Happy first day of summer, everyone! On Guam the temperatures vary little, so it’s always “summer” here with a wet season and a dry season being the only differences. we’re semi-dry now but have regular showers that keep things green. Daytime temps are around 88 degrees and a 10-degree drop at night. Humidity is high but the northeast trades blow a steady cooling breeze across the island during the day.
Other points I’ve been asked about are: Does Guam have earthquakes? Yes. And that’s because we’re located near the Mariana Trench (see below), the deepest known location of the world’s oceans.
The Mariana Trench (or Marianas Trench) is the deepest known submarine trench (maximum depth of 10.9 km, 6.77 mi), and the deepest location in the Earth's crust itself. It is located in the floor of the western North Pacific Ocean, to the east and south of the Mariana Islands at 11°21′N, 142°12′E, near Guam. The trench is the boundary where two tectonic plates meet, where the Pacific Plate is being subducted under the Philippine Plate. The bottom of the trench is farther below sea level than Mount Everest is above it. The trench has a maximum depth of 10,924 meters below sea level. The Arctic Ocean, on the other hand, is only about 4,500 meters deep, but 6,353,000 meters from the Earth's center, some 13 kilometers closer. This is due to the equatorial bulge. In an unprecedented dive, the United States Navy bathyscaphe Trieste reached the bottom at 1:06 p.m. on January 23, 1960, with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard on board. Iron shot was used for ballast, with gasoline for buoyancy.[4] The onboard systems indicated a depth of 11,521 meters (37,799 ft), but this was later revised to 10,916 meters (35,813 ft). At the bottom, Walsh and Piccard were surprised to discover soles or flounder about 30 cm (1 ft) long, as well as shrimp. According to Piccard, "The bottom appeared light and clear, a waste of firm diatomaceous ooze".
And, Have you seen the green flash at sunset? Yes, Jane and I witnessed it one night last week. We have an unobstructed view from our hotel condo balcony. It is not an “urban legend”, nor is it only seen in the tropics. But because of optics and the curve of the earth you need a pretty flat horizon to see it. It occurs just as the sun dips below the visual horizon, and it’s very fast, like the flash of an airport beacon. Here’s how Jules Verne described it: "a green which no artist could ever obtain on his palette, a green of which neither the varied tints of vegetation nor the shades of the most limpid sea could ever produce the like! If there is a green in Paradise, it cannot be but of this shade, which most surely is the true green of Hope"
Last weekend we had a great 4-hour workshop with the 3 Guam churches and Padi Irene from Saipan and her family. We worked on plans for a service rotation for Sundays, what we might do when the Presiding Bishop comes for Thanksgiving, some targets for a joint youth ministry, and our common mission with St. John’s school. On Sunday Padi (“Padi” means priest in Tagalog and can refer to either a man or a woman) Irene and I gave the sermon and jointly presided at the Communion service at St. John the Divine. Hank Parker, the Bishop’s Deputy here, also installed me as vicar of the 3 churches on Guam.
