Essays in the Floating Times

Safety on and in the water

    If you fall off the dock it can be surprisingly

    difficult to climb back without a ladder.

Small animal neighbors on our docks

    The undersides of floating docks are often

    crowed with beautiful animals living on top

    of each other.

Eelgrass, a whale of a plant

    The ancestors of eelgrass were land plants which

    migrated back to the ocean. Whales are mammals

    whose ancestors were terrestrial.

Eelgrass has its enforcers

    Activity along the SF Bay shores is regulated by

    the Bay Conservation & Development Commission,

    (BCDC). Boats can anchor long term only is specific

    areas, as the chains destroy eelgrass.

Diatoms: algae that live in glass houses

    The shells of diatoms, which often grow as long

    chains, are made of silicon, not calcium.

Bacteria in our Bay

    Sausalito Beach is sometimes closed by the County

    because the water contains too many bacteria

    which indicate sewage pollution.

Herring in our Bay

    Early Sausalito was home for Portuguese

    immigrants, fishermen & boatbuilders. Large herring 

    schools once came to Richardson Bay.

The politics of water

    Houseboats are a vibrant part of Amsterdam today.

    It’s interesting to compare the politics of Amsterdam

    with Sausalito.

Tidal currents in our Bay

    Cold ocean & warm bay water form sharp boundaries

    before they mix. Flotsam collects along the fronts

    and attracts fish & sea birds. 

The greenhouse effect

    Temperature of the Earth is determined by balance

    between energy arriving from the sun as visible

    wavelengths and leaving as redshifted infrared.

The Mystery of Red Algae

    Many organisms in the Bay can grow very rapidly

    when conditions are favorable. They sometimes seem

    to appear “out of nowhere”, but they were there.

Understanding Local Sea Levels

    The tide station off Crissy Field is the oldest West

    of the Mississippi. Gravitation attraction of the

    moon & sun cause the daily two tidal cycles.

Global sea levels

    Average sea levels around the Earth are determined

    by gravity, which varies with location. The geodesic,

    the surface of constant gravity, is measured by the

    Tom & Jerry satellites. This surface can tell us many

    useful thing about the earth, such as the water table.

Finding my roots in carbon

    Reading an astronomy text I see that in 1953 Ward

    Whaling discovered how carbon was made in

    supernova. I then remember that I worked in his lab

    in 1954, but never knew he had done this important

    work.

Latitude 38 Profiles Michael Konrad

    Here I row home in my Whitehall, the Egret.