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Rapidly Inflating Volcano Creates Growing Mystery
Live Science ^ | Oct. 24, 2011 | Andrea Mustain

Posted on 10/24/2011 11:16:06 AM PDT by bgill

Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed.

"I call this 'volcano forensics,' because we're using so many different techniques to understand this phenomenon," said Oregon State University professor Shan de Silva, a volcanologist on the research team.

Researchers realized about five years ago that the area below and around Uturuncu is steadily rising — blowing up like a giant balloon under a wide disc of land some 43 miles (70 kilometers) across. Satellite data revealed the region was inflating by 1 to 2 centimeters (less than an inch) per year and had been doing so for at least 20 years, when satellite observations began.

"It's one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on Earth," de Silva told OurAmazingPlanet."What we're trying to do is understand why there is this rapid inflation, and from there we'll try to understand what it's going to lead to."

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: southamerica; uturuncu; volcano
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To: Cold Heart
put one finger on Uturuncu and another finger Krakatau.

Which finger do I pull?

21 posted on 10/24/2011 12:23:53 PM PDT by frithguild (Restricting access to capital - liberalism - the sharpest tool of big business, banks, etc.)
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To: bgill

Yes, “spoil sport” as another poster already said. You beat us all to the punch.

Either the reporters or the scientists that were reported missed High School Science 101.


22 posted on 10/24/2011 12:23:53 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: bgill

Maybe there is a smokin hot mamma volcano he just spied, that might get a rise out of it..

aw shucks come on blow your top..lets see what ya got..


23 posted on 10/24/2011 12:32:43 PM PDT by aces
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To: Oberon

It’ll be like Bluto Blutarsky impersonating a zit but only bigger.


24 posted on 10/24/2011 12:34:20 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: bgill
"What we're trying to do is understand why there is this rapid inflation, and from there we'll try to understand what it's going to lead to."

"It'll be blowed up real good!"


25 posted on 10/24/2011 12:36:51 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (Obama is the least qualified guy in whatever room he walks into.)
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To: aces

Volcano
By: jimmy buffett, keith sykes, harry dailey
1979
Chorus:
Now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow

Chorus:
Let me say now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow

Ground she’s movin’ under me
Tidal waves out on the sea
Sulphur smoke up in the sky
Pretty soon we learn to fly

Chorus:
Let me hear ya now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow

Now my girl quickly say to me
Mon you better watch your feet
Lava come down soft and hot
You better lava me now or lava me not

Chorus:
Let me say now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow

No time to count what i’m worth
‘cause i just left the planet earth
Where i go i hope there’s rum
Not to worry mon soon come

Chorus:
Now i don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow

Chorus:
One more now i don’t know (ah he don’t know)
I don’t know (he don’t know, mon)
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow

But i don’t want to land in new york city
Don’t want to land in mexico (no no no)
Don’t want to land on no three mile island
Don’t want to see my skin aglow (no no no)

Don’t want to land in commanche sky park
Or in nashville, tennessee (no no no)
Don’t want to land in no san juan airport
Or the yukon territory (no no no)

Don’t want to land no san diego
Don’t want to land in no buzzards bay (no no no)
Don’t want to land on no ayotollah
I got nothing more to say

Chorus:
I don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow

Chorus:
Just a one more, i don’t know (he don’t know)
I don’t know (i don’t know, man)
I don’t know where i’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow


26 posted on 10/24/2011 12:37:00 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: bgill

When was it’s last eruption? Hopefully, sooner than the 300,000 years. I’d rather not see another Pinatubo or worse.


27 posted on 10/24/2011 12:37:09 PM PDT by Darren McCarty (Perry and Cain I can support, but no Romney)
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FR Begs For Life But Is Slowly Starved


Click The Starving Forum Skeleton To Donate

Save FR

28 posted on 10/24/2011 12:37:23 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
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To: Cold Heart

“If you have a globe handy, put one finger on Uturuncu and another finger Krakatau.”

Check this out!

Anak Krakatau – Tremors increase to 5,000 a day
22OCT2011
http://iceagenow.info/2011/10/anak-krakatau-tremors-increase-5000-day/

With several earthquakes near south Sumatra in the 5.0- and 5.1-magnitude range today, authorities fear that Anak Krakatau is headed for an eruption that could dwarf the eruption in 2007.

Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Disasters Mitigation Center reported the numbers of seismic tremors now registering from the volcano have exceeded 5,000 a day.

There are also reports of a gaseous mist enshrouding the volcano in a yellowish haze – something that has never been observed at the volcano before.

Anak Krakatau was placed on orange (level 3) status alert on September 30, 2011.


29 posted on 10/24/2011 12:38:01 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: bgill

Also posted here.
http://iceagenow.info/2011/10/giant-super-volcano-awakening-bolivia/


30 posted on 10/24/2011 12:40:42 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Fantasywriter

It’s called Sagarmatha in Nepal. I love photos of the Himalayas, which is as close to them as I’m going to get, in this lifetime. (the “th” isn’t really pronounced like “th” in English, more of an aspirated “t”.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagarmatha_National_Park


31 posted on 10/24/2011 12:45:27 PM PDT by little jeremiah (We will have to go through hell to get out of hell.)
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To: mazda77

Oh heck no! I know flip-all about Geology: I just remember watching an excellent series on UK TV where geologists discussed this sort of thing.

I think the rate-of-change is about right.


32 posted on 10/24/2011 12:49:09 PM PDT by agere_contra ("Debt is the foundation of destruction" : Sarah Palin.)
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To: bgill

What he said:
Oregon State Professor de Silva, “It’s one of the fastest uplifting volcanic areas on Earth,” de Silva told OurAmazingPlanet.”What we’re trying to do is understand why there is this rapid inflation, and from there we’ll try to understand what it’s going to lead to.”

What he meant:
“We want more research money to fund trips back to my homeland to study this volcano. I gotta publish more papers to secure my tenure and if I don’t do this I may have to go find a real job.”

It seems pretty obvious to even the most casual observer that the volcano will erupt and that a huge magma chamber is filling that will perhaps result in a caldera type eruption (recall the size of Yellowstone).


33 posted on 10/24/2011 12:54:39 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Half the people are below average.)
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To: Fantasywriter

Did you forget a digit? Isn’t Everest 29000 feet high?


34 posted on 10/24/2011 12:55:19 PM PDT by dinodino
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To: Jack Hydrazine

good point about son of Krakatau.
and don’t forget Yellowstone.
or Iceland.
or that earthquakes of 7+
are 10 times more common now,
than 40 years ago.

...even without considering religion,
there are clearly global changes occuring.

and they don’t have anything to do with man-made CO2 !


35 posted on 10/24/2011 12:59:21 PM PDT by Elendur (It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: bgill
Satellite data revealed the region was inflating by 1 to 2 centimeters (less than an inch) per year and had been doing so for at least 20 years...

"rapidly" is not the word I would use to describe this level of activity - must be a volcano thing...

36 posted on 10/24/2011 1:01:54 PM PDT by jonno (Having an opinion is not the same as having the answer...)
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To: Fantasywriter

Mr Everest is 29,029 ft high. Over 5 miles


37 posted on 10/24/2011 1:07:01 PM PDT by dirtymac (Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country., Really! NOW!!!)
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To: Elendur
or that earthquakes of 7+ are 10 times more common now, than 40 years ago.

False.

What Apocalyptikook website did you get that gem from?

38 posted on 10/24/2011 1:07:11 PM PDT by Strategerist
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To: little jeremiah

Hi, lj—long time and good to see you! Thanks for the pronunciation tip. I had seen the name, but passed over it due to the inability to process the pronunciation. ;)

Fwiw, there is an ‘imax’ movie posted on youtube [quotes, since obviously on yt you don’t get the imax effect] on summiting Everest. Scares the bleep out of me. I’ve really gone whole hog, though—my current wallpaper is breathtaking—Everest at sunset with the jet stream whipping a flume of ice particles off the peak. Beautiful!

An aside: three dogs rehomed and one to go. She too got rehomed, but returned w’in a week due to behavior issues. I’m working on her—but I also spent last night winning an Ebay auction for a suitable dog crate. It should resolve the worst of it, and make her immanently adoptable. :)


39 posted on 10/24/2011 1:07:27 PM PDT by Fantasywriter
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To: Jack Hydrazine

“If you have a globe handy, put one finger on Uturuncu and another finger Krakatau.”

OK, I’m stumped. I do not have a globe but I pinned both places on Google Earth, and? They are close, 188° apart on the globe longitude but the lattitude is about 16° difference with Uturuncu being the southern most.

Is this alignment of any real significant geological importance? I ask because I am not well versed on geology.


40 posted on 10/24/2011 1:09:27 PM PDT by mazda77 (and I am a Native Texan)
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