Podcasts about hydrosphere

March 22nd is World Water Day, a celebration of what Jacques Cousteau called The Great Hydrosphere, expanded beyond Ocean to include the entirety of the water cycle: the one natural system that controls our planet's utility. From mountaintop to abyssal plain, water is the great circulatory system that connects all things. This week on World Ocean Radio we pay homage to water, without which we would not exist. Think about it: where and when is water not present in our lives? About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Weekly insights into ocean science, advocacy, education, global ocean issues, challenges, marine science, policy, exemplary projects, advocacy, and solutions. Hosted by Peter Neill, Founder and Strategic Advisor of W2O. Learn more at worldoceanobservatory.org.World Ocean Radio: 5-minute weekly insights in ocean science, advocacy, education, global ocean issues, challenges, marine science, policy, and solutions. Hosted by Peter Neill, Director of the W2O. Learn more at worldoceanobservatory.org

ANY SEATS LEFT? Columbia Gorge Tour: https://randallcarlson.com/event/columbia-gorge-megafloods-2024/ “The Randall Carlson” socials, VoD titles, tours, events, podcasts, merch shop, donate: https://randallcarlson.com/links Activities Board: https://randallcarlson.com/tours-and-events/ Kosmographia Ep110 of The Randall Carlson Podcast, with Planetary Scientist Chuck Kizina, and GeocosmicREX admin Bradley, from 8/20/24 RC peruses scientific journals monthly and writes about interesting items in his monthly newsletter https://Sciencenews.org blurb about airburst over Antarctica 2.5Mya  Microscopic E-T minerals identified that hint at explosive impacting event: spinels, olivine  NASA/JPL tracking large asteroids 2024MK and 2011UL21 Mile-wide object impacting would likely knock out modern civilization, not mass extinction though 43,000x larger volume than Tunguska object We are in stable inter-glacial period now – no reason to think 2.5My trend has ended Michael Rampino for decades at forefront of modern revival of catastrophism March '24 article in Global and Planetary Change “Sixteen mass extinctions of the past 541My...” also referencing Continental Flood Basalts (CFB) Siberian & Deccan Traps Phanerozoic Era is time of visible life; Craters linked to extinction events: Popigai, Morokweng… Manicouagan in Ontario Canada has 50-mile dam-impounded ring lake, wider concentric rings Nipigon a prime candidate for impact site – CK notes alignment with other large lakes to NW Rampino graph re: extinction events' severity, with End-Permian at peak – linked to Siberian Traps Tunguska explosion was centered over ancient CFB – possibility it was endogenic? RC makes exponential links of timing with Great Year 26k cycle: 26.2My and 260My Gang Hu et al. in Global and Planetary Change '24 “Geological study of outburst flood event in the Upper Yangtze River and risk of similar extreme events Evidence for 900 landslides and 13 lakes along a 1200 mile stretch of Jinsha Noting 30 new dams, Brad asks: Is there any way that concrete weight affects Earth's spin? River canyon terraces had inhabited caves: Wanren Cave has paintings dated 13.3-8.5kya Article on “Vast armadas of giant icebergs” creating giant grooves on sea bottom Plow-marks into a ridge east of Iceland, over a kilometer down – something was pushing them!   LINKS: Brad's GeoCosmicREX playlist: Cosmography101 Class Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7C3ztcCxA   YDB Impact at Nipigon? https://youtu.be/Dn8NBPA2w5I   and Kosmographia Ep32: https://youtu.be/5TUWCOyJvQg Earth's Water Graphic: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/all-earths-water-a-single-sphere 2.5Mya Airburst article: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/asteroid-exploded-antarctica-millions-years-ago Cosmic Summit '24 speakers: https://www.youtube.com/@cosmicsummit Randall goes solo on “Squaring the Circle” https://rumble.com/user/therandallcarlson/videos RC VoD titles: Atlantis, Halloween, Cosmic Dragons, Christmas Origins https://www.howtube.com/playlist/view?PLID=381 T-shirts, variety of MERCH here: https://randallcarlson.com/shop/ Activities Board: https://randallcarlson.com/tours-and-events/ RC's monthly science news and activities: https://randallcarlson.com/newsletter   Support Randall Carlson's efforts to discover and share pivotal paradigm-shifting information! Improve the quality of the podcast and future videos. Allow him more time for his research into the many scientific journals, books, and his expeditions into the field, as he continues to decipher the clues that explain the mysteries of our past, and prepare us for the future...  Contribute to RC thru howtube: https://www.howtube.com/channels/RandallCarlson#tab_donate/ Make a one-time donation thru PayPal, credit/debit card or other account here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=8YVDREQ9SMKL6&source=url Contribute monthly to receive bonus content and perks: https://patreon.com/RandallCarlson   Email us at Kosmographia1618@gmail.com OR Contact@RandallCarlson.com  Small class lectures "Cosmography 101" from '06-'09 on Brad's original channel: https://youtube.com/geocosmicrex  Kosmographia logo and design animation by Brothers of the Serpent Check out their podcast: http://www.BrothersoftheSerpent.com/ ep108 with RC and Bradley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZC4nsOUxqI Theme “Deos” and bumper music by Fifty Dollar Dynasty: http://www.FiftyDollarDynasty.net/  Video recording, editing and publishing by Bradley Young with YSI Productions LLC (copyrights)

This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with a discussion about ocean policy and the myriad organizations and initiatives around the world developing guidelines that inform decisions, rules and laws for the ocean future. RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement. About World Ocean Radio 5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. Episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with observations about the climate future and our relationship to facts and truth, the spread of misinformation, the belief in and skepticism of science, denial, inaction, and vested interest in the status quo. If we are to enact the changes required to move toward a more sustainable climate future, how do we, collectively, turn toward acceptance of scientific fact and affirmation of a new world view? RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement. About World Ocean Radio 5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. Episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with a call for better communications of ocean science: translation, packaging, distribution and presentation to the millions around the world who live by and rely on the ocean for survival. The RESCUE series is outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions for the future.About World Ocean Radio 5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. Episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

This week on World Ocean Radio, part two of a multi-part series entitled RESCUE, outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions for the future of the ocean. In this episode we argue that science and technology are our best tools and the imperative foundation for any future ocean plan. About World Ocean Radio 5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. Episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

Being a Hydrologist was never on Matthew Rodell's radar, let alone working for NASA. But he always trusted the path ahead. Now as their Deputy Director of Earth Sciences for Hydrosphere, Biosphere, and Geophysics (HGB) at Goddard Space Flight Center, he walks us through the important data being collected via remote sensing, being one of the first hydrologists to work on NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Mission, and how a missed phone call landed him on his path with NASA. This episode was produced by Jason Rodriguez and Shane M Hanlon, and mixed by Collin Warren. Artwork by Karen Romano Young. Interview conducted by Ashely Hamer.

This week on World Ocean Radio, part one of a multi-part series entitled RESCUE, outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions: from the smallest to the largest solutions and inventions, to radical methods and policy changes for a sustainable future. RESCUE, a plan for specific action and public participation, stands for: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.About World Ocean Radio 5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. Episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

Inking a treaty with the gnomes has brought peace to the hunter-gatherer community, but their ancient stewpot provides little sustenance. Kelsi Sheren joins Lexman on another journey into the hydrosphere in search of sustenance.

Scribblecomic.com youtube.com/c/lilrummager . A bit of a mishmash of subjects tonight as I get to work on my book and luckily got the cluster running again today after one final check before wiping it out and starting over from a bad card read corruption. Fun times! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/divergentmind/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/divergentmind/support

In this episode , you will know about Hydrosphere, Enjoy The Geology Show ! Share this episode to your friends and geology lover...This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app ---Our website

जलमंडल की सामान्य जानकारी General information of Hydrosphere

Building a machine learning model can be difficult, but that is only half of the battle. Having a perfect model is only useful if you are able to get it into production. In this episode Stepan Pushkarev, founder of Hydrosphere, explains why deploying and maintaining machine learning projects in production is different from regular software projects and the challenges that they bring. He also describes the Hydrosphere platform, and how the different components work together to manage the full lifecycle of model deployment and retraining. This was a useful conversation to get a better understanding of the unique difficulties that exist for machine learning projects.

The Open Data Science Conference brings together a variety of data professionals each year in Boston. This week's episode consists of a pair of brief interviews conducted on-site at the conference. First up you'll hear from Alan Anders, the CTO of Applecart about their challenges with getting Spark to scale for constructing an entity graph from multiple data sources. Next I spoke with Stepan Pushkarev, the CEO, CTO, and Co-Founder of Hydrosphere.io about the challenges of running machine learning models in production and how his team tracks key metrics and samples production data to re-train and re-deploy those models for better accuracy and more robust operation.

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, my name is Chrissy and I am a Junior at Penn State Brandywine. I am here today to answer the following question: How do sinkholes form? Many people know what a sinkhole looks like, but not many people know how it actually forms. Sinkholes occur in many places, such as, Canada, the United States, and Europe. It is based on the land and what is underneath. Sinkholes can come in many shapes and sizes and there are actually different types. Some sinkholes get so big that they can swallow up a house or car. Sinkholes occur overtime rather than abruptly. In this podcast I am going to discuss many different characteristics of what a sinkhole is, what shapes and sizes a sinkhole can be, the different types of sinkholes, prone sinkhole areas, and mainly, how a sinkhole is formed. There are a lot of different descriptions about how a sinkhole is characterized. I can start by saying a sinkhole can be summarized as an area where there isn’t any exterior drainage and if it rains, the rainfall travels under the earth’s surface. [1] A sinkhole can also be described as a bowl-shaped hole that constructs while the surface under the land sinks and then the surroundings pour out. [2] Some have different shapes. If you think about a sinkhole, it almost looks like a cereal bowl, but some are actually bowl shaped and some have walls that are upright and can make a personal waterhole. Sinkholes can vary in sizes too. Some can be over 100 feet deep and wide. [1] Next, there are actually different types of sinkholes that include dissolution, cover- subsidence, and cover- collapse sinkholes. A dissolution sink hole is when the water from rain and the water from the exterior meet in between limestone, and then the soft carbonated rock moves towards the exterior and a little hole starts to appear. Cover- subsidence sinkholes occur over time, are tiny, and rare. [1] Also, with cover- subsidence sinkholes sand smothers the rock foundation and the sand flows into the rocks, resulting the ground to drop. [3] Cover- collapse sinkholes happen in clay because soil and clay are like best friends, but once the soil goes under, this process cannot be seen, and the land then falls. [2] Cover- collapse sinkholes are the most dangerous out of the three types because clay covers the rock foundation and eventually when the liquid starts to disappear, the clay and foundation start to disintegrate causing the land to unexpectedly cave-in. [3] Furthermore, there are many sinkhole prone areas, such as karst areas. Karst can be described as areas with rocks similar to limestone that has become soft. Just about the Eastern part of the United States is considered vulnerable. Specifically Florida because Florida is mainly karst. [2] From what I heard and have read, Florida is known for having a lot of sinkholes and Florida residents are used to them. A sinkhole occurred in Florida that was about 21 meters wide and it swallowed up a swimming pool and multiple houses. There are many reasons why Florida has sinkholes. One of the reasons is because their limestone is really old. So old that it is causing the ground to collapse. The limestone did not have a chance to be flattened by pressure, which leads to erosion. [4] Sinkholes can form just about anywhere. A major sinkhole happened in Ottawa. Many buildings and shopping centers near the sinkhole had to be evacuated because gas lines and water lines exploded and were damaged. The reason this sinkhole happened is because Ottawa was established on land called Leda. This clay can be defined as “quick clay” and it is mainly known for being weak and unsafe. This sinkhole caused major damage causing peoples utilities to be shut off. [5] Lastly, a sinkhole is formed in a karst area where the rock, specifically limestone, has a chance of being disintegrated by liquid. [6] When the rock starts to disintegrate, space can form underneath the surface. When the space underneath the surface becomes large, the ground eventually collapses and that is when a sinkhole is formed. [1] Overall, sinkholes can be considered unpredicted and dangerous but only happen in some areas. I would not worry too much about them since a majority of them are considered uncommon. Having knowledge about sinkholes can be beneficial for a lot of people just in case a sinkhole starts to form or if someone is simply just interested in sinkholes. Before this podcast, I always wondered how sinkholes form and now I finally know. Anyway, sinkholes are unpredictable and it is hard to figure out when a sinkhole could actually happen since we tend not to know what is happening below our feet. I mean, is anyone ever aware of what happens below their feet? Probably not, but always take precaution wherever you go and always be aware of your surroundings. Especially when it rains because water plays a huge part in the formation of sinkholes. From what I discussed in this podcast, I hope you learned a lot about sinkholes and enjoyed listening to this podcast. Thank you.   (This audio file was recorded by Chrissy Gledhill, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 9, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)     https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-do-sinkholes-form-paesta-podcast-series-episode-36

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello my name is Nick Malorgio and today I will be answering the question: what are the impacts of climate change on water resources? On earth, ninety-eight percent of our water is salty and two percent is fresh water. Seventy percent of fresh water is snow, and the remaining thirty percent is ground water [1]. Climate change has negatively impacted the sparse amount of fresh water on Earth. It is important to discuss the key factors that contribute to climate change and global warming as we work to preserve the world’s fresh water. Water makes up over three-quarters of Earth so 2% of that sounds like a significant amount of fresh water… So why are we so worried about preserving it? Well, water scarcity is actually a major problem caused by climate change. As of right now 1.6 billion people live with water scarcity and by the year 2025 this is expected to increase to 2.8 billion people. As the earth’s temperature continues to rise it causes a negative impact on our fresh water sources. Glaciers are one of the important sources of fresh water that many people depend on in the world. As global temperatures continue to rise, these glaciers are melting away with some of them predicted to vanish within this century [2]. Regions that use these glaciers as sources of fresh water will need to seek new fresh water because once these glaciers are gone they cannot be restored. Climate change is also causing our water cycle to act differently than in the past. Scientists now agree that these changes are going to affect water vapor, concentrations, clouds, precipitation patterns, and runoff stream flow patterns [3]. If the lower portion of the atmosphere continues to become warmer, the evaporation rate will increase. The change will cause certain areas to dry out and others to have too much rainfall. These warmer climates cause more water to evaporate from the land and oceans. The excessive rainfall and snow melting will result in fewer places to store the water as it exceeds its holding capacity. This will cause flooding and the additional fresh water will run off into our oceans becoming new salt water. The runoff also makes the ocean level rise; this creates more problems as the rising level makes the salt water drive into freshwater aquifers. At this point, in order to make the water usable in the aquifers we would to need to move it and then treat it. This increased ocean level is also forcing pollutants and waste to wash into our water. This makes the water be unusable because it is not safe [4]. The change in the water cycle is going to cause more droughts to occur and for longer periods of time. The Western side of the United States is having the worst droughts in history. With water already being limited in the west, the fast growing population is making the demand for water to increase. Energy is another thing being affected because of the impacts on water. The north western part of the United States also relies on water to create energy through hydropower. However due to the water flow becoming lower it is reducing the amount of energy that can be produced. The weaker water flow also makes it harder to cool fossil fuels and nuclear power plants. Energy being produced from different ways is making it worse as the constant burning of coals, gas, and fossil fuels are actually accelerating the climate change to become worse. Finally, due to climate change, countries such as Turkey, Israel, and Morocco will be greatly affected, with more than fifty percent of their water sources vanishing [5]. These are countries where agriculture is popular and farmers will have a hard time farming with the climate change. The increased amount of rainfall is causing crops to be damaged from the floods and this increases soil erosion. Areas that are already effected by droughts will be faced with even less water resulting in crops and livestock dying. As we can see, climate change will not have the same effect on all the regions of the world but it will affect each region in some kind of way. Once again my name is Nick Malorgio and thank you for tuning in.   (This audio file was recorded by Nick Malorgio, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, in November 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-are-impacts-climate-change-water-resources-paesta-podcast-series-episode-44

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, my name is Joseph Longobardi, an undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, and today we are going to talk about hydroelectric power.  Many people have heard of hydroelectric power, but what is it and how does it work?  Hydroelectric power is a method of generating electricity using water.  Water flows passed a turbine, which is similar to a fan intended to be spun by water.   The turbine spins a metal shaft connected to a generator which is what actually generates the electricity.  The generator is connected to the electric mains to power homes and businesses in the area.  Think about those old crank flashlights for when the power goes out.  The flashlight doesn’t require batteries because it uses the spinning motion of the crank with a generator to generate electricity.  Hydroelectric power is very similar, it just uses water to turn a turbine on the generator instead of using a person to turn a crank on the generator.  Unfortunately, simply putting a turbine in some flowing water won’t be enough to drive the generator; some accommodations need to be made to make it work. The location of hydroelectric power plants will usually be determined by those accommodations.  In a typical construction of a hydroelectric power plant, a large river with a large drop in elevation will be dammed up. [1] A small channel at the bottom of the dam’s reservoir called a penstock will be drilled to the output of the dam with the plant’s turbine in between. [1] Because there is a huge mass of water in the reservoir, the gravity will force the water through the penstock at a high pressure, driving the turbine and then exiting out the other side of the dam.  [1] If it sounds like hydroelectric power is some sort of new, innovative technology, it’s actually not.  Hydroelectric power has actually been around since the end of the 1800s. [2] The first hydroelectric plant was built in 1879 at Niagara Falls. [2] It was used to power the street lamps in the city of Niagara Falls. [2] Many more hydroelectric power plants have been built since then.  In fact, you might be getting some of your energy from hydroelectric right now!  Although many more plants have been built since then, hydroelectric power still only accounted for 2.6 percent of the United States’ energy generation in 2014. [3] Hydroelectric power has some good advantages.  Because water is usually renewed through the water cycle, the power plant’s “fuel” so-to-speak is free.  Speaking of fuel, no fuel is burned in hydroelectric power generation, so there is minimal pollution.  After the plant is built, there is only very little maintenance costs required to keep the plant running. [3] Unfortunately, hydroelectric power does have some disadvantages as well.  It does require a large up-front investment in the infrastructure like for the plant itself and the dam that is required to run the plant. [3] Also, the plant would be rendered useless in the event of a drought because of its dependency on water.  In addition, it can prevent fish from traveling through the now dammed up river and modify their habitat.  [3] To conclude, hydroelectric power is a very capable form of power generation.  It has been around for a long time and has proved reliable.  Hydroelectric power has a lot of advantages but it also has some disadvantages as well.  Hydroelectric power plays a small but important role in our power generation.  Once again, I’ve been Joseph Longobardi, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine talking about hydroelectric power.  Thanks a lot for listening today.    (This audio file was recorded by Joseph Longobardi, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 11, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-hydroelectric-power-paesta-podcast-series-episode-38

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hi, my name is John Miller, I’m a senior at Penn State Brandywine and I will be your host of this podcast.  Today’s topic is the impacts on water related to wildfire.  For those of you who aren’t familiar, wildfire is another term for forest fire.  Wildfire can have significant effects on water quality, from sediment loads to chemical reactions.  In today’s podcast, we will explore these impacts in detail. Erosion rates dynamically increase as a result of wildfire.  Due to the increased erosion, high sediment loads and turbidity can be observed. [1] Sediment loads, in large amounts increase processing costs of water treatment facilities.  In severe cases, such as Colorado’s Buffalo Creek wildfire, sediment can even shut the facilities down entirely. [1] Sediment containing phosphorus also promotes plant growth when found in high concentrations.  This can reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen in the watershed, impacting the local wildlife. [2] Turbidity refers to the level of clarity or how clear the water is.  Turbidity promotes algae blooms which, like phosphorus, can also reduce oxygen levels in the water. [3] Turbidity is measured in nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) and an acceptable level for entering a water treatment facility is anything under 20 NTU. [4] Aside from being aesthetically unappealing, turbidity not removed from drinking water can promote growth of pathogens increasing the risk of waterborne disease. [5] Wildfire affects water chemistry in various ways.  PH measures the acidity or alkalinity of the water.  A normal PH for tap water and freshwater aquariums is a value of 7.0.  PH spikes can be observed as a result of an overload of sediment into the watershed.  PH tends to spike initially after a wildfire and heavy storms, then stabilizes over time.  [6] Ash deposited by runoff can increase the alkalinity in the watershed [7], while metal minerals can act as “Lewis acids” [6] increasing the water’s acidity.  Another chemical imbalance caused by wildfire is increased levels of nitrogen.  Nitrogen comes in several forms and the primary forms deposited into watersheds following a burn are ammonium and dissolved organic carbon. [7] Dissolved organic carbon and nitrates are removed from the water only by means of microbial activity; also, known as beneficial bacteria. [3] Nitrites and nitrates are a byproduct of the microbial activity consuming ammonium. [3] The ammonium is the result of nitrogen volatizing.  A study on watersheds in Southern California showed nitrate levels increasing by as much as 550% under post wildfire conditions. [7] To put this into perspective, many of you may own an aquarium or know someone that does.  Nitrate levels for a healthy aquarium should never exceed 40ppm.  An increase of 550% would show levels as high as 220ppm and would certainly result in the loss of your aquatic friends. Phosphorus is another chemical effect that can be observed following a wildfire.  Phosphorus levels increase primarily due to ash deposited into the surface water following a wildfire. [3] Phosphorus tends to bind to soil and, therefore, increases levels in the watershed as runoff occurs.  Phosphorus also promotes algae blooms, which can have a leaching effect on the dissolved oxygen in the water. [3] Additionally, phosphorus based fire retardants can have adverse effects on the watershed when used to extinguish wildfire. [2] Aside from algae blooms, phosphorus can pose health threats to humans when found in drinking water.  The leaching effect of oxygen can lower oxygen levels in the blood stream.  Due to trace amounts of iron that come along with phosphorus, it is possible to corrode copper piping in our water delivery systems. [8] Furthermore, burning soil produces amino acids which lead to elevated levels of ammonia immediately following a wildfire. [5] Wildfire can cause the top-level soil to become hydrophobic, preventing water from permeating. [2] Due to a lack of infiltration, runoff levels may increase by as much as 2,350%! [1] High-intensity fire can also increase the erosion rate of soil, which in turn increases the sediment load delivered to the watershed. [6] Runoff depositing ash into the watershed, raising PH values, facilitates dispersion of the soil’s aggregates. [9] Prescribed burns are fires that are intentional and controlled.  These controlled burns can reduce the risk of extreme wildfire. [10] Proper burn plans must be in place prior to a prescribed burn.  Characteristics of a proper plan include considerations of temperature, wind, moisture and humidity and smoke dispersion. [10] Watershed impacts may still be observed in terms of chemical and sedimentation, however, to much less a degree than wildfire impacts. In conclusion, we can see there is a direct relation between wildfire and water quality.  By administering prescribed burns, we can effectively reduce the risk of forest fire and its damage to the environment.  For more information on wildfire and its impacts on water quality see the additional references and links provided in the transcript.  Thank you all for listening and may your passion for Earth science burn intensely.   (This audio file was recorded by John Miller, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 11, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/wildfire-impacts-water-quality-paesta-podcast-series-episode-39

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello my name is Allysa and I am a student at Penn State Brandywine. Today I will be answering the question “What are the mental impacts of weather and climate disaster?”. First off, weather and climate disasters are like natural disasters. They are major adverse events resulting from a natural process of the earth and can include floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and natural processes of the earth.  We hear about natural disasters often on the news or weather channels where they try to predict when a storm or something of the sort is coming our way and warn us, the people, to evacuate if they feel it’s going to really bad. Some natural disasters that made big news include The tsunami in Thailand in 2004 and hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans hard in 2005. Natural disasters are something we can’t control but that can come quickly and shake our lives forever. People who are involved have most likely seen, experienced, and lost things that are unimaginable to us. First, people can experience shock immediately after. This reaction can be a combination of shock and denial. [1] This can last for a bit of time, maybe days or weeks. After that people usually have feelings of insecurity. Home is supposed to be a safe place and when that’s taken from you, it is hard to feel secure again. Some things that come from this feeling of insecurity are nightmares, anxiety, or extreme preparation in fear for the next storm. [2] With this anxiety and stress, posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD can follow. PTSD is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event. The symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety. [3] Other long-term issues that can come from these events are depression, issues with eating and obsessive compulsive disorder also known as OCD. Those whose homes were affected are not the only ones subject to these possible aftermath symptoms. It has been reported that many people who help clean up on scene or first responders experience many of these psychological symptoms as well. [4] A lot of first responders say that they can be haunted from the wounded people they saw and saved as well as all of those that they were unable to save. [5] Even though they were not there for the actual event, they’re the ones that come in right after it and can see some of the worst of it. So, we know how natural disasters can affect people, their homes, communities, and families. However it can also affect their relationships with people. Many of those who are victims of an event like this suffer with relationships at school, work, friendships, marriage, or struggle as a parent. [2] With this usually comes distrust, irritability, conflict, withdrawal, isolation, feelings of rejection or abandonment, judgment, or being over controlling. [6] Although all of these things mentioned are normal reactions to extreme stress like a natural disaster,  there are times when those who are affected may need to seek help if certain symptoms do not go away. As we mentioned before, shock and disbelief are normal. People may have a hard time accepting the reality of what happened.  There are ways to help reduce these feelings like staying away from media exposure and avoiding distressing images. [4] Watching these things can bring memories back that you’re trying to avoid. Another suggestion is to accept your feelings by mourning the losses and not forcing the healing process. [2] It may take a long time but by accepting your emotions it is easier to move on and reconnect with uncomfortable emotions with little or no stress and anxiety.  It is also encouraged for people to reach out to others because, like I mentioned, it is easy to withdrawal from people after an event like this. If people surround themselves around others, especially those who have experienced the same event, you can work together to get through the problem and the results can be extremely positive. In fact, victims of Hurricane Katrina reported that the sense of community that was found in the aftermath of the hurricane was unbelievable. [7] They said it restored their faith and lifted their spirits having everyone work together to rebuild their homes and lives. Shifting gears here, I wanted to talk a little more about climate change and how it affects people. Something that has been talked about more often now than ever is seasonal depression or seasonal affective disorder also known as SAD. Seasonal affective disorder is a mood disorder that affects an individual at the same time every year. For most, it occurs around September or October then the weather gets cooler and lasts until April or May. Between 60% and 90% of those who have this disorder, are women.  Woman ages 15 to 55 are the most likely to develop seasonal depression. Interestingly enough, although people think that this disorder is based off of the temperature of the seasons, it really has to do with the sunlight, or lac there of. A new idea of light therapy has become popular in treating this disorder and has shown between a 50 and 80 percent chance of remission. [8] In conclusion, natural disasters have both short term and long term affects on people. They do affect everyone differently depending on how they handle stress and the person’s role they played in the event. There are warning signs to look for in victims of natural disasters. If you or someone you know has been through a traumatic event like this, and you think they need further help, there are many support groups around as well as counseling available. So that’s it for the question “what are the mental impacts of weather and climate disaster”. I hope you enjoyed and thanks for listening.   (This audio file was recorded by Alyssa Nuernberg, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 9, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-are-mental-impacts-weather-and-climate-disasters-paesta-podcast-series-episode-40

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello my name is Laura Delgadillo, I am a student at Penn State Brandywine and today I’d like to answer the question: Why did the water in the Olympic pools in Rio this past summer turned green? The issue started because [1] a local pool maintenance worker applied hydrogen peroxide to the pool when it already had chlorine. Hydrogen peroxide is good for cleaning pools but not when it is combined with chlorine. It was a chemical misbalance. [2] Hydrogen peroxide was dropped into the pools by the contractor and hydrogen peroxide undoes what chlorine is supposed to do which is kill germs and keep the water clean. Nonetheless, since the water had to be clean for synchronized swimmers to be able to see each other under water, for water polo players, and for divers, the solution was to drain both pools off of all their water and refill them with clean water from the practice pools in time for these events to be able to happen. Now after the public saw and heard what was happening in Rio, there were people who argued that the pools’ dirty water was due to the fact that all water in Rio is unclean. [3] The problem of contaminated waters during the Rio Olympics was not only a problem in the swimming pools but in the sewage of the city, and country as a whole, and the outlets for all the water waste of the city, which are the rivers in Rio. The fact that the waste water goes to the rivers of Rio means the outdoor swimmers and rowers were at risk of contracting diseases from these waters. The waste from the poor favelas in Rio often does not get picked up by the government and it ends up in the rivers. If the government of a country cannot keep the rivers of its cities clean, then it would be easy for swimming pool managers at the Rio Olympics to neglect the treatment of the swimming pools and not apply the proper amount of chemicals into the competition pools. After I did a little more research however, I found an opposing viewpoint on a Forbes article about how the chemical misbalance everyone had been talking about had nothing to do with the water turning green. [4] The hydrogen peroxide and chlorine combination had nothing to do with the water turning green. The actual cause of it was copper(II) sulfate, a blue crystal that is used in tiny quantities to control the growth of green algae in large public pools and in municipal water supplies. It was added to the pool water; it dissolves quickly and it is to prevent algae from growing. It is toxic to algae, fish and other aquatic life; it can also be toxic to humans in large amounts. Another chemical reaction, which is the copper(II) sulfate dissolved in water that has to do with a poisonous stinky gas, which could be smelled from the pool water. This is how that chemical reaction works; the copper ions combine with four chlorine ions in the water, creating a copper(II) tetrachloro complex, which is green, and if it’s present in high enough concentrations, it turns the water green. The sulfate ions are reduced to hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous stinky gas, which is the source of the rotten egg smell associated with raw sewage smell people claimed was in the air. If the aquatic center for the Rio Olympics had a smell of raw sewage, or to vulgarly describe it: a smell of farts, then the opposing viewpoint seems to be the answer to the question we asked ourselves in the beginning. These two reasons seemed like they both were the right answer, in one hand there are managers and pool supervisors saying that chemistry is not an exact science and it could have happened to anyone and the chemical misbalance of hydrogen peroxide being mixed in with chlorine was the reason for the green water. In the other hand there is a viewpoint in a Forbes article that talks about another chemical misbalance but that has to do with copper sulfate. Both seem to be human error that could have been avoided by having better prepared facilities such as The Cube in China which was used during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. [5] developed an ozone technology that made it easier to keep the swimming pools clean. The challenge ProMinent faced was to ensure pure water quality as required by the Olympic Committee for all six event pools. They programmed a logic controller, display panel for monitoring with an operator control panel. This allowed the pool waters to be monitored and get treated as needed. Better preparing for such events would have prevented this incident from happening. Even though it was not harmless, it was a very odd thing to watch on television. This issue raised many questions about the effectiveness of pool managers to keep Olympic pools clean during such important events and I think it will help countries in the future better prepare to host the Olympics.   (This audio file was recorded by Laura Delgadillo, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 14, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/why-did-water-rio-olympics-turn-green-paesta-podcast-series-episode-41

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, my name is Vipul Kapoor and I will be hosting this podcast. Today, we will discuss the differences between weather and climate. Our main focus will be the primary differences. Then we will go in depth on how each are studied and how they affect the world. To put it simply, the main difference between weather and climate is the measurement of time. [1] Weather affects a given area and contributes to shaping the Earth's features, while climate helps scientists to determine how the Earth will change—and has changed—over a long period of time. [2] Now, as we all know, weather is always changing. A period of time in which we measure weather can be as little as 5 minutes to as long as weeks. Throughout this time, there are many changes in weather. In the span of just 10 days, weather goes through big changes. From thunderstorms to heavy rain to heat waves. [3] These are conditions in the atmosphere at a given time and place; however, they only last for a short period of time. It is very important to understand that weather and climate are not the same. We define climate as the long-term trends of the weather, while weather is just what's happening now. [4] Weather and climate each have separate elements used by scientists all over the world. [5] The main elements for weather are temperature and climate, while the main elements for climate are latitude, wind, ocean currents, proximity to coastlines, and altitude. [6] Everyday Americans like you and me tend to care and know more about the weather rather than the climate. After all, we use the weather forecasts to determine our plans and even what to wear. A big difference between weather and climate are how they are predicted. Weather forecasts try to answer questions such as, how much will it rain tomorrow, or, how cold will it be tomorrow. [7] The forecasts are based on models, incorporating observations of air pressure, humidity, temperature, and wind to give the best estimates of future weather conditions. These forecasts tend to be short-term. On the other hand, climate predictions take a much longer-term view. Climate predictions attempt to answer questions like, how much warmer will the Earth be 50 years from now? or how much will the sea level rise in the next 10 years? Such predictions are made using global climate models. Now, although we do not pay much attention to climate, it is still a very important topic to study. Studying climate is crucial as it affects people around the world. Studying climate gives us information about rising global temperatures and how they raise sea levels, or how long term changes in precipitation have detrimental effects on water supply and crop yields. [8] Climate can also have a big effect on humans and other animals. Change in climate can cause deserts to expand into rangelands and National Parks and Forests to be altered, leaving animals in an unknown environment. These changes can also cause some animals to go extinct. The difference in essence comes down to climate is what you expect, while weather is what you get. When compared to weather, climate is fairly easy to model.  Experts can model physical principles of average temperature and rainfall in a fair amount of detail. On the other hand, weather changes quickly and chaotically, but still exists within a range of expected values. Climate and weather both differ around the planet, and are principally controlled by the energy from the sun. [9] Climatology is the study of climate characteristics in addition to the more complex behavior of the atmosphere which is heavily influenced by the land, oceans, and chemical reactions. [10] Scientists then investigate records to identify and find patterns of normal and extreme conditions, as well as to predict whether storm activity is likely to increase. Overall, understanding climate helps us to describe the long-term average weather conditions over a time period. These conditions explained can range anywhere from temperature to precipitation to humidity. To recap what we learned in this podcast, weather and climate are similar and different at the same time. Weather is the study of now while climate is how the weather will be in a long-term view. We also learned about why we should learn and care more about studying climate, as it provides crucial information about how the Earth will change in the future and how it affects our everyday lives. There are tons of resources available to help aid anyone about weather and climate and why they are so important to understand and study. I hope this information was helpful and fun to learn/ Thank you for listening, this is Vipul Kapoor signing off, stay tuned until next time!   (This audio file was recorded by Vipul Kapoor, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 11, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-are-differences-between-weather-and-climate-paesta-podcast-series-episode-42

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, on today’s episode of the PAESTA Podcast Series, we’ll be talking about whether almonds really take too much water to be worth growing, especially during a water shortage. This is a common misconception that we hopefully can clear up. The almond industry brings in an astounding 11 billion dollars annually since the popularity of almonds has gone up over the past couple years because of  almonds’  many health benefits. California supplies about 80% of the United States almonds, and dedicates 10%, or 80 million gallons, of its state’s water to grow the nut. To grow one almond  requires 1.1 gallons of water, and to grow a pound takes 1,900 gal/ lb[1]. The crazy thing about that is that walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, and cashews all use roughly the same amount of water to grow as well, but it is the almond which is in such high demand at this time. Currently, California is in the midst of a 5 year drought that has everyone looking at the nut industry to blame. Because people are buying more almonds and nuts in general, farmers are shifting towards growing more of them, which can lead to pointing the blame at them for the water crisis in California. And because of the drought, the price per pound of almonds has gone way up to $6 a pound, as opposed to $2 a pound back in 2010 [2]. This gives farmers even more incentive to grow them, even with the water crisis going on. Recently, a group of farmers were invited to talk on NPR about California’s drought and they had an interesting take on the situation. One farmer said that almonds really aren't any more thirsty than any of his other crops and shook his head when hearing that one almonds takes a gallon to produce. This same farmer then goes on to say that they've reduced the amount of water almonds require by 33% [3]. Another farmer then adds that almond trees require 10% of California's water supply and thinks that it “is a lot to devote to just one crop” but that they are working on reducing that number. The LA Times wrote an article about growing almonds and they also had a different take on them by saying  it isn’t as big of a problem as people are making it out to be. It states that although almonds trees use a lot of water to grow, these trees can be ground up and used as biomass fuel for cogeneration plants, essentially helping make electricity. It also says that almond farmers are working to reduce the amount of water that each plant consumes with techniques like drip irrigation. Farmers in this article also defend the almond by saying, “People need to understand that everything you eat takes water”. This same farmer goes on to say that "Now, we're feeling like a scapegoat for over 30 years of water mismanagement in this state” because of how much criticism her farm and other almond farmers are taking. This article concludes with a great point that “ the water it takes to grow any vegetable, fruit or nut is a mere fraction of what is required to raise animal protein” and goes on to say “It takes more than 106 gallons of water, experts say, to produce one ounce of beef”, so just imagine how much water a whole herd of cattle would use![4] So to answer the question, “How much water does it really take to grow almonds?,” I can conclude that the answer is widely debated between farmers and the media. On one hand, farmers believe that they don't use substantially the amount of water that the media thinks they do. Farmers all over agree that although almonds use a more than an average amount of water, they want the public to remember that all crops use water to grow. They also completely disagree that one almond takes 1.1 gallons of water to grow and are appalled to think people would believe that. On the other hand, there are countless articles that stand behind the findings of almonds and other nuts using too much water. If I had to chose who to believe, I would stick with the farmers since they are dealing with the almonds first hand, and not the media, who may have never stepped foot on an almond farm or any farm for that matter. Thank you for joining me on today’s episode of the PAESTA Podcast Series.   (This audio file was recorded by Sam Kogon, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 10, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-much-water-does-it-really-take-grow-almonds-paesta-podcast-series-episode-43

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Good morning listeners! This is Matthew Merrone, an undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, and I am here today to introduce this new episode of the PAESTA Podcast Series – How do salmon know where to return to spawn? A growing mystery for scientists revolves around the idea of salmon being able to know exactly how to return to their home stream to spawn. Salmon are a very unique type of fish that are born in a stream and eventually venture off into the vast oceans before coming home to give birth. For something that seems so far-fetched, salmon are somehow able to migrate thousands of miles into the open ocean for years at a time, and then they miraculously swim all the way home to the stream they were hatched in.  For years, scientists have speculated many different possible explanations for this odd phenomenon. Now, they may have finally broken the code to understanding how the salmon manage to do such a difficult task. One of the tools that salmon use to migrate back to their home stream is their brains. [1] Experiments and research taken through the Institute of Creation Research state that salmon remember the water and its components while traveling downstream into the ocean. They claim that the fish have a flexible system for learning olfactory waypoints at appropriate time and places. [2] With the use of their brains, salmon are able to comprehend important oceanic factors including the ocean currents, length of the days, amount of sun exposure, water salinity, and the temperatures of the waters. These unique abilities allow the salmon to be able to recognize the water in which they are swimming in and navigate with the conditions of the ocean on their journey making it easier to migrate home. Beyond their excessive use of their brains, scientists knew that salmon had a keen sense of smell that aided them in finding their way to their original stream. [2] It was observed that salmon use their sense of smell to imprint on their hatching stream for future reference. These fish imprint on the odor of the stream that they are hatched in and can remember that odor for the duration of their life. In an experiment, several salmon were moved from their home streams during their hatching periods. The scientists observed as the salmon migrated back into their home streams, concluding the importance of the fish’s ability to imprint early on in its life. This experiment later led to the discovery that salmon imprint at other important time periods of their lives like when the emerge from their gravel nets. [3] A hatchery research center for salmon in Oregon spent time digging their own fake streams for research. What they did was they took water from the salmon’s home stream and put it upstream while using regular water for the downstream. What they observed was that the salmon were using pheromones to sense their water. Almost all of the salmon were found migrating upstream to the water at which they were born into. The Oregon hatchery then confirmed that salmon’s sense plays a big role in the migrating process, and they wanted to repeat the experiment several more times with stronger sensing water.  The newest discovery that scientists have made referring to the ability for salmon to migrate to their home stream correlates to the Earth’s magnetic fields. [4] A team of researchers from the National Science Foundation put together data from patterns in salmon migration out of the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada for the last 56 years. Coming into the experiment, the scientists knew that Earth’s magnetic field changes each year and it is weakened with proximity to the equator and the Earth’s poles.  Vancouver Island sits at the mouth of the Fraser River, and blocks the salmon from entering their home stream. The scientists were able to predict the salmon’s route by observing the strength of the magnetic fields around the island. They determined that the salmon would take the route that most likely matched the magnetic fields of the Fraser River in the years that those fish were hatched there. The salmon did indeed take the route that the scientists predicted they would, confirming that they use the magnetic fields of the Earth to help navigate back into their home streams. Furthermore, these researchers were also able to identify that the salmon are not only imprinting on the odor and chemical properties of the water they were born into, but these fish are also imprinting of the earth’s magnetic field and later using it to sense which direction home is. So, to focus on the underlying question of how salmon know where to migrate, we can confirm that it is a combination of three important aspects of their life. The use of their complex brain allows the salmon to understand complex waypoints through their journey while examining the conditions of the ocean and the sun. Their keen sense of smell allows them to imprint on the odor of the home stream and navigate through the ocean with that unique smell lingering in their mind to know where to go home. And finally, the use of the fish’s ability to map their way home after imprinting on the Earth’ magnetic field also helps them to make it home after a very long trip. The salmon is a magnificent fish, and it is very unique how they use different abilities to make their way back home again.   (This audio file was recorded by Matthew Merrone, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 9, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)     https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-do-salmon-know-where-return-spawn-paesta-podcast-series-episode-45

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hi, today I am going to talk to you about water. Many people have asked the question, ‘which is better, tap or bottled water’? I know I have wondered and asked this question many times, and I did some research to find out the answer. Let’s first talk about who regulates what, when it comes to tap and bottled water. The Food and Drug Administration or, FDA is responsible for regulating bottled water. They regulate the bottle water factories, transportation, and protects water sources from bacteria and chemical contaminates. [1] The Environmental Protection Agency or, EPA is responsible for regulating tap water. The Safe Water Drinking Act, which was put into place in 1974, makes sure that tap water is also free of any bacteria and chemical contaminates. [2] Since both bottled and tap water are both regulated and tested for chemicals and bacteria, the only real difference between the two is the taste. Some people say that bottled water tastes better, and this is because some bottled water companies add chemicals to “improve” the taste. [3] If you look at the ingredient list for some bottled water, it may surprise you. The chemicals that can be added are magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride, and salt. Bottled water companies are purifying water, but they are also adding things back in. It has also been found that these chemicals they are adding back in are naturally found in tap water and from food that we eat on a daily basis. [4] There have been some media coverage and popular debates about contaminated water. In 2014 Flint, Michigan’s public water supply was contaminated. Canada, Pennsylvania and California have all had water contamination issues. In California, there was metal found in their water, which could lead to long term health risks if ingested for a long period of time. [5] In some parts of Pennsylvania, tap water had high amounts of chemicals that could lead to obesity, high cholesterol and even some cancers. The chemicals that were found have been around for 60 years, and they are man made chemicals that degrade very slowly in the environment. A professor in the department of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati, said that Americans should be concerned about these chemicals. The problem with these chemicals is that they stay in your body for a long time, which is about 3.5 years. [6] Bottled water has also led to some health complications because of plastic contamination. There have been some incidences of bottled water showing that the resins used can contaminate the water. This can also cause serious health problems if ingested over a long period of time. Small children, women of child-bearing age, and pregnant women are at greater risk of poor outcomes when exposed to these chemicals. These poor outcomes have shown that it can stunt growth, promote early puberty and premature birth. [7] Because of the plastic being used for bottled water, researchers and scientists urge people to use refillable water bottles or stop using plastic bottled water completely. This will also eliminate the plastic waste that has consumed our planet. One hundred billion dollars is spent annually on bottled water globally. The transportation of bottled water also contributes to gas emissions that is polluting our atmosphere. [8] Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the U.S., with Americans consuming 7.5 million gallons of bottled water. Bottled water consists of mineral, sparkling, purified and spring water. [1] What’s better for the environment is to get rid of plastic bottles, when millions of tons of plastic bottles are clogging up landfills across the United States. Because there are so many concerns about the health of the tap-water quality, it has made the plastic water bottle industry soar [9]. Lastly, because both bottled water and tap water are so heavily regulated, it comes down to personal preference. Some people like the taste of bottled water better than tap. But after doing research, tap water is just as free of chemical and bacteria contaminates as bottled water. In 1999, the NRDC did a four-year survey that showed there is no assurance that bottled water is cleaner or safer than tap water. It has been estimated that at least 25% or more of bottled water is actually just tap water in a bottle. 22 brands of bottled water were tested and had chemical limits that were higher than state health limits. [9] Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoyed this podcast about bottled vs. tap water and which one is better!   (This audio file was recorded by Kelly Gallagher, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 10, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/bottled-vs-tap-water-which-better-paesta-podcast-series-episode-35

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hurricane season hits the Atlantic from June to November every year. Hurricanes that hit the United States form in the Caribbean or the Atlantic Ocean. Many people are familiar with hurricanes and may know them as typhoons or cyclones depending on where they live in the world. Most people know they are bad storms and cause a lot of damage but do they really know how a hurricane is formed? My name is Alyssa Abbonizio and I am a junior at Penn State Brandywine. In this podcast, I will explain how a hurricane is formed, how it’s categorized, and I’ll use examples of the worst hurricanes the United States has seen recently to help you understand how they work. A hurricane is created when a disturbance forms in the atmosphere that becomes an area of low pressure [1]. Winds coming from areas of high pressure make there way to the center of the hurricane. In order for a hurricane to form, the water needs to be warm. The oceans warmth and moisture provides energy that makes the warm air in the center of the storm rise. As it condenses in the atmosphere, a thunderstorm is created. This can lead to a tropical depression, which turns into a tropical storm, then eventually a hurricane. Heat is produced as the rising air in the center condenses forcing it to rise faster. The air is pushed out of the top of the storm and more air has to come in at the surface to take the previous airs place. To make this clearer, let’s picture a chimney with smoke coming out of the top of it, that’s what a hurricane looks like when the air is being pushed out of the top. An interesting thing about hurricanes is that they always travel counterclockwise [1]. When low atmospheric pressure forms, wind begins to blow toward the center of the storm near the surface. While this is happening, Earth is rotating under the atmosphere. Earth’s spin causes a deflection of the wind to the right in the Northern Hemisphere. You may know this is called the Coriolis effect and because of this, all storms rotate counterclockwise. To visualize this, picture a record album spinning on a turntable and draw a line from the edge of the record to the center as the records spinning. You’ll notice the line will be curved, as your motion is straight. As the fuel supply cools, the hurricane loses strength. The eye of the hurricane forms at the center of the storm. The surface pressure is a minimum value at the center of the storms rotation [2]. The severe rotation of the air causes air to evacuate from the center of the storm. The eye of a hurricane is often described as a stadium effect. If you fill a glass of water and stir the water forcefully, you’ll see the water level in the middle fall. Because the mass is being moved from the center, it moves toward the edges. This is what the center of the eye looks like in a hurricane. Once the hurricane weakens, the eye breaks down. To make the predicted hazards of looming hurricanes clearer to emergency managers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane forecasters use a disaster-potential scale, which assigns storms to five categories [3]. It’s used to give an estimate of the potential property damage and flooding expected with a hurricane. The scale was created by Herbert Saffir, a consulting engineer and Dr. Bob Simpson, who was the director of the National Hurricane Center, in 1969. The World Meteorological Organization was doing a report on structural damage due to windstorms and Dr. Simpson added information about hurricanes in each category. A Category Five is the largest and most dangerous category a hurricane can be and is considered catastrophic [4]. They have wind speeds of over 157 miles per hour and a surge of more than 5.5 meters above normal water levels. The scale also considers the amount of damage the storm can do and that is taken into consideration when categorizing a hurricane. A category 4 is the second highest category labeled extreme and has wind speeds of 130 to 156 miles per hour and a storm surge of 13-18 feet [5]. A Category 3 has wind speeds of 111 to 129 miles per hour and is considered extensive with a storm surge of 9 to 12 feet. A category 2 hurricane is moderate with wind speeds of 96 to 110 miles per hour with a 6 to 8 foot storm surge. A category one is minimal and has wind speeds of 74-95 miles per hour. The storm surge is 4 to 5 feet. Once a storm hits 74 miles per hour, it’s considered a hurricane. Most recently, Hurricane Matthew hit the United States in early October.  It developed in the Atlantic Ocean and traveled through the Caribbean before landing in Florida. It wreaked havoc in Florida and then traveled up the east coast into the Carolinas and caused damage there as well. It was a category 4 and had wind speeds of 135 mph [6]. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, Louisiana destroying everything in its path. It was classified as a Category Five hurricane as it used warm air and convection to become a dangerous hurricane [4]. The winds exceeded 175 miles per hour and Katrina is still considered one of the worst hurricanes to ever hit the United States. That is all on how a hurricane develops. I hope the visuals I described help you picture what a hurricane looks like and helps you understand how they work. Again, my name is Alyssa Abbonizio and I hope you found this podcast enjoyable.   (This audio file was recorded by Alyssa Abbonizio, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 6, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)     https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-do-hurricanes-form-paesta-podcast-series-episode-30

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello my name is Duane Belgrave, Jr and I am thankful to be a part of the PAESTA Podcast Series. I am also here to answer a very important question: what is the role of water at a nuclear power plant?  When we hear the words ‘nuclear power plant’, our minds tend to automatically think about glowing radioactive elements and dramatic nuclear meltdowns. This is not a wrong thing to think about, as these two things actually do apply--well, hopefully not the nuclear meltdown part. Moving on, many people are unaware of how water plays a large role in the production of nuclear energy--in fact, the process would cease to function apart from the presence of water. Therefore, by the end of this podcast, you will know the role of water in a nuclear power plant. Before understanding the role of water at a nuclear power plant, you need to have a rudimentary knowledge of how nuclear power works--you must know the basics. Most nuclear reactors use an element called uranium as a main power source. Uranium isotopes are  used because they are highly radioactive, or prone to release the energy stored in its nuclear bonds. Because they want to be stable, uranium isotopes constantly give off nuclear energy in a process called radioactive decay. Unfortunately, this radioactive decay occurs too slowly to be used at an energy source, so scientists have learned to quicken the breakdown of nuclear bonds in a process called fission. Therefore, uranium isotopes are spun around at an intense velocity in a centrifuge. Here, neutrons are thrown from one uranium isotope and collide into the neutrons being thrown from other uranium isotopes, thus releasing more energy. This centrifuging process is called enrichment, which has to occur at a certain rate for optimum energy release [3].  This is where water comes in. Water is pumped in and out of the nuclear reactor vessel to regulate the speed of the enrichment process. Furthermore, once the water makes contact with immense amount of heat energy being released, it turns into steam. This steam then exits the reactor through a tube, which takes the steam and pushes it through a turbine. The turbines spin rapidly, thus producing electricity [3]. Here, we see that if water was not present in the nuclear energy process, the enrichment would not occur at the proper rate. If uranium isotopes were not enriched, electricity would not be produced. It is important to note that there are two main types of nuclear reactors. The first type is called a pressurized water reactor.  Pressurized systems rely on water under pressure to produce the heat to make electricity. In a pressurized system, uranium fuel rods are inserted into a steel pressure tank that contains water. The water acts as a coolant, but it also moderates the enrichment process. The control rods are then slowly pulled out. The reaction produces heat, which heats the water in the pressure tank. The water is heated to a temperature of five hundred and eighteen degrees Fahrenheit (which is two hundred and seventy degrees Celsius). The water does not boil, though, because it is under intense pressure. Therefore, the heated water is then channeled to a heat exchanger in a closed circuit. The water in the heat exchanger is then heated up, producing steam [2]. This steam then goes through a turbine, producing electricity. The next type of nuclear reactor is called a boiling water reactor. This system is far more efficient. Fuel rods are placed into a chamber that contains the reactor core: this chamber is located at the bottom of a tank of water. Once the nuclear reaction begins, the water is boiled until it turns to steam. The steam rises to the top of the chamber where pipelines then take it to the turbines [2]. Water is also used to cool the high-temperature steam that is used to turn the turbines. There are three methods that are used to cool the steam within a nuclear power plant: “once through”, indirect, and dry cooling.  “Once through” cooling operates as extremely large volumes of water are run through a condenser to cool the steam; then, the water is released back into a body of water.  Indirect cooling uses a water condenser as well as an air tunnel to cool the steam. Lastly, dry cooling utilizes only moving air to cool the steam [4]. Water is a finite source which the masses are competing over. It is used in many industries such as drinking, sanitation, irrigation, and energy. Nuclear energy uses slightly more water than its fossil fuel counterparts per megawatt-hour basis. However, it uses considerably less water than geothermal and concentrating solar sources [1]. Now you know how important water is to the inner workings of the nuclear power plant! I’m Duane Belgrave, Jr from Penn State Brandywine and I would like to thank you for listening to this podcast. Have a great day!   (This audio file was recorded by Duane Belgrave Jr., undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, in November 2016. References available in the attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-role-water-nuclear-power-plant-paesta-podcast-series-episode-31

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Koichi Wakata floats in front of the water recovery system in node 3 of the International Space Station. “Here on board the ISS, we turn yesterday’s coffee into tomorrow’s coffee”, he grins as he sips from a reflective drinking water pouch. [5] Mr. Wakata, like the other astronauts aboard the space station, is a pioneer in humanity’s self-sustainability. Water is one of the most important substances to all life on Earth, without it we would die within just a few days. How then can astronauts survive in the unforgiving conditions of space? Hi I’m Buckley Brown, an IST student here at Penn State Brandywine. Today I will be answering the question: how do astronauts on the space station get water? The answer may surprise you as much as it spoils your appetite. The water recovery system (WRS) is the saving grace for the astronauts aboard ISS. Working in conjunction with the stations oxygen generators, the WRS helps to maintain a habitable environment inside the station.[2] Storage space is limited onboard the space station, there isn’t a single item that does not in some way contribute to the success of the stations various scientific objectives. Everything must be accounted for, from a small photograph of home to one of the stations most important assets: water. Water however, is heavy. To transport and store the necessary quantity of water on the station would cost a fortune and would sacrifice precious energy and storage space.[9] Instead what scientists decided to do was store only a small quantity of water on the station and implement a system to reuse that water over and over again. The water reclamation system currently in use utilizes a process initially developed in the early twentieth century by French Chemist Paul Sabatier. An article published by NASA in 2011 details the inner workings of the Sabatier system explaining, “...this process uses a catalyst that reacts with carbon dioxide and hydrogen - both byproducts of current life-support systems onboard the space station - to produce water and methane.” [1] As a direct consequence of the WRS’ implementation in 2008, the station lowered its dependency on flown-in water and consumables by about 6.8 tons per year.[10] The water reclamation system on board the space station begins by taking in waste liquid from the station’s toilet facilities. The WRS makes use of a rotating distillation chamber to remove unwanted waste while compensating for the lack of gravity.[5] From there, the water passes through the water processor assembly where it is combined with moisture from the stations air conditioning units. In the WPA, contaminants such as hair are removed from the water. [3] Next, the water passes through a series of filters to further eliminate any unwanted impurities. Finally the water is heated once more to kill off any microorganisms that may still be present in the water.[6] The end result is drinking water that meets the highest standards for potable drinking water.[5] Of course with so much time and energy being put into this water, the astronauts on ISS are sure to make good use of every drop. According to an article published on the NASA.gov website, “Rationing and recycling will be an essential part of daily life on the ISS.” [9] The water we take for granted here on Earth is the same water the scientists on board the space station are treating with utmost care and appreciation. That concludes this analysis of the water reclamation system on the space station. I thank you all for listening and I hope you learned something new about the incredible technology being developed by NASA and other space agencies. Further information about the WRS can be found in the associated script. Thanks again and have a good day! (This audio file was recorded by J. Buckley Brown, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 11, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-do-astronauts-space-station-get-water-paesta-podcast-series-episode-32

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hi everyone! My name is Alexis and I am an undergrad student at Penn State Brandywine. Today I will be answering a question for you. The question I will be answering for you is “What is a Thunderstorm?” First off here is a basic definition. A thunderstorm is a localized storm that is produced by a cumulonimbus cloud and always contains thunder and lightning. [1] They form in conditionally unstable environments, which means there is a cold, dry air aloft over warm, moist surface air. For a thunderstorm to form there needs to be three key ingredients. [2] First there must be moisture. Moisture must be present in the lower levels of the atmosphere. Next there needs to be cold air. The cold air must be present in the upper atmosphere. And finally there must be a catalyst to push the warm air into the cold air. The catalyst is usually in the form of a front, which is the interface between air masses at different temperatures. Thunderstorms also can be measured as strong or severe. Some thunderstorms can also be neither. [2] A severe thunderstorm has winds greater than or equal to 58 miles per hour. If a thunderstorm is severe enough they can become a supercell thunderstorm. A supercell thunderstorm is the type of storm that will most likely spawn into a tornado. [2] Thunderstorms usually go through a series of stages from birth to decay. The first stage is cumulus stage, which is dominated by updrafts. [1] The updrafts bring in warm, moist air, which cools and condenses as it rises. When the clouds develop more and precipitation starts to fall, a downdraft is produced. Next is the mature stage. This is the most intense stage. The mature stage brings a strong updraft which is still present. [2] This will supply the warm, moist air, but the strong downdraft is also evident. The following final stage is the dissipating stage, which is due to the deprivation of energy from the updraft. The storm doesn’t have a supply of warm moist air to maintain itself. Light rain and weak outflow winds may remain for a while during this stage. [3] Even though we have plenty of information on thunderstorms there are still some unanswered questions about them. For example, we still do not fully understand how nighttime thunderstorms form. We have a clear understanding of daytime thunderstorms, but nighttime thunderstorms are still a mystery. Forecasts still struggle to predict when a nighttime storm will appear and how bad it will be. [4] Nighttime thunderstorms can be more unpredictable than hurricanes! Meteorologists know when a nighttime thunderstorm will form, but they don’t know how bad they’ll get for the most part. [4] We have a hard time understanding nighttime thunderstorms because we can’t see them as easily as the daytime thunderstorms. Daytime and nighttime storms have the same ingredients but are mixed very differently. One big reason we can’t see nighttime thunderstorms is because all of the action happens in a layer of the atmosphere that we can’t observe easily. [4] If we could get a better idea on how to predict a nighttime storm we could help residents in a particular location prepare for the worst. We could also help farmers know whether their crops will be getting enough water or not.   In conclusion thunderstorms aren’t just rain and lightning, there is a lot that goes into making them happen. And even though we know much about them, some concepts are still a mystery today! Thank you all for listening to me answer the question, “What is a Thunderstorm?” I hope I answered some of your questions. Once again this is Alexis from Penn State Brandywine I hope you all a have a great day!   (This audio file was recorded by Alexis Davis, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 9, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-thunderstorm-paesta-podcast-series-episode-33

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Greeting PAESTA podcast listeners! My name is Nick Draves, I am an undergraduate at Penn State Brandywine, and you are listening to “You Asked, We Answered.” This podcast was recorded on Nov. 11th, 2016.   One of the questions you asked is, what is a mega-drought? To better understand what a mega-drought is, I think we have to review what a drought is. To answer this question, we will take a look on how the United States Geological Survey or USGS, defines what a drought is. Though a drought has many definitions depending on the point of view from the person, a drought is a prolonged period when precipitation is less than normal [1]. Another question that needs to be answered is what can cause these extended periods of less than normal rainfall? Climate change is one of these answers. Climate change is a big factor on what can cause a drought. Scientists from the Union of Concerned Scientists noted that with the rise of the temperature over the years, the drought that is present in the western part of the United States has increased. They also noted that with the rise of the temperature, it causes precipitation, that would normal be snowfall, turn into rain, which reduces snowmelt, causing a loss of runoff from the snowmelt [2].   After reviewing what a drought is and what can cause a drought, we can really get into what a mega-drought is. [3] According to Doyle Rice, of USA Today, a mega-drought is a drought that takes place for decades or longer. The name does not have to do about the intensity of the drought, but more of the length of the drought. Even though these droughts may not have been that intense, the length and frequency of them have caused mass migration of humans in the past.  [4] The most well-known mega-drought is the medieval mega-drought, which was a series of droughts that lasted from 900AD to 1400AD. Scientists were able to date the droughts from dead tree stumps they found in the bottom of rivers in the Sierra Nevada. [4] Scott Stine and his team were able to date these dead stumps by using carbon dating. The dead tree stumps were dated to the medieval period. These trees were able to thrive in the valleys of the Sierra Nevada because the drought kept the river bed dry for so many years.   The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has been observing drought behavior for quite some time now. NOAA observes that droughts of the magnitude of the Dust Bowl and the drought in the 50's happen once or twice a century [5]. With the global warming and greenhouse effects in place, the variability could prove a more severe drought in the future, such as a mega drought. If we can expect about two droughts a century, how can we prepare ourselves against these mega-droughts? What can we do in order to ready ourselves? To combat the droughts, the Scientists over at the Union of Concerned Scientists give a few tips on how we can prepare for the increased risk of more frequent and severe droughts. We should better the systems we use for the technology we use to monitor and measure the water supply and water use, nationwide. Water is essential to every living thing. We need to reduce indoor water use through more efficient appliances, technologies, and behaviors. We also need to increase water efficiency through drought tolerant landscape design and improved irrigation technologies, such as resurrection plants, which can retain water for longer periods of time. We need to increase recycling and reuse of water, including capturing and reusing storm water, greywater, and wastewater. We already have the technology available for recycling wastewater, we just need to have the idea of it warm up to people [2].   With these tips from the Union of Concerned Scientists, we as a community, can help the cause of saving water. We can simply implement these tips into our daily routines. Not letting the faucet run while we brush our teeth or wash our hands, taking shorter showers, and by being more aware of the water we use every day, we can make note of where we can reduce the water we use at home. Thank you for listening to “You asked, We Answered”. My name is Nick Draves, and I hope this was as informative for you, as it was for me!     (This audio file was recorded by Nicholas Draves, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on November 11, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)     https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-mega-drought-paesta-podcast-series-episode-34

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, my name is Andrew Leake, and I’m going to ask you to do something for me. I want you to close your eyes as I take you five years into the past: the year 2011. Media paranoia ensues as a massive storm makes its way up the east coast of the United States like a lion stalking its prey, preparing to pounce. Your family is in a panic as this storm closes the gap to get to you ever so slowly, and precautions are being done to brace for the coming assault. Your home is now a bunker, and outside is unsafe. The storm has arrived, and its power is something no one could have prepared for. Winds strong enough to uproot trees have a never-ending reign, and raindrops hurl towards the planet’s surface like billions of miniature missiles launched a few million at a time. The battle cries of thunder and the explosions of lightning ensure this storm has no sympathy for life. Suddenly, you hear another battle cry, one that is not familiar to you. Media coverage unveils that this is a new titanic storm of equal power to the one that was already present. The east coast has been turned into a massive cloud on the map, and a living torture towards the surface. Floods, outages, and devastation commence at an even more alarming pace. After hours of torment and torture, you finally hear the end of the onslaught. You walk out of your house and see the carnage that was left over. Branches, water, and trash litter the streets and sidewalks. Trees are destroyed, power has gone out, and basements are flooded. Now, open your eyes. This visualization was the reality that people faced in 2011. You may now be thinking “What kind of storms rampaged through the east coast?” “Was that much damage actually done?” The answer is simple; the titanic storms were known as Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee had hit numerous states on the east coast, mainly Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and even Washington, D.C. [1] In terms of Pennsylvania, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee were the first major storms to hit the state in twenty-two years, with the last one being Hurricane Floyd in 1999. [2] As the storms hit the Eastern seaboard, winds had reached speeds of 115 miles per hour; rainfall had accumulated up to two feet high with severe flooding, and massive power outages left a couple million customers without power. [3] In Pennsylvania, 700,00-850,000 customers of FirstEnergy corporations, such as PECO, were without power, and three people died during this time. [4] As if the power outages and flood were not enough, all forms of public transit, such as buses and trains, were shut down for days until the flooding stopped. [5] Everything was shut down and destroyed by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Since the devastation of these two storms, places have taken precautions to combat future damage from equally powerful storms. Houses in West Pittston, Pennsylvania have actually been remodeled so they are supported on beams to prevent any water from the streets getting into the rooms. [6] The streets in this area gather too much water, and flooding becomes common there, so this support does help these families to not worry about property damage. In addition, a new form of grid has been developed to detect power outages and supply a limited source of power to the area until it can be fixed. [7] This development will alleviate the pressure of not having any power to use. With these advancements in specific being the most popular and effective as of right now, damages from any storm can be prevented, as a new gateway for even better technology in this field can be developed. In summation, due to Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, these innovations became a high priority to develop and create for the safety and insurance of citizens. As horrible as it is to say, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee left a dangerous impression, and yet a needed impact on Pennsylvania and the country as a whole. I charge you now to take this content into your future. Who knows? Maybe you will be the next person to prevent the next Hurricane Irene. That’s all for now; I’m Andrew Leake, and I thank you for listening to me today, and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Have a good one!   (This audio file was recorded by Andrew Leake, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, in November 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-did-hurricane-irene-and-tropical-storm-lee-impact-pennsylvania-2011-paesta-podcast

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello listeners! How is everyone today? My name is Elene Mironidis and in this podcast I will be speaking to you about the wonder of our nation’s very own Chesapeake Bay and how oysters can help restore it. A few main points that we will be discussing pertain as to why the Chesapeake Bay is so significant to us citizens and how these oysters can actually help restore this body of water. Foremost the Chesapeake Bay is thought of as the powerhouse that fuels not just the bay but the ocean life around it. Native Americans often referred to them as “the great shellfish” and in scientific terms the oyster is named the Crassostrea virginica. They are also famously known as Chesapeake gold. Two endangered species that also greatly benefit from the Bay are the shortnose sturgeon and the kemp ridley sea turtle. Now, let’s get back to how oysters can help this precious body of water… what do these oysters offer so incredibly much that it is believed they will restore the Chesapeake Bay? Oysters bring balance to ecosystems in the bay and they also offer habitats for invertebrates and fish. Another significant purpose that oysters serve is that they filter the water and this is so vital to the Chesapeake Bay due to all of the nitrogen and pollution that is in this body of water. It is stated by Fears who writes for the Washington Post that 130 square feet of oysters can actually remove up to 20 times more nitrogen pollution in only one year than if another site was not planted. It is said that a few oysters can filter 50 gallons of water in one day... the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Chesapeake Bay Office is currently still developing oyster sanctuaries for the Chesapeake. Another initiative that was proposed and is in action now is the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement- this plan of action called to protect and preserve all of the oyster reefs by the 2025. As of now six tributaries have already been selected to make larger scale forward movements to restore the oyster reefs to help restore the Chesapeake Bay. Another program that is a step forward in a very proactive manner is the creation of the Oyster Metric Team, and what this team does specifically is to guide all of the restoration efforts in the most efficient way. This team is compiled of members from the federal government and the state of Maryland. Another initiative that was taken is the Piankatank River Project- this project speaks about how the eastern oyster will be the saving grace for the Chesapeake Bay. The eastern oyster is vital and what the project proposes is to increase the suitable habitat for these oysters to thrive in so they can populate and help the Chesapeake Bay even more so. The project also wishes to specifically plant disease tolerant oysters so they can increase the oyster biomass as well. (This audio file was recorded by Elene Mironidis, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, in November 2016. References available in the attached transcript.)   Links Exercise - Oysters and Health of Waterways (developed as part of the National Geographic Certified Educator program, includes a case study of Chesapeake Bay)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/can-oysters-help-restore-chesapeake-bay-paesta-podcast-series-episode-28

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, my name is Matt Gallo and today I am going to talk to you about water pollution and how we can stop it. Over the years we have discovered many different impacts to the environment. We have seen things that have impacted the air, wildlife, and our topic today, water. Within the last year we have heard about polluted Water Michigan. CNN Eliot McLaughlin wrote about 5 main things that people may not know about the crises [1]. 1 was that they declared a state of emergency 2 was the issue know that it is in presidential debates. 3 was celebrates stepping in to help. 4 was the worry of the long term impacts And 5 was the blame game. The issue grew the first couple of weeks but has died down for a little bit. It is a tough situation for anyone involved. This issue brings up more than just the issue in Flint. This issue should open the eyes of everyone and help them realize how serious water pollution is. An article written on Washington Post talked about how serious the Flint crisis is. Article states, “A group of Virginia Tech researchers who sampled the water in 271 Flint homes last summer found some contained lead levels high enough to meet the EPA's definition of ‘toxic waste’”[2]. Imagine drinking toxic waste. Water can be polluted in many different ways, such as light and noise. Yes, light and noise. In an article written by Kate Wheeling of Science Magazine, she talks about the impact light may have on wildlife that lives in water. She touches on a study done by Thomas Davies from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom that looks into what dangers light may have on wildlife in water. They state that, “Light from harbors, ships, and offshore structures such as oil rigs may be disrupting the lives of marine worms, barnacles, and corals, preventing their wayfaring larvae from finding suitable habitats in which to settle down” [3]. In this short article called Standard Ship Noise May Interfere with Orcas Communication by Virginia Morell, she suggest that the noises that ships make are making it harder for Orcas to communicate with each other [4]. Both of these article goes to show that it is not only material things that are impacting the water. Having said that, there is still much to be said about the way we as people affect water. An article by Chris Woodford gives an introduction on what water pollution ism what it is in different forms, how we know water is polluted, and the cause and effects of it. He states, “Thus, water pollution is all about quantities: how much of a polluting substance is released and how big a volume of water it is released into” [5]. So what does this mean? This means that a person can put a small amount of toxins into a large body of water and it may not have any immediate impact, but over time if we as people keep doing that, then our waters will be completely toxic. Article was written by Tim Friend, for the National Geographic. Friend talked about the chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia where 300,000 residents went without running tap water. Lakes and ponds all over the area were polluted by this chemical spill and while locals could not drink tap water, residents waited for water that was coming from Pennsylvania [6]. This helps proves it also hurts living conditions. Article written by Lian Sun called, Risk Identification of water pollution sources in Water Source Areas of Middle Route of the South to North Diversion Project. They talk about the dangers of the water sources caused by humans who work around those areas [7]. We drive around and see trees and other things being knocked down. It is important for everyone to understand we, as people, need to be careful about what we want to build because it can really impact our eco and water system. So what is being done about this? Someone has to pay for all the bad things that we do to our waters, right? Well, Charles Duhigg wrote an article called Water and Sewer System Would be Costly where he mainly discussed the expenses of fixing a pipe that ruptured in the cold. Homes near the pipe that ruptured were also destroyed. George Hawkins, the new head of District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority at the time, spoke out about the issue stating, “water rates for the average resident went up about 17 percent, to about $60 a month per household. Over the coming six years, that rate would rise above $100.” This would allow the city to replace the damaged pipes fairly quickly [8]. It comes down to if people want to help the cause, then they have to pay for it later. This article is about the Water Pollution Control Act in 1948 written by Ann Power. They talk about the issue that came about at the state and federal levels about polluted waters. However, even after the Act was passed, it still had trouble being effective. According to the article, “Congress changed the act six times before completely rewriting it in the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments” Today it is known as Clean Water Act [9]. As a person who cares about how we treat our water, it is good to hear that over time we have recognized the issue and have taken some right steps in trying to solve it. My hope is that legislators and the general population continue to try to further solve this issue. An article found on National Geographic website talks about how the advancement of technology has helped science detect more water pollutants recently. They state that 70% of industrial waste are dumped untreated into waters. [10]. Again, as someone who cares about our waters, this is something that is not pleasant to hear. Like I had just said, I hope that we continue to address this issue not only for ourselves, but for generation to come. (This audio file was recorded by Matt Gallo, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, in April 2016. References are attached in transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-can-we-do-help-stop-water-pollution-paesta-podcast-series-episode-14

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hey everyone, my name is Lathie Nichol, I’m a sophomore at Penn State Brandywine, and the purpose of this podcast is to talk to you today about hard water. As a human being you interact with water every day. If you don’t, well, you wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale. So needless to say, it’s pretty important to know almost all of the details about the water you drink every day. Have you ever washed your hands somewhere and felt like no matter how long you wash your hands it feels like you still have a layer of soap still on your hands? Or, have you ever done a load of dishes in your dishwasher and taken the dishes out when it’s done and noticed that there is this weird looking film or these white spots on them? This is all due to having hard water. Don’t be scared about it though, in almost every case, this won’t hurt anyone. So, what exactly is hard water? Hard water simply put, is having a lot of certain minerals in your water. Hard water traditionally happens in homes that have wells. Most homes that have well water tend to not have treated water unlike many homes in cities. The main minerals in hard water is calcium and magnesium. These minerals come into contact with ground water that is flowing through the rocks that we stand on. The groundwater is then pumped from a well into millions of homes around the world. (1) So let’s get into some of the nitty gritty about hard water. We’ve discussed some about hard water being comprised mostly of calcium and magnesium, let’s talk about how much calcium or magnesium is needed in water to be able to classify it as “hard”. The hardness of water is generally classified into four classes. The first class is 0-to-60 milligrams per liter, the second class is 61-to-120 milligrams per liter, the third class is 121-to-180 milligrams per liter, while the fourth and last class is anywhere above 180 milligrams per liter. These classes are also named as soft, moderately hard, hard, and very hard, respectively.(2) The long-term movement of excessively hard water through a houses plumbing can wreak havoc to the plumbing. Because of the excess minerals in the pipes, a build-up, or scale, forms on the inside of pipes and can eventually plug the plumbing. (1) Hard water affects less than 10 percent of the population here in the United States, this is because public water supply systems serve up to 90 percent of the U.S. population. There are also private water systems that don’t have hard water, leaving less than 10 percent of the population to deal with hard water. (2)Public water supply systems don’t have hard water because they get most of their water from fresh surface water, this water can be from lakes, rivers, or reservoirs. This water is not terribly hard because they do not pick up a lot of calcium or magnesium from the ground around them. Water taken from huge underground aquifers are filtered and treated with chemicals such as chlorine to remove the hardness and many other pathogens in the water.(2) There has been much research as to the health effects of drinking hard water, be it over a long amount of time or over small periods of time. As of now it is known that there are no bad effects to a person’s health. In fact, it can actually be healthier to drink hard water, this is because of the amount of minerals in the water. Drinking hard water can help people to obtain the optimal intake amounts of calcium and magnesium. Hard water also contains iron, zinc and phosphorus, all important minerals needed to have a healthy body. But, there can be side effects from drinking exceptionally hard water that will not affect a body’s longevity.(3) If someone drinks water that is exceptionally hard, they can suffer from diarrhea until they stop drinking the water.(6) So a word of advice if you’re traveling, bring bottled water if you go somewhere where you aren’t used to the water. If you don’t, the results could be unfortunate. Thank you all for listening to my podcast on hard water. Once more, my name is Lathie Nichol and I am a student at Penn State Brandywine.  I hope that I helped inform you on hard water and the effects it has on everyday life for everyone. (This audio file was recorded by Lathie Nichol on March 31, 2016. References are in attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-hard-water-paesta-podcast-series-episode-15

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast You asked, we answered. What is the mpemba effect? Let’s first start out with who and how this discovery was made. Erasto Mpemba is the one who discovered the mpemba effect. Erasto is a Tanzanian high school student, that is famous for the Mpemba effect [3]. Mpemba’s observations confirmed some of history’s most revered thinkers, such as Aristotle, Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon, they all believed that hot water froze faster than cold water [2]. This was all observed through Erasto’s experiment that he discovered the Mpemba effect. Here is how Mpemba discovered this effect. It all started out with an experiment in his classroom. Most of the students in the room would create a mixture of ice cream. And one day a student arrived late to class and saw other students mixtures were already boiling. The students allowed their mixture to cool after it was boiling hot. After it had cooled down, they would all rush to the refrigerator for a space in the fridge. Another classmate arrived late as well and saw Mpemba boiling his milk and the other student quickly made his mixture with milk and sugar and poured it on to an ice tray without boiling it, so he wouldn’t miss his chance to having a spot in the fridge [2]. After Mpemba saw this, he decided to risk ruining the fridge by putting hot milk into it. As they tried to allow the ice cream to form, the went back an hour later to check on their product and found out that Mpemba’s tray of milk had frozen into ice cream, while his classmates mixture was still only a thick liquid, not yet frozen. Since his discovery, he talked to the professor Dr. Osborne from Dar es Salaam University and the professor performed the same experiment with different materials and came up with similar results as Mpemba [2]. It then made it to modern history, known at the Mpemba effect. However, what causes hot water to freeze faster than cold water? Well, evaporation is the strongest candidate to explain the Mpemba effect. As hot water is placed in an open container, the water begins to cool, and the overall mass decreases as some of the water evaporates [3]. Another idea that leads to hot water freezing faster than cold is because of convective heat transfer. When a liquid is heated, it can form convection currents that rapidly bring the hot liquid to the surface, where the heat is lost by evaporation. Professor Osborne noted that this convection will keep the top of the liquid hotter than the bottom, even when the temperature matches an initially cold liquid that doesn’t possess this convection cooling. This results in a faster rate of cooling that could, under the right circumstances, result in Mpemba’s observation [3]. Dissolved gas can also play a part in Mpemba’s effect, hot water can hold less dissolved gas than cold water, and large amounts of gas escape upon boiling. So, the initially warmer water may have less dissolved gas than the initially cooler water. It has been speculated that this changes the properties of the water in some way, perhaps making it easier to develop convection currents (and thus making it easier to cool), or decreasing the amount of heat required to freeze a unit mass of water, or changing the boiling point [1]. Scientist today are still figuring out the Mpemba effect and how it really works, this study of the Mpemba effect is still on going today, thank you for listening. (This audio file was recorded by Jailene Olmedo, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on April 9, 2016. References are in attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-mpemba-effect-paesta-podcast-series-episode-16

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, my name is Noelle Zampino and I will be leading this podcast today. We are going to be talking about mudslides from a broad spectrum. The main focus of the podcast will be to gain a general understanding of how mudslides form, the risk factors involved, how to stay safe during a mudslide, the environmental and societal impacts caused by mudslides, as well as what can be done to decrease the amount of mudslides that occur. So to get started we need to understand what a mudslide is. [1] A mudslide is essentially when the ground becomes so saturated with moisture that it causes the soil and other debris to flow down slopes or hills. So this leads us into discussing risk factors for mudslides. [2] [3] [4] There are many risk factors involved with creating mudslides but some of the most common factors are excessive rainfall, drought followed by rainfall, deforestation, earthquakes, wildfires, and geological landscapes. [4] Excessive rainfall may seem like an obvious cause of mudslides due to the fact that the large amounts of water can’t be absorbed by the ground in such a short amount of time. However, some of these other factors are not as obvious, and in fact most people don’t realize the threat that these factors pose for mudslides. [3] For instance, droughts pose a serious risk for mudslides due to the fact that once precipitation does occur, the ground is too arid to absorb the moisture, therefore, the dry soil and debris flows. Wildfires are along the same principles, where if the ground is charred and dry, then it is not capable of absorbing moisture. Deforestation and earthquakes are more uncommon factors that the public doesn’t recognize. [4] Deforestation increases the risk of mudslides because the trees and other rooted plants prevent the debris from freely flowing. Similarly, after an earthquake, the soil and the rest of the ground can become loose, which increases the likelihood that debris will flow. Next it is important to discuss how to stay safe during a mudslide. Since mudslides often occur suddenly and can cause mass destruction, it is important to understand how to protect yourself from these dangers. [4] The main way to protect yourself against mudslides is to know if the area you live in is susceptible to mudslides, and then watch for warning signs such as, tilting trees, increased river water levels, and of course muddy slopes after excessive rainfall. While mudslides tend to be unpredictable and sudden, there are ways to safeguard against mudslides in prone areas. [5] This can be accomplished through building more strong rooted trees and plants to hold debris back from falling down hill. [5] There is actually an interesting article from CNN, which summarizes the mission work that a woman conducted in Guatemala to protect the villagers from mudslides. Guatemala is very prone to mudslides due to their geological landscape and precipitation levels, so Anne Hallum set out to try to help these effected villages. Through numerous efforts and interventions, she realized that pine trees were among the best trees to plant in mudslide prone areas because they do a very good job at holding back debris when the ground is heavily saturated. Another important way is to just be informed about mudslides and aware of the risks and warning signs. Another important issue that needs to be addressed when discussing this topic is the impact that climate change has on the increase in mudslides. [6] Unfortunately, the increase in temperature due to climate change is increasing the amounts of mudslides. [6] Since there is more moisture trapped in the atmosphere, the effected areas are experiencing more precipitation then they are used to, therefore, there is a risk for flooding. As we have previously discussed, with excessive precipitation and flooding, comes the larger chance of a mudslide occurring.  In addition, excessive precipitation also includes more frequent storms. [6] Therefore, once one precipitation storm ends another is likely to begin, so the ground is not given enough time to recover from the large amounts of water, and is therefore put at an even greater risk of a mudslide occurring. Finally, the last point that I feel is crucial to touch on is the environmental and societal impacts that mudslides have. [7] Mudslides can cause extreme environmental issues such as, increased pollution and contamination to rivers, lakes, and streams, which harms quality of water and threatens wildlife survival. It can also strip forests and other wooded areas of their natural elements and habitat. This creates problems not only for wildlife survival but also for agricultural growth. [7] Society is of course affected in numerous ways. One of the most common ways is by the physical threat that it has on human life and survival. The next issue is related to the damage and destruction that is left in the aftermath. [7] Homes and entire communities are often destroyed so rehabilitation is difficult for these people because they quite literally need to rebuild from the ground up. [7] In addition, the economic impact is huge for the communities affected by mudslides. The cost of rebuilding entire communities is very expensive and often times there are not enough funds to properly rebuild. There is also rarely enough money to install proper safeguards to protect the effected areas from future mudslides when they are already spending such large amounts of money rebuilding their community. So in conclusion, I just hope that everybody listening today feels that they have a better understanding of what mudslides are and the impacts that they have. More importantly, I hope that everyone feels that they are equipped with enough information to protect themselves and others from the dangerous impacts of mudslides. The main goal of this podcast was to educate about mudslides as a general topic, but it was also to raise awareness and provide the public with safety precautions. So, I really do just want to thank everyone for listening and I hope that you found this information valuable! (This audio file was recorded by Noelle Zampino, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on April 11, 2016. References available in the attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-mudslide-paesta-podcast-series-episode-27

You Asked, We Answered! Trasncript of the podcast On Earth, we often take for granted the role that plants play in the oxygen production/carbon dioxide removal process. In space, other methods are used to remove these by-products and to reclaim water and oxygen. Reclaiming means to produce a new supply by combining or breaking down by-products of other processes [1]. National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, spelled NASA life support system engineers refer to the recycling of water and air as “closing the loop.” The by-products of human metabolism, carbon dioxide (lethal in high concentrations) and water vapor, present a challenge in terms of removing these from the [1]. Reclaiming water is a more complex process than recycling air. Because water on the space shuttle is produced by fossil fuel and then stored, water recycling is not an issue. On the International Space Station or ISS, however, there are no fossil fuel, fossil fuel is important in the reduction of pollution in water. This is so because in the Sabatier reaction, referred to as the Global Reaction, carbon dioxide is converted to methane in the presence of hydrogen. In this reaction, the methane produced is then capable of further combustion, and NASA intends to have this process work in order to produce water for consumption by astronauts while in space [2]. NASA’s life support engineers are working to develop a water recovery system that makes use of the Sabatier Reaction. The Sabatier Reaction involves the reaction of hydrogen with carbon dioxide at elevated temperatures optimally 300–400 °C and pressures in the presence of a nickel catalyst to produce methane and water. [2] Water is one of the necessities of life. Some people can survive without water from 8-10 days, while others can survive up to 3 days, or 100 hours. However, this varies on the conditions at which the body is being hydrated [2]. From instance, 100 hours can be true is the average temperature is that of the outdoors, and if cooler, those hours are extended, and if the body is exposed to the direct sunlight; then the hours are lessened [2].  Because the body is constantly loosing water, from things like perspiration, or going to the bathroom drinking at least a glass of water once a day becomes essential. Therefore keeping the body hydrated is a must and is crucial to the existence of the human body [3]. You see because water is a versatile material, it is crucial to the versatility of life. We, as society truly do not understand the necessity of water, we take for granted the abundance of water that we have now. We should treat water as a luxury item, and treat it as such. Water is the luxury for our cells and if our cells don’t have it, they will cease to exist. [4] Because drinking water is one of the most vital parts of living, the body needs it in order to function. Not just any drinking water, drinking water needs to be thoroughly disinfected before ingestion. Because if it is not, there can be more damage that will be done to the cells within our bodies; damage to the organs which can cause the life expectancy of human to decrease. We have to be extra mind-full about how we use water and the water system. You see, the water system is being destroyed by toxic cyanobacterial [5]. And the source of this problem is from society and the many uses of chemicals that we inject into the Earth through fertilizer, human waste, chemicals that we use in our everyday lives like: the chemical we used to wash our cars, the chemicals we use to shower and wash our hairs, the cars that are driven, the gasoline that spills when filling it up, different toxins that big corporations dump into rivers and different water systems. Some of the most dangerous sicknesses that we are battling, such as cancers, more so gastrointestinal cancers are caused from these toxins. [5] Because over half of the human body is made up of water, 50-65% we must take water very seriously. There are many different roles water plays in our body, not just humans but also animals. Water acts as lubricant for more places in the body than we may already be aware of. For instance water acts as lubricant for places such as our joints, it also acts as a temperature regulator for when our bodies are running very hot. [6] (This audio file was recorded by Touyon Tarley, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on April 11, 2016. References are available in the attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-long-can-we-go-without-water-paesta-podcast-series-episode-26

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello listeners, my name is Madison Stewart and I am an undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine. Today I am here to answer the question “What causes drought?” This is a question that certainly has more than one answer. Typically, it is believed that drought is caused by lack of rainfall, which is partly true. However, there are actually different types of drought and each have different causes. [1,2] A meteorological drought is caused by lack of precipitation and moisture. This type of drought occurs when a specific region receives less rainfall than it normally does. For example, 20 inches of rainfall may be normal in some parts of Texas, but not in Washington State. Another way to think of a meteorological drought is in terms of degree and duration of dryness particular to a certain region. Winds and high temperatures are also influencers. Another type of drought is hydrological. A hydrological drought is when water levels are lower than normal in rivers, streams, and reservoirs due to lack of precipitation. Third, there are agricultural droughts. Generally, this type of drought negatively impacts farmers and crops. An agricultural drought occurs when there isn’t enough water to meet the demands of crops during different growth periods. For example, if there isn’t enough moisture or water during a particular stage, plant growth will be affected. This is a problem because it can negatively impact plant populations. Numerous factors cause this, such as not having access to water supplies, the timing of when water is obtainable for use, and lack of precipitation. Lastly, the fourth type of drought being discussed today is socioeconomic drought. This type of drought occurs as a result of the conditions of a hydrological, meteorological or agricultural drought. [2,1] A socioeconomic drought is when the demand for goods is greater than the supply. The lack of supply is due to a shortage in water, which is caused by the weather. An example of this is excessive irrigation. Various factors can worsen this type of drought, such as an increase in both population size and demand for goods. This means that humans can play a part in causing drought. Activities that humans perform can lead to drought. How much water we consume and the timing of consumption also act as contributors. Other than the causes of drought we just discussed, there are also multiple factors that contribute to drought. For instance, drought is connected to climate change. [3] A majority of precipitation is falling as rain. Snow is also melting earlier, which leads to a rise in evaporation and transpiration. Evaporation is when a liquid changes to a gas. Transpiration is the process in which moisture moves through plants and eventually turns to vapor. Therefore, as temperatures rise, both hydrological and agricultural droughts are at risk of increasing because water supply is lacking, which makes it hard to meet demands. [4] In addition, NASA, or National Aeronautics and Space Administration, point out that there are 3 main contributors to drought. The contributors are: land and sea surface temperatures, atmospheric circulation patterns, and soil moisture content. Sounds confusing, right? Well allow me to break it down for you. A change in one of these contributors can cause a change in the other. First we will discuss how land and sea surface temperatures contribute to drought. With the help of global climate models, researchers found that as surface temperatures increase, there is also a rise in water evaporation, which leads to more radical weather events, such as drought. For instance, in the warmer months, the temperature of land surface has a direct relationship to how much moisture there will be. As for soil moisture, when soil is dry, there is almost no water to evaporate, which means the sunlight will continue to warm the surface. Therefore, conditions become drier. This is the start of a snowball effect leading toward drought. When surface temperatures are irregular, this causes atmospheric circulation patterns to be irregular as well. Atmospheric circulation is a big movement of air that spreads heat on Earth’s surface. In turn, precipitation patterns also change. Changes in atmospheric circulation patterns can cause storms to be interrupted for long periods of time. These changes mean that some regions receive above average rainfall, while other regions experience drought. [5] El Nino serves as an example of this. El Nino is when the surface water in the Pacific Ocean and South American Coast increase in temperature. The warm water interrupts storm patterns, making it a contributor to drought. La Nina is also associated with drought. However, this is when surface water in the Pacific Ocean and Coast of South America drop in temperature. Colder water also has the ability to interrupt storm patterns. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s and 1988 drought are two historical droughts and are linked to La Nina. As you can see, there are many causes and contributors to drought and I hope this podcast helped you to gain a better understanding of them. Thank you so much for listening. (This audio file was recorded by Madison Stewart, undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on April 12, 2016. References are available in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-causes-drought-paesta-podcast-series-episode-25

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hi. My name is Amber Smith. I am 20 years old, and a junior at Penn State Brandywine.  Throughout this podcast, I will be explaining to you today about snowflakes and how they form into unique designs every winter. Sometimes we don’t take the time to stop and think about these things. Usually when we hear the word “snow” we think of numerous things. One being “will we have school?” or “Are the roads bad?” What if once in a while we stopped to think and ponder?  Imagine this. You are sitting in a coffee shop looking out of the window in late December. It is one of the coldest days of the year. As you are sipping that hot, refreshing cup of coffee you look outside at the window sill thinking deeply about how beautifully covered it is in white crystal snow. Today's podcast will reflect on something we don’t often think about. Do you ever think about how these snowflakes form? How they stick to these objects that make outside so beautiful when it snows? Snowflake formation depends on the temperature, as well as the humidity in the atmosphere.   Precipitation transforms into to snow only when the temperature in the air is below two degrees Celsius, and while there is moisture in the air. The Snowflakes begin to stimulate their form when water vapor sticks to a microscopic dust particle in the atmosphere. Something that is really interesting that not a lot of people know is that snow rises before it falls, weird right? [1] The first stage in the foundation of a snowflake is the climbing of a droplet. That droplet is then carried higher into the atmosphere, followed by the freezing of the droplet into a six sided prism. Ice grows fastest around the edges of the snowflakes and the corners of the particle produce quickly. This causes six branches to grow off of the snowflake. During this process, the snowflake creates its unique interior lines we all admire. At 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the branches of the snowflake start to mature and become wider. Afterwards, the new growth begins on the snowflake but the growth is narrower. This must be why the branches look like a triangle. When the snowflake is heavy enough to take on the force of the air lifting it up, that is where it begins to fall. [2] The formation of a snowflake is called aggregation. Aggregation is defined as the process by “which ice crystals collide and form a larger ice particle.” Two crystals will wind up sticking together because of the shape and size of the crystals. The snowflakes shape is set by the temperature that is in the atmosphere. Snowflakes come in all shapes and sizes and though snowflakes can sometimes reach three or four inches in size, the "record size" snowflake was actually 15 inches in diameter. [3] Sometimes, when it snows, we all get super excited, until we need to shovel all of that snow, right? And then we all wait for it to melt, well, when does the snow melt after it sticks to the ground. The answer is simple. The snow begins to melt immediately after the temperature rises above freezing. And while this snow is falling, our family and friends all get so excited to go play in it and go sledding and make igloos. How can we determine if this snow will be fun and playful or wet and nasty? The difference between dry, playful, and difficult to shovel wet snow, is that when the temperature is somewhat warmer than freezing, the snowflakes melt around the edges which causes them to stick together and become heavy snowflakes. When the air is cool and dry, the snow will be powdery so that the snowflakes do not stick together. At dry, cold temperatures, the snowflakes are simple and not complex. When the temperature is higher, the snowflakes are more complex because there are more ice crystals. This makes the snowflake more unique. [4] I hope this podcast has helped you in a way to look at things differently and to take some time and think about how unique something so simple can be. Thank you. (This audio file was recorded by Amber Smith undergraduate student, Penn State Brandywine, on April 6, 2016. References available in attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-do-snowflakes-form-paesta-podcast-series-episode-24

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Lake effect snow, in some areas, can be the cause to why we get so much snow. These storms mainly take place during the months of November to February. [1] When lake effect snow happens, such as the areas closer to the Great Lakes such as Lake Erie, if the conditions are right, snow will form.  For lake effect snow to occur, colder air has to pass over the hot waters of the lake and when this happens, it causes evaporation to occur which brings up the now warmer wetter air which over time gets colder as it travels away from the lakes and becomes moisture. Depending on how cold the moisture gets, it can form into snow and cause a snowstorm at nearby areas such as happened in Buffalo, New York because of the neighboring Lake Erie. These storms can cause damages to power lines and close off streets. [1] Lake effect snow is most common with the Great Lakes here in the United States. At some point lake effect snow does not work because the water is frozen and therefore, lake effect snow cannot happen. Now let’s look at lake effect snow in a little more depth. Lake effect snow is defined to be one of the most intense types of snowstorms in the world. The only two things that can stop this effect are if the lakes freeze or if they got cold enough to not have a difference with the air temperature. [2] One important factor to understand about this effect is that of the winds. The winds can either have a short fetch or long fetch depending on the lake’s orientation. A short fetch is when the wind is blowing through the width of the lake and a long fetch is the opposite of that being that the wind blows throughout the whole length of the lake. [2] Another important aspect you should know is that there are two snow band events that tie in with the short and long fetches. They are known as multi-band and single-band. Typically, multi-bands go with short fetches and single-bands go with long fetches. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are associated with the single-band. When multi-band lake effect snow happens, it is due to the fact of horizontal convective rolls, also known by many as “cloud streets.” [2] The warm air that flows up forms cumulus clouds because as the air reaches its tendency to be able to float, it spills to the sides, thus creating the enormous cumulus clouds. At a certain point when, conditions get strong, snowfall will occur. Single-band lake effect is created in a similar fashion as multi-bands but instead of including only part of the lake, single-band form by taking up the whole lake to form the snowstorm beginning at the center of the lake, this storm creates its convection cell. [2] Now, let’s take a look at how the Great Lakes create sub-climates to further explain lake effect snow. Lake effect snow creates subclimates, which in this case, means that the temperature of the lakes water is different from the temperature of the air during the year. We define the subclimates into two separate seasons and they are called the stable season and the unstable season. [3] When we define the stable season, we mean that the temperature of the lakes water is cooler than the temperature of the air, but when we define the unstable season, we mean that the lakes water is hotter than the airs mean temperature. This shows us that these two seasons are opposites of each other and affect the lake snow effect differently. The unstable season typically begins in August and lasts around till the middle of March. [3] This is when the water is hotter and because the air is colder, lake effect snow can reach the correct conditions to allow a snowstorm to happen. You tend to find that bigger snowstorms happen during the winter especially before it gets cold enough for the lakes to freeze over. When they freeze over, there is a reduced chance of lake effect snow to occur. [3] Once it hits at around mid-March that is when the stable season begins and goes up until the beginning of August. (This audio file was recorded by Steve Slikas, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on April 12, 2016. References in the attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-lake-effect-snow-paesta-podcast-series-episode-23

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello everyone, my name is Jenna Federle and today I will be answering the question, why is Earth called the water planet?  Now the Earth is a very watery place but the actual amount of water on, in and even above our planet is hard to come by.  Water covers about 75 percent of the Earths surface, in both liquid and frozen form.  From inside the planets crust to inside the cells of the human body.  Water exists in the air as water vapor and the ground to moisture the soil.  Water is everywhere.  [1] Ninety-six-point-five percent of Earth’s water is the ocean as salt water.  Three-point-five-percent of Earth’s water is fresh water.  The Earth’s freshwater are the lakes and frozen water that is held in glaciers and polar ice caps.  A majority of our freshwater comes from rain falling from the sky and moves into the oceans lakes and rivers.  Oceans are what produce about 70 percent of our oxygen.  It can absorb heat and send it other places around the world.  Oceans take a big role in the world’s weather system. There is much more freshwater stored in the ground that we can’t see that is essential to our lives too. [3] This water is what we rely on as humans to live our everyday lives.  Out of all of the Earth’s freshwater, sixty-nine-percent is frozen.  Sea levels would rise to an altitude of two-point-seven kilometers if all of that freshwater were to melt. [2] Water is always on the move from one place to another and even changing its form too.  This is all thanks to the water cycle.  The Earth would become really dried up and hard if we didn’t have the water cycle.  If this were to happen we wouldn’t be able to do our everyday things.  The water cycle takes good care of the Earth’s water supply.  Some of the water that comes from precipitation after a rainfall goes into the ground to refuel the aquifers.  While that goes on, water in the ground is continuously refueling rivers.  Humans use billions of gallons of surface water a day.  And billions of gallons of ground water a day.  Water on the surface of the Earth is used for our drinking supply.  And to supply water to crops.  The ground water that we use does a lot more than just help keep our rivers and lakes filled.  Ground water provides water for those who live in a part of the world where there’s a limited amount of surface water.  [3] It’s said that trying to figure out the total amount of water for the whole planet has been the hardest study yet.  But a few years back in 2014, there was a study where scientist found evidence of what may be an ocean’s worth of water deep in the Earth’s mantle.  This study must’ve helped a great deal with finding out the total content of water for the whole planet.  As I said earlier water is even in the planets crust.  This water is in a form that is unfamiliar to us.  They’re like blocks of water connected to each other.  The quantity of the water below the surface may be large enough to be the biggest water reservoir on the planet. [4] Water is contained in almost every inch through out the entire planet.  The large bodies of water on Earth are important for human survival.  Even though only a small fraction of the overall water supply is acceptable and available for human use.  If it weren’t for these large amounts of water, temperature variations would be much more intense through the day and night.  For example, if we didn’t have the large bodies of water, parts of the Earth’s surface would be hot enough to ….lets say boil water during the day and cold enough to freeze water at night. [5] We as humans wouldn’t be able to live in these conditions.  We wouldn’t survive. There isn’t just one reason why the Earth is called the water planet.  Everything that has to do with the Earth has to do with water. It is in fact a cycle that controls and manages our planet.  Without the water cycle and all of our resources of water there wouldn’t be any of us.   (This audio file was recorded by Jeannette Federle, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, in April 2016. References in the attached transcript.)   https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/why-earth-called-water-planet-paesta-podcast-series-episode-21

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast For many years, we have been fascinated by the possibility of life on other planets. So it was shocking when it came out that scientists have found planets similar to Earth. However, that's not as jaw dropping as when the announcement made by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, that they may be water on Mars. A University of Arizona student, Lujendra Ojha, rather surprisingly made the discovery by noticing dark lines on photos of Mars, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRise). After bringing them to her professor’s attention, they soon realized that the lines were caused by running water. [1] The HiRise experiment involved using a high resolution imaging camera to take pictures of 1% of the Martian surface on Mars for a two year period. [3] Alfred McEwen, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, suggested that the lines are made by salt water because it is cable of staying in a liquid form at colder temperatures. [1] It still remains unclear as to where the source of the water comes from. Theories include deliquescence, melting subsurface ice or even a liquid-water aquifer that feeds the process. “Discovering what precisely is causing the phenomenon is a mystery for the next round of investigations”, said Michael Meyer, a lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration (link is external) Program. [6]  Ever since the groundbreaking discovery, scientists began to revisit the idea of life on Mars and started to study the planet more carefully. Mainly focusing in the ancient wet habitats of the planet and drier places where past Martian life may have existed. It is theorized that microbes, single cell organisms, may have adapted in these areas on the dry planet.[2] Additionally, NASA has found evidence that suggests that Mars may hold enough water to overtake the Arctic ocean by using ground observations and measuring water signatures on Mars or the Red Planet’s atmosphere. Scientists are still trying to find out where all the water has gone.[4] Additionally, a team of international scientists  have made a new prediction about the history of water on mars. Their findings suggest that water may have flown for a longer period of time than previously suggested which would allow more life on mars to form. By removing Tharsis, a volcanic region on mars, from the model they found that the mars would allow rivers to flow in the same patterns regardless of Tharsis.Adding to the theory that the valleys could have formed earlier before Tharsis.[7] The discovery of water on Mars could help scientists better understand the hydrologic cycle, a storage and movement of water between the biosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere.[5] (This audio file was written by Davonia Edwards and recorded by Tenowa Edwards on April 5,2016. References are in the attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/there-water-mars-paesta-podcast-series-episode-20

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello! I am Shane Freeman, I am a sophomore at Penn State Brandywine and I am here to answer the longing question, “is there such a thing as a river shark?” A lot of people do not know much about sharks, except that they are dangerous to humans and most people are afraid of them. Many people believe that sharks are only found in salt water, however, this is not always the case. There is one type of shark that lives not only in salt water, but can also live in fresh water. This type of shark is called the bull shark. The bull shark is related to the tiger and great white shark. Bull sharks are known to be very aggressive animals and are considered to be the most dangerous sharks in the world.  Bull sharks have thick bodies and are medium sized. These sharks are fast and capable of watching their prey quickly. They prey on almost anything that moves in the ocean or river. [4] So next time you’re in the water keep on the look out for bull sharks! Another type of shark is the speartooth shark, which is also known as the “river shark” and this shark is far less dangerous than the bull shark. However, this shark is quite rarely seen, so if you ever get the chance to see one, take a picture! The last place this type of shark was located in Papua New Guinea in the 1970’s.  This shark is small with small eyes and are found in large rivers, which makes it hard for them to be spotted.  However, these sharks are in bad locations which causes there to be a threat against their species due to being threated by overfishing. [3] Now let’s talk about a shark that lives in rivers and is endangered. The Northern River shark is one of the rarest species in the world. This shark is known to live in Papua New Guinea, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This shark was discovered in Australia in 1986. This shark is not very big and has unusually small eyes and they are not counted on to find prey. They are endangered because there are only 36 types of this shark that were found. [2] Since there are a lot of river sharks out there you may be asking yourself how will I be able to see one? For one, you will need to travel around the world to see most of these river sharks because most of them, if not all of them, are not known for living in the United States. The most common one we see in our rivers is the bull shark. A lot of these bull shark’s fisherman has been catching have been pretty big sharks. For instance, there was an 8-foot bull shark that was caught in the Potomac River in Maryland. [1] There are sharks that you are allowed to fish for and there are some you are not. The ones you are not allowed to fish for are the ones that are endangered. Granted you cannot stop one from biting your bait if your fishing. If one does however, you must put them back into the river. Before you do that I would take a picture of the shark because they are cool to see and you don’t get to see something that big everyday. Personally I think you should respect the shark and put them back and let them live regardless if they are endangered or not. I want to thank you for listening to my podcast today. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned a little bit more about sharks today and that there is such a thing as a river shark. Thank you and have a great day! (This audio file was recorded by Shane Freeman, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on March 28, 2016. References in attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/there-such-thing-river-shark-paesta-podcast-series-episode-19

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello everyone, this is Jeff Steinmann. I am a sophomore at Penn State Brandywine. Today I am going to tell everyone about how the Chesapeake Bay was formed. The Chesapeake Bay was formed billions of years ago in Maryland. There are three different events that went into the forming of the Chesapeake Bay, which include: an asteroid hitting the earth, massive glacier forming, and the warming of Earth. Scientist are not sure if what hit the earth was a comet or an asteroid. Scientist are certain that the comet or asteroid, hit the earth about thirty five million years ago. [1] Scientist say that the asteroid or comet impact zone was off the Delmarva Peninsula. This peninsula connects Delaware, portions of Maryland, and portions of Virginia together. The comet or asteroid that formed the Chesapeake Bay formed a crater that is fifty five miles wide. [1] The crater formed the shape of the land for the Chesapeake Bay. There are two more events left to form the Chesapeake Bay as we know it today. The second event that helped form the Chesapeake Bay was the massive glacier forming. Scientist say the glacier formed about ten to two million years ago. Between this time a series of ice was formed from the ice age and extended the coastline about one hundred and eighty miles closer. [1] With the expanding of the coastline the next event made the forming of the Chesapeake Bay occur faster and easier. The last event that completed the formation of the Chesapeake Bay was the warming of Earth. About eighteen thousand years ago the earth begin to warm rapidly, causing the glaciers to melt. [1] With the increase in the amount of water on earth all the rivers and streams expanded. One particular river contributed to the forming of the Chesapeake Bay, and that river is the Susquehanna River, which is located in Pennsylvania. The Susquehanna River flows directly into the Chesapeake Bay, therefore when the glaciers melted the Susquehanna River overflowed into the Chesapeake Bay. The Susquehanna river fed fresh water into the Chesapeake bay, but the river still meets with saltwater closer to the ocean. The mixing of these two types of water classify the Chesapeake Bay as an estuary, which is where salt water and freshwater meet in one place. [3] Without the three events that occurred to form the Chesapeake Bay one of the largest estuaries in the world would not exist today. So many plants and animals rely on the Chesapeake Bay to provide food, water, and shelter everyday. [2] The Chesapeake Bay is habituated by about two thousand seven hundred species of plants and animals. [3] There are about three hundred and forty eight fish and one hundred and seventy three shell fish. [3] Shell fish include species of clams, oysters, crabs, and starfish. With the diverse amount of species the Chesapeake Bay produces many jobs and seafood for the United States. Therefore, without the events that impacted the formation of the bay, plants, animals, and people would be struggling without the estuary everyone calls the Chesapeake Bay. I want to thank everyone for listening to my podcast. I hope everyone enjoyed it and learned how the Chesapeake Bay was formed. Thank you and have a great day. (This audio file was recorded by Jeff Steinmann, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on April 10, 2016. References are in attached transcript.)     https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/how-was-chesapeake-bay-formed-paesta-podcast-series-episode-18

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, my name is Victoria Parsons, and I am here to tell you about the origin of water on Earth. There are many different theories as to where all of the water on Earth came from, and while there is still not a definite answer, researchers are getting closer to the truth every day. The theories as to where water on Earth came from [1] include planetary cooling, extra planetary sources, hydrate minerals, volcanic activity, water within the development of Earth, and the role organisms may have played. Understanding where Earth's water came from is important when trying to understand the formation of Earth millions of years ago. [2] The original theory surrounding the origin of Earth's water explains that the Earth was once considered to be a dry planet, meaning that water did not appear until millions of years later. However, after scientists began studying this more in depth, they changed the idea, saying that Earth was formed as a wet planet, meaning that there was enough water from the very beginning to be able to sustain life. The evidence surrounding this new theory says that meteorites brought water to Earth, stemming from the large asteroid, Vesta, which was also formed in the same region as Earth. This information also suggests that other planets may have been formed as wet planets, even if they are not anymore due to their particular atmosphere. [3] Research suggests that destructive meteorite "bombardments" ended around 3.9 billion years ago, which is when the planet formed. With this information, [4] Earth's water is mainly suspected to have originated from comets and asteroids, which can break up into meteorites. The main difference between the two is that comets have a higher concentration of say, ingredients, that vaporize when heated, which accounts for their tails of gas. [4] Both have the possibility of containing ice, and with the amount of ingredients the two contain, they could deliver oceans worth of water. Comets, however, are believed to contain water that is different than the water present on Earth. They contain more deuterium, a heavier form of hydrogen, which is not as distinctive in Earth's water. There is evidence that states otherwise though, and [6] in 2000, the Earth was hit by a large comet, and when scientists began to study it, they agreed that it had the same hydrologic makeup as the water already present on Earth. Although, with more and more research being done, between comets and asteroids, researchers are leaning more towards asteroids as the main water source. [5] These asteroids come from the space between Mars and Jupiter. This information can also help scientists learn more about Mars, which although is a different topic, has the ability to lead to more detailed information about the "Red Planet." Now, to switch gears to a new theory about where water on Earth originated from, another theory suggests that water has been on Earth since its initial formation, just underground, deep inside the mantle. [7] Research suggests that it was quite possible for water molecules to have clung to dust particles from the dust cloud which is believed to have condensed not only Earth, but also other planets. The water was then brought to Earth's surface through volcanic activity many, many years later. If this information is true, it could mean that other planets also have water in their physical makeup, it may just have not been brought to the surface yet. This information being true could lead to more scientific revelations about our universe.  Also conflicting, is the statement that Earth's mantle today has water concentrations of only 200th of a percent. All of this information surrounding Earth's water origin can be confusing, but it doesn't have to be. While researchers and scientists are still not in complete agreement about the origin of water on Earth, they are getting closer and closer every day to the true origin. As of now, they are leaning towards asteroids the most, but other theories, such as comets or the Earth's mantle have not been completely shot down. These theories are all important to understand, and can all be connected in one way or another. There are tons of resources available to help aid in the knowledge of this puzzling question. I truly hope this information was helpful in the comprehension of the origin of Earth's water. Thank you for listening, this is Victoria Parsons signing off now, but stay tuned until next time! (This audio file was recorded by Victoria Parsons, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on April 5, 2016. References are in the attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/did-earths-water-come-outer-space-paesta-podcast-series-episode-17

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello, and welcome to Episode 22, Is the Mississippi River Delta really sinking? My name is Joseph Opdenaker. In this podcast I would like to tell you about the Mississippi river delta, what troubles the delta and we as the people are facing, and finally we will find out if the delta is really sinking, and why if it really is sinking. First and foremost, [1] the Mississippi River Delta covers about 40% of the coastal wetlands in about 48 states, which most is in the state of the Louisiana. [1] Many people, and animals truly depend on this delta. Without this delta, the animals would start to die off, and they would end up becoming extinct. For the people, especially the ones that live in the city of New Orleans, they really depend on this for many reasons. The first reason is that there are animals there, that the people in the city of New Orleans hunt and fish. This is important for restaurants, and also for people who need to consume food. The second reason is that this delta brings in many tourists. With these tourists, it brings in more people, and that is more money for the city of New Orleans. The third reason that this delta is very important is that this delta is huge for navigation. The fourth and final reason is the plants. There are many different plants that depend on this delta in order to survive. Now, we all know that plants are not exactly like humans, but humans truly depend on plants. Not only do plants provide a food source, but plants provide oxygen and many other great sources that we need in order to survive. Also, animals eat this vegetation, and going back to the animals, if they do not have to option to eat this vegetation, then they either A have to become carnivores… YUCK, or option B is that they starve to death and end up becoming extinct. Many ships and boats go up, down, and through this delta. Without this delta a lot of imported and exported goods could be either delayed or end up not going through at all. The New Orleans economy and the places that surround this deltas’ economy in essence depend on this delta to thrive. There are many issues that the delta is facing right now. A couple of these issues that are being faced is [1] wetland loss, global warming, gas and [2] oil infrastructure, dams that are upriver, sea level rise, subsidence, oil spill, and invasive species. The first issue that I will discuss is the wetland loss. [1] Costal Louisiana is losing 24 square miles of wetlands each year. If you put that in perspective, that is like losing one football field every thirty minutes. That is incredible and very scary. By the year 2040, if we do not stop what we are doing to these wetlands, they will disappear, like they were never here. The causes of wetland loss are from natural causes, subsidence (which we will get into), wave erosion, and human causes. We are part of the problem. Another issue that is hurting the delta is subsidence. [2] Subsidence is land formed by river sediments that naturally subsides and sinks over time. What this means is that as soil, dirt, and other particles start to lay in one certain spot, and hill, and possibly land will be made from this. At some point this will go away. With subsidence, this will make sea levels and water rise, which can cause flooding and that is no good. Another issue that the delta faces is oil spills. With the oil spills that have occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil will spread for miles and miles. The issue with this is that when that happens, animals, people, and plants are affected. Animals are effected especially when the oil gets on their skin or fur. For people oil spills in the water affect the economy because of the lack of food supply coming from the ocean and the delta. For plants, they will wither and die because of the oil, it is not good for them to consume. The last issue that I will discuss that has to do with the delta is the invasive species. Invasive species are animals, rodents, plants, etc. that are disastrous for a certain piece of land or an area. The issue is that if the delta gets infested with these insects or rodents, it will drive out or kill wildlife that has always been there, and they will destroy plants, and infect the water there. The final question that we have been all anticipating is whether or not the Mississippi river delta is really sinking. To answer your question, yes, the [3] Mississippi river delta is sinking or another way to put it is that the delta is drowning. [3] Michael Blum of LSU in Baton Rouge said that there is not enough sediment to sustain the delta plain. Since the 1950’s, about 70% of the sediment has been trapped within the delta. With this, that means that the delta has started eroding. With the sea level rise and the trapping of the sediment which has caused erosion, the delta is bound to drown or “sink” by the year 2100. This is significant because if we start to try and restore the delta now, we can slow down this process. But, because we have waited too long to try and restore the delta, at some point maybe not in our lifetime the delta will sink completely. I think this has a part to do with the life cycle and with the end of the worlds we deal with. Like the ice age, things will die and it will take time but it will restore. The delta will be back one day but putting a time frame on it is almost impossible. The only thing that I can tell you is that the delta will sink. (This audio file was authored by Melanie Kempf and recorded by Joseph Opdenaker in March 2016. References availabe in attached transcript.) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/mississippi-river-delta-really-sinking-paesta-podcast-series-episode-22

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello there, my name is Lori Ezzedine and I would like to talk to you about the California drought, but more specifically, why California battles drought conditions so often. In order to answer this question, there are a few areas and terms that need to be covered. First, what are droughts, groundwater and aquifers? Second, what is the significance of the drought in California and why should we care? And third, what is the history of California droughts? So, what is a drought? A drought is a long period of time that passes with abnormally low levels of rainfall or snowpack, which in turn causes a shortage of water. The current drought in California began in 2012. [1] One study found that the current California drought is the worst one in 1,200 years. [2] Another article stated that in 2014, California had an all time low at 5% of the historical average of snow pack accumulations. [2] A study from the same article found that there is a greater chance of low rainfall in the years to come because of the overall warmer baseline conditions. What is groundwater? Groundwater in a broader sense is water that is held underground. The amount of groundwater available depends on the amount of rainfall and/or snowpack that accumulated that year. [3] Half of that evaporates, but the other half is used for cities, farms or put in storage. The remaining rainfall or snowpack that seeps into the ground is then accumulated in aquifers. [4] An aquifer is a body of saturated rock that is located underground which water can easily move through. So how does an aquifer work? Simple. It fills with moving water. As previously stated, the amount of ground water it fills with depends on the rainfall and/or snowpack levels. Once the water accumulates, it will eventually leave the aquifer and must be replaced by new water to replenish the aquifer. This leads us into our second question, what is the significance of the drought in California and why should we care? [5] Because the groundwater in California sustains the lives of over 40 million people, and is also responsible for 15% of the nations food supply. California is the most populated state in the country, one of the worlds leading agriculture producers and the eighth largest economy in the world. [5] Agriculture in California uses more than 70% of the groundwater, and due to this astonishing statistic and how severe the drought has become, California officials have made farmers cut their water use by up to 36%. Citizens have also made cutbacks by not watering their lawns as often or not washing their cars. So, why does this matter? Well, if water is becoming less and less readily available, and farmers can only use a fraction of what they used to, this means that not only will the agricultural sect not be able to produce as much food as they used to, but also, whatever food they do produce, will be raised in price. You can see how this could be problematic. Now for the third topic, what is the history of California droughts? Let’s start off by stating the obvious; California does not have regular precipitation patterns. [6] Through the studies of tree rings, sediments and other natural evidence, researchers have proven multiple droughts in California. The two most severe mega droughts were a 240 yearlong drought that started in 850 A.D. and, 50 years after the conclusion of that one, another one that stretched at least 180 years. There have been numerous long and short droughts in California’s past. [7] There was one during the dust bowl, which started in, 1928 and ended in 1935, another one from 1947 to 1950, one from 1959 to 1960, and then again from 1976 to 1977. 1977 was one of the driest years on record in California where 47 out of 58 counties declared a local drought emergency. Of course, this record has been replaced by the current drought, [6] with the 2013-2014 rainfall season being the driest year based on tree ring data. As you can see, California has experienced its fair share of droughts. But the leading question to all of this is: “Why?” Why does California experience drought conditions so often? Many have debated global warming as a reason the droughts keep occurring, and many have also debated that the reason for the droughts is the reoccurring La Niña. [8] Global warming is said to have intensified the California drought by 15 to 20%. Although much research supports the claim that the drought is a consequence of natural climate variability, it is said that the drought will last longer than it should and made worse because of climate change. However, the immediate reason for the drought is ‘the blob’, otherwise known as La Niña. [9] La Niña is warm water in the Pacific Ocean that has made its way to the west coast is to blame for the drought. It started in 2011 and causes storms that would normally hit California to drench to other locations, which is why there is little to no rainfall or snowpack accumulation. So now that we know that La Niña is the cause of the California drought, what can we do about it? The best thing to do would be to continue to reduce water use in all sects of California and just wait for the storm to pass. Unfortunately, this probably won’t be the last drought that occurs in California. This is Lori Ezzedine and thank you for listening. (This audio file was recorded by Lori Ezzedine, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, in March 2016. References are in attached transcript.) Earth Science Literacy Principles Big Idea 1. Earth scientists use repeatable observations and testable ideas to understand and explain our planet. 1.1 Earth scientists find solutions to society’s needs. 1.2 Earth scientists use their understanding of the past to forecast the Earth’s future. Big Idea 2. Earth is 4.6 billion years old 2.1 Earths rocks and other materials provide a record of its history. Big Idea 3. Earth is a complex system of interacting rock, water, air and life. 3.1 The four major systems of earth are the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. 3.8 Earth’s climate is an example of how complex interactions among systems can result in relatively sudden and significant changes. Big Idea 5. Earth is the water planet 5.2 Water is essential for life on Earth. 5.5 Earth’s water cycles among the reservoirs of the atmosphere, streams, lakes, ocean, glaciers, groundwater, and deep interior of the planet. 5.8 Fresh water is less than 3% of the water at Earth’s surface. Big Idea 7. Humans depend on Earth for resources 7.3 Natural resources are limited. 7.4 Resources are distributed unevenly around the planet. 7.5 Water resources are essential for agriculture, manufacturing, energy production and life. Big Idea 8. Natural Hazards post risk to humans. 8.1 Natural hazards result from natural earth processes. 8.2 Natural hazards shape the history of human societies. 8.3 Human activities can contribute to the frequency and intensity of some natural hazards. 8.4 Hazardous events can be sudden or gradual. 8.7 Humans cannot eliminate natural hazards, but can engage in activities that reduce their impacts. Big Idea 9. Humans significantly alter the Earth. 9.1 Human activities significantly change the rates of many of Earth’s surface processes. 9.4 Humans affect the quality, availability, and distribution of Earth’s water through the modification of streams, lakes and groundwater. https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/why-does-california-battle-drought-conditions-so-often-paesta-podcast-series-episode-12

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript of the podcast Hello!  It’s Payton Filippone here.  I am a student at Penn State Brandywine and today I will be talking about flooding.  I will be answering the question: “what causes floods?”  Flooding is an important topic to understand because it affects many communities around the world every year.  Let’s begin by learning what a flood really is.  The National Severe Storms Laboratory, or NSSL, says that a flood is “an overflowing of water onto land that is normally dry”. [1] National Geographic adds that flooding happens when normally dry land is “soaked” by an abundance of water. [2] Australian Government.com, which comes from Australia which is a country that has to deal with flooding just as much as the United States, says that flooding can be defined as “the covering of normally dry land by water that has escaped or been released from the natural confines of any lake, or any river, creek or other natural watercourse.” [3] Putting all of these definitions together can lead us to believe that flooding is when land that is normally dry is covered in extremely large amounts of water.  But what causes this type of event to occur?  Well, there are numerous answers to this burning question. One extremely common cause of flooding is heavy rainfall.  This happens when a natural and sizeable body of water is overflowing due to added water from rain. [4] According to the authors at the United States Geological Survey, flooding can be caused by “prolonged rainfall over several days, intense water over a short period of time, or a debris jam causes a river or stream to overflow and flood the surrounding area.” [5] As you can see, flooding can occur even without tremendous amounts of rain. Another cause of flooding could be a break in a dam.  This break could occur because of an earthquake or a poorly structured dam.  For example, according to TIME Incorporated and author Kayla Webley, the South Fork Dam is a dam that is located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately, it had broken open in the year eighteen eighty-nine and allowed twenty million tons of water to completely take over the town of Johnstown.  Not even an hour had passed when a giant, thirty-foot barricade of water crashed down over the town.  The dangerous water flowed at speeds of twenty to forty miles per hour.  This catastrophe sadly killed over two thousand, two hundred people.  If you would like to learn more about this tragedy, you could read a book called “Shelter from the Storm”, written by David McCullough. [6] Some of the most deadly floods around the world take place in China.  China is the home of the Huang He River, otherwise known as the Yellow River.  This famous body of water got its name because of the yellow colored silt that makes up a major part of the riverbed.  The most deadly flood that came from this river occurred in the year nineteen thirty-one.  It flooded thirty-four thousand square miles and killed between one and four million people.  As if taking these lives was not enough, the flood also left eighty million people homeless.  But what caused this tragedy?  What started the reoccurrence of this awful destruction?  Well, sometimes, the famous, yellow silt would accumulate to the point where there would be no more room in the river for the water.  Silt is fine sand that is carried by water, but the water is unable to go through it.  Since the water cannot go through it, silt can act as a blockage when there is too much built up in one spot. [7] Clearly, this is another natural cause of flooding. [8] Floods can affect humans and their ways of living in a variety of ways.  For example, National Geographic states that floods can be extremely destructive.  Objects as large as houses, trees, cars, and even bridges can be lifted up and taken away from where they belong by a powerful flood. [2] Overall today, we learned a lot about floods.  We learned what a flood really is, how floods affect humans, and, most importantly, we answered the original question of “what causes floods?”  I hope you have all enjoyed this podcast and that it has answered all of your questions.  Thank you for listening and have a great day! (This audio file was recorded by Payton Filippone, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on April 9, 2016) Earth Science Literacy Principles Big Idea 3. Earth is a complex system of interacting rock, water, air, and life. 3.6 Earth’s systems are dynamic; they continually react to changing influences. Big Idea 5. Earth is the water planet. 5.4 Water plays an important role in many of Earth’s deep internal processes. 5.5 Earth’s water cycle among the reservoirs of the atmospheres, streams, lakes, ocean, glaciers, groundwater, and deep interior of the planet. Big Idea 8. Natural hazards pose risks to humans. 8.1 Natural hazards result from natural Earth processes. 8.2 Natural hazards shape the history of human societies. 8.4 Hazardous events can be sudden of gradual https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-causes-flooding-paesta-podcast-series-episode-13

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript for the podcast Hi, I’m Sadie and today we’re going to explore what caused the collapse of the Mayan Empire. The Mayans were a complex and fascinating civilization living around the Yucatan peninsula in Central America between the years 250 and 1100 CE. That particular region of Central America, parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, experienced what are referred to as seasonal droughts. Seasonal droughts are periods throughout the year that experience little or no rainfall.  In months that did experience the rainfall, up to 90 percent of the year’s precipitation overall would occur in that time frame. [1] The Mayan empire developed methods of collecting and preserving the rain in giant reservoirs across the region that could store their fresh water. These reservoirs replenished naturally during the rainy season and sustained the Mayans through the seasonal drought. [1] One of the most fascinating aspects of the history of the Maya is their mysterious collapse just at their peak in history. There wasn’t evidence to support that they died, meaning that they left. So the question became, what caused them to leave? This is the question we’re going to explore today. There is evidence to support shifts in political power causing them to disperse, as well as uprising among their people against their government, but the evidence points most to drought as the leading cause of their collapse. When researchers examined the evidence, they found that there was a correlation between the time in history that the Mayans fled and when the largest drought of the Mayan Classical period occurred. Both dated back to about 800 to 900 CE. Now, there are many things that could have contributed to the drought. One of the possible contributors were the agricultural practices of the Mayans. It may have contributed to the climate change that inevitably resulted in the long periods of drought that drove them out. This happened overtime as they began cutting down forests to burn as firewood and make space for fields to grow corn, which is a very thirsty crop. Studies funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA, used a computer simulation of the deforestation to predict how it would have affected the climate. Interestingly, the result was that 100 percent deforestation could, in the long run, cause a 20-30 percent decrease in rainfall as the result of temperature increase by just a few degrees. [2] This is when scientists concluded that drought is what ultimately drove the Mayans away. In addition to the evidence that lies on land, there was evidence in Mayan sacred sites that indicated the people were responding to a drought. After making many discoveries, like the one in the Cara Blanca site in Belize, it was clear that Mayans were reaching out to the gods in an attempt to receive more water. Many Mayan artifacts that dated back to the time of the collapse, were found in the bottom of natural pools at the location of sacred sites. According to archaeologists, the Mayans would travel to these sacred temples to make offerings to the water gods in hope for rain. **There have been discoveries of ceramic pots and tools that traveling Mayans deposited into the sacred sites as offerings over time. In another site found in Caracol, a city in Belize, another sacrificing ground was found deep inside a pyramid in the opening of a cave. The site was used as a place of ritual, where many more of these offerings were made. These discoveries from the bottom of the pools and in the openings of caves were dated back to just before the collapse of the empire, right before the Mayans fled. Making sacrifices such as these were not necessarily new to the Mayans, however, the sacrifices of these tools and artifacts occurred much more frequently just before the drought. This suggested that the Mayans were dealing with the consequences of the drought they were experiencing. [3] So, to summarize, the Mayans were very advanced for their time, the technology they used to build pyramids and store water and irrigate their crops was amazing. The drought they experienced just as they reached their peak in history created tension among their people and devastation to crops that led the Mayans to eventually flee in search of water. Most of the collapse of the Mayan civilization has been linked to the long period of droughts they experienced. (This audio file was recorded by Sadie Lenardon, undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine, on March 7, 2016. References are in attached transcript.)   Earth Science Literacy Principles Big Idea 1. Earth scientists use repeatable observations and testable ideas to understand and explain our planet.             1.3 Earth science investigations take many forms Big Idea 3. Earth is a complex system of interacting rock, water, air, and life.             3.1 The four major systems of Earth are the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.             3.6 Earth’s systems are dynamic; they continually react to changing influences Big Idea 5. Earth is the water planet.                     5.2 Water is essential for life on Earth. Big Idea 7. Humans depend on Earth for resources.             7.1 Earth is our home; its resources mold civilizations, drive human exploration, and inspire human endeavors that include art, literature and science.             7.2 Geology affects the distribution and development of human populations.             7.5 Water resources are essential for agriculture, manufacturing, energy production and life. Big Idea 8. Natural hazards pose risks to humans.             8.3 Human activities can contribute to the frequency and intensity of some natural hazards.     https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-caused-collapse-mayan-empire-hint-drought-paesta-podcast-series-episode-8

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript for the podcast Hello and welcome to another Earth Science podcast on water. This is your host, Garrett Burris, and today I will be answering the common question, what is flash flooding? We all have either seen it on the news or witnessed it in person, streets turn to rivers, basements turn to swimming pools, and houses along with other personal belongings are underwater and destroyed. Floods are one of the most dangerous natural disasters known to man. About 150 people die in flood related causes each year. [1] Most of these floods are caused by flash floods which are defined as torrential down poor’s that accumulate over land that cannot absorb water quick enough leading to fast moving flood waters. Flash floods form within 6 hours of the start of an event and commonly have waters that can move at a steady rate of 9 feet per second. At this rate the water can easily sweep away a rock weighing over one hundred pounds. [2] City and suburban areas with more infrastructure and human activity are more vulnerable to flooding due to less natural land and soil available to soak up the water. Dry land is also more prone to flooding due to the fact that it takes longer to begin absorbing the water. Frozen ground will delay the absorption of water. Other contributions of flooding are large amounts of snow melting and ice dams forming in rivers. [3] Humans have played a direct role in how flooding may occur more often. The building of roadways and large cities create little room for water to be absorbed back into the earth. Cities rely on sewage drainage systems to direct the water into the ground. These drainage systems can often clog or do not have the capacity to hold up to extreme precipitation levels. The concrete roads and parking lots do not allow water to absorb so these streets soon become rivers. [3] Most flood-related deaths are caused by people in cars thinking they can make it across a flooded road. [4] Humans have also mowed down thousands of miles of acres of plants and trees that help aid with the absorption of water. These forests are usually replaced with more roads, parking lots, and housing. Floods can also be caused by rivers overtopping their banks, which is exactly what happened in New Orleans in 2005, creating a swimming pool out of the entire city. Once this water overtops it banks it flows rapidly onto ground that is not used to absorbing large amounts of water. Often times, levees are built so that rivers have higher banks in order to prevent this issue. The only problem with a levee is that if the river does top its banks and overflows, all that water can no longer flow back into that river. [4] Of course flooding is not just a concern for humans. Floods cause all kinds of pollution and disruption to the environment. Floods ruin the habitats for animals and can wipe out miles of livestock. This can leave long-term effects of the ecosystem. River banks are eroded and large amounts of sediment are carried and dumped downstream. Floods can spread pollution by carrying it several miles. Drinking water can be contaminated with chemicals and other pesticides. [5] Because flooding is one of the leading causes of deaths due to natural disasters, it is important that people be aware and prepared for when one occurs. A flood can occur almost anywhere. Many people think that if they don’t live near water they are not at risk of floods but this is false. It is important that people stay updated with local weather and news stations and know the difference between a flood WATCH and WARNING. A flood WATCH indicates that possible flood conditions may be forming in the area where as a flood WARNING indicates that a flooding event is occurring in the next 30 to 60 minutes. Families should have flood plans made and discussed with their children as well as survival kits prepared. Kids should be taught to never underestimate the strength of moving flood waters. After a flood event one should stay out of disaster zones and help those in need around them. People should report down utility lines and stay away from polluted water. Do not drink water due to pollution risks. Throw away any food that was contaminated by flood waters. [6] So there you have it folks, flood waters caused by flash flooding are no joke. Any type of flood should be taken seriously and can cause a lot more damage than meets the eye. The exact causes of these floods are often due to human creations. Just like anything else, the more we know about these issues, the better chance we have at finding solutions. This has been another Earth science podcast on water, I’m Garrett Burris, thanks for listening. (This audio file was recorded by Garrett Burris on April 6, 2016. References are in attached transcript.)   Earth Science Literacy Principles Big Idea 1. Earth Scientists use repeatable observations and testable ideas to understand and explain our planet.             1.5 Earth Scientists use their understanding of the past to forecast Earth’s future Big Idea 3. Earth is a complex system of interacting rock, water, air, and life             3.1 The four major systems of Earth are the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.             3.2 All Earth processes are the result of energy flowing and mass cycling within and between Earths systems. Big Idea 4. Earth is continuously changing.             4.8 Weathered and unstable rock materials erode from some parts of Earth’s surface and are deposited in others. Big idea 8. Natural Hazards pose risks to humans.             8.1 Natural Hazards result from natural Earth processes             8.3 Human Activities can contribute to the frequency and intensity of some natural hazards.             8.8 An Earth-science-literate public is essential for reducing risks from natural hazards. Big Idea 9. Humans significantly alter the Earth.             9.1 Human Activities significantly change the rates of many of earth’s surface processes.             9.7 Humans significantly alter the biosphere.   Links Encyclopedia of Earth – Floods: The power of water (link is external) National Geographic – Floods (link is external) PBS. Org – Science of floods (link is external) Scientific America – Predicting floods in a flash (link is external) Live Science - Flood Facts, Types of Flooding, Floods in History (link is external) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/what-flash-flooding-paesta-podcast-series-episode-6

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript for the podcast Hello my name is James Clark and I am an undergraduate student at Penn State Brandywine. In this podcast, I will be answering the following questions that pertain to the Flint water crisis. Who is to blame? What caused the Flint water crisis? Was the Flint water crisis preventable? What are the lasting consequences? What are the political ramifications? Along with these questions, I will also answer some common questions that people are asking about the Flint water crisis. First, it is important to know about the history of Flint, Michigan. In 1819, Flint was a trading post that was opened by Jacob Smith. The Native Americans called the area “Pawanunking”, which means “River of Flint.” In the late 1800’s Flint became a prosperous fur-trading, lumber and agricultural settlement. In the 1900’s Flint moved from producing horse-drawn carriages to automobiles. Flint evolved into a prosperous automotive city. In the 1950’s, Flint had the largest General Motors manufacturing complex in the country, and was second to Detroit in the nation for the production of automobiles, auto-parts, and supplies. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Flints economy and population declined as General Motors plants relocated or closed. Flint is a prime example of the term “rust belt” The term “rust belt” is used to describe northeastern and mid-western cities in the US that have declining industry, falling populations, and aging factories and infrastructures. Aging pipe infrastructure is the main component of the Flint water crisis. The water chemistry caused lead in the pipes to enter into the water. Lead was a commonly used substance in many industrial and commercial products in the 1900’s. At the time it was used, no one knew about the health consequences. Today, many years later, the effects of using lead are still being felt. [4] So, who is to blame for the Flint water crisis? The Environmental Protection Agency also known as the EPA, blames Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality, the city of Flint, and Michigan for the Flint water crisis. The EPA calls their responses to the crisis as " Inadequate to protect public health." The EPA administrator says " There are serious, ongoing concerns with delays, lack of adequate transparency, and capacity to safely manage the drinking water system." [1] State agencies like the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services did not release vital information. [2] Flint's public officials have been criticized, since they responded to the crisis 20 months later. Flint officials have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. [5] Employees of the public water systems failed to calculate the lead levels in the water. Now you may wonder what caused the Flint Water crisis and want to find out if it was preventable. Flint’s water is extremely corrosive. In 2014, General Motors chose not to use the water due its corrosive nature. [2] So yes, the Flint water crisis was preventable. In 2014, Flint switched from Lake Huron's water to the Flint river. They switched in an effort to save money. The water supply was not treated with the right corrosion control chemicals. This caused lead and pathogens to go into the city’s water supply. Lead levels in the water were so high that they could be considered as toxic waste. After Flint withdrew from Detroit's water system in April 2014, high levels of Total Trihalomethanes also known as TTHM, have been found in the drinking water extracted from the Flint river. The high levels of TTHM violate the Safe Drinking Water Act, which ensures that all US citizens are provided with clean an adequate water to use. TTHM is a byproduct of chlorine disinfection. The EPA stated that exposure or consumption to TTHM can cause significant health risks. Many Flint residents are still struggling to get clean water and have been exposed to high levels of TTHM. [7] What are the health effects of the Flint water crisis? Almost immediately after the switch in water supply, citizens complained that the water tasted weird. The Obama administration called for a state of emergency because over 100,000 people cannot drink their tap water. Flint's children have high lead levels in their blood and may suffer from stunned growth and brain damage. Drinking the tap water can have severe consequences. For example, lead in the drinking water can damage a person's IQ and cognitive functions permanently Other health effects include kidney damage, hearing difficulties, seizures, memory loss, and miscarriages. [4] Now I will answer some of the most common questions people are asking. when was the water contaminated and who has been exposed to the lead? The answer is sometime in April, 2014 the water was contaminated, and anyone who has used the city tap water has been exposed. Another common question asked is, are there safe levels of lead that you can have in your body? The answer is that there is no safe level of lead in your body. Many people also want to know when the state and federal government intervened? The answer is January 5th, 2016 the state intervened, and on January 12th, 2016 the government intervened. Now I will explain what a federal state of emergency means? It means that Flint will get some form of federal financial aid. The last question people are wondering “What's next for Governor Snyder?” Governor Snyder does not plan to resign. [3] What are the political and social ramifications of the Flint water crisis? Hillary Clinton spoke about the crisis at the House of Prayer Memorial Baptist Church. She stated that the crisis is not just an environmental issue, but also a racial issue. Clinton stated that it is a right to have clean water and not a luxury. She also stated that if this crisis was to happen in a rich community, then it would have been solved by now. Clinton is trying to get $600 million from the Senate to help Flint. [6] Newly released emails from Governor Snyder show that government officials knew about the contaminated water long before they said they did. The emails were about hazardous material in Flint’s water pipes. The emails were sent a year before the crisis. One of the emails was sent to Valerie Baker, who is the governor's deputy legal counsel and senior political adviser. She stated that this was an urgent matter to fix. This article has proof that Governor Snyder knew about the crisis a year before and did nothing. [8] I hope I presented you with valuable information about the Flint water crisis, and water contamination in general. I hope you learned about the severity of lead contaminates in water, and the consequences that come with it. Hopefully, this matter will be resolved in the upcoming months, and hopefully precautions will be taken in the future to ensure that this never happens again. Thank you for listening, this is James Clark signing off. (This audio file was recorded by James Clark on April 11, 2016. References are in attached transcript.)   Earth Science Literacy Principles Big Idea 1. Earth scientists use repeatable observations and testable ideas to understand and explain our planet. 1.1 Earth scientists find solutions to society’s needs. 1.2 Earth scientists use a large variety of scientific principles to understand how our planet works. Big Idea 3. Earth is a complex system of interacting rock, water, air, and life. 3.6 Earth’s systems are dynamic they continually react to changing influences Big Idea 5. Earth is the water planet. 5.2 Water is essential to life on earth. Big Idea 7. Humans depend on Earth for resources. 7.5 Water resources are essential for agriculture, manufacturing, energy production and life. https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/flint-water-crisis-what-happening-and-what-are-consequences-paesta-podcast-series-episode-7

Xavier Arak http://www.emergingibiza.com/artists/xavier-arak/ https://soundcloud.com/xavierarak https://www.facebook.com/xaviarak http://classic.beatport.com/artist/xavier-arak/348058 https://twitter.com/xaviarak Javier Aracil, or Xavier Arak, is a young producer based in Ibiza and grew up in his hometown with the voice of Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, as well as that of his father, Javier Aracil, a famous soul singer of his time. Javier's musical culture expanded in London where he lived from the age of seventeen. He then resided China which was a turning point for him because this was where he discovered his skills as a DJ and began making his first appearances. From that time Javier has left his mark on the peninsula, and especially in Ibiza, for his groove , at venues such as, Space , Privilege Km 5 Ibiza, Plastik Beach, Moma, Sirocco, Ocean drive, Pacha,Hotel Pacha, Bfor, Destino Pacha, Ushuaia beach, Usuahia Tower, Dance Fair Ibiza 2014 and many more. Also got a international show in ASIA in 2015.Javier himself states that his “musical essence is telling a story in every song, trying to get people to listen, have feelings, as with soul music". Currently Xavier Arak is still working hard both in production and behind the decks, which is usually in the local city where he resides of Ibiza and is the resident of Beachouse Ibiza with Guy Gerber , Guti ,Solomun etc... Another great artist, Paul Reynolds, with whom he has shared the booth, states Xavier Arak's style is very similar to Henrik Schwarz, for his love of harmonies has a very personal sound; his music is made from the heart with a single purpose, to convey productions, carry forward the melodic and funky vibe, with floating harmonies, keys and placed percussion. Releases Xavier Arak Mental Fredoom Ep Separat Musik | 2015-11-12 Tao Xavier Arak, Larsen Factory Kommunikation Records | 2015-08-10 DTD Records Sampler 02 Strange People, Enfants Malins, Reezak, Evan Espinoza, Ermess, Adam Husa, Desta, Mohey, Alex Break, Xavier Arak DTD Records | 2015-07-20 Neruda EP Paul Reynolds, Xavier Arak Insist Music | 2015-06-29 You Never Learn Xavier Arak Blue Bull Music | 2015-06-15 Prophet Horn EP Jose Maria Ramon, William Medagli, Thallulah, Thorsten Hammer, Sebastian Beus a.k.a. Echorama, Simon Raw, Xavier Arak Separat Musik | 2015-05-15 Dash Deep Diggin 2014 04 2nica, 2Son, Afterboy, Anton Prize, Ato Rodriguez, Ayesha Pramanik, Bates (ie), Birnbaum Bomml Buam, Callendula, Dave Lawton, Dhatura, Duque, Dporto, Emanuel Odierna, Fabio Antunes, Flavio Kñada, Frank Chianese, Gul & Tha Kang, Herman Crantz, Hydrosphere, Kanapeh, Kiwi Funk, Sunk Afinity, Konig Balthasar, Kraxelhuber, Laz Loz, Marja V, Mr. Bib, Mr. Laz, Muldi, Nicolas Pourtale, Nudisco, Perceptron, Ridge, Sir Alex, Sotiris Ferfiris, Traveltech, Trestone, Victor Vilchez, Xavier Arak, Alex Hertz, Herman Crantz, Bermuda, Dhatura, Konig Balthasar, GC System, Rml, JB, Fabio Antunes, Francesco Carrieri, Agent Orange, Mr. Laz Dash Deep Records Alter Ego Xavier Arak, Raul Rodriguez Deeplomatic Recordings

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript for the podcast We all live in a watershed – think of it as your ecological address, and no matter where you are on land, any water that falls in that same location has a drainage destination determined by elevation and landforms. A watershed is an area of land where the surface water (including lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands) and the underlying groundwater flows from a higher to lower elevation. Streams and rainfall within a watershed will typically drain to a common outlet, such as the outflow of a reservoir, mouth of a bay, or any point along a stream channel. The word watershed is sometimes used interchangeably with drainage basin or catchment. Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes, and larger watersheds contain many smaller watersheds. For example, the city of Philadelphia is part of the Delaware River Watershed. Its seven main subwatersheds are the Delaware Direct, Schuylkill, Pennypack, Tookany/Tacony-Frankford, Darby-Cobbs, Poquessing and Wissahickon. In the continental United States alone, there are 2,110 watersheds; including Hawaii Alaska, and Puerto Rico, there are 2,267 watersheds. The ridges and hills that separate and define two watersheds are called the drainage divide. The Continental Divide is a prominent watershed in North America that roughly follows the crest of the Rocky Mountain range. Rain, snow and other precipitation falling on the west side of this divide flows into the Pacific Ocean, while precipitation falling on the east side of the divide flows into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Note that watersheds do not know political borders, so watersheds cut across county, state, even national boundaries. For example, the Chesapeake Bay watershed is an area of 64,000 square miles and includes parts of six states (Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York) and the entire District of Columbia. It is also important to remember that not all precipitation that falls in a watershed flows on a direct pathway to reach an ocean.  Keep in mind the components of the water cycle – some water may be stored in a water reservoir, some water may evaporate, some water may infiltrate the soil, and some water may be absorbed by the root systems of plants and transpire back into the atmosphere. There are many directions and detours for water as it moves through the global water cycle. One of the reasons watersheds are important to scientists and everyday citizens is that watersheds affect the quality and amount of flow through a stream or river at a given point. Extensive agricultural development throughout the Mississippi River watershed, for example, has led to problems with its water quality. Urban areas are especially committed to protecting and restoring area watersheds to ensure a healthy environment and a clean supply of drinking water for residents. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than $450 billion in foods, fiber, manufactured goods and tourism depend on clean, healthy watersheds. So to summarize, watersheds are important because the surface water features and stormwater runoff within a watershed ultimately drain to other bodies of water. It is essential to consider these downstream impacts when developing and implementing water quality protection and restoration actions. Everything upstream ends up downstream. (This audio file was recorded by Laura Guertin on July 26, 2015) Supporting images for podcast [caption caption='Photo taken at the North American Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO (photo by L. Guertin)' align='center'][/caption] [caption caption='Major continental divides, showing drainage into the major oceans and seas of the world (from Wikimedia Commons' align='center'][/caption] In the PAESTA Classroom Mapping Watersheds - where does the water go (in what direction and how does it move)? If you have any follow-up questions about this podcast, please contact the podcast author Laura Guertin (gueritn@psu.edu) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/paesta-podcast-series-episode-4-what-watershed

You Asked, We Answered! Transcript for the podcast Many schools will have a rain gauge installed, where students can measure and record the amount of rain that falls each day. But scientists do not measure precipitation on the ground – they measure precipitation from space, using a combination of active and passive remote-sensing techniques, improving the spatial and temporal coverage of precipitation observations on a global scale.  You see, reliable ground-based precipitation measurements are difficult to obtain because most of the world is covered by water, and many countries do not have precise rain measuring equipment (such as rain gauges and radar). Precipitation is also difficult to measure because precipitation systems can be somewhat random and can evolve very rapidly. During a storm, precipitation amounts can vary greatly over a very small area and over a short time span. There are two important satellites to be familiar with when it comes to measuring precipitation from space. The first one was a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan called The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM, spelled TRMM.  TRMM was launched in 1997 with a primary mission of measuring tropical and subtropical rainfall, and was the only satellite of its time to carry weather radar.  TRMM was only supposed to last for three years, but it exceeded expectations by collecting 17 years of rainfall data, creating a benchmark for rainfall climatology which is used to test, compare and improve global climate models. Unfortunately, the fuel source was eventually depleted, and the spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and mostly burned up in 2015. Although we have lost TRMM, we are excited to have The Global Precipitation Measurement mission, or GPM. Run by a consortium of international space agencies and launched in 2014, GPM is an international network of satellites that provide the next-generation of global observations of rain and snow. Not only will there be improved measurements of precipitation globally, but we will be able to advance our understanding of Earth’s water and energy cycle, improve forecasting of extreme events that cause natural hazards and disasters, and extend current capabilities in using accurate and timely information of precipitation to directly benefit society. It is impressive that the GPM spacecraft, along with existing and future satellites, will map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours! To summarize, measuring precipitation from space is important for scientists, as visible and infrared space-borne sensors can provide precipitation information inferred from cloud-top radiation, and microwave sensors provide direct precipitation measurement based on radiative signatures of precipitating particles. This type of information is not available through ground-based measuring systems. And that is how scientists measure rainfall. (This audio file was recorded by Laura Guertin on July 22, 2015) In the PAESTA Classroom Identifying Global Patterns and Connections with the 2007 GLOBE Earth System Maps/Poster Data Visualization Activity: An example with global precipitation data (one additional exercise coming soon to the PAESTA Classroom!) If you have any follow-up questions about this podcast, please contact the podcast author Laura Guertin (gueritn@psu.edu (link sends e-mail)) https://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcast/paesta-podcast-series-episode-3-how-do-scientists-measure-rainfall

Water is arguably the most important physical resource as it is the one that is essential to human survival. Understanding the global water cycle and how we use water is essential to planning a sustainable source of water for the future. This study unit is just one of many that can be found on LearningSpace, part of OpenLearn, a collection of open educational resources from The Open University. Published in ePub 2.0.1 format, some feature such as audio, video and linked PDF are not supported by all ePub readers.