#volcano

#volcano

Satellite Tracking Shows Turtle's U-Turn Days Before the Tongan Volcano EruptionThere have been many recorded instances of animals sensing danger before humans. Most examples involve pets like cats who scientists theorise may be able to sense P-waves (primary waves), helping them respond to earthquakes faster than humans.This ability to "sense danger" is not limited to land animals. Last January 15th, Tonga was shaken with an undersea volcanic eruption and 15-meter-high tsunami that killed three people. Just a couple days prior, a female green sea turtle was seen making a giant U-turn away from the volcano.

Red-Hot Lava Bomb Rolls Down the Side of La Palma Volcano in SpainHarri Geiger, a German geochemist and a petrologist, posted on his twitter account a sighting of a lava bomb rolling down the side of La Palma Volcano on October 27, 2021.Image Credit: @harrigeiger/Twitter

Huge Undersea Eruption Felt Across the Globe in 2018 Created a Massive New VolcanoThe birth of a new underwater volcano occurred when a huge seismic event, that started in May of 2018, was felt across the entire globe. The event produced a new feature, located off the EASTERN coast of the island of Mayotte, which rose 820 meters (2690 feet) from the seafloor. This new feature, thought to be a part of a tectonic structure between the East African and Madagascar rifts, provided a window into deep Earth processes. According to researchers, this was the largest active submarine eruption documented as of the moment.Michelle Starr further discusses this research over at sciencealert.comAll images: Feuillet et al., Nature Geoscience, 2021#Volcano #UnderwaterEruption #Research

Ancient Cities Buried by VolcanoesQuick- name an ancient city buried under the debris of a volcano. Pompeii of course! And there was that other city; what was its name? While it's true that Pompeii and Herculaneum are the most famous examples, they are far from the only cities buried by a volcanic eruption. They weren't even the only cities buried under the 79AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. When people began to congregate in cities, they didn't know how dangerous that nearby volcano could be.Cuicuilco was a Mesoamerican city, located in the present-day borough of Tlalpan in Mexico City, that was destroyed in a series of eruptions at the Xitle volcano.The city emerged during a period when Mesoamerican villages from the mid-Preclassic (800 BC) were merging into the large population centres of the late Preclassic (AD 100).Cuicuilco became an important regional urban and ceremonial centre, inhabited by an estimated population of around 20,000 people.A series of eruptions at the Xitle volcano during the end of the pre-Classic period released basaltic lava flows that engulfed much of the city in volcanic rock, leading to the dispersion of Cuicuilca’s people towards Toluca and Teōtīhuacān.As you can see from the image, urban living is once again encroaching upon Cuicuilco. Read the stories of six cities that thrived until the volcano blew at HeritageDaily. -via Strange Company #volcano #Cuilcuilco #city

Human Remains are Best-preserved Ever Found in PompeiiWhen we read about the excavations at Pompeii, we are always impressed with how the bodies found tell the remarkable story of the chaos of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. While the victims of the volcano are remarkably preserved, thebest preserved body found yet is that of a man who died before the disaster. He was a former slave who achieved some notoriety, and was buried when most residents were cremated.The remains of Marcus Venerius Secundio were found in a tomb at the necropolis of Porta Sarno, which was one of the main entrance gates into the city. The tomb is believed to date back to the decades before Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.What have been described as the best-preserved human remains ever discovered in Pompeii include Secundio’s white hair and a partially visible ear. Initial tests show he died at about the age of 60.The inscriptions that accompany Secundio's tomb tell us a lot about what was going on in Pompeii before it was destroyed. Read about the find at The Guardian. -via Damn Interesting #Pompeii #mummy #archaeology #MountVesuvius #volcano #tomb #necropolis

This Undersea Volcano Near Christmas Island Looks Like the Eye of SauronResearchers from Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have discovered a previously unknown undersea volcano that look like the 'Eye of Sauron' from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.The researchers, who were aboard the ocean research vessel RV Investigator, used multibeam sonar to map the sea bed 280 km (174 miles) southeast of Christmas Island.From Tim O'Hara and the research team's post at The Conversation:Previously unknown and unimagined, this volcano emerged from our screens as a giant oval-shaped depression called a caldera, 6.2km by 4.8km across. It is surrounded by a 300m-high rim (resembling Sauron’s eyelids), and has a 300 m high cone-shaped peak at its the centre (the “pupil”)....Our volcanic “eye” was not alone. Further mapping to the south revealed a smaller sea mountain covered in numerous volcanic cones, and further still to the south was a larger, flat-topped seamount. Following our Lord of the Rings theme, we have nicknamed themBarad-dûr (“Dark Fortress”) and Ered Lithui (“Ash Mountains”), respectively.Image: Phil Vandenbossche & Nelson Kuna/CSIRO#ocean #LordoftheRings #LOTR #EyeofSauron #ChristmasIsland #caldera #underwatervolcano #volcano #seabed #sonar

A Mud Volcano Exploded in the Caspian SeaNot to be outdone by the Gulf of Mexico setting the ocean on fire when a pipeline leaked natural gas that combusted into flames, the Caspian Sea decided explode a mud volcano.The explosion sent plumes of fire and black smoke into the air, as captured by this amazing video below.At first, it was reported that the explosion happened at an oil platform owned by Azerbaijan's State Oil Company or SOCAR, but that was denied. "No accidents occurred on the oil platforms or ships," said Gurban Yetirmishli, the director of the country’s seismological service, "This is a sign of a mud volcano. There are many mud volcanoes in the Caspian Sea, one of which erupted."Mud volcano is a landmass that is created by the eruption of mud, water and gases.#volcano #mudvolcano #explosion #fire #CaspianSea #eruption #volcanoeruption

The Surface of Venus Moves Like a Pack of Ice on a Frozen LakeVenus was long thought to have an immobile solid outer shell like Mars or the Moon, but it turns out that the plant is actually more like Earth: it has large tectonic blocks that move like a broken pack of ice on a frozen lake."We've identified a previously unrecognized pattern of tectonic deformation on Venus, one that is driven by interior motion just like on Earth," said North Carolina State University professor Paul Byrne. "Although different from the tectonics we currently see on Earth, it is still evidence of interior motion being expressed at the planet's surface."This suggests that Venus is still geologically active:"We know that much of Venus has been volcanically resurfaced over time, so some parts of the planet might be really young, geologically speaking," Byrne says. "But several of the jostling blocks have formed in and deformed these young lava plains, which means that the lithosphere fragmented after those plains were laid down. This gives us reason to think that some of these blocks may have moved geologically very recently - perhaps even up to today."The researchers are optimistic that Venus' newly recognized "pack ice" pattern could offer clues to understanding tectonic deformation on planets outside of our solar system, as well as on a much younger Earth."The thickness of a planet's lithosphere depends mainly upon how hot it is, both in the interior and on the surface," Byrne says. "Heat flow from the young Earth's interior was up to three times greater than it is now, so its lithosphere may have been similar to what we see on Venus today: not thick enough to form plates that subduct, but thick enough to have fragmented into blocks that pushed, pulled, and jostled."Image: NC State University, based upon original NASA/JPL imagery#venus #geology #NASA #JPL #volcano