Kelimutu: the magic of colour

There is more to Flores. The island is spectacular in any case. The Portuguese explorers called it Cabo de Flores (Cape of Flowers) because of the red-flowered flame trees, dotted between the palm trees of the north coast. The landscape is varied, from low-land savannah to volcanic rain forest. It is not as wet here as…

Vesta’s volcanoes: Dawn’s blast in the past

This is the second instalment of the Dawn space trilogy. If you haven’t seen the first part yet, you may want to read that first. The region was known to be peculiar. The ground around the German town of Nordlingen contained strange rocks – the houses were build from them. Geologists had decided that it…

Volcano World Cup 2018: The Champions

We begin with the real World Cup, and a big congratulations goes to France who were crowned world champions of football 2018 last Sunday after beating Croatia 4-2 in the final at Moscow. We also acknowledge the World Cup runners-up Croatia for giving it their all. So the Volcano World Cup has now come to…

Volcano World Cup 2018: FINAL

So now we have come to the final of the 2018 Volcano World Cup which will be Peru against Iceland. Who you want to be crowned volcano world champions is up to you. Will the champions be the explosive stratovolcanoes of southern Peru, or will it be the basaltic volcanoes of Iceland (some of which…

Dawn over Ceres: the journey

There used to be a missing planet. It had long been realized that there was an empty gap in the Solar System, between Mars and Jupiter. The two were just too far apart. The distribution of the planets was described well by a relation proposed by Johann Titius and Johann Bode, and this relation predicted…

Volcano World Cup 2018: Semi Finals

So now we are in the semi finals stage and one step away from the final, when we have some serious volcano nations going up against each other. Who do you want to see in the final? Just cast your votes.   Peru vs Costa Rica PERU For Peru I will pick Sabancaya to represent…

Volcano World Cup 2018: Quarter Finals

So we’ve now reached the quarter final stage of the Volcano World Cup and this is where the competition starts to tighten up when serious volcanic nations come up against each other. Do the usual, vote for whoever you want to progress to the semi finals.   Russia vs Peru RUSSIA I thought I’d make…