Alaskans Prepare For Volcanic Eruption 293
An anonymous reader writes "Mount Redoubt, or Redoubt Volcano, is an active stratovolcano in the largely volcanic Aleutian Range of Alaska. The once quiet volcano has begun to roar once again. Its last eruption was in 1989 and geologists suggest that the next one is upon us. Alaskans who lived through the earlier eruption are stocking up on breathing masks and goggles. Starting on Friday, January 23 2009, the level of seismic activity increased markedly, and on Sunday AVO raised the Aviation Color Code to ORANGE and the Volcano Alert Level to WATCH. On the basis of all available monitoring data AVO regards that an eruption similar to or smaller than the one that occurred in 1989-90 is the most probable outcome. We expect such an eruption to occur within days to weeks." From the AP article: "Alaska's volcanoes are not like Hawaii's. 'Most of them don't put out the red river of lava,' said the observatory's John Power. Instead, they typically explode and shoot ash 30,000 to 50,000 feet high — more than nine miles — into the jet stream. 'It's a very abrasive kind of rock fragment,' Power said. The particulate has jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. 'They use this to polish all kinds of metals,' he said." The server for the Alaska Volcano Observatory appears to be overloaded and is unresponsive.
Re:Let's work to avoid another "Katrina" (Score:4, Interesting)
I have to admit I'm a bit torn by this sentiment. On the one hand, yes, this is shaping up to be rather tragic. On the other, isn't this sort of thing rather avoidable by just not living there?
To be fair, Katrina (specifically as it pertains to New Orleans) is only about 50/50 on the whole 'just dont live there' thing for me - hurricanes can hit the entire coast, but perhaps you should consider allowing the below-sea-level areas to flood at some point. Or fill it in somehow, or use a system of tubes, or stilts, or whatever engineering marvel amounts to a better idea than 'build a wall and pray'. It isn't like water is some kind of super-intelligent villain. It just sort of flows downhill until it hits the ocean...
This Alaskan situation, on the other hand, is a volcano. It doesn't move around much. It also erupts in a fairly predicable way, and makes a lot of noise letting you know its about to happen.
It just reminds me of the security guard on Austin Powers, I guess.
Yellowstone (Score:4, Interesting)
The biggest problem with the Yellowstone supervolcano would be the large amounts of ash ejected REALLY high into the atmosphere and across large portions of the US as well due to the high pressure eruption.
The prudent thing would be to place tactical nuclear warheads in deep wells around the entire perimeter of the magma chamber, and if it begins erupting, to crack the whole top at once. The area around Yellowstone will be destroyed, but the outlet for the pressure will be so large, far less ash is going to be ejected far lower in the atmosphere. We may even be able to avoid a massive drop in global temperatures, and crop failures that would otherwise kill a billion people.
P.S. Had to post as Anon as I moderated some totally unrelated posts.
Meuge
That's what a "government" is for (Score:4, Interesting)
Sad to break this to you, but humans usually _organize_ for this kind of thing, so it doesn't become a matter of individual people helping individual people. There are a lot of things which just don't scale if done that way.
E.g.,
- It's more efficient and a better use of everyone's resources to have a tiny fraction of the population as cops, than to have each person stand guard with a shotgun on their own property 27/7. The former lets you actually, say, go to work and leave that home unattended.
- It's more efficient to have a few doctors, than have everyone learn to treat their own wounds and illnesses,
- It's more efficient to have an insurance spread the risk and cost, than have everyone save for the freak case that an airplane falls on their roof, they run their car into a tree, _and_ get a MRSA infection in the resulting fractures
- It's more efficient to have some consumer laws and organizations, than have everyone spend countless hours and effort running the EULA for every single pencil, second-hand car, and party hat by a lawyer to be sure they haven't sold their firstborn into slavery in clause 255 on page 100 of the small print,
Etc.
Just like making shoes for a hundred million people ends up cheaper and more efficient that each of those people each raising their own pig/cow/whatever, personally tanning its hide, and sewing their own shoes.
People organize so a centralized group can do some things cheaper and more efficient than in an every-man-for-himself world. _That's why we have governments (local, federal, whatever), agencies like the FEMA, etc. That's their job.
And the fact that you're so quick to dismiss their responsibility and blame it on the victims... well, maybe _that_ idiocy is proof of what's wrong with education.
Re:Let's work to avoid another "Katrina" (Score:3, Interesting)
Ok... you know what.. stop beating the horse, because its dead.
Lay the blame on Ray 'Chocolate Town' Nagin and Governor Blanco. They waited less than 24 hours for a mandatory evacuation. How many city and school buses could have been used to get those out of the affected area if the evacuation would have been called at the proper time 48+ hours before? Instead the sit there and the city floods. The media, already with an intense hatred of Bush, lays blame on him. Reality is, FEMA was there
"New Orleans's emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate response on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy", he said. "FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."[9] At the time, the main staging area was only 6 miles away along the adjoining I-10 at the Causeway intersection, and FEMA had apparently been at the Superdome three days earlier."
Was there dropped balls on all sides? Yes. But if Nagin would have done his job, then the loss of life would have been significantly lessened.
pansys... (Score:5, Interesting)
There are another 12 active volcanos in the area.
There is the valley of ten thousand smokes which is a super volcano (Katmia)there also.
I have been through several of these since '75. Augustine (three times) Redoubt (now the third time) Spurr, so it isnt anything special.
It does however give me a chance to sit on the beach and video tape the event hopefully.
So nothing to see here, go back to your wimpy ice storms and snow while we Alaskans handle the real manly stuff
There there now nothing to be frightened of...just a little volcano farting....
Re:Stopping lava (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Damn globe (Score:4, Interesting)
Human activity typically puts out some 130 times [usgs.gov] more carbon dioxide than all the world's volcanoes combined. Neither come close to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by rotting foliage in the autumn - but that is cancelled out by the carbon dioxide absorbed by growing foliage in the spring. That's why the concentration in the atmosphere [noaa.gov] oscillates up and down, but maintains a continuous upward trend.