Before early Breakfast, paddled back to the Creek...clip from the Swath Overlook..water is above the Creek's Channel a bit....Ponds here and thereabout amongst the Trees...it isn't over the Twin Fallen Cedars....I've seen it before twice that high, but once before High Water was added to by Rain Storm....maybe the other time too...this Spring's High Water came late, and the cool Storms have stretched it out....skirted along Owl Woods to Ozone Beach...looking for view spots...but just couldn't find an opening with a wide vista without wading out....was wearing the flipflops with that eventuality in mind...but it looked problematic!...and it WAS at the Path out to Two Top Pine Meadow...I waded out on the Path until the water reached above my rolled up pants, about mid thigh, and I hadn't gone very far at all!....and there was a good current...so retreated, thinking to anticipate when the water goes down enough to uncover the Path to see Two Top reflection......back to the Cabin to get dry pants, drop off gear, and to Breakfast, and back to snooze!...out again around noon to the Village for errands.....Bobcat Meadow looks pretty normal, water well below the Boardwalk at the Lily Pads....Irises blooming...avoided the crowded Shuttles, and walked back, the crowded Path unavoidable!....another snooze, and out to Creek's End for a looksee...had to thread along dry places in the Woods, and really couldn't, again, find a view....did get a lucky clip of Female Merganser...glimpsed Merganser up Creek floating towards the Merced, sighted the camera, and just as I zoomed in Merganser went air born and banked around Lodgepole Point...very cool...walking a bit up the Creek, I sighted the PonderosaDogwood....and got lucky with a clip again!....see clip...still some light left, and paddled out to the Scorched Forest.....some reflection pics of the Gates, and Sentinel....Does and Young Buck about...clip for sometime....oh!....YB web report of the Merganserslings paddling about Bobcat Meadow...:)
Oil Spill: missed dinner watching cnn.....Larry King had Cameron on, and Cameron mentioned the pressure at the bottom of the well...13000 psi. (pounds per square inch)....a full SCUBA tank holds air at 2000 psi, which is described as a telephone booth full of air compressed into the tank....and Cameron added that the drillers begin with a large hole and end with a small one, so there's like a series of nested holes, and between each 'nest' cement is used to seal, and the last seal failed, gas and oil seeped up between the nests, and at 13000 psi, this happened in a hurry--the blowout which burst into flame and exploded at the surface. The well head is a mile below the surface, and the well bottom another 18000 thousand feet below this. brb... what it's like at the bottom of the ocean
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At the bottom of the trench, where the plates meet, the water column above exerts a pressure of 108.6 megapascals (15,750 psi), over one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level.
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the Trench is 35,814 ft down, so Cameron looks to be just using ocean depth psi's .....but the oil pool is under sedimentary strata...18000 feet, and is hot...dont know how hot...how hot a question....
There are a lot of questions in all of this, as these deep wells are being drilled willy nilly all over the world by different Nations....
Cameron said everything is going so slowly as the risk of making things worse is great...and trying one thing, can eliminate chances to try others...kinda the dilemma archaeologists face--only one chance to dig...
Cameron's a knucklehead by the way, and should stick to movies...
Another knucklehead interviewed by KIng, (ditto) was T Bone Pickens, who made the charming observation that on day 38 he observed that 38 days later he would be back on King's show....oh....this is an echo of what the soldiers said in the trenches of WW1...at the outset, everyone thought the war would be over in a few months, but in truth, dragged on for years....
T Bone thought BP should be left alone until the well is capped...(no panicky investigations).....and I suppose somehow that encourages them to cap it!
well...a looksee if Ballard has weighed in....brb...Ballard's site:
well. it's late again, and I'm hungry...hmmmph.....lemeknow when Dirk Pitt shows up...
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The BP-CNPC consortium promised to pump $15 billion in investment to raise production at Rumaila from its current one million barrels a day to 2.85 million. BP will hold a 38% stake in the venture, while CNPC will own 37%. Iraq will hold the remaining 25%.
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“Is Iraq going to be a long war?” Mr. Rumsfeld answered, “No, I don’t believe it is.” (Washington Times, 2/2/06)
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The agencies are working to capture, clean, and rehabilitate birds who can no longer swim or fly due to oily feathers, and many of whom are sick from ingesting the toxic crude. IBRRC has a 20-person team at the scene. Head Jay Holcomb wrote today:
"I am sure by now you have all seen the pictures of the oiled birds that were captured in Grande Isle, Louisiana. We are busy today with those birds... Please know that we are all doing well here, unhappy like you that this is happening, but we have a great master plan to offset as much damage to the birds as we can... I also want you all to understand that this entire oiled bird rehabilitation effort is being paid for by BP. This is appropriate as they are the Responsible Party for this spill."
unquoteand a bit about an old time roustabout...
1 comment:
lovely dogwood photo. keep the high water news coming.
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