November 18th, 2009, 3:09 pm by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
The bow of the USS Curts (38) is visible just ahead of the stern of the USS Gary (51). Image by Gary Robbins, The Register
The Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station has such a small, shallow bay, it rarely hosts more than one warship at a time. But the California base is on double duty at the moment, serving two Perry-class frigates, the USS Curts (38) and the USS Gary (51), which are docked stern-to-stern in Anaheim Bay. It’s an unusual sight for motorists passing nearby on Pacific Coast Highway. Frigates are the smallest surface ships serviced at Seal Beach, so the base can handle two at once. The Navy sometimes have schedule overlaps and needs to handle two vessels at once. It’s not a regularly thing. These ships, which were built by Todd Shipyards in San Pedro during the height of the Cold War, are each 453 feet long. And while they have very sophisticated equipment, especially for tracking submarines, searching for mines and knocking down short-range missiles, they represent the past instead of the future. The Navy has been building dozens of Arleigh Burke-class guided missiles destroyers, ships that stock up to 96 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Frigates of this kind are slowly being decommissioned to make room for more technologically robust ships.
The frigates are not open to the public, and boaters are prohibited from approaching the vessels.
Quiz corner: In the movie, “The Hunt for Red October,” an American frigate fires on the submarine. What was factually wrong with the scene? Email answers to grobbins@ocregister.com. I’ll give a book to the reader with the best answer.
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Posted in: Ain't that interesting? • Arleigh Burke-class destroyers • California • destroyers • frigates • Seal Beach • U.S. Navy | 2 Comments »
November 16th, 2009, 8:43 am by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Look toward Constellation Leo between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. Tuesday. Graphic courtesy of Astronomy.com
The annual Leonid meteor shower will peak overnight, and astronomers say that people who are ideally located (the desert) should be able to see 20-30 meteors per hour between 1:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. Tuesday. But even amateur skygazers in urban/surburban areas like Orange County should be able to see several meteors per hour as Earth passes through debris shed by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Stay away from street lights and other sources of light pollution, and give your eyes time to adjust to the dark.
Richard Talcott, an Astronomy.com editor we often consult, said in a news advisory, “If the weather cooperates, viewing conditions should be nearly ideal. Observers normally can see 20 to 30 meteors per hour at the peak, but rates could spike considerably this year. These meteors started out as tiny specks of dust and debris ejected by Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle during its countless trips around the Sun. Over time, these particles spread out along the comet’s orbit. Every November, Earth passes through this stream of dust.
“The particles hit our atmosphere at 147,000 mph and vaporize because of friction with the air. This produces the streaks of light in the sky we call meteors. If you trace all the shower’s meteor paths backward, they appear to emanate from the constellation Leo the Lion (hence the name Leonid).”
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Posted in: Astronomy and astrophysics • astronomy • Leonid meteor showers • NASA | 7 Comments »
November 14th, 2009, 12:43 pm by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
I vowed that this week’s contest would be harder than last week’s. And it was. After scores of entries, we finally got the right answer from Kyle Martin of Yorba Linda, who goes by the screen name of Aceofspades. He knew that the photo shows human mitochondria, the so-called “power plants” of cells. The photo was supplied by UCI geneticist Doug Wallace, one of the world’s foremost experts on mitochondria.
Martin wins a free copy of “Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King,” a new biography by Brad Matsen.
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Don’t miss: Do elephant seals sleep while diving off O.C.?
Posted in: Ain't that interesting? | 121 Comments »
November 14th, 2009, 10:10 am by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
A magnitude 1.8 microquake occurred at 1:29 a.m. near the intersection of Hazard Avenue and Beach Boulevard, not far from the Westminster Mall and Westminster Memorial Park, says the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake began a bit southeast of a branch of the Newport-Inglewood fault, at a depth of 3.7 miles. The shaker was not widely felt, and is mentioned here because the public is interested in the small, isolated microquakes that regularly happen in or near Orange County. The little tremor is unlikely to lead to something larger, and likely represents normal shifting in the Newport-Inglewood fault zone. In an unrelated event, a 1.5 microquake occurred beneath the seafloor at 8:44 a.m. today, off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, a region where there are sizable sub-sea faults.
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Posted in: Earthquake news and research • earthquake | 9 Comments »
November 13th, 2009, 9:39 pm by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Updated Saturday,
4:15
The National Weather Service has upped the potential threat of wildfire, issuing a red flag fire warning for northeastern Orange County. (Check description above.) Earlier, forecasters had a lesser, fire weather watch in place for the whole county.
The red flag fire weather warning will be in effect from 9 a.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. on Monday. The weather service says in an advisory, “Northeast winds of 15-25 mph with gusts in excess of mph will develop below the Cajon Pass and in the Santa Ana Mountains and foothills Sunday morning. The winds should spread south and east into portions of inland Riverside and San Diego counties during the day and continue into Monday. Local gusts in excess of 45 mph are possible at times in the windiest locations. Relative humidities will drop to 15 percent or less for several hours on Monday, mainly in the valleys and on the lower coastal mountain slopes, and below 10 percent for 10 hours or more on Monday, especially at the lower elevations. ”
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Posted in: Ain't that interesting? • Climate and weather news • Add new tag • Fire weather watch • National Weather Service • wildfires | 13 Comments »
