Comments on: Journey to the Earth’s boiling heart

By: Nahezu Mordor – der Nyiragongo-Krater « EffJot

Nahezu Mordor – der Nyiragongo-Krater « EffJot — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:54:26 +0000

[...] The Big Picture des Boston Globe gibt es immer wieder beeindruckende Fotos zu sehen. Ein Artikel von Phil Plait hat mich auf diese Bilder vom Lavasee im Nyiragongo-Krater aufmerksam gemacht. Besonders fasziniert [...]

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:58:08 +0000

OK, no way you would get me into that crater. Unless of course my evil lair was constructed there…

Minions! Go forth and do my bidding! Assemble me a fortress of unstoppable domination!!

Ahem.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:08:26 +0000

Oops, wrong thread!

By: artbot

artbot — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:41:11 +0000

@27: One does not simply walk into…liquid……hot…….MAG-muh!

By: ggremlin

ggremlin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:07:59 +0000

I thought the name sounded familiar, this crater was the site of the largest direct death by lava in known history. In 1977, a small earthquake fractured the containing walls of the lake allowing the lava to drain rapidly out.

Normally lava moves only a couple of miles an hour out in the open, lava tubes much different story, but this case the lava was traveling at over 40mph (60kph) and killed a confirmed 70, with some reports of hundreds.

http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/oldroot/volcanoes/gongo/nyiragongo.html

By: katwagner

katwagner — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:20:22 +0000

#25 Eric – you beat me to it. First thing I thought of was Mordor but Frodo and Sam didn’t have any protective clothes on. And I was hugely impressed with the body armor on that camera, yikes! I mean, WOW!

By: BillR

BillR — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:45:18 +0000

Shots from The Big Picture frequently find themselves as my desktop background. The set of the Indonesian mine with burning sulfur was particularly spectacular.

By: ERic

ERic — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:10:53 +0000

First pic on the website, I thought “Eye of Mordor!”

By: artbot

artbot — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:18:00 +0000

I think Paris Hilton said it best: That’s hot!

By: Mapnut

Mapnut — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:54:30 +0000

You made me look, Matt B, that’s neat! Wonder how long until that photo, cropped, turns up on UFO sites?

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:50:01 +0000

Picture 14 makes the lake surface look like an aerial phenomenon, because you can’t tell that the view is downward instead of upward (except that the smoke kind of ruins the effect).

By: andy

andy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:49:03 +0000

Well, I don’t know about that – I reckon if you held the prototypical teaspoon’s worth of Earth’s core material, you would find your teaspoon would melt and your hand would begin to boil.

Depends what pressure you do the experiment at. If you’re at the ~3.5 million atmospheres of the inner core things will behave rather differently than they would at sea level.

Either way your hand is going to have a very bad time of it though.

By: DrBB

DrBB — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:50:52 +0000

Whhhoooooowwwaaaaoooooooowww! Just staggeringly beautiful, amazing and impressive images. Sad that “awesome” is such a depleted adjective. It was designed for this.

By: Pete Jackson

Pete Jackson — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:58:39 +0000

You’d think that they would have ‘No Skating’ and ‘No Swimming’ signs posted at such a dangerous spot.

By: scgvlmike

scgvlmike — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:36:22 +0000

Ok, for once the “Holy Haleakala” comment would’ve been appropriate and called for– and you didn’t use it?!

That’s like in Kip Adotta’s song “Wet Dream”, when he describes the object of his affection & the way she can drink, as if he -didn’t- say “she drank like a… she drank a lot.”

By: Simon Green

Simon Green — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:19:01 +0000

@andy

Well, I don’t know about that – I reckon if you held the prototypical teaspoon’s worth of Earth’s core material, you would find your teaspoon would melt and your hand would begin to boil.

By: andy

andy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:12:51 +0000

But the centre of the Earth isn’t boiling… the inner core is pretty solid.

[/pedant]

By: Simon Green

Simon Green — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:47:25 +0000

Speaking of volcanoes and such, here’s someone else Phil will love:
http://www.predictweather.com/

He claims to have predicted the Christchurch earthquake a couple of weeks ago (I live in NZ, but thankfully a long way from Christchurch). Of course, he also predicted earthquakes on roughly 50% of every other day between September and late Feb, and they have had aftershocks virtually every day since the 4th of September. So, he was always going to get lucky.

The latest we hear, soon the moon will be the closest to earth it’s ever been since 1993 and this will cause the next earthquake (no, really!). A very fast calculation shows that the relative difference in lunar gravitational force between perigee and apogee is something like 1.5×10^-18. But still, people believe this idiot.

Sigh… preaching to the choir I guess.

By: jjgboulder

jjgboulder — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:53:38 +0000

Did anyone take marshmallows? But seriously, thanks, Phil, for the link to the stunning photos. My children will enjoy them immensely.

By: Ron1

Ron1 — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:43:54 +0000

Does anyone else see the face of the lava monster (poking it’s head over the rim and gritting its teeth) in the lower part of the plume to the right?

I mean, who needs a cloud (or toast) when you’ve got a perfectly good lava plume to stimulate a little pareidolia with your coffee in the morning.

Cheers

By: Ron1

Ron1 — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:09:39 +0000

@10. Cindy

Nothing weird at all, geology is really nothing but a subset of astronomy.

The grandeur of the natural world has a way of seducing those with a scientific frame of mind, regardless of their speciality — we’re curious.

By: Mapnut

Mapnut — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:48:49 +0000

There was a lot of activity at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii in the past few days. The floor of the Pu’u o’o crater collapsed and a fissure opened up nearby, spewing lava into forests and plains. Photos and videos here: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/images.html

By: Cindy

Cindy — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:22:33 +0000

It’s weird how I know of a few other astronomers who are also interested in geology. My brother, uncle, and cousin are all geologists so I was the one who broke with tradition. Though if I didn’t go into astronomy I’d probably go into geology. I have to agree, volcanoes are fascinating.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:18:15 +0000

@ ^ kuhnigget : Is that a Jules Verne ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ quote there? Am I right?

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:10:19 +0000

Roped as one for safety through the long descent,
Into the crater of volcanic rock they went…