Nature’s working is strange

Just came across this story in Scientific American about rumblings at the Yellowstone national park .. the site of a giant caldera or supervolcano !

Multiple tiny earthquakes rattle Yellowstone

Any disaster fiend will tell you that Yellowstone National Park is long overdue for a monster eruption that could leave as much as half the U.S. under a blanket of ash. And there are rumblings the big one could be imminent in the wake of a series of 30-plus mini-earthquakes in the park over the past few days—too weak to be felt by humans for the most part but picked up by the seismometers at the University of Utah.

After all, the geologic record shows that the giant caldera we affectionately call Yellowstone has blown every 600,000 years or so over the past 2 million years. The last big eruption? About 640,000 years ago when the park spit out about 240 cubic miles worth of rock, dirt, magma and other stuff.

But don’t panic yet. Although the earthquake swarm continues, according to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, the volcano alert level remains normal.

…………

Very interesting story indeed ! One may follow any significant developments from the University of Utah press releases on these events. Must be a tough balancing act for these folks to present their analysis, yet not panic the janata. For the data nuts, continuous raw seismographic data is available here. As i type this, there are few more rumbles of scale 3.0 or more, on Jan 2nd, all of them about 60km ESE of West Yellowstone, MT.

MAP 3.1  2009/01/02 13:15:39 44.528N 110.366W  3.4
MAP 3.2  2009/01/02 12:40:53 44.549N 110.370W  0.2
MAP 3.5  2009/01/02 11:32:49 44.549N 110.357W  5.4

If this thing erupts in full scale, we can kiss goodbye to current climate stability. Now that possibility kicked off the following thought process in me  : Nature itself is in a dis-equilibrium, and through sheer randomness or some mechanical adjustments at the Earth’s core (or a random space debris hitting us, or some change in Sun’s activity) can cause serious climate change without any warning. But we poor homo-sapiens debate passionately on the morality of causing climate change, and how best to balance “development” goals with climate stability etc. Ofcourse, its very much arguable whether most of civilization’s economy is truly “development” we need at all, but still my sympathies are with humanity for having to deal with the question of climate stability while nature itself doesn’t guarantee stability one iota !

It would truly be ironic if humans, in order to “save nature”, promote alternative energy, completely get off fossil energy by 2060, stabilize co2 at 400 ppm … and then .. Bang ! Yellowstone goes off, completely altering the climate ! How tragic would that be ! ( No, iam absolutely not advocating inaction on climate issue, because any random natural event could always blow off a worthy human endeavor, but that’s never an excuse for inaction).

Whoever said life is fair

Butterflies

Within a five minute walk of my home is a hospital, which i never had a reason to visit until now. Fortunately . Just recently however, i came to know that this sprawling place fenced by a protecting wall, houses something that interests me. A “biodiversity park”. Just another example of how things in our backyard escape our attention, until the right time perhaps. So I call up the founder of the park, Dr. Rama Murty, and met him at the park yesterday. He gladly showed me around the six acre area, introducing me to the different plant species that they house. There’s lots of variety from medicinal plants to aromatic ones to cacti. As usual, this patch of greenery attracted a lot friends — birds, bees, ants, squirrels, .., and butterflies.

I was fascinated when i saw a bunch of butterflies resting on a specific plant, and asked Dr.Murty why that’s so. “It’s the alkaloids”, he said, “that attracts the butterflies”.

Back home, i googled a bit, and found this article which explains the alkaloid stuff a bit more. It also goes into a fascinating real-world example on ecological principles. check it out.

Mimicry: The Tale of the Birds and the Butterflies

The butterflies i saw at the local park were not Monarchs. But, the ecological principles are worth noting — Camouflage, warning colouration and mimicry. Even the number of each species is important in this particular ecosystem — “If 50% of the orange and black butterflies around are perfectly good snacks, the birds will never learn the lesson.“

Nature has these complex communication mechanisms based on colour, smell, taste, shape, sound etc, which humans are only beginning to understand. Lots of species don’t sense the world as we do. Different species operate on a different set of indicators. The relationships between different species which operate on these not-well-understood indicators, are fragile. It’s these relationships that matter in an ecosystem.

Marathon runners

One of the fascinating things about butterflies is that, some species are known to undertake extraordinary migrations during their lifetime. In North America, every fall, millions of Monarch butterflies fly from Canada and Northern USA, to their wintering grounds in California and Mexico. In spring, the butterflies fly back to their summer homes. This is as much as 4000 miles roundtrip ! Many interest groups follow this annual ritual closely, tracking the Monarch’s during their journey and even providing “waystations” — temporary stopping points for the Monarchs ! (see monarchwatch )

Long distance butterfly migrations are also observed in India. One such migration path is between Western Ghats (south west coast of India) and Eastern Ghats (south east coast of India). See this article for an interesting account of this Indian phenomenon — Flutter-by Migration.

Keep an eye on these ultra marathon runners, when you are outdoors ! We never know, they may be on a pitstop in a cross country journey !

Strawberries

Sun is the ultimate energy source powering our bodies, but i wish i could just stand on a beach in bright sunshine and energize myself. Alas, it doesn’t happen, other than maybe warm up my body a bit. Looks like we need some help !

(Image source)

This, the chlorophyll molecule, is our saviour. These molecules are densely packed on leaves, and infact give leaves the green color. Chlorophyll is the central player in a process known as photosynthesis, by which a plant converts the electromagnetic solar energy into chemical energy. Here’s the photosynthesis recipe: Mix sunlight, carbon dioxide from air, water, few other minerals from soil, and abracadabra!, you get glucose molecules which “store” chemical energy. I wish i could do that ! Infact, scientists have been trying to replicate photosynthesis, but to my knowledge they have not been successful.

(Image source)

Here’s a simplified equation for the recipe:

6 water + 6 carbon-dioxide + (sunlight) ——> 1 glucose + 6 oxygen

When we eat that strawberry loaded with glucose from photosynthesis, we need another magic to happen — To grab the glucose and covert that to energy usable by our bodies. That happens in trillions of cells in our bodies, by a process known as glucose catabolism. (the larger process known as, cellular respiration).

Here’s a simplified equation for this process:

1 glucose + 6 oxygen ——> 6 water + 6 carbon-dioxide + 36-38 ATP

Our body’s cells do an abracadabra using glucose from strawberry and oxygen from breathing, to get energy (think ATP as energy packets our bodies use). In the process, give out carbon dioxide which we breathe out, and water.

It’s interesting when we look at these two processes together:

To me, the most striking thing is how symmetric the equations are. Each is a mirror image of the other. Nature’s artistry in action ! Also, how intimately connected and dependent we are on trees and plants, for basic life processes — eating and breathing. I think most of us knew these processes from our school days, but maybe it’s ‘familiarity breeds contempt’, we tend not to take time to wonder about the beauty of these processes.

Salutations to Sun

Energy — such an elusive thing to grasp. Yet, so vital to life. Where do we get all our energy from ? Energy to walk, energy to breathe, energy to drive, energy to do everything ! Ofcourse, it’s the Sun ! Food, petrol, coal, electricity, wind power, solar power .. are all either current or stored forms of solar energy.

Here are some incredible facts about Sun. It’s a million times the size of the earth ! How does Sun provide all that energy to us ? By burning proton mass in it’s core (think E = m * c-squared). Sun is a giant natural nuclear reactor throwing heat-light at us. Prof Uhl, explains in this book – “The energy of proton fusion at the Sun’s core percolates upwards for a half million miles through the Sun’s seething interior until it reaches the Sun’s roiling surface and is hurled into space as heat-light”. The Sun converts four million tonnes of its proton mass as energy each SECOND ! phew ! Out of that, the earth’s share is just five pounds ! Every second, five pounds of vanished solar mass powers all life and processes on earth. Amazing !

All life on earth, including us, is utterly dependent on Sun for energy. (Yes, we are beginning to bypass solar energy, and tap into raw nuclear energy, but we wouldn’t even be alive to harness nuclear energy, if not for Sun.)

In exercising our awareness, we should consciously recognize this connection and dependence on the Sun from time to time ! Perhaps, even exercise our body at the same time, through Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutations). Iam happy to note that near my home town Srikakulam , is a famous Sun temple at nearby arasavalli village. Salutations to Sri Suryanarayana Swamy (Sun God) !