Idle question of the day...

[seawasp]

... how many of you have actually witnessed (as in, with your own eyes, not on TV screens, etc.) a volcanic eruption? I have, I'm just wondering how large a percentage of the population has.

(Mine was the 1970 eruption of Hekla on Iceland; we overflew the lava field and then circled the erupting cone for some time in a private aircraft)

Comments

[seawasp]

In geologic terms, just yesterday -- there was an eruption of several CUBIC KILOMETERS of lava only about 3,000 years ago. New Mexico actually has a huge number of volcanoes of startlingly diverse types (as described here), and I'm actually rather surprised there hasn't been any activity in the last few thousand years, given the existence of a large magma body present below the surface and the fairly continuous history of volcanism.

I am not old at all! My FATHER was old, and as I'm not as old as him, I can't be old.

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I wonder what effect that has/had on the New Madrid quake/fault area. Or on the slight earthquake we had a couple months ago.

Oh, no, Ryk, you're not old. For certain values of "old."

[seawasp]

New Madrid is a separate phenomenon; currently I believe it's thought to be a mostly "fossil" fault that's just slowly releasing old pent-up energy, rather than being active.

I'm definitely young. The mirror here is just lying.