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A great explosion of purity is about to come , But "not" as before(as Katrina) ,something straight from my kingdom , The heavenlies are about to applaud , I AM The Lord behold I alone am God ! Yet for my children of my rod and staff , They shall rest in my bossom of Zion and laugh , For the Joy of The Lord is their strength , And these are my children of victiory that have gone the full length , Obedience to me has become their rod , My staff is their com(fort) for I AM their...

Today's subject was inspired by Gunung Karangetang, one of the numerous Indonesian volcanoes that just happens to be percolating a bit right now. In the course of discovering a photostream on Flickr that has a lot of volcano pictures, I also discovered a volcano I never heard of (Mbwelesu on Vanuatu) which has (or had) an active lava lake. Because lava lakes are so rare, and because it's something that I tend to remember, I'm a little peevishly surprised that this one got by me until today. Mr. hshdude doesn't tell us much about himself, so thanks for the pics,...

Enlarge ImageHumble beginnings. An experiment in the 1950s with primordial gases and sparks produced some of life's building blocks.Credit: Ned Shaw/Indiana University/Science A once-discarded idea about how life started on our planet has been given a new life of its own, thanks to a serendipitous find. The story traces back to the early 1950s, when chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey of the University of Chicago in Illinois tried to recreate the building blocks of life under conditions they thought resembled those on the young Earth. The duo filled a closed loop of glass chambers and tubes with water...

University of Alberta scientists contend they have the answer to mass extinction of animals and plants 93 million years ago. The answer, research has uncovered, has been found at the bottom of the sea floor where lava fountains erupted, altering the chemistry of the sea and possibly of the atmosphere.Undersea volcanic activity triggered a mass extinction of marine life and buried a thick mat of organic matter on the sea floor about 93 million years ago, which became a major source of oil, according to a new study. "It certainly caused an extinction of several species in the marine environment,"...

PARIS (AFP) - Ninety-three million years ago, Earth was a reshuffled jigsaw of continents, a hothouse where the average temperature was nearly twice that of today. Palm trees grew in what would be Alaska, large reptiles roamed in northern Canada and the ice-free Arctic Ocean warmed to the equivalent of a tepid swimming pool. So our planet was balmy -- but hardly a biological paradise, for it was whacked by a mass die-out. The depths of the ocean suddenly became starved of oxygen, wiping out swathes of marine life.

In 1999, seismographs detected a swarm of earthquakes at a spot on the Gakkel ridge, a midocean ridge that traverses the Arctic. A few expeditions to the area, north of Siberia about 350 miles from the pole, produced indirect evidence of explosive eruptions deep on the seafloor. Explosive volcanism at such depths would be very unusual, said Robert A. Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “People had been afraid to even suggest it, because it seemed so ludicrous.” Seafloor volcanoes do erupt violently, but in relatively shallow water. The Gakkel ridge spot is 13,000 feet down, and...

Climate Change: While the media scream that man-made global warming is making the North Pole ice-free, another possible cause is as old as the Earth itself. They just have to look deeper.To the delight of Al Gore and the rest of the Gaia groupies, scientists at the National Snow & Ice Data Center in Colorado are predicting that the North Pole will be completely free of ice this summer. The apocalyptic headlines already are starting to appear. "From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important," says the...

PARIS (AFP) - Recent massive volcanoes have risen from the ocean floor deep under the Arctic ice cap, spewing plumes of fragmented magma into the sea, scientists who filmed the aftermath reported Wednesday. The eruptions -- as big as the one that buried Pompei -- took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain chain snaking 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia. Scientists suspected even at the time that a simultaneous series of earthquakes were linked to these volcanic spasms. But when a team led of scientists led by Robert Sohn of...

Big Bangs: 'Stirring' Secrets Of Deadly Supervolcanoes UncoveredSupervolcanoes are orders of magnitude greater than any volcanic eruption in historic times. They are capable of causing long-lasting change to weather, threatening the extinction of species, and covering huge areas with lava and ash. (Credit: iStockphoto/Koch Valérie) ScienceDaily (May 30, 2008) — Researchers from McGill University and the University of British Columbia (UBC) have simulated in the lab the process that can turn ordinary volcanic eruptions into so-called “supervolcanoes,” with potentially devastating worldwide impact. The study was conducted by Dr. Ben Kennedy and and Dr. Mark Jellinek of UBC’s Department of Earth...

Just a cool-looking shot from space.

One of the leaders of the alleged airline suicide plot threatened "volcanoes of anger and revenge" on the British public for caring more about foxhunting than the war in Iraq, a court has heard. Ahmed Abdulla Ali, 27, filmed a "martyrdom video" in which he said that large demonstrations had forced the Government to change its policy on bloodsports and accused his targets of showing "more care and concern for animals" than for Muslims. He said he would teach the West a "lesson they will never forget" in the video played to the jury. Ali and seven other men are...

LONDON (Reuters) - Gas-belching volcanoes may be to blame for a series of mass extinctions over the last 545 million years, including that of the dinosaurs, new evidence suggested on Thursday. A series of eruptions that formed the Deccan Traps in what is now India pumped huge amounts of sulfur into the atmosphere 65 million years ago, with likely devastating repercussions for the Earth's climate, scientists said. Gigantic eruptions, forming so-called "flood basalts," are one of two leading explanations for a series of mass extinctions that have killed off species periodically throughout history. The other theory involves asteroid impacts --...

Another factor might be contributing to the thinning of some of the Antarctica's glaciers: volcanoes. In an article published Sunday on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience, Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey report the identification of a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica. "This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet" in Antarctica, Vaughan said. Volcanic heat could still be melting ice to water and contributing to thinning and speeding up...

Just when you're wondering what to post for the Geology Picture of the Week, something new pops up. IN this case, some aerial shots of volcanoes in Alaska. The link above goes to the site; three examples below. Augustine volcano (foreground), Iliamna on horizon Fourpeaked Volcano's glacier descends to Cook Inlet Shishaldin, Fuji of the Aleutians

Posted this question on another thread but had very little response. As I look at the ring of fire right now, there is a massive amount of activity, BIG activity in the Pacific ocean towards Asia. There is also a lot of activity in South America and a little in Central America. The only thing on my chart on the west coast that registered at 4.0 or above was a small quake in Oregon. Question is, with all of these plates shifting, and the plates around our nation's plates staying pretty quiet, what is this doing to our risks of...

Thousand of new volcanoes revealed beneath the waves 10:04 09 July 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic The true extent to which the ocean bed is dotted with volcanoes has been revealed by researchers who have counted 201,055 underwater cones. This is over 10 times more than have been found before. The team estimates that in total there could be about 3 million submarine volcanoes, 39,000 of which rise more than 1000 metres over the sea bed. "The distribution of underwater volcanoes tells us something about what is happening in the centre of the Earth," says John Hillier of the...

There are some who, lacking the ecstatic thrill of any other faith-based religion, wish to believe that the Earth is in the early stages of an unprecedented climatic change which will see temperatures soar, the polar ice caps melt, rising sea levels flood our coastal cities -- general devastation on the biblical model -- all because we insist on driving petroleum-fueled private automobiles and using electricity generated by burning coal. Burning that stuff releases into the atmosphere large amounts of carbon dioxide, you see, a "greenhouse gas" that contributes to the ongoing warming of the planet. Now, this is almost...

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Date: April 12, 2007 NASA Data Show Earthquakes May Quickly Boost Regional Volcanoes Science Daily — Scientists using NASA satellite data have found strong evidence that a major earthquake can lead to a nearly immediate increase in regional volcanic activity. The intensity of two ongoing volcanic eruptions on Indonesia's Java Island increased sharply three days following a powerful, 6.4-magnitude earthquake on the island in May 2006. The increased volcanic activity persisted for about nine days. The Merapi and Semeru volcanoes released plumes of ash and steam on June 8, 2006. The plumes (gray) with Merapi...

The plume is seen as an umbrella-shaped feature in the long exposure image to the right Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back images of a huge volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io.A massive dust plume, estimated to be 150m (490ft) high, can be seen erupting from the Tvashtar volcano on Io. On Wednesday, the US probe flew by Jupiter, using the planet's gravity to boost its speed, reducing the travel time to its ultimate target of Pluto. New Horizons also took photos of the icy moons Europa and Ganymede in the run-up to its encounter with Jupiter. Turning...

Think Pompeii got hit hard? Worse eruptions lurk By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Mon Mar 6, 5:03 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The preserved footprints and abandoned homes of villagers who fled a giant eruption of Mount Vesuvius 3,800 years ago show the volcano could destroy modern-day Naples with little warning, Italian and U.S. researchers reported on Monday. The eruption buried entire villages as far as 15 miles (25 kilometres) from the volcano, cooking people as they tried to escape and dumping several feet (metres) of ash and mud. New excavations show far more extensive damage than that...

Imagine the surface of Earth as a giant trampoline that accumulated a slab of ice over the winter, and you can get a sense of what a growing number of scientists say is in store for the planet as glaciers keep melting. Once the trampoline's ice turns to water that drips over the edges in the warm days of spring, the concave elastic slowly rebounds to its original flat shape. That's how Earth responds as glaciers retreat, and the consequences promise to be ... interesting. The reason is that one cubic meter of ice weighs just over a ton, and...

Plants predict where rumbling volcanoes will blow 09 June 2006 NewScientist.com news service WANT to know where a rumbling volcano is likely to split at the seams? Look for the tallest and greenest plants. Vigorous plant growth on the flanks of a volcano like that at Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, can indicate where magma is most likely to spurt out. Satellite images reveal that shrubs and trees grow taller and greener along stripes where the volcano eventually ruptures. Nicolas Houlié from the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues studied satellite images of Mount Etna in Sicily and Mount Nyiragongo...

Introduction The period 1812-1817 was one of exceptional volcanic activity, and the sheer volume of volcanic dust pumped into the atmosphere by these volcanic eruptions caused a general, temporary cooling in the earth’s climate around this time. This temporary climatic cooling peaked during the summer of 1816 was the peak of this cooling and the reason the peak fell in the summer of 1816 is almost certainly die to the eruption of the Tamboro volcano east of Java in April 1815 (believed to be one of the most explosive eruptions of the last 10,000 years). At the time sunspots were...

RUSH: We'll go to Scott in Monterey, California, one of the absolute most beautiful spots in the world, and maybe the most beautiful to play golf. Yes, Scott, welcome to the program. CALLER: Great honor to speak with you, Rush. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: I need help convincing my new bride -- very beautiful and very intelligent -- need help convincing her, persuading her that volcanoes are spewing more contaminants into the air than cars or anything else man made. She's listening at home, by the way. Can I say hi? RUSH: Yeah, you better, after this. CALLER: I...

Ocean temperatures might have risen even higher during the last century if it weren't for volcanoes that spewed ashes and aerosols into the upper atmosphere, researchers have found. The eruptions also offset a large percentage of sea level rise caused by human activity. Using 12 new state-of-the-art climate models, the researchers found that ocean warming and sea level rise in the 20th century were substantially reduced by the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia. Volcanic aerosols blocked sunlight and caused the ocean surface to cool. "That cooling penetrated into deeper layers of the ocean, where it remained for...

Under Ocean Volcanoes Warming Water (Global Warming) (snips) A few reports on this ongoing phenomenon: Underwater Volcanoes Erupting Simultaneously All Over the World - March 14, 2005 - Hundreds of underwater volcanoes are erupting all over the world, especially around the Ring of Fire, reports the India Daily. Underwater volcanoes are erupting in Australia, Greece, New Zealand and many other countries including the American Northwest, which is experiencing an unprecedented level of underwater volcanism. Andaman Nicobar Island is experiencing underwater volcanism in both the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Tectonic movements have gone up by several folds in...

JAKARTA (AP): President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday called on Indonesians not to be superstitious about the series of earthquakes hitting the country, saying such disasters could be explained scientifically. Speaking to participants of a national meeting of the Family Welfare Movement at the State Palace, Yudhoyono said he had received many text messages on his phone requesting him to slaughter at least 1,000 goats as an offering to prevent more natural disasters. "If I met this extraordinary and unique request, then I would have no time to visit disaster-hit areas across the country or control emergency requests," Yudhoyono said....

Volcanoes beneath the Sea A Fiery Birth Last May, amazed scientists watched as lava and ash blasted through the surface of the Pacific Ocean and high into the air. They were getting a rare glimpse of a live eruption from an undersea volcano. How do these submarine volcanoes work? "Fiery birth of a new Pacific island!" read the May 24 announcement from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization (CSIRO). CSIRO had sent a team of researchers to study the dormant undersea Kavachi volcano in the Solomon Islands east of Australia. They discovered that the volcano was not dormant at...

SUPERVOLCANOES WARNING Slumbering supervolcanoes powerful enough to wipe out much of the planet may awaken much sooner than it had previously been thought. Experts believed it would take hundreds of thousands of years for reservoirs of molton rock, or magma, beneath a supervolcano to build for an eruption. But a new study indicates the time between super-eruptions can actually be tens of thousands of years - and many are already long overdue. A blast from a supervolcano would be strong enough cause mass extinction and change the world's climate. The findings, published in the Journal of Petrology, are bad...

WASHINGTON - An ancient version of global warming may have been to blame for the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history. In an event known as the "Great Dying," some 250 million years ago, 90 percent of all marine life and nearly three-quarters of land-based plants and animals went extinct. Scientists have long debated the cause of this calamity — which occurred before the era of dinosaurs — with possibilities including such disasters as meteor impacts. Researchers led by Peter Ward of the University of Washington now think the answer is global warming caused by volcanic activity. Their findings are...

Explore one of the most dangerous and enigmatic forces on earth, tsunamis. See the science behind their devastating power. Understand where they come from and what we can do to better prepare. It's not if it will happen again, but when.

Can't resist another Etna picture for this week: which is taken from the page below, which also has some new large-format QT movies: Skylights and lava falls in Valle del Bove Colima in Mexico got hot yesterday: the link below has some low-resolution Webcam animations: Observatorio Vulcanológico de la Universidad de Colima and finally, in an ancient volcano mode, this Earth Observatory image was an Ikonos view of Hanauma Bay on Oahu: Hanauma Bay, Oahu, Hawaii

Small earthquakes rattled Mount St. Helens at the rate of one or two a minute Monday, and seismologists were working to determine the significance of some of the most intense seismic activity in nearly 20 years. Carbon dioxide and sulfur gas samples collected above the volcano - which erupted to devastating effect in 1980 - will help scientists figure out what is going on beneath the 925-foot-high dome of hardened lava within the mountain's gaping crater. They want to know whether the quakes are the result of water seeping into the mountain or magma moving under its crater. In either...

One picture and several links. Note that on the Volcano LiveCams page, you can also see volcano cams around the world. Due to the report about Mt. St. Helens that happened over the weekend, I checked the St. Helens cam; and according to the picture on that page, it's supposed to be up on "Monday, September 28, 2004". Somebody did NOT realize that this was a leap year, apparently. So maybe it will be up by tomorrow in case St. Helens burps. Pic first, then links: Wild spattering from a collapsing Hornito (there are so many thoughts...) Lava flows in...

Link post: please go to the link below to see the pictures and links, and post any comment/discussion there: Geology Picture of the Week, September 5-11, 2004: Etna Lava, Fournaise Bonus

Our first feature is the image of the Etna eruption. As of September 10, the eruption is continuing with a new effusive site opening. The lava flows are near the summit and aren't threatening any structures or villages. Click the picture to see it full-size. For more, click the article link at top and choose "Septembre 2004" at left. Our second feature is at the link below; six QTVR panoramas of the just-ended Piton de la Fournaise eruption. Stunning! If you have the bandwidth to handle it, look at the big ones. The aerial view is mind-boggling (though grainy in...

Link post, to alert interested Free Republic readers to the post in the "Chat" section. Please post any comments there. Geology Pictures of the Week, August 1-7, 2004: Grab Bag

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Kilauea Eruption Update Click to see the larger version Click to see the larger version Graham Lyth Photography Grand Canyon GalleryMount Hayden The scenic landmark below no longer exists. Do you know where it is and what it was named?

GREETINGS, FOLLOWING is a note re todays Alaskan quake. First a comment about this thread. SOME FREEPERS are fascinated with fringe areas of reality. Some of us even think the fringe areas of knowledge, research, anecdotal stories and the like will have very impactful effects on the WAR ON TERROR, WWIII, Biblical end time events etc. WE ALSO FIND FREEPERS FULL OF GREAT CREATIVITY OF THOUGHT, INSIGHT, WORK RELATED EXPERIENCES AND SKILLS ETC. useful in collecting diverse puzzle pieces and in analyzing them. This diversity is priceless and virtually unavailable on any other site. While we are seriously interested in...

Link post, to alert interested FR readers to the post in the 'chat' section, where any comments should be posted: Geology Picture of the Week, June 13-19, 2004: Iceland

Links to larger images below this image: 500 meter resolution 250 meter resolution

Link post, to alert interested FR members to the post in the "chat" section, where any posted discussion should take place: Geology Picture of the Week, June 6-12, 2004: Pinacates Volcanic Field/Biosphere Reserve

Being lazy and pressed for time today, click the linked article for links to the larger versions of the images. Also check my "Honorable Mention" below.

Scientists exploring the deep sea in the Gulf of Mexico have discovered seeps that resemble a paved road. Seeps are places where oil and other hydrocarbons bubble up from under the seabed. But these seeps, discovered by researchers with Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, are covered in asphalt. The seeps were found along salt domes that lie about two miles down in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Deep sea cameras revealed about 20 salt domes that had collapsed or broken apart. Along the edges were large patches of asphalt, or hardened tar. Scientists photographed them and took samples;...

Source: University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill Date: 2004-04-26 Classic View Wrong, Scientists Say, Huge Pots Of Magma Not Brewing Under Most Volcanoes CHAPEL HILL -- About 75,000 years ago, some scientists say, the last truly colossal volcanic eruption on Earth came close to wiping out all the primates, including humans. That eruption occurred when the Toba volcano in Indonesia exploded in an almost unbelievably shattering display. Other people with a flare for the dramatic warn that a supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park could erupt in the not-so-distant future and push humanity to the verge of extinction. University of...

(CBS) For years, CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, scientists have tried to understand the dynamic nature of Yellowstone National Park. "It's beautiful up here, everybody should see this at one time or another," says one appreciative observer. Scientist Lisa Morgan may have unlocked one piece in the puzzle, deep below the park's biggest lake. "It is kind of the last unmapped frontier in Yellowstone National Park," says Morgan. What she found looks more like the surface of the moon. Using sonar she's identified a massive bulging dome the size of seven football fields. The only other underwater dome in...

Link post, to alert interested readers to this posting in the FR "chat" section. Any discussion should take place in the linked thread: Geology Pictures of the Week, March 14-20, 2004: Volcanoes from Space Trifecta

Catching up for my absence, the "Earth Observatory" had these three views of volcanoes taken from space. Click on each to go to the accompanying article page, which has high-resolution version links. Mt. Etna Mt. Fuji Colima (Mexico) And here's a no-image link to an article and image about a big Sahara sandstorm going out to sea: Sahara Dust Sweeps Past Canary Islands

We are students at a school in NJ and are required to do a report on Mt.Rainier and what the government plans to do in case of an eruption. Any info on the plans would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your help. Students

It's bad enough when, every few million years, an asteroid rocks our planet. It's worse if the impact triggers regional or global volcanic activity, which is not only hazardous to nearby plants and animals but can choke Earth's atmosphere with deadly gases for months or years. But there's also a possible bright side, like the birth of nice places like Hawaii. For more than three decades, scientists have explored the question of whether an asteroid impact could cause significant volcanic eruptions, hot spots that spring up out of nowhere and create new landforms or rearrange old ones. The process might...