Winds and Earthquakes on Superphysics

The Nature of the Sea

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why is the sea salty?

The old writers who invented theogonies say that the sea has springs, for they want earth and sea to have foundations and roots of their own.

The origin of the sea

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What is:

the origin of the sea?
the cause of its salt and bitter taste?

Each of the elements has a main bulk which by reason of its mass is the origin of that element.

Why is the sea is salty?

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why is the sea is salty?

Is the sea eternally the same body, or whether it did not exist at all once and some day will exist no longer, but will dry up as some people think.

The theory of winds

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There are 2 kinds of evaporation, one moist, the other dry.

The former is called vapour: for the other there is no general name but we must call it a sort of smoke, applying to the whole of it a word that is proper to one of its forms.

The Etesiae North Wind

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The sun both checks the formation of winds and stimulates it. When the evaporation is small in amount and faint the sun wastes it and dissipates by its greater heat the lesser heat contained in the evaporation.

The position of the winds

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The position of the winds, their oppositions, which can blow simultaneously with which, and which cannot, their names and number, and any other of their affections that have not been treated in the ‘particular questions’. What we say about their position must be followed with the help of the figure.

Theories on the Cause of Earthquakes

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There are 3 current theories on earthquakes:

1. Anaxagoras of Clazomenae

Anaxagoras says that:

the ether naturally moves upwards
all of the earth is really equally porous, but its surface is clogged up by rain

The aether gets caught in hollows below the earth and so shakes it.*

Earthquakes caused by dryness

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Wet and dry both cause evaporation.

Earthquakes are a necessary consequence of this evaporation.

The earth is dry. But rain fills it with moisture.

Then the sun and its own fire warm it and give rise to a quantity of wind both outside and inside it.

Lightning and thunder

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What are lightning and thunder, and whirlwind, fire-wind, and thunderbolts?

Their cause is the same.

There are 2 kinds of exhalation, moist and dry.

The atmosphere contains them both potentially. It condenses into cloud. The density of the clouds is highest at their upper limit.