Volcanoes

[Cudedog]

Wow Anne, thanks for ll this information. Wish I could hear one of your talks.

Thanks, Sue. I would love to give one.

Maybe one day we will meet at a GTG somewhere. LOL.

I can see it now: five or ten ladies (And dogs! There must be dogs!) all gathered around, sitting in folding chairs, drinking coffee. I start to yak. And yak. And yak. One by one the ladies suddenly realize that they have something "important" to do inside their rigs. I don't notice, I just keep right on yakking!!

I have been fascinated by volcanoes since a very young child, I think my interest began when I was six or seven years old and I first saw the 1935 version of "The Last Days of Pompeii", on my family's black-and-white, twelve-inch, tv.

The film scared the living crap out of me at the time (I saw it again a few years ago, and thought it a total snore). I had volcano nightmares for months, drove my parents crazy, they could not convince me that the mountains, surrounding the San Fernando Valley where I grew up, were not all volcanoes, all ready to blow. I think, to allay my fears, I decided to learn about volcanoes instead of just being terrified by them.

ANYWAY!!

SHEILA, Beth and Sandi: !! It was a "two-fer" last night!! Thanks for mentioning, and thanks for helping me find these programs!!

Checking the PBS channel on Roku last night for "Living Volcanoes" (a "Nature" program), I found that the program had been posted to the channel since I had originally checked, so was able to watch it on my big screen tv.

And, after I finished with "Living Volcanoes", I noticed that the latest episode of PBS's "Nova" program was also about volcanoes, and had also been posted, "The Next Pompeii".

What a treat!! Both programs were about volcanoes, both very different one from the other, both really, really excellent. Be still my heart!!

If anyone missed watching these on your local PBS station, they can still be streamed online from the PBS website, and watched online on most computers.

Thanks again!

Crazy Anne

[Cudedog]

I watched the show about the Naples caldera last night. I was thinking who in their right mind would build there. Of course, I'm the nervous nelly that was worried about camping next to an extinct volcano that hasn't erupted in a million years. I need to quit watching the nature shows. Now I'm worried about a tsunami.

Martha

Hi Martha!!

If you are a "nervous nelly", then that makes me one too. I don't mind camping near an extinct volcano - actually, I live within a couple of miles of one (the Sutter Buttes, in Northern California):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutter_Buttes

But I am absolutely positive I wouldn't want to live near an active volcano, like Campi Flegrei, or Vesuvius. The thing about Campi Flegrei, as suggested in the "Nova" program, is that if they are correct regarding the theory about the concrete-like "cap" above the magma chamber (that is currently preventing the volcano from erupting) is that if this "cap" has a sudden failure (as mentioned in the "Nova" program, the land above it has been rising and falling for many years, and, thus, supposedly "flexing", up-and-down) an eruption could happen quite suddenly, and has the potential to be massive.

Mt. St. Helens erupted with little to no "advance warning". Although months of minor eruptions, and strong earthquakes, maybe should have been a hint - unfortunately for the people killed in this eruption, volcanology was in it's infancy then.

A few USGS scientists at the time - including 30-year-old vulcanologist Dr. David Johnston - warned of the possibility of a major eruption, but were basically ignored. David Johnston died in the eruption. Which makes for another interesting - and a bit controversial - volcano story: Had he been listened to, he might still be alive today.

St. Helen's flattened 250 square miles of surrounding forest, much of it comprised of massive "old growth" tress.

So, no, Martha, I don't think you are a nervous nellie. At all. For myself, I might think twice before even visiting Naples for more than a day. If that. So I probably have you beat in the "Nervous Nellie" department.

And, er . . . I have a "thing" about tsunami's, too!! But we won't talk about that right now!

Great Minds Think Alike.

Anne

[SoCalGalcas]

Thanks Annie for all your input. I could listen to you all day!!! Lyn

[Bethers]

I have a thing about earthquakes. Since they cause tsunamis you can rest assured I have a thing about tsunamis, also.

[JudyJB]

Anne, you should go to Vesuvius! And the most beautiful island in the world--Santorini--while you are at it. I visited Santorini in 2005 as part of an Eastern Mediterranean cruise. The ships enter the Santorini caldera, but there are no big docks and the sea is too deep to anchor, so for the entire time they are there, the ships keep their engines running and sort of "hover" in place. Interesting to see the layers from various old eruptions. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back.

I also got to see the ruins of the city of Akrotiri, also very interesting, but unlike Vesuvius, they had plenty of time to leave. In fact, they had started to repair some of the damage from the pre-eruption earthquakes, but they finally had to leave. They found no bodies on the island and no hoards of treasure, so apparently the residents had time to pack. The city of Akrotiri was pretty well cleaned out of valuables and personal belongings. All they have found is one small bracelet on the way to the sea on the outside of the island. (There is a TV program out there showing screaming and panicking people running to the beach with the volcano exploding in the background, and that is just not how it happened. These people understood volcanos and earthquakes because they were common in that area, so they knew to pack up fairly early, although a few people may have have left late.)

OK, we need to plan a trip!!

[monik7]

I certainly wouldn’t LIVE anywhere near Vesuvius, but my dream trip would be to Pompeii, Herculaneum and then Santorini.
Sandi

[snowball]

I have lived for the most part of my life in two area's that one day it will happen
Born and raised in Jackson WY not far from Yellowstone which one day will blow!!! and when it does no one will be unaffected as I understand it.
then for 30 years we lived in Salt Lake City major fault that one day it will happen not a if but a when....
and have learned that one just lives that when could be tomorrow or 2 thousand years from now just can't let possibility govern our lives
sheila

[Cudedog]

Anne, you should go to Vesuvius! . . .

OK, we need to plan a trip!!

Probably I should go see Vesuvius. I was within a hundred miles of Vesuvius one time, long ago (I was in my early 20's), but I was on a train to somewhere else, was feeling ill, so didn't stop. On the other hand, there is a cool 4K video on youtube of someone walking through the city. Almost like being there! Only without the expense, jet lag and travel hassle.

Akrotiri on Santorini would be a pretty awesome trip, indeed. One problem, though. If my Big Joe can't go. . . then I don't go. I know, I know, I am strange and weird and all of that, and I am really "missing out" (probably).

But that's the way it is.

But thanks for suggesting it.

Anne

[JudyJB]

I would like to go to Vesuvius, also, but ditto on the jet lag. If I ever manage to go back to Europe, it will be from the East Coast where the flight is only 7 hours and a few minutes. I flew last spring from SFO and it was a killer 11 hours going and slightly more coming back. My tailbone was killing me the entire way there, so I bought a piece of foam and put a hole in it in the "appropriate" place so I could make it back home again. I think the foam wears out in airplane seats because it was hard, even though I upgraded myself to a premium seat. Could barely walk afterwards!

I saw that recent program on volcanos, also. They have had a series of them in the last week or so. So, I am waiting for your volcano talk.

[Cudedog]

I have lived for the most part of my life in two area's that one day it will happen Born and raised in Jackson WY not far from Yellowstone which one day will blow!!! and when it does no one will be unaffected as I understand it. then for 30 years we lived in Salt Lake City major fault that one day it will happen not a if but a when....and have learned that one just lives that when could be tomorrow or 2 thousand years from now just can't let possibility govern our lives sheila

Sheila:

Thanks for your post. I agree with what you write here, I really do. 100%. I don't worry too much about Yellowstone, although I do understand the potential destruction it might cause. As you say, it might go tomorrow, it might not go for another five thousand years or so. Our current civilization might be gone by then as well.

But.

On the other hand, the fact that I was evacuated out of my home for four days in 2017, when they thought that the emergency spillway at Oroville dam was failing (after the main spillway had failed already), which would have sent a 50-foot wall of water down the Feather River . . .

. . . and the fact that the Butte County Sheriff, Cory Hoening, stated publicly after it was over (it was Mr. Hoening that called for the evacuation) that he was thinking not about who might be killed, but rather about how many thousands might die if the spillway failed. He also said that it had been a very near thing.

This kind of puts a different spin on things, gives them a more immediacy, and gives insight on how one thinks about things that "might or might not happen in future". It changes a persons perspective. At least it did for me.

When I got home that day, and turned on the tv, the bulletin scrolling across the tv screen said that the spillway might fail within the hour: "This is NOT a drill. Evacuate NOW".

Lucky for me that I just turned around, got back in my van, and drove away, while the roads were still clear. I got out well before tens of thousands of people in my immediate area were all trapped in total gridlock.

And, lucky for all of us, the spillway held.

It could have been much different. Especially for those gridlocked.

But, hey. I do like to worry. I guess. I would still like to move, but it just isn't currently in the cards. So I "stay aware". It's the best I - or anyone - can do.

To ignore "potentials", particularly having experienced one - actually, more than one - is just not "me".

One of these days I'll write a post about the time I was staying with my kids and (ex) husband in a motel, in Sylmar, when the ground began to shake and the nearby freeways fell down. We were trapped for many hours, through many additional aftershocks.

It definitely was an "exciting" time.

Worry wart Anne

[JudyJB]

Anne, what you experienced was the difference between a potential natural disaster with no human hands involved to one that was created by humans. By that I mean that humans decided to build the biggest and tallest dam possible, and then allow development in the area which would be affected by a flood if the dam every broke. Of course, they figured it would never break, because after all, they had built it not to break! Duh. Everything eventually breaks.

And it was the humans who decided whether and when to call for an evacuation. Nature really had no way of warning you, as earthquakes and other events might have in places like Yellowstone. All you had was a warning screen on your TV and you made the right decision to get out fast, before everyone else did.

[Cudedog]

Check it out!

"California's Hidden Threat: High-Risk Volcanoes That Might Erupt in the Next Decade"

https://www.livescience.com/64872-california-volcanic-eruption-threat.html

LOL. Shasta - Medicine Lake - Lassen. Exactly what I have been talking about.

Anne, what you experienced was the difference between a potential natural disaster with no human hands involved to one that was created by humans.

True, excellent points, and I don't disagree.

However - dead is dead, so far as I can tell. No matter the cause of it.

Also, volcanoes don't always give much warning before they erupt. Often they do, but not always. Check with David Johnston on that one.

Anne