An electro magnetic pulse would definitely be the closest thing to what the book described. While they were doing intensive nuclear weapons testing during the 50’s and 60’s they discovered a “side effect” of them was the EMP that destroyed transistorized electronics. In the 70’s and 80’s when research focused on limited or tactical nuclear weapons, they toyed with the idea of detonating nuclear weapons at very high altitudes with the specific purpose of making an EMP.
I always thought this would be an appealing stylized retro post-apocalyptic scenario because older cars with points-type ignition systems would indeed be immune. Domestic cars started regularly getting transistorized ignition systems in the mid 70’s so most cars before that would still work (although after the late-50’s the radios would be fried). Wouldn’t that make a great scene with all the new cars frozen in place on the highways and all the old beaters still running around?
I’m not really sure if this would be the same effect as a particularly bad solar flare or if such an effect was possible at all.
As an interesting sideline to this, in the 80’s when a Soviet pilot defected with the latest Mig fighter jet, the engineers who took it apart were amazed to find that all the navigation and targeting computers were made with bulky vacuum tubes. At first, they just chalked it up to commie design that was far behind the curve, but eventually they realized that it had been intentionally built with that way in order to survive an EMP.
Sooooo…your saying Cal Learner would pretty much not have to worry about the dirt bag with the loud subwoofer? HAAA!! Wow…what a great post. Not sure whether to be excited I live in AZ and find ways to generate power to fire lights to grow food…or convince a majority of my family in the hot zone to move here.
Had a bit too much Shiraz…and…a…couple, or so of Vodka and water to appreciate and fully analyze your post.
But…
in the same way an early poster pasted a pic of a Stanley Steamer…could you post the terrain pic (or better) from Google Maps of the region you mention cuz I noticed that too but of course you explain it great.
One hitch. I noticed a region to the east of Yellowstone that appeared similar…like an eruption/fracture zone that then depressed, about the size of Yellowstone also. But it’s east instead of west in line with the plate movement.
Here’s a good picture that shows the general context. It’s big so here’s a link:
Keep in mind the Yellowstone area has all been uplifted because of the heat from the mass of magma under it, so the terrain around that hasn’t been uplifted is generally not as high, although this is complicated because the hot spot is currently plodding through the central Rockies, which have some extremely tall mountains. I suspect what you’re looking at is just one of the intermountain valleys to the east.
Well I’m not going near Yellowstone-your right Mt.Saint Helens put ash in the air that settled out on the East (VA)Mt.Pinatubal cooled the summer of 1991? and produced spectacular sunsets.I dont worry about global warming because it is better then the alternative.
Maybe this disruption of communications-caused nuclear powers to try first strike which caused more EMPS?-kEEVIN
Wow, that’s fabulous. Really illustrates the movement well. Although it’s curvature through the Snake River valley is surprising. I would have thought it to be more linear. It would be interesting to see it continue further west to the coast…even under it if possible.
While I can’t answer your question with any authority at all, I will run it past my son as I will talking to him this evening and post back. He’s a degreed Meteorlogist, Climatologist, and a heartbeat away from a Doctorate in the field.
Solar flares and their influence on the Earth is something that he has studied a bit.
The alleged global warming issue is something that is almost laughable. Line up an issue, have the media flog it to death, and watch the uninformed and sheep line up behind it.
Dig into the issue and bit and you will see “experts” on TV talking about this issue that are not schooled in the Climatology field. Biologists, Botanists, Sociologists, Psychiatrists, Geologists, Oceanographers, Astronomers, Medical doctors, etc. but you will seldom ever see or hear from a Climatologist. Ask yourself, why is that.
Why not drag in the members of the Veterinary field while they’re at it.
(And for what it’s worth, almost every one of the “climate scientists” behind the U.N. IPCC report are not climate scientists at all, and that includes the top one.)
It would have to be an older diesel. My 1976 diesel could run without a battery, but my 2002 diesel would just laugh at me if I thought I could run it without power. It has more computers than Microsoft.
“But historically, large enough flares occur every few hundred years that are large enough to fry every electric circuit on the planet unless it were in an underground bunker.”
That’s why we study space weather. There are two or three Solar X-ray Imagers (SXI) watching the sun 100% of the time. When they see X-rays in certain energy ranges, there is a small amount of time to respond before the particle barrage starts. Satellites can go into safehold, and even electric grids on Earth can respond.
(You can stay away from there I suppose and lay in some supplies and such)
re Yellowstone blowing: No, you couldn’t stay away or lay in supplies. Yellowstone is a caldera, and a big one; if it blew it would take out life on the planet, at least anything beyond deep sea, bacterial and (maybe) cockroaches.
This last is surely the most important question. A solar flare big enough to essentially torch the earth would surely be a rare event. The ones we would need to worry about are the far smaller more common kind, dangerous to electronics, microcircuitry, ferromagnetics and such, but not necessarily to low voltage electrics and macrocircuitry.
Born in 1942, by 1947 I was learning to read from a Green school teacher, who hammered on erosion and contamination of the planet. I saw dirty rivers and bad erosion as a small child.
Into my adult years, I also observed the erosion on my dad’s farm. I saw how gullies formed. And, I can categorically tell you:
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE GRAND CANYON TO HAVE BEEN FORMED MILLIMETER AT A TIME OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS.
Around ten years ago, National Geographic printed a small article which told of evidence uncovered that the GC was formed rapidly when a large lake broke loose. If you know about gullies, you can look at photos of the GC and know it was brute force in a short period of time.
If you haven’t seen gullies form over many years, it is a waste of time to try to explain it in a short posting.
I believe that the Grand Canyon formed both by erosion and the growth of the Rocky Mountains as the tectonic plates in that area collided. The canyon grew up around the Colorado River as it slightly eroded the area surrounding it.
