Posted on 09/30/2007 9:42:03 PM PDT by Mike Darancette
Was the 12th Imam to rise from the sea?
OTTAWA - Canadian navy ship H-M-C-S Toronto is conducting a search-and-rescue operation to find nine people believed at sea after a volcanic eruption on Jazirt Atta-Ir island, about 140 kilometres off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea.
The navy said in a news release from Ottawa that at the time of the eruption, the NATO fleet was sailing north toward the Suez Canal.
Navy spokesman Ken Allen, aboard H-M-C-S Toronto, says the government of Yemen formally asked NATO to assist in the search for survivors.
He said what he called a catastrophic volcano hit the three-kilometre-long island at about 7 p-m local time.
Allen says lava was spewing hundreds of metres into the air, with volcanic ash also rising 300 metres into the air.
In an e-mail from the Toronto, Allen says the entire island is aglow with lava and magma as it pours into the sea.
In a later interview, Allen told The Canadian Press: "We don't know very much about the island."
"We were told there was a military base on the island and we suspect the nine people are military personnel."
HMCS Toronto is currently deployed on Operation SEXTANT, Canada's maritime contribution to the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) fleet in support of the NATO Response Force (NRF).
There are five other NATO ships with the Toronto in the area of the volcano.
The Halifax-class patrol frigate departed Halifax on July 20, 2007 for a five-month deployment during which it will conduct operations in the Mediterranean and circumnavigate Africa.
Everyone but you, apparently...That's the Great Rift.
Hard to believe that it was completely unexpected.
Prepare for Arab newspaper headlines that say “The Zionists have deployed a new weapon!!!!”
For all in harm’s way, I lift up a prayer in the night. May God be with them...
The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia, and the Red Sea: A Historical Review (a Google Books result) Excerpt:
1, plot an eruption at Jabal al-Tair, dated 1750, with which there may be some ... 1796 Red Sea] About this year, the volcanic islet of Jabal al-Tair
BIG bottle of exlax maybe?
The small, oval-shaped island in this NASA Landsat image (with north to the top) is Jebel at Tair. This 3-km-wide island is the emergent summit of a stratovolcano that rises from a 1200 m depth in the south-central Red Sea. Youthful lava flows from a steep-sided central vent, Jebel Duchan, cover most of the island. The island is of Holocene age, and explosive eruptions were reported in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Captain sez: Global Warming. Blame it on Bush.
Mt. St Helen’s spewed up to 1980 meters (6500 ft) and it was a bit cooler that summer - But the worst in our life times was Pinatubo - 10 x’s Mt. St Helens. That first summer here in the North East was downright cold and it took a few years to recoup. It’s ash went up 21 miles!
There WAS no summer here that year, and a looong time for the summers to get back to normal - ah, not that I was around in 1883)
You’re right happens every day.
The Captain is slumming?
Meanwhile here's the picture of the eruption from Fox:
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