America came late. Humanity had come from Africa, and spread out over Eurasia. This happened mainly during the ice age, when lower sea levels allowed walking migration where previously a significant swim or float had been required. They moved mainly along the coast line, quickly reaching southeast Asia, and from there even Australia, as early…
It is sometimes said to be the highest volcano in Europe. There is an obvious problem with that: El Teide is not in Europe. It may be Spanish, but the location is in the Canary Island which politically are included in Europe but geographically are not. A second problem is that there are much higher…
It has been wet in the UK. Nothing unusual there, it may seem, although compared to the tropics, the rain is mostly mild. Temperatures are moderate and therefore the air does not contain as much moisture. Major deluges are rare. But not this winter. Especially the south of England has seen widespread flooding. France too…
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to forecast major eruptions? So far, the opportunity has been lacking. VEI-7 eruptions are rare: we have not seen one since Tambora in April 1815. To make a right forecast, the event needs to happen! Part of the forecast is recognising that the mountain is a volcano. Tambora…
Life in paradise can be hard. Paradise is a Greek word of Persian origin made famous by the Jewish bible: it comes from a mix of very different cultures. The word means a walled garden. The garden provides food and the wall provides safety: together it makes the perfect refuge from normal life. And isn’t…
A repost from the archives, with minor updates When the ground starts to rise beneath your feet, it is time to sit up. Fishermen would be the first to notice, being unable to leave their harbours due to lack of sea. Governments would discuss the risk of reduction in tax income from fishing, and would…
Austin feels laid-back. The small down-town area has bars and restaurants with live music of varying quality. One person does morning percussion on the sidewalk. There are quite a few self-driving cars on the roads, a few with bored-looking drivers but many devoid of driver or passengers, making one wonder what they are there for.…
Io, moon of Jespiter Jupiter, is famously volcanically active. It has more than 400 active volcanoes, over an area the size of Asia. Some of the volcanic mountains are taller than Mount Everest. The sulphur deposits have painted Io into 50 shades of yellow. But Io is only one of the 4 major moons of…
Today is 270 years since the destruction of Lisbon. The earthquake of All Saints day 1755 in Lisbon changed a nation and is still remembered across the continent. Hence a republication of our 2016 post on this event. A few words on the effect on Scotland have been aded to the original. At one time,…
A fun question: which are the southernmost, most equatorial and northernmost volcanoes in the world? We need to add two provisos here, otherwise this question is impossible to answer: the volcano should be on land (sub-aerial, not sub-marine), and it should not be extinct but be known to have erupted. I’ll give you a few…