For some brilliant reason, The Boston Globe has started a new online feature called The Big Picture, which showcases incredible hi-res images of different topics. They just ran one on volcanoes, and it’s, well, incredible.
Like I said. Wow. And having just come back from an island chain made up entirely of these beasts, the pix really hit home. Amazing.
I linked to The Big Picture tour of the LHC recently, and they have lots more eye candy there; many have a science bent. I just put it in my feed reader, and it’ll be a regular part of my week.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Volcanoes are so cool. They were part of the “Big Picture” concepts that led me to this site of all things. It started when I was a kid, and hopefully will happen for more kids in the future.
Dinosaurs (T-Rexes being the coolest to a 6 year old) -> Plate Tectonics (volcanoes being the most fun part to a 13 year old) -> Evolution -> Astronomy (comets, meteors, stars and planets) -> Cosmology (general relativity and the Big Bang being the most interesting to an 18 year old) -> Bad Astronomy.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I’d better go buy myself some volcano insurance.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I love volcanoes! Living in Squamish, on the west coast near Vancouver, I’m surrounded by them. They are, for the most part dormant. But, one never knows…
August 21st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
BA, this being a space/astronomy blog and all that, it seems like you might have mentioned that this image, and several more, were taken from the ISS. I know you’re not the biggest fan but give credit where credit is due.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Awesome pic. Thanks for the tip.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I stuck that site in the RSS reader a few weeks ago. It’s definitely a keeper.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Alien spacecraft arrives in Earth orbit. The crew observes the planet:
Blort: “Look Zorgon, it’s spectacular! What a strange world.”
Zorgon: “Yes. Notice the turbulent clouds, the highly corrosive oxygen in the atmosphere, and over there: a volcano is erupting!”
Blort: “Yes. Nothing could live down there.”
Great picture
August 21st, 2008 at 6:29 pm
The “Views of Jupiter” gallery ( http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/views_of_jupiter.html ) also has some amazing space + volcanoes related images, especially some New Horizons flyby photos. BA linked to one of Io’s volcano’s erupting in his “Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007″ ( http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/12/13/top-ten-astronomy-pictures-of-2007/ ), however the Big Picture gallery has an amazing animated version.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
oooo…perty
August 21st, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Thanks for the link. Added to reader. rb
August 21st, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Speaking of the LHC, this has a good beat and you can dance to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM
August 21st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Trebuchet said:
August 21st, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Ack, seems that I can’t close a blockquote properly…
August 21st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Last year I had the opertunity to see Kilauea, which had been erupting for some time. Unfortunatly the week befor i arived in Hawaii a series of small earthquakes had shut the volcano down. Two weeks after i left, yep, it started right back up again
These pics are great!
August 21st, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Lordy, how I love Big Picture
Views of Jupiter
Man on the Moon: Future and Past
And my favorite Michael Phelps picture from the US Olympic Trials.
August 21st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
That is very cool.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Great pics. Site added to my stuff. Talking of LHC this virtual tour is pretty cool
http://petermccready.com/
August 21st, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Did show the volcano where two of my recent posts went, ’cause I can’t find them here.
(QD looks around suspiciously and backs slowly away, reaching for his blaster)
August 21st, 2008 at 11:47 pm
@Michael L
I grew up in Yakima, Washington. In 1980 Mt. Helens dropped half an inch of ash on us and turned a bright spring morning into pitch black night, despite the 80 miles distance between us. You’d better hope those babies are dormant. If/when Rainier goes, so goes half the Pacific Northwest!
August 21st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
@kuhnigget,
We actually heard the explosion of Mt. St. Helens all the way up here, some 200 miles away. It was like a low rumbling thunderclap.
Mt. Baker is the one I’m more worried about, as that is very close to Vancouver. You can see Baker crossing the Lion’s Gate Bridge into Vancouver on a clear day.
I think it’s just a matter of time. I think the last time there was a major eruption near Squamish was about 5-10,000 years ago. However we are due for a major earthquake! (Actually overdue)
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 am
Wow, that feed is now an instant favorite of mine, thanks for the link!
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 am
Thanks for the impressive photo!
I’m glad we have none of those in Texas; although, I guess that could change, too.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:20 am
[...] Bad Astronomy with an awesome volcano photo [...]
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:58 am
I don’t know how BA feels about posting links on this blog but I couldn’t pass this up. Lost in space? If they choose, aliens can now help you get home. I thought this was pretty funny.
http://www.earthbounddog.com/
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
Incredible pictures! I love volcanoes. I live in Japan, and have climbed Mt Fuji. They’re just very impressive and show just how active our world is. I found a great video on youtube about volcanoes that I put on my own blog at http://earthandbeyond.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/interesting-volcano-video/
The creator of that video likes to climb volcanoes.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:29 am
These pictures require appropriate background music.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
Ah yes, dormant. Beware of sleeping dogs. Along the Cascades from Washington State right through to southern California lie many volcanic sleeping dogs, Mts. Shasta and Lassen among them. And we sure like to settle at the base of these things. The Mammoth Lakes area way down toward the end of the chain is showing alarming signs of activity, and yet folks are moving to the area as if nothing’s gonna happen…
The LHC is surely the largest and most complex piece of equipment ever devised. I cannot imagine how complicated it must be, how much planning went into building it, what the builders had to do to insure that it all got put together accurately – all without a chance to build a prototype or test anything. It certainly boggles my simple mind. Kind of makes me wonder about some of the folks in our own country who distrust/reject science. I wonder if Neanderthals looked at homo sapiens sapiens the same way?
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
There’s a whole bunch of photos from the solar eclipse later on in the blog.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
[...] Globe’s Big Picture feature is neat. (Thanks to my favorite Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, for the link to the volcano pictures, which got the RSS feed into my [...]
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
@Michael L.
I watch Mount Baker every clear day that I drive home from work. There have been times when steam has erupted from the peak. A disaster could happen even if it does not erucpt. All it has to do is burp really hot and melt that glacier. THe area below is so heavily built up the losses would be incredible. And funny thing but flood water and mud will not respect international boundries.
It is still a very beutiful site when the setting sun lights it up on a freshly cleared sky.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
“For some brilliant reason”
You are awesome, Phil!
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
[...] The Ring… OF FIRE! Very cool (found via the Bad Astronomer). [...]
August 24th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Bad Astronomer gets Farked again.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
So, all of you people who just LOVE volcanoes… I hope you don’t believe in the whole global warming phenomenon. If you are one of these chicken littles, you should know that volcano eruptions are about 1 million times more devastating to the air than every car combined on this planet. BTW, I like volcanoes.