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Amazing eruption in Tonga! Another thing that's amazing is that pretty much every major news site describes this as an 'underwater volcano'. It's been an island since it emerged from the sea in 2015. It doesn't take much effort to learn the truth about it, but it's apparently too much effort for the MSM. Far easier to parrot misinformation that you've picked up from another site.
Ye Olde Volcano.
Ye Olde Volcano.
White Island Scrapbook
Dec. 11th, 2019 01:20 amhttps://www.delahyde.com/NZ/
Great website of photos a guy took in March 2017 when he visited White Island. It gives a good sense of scale, and of just how badly screwed you'd be if there were a sudden surge while you were standing in the crater.
Great website of photos a guy took in March 2017 when he visited White Island. It gives a good sense of scale, and of just how badly screwed you'd be if there were a sudden surge while you were standing in the crater.
So, Stromboli, that's been erupting continuously, if relatively mildly, for the past 2000 years or so, cut loose with a paroxysmal eruption that seems to have included a sizable nuee ardent as well, judging from the pictures. In the second picture on the BBC article, you can see the head of a good-sized nuee running down the slope out of sight behind that ridge. It looks like it's not losing any power as it advances (judging from the angle of the leading edge of the head cloud), which is unsurprising on a slope like that. At about the level of the head of the nuee, it looks like there are houses on that saddleback. hopefully at some distance longitudinally. One could have made a tidy sum as a door-to-door salesman selling clean underwear just then, I'd imagine.
https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/sicilia/messina/stromboli-sciara-del-fuoco.html A nice collection of webcams. Everything looks quiet and peaceful now.
Edit: And there does seem to be some mild activity yet, with rocks rolling down the debris slope.
https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/sicilia/messina/stromboli-sciara-del-fuoco.html A nice collection of webcams. Everything looks quiet and peaceful now.
Edit: And there does seem to be some mild activity yet, with rocks rolling down the debris slope.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46663158
Krakatoa seems to have caused a (smallish?) tidal wave at a place called Anyer Beach, which I'm assuming is probably Anjer that got swept clean by the sea in 1883 ^1. Two interesting photos in the BBC article, one at the top, and one at the bottom, both of which seem to show a second crater active near or at the waterline on the south side of Anak. I think that's a real crater, and not just the aftermath of a nuee, because in the first picture, there's no smoke at all on the slope of the cone - just from the very foot.
It seems odd that a submarine landslide would produce a wave that could hit Anjer, since Kecil Island should be in the way (I think), but one supposes the same criticism applies to a wave produced by an undersea explosion. At any rate, there was a wave, and Anak is erupting, and the whole thing is very interesting.
^1 In Bantam, where the tiny little chickens come from.
Krakatoa seems to have caused a (smallish?) tidal wave at a place called Anyer Beach, which I'm assuming is probably Anjer that got swept clean by the sea in 1883 ^1. Two interesting photos in the BBC article, one at the top, and one at the bottom, both of which seem to show a second crater active near or at the waterline on the south side of Anak. I think that's a real crater, and not just the aftermath of a nuee, because in the first picture, there's no smoke at all on the slope of the cone - just from the very foot.
It seems odd that a submarine landslide would produce a wave that could hit Anjer, since Kecil Island should be in the way (I think), but one supposes the same criticism applies to a wave produced by an undersea explosion. At any rate, there was a wave, and Anak is erupting, and the whole thing is very interesting.
^1 In Bantam, where the tiny little chickens come from.
(no subject)
May. 4th, 2018 07:51 pmI don't think that "fulsome" means what I think Trey Gowdy thinks that it means.
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I can honestly say that I have never in my life wanted to ride in one of the modern "cruise ships". I'm increasingly having difficulties understanding why anyone would, given the nonstop debacles they seem to produce anymore.
Now what I *would* like is to take a trip on a freighter, ideally a P&O with a few staterooms, going on a slow trip to the end of the world. This comes of reading too many stories by Rudyard Kipling and Wiliam Hope Hodgeson, I suspect.
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The times, they are a'changin'...
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I'm having real trouble feeling any empathy for the NFL cheerleaders who are complaining that they have to wear skimpy costumes, and aren't treated with dignity. Professional cheerleader isn't a dignified profession. It's basically about bouncing around showing T&A. Personally, I'd like to see the custom done away with, pretty much for that reason, but, if you're going to take a job like that, then don't complain about the nature of it.
Besides which, the Colts have a horse who comes out a couple times a game, and holds my attention way better than the T&A girls.
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Kilauea is erupting! For some reason, the idea of fissures just opening up in the streets spooks me. This is by no means a dangerous volcano, if you have some common sense - andesitic volcanoes like those in the Antilles arc are much more likely to kill you - but that just bothers me.
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I can honestly say that I have never in my life wanted to ride in one of the modern "cruise ships". I'm increasingly having difficulties understanding why anyone would, given the nonstop debacles they seem to produce anymore.
Now what I *would* like is to take a trip on a freighter, ideally a P&O with a few staterooms, going on a slow trip to the end of the world. This comes of reading too many stories by Rudyard Kipling and Wiliam Hope Hodgeson, I suspect.
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The times, they are a'changin'...
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I'm having real trouble feeling any empathy for the NFL cheerleaders who are complaining that they have to wear skimpy costumes, and aren't treated with dignity. Professional cheerleader isn't a dignified profession. It's basically about bouncing around showing T&A. Personally, I'd like to see the custom done away with, pretty much for that reason, but, if you're going to take a job like that, then don't complain about the nature of it.
Besides which, the Colts have a horse who comes out a couple times a game, and holds my attention way better than the T&A girls.
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Kilauea is erupting! For some reason, the idea of fissures just opening up in the streets spooks me. This is by no means a dangerous volcano, if you have some common sense - andesitic volcanoes like those in the Antilles arc are much more likely to kill you - but that just bothers me.
Volcano Time!
Mar. 15th, 2018 10:50 pmThe bizarrely-named Kick 'em Jenny is erupting again. It has to be close to breaking the surface - I do wonder if the resulting island will be called Kick 'em Jenny? Like they say, the first recorded eruption was in 1939, but it was pretty certainly in eruption in May 1902 along with the volcanoes on St. Vincent and Martinique. The sea got hot, and according to sailors the wave patterns made no sense to anyone. One ship apparently got abruptly "dropped" about three feet or so into the water, probably as a result of lowered bouyancy from gas bubbles.
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Because it's out in the ocean, I can hope for a big ol' eruption without any sort of guilt, since no-one's being incinerated or having their homes destroyed. I mean honestly, it's kind of foolish to feel guilt anyway, since the volcano is going to erupt or not regardless of whether I enjoy watching it, but that's how it goes.
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Because it's out in the ocean, I can hope for a big ol' eruption without any sort of guilt, since no-one's being incinerated or having their homes destroyed. I mean honestly, it's kind of foolish to feel guilt anyway, since the volcano is going to erupt or not regardless of whether I enjoy watching it, but that's how it goes.
THIRTY-TWO… FORTY-ONE… I WILL RE-ENTER…
Mar. 11th, 2018 10:21 pmGonna see some regime change soon in the Congo, I betcha!
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Blofeld's hollow volcano is erupting! You Only Live Twice, despite it's absolutely goofy-ass plot with logical holes you could drive a truck through, remains nonetheless one of my three favourite James Bond movies, with the other two being the much more logical Goldfinger, and Thunderball. You Only Live Twice has the best of the opening sequences, I think, with a catchy song (although it can't hold a candle to Shirley Bassey's snarling performance in Goldfinger) and the Japanese parasol motif. It just works very well for me. The conceit of the villain having his HQ inside a hollowed-out volcano is absolutely breathtaking (and I know by all the times it's been parodied I'm not the only one who reacted to that), plus the sequences where SPECTRE's spaceship engulfed the two capsules, and especially the Russian one with the cosmonaut on his tether, were absolutely haunting. It's all like something from 1940s radio drama. The whole thing is so engaging that I'm willing to completely overlook all the reasons this won't work.
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You know, were I a politician, and did I desire to be loved by all, Democrat and Republican alike, I'd propose the abolition of Daylight Savings Time.
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And, on review, I find that it was the American astronaut whose tether (technically an umbilical, since it was a Gemini) was severed by the SPECTRE ship.
The Soviet capsule, while looking nothing like an actual one, was, IIRC, reasonably close to speculative picture of a Voshkod that was current at the time.
Interestingly, to me, is that my first reference for the word "umbilical" was to a Gemini spacewalker's umbilical. I didn't know it was a biological term until several years later
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Blofeld's hollow volcano is erupting! You Only Live Twice, despite it's absolutely goofy-ass plot with logical holes you could drive a truck through, remains nonetheless one of my three favourite James Bond movies, with the other two being the much more logical Goldfinger, and Thunderball. You Only Live Twice has the best of the opening sequences, I think, with a catchy song (although it can't hold a candle to Shirley Bassey's snarling performance in Goldfinger) and the Japanese parasol motif. It just works very well for me. The conceit of the villain having his HQ inside a hollowed-out volcano is absolutely breathtaking (and I know by all the times it's been parodied I'm not the only one who reacted to that), plus the sequences where SPECTRE's spaceship engulfed the two capsules, and especially the Russian one with the cosmonaut on his tether, were absolutely haunting. It's all like something from 1940s radio drama. The whole thing is so engaging that I'm willing to completely overlook all the reasons this won't work.
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You know, were I a politician, and did I desire to be loved by all, Democrat and Republican alike, I'd propose the abolition of Daylight Savings Time.
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And, on review, I find that it was the American astronaut whose tether (technically an umbilical, since it was a Gemini) was severed by the SPECTRE ship.
The Soviet capsule, while looking nothing like an actual one, was, IIRC, reasonably close to speculative picture of a Voshkod that was current at the time.
Interestingly, to me, is that my first reference for the word "umbilical" was to a Gemini spacewalker's umbilical. I didn't know it was a biological term until several years later
Mineral Life
Nov. 19th, 2017 06:05 pmSo, it looks as though Zimbabwe still has a chance of turning out well. I gave up to despair when they didn't march Mugabe's sorry ass in front of the firing squad tout d' suite, as I figured ZANU-PF would find a way to salvage the situation. Now it looks like they made the right call. Mugabe's going to shuffle off the stage as a tired, irrelevant old man, and ZANU-PF don't seem to be in the best of shape either.
Once again, it is shown that subtlety is not my strong suit. I have to wonder how deeply involved in this the Chinese were? Subtlety and the Long Game are indeed their hallmarks.
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It interests me as well that the one of Xi Jinping's goals that he announced at the recent Party Congress was "moderate economic growth". I can't imagine a western politician ever speaking those words.
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A farmer carries on while Mt. Sinabung erupts in the background. He's a braver man than I. The volcano looks only a few miles away, and you can see the mark left by at least one nuee ardente on the volcano's slope. I'm gonna say an extremely hot, mobile one too, judging by the large expanse of dead vegetation around the debris field.
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Kitty litter was only invented in 1947. I'd had no idea. There are so many things that we accept as an unchanging part of the world that really are not.
I really, really love the cat face on the packaging too. It reminds me of a Halloween costume I had when very young.
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I've grown used to having hyperlinks in my Kindle books. Here's a first for me, though - A book with embedded video. I can see how that might prove useful, although in this case the "book" is only 27 pages long, which precludes any chance that I'll buy it.
Once again, it is shown that subtlety is not my strong suit. I have to wonder how deeply involved in this the Chinese were? Subtlety and the Long Game are indeed their hallmarks.
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It interests me as well that the one of Xi Jinping's goals that he announced at the recent Party Congress was "moderate economic growth". I can't imagine a western politician ever speaking those words.
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A farmer carries on while Mt. Sinabung erupts in the background. He's a braver man than I. The volcano looks only a few miles away, and you can see the mark left by at least one nuee ardente on the volcano's slope. I'm gonna say an extremely hot, mobile one too, judging by the large expanse of dead vegetation around the debris field.
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Kitty litter was only invented in 1947. I'd had no idea. There are so many things that we accept as an unchanging part of the world that really are not.
I really, really love the cat face on the packaging too. It reminds me of a Halloween costume I had when very young.
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I've grown used to having hyperlinks in my Kindle books. Here's a first for me, though - A book with embedded video. I can see how that might prove useful, although in this case the "book" is only 27 pages long, which precludes any chance that I'll buy it.
I'm really kind of nonplussed by all of the presumably intelligent people having a freakout over the fact that their voice-activated TV listens to everything that's said, and not just commands addressed to it. How on earth do these people think that voice recognition is supposed to work, anyway?
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I haz a Birb!
I really love this picture, and the artist only charges $15, too!
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Canadian man saved after being mistaken for a Seal.
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Terrorist was plotting to set off the Yellowstone Caldrea. That's probably not even possible at any level of effort short of what a large government could summon, but I'll give him points for ambition.
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I haz a Birb!
I really love this picture, and the artist only charges $15, too!
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Canadian man saved after being mistaken for a Seal.
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Terrorist was plotting to set off the Yellowstone Caldrea. That's probably not even possible at any level of effort short of what a large government could summon, but I'll give him points for ambition.
In the News!
Sep. 28th, 2014 07:38 pmDutch Monster Truck Disaster. I really had thought of monster trucks as a peculiarly American thing.
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Impressive video of the eruption in Japan! You can see the ash cloud puff up, and then the base surge roll over the lip of the crater and descend on the victims. It's a steam explosion and cold dust, apparently, or none of them would have lived. To answer the narrator's question, a steam (phreatic) eruption often gives no warning signs until a few seconds beforehand. There's not necessarily any movement of lava taking place, so you aren't guaranteed harmonic tremors, rumbling, etc.
Another article I read told of the people huddling inside the shelter, putting on plastic helmets. Apparently the visitor centre at the summit had a large stock of yellow plastic helmets on hand for just such an emergency. That somehow strikes me as so very Japanese.
Edit: Apparently there were tremors, but no baseline to compare them to...
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Heh. The new Ford Mustang plays fake engine noises through the stereo.
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Impressive video of the eruption in Japan! You can see the ash cloud puff up, and then the base surge roll over the lip of the crater and descend on the victims. It's a steam explosion and cold dust, apparently, or none of them would have lived. To answer the narrator's question, a steam (phreatic) eruption often gives no warning signs until a few seconds beforehand. There's not necessarily any movement of lava taking place, so you aren't guaranteed harmonic tremors, rumbling, etc.
Another article I read told of the people huddling inside the shelter, putting on plastic helmets. Apparently the visitor centre at the summit had a large stock of yellow plastic helmets on hand for just such an emergency. That somehow strikes me as so very Japanese.
Edit: Apparently there were tremors, but no baseline to compare them to...
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Heh. The new Ford Mustang plays fake engine noises through the stereo.
Remarkably well-done website about Pompeii and Herculaneum. One of those which will eat up hours and hours, over several days.
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A report on the killing of Japan's zoo animals during the War. Horrible, but fascinating.
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A report on the killing of Japan's zoo animals during the War. Horrible, but fascinating.
In the News!
Jun. 7th, 2011 02:44 pmPictures of the Chilean eruption. The first two pictures look positively deathy.
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The hilarity of "Weinergate" rolls on!
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The hilarity of "Weinergate" rolls on!
Mechanical Soup
Mar. 2nd, 2011 06:50 pmMore volcano pictures from the Boston Spheroid!
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Wahoo! Ohio takes the first step towards curtailing the insatiable greed of the unions! We're gonna beat Wisconsin after all :)
Kevin Bacon, quoted in the article, is the State Senator from my district, and a mighty Tea Party man, newly elected this term.
I'd have loved to have gone down and protested in favour of SB 5, but unlike the public employees who turned out by the thousands, I can't take off work whenever I feel like to to go disrupt traffic and bang on a drum. The very size of the demonstrations against it show how badly this bill was needed to restore some measure of fairness and sanity.
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Wahoo! Ohio takes the first step towards curtailing the insatiable greed of the unions! We're gonna beat Wisconsin after all :)
Kevin Bacon, quoted in the article, is the State Senator from my district, and a mighty Tea Party man, newly elected this term.
I'd have loved to have gone down and protested in favour of SB 5, but unlike the public employees who turned out by the thousands, I can't take off work whenever I feel like to to go disrupt traffic and bang on a drum. The very size of the demonstrations against it show how badly this bill was needed to restore some measure of fairness and sanity.
Ubiquitous Recursion
Feb. 26th, 2011 11:29 pmIt is a sad state of affairs indeed when the President of France is more bombastic and confrontational than the President of the United States.
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O.O It's like a Bugs Bunny cartoon...
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Voodoo Sex Candles!
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The Indonesian Mud Volcano shows no signs of abating...
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O.O It's like a Bugs Bunny cartoon...
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Voodoo Sex Candles!
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The Indonesian Mud Volcano shows no signs of abating...
Pink Terraces
Feb. 2nd, 2011 11:57 pmSomebody found what's left of the Pink Terraces of Tarawera. These were a thermal feature formed by a hot spring, and were considered one of the Wonders of the World until the hot spring suddenly blew out into a volcano in 1886.
Life is Good
Nov. 9th, 2010 01:02 amWoot! The raucous people next door but one seem to have suffered a visit from the Eviction Fairy!
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It was a lovely day here, 65F and sunny. Some of the trees have already lost their leaves, but many (including the maple at my bedroom window) are still leafy and green, if a touch faded looking. I'd not mind winter and fall if this were par for the course.
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A large collection of eruption pictures from the Boston Spheroid. Some are quite nasty, but all are fascinating.
The volcano seems finally to have exhausted itself. The heat is dying down in the crater, from satellite imagery. One of the scientists on the spot describes 'bands of looters' suddenly appearing on the road, all heading into the devastated zone. The webcam, that returned briefly, has died again. One likes to think that a looter swiped it.
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I may put my Christmas stuff up early this year. Because I'm an adult, and I can. I can also use all of my Christmas trees if I want, although that wouldn't leave much room to get around the place. I could also put up all of my lights, although the last time I did that it was in an apartment about three times the size of this one, and it heated the place.
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It was a lovely day here, 65F and sunny. Some of the trees have already lost their leaves, but many (including the maple at my bedroom window) are still leafy and green, if a touch faded looking. I'd not mind winter and fall if this were par for the course.
*****
A large collection of eruption pictures from the Boston Spheroid. Some are quite nasty, but all are fascinating.
The volcano seems finally to have exhausted itself. The heat is dying down in the crater, from satellite imagery. One of the scientists on the spot describes 'bands of looters' suddenly appearing on the road, all heading into the devastated zone. The webcam, that returned briefly, has died again. One likes to think that a looter swiped it.
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I may put my Christmas stuff up early this year. Because I'm an adult, and I can. I can also use all of my Christmas trees if I want, although that wouldn't leave much room to get around the place. I could also put up all of my lights, although the last time I did that it was in an apartment about three times the size of this one, and it heated the place.
Dodecahedral Grapes
Nov. 6th, 2010 11:02 pmOur new Attorney General has already said that sueing to protect Ohioans from Obamacare will be his first act on taking office. We chose well.
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The BBC News Quiz asked: In a major setback for President Barack Obama, the Republicans have taken control of the lower house of Congress, with John Boehner at its helm as Speaker-elect. How do you say his surname?
Most people here say 'Boner', actually :)
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Merapi looking beautiful and deathy, all at once.
An astonishing account by a journalist who travelled deeply inside the exclusion zone the night before the huge eruption early Friday. He reports seeing entire villages half-populated, and people heading into the zone on foot that night.
If you look at the relevant area of Indonesia on Google Maps, you can see that the satellite and aerial pictures have been taken during the eruption.
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The BBC News Quiz asked: In a major setback for President Barack Obama, the Republicans have taken control of the lower house of Congress, with John Boehner at its helm as Speaker-elect. How do you say his surname?
Most people here say 'Boner', actually :)
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Merapi looking beautiful and deathy, all at once.
An astonishing account by a journalist who travelled deeply inside the exclusion zone the night before the huge eruption early Friday. He reports seeing entire villages half-populated, and people heading into the zone on foot that night.
If you look at the relevant area of Indonesia on Google Maps, you can see that the satellite and aerial pictures have been taken during the eruption.
For the wheel's still in spin...
Nov. 1st, 2010 06:58 pmSo, the Merapi webcam seems to have gone offline sometime between 10:30am and noon today. I wonder what could have happened to it?
Very impressive pictures last night and this morning though, in their own way. Most of the time entirely grey, now and again entirely black, and every once in a while the ashfall would thin out enough that you could dimly see the outline of the western flank of the volcano.
Edit: Now the server is back online, but posting only the final picture from ten minutes after midnight local time. One suspects that the camera may not be seen again.
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So, one more day, and then I can once again open my door when someone knocks unexpectedly, and answer my phone when I don't recognize the number. After tomorrow, the worst I'll face ay my door are Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons, at least until 2012.
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I think I may hit the Votatorium before dawn tomorrow, just because. I've never been there to vote when they first opened.
Very impressive pictures last night and this morning though, in their own way. Most of the time entirely grey, now and again entirely black, and every once in a while the ashfall would thin out enough that you could dimly see the outline of the western flank of the volcano.
Edit: Now the server is back online, but posting only the final picture from ten minutes after midnight local time. One suspects that the camera may not be seen again.
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So, one more day, and then I can once again open my door when someone knocks unexpectedly, and answer my phone when I don't recognize the number. After tomorrow, the worst I'll face ay my door are Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons, at least until 2012.
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I think I may hit the Votatorium before dawn tomorrow, just because. I've never been there to vote when they first opened.
A blog by an actual volcanologist, which seems to have the current news about the Merapi eruption faster than most of the media outlets (he has several contacts at the actual eruption area), plus intelligent commentary by the readers too!
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It's the little details that stick with one:
Most of the 28 bodies recovered by yesterday afternoon were from the village, although among them was Maridjan's last visitor, Yuniawan Wahyu Nugraha. Yuniawan, a well-known Yogyakarta journalist, had just finished interviewing Maridjan in his house for an online news service and was on the phone to a government official when he gasped "Watch out, the fire is coming . . ."
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An amazing, even terrifying animated map that shows unemployment rates county by county, from January 2007 until August 2010.
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It's the little details that stick with one:
Most of the 28 bodies recovered by yesterday afternoon were from the village, although among them was Maridjan's last visitor, Yuniawan Wahyu Nugraha. Yuniawan, a well-known Yogyakarta journalist, had just finished interviewing Maridjan in his house for an online news service and was on the phone to a government official when he gasped "Watch out, the fire is coming . . ."
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An amazing, even terrifying animated map that shows unemployment rates county by county, from January 2007 until August 2010.
