A large storm formed deep in the southern ocean below New Zealand recently, and sent massive swells 1000 of km north, finally hitting the shores of the Wellington South Coast. The power of the ocean surged onto our coastal roads, pushing up large boulders and debris, and forcing the closure of various roads along the south coast. My favourite location for star gazing also suffered badly, with major damage and washouts to the 4WD track making it almost impossible to pass.
I took this photo just before first light that morning and that was as far as I got along the track, but it was quite calming watching the galactic core of the Milky Way set behind the hills of the south coast in contrast to the rough seas around me. And that got me thinking about how tame the storms on earth really are compared to other planets in our solar system
For instance, it might bucket down with rain on earth – but at least you don have to worry about sulphuric acid falling out of the sky like it does on the planet Venus. And when you get those scorching hot days on Earth where it uncomfortably hotell at least it not like a scorching hot day on Mercury where the daytime temperature can hit over 430 degrees celsius! And when it finally does cool down at night, youl be snapped frozen in a second as it gets close to -180 degrees celsius. And even the biggest storms in history on Earth don even come close to the severity of the huge storm on Jupiter known as the great red spot – you will fit at least 3 Earths into that storm, and it has been raging on for at least 400 years at hurricane strength.
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copyright 2015 | Mark Gee | theartofnight.com
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