That's Gneiss! #194 ~ Tsunamis and pressure waves
Plus: dispatches from Ecuador, and a (small) mystery solved
Hello friends!
You’ve no doubt been reading about the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai underwater volcano eruption in Tonga. It caused a bit of excitement here on the western coast of the US, with a tsunami advisory from Southern California up to Alaska. People are posting some interesting video of the surge taken at spots on the coast, including flooding in Santa Cruz, CA and what looks like a small wave traveling upstream in coastal rivers.
Soquel Creek in Santa Cruz was flowing backwards due to the surge (click through for other footage taken in the area).
Here’s a clip from Neskowin, Oregon, a bit north of Lincoln City.
There are many more clips, and they all serve as a reminder that even something considered “mild” might have some pretty serious effects.
See what I did there?
Moving on. The eruption sent a pressure wave around the earth, and I was able to see it on the graphs from my weather station!
At 4:30 am, the wave passed by us here in Everett, WA. Weather nerds everywhere are checking their data to see if it registered on their stations, and finding similar spikes with sudden drops. We are well away from any shorelines that might experience a surge from the tsunami, but this is an interesting effect and I’m glad my weather station documented it. I was not able to see the wave when it passed by in the opposite direction later, but some folks could see it on their stations.
I KNEW IT! It was not my imagination.
There’s something that has bothered me for a long time. Everyone is all gaga over Bob Ross and his happy little trees, but I was just sure my memories were of somebody else painting and talking about those trees.
When I was younger, my grandfather used to watch a painting show on TV and I just knew it wasn’t Bob Ross. It wasn’t. It was William (Bill) Alexander, and the show “The Magic of Oil Painting.” If you click on this video you’ll hear him talking about happy trees.
Bob Ross trained under Bill Alexander, but as Bob’s popularity grew the two had a falling out.
Ross dedicated the first episode of the second season of The Joy of Painting to Bill Alexander, explaining that "years ago, Bill taught me this fantastic [wet-on-wet] technique, and I feel as though he gave me a precious gift, and I'd like to share that gift with you."[21] As Ross's popularity grew, his relationship with Alexander became increasingly strained. "He betrayed me," Alexander told The New York Times in 1991. "I invented 'wet on wet', I trained him, and ... he thinks he can do it better."[22] Art historians have pointed out that the "wet-on-wet" (or alla prima) technique actually originated in Flanders during the 15th century and was used by Frans Hals, Diego Velázquez, Caravaggio, Paul Cézanne, John Singer Sargent and Claude Monet, among many others.[23][24]
I’m just glad to have this sorted out in my mind, and know that I wasn’t dreaming.
Nolan and Mia have traveled to Ecuador for several weeks. The timing was not great with Omicron (tickets bought well before that demon arrived). At this point, they’ll probably be safer roaming the jungle than here at home where the unmasked hoards cough and sniffle, spreading disease. Anyhow - they went, and have started sending some great photos.
This plant looks like candy corn!
Here is a lovely orchid at the botanical gardens in Quito.
And some really tasty looking food!
They’re currently hiking Volcán Sumaco, and I’m sure there will be more gorgeous photos when they get back into communication range.
Last but not least, I finally got myself a set of mending looms. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you may recall That’s Gneiss! #76 in which I wrote about mending. Since then they’ve gained in popularity and it’s now quite easy to find good quality reproductions of the vintage Speedweve models from numerous sellers. My favorite sweater started getting holes, so I took the plunge. I made my first patch and it turned out pretty good!
Slightly wonky, but quite solid! Weaving the thread ends in on the back provides some bulk that makes it feel like it won’t come undone. It’s super easy, and I was able to do this without going back to the tutorial video I watched just once.
A few more small practice patches and I’ll be ready to tackle the gaping hole on the elbow of this sweater!
And with that, I’ll send this off to you as it’s been languishing for a couple of days. I got sidetracked making art and reading. More on those topics next time.
If you made it this far, stop by the comments and say hi!
Stay well.
~Anne
Anne’s taking down sacred cows like Ross is the buried headline! Hi Anne!
Fascinating about Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek. I have a painting from that exact vantage point hanging in my living room.