Geology Picture of the Week Bonus: WOW - Etna Eruption from Space Station

NASA Earth Observatory ^ | 11/05/2002

[cogitator]

Link post:

Geology Picture of the Week Bonus: WOW - Etna Eruption from Space Station

[cogitator]

And they might say on the Sicilian News: "We interrupt our regularly-scheduled eruptions and government collapse for this update on the election news from the United States."

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Spectacular, but it doesn't seem to have been taken from a very great height - doesn't seem all that much higher than what a commercial jet might get. Close-up?

[cogitator]

Spectacular, but it doesn't seem to have been taken from a very great height - doesn't seem all that much higher than what a commercial jet might get. Close-up?

Well, the Space Station is in low earth orbit, and I think that they're using pretty good cameras. You probably wouldn't see a view this good out of an airplane window, but aerial photography (at commercial jet liner altitude) would provide similar results. The Space Station just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

One of the two images linked in the article shows a wider view which is a better example of the Space Station altitude.

[JAWs]

I'm going straight to heck for this but...

Mama Mia! That'sa one spicy meatball!

[bandleader]

I guess that the Enviro-Wackos will find a way to blame the resulting air-pollution on Human-Beings!!!

[Kenny Bunk]

Those enviro-wackos can never understand that old Etna, Pinatubo, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Erebus in Antarctica, and others can put out more "pollution" in a day than 350 years of industrialization.

It's as hard to explain to them as the precession of the Earth's spin, and changes in orbital progress around the Sun. There's a lot on Earth, like Global Warming and Cooling, with which we simply have nothing to do.

[cogitator]

Those enviro-wackos can never understand that old Etna, Pinatubo, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Erebus in Antarctica, and others can put out more "pollution" in a day than 350 years of industrialization.

Depends on what kind of pollution you're talking about. Sulfur dioxide and ash, yes; carbon dioxide, no. SO2 emissions from volcanoes are on par with human emissions (primarily from coal burning) -- obviously they put out a lot of ash -- but they aren't a significant source of CO2.