CELSIUS VS FAHRENHEIT —SOME COMMENTS ON SOCIAL IRRITANTS

CELSIUS TEMPERATURES ANOTHER MODERN NUISANCE! 

On the par with the annual headache of seasonal “daylight savings” time changes, such as in the our just completed “spring ahead, fall back” clock maneuvers which just irritates everyone and seems to do nothing positive*— is the other irritant: Celsius vs Fahrenheit temperature fiasco.  

Celsius or what is it good for? 

We all know you can convert irritating Celsius to Fahrenheit with the 5/9 vs 9/5 fraction then adding or subtracting 32 degrees for some reason..and then come out with some answer of how you will feel today or tomorrow. You might, after some mathematical suffering, be able to answer the question. Do I need that long winter underwear or muffler today? Or is it too hot? 

I don’t want to have to go though these mental mathematical gyrations every time, I just want to know what underwear to wear.  That’s why I like Fahrenheit!!

 

In 1754 a German instrument maker,  Daniel Fahrenheit began making glass thermometers using mercury rather than the tinted alcohol previously used by earlier instrument makers. He constructed a thermometer composed of a thin wand of hollow glass tubing which ended in a bulb. The bulb contained the bulk of the mercury. When the bulb end was plunged into cold water the mercury would contract and the level in the thin glass wand would sink, when placed against warm skin the heated the mercury expanded  to drive the thin line of mercury up the wand. It was interesting to observe, but Fahrenheit had other ideas for its practical use. 

To be useful he would need to standardize his thermometer scale, but to what? 

If he could establish some standard temperatures these set temperatures could be used to calibrate his instrument. but what should he use? 

Fahrenheit lived in a time when the human body set the standards for measurement. The human foot (was a standard of distance or length), the yard (the length of a standard arrow measured from tip of index finger to anchor point on the chin), the mile (mille passus—or 1000 human paces), and even the great scientist Galileo (1564-1642) used his regular thumping pulse to investigate  gravity by timing the speed of a ball rolling down an inclined plane. 

Fahrenheit followed suit by simply slipping his new glass and mercury thermometer under his shirt, placing the bulb deep into the hairy pit of his underarm. He let it remain in place for a few minutes..indeed the silvery strand of mercury ran up the glass wand and remained at one point along the glass rod.. He  could clearly see the glass wand  sticking out from his crumpled up shirt and he confirmed that it remained unmoving!  It was stabilized at body temperature! That was his first and very useful standard. With a fine thin file he scratched a line where the silvery line of mercury ended.

That one point would be useful if only comparing his arm pit temperature to others…but he had dreams..he had more advanced uses for his new instrument.  With another “standard”—a low temperature— he could create a scale of equal graduations along the glass wand and make useful temperature observations of air or water based on how high above or below human body temperature this medium was. 

In those long off days..with no refrigeration, no “dry ice” and nothing but frozen lake water —ice—from a local “ice house”. These were sturdy wood outbuildings packed with big blocks of ice laboriously cut from a frozen lake at the the height of winter, then stored in a building constructed with thick walls stuffed with insulating sawdust to keep the ice from melting away though much of the spring and a part of the summer. 

Like others of his time he did know that by mixing ice and salt ( he used ammonium chloride, or sometimes plain sea salt) one could achieve temperatures colder than that of the ice itself. (Why this occurs is another interesting story for another blog). Fahrenheit used this salt and ice method to achieve his “low point temperature” assuming that -as far as he knew, this “salt ice mix low point” was as cold as things could get,  and for this reason put a little scratch mark on the glass tube where the top of thin silvery mercury line lay well below the human body temperature on the upper part of the glass tube.  

He now had a glass with a bulb filled with mercury that had two reference points on it. One high, human arm pit temperature, and the lowest temperature known at the time—a maximized ratio of ice and salt bath as his low temperature

Fahrenheit simply divided the distance along the glass wand into one-hundred equal increments. He liked multiples of ten a dividing things into hundreths so the top point became “100”, and the low point “0”.  

As a result, using the Fahrenheit scale human body temperature is about 100⁰F and Fahrenheit’s 1754  salt ice temperature of “lowest” temperature occurs at 0⁰F.   It just so happens that freezing of pure water occurs at 32⁰F. Fahrenheit was aware that a mix of ice and water —no salt—does occur at around 30 ⁰F on his scale.   

The 100 ⁰F standard based on human body temperature (actually 98.6 ⁰F) is what made Fahrenheit’s thermometer and his scale useful and so popular. Human comfort levels can easily be calculated without a lot of busy calculations.  This means that outdoor temperature at 20 ⁰F clearly indicated to the observer, outside air temperature is almost 80 increments below your body temperature, a great deal of heat will be drawn from your body under those circumstances. While 110 ⁰F means outside (or inside air) is ten degrees higher than your body temperature. Under those circumstances you will struggle to keep comfortable. Your body is the guideline from which you have a comparison. 

The human body—unlike that of your canine pets—cools itself by evaporation of water (perspiration, sweat) from the surface of the skin. The system is very efficient, particularly in a dry climate.  Each thimbleful (1 ml) of water that evaporates from your skin carries away about 540 calories.  Outside temperatures must be cool enough (and the humidity of the air low enough) to permit that very necessary evaporation to occur. If no evaporation occurs the human body heats up rapidly.  If the air is exceptionally  dry evaporation rate from the body increases and this has a strong cooling effect.  Wearing a wet tea shirt is an example—one feels very cold very quickly in wet clothes—evaporation is at work. 

Comfort levels in homes are set most people are comfortable at temperatures which in winter hover around 70F (74-78 F), while summer indoor temperatures are generally set again about 70F (or 72-80 F). While optimal sleep temperatures are lower hovering about 65F (60-72F).

Humidity is a big factor and most recommend humidity levels between 20% to 60% for optimal comfort.  

But if you get caught in Europe and want to get a real human related feel of the temperature outside—do the numbers thing.

30C can be converted to a close estimate of degrees F by multiplying by 2 and adding 32. Since there are 100 gradations between boiling and freezing on the Celsius scale but close to 2 times as many (180) between those same two points on the Fahrenheit scale. 212F boiling -32F freezing =180 increments. Fahrenheit degrees are almost two times larger.  180 vs 100 is 9/5ths —that’s where the 9/5ths comes from. 

  

30 ⁰C equals 86 ⁰F 

So 30⁰F X 2= 60, 60+32 is about 92 ⁰F  That is only a rough estimate  to tell you it’s hot in Paris today, don’t wear the long underwear!  But its not exact!!

A refinement for 30 ⁰C is to multiply by 2, then subtract 10% from the product, then add the 32!

Thus 30 x 2 =60, 10% of 60= 6, 60-6=54, 54 + 32 = 86 ⁰F Correct!

Here again: 24C =75.2 °F

24x2=48,  10% of 48= 4.8, 48-4.3= 43.7, 43.7+32 = 75.7,  not 75.2 but  close enough for a quick mental calculation. 

(As I write this I notice that I have one more clock— the oven clock—has yet to be turned ahead…for “spring ahead”, while my automobile clock didn’t have to be changed at all, it remained on Eastern Savings Time all year long, causing confusion and late arrivals all winter long.) 

ON DRIVING SAFELY

 I saw a young girl about 12 or 13 almost get hit by a truck yesterday. She was attempting to cross a busy intersection. It was St Paddy’s Day and she was dressed all in green with a big green bow in her hair. She was not walking but riding a battery operated scooter. She was very pretty too.

She did wait for the light to change. It did, and she proceeded to cross in front of my car. I was in the far left lane waiting for the left turn signal and she passed in front of me.  I was stopped.  But she could not see a big truck slightly behind me in the right (left turning) lane, just moving ahead to make his left turn.  That driver was moving ahead slowly and fortunately saw the youngster and stopped short. 

The little lass on the scooter tried to stop her electric vehicle, but could not,  and continued across in front of the abruptly stopped and rocking truck fearfully. Thankfully she arrived safe and sound on the other side.   

If the driver of the truck had been in a hurry at that light…the story would be a tragic one. 

Events at that intersection  might have been a replay of a tragic accident at the very same light, two or more years ago,  when a young boy was killed at the same exact spot.  That other driver was in a hurry to make the light. She sped ahead. The young boy died on that road intersection tangled up in the mangled bike he was riding. I think of both him and the driver often as I drive through that intersesction. Only a second slower speed and two lives and their familes would have been so deifferent today. 

It got me thinking about speeding. It is almost always being in a hurry that causes accidents

So advice to my readers…please drive slowly. 

Driving fast always reduces your options of avoidance  if something unexpected occurs ahead of you, at high speed you simply have less time and less options to avoid or present a terrible accident. Youu loose the option of avoidance!  You loose!

Don’t tail gate. It takes a car traveling along at 45mph about 170 feet to stop on a dry road. (A car length is about 15 feet so estimate a bit more than 10 car lengths to stop). .But twice that distance if the road is wet..or 340 feet.  

A good way to estimate distance to stay back is keep away by 3 feet for every 1 mph of your speed. At 35 mph (35 x 3 feet =105 feet or @7 car lengths!

How far is 170 feet? Telephone poles along most local road are separated by 120 feet.  Image a distance of about one and one-half (1 1/2) telephone poles to stop your car at 45 mph on a dry road —and almost 3 telephone poles on a wet road.  In snow multiply the distanced by 10x! 

Most roadways in suburban and non-superhighways are old cart paths or foot trails that grew into auto routes. In hilly terrane these roads curve and turn and rise and fall over the topography making visibility ahead uncertain. 

Traffic engineers spend enormous amounts of energy and thought devising caution signs and speed signs for our local roads. Most roadways in country settings on Long Island as well as most other places have set speeds that have been established based on how far an operator can see ahead and how long it would take to stop. You must follow those speed limits for safe driving.  Many of our local “back” roads are old cart paths with hills and sharp turns. The set speed limits in many places is 35 miles per hour…at that speed it takes and alert driver to 75feet to stop (from above) 105 feet, almost a full distance between electric poles and 7 car lengths!

Waiting at a Red Light. Never, never go ahead promptly when the light you are waiting for turns green. No matter who is behind you, beeping their horn, ignore them. Pause, look for speeders who are going to go through the red light and when the coast is clear and in full green…you can go ahead.  

There are many many safety rules…but the main one is don’t be in a hurry behind the wheel..speed kills!

 

ARISTOTLE, BROOKLYN BMT LINE: VIEWS AND MISCUES ON REALITY

In the latter part of the last century, as a student, I learned to trust my senses and instincts as I traveled long hours on the now defunct “BMT line” from my home in Brooklyn to a university way uptown in Manhattan. I had a few “adventures”  in that mostly underground world.  

As it is today, a passenger had to keep strictly alert to one’s surroundings, make use of one’s senses to avoid dangers. Things haven’t changed much in the underground transit world from those days. People placed in similar circumstances behave in similar ways. Rush hour still brings massive crowds. More working class passengers used the trains in those days. The stations were often littered with debris. There were pickpockets, sex offenders, “nut cases”, and many many hard working folk just trying to get to work or home on time and with the least inconvenience and danger as possible. 

On certain trains at certain times the carriages were packed, all seats were taken and there was standing room only. Men who were seated in the crowd and surrounded by women  (may have boarded at an outlying station) just sat there, staring down at the floor or feigned at being asleep with women standing near them. Some men did give up their seats to women. A standing passenger felt lucky to have an overhead handhold to grip onto to avoid bumping into  others as the trains rocked and jerked ahead. 

On some days and times passengers were packed in like sardines. An to make things worse the trains were often stalled for periods of time as the conductor-motorman-operator waited for a light in a tunnel,  or for transit workmen to move off the tracks in the tunnel ahead.  

On occasions these passenger-packed trains which were stalled in an underground tunnel, had all the carriage lights turn off, leaving passengers in total darkness—and remain that way for seemingly long periods (but perhaps only several minutes).*   On one particular summer trip some sweaty, lightly clothed, and jammed-together-passengers clearly took advantage of the several minutes of absolute “35mm film safe” darkness. The lights blinked and then turned on and the packed and sweaty passengers bumped together as the train jerked ahead and finally stopped at the next station. The clandestine activities in the dark were only revealed when, as the crowd rushed through the open doors to depart the dusty and ‘reddish concrete floor again became visible—-there to reveal a discarded pair of tiny, black-lace panties!  Harried  exiting passengers carefully stepped  over the “evidence”, some taking a furtive peek downward on their way out the door. I couldn’t see the expressions as they left but some seemed to be smiling, while others shook their heads in disbelief.  

 Some stations at certain times of day or night were a “no go” region and had to be avoided permanently.  Other circumstances could not be anticipated. 

Sitting at a window seat on a late afternoon, my textbooks on my lap I was jogged from a doze ans the train whooshed into a lonely uptown Manhattan station.  The doors opened and closed. No one entered or left the near empty train. As the doors closed, and the train slowly pulled away, it passed a teen “tough” our eyes met only for seconds. Seeing me innocently looking out the window must have raised some objection to my appearance, as the train sped up he raced up and with a gloved hand punched the window so hard, it shattered, tossing dull glass shards into my face and lap. Fortunately the glass was of the “shatter proof” laminated type and no blood was spilled, but the shattered window and hanging pieces of glass bulged inward letting damp tunnel air into the train. I moved to another seat away from the windows.  

After that incident, on a long lonely ride home, I made a list of some “BMT travel rules” I used so as to pass it on to my younger sister and others. The yellowed, crumpled list showed up recently as a page marker in a once treasured textbook of mine. 

The scribbled shaky script in pencil lines read:  

“Always appear as if you know where you are and where you are going. 

Trust no one. 

Share no personal information. 

Wear no icons on your clothes. 

No eye contact, eyes ahead! Keep moving. 

Just step over that drunk lying in your path, no comments or special attention. 

Watch out for pickpockets. Keep your wallet and valuables in your front pocket!

When the distant hollow roar of an oncoming train and  rush or subterranean air from the dank tunnel tells you your train is roaring in to the station, be sure to stand well back from the edge and behind the milling crowd. Never near the edge! 

And when your roaring train exits the tunnel and speeds into the lighted station, look out the grimy window and survey the crowd for thugs or gangs.  Sometimes going one station more, may be safer.”. 

But mostly one must learn to trust your own senses..and warnings of danger the intellect provides.  Aristotle the philosopher and polymath of the Hellenic Golden Age would have agreed.      

Aristotle (384BC-322BC) an ancient Greek scholar, teacher, scientist and philosopher was born in northern Greece, studied under Plato in Athens, eventually started his own school the Lyceum in that city, and later in life, traveled to the Court of King Philip of Macedonia whee he taught the young Alexander the Great .  Aristotle was a realist, an empiricist philosopher who argued that our senses are the gateway to reality. For Aristotle the senses  provide the only reliable information on the real world around us.  

Aristotle held that knowledge and understanding of the world around us all stems from what we see, hear, touch, and smell.  He didn’t formulate this relatively recent  aphorism: “If it waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck, and has feathers, it’s probably a duck.” But he most likely would have agreed with it.  

The physical source  of our knowledge of the real world is from the senses.  But Aristotle also recognized that our intellect uses sensory stimuli to analyze and further refine the fundamental nature of things that may not be perceived directly by the senses, but can be understood from human reason.  Some would term this a form of inductive reasoning—-an early form of Aristotelian common sense..and a part of a formal means of scientific inquiry in which we gather sensory information to arrive at a tentative conclusion. In this way Aristotle laid the groundwork for the scientific method, based on his use of observation and systematic inquiry. 

He also developed rules of formal logic a form of deductive reasoning. Later others would combine these forms of reasoning to formulate a formal means of scientific inquiry.   

Though they claim to laud “science” as if it was a “god” of the modern pantheon— modern societies seem to have abandoned Aristotle’s  basis of scientific view of sense-based reality, often with unwanted or disastrous consequences.  One reason may be the overload  of information we moderns are exposed to.  It overwhelms us.  And like a “set price” Chinese buffet we overindulge in delicacies, become bloated and ignore the “meat and potatoes” real food.  Then too, we moderns love to be part of the crowd.  We fear having to stand alone with an unpopular idea sheet pinned to our lapel, reading: “I believe in XYZ”.  We often suppress the perfectly obvious and valid information from our senses to accept the “feel good” concepts about reality that we are offered, even is these are  unsupported by what our senses see and feel and what our intellect tells us—“this is reality”.  The urge to be part of the accepted or “elite”, the so called intellectuals overwhelms our sense of how we perceive reality.  We tend to “go along” with the chimera of a fantasy world that only exists in the minds of those who want to proselytize or propagandize.

Our senses told us that President Biden was age “challenged” and unable to perform his duties but the elites and others assured us that “out of sight” he is as sharp as a pin intellectually. Some told us our southern border was “sealed tight” and while we could see our neighborhoods overflowing with undocumented strangers from abroad.  

Our senses tell us with certainty that men are, on average, taller, weigh more, are stronger, have greater muscle mass, more bulk, are more aggressive than women—and many more differences too.  Our sense of vision can clearly differentiate man and woman. That is reality.   Rejection of our sense of reality (or fantasy) is a 6 foot 2 inch male swimmer, weighing 200 lbs, dressed in a female bathing suit and prepared to compete in a swim race contest with  females (“team mates”) weighing around 120 lbs and at 5 foot 4 inches or less.  The long armed, long legged (former male) competetor wins hands down and claims overwhelming, consistent win streak wins in completion is fair—because he “feels” female. Though all those heeding their senses do not agree.    

When race official claim the transgender “win” they ignore the reality or their senses. The tranagenser person claims “female hood” therefore “it’ is a female. Race officials, observers, and competitors  must ignore their senses and reason to make this decision.  

This is the abject betrayal of objective reality! Our eyes and intellect tell us so. But too many posit the fantasy world confined to a peson suffering from a form of dysphoria. Why should we and the female competitors be forced to deny our senses and our rationality based on another person’s fantasy world?  Our senses should take precedence. 

Our perceptions of our world should be, not what some fiction writer, sociologist, political theorist or political hack thinks it ought to be…but what is reality. Our senses and intellect are as Aristotle claimed our access to reality and should take precedence.   

Were we to revert to the reality of Aristotle we would abandon the permissive fantasy of DEI, Radical Feminism, BLM, WOKEism and many other forms of irrational thought…in which the information which our senses provide us and what our intellects conclude—are ignored or denied and instead we act or enter into the chimera world of the fantasists in our midsts.  

My many years of travel on NYC’s old BMT line trains hardened me to the need to trust my senses..it saved my skin on several occasions.  Our senses tell us to beware of the the rash of knife slashing, torching, baseball-bat beatings, black teenage gang stompings, robberies, rapes, murders, random shootings and more, are dangers we should avoid and what we may possibly face upon entering certain districts, such as those  of NYC or the underground subway system, for example.  But the fantasists would have us ignore these threats —and foist on us their phony reality—that the City and its NY Subway System are a safe, clean, well lighted transport facility which supply a visitor with a clean rail car that will bring you safely to your station. Who is the realist?  Who is offering you propaganda? Who is more likely to survive?

The realist also looks at the college scene with trepidation. Their senses warn them that young men and women who go off on “Spring Break” are likely to come home with STD or perhaps not come home at all.   Spring Break its not a “break” at all, but a excuse to leave the almost “no rules” existence of campus life for the absolutely “no holds barred” life of drugs, alcohol, and episodes of sexual orgy called “Spring Break”.  

Our senses and intellect tell us that our youth who at this Spring Break age are at the height of  blood-hormone-saturation and peak sexual drive, but at their 18-22-years old their levels of mental risk-aversion is well below its zenith. When a young woman goes missing in Aruba or Santo Domingo while oin Spring Break, or is harmed or physically abused, where is the realist who has ignored their own mature and trusted sense of reality and sent their mentally immature child off into danger. Why? They ignored their own senses and trusted the propagandists. 

Where are the realist, the adults…the parents?  They too have become the fantasists. 

* “Experts” on the old BMT tell me that the “lights off” events were the result of the train having to switch from “third rail power” to “battery power” for the interior  lights temporarily. The lights went off when battery power was not available.  

AN ANCIENT CLIMATE DISASTER AND A RECENT ONE COMPARED

GLOBAL WARMING

Climatic change and especially “climate warming” is a “hot’ topic nationally and worldwide. Sadly, there is much disinformation of what the term actually means and what level of threat climate change actually poses to human life. Though historic analogies are often misused as well, in these disinformation real scientific based earth history can provide critical information on past events.   

PALEOZOIC ERA ENDS WITH MASSIVE EXTINCTIONS OF LIFE  —THE GREAT DYING—

Earth history is long on years an almost unimaginable 4.5 billion of them!  Life on Earth —divided  into the Proterozoic Eon and Phanerozoic Eon (period of visible life) and the latter divided into the Paleozoic (ancient life) , Mesozoic (middle Life)  Cenozoic (recent life)  Eras. 

Life on Earth appears only in profusion very “recently” at least in geological terms. A profusion of fossil evidence occurs abruptly at @ 500 million years ago. That is—visible life—life more complex than bacteria and algae do not arrive on the scene until the last chapter of a nine chapter book.  The last one-ninth of history is rich with all kinds of multicellular life of almost all the phyla that exist today.

Then halfway through the ninth chapter—or 250 years later—a climatic disaster  nearly wiped out all the evolutionary progress made over the last quarter of a billion years. This catastrophic disaster caused the extinction of 70% of all  land species and about 90% of all known marine species. This collapse of life forms on both land and sea marked the dramatic, or catastrophic end of the  flourishing life of the Paleozoic Era.  

CAUSES?

What caused it?  Why did it occur? How does it relate to modern times?

THE PALEOZOIC ERA

The Paleozoic Era  began about @550 million years ago (mya) and came to an abrupt end about to 250 million years ago.  

When the Paleozoic begins  about  550 million years before the present time the earth’s atmosphere had become close to what we breathe today, with oxygen at about 20% and and nitrogen about 70%. Earth’s continents which have a pattern of coalescing into one super continent and then  breaking  apart about every 500 million years per cycle  were at this time clustered together in the southern hemisphere, into a “super continent”. Almost all  (North America, Africa, South America, Australia, India, Antarctica) were located in the Southern Hemisphere, below the 30^th parallel. Thus, the in the early Paleozoic the climate of most were tropical or semitropical. 

There was little glaciation in this period so global sea levels were high, and many shallow seas covered low lying parts of the continental masses.  It is in these warm shallow seas that multicellular life flourished in an explosion of marine life forms. By the end of the Paleozoic Era (250 million years ago) almost all the animal phyla were represented. Plants flourished on land and by mid Paleozoic the growth of forests and burial of carbon rich decaying organic matter in swamps took carbon out of circulation and led to even higher levels of oxygen (@35%).  

Marine animals such as trilobites, brachiopods, sea scorpions, crinoids (sea lilies), corals all flourished in the shallow well lighted oxygenated seas. Near the latter period of the Era primitive fish such as jawless fish and cartilaginous (sharks) fish all flourished. Due to exposure to solar radiation in shallow water many sea creatures evolved with protective shells or exoskeletons.  On land later in the Paleozoic, plants such as  ferns had appeared first, and were followed by tree-like vascular plants in the later part of the Era. Tree-like ferns expanded overland to form vast forests which also contributed to higher oxygen levels. CO2 sequestered in the coal seams formed  in these times kept the planet relatively cooler.  

Animal life on land was concentrated near bodies of water and swamps where large vertebrate tetrapods such as amphibians flourished, while late in the Era drier conditions led to the evolution of reptiles adapted to these new conditions. Arthropods and millipedes developed in these areas as well/ Some claim that higher oxygen concentrations encouraged the evolution of giant arthropods such as giant dragonflies and huge cockroaches which evolved to populate highlands and desert areas. 

At 250 million years ago the climate changed abruptly!  Large quantities of carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas were released over a period of about 2 million years. This  caused massive changes in the post Paleozoic climate—often referred to as the Permian-Triassic Extinction.

Air temperatures rose sharply, sea water became warmer. Some estimates of equatorial sea surface temperatures indicate temperatures as high as 104 0 F (or 40 0 C). Then too, carbon dioxide is soluble in water and when dissolved causes acidification.  Acid sea water may have interfered with the ability of marine animals to generate their protective exoskeletons and calcium/magnesium carbonate shells.

What caused this massive climate alteration? 

SIBERIA FLOOD BASALTS OR QUIET LAVA FLOWS

Siberia Flood Basalts (a form of quiet non explosive volcanic eruption) 

In the 1870s Alexander Czekanowski (1833-1876) a Polish botanist and natural historian discovered a vast area in Siberia covered in volcanic rock. The rock type was basalt—a dark heavy rock with mineral characteristics similar to the material deep below the earth crust.  

In the late 19th century  Poland was a dependent kingdom within the Empire of Russia. Czekanowski was an outspoken activist for Polish independence and was involved  in the 1863 “January Uprising” for Polish independence. For his activism Czekanowski  was arrested by Russian officials and exiled in far off, icy cold, Irkutsk, Siberia.  

His imprisonment and exile in this isolated region of Siberia  about 6,000 Km or 3,600 miles from St Petersburg. The vast distances from civilization ment that there was no need for formal confinement, and Czzekanowski  had a modest levell of freedom to travel locally. While confined he continued his studies of geology as best he could, keeping records of natural history and geology observations he made during his travels.  

Over decades of Czekanowski’s research resulted in the discovery of an unimagined  vast area of of volcanic terrane in north-central Russia. The region had been flooded in the distant past by vast sheets of molten volcanic rock called basalt or “trap rock”. Czekanowski’s  studies eventually delineated an area of about 3 million square miles of volcanic terrane or “flood basalts” (or and area of about equal to the size  of the lower 48 states in the USA). Czekanowski reported that this area was once covered with hot (@ 1000⁰ C or @ 2000⁰ F) molten lava. By 1873 his trips to the vast unexplored areas of Siberia while in exile in Irkutsk resulted in the publication of regional geologic maps, as well as fossil and mineral collections that were instrumental in bringing to light this the geological significance of this previously unknown immense area of the Earth’s surface. 

In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries Czekanowski’s publications met with interest in the fact of the magnitude of the process of volcanic material flooding from a localized “hot spot” in the earth crust and spreading widely. The formidable area of Siberian flood basalts were previously unknown from other areas in the world. While trap rock floods are known from India and the Columbia River plateau in USA are recorded, but are in no way comparable to those in Siberia.  

In the late 20^th century French geologist Vincent Courtilliot at the University of Paris (1980s and 90s) suggested that the Siberian floods basalts and Paleozoic end  or “great dying” (in geology known as the Permian-Triassic extinctions) released enormous amounts of greenhouse gases which caused catastrophic climate change and widespread species extinctions. 

Later studies by Professor Paul Renne a geochronologist Universityof California< Berkeley focused on the age of the trap rocks. Renne visited the site and used Argon (Ar-Ar) dating to refine the ages of the floods.  Renne determined that based on hid dating methods the flows were about the same age as the great extinctions. In 1992  Renne concluded there was a “genetic relationship” between the floods and the great extinctions at the end of the Paleozoic Era. 

Based on these studies the flood basalts, or fissure eruptions appear to have lasted about  2 million years. Geologists concluded further that the Siberian event may have been the largest volcanic eruption in the last 500 million years. They also concluded that the event was caused by a hot plume of basaltic mantle which melted its way through Siberian craton (the continental core area) and erupted through a fissure vent in the crust which continued active for about two million (2x 10^6) years. 

Other studies have indicated that though basaltic lava flows, do not emit great amounts of carbon dioxide gas, they are very hot (1000^oC) and active basalt lava flows would burn any organic matter encountered, such as forests, peat deposits, coal beds, and by oxidizing these carbon sources generate great quantities of CO2.  Some studies indicate that the lava floods may have produced about 1.34 x 10^5 Giggatons of CO2 gas from the lava itself, as well as about 2.08 x 10^5 Gigatons of CO2 resulting from the lava igniting organic matter it encountered in the vast 3million square miles are it flowed over and oxidized these materials to CO2. 

COMPARISONS 

The total CO2: burned material (2.08x10^5 Gt) + Gas from lava rock ( 1.34x10^5 Gt)= 342,000 or total CO2 generated + 3.42 x10^5 Gigatons of CO2. 

How does this actual exitential threat to ancient life as a result of the natural release of CO2 by fissure eruptions of basaltic lava compare to our present circumstance of anthropogenic release of CO2?

Below is a comparison of  the levels of carbon released to the atmosphere in the end Paleozoic eruption of the Serbian traps to the amount of carbon dioxide being released by humans over the last 200 years or since the 18^th century. 

In comparison to the release of 3.4 x10^5 Gigatons of greenhouse gas as a result of the Siberian lava flows humans in the USA since the 1750s  have released about 430 million metric tons of Carbon dioxide. In modern times we anre often warned that these level will cause catastrophic changes to our planet. Will they?

Siberian Traps and burning coal peat forests release: 3.4 x10^5  Gigatons of CO2 Siberian Traps over 2 million years

1 Gigaton = 10^9 tons 

3.4x10^5 Gt = ? Tons of carbon gas?= 3.4x 10^14 tons of CO2 released by Flood Basalts

USA from 1750 to present release: 430 million tons of CO2 over two hundred years.

4.3 x 10^8 tons 

End Paleozoic release of greenhouse gases vs recent human release of greenhouse gases:

Siberian Traps divided by Recent CO2 Release 

(3.4 x10^14)/(4.3x10^8)=790,697.674 or about 800 thousand times (8x10^5 times greater) 

7.9 x 10^5 times or about eight hundred thousand  (800,000 times) greater!

Thus the Siberian release of greenhouse gases was  almost a million times six orders of magnitude greater than recent greenhouse gases released by USA from 1750 to present.

But! 

More recent figures of release of green house gases suggest that since the 18^th century approximately 2,500 Gt (2.5x10^3) of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere. And most of the accumulation has occurred since the 1990s. 

Using those figures: 

(3.4 x10^5)/ (2.5 x10^3)=136 times greater or only a bit more than two orders of magnitude greater!

This is a worrying result. Only two orders of magnitude of gas release to the atmosphere separate the worst climate disaster in Earth history and that of modern times.

The devil is in the details.  How much carbon has been released? There are several estimates. We do have good estimates of the level of CO2 released by the Siberian flood basalts,

The numbers above suggest we have time, but change in our behavior is needed!

We have dumped a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere for puny humans to be comfortable and fat!

Two million years is a lot of lead time to get the human act on track…..Let’s hope humans are smart enough! 

POST SCRIPT 

What caused the great flood basalts fissure eruptions in Siberia? Most geologists theorized a hot spot or plume of magma rising up through the earth mantle melted through the crust and exited on the Siberian plain to spread over vast areas for 2 million years.

Others suggest that there may be a cause for this fissure eruption. 

In the recent decades a great crator had been indicated under the Antarctic ice at the almost exact opposite point from the fissure eruptions in Siberia (the antipodal point). Some suggest this massive crator bigger than the Chixilub Crator in the Gulf of Mexico struck the Earth at 250 million years ago and the the shock disrupted the crust to cause the fissure!

A catastrophic change in climate caused by massive fissure in earth crust, in turn caused by a huge meteor impact on the opposite side of the Earth? .Fascinating material for further of our oh so alive and active Earth!