BR_Bill Bryson Part 2; A Brief History Flashcards
Why were refrigerators in the 1920’s so dangerous?
Because they used dangerous gases that sometimes seeped out. One leak from a refrigerator at a hospital in Cleveland in 1929 killed more than a hundred people.
Thomas Midgley set out to create a gas that was safe to breathe. He invented chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC’s.
CFC’s went into production in the early 30’s and found a thousand applications. Half a century later, they were discovered devouring the ozone in the stratosphere.
Ozone is a form of oxygen in which each molecule bears three atoms of oxygen instead of the normal two.
A single kilogram of CFC can capture and annihilate 70,000 kilograms of ozone. CFCs also hang around for about a century, wreaking havoc all the while.
What happened to the supercollider which began construction near Waxahachie, Texas in the 1980’s?
It was suppose to cost $10 Billion, but congress stopped construction in 1993 after 22 Kilometers out of the planned 84 Kilometers were dug out and supported.
It ended up costing America $2 Billion for a 22 Kilometer hole in the ground. What a waste!
How much dark matter is in the universe?
Somewhere between 90 to 99%.
We live in a universe that we cannot even see.
Dark Matter is related to how gravity works by objects of mass bending spacetime like a heavy bowling ball rolling on a water bed.
Appalachian mountains are very old mountains.
By the early 1900’s it was already evident they were hundreds of millions of years older than other mountain ranges like the Alps and Rockies.
The Appalachian mountains were once the highest mountains in the world, but they have been worn down by natural causes because they are so ancient.
Plate tectonics. When was it discovered?
When I was born, continental drift was unknown! Theories were being formed and in 1953 the theories started gaining traction.
The big question before plate tectonics was that every year the Earth’s rivers carried massive volumes of eroded material, 500 million tons of calcium for example to the seas. So much sediment over the years that the ocean bottom should be sticking out through the waters!
If the ocean floors were ancient, they should be thickly blanketed with sediments, like the mud on the bottom of a river or lake.
What happened to all this sediment?
The Atlantic floor was effectively two large conveyor belts, one carrying crust towards North America, the other carrying crust towards Europe.
When the crust reached the end of its journey at the boundary with continents, it plunged back into the Earth in a process known as subduction. That explained where all the sediment went.
So if the Earth is 4.6 Billion years old, why is the ocean floor only 175 million years old or younger?
It is because of the subduction moving the old sediment filled ocean floor to the bowels of the Earth!
What is the longest mountain range on Earth?
It is a long chain of volcanos that trace the outer boundaries of the tectonic plates with thousands of volcanos. It is called the “Ring of Fire”. All added together makes it 75,000 Kilometers long!
Note: Most of the volcanos of Earth are in the oceans.
When were plate tectonics named and defined?
- I was a senior in high school.
How many tectonic plates are there?
8 to 12 large plates and 20 or so smaller plates.
Because of tectonic plate action, what will happen to the Atlantic Ocean?
The Atlantic Ocean will expand until eventually it is much bigger than the Pacific. Much of California will float off and become a kind of Madagascar of the Pacific.
When was the last supervolcano eruption on Earth?
It was at Toba, in northern Sumatra, 74,000 years ago. It was a whopper. Greenland ice cores show it was followed by at least six years of volcanic winter.
Slightly to the West of Yellowstone there is a 60 mile gap in the mountain range. Why is this gap here?
Upon Yellowstone’s last super volcano eruption, the missing 60 miles was the scar of 60 miles of mountains being blown off the face of the Earth!
Yellowstone is full of volcanic activity and earthquakes. Total earthquakes number over 1,200 in some years.
Atmospheric pressure is the same above sea level and below sea level. But, water is about 1,300 times heavier than air.
You descend one atmosphere for each 10 meters you go above or below sea level. In regular air you hardly notice the difference, but in the heavy water you will be crushed!
Figure the height of the Washington monument. That far below water and your lungs would compress to the size of a soda can!
At the depth of 4 kilometers the pressure is equivalent to being squashed beneath a stack of fourteen loaded cement trucks!
Deep sea divers in a diving suit have been squeezed. When the surface pumps fail to send air and pressure down the hose to the deep sea diver, the air would leave the suit with such violence that the diver would be literally sucked up into the helment and hosepipe. When hauled to the surface, all that is left in the suit are his bones and some rags of flesh! This has happened!
Earth is just the right distance to have life.
If Earth was 1% further from or 5 per cent closer to the Sun, the Earth would be a frozen ball of ice or a burnt up melted planet!
