October 11, 2004
Volcanoes (again!)
This volcano thing has got to stop. I was up until about 2am reading about potential volcanic hazards in California (especially the Long Valley Caldera, a gigantic system that includes Mammoth). Fascinating stuff.
Tonight I have been consciously avoiding those sites, as I needed to get something else done. But I can't get some of the material out of my head, especially the mechanics of a caldera's creation.
It is really quite spectacular. You start with a giant build-up of magma. The magma is expelled and the land above the magma chamber collapses. Boom. Instant valley. Sometimes it fills with water (as is the case with Crater Lake), which can be extremely acidic at times.
Something that surprised me was the figure that the US Geological Survey quoted for the number of deaths caused by volcanoes since 1980: 29,000. That is a lot of people. Now, I know that there were few deaths caused by Mt. St. Helens, and that advancements in Vulcanology kept Mt. Pinatubo from killing a lot of people. I know that there are occassional deaths caused by Mt. Etna and Stromboli, but 29,000?!? I need to dig around more, but not tonight.
One of the most startling things I have ever seen in regards to volcanoes was in El Salvador. There were people who had settled in the crater of a large "extinct" volcano. Just because the thing is dormant does not make it safe. Even outside of cataclysmic eruptions, a gas eruption could smother the whole village in minutes.
Anyway, thinking about calderas made me wonder how we would react if a new caldera-forming volcano popped out in an unexpected place. Even in a remote, uninhabited location, such an event would be startling, to say the least.
Of course from a hazards viewpoint, existing volcanoes (and towns and cities like Takoma that are built on old flows) are far more of a concern than New Krakatoa emerging on Old New York or some other such scenario.
Here in the Bay Area we have a couple of old volcanoes. I think the one closest to us is Round Top in the Berkeley Hills. Other than that, we would have to look to Sonoma and Napa for something that is potentially active (Clear Lake comes up quite often in searches for this sort of thing).
Anyway, if this fascination keeps up, I will end up having to go to Erta Ale to look at the lava lake.
Posted by erik at October 11, 2004 1:15 AM | TrackBacklora,
pompeii is a social enviroment history adaptation.it is a ruling of expiration of the city beneath im an archeologist and acording to my reaserch volcanoes give of 1 percent of pollution
volcanoes can also be kinda good like my mommy said when she plants plants they get good nutricion there is this guy who went into a volcanoe ....he said it was cool
im researching volcanoes for a project and its liken totally anoying hearinnn about all of those deaths sobodies gotta find a cure for these volcanoes
Actually, if Nietzsche was alive today, he might have said "Build your cities on the San Andreas!"
Unfortunately, looking at SF, it doesn't seem to have had the desired effect.
Alicia,
I have been to Lassen summit three times. I love that area.
Maya,
Of course stopping them up would produce even worse eruptions later. I tend towards the advice from Herr Nietche! Build your town under Vesuvius! But watch out for the Napolitani, who are all a bunch of pickpockets and mafioso (uh-oh, some of my Napolitani friends and relatives might read this and want to invite me to a quiet dinner at an out of the way restaurant).
I will be in Thornton both Saturday and Monday. Then the season will be over and I will go back to moping around and looking at videos of bullfights.
Mojoala,
Thanks for the heads-up, but I will leave that to the apologists. Let Mark Shea know. I tend to think that interreligious dialog with heretics is best done with a bundle of kindling and a book of matches.
John,
Ugh! Those volcanocams are the reason that I stay up too late these days. Hooked, I tell you! They are great, though.
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at October 11, 2004 11:58 PM"The secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of life is: to live dangerously! Build your cities under Vesuvius!" - Nietzsche
Even if you're not one of the supermen, you can share the experience via the world's Volcanocams here:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Photo/volcano_cams.html
Posted by: john at October 11, 2004 10:11 PMhola erik -- i agree with your very first sentence, this volcano thing has got to stop! i think we technologically-advanced simians ought to do SOMETHING about it!! the institutes of science are already working on ways to re-route hurricanes, right? so why not stopper up volcanoes? i mean, think of the potential deaths, injuries and reduced air quality, to say nothing of disruptions to traffic and property values, that could all be avoided. i mean jeez!! i say we whip nature into shape!!
and wiseass me - thank God there are forces greater than us to remind us to be humble. ;) will you be in thornton on saturday?
Posted by: maya at October 11, 2004 6:24 PMAll Points Bulletin
Everybody catholic needs to go to this blog.
It is a review of the Passion of the Christ by
A Church of God minister.
He needs to be set straight!
Have you been over to Lassen?
I remember reading a story as a kid about a mexican volcano that started in a corn field.
I think that many of the volcano deaths may be due to side effects such as earthquakes,floods and mudslides, and may have been in Latin America.
It has been a pretty apocalyptic pre-election season, no?