The expression became famous because of Isaac Newton. Never one to ignore praise, in typical English fashion he expressed his self-assured superiority in a self-effacing way: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants“. This was written in a letter to Robert Hooke, himself both an intellectual giant and…
Complexes and Super complexes This is a world where only the best dominate, where the unskilled are left behind, and where the average scorn. Volcanoes are no different, the best volcanoes last the longest and produce the strongest eruptions. So what makes a volcano strong? Can we find our missing piece to our Wah Wah…
We all have our favourite stories. We like reading about volcanoes that erupt frequently, with impressive videos and preferably little damage. Stories of major and destructive eruptions are also liked, as long as they happened a long time ago and not within living memory. My personal favourite is Krakatau (the parent, not the child) –…
The Jurassic Coast and the Exeter traps Our ammonite was dead, to begin with. It hadn’t always been. It was a funny place. In typical English fashion, The Old Vicarage B&B was a mix of comfort and obsolescence. The old manor house had large rooms, and was beautifully decorated. It felt like stepping centuries back…
This is a strange end to a strange year. Kilauea erupting without even HVO noticing it until the lava was flowing, Etna exploding into life, and even New Zealand trying to get in on the action. And we were complaining that nothing was happening and we had to live off the glories of Christmas past…
As we speak, an eruption has started within Kilaueau. HVO reported: “Shortly after approximately 9:30 p.m. HST (7:30 am GMT, 2 hours ago) , the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) detected glow within Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. An eruption has commenced within Kīlauea’s summit caldera. The situation is rapidly evolving and…
In 1900, Iceland was a very different country. It wasn’t a country, for one thing. Although Iceland had been granted self-rule, it was still a part of Denmark and the local leaders were largely Danish-educated. There was still a Danish governor. The position (not the governor) was terminated in 1904. On Dec 1, 1918 the…
There is a bit of California here. The fault equals the length of the San Andreas, its shape, its movement, and its earthquakes. Even the ends are alike: where the San Andreas has formed the Salton Sea, its counterpart has embraced the Marmara Sea. Both are places where the crust is being pulled part, and…
And now, volcanoes have gone quiet biding for a better time magmatic heat remains reliant but waits before its final climb Pele sits and stops the passage -magma, not now, just hold, delay the world outside has lost its vantage there are no crowds. wait until another day A world retreats in trepidation planes are…
We live in a time of volcano famine. Eruptions are hard to come by, and many scheduled events have been postponed until after covid. And the travel restrictions pose insurmountable problems for volcano watchers. By the time we have flown to the imminent eruption, spend two weeks in quarantine in the VC dungeons isolation ward…