Wanna Learn About Craters on the Moon?

Background illustration of the impact-cratered lunar surface produced by
the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio with data from the Lunar Orbiter
Laser Altimeter. Inset images of terrestrial analogue training sites, Meteor
Crater and Schooner explosion crater, are by the author and
Department of Energy, respectively.

My neighbor and colleague,, Dr. David Kring, has just published a training guide for future Artemis Program astronautsto on hoe to understand the formation and landforms of craters on the moon . You can see about obtaining a digital copy of the book here. I have read parts of it and it is so damn interesting!

A Grand Canyon Trail Guide Makes Good!

 

Louis Herron is a friend who recently was featured in an article about his AirBnB operation near Valle and his hiking guide company. Check it out here. You done good Louis!

The Border Wall - A Post Mortem

No matter your politics, this is senseless. It will not work for its intent. But it will work to preclude the free flow of wildlife. The New Yorker magazine has produced this 13 minute documentary with great aerial footage of our waste and folly. All to satisfy the ego of one ill man.

See it here.  

How Many Humans Have Ever Lived Through Time

 

It's a question I have thought of repeatedly - How many humans have ever lived? This graphic has some real interesting facts and figures on it.

1) How to define "human" - the authors used the figure of 190,000 years, the generally accepted age for Homo sapiens.

2) The human population will hit 8 billion in 2022.

3) This represents about 7% of all people who have ever lived.

4) Including those who are alive today, there have been about 117 billion of us in 190,000 years.

Giant Ichthyosaur Uncovered in England

Check out this giangantic fossil Ichthyosaur that was recently uncovered in England. I saw this in a NY Time article, which may be read here. (There may be a paywall if you are not a subscriber - sorry). The specimen comes from Jurassic-age rocks, about 180 million years old. It was only discovered as part of landscaping project at the Rutland Water Nature Preserve in the East Midlands. The lagoon had been partially drained when a naturalist saw vertebrae poking out of the lagoon mud. The fossil has now been excavated and the lagoon refilled. If you are able to access the NY Times article, there is a nice video of the specimen by drone, which gives a spectacular view of its immense size within the entire site.

An example of one species of Ichthyosaur recovered from Triassic rocks in Nevada.

The Earth Without Water

What would our planet look like without water? Well, there would be lots of abyssal plains with volcanic preaks rising above them. My colleague Dr. Jack Share forwarded this short 90 second video, that displays the ocean basins withour oceans. Watch it here. There is even a look at the ocean floor where the Titanic lies. Amazing! (Note that the elevations portrayed in this are exaggerated in the vertical).

Map Comparison of New York City From 1836 to Present

Visual Capitalist has shared this interactive map from Esri, that overlays an 1836 map of New York City with a satellite image from the present. Fascinating! Enjoy it here.

To learn more about Esri, see here. They do cools stuff with ARC-GIS