How a supervolcano can threaten Earth

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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (CNN) -- It's hard not to stand in complete awe of everything the Earth has to offer when you're in the middle of Yellowstone National Park.

Its most famous geyser, Old Faithful, shoots up into the sky as crowds tilt their heads just to see how high it really can go. The saturated blues and greens of geothermal pools appear to be otherworldly.

Towering mountains wrap themselves around the park, providing shelter for wild animals to roam. But below the beauty of Yellowstone, is a volcano powerful enough devastate most of the United States and change the entire world.

"Yellowstone and other volcanoes around the world are called supervolcanoes and the reason is they're like a super sized drink. It means it's just big," says Hank Hessler, a geologist at Yellowstone in the U.S. state of Wyoming.

Supervolcano describes a geological phenomenon never witnessed by man. Supervolcanoes are off the charts big when comparing them to a normal volcanic eruption.

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in the northwest corner of the United States erupted. It killed 57 people and expelled one cubic kilometer of ash.

The first Yellowstone supervolcanic eruption 2.1 million years ago was at least 25,000 times larger than the Mount St. Helens eruption. Two other Yellowstone super eruptions 1.3 million and 640,000 years ago, though smaller than the first one, would still dwarf any normal volcanic eruption.

You can monitor Yellowstone activity

Few would expect the tranquil national park would actually be sitting on the mouth of a sleeping giant.

The physical characteristic of a supervolcano isn't a typical cone-shaped mountainous peak.

Instead, supervolcanoes have what are called calderas. These are vast sunken areas that are formed after previous super eruptions as the ground was blown out and fell back to rest.

Geophysicist Bob Smith first called Yellowstone a "living breathing caldera" in 1979. He now heads the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory at the University of Utah.

"Yellowstone has been very important. It's my laboratory," says Smith.

He sees Yellowstone as more than a supervolcano, in fact he doesn't even like that term. "I prefer to use the term hotspot because it reflects a zone of concentrated and active volcanism."

Hawaii and Iceland are other examples of hot spots, but Yellowstone is the only hot spot located underneath land rather than sea which has made it easier for Smith to study.

His team has setup a series of different sensors around the park so that they can keep a close eye on its vital signs. They measure ground movement and record the frequent earthquakes that occur in the area.

The sensors have also helped Smith's team figure out what they were dealing with. As little as eight kilometers below the surface is a shallow reservoir of solid rock and magma. And below the reservoir is an enormous 57,000-cubic-kilometer plume of very hot rock, the fuel behind every bubbling pool and geyser in Yellowstone.

With all of this heat just sitting, waiting beneath Yellowstone, what exactly would it look like if it were all to blow? Smith and other scientists all have scenarios and every one is bleak.

In Smith's book, "Windows into the Earth," he says, "Devastation would be complete and incomprehensible." Before the super eruption, large earthquakes would likely swarm the surrounding areas until the huge blast that would erase Yellowstone completely off the map.

After the initial eruption, clouds of gas and rock would burn everything in its path with temperatures reaching to hundreds of degrees Celsius. Ashfall would cover the western United States and also enter the jet stream with the potential to cripple air transportation and threaten the world's food supply.

There are some estimates that 87,000 people would die immediately.

You can imagine that with this kind of catastrophe on the line, the question Smith gets asked the most is, "When is going to blow next?"

The three Yellowstone super eruptions have occurred about 800,000 years apart, so people have started to speculate that another one is due.

Also, in 2004 Smith noticed that the ground had started to rise then lowered again in 2010. It was like the supervolcano was breathing.

However, Smith says there is absolutely no need to panic. "We create scenarios. We know roughly what to expect of the patterns of time and space of the earthquakes ground information. Again, acquired from other experiences around the world. We use that to interpret our own data in terms of what the potential threat or risk might be," says Smith.

For him, the more immediate threat is earthquakes and smaller eruptions since the probability of one of those instances occurring is much higher.

Whether that may be comforting or not, millions of visitors will still make their way each year to the geological wonderland that is Yellowstone National Park.

source : CNN

Rahasia Panjang Umur Wanita Berusia 116 Tahun

VIVAnews -- Minggu 26 Agustus 2012 adalah hari bahagia bagi Besse Cooper. Ia merayakan ulang tahunnya ke-116, usia yang belum tentu bisa dilalui semua orang.

Peta ultah perempuan yang ditasbihkan sebagai yang tertua di dunia itu berlangsung meriah, dikelilingi keluarga besar dan teman di panti jompo yang jadi tempat tinggalnya saat ini.

Putranya, Sidney Cooper mengaku, meski didatangi banyak orang, ibunya tak mau ulang tahunnya dirayakan secara besar-besaran hingga menghabiskan banyak dana.

Suatu hari, Besse Cooper diminta mengungkapkan rahasia umur panjangnya. Dengan suara pelan ia menyebut, "aku hanya memikirkan urusanku sendiri dan menjauhi makanan tak sehat, junk food," kata dia, berkomentar untuk Guinness World Records.

Pernyataannya itu sesuai dengan cara hidupnya yang menjadi obyek pengamatan putranya. Bahwa, "makin tua usia Besse Cooper, makin jenaka sang ibu".

Sydney Cooper juga menyebut, usia panjang Sang Ibu disebabkan gaya hidupnya yang aktif, hidup sehat, dan pribadinya yang tegar.

"Selama hidupnya ia belum pernah dioperasi," kata Sydney Cooper kepada Georgia Health News, tentang ibunya yang luar biasa. Dia menambahkan, ibunya menghindari makanan berlemak dan banyak makan sayuran.

"Ia tak pernah makan junk food," kata dia, meski mengakui kadang Besse menikmati keripik kentang, bacon, telur, dan ayam goreng. Tapi tak ada yang berlebihan. Besse lebih banyak makan sayur dan melakukan kegiatan di luar rumah, seperti menyapu dan memelihara rerumputan. "Tak ada masalah serius pada kesehatannya." Hanya faktor usia yang melemahkan fisiknya.

Besse lahir pada 26 Agustus 1896 di Sullivan, Tennessee dan akhirnya pindah ke Georgia pada 1917.  Ia menikahi suaminya, Luther Cooper pada 1924 dan menghasilkan empat buah hati. Sejak ditinggal wafat suaminya pada 1963, Besse tak pernah menikah lagi.

Saat ini Besse punya 12 cucu, sejumlah cicit, dan bahkan buyut. Untuk memperingati momentum ulang tahunnya, namanya diabadikan dalam sebuah jembatan.

Jembatan yang melintang di Sungai Alcovy, di New Hope Road, terletak di Between, Georgia, di mana ia mengabdi sebagai guru di usia 19 tahun.

"Jembatan itu sebelumnya tanpa nama, kebetulan letaknya dekat dengan rumah yang dulu ia tinggali," kata Sydney. Sayangnya Besse tak bisa hadir ke jembatan itu. Namun ia mengaku sangat senang.

Besse dinobatkan jadi perempuan hidup tertua di dunia versi Guinness Book of World Records, Januari 2011 lalu. Namun, perempuan kelahiran Brasil, Maria Gomes Valentin ternyata diketahui 48 hari lebih tua.

Meninggalnya Valentin pada 21 Juni 2011 kembali menjadikan Besse sebagai yang tertua di dunia. Selama hidupnya itu, ia telah menyaksikan banyak hal, perang, perubahan zaman, pergantian abad, milenium, dan perjalanan nasib banyak orang.

Sumber: Daily Mail dan vivanews

Hurricane Isaac: New Orleans takes a beating - but it's not Katrina

The category one hurricane moved into Louisiana late on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning was sitting southwest of the city of New Orleans.

The city has been hit with winds of up to 85mph and more than nine inches of rain, with the storm due to continue for another day.

But apart from some buildings in the city suffering from minor storm damage and trees being uprooted, New Orleans appears to have avoided the worst of the storm and a repeat of the devastation caused by Katrina. Multi-billion dollar flood defences built after Katrina largely held up, according to the Army Corp of Engineers.

The eye of the storm will not move over New Orleans, and the storm was downgraded late on Wednesday to a tropical stoM although the Mayor of the city Mitch Landrieu announced a dusk to dawn curfew - to keep people safe and discourage looting. 

Areas of the city near Lake Pontchartrain were hit by flooding, which closed roads, but did not appear to threaten homes.

In the city’s French Quarter, resident Jimmy Maiuri said he had no regrets at staying put, though he was amazed at the storm’s timing.

“It’s definitely not one to take lightly, but it’s not Katrina,” he said. “No one is going to forget Aug. 29 forever, not here at least.”

Low lying areas near to the Gulf Coast have however been hit by severe flooding, forcing people from their homes. 

Across the state, more than 500,000 homes and business were left without power.

And forecasters have warned that the storm is unlikely to pass until Thursday at the earliest, meaning Louisiana is likely to be hit with heavy wind and rain for the next day, with some forecasters warning worse weather is yet to come.

The worst hit areas included Braithwaite and Plaquemines Parish, both low-lying areas south of New Orleans on the Gulf Coast. 

The storm caused flood waters to breach flood defences, trapping residents in the attics and the roofs of their homes. Local television stations carried reports of residents being rescued by boats after the floodwater engulfed their homes.

One woman told local television that her home along with those of her neighbours has been destroyed

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said about 2,000 residents of the area had been ordered to evacuate but only about half were known to have escaped before Isaac arrived.

“On the east bank right now, we have reports of people on their roofs and attics and 12 to 14 foot of water (in their homes),” Mr Nungesser told CNN. 

“This storm has delivered more of a punch than people thought.”

Mr Nungesser told the Times-Picayune newspaper: “The devastation of my house is worse than Katrina and the flooding in Woodlawn is worse than Katrina, so those things tell me that the damage on the east bank is worse than Katrina.”

In Jefferson County, another low-lying region south of New Orleans, a curfew was put in place from dusk on Wednesday until dawn on Thursday morning in an attempt to keep people off the streets and away from the howling winds and floodwaters. 

Overall, the damage caused by Isaac is unlikely to match the devastation wrought by Katrina in 2005, when 1,800 were killed by a category five storm and tens of thousands were left homeless.

Early estimates suggested Isaac could cause as much as $2.5 billion (£1.6 billion) in economic losses. The figure however pales in comparison to the $125 billion caused by Katrina.

However the full picture of damage is unlikely to be known until Thursday at the earliest. A response effort cannot begin until the winds drop to about 30mph.

“It’s going to be frustrating,” Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said. “The response will start when conditions allow, not when the sun shines.” 

SOURCE

Shopping All Variant Shoes

In the month of Ramadan, people are usually busy shopping for Lebaran (Idul Fitri) preparation. Well, as we know that not only our hearts are prepared in this month, but also the physical form such new clothes are prepared in this month. He-he.

Well, for those of you who love shopping for shoes, Bandung Review has a good suggestion for you. Just come directly to Quina shoes in Dago Plaza which is located in Ir. H Djuanda (Dago) street no.61-63 Bandung.

Probably for you who like hang out in Dago Plaza, you will be familiar with Quina shoes store because it is already known for its uniqueness and its affordable prices.

This shoe store is one of shoe stores of my friend’s favorite. When I saw the shoe store at first, the shoe store looks normal, nothing special, just like the other shoe stores, even from the outside it looks not highly formalized and a lot of shoe boxes are piling up.



Besides that, there’s something that makes me confused, “what’s make this store sold?” after I got in, I was quite surprised because it served with the shoes that although the drafting is not too neat, but the shoes are lined up on shelves is really interesting and unique.

Several of interesting shoes, such as, oxford shoes, flat shoes, wedges, sport and boots are available in this store. You could just buy shoes that are available here, with prices ranging from 95.000 IDR.

You can also order shoes with your own design. You just have to give its design and pay a half price in advance and paid off when the shoe is finished. The prices of order shoes with your own design can be said is affordable, with prices ranging from 130.000 IDR guys, is it cheap right? The time of making shoe is about 1-3 weeks. It also depends on the level of difficulty of shoes that you order.

The material of the shoes is varied, such as, genuine leather and synthetic leather, it’s depending on request. Design of the shoes is unique; the quality of the shoes is assured and the price is very friendly for your wallet. He-he

Finally I understand why so many boxes of shoes that piled up in Quina shoes. Actually it is the shoes that have been ordered by many customers so that they piled up the boxes of shoes. Consequently, it is reducing the aesthetic value of shoe store. I immediately reminded about the quote that appropriate with the situation of this shoe store, that is “don’t look the books from the cover”.

At that time I immediately bought oxford shoes in Quina shoes. I am satisfied with my purchase; the shoe is good quality with affordable prices.

For you who do not know about this shoe store, this could be an appropriate reference for you especially in preparation for Lebaran. You can get shoes with a good quality and the price is very comfortable for your wallet. So, what are you waiting for? Happy shopping guys! (FCU)


source : bandung review