BLC-Anigif

today

8 a.m. Early Dementia Diagnosis and Treatment Conference Fortuna River Lodge

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8:30 a.m. Power Up Your Writing Curriculum HSU

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9 a.m. Electronic Waste Amnesty Event Redwood Acres Fairground

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9:30 a.m. Women Entreprenuer 4th Annual Educational Summit Wharfinger Building

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9:30 a.m. Friends of the Dunes Property Restoration Humboldt Coastal Nature Center

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10 a.m. T-Ball Registration See Event Description

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10 a.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens Humboldt Botanical Garden

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10 a.m. Youth Driving Safety Program Community Wellness Center

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10 a.m. Healing Arts Fair See Event Description

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10 a.m. Compost Class Rohner Park

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11 a.m. Toddler Storytime: It's Spring Humboldt County Library

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noon Planning Your Landscape Living Earth Landscapes

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12:30 p.m. Nature Hike Discussion Redway Elementary

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1 p.m. Sign Language Fun and Games Humboldt County Library

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1 p.m. PG&E Blackout Party Six Rivers Brewery

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2 p.m. Friends of the Marsh Tour Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary Interpretive Center

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2 p.m. Second Saturday Family Arts Day Morris Graves Museum of Art

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2 p.m. How to Write a Story Humboldt County Library

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5 p.m. Merv George Dance Party Willow Creek VFW Hall

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5 p.m. Kenetic Universe Benefit Oberon

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6 p.m. The Tumbleweeds (cowboy songs) Chapala Cafe

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6 p.m. Up Lift: A Benefit for Casterlin School Mateel Community Center

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6 p.m. Rutabaga Royal Repast Oberon

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6:30 p.m. Up Lift: A Benefit for Casterlin School Mateel Community Center

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6:30 p.m. Brian Post (piano standards) Oberon

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7 p.m. Surfrider Benefit and Membership Drive Arcata Theater Lounge

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7 p.m. RepFest 2010 Ferndale Fireman's Pavillion

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7 p.m. Dancers Delight Series Scotia Inn

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7:30 p.m. A Midsummer Night's Dream Arcata High School

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8 p.m. Karaoke w/ Chris Clay Boiler Room

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8 p.m. Fortuna Concert Series: Barbara Davenport Quartet Fortuna Monday Club

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8 p.m. Antigone College of the Redwoods

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8 p.m. Jan Bramlett (singer/songwriter) Mosgo's

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8:30 p.m. Surfrider Membership Drive w/ Robbie Allen and The Outer Edge Arcata Theater Lounge

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9 p.m. St. John & the Sinners (blues/rock) Cher-Ae-Heights Casino

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9 p.m. Jimi Jeff & The Gypsy Band Six Rivers Brewery

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9 p.m. Gunshy (classic rock) Bear River Casino

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9 p.m. Back In The Daze Central Station Cocktail Lounge

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9 p.m. Hotter Than A Crotch, Fineslew (rock) Lil' Red Lion

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9:30 p.m. Kaye Bohler (soul) Riverwood Inn

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10 p.m. Music by DJ Sidelines

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10 p.m. DJ Icy Hot Aunty Mo's Lounge

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10 p.m. MuziqLement Pearl Lounge

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10:30 p.m. Indian, Wah-Wah Exit Wound (hard rock) Alibi Lounge and Restaurant

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previous columns

May 14, 2009

Numbers: Roman, East Arabic and Arabic

As for mankind, numbered are their days/Whatever they achieve is ...

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May 7, 2009

As the Earth Turns

There's stargazing and stargazing. One way is with telescopes and ...

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  • The Barringer Meteor Crater, nearly a mile across and a quarter mile deep, 40 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. Phot panorama by Barry Evans. The Barringer Meteor Crater, nearly a mile across and a quarter mile deep, 40 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. Phot panorama by Barry Evans.
Impact! 50,000 years B.C.

Impact! 50,000 years B.C.

By Barry Evans

"Whatever created this hole was one scary mother," I thought, two weeks ago, standing on the rim of what's billed as "the first proven, best-preserved, meteor crater on earth." It's so obviously formed by a meteorite (a meteorite is a meteor that makes it to earth before being vaporized) -- perfectly round, steep sided -- that it might have been imported directly from the moon. Yet until 50 years ago, most scientists thought it was probably the caldera of an ancient volcano.

We now know that some 50,000 years ago, a third-of-a-million ton lump of nickel-iron slammed into what was then a grassy plain 40 miles east of present-day Flagstaff, Ariz. The explosion would have dazzled -- right before obliterating -- any wooly mammoths or North American camels in the area. Equivalent to some 150 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs, the impact scattered hundreds of millions of tons of rock onto the surrounding countryside. About half the bulk of the meteorite was vaporized, leaving -- in theory -- a rich lode of metal waiting to be discovered and mined.

That was what mining engineer Daniel Barringer believed, anyway, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed a patent granting him the rights to a square mile of land around the center of the crater in 1903. For the next 25 years, Barringer's Standard Iron Company searched fruitlessly for the remaining metal, hoping to extract it and make huge profits for the shareholders. Years after those efforts were abandoned, the Barringer family made the best of it by turning the huge crater into a tourist attraction, and today you can tour the excellent visitor center and take a guided walk along part of the north rim.

Very little of the actual meteorite has ever been found, which is why the volcanic origin was once favored. Not until 1960, when planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker identified rare forms of dense silica (created only by nuclear explosions or impacts) at the bottom of the crater, was the meteorite origin completely accepted.

Louisa and I spent a fine couple of hours in the museum and along the crater rim, trying (not very successfully) to imagine the force of the explosion that rent such a vast crater in our planet's crust not so long ago. It's well worth a visit -- we give it four-and-a-half stars.

Barry Evans' preferred means of demise is to be hit by a meteorite, especially in Old Town Eureka, where he lives.

CAPTIONS

The Barringer meteor crater, nearly a mile across and a quarter mile deep, 40 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona. (Author photo panorama)

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