Pictures of Kuril Islands Volcano From ISS 65
KindMind writes "The Daily Mail has cool pictures of the Sarychev Peak (Kuril Islands) volcano eruption taken from the ISS back on June 12. From the article: 'A chance recording by astronauts on the International Space Station has captured the moment a volcano explosively erupted, sending massive shockwaves through the atmosphere. Sarychev Peak, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, had been sitting quietly in the Kuril Island chain near Japan for 20 years, when it suddenly sprang to life on June 12. Fortuitously, the International Space Station was flying overhead at the time, and managed to capture this spectacular image of the ash-cloud tearing through the atmosphere, sending clouds scattering in its wake in a perfect circle.'"
Original Source and Large Images (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Yay greenhouse! (Score:5, Informative)
"Our studies show that globally, volcanoes on land and under the sea release a total of about 200 million tonnes of CO2 annually...the global fossil fuel CO2 emissions for 2003 tipped the scales at 26.8 billion tonnes." [usgs.gov] (link to source, and so you can see that I didn't do anything sneaky with that elision
Re:Territorial dispute with Japan (Score:5, Informative)
Not exactly. Japan claims only the "Southern Kuriles" that is, from Iturup (Japanese Etorofu) southward, as per the Japanese-Russian Treaty of 1855. The Soviet Union attacked Japan at the very end of WWII and occupied all of the Kuriles. Japan is clearly in the right in that the Soviet Union had no legal claim to the Southern Kuriles. Basically, the current Russian occupation was a gift of Japanese territory from Roosevelt and Churchill to Stalin. The island on which the volcano is located, Matua, is in the Northern Kuriles and is not claimed by Japan.
Re:It's OT but WOW (Score:5, Informative)
Yes! I saw that as well, wasn't mentioned in the summary. This is the first time i've heard of a dark molecular cloud? So it blocks out all light from the stars behind it and somehow there are no stars in-front of it even though it's 500 LY away?
500 LY is our local neighborhood, galactically speaking, not even one quarter of the way across the arm of the galaxy's spiral that we are in. The map at the bottom of this [wikipedia.org] page gives an idea of the scale of 500 LY. For comparison, let's look at the Orion nebula [wikipedia.org] (middle "star" in Orion's sword). It is about 1200 LY away, and there aren't very many stars directly between us and it, even though it is about halfway across the arm that we are in.
"How they are formed is unknown, but clouds such as this are thought to be a birthing place for new stars."
I thought Nebulae were responsible for that?
Nebula are typically what's left over after a star dies, and yes can provide the matter for new star formation. But that isn't the only (or even main) mechanism. Anytime you have a large concentration of matter in space, gravity has a tendency to pull it together and form stars [wikipedia.org].
An explanation for the circular hole in the clouds (Score:2, Informative)
sending clouds scattering in its wake in a perfect circle
clouds being pushed aside
The circular hole in the stratus cloud deck is pretty cool, but I think it's not caused by the detonation pushing clouds away. Unlike a firecracker or grenade explosion, the amount of gas released is tiny compared to the amount of air heated by the blast. The clear-sky circle isn't caused by air moving outward *away* from the volcano, but rather down, *toward* it.
What goes up must come down. The volcano heats air near it, causing it to rise and forming the ash column at the center. But if that air is rising, air nearby the volcano must be *descending* to compensate. Rising air cools adiabatically, causing water vapor to condense, forming clouds; descending air warms adiabatically, causing water droplets to evaporate, making the clouds vanish.