Unusual behaviour a pre-earthquake phenomena?

TVNZ, Thursday September 16, 2010

It sounds like the stuff of myth and legend, but there are plenty of scientific studies and research about strange phenomena that occur before an earthquake.

Source: Reuters

In Asian countries where earthquakes occur frequently, folklore of legends about earthquake precursor phenomena are abundant.

The old Japanese legend of the earthquake cat fish is one of them. It tells of a large cat fish living underground that causes earthquakes whenever it moves.

Studies recall cat fish violently jumping and twisting out of the water before an earthquake strikes.

Dr Neil Whitehead, one of the world's leading scientists on pre-earthquake phenomena told TV ONE's Close Up that cat fish are very sensitive to very low frequency electromagnetic waves, and that this may create unusual behaviour.

Catfish, locally called `lele`

"Normally cat fish lurk by a bank," he said, but if there were earthquakes, "they go berserk".

He also said changes in weather, water levels, strange animal behaviour and strange electrical movements, such as clocks ticking backwards, have been recorded before an earthquake.

"It could be explained by physical principals."

Whitehead is calling for Canterbury residents to submit their own stories of strange pre-earthquake phenomena on his website.

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Sandra interviews Pepper Lewis and Gaia (Mother Earth) Apr 2010

Organic farms have better soil

Organic farming is better for the long term health of the soil, according to a new study.

Telegraph.co.uk, by Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent, 14 Sep 2010

Organic farms have a much more diverse range of fungi living in the soil than on conventional farms. Photo: PA

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology looked at microscopic fungi in the soil that helps plants grow.

The study of nine farms in England, published in the journal Environmental Microbiology, found that organic farms have a much more diverse range of fungi living in the soil than on conventional farms.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) has a symbiotic relationship with most plants, allowing the roots to absorb nutrients better and fighting off disease.

Dr Christopher van der Gast, of the CEH, said the use of herbicides and pesticides, as well as constant tilling of the soil breaks down the fungi on intensive farms.

But on organic farms , that do not use chemicals, there is a more diverse range of microbes living in the soil. This helps the crops to grow without the expense of artificial fertilisers.

Dr van der Gast said the findings could help farmers around the world to understand how to make plants grow better in the long term, without destroying the nutrients of the soil with intensive farming.

“For most people it is about what you can see above ground. But the below ground biodiversity of the organisms in are also key. it is a missing factor that most people do not think about,” he said.

"Our research demonstrates that the way humans manage the landscape can play a key role in determining the distribution of microbial communities at both the local and regional scales."

Co-author Dr Gary Bending,from the University of Warwick, said the findings could help boost food security.

"The work provides us with new understanding which we can use to promote these fungi in agricultural systems. This in turn could improve crop production. With the proportion of the earth's surface which is managed by humans increasing rapidly, this understanding is essential if we are to predict and manage microbial functioning in the environment to meet many of the major challenges faced by human society, such as food supply and the mitigation of climate change. Addressing these challenges, whilst maintaining environmentally sustainable agricultural practices, requires an understanding of microbial diversity."

Farmers are increasingly using compost on fields around Britain as more councils collect food scraps from homes.

Research on behalf of the Association for Organics Recycling found the use of compost increased by 10 per cent last year.

Farmers said the increase was because of the rising cost of artificial fertiliser and the increasing quality and amount of compost coming from local authorities that now collect food and garden waste. 

Sandra interviews Pepper Lewis and Gaia (Mother Earth) Apr 2010

Pepper Lewis is a gifted intuitive/channel and author. She channels Gaia, Mother Earth, who speaks through emotions. Kinetic things happened to her personally as Gaia began to speak to her. Pepper was asked if she wanted to be a part of it.

Why her and why now? Pepper shares all her wisdom about who she is and the information about earths changes. There is nothing wrong with earth at all. Evolution occurs all the time and every day. It is time for earth to speak. Come and listen to what Pepper has to say about earth. Visit Pepper's website at http://www.pepperlewis.com/

A message from Mother Earth/Gaia channeled by Pepper Lewis - Thursday, 9 September, 2010

Can you give us an update on how the earth is doing right now and how you feel? Can you tell us more about the oil spill in the gulf and how the ecosystems are faring there?

The physical earth is doing very well, generally speaking. This answer may surprise some, but the earth (like you) is a multi-layered organic system of awareness. Each intricate, well-organized member is part of a larger set and also whole and perfect on its own. My sentience does not lend itself to thoughts of illness or difficulty, though it does recognize essential moments when the restoration of life becomes paramount. The earth (like you) is able to draw to itself things and thoughts, be they physical or non-physical in origin. My body is able to harness great power and to direct it in ways that are purposeful, which may or may not be gentle where humanity is concerned. The earth is a living library, a conservatory of arts and sciences; one day in the distant future it may become a museum, but not yet!

The earth is able to restore its multi-layered systems and to make things well, but it is not able to put things back exactly as they were. The face of the earth (like yours) is scarred in some places. Beneath the scars there is evidence of offense or impact, the remains of an invasion by an assailant or intruder. The earth does not automatically defend its systems or its species, leaving perfection to define itself against an imperfect background where life continues to thrive in almost any environment. Almost every sentient planet practices this hands-off approach, and those within this solar system are no exception. Can you imagine the large-scale invasion of elements and forces that formed the Grand Canyon? Would it have been better to thwart these in advance of the onslaught? On the other hand, my sentience drew to its body the catastrophe that forced the dinosaurs to perish or evolve as nature would allow, because too many of the earth's systems and elements had been breached or otherwise compromised. The best explanation is that the earth will not act to save itself but will act to save the whole for itself.

Although humanity refers to all sources of oil as fossil fuels, that is not entirely true. The most common crude oil and that which is most easily extracted from the earth is hundreds of thousands of years old. It consists mainly of the remains of extinct marine plants and animals that lay on the bottom of oceans, riverbeds, swaps and lakes for a very long time. Eventually, they were 'folded' under the earth's crust and sandwiched between layers of sand and other material. Heat, pressure and time gradually turned this into both oil and gas where it existed undisturbed for long periods of time. The theory that suggests that dinosaurs played a part in the process is also correct, but in fewer quantities than geologists theorize.

Over time more sediment accumulated, which increased the heat and built up more pressure. This in turn transforms some of the material into a dark organic substance called kerogen. Kerogen is a mixture of various chemical compounds that makes up a portion of the organic matter found in sedimentary rocks. Most of it is insoluble, except for a small amount, which when heated releases crude oil or natural gas (depending upon how fast the source rock is heated). Both crude oil and natural gas are considered fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are biogenic, in the case of petroleum this means that it is formed from dead organic matter. A different kind of oil that is also natural to the earth is found at far deeper levels. This abiogenic oil is the result of deep carbon deposits. Some of these were present as the earth was forming and more was added as collisions with large asteroids occurred over time. This kind of petroleum exists in deep pools within the earth's mantle and can seep upward according to the needs of the planet. Other planets and moons (not all) also have similar carbon deposits and would make good sources for petroleum, but these would not be commercially profitable, at least not at this time. For the sake of this discussion it is important to note that the earth has plenty of oil, even if some of it is inaccessible. The same is true of water and other resources.

Related

• Gulf Oil is NOT Fossil Fuel ! It is an Abiotic - Self Regenerating Compound! (video)

The earth, as was said in previous conversations has entered one of several magnification zones, which allows its affected ecosystems to place themselves in first position, above man's needs so to speak. Magnification zones overlap and are overseen by forces of nature that are less common and rarely seen. For instance, the fact that much of the oil that was spilled cannot be seen on the surface at this time is part of this very process. Lakes that empty without notice would fall under this category as would rogue waves and other natural, but rarely seen phenomena.

Under special or unusual circumstances ecosystems can function independently, linking their biological resources to kingdoms and elements that would not typically be associated with them. That is underway now. The obvious, or that which is captured by the lens of a camera and the lens of the eye is only the surface effect. Real work often takes place underneath and beyond this realm, in ways that have less to do with cause and effect and more to do with the inherent desire of all things to live and to realize their potential. The seas have strong and powerful forces at their disposal and they are being summoned and harnessed even now. Some areas will be sacrificed and some species too, but the greater good will be served, now as always.

At the end as well as the beginning of each age there are lessons. Like loose ends they fray quickly, exposing the raw (crude) material that requires refining. Humanity has reached the outer marker of the end of this age now, other markers are near and most of them are inevitable. They are signposts that can be ignored or overlooked and every age has them. Signposts are also in places that indicate a new beginning is near. These have not been triggered yet, but they will, as they too, are inevitable. The physical earth and the sentience that guides it are aware and in wait of this time. The formula, while not routine, is a timeless one and follows an unwritten plan even as the planets follow each other around the sun.

Gaia does not fault those who drill for oil, even deeply or with little thought to the further effects of their actions. They do so with the blessing and permission of their time. They have been empowered to perform these tasks, and directly or indirectly they perform them on your behalf as well as for their own gain. The world does need every drop of oil, but it still believes that it does. In all likelihood, it will not look elsewhere until the new age is well underway, even when (not if) other spills spoils their plan. Remember that oil and gas are both one, different in some respects but born of the same mother. Sometimes, at great cost and accompanied by pain of a certain order, a son must wound its mother in order to grow into adult and away from its childlike need to hold its mother's skirts. A mother will bear this pain even as she bears the pains associated with childbirth, they are an important and necessary part of the process, at least in worlds where the density of the third dimension is the ruling principle and the active law. The planets and their moons follow a similar ritual, your mythology speaks to this and more.

The earth's crust, responding to messages from within, is shifting its stance. Understand that all of the elements have a variety of ways in which they can express themselves. For instance, water is also vapor and air is also gas. Where earth is concerned, it can be hard or soft, granite or mud. For the time being, and to facilitate and midwife this evolutional cycle, it is necessary for the earth to become softer, even fluid-like. The benefit is in the need to absorb and to fold, layer by layer, a more perfect and necessary combination of elements for the present cycle. A more fluid crust will allow the earth to absorb the impurities of this age and to transmute them in subtle ways, but with great heat and pressure as the earth is engineered to do. A softer crust will also encourage earthquakes of lesser magnitude, as opposed to those that could crumble and crack even great landmasses.

An unfortunate effect of a softer earth is that the element of water must play a larger role, encouraging the downfall of more rain even on areas that can bear no more saturation. Water must seep into every pore, rivers must overrun their banks, mud must soften every bank and permeate the harder earth below, glacier water must mix with that of the sea, and the giant currents must make their impact known as well. The other elements such as fire know this and must complement the task at hand with their own contribution, thus fire leaves ash and a soft earth beneath it for rain and other water to saturate and drown.

As you watch the elements behave in strange and different ways it may occur to you that the earth is angry, sad or frustrated with humanity. This is not the case, yet even as these words are shouted and echoed you will think so still. Remember that knowing the pivotal moment when change is both appropriate, necessary and imminent is a gift of wisdom. Having the courage to follow the demands of an inner knowing, however difficult or challenging is a privilege and makes the moment that much more vital and potent. Your lives and the decisions that you are being asked to make at this time are no exception. At times more difficult than those of an average life, the impact and influence of this life will have long-lasting effects and you will look to them in ways that you cannot yet imagine.

The world will recover from the oil spill in the gulf, and it will recover from the next set of challenges that will soon step onto the world stage. Note the resilience rather than the resistance as the earth reemerges from this and other situations. The earth is not passive or aggressive; it is progressive, following the course of the mighty river even into the smallest rivulets where it might become trapped in restful, but cumbersome eddies that all too quickly become prisons rather than respites. Is it better to become buffeted by the banks and dashed against the white water of the rocks? Yes, sometimes yes! The river follows a natural course and forges a new one when necessary. Can you do the same?

The earth is well and wellness. It is under the watchful eye of those who oversee the evolution of life and who guide it from level to dimension, and vibration to higher frequency. The same process guides your own timing and you will see the elements in your life rearranging themselves to suit a higher purpose and to develop you in natural and uplifting ways. Do not fear life because it presents itself to you in a different order than you are accustomed to. Prepare to meet challenges in new and creative ways that illuminate who you are and what you have learned along the way.

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Hubble Spots Ghostly Space Spiral

Discovery News, Analysis by Ian O'Neill, Tue Sep 7, 2010 06:19 AM ET

When I first saw this ghostly Hubble Space Telescope image, I assumed that faint blurry spiral was a lens flare or some other photographic anomaly. But on closer inspection, the details started to present themselves.

As imaged by the space telescope's sensitive Advanced Camera for Surveys, this striking pattern is formed by material being ejected from a dying star. But this isn't a lone star; there's a second star -- a binary partner -- orbiting with it and modulating the expanding gas.

SLIDE SHOW: In honor of its 20th anniversary in orbit, we share some of the Hubble Space Telescope's best photos ever taken.

WATCH VIDEOS: Hubble is always seeing the
cosmos in a new light. Browse the next big Hubble
scoop in the Discovery News Hubble video playlist.

This binary system is called LL Pegasi and the surrounding "pre-planetary nebula" is known as IRAS 23166+1655.

Much like the jets of water being sprayed from a spinning sprinkler head, the result is an expanding pinwheel spiral when viewed from above.

Through blind cosmic luck, we are also looking LL Pegasi from above, so as the stars orbit, we can see a perfect gas spiral expand into space.

Planetary nebulae are created during the final stages of stellar evolution. For stars from half to eight-times the size of our sun, once they run out of hydrogen fuel, they start to burn heavier and heavier elements. During the latter stages of this process, they swell and the outer layers of the star are stripped away into space. This escaping gas and dust forms the nebula.

In this image, the central stars cannot be seen as they are smothered in obscuring material belching from the dying star, but the nebula has only just started to form.

According to the Hubble press release, the gas is being flung into space at a speed of 50,000 km/hour (about 30,000 miles/hour) and astronomers have calculated that the two stars must be orbiting each other with a period of 800 years.

There's more than one pinwheel spiral out there.
WR 104 caused quite a stir last year...

Therefore, the distance between the "shells" of the spiral represent the time taken for one orbit. Similar to the rings in a tree stump (only inverted), the spacing in the spiral represents an 800 year step in time, getting older the further they move away from the center.

Although these spiral phenomena are rare, several pinwheel spirals are known, perhaps the most infamous being the spiral generated by WR 104.

WR 104 is a Wolf-Rayet star -- far larger than the dying star in LL Pegasi -- also releasing gas into space during the final stages of its life, but it's not forming a comparatively peaceful planetary nebula.

As WR 104 is so massive, its Wolf-Rayet phase is frenzied and violent, potentially resulting in a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) -- LL Pegasi is too small to explode as a GRB. What's more, as WR 104 was thought to be pointing in our direction (i.e., we can see the perfect spiral), Earth could be "peering" down the barrel of a potentially devastating GRB should it explode.

Fortunately, when Discovery News spoke with Wolf-Rayet star expert Grant Hill last year, he had some good news for us: WR 104 might not be pointing in our direction after all.

Dec 9, 2009, the mysterious light spiral
appeared over Norway

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Dutch breakthrough in bio-fuel technology

RNW, 6 September 2010 - 2:47pm | By Johan van der Tol

(Photo: Flickr/zarny)

Researchers at the University of Technology in Twente have developed a new technique which enables the large-scale production of bio-fuel without adverse effects on food supplies. An oil can be extracted from agricultural and forestry waste products and processed in existing refineries into fuel for cars and aircraft.

Farmers in developing countries like Brazil have turned en masse to growing crops like sugar cane for bio-diesel. In theory, this is better for the environment and a good alternative to increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

Waste products

Unfortunately there are major disadvantages with this kind of bio-fuel. Production often takes place on agricultural ground which was previously used for food crops. Either that or swathes of rainforest are felled for the purpose. The bio-fuel developed in Twente does not have these drawbacks. Only waste products are used.

Sascha Kersten of the University of Twente:

"We want to base it purely on waste products. Straw and sawdust, for example, or the chaff from corn. We don't interfere directly with the food chain."

Billions of years

The scientists have imitated the process by which fossil fuels are produced under conditions of enormous heat and pressure within the Earth's crust. The natural process takes billions of years.

"We're giving nature a helping hand. There is a whole range of processes in nature which over billions of years convert biomass into gas, petroleum and coal. In our process we can take the same biomass and convert it into an oil which resembles petroleum - in just a few seconds."

The researchers heat sawdust, wood shavings and plant remnants in a reactor to around 500 degrees Celsius in an oxygen-free environment. This process, known as pyrolysis, produces an oily fluid. The heat is generated by the partial incineration of the biomass.

Wood shavings

The bio-oil produced can be used 'as is' as a fuel for power stations, but the scientists have further developed the technique so that excess oxygen can be removed from the oil by adding hydrogen under high pressure. This makes it suitable for processing in existing refineries.

One limiting factor is the high cost of hydrogen, but the researchers hope to be able radically to reduce the use of hydrogen in the short term. They expect the fuel produced by this process to be available at filling stations within five years. In ten years time 20 percent of the fuel for cars and aircraft could be generated from brushwood and wood shavings.

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Nasa to send probe into Sun's 1,400C atmosphere for first time

Daily Mail, By DAILY MAIL REPORTER, 6th September 2010

Nasa is to fire a space probe directly at the Sun to answer some of the most important questions about our solar system.

A small car-sized spacecraft will plunge into the sun's atmosphere approximately four million miles from its surface, exploring a region no other spacecraft has ever visited before.

The unprecedented project, named Solar Probe Plus, is scheduled to launch by 2018.

The Nasa space probe will travel into the Sun's atmosphere to take readings

Nasa has selected five science investigations that will unlock the Sun's biggest mysteries as the probe repeatedly passes through its atmosphere.

‘This project allows humanity's ingenuity to go where no spacecraft has ever gone before,' said Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe Plus program scientist at NASA Headquarters, in Washington.

'For the very first time, we'll be able to touch, taste and smell our sun.'

As the spacecraft approaches the sun, its revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures exceeding about 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit) and blasts of intense radiation.

The spacecraft will have an up-close and personal view of the sun, enabling scientists to better understand and forecast the radiation environment for future space explorers.

‘The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics - why is the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system? ' said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington.

'We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers'

NASA invited researchers in 2009 to submit science proposals. Thirteen were reviewed by a panel of NASA and outside scientists and the five selected investigations are receiving approximately $180 million for preliminary analysis, design, development and tests.

The Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation will specifically count the most abundant particles in the solar wind - electrons, protons and helium ions - and measure their properties.

The investigation also is designed to catch some of the particles in a special cup for direct analysis.

A telescope on board will make 3-D images of the sun's corona, or atmosphere. The experiment actually will see the solar wind and provide 3-D images of clouds and shocks as they approach and pass the spacecraft.

Another will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions, and shock waves that course through the sun's atmospheric plasma.

The experiment also serves as a giant dust detector, registering voltage signatures when specks of space dust hit the spacecraft's antenna.

Another experiment from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio will look at elements in the sun's atmosphere using a mas  spectrometer to weigh and sort ions in the vicinity of the spacecraft.

Tiny solar cells fix themselves

BBC News, 5 September 2010 Last updated at 17:20 GMT

Researchers have demonstrated tiny solar cells just billionths of a metre across that can repair themselves, extending their useful lifetime.

Many tiny cells work together in
a "photoelectrochemical cell"

The cells make use of proteins from the machinery of plants, turning sunlight into electric charges that can do work.

The cells simply assemble themselves from a mixture of the proteins, minute tubes of carbon and other materials.

The self-repairing mechanism, reported in Nature Chemistry, could lead to much longer-lasting solar cells.

The design and improvement of solar cells is one of the most vibrant areas of science, in part because sunlight is far and away the planet's most abundant renewable energy source.

More than that, nature has already proven that sunlight can be captured and turned into other forms of energy not only with extraordinary efficiency but also with a self-repair mechanism that counteracts the ravages of sunlight.

"Sunlight, when it hits oxygen, is very damaging," explained Michael Strano, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineer who led the research.

"It's the reason why we age, and the reason why when we leave paper or plastic out in the sun, it fades."

The destructive mixture of sunlight and oxygen, Professor Strano told BBC News, means that many of the best solar cells in the laboratory might not survive well when put into use.

"There's a kind of a horse race among scientists around the world to make the highest efficiency cell, but very few people are asking what happens with that cell when you plug it in for a few hours or for a week or for months," he said.

'Jigsaw puzzle'

Now Professor Strano and his colleagues have made novel use of the photosynthetic reaction centre, one of the plant parts nature has developed for the task, in a bid to increase the lifetimes of solar cells.

The nanotubes are scaffolds on which
the light-sensitive proteins can build

They also employed lipids, the molecules that pair up end-to-end form much of the walls of all living cells, and carbon nanotubes, tiny "straws" of pure carbon that are renowned for their electrical properties.

Lastly they added a surfactant - a molecule that, like soap on grease, breaks certain molecules apart and keeps them separate.

To the team's surprise, this cocktail of disparate parts, when the surfactant was pumped out, assembled itself into a suite of working solar cells, each just a few nanometres - billionths of a metre - across.

The lipids paired up to form discs that attached to the nanotube on one side and to the reaction centres on the other.

Incoming light is gathered by the reaction centre, knocking free an electron that is channelled by the lipids and into the nanotube.

Inside what is known as a photoelectrochemical cell, those electrons can be scooped up and together constitute an electric current.

"It's like a jigsaw puzzle that you throw into the air and it comes down completely assembled," Professor Strano said.

This self-assembly leads naturally to a self-repair scheme.

Surfactant is added, along with a few proteins to replace those damaged by sunlight, and the recipe is complete.

When the surfactant is removed, the bits re-assemble into a pristine set of solar cells.

Professor Strano said that the efficiency of the cells as designed is just a tiny fraction of that provided by the current best solar cells.

While he said great gains are still to be had in efficiency as the experiment is refined, he added that the idea behind the research was as important for future work.

"What our paper is good for is starting to think about device lifetime and borrowing concepts from nature. Can we make cells that have an infinite lifetime?"

The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It

Wire Science, By Brandon Keim, April 24, 2009

For scary speculation about the end of civilization in 2012, people usually turn to followers of cryptic Mayan prophecy, not scientists. But that’s exactly what a group of NASA-assembled researchers described in a chilling report issued earlier this year on the destructive potential of solar storms.

Entitled “Severe Space Weather Events — Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts,” it describes the consequences of solar flares unleashing waves of energy that could disrupt Earth’s magnetic field, overwhelming high-voltage transformers with vast electrical currents and short-circuiting energy grids. Such a catastrophe would cost the United States “$1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year,” concluded the panel, and “full recovery could take four to 10 years.” That would, of course, be just a fraction of global damages.

Needless to say, shorting out the electrical grid would cause major disruptions to developed nations and their economies.

Worse yet, the next period of intense solar activity is expected in 2012, and coincides with the presence of an unusually large hole in Earth’s geomagnetic shield, meaning we’ll have less protection than usual from the solar flares.

The report received relatively little attention, perhaps because of 2012’s supernatural connotations. Mayan astronomers supposedly predicted that 2012 would mark the calamitous “birth of a new era.”

But the report is credible enough that some scientists and engineers are beginning to take the electromagnetic threat seriously. According to Lawrence Joseph, author of “Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation into Civilization’s End,” “I’ve been following this topic for almost five years, and it wasn’t until the report came out that this really began to freak me out.”

Wired.com talked to Joseph and John Kappenman, CEO of electromagnetic damage consulting company MetaTech, about the possibility of geomagnetic apocalypse — and how to stop it.

Wired.com: Do you think it’s coincidence that the Mayans predicted apocalypse on the exact date when astronomers say the sun will next reach a period of maximum turbulence?

Lawrence Joseph: I have enormous respect for Mayan astronomers. It disinclines me to dismiss this as a coincidence. But I recommend people verify that the Mayans prophesied what people say they did. I went to Guatemala and spent a week with two Mayan shamans who spent 20 years talking to other shamans about the prophecies. They confirmed that the Maya do see 2012 as a great turning point. Not the end of the world, not the great off-switch in the sky, but the birth of the fifth age.

Wired.com: Isn’t a great off-switch in the sky exactly what’s described in the report?

Joseph: The chair of the NASA workshop was Dan Baker at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Some of his comments, and the comments he approved in the report, are very strong about the potential connection between coronal mass ejections and power grids here on Earth. There’s a direct relationship between how technologically sophisticated a society is and how badly it could be hurt. That’s the meta-message of the report.

I had the good fortune last week to meet with John Kappenman at MetaTech. He took me through a meticulous two-hour presentation about just how vulnerable the power grid is, and how it becomes more vulnerable as higher voltages are sent across it. He sees it as a big antenna for space weather outbursts.

Wired.com: Why is it so vulnerable?

Joseph: Ultra-high voltage transformers become more finicky as energy demands are greater. Around 50 percent already can’t handle the current they’re designed for. A little extra current coming in at odd times can slip them over the edge.

The ultra-high voltage transformers, the 500,000- and 700,000-kilovolt transformers, are particularly vulnerable. The United States uses more of these than anyone else. China is trying to implement some million-kilovolt transformers, but I’m not sure they’re online yet.

Kappenman also points out that when the transformers blow, they can’t be fixed in the field. They often can’t be fixed at all. Right now there’s a one- to three-year lag time between placing an order and getting a new one.

According to Kappenman, there’s an as-yet-untested plan for inserting ground resistors into the power grid. It makes the handling a little more complicated, but apparently isn’t anything the operators can’t handle. I’m not sure he’d say these could be in place by 2012, as it’s difficult to establish standards, and utilities are generally regulated on a state-by-state basis. You’d have quite a legal thicket. But it still might be possible to get some measure of protection in by the next solar climax.

Wired.com: Why can’t we just shut down the grid when we see a storm coming, and start it up again afterwards?

Joseph: Power grid operators now rely on one satellite called ACE, which sits about a million miles out from Earth in what’s called the gravity well, the balancing point between sun and earth. It was designed to run for five years. It’s 11 years old, is losing steam, and there are no plans to replace it.

ACE provides about 15 to 45 minutes of heads-up to power plant operators if something’s coming in. They can shunt loads, or shut different parts of the grid. But to just shut the grid off and restart it is a $10 billion proposition, and there is lots of resistance to doing so. Many times these storms hit at the north pole, and don’t move south far enough to hit us. It’s a difficult call to make, and false alarms really piss people off. Lots of money is lost and damage incurred. But in Kappenman’s view, and in lots of others, this time burnt could really mean burnt.

Wired.com: Do you live your life differently now?

Joseph: I’ve been following this topic for almost five years. It wasn’t until the report came out that it began to freak me out.

Up until this point, I firmly believed that the possibility of 2012 being catastrophic in some way was worth investigating. The report made it a little too real. That document can’t be ignored. And it was even written before the THEMIS satellite discovered a gigantic hole in Earth’s magnetic shield. Ten or twenty times more particles are coming through this crack than expected. And astronomers predict that the way the sun’s polarity will flip in 2012 will make it point exactly the way we don’t want it to in terms of evading Earth’s magnetic field. It’s an astonoshingly bad set of coincidences.

Wired.com: If Barack Obama said, “Lets’ prepare,” and there weren’t any bureaucratic hurdles, could we still be ready in time?

Joseph: I believe so. I’d ask the President to slipstream behind stimulus package funds already appropriated for smart grids, which are supposed to improve grid efficiency and help transfer high energies at peak times. There’s a framework there. Working within that, you could carve out some money for the ground resistors program, if those tests work, and have the initial momentum for cutting through the red tape. It’d be a place to start.

Wired.com: What’s the problem?

John Kappenman: We’ve got a big, interconnected grid that spans across the country. Over the years, higher and higher operating voltages have been added to it. This has escalated our vulnerability to geomagnetic storms. These are not a new thing. They’ve probably been occurring for as long as the sun has been around. It’s just that we’ve been unknowingly building an infrastructure that’s acting more and more like an antenna for geomagnetic storms.

Wired.com: What do you mean by antenna?

Kappenman: Large currents circulate in the network, coming up from the earth through ground connections at large transformers. We need these for safety reasons, but ground connections provide entry paths for charges that could disrupt the grid.

Wired.com: What’s your solution?

Kappenman: What we’re proposing is to add some fairly small and inexpensive resistors in the transformers’ ground onnections. The addition of that little bit of resistance would significantly reduce the amount of the geomagnetically induced currents that flow into the grid.

Wired.com: What does it look like?

Kappenman: In its simplest form, it’s something that might be made out of cast iron or stainless steel, about the size of a washing machine.

Wired.com: How much would it cost?

Kappenman: We’re still at the conceptual design phase, but we think it’s do-able for $40,000 or less per resistor. That’s less than what you pay for insurance for a transformer.

Wired.com: And less than what you’d willingly pay for insurance on civilization.

Kappenman: If you’re talking about the United States, there are about 5,000 transformers to consider this for. The Electromagnetic Pulse Commission recommended it in a report they sent to Congress last year. We’re talking about $150 million or so. It’s pretty small in the grand scheme of things.

Big power lines and substations can withstand all the other known environmental challenges. The problem with geomagnetic storms is that we never really understood them as a vulnerability, and had a design code that took them into account.

Wired.com: Can it be done in time?

Kappenman: I’m not in the camp that’s certain a big storm will occur in 2012. But given time, a big storm is certain to occur in the future. They have in the past, and they will again. They’re about one-in-400-year events. That doesn’t mean it will be 2012. It’s just as likely that it could occur next week.

See Also:

• Sunspot Appearance Marks Beginning of New Solar Cycle
• Apocalypse Prep Friday: Step One, Buy an Ark
• Yucatan Jungles Are Feral Maya Gardens
• Scientists Discover What Makes Northern Lights Dance

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