Everything But The Kitchen Sink.
SURF:
Pop quiz! What did you witness the past week?:
- Warm 76 degree water
- Tourists in a crowded line up
- Small southern hemi surf
- Low clouds and comfortable air temps
- Cooler 69 degree water (or even 61 in Long Beach)
- Thunder & lightin'
- Rideable tropical storm surf
- Sunny warm humid skies
- Touch of NW windswell
- The kitchen sink
If you said all of the above, congratulations! Or even a pat on the back. How about a free surf report. Even if you missed some of the above the past few days, there was still more than enough to make your head spin. For the weekend, we've got more SW on the way for Saturday/Sunday with waist to chest high surf again. Along with tropical clouds overhead, and pleasant water temps, should be a fun weekend. And here's the tides, sun, and water temps for the next few days:
- Sunrise and sunset:
- 5:58 AM sunrise.
- 7:52 PM sunset.
- If you probably noticed, water temps to start the week were 75. Then we had some WNW winds mid-week, and they dropped to 69 (Long Beach dropped a whopping 10 degrees in 4 days to 61). SW winds were blowing today though, so we should be back to low 70's by Sunday.
- And heads up on the tides this weekend:
- -1' at sunrise
- 4' at 11 AM
- 2' mid afternoon
- and up to 6' at sunset
FORECAST:
The new SW over the weekend rolls into Monday with more waist to chest high surf.
Mid week looks to be waist high plus and then models show another small swell taking shape this weekend in the southern hemisphere which could give us more chest high SW around Thursday/Friday. Still nothing big but tropical skies and warm water is nothing to sneeze at.
WEATHER:
This is my 2nd favorite time of the 'weather year'. My favorite? Big storms during our winters. This time of year though is a close 2nd with all the monsoon moisture streaming from the Gulf of California/desert SW into southern California. For the weekend, temps will be on the mild side (low 70's) but we'll have plenty of tropical clouds and a chance of showers again late Sunday into Monday. The 2nd half of next week sees more low clouds/fog in the nights/mornings and less humidity. If anything changes between now and then, make sure to follow North County Surf on Twitter!
BEST BET:
This weekend with fun surf, manageable water temps, and tropical clouds overhead. Does anyone even remember May Gray around here?...
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
On a calm day in the ocean, ever notice those little sand berms on the seafloor made by the gently surging waves? Researchers have found them under Louisiana, when the ocean was 200' lower about 65 million years ago. 'Who cares' you say? What if I told you they were 'megaripples', over 50' high and 2,000' feet apart. What kind of enormous waves would create such a pattern on the ancient seafloor? Most likely the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Here's more from the Smithsonian:
Some 66 million years ago, a huge space rock about the size of Manhattan slammed into Earth near the Yucatan peninsula. The enormous asteroid sent huge blasts of dust and waves rippling across the planet and wiped out up to 75 percent of life, including dinosaurs.
Now, scientist say they have found evidence of the resulting giant tsunami that swamped much of the Earth. In a study published in the journal Earth & Planetary Science Letters, researchers report how they discovered 52-foot-tall “megaripples” nearly a mile below the surface of what is now central Louisiana.
According to the paper, these megaripple features have average wavelengths of 600 meters (1,968.5 feet) and average wave heights of 16 meters (almost 52.5 feet) making them the largest ripples documented on Earth.
Led by Gary Kinsland, a geoscientist at the University of Louisiana, the research team found fossil records of the huge waves in sediment 5,000 feet below the surface. They used seismic imaging data provided by oil and gas exploration companies to locate the geological features.
Kinsland is convinced these fossilized remains were left behind by the megaripples as they neared what was then the coastline. At the time, the area was about 200 feet below the surface of the ocean, he tells Akila Raghavan of Science Magazine. “The water was so deep that once the tsunami had quit, regular storm waves couldn’t disturb what was down there,” Kinsland says.
The researchers found a series of megaripples spaced about a half-mile apart preserved in sediment, including shale formations, that settled on the site, reports geologist David Bressan in Forbes Magazine.
He writes “The researchers argue that the megaripples are the results of a series of impact-induced tsunami washing up an ancient seashore. The thick sand-layers deposited by the uprush and backwash currents of the tsunami waves formed symmetrical ripples on the seafloor.”
The researchers found a series of megaripples spaced about a half-mile apart preserved in sediment, including shale formations, that settled on the site, reports geologist David Bressan in Forbes Magazine.
He writes “The researchers argue that the megaripples are the results of a series of impact-induced tsunami washing up an ancient seashore. The thick sand-layers deposited by the uprush and backwash currents of the tsunami waves formed symmetrical ripples on the seafloor.”
Kinsland and his colleagues selected central Louisiana as a search site because that’s where they suspected the shoreline was 66 million years ago, a time when water levels were much higher. The dinosaur-killing asteroid left a nearly 100-mile wide crater on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, near the modern community of Chicxulub on the Yucatan peninsula, reports Tessa Koumoundouros for ScienceAlert.
The researchers determined the megaripples corresponded accurately to the crater in the Gulf of Mexico. The circumferences of the geologic features in Louisiana match up with the impact site, Kinsland tells Raghavan.
The study builds on past research about the impact of the asteroid near Chicxulub. In 2016, cores from a drilling expedition determined how the crater was formed. Two years ago, scientists located a fossil site in North Dakota that included debris swept inland by the tsunami.
“We have small pieces of the puzzle that keep getting added in,” Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, a paleontologist at the University of Vigo, tells Raghavan. “Now this research is another one, giving more evidence of a cataclysmic tsunami that probably inundated [everything] for thousands of miles.”
PIC OF THE WEEK:
Looks like a pretty good channel to paddle out in in the bottom left of the image. But the water is also starting to drain off the reef. First question you should ask- where's the nearest hospital? Just in case.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Focused
Big Fan Of Wax Museums
Kealoha, Bourez, Sarlo, Cram, Poto, Hakman, Gomes, Elkerton, and Glenn
Michael W. Glenn
Focused
Big Fan Of Wax Museums
Kealoha, Bourez, Sarlo, Cram, Poto, Hakman, Gomes, Elkerton, and Glenn
