My theme for my 2015 A to Z Challenge came from my
Disaster Crimes series. Disasters are a theme in each story, so it got me
thinking about all the disasters that occur from natural disasters to manmade
disasters.
Today’s
disaster are...
SOLAR
FLARE and SINKHOLE
Solar
Flares are sudden flashes of brightness on the Sun’s surface or
the Solar Limb, and are powered by the magnetic energy store in the Sun’s
corona. The energy release is about a sixth of the Sun’s total energy output
each second. In other terms, it’s equivalent to 160,000,000,000 megatons of TNT.
The flare ejects a cloud of electrons, ions, and atoms
through the corona of the sun into space. These clouds typically reach Earth
1-2 days after the solar flare. X-Rays and UV radiation emitted by the flares
can affect Earth’s ionosphere and disrupt radio communications.
FACT: The
first solar flare was observed by Richard Christopher Carrington (and independently
by Richard Hodgson) in 1859.
Small solar flares can occur several times a day when the
Sun is active to once a week when it’s quiet. In 2012, Earth barely missed a
massive and potentially damaging solar superstorm.
FACT: There
is an estimated 12% chance of another massive solar superstorm occurring between
now and 2022.
Have you seen the movie Knowing with Nicolas Cage? It's an odd movie and at the end *SPOILER* the Earth is destroyed by a solar flare.
Have you seen the movie Knowing with Nicolas Cage? It's an odd movie and at the end *SPOILER* the Earth is destroyed by a solar flare.
Sinkholes
are
holes in the ground caused by a collapse of the surface layer, such as from an
earthquake. They can be anywhere from 1 to 600 meters long as well as deep.
They can form gradually or suddenly all over the world. In the United States,
Florida (especially the most central part) is known for having frequent
sinkhole collapses.
Sinkholes can open up under houses and roads, swallowing
cars and even burying people alive. A few years ago, I heard a report of a
sinkhole opening beneath a house in Florida, right under a bedroom. At the
time, a man was sleeping in bed and was lost.
FACT: For
centuries, sinkholes have been used as disposal sites for waste.
QUESTION: Have you seen Knowing? Do
you live in Florida? I do...and I'm in the central part. *gulps* Have you ever seen a sinkhole? I haven't and hope I never do!
P: Plague
Q: Quasar Explosion
R: Rockfall
S: Solar Flare and Sinkhole
Q: Quasar Explosion
R: Rockfall
S: Solar Flare and Sinkhole
 |
| I'm a member of Tremp's Troops! |
What wonderful facts, amazing stuff!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteLooking at your list, I see many things to be afraid of. I used to think hurricanes and tornadoes were the worst, but at least you usually have enough warning to seek safety. A landslide and sinkhole are so unpredictable. Terrifying!
ReplyDelete~Visiting from AtoZ
There are a lot of disasters that can happen. Many of them without any warning.
DeleteCould you imagine the terror of that--having your bedroom literally sink into the ground? I can't think of anything worse than being buried alive.
ReplyDeleteI've often woken up from a deep sleep because I felt my bed falling or spinning. It is scary.
DeleteSome sinkholes are massive. Scary thing to think the earth could just fall out from under you.
ReplyDeleteIt is a frightening thought.
DeleteCongrats on your release day!
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise solar flares were harmful. When I think of a sinkhole, I think of the one in the Simpsons movie but the reality is more like a horror movie. Very eye opening post today!
Thank you, Nick!
DeleteA solar flare could be if it's big enough. Have you ever seen the movie "Knowing" with Nicolas Cage? A solar flare destroys Earth.
I didn't know much about these two...soooo scary.
ReplyDeleteThey are scary, but interesting to learn about.
DeleteCongrats on the new short story! :)
ReplyDeleteI am trying to imagine what it would be like to get caught in a solar superstorm. It is kind of a scary idea...
@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary
Thank you so much!!!!
DeleteI don't even want to imagine it.
Solar storms sound frightening. I almost afraid to ask what would happen if they do hit earth.
ReplyDeleteI did some research on sinkholes for a short story and I remember that awful news piece you mention pretty well.
Congrats on your story release! Sounds like a good one.
Have you seen the movie Knowing? The results aren't good.
DeleteThank you so much, Tamara!
I haven't seen the Knowing; sounds interesting though. Sink holes kind of scare me. Glad I don't live in Florida :)
ReplyDeletebetty
Sinkholes scare me too. And I wrote about one!
DeleteYes, write about any space related disaster. Love them.
ReplyDeleteAs for sink holes, though I've never experienced one, my nephew was friends with someone whose car was lost in a sink-hole. His friend died and it was very sad. I was barely even aware of sink holes at the time. Now, they intrigue me as much as solar flares. Such a weird thing to occur. Stay safe my friend.
I have one more that sort of has to do with space. Will...maybe two if you count a later one. ;)
DeleteThat's horrible! I am so sorry for your nephew and his friend.
Thanks! You too.
PS - Sometimes "S" stands for spoof. (My blog entry for the day).
DeleteSinkholes and solar flares are intriguing! The thought of a sinkhole is kind of (well, not really kind of - it really is) scary. The closest I've come to something like it was seeing a cliff eroded away and houses hanging over or toppling into the sea a few years back here in Maine. That was impressive and scary!
ReplyDeleteSounds like rockfall that I talked about for R.
DeleteWhen I lived in Virginia City, NV, there was a sinkhole about a half mile down the street from me. It wasn't actually a sinkhole (which is a geological change, generally involving limestone and decreasing water tables) but a mine cave in that opened up the road and caused a detour for a while... Stay on solid ground down there in Florida
ReplyDeleteI'll try my best to stay on solid ground...the thing is, you never know if it's really solid or not.
DeleteI am truly amazed at God's creation. The sun is so unique and full of surprises! Did you ever see the video of the sink hole (not sure where?) in the middle of that ridiculously expensive car dealership? It swallowed so many cool cars.
ReplyDeleteNo, I never saw that. It seems that sinkholes love to devour cars.
DeleteI HAVE seen Knowing. Truly the eeriest scene was when they figured out what 33/EE meant.
ReplyDeleteSinkholes are pretty scary to me.
That whole movie is pretty eerie. Or at least to me. :P
DeleteCan't even entertain the thought of either of these- I wouldn't ever come out of my house!@!!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't either. haha
DeleteI actually think both these phenomena are really cool. Can be scary too, but cool nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the A to Z Challenge!
A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
http://pensuasion.blogspot.com/
They are pretty cool.
DeleteI'll have to see Knowing just to add another thing to worry about.
ReplyDeleteHaha! You're too funny.
DeleteCongrats on your new book Chrys.
ReplyDeleteSolar flare, well sounds like something out in space and far from earth. Sincerely hope it stays that way.
Sinkholes, Woah! Now that's terrifying.
Thank you, Keren!
DeleteThose solar flares can get pretty close to Earth though.
Sinkholes freak me out. It is unnerving to think sinkholes can swallow us up whole. I can't help but wonder why is the earth collapsing beneath our feet. Its very scary.
ReplyDeleteIt is curious, isn't it.
DeleteI've seen smaller sinkholes in our city (we're on the San Andreas fault area in British Columbia). That's sometimes due to rain undermining roadways beneath the surface. We get mudslides too from unstable mountain areas. You knew that some areas of Paris have experienced sinkholes and collapse into the Catacombs below didn't you? Whole sets of houses would get swallowed even back a few hundred years or so, after they had mined beneath the city. They coped by shoring up the catacomb areas beneath and monitor them now.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new release, sounds interesting!
DeleteI didn't know Paris had experienced sinkholes and collapsed into the Catacombs. Wow!
DeleteThank you so much, D.G.!
I remember seeing the one with the guy in his bed on TV. That was heart breaking and scary. I never saw the Cage movie...I think I will pass. :)
ReplyDeleteI would've have passed watching that movie too if I knew what it was really about.
DeleteGhost of Death sounds awesome.
ReplyDeleteUm sinkholes scare me at the mention of its name.
Thank you, T. Powell!
DeleteThere's a lot of limestone in PA so we have sinkholes though not the huge ones like Florida. They cause road damage and some houses and water main breaks, it's a mess.
ReplyDeleteI bet it is a mess.
DeleteI posted a tweet about your book being out today.
ReplyDeleteI saw a picture of a sinkhole that happen on (under?) a causeway. The river continued to flow and you saw the vehicle come out one of the sides. Scary!
Thank you so much, LuAnn!!!! I appreciate the tweet. :)
DeleteThat does sound scary.
I've never seen a sinkhole. They sound scary!
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteAs you know, because of where I live, we have to be ever watchful for sink holes! The lake I live on was one before it formed into a lake! Going to check out that ghost! Lisa, co-host AtoZ 2015, @ http://www.lisabuiecollard.com
ReplyDeleteIt turned into a lake? That's neat!
DeleteSink holes are scary and I remember that man being killed while sleeping. I have seen that movie-depressing. Congrats to the new short story being out!!
ReplyDeleteThat movie is depressing. I don't like watching it.
DeleteThank you, Birgit! :D
Got it! Lisa, co-host AtoZ 2015, @ http://www.lisabuiecollard.com
ReplyDeleteYay!!!!! :D Thank you!!!!
DeleteThis is amazing to read, thank you for all the homework you must put in to bring us wonderful posts each day.
ReplyDeleteYvonne.
It sure was a lot of homework. But I enjoyed it. :)
DeleteSinkholes sound really scary. I can imagine my ex, who's already terrified of life and remote worst-case scenarios, becoming even more paranoid and OCD if he knew about sinkholes or suspected they were in his area.
ReplyDeleteGosh, could you imagine him reading my posts for those Challenge? Tee-hee. That's a funny image. ;)
DeleteI haven't seen a sinkhole, but that's really terrifying...the idea that one could open underneath your house at any time. Spooky!
ReplyDeleteFigures humans respond by filling them with garbage. :/
It's the "at any time" thing that gets me.
DeleteWe're not smart, are we?
You're blowing my mind, Chrys!! :) I remember hearing about the sink hole in Florida where the man died. I can't think of a worse death. In fact as a child, I had a recurring nightmare that i fell into large holes in the earth. I didn't know what a sink hole was but now that I see that image, it's kind of similar. CREEPY! I haven't seen the movie you refer to. Solar flares are fascinating and scary!
ReplyDeleteWoot! Woot! ;)
DeleteI wrote about a sinkhole and the whole time I had a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. Not fun.
Gulp, hope I never deal with a sink hole or a solar flare on earth. Good luck with the book....I added it to my books to read, and short sounds good right now!
ReplyDeleteInventions by Women A-Z
Shells–Tales–Sails
Thank you, Sharon! If you read it, I hope you enjoy it. :)
DeleteHopefully no sink hole never opens up near me. At least solar flares can send us back in time, right? lol
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not sure I want to go back in time. lol
DeleteSink holes are scary. I've never seen one in person, but I've seen many pictures of them. I'd hate to be near one when it sinks!
ReplyDeleteSo would I. I get shivers just thinking about it.
DeleteSolar flares are fascinating! Not so much when they threaten earth...Had a couple minor sinkholes here; typically from underground water breaks, etc. But in cases of building/paving over burial sites and former dumps, it seems bound to happen sooner or later - never a good thing.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on Ghost of Death! :-)
We're so stupid for building over burial sites.
DeleteThank you, Diedre! :D
I did see Knowing and I agree, it was a weird movie.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one. ;)
DeleteI have not seen Knowing, but that ending sounds like one of the weirder Nicholas Cage movies :) I've only seen a little sink hole, it opened up in our garden and it was only a foot or so across and a few deep - it was due to the fact that where our house was had once been a slope and the whole place had been landscaped, but in that one place, the earth decided not to stay.
ReplyDeleteSophie
Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles
FB3X
Wittegen Press
It certainly is one of the weirder ones he's done.
DeleteThat's interesting. At least it was small and not so deep.
I remember that sinkhole where a man died. It completely freaked me out, utterly terrifying.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new book, wish you much success.
Nilanjana
Freaked me out too.
DeleteThank you so much, Nilanjana!
I haven't seen Knowing, but the ending sounds right up my street :-)
ReplyDeleteAnnalisa, writing A-Z vignettes, at Wake Up, Eat, Write, Sleep
I think you'd like it. :)
DeleteCongratulations on your new book. A gorgeous cover.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen a solar flare or a sink hole. I have seen pictures of sink holes on TV though. Wouldn't want to be in either.
Thank you, Beverly! :D
DeleteThe pictures can be really terrifying.
Sinkholes are terrifying. They freak me out. Especially the ones where it's in the middle of a busy street.
ReplyDeleteSolar flares have made the news the last few years, especially when they mess with our satellites and communications. A big enough solar flare will pretty much extinguish all life on this planet. A sobering thought.
I have heard about a lot of solar flares in the past years. Seems like they are getting bigger and closer.
DeleteBetween this and Holli's post on serial killers, I think the world maybe really is a scary place! Oh my!
ReplyDeleteI liked that movie, Knowing, mainly because (if I remember it right?) everyone had the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. Maybe that's the good point in knowing things like that?
Still...shudder!
The world is a scary place. But it can be beautiful too. :)
DeleteI'd be more worried about sinkholes than solar flares. They seem to show up a lot more often!
ReplyDeleteSinkholes are a more immediate danger.
DeleteI have only seen a sinkhole once and it was fairly small. It was just outside the fence at work and was knee high in depth and about 3 feet in diameter. We had it filled in and haven't seen one since.
ReplyDeleteSean at His and Her Hobbies
That's good!
DeleteLast year, after winter, there was a little sink hole by the Kmart parking lot. It wasn't something you wanted to drive over because it was a few feet deep and wide, but compared to your pictures, it was small.
ReplyDelete~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee's Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
Seems that small sinkholes are pretty common.
DeleteNo, I haven't seen the movie and I don't live in FL. I have friends on the coast. That state is on my list to possibly move to, if I sell my house.
ReplyDeleteI think when they build houses and don't compact the soil properly that a sink hole can happen too. Or if they bring in lot of fill dirt and the area isn't stable and eventually gives way. I live in the desert so we rarely have anything like that here, too many rocks everywhere I guess. But a small area of the street did collapse one time and they had it blocked off until they could fix it. It was nothing major though and probably only about 2-3 feet deep.
Sunni
http://sunni-survivinglife.blogspot.com/
Your theory could be correct, Sunni.
DeleteI've heard of sink holes but never experienced them personally, thank god.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good thing.
DeleteI'm just fascinated by sinkholes. Especially when they just happen. The Earth opening and sucking people and things up? Now that's scary.
ReplyDeleteNot a good way to go, that's for sure.
DeleteMy boyfriend pays serious attention to the sun's activity on Space Weather. I wrote a novel based on the Carrington Solar Event and am fascinated by the Sun's power ever day. As for sinkholes, I've never seen one, but the book The Lovely Bones really plays on that idea. Creepy. It's a great book, though.
ReplyDeleteYour novel doesn't interesting.
DeleteReally? I have The Lovely Bones but never read it.
Lovely Bones was also made into a good movie by Peter LOTR Jackson and the sinkhole is central. I have been researching solar flares for a set of shorts set after a Carrington event, in which Earth's infrastructure is devastated but there are survivors - a more likely scenario than instant destruction. What's your book called, Shell? Will try and find it.
DeleteYes, but I haven't seen the movie either. :\
DeleteI think I saw Knowing. I'm not sure, though. Seems like something that was forgettable, so I did.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how someone could forget watching those crazy weird scenes.
DeleteI've never seen a sinkhole and they do scare me. A collapse in the surface layer? I wonder what causes this phenomena--why it would happen to begin with?
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of Ghost of Death! Thanks for sharing. :)
Elizabeth Mueller
AtoZ 2015
My Little Pony
I don't know. Earthquakes move rocks and plates...maybe things shift or get weak. It's a mystery.
DeleteThank you, Elizabeth! :)
I've seen Knowing, and I really didn't enjoy it, it was a weird film! Sinkhole really creep me out - I hope I never see one!
ReplyDeleteRachel Pattinson
Rachel's Ramblings - Full of writing, tea and cake
I didn't enjoy it either.
DeleteI've seen a bit of Knowing, but did not make it very far through. We had a sink hole open in one of our motorways not far from here when we had all the rain last year.
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
P.S. your book sounds right up my alley - trots off the Amazon.
Knowing is a strange movie.
DeleteThank you so much, Natasha! I hope you enjoy it! :)
the fear of being caught in either one of these gives me the gebbies.
ReplyDeleteI have seen sinkholes featured on the news (and on an episode of Grey's Anatomy, I think). It's terrifying.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the release of Ghost of Death, Chrys! The synopsis sounds good, really good.
Oh, yes! I remember that Grey's Anatomy episode. It was really good.
DeleteThank you so much, Claudine! :D
Hi Chrys .. I was fascinated by the solar flare information - it's so good to know more .. while sinkholes horrify me .. and they do just appear -we get them here too .. cheers HIlary
ReplyDeleteI love learning about space and the other planets in our solar system. :)
DeleteCongrats on the short story!
ReplyDeleteI'm quite scared of sinkholes. We have some in our area (Virginia), and I do worry one day one might open up on our land.
Thank you, Cherie!
DeleteWow ! I didn't know about these before. :) It's shocking to see how every part of the world has new disasters to face. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThere are more disasters than we usually care to think about.
DeleteI just watched the movie "The Knowing" starring Nicholas Cage last weekend. And after knowing we just missed one in 2012 makes me sigh in relief. Hope we keep on missing those solar flare storms.
ReplyDeleteI hope we keep missing them too!
DeleteThose solar flares are pretty frightening. I didn't know about the one in 2012 or if I did, I had forgotten, conveniently.
ReplyDeleteI hope you never get to see a sinkhole either. We see them reported on the news.
Book sounds good
Thanks, Jo!
Delete