This entry was posted
on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 9:57 am and is filed under Here's the Science.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to “Britain became island in 24 hours | The Register”
Interesting. Points out a common misconception. We tend to think in averages, but things tend to happen in spikes. Like plate tectonics: a continent might move an average of 5 cm a year, but more likely it doesn’t move any for 10 years, then you have a major earth quake, and it moves 50 cm. Or no motion for 100 years, and the sucker jumps half a meter or more. The “average” motion is the same, but to several generations of people, there is NO motion. To the Romans up to 78 AD, Vesuvius was a really nice mountain, great grapes, nice view, minor quakes on a fairly regular basis, but hey!, that’s what the gods do, ya’ know? Then there was an event to set the “averages” straight….
Going to be interesting when Yellowstone, New Madrid, and a host of other things we have forgotten about decide to set the “averages” straight again. Mother Nature has her own schedule, and we are just mites on the fleas’ backs, as far as she is concerned….
September 30th, 2006 at 7:12 am
Interesting. Points out a common misconception. We tend to think in averages, but things tend to happen in spikes. Like plate tectonics: a continent might move an average of 5 cm a year, but more likely it doesn’t move any for 10 years, then you have a major earth quake, and it moves 50 cm. Or no motion for 100 years, and the sucker jumps half a meter or more. The “average” motion is the same, but to several generations of people, there is NO motion. To the Romans up to 78 AD, Vesuvius was a really nice mountain, great grapes, nice view, minor quakes on a fairly regular basis, but hey!, that’s what the gods do, ya’ know? Then there was an event to set the “averages” straight….
Going to be interesting when Yellowstone, New Madrid, and a host of other things we have forgotten about decide to set the “averages” straight again. Mother Nature has her own schedule, and we are just mites on the fleas’ backs, as far as she is concerned….