After a runup of 4 months, or 10 hours, or 1.5 hours (depending on how you look at it), Kilauea sprung back to life, in its continuing quest to recreate the summit-wide lava lake of a century ago. There is still some way to go, but comparing this morning’s glowing lake to the Halemaumau lava…
When a nanny descends from the sky hanging from an umbrella, you know Mary Poppins has arrived. It may be the second best movie to watch at Christmas. (The most popular one remains the Muppet Christmas Carol.) Mary Poppins comes to take care of the children but ends up changing the grown-ups more. Even the…
It is not the most obvious association, between a nightingale and a volcano. The nightingale is a small unobtrusive bird with the reputation of the most beautiful song of any bird. It helps that it sings at night (hence the name) when there is less competition, but the clear voice owns the shadows. When seen,…
There is something about the west coast of the contiguous US. The region combines a wonderful climate with a high standard of living where the land is big, diverse and beautiful. It is a magnet for people, on par with Florida. But it has something which Florida lacks. Whilst Florida is a subtropical Caribbean paradise,…
It is a narrow but passable road, or at least it used to be. It begins at the Saddle Road which crosses Hawai’i between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Both mountains have observatories at or near the summit, but while Mauna Kea is busy day and night, the Mauna Loa observatory is a much quieter…
An eruption has started at the summit of Mauna Loa. It has been a long wait! The inflation over the past month was notable, though not exceptional, but it was the drip that made the volcanic bucket overflow. We now need to see what happens. Commonly, eruptions migrate down the rift zone, in this case…
Some nations seem decidedly unvolcanic. They lack the geology and the temperament for eruptions. Take Norway – a no-nonsense nation which prefers a bit of solitude and does not go for attention grabbing. A search for Norwegian volcanoes does come up with some good examples, but these are distant islands which Norway acquired accidentally. Of…
And then there was a volcano no one has ever heard off. It is on an island that is far off-grid and which takes a 9-hour ferry to get there. (There is a small plane, if you are happy to travel without luggage.) The volcano has long gone extinct. All that remains is this island,…
Growth is in. Politicians and leaders (not always the same thing) want their country to grow. Nowadays this normally means economic growth: the wish to become more wealthy. It would make those leaders more popular, and may provide them with more resources to spend on whatever leaders spend money on. In the very different world…
For a brief period this was the nation’s capital. During the war of independence (called a ‘police action’ by the Dutch, in an older echo of some current events), Yogyakarta served as the seat of the Republic between 1946 (the fall of Jakarta to the Dutch) until 1948. Indonesia later rewarded the city by granting…