Spaces with Space with Volcanoes on the Pacific Rim

As you are approaching your final exams (not all of you...I'm looking at you grade 11s) with less than enthused study sessions, may I present to you some beautiful finds in the past month.

GoPro and SpaceX
SpaceX attached a GoPro camera to their falling module.  Just to see the Earth in all of its beauty in the resolution and motion that a GoPro can capture makes me feel like I myself am floating on the edge of the atmosphere.  The waltz music almost makes me forget about the heat and friction that accompany the falling back towards Earth - I was kind of looking forward to seeing that portion of the fall, but SpaceX elected to cut that out.

Feast your eyes, and then please go back to studying.

Star Party
Around 20 parents and students came on out two nights ago to watch Chris Vaughan of the Dunlop Observatory setup three telescopes to watch the night sky for almost 3 hours.  He was such a wealth of knowledge taking us from a pair of binary stars to swans to even spotting the ISS.  He masterfully had us observe Venus, then Jupiter, and then followed the ecliptic to find a third planet - Saturn!  I look forward to working with Chris again, and hopefully we can book him for another season to observe a different night sky.

Volcanoes

Remember how the study of Earth is also a part of the course?  Did you hear that our guest Chris Vaughan (see above) couldn't get a summer job after first year when he didn't have any geology courses, but after second year in university where he elected to take geology courses, he and all of his friends got summer job offers?  Don't neglect the geology portion of the course ladies and gents.  Here is a reminder of the power of our very own Earth shown in this Mount Shindake volcano video in which Japan raised the volcano alert level to 5, which is the highest on the scale.

NASA Mission to Europa

Looks like there's a mission to Jupiter's moon and they've chosen 9 instruments to help determine if this moon is habitable.  Guess which instruments they are?  (we've studied a couple of them in class!)

Hey, you're still here?  You should be studying...or blogging.  

The Earth and her Power

This week there has been tons of happenings with the Earth.  Tragedies abound and the number of people displaced  grows each day- it is quite unfortunate, but we have no choice but to bow to Earth's power.  We will try to learn from these tragedies and improve our ability to predict but at the same time there are those of us that look out to space and try to find a new home.

Volcanoes

                                          April 22:  The smoke rose t o over 10km in the sky

Authorities in Chile declared a red alert and evacuated 1500 residents around Calbuco volcano.  The last known eruption was in 1972 and it has covered the sky with ash.  Check out the Atlantic for mesmerizing pictures.  Cool from far, but far from good for the Chileans.

Another less known Sarychev volcano along the Pacific Rim of Japan occurred and this time it was captured from outer space from those in the International Space Station.  They have their first projector installed, and the first movie they watched was Gravity.  

Do you see the similarity of the movie and reality?

Earthquakes

Because of the seismic gap that was in the Himalayas, an earthquake was predicted by many to occur in this area.  The devastating impact of this earthquake itself has a large capacity to destroy the light infrastructure of villages and surrounding area.  See more  from BBC of the collapsed temples and buildings that had its foundations destroyed and hope the best for the people of Nepal and surrounding villages.

It's been said by many that earthquakes are tremendously difficult to predict, but someone designed an app for smartphones named ShakeAlert  that can detect motion that can help with earthquaek prediction. If thousands of people have this app installed, all of us can serve as mini detectors of foreshocks which when appended all the information together can perhaps predict earthquakes in the future.

Liquefaction

In today's lecture I will be talking about liquefaction and its potential for destroying beach side infrastructure.  Here is the animated gif ahead of time.  

A Medley of Items

Europa's Icy Plate Tectonics Supporting Life
This is an oldie but a goodie.  It relates to our upcoming chapter on geologic time and life.  New Scientist is reporting that Jupiter's moon, Europa, is currently undergoing plate tectonics.  The difference?  Europa's plates are made entirely of ice due to its distance from the sun.  No other planet is currently undergoing plate tectonics in our solar system, and with Europa's abundance of water, any similarities to Earth elicits excitement to those of us in search of extracurricular life.

Turning Peanut Butter into Diamond
Another reason why not to buy your significant other a diamond - it now can be created from peanut butter.  By trying to simulate Earth's scorching and pressure cooked conditions, scientist Dan Frost somehow stumbled upon creating a diamond from peanut butter.  Aren't you wondering why peanut butter was inside his experiment in the first place?  Read here for more!

Update in Hawaii - House Toppling Lava
The volcano that erupted in June 27 has slowly made its way 13.5 miles to this house.  Even after four months, this leading edge lava has still reached 1149 degrees Celsius, enough to melt this house in its path.  The family watched from far away as their house toppled over. This is somewhat upsetting. 

Rosetta - Finally Landing its Comet Rover
History will be made as humanity will now be landing rover Philae on a comet.  Here is a tremendous infographic depicting space satellite Rosetta and rover Philae's journey so far.

Hawaii Volcano May Force Evacuations

At a rate of 10 yards per hour, the sudden change in flow from south to northeast in June has Hawaiian authorities asking people in a remote village to evacuate.  There is the smell of burning asphalt that fills the air as the advancing lava flow destroys roads as shown in the pictures below. Please see weather.com for more details and images.  The basalt pillows discussed in class are evident in the pictures below.

Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Volcanoes. Do They Really Say - Volcana?

Here are some volcanoes happening around the world in the past week.  The first two  pictures depicts Mount Sinabung erupting on October 8 as seen from Karo district located on Sumatra island.  The last picture I posted is of the Japanese launching a satellite to orbit Earth in an effort to better measure and predict natural disasters.  

Drone Captures Ultimate Earth Combo

So my friend got a $600 Quadracopter and I sat there one day for hours on end trying to pilot it. Comparing grade 9 math to calculus is like a playing with remote controlled car and trying to attempt this Quadracopter. Even after hours of practice, I couldn't maneuver it consistently within the rooms of the house.  

On the other hand, this man took a Quadracopter, attached go pro camera, and went to Iceland to get some serious volcano footage.  

There was a point in which he captured the volcano eruption and the Aurora Borealis at the same time. What a beautiful (potential) moment that illustrates both the power and beauty of Earth at the same time.    Let me know if you could find it in either the video above or below.  

Volcano

A volcano named Ontake San has suddenly erupted in Japan.  Check out this Volcano Cafe for two reasons- 1)  it has amalgamated the latest news and we can certainly learn from it and 2)  the posting would have scored pretty well on the rubric.  Can you spot which parts Volcano Cafe could improve upon?

It's also pleasing to read this quote isn't it?

"The base of the volcano is 17 km2 and the composition is mostly rhyolite but the upper parts also contain pyroxene and andesite. The longest lava flow that had been produced run 17 km."  

Photo Creds:  Gary Wolff