists the convergent motion, until this part of the boundary breaks in a great earthquake. Above: Schematic view of the source area for the largest Cascadia earthquakes. (Image adapted from U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1707 (page 8), Atwater et al., http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1707/)

The group said in the news release:

The very advances that are the foundations of our modern communities create vulnerability along with convenience said Michael Kubler, Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW) President. The revised Cascadia scenario is a crucial tool for regional leaders to use in developing policies and plans for the next earthquake. Events over the last few years have expanded our understanding of earthquake science and the hazards faced by our region from a future Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.

For a bit more background, here’s some of the story we wrote last summer proclaiming … Canadian study confirms megathrust earthquake is due in NW:

Digging into the soil at the Effingham Inlet in British Columbia, Canadian scientists have confirmed that a city-destroying megathrust earthquake in the Northwest is due.

The Cascadia Subduction Zone running the length of the coast from northern Vancouver Island down to California last slipped and shook the surface of the Earth 300 years ago, and that was just the latest of 22 such quakes in the past 11,000 years.

The scientists, whose work is published in the latest Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, used a new aging model for identifying and dating disturbed sedimentary layers in a core raised from the inlet.

The disturbances appear to have been caused by large and megathrust earthquakes that have occurred over the past 11,000 years, According to a science news site run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

http://www.prepperpodcast.com/314-years-ago-sunday-a-megathrust-earthquake-devastated-the-region-ready-for-another/
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[Volcano_Vista_HS] VVHS Announcements--Friday, January 31, 2014

Best Buddies will meet today during lunch. We will be passing out t-shirts and talking about upcoming activities.

Valentine's Day is coming up! Stop by E-hall to pick up a gift for that special someone! We will be selling body scrubs and hand soap. There's no better way to say Happy Valentine's day!

NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY: Our next meeting is Monday, February 3rd, at lunch in Mrs. Green's room. This is an important meeting because it is the only time we will be meeting in February due to the Presidents' Day Holiday. The tutoring schedule needs to be finalized, especially for Language Honor Society members, and preparations for election of next year's officers must be made. There will also be updates on fundraising, community service and the plans for this year's induction and awards ceremony. Check the Facebook page for your status in meeting lettering requirements. See you Monday at lunch in E 214.

Congratulations to all 500 students that received a 3.5 GPA or higher for the fall semester. Administrators will be coming around this week to recognize you in front of your 5th period classes. On Friday, we will have a special ceremony and surprise for you in the main gym at the end of 7th period. Please hang onto your certificate that will be your pass to get out of class and into the gym. Great job Hawks and we encourage everyone to strive for the best grades possible.

Winterball tickets are on sale today for $15.00 in the Activities Office during lunch. You must have your current student ID to purchase a ticket. If you are bringing a guest that does not attend Volcano Vista please have the completed permission slip with you when you purchase your tickets. Each student is limited to one ticket and one guest. Ticket prices will increase to $20.00 on February 4^th. $1.00 of each ticket will go to Make-a-Wish.

Buy a Make-a-Wish star from any senate member or from the activities office.

Spirit week begins next week for Winterball:

Monday is Nerd Day.

Tuesday is Dress as your Favorite VVHS Teacher Day

(Teachers you can dress as you favorite student-no sagging pants please)

Wednesday is Twin Day

Thursday is Opposite Day

Friday is Olympic Day:

Faculty and staff wear black
Seniors wear blue
Juniors wear red
Sophomores wear green
Freshmen wear yellow.
These are all the colors of the Olympic Rings.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU MUST BE IN DRESS CODE.

Were you hoping to take Yoga next year? If you were, and can't find it on your course card, sign up for Aerobics and Body Conditioning! Yoga is offered every other year, and is very similar to Aerobics and Body Conditioning. We will see you next year!" Please see Coach Kowalski or Coach Nord if you have any questions.

Attention Hawks who want to take DECA next year. When you are completing your registration card, please enroll in Business, Marketing and Finance I. This Business class is what we refer to as DECA! When you register for a business class you also become part of the DECA Club. We look forward to having you in our class and club next year!

COUNSELING:

An admissions officer from UTAH STATE will be here on Friday, Jan. 31, during lunch. She will meet with students in the Career Center, Rm. E224.

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is the most widely used multiple-aptitude test battery in the world. As an aptitude test, the ASVAB measures your strengths, weaknesses, and potential for future success. The ASVAB also provides you with career information for various civilian and military occupations and is an indicator for success in future endeavors whether you choose to go to college, vocational school, or a military career. The test will be given in the Volcano Vista High School lecture hall on Wednesday, February 12^th from 7:30am to approximately 12pm. To schedule yourself for the test, please sign up in the JROTC classroom no later than February 5th. If you have any questions please contact Major Campbell.

ATHLETICS:

Softball try-outs begin on Monday, Feb. 3. Bring your cleats, gloves and physicals to the try-out. Be at the softball field at 2:45. Also, softball players remember to work in the snack bar this next week.
All student-athletes interested in joining the track and field team this year need to make sure they have a physical on file with the school by February 11^th. Also, all sprinters, jumpers, throwers, and distance runners, there will be one hour of pre-season practice Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next two weeks. Please plan on attending so you can get into the flow of things. See you out there!
B. Basketball plays at home on Friday against Hobbs.
Swim this Saturday at West Mesa.
Wrestling will be in the Metro Championship this Friday and Saturday at Eldorado

During lunch today please remember to throw your trash away. Thanks for keeping Volcano Beautiful!

And remember . . .

As always . . .

It's Great to be a Hawk

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For more information, go to our web site: http://www.volcanovistahawks.com

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VOLCANO MADNESS

Saturday, February 1, 2014

[Geology2] Never Forget End-Cretaceous!

[californiadisasters] On This Date In California Weather History (February 1)

Friday, January 31, 2014

[californiadisasters] If You Like To Eat, You Should Really Be Worried About California's Drought

If You Like To Eat, You Should Really Be Worried About California's Drought

[californiadisasters] California drought prompts first-ever 'zero water allocation'

California drought prompts first-ever 'zero water allocation'

[Geology2] Volcanic Lake Database Launches 28 Years After Nyos Disaster

Volcanic Lake Database Launches 28 Years After Nyos Disaster

[californiadisasters] 314 years ago Sunday, a megathrust earthquake devastated the region ... ready for another?

314 years ago Sunday, a megathrust earthquake devastated the region … ready for another?

[Volcano_Vista_HS] VVHS Announcements--Friday, January 31, 2014

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