"Fog is coming up out of the water and covering the surface like an old Frankenstein flick."
Cussler is doubtless referring to the three Boris Karloff films, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein, but here's a list of all Frankenstein movies:
Films, plays and television
* 1826: Henry M. Milner's adaptation, The Man and The Monster; or The Fate of Frankenstein opened on 3 July at the Royal Coburg Theatre, London.
* 1910: Edison Studios produced the first Frankenstein film, directed by J. Searle Dawley.
* 1915: Life Without Soul, the second adaption of Mary Shelley's novel, was released. No known copy of the film has survived, but un-reliable sources claim that the film has been in an anonymous private collection since at least 2004.
* 1931: Frankenstein became a Universal film, directed by James Whale, starring Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles and Boris Karloff as the monster.
* 1935: James Whale directed the sequel Bride of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff as the monster once more. This incorporated the novel's plot motif of Doctor Frankenstein creating a bride for the monster omitted from Whale's earlier film. There were two more sequels, prior to the Universal "monster rally" films combining multiple monsters from various movie series or film franchises.
* 1942-1948: Universal did "monster rally" films featuring Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and the Wolf-Man. Included would be Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
* 1957-1974: Hammer Films in England did a string of Frankenstein films starring Peter Cushing, including The Curse of Frankenstein, The Revenge of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. Co-starring in these films were Christopher Lee, Hazel Court, Veronica Carlson and Simon Ward. Another Hammer film, The Horror of Frankenstein, starred Ralph Bates as the main character, Victor Frankenstein.
* 1965: Toho Studios created the film Frankenstein Conquers the World or Frankenstein vs. Baragon, followed by somewhat of a sequel War of the Gargantuas. This was Toho's ending of the Frankenstein franchise.
* 1973: The TV film Frankenstein: The True Story appeared on American TV. The English made movie starred Leonard Whiting, Michael Sarrazin, James Mason, and Jane Seymour.
* 1981: A Broadway adaptation by Victor Gialanella played for one performance (after 29 previews) and was considered the most expensive flop ever produced to that date.
* 1992: Frankenstein became a Turner Network Television film directed by David Wickes, starring Patrick Bergin and Randy Quaid. John Mills made a final screen appearance.
* 1994: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein appeared in theaters, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, with Robert De Niro and Helena Bonham Carter.
* 2009: Splice (film), is a Frankenstein adaptation by Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley.
* 2011: The National Theatre, London, presents a stage version of Frankenstein, running until May 2, 2011. The play was written by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle. Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch alternate the roles of Frankenstein and the Creature. The National Theatre broadcasted live performances of the play worldwide (at 13:00 and 19:30) on March 17.
"The high-temperature, time of day and a three-knot breeze hardly make for normal fog conditions."
In coastal regions, sea breezes and land breezes can be important factors in a location's prevailing winds. The sea is warmed by the sun more slowly because of water's greater specific heat compared to land. As the temperature of the surface of the land rises, the land heats the air above it by conduction. The warm air is less dense than the surrounding environment and so it rises. This causes a pressure gradient of about 2 millibars from the ocean to the land.
The cooler air above the sea, now with higher sea level pressure, flows inland into the lower pressure, creating a cooler breeze near the coast. When large-scale winds are calm, the strength of the sea breeze is directly proportional to the temperature difference between the land mass and the sea. If an offshore wind of 8 knots (15 km/h) exists, the sea breeze is not likely to develop.
At night, the land cools off more quickly than the ocean because of differences in their specific heat values. This temperature change causes the daytime sea breeze to dissipate. When the temperature onshore cools below the temperature offshore, the pressure over the water will be lower than that of the land, establishing a land breeze, as long as an onshore wind is not strong enough to oppose it.
and
Fog is a collection of liquid water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated locally (such as from a nearby body of water, like a lake or the ocean, or from nearby moist ground or marshes).
Fog is distinguished from mist only by its density, as expressed in the resulting decrease in visibility: Fog reduces visibility to less than 1 km (5/8 statute mile), whereas mist reduces visibility to no less than 1 km . For aviation purposes in the UK, a visibility of less than 2 km but greater than 999 m is considered to be mist if the relative humidity is 95% or greater - below 95% haze is reported.
The foggiest place in the world is the Grand Banks off the island of Newfoundland, the meeting place of the cold Labrador Current from the north and the much warmer Gulf Stream from the south. Some of the foggiest land areas in the world include Argentia, Newfoundland and Point Reyes, California, each with over 200 foggy days per year. Even in generally warmer southern Europe, thick fog and localized fog is often found in lowlands and valleys, such as the lower part of the Po Valley and the Arno and Tiber valleys in Italy or Ebro Valley in northeastern Iberia, as well as on the Swiss plateau, especially in the Seeland area, in late autumn and winter. Other notably foggy areas include coastal Chile (in the south), coastal Namibia, and the Severnaya Zemlya islands.
"Eucalyptus!"
Eucalyptus (You-kuh-lip-tus) is a diverse genus of flowering trees (and a few shrubs) in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia, and a very small number are found in adjacent areas of New Guinea and Indonesia and one, Eucalyptus deglupta, ranges north to the Philippines. Only 15 species occur outside Australia, and only 9 do not occur in Australia. Species of Eucalyptus are cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics including the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, China and the Indian Subcontinent.
Eucalyptus is one of three similar genera that are commonly referred to as "eucalypts," the others being Corymbia and Angophora. Many, but far from all, are known as gum trees because many species exude copious sap from any break in the bark (e.g. Scribbly Gum). The generic name is derived from the Greek words ευ (eu) "well" and καλυπτος (kalyptos) "covered," referring to the operculum on the calyx that initially conceals the flower.
Some Eucalyptus species have attracted attention from global development researchers and environmentalists. Such species have desirable traits such as being fast-growing sources of wood, producing oil that can be used for cleaning and functions as a natural insecticide, or an ability to be used to drain swamps and thereby reduce the risk of malaria. Outside their natural ranges, eucalypts are both lauded for their beneficial economic impact on poor populations and criticised for being "invasive water-suckers", leading to controversy over their total impact.
Dirk Pitt recognizes the smell of Eucalyptus and points out that there are a lot of such trees in California. I found this interesting:
Fire hazard
On warm days vaporised Eucalyptus oil rises above the bush to create the characteristic distant blue haze of the Australian landscape. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable (ignited trees have been known to explode) and bushfires can travel easily through the oil-rich air of the tree crowns. Eucalypts obtain their long-term fire survivability from their ability to regenerate from epicormic buds situated deep within their thick bark, and lignotubers, or by producing serotinous fruits.
In seasonally dry climates oaks are often fire-resistant, particularly in open grasslands, as a grass fire is insufficient to ignite the scattered trees. In contrast a eucalyptus forest tends to promote fire because of the volatile and highly combustible oils produced by the leaves, as well as the production of large amounts of litter which is high in phenolics, preventing its breakdown by fungi and thus accumulates as large amounts of dry, combustible fuel.
Consequently, dense eucalypt plantings may be subject to catastrophic firestorms. In fact, almost thirty years before the 1991 Oakland, California fires, a study of Eucalyptus in the area warned that the litter beneath the trees builds up very rapidly and should be regularly monitored and removed. It has been estimated that 70% of the energy released through the combustion of vegetation in the Oakland fire was due to eucalyptus. In a National Park Service study, it was found that the fuel load (in tons per acre) of non-native Eucalyptus woods is almost three times as great as native oak woodland
No comments:
Post a Comment