Mother Nature ONLY

[fangz1956]

Mount Doom

Breathtaking photos of the icelandic Volcano. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Clarke M]

Those photos were absolutely incredible, thank you for posting the link. What I could not get over were the lightning bolts within the ash cloud. It really does make it look like Mount Doom! I also appreciated the personal shots of farmers managing their livestock in the wild conditions. Makes you think about how the ash cloud not only affected international fliers, but the locals as well.

[Sam]

Well Folks, gotta say this crisis in Japan certainly makes all our problems seem trivial. It has taken center stage as it should. My concern and I imagine a lot of people here in America and other countries is the nuclear plants that seem to be in trouble. Man, what makes me shudder is that we have nuclear plants here in our country. Makes me wish for coal. I don't know how many we have, but I can still remember the problems associated with Three Mile Island. I would imagine if the one nuclear plant has a melt down that radioactive cloud could possibly blow over our country.

[fangz1956]

An Everlasting Lightning Storm

Relampago del Catatumbo

This is just an interesting bit of Mother Nature I stumbled across in my reading a couple of months ago. Things like this never cease to amaze me.

[Sam]

I now understand that the earths rotation has changed due to the earthquake. Now that rattles my bones.

[fangz1956]

Ya know, Sam, a very wise friend of my says that Mother Nature always balances the books to the penny. As horrific as this earthquake/tsunami event is, it is definitely a force of good ole Mother Nature that is beyond our control. We could not have stopped or changed it.....just as we can't stop a blizzard, tornado, hurricane, or thunderstorm. She's showing us who is boss....and it ain't us.

[Neck-aint-red]

I now understand that the earths rotation has changed due to the earthquake. Now that rattles my bones.

Yup. Lots of things operate to change the earth's rate of rotation, thereby changing the length of the day.

• Global warming melting of polar & glacial ice (earth spins faster)
• Tidal drag on the earth (braking) caused by moon & sun (earth spins slower)
• Erosion of mountains & land masses (earth spins faster)
• Earthquakes and tektonic plate motion (can go either direction)
• Seasonal global mass transport of air & water, and lunar monthly (cyclical, spinning up and down)

All of the changes above follow the law of conservation of angular momentum. It's the same principle as a spinning ice skater ... when his arms are extended he spins slowly, when he tucks them in close to his body he spins faster.

Occasionally the US Naval Observatory, the world's timekeeper, will introduce a correcting "leap second" so that noon will not drift too far away from when the sun crosses the celestial meridian at midday.

[Buck Turgidson]

These are the best before/after photographs I've seen of the Japanese tsunami.

(Drag the separating panel bar right and left.)

[Sam]

I am now wondering since we owe billions to Japan, how this problem is going to affect our country. They along with China have been some of the largest contributors in bailing us out. Hey Folks has anyone thought about this. Now that their country is experiencing such a huge disaster they are going to need money to re-build. For an old man this seems to me fairly simple. Call in your debts. Our dollar is certainly deprecating - man the whole idea makes my old bones rattle. I am sure glad I won't be around to see the USA's downward spiral but I sure am afraid for my children and their children.

And yeah, I know who is boss, wonder why she is called Mother Nature?

[ParkerLongbaugh]

I agree this will definitely impact us economically, but I think the risk of Japan calling in their debt (especially from us) is really low. Japan owns about $900 billion of our debt, but owes about $10 trillion (mostly to small, locally-held bonds). Calling our portion in would not make a real dent in what they already owe, much less fund any serious reconstruction. It's a nightmare for them financially, to be sure, and certainly shows the risk of being in debt up to your eyeballs (even worse than we are- and we are certainly doomed in that regards...)

[Amy Probenski]

Although it is surely no picnic for Japan, this event appears to be well within the country's capacity to absorb it. The area most severely affected has a population density in the mid range for Japan and the most severe effects appear to be in a narrow band close to the northern seacoast.

Here's a cost estimate together with comparison to another similar, worse, event.

[Sam]

Appreciate the information.

[historyforall]

Thanks for the links. Amazing pictures and videos of one of the biggest events in our lifetime. My wife and I were talking about how many major changes and events have happened in our lifetime, seems really unbelievable. On the other note it really needs to be understood that if China or Japan were to call in their debts on the USA we would call in our debts and the world economy would collapse and be worthless. Our allies and many enemies own our debt as we own theirs. It is all just a number on a piece of paper. How would either of these Countries enforce the collection of the debt? War would be the only way and thats not goingt to happen over just money.

[Buck Turgidson]

If you owe somebody a few thousand dollars and cannot pay it, you will be a reviled as a deadbeat.

If you owe somebody billions and cannot pay it, you will be regarded as a respected business partner.

[ParkerLongbaugh]

Here's a cost estimate together with comparison to another similar, worse, event.

Wow, that cost estimate is a LOT less than I would have expected. I hope it ends up being close to accurate.

[Sam]

Got you. No bashing. I stand corrected. See I do listen. Never too late for an old dog to learn new tricks.

And just so there is complete understanding, I didn't put my originial post on Japan under this site. I had started a new one titled World Crisis and I suspect the administrator changed it to this one.

[fangz1956]

I must say that when I began this thread with the pictures of the Icelandic volcano, I had no wish to see this thread become a political one. I thought this Forum was in need of at least one thread where we could appreciate the majesty of Nature........period.

If you want to bash Obama, comment in the Obama thread and leave this one alone for the nature lovers among us.

Thanks.

[Sam]

See my. Answer below Fangs

[Trend Setter]

The Aurora Borealis time-lapse video. (Watch it full-screen)

[ParkerLongbaugh]

Here's a cost estimate together with comparison to another similar, worse, event.

Wow, that cost estimate is a LOT less than I would have expected. I hope it ends up being close to accurate.

Today's news was out with estimates of about $300 billion in costs. Triple the initial estimates, but still only a few percentage of their GDP. I hope Japan can pull it all together and recover from this.