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Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archeological Plunder and Obsession
Written in his trademark lyrical style, this riveting book carries readers directly into Craig Childs´ adventures and discoveries.
Beyond what most people think about archaeology--with its cleanly numbered dates, and discoveries--lies a vibrant and controversial realm of scientists, thieves, and contested land claims. Now, in Finders Keepers, Childs explores the field's transgressions against the cultures it tries to preserve and pauses to ask: To whom does the past belong? Written in his trademark lyrical style, this riveting book carries readers directly into his adventures and discoveries, lifting the curtain on the ethical dilemmas and dark side of archaeology. It is a book about man and nature, remnants and memory, a dashing tale of crime and detection. In other words, this is a ghost story.
Chapter One
I grew up spitting on potsherds. I would find them on the dry, gravelly earth of south-central Arizona pieces of broken bowls, jars, and water ollas dating back several hundred years. Rubbing spit around with my thumb, I would clean off the dirt to see if there might be a fragment of a design underneath, part of a red spiral or maybe the head of a waterbird painted with a human-hair brush. The prettier the design, the longer I held it, as if it were an eye opening in my hand, staring out from the other end of time.
My dad used to take me hunting in the desert, and we would find pottery on gentle mounds or exposed at the cut of an arroyo. He would go down on one knee, the butt of his 12 -gauge resting on the ground, his fingers sorting through ancient trash left from an era when huts and adobe fortresses once stretched across this country. It was not really trash, not in the way we think of it. People here used to bury their dead in rubbish mounds, not stuffing bodies in randomly but interring them with a full complement of vessels and jewelry made of shell and turquoise. Trash was a part of their social architecture, a claim on the ground. You could walk up to a site centuries later and know exactly who had lived there based on what they left in front of their settlements; who they traded with, what they made themselves, what kind of wares they employed in their kitchens. These refuse piles, their surfaces now winnowed down to just stone and pottery, are the stories of actual lives.
I would watch my dad closely, matching his motions, leaning my . 22 barrel against my shoulder as I searched for the right sherd to pick up, a big curve the cattle had not crushed and modern pickers had not taken. I learned to stand up with one I liked and admire it for a moment, just as he did, before flicking it to the ground like a bottle cap, or a coin winged into a fountain.
If he ever took one home, I never saw it. Had my dad been a pothunter, I would have been one too, happily booting a shovel into the ground right next to him. But he was not. It was enough for him to imagine people buried under his feet, funerary vessels encircling their heads as he walked by. He liked to talk about mystery and the lay of things . Then, we would find a car battery someone had junked out in the desert, and if there had not been any luck with quail or cottontail, we would take aim and blow the crap out of the thing. It was our contribution to archaeology. If the belly-ruptured remains of a battery ever survived for a thousand years, someone might find them and be able to look back and see the two of us out on a Sunday afternoon, 1977.
The general cutoff for archaeology is sixty years. Before that, it is trash, after that, an artifact. In a way, this is an arbitrary line, but sixty years is about the time when objects begin to fade from living memory. Even ugly things become beautiful after sixty years. What may have once been commonplace becomes rare. A forgotten vessel, such as a bottle or a jar, turns into a time machine. A piece of glass or pottery opens a keyhole to look through.
The lives of these artifacts do not begin when they are lifted from the ground, or when you first make eye contact with them in a museum case. They begin centuries, even millennia, earlier, when they are first conceived a potter fashioning a vessel from riverbed clay, an artisan polishing tiny shell beads for a necklace, later to be worn, then lost, maybe found again. They each carry private, human histories. Usually we see them in climate-controlled rooms, dustfree display cases, where it can be difficult to imagine where they came from. This is not the same as seeing them in their place, where they were left. In situ, an object is far more than just itself. It becomes the horizon and the whole sky, and the occasional whip of a breeze where my father and I would walk, stopping along the way to peer back through time. The past becomes an entire landscape, a country. In order to understand why it has a hold on us, and why we sometimes have bitterly different responses to how we treat it, one needs to come to the ground and see where it all begins both physically and emotionally.
By my early twenties I was eating jackrabbits and wiping my ass with rocks, a free man in the wilderness. Indeed, if ever awards were given to folks of my ilk, unaffiliated backcountry aficionados, I would have had my Eagle Scout badge. For money I got a job taking high school kids from Los Angeles into the desert. The company paid seventy-five dollars a day, good wages for a ratty bunch of guides working desolate country around the lower Colorado River between Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico. We taught basic outdoor skills, and we called ourselves naturalists. Mostly in our twenties and thirties, we were burgeoning scientists and misanthropes, each bringing to the table some appreciable field skill. One could heal injuries and cure sicknesses with local plants she knew by their Latin names; another excelled at finding potable water in the most forbidding terrain. There were those who could start fires with hand drills, those who caught small creatures with snares. I was the archaeology guy, finding rock art and little bits of fascination on the ground.
On our days off we scavenged food from the company van and headed out together to set up quick camps and climb bareback ridges for no reason other than the sun and the hard scrape of the earth. Dressed in threadbare T-shirts or sports bras, we were tanned and scabbed and exquisite.
Midday on one of these excursions we found a rocky alcove out of the sun and the six of us piled into its shade. We lowered packs off our shoulders, uncapped water bottles. Right away the place looked familiar, lived in. Sharper rocks had been cleared out of the way, and the low ceiling had a bit of fire-black, a sign that the shelter had been used by fire builders. I ran my hand across the ground where I found dry, hard nuts of bighorn sheep droppings. Between them was a small seashell, a little Olivella like a curl of white paper.
A seashell in the middle of the desert means a lot. The nearest place to pick one up is the coast some 150 miles away in Mexico. For well over a thousand years people had traveled across dunes and arid horizons to fill baskets with shells. They were a primary trade resource for the prehistoric Southwest, moving along organized routes where traders lived off of water caches, globelike ollas they had left in the sand, or rare natural waterholes that they decorated with rock art. The shells they carried were traded inland sometimes as far as 600 miles. This one was left behind.
Check this out, I said, holding it up for all to see. Dead people.
The others gathered around the shell as if I had found a diamond. It just takes one little thing to send my mind reeling. I saw copper-skinned people filing between isolated mountains, baskets weighted across their foreheads on leather tumps. They had bare legs, hard footsoles, and spun countless generations of themselves before asphalt or steel ever came to this land. They used to pour shells into graves as offerings and made them into jewelry. In good times, when civilization was running high, these shells passed through by the millions (at one Southwestern archaeological site researchers counted 3 . 9 million imported shells). Certain villages acted as production centers where artisans worked them into pendants or fetishes, carved and polished them, decorated them with precious stones. From there the shells moved into high-profile pueblos built like citadels across the landscape. All of this you see in one object, something small as a thumbnail.
We each began combing the ground. I found a few more shells. Bone beads started coming up, each hardly bigger than the polished head of a pin. One guide was methodically picking beads from the sand, crouching and hopping from one to the next, resting them two at a time on the skin of his thumb before cupping them and hunting for more. He collected a handful, then stopped to count them, quietly thrilling to his addition.
I watched him for a while, then asked, You arent going to take those, are you?
He looked up at me from under his wild, blond mop. From nights spent in Yuma together I knew him as a boxing drunkard, and from the field as a competent, intuitive traveler. We had stayed up nights talking about stars and miracles, and he was a good few inches taller than me.
Aw, man, dont start that, he said.
Come on, I complained. Theyve been here forever, just leave them.
The others said nothing.
Gut reactions do not come from reason or deliberation.
They are an instant reaction of the heart. Mine said the beads should stay. I felt that the cave would lose a bit of its magic if he took them.
Theyre beads, the blond man said. You know, trade beads. Its what beads are for. They go.
What about their context this shelter, this desert? They belong here.
He closed his fist on the beads and said, I am their context.
I sighed. I had to let go. Arguing any further would just create animosity, not something I wanted on a walk with friends.
I waved my hand in the air, saying, OK, OK.
He retired to the back of the alcove, admiring his find, and I watched the sun move outside, wishing I knew the words to put the beads back.
. . .
To truly unravel the dilemmas of archaeology, there are many parts of the equation to understand. Why do we take things? Why do we leave them?
James O. Young has written eloquently on the competing claims over ownership. Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Young takes a frank and principled approach to archaeology, saying that artifacts ultimately belong to the cultures that made them. That is, they belong to these cultures if they are proven to have had a genuine, substantial, and enduring significance to the people. If they arent so significant, its finders keepers. For instance, a member of the Hopi Cultural Protection Office says that even a digging stick, one that might be found in a cave, is culturally significant, sacred in fact, and belongs in Hopi custody. Young contends that cultures cannot rightly claim every single thing produced by past members.
It would be untenable, a flood coming out of museums, private collections, and all those who bought trinkets at roadside stands or found them lying on the ground. We would all have to shake out our pockets to return what has been picked up.
In Youngs view, smaller or less important artifacts like a random bead are subject to the discretion of whoever finds them (depending on local laws, of course). Young writes of an arrowhead that his mother dug from her garden in suburban Vancouver, one now on his mantel: It has no particular significance to any aboriginal culture. If it were a rare and unusually beautiful example, or had considerable ritual significance, the situation might be different. As it is, I do not act wrongly in keeping it. I own it.
When I asked about his decision to keep the object, Young replied, The arrowhead was in a state of nature. Keeping it would be no different than picking a flower that grew wild in my garden. If it were an item of huge cultural significance, the situation could be different.
But huge cultural significance is not easily quantifiable. Who decides? He continued, If I found the artifact in a park or other public property, I think that I would offer it to some public body.
This is almost a universal response: find something and pick it up, and if reasonable ethics prevail you turn it over to the proper authorities, handing it to a park ranger who is likely mystified as to why people keep grabbing objects and handing them in, filling so many drawers and boxes it seems a waste. It is as if we cannot stand to leave things the way we find them. There is a widespread assumption that removing an artifact is preferred, whether you take it for yourself or not. Jimmy Carter, when he was president, amended a crucial antiquities act so that it would have a loophole for arrowheads. Being an arrowhead collector himself, Carter wanted to make sure you could still scratch one out of the dirt and take it home, connecting yourself with the history of your country by owning a piece of it. (Carters clause does not legalize arrowhead-hunting on public lands, but merely says that one cannot be penalized for it under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. One can be penalized under other laws, however, meaning it is still illegal.)
I took the question of ownership to Randy Cohen, who writes a weekly ethics column for the New York Times Magazine . Cohen answered smoothly: In ethics, truly abandoned property, by which I mean something deliberately abandoned or that cant be reunited with its owner, is in fact up for grabs. It follows the finders keepers rule. So, if you see a $ 20 bill on the street youve got as much claim to it as anybody, if there is no way you can reunite it with its owner. But if you find a guys wallet and it has some ID in it, you cant keep it. You have to make a good faith effort to return it. And so the question with antiquities then becomes well, is there a legitimate owner? And in my view there is. Cultures have a claim on their significant objects.
And when the bloodlines that made the artifacts are long gone, as was arguably the case for the beads in the rock shelter? Cohen argues that there is a kind of continuity that makes the locality where the artifacts are found a stand-in for the owner. They should remain in place. He told me, There is much to be said for keeping archaeological works in the location where they are found, because their meaning is often very much tied into place. Its a really good thing that the pyramids are still in Egypt. Our understanding of them is aided by that, deepened by that. So that becomes a kind of argument for keeping it there.
Cohen asked what I do with my finds, and I told him I leave them there. I might take a picture or make a sketch in my journal, but I dont tell anyone where they are. I prefer to walk away and let time fill back in behind me. Too much has been taken already. We dont need any more. I have been in the bowels of museums around the country, and the sheer volume of artifacts sitting in dark storage is overwhelming. Enough is enough.
Thats an interesting way to look at it, Cohen said. I dont have a counterargument to that. Once theres an excess of this kind of stuff it gets very tricky. What do you imagine happens to what you leave behind?
If somebody else finds it, its probably gone, I said.
. . .
W hen the heat of day drifted off, we emerged from the cave and walked. The sky fell to sunset. A gibbous moon passed over us into the evening, unveiling pale shadows of saguaros and cholla. We traveled across vacant magma fields, dark rhyolitic char brought up from inside the earth. When the night grew too long, we set a scattered camp. The bead stealer and I sat up and watched the stars.
Though it was not what I wanted, I said, Maybe youre right. Maybe the beads were meant to travel. After all, I tried to convince myself, they were only beads, perhaps a small thing to quibble over. I certainly didnt find Young at fault for keeping an arrowhead his mother found in the garden.
Maybe, my companion agreed.
Neither of us really knew.
Legally, he was not allowed to take those beads. In the United States, it has been illegal to remove artifacts without permission from public lands since 1906 . That 1906 law reads that in order to appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehistoric ruin or monument, or any object of antiquity, situated on lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States, one must have government permission.
In the open desert, however, other laws applied. Older laws. Conscience and gut reaction. There was no government but the elements, no secretaries but us.
In the morning we broke camp and flushed into the desert like birds. We moved quickly, coming down from mountains into boulder-bottomed arroyos. Shadows cleared out as the afternoon heat came on. Our movements slowed. The sun seemed to have halted, a marble stopped in the bowl of the sky. As our rest stops became longer, I scanned the horizon with a pair of field glasses and spotted a bit of shadow rippling half a mile away.
There, I said. A cave.
We changed course, crossed a field of bony ocotillos over a ridge. The cave was up a slope of broken rock, hard to spot, just a wink of shade. When we climbed inside, it was as if we were stepping into a ballroom. Our shadows danced into an enclosure much larger than I had expected. One of the guides set off running, making gymnastic leaps with her arms thrown outward. Elegant scarves of dust sailed behind her.
We could live in this place, another said, his voice boosted to echo through the room.
The ceiling was made of domed bedrock that emitted a faint hum, an echo of dust devils riding across the desert far away. I walked in and crouched over beetle tracks in the dust, tiny notations. It was an undisturbed space, centuries of powdery accumulation. Beneath the dust were subtle shapes, as if a deep snow had fallen on sleeping figures. As I walked farther, I tested my weight, pressing into a desiccated sponge of buried wood-rat droppings and cactus needles. Below were muted spaces, loose fill. It was in caves like this that people used to live and bury their dead, not just a days stopover but an actual habitation site.
People are buried in here, I said.
The others stopped, looked around, let their eyes adjust. Judging by the size of the cave, it must have been an important place, a grand shelter probably used for 10,000 years, and beneath us lay unseen graves, skeletons supine, surrounded by whatever offerings were given to them. Usually you would find a cave like this and it would be a war zone oflooters pits, yet there was not even a quick cathole in here.
In the 1930 s, the eminent Southwest archaeologist Emil Haury and his field-hardened sidekick Julian Hayden excavated a similar-looking place, Ventana Cave, also in southern Arizona. They came out with Stone Age utensils and textiles, Neolithic pottery and jewelry, all highly preserved by the regions aridity. Ventana Cave dates from Paleo-Indians to Indians, a rare view into continuous human history from the eighth millennium BC onward. They found the skeleton of an infant bundled inside a twine bag and placed in a nest of grass, and near that more adult burials with quivers and arrows, shell pendants, necklaces. A mummify ed man was unearthed with earrings still hanging from the flaps of his earlobes and a clay plug piercing his nose. It was not just the dead that came out. One of the cleanest records of North American occupation was exhumed from that cave, its contents painstakingly illustrated, measured, photographed, and installed in museum storage.
Emil Haury isnt the only man who explored caves like this one. There are also men like Jack Harelson, a former insurance agent who fancied himself an amateur archaeologist.
His house was heavily stocked with illegally obtained artifacts he had either picked up or dug, including one of the oldest pair of sandals ever found in North America (around 10,000 years old).
Harelsons biggest dig was Elephant Mountain Cave, an expansive natural shelter in Nevadas Black Rock Desert, its mouth partly obscured by scrub and boulders. He excavated the site in the 1980s, spent several years privately removing the floor with shovels and screens. It was his own personal Atlantis. Among the many hundreds of artifacts he recovered, Harelson dug up a 2,000 -year-old sealed torso-sized basket, heavy with objects inside. Showing at least some restraint, he left the basket unopened until he got it back to his garage, invited some friends over, and peeled it open before them. He pulled out a bowl, a knife, and a net used to catch rabbits. Under that was a mummifi d boy who had been about four years old when he died, and below his leathery corpse was another mummy, that of a girl about ten years old with long black hair, her body tucked knees to chest.
At a later point the mummies heads were pulled off, the bodies bagged and buried in Harelsons backyard.
For his part in this Harelson was caught and jailed in 1996 , hit with eighteen months in prison. Two thousand objects were confiscated from his house. Harelson defended himself by saying he was an amateur archaeologist and that he intended to hand over the material to a museum when he was finished. (He had produced other finds before mammoth bones donated to the Nevada State Museum, for example. But turning over artifacts would have implicated him in a crime.)
Harelsons fine was a record-breaking $ 2.5 million $ 750,000 for restoration and repair of the cave, and $ 1.75 million for the scientific and cultural value destroyed by his excavation. As he passed down this heavy sentence, the judge in the case was heard to say, You are not an amateur archaeologist. You are a common thief. (Harelson, incensed, later hired a hit man and made a list of those he wanted killed: the judge, the lead officer in the case, two former business partners, and his ex-wife, who had handed over incriminating evidence. Harelson paid for the first kill with $ 10,000 in raw opals, but the man he hired turned out to be an undercover agent. Harelson was sentenced to a further ten years in prison.)
I walked the breadth of the cave we had found, well aware of why Harelson is vilified and Haury and Hayden have been celebrated. One made collection a private pleasure, taking history for himself. The others added their finds to a greater body of knowledge, now accessible through libraries and museums. The distance between these two ends of the spectrum seems like forever, but it is not.
In the back of the cave was an oval-shaped enclosure, a natural vestibule. I stepped into it and found Irvin, a fellow guide known for digging up grubs for eating. He was standing before a pyramid of stacked rock. The pile was waist high and slowly being reclaimed by the earth, flushed in centuries of dust. I walked up beside him.
Kind of out of place, Irvin said.
Shrine, I said. Why a shrine? Why else would people put a neat, tall rock pile back here? It was something special, ceremonial , as many archaeologists would say.
Well, lets see, Irvin said. He rolled up his sleeve, got down on his knees, and shoved his arm into a wood-rat burrow at the base of the pyramid. He went nearly up to his shoulder, his cheek pressed into soft blow-sand.
Rattlesnakes, I warned.
He puffed dust away from his mouth and said, I know.
Whats in there? I asked.
He was concentrating, feeling around. I wanted it to be my hand reaching into the ground, but I did not have the brazenness. He came out holding a fistful of dust and a short wooden rod only slightly longer and fatter than a pencil. It had sinew wrapped around it. Irvin looked at the object for a moment and then handed it to me before sticking his arm back down the hole.
The sinew had turned brittle. There were stripes of red paint, a hematite pigment.
Its a painted arrow shaft. I laughed in surprise. The Patayan people, who likely put it here several centuries ago, were no-nonsense desert types, rarely dabbling in decoration. This was a rare find. Irvins hand was rummaging around in the archaeological record, looking for more, upsetting the lay of strata that would help a researcher if this place were ever excavated. But it was a wood-rat burrow, and I figured rodents had already been churning up the record, probably denning in coils of baskets down there.
The other guides started coming around, asking what we were doing. I passed them the arrow.
Next Irvin came out with a wooden stub. He passed it up and I blew off dust another painted projectile. This was a hunting shrine, had to be. Rituals would have been held in this cave, maybe a particularly potent hunter buried here.
In many of the old cultures, hunting is a sacred act. Among the San people of South Africa, when a man shoots a poison arrow into an eland, he bridges himself into the animal. It may take days to track down the dying eland, and during that time people are quiet around the hunter so that the prey will not be startled. He drinks little, tries not to urinate so that the animal will also not urinate and expel the poison. If it is a first-time kill, a young hunter will start a fire and use its ash to draw a circle on his forehead and a line down his nose, the same markings as those on the face of the eland.
No doubt the Patayans whose cave we had entered gave such detailed motions to their hunt. The same families may have lived in this region for over a thousand years, enough time to entrench their traditions, except rather than eland, Patayans would have pursued bighorn sheep. They are known to have set fire to bighorn carcasses in what were likely ritual acts, leaving behind charred skulls and horns stacked upon each other in the open desert. Little is known about these people, partly because universities that establish summer field camps prefer the higher, cooler parts of the state. What is known is that they buried their dead in caves and on the graves built cook fires and sleeping platforms, adding layers of their lives to the ground.
Now their offerings were in my hands. We passed them around, fireworks going off in our imaginations. These were not beads spilled accidentally in a rock shelter. These had been put here as offerings. I trusted the people around me, even the bead stealer. We all knew this was different. The objects inside the rock stack had been painted and lowered into the ground, maybe settled on the chest of a dead man Irvin was reaching around.
After making the circle, each artifact was returned to Irvin, who placed it back inside. We were somewhere between Harelson and Haury; curious, perhaps meddlesome, but not intending to take anything.
I wanted more, though. I knew there was more. I was caught up in the elation of discovery, my eye fixed on the pyramid itself. I wondered if it had some interior chamber such as those inside stupas in India or chortens in Tibet. It looked easy to uncap. I felt hesitation in my body, a sense of trespass, but my curiosity was overwhelming. I told myself that we would leave this place exactly as it was. Only a moments disruption, and wed be gone.
I reached out and grabbed the flat, heavy topstone and lifted it off. I set it on the ground as dust spilled into a space inside the pyramid.
Irvin got off his knees and looked in, our heads touching.A nest of shadowy wooden objects lay within, and for a moment I just stared like it was a bottomless well, nothing but time down there. I reached in, touched one, lifted it out. It felt dry and old.
It was a bow, but made small, a miniature. I had never seen such a thing in the wild. It would have been a representational object, certainly an offering. Along its sides were etchings, lines and hatchwork. A shiver started at the back of my neck and spread around my body, as if gaps between centuries were closing.
The other guides stared at the bow in my hands. A bunch of Tom Sawyers and Huck Finns we were, enchanted by what a person might find in a cave. Irvin took the bow from me, studied it, and grinned with amazement. He handed it to someone else as I dislodged another, and then another, each with a different sign etched or painted on it.
I envisioned people gathered here, ceremonies invoking animal spirits, calling for a good hunt. The Patayans were here before reservations, before the Spanish and their horses, before guns. Dating back at least to the early centuries AD and probably long before that, the people who occupied the desert surrounding the lower Colorado River moved seasonally, growing crops along the river, hunting and gathering in the desert beyond. We were well within their migration range, a place they would have come to in the spring while their temporary encampments were being washed out by annual river floods. This cave would have been a key location, a place to take shelter for a period, or a place where young men came to mark their first kill.
These are cool, someone said, letting loose a laugh that somehow sounded mean. I looked up. I knew him only as an ugly man with an expansive, ratty beard and an unstable character. He was new to the company, and this was the first time he and I had ever walked in the desert together.
I mean, its a real bow, he said. A real Indian bow. Have you ever seen one of these before?
I said, No, not out here.
He looked at me and said, You cant tell me we have to leave these.
My mouth was open. I needed a drink of water badly.
I think they should stay, yes, I said, my lips gummy with thirst.
Get off your shit, Ugly Man replied.
I dont think we should be stealing from a shrine, I said.
Thats pussy talk. He glowered, making sure I did not get an edge on him. He had heard me with the bead stealer and knew I would be easy. These people have been dead forever. When was the last time anyone was here? I mean, really? Its been hundreds of years. You think they remember this place? They dont.
Earlier in the day Ugly Man and I had had a small altercation, and he had threatened to brain me with a rock. I had stared back at him dumbfounded, not sure what to say. He radiated aggression. I had to be careful. A fistfight in a cave full of hunting magic and ancient dead would not be good. And for me, a fight with Ugly Man would not end well. Though American born, he had just gotten out of the Israeli army, fighting Palestinians house to house. I, however, was raised mostly by a single mother and have a predilection for flowers.
Its a shrine, I complained again.
He wagged the bow at me. Listen, somebody else is going to find this. How could they not? And theyll take all these bows just like that.
You want to take them instead?
Better us than them. He glanced around to see who was with him, but nobody was. Ugly Man cocked his jaw. Come on, theres nothing wrong with it.
Trying to answer him, I felt like I was stammering, empty-handed. I had no argument for how I felt, other than that we should not take these things. They are not ours. But I had never had to come up with a reason why.
The day before, I had given up on the beads much easier, but this transgression felt a level deeper. Professor Young would have said that this was culturally significant and probably would have felt a justifiable responsibility to report it to officials, something I would not do for fear of the cave being excavated and its contents moved into storage. Randy Cohen would have called the cave a stand-in for the rightful owners and probably done the same as Young. What would I do?
I blurted, Finders keepers.
Ugly blinked as if confused. But he knew I had him. Being the finder of these bows, I got to say what happened to them. He studied the bow in his hands, my words more potent than a double dare.
Oh, come on, he said in disbelief. Really?
He glanced around again and saw he still had no supporters. It would have shamed him to take the bow outright, with nobody believing in him. He was in the wrong crowd and had to suck it in, looking at the cave ceiling, letting out a frustrated breath.
OK, whatever, he said. You can keep your bow. Later, I couldnt get the rotten taste out of my mouth. Even as we dispersed to our own parts of the cave, each taking a bow to study in silence, I felt I had opened a door I should have left closed. I sat with my journal, my private room of drawings and words, sketching bows and arrows on clean, white paper, but I had trouble concentrating. When the shadows began tilting outside, it was time to go. Each person set a bow or two at the foot of the shrine. I gathered them and placed them back just as I had roughly sketched them from memory, the one with zigzags above the one etched with lines. It might matter how they were placed, I thought.
One seemed to be missing.
I had not thought to count them to start with, and now I wasnt sure. The cache felt that much smaller, though. I looked behind me, saw everybody readying for departure. Ugly was stuffing something in his pack, having trouble making it fit. He got the thing in, slung his pack onto his shoulders, and moved for the entrance. Before he was out he checked his back, saw me watching him, and quickly looked away. I knew it then for sure: He had screwed me. He was making off with a bow.
My brain kept shouting as I watched him leave, Do something, do something, do something! But I had no plea that would convince him. Short of my stealing the bow back, which could involve physical violence, there was nothing I could do. The bow was now his.
What does it mean that we take memories out of the ground like this, permanently emptying the land piece by piece? In describing the spiritual and physical landscape of North America, N. Scott Momaday once wrote that over the course of thousands of years of occupation people died into the ground again and again and so made it sacred. By one bow, this cave had now been unhallowed.
It felt like winter inside me. I was the one who had spotted this place to begin with, who had uncapped the small pyramid, and who had let the bow escape. I felt like a thief. I had to be more careful about my actions and the fine lines of ethics around me. It is, after all, only a matter of scale among beads, bows, and who knows what else. I reached out and put the topstone back, sealing the chamber, cutting my losses. I turned and walked out of the cave, where I was branded by sunlight. The desert opened the way it always does, welcoming all sinners.
Copyright © 2010 by Craig Childs
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 , no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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I added a little tease to yesterday's post about Anne Hathaway's wayward vagina that was awinkin' and ablinkin' at the photogs. It was like she had a big arrow pointing to what's called a fannie in UK SPK. (Trust me, DO NOT go to England and ask anyone where you can buy a fanny pack). It was all waving back and forth, "Hey, look at me! Don't waste time following LiLo or Honey BooBoo. Come on in, y'all! Take a peeky-weeky."
I was full of brag and swag a couple weeks ago when all the planets were aligned and I got the vintage Valentino and that handbag, and I was skipping through my days throwing a little enchanted fairy dust to the right and to the left, la la la. The extra shot of Grand Marnier in my Perfect Margarita was the Missoni sweater I got at that same consignment shop. BTW, I really have two arms, one was busy snapping the pic.
Well, it all came to a crashing halt. Nothing catastrophic–just a minor mis-alignment.
Signals of doom and gloom
The first harbinger of misfortune is the apparent neverending absence of my hubs whom I had expected home for sure by Christmas. Now I'm gonna be lucky to see him for our nineteenth wedding anniversary February 20.
The second toll of the bell occurred when I was cutting my lawn and my dumbass bitch neighbor stopped by to watch me for a bit and then snarkily ask why I don't get a divorce since he's never here. AND she wasn't joking, not that it would have been funny, anyway. Way to go to be supportive, bitch. Hey, why don't you make your husband wear a shirt so the school kids don't get an anatomy lesson in old man buttcrack and wrinkly manboobs, huh?
And the third ('cos things like this come in threes, right?) happened at my gym. I don't know why these things always seem to happen when the captain's gone–that's part of the whole message, I suppose. The boot camp class I attend starts at 9:00 a.m. and I like to get there a bit early to claim my upper right quadrant spot on the floor.
Here's why: 1. I'm an ex-ballet dancer and I need mirrors to survive. 2. It reduces germ exposure if no one is in front or to the right of me. 3. I like to look at myself (refers back to #1.)
If you promise not to hate me, I'll offer up a confession here. I LOVE to work out. I love to lift weights, work my muscles 'til they scream, and feel the burn. I enjoy challenging my body to exceed the previous day's reps, weights, or endurance. For me, it's very empowering to feel and be strong. Short girl syndrome.
I've turned left at the stoplight into the center where the gym is located.I'm in the left of the two one-way lanes. The car next to me drifts into my lane, cutting me off, so I honk and keep honking because I have to slam on my brakes to avoid getting hit and also 'cos I have nowhere to go except up on that grassy median. The car turned right at that first entrance to the gym.
I couldn't see who it was, but I assumed it could possibly have been an elderly driver who was going to attend the "Silver Seniors" area of the gym. I checked in and walked down the hall to the room where they hold the Group X classes which is directly across from the weight room. I saw a friend of mine, said hello and then,
"I sure wish I knew who cut me off when I was driving in here."
From behind us, we heard a voice,
"It was me."
Cool, an admission of guilt with a witness. It wasn't an elderly lady; it was a sour faced older guy with greasy gray hair and a straggly beard. I said,
"Hey, you cut me off back there. You were taking up both lanes and I had nowhere to go. You should really be more careful."
Well…he went batshit crazy, ballistic, out of control, yelling at me in front of what was now a whole group of my friends who were waiting for our class to begin. I have never seen this person before; we had no history, nothing.
"Just shutUP and get your ass in that room for that bullshit you guys do. And fuck you! And shut the fuck up!"
and then some random crap about how I didn't have to be driving next to him at the same time that he was there ?? and a few more "fuck yous" before he walked into the weight room.
I didn't ever respond back to him cos I got it, he was crazy–but I also don't think any woman should accept any kind of abuse from anyone, and I know he never would have been so abusive if the captain had been around, and that pissed me off even more. I went to the front desk and explained to the manager what had occurred and asked him to document this incident and have a talk with the guy cos not only did I not accept being mistreated but he shouldn't allow that kind of behavior in the gym. The big 6ft 4inch baby didn't want to do it, but I was pretty insistent so he had a talk with him. By that time, some of my body building friends were on the scene and they were enthusiastically providing me with security. Apparently, that guy is known as being a jerk in general, but has a real problem with women. It was very unpleasant and I was pretty stressed out by that attack, but my friends convinced me to stay. Since then, I've been driving the hub's truck in case he wants to hurt my car since he obvs knows my wheels, and I'm being extra careful not to make eye contact with any other potentially unstable lunatics who want to bully me.
Things just don't seem to be going my way right now. Look at the empty space where our Christmas tree would be. No wonder I stay here and glue seashells all day. It's a jungle out there. I'm all set for 12-21-12. How about you?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Oceania Cruises Says "Bon Appétit!"by Janice Wald Henderson | 05.04.12
Set sail on two fine food and wine voyages onboard the upcoming Riviera and Marina.
Foodies, mark your calendars for October. Oceania Cruises is hosting two 10-day "Bon Appétit Wine & Food Festivals" onboard 1,250-passenger sister ships, Riviera and Marina, in Europe this fall. And while star chefs mugging onboard cruise ships are now a dime a dozen, these chefs, and these events, are different.
For one, they're occurring on a cruise line obsessed with quality food. So much so, it delivers luxury line cuisine at upper-premium prices. And the guest chefs are not the usual superstars, the jaded ones who are Food Network regulars, hawking pots and pans. Rather, they are two chefs who are extraordinarily talented and eager to share their knowledge and passion. They are "chefs' chefs," meaning they are respected and admired by their peers, the way home cooks admire the television stars.
The first "Bon Appétit Wine & Food Festival" stars Chef Stephen Lewandowski of Manhattan's landmark Tribeca Grill onboard Riviera's "Ancient Grandeur" cruise. This Athens-to-Rome voyage commences October 14, 2012.
What do you think? Join the discussion here.
Chef Lewandowski is known for his earthy yet elegant takes on modern American cuisine. He will host several cooking demonstrations throughout his sailing. And he will also be a guest instructor at the Bon Appétit Culinary Center, the much-admired hands-on cooking school (24 fully equipped work stations) onboard Riviera (and Marina). In addition, Lewandowski will lead "Culinary Discovery Tours" to local markets in select ports.
Lewandowski should have some terrific markets to tour with cruisers. The Riviera, launching this May, is sailing to Kusadasi, Turkey (Ephesus), Taormina, Sicily and Marseille, France, to name a few stops. These ports are food-centric, with impeccable seafood and produce.
This Manhattan chef has quite the famous bosses. Tribeca Grill is owned by actor Robert De Niro and restaurateur Drew Nieporent. I know Nieporent and he only hires top talent. Nieporent won the James Beard Award (the Oscars of the culinary world) for "Outstanding Restaurateur" in 2009. He has had unparalleled restaurant success stories in the tough gastronomic landscape of New York City.
Lewandowski polished his craft at Manhattan's Gotham Bar & Grill and also, with Ritz-Carlton. At downtown's Tribeca Grill, his menu includes dishes like warm asparagus salad with morels (prized wild mushrooms) and fig essence; and roasted Alaskan halibut with black olive tapenade, ratatouille (French mélange of vegetables including eggplant, tomato and zucchini) and artichoke mousse. Sides, like chanterelles (golden-hued wild mushrooms), foie gras and potato puree, can be decadent fun. But really, what Lewandowski is about is market-driven cooking. And on this cruise, with markets in abundance, he is sure to deliver.
Chef Ken Oringer is not a household name, but he should be. Oringer won the James Beard Award for "Best Chef Northeast" in 2001. (He was nominated three times prior.) Food Network fans should remember that he won "Iron Chef America," battling Chef Cat Cora (ironically, the godmother for the Riviera inaugural) in 2008.
I became aware of Oringer's talents when he opened Clio in Boston in 1997. Everyone, including the worst critics - star chefs - was abuzz over Oringer's distinctive creations. The way he unexpectedly paired ingredients. His restless roaming of the world for ingredients. His possession of impeccable classic French technique.
Oringer has several successful restaurants in Boston, including Uni in Clio's lounge. Uni is a sashimi bar featuring seafood from both Tokyo's famed Tskiji market and local fisherman. His other venues include Toro, a Barcelona-inspired tapas restaurant, and Coppa, an Italian-style enoteca (wine bar).
Listen to sample dishes Oringer offers at Cleo and you will fall under his spell. Cassolette (little casserole) of sea urchin and lobster with parsnip milk, crispy shallots and candied lemon. Or sunflower seed "risotto," with New Zealand spinach, Quebec sunflower oil and candied mace. Veal scaloppini with chamomile, lacquered baby turnips and orchid root jus.
If there is any chef I'd love to learn from, it would be Ken Oringer. He is sailing on Marina's "Temples & Palaces" voyage on October 22, 2002, from Athens to Istanbul, including calls in Israel. Expect Oringer to host cooking demonstrations, market tours and serve as guest instructor in the Bon Appétit Culinary Center. For more information, visit oceaniacruises.com.
What do you think? Join the discussion here.


text:
Create Change: Win an HP Mini 311 Notebook PC and HP Touchsmart Premium Printer bundle
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Create Change.
What a great concept. How would you like to Create Change?
Here's how I would like to create change.
Every year, I get mailings from the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure. Every year I say I'm going to go and I never do it. But, this year is the year that I've finally decided to do it!
Susan G. Komen's 3 Day for the Cure is coming to Philadelphia this year - about an hour and a half from where I live. The walk is from 15-17 October.
See that up there? The above photo embodies it all - the feeling of overcoming something, the feeling of creating change, the feeling of helping with something bigger than yourself, the feeling of I DID IT!
I want that feeling! ... and this is why:
Breast Cancer has not hit my family (thank God!) but I am adopted and even though I found my birth family, we're not too close and I'm not 100% sure if there truly is Breast Cancer in our family.
Alternatively, I am a 9 year cancer survivor. I discovered I had cervical cancer when I was 23 years old. It was Stage 3 and I was SCARED. I'm lucky it was found when it was.
Cancer has always been close to me, even before that - when I was 7 I had a lump removed from my right arm. I still have the scar. I worry about cancer the most because of these two instances.
That's why even though there is no Breast Cancer in my history, I want to take this walk to help make a change.
I'm blogging about Creating Change this year to try to win an HP Mini 311 Notebook PC and an HP Touchsmart Premium Printer bundle.
We were asked to write about "What are you or will you be doing in 2010 to create change and how will winning this technology bundle help your efforts?" In addition to me FINALLY doing the 3 day Breast Cancer walk this year, winning this bundle would help me chronicle my trip there, my 3 day walk, via my blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Hopefully I could use it to get people to donate to this great cause!
Are you with me?


text:
- 1. What is a tropical cyclone?
A tropical cyclone is defined as a non-frontal low pressure system of synoptic scale developing over warm waters having organised convection and a maximum mean wind speed of 34 knots or greater extending more than half-way around near the centre and persisting for at least six hours.
Every cyclone is unique varying according to a number of factors including life cycle, intensity, movement, size and impact (wind, storm surge and flooding).
Satellite image of cyclone Kalunde showing a well developed eye surrounded by the eye wall and spiral bands of convection.
- 2. What is the tropical cyclones intensity scale? How is this different from the USA intensity scale?
The severity of a tropical cyclone is described in terms of categories ranging from 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest) related to the maximum mean wind speed as shown in this table.
Note: corresponding approximate wind gusts and central pressure are also provided as a guide. Stronger gusts may be observed over hilltops, in gullies and around structures.
Category Maximum Mean Wind (km/h) Typical Strongest Gust (km/h) Central Pressure (hPa) Typical Effects 1 63 - 88 < 125 > 985 Negligible house damage. Damage to some crops, trees and caravans. Craft may drag moorings 2 89 - 117 125 - 164 985 - 970 Minor house damage. Significant damage to signs, trees and caravans. Heavy damage to some crops. Risk of power failure. Small craft may break moorings. 3 118 - 159 165 - 224 970 - 955 Some roof and structural damage. Some caravans destroyed. Power failures likely. (e.g. Winifred) 4 160 - 199 225 - 279 955 - 930 Significant roofing loss and structural damage. Many caravans destroyed and blown away. Dangerous airborne debris. Widespread power failures. (e.g. Tracy, Olivia) 5 > 200 > 279 < 930 Extremely dangerous with widespread destruction. (e.g. Vance)
Further detail: Tropical cyclone intensity
The USA uses the Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale for the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific basins. US Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane FAQ: The Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale
The diagram below provides a comparison of the USA hurricane scale with the Bureau of Meteorology's 5-point tropical cyclone categories. The demarcation points are not precise - this table is intended to provide a rough comparison only. It is based on winds at coastal crossing - converting from the US 1-minute averaged winds. For more information of wind averaging issues see the following WMO report: https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/tcp/documents/WMO_TD_1555_en.pdf.
- 3. How is a severe tropical cyclone different from a non-severe cyclone?
Tropical cyclones are classified as severe when they are producing 'very destructive winds' having sustained surface winds of at least 118 km/h near the centre and gusts of at least 165 km/h. This corresponds to cyclone categories 3, 4 and 5.
Category Sustained winds(km/h) Strongest gust (km/h) Typical effects 1 Tropical Cyclone 63 - 88 Below 125 Damaging winds 2 Tropical Cyclone 89 - 117 125 - 164 Destructive winds 3 Severe Tropical Cyclone 118 - 159 165 - 224 Very destructive winds 4 Severe Tropical Cyclone 160 - 199 225 - 279 5 Severe Tropical Cyclone Over 200 Over 280
- 4. What is the difference between Australian tropical cyclones and cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes in other parts of the world?
For historical reasons tropical cyclones are called different names in different parts of the world. The terms hurricane and typhoon are regionally specific names for a severe tropical cyclone (sustained winds of more than 118 km/h (64 knots). Hurricane is used in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E. Typhoon is used in the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline.
For many parts of the world a non-severe tropical cyclone is referred to as a tropical storm and assigned a name.
- 5. How are tropical cyclones different from tornadoes?
While both tropical cyclones and tornadoes are atmospheric vortices, they have little in common. Tornadoes have diameters on the scale of hundreds of metres and are usually produced from a single thunderstorm. A tropical cyclone, however, has a diameter on the scale of hundreds of kilometres and contains many thunderstorms. Tornadoes are primarily an over-land phenomena as solar heating of the land surface usually contributes toward the development of the thunderstorm that spawns the vortex (though over-water tornadoes have occurred). In contrast, tropical cyclones are purely an oceanic phenomena - they die out over-land due to a loss of a moisture source. Lastly, tropical cyclones have a lifetime that is measured in days, while tornadoes typically last on the scale of minutes.
Interestingly, tropical cyclones near landfall often provide the conditions necessary for tornado formation. As the strong onshore surface winds move over land they weaken, but above the surface (> 1 km) winds are not affected. This creates strong wind shear that is conducive to tornado formation, especially on the cyclone's left forward quadrant (in the southern hemisphere). It is believed that most of the tornadoes that do form occur in the outer rain bands some 80-300 km from the centre, but some have been documented to occur in the inner core of the eye wall. It is possible that the extreme damage produced from winds in the eye wall are actually due to tornadoes.
- 6. How are tropical cyclones different to mid-latitude cyclones?
To a first approximation a tropical cyclone is like a heat engine - it derives its energy from the heat that is released when water vapour that has been evaporated from the ocean surface (assisted by high winds and low pressure) condenses in the middle of the atmosphere. Mid-latitude cyclones (low pressure systems associated with fronts) primarily get their energy from horizontal gradients in temperature.
Another important difference between the two is that tropical cyclones have their strongest winds near the surface while mid-latitude systems have their strongest winds many kilometres above the surface near the top of the atmosphere.
- 7. What is storm surge?
Storm surge is a large mound of water that accompanies a tropical cyclone as it comes ashore. The intense winds of the cyclone pile up the ocean into a dome of water that is pushed onshore as the cyclone strikes the coast. The low pressure of the cyclone adds to the height of the mound of water, though this is a secondary effect. When the height of a storm surge is discussed it does not take into account the height of the large waves on top of the mound of water.
Further details: Storm Surge
- 8. What is the difference between a storm surge and storm tide?
The combination of storm surge and astronomical tide is known as 'storm tide'. The worst impacts occur when the storm surge arrives on top of a high tide. When this happens, the storm tide can reach areas that might otherwise have been safe.
The graphic below shows the actual tide (top line, blue) and the astronomical tide (red) at Exmouth during cyclone Vance (1999). The black line is the storm surge component that peaked at 3.5 metres. At this time the predicted tide was 1.4 metres so the resultant peak storm tide was 4.9 metres. If the peak surge had of occurred at the time of high tide the actual tide would have been 6.0 m or 2.6 metres above the highest astronomical tide (pink line).
Data courtesy of WA Department of Planning and Infrastructure.
- 9. What about tsunamis?
A tsunami is a series of ocean waves with very long wavelengths (typically hundreds of kilometres) caused by large-scale disturbances of the ocean, such as:
- earthquakes
- landslide
- volcanic eruptions
- explosions
- meteorites
These disturbances can either be from below (e.g. underwater earthquakes with large vertical displacements, submarine landslides) or from above (e.g. meteorite impacts). They are not caused by tropical cyclones.
See: Tsunami warnings
- 10. What do the terms damaging winds, destructive winds and very destructive winds mean?
The term damaging winds refers to wind gusts in excess of 90 km/h. The term destructive winds refers to wind gusts in excess of 125 km/h. The term very destructive winds refers to wind gusts in excess of 165 km/h.
Category Sustained winds (km/h) Strongest gust (km/h) Typical effects 1 Tropical Cyclone 63 - 88 Below 125 Damaging winds 2 Tropical Cyclone 89 - 117 125 - 164 Destructive winds 3 Severe Tropical Cyclone 118 - 159 165 - 224 Very destructive winds 4 Severe Tropical Cyclone 160 - 199 225 - 279 5 Severe Tropical Cyclone Over 200 Over 280
- 11. What does 'maximum sustained winds' mean? How does it relate to wind gusts in tropical cyclones?
The Bureau of Meteorology uses a 10 minute averaging time for reporting the sustained (i.e. relatively long-lasting) winds. The maximum sustained wind are the highest 10 minute surface winds occurring within the circulation of the cyclone. These surface winds are those observed (or, more often, estimated) to occur at the standard meteorological height of 10 m having an unobstructed exposure.
Gusts are a wind peak lasting for just a few seconds. Typically, in a cyclone environment the value for a peak gust is about 25 % higher than a 10 minute sustained wind. Barrow Island and Mardie sustained wind and wind gust profile during TC Monty (2004).
NOTE: USA agencies, who have responsibility for issuing tropical cyclone warnings in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific tropical cyclone basins, use a 1 minute averaging time for sustained winds. While one can utilize a simple ratio to convert from peak 10 min. wind to peak 1 min. wind (roughly 12% higher for the latter), such systematic differences tend to make inter-basin comparison of tropical cyclones around the world problematic.
- 12. How does the amount of damage caused by a cyclone increase as the wind speed increases?
Or to rephrase the question: Would a cyclone with wind gusts of 280 km/h cause twice the damage of a similar sized cyclone with wind gusts of 140 km/h? No - it would cause hundreds of times more damage.
As wind speed increases the power of the wind to do damage increases exponentially. Hence a category 5 severe tropical cyclone (with wind gusts > 280 km/h) has the potential to do around 250 times the damage of a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone (with wind gusts of 165 km/h). This underscores the importance of the category system.
Graphical representation of the variation of damage with wind speed.
Image provided by Michael Drayton, Risk Management Solutions Inc. after George Walker, Australian residential, post 1980 construction.
- 13. Why and how are cyclone names chosen?
Tropical cyclones are named to provide ease of communication between forecasters and the general public regarding forecasts, watches, and warnings. Having a name also raises the profile of the cyclone heightening the public's awareness. Since the storms can often last a week or longer and that more than one can be occurring in the same region at the same time, names can also reduce the confusion about what storm is being described.
The Bureau of Meteorology maintains a list of names (arranged alphabetically and alternating male and female). A name remains on the list until its corresponding cyclone severely impacts the coast (e.g. Larry and Vance). The name is then permanently retired and replaced with another (of the same gender and first letter). It can take over 10 years from the time a name is put on the list to when it is first used to name a cyclone.
- 14. When did the naming of cyclones begin?
The convention of naming Australian tropical cyclones began in 1964. The first Western Australian named cyclone was Bessie that formed on 6 January 1964. Female names were used exclusively until the current convention of alternating male and female names commenced in 1975.
The naming of weather systems in Australia began much earlier than the 1960s, however. The flamboyant Clement Wragge, Government meteorologist in Queensland from 1887 until 1902, initiated the practice by naming weather systems after anything from mythological creatures to politicians who may have annoyed him.
During World War II, US Navy and Army Air Corps meteorologists informally gave tropical cyclones women's names. The Northwest Pacific basin tropical cyclones were given women's names officially starting in 1945 and men's names were also included beginning in 1979. Beginning on 1 January 2000, tropical cyclones in the Northwest Pacific basin were named using a new and very different list of names. The new names are Asian names and were contributed by all the nations and territories that are members of the World Meteorological Organisation's (WMO) Typhoon Committee. These newly selected names have two major differences from the rest of the world's tropical cyclone name rosters. One, the names by and large are not personal names. There are a few men's and women's names, but the majority are names of flowers, animals, birds, trees, or even foods, etc, while some are descriptive adjectives. Secondly, the names will not be allotted in alphabetical order, but are arranged by contributing nation with the countries being alphabetized.
The Southwest Indian Ocean tropical cyclones were first named during the 1960/1961 season but in the North Indian Ocean region tropical cyclones are not named.
Characteristics and formation
- 1. Why do tropical cyclones form?
The sun heats the tropical areas more than the polar regions. If there were no wind, then the tropics would keep getting hotter and hotter, and the poles would get colder and colder. The atmosphere's basic function is to redistribute heat from the equator to the poles, and tropical cyclones are one mechanism by which this occurs. However it is still quite remarkable that such a thing as a tropical cyclone should arise. It has been said that if we had not actually observed tropical cyclones then, despite all we know about the physics of the atmosphere, we would never have guessed at their existence.
- 2. How do tropical cyclones form?
For a cyclone to form several preconditions must be met:
- Warm ocean waters (of at least 26.5°C) throughout a sufficient depth (unknown how deep, but at least on the order of 50 m). Warm waters are necessary to fuel the heat engine of the tropical cyclone.
- An atmosphere which cools fast enough with height (is "unstable" enough) such that it encourages thunderstorm activity. It is the thunderstorm activity which allows the heat stored in the ocean waters to be liberated for the tropical cyclone development.
- Relatively moist layers near the mid-troposphere (5 km). Dry mid levels are not conducive for allowing the continuing development of widespread thunderstorm activity.
- A minimum distance of around 500 km from the equator. Some of the earth's spin (Coriolis force) is needed to maintain the low pressure of the system. (Systems can form closer to the equator but it's a rare event)
- A pre-existing disturbance near the surface with sufficient spin (vorticity) and inflow (convergence). Tropical cyclones cannot be generated spontaneously. To develop, they require a weakly organised system with sizeable spin and low level inflow.
- Little change in the wind with height (low vertical wind shear, i.e. less than 40 km/h from surface to tropopause). Large values of wind shear tend to disrupt the organisation of the thunderstorms that are important to the inner part of a cyclone.
Having these conditions met is necessary, but not sufficient as many disturbances that appear to have favourable conditions do not develop.
- 3. What is the life-cycle of a tropical cyclone?
Tropical cyclones have a distinct life cycle. For cyclones that reach at least severe (category 3 or higher having wind gusts of at least 165 km/h) the life-cycle may be divided into four stages. For non-severe cyclones, their development is constrained by one or more of a number of factors such as being located in an unfavourable atmospheric environment, movement over cooler water or making landfall.
1. The formative stage
On satellite images the disturbance appears as an unusually active, but poorly organised, area of convection (thunderstorms). The circulation centre is usually ill-defined but sometimes curved cumulus cloud bands spiralling towards an active area of thunderstorms indicate the location of the centre. Initially the amount of convection near the centre is dependent upon the normal diurnal cycle of tropical convection, increasing overnight and subsiding during the day. As development occurs the convection persists throughout the day. The strongest surface winds may be well removed from the centre, tend to occur in disorganised squalls and are often confined to one quadrant, for example the northwesterly monsoon winds to the north of the centre. Apart from local squalls the maximum wind is usually less than gale force. When formative stage tropical cyclones move inland they produce little or no damage on landfall but are often associated with heavy rain and sometimes flooding over northern Australia.
2. The immature stage
In this stage the area of convection persists and becomes more organised. Intensification occurs simultaneously. The minimum surface pressure rapidly drops below 1000 hPa and convection becomes organised into long bands spiralling inwards. Gale-force winds develop with the strengthening pressure gradient, and the maximum winds (which now may be storm-force or more) are concentrated in a tight band close to the centre. The circulation centre is well defined and subsequently an eye may begin to form. In satellite images several well organised curved bands of active convection may be seen spiralling in towards a central dense mass of clouds covering the focal point of the banding, or surrounding the centre. The eye (if it exists) may be masked by a canopy of cirrus cloud, which itself may contain curved striationsassociated with the outflow at the top of the tropical cyclone. The immature tropical cyclone can cause devastating wind and storm surge effects upon landfall, although damage is usually confined to a relatively small area. In this stage of development very rapid intensification can occur and the associated structural changes observed when the cyclone is under radar surveillance can sometimes be confusing.
3. The mature stage
During this stage the tropical cyclone acquires a quasi-steady state with only random fluctuations in central pressure and maximum wind speed. However, the cyclonic circulation and extent of the gales increase markedly. Asymmetries in the wind field may also become more pronounced. In satellite images the cloud field is highly organised and becomes more symmetrical. The more intense cyclones are characterised by a round central dense overcast containing a well-centred, distinct round eye. The surrounding convective bands are tightly coiled and quasi-circular. Typically a cyclone spends just a day or so at maximum intensity until it begins to weaken, unless the cyclone remains in a highly favourable environment.
4. The decay stage
The warm core is destroyed during this stage, the central pressure rises, and the belt of maximum wind expands away from near the centre. Decay may occur very rapidly if the system moves into an unfavourable atmospheric or geographic environment, but sometimes only the tropical characteristics are modified while the cyclonic circulation moves on to higher latitudes.
In satellite images the decaying stage is characterised by the weakening of organised convection near the centre and disappearance of major curved convective bands. The low-level circulation centre may still be very well defined by narrow bands of low clouds. Those cyclones that cross the coast and weaken over land may continue to produce heavy rain a considerable distance inland.
An abbreviated life cycle of tropical cyclone Paul, April 2000.
- Formative stage: 11 April.
- Immature stage: 14 April.
- Mature stage (920 hPa): 15 April.
- Decay stage: 20 April.
- 4. How long do tropical cyclones last?
Track of the long-lived cyclone Rewa. The cyclone briefly weakened about 8 January.
The lifetime of a cyclone is determined by how favourable the atmospheric environment is, movement, sea surface temperatures. While most cyclones undergo a life-cycle of 3-7 days some weak ones only briefly reach gale force while others can be sustained for weeks if they remain in a favourable environment. The longest being Hurricane Ginger (1971) that lasted for 30 days. More recently Hurricane Ivan (2004), that moved through the Gulf of Mexico crossing the Alabama coast, was a very long lasting intense hurricane having estimated winds of at least 200 km/h for over 7 days.
Cyclone Rewa formed northwest of the Solomon islands on 28 December 1993 and finally decayed below cyclone strength in the Coral Sea east of Brisbane 24 days later on 21 January 1994.
- 5. What is the eye and eye wall?
The circular eye or centre of a tropical cyclone is an area characterised by light winds, fine weather and often clear skies. The eye is the region of lowest surface pressure
The size of the eye varies from one cyclone to the next ranging from 10 km to over 100 km. The eye diameter of severe cyclones off the northwest coast tends to be about 20 to 40 km, and are typically smaller than those in some other parts of the world such as the north Pacific. The eye size of Tracy (Darwin, 1974) was just 12 km across. Rosita (Broome, 2000) only had an eye diameter of 20 km.
The eye is surrounded by a dense ring of cloud known as the eye wall. This marks the most dangerous part of the cyclone having the strongest winds and heaviest rainfall. Radar and satellite imagery often show that the eye wall clouds are the inner-most coil of a series of spiral rain-band clouds that extend hundreds of kilometres from the centre and typically produce very strong wind squalls. The eye-wall is not always symmetrical, in fact at any one time it is common for the strongest convection and surface winds to be in one part of the eye wall as shown during Monty (2004).
Gove radar image as Monica (2006) moved past the north. The eye wall is clearly visible surrounding the eye.
Diagram of the eye and eye-wall structure.
US Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane FAQ: Technical description of the eye and eye wall.
- 6. How big are tropical cyclones?
The size of a cyclone is usually described in terms of the radius of gale-force (sustained winds of at least 63 km/h). Although the distribution of surface winds is never completely symmetrical estimates of the gale-radius provide a reasonable guide on the size of a system. Cyclones off the northwest have an average radius of gales of about 150 to 200 kilometres. It is common for gales to occur well beyond the average radius of gales in one quadrant, for example the northwesterly monsoon winds to the north of the centre.
The size varies considerably. The radius of gales of Rosita (Broome, 2000) was just 70 km compared to the 350-400 km of Orson (1989). The adjacent picture shows the 100 km diameter of gales of Tracy (Darwin, 1974) could fit into the eye of Kerry (Qld, 1979) which had an eye diameter of 180 km. The areal extent of gales is also very important for wave generation and rainfall. The radius of storm-force (sustained winds of at least 90 km/h) and hurricane-force (sustained winds of at least 118 km/h) winds are other important parameters of cyclone size.
- 7. What happens to cyclones as they move further south?
Cyclones off northern Australia typically develop between 5 and 15°S and reach maximum intensity between 10 and 20°S. As they move further south they will weaken over land or, for those remaining over water, weaken as they encounter an unfavourable environment (strengthening wind shear) and move over cooler water. They usually increase in speed as the steering winds in the mid-levels of the atmosphere increase and move to the south or southeast.
Occasionally a cyclone moves south and interacts with a mid-latitude trough and undergoes extra-tropical transition changing from a warm-cored tropical low to a cold-cored mid-latitude low. The structure, distribution of winds and rainfall changes significantly.
See also:Tropical Cyclones affecting Perth.
- 1. When is the cyclone season?
The Australian cyclone season officially runs from November to April, although very few have occurred in November.
The earliest cyclone to impact the northwest Australian coast in the season was on 19 November 1910 when the eye passed over Broome. One of the latest cyclones in a season was TC Herbie that formed near Cocos Islands and passed over Shark Bay on 21 May 1988.
Further west in the Indian Ocean, cyclones can occur all year around although the risk of one in the winter months is very low.
Monthly frequency of tropical cyclones in the Australian region, 1973-2016
- 2. How many cyclones occur each year?
On average there are about thirteen cyclones that form in the Australian region (90-160° E) each cyclone season. This represents about 16 per cent of the global total. About half of these occur in the western region. About half of the total number of tropical cyclones become severe. Tropical cyclones in the western and eastern basins have around 25 per cent chance of making landfall, while those in the northern basin have an 80 per cent chance of making landfall.
The map of the incidence of cyclones in the Australian region shows an area north of Port Hedland has the maximum occurrence of cyclones.
The graph of cyclone activity in the Australian region shows the total number of severe and non-severe cyclones each year.
US Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane FAQ: Comparison of the average, highest and least number of cyclones in different parts of the world.
- 3. What is the most cyclone-prone region in Australia?
The northwest of Western Australia between Broome and Exmouth is the most cyclone prone part of Australia's coastline. This is also the region most prone to severe cyclone impacts. Seventy-two of the total of 146 coastal crossings in Australia between 1970-71 and 2003-04 were in WA. Thirty-four of the total 42 severe cyclone crossings occurred in WA and most of these occurred between Broome and Exmouth. In WA this equates to 2.2 cyclone crossings per year, one of which is severe on average.
Map below: Tropical cyclone crossings in Australia 1970-71 to 2001-02. Black dots represent non-severe cyclone crossings and red dots severe cyclone crossings.
- 4. Do cyclones affect Perth and Brisbane or Sydney? What about other towns?
Although the considerable majority of cyclone impacts are located in the tropics, occasionally a cyclone affects areas further south down the east or west coast. It is not uncommon for a southward moving tropical cyclone to cause heavy rain over areas well to the south, even if it weakens below cyclone intensity. Indeed most of the widespread rain events over southern Australia in the warmer months are associated with a tropical low or cyclone.
Along the east coast strong easterly winds between the cyclone and a high to the south can cause heavy rain and strong easterly winds that may cause large waves.
See also: Tropical cyclones in Queensland | Tropical cyclones in NSW
Between 1910 and 2004 a total of 14 cyclones have impacted Perth, equating to one every seven years on average. Some of these such as the 1937 and 1978 (Alby) caused destructive winds in Perth while others such as 1955 caused heavy rain and some flooding.
See also: Tropical cyclones affecting WA towns.
- 5. What determines the movement of tropical cyclones?
One look at the tracks of cyclones in the Australian region (see map) shows that cyclones can move in many different directions. The path of each storm varies considerably in response to the weather patterns occurring at the time. Tropical cyclones can be thought of as being steered by the surrounding environmental flow particularly in the middle parts of the atmosphere (from about 2 to 6 km above the surface). Typically there is a preferred movement to the west to southwest at speeds of 5 - 20 km/h especially when they are in the northern tropics. As they reach further south they are more likely to take a more southerly track and then once south of about 25S they typically are moving to the south southeast and accelerating. This was the case with Vance in the image below. Cyclone Lena and Rewa however followed very different and more erratic paths.
The larger and more intense systems do influence the surrounding environment and in so doing affect their movement. Short-term fluctuations in the track are common for intense cyclones, for example Bobby (1995) made several loops and changed speed as it approached the Pilbara coast (see track of Bobby based on radar observations).
- 6. Are we getting stronger and more frequent tropical cyclones in the last several years? What about climate change?
Tropical cyclones in the Australian region are influenced by a number of factors, and in particular variations in the El Niño – Southern Oscillation. In general, more tropical cyclones cross the coast during La Niña years, and fewer during El Niño years.
Analysis of historical tropical cyclone data has limitations due to a number of changes in observing practices and technology that have occurred over time. With new and improved meteorological satellites our ability to detect tropical cyclones has improved, as has our ability to differentiate tropical cyclones from other tropical weather systems such as monsoon depressions, which in the past may have been incorrectly named as tropical cyclones. A particularly important change occurred in the late 1970s when regular satellite images became first available from geostationary satellites above the Earth's equator.
The time series of analysed tropical cyclone activity in the Australian region (south of the equator; 90-160°E) show that the total number of cyclones appears to have decreased. However, there was a change to the definition for tropical cyclones in 1978 which led to some systems which would previously have been classified as tropical cyclones instead being considered sub-tropical systems. This contributes somewhat to the apparent decline in total numbers.
The number of severe tropical cyclones (minimum central pressure less than 970 hPa) is dominated by variability with periods of lower and higher frequencies of occurrence. There is less confidence in the earlier intensity data with continuous satellite coverage commencing in 1979.
Graph showing the number of severe and non-severe tropical cyclones from 1973-2016 which have occurred in the Australian region.
Potential changes in tropical cyclone occurrence and intensity (a measure of wind speed alone rather than the amount of precipitation or coastal flooding) are discussed in CSIRO and BoM (2015: see Sections 4.2.7 and 7.3.2). There is substantial evidence from theory and model experiments that the large-scale environment in which tropical cyclones form and evolve is changing as a result of global warming. Projected changes in the number and intensity of tropical cyclones are subject to the sources of uncertainty inherent in climate change projections. There remains uncertainty in the future change in tropical cyclone frequency (the number of tropical cyclones in a given period) projected by climate models, with a general tendency for models to project fewer tropical cyclones in the Australia region in the future climate and a greater proportion of the high intensity storms (stronger wind speeds and heavier rainfall).
Wind speed is only one aspect of tropical cyclones and their impacts. The amount of heavy precipitation from all weather systems, including tropical cyclones, is likely to increase. Increased rainfall intensity from tropical cyclones is pertinent to Australia, since these storms have historically been associated with major flooding.
Additionally, increases in storm surges and extreme sea-levels are very likely to occur in association with tropical cyclones under future climate change. This change is independent of changes in tropical cyclone intensity and is directly related to increases in global mean sea-level due to global warming.
Projected changes in tropical cyclone characteristics are inherently tied to changes in large-scale patterns such as the El Niño - Southern Oscillation, changes in sea surface temperature and changes in deep convection. As global climate models improve, their simulation of tropical cyclones is expected to improve, thus providing greater certainty in projections of tropical cyclone changes in a warmer world.
Tropical Cyclone Forecasting
- 1. Who is responsible for issuing tropical cyclone warnings?
The Bureau of Meteorology is responsible for issuing cyclone advisory messages between 90 and 160°E. Australia has three Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres, in Perth, Darwin and Brisbane.
Australian tropical cyclone warning centres and service areas.
Around the world there are five tropical cyclone Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres (RSMCs) together with six Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs) having regional responsibility to provide tropical cyclone advisories and bulletins.
International tropical cyclone warning centres and service areas.
US Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane FAQs.
- 2. How accurate are cyclone warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology?
Tropical cyclones (TC) have historically had a reputation for being unpredictable. Much effort has been dedicated to improving the forecasting skill in both location and intensity. The Bureau of Meteorology routinely issues forecasts of cyclone location and intensity to 5 days (120 h). All official forecasts are verified by comparison with the best track, the official estimate of the location and intensity of a tropical cyclone. A best track is prepared for every tropical cyclone, after the event using all available data.
Tropical cyclones vary considerably in their predictability. Some exhibit rapid changes in intensity or change course, speed up or slow down, primarily in response to changes in the surrounding environment.
Rewa (1993) was a TC for 23 days and moved very erratically and changed intensity many times making the forecasts very difficult especially for the longer lead times. Yasi (2011) by comparison maintained a steady movement towards the west southwest, thus increasing forecaster confidence in determining where it might cross the coast. The 24-hour forecast error for Yasi was 70 km, significantly less than the 5-year (2011–12 to 2015–16) average of 98 km.
Another factor influencing the forecast accuracy is how well we can determine the tropical low or cyclone centre location. The weaker TC's can be difficult to locate by satellite, compared to stronger cyclones that have a well-defined eye. Those cyclones that markedly change their course or intensity close to the coast present the greatest challenge to forecasters and decision-makers in the community. Community awareness is much higher when a cyclone develops well offshore prior to crossing compared to one that rapidly develops near the coast.
Figure 1(a): The track of Rewa in 1993–94
Figure 1(b): The steadier track of Yasi in 2011
Figure. 2 shows the yearly accuracy of position, year for the Australian region since 1985–86. The five-year average (2011–12 to 2015–16) accuracy is 20 km for the initial position, 69 km at 12 hours, 89 km at 24 hours, 154 km at 48 hours and 221 km at 72 hours. Today a 24 hour forecast is as accurate as those issued for a 12 hour prediction in the 1990s. Note that the errors were higher in 2015–16 partly because of the fewer number of forecasts issued as there were only three tropical cyclones in that season.
Figure 2: Yearly TC position accuracy for the Australian region, 1985–86 to 2015–16
Improvements in forecast position accuracy are due to a combination of more accurate computer model guidance, improved monitoring technology, and improved methods to combine computer model information. The use of multiple models has increased the forecast skill. The map below compared the actual track of TC Olwyn with forecast tracks from several different computer models sourced from around the world for a particular time. The spread of the model tracks provides an estimate of uncertainty in the forecast. Each model is different and no one particular model is always better than the others. The accuracy of each model also changes from one model run to the next. A forecast track made from the consensus of selected models provides the basis of the official forecast track as shown in the example for TC Olywn in Figure 3.
Figure 3: The official track of TC Olwyn shown with symbols and arrows, compared to the coloured lines of forecast tracks from selected computer models.
Understanding the historical skill and model variations, allows forecasters to present the official forecast track with the accompanying area of uncertainty (the grey area) on the Forecast Track Map as shown for TC Olwyn in 2015 in Figure. 4. This grey area represents the possible range of tracks in the 72 hour forecast.
Figure 4:The Forecast Track Map for TC Olwyn in 2015
Although the skill in track forecast has improved greatly, there has been much slower progress in intensity forecasting. This remains the focus of intensive study around the world. Forecasters can determine the general intensity changes but TCs can change their intensity very quickly. For example, Marcia (2015) rapidly intensified from a tropical low to Category 5 within 48 hours as it approached the coast. While Marcia was an extreme case, it is a reminder to be attentive to the latest information when a TC is in the area.
Go to the US Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane FAQ page to see the accuracy of the US National Hurricane Center for tropical cyclones (hurricanes) in the north Atlantic Ocean.
- 3. What types of warning products are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology?
Summary of tropical cyclone warning services including product samples and details
Products include:
- Tropical cyclone seasonal outlook
- Tropical cyclone outlook
- Tropical cyclone information bulletin
- Tropical cyclone advice (watch/warning)
- Technical summary
- Tropical cyclone forecast track map
- Marine warnings
- 4. How can I access warnings?
Tropical cyclone advisory messages are available through a range of media including the Internet, automated telephone messages and weather by fax. Radio and television also broadcast details of tropical cyclones, especially when the cyclone nears the coast.
Bureau phone and fax numbers and contact details for emergency services agencies.
Details: Getting information during a cyclone
- 5. What should I do when a cyclone warning is issued?
Surviving cyclones: Preparation & safety checklist
See information provided by your state or territory emergency agency:
- Qld: EMQ
Contact details for emergency services agencies.
Details: Getting information during a cyclone
- 6. How does the Bureau estimate the intensity of a tropical cyclone?
More Information
For more information on tropical cyclones try the FAQ page from the Hurricane Research Division of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (USA).


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Study analyzes challenges faced by Central America as it seeks sustainable development
Friday, July 19, 2019 - 09:40
A new publication uses analysis of trade, investment, migration, the financial sector, raw materials, and natural resources to propose policy options The Inter-American Development Bank and the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS) of INCAE Business School have presented in San Jose, Costa Rica, a book entitled "The Future of Central America: Challenges for Sustainable Development", w
WeXchange 2019 Pitch Competition is now open for women entrepreneurs
Tuesday, June 25, 2019 - 15:48
The Pitch Competition, open to high-growth women entrepreneurs in Latin America and the Caribbean, is organized by IDB Lab and Angel Ventures. The deadline for application is July 31.
Latin America could expand annual trade to India by 42 percent, report finds
Tuesday, June 11, 2019 - 15:18
Trade between Latin America and India has been growing rapidly in recent years but has the potential to expand much more, a new study by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of India shows.
Nearly 1,400 indigenous entrepreneurs in Panama to boost revenue with support from IDB
Monday, May 20, 2019 - 11:28
A USD43 MILLION OPERATION WILL IMPROVE ACCESS TO FINANCING, INVESTMENT IN PRODUCTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a USD40 million loan to Panama, complemented by a local contribution of USD3 million, to implement an ambitious program financial inclusion and indigenous entrepreneurship in the country's 12 indigenous regions.
IDB launches innovative territorial approach to address development challenges
Thursday, May 9, 2019 - 14:38
A study entitled "Honduras: a territorial approach to development" presents for the first time a spatial economic strategy that redefines the traditional national model so as to achieve greater and more inclusive economic growth. As it marks its 60th anniversary, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has presented the study "Honduras: a territorial approach to development", which makes an innovative proposal to confront the country's development challenges and fu
IDB highlights strengths of Central America in the face of external economic challenges
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 - 15:14
Two new studies on the region examine the current economic landscape and the work that the IDB Group has carried out over the last year. The economy of Central America and the Dominican Republic has continued to grow over the past year, although at significantly different rates depending on the country. For 2018, growth is estimated at 3.8 percent, a level similar to that of 2017, thanks to a robust economic performance by the region´s main trading partner, the United States.
IDB launches Superheroes of Development contest to recognize executing agencies
Monday, March 4, 2019 - 18:41
In its second edition, the call for proposals will be open from March 4th to May 17th, 2019. The Superheroes of Development Award will recognize executing agencies of IDB-financed projects that have successfully addressed challenges during its implementation. The contest will identify eight finalists from across Latin America and the Caribbean who will travel to IDB's Headquarters in Washington, D.C. to present their solutions.
Sustainable growth, infrastructure focus of IDB Annual Meeting in Chengdu, China
Tuesday, February 19, 2019 - 15:05
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Guatemala to improve and rehabilitate the national road network with IDB support
Thursday, February 7, 2019 - 09:54
A US$150 MILLION OPERATION WILL CONTRIBUTE TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE COUNTRY'S ROADS The Inter-American Development Bank approved a US$150 million operation to Guatemala to implement an ambitious improvement and rehabilitation program of the roads connecting productive areas and departmental capitals to the main networks.
IDB launches 2019 Call for Proposals to finance regional projects in Latin America
Wednesday, January 16, 2019 - 10:27
THE DEADLINE FOR ACCEPTING PROPOSALS FOR REGIONAL PUBLIC GOODS IS MARCH 1ST, 2019 The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched the 2019 Call for Proposals for the Regional Public Goods (RPG) Initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which supports projects involving three or more countries.