Events
Boulder Channel 1 Events section has stories and video from fun happenings all over Boulder. We write stories about them and have news anchors and TV crews at them. Send event news to News@BoulderChannel1.com. Want to advertise it call 303-447-8531.
CU study: 66 million years ago, an asteroid turned Earth into a crispy critter
Mar 27th
A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth’s species, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
Led by Douglas Robertson of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, the team used models that show the collision would have vaporized huge amounts of rock that were then blown high above Earth’s atmosphere. The re-entering ejected material would have heated the upper atmosphere enough to glow red for several hours at roughly 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit — about the temperature of an oven broiler element — killing every living thing not sheltered underground or underwater.
An artist’s rendition of the asteroid air strike 66 million years ago
The CU-led team developed an alternate explanation for the fact that there is little charcoal found at the Cretaceous-Paleogene, or K-Pg, boundary some 66 million years ago when the asteroid struck Earth and the cataclysmic fires are believed to have occurred. The CU researchers found that similar studies had corrected their data for changing sedimentation rates. When the charcoal data were corrected for the same changing sedimentation rates they show an excess of charcoal, not a deficiency, Robertson said.
“Our data show the conditions back then are consistent with widespread fires across the planet,” said Robertson, a research scientist at CIRES, which is a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Those conditions resulted in 100 percent extinction rates for about 80 percent of all life on Earth.”
A paper on the subject was published online this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Co-authors on the study include CIRES Interim Director William Lewis, CU Professor Brian Toon of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences department and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and Peter Sheehan of the Milwaukee Public Museum in Wisconsin.
Geological evidence indicates the asteroid collided with Earth about 66 million years ago and carved the Chicxulub crater in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that is more than 110 miles in diameter. In 2010, experts from 33 institutions worldwide issued a report that concluded the impact at Chicxulub triggered mass extinctions, including dinosaurs, at the K-Pg boundary.
The conditions leading to the global firestorm were set up by the vaporization of rock following the impact, which condensed into sand-grain-sized spheres as they rose above the atmosphere. As the ejected material re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, it dumped enough heat in the upper atmosphere to trigger an infrared “heat pulse” so hot it caused the sky to glow red for several hours, even though part of the radiation was blocked from Earth by the falling material, he said.
But there was enough infrared radiation from the upper atmosphere that reached Earth’s surface to create searing conditions that likely ignited tinder, including dead leaves and pine needles. If a person was on Earth back then, it would have been like sitting in a broiler oven for two or three hours, said Robertson.
The amount of energy created by the infrared radiation the day of the asteroid-Earth collision is mind-boggling, said Robertson. “It’s likely that the total amount of infrared heat was equal to a 1 megaton bomb exploding every four miles over the entire Earth.”
A 1-megaton hydrogen bomb has about the same explosive power as 80 Hiroshima-type nuclear bombs, he said. The asteroid-Earth collision is thought to have generated about 100 million megatons of energy, said Robertson.
Some researchers have suggested that a layer of soot found at the K-Pg boundary layer roughly 66 million years ago was created by the impact itself. But Robertson and his colleagues calculated that the amount of soot was too high to have been created during the massive impact event and was consistent with the amount that would be expected from global fires.
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CU’s anti-violence production of ‘The Tempest’ to tour Colorado schools
Feb 12th
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s highly praised school anti-violence tour continues in spring 2013 with a new program based on “The Tempest” that focuses on themes of vengeance and forgiveness.
Created in conjunction with the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado Boulder, CSF’s “Twelfth Night” anti-bullying tour has now been seen by more than 22,000 Colorado schoolchildren. That inaugural program examined the problem of bullying through the character Malvolio.
The new program explores the character of Prospero, who conjures a mighty tempest to shipwreck his enemies of old on his remote island domain. But even as he plots his revenge on those who wronged him years before, he ponders his actions and at the last moment turns to forgiveness instead.
“The rarer action is in virtue rather than vengeance,” Prospero says, renouncing all his schemes for payback.
“This is really about how to relate to other people and deal with conflict in your life. This performance and the workshops that follow focus on the importance of reconciliation and forgiveness as a tool for ending the cycle of violence,” says CSF Literary Manager Amanda Giguere, who co-created the program with Timothy Orr, interim producing artistic director.
During the program, four professional actors perform an abbreviated version of the play. The actors then lead the students in small-group exercises exploring alternatives to violence that are based on the latest research from CU-Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
The play emphasizes that there is always a choice between continuing the “cycles of revenge” and choosing not to retaliate, says Beverly Kingston, director of the center. She notes that 33 percent of American high school students had been in at least one physical fight in the preceding 12 months, according to the 2011 national youth risk behavior survey.
“You can see that in every one of those fights, someone had to make a decision to retaliate for some reason,” Kingston says. “Violence really begins with a decision and we all have a choice how we respond to difficult circumstances in our lives. That’s the message of this play.”
The new play makes use of Japanese bunraku-style puppets to represent some of the characters, including Prospero and his spirit servant Ariel.
In actor and stage manager Caroline Barry’s hands and animated by her voice, Ariel’s sea-blue face and colorful trailing veils seem almost to swim across the stage. With a few simple gestures — a thoughtful nod and touching foreheads with his spirit companion — the puppet Prospero becomes a fully-fledged character.
“We really want you to start imagining the actors’ expressions on the puppets,” says actor Crystal Eisele.
The new program debuts Feb. 12 at the Cole Arts and Sciences Academy in Denver. There are more than 40 schools on the spring schedule — and for the first time, a senior center — and Giguere expects to add more.
CSF’s innovative anti-violence school programs have received tens of thousands of dollars in grant funding and been featured prominently in print, online and television media across Colorado.
CSF’s anti-violence production of “The Tempest” is available for booking. For more information email csfedout@colorado.edu, call 303-492-1973 or visit .
CSF in the Schools: “The Tempest,” spring 2013 scheduled performances
February 12 (AM) Cole Arts & Sciences Academy – Denver
February 12 (PM) Denver Montclair International – Denver
February 13 (AM) Whittier Elementary School – Boulder
February 13 (PM) Angevine Middle School – Lafayette
February 14 (AM) Eagle Ridge Academy – Brighton
February 15 (PM) Flagstaff Charter School – Longmont
February 19 (AM) Westminster High School – Westminster
February 20 (AM) High Point Academy – Aurora
February 20 (PM) Clyde Miller P-8 – Aurora
February 21 (AM) Sunset Middle School – Longmont
February 22 (AM) Archuleta Elementary School – Denver
February 22 (PM) McGlone Elementary – Denver
February 26 (PM) Platte River Charter Academy – Highlands Ranch
February 27 (AM) The Academy of Charter Schools – Westminster
February 28 (AM) Douglass Elementary School – Boulder
February 28 (PM) Friends’ School – Boulder
March 1 (PM) Asbury Elementary School – Denver
March 5 (AM) Boulder Explore – Boulder
March 5 (PM) Gold Hill Elementary School – Gold Hill
March 6 (PM) Spangler Elementary – Longmont
March 8 (PM) Sacred Heart of Jesus – Boulder
March 13 (AM/PM) Timberview Middle School – Colorado Springs
March 15 (AM) Coal Ridge Middle School – Firestone
March 20 (AM) Thornton High School – Thornton
March 20 (PM) North High School – Denver
April 2 (AM) Escuela Tlatelolco Charter School – Denver
April 2 (PM) Force Elementary School – Denver
April 3 (AM) SOAR Green Valley Ranch – Denver
April 4 (AM) Woodlin School – Woodrow
April 4 (PM) Arickaree School – Anton
April 5 (AM) Dunstan Middle School – Lakewood
April 5 (PM) Bryant Webster Elementary – Denver
April 9 (AM) Northeast Elementary School – Parker
April 9 (PM) Henry World School – Denver
April 10 (AM) Lafayette Elementary School – Lafayette
April 10 (PM) Longmont Estates Elementary – Longmont
April 11 (AM) Niwot Elementary School – Niwot
April 11 (PM) Eagle Crest Elementary School – Longmont
April 12 (AM) OLLI West (Senior Center) – Denver
April 12 (PM) Horizon Community Middle – Aurora
Boulder Channel 1 Presets at New Tech Meetup
Feb 10th
The Boulder Channel 1 crew present at Boulder New Tech Meetup. We talk about what we do, and what we would like to do as well as take questions from the 500 person crowd about how we manage our websites and who might be interested in looking at us for personal use or as a marketing tool for their business.
