Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by LaminatorX on Sunday December 21 2014, @11:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the fire-&-ice dept.

What happens when lava meets snow? Ars Technica has a report and it's not what you might think:

Depending on the context, volcanic eruptions are either terrifying or transfixing—sometimes both, but rarely neither. The opportunity to safely view the otherworldly spectacle of lava rarely fails to ignite a child-like, giddy wonder. The damage currently being done by a lava flows in the Cape Verde Islands, on the other hand, is heart-breaking.

We study these things because they are both lovely and terrible. We want to see a lava flow spill across a snowfield out of curiosity, and we want to better understand the hazards surrounding snow-capped volcanoes out of caution. Benjamin Edwards of Dickinson College and Alexander Belousov and Marina Belousova of Russia’s Institute of Volcanology and Seismology got the opportunity to witness one of these events last year in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. For nine months, Tolbachik spewed basaltic lava flows that ultimately covered 40 square kilometers, reaching as far as 17 kilometers from their source.

The article describes two kinds of lava flow, their very different behaviors in contact with the snow, and provides a video of these in action. Having never seen a lava flow, I found watching the video to be very interesting — and just as amazing — the sound made as these flows progressed. (I can only imagine what it smelled like!)

I'm interested in whether anyone here has personally witnessed an eruption and/or lava flow and what your experience was like.

Free abstract available at Nature Communications.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday December 21 2014, @11:39PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday December 21 2014, @11:39PM (#128154) Homepage
    all I get's a redirect loop. Any other other source for the video?
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by jimshatt on Monday December 22 2014, @12:08AM

      by jimshatt (978) on Monday December 22 2014, @12:08AM (#128161) Journal
      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday December 22 2014, @12:18AM

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday December 22 2014, @12:18AM (#128166) Homepage
        Yeah, I tried that as well, https and http. Everything just gets stuck in a redirect loop.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Monday December 22 2014, @12:28AM

          by Adamsjas (4507) on Monday December 22 2014, @12:28AM (#128172)

          If Youtube is getting stuck in a redirect loop you have some serious problems.
          Just go to youtube, (via https) and key in that last bunch of digits.

          • (Score: 2) by Common Joe on Monday December 22 2014, @05:09AM

            by Common Joe (33) <{common.joe.0101} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday December 22 2014, @05:09AM (#128233) Journal

            If Youtube is getting stuck in a redirect loop you have some serious problems.

            I'm told that the video is unavailable, but they don't say why.

            The video may not be available because I live outside of the U.S. (I reside in Germany.) Unfortunately, this is a common problem for me and many others.

            • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday December 22 2014, @07:08AM

              by frojack (1554) on Monday December 22 2014, @07:08AM (#128245) Journal

              It has music in it. Common tracts, as unnecessary "art" in what should have been a purely scientific video.

              --
              No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
            • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday December 22 2014, @09:31AM

              by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday December 22 2014, @09:31AM (#128258) Homepage
              Yup, I'm pretty sure my redirect look is something to do with my location, and the video being unavailable here, there is a correlation between those things historically.

              Fortunately, this seems to have all the same ingredients as the video we're intended to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIUyyQkL1hw
              --
              Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @01:13AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @01:13AM (#128189)
          Links all work just fine for me, too. Maybe your computer's infected with a systemd?
        • (Score: 2) by jimshatt on Monday December 22 2014, @11:47AM

          by jimshatt (978) on Monday December 22 2014, @11:47AM (#128289) Journal
          Have you tried other browsers, or turning extensions off? Maybe you could try using a youtube downloader to download the flv (e.g. youtube-dl)?
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @08:53PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @08:53PM (#128469)
      Here's a lo-res version [imgur.com].
  • (Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Monday December 22 2014, @12:21AM

    by Adamsjas (4507) on Monday December 22 2014, @12:21AM (#128167)

    Shows how some lava flows under the snow without melting the snow above all away, and other lava flows over the snow, again without immediatly melting it all away.

    Watched that cheesy Volcano movie last night where they cooled the lava flow with fire hoses. LOL.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @12:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @12:38AM (#128176)

    > I'm interested in whether anyone here has personally witnessed an eruption

    No, but I ate at Taco Bell once.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @02:51AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @02:51AM (#128212)

    That was fun to watch. Thanks for posting it.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @10:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22 2014, @10:55AM (#128275)

    You could fucking TELL US what the fuck happened.

  • (Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Monday December 22 2014, @02:53PM

    by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Monday December 22 2014, @02:53PM (#128331)

    > Music by
    > Mozart - Requiem for a Dream

    Really? I hope these guys know lava better than they know music.

    • (Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Monday December 22 2014, @06:11PM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Monday December 22 2014, @06:11PM (#128408)

      I looked at the music credits and had a good laugh too.

      Mozart? Really? I can imagine a cross-lingual google search messing up Requiem in D with Requiem for a Dream. For everyone else the actual song is named Lux Aeterna. I wonder what Chris Mansell would think of being confused for one of the greatest composers of all time?

      Mondschein was a good choice, too.

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    • (Score: 1) by treeves on Wednesday December 24 2014, @12:08AM

      by treeves (1536) on Wednesday December 24 2014, @12:08AM (#128797)

      Really. It's Brahms - German Requiem for a Dream. Sheesh.