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*** Check out the risks these amateurs take as they take vacations just to photograph erupting volcanoes all over the world.
From Denny: Do you ever wonder how those awe-inspiring photos get to us from the media? There are those crazy and downright obsessed volcano photographers out there in the science world. When word gets out that a volcano is erupting in the world, these guys jump on the first plane out to run to the volcano. Most people have more sense and run away from said erupting dangerous volcano. :)
Check out the personal story of one German photographer, Martin Rietze. To give you an idea of the ground conditions of what it's like for a photographer, Rietze's experience tells it all. He didn't sleep for three nights straight. (Smart move in my book.) Turns out the volcano was throwing out huge chunks of rock the size of cars like some screaming diva in a world class hissy fit. That would prompt anyone to stay awake and on alert.
He hugged a nearby boulder as a shield against the lava-spewing volcano. Yeah, that's right. Why? Because that protective boulder was only 1,600 feet from the mouth of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Crazy or brave, you decide.
Rietze is an engineer by day who builds delicate electronics for planetariums. He is also a volcanophile, one of a small group worldwide who like to spend their vacations traveling to erupting volcanoes. Molten magma, choking ash clouds, poisonous gases, smoking-hot boulders raining down upon them are all part of the thrill for this mostly male band of thrill seekers. The estimate is they number at about 200 and hail from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, France and Switzerland. The majority of them are professional engineers: computer, electrical, chemical and mechanical.
This crazy pursuit is one of those adventures they know they can't make a living doing so it is a labor of love. Once this adventure was a solitary pursuit but with the advent of the web this small band of volcanophiles are able to share their adventures and tips.
Just when you think this pursuit is such a great idea, the professionals urge caution like from those who shoot for National Geographic: ""They put fire in people's eyes and their brain is left behind," say Donna and Steve O'Meara, a husband-and-wife team. They caution that because volcanoes are so incredibly alluring that inexperienced people tend to take far too many chances that are risky and not wise.
They remind us experienced volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft from France and Harry Glicken from the USA, perished in an eruption on Mount Unzen in Japan on June 3, 1991. With them were 41 journalists who also risked their lives and died with the scientists.
Some in the academic community disdain the amateurs because of their risk taking. There are other academics who welcome them as a good resource. Richard Wunderman, editor of the Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. says he counts on amateurs for reports and photos of eruptions that would otherwise go unrecorded. "They're an amazing resource."
One reason it is so dangerous to photograph a volcano is because of the amount of time required to get a clear shot. Clouds, fog and steam often obscure the view and what makes for a stunning photo. The more time you spend in the dangerous chaotic environment the greater the risk.
For safety gear in this vicious environment, Patrick Koster, a chemical engineer of Spijkenisse, the Netherlands, dons a climbing helmet, gloves, goggles and a gas mask to filter ash as well as neutralize chemicals in the gases emitted by the volcanoes. Koster says this gear is "very important because fresh lava can be razor-sharp. If you put your hand down on something, you can get cut badly."
Cinematographer Sean Stiegemeier, of Los Angeles, remarked about how much easier it was to photograph the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull since it was so accessible compared to most volcanoes that erupt in remote places in the world. "The one good day of weather we were there, there were probably 10 cars out next to the volcano, most of them photographers with gigantic lenses," he reported. "It was so loud, every now and again it felt like it was rumbling its stomach at us and then it would spit out lava."
Yeah, these crazy amateurs are definitely dedicated. :) Good hunting, guys. I'll definitely keep you in my prayers.
*** Photo by Helen Maria Bjornsd/Nordic Photos/Getty Images
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From Denny: Yesterday, Easter afternoon, at the border of Mexico and America at Baja, California was an unexpected 7.2 earthquake. Since January there have been significant magnitude earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. Are these earthquakes related?
Lucy Jones, a seismologist from the U.S. Geological Survey, talks on The Today Show. When asked how long the aftershocks can go on after this big quake in Mexico: "With a magnitude 7 earthquake the aftershocks can go on for years," she said. "As it is, a magnitude 7 earthquake happens once or twice a month all over the world. This time it happened to be near where there were a lot of people."
As to how the global earthquakes are related she talked about how they "all come out of the same process." Sounds like scientists are reluctant, without sufficient data, to link the earthquakes except through process. She did talk about how long a fault line is can affect how far away the earthquake is felt. In this case of the Mexico quake it had a long fault line.
So, my question is: "With long fault lines, do they act as a conduit and domino effect with other long fault lines to set off another quake around the world?" I'll get back to you when someone answers that question.
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From Denny: Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Ice but even the residents were not ready for this powerful frightening display from Nature. Near the Eyjafjallajoku glacier, one of the country's largest glaciers, there is a half mile long fissure that opened on 21 March after the fifth largest volcano in Iceland suddenly erupted. Check out the spectacular video clip of the lava flow.
Iceland only has a population of 320,000 people. Their country is known for being the center of a large volcanic hot spot, hugging the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge. It's not as if Icelanders are unaware of these volcanoes. They have erupted often throughout their history of living there. When the earth's plates move and bump into each other, molten magma deep underground pushes it's way up to the surface through volcanic eruptions to relieve the pressure. And you thought you had a bad day at work. Can you imagine living with volcanoes in your virtual backyard every day? It sure makes long commutes and the bumper to bumper traffic feel like fun at a theme park in comparison.
This volcano in southern Iceland has not erupted in almost 200 years. Scientists are concerned this eruption and large fissure could set off a volatile volcano nearby, resulting in something far more dangerous with a much larger eruption. The volcano nearby is the Karla volcano. It's positioned just under the thick Myrdalsjokull icecap. Now if this big sweetheart erupts it could be quite the bully, creating massive flooding.
This Eyjafjallajokull volcano that is located near the glacier of the same name looked scary enough to everyone with a pair of eyes to witness it as it spewed ash and molten lava constantly into the air. Yet scientists have deemed this volcano virtually peaceful. If this one is peaceful I don't think I want to be nearby one that is considered a rowdy boy at a nightclub.
What's interesting about this eruption is that it did not occur on the volcano's summit but rather a fissure opened up on a slope. Because of this scientists seem to think there is no immediate danger that this glacier could melt and start flooding the area.
When scientists took an aerial survey the next day, examining the lava flow out of the fissure, they realized that while the eruption struck near the glacier it was in an area that did not have any ice. "This is the best possible place for an eruption," said Tumi Gudmundsson, a geologist at the University of Iceland.
For wise precautions, officials evacuated about 450 people in surrounding areas. While a state of emergency was declared there were not any reports of injuries or damage as this is a remote area, sparsely populated. The caustic gases the eruption released was of concern to livestock left behind in the evacuation. "We had to leave all our animals behind," Eli Ragnarsdottir, a 47-year-old farmer, told RUV, Iceland's national broadcaster from an evacuation center. "We got a call and a text message ... and we just went."
Of course, we all know the drill: scientists are still unable to predict what comes next. For now, our technology and data does not allow for predicting the exact timing of when an earthquake will strike or a volcano will erupt. "It could stop tomorrow, it could last for weeks or months. We cannot say at this stage," Gudmundsson said.
When was the last time this Eyjafjallajokull volcano blew? It was in 1821 and was termed a "lazy" eruption because it decided to be an annoying drama queen and keep erupting slowly and continuously for a two year period. Definitely this volcano likes attention.
The locals did have some idea the volcano might erupt as there were thousands of small earthquakes rocking the area just in the past month. Did you know that Icelandic scientists have been monitoring this volcano recently. They have employed seismometers and global positioning instruments. "Yet," says Gudmundsson, "the beginning of Saturday's eruption was so indistinct that it initially went undetected by the instruments."
"The volcano has been inflating since the beginning of the year, both rising and swelling," said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland's Institute of Earth Science. "Even though we were seeing increased seismic activity, it could have been months or years before we saw an eruption like this ... we couldn't say that there was an imminent risk for the area."
And just when you think those volcanoes might only be Iceland's problem, check out this factoid: When the Laki volcano erupted in the mid-1780's it changed weather patterns all across Europe. A lot of people died from famine when their crops and livestock were destroyed from this eruption.
Here's a bit of Icelandic trivia for you: It was the Vikings who first settled Iceland back in the 9th century. Iceland is known as the Land of Fire and Ice because of so many crazy volcanoes and glaciers. During the Middle Ages, the Hekla volcano which is the most active volcano in the country, was termed "Gateway to Hell" by the locals. They honestly believed that souls were dragged down to hell at this place. Hmmm... they might be on to something.
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From Denny: The GPS guys have taken the measurments and couldn't believe their eyes. The latest 8.8 Chilean earthquake literally shifted several cities to new ground. The city closest to the epicenter, Conception, was moved another 10 feet to the west. The capital city moved almost a foot at 11 inches. And several hundred miles away in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this city was shifted to the west by another inch. This earthquake was truly a mover and shaker of the epic proportions. Is anyone taking note of what this could truly mean?
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From Denny: This is a fact few of us thought about when we first heard the news of the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. It really does make us wonder about the idea of the exponential curve in relation to a longer period of time how these incidences will add up to effect the planet. What am I talking about? The Earth's day is now just a small amount shorter.
Richard Gross, and another scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, put the pencil to the math. They calculated this recent high magnitude earthquake has now shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds. In case you forgot, a microsecond is one-millionth of a second. The length of a day is the time it takes for Earth to complete one rotation: 86,400 seconds or 24 hours.
OK, so how did this earthquake accomplish this feat of shortening Earth's day? It caused the Earth to rotate faster by nudging some of its mass closer to the planet's axis. Reminds you of one of those Olympic skaters in a spin where they pull up their arms to increase the speed of the spin.
The opposite can happen too. An earthquake "can slow the rotation and lengthen the day - if it redistributes mass away from that axis," Gross said.
Can this small change be permanent? According to Gross the answer is yes. He also commented that a series of high magnitude earthquakes like this one could possible add up to make the day shorter "but these changes are very, very small."
How small are these changes? There are so small that scientists are not able to record them directly. You would be surprised how much of science is not direct but rather indirect observation and recording. Gross also stated that true observations of the length of the day are accurate to five-millionths of a second. What about his estimate? His estimate about the Chilean quake's effect is just a quarter of that span of time.
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Photo of Ion-propelled Gradiometer, the GOCE satellite
From Denny: The European Space Agency have been busy boys and girls, James Bond style. These guys are serious about mapping the Earth's magnetic field. The whole point of this exercise is to better understand the planet's natural processes.
They threw up a satellite about six months ago and it is just now fully calibrated and sending back data. Earth's magnetic field has the tiniest of variations so it is necessary to carefully calibrate this satellite to record accurately. Even the Russians did their satellite version back in March called the Gravity field and steady state Ocean Circulation Explorer.
OK, so we all know about gravity. But did you know that even though gravity exists everywhere on the planet it varies and is not distributed evenly across the surface?
What can cause slight changes to this gravitational force? Try mountain ranges, ocean trenches, even the density variations within the Earth's crust and mantle. Then there is also the fact the Earth's rotation can affect gravity variations.
Why is this so important? We have to gain more knowledge about these changes so we can accurately measure ocean circulation and sea levels. After all, climate change may be here to stay for a number of generations. We must study all we can in order to possess the information to know how to anticipate what happens next and how best to prepare for it.
This is a mock-up example of what the gravitational map will look like. It represents the Earth's gravity distribution with an accuracy and spacial resolution never before achieved. ESA
You have to take your hat off to these persevering scientists for the job they did. They figured out how to precisely measure gravitational fluctuations for as much as 160 miles up!
Gravity is closest to the Earth's surface so this cool satellite needed to be as close to the surface as it could. The next problem they faced was the instrumentation on the GOCE satellite had to be stable to measure accurately. What that means is that the ideal situation is for GOCE to be placed in an environment that has as little aerial drag as possible. OK, no aerial drag is what they truly desire but we all know engineers and scientists are actually romantic dreamers of the perfect utopia.
Well, the GOCE team must have had some second-born children in the crowd who knew how to make realistic compromises to get the most bang for their buck. This satellite is like a sleek new aerodynamic car and the propulsion system on this baby is so unique it makes it possible for the satellite to orbit at 158 miles above the Earth. That's lower than most Earth observation satellites. The beauty of this is that at 158 miles above the Earth eliminates most of the aerial drag.
As you have guessed by now, this GOCE satellite is a slamming low-ride, so low it is riding on the very fringes of our atmosphere. The sleek aerodynamic design helps the satellite to polish off any remaining air for drag yet that still isn't enough. It seems like there is always "just one more thing, by the way..."
Ratcheting it up to the next issue they had to resolve was the satellite had to be capable of remaining stable while, are you ready for this? free fall. At this high altitude if the air interferes even a little bit then the data could be wildly skewed - and the mission is so screwed.
Never fear, your favorite creative engineer was here to the rescue. These guys are always thinking. The GOCE satellite was outfitted with the latest sexy space fashionista's trend of the electric ion propulsion engine as thruster. This ion thruster is like a nanny, ready to protect and provide a nudge or two with its thrusters whenever the satellite encounters any drag on the space playground.
So, how long did it take these guys to calibrate this sensitive drama queen of a satellite? Try months! The team started the satellite in a 170 mile orbit above the Earth and gently teased her down to the 158 mile level.
The team is also lucky right now that this project is not experiencing any solar activity, giving perfect atmospheric conditions for the gravity mapping. With the good luck of the lack of solar activity it turns out the initial data coming in to the team has turned out to be even more accurate than they hoped. Read that as geeks gone wild, partying and dancing on their monitors. It's a good day to be a scientist, saving humanity...
"Images of the right and left hemispheres of the brain, as viewed from the side. The colors represent the differences in cortical thickness between the high-risk group, which has a family history of depression, and the low-risk group, which has no known risk. Blue and purple represent the thinning of the cortex, with purple regions having the greatest thinning. Green areas show no significant differences between the two groups."
From Denny: If you missed it yesterday, like I did because of scheduled Blogger outages and general slow down of the internet in the Hurricane Katrina zone, here's a disturbing study. Fortunately, the study was only done on 131 people, hardly a large sampling of the population.
I'm always wary of studies these days as often they are done on too small a group for too short a time and the biggest pet peeve: often paid for by drug companies with the most to gain if researchers give them the results they desire.
It would appear the scientists have drawn no hard conclusions yet - just found some startling data. They have a long way to go before they can apply this new data across the board in the general population that determines "x" number of people will be predicted to suffer from depression. It is an interesting finding though, one worthy of a lot more serious study if only to help those already suffering from depression.
Here are a few excerpts. For the full article at the New York Times click on the title link.
"Scientists who have been following families with a history of depression have found structural differences in family members’ brains — specifically, a significant thinning of the right cortex, the brain’s outermost surface. The thinning may be a trait or a marker of vulnerability to depression, the researchers suggested.
The scientists’ brain imaging study found the thinning in descendants of depressed parents and grandparents, whether or not the individuals themselves had ever suffered a depressive episode or an anxiety disorder, researchers said...
The cerebral cortex is the region of the brain centrally involved in reasoning, planning and mood, and thinning of the cortex may affect an individual’s ability to pay attention to and interpret social and emotional cues, scientists suggested.
'If you have thinning in this portion of the brain, it interferes with the processing of emotional stimuli,' Dr. Peterson said. 'We think that’s what makes them vulnerable to developing anxiety and depression — it essentially isolates them in an emotional world.'
While thinning in the right hemisphere was not associated with actual depression, additional thinning in the same region of the left hemisphere was, and 'seems to tip you over from having a vulnerability to depression to actually developing symptoms,' Dr. Peterson said."
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