All Questions
7,138
questions
5
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1
answer
2k
views
Is San Andreas fault horizontal or vertical?
I was reading a book about tectonic plate boundaries, and I came across this paragraph:
It says that when a plate edge slides with another plate edge it causes a vertical fault, as San Andreas fault. ...
- 585
2
votes
1
answer
878
views
What is difference between partially penetrating stream and fully penetrating stream?
If fully penetrating stream means, the stream penetrates fully to the depth of aquifer, then doesn't it mean that there is zero conductance or leakance? The leakance or conductance is a term used to ...
- 779
1
vote
0
answers
108
views
How do tectonic plates move upward? [closed]
And also, can this push continents and land-masses upward as well?I have not been informed of the phenomenon of tectonic plates rising up.
I am yet unable to find a satisfactory answer on the internet,...
- 11
3
votes
0
answers
43
views
What factors make Lake Turkana a great location for preserving fossils?
I am trying to figure out why Lake Turkana has yielded so many hominin fossils compared to other locations in the East African Rift Valley. One of the reasons is possibly the laying of sedimentary ...
- 339
2
votes
1
answer
42
views
Where can I find information about the basic concepts of sedimentary basins?
There are a lot of papers on the web but they don't explain the concepts, they just mention them, taking for granted that the reader knows the concepts.
I mean piggyback basin, forearc, back arc, ...
- 343
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to interpret cloud coverage chart?
The following page describes the historical cloud amount at various locations along the path of totality of Solar Eclipse 2017.
How do I interpret the cloud chart?
When it says the cloud amount is ...
- 133
6
votes
3
answers
711
views
Which chemicals in smog obscure visibility?
I know that smog is generally a mixture of various chemicals, such as peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone. I also know that smog obscures visibility.
My question is two-fold:
What chemical in smog ...
- 8,799
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
When was the first not-icy desert formed?
For how long have deserts existed and which one would be the first to be created? I'm talking about arid, dry deserts, not the Antarctic or Arctic or any other icy deserts.
user8390
20
votes
4
answers
23k
views
Lanes of flat ocean surface in coastal waters
When the ocean is still, i.e. there aren't waves that disturb the surface, you often see "lanes" of water that seem flat as opposed to areas where the wind causes ripples. What causes this?
- 203
1
vote
0
answers
82
views
classification of oil shale
Could we classify oil shale as a biochemical sedimentary rock ? Oil shale is a muddy rock contains Kerogen. So I think in oil shale to be a mixture of Kerogen and mud sediments, and that's not the ...
- 585
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
Why does halite have a cubic crystal
Why does mineral halite has a cubic crystal ? Is this a result of the way by which sodium ions and chloride ions are held together ? And what is the relation between the cubic crystal of halite and ...
- 585
8
votes
2
answers
976
views
Why is northern Australia unsuitable for agriculture?
Northern Australia receives substantial rainfall, but its population is minimal.
For instance the Kimberley region in the state of Western Australia gets more than 20 in. of rainfall per year, but ...
- 231
2
votes
1
answer
90
views
Does the length of a river depend on the scale of measurements?
Coastlines are highly fractal, leading to the coastline paradox: the length increases to surprisingly large numbers as your scale of measurement gets smaller.
Does the same thing apply to rivers, ...
- 1,261
7
votes
2
answers
991
views
What produces these distinct shapes in the Rub' al Khali seen from space?
update: Searching "Rub' al Khali Empty Quarter" found "Q2: What are sabkhas?" in
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6BYQ0_rub-al-khali-the-empty-quarter which seems to be ...
- 7,148
2
votes
3
answers
106
views
Reisdual soil and the atmosphere influence
My text books says that the residual soil shows a similarity in its chemical composition to the original rock beneath it, and that the degree of similarity differs by differing the influence type of ...
- 585
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to make, read, and calibrate a ping-pong ball anemometer?
I'd like to make a ping-pong ball anemometer to make estimates or approximate measurements of wind and surface air currents at low to moderate speeds. I don't own an anemometer now, but I'd estimate ...
- 7,148
1
vote
2
answers
83
views
Where can I get mineral testing done? [closed]
Where can I send a sample of material to be tested to see exactly what it is?
Do you have an address where items can be sent for testing and evaluation?
I have a softball size rock that was given to ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
152
views
gamma ray burst, extinction-level event
From this subsection in Wikipedia's aricle on extinction event:
A nearby gamma-ray burst (less than 6000 light years away) would be powerful enough to destroy the Earth's ozone layer, leaving ...
- 113
3
votes
2
answers
298
views
How are daily precipitation totals computed?
I would like to use ASOS data from Iowa State University to compute daily rainfall totals for specific locations. Using ASOS, I am unable to match the official NWS totals. I am assuming that the ...
- 151
2
votes
1
answer
86
views
Formation of petrified trees
In my book, I came across this question:
Give reason why formation of petrified tress is considered as a degradation and a sedimentation action of the underground water.
My book explains that ...
- 585
2
votes
1
answer
47
views
How to simulate wind's trend from his windrose distribution?
I need to simulate a realtime wind's trend from his windrose distribution (made from statistical data).
How winds change direction and speed in function of time? I cannot pick a random value from ...
- 23
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Seismometer records ground displacement or acceleration
I believe Seismometers record ground displacement. However, I have also read in certain articles that this can be ground displacement or acceleration depending on the frequency of the seismometer. ...
- 213
10
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Why are frontal zones connected to low-pressure systems but not to high-pressure systems?
Frontal zones (e. g. a warm or a cold front) are connected to low-pressure systems. But why do high-pressure systems not have frontal zones?
- 335
2
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Why should this be a thrust fault?
Why should this figure represent a thrust fault?
I know this might be a stupid question, but I really want to understand. Since thrust faults are reverse faults why in the figure above if we turned ...
- 585
2
votes
1
answer
507
views
Not able to open .f000 file formats in pygrib
I've been working with GFS data in Python using pygrib, and have been able to download and process data stored in .grb and .grib2 file formats from the NCEP archive ftp site. When I switch over to try ...
- 61
1
vote
0
answers
96
views
Possible reasons for field GOR being below Solution GOR(Rs)
It has been noticed in the field multiple times that the field produced GOR is well below the Solution GOR (obtained from PVT properties).
Based on Industry observed production data globally, I would ...
- 11
5
votes
3
answers
755
views
The fertility of the soil
I came across this question in my book, it says:
The fertility of the soil increases when there is a lot of ....... in it.
The choices to fill the space were:
Nitrogen - nodular bacteria - ...
- 585
5
votes
0
answers
492
views
Is there a software or means that can generate piper diagrams without some data?
I have cation and anion water chemistry data for some samples and I intend(ed) to generate piper diagrams for the same.
However, data for some parameters was not obtained during the determinations of ...
- 247
2
votes
5
answers
899
views
Why does relative humidity seem to correlate with high temperature (at least where I live)?
I live in New Jersey. Now that summer is coming on us, temperatures and outdoor relative humidity are both increasing. I've noticed the few years that I've lived here that there seems to be a rough ...
- 293
5
votes
0
answers
84
views
What is the equivalent of CFL criterion when using spectral models?
I would like to know what the equivalent of the CFL criterion is for atmospheric models based of spectral grids. In other words, how do you find the necessary horizontal resolution in meters for ...
- 51
14
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How and when people first realized that Antarctica is a continent?
Recently I got startled by this question I asked myself and I can't seem to find any sources of answers.
I have hypotheses about how it could have happened:
It could have been by the fact that if you ...
- 243
4
votes
1
answer
822
views
Are hurricanes/cyclones/typhoons in the Pacific Ocean usually larger than in Atlantic Ocean?
Just my experience of observation: hurricanes/cyclones/typhoons in the Pacific Ocean seem to look larger than those in Atlantic Ocean (by looks I mean they occupy more grids in satellite images).
If ...
- 1,379
-4
votes
1
answer
110
views
What 'time of day' did the heavy bombardment period begin? [closed]
In assigning serial definitions to the stratification of lunar regolith with precise ETA of first impact; what year, month, day and time did the heavy bombardment period begin?
- 7
6
votes
0
answers
478
views
What is the "global mean surface temperature change estimate" an estimate of?
NASA publishes what it calls an "estimate" of the Earth's global mean surface temperature. Digging through papers I've been able to find some documentation of how these numbers are computed, but I ...
- 183
4
votes
0
answers
449
views
What are the advantages of analyzing temperature in Kelvin?
I have air temperature data from reanalysis that I want to analyze. The reanalysis data is in Kelvin, so I'm wondering why they use Kelvin. Is there any advantage or difference in analyzing ...
- 395
8
votes
2
answers
90
views
Are there any effects on the atmosphere comparable with ebb and flood of the oceans?
Due to the attraction of our moon (and Sun) our oceans undergo an up and down movement every day. So the water rises or falls by a couple of meters. But does this type of effect also occur with our ...
- 2,513
5
votes
0
answers
731
views
Why does this contrail diverge and then converge?
I observed this contrail above me today, and I noticed that the two inner contrails diverge outwards to merge with the two outer contrails. Then, as the contrails dissipate after several seconds they ...
- 23.1k
1
vote
0
answers
147
views
Why are larger tornadoes stronger?
I recently read an article that said that claimed
the stronger the tornado, the larger its area
and generally, I think this is accepted. Why?
The vorticity equation $$\frac{D\vec{\omega}}{Dt}=\...
- 8,799
5
votes
3
answers
2k
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What is meant by inverted water table?
There are some papers in literature which discuss stream-aquifer interaction. They describe that the stream aquifer interaction ranges from connection to disconnection. When there is disconnection, ...
- 779
6
votes
2
answers
109
views
ERA Interim problem with Waves
Has anyone had a problem with significant wave height (swh) and mean wave period (mwp) from ERA-Interim not matching very well with either a time series of measurements or a different model? Or does ...
- 63
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What's the difference between snow cover and fractional snow cover?
What's the difference between snow cover and fractional snow cover? Are they kind of synonyms? What would be a definition of fractional snow cover?
thanks a lot!
- 395
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why do cities at high altitude regions have high atmospheric pressures?
Why do cities at high altitude regions, such as Lhasa, altitude 11995ft (3656 metre), have high atmospheric pressures such as 30.11inHg (101.97 kPa) in the weather report?
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5
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0
answers
165
views
Did Theia collide directly with proto-Earth?
I was learning about the formation of Earth on Kahn Academy where it was mentioned that a protoplanet named Theia had a glancing impact with the earth and formed the moon. It seems like there is also ...
- 153
12
votes
1
answer
706
views
What causes these circular swirls of islands?
I was following the boarder of the US and Canada on Google Maps, because, and found these interesting circular patterns of islands near the Northwest Angle. I have heard of geologic folding but I have ...
- 295
2
votes
1
answer
163
views
Are there datasets like the global land-ocean temperature index for land surface temperature only?
I have no background in climate science, but I've become interested in explanations of the so-called "global warming hiatus" from 1998-2013. One explanation that people seem to think is convincing ...
- 183
13
votes
0
answers
104
views
How are scatterometer observations standardised before being fed into reanalysis models?
This very basic question occurred to me during a talk on reanalysis data sets. Often we know the observations produced by a particular instrument, say rain radar, are biased from one year to the next ...
- 173
5
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Is the Unified Theory of Climate (Nikolov & Zeller) compatible with the AGW/GHG theory in any respect?
Nikolov & Zeller have published a paper concerning what they call The Unified Theory of Climate.
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/New-Insights-on-the-Physical-Nature-of-the-Atmospheric-...
- 544
1
vote
2
answers
174
views
Why is it good scientific practice to 'build' a 'control Earth' from models, and where else do we 'build' controls? [closed]
Usually, when data is collected in an experiment, scientists have a control. Experiments are seen as flawed without controls. I am just curious as to where else scientists have 'built' controls using ...
- 119
13
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2
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481
views
What are those arrowlike underwater structures for?
Looks like it has something to do with fishing: Google maps link
- 233
3
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1
answer
63
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What forms do groundwater flow equations have when Dupuit supposition is not considered?
Near pumping wells or near/beneath a stream, the groundwater flow is not totally horizontal and the vertical component of groundwater movement at these points cannot be ignored in reality. Often, ...
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