Posted on 01/15/2003 4:25:48 PM PST by blam
Two volcanic systems 'connected deep beneath surface'
Geologists say an outpouring of lava from the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii that began last May may have stemmed from activity beneath neighbouring Mauna Loa.
The statement revives a decades-old debate over whether the two volcanic systems are connected.
"We have detected a correlation between these events at a very short time scale," scientists reported in the current issue of the journal Nature.
The scientists have long believed that Mauna Loa, the world's largest volcano, and Kilauea are connected deep beneath the Earth's surface.
But the new study suggests there is a shallow interaction between the magma systems of Mauna Loa and Kilauea, reported Peter Cervelli and Asta Miklius of the US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory at Kilauea.
A volcano expert who did not contribute to the Hawaii study said it supports the idea that there is a shallow common magma reservoir within the volcanoes.
"We know there's ultimately a single source. This indicates that they're probably a little more complicated than that and there are interactions between their two systems," said Paul Segall, a geophysicist at Stanford University.
Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times in the last 150 years, most recently in spring 1984, when a three-week eruption sent a 16-mile lava flow toward Hilo.
The current Pu`u `O`o-Kupaianaha eruption at Kilauea began 20 years ago and ranks as the most voluminous outpouring of lava on the volcano's east rift zone in the past six centuries.
Story filed: 13:54 Wednesday 15th January 2003
Yup, 600,000 year "super-volcano' cycle. It's 40,000 years overdue. The last time it erupted, it put six foot of ash all over Nebraska. Hmmmm
Super volcano Toba blew about 75,000 years ago and only 2,000-5,000 humans worldwide survived.
All nations would cease to exist. The biggest cause of death would be starvation.
I've given some thought to this and have concluded that the best place to be may be in the polar regions. Anything that died there would instantly freeze and could be used for food for a long time.
http://www.cdnn.info/article/tsunami/tsunami.html
Yup. Scary. I saw a program about this, and others, on one of the documentary channels.
Note: this topic is from 1/15/2003. Thanks blam.
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