Category: 2010 show

Borealis Meditation – Episode 8: Aurora, Pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, covellite and marcasite, volcanoes and earthquakes

November 28, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

Borealis Meditation Episode 8: Aurora, Pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, covellite and marcasite, volcanoes and earthquakes! Oh my what an action packed adventure!

Listen to the episode here

notes: Last episode of 2010!!! Enjoy the holidays! See you in January!
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Oh and vote for the show on podcast alley!

Aurora:
Information used:
Stories: Asahi Aurora Classroom Auroral Legends
General info: Ashahi Aurora Classroom
recordings of radio waves: Stephen P. McGreevy’s ground-based ELF-VLF recordings

Pyrite
Chalcopyrite
bornite
covellite
marcasite

Volcano update:
17 November-23 November 2010

New Activity/Unrest:
Bulusan, Luzon
Kizimen, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia)
Merapi, Central Java (Indonesia)
Semeru, Eastern Java (Indonesia)
Shiveluch, Central Kamchatka (Russia)
Tengger Caldera, Eastern Java (Indonesia)
Tungurahua, Ecuador

Ongoing Activity:
Batur, Bali (Indonesia)
Dukono, Halmahera
Fuego, Guatemala
Gorely, Southern Kamchatka (Russia)
Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia)
Kilauea, Hawaii (USA)
Kliuchevskoi, Central Kamchatka (Russia)
Krakatau, Indonesia
Rinjani, Lombok Island (Indonesia)
Sakura-jima, Kyushu
Santa María, Guatemala
Suwanose-jima, Ryukyu Islands (Japan)

earthquakes links:
Nov 3 – Nov 26
M 5-5.9
26 M 5
27 M 5.1
18 M 5.2
5 M 5.3
9 M 5.4
7 M 5.5
3 M 5.6
3 M 5.7
1 M 5.8
4 M 5.9
Total 103

M6-6.9
1 M 6
2 M 6.1
1 M 6.5

Significant earthquake
Magnitude 5.3 – SERBIA
2010 November 03
Two people killed and several injured at Kraljevo

From the EQ stats page

Magnitude vs. Ground Motion and Energy

Magnitude Change	Ground Motion Change (Displacement)	Energy Change
1.0	10.0 times	about 32 times
0.5	3.2 times	about 5.5 times
0.3	2.0 times	about 3 times
0.1	1.3 times	about 1.4 times

This table shows that a magnitude 7.2 earthquake produces 10 times more ground motion than a magnitude 6.2 earthquake, but it releases about 32 times more energy. The energy release best indicates the destructive power of an earthquake. See: How much bigger is a magnitude 8.7 earthquake than a magnitude 5.8 earthquake?

HW: How much bigger? Calculator
Lets do three well known recent earthquakes
1. Haiti M7.0

2. The recent Indonesia one that produces a tsunami M7.8

3. Chile M8.8

Enjoy!

Borealis Meditation – Episode 7: Tsunamis, Volcanoes and Magnetite!

November 4, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

Episode 7: Tsunamis, Volcanoes and Magnetite!

Listen to the episode here

Sorry about the chair creaking! oops…

Indonesia Tsunami and volcanic eruption

Map: the area we are talking about, the blue marker to the east is Merapi

and maker to the west is the earthquake location

Huge Volcanic Blast Forces More Indonesians To Flee

Warning Systems Often Don’t Help Tsunami Victims

More Merapi info:

Smithsonian website

Wikipedia

Magnetite:

see post

and as always you can vote for me and buy stuff from me and send me love!

Borealis Meditation Minisode! Fun things! Volcanoes and earthquakes!

October 18, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

Mini-episode!
Listen to me here!

Show notes:
Volcanoes are HOT!

Super awesome animation of arc volcanoes!
Super awesome sea floor volcanoes animation!
Hawaiian volcanoes being made! animation

READING
Earthquakes? In Oklahoma? It’s more likely than you think.
New Theory of why mid-continent faults produce earthquakes

Calais, E., Freed, A.M., Van Arsdale, R., Stein, S., 2010, Triggering of New Madrid seismicity by late-pleistocene erosion, Nature 466, 608-611

Borealis Meditation – Episode 6

September 28, 2010 / katborealis / 1 Comment

Borealis Meditation Podcast Episode 6

Show Notes:
Hello class!
download the powerpoint here

Topics:
– Geologic time
– Plate tectonics
– Feedback

Animation links!

•

–Animation of divergent plate boundary!

•

–Past movements of plates

•

–Subduction zone animation

•

–Another subduction zone animation

•

–Divergent (I like this one), convergent, (hit the next arrow) and transform!

•

–Continent-continent collision

Borealis Meditation – Episode 5

September 14, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

Show notes: power point! with photos! make sure to turn on the speakers notes for references!

Enjoy!

Please email me questions and comments!

Borealis Meditation – Episode 4

August 26, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

Episode 4

Show Notes:
Intro Music:
Beethoven Opus 70 No. 1 Piano Trio No. 5 in D major “The Ghost”

Episode outline:
– Mt St Helens
– Opal
– There is a park that MOVES!

Contest winners!
– only 2 entered you both win!

Mt St Helens:
Pre May 18 1980
– “bulge” grew on the N side of the mountain
May 18 1980
– M 5.1 centered under the bulge
– It failed
– Large landslide
– Depressurized the magma
– Lateral blast and then eruption column
– Ash circled the globe
– First large instrumented eruption in the US
– Real death toll: oops 57! I was close!
FIGURE: Photos of the eruption showing lateral blast and eruption column

Promos:
– media astra ac terra
– spirits cast
– inciting a riot

OPAL!
Mineraloid not really a mineral!
Composition: SiO2*nH2O
Some opal needs to be kept in water or it dries out and cracks
Hardness: 5.5 -6.5
(less then quartz)
Luster: vitreous, waxy, greasy, dull
Streak: white
No cleavage
Concoidal fracture
Only a mineral for historical reasons not a true mineral its cristobalite and tridymite and amorphous silica
4 types:
§ Opal –CT
§ Opal C
§ Opal AG (amorphous )
§ Opal –AN (anhydrous = no water)
(mindat.org)

Fluorescent, Short UV=greenish yellow, Long UV=white. ( web mineral)
From the Old Indian upala – “precious stone.” (web mineral)

Found: hot springs deposits, petrified wood, and voids in volcanic rocks, cements sedimentary rocks, and the shells of diatoms.
Distinguished from quartz: inferior hardness.
(Introduction to Mineralology)

Color called fire due to the stacking of uniform spheres (and uniform stacking) diffracts light. (Love is in the Earth)
Metaphysical
Jo says: money, want to be invisible, night vision
Kathleen says: signifier of water (it has water in it!)

Cunningham reference says:
– all planets (Jo: Venus)
– all elements (Jo: fire, Kathleen: water)
– cupid
– bay leaf
– astral projection, psychism, beauty, money, luck, power
– has been seen as back luck but that’s due to a reference (Water Scott Anne of Gierstein)
– all the colors and qualities of other stones, can charge with energies of other stones ( stand in for other stones)
– program or change to meet needs
– create invisibility wrap ion bay leaf
– blending in, in crowds
– helps with eye site
– astral projection and worn for protection and help in projections
– recall past incarnations
– favored to develop psychic powers
– warn to bring out inner beauty

Love is in the earth says:
– associations with cancer, Libra, Pisces and Scorpio
– amplification of traits of characteristics overcome lesser attributes
– recognize and fuel creativity
– Instill faithfulness and loyalty in love, friends, and business.
– Astral projection, happy dreams and changes
– Awaken oycic and mystical qualities
– Grounding.
– Common:
o Increase earn and retain money and self worth
o Balance male and female energies
o Align chakras
§ Proper flow and energy and alignment with your higher self
– Used to invoke visions!

Media Astra Ac Terra episode 13 had opal in it!
– Found on Mars!
– October birthstone
– Found in Australia
– Fire opal in Mexico
– Nevada opal!
– Romans: foresight and prophecies (maybe not the same stone)
– Protect against diseases.

Next week K-spar!

Mt St Helens! PHOTO!

Promos 2
– pennies in the well
– ipod witch
– new world witchery

There is a Park that moves. Seriously it does.

Ending song:
Beethoven Opus 70 No. 1 Piano Trio No. 5 in D major “The Ghost”

Borealis Meditation – Episode 3

August 13, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

Listen to Episode 3 here

Show Notes:
Geo 101 section:
– Earths structure, compositional boundaries, rheology boundaries and using seismology to figure it all out!

Ray paths of EQs through the earth note the bending in the outer core and the way it creates a gap on the surface that is the P-wave shadow!

Travel time curve poster from IRIS (group of seismology organizations) the colored dots are arrivals time is on the vertical axis and degree distance is on the horizontal axis.

Feature Mineral:
– crystal systems
– quartz (general)
(blog posts are here and here )

Ramblings:
old ass rock article
pristine mantle from earths formation!
BBC and MSNBC articles
weekly update
The secret to life may be as simple as what happens between the sheets — mica sheets

detailed notes will be available in the next few days so check back!

Borealis Meditation – Episode 2

August 4, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

Episode 2 of Borealis Mediation

Definitions, mineral identification and my online identify crisis! (click to download! or subscribe through podbean, podcast alley or itunes!)

Show Notes!
First of all thank you for listening! I have a power point that I am going to try and figure out how to make available with pictures to go along with this episode. Usually I will just include them in the show notes (shouldn’t be this many! ah!) Also next time we will start on quartz, which I will continue throughout the show!

Geo 101 section: Definitions

Mineral

My definition: a mineral is a solid with a specific chemical composition, and structure, so to be a specific mineral the solid must have the right combination of elements AND the specific structure. Formed in a geologic process, but can also be formed through biologic processes, however if something is formed only through biologic processes it is not necessarily a mineral, biologic compound

Rock – aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not have a specific chemical compositions (dictionary)

hand sample-
a piece of rock trimmed to a convenient size for megascopic study and for preservation in a reference or study collection. (dictionary)

thin section-
a fragment of rock or mineral mechanically ground to a thickness of approximately .03 mm and mounted between glasses as a microscope slide. this reduction renders most rocks and minerals transparent or translucent, thus making it possible to study their optical properties. Syn: section. (dictionary)

Color – pretty straight forward, what color is the mineral in hand sample and thin section. (we will do a whole episode on what causes color in minerals! YAY!)

Luster – describes how light goes through the mineral, two broad categories metallic and non-metallic, pretty self explanatory, good descriptive words (intro to mineralogy)
Non-metallic
– Subvitreous: somewhat less brilliant luster than glass
– Vitreous: the luster of glass
– Admantine: brilliant like diamond
– Resinous: luster of resin
– Earthy: dull surface that lacks and shrine generally seen with arrogates of very fine mineral grains like soil
– Greasy: luster as if covered with oil or grease generally caused by microscopically rough surface texture
– Pearly: has an iridescent pearl-like luster often produced by incipient development of cleavage surfaces parallel to the mineral surface (mother of pearl)
– Silky: has a subtly texture shiny appearance similar to silk generally produced by reflection of light from the surface of aggregates composted of parallel mineral fibers like silk.
Metallic
– metallic
– sub metallic

Cleavage – crystallographic planes along which chemical bonding is weaker than others, planes along which the mineral may break (intro to mineralogy)
– we will go into this one in a later episode, when I have a chance to get together a power point with examples, I recommend finding a good mineral sample to look at as well.

Fracture – describes how a mineral breaks when broken or crushed, and not controlled by crystallographic control (intro to mineralogy)
Conchoidal: smoothly curved as on broken glass plates
Irregular or uneven: a rough surface or one with random irregularities
Hackly: a surface with sharp-edged irregularities
Splintery: resembles the splintery end of a broken piece of wood

Streak – color of a mineral when finally powdered, usually you scrape it on a streak plate (we’ll get into that in the next segment) and see what color it is, and its not always the color of the mineral. (intro to mineralogy)

Hardness – the ease with which a mineral may be scratched is a measure of its hardness, I am using and the most widely used is Mohs scale of Hardness ( next section will be on hardness) (intro to mineralogy)

Density – mass per unit volume usually expressed in units of grams per cubic centimeter (intro to mineralogy)

Smell? Yes some minerals have a distinctive smell

Taste (don’t lick all rocks minerals like arsenic that are BAD)

Feature Mineral (this week Mohs Harness Scale and mineral ID kits!):

1 Graphite talc
2 fingernail gypsum
3 penny calcite
4 fluorite
5 knife blade or nail apatite
5.5 window glass
6 orthoclase
7 quartz
8 topaz
9 corundum (sapphire and ruby)
10 Diamond
(intro to mineralogy)

-streak plate
o unglazed porcelain
o black and white
– nail
– cheap knife
– penny
– finger nail
– glass or quartz
– HCl (rust away) (anything with it in it)
– Jewelers loop or hand lens (10x)
– Magnet
– pencil

References:

Dictionary of Geologic Terms, 3 ed., Prepared by the American Geological Institute, Bates, R.L., Jackson, J.A., editors, 1984.

Introduction to Mineralogy, Nesse, W.D., 1999

Borealis Meditation – Episode 1

July 29, 2010 / katborealis / 0 Comments

About me:
A little bit about your hostess Kathleen, background and ideas about the show. I am very nervous and new at this, so please forgive the “ummms”, I hate public speaking and talking to my computer was marginally better! 😉

Below are the books I referenced, as well as websites. I am going to try and get another episode up next week with definitions and some tools that are useful. Plus a description of an ID kit, and where to find the materials, and how to use them!

please hang in there and be nice to the baby podcaster, I think now that everything is set up it will be easier to get episodes out! That being said I have yet to try and upload into itunes! eeks!

Show outline:
– Geo 101