California: Home to the Next Big Earthquake?

Lying directly along the major San Andreas fault line and countless other faults, California is notorious for its earthquakes. Perhaps the best known being the Great San Fransisco Earthquake at the start of the last century. Since then, the state has felt seemingly constant tremors, ranging from negligible to disastrous. As the Earth continues to experience more common and more devastatingly large earthquakes at an unprecedented rate, the awareness is up in California. On Sunday, three small but significant quakes occurred; two in the Bay Area and one in Los Angeles. No damaged occurred, but lately there have been many similar quakes, raising the possibility for a larger and more destructive one.

With the recent earthquakes of Japan and Haiti, and the VERY recent incident in Nepal, earthquakes are the most prevalent they've ever been in recorded history. While it's probable that every recent one is an isolated incident, it does raise concern for many Californians. Here in Nebraska, there is little direct danger of an earthquake. On the west coast, a 3.5 magnitude one is just a way of life. People can prepare for that. But as those occur more and more rapidly along the Pacific, it does raise some eyebrows as to whether or not the next great quake will be in America. These sporadic and harmless tremors themselves are little threat to the safety of Californians, but as Nepal just found out, all it takes is one shift in the crust to devastate an entire area.

Earthquake on Everest

On Saturday, the small country of Nepal, situated on the southern crest of the Himalayas, home to Mount Everest, quickly went from peaceful to chaotic. A7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the center of the country, devastating the capital of Kathmandu, wreaking havoc along the mountain countryside, and creating hellish condition for the climbers on Mount Everest. Conditions in the capital went from bad to worse, creating images that parallel the San Fransisco or the Japanese earthquakes. As for the climbers on the mountain, many are either missing or pronounced dead. Avalanches and rock falls welcomed the climbers after they'd survived the initial earthquake. As the aftershocks continue, the death toll climbs higher and higher.

Mount Everest, sitting at over 29,000 feet above sea level, is notorious for its year long blizzard conditions, lack of oxygen, and steepness of slope that accounts for the fear of climbing it. The majority of the climb to the summit rests in a valley surrounded by impossibly steep façades. These mountainous walls have lose rock and years' worth of snow waiting for something to push them down into the valley. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake can get the job done. I can only imagine how horrifying it must have been for those climbers both on the route and in the camps. Trying to outrun an avalanche gets you nowhere, literally. Not only that but to be trapped at the final camp without ropes below and enough oxygen to properly function, the suffering that the missing and injured climbers are going through at this moment is, without a doubt, terrifying.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/26/asia/nepal-earthquake/index.html

Dinosaurs were Bullied, Too

It's interesting how simple observations can become breakthrough theses quite rapidly. Such a thing has happened recently, when prehistoric Canadian dinosaurs were discovered to have travelled in packs, effectively bullying other, less socially important dinosaurs. This discovery was made in the most part by examining tracks made in ancient clay. While there were many different species' tracks, the tyrannosaurus prints were aligned. There wasn't just one set going across the landscape, there was an entire pack's worth of full grown adult predators, all evidently hunting together. Like wolves, these beasts would hunt in packs in order to be more effective in their hunt and increase their chance of survival. Almost like the pack of bullies in elementary school, these guys would terrorize anything they could get their claws on. As cool and scary as it sounds, understanding exactly how dinosaur gangs effectively operated makes the entire study more accurate. This is a detail that is hard to find in paleontology, but one ever so crucial to finding out exactly how certain dinosaurs lived. This new discovery puts us one step closer to understanding the dinosau. The tyrannosaurus travelled in packs, just one more reason not to mess with them, just for future reference.


http://www.livescience.com/46965-tyrannosaurs-were-pack-animals.html

Dinosaur Fight Club!

We all know that dinosaurs were basically the coolest creatures ever until us humans came along. But aside from their daily, stereotypical dinosaur stuff, including devouring plants, smaller dinosaurs, and sadly, our distant mammal relatives, they even fought, killed, and ate each other. Exciting, right!? Believe it or not, there is evidence to say that there was such thing as dinosaur cannibalism. In Alberta, Canada (tyrannosaurs seemed to really dig Canada for some reason), a particular dinosaur skull was found in 1994. Upon further examination of the bones, paleontologist made a startling discovery: the skull contained various healed injuries. Only these weren't "fell of a bike and wasn't wearing a helmet" injuries, there were wounds the size and shape of none other than tyrannosaur teeth. Given that the wounds healed, and at different extents, showed to researchers that these injuries were not the cause of death per say, but were periodical attacks from fellow tyrannosaurs. As if the top of the food chain couldn't get enough to eat?
Aside from the discovery of inter-species dinosaur duels, the research shows that even the top scientists and learners in all aspects of education and research can take even the smallest hint of evidence and plunge deeper into the topic to really rewrite history and even shape the future with their advancements. Even something as old (and as awesome) as dinosaurs can still teach lessons to researchers today.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/tyrannosaur-skull-reveals-signs-fierce-cannibal-battle-n338581

NEXT WEEK on ButlerBlog, did dinosaur gangs terrorize the prehistoric countryside? Yes, yes they did.

ISIS in Afghanistan

Yet again, ISIS is in the news. And yet again, it's a big deal. While its reign of terror throughout the Middle East grows ever stronger, Americans seem to look at it as a horrible, unjust, and completely foreign idea. This sort of thinking is the type that can lead to trouble down the road. And now the terror group is advancing into Afghanistan. Armed with secret recruiters, the group shows the ability to wreak havoc on the country if they are not stopped. Fortunately, there is a US presence there to temporarily combat the terrorists. But they are there to protect the people, and if the people become members of the ISIS "dis"organization, there will be even more trouble. The really only other bright spot is that Afghanistan's government is fully aware of both the threat ISIS brings to the table and how valuable the country is for ISIS to be dominant. Afghanistan has long been regarded as a powerhouse in the Middle East. It was so rich and important that Soviet Russia felt they needed it back during the Cold War. Now ISIS is eyeing this "strategic foothold." What it means for both the peace in the world and the safety of us Americans is momentous. By overlooking them, they could easily replicate an attack on the scale of September 11, 2001. And they undoubted want to. It is vital that ISIS is stopped before its influence gets into Afghanistan.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/isis-targeting-afghanistan-president-ashraf-ghani-says-n328321

Moi

      Having never done a blog, this very post thrusts me into the obscure world of the blogger. My stereotypical image of one sitting on a park bench, laptop in hand and latte in the other comes into mind as I ponder what I will write about. Fingers flying across the keyboard, a calm wind blowing through the hair of my image of the blogger.

       In a somewhat less idealistic way, here I am now in a computer lab in the basement of my school. Asked to write all about me (hurray); all of my likes all of my dislikes, the ins and outs of my life as much as I can put onto a blog. OK, maybe not quite all of that, but still I'm lost as to how to fill the assignment with words. As if the idea
came from some sort of revelation, I decided to fill space with an unnecessary 8 sentence introduction. So here goes nothing.

       How should I go about describing myself in a way that won't make readers' heads fall and their noses begin to snore? I think I ought to make it somewhat jovial and self-satiricle. As if I'm Mark Twain writing about myself, if I could do such a thing. He, who just so happens to be one of my favorite authors, portrays countless admirable qualities, many of which I have (and many more I wish I had). His recognition of both truths and injustices in the society in which he lived is some thing I admire, and more importantly, strive to do as well. I, too, try to be enlightened by the world around me.
       Oh! But of course the reader wants to know about me and what I look like! As far as whoever is reading this is concerned, I might as well be the woman in the picture at the top of my post. Here are some much needed facts about myself.

• Height- 6'0" (Tall enough where it's disappointing to people when they see I cannot dunk)
• Weight- Somewhere above 100, I think?
• Hairstyle- Became popular with the Beatles, but went out of style in 1978

      Speaking of the Beatles... Although their inherent use of mind altering drugs is not exactly acceptable, they still made some of the greatest music ever recorded. That would be awesome to be able to play like they did. I can play the piano, but probably not to the level of John Lennon. Instead, I focus more on sports. I suppose I'm the only cross country runner at the school who loathes racing. Yet I guess I do it because I ended up being fairly good at it and it gets me into shape for baseball season. Unlike cross country, I do enjoy competing in baseball. It has proven to reduce my allotted homework time in the spring and hinder my social life in the summer, but there's not many things that are more fun (skiing excluded). As my school notebooks stand as evidence, I enjoy art, and specifically, drawing. In no way am I Da Vinci, but I do find it fun to sit down for a bit and draw something cool.
      So as I assume I will be required to write one many times throughout the remainder of the semester, I will become this sort of "blogger." Now the reader has their first immersion into the ButlerBlog. If nothing else, this gives the reader at least some notion of who the author is. Probably.