Volcano erupts in Hawaii.

[Davita]

Breaking news:
The volcano in Hawaii has erupted in a big way. I believe it's on the big island so I don't know if that's where Puspa has property and friends but hope everything is OK.

 

[Puspawarna]

Hi Davita! Yes, I am on the Big Island now and yes the volcano is making itself known via earthquakes. Luckily I don't live near the lava outbreak so I'm only getting shaking, not lava, in my vicinity.

Our house is on stilts and we have a Chinese bed from Indonesia on the second floor. With this set-up, the bed is an excellent quake detector and in the 36 hours since I've arrived I have felt 4 quakes while under the covers. I need to learn to sleep through small quakes, but have not yet developed this useful skill.

The "best" quake occurred during the day while I was downstairs. I was trying to get phone service installed, and a somewhat surly workman from the phone company was checking things out. He was not being particularly nice, and was clearly unhappy when I told him, "sorry, there is no service yet even though you say you have hooked it up." With a scowl, he went off to see if he could locate the problem.

Then, the quake (a 5.0 magnitude) struck. Afterward, the workman was much nicer. It turns out he was underneath the house checking the wires when the quake struck, and it understandably scared him. Maybe he said, "Please God, just let me survive this quake and I promise I will be nicer from now on." That's my theory, anyway.

 

[Davita]

Re; Post # 2
Glad to hear you're OK and a good story about the tradesman. You should have played your Gamelan...after that either he'd be more nice or you'd never see him again.
I guess where you live you get used to that volcano as it has been buzzing for many years. I recall flying in the middle of the night from Xmas Island to Hickam and, when passing the big island, it blew out...what a show for our passengers....and soiled underwear for us in the flight deck.
This was followed a day later by a huge earthquake in Alaska. The authorities in Hawaii got worried about a tsunami so we evacuated to higher ground but it only affected Hilo slightly.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Alaska_earthquake

 

[steveandpenny]

We lived though the loma preita earthquake in Calif which was a 7.2 and for months we would wake up standing in a doorway because of after shocks. Won't even rember getting up lol.

 

[Puspawarna]

Yikes, we are rocking and rolling today! Had a 6.9 about an hour ago - I think that was the strongest quake I have ever felt. We actually had a little damage - nothing much, fortunately. I was a little scared, I'm kind of an earthquake wuss. I guess I'll be getting over that, should all this shaking keep up.

Tonight I am sleeping DOWNSTAIRS.

 

[Bad_azz]

Stay safe... though is it safer to sleep downstairs under the weight of the floor and the roof?
I think would opt to stay in my bed & opt for the roll-into-safe-triangle-spot if a big wobble happened.

 

[Bad_azz]

Oh, that prompted me to do a google thing and I am not the only one to think higher floor- although I would never wish to live in a highrise place.
https://www.quora.com/Which-floor-is-relatively-safe-to-stay-in-during-an-earthquake

 

[harryopal1]

I saw a volcanologist on TV news this week saying there was a 98% chance of a catastrophic earthquake in San Francisco in the next 20 years. And then there is the expectation that earth will be pretty much wiped out by asteroids pushed to earth by the star Gliese 10 when it passes within 77 light years of earth but that aint for another 1.35 million years. I promise God to be really good if I can live past that.

 

[William King]

I saw a volcanologist on TV news this week saying there was a 98% chance of a catastrophic earthquake in San Francisco in the next 20 years.

In geological terms 20 years does not exist. So bit of a nonsense statement.

Could equally be 98% within 100 years or 1,000 years.

Imagine blowing a balloon up until before it bursts... it is going to burst? Yes. Will it burst in next 10 milliseconds? 100 milliseconds ? Maybe 1,000 ? Kind of all the same number.

 

[vocalneal]

In geological terms 20 years does not exist. So bit of a nonsense statement.

If one is human seeing an opportunity to manipulate and trying to make some money it has to be 20 years. Humans cannot really think beyond that far, except maybe the Chinese Communist Party?. Look at the Paris accord? Humans trying to control the temperature of the planet within a few years.

Anyway volcanoes are good. All that sulphur released into the atmosphere nullifies any surplus carbon dioxide.

 

[harryopal1]

[QUOTE="vocalneal, post: 49395, member: 1274

Anyway volcanoes are good. All that sulphur released into the atmosphere nullifies any surplus carbon dioxide.[/QUOTE]

Might the sulphur nullify a few people as well or is the smell of rotten eggs good for us?

 

[Anglian]

I read about a volcano in central Africa, that quite often kills the locals by giving off poisonous fumes, forgot the name, I’m just waiting for the super volcano in Yellowstone Park to erupt, that should be impressive, the experts say it’s overdue, so that means anyminute or sometime in the next ten thousand years

 

[Davita]

Anyway volcanoes are good. All that sulphur released into the atmosphere nullifies any surplus carbon dioxide.

Not so sure about that as volcanoes emit sulfur dioxide.....from Wiki...

"Sulfur dioxide is a noticeable component in the atmosphere, especially following volcanic eruptions.

Sulfur dioxide is a major air pollutant and has significant impacts upon human health. In addition, the concentration of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere can influence the habitat suitability for plant communities, as well as animal life. Sulfur dioxide emissions are a precursor to acid rain and atmospheric particulates."

 

[vocalneal]

My chemistry maybe wrong but I think the sentiment is correct

The stratospheric sulfate experiment has already had its proof of concept — courtesy of planet Earth. On June 15, 1991, Mount Pinatubo, which for months had been rumbling, belching, and terrorizing the main Philippine island of Luzon, finally blew its top in an explosion so powerful that it carried 500 feet of the mountain's peak along with it. It was the second-largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, 10 times the size of the Mount Saint Helens explosion in 1980 and the first of its scale to occur with modern scientific technologies in place — especially satellites — to measure the global environmental and climatic effect.

Pinatubo's eruption didn't just unleash huge mud slides and lava flows; it also fired an ash stream 22 miles into the air, injecting 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Over the following months, a massive haze gradually dispersed across the globe. Meanwhile, the sulfur dioxide component underwent chemical reactions to form a particulate known as sulfate aerosol (in essence, droplets of water and sulfuric acid), which absorbs sunlight and reflects some of it back into space.

The climatic effect of this volcanic eruption was rapid, dramatic, and planetary in scale. In a year, the global average temperature declined by half a degree Celsius, and researchers observed less summer melt atop the Greenland ice sheet.

https://www.wired.com/2008/06/ff-geoengineering/

 

[Davita]

My chemistry maybe wrong but I think the sentiment is correct

https://www.wired.com/2008/06/ff-geoengineering/

From your link...."Al Gore isn't buying it,"....and he invented the internet......so that's good enough for me.....

 

[Anglian]

Just watched Sky news regarding the volcano, how are you doing Puspa, it really looks like something on another planet, the ground opening up, flames coming out, lava flowing into the sea, forming steam acid, scary stuff

 

[Puspawarna]

Just watched Sky news regarding the volcano, how are you doing Puspa, it really looks like something on another planet, the ground opening up, flames coming out, lava flowing into the sea, forming steam acid, scary stuff

I'm doing well, although I do sometimes wonder what I'm breathing every morning when I go for a run. And to think that I smugly posted in another thread a little while ago that soon I would be breathing very clean air! But probably, I am: the tradewinds blow the bad stuff away from where I live.

In other Hawaii news, my gamelan was delivered to the local cultural center yesterday! Overall, a success: no damage, we got everything unwrapped, and I even managed to set the big gong stand up properly, with nary a Javanese in sight to instruct me (I was a little worried about that part).

The people from the center were a bit shocked at how much space the instruments take up. I tried to tell them, repeatedly, starting months ago: I sent many photos, gave them measurements and weights, and told them in emails and conversations that they were making a BIG commitment, literally and figuratively. However, apparently none of this sunk in until they actually had the instruments in front of them. Thankfully, they seemed to deal with the shock fairly well.

 

[Davita]

Puspa...I think you should fire up the gamelan music asap. The tranquil Javanese magic may stop the fury of the volcano....if that doesn't work we can always send a Dukun to help while you play.

 

[Puspawarna]

Well, Davita, I'll let you in on a little secret. Gamelan are supposed to have a name, but mine never has. I asked for one before I left Indonesia, and my teacher meditated on it and consulted with his wife, who was able to tell him a little about Hawaii. The name he chose was "Sekar Dahana," which I am translating into English as "Molten Blossom" although the word "dahana" is a complex word suggesting desire and renewal, along with the idea of lava flow. (Or so I am told; the only Javanese words I know are gamelan terms.)

The name is a secret (except to those of you reading this - Shh! Don't tell anyone) until it can be announced at a formal unveiling of the gamelan.

Appropriately enough, the gamelan arrived on the Big Island at almost precisely the moment Pele decided to release this latest lava eruption. I'm sure that very traditional Javanese would view this somewhat superstitiously.

So it will make for a good presentation when the gamelan is formally unveiled, but I will have to think long and hard about what I want to say, since while the spookiness of the "molten" gamelan arriving as the eruption began is a great story, but I in no way want to appear insensitive to the damage that the flow and associated earthquakes have caused to people's lives.