Episode #022: Correspondence

Responding to the Movie ("Day after...") concept of a superstorm that DRAWS FREEZING AIR DOWN into the eye.... Actual hurricanes and cyclones --- and tornadoes --- draw WARM air from the surface, into a tightening spiral feeding the BOTTOM of the system, and drawing it into a furious twisting spiral heading upward... A hurricane 100 miles across will have a central upward spiraling cylindrical WALL that might be several miles across. The winds and turbulence are at maximum there inside the wall, and the warm air that's been drawn from the local ground is drawn up the wall, and out the top of the "Eye"... Same deal with a Tornado, only with much more violence because everything is concentrated into so much smaller a space... But although I've walked outside for a few minutes when a hurricane's calm eye was passing over, I've never actually been sucked into the vortex. So I could be lyin'... reply

11 October 2021 --- Again, Trying to think through these questions, adding to the juggling mix the things my haphazard reading has put in my fevered brain... So ====> Some scientists have suggested that one of the most significant factors in the Earth's compatibility with fostering life is its MOON ---> Ours is the only planetary system locally in which the Satellite is an appreciable fraction of the mass of its primary. This has several important consequences. The mutual gravitational attraction between the two bodies exerts substantial TIDAL flexing on both; For the Earth, the constant flexing contributes to : (1) the heating of its interior, adding to whatever heat is generated by the slow decay of radioactives in the interior; (2) slow re-shaping and reconfiguration of the tectonic plates; (3) daily inundation of coastal shallows by the seas, which delivers and replenishes dissolved and suspended nutrients and minerals to a planet-wide, highly diversified set of tidal zones where conditions seem to be ideal for the evolution and encouragement of life. At the same time, if this ain't enough, the plate tectonic movement & flexing creates deep ocean rifts and super-heated plumes of water enriched with minerals and nutrients that likewise encourage and sustain life in the benthic depths. •••••••••••Not saying that the flexing is by itself responsible for Plate Tectonics; only that it has to contribute and enhance. But it is likely the Earth would be a very different place without its exceptionally large moon. In fact, together the Earth and our moon are regarded by many astronomers as a good example of a double planet. We think of our moon revolving around the earth as though the center of the Earth is the center of the moon's orbit. In fact the two bodies orbit around a common center of gravity... and, yeah, that point stays inside the Earth, THEY TELL US... ••••••••••••Some of the same conditions are thought ("hoped") to exist in the ice-covered moons of the Gas Giants of the system. Jupiter has 79 known moons, including Ganymede, that's even larger than Earth's moon. Saturn has 53 Named moons, and our space-exploring flybys have identified some 29 more possible moons mostly among the ring material. Seems like the tidal flexing works for the moons with ice-covered oceans, too. •••••••••• I hope people understand I'm writing some of this stuff to keep from going nuts in the forced confinement of the stinking Covidemic, while I'm also starting radiation therapy. On the other hand, would I be able to tell whether I've already gone crazy????? These hallucinations can be pretty darned convincing. reply