Nature & Science Thread

[Chris]

If you skip to about 1:48 into this video, this guy is literally one house down from my parents house where I lived at the time. If anyone remembers in the classic 2002 watch along, we had watched 1 of the 2 TNA PPVs we'd planned that day and then my mom came in and told me there was a tornado so I was like um I can't watch another.

It came and went in like 2 minutes, we sheltered in a bedroom very fae from any windows. Tons of tree damage, we were lucky a huge one in our front yard was caught on some power lines or it would have crushed 3 of our vehicles. The house was actually okay for the most part, the roof and siding had to be replaced and the porch was destroyed but all things considered. I've been pretty terrified of tornadoes since

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Tornadoes are a universally terrifying thing for so many people in the Central states of the US, much like the Hurricanes on the coast.

 

[Chris]

This was the tree that fell in our front yard, it completely destroyed that fence it was beside

 

[Wangman Page]

Yeah tornados are no joke and they are hard to predict when they will start. The Dopplar radar is cool and helps but it's not as accurate. It might be better now than what it was before while I was living there.

Hurricanes are no joke either. My brother is in the path down there. He said winds are 78MPH right now. I also sat through Ike in Houston.

 

[Chris]

There were some kinda near me earlier this year that never came too close but I was able to follow them pretty well, the issue is like what do you even do, you're still just hoping wherever you're sheltering withstands

 

[Bobby Barrows]

 

[Bobby Barrows]

The one thing I will say is that people should be extremely thankful that tornadoes generally do not hit in earthquake prone areas.

The single deadliest tornado killed at minimum 38,000 people during the Kanto Earthquake of 1923, because many people were at home cooking at the time of earthquake and a fire whirl caused further destruction. When a tornado starts on fire, it's much more terrifying, which an earthquake can cause on an unbelievable scale.

 

[Wangman Page]

The water spout Tornados are terrifying as well. They look cool but all that water is crazy.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Several deaths already reported, and speaking of "emergencies" being used to warn civilians, Tampa is in a state of "Flash Flood Emergency".

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Milton shreds roof of Tropicana Field, home of baseball's Tampa Bay Rays

Huge swaths of the domed stadium's were ripped apart by the hurricane's powerful winds.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Chris]

1 dead, 4 injured and 12 people trapped in Colorado gold mine after elevator malfunction

One person is dead, four people are injured and 12 are trapped underground in a Colorado gold mine on Pikes Peak after an elevator malfunction, according to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office…

www.denverpost.com

One person is dead, four people are injured and 12 are trapped underground in a Colorado gold mine on Pikes Peak after an elevator malfunction, according to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Remains of Sandy Irvine believed found on Everest after 100 years

The discovery, made by a National Geographic team 100 years after the mountaineer vanished with George Mallory, could add new clues to one of the great unsolved adventure mysteries of all time.

www.nationalgeographic.com

They found him, after all this time, they finally found Irvine.

 

[Chris]

NASA Launches Europa Clipper to Study an Ocean Moon’s Habitability

The spacecraft lifted off Monday on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on a nearly six-year journey to Jupiter.

www.nytimes.com

NASA’s first mission to Jupiter in more than a decade launched on Monday.

This time, the object of investigation is not the giant planet itself, but one of its moons: Europa. This Jovian satellite possesses an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell, and many scientists think it is the most promising place to look for life elsewhere in the solar system.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. Eastern time, lifting the Europa Clipper spacecraft into orbit around Earth. About 47 minutes after launch, the rocket's upper stage will fire again to push the spacecraft away from Earth into orbit around the sun before deploying the spacecraft.

 

[Bobby Barrows]

It should be noted that if Europa does contain life, it's likely single-cell organisms.

It should also be noted that Europa contains an atmosphere entirely of oxygen (though not naturally produced). So if humans actually did attempt to colonize Europa, there's definitely a plausibility of being able to artificially create an ecosystem using the oxygen base.