Message-Id: <199802212108.NAA14927@infolane.com>
From: "Candy sykes" <csykes@infolane.com>
To: "Pinhole Listserv" <pinhole@exploratorium.edu>
Subject: Re: Pinhole Daily Digest
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 13:14:13 -0800
Candy Sykes
csykes@infolane.com
----------
> From: Pinhole Listserv <pinhole@exploratorium.edu>
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> Subject: Pinhole Daily Digest
> Date: Saturday, February 21, 1998 12:03 AM
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: 20 Feb 1998 12:15:40 U
> From: emuller@exploratorium.edu (Eric Muller)
> Subject: A foamy question
>
> I was walking on the beach yesterday. The waves were crashing and the
wind
> was gusting.
> As I watched the sunset, I was hit in the face by a large clump of foam.
> Does anyone know what causes this foam to form?
>
> Eric Muller
> Teacher-In-Residence
> Exploratorium
> 3601 Lyon St.
> San Francisco, CA 94123
> 415-561-0313
> email:emuller@exploratorium.edu
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: 20 Feb 1998 18:41:28 U
> From: NFetter@aol.com
> Subject: Re: A foamy question
>
> Hi Eric,
> Foam usually requires some detergent residue in the water. I would guess
that
> our offshore ocean water has some in it. The wind or churning does the
rest.
> Neil Fetter
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: 20 Feb 1998 21:13:32 U
> From: Gene Thompson <gthompso@ccsf.cc.ca.us>
> Subject: Re: A foamy question
>
> Yesssssssss...I'm sorry to say I do. I live on the Great Highway and
> often go out to the beach. The foam appears during and after some big
> storms so I always thought it was due to stuff being smashed up by lots
of
> extra wave energy -- like the carageen (sp?) in seaweed. I was out there
> after the last big storm and a neighbor came by. I told him the beach
> wasn't worth it -- the waves were up to the dunes and any sand left was
> covered with foam. Then he told me about the foam. His friend works at
> the sewage treatment facility down by the Recreation Center for the
> Handicapped (behind the zoo), and when the volume increases due to storm
> run-off they have to quickly treat and release as much volume as
possible,
> or else they end up flooding the system and releasing untreated sewage.
> The foam is caused, he said, by the additive used in this quicker
> treatment. I haven't called the treatment plant yet to verify this (and
> to quiz them on what's in the treatment) but I've got no reason to doubt
> my neighbor.
>
> Ellen Koivisto
> George Washington High School
> San Francisco, CA
>
I have noticed the same phenomenon while crossing the Dumbarten bridge as I
pass the Leslie (Cargill) salt eveaporation ponds on a windy day. The foam
gathers at the edge of the ponds and blows across the road. I doubt very
much that the salt evaporater have detergent or sewage in them. However I
suspect it Ellen may be on to something with the carageenin (sp?) . There
is algae in the ponds. Or it may be an additive. I would like to find out
because my school is right off the Dumbarten bridge and I often use it as
example of science I am teaching because my students are so famililar with
it.
Candy