Santa Ana Winds In January 2025, wildfires devastated residential areas of southern California. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, as of 27 January, four distinct fires have killed 28 people, forced 200,000 to evacuate, and damaged 16,000 structures over 57,000 acres. The scale and intensity of this disaster is difficult to fathom but […]
Adiabatic Heating Furnace Creek at Death Valley National Park holds the record for hottest place on Earth. In 1913, the spot hit 134 degrees Fahrenheit! The park is home to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, which is 282 feet below sea level. Death Valley is just 85 miles from Mount Whitney, the High
Katabatic Winds What is wind? The question seems simple, but I cannot recall learning about this topic in science classes in school. In simplest terms, wind is the movement of air. But why does air move? What causes wind? The simple concept bleeds into complexity rather quickly, as new questions emerge. Wind occurs because of
The Coriolis Effect Perhaps you’ve heard that your toilet water spins clockwise or counterclockwise depending on whether you live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. This phenomenon is supposedly the result of the Coriolis effect. My next sentence might be the oddest I’ve ever typed: Unfortunately, your hemispherical location does not influence your toilet, but the
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Spontaneous Hay Bale Combustion Many people declare autumn their favorite season. With its colorful leaves, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin spice, costumes, and crisp weather, what’s not to love? Lurking in the background of many Halloween landscapes are seemingly innocuous rectangular prisms or cylinders. Sitting in fields along country roads, providing seats for tractor rides at pumpkin patches, outlining mazes at fall festivals,
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STEVE Have you ever seen STEVE? I’ve never seen STEVE, but I wish I could. At TMAC Headquarters, it’s no secret we’re big fans of aurora borealis (or australis, we don’t discriminate). We’ve studied its causes, we’ve explored some of the biggest solar storms to ever hit Earth, and we’ve even followed them to other planets. Any time a strong batch of
A23a & Taylor Columns In 1986, a gargantuan ice chunk calved from the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The size of this iceberg – creatively dubbed A23a – is hard to comprehend. It was so big that, after it separated, it did not move. Estimated to be more than 1,100 feet tall and weighing nearly a trillion
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Red Adair, the Munroe Effect, & the Devil’s Cigarette Lighter On 20 February 1962, John Glenn became the third American to visit space, as Friendship 7 left Earth. When the craft successfully orbited our planet, Glenn was the first American to circle Earth above the atmosphere. He orbited three times during the nearly five-hour mission, giving Glenn
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Retention & Detention Small, artificial ponds have gained ubiquity in modern developments, such as neighborhoods and commercial centers. The body might have a fountain in the center, and a gaggle of annoying geese might chill there. They often feature an unnatural quality – geometry too straight or incongruous with the surroundings. Despite sticking out to
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Immortal Jellyfish One of the many features of video and computer games is the save or restart button. Make a mistake, fall down an abyss, lose a battle, and you can go anew at a previous game state. The real world doesn’t yet work that way for animate beings. Unless you’re one of a few
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