Why the White Island Volcano
Eruption Was So Dangerous
Popular Mechanics,
by
Jennifer Leman
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
12/12/2019 7:52:01 AM
On Monday, December 9, New Zealand's White Island volcano erupted seemingly without warning. Within two minutes, a violent cloud of steam, ash, and rock—called a pyroclastic density current—tumbled down the volcano’s flank. A cloud of volcanic ash stretched thousands of feet into the sky.
At the time the volcano erupted—just after 2:00 p.m. local time—47 tourists were scattered along the crater’s edge and down the volcano’s slopes. At press time, eight people have been confirmed dead, 28 are currently being treated, and nine are missing or presumed dead.
"My God, White Island volcano in New Zealand erupted today for first time since 2001. My family and I had gotten off it
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Gruntmedic 12/12/2019 8:27:26 AM (No. 259776)
The 8 were probably vaporized
2 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
MDConservative 12/12/2019 8:32:02 AM (No. 259783)
FTA: “I understand that a majority of people want to be entertained and don’t want to read a treatise on volcanology before visiting volcanoes, but most agencies will have the alert level posted." - An Expert
The alert level was posted. On the experts' scale of 1 to 5 it was a 1...and so? Sometimes stuff just happens. When is Yellowstone gonna blow? What's the scale say?
3 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Maggie2u 12/12/2019 9:03:58 AM (No. 259826)
Having lived in Seattle all my life and cleaned a light dusting of volcano ash from my car a couple of times, there is positively, absolutely, no way, I would hike the rim of a volcano that erupts every couple of years. But, that's just me.
7 people like this.
The volcano just undid 50 years of electric vehicle use in achingly PC NZ.
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
hurricanegirl 12/12/2019 9:13:13 AM (No. 259837)
"Why the White Island Volcano Eruption Was So Dangerous"
So let me hazard a guess as to why: Because volcanoes unpredictably and periodically spew molten lava, fire, rocks, and smoke?
12 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
udanja99 12/12/2019 9:13:30 AM (No. 259838)
I hiked the rim of the Rangitoto volcano just across the water from Auckland, NZ back in 2016. But it hasn’t erupted or shown any indication of activity for almost 600 years. I would never set foot on one which was still active.
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 12/12/2019 9:37:35 AM (No. 259864)
Imagine that, the Earth's activity and weather go on without regard for the feelings of humans. Being caught in a volcanic eruption, flood, rip tide, tornado, blizzard or forest fire is an excellent lesson in humility.
"pyroclastic density current" used to be called "lava." Is this how scientists draw bigger grants these days?
4 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
kono 12/12/2019 9:49:34 AM (No. 259870)
Risk, responsibility, and reward are all metaphysically interwoven. And where all are freely agreed upon, restrictions of liberty should be minimal, if not entirely absent for rational adults. The primary obligation of government in these situations is to ensure the absence of coercion.
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 12/12/2019 10:16:25 AM (No. 259902)
#4 Amen my very thought. This is going to make little Greta the global warming expert cry.
2 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
nelsonted1 12/12/2019 10:26:27 AM (No. 259913)
I make my own rifle bullets by melting a lead based recipe into molds and out come bullets. It is extremely volatile when any thing like water drops or damp lead is introduced causing explosions brought on by the water becoming steam. I dropped a n ingot into a two pint mixture of lead with the tiniest amount of moisture on the ingot. A huge glob burped out of the pot into my lap which could have burned me terribly. I re learned a lesson. it sounds like the water seeping into this volcano suddenly turned to steam causing this explosion. I can plan for my explosion. How would anyone plan for a lava -water mix exploding?
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
felixcat 12/12/2019 10:37:58 AM (No. 259935)
Thank you #7. If only natural or weather events or the wild animal that attacks some hiker was viewed as just that: an act of nature indifferent to our feelings.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 12/12/2019 10:39:48 AM (No. 259936)
A few years back, saw a documentary on Krakatoa. It was kind of similar to White Island only stronger. The entire island exploded, and there was practically nothing left. There was a British freighter that evacuated people , and bore the brunt of the explosion from 20-50 (?) miles away. The captain had sealed everybody below decks, covered himself with material that helped protect himself, and turned the ship into the shockwave/steamwave to keep it from being capsized. Amazingly, everybody on the ship survived. Britain gave the captain a medal. Sumatra (?) got hit with waves of debris and steam going over 100mph, and many people died.
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 12/12/2019 11:06:38 AM (No. 259971)
Sounds like visiting that volcano is like playing with a hand grenade with the pin half way out.
2 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Tennman 12/12/2019 12:43:37 PM (No. 260091)
So now little Greta Thunbore is going to sail there, stomp her little feet, scowl and yell "how dare you steal my future" at the volcano?
Didn't think so. in her mind it's only humans.
2 people like this.
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