Learning about Cuba, having some food.
SURF:
Just cruising along this week. Fun waves towards Monday (with strong NW winds in the afternoon) has been replaced by clean conditions all day and small surf. For Friday and Saturday, we'll be on repeat with small waist high sets and Santa Ana conditions.
We did though have a little storm off Antarctica a few days ago and we'll see inconsistent chest high sets on Sunday along with a slight bump in NW ground/windswell. Water temps are holding in the mid-60's and here's more numbers for you mathematicians:
- Sunrise: 7:00 AM (for comparison's sake, the sun comes up around 5:30 AM on June 20th)
- Sunset: 6:06 PM (for comparison's sake, the sun sets around 8:00 PM on the June 20th)
- 6’ at breakfast
- 0’ around 2pm
- 3' at sunset
FORECAST:
The SW/NW is short lived on Sunday and we're back to waist high surf Monday through Thursday.
Models show a medium sized storm forming off the Aleutians this weekend though and we may start to see chest high NW late on Halloween into next Friday- along with Santa Ana conditions again. After that, it's back to being quiet in the Pacific. Make sure to check out Twitter/North County Surf if anything changes between now and then.
BEST BET:
Sunday with new fun SW/NW or next Friday with another NW.
WEATHER:
Late October weather is right on schedule. Did you really think we'd get through the fall without Santa Ana conditions? Of course you didn't. Amazing beach weather the past few days with temps near 90 and plenty of sun. Friday and Saturday look to be the same with only a slight cool down to start the week. We should see low 70's by Tuesday and lots of sun again. Models show another Santa Ana kicking in again towards Thursday- but cooler temps than we had today. Long story short, plenty of sun the next week.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
I'm sure you've heard by now of the massive asteroid that struck the Yucatan Peninsula millions years ago and wiped out all the dinosaurs (until John Hammond brought them all back to life of course in the now defunct Jurassic Park amusement park). But no one knew of it's impacts to our oceans and the animals beneath. Until now that is. Various media outlets this week reported on a recent discovery that shed light on the subject. Here's what they had to say:
When a huge 6 mile wide asteroid slammed into the surface of the Earth about 66 million years ago, it left life on the planet in ruins. The impact caused the last mass extinction event, spelling the end for the dinosaurs. Scientists have long debated exactly how the impact ended the reign of the terrible lizards, with many theories pointing to a disruption of the Earth's climate. New evidence suggests that this is, at least partially, true and that the massive collision caused rapid acidification of the oceans, driving ecological collapse.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, examined the Geulhemmerberg Cave in the Netherlands, the Brazos River in Texas, deep-sea drill cores and Owl Creek in Mississippi to paint a picture of the immediate aftermath of the Chicxulub asteroid impact. The research team suggests that before the asteroid hit the Earth, the oceans were not increasing in acidity.
But afterward, there was a rapid decrease in pH, making the oceans significantly more acidic. At the Geulhemmerberg cave, researchers found the fossilized remains of tiny plankton known as foraminifera.
"In this cave, an especially thick layer of clay from the immediate aftermath of the impact accumulated, which is really quite rare," said Michael Henehan, a geoscientist and first author of the study, in a press release. "Because so much sediment was laid down there at once, it meant we could extract enough fossils to analyze, and we were able to capture the transition."
The fossils were dated to the asteroid impact and the team showed the event was so potent it prevented the plankton from building calcium carbonate shells. This, they reason, would have caused the plankton to die out and the web of life to deteriorate. Notably, life in the ocean's upper layers would die out, disrupting the carbon cycle. According to the data, it was several million years before bouncing back.
In contrast to the new study, scientists also believe volcanism may have contributed to the downfall of the great lizards. Earlier this year, two studies in Science showed increased levels of volcanic activity from the Deccan Traps, massive volcanoes that started erupting around 400,000 years before the Chicxulub impact and could have expelled enough lava to circle the Earth.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, examined the Geulhemmerberg Cave in the Netherlands, the Brazos River in Texas, deep-sea drill cores and Owl Creek in Mississippi to paint a picture of the immediate aftermath of the Chicxulub asteroid impact. The research team suggests that before the asteroid hit the Earth, the oceans were not increasing in acidity.
But afterward, there was a rapid decrease in pH, making the oceans significantly more acidic. At the Geulhemmerberg cave, researchers found the fossilized remains of tiny plankton known as foraminifera.
"In this cave, an especially thick layer of clay from the immediate aftermath of the impact accumulated, which is really quite rare," said Michael Henehan, a geoscientist and first author of the study, in a press release. "Because so much sediment was laid down there at once, it meant we could extract enough fossils to analyze, and we were able to capture the transition."
The fossils were dated to the asteroid impact and the team showed the event was so potent it prevented the plankton from building calcium carbonate shells. This, they reason, would have caused the plankton to die out and the web of life to deteriorate. Notably, life in the ocean's upper layers would die out, disrupting the carbon cycle. According to the data, it was several million years before bouncing back.
In contrast to the new study, scientists also believe volcanism may have contributed to the downfall of the great lizards. Earlier this year, two studies in Science showed increased levels of volcanic activity from the Deccan Traps, massive volcanoes that started erupting around 400,000 years before the Chicxulub impact and could have expelled enough lava to circle the Earth.
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Wave Pools: 20 waves an hour. Chicama: 20 waves a minute. Enough said.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Unflinching
Clipper Fan Now
Disappointed John Parmenter Wasn't In The New Terminator Film
