Current Events

  • Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm
    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm rep...Read more

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    Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm

    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm repeatedly. Daily levels of CO2 can vary due to weather, and there are seasonal trends as well. The level of atmospheric greenhouse gases continues to increase, now over 120 ppm since the Industrial Revolution began. For more on the Keeling Curve, see http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/. Find out more about greenhouse gases and warming.
  • Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley
    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Io...Read more

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    Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley

    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. On May 20th, a massive tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, devastating communities - destroying over 100 homes and hitting two elementary schools and a hospital - with many casualties and deaths. Our thoughts are with our friends and colleagues suffering from these storms. For more on the May 20th storms, see the NOAA Storm Prediction Center Storm Report.
  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.

Myths Related to Aspects of the Earth

Early civilizations had many myths about gods and goddesses associated with what they experienced in their daily lives at the surface of the Earth. This section provides a glimpse of myths associated with aspects of Earth - storms, precipitation, lightning and thunder, winds, clouds, rainbows, water and the seas, aurora, volcanoes and the underworld - which early civilizations used to help understand the sometimes frightening world around them.
<a href="/mythology/tlaloc_rain.html&edu=high">Tlaloc</a> was an important deity of <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/precipitation/rain.html&edu=high">rain</a> and fertility of the Aztec mythology, associated with caves, springs, and mountains. Tlaloc was depicted as a man wearing a net of <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/cloud.html&edu=high">clouds</a>, a crown of heron feathers, foam sandals and carrying rattles to make thunder. While he was thought to sustain life, he was also feared for sending <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/precipitation/hail.html&edu=high">hail</a>, <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/tstorm/tstorm_lightning.html&edu=high">thunder and lightning</a>. This image shows Tlaloc on a multicolor ceramic vessel from the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of the Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico.</em></small></p>

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Explore Myths Related to Aspects of the Earth

Norse: Freya

The Norse mythology associates the aurora with the goddess Freya. Freya was the goddess of ...Read more

Norse: Valkiries

It has been suggested that the northern lights, or aurora, represented the reflections of the ...Read more

Chinese: Pan-ku

According to a primitive Chinese myth, at the beginning of time only chaos existed. The universe ...Read more

Pawnee: Tirawa

According to the Pawnee Indians, the world was created by the god Tirawa who assigned to the ...Read more

Greek: Pan

Pan is the Greek god of wild nature. He protected shepherds, sheep, and goats. Pan's name is ...Read more

Roman: Faunus

Faunus was a Roman pastoral god. The Romans identified him with the Greek god Pan. Some times ...Read more

African: Shango

Shango was the forth king of the ancient Oyo Empire, the West African center of culture and ...Read more

Japanese: Susanowo

Susanowo was the god of the sea and the storms according to the ancient Japanese religion Shinto, ...Read more

Aztec: Tlaloc

Tlaloc was an important deity of rain and fertility in the Aztec mythology. Aztec people were ...Read more

Navajo: Tonenili

Tonenili, who is also known as the Water Sprinkler, is the Navaho God of Water.  He is responsible ...Read more

More about Myths Related to Aspects of the Earth

Historical Events

5/24 Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, died on this date in 1543 Details
5/30 7.5 magnitude quake hits Quetta, Pakistan in 1935
5/31 7.9 magnitude earthquake hits Peru in 1970

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Did you know?

Did you know that the Earth’s lithosphere is broken into giant plates, which occasionally move and can produce earthquakes?

Did you know that there may be 200 or so dwarf planets in the solar system, out to the Kuiper Belt?

 

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Adiabatic
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Research Highlights

Pollution from Asia Circles Globe at Stratospheric Heights

The economic growth across much of Asia comes with a side effect: pollutants from the region are wafting up to the stratosphere during monsoon season. The new finding, in a study led by scientists at the...Read more

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