Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Seattle Earthquake Video

From CNN:

Monday, August 24, 2009

Monday, August 3, 2009

Strong Gulf of CA Earthquake

How strong? 6.9, which is a HUGE quake by any standard.


Click the image for details.

Don't forget to go to the Did You Feel It? webpage of the USGS!

This shows what people felt in terms of both Richter and Mercalli scales.

Have your students record some recent ones and then use a Mercalli Scale to record what types of things they could have noticed in their area. Record on a Map.

Teachable moment! Grab it!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Tranquility Base

Did you know that Neil Armstrong never publicly stated how he FELT about being the first human on the moon? This song was written from that perspective. Great footage of the Moon Landing!


"Forty years ago on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module and onto the surface of the moon. As the first man to walk across the lunar surface, one would expect Armstrong to have a lot of profound thoughts about it all. Curiously, he's never talked about how he felt, satisfied to discuss the event only in engineering terms.

I thought that was pretty strange, and one night under a bright moon, all the questions I had for Armstrong arranged themselves into a song. With the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing coming up, I headed into Eric Fritsch's East Nashville studio and recorded Tranquility Base, with Mike Webb (keyboards), Fred Eltringham (drums), Eric Fritsch (electric guitar, bass, organ), and Charlie Rauh (electric guitar).


Tranquility Base is streaming on the Red Beet Records website and is available for download on iTunes. The video is the creation of another fine East Nashvillian, Stacie Huckaba, who managed to get some very cool footage from NASA. You're welcome to forward it, embed it, share it with your mom."

Monday, July 20, 2009

Solar Eclipse - July 22, 2009



Wednesday will be another big day in Astronomy: a Solar Eclipse with a path of totality that crosses over China. The eclipse will last more than six minutes - the longest for several hundred years - and won't be surpassed until 2132.

Here are some sites worth checking out:
  1. Live Cast from Japan - be watching if you are teaching summer school!
  2. Exploratorium has a nice video about Eclipse Chasers.
  3. Try This from Exploratorium.
  4. NASA's Eclipse Page. So far I haven't been able to get on this one! Too busy!
  5. July 22, 2009 Solar Eclipse Wikipedia Entry.
Email me if you want to see my Solar Eclipse PowerPoint. Too big to upload to my site.

Here's one from Exploratorium of a Solar Eclipse in Turkey in 2006. Bailey's Beads and Diamond Ring are mentioned in this video.