Tag: geology
Why the Canary Islands are Like This
This post first appeared on Patreon. To get early access, plus exclusive extras, please visit my Patreon page.
The current eruption on La Palma in the Canary Islands is now over a month old. Already the island’s largest in a hundred years, it’s giving no signs of stopping just yet. Volcano lovers have thrilled to its spectacular Strombolian explosions. Residents have endured disruption, displacement, and loss of homes and livelihoods. Dogs trapped by lava flows had to be fed by drone before they were taken to safety in a daring and mysterious rescue. Living with a live volcano is far from easy and seldom safe.
Plenty of news agencies, vloggers, and blogs are keeping us up to date on the progress of the current eruption. I’m going to take us deep into the past, on a journey into the island’s origins and evolution. We’re going to see the slow, steady pas de deux between a mantle plume and the plate above it. We’ll watch underwater volcanoes go subaerial, building new land, and see catastrophic collapses tear their confections down. We’ll learn the life stages of a Canary Island, and by the end, we’ll know the broad outlines of La Palma’s destiny.
In the end, we’ll see that this current eruption is as much an act of creation as it is destruction.
Mirador de La Tarta, Tenerife. Yes, it’s literally called a cake! The white layer is pumice, the black layers are basaltic scoria, and the reddish-brown layers are oxidized basaltic tephra. Credit: H. Zell (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The July 2021 Atami, Japan Landslide: “A Man-Made Calamity”
“This is hell,” a survivor said after a steep slope failed in the idyllic resort town of Atami, Japan, sending a torrent of mud careening into houses and people. Ten are dead, seventeen still missing as of this writing.
Landslides are a grim fact of life in many areas with steep topography. Gravity works. Things get loose and come down. Travel into the mountains basically anywhere, and you’ll see the evidence: streaks of bare earth where trees have been swept away, cascades of boulders marking areas where rock failed under the influence of weathering and physics. Sometimes earthquakes shake things until they topple. It seems like the most natural thing in the world.
But not this time. Nothing about this tragedy was natural.
Mary Horner Lyell: “A Monument of Patience”
You never hear of the other Lyell. Sir Charles, you know quite well: he set the infant science of geology firmly on its feet and inspired Charles Darwin. But there’s another Lyell who was a geologist, and without her, Charles Lyell would have found his work far more difficult, if not impossible. When he married Mary Horner, he pledged himself to a lifelong scientific partner.
Why don’t we know her?
Dana’s Pandemic Holiday Shopping Guide
Ah, yes, it’s that time of year again, where the holidays bunch up like they’ve put off celebrating til the last minute and suddenly it’s time to give All The Gifts. Of course, this being 2020, and many of us being in America where the ostensible leader can’t see reality past his artificially inflated ego, this is a complicated holiday season. Many of us will be socially distancing still. Viruses don’t take holidays, even when we wish they would.
Thanks to eCommerce, though, we can still give our loved ones some nice little gifts if we don’t want to skip that part, many of which will help while away a long pandemic winter. Let’s explore!
Our Fabulous Floods of Fire and Ice Book List
Floods of lava, followed by floods of glacial lake water, formed some of the most intriguing landscapes in the American West. The books herein explore the remarkable geologic events involved. Whether you’re looking for cool summer reading (Southern Hemisphere) or some hawt winter stories (Northern Hemisphere), I’ve got you covered. Here’s your all-ages pass to the stories behind some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth!
Rainbows Over Geology
Are you ready for some spectacularly beautiful images? It’s a tough time: of course you need some beauty in your life. Allow me to provide!
In between pandemic lockdown preparations, I’ve been spelunking the USGS website and watching the OG Knight Rider. K.I.T.T. is absolutely marvelous, but not quite as beautiful as some of these images I’m finding. USGS scientists are pretty talented photographers! And while most of the photos they take in the field are for strictly scientific purposes, they also turn their lenses to capture the ephemeral beauty that happens geology and meteorology combine.
I’ve lightly edited these photos to enhance their awesomeness. You can click the link in the titles to see the originals.
Stoned: The Exact Right Book for all Gemstone and Geology Lovers
Right from the title, you know you’re in for a good time.
Aja Raden’s Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World is written in the irreverant but informative tone that turns otherwise dry, academic facts fun. And yet it doesn’t treat its subject lightly: this book is dense with geology, gemology, history, politics, economics, sociology, and human drama. Few people could pull off writing a book like this. Aja makes it look easy breezy lemon squeezy.
So, yes, you’re going to enjoy yourself, but you’re also going to come out with your knowledge raised to critical nerdicality levels, so be prepared. (more…)
A Must-Have Book for Lava Loving Kids: What’s So Hot About Volcanoes?
Having enjoyed Wendell A. Duffield’s Chasing Lava immensely, I was beyond delighted to discover that Wendell had written a book for younger people. I couldn’t order it fast enough.
What’s So Hot About Volcanoes is a fantastic choice for anyone looking for a book about volcanoes for older kids and tweens, or even adults who want an authoritative but not too technical introduction to how volcanoes work. Younger readers should be able to handle it, too, with assistance from older kids and adults. And it’s got a hook absolutely no one can resist: what happened to Wendell when he was standing on a fresh Kilauea lava field and the seismologist at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory told him the pattern of seismicity right underneath him suggested he should probably run away immediately!
Mount St. Helens Montage I
Before other projects intervened, I did a long series of posts on the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. I’d made it all the way to the blast deposits before my magma chamber collapsed. Part of the problem was not having good photos of said deposits ready to hand. Part of it was plain cowardice. And then a lot of other fascinating stuff happened. So the series, like a Cascades volcano, went dormant.
But dormant volcanoes roar to life again, and so shall The Cataclysm.
Right now, I’m spelunking the USGS ScienceBase Catalog, pulling every single Mount St. Helens photo I can find.
Sudden Volcanoes, Unstable Ground, and Sublime Rocks: Welcome to the Mediterranean
On this day in 1538, a brand-new volcano popped up on the coast of Campania, swallowed the village of Tripergole whole, and pretty much ruined the region’s medical spa industry. And that’s just one of the many astounding things geology has done in the Mediterranean region.