Volcano Fever April 15, 2010
Posted by sarah in: geology, pics . Add a comment
The eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull on 21 March (RAGNAR AXELSSON/AFP/Getty Images)
Air travel in Northern Europe is currently being disrupted by the ash cloud spewed out by Icelandic volcano (ok, deep breath:) Eyjafjallajoekull, which started erupting in late March. This is a bit of a pain for anyone with travel plans and a major pain for those actually living near the volcano, but as for once that doesn’t include me, I’m going to delight in the amazing pictures being posted from Iceland of this awesome spectacle. Volcanoes are fantastically photogenic. Never to disappoint, the Big Picture at the Boston Globe posted a great series of images today.
Here’s a few more of my favourites from Flickr:
Astronomy and the Chile earthquake March 2, 2010
Posted by sarah in: astronomy, geology . Add a comment
Pretty Valaparaiso in 2005
I noticed a lot of traffic to the blog today from google searches for people looking for info on the fate of the telescopes in Chile after last weekend’s huge earthquake that has devastated the central part of the country. The bottom line is that they all seem to be fine – although let’s not forget that the damage to Chile’s infrastructure could easily pay for hundreds of VLTs. As for the lives lost, well, no hardware can replace those.
On a personal note, my only experience of earthquakes dates back to 2005, while observing at Gemini South at Cerro Pachon, near La Serena in Chile. In our week-long observing run we suffered 2 earthquakes of magnitudes 5.8 and 5.0 or so, if I remember correctly. Our telescope operator, recognising the distant rumble, gave us a few seconds’ warning that a quake was under way, giving me ample time to freak out completely. Having just escaped the London bombings a few weeks earlier, I guess my nerves were pretty shot, but it was still pretty scary. I can only imagine how terrifying a magnitude 8+ quake must be when you’re sound asleep in your home at 3 am and I truly hope I never get to find out.
Anyway, here’s a round-up of some of the statements released by the astronomy organisations with bases in the country.
Moon River? September 24, 2009
Posted by sarah in: geology, new astronomy . Add a comment
Spectral cube images from Chandrayaan-1
There’s a lot of internet chatter about the recent discovery of water on the Moon – or rather, the discovery of LOTS of water on the Moon. Most of the reactions have focused on the press embargo that was (once again) thrown to the wayside by some naughty journalists, or been rather muted at best. Water on the Moon is not such a big deal: just from looking at the Moon you can tell that plenty of stuff has smashed into it in the past; something was bound to have left some water behind at some stage.
Sci-fi pictures from Mars April 13, 2009
Posted by sarah in: geology, science, space . Add a comment
Via the Bad Astronomer, some eery pictures from the surface of Mars that look straight out of a sci-fi flick. The images were taken by the HiRise camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Another brilliant recent addition to the HiRise image archive is this one: (more…)
Alaskan volcano erupts March 25, 2009
Posted by sarah in: geology, pics, science . 2comments
Location of Mt. Redoubt (Image: J. Schaefer/AVO/ADGGS)
It’s a good week for gelogy nerds. After last week’s undersea volcanic eruption in the South Pacific, the Alaskan volcano Mt. Redoubt erupted violently several times last weekend, and continues to rumble. Ash clouds rose to about 16 km according the Alaskan Volcano Observatory (AVO) and the eruption caused significant flooding (see this cool picture). The Alaskan volcanoes form part of the Pacific Ring of Fire which is littered with active volcanoes and a frequent site for earthquakes and eruptions.
Check out the AVO page on Redoubt for updates or follow on Twitter.
**Update, 29/03/09** Redoubt isn’t done erupting yet, more explosive eruptions took place in the last couple of days. The AVO Twitter feed is the best way of keeping up to date!
Webcam image of Redoubt erupting on Saturday. (Image: AVO/USGS)
**Update, 30 March 09**. Explosive eruptions have continued at Redoubt in thel last few days and AVO is reporting the first ash falling on Achorage. There’s no danger to the population though. More spectacular pictures have appeared on the AVO website, this one is particularly striking.
Lightning during one of Redoubt's eruption events on 28 March (image credit: Higman, Bretwood)
