Western US Drought Has Made Earth's Crust Rise 90
Loss of both groundwater and water stored in surface reservoirs in the drought-striken western U.S. isn't just expensive and contentious: it's evidently making the earth's crust rise in the West. Scripps researchers say that the average rise across a wide stretch of the West Coast is approximately one sixth of an inch.
Scientists came to this conclusion by studying data collected from hundreds of GPS sensors across the Western U.S., installed primarily to detect small changes in the ground due to earthquakes. But the GPS data can also be used to show very small changes in elevation. The study specifically examined GPS stations on bedrock or very thin soil because it provides the most accurate measurement of groundwater loss, said Duncan Agnew, professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Areas with thick soil, such as farms, can see the ground sinking as the soil dries out. But Agnew said the bedrock underneath that soil is actually rising.
The highest uplift of the Earth occurred in California's mountains because there is so much water below them, Agnew said. The uplift was less in Nevada and the Great Basin.
Re:Not just because of liquid water (Score:4, Informative)
You idiot. Glaciers are ice. Ice floats. Stupid American on slashdot. Marvel I know.
Apparently, stupidity extends to you as well [wikipedia.org].
Re:Rising Crust (Score:4, Informative)
Dude you've apparently never made a pizza crust and also apparently don't pay attention to the types of bread in the world.
You don't have to freeze pizza dough to have a rising crust. In fact every bread that isn't a flatbread has a rising crust.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... [wikipedia.org]
I'm going to suggest you start with http://www.pizzamaking.com/for... [pizzamaking.com] and make some pizza from scratch until you make something that isn't a hocky puck. Then if you want to go back to frozen pizza you can or you can move on to trying white whole wheat, red whole wheat, or one of the regional styles (NY, Chicago, Neapolitan, California, Sicilian, etcetera) see http://www.pizzamaking.com/for... [pizzamaking.com] for more options.
Doesn't matter if you harvest your own yeast (sourdough starter method) or you buy store bought yeast, any type of pizza I've ever made has yeast in it and thus had a rising crust.
Re:GPS Accuracy (Score:4, Informative)
Because that's its accuracy for knowing your absolute position in a short period of time. If you use it to determine relative position over a long period of time, it's much more accurate. Apparently there's something called "Carrier phase tracking" which has an accuracy of 2mm for surveying. Or they could have augmented it with ground-based transmitters.
Still, 4mm is quite a small distance to measure with GPS, even with a 2mm accuracy mode.
Re:GPS Accuracy (Score:2, Informative)
That accuracy limit is only for real time. For survey and timing purposes, averaging is used blur out the imperfections and results in inch/centimeter or nanosecond accuracy; assisted receivers (DGPS, WAAS, etc) vastly reduce the time to get this accuracy, but aren't available everywhere on the earth's surface.