Geology Picture of the Week: End of summer 2003 3-for-1 deal!

Various | Various

[cogitator]

1. New images of Ol Doinyo Lengai (and videos)!

Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, Tanzania (the world's strangest volcano)

2. New Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission data for the Guiana Highlands:

The SRTM site has high-resolution TIFFS of the new world data and the Guiana Highlands, but the file sizes are several MB, watch out.

3. And since we're on the subject of the Guiana Highlands, here's the most famous landmark in the area:

Angel Falls

[cogitator]

Can't beat this deal!

[cogitator]

** ping ** ping ** ping **

[cogitator]

And while we're on the subject, aren't we all glad that
the discoverer of the falls was named Jimmy Angel and not
Jimmy Kowalczuk?

[aruanan]

Beautiful volcano, but I think that the mud volcanoes of Azerbaijan are just as strange, especially since they incorporate hydrocarbon release.

[capitan_refugio]

I knew Jimmy Kowalczuk. Jimmy Kowalczuk was a friend of mine. Cogitiator, you're no Jimmy Kowalczuk! ;^)

(Nice geo-post, as usual.)

[cogitator]

Yup, those are strange, and I think that there could be a long and protracted argument about what a "volcano" really is, but we won't do that. Suffice it to say that there are more strange things in this world than even we can imagine, Horatio.

Below is a backcountry wonder in Yellowstone that very few people have ever seen.

Here's another view. It's called Fairyland Basin. I actually met the Park Ranger who "discovered" it (it had been described but the location lost for several years until he found it again); he was unfortunately killed in an avalanche a few years after I met him.

<IMG SRC="http://209.238.151.128/flb16.jpg"

[cogitator]

Oops.

[aruanan]

Yup, those are strange, and I think that there could be a long and protracted argument about what a "volcano" really is, but we won't do that. Suffice it to say that there are more strange things in this world than even we can imagine, Horatio.

Beautiful! I suppose there could be ice volcanoes on Europa if there are sulfur volcanoes on Io. These would be eruptions of molten material, in the same way that lava is molten, but unlike mud, which is just liquid.

[aruanan]

I wonder why they'd name a place Fairyland packed with numerous upright formations that looked as though they were in past hot spouters.

[cogitator]

I wonder why they'd name a place Fairyland packed with numerous upright formations that looked as though they were in past hot spouters.

Chuckle. According to what I gleaned from the Web, the name "Fairyland" comes from GOSA publication (in 1993, I think), and the name came from a fanciful connection of the shape of the features to hobbits, elves, gnomes, etc. Perhaps, given the connotations of "fairy", a better suggestion would have been "Middle Earth Basin"?

[aruanan]

The clips from the African volcano are pretty nice. Note what sounds like igniting gas accompanying the ash.