Many members of Glacier Probus took the opportunity to login at 1:45 to join small break out groups for informal social visits before President Sandy Dreger called for formal part of the meeting to order at 2:00.
Sandy thanked Alan and Elaine Brown for providing essentail technical support to the meeting. She also thanked Dorothy McGinn for informally taing on the role of "Acting" Vice President and arranging speakers for our meetings. Alan Brown reported he counted 68 members participating in the meeting.
Ann Zambilowicz made a brief presentation on her online Tai Chi classes that will resume in the courtyard of Comox Public Schol and the activities of the Art Apprecciation group.
Lorne Meyer introduced our speaker this month, Bob Crosby who is employed by Ocean Networks Canada to inform the public about the work of the Network. It is based at The University of Victoria and monitors the west and east coasts of Canada and the Arctic to continuously deliver data in real-time for scientific research that helps communities, governments and industry make informed decisions about our future. Using cabled observatories, remote control systems and interactive sensors, and big data management ONC enables evidence-based decision-making on ocean management, disaster mitigation, and environmental protection.
Bob focussed his talk on the work OCN is doing to monitor and predict earthquakes on the West Coast of BC. The 800-km NEPTUNE observatory and the nearly 50-km VENUS coastal observatory—which together make up the Ocean Networks Canada Observatory—stream live data from instruments at key sites off coastal BC via the Internet to scientists, policy-makers, educators and the public around the world.
The network is located in the Cascadia Subduction Zone where the ocean crust of the Juan de Fuca plate is subducting beneath the continental crust of the North American plate. At subduction zones, there usually is an area where the two plates become locked. This means that they are not slipping past each other and frictional stress can build up, storing large amounts of energy. When this stress finally reaches a breaking point, it releases the energy that has been stored resulting in what is known as a “megathrust” earthquake.
The locked zones can hold for hundreds of years as the Cascadia subduction zone has done since 26 January 1700 when the last megathrust earthquake occurred in this area. The earthquake magnitude was estimated as 9.0 and it resulted in a tsunami that was recorded in Japan. Evidence of this earthquake can be confirmed by geological evidence (land level changes, tsunami traces, turbidite deposits), biological evidence (tree rings), and human records (Native American stories and Japanese records). Megathrust earthquakes tend to occur in this region approximately every 300-500 years. It is very timely to be aware of the danger posed by such an earthquake.
Early warning systems for earthquakes and tsunamis will play an important part in disaster preparation and avoidance - closing tunnels, cancelling ferries, clearing bridges, etc.
Bob's interactive presentation enlightened us all about how earthquakes work and what we should do to be prepared.
Dorothy McGinn announced the speaker for our April 1 meeting will be Hilary Pryor, a creative director, writer and producer of inspiring, award-winning broadcast programming. Hilary has been awarded the prestigious Humanitas Prize in Hollywood for writing film and television intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom and The Japan Prize for Innovation in Directing.
Hilary is co-writer/producer on the feature film, PERCY, starring Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci and Zach Braf, which tells the true story of Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser’s battle against corporate giant Monsanto. She is also one of the producers of Listening to Orcas – an international co-production about whale communication for CBC Nature of Things, ZDF and Arte.
She is the Executive Producer, co-writer and one of the directors of the award-winning documentary series, Moosemeat and Marmalade, now in its sixth season, which blends humour with important themes as it explores cultural traditions and exchange around food and food security. Hilary lives on Denman Island.
The winners of $25 gift cards to the Blackfin Pub were: Linda Rasmussen, Alan Brown, Ian Thompson and Dawn and Gil Moore.
See you all at 2:00 Thursday, April 1.
Sandy thanked Alan and Elaine Brown for providing essentail technical support to the meeting. She also thanked Dorothy McGinn for informally taing on the role of "Acting" Vice President and arranging speakers for our meetings. Alan Brown reported he counted 68 members participating in the meeting.
Ann Zambilowicz made a brief presentation on her online Tai Chi classes that will resume in the courtyard of Comox Public Schol and the activities of the Art Apprecciation group.
Lorne Meyer introduced our speaker this month, Bob Crosby who is employed by Ocean Networks Canada to inform the public about the work of the Network. It is based at The University of Victoria and monitors the west and east coasts of Canada and the Arctic to continuously deliver data in real-time for scientific research that helps communities, governments and industry make informed decisions about our future. Using cabled observatories, remote control systems and interactive sensors, and big data management ONC enables evidence-based decision-making on ocean management, disaster mitigation, and environmental protection.
Bob focussed his talk on the work OCN is doing to monitor and predict earthquakes on the West Coast of BC. The 800-km NEPTUNE observatory and the nearly 50-km VENUS coastal observatory—which together make up the Ocean Networks Canada Observatory—stream live data from instruments at key sites off coastal BC via the Internet to scientists, policy-makers, educators and the public around the world.
The network is located in the Cascadia Subduction Zone where the ocean crust of the Juan de Fuca plate is subducting beneath the continental crust of the North American plate. At subduction zones, there usually is an area where the two plates become locked. This means that they are not slipping past each other and frictional stress can build up, storing large amounts of energy. When this stress finally reaches a breaking point, it releases the energy that has been stored resulting in what is known as a “megathrust” earthquake.
The locked zones can hold for hundreds of years as the Cascadia subduction zone has done since 26 January 1700 when the last megathrust earthquake occurred in this area. The earthquake magnitude was estimated as 9.0 and it resulted in a tsunami that was recorded in Japan. Evidence of this earthquake can be confirmed by geological evidence (land level changes, tsunami traces, turbidite deposits), biological evidence (tree rings), and human records (Native American stories and Japanese records). Megathrust earthquakes tend to occur in this region approximately every 300-500 years. It is very timely to be aware of the danger posed by such an earthquake.
Early warning systems for earthquakes and tsunamis will play an important part in disaster preparation and avoidance - closing tunnels, cancelling ferries, clearing bridges, etc.
Bob's interactive presentation enlightened us all about how earthquakes work and what we should do to be prepared.
Dorothy McGinn announced the speaker for our April 1 meeting will be Hilary Pryor, a creative director, writer and producer of inspiring, award-winning broadcast programming. Hilary has been awarded the prestigious Humanitas Prize in Hollywood for writing film and television intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom and The Japan Prize for Innovation in Directing.
Hilary is co-writer/producer on the feature film, PERCY, starring Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci and Zach Braf, which tells the true story of Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser’s battle against corporate giant Monsanto. She is also one of the producers of Listening to Orcas – an international co-production about whale communication for CBC Nature of Things, ZDF and Arte.
She is the Executive Producer, co-writer and one of the directors of the award-winning documentary series, Moosemeat and Marmalade, now in its sixth season, which blends humour with important themes as it explores cultural traditions and exchange around food and food security. Hilary lives on Denman Island.
The winners of $25 gift cards to the Blackfin Pub were: Linda Rasmussen, Alan Brown, Ian Thompson and Dawn and Gil Moore.
See you all at 2:00 Thursday, April 1.