Change in earth mass since the time of the dinosaurs
Earth ScienceAsked by: Ray Carrao Was there less gravity when dinosaurs were alive? My friend and fellow science writer Matthew Francis covers the gravity angle over at his blog – there’s no evidence that the Earth’s gravity was weaker during the heyday of the dinosaurs. Even as continents shifted around, the Earth’s gravity didn’t change. What
Electric permittivity of quartz
Earth ScienceAsked by: Jeremy Whiteman The extracted dielectric permittivity of quartz as a function of frequency using the extraction method described in the text is depicted. A constant value of approximately 3.8 is obtained for the frequency range 1 to 40 GHz and on average 3.76 for the frequency range 140 to 210 GHz. What is
Why does the meandering pattern of the jet stream itself propagate?
Earth ScienceAsked by: Jeremy Whiteman Why does the jet streams have a meandering tendency? Sometimes, like in a fast-moving river, the jet stream’s movement is very straight and smooth. However, its movement can buckle and loop, like a river’s meander. This will slow things up, making areas of low pressure move less predictably. The jet stream
Where did the atmosphere’s nitrogen come from?
Historical AspectsWhere Did All That Nitrogen in the Air Come From, Anyway? Okay, so you breathe in, you breathe out. Seems simple, right? But have you ever stopped to think about what you’re actually breathing? A whopping 78% of that air is nitrogen – an odorless, colorless gas that, honestly, doesn’t seem like it does much.
Has irreversible global warming already begun?
Earth ScienceAsked by: Tammy Peters The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible on the timescale of people alive today, and will worsen in the decades to come. How many years until global warming is irreversible? There is some indication the system has experienced a gradual weakening over the past few decades, and
How to sample for K-Ar dating?
Earth ScienceAsked by: Crystal Jones What kind of samples are required for potassium-argon and argon argon dating? The older method required splitting samples into two for separate potassium and argon measurements, while the newer method requires only one rock fragment or mineral grain and uses a single measurement of argon isotopes. How is K-Ar dating done?