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Real Power: Volcano Puts Human Power in Perspective
Hat tip Power Line blog for pointing to an excellent eight-minute video on the massive volcanic eruption in Tonga. Tonga is a nation of islands, administratively organized into five groups. The northernmost group includes two small islands, Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai, that are really the surface evidence of a large volcano. They mark two points on the rim of the caldera. The latest and largest eruption in a very long time was captured on a Japanese and an American satellite, as well as by live phone video before the collapse of international communications. This eruption resulted in measurable increased water on the continental U.S. West Coast, with surges of 1 to 2 feet over 5,000 miles away from the source. The longer-term effect, depending on just how much ash is ejected high into the atmosphere, may be global temperature change for a year or more.
Steven Hayward at Power Line pointed out the potential physical and political/cultural effect:
One thing I am wondering is whether the ash clouds from this eruption will compare closely with the Mount Pinatubo eruption of 1991, whose immense ash cloud hung in the atmosphere such that it depressed global temperatures by about a full degree for 18 months or so. I’ve seen speculation that it might, and if so it will roil the climate change debate.
Scott Manley provides an excellent explanatory video, worth eight minutes of your time. The images of the shock wave and the massive smoke and ash cloud are truly impressive, putting human power and technology in perspective. The energy released was far beyond the most massive explosive we have ever created.
Here is the view from Australia:
https://youtu.be/MVMu3UmkBTE
The New Zealand Herald reports the eruption is likely a once in a millennium event:
[Auckland University volcanologist] Dr Cronin said the Hunga eruption was a one-in-1000-year event.
Radiocarbon dating suggested one major eruption of this scale occurred about AD1100 and another in AD200, he said.
“This, along with other data from the volcanic ash records, suggests a recurrence interval of 900 to 1000 years for very large eruptions at the volcano.
“The current eruption seems to be one of these large events which fits with the timing since the last of these in [circa] AD1100.”
This latest display of the earth’s power, quite apart from human endeavor and impervious to human intervention, calls to mind the psalmist’s observation around 3,000 years ago:
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
— Psalm 8: 3-4 KJV
Published in General
Wow! But it won’t roil the climate change debate. Those people are impervious to logic or any data that conflicts with their narrative. They’ll find a hundred and one ways to explain a thing if they have to. Empty shelves due to Biden’s stupid policies? Don’t be dense, you racist, it’s Climate Change!
It’s quite simple really. IANAC, but climatologically speaking, the warmer the air gets, the lighter it is (per cu. in.). All this atmospheric warming has made the atmosphere so light that it doesn’t weigh enough to hold down the volcanos anymore. Thus, kaboom. It’s all Trump’s fault.
I knew it!
In addition, this just proves that if we drove electric cars, none of this would be happening.
Twitter was full of morons proclaiming the moral superiority of semi-literate islanders everywhere who have been fighting global wanking for years… because of volcanoes I suppose.
When you live at 1 foot above sea level you get cautious.
Fabulous. Thank you for posting. And remember Krakatoa, east of Java.
If you garden, buy some short season varieties now. It might be a cool summer.
One of Troy’s best on Kite and Key
Thanks for sharing this information Clifford. As a geoscientist, it is incredible to see plate tectonics in action like this. Frightening, but incredible. Leftists could benefit from a good Geology101 course – but of course they are absorbed in more useful subjects like gender studies and CRT.
I’d love to hear Rep. Hank Johnson’s (D-Ga.) take on this. He’s the guy that said this:
In a discussion regarding a planned military buildup on the Pacific island, Johnson expressed some concerns about the plans to Adm. Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific fleet.
“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize,” Johnson said. Willard paused and replied, “We don’t anticipate that.”
That might have been before my time. What was it like?
I can’t believe this wasn’t just dry humor.
Actually, I’ve been writing an opera called Krakatoa, East of Java for decades now. I’ve just composers block for after the first 16 measures. It’s a story of sacrifice and love lost.
Hank Johnson: “My new fear is that a piece of hot lava will shoot from the volcano, burning a hole in through the bottom of the island, causing it to sink instead of capsize…”
Adm. Willard pauses and replies: – “Sir, we’ve procured several hundred orders of ‘FlexSeal’ and feel confident we can stop any sinking or leaking”
5th bar: exit stage left, pursued by lava.
Well, that would cut it down from my intended 3 1/2 hours. Actually it has to do with human sacrifice, and stranded English sailor who falls in love with the sacrificial virgin, the chief tries to thwart him, the sacrifice gets, um, rendered useless, escape in a proa, ends with kettle drums and a bang. All the singers sing arias to their God or gods as they float up into the clouds, expressing relief or consternation.
It ends with a British scribbler in India hearing an explosion, and getting an idea, and starts writing madly, while humming “Krakatoa, Krakatoa! Krakatoa let me go!” That sort of thing. It’ll be pretty highbrow.
Come to think of it, that’d be an even better line than any I ever heard in high school.
Be careful that you don’t commit cultural appropriation. They’ll treat you like an Aztec sacrifice if you do.
Good point. More negative effects on food production?
Apparently one of the islands is now two, as the center collapsed and then was blasted up into the sky in the first large eruption.
I can’t believe that there are Ricochetti who do not know about Krakatoa. Didn’t you learn about this in middle school science? https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/day-historic-krakatau-eruption-1883
It was heard halfway around the world if I recall.