June 2010

NASA Measures a 31 Inch Landshift

The 7.2 Baja earthquake of April 4, 2010 and numerous aftershocks have displaced the land around Calexico, CA, about 31 inches. From NASA:

NASA Radar Images Show How Mexico Quake Deformed Earth

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA has released the first-ever airborne radar images of the deformation in Earth’s surface caused by a major earthquake — the magnitude 7.2 temblor that rocked Mexico’s state of Baja California and parts of the American Southwest on April 4.

The data reveal that in the area studied, the quake moved the Calexico, Calif., region in a downward and southerly direction up to 80 centimeters (31 inches). The maps can be seen at: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/UAVSARimage20100623.html .

A science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., used the JPL-developed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) to measure surface deformation from the quake. The radar flies at an altitude of 12.5 kilometers (41,000 feet) on a Gulfstream-III aircraft from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.

The team used a technique that detects minute changes in the distance between the aircraft and the ground over repeated, GPS-guided flights. The team combined data from flights on Oct. 21, 2009, and April 13, 2010. The resulting maps are called interferograms.

interferometry

Overview of the UAVSAR interferogram of the magnitude 7.2 Baja California earthquake of April 4, 2010, overlaid atop a Google Earth image of the region. Major fault systems are shown by red lines, while recent aftershocks are denoted by yellow, orange and red dots. Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS/Google

Click on the image to enlarge.

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Survivalist Blog Free Ammo Giveaway

survivalist-logos-v1.jpgM.D. Creekmore at The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a 1,000 round case of 9mm – 124 Grain FMJ (a $200 value – donated by LuckyGunner)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.

Fathers Day Dinner

chix-fried.jpgToday’s dinner menu was one of my favorite meals. We had Chicken Fried Steak with mashed cauliflower/potato medley, savory home grown green beans and bacon and Damsel’s killer white gravy.

The steaks are actually made from Fillet Mignon (beef tenderloin) pounded flat. The steaks are coated with flour and seasonings and pan fried to golden brown. The same pan is used to prepare the gravy. Damsel uses the pan drippings and adds a little extra virgin olive oil and flour. after simmering the flour, some milk is added to combine with the other ingredients.

The mashed potato medley actually is half cauliflower, half red potatoes with a few cloves of garlic thrown into the pot. During the mashing, butter, shredded Romano cheese and a little milk are added to the mix.

Our green beans were home-grown Kentucky Wonder beans cut into one inch pieces and boiled until tender. The beans are removed from the pan and drained and a couple of bacon strips chopped into bits are browned in the pan. Savories (chopped onion and minced garlic) are added in and carmelized. When that’s done, the beans are added back into the pan, a little granulated sweetener and a splash of red wine vinegar is added to deglaze the pan. It’s my job to prepare the green beans.

It was an awesome meal. I was tempted to clean my plate, but I saved some of the steak for a lunch this coming week. I enjoyed Fathers Day dinner a lot.

Fathers Day Flare

The new solar cycle antes up a massive CME for Fathers day. From SpaceWeather.com . . .

FATHER’S DAY BLAST: Consider it a Father’s Day gift … from the sun. This morning around 1 a.m. UT, magnetic fields on the sun’s eastern limb became unstable and erupted, producing one of the most spectacular explosions of the year. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action:

The explosion did not cause a solar flare (a flash of electromagnetic radiation) but it did hurl a massive cloud of magnetized plasma into space. Because of the blast site’s location on the eastern limb, the cloud will not hit Earth. There won’t be any geomagnetic storms or auroras.