Story 2014-10-18 2TF4 Man versus lava; Hawaii versus hurricane

Man versus lava; Hawaii versus hurricane

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in environment on (#2TF4)
story imageHawaii's Kilauea lava flow that began in June appears to have stalled, after slowing for more than a month. Coincidentally, just in time for residents of the islands to prepare to be hit by tropical storm Ana. The lava flow did relatively little damage, destroying roads but leaving threatened communities relatively unscathed. But active volcanoes are unpredictable, and the flow could resume at any time.

With that, we take a look back on ways that people have tried, and often failed, to contain or divert lava flows. From George S Patton ordering bombing runs on Hawaii's Mauna Loa in 1935, to spraying 6.8 billion liters of water on Iceland's Eldfell lava flow over a five month period, dismissively called "peeing on the lava". The US Geological Survey suggests that the Iceland (and Etna) diversion "may not have succeeded had their respective eruptions continued".

If Ana's winds increase to hurricane-force, it could become the first hurricane to make landfall on the islands in the past 22 years, illustrating Hawaii's peculiar immunity to hurricanes that scientists have been left to speculate about for decades. The island of Kauai being the notable exception.
Reply 5 comments

Great article (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-10-18 19:44 (#2TF5)

Nice one, evilviper. I wasn't aware of what's going on. I was expecting to read that somehow the combination of wind and lava were combining to exacerbate the lava's destruction however, and that's not the case:
However, there is worry that the flow may start up again, and if it does, locals may be battling natural disasters on two fronts.

That's because tropical storm Ana is still bearing down on Hawaii, and there remains a chance that it can still spin up to hurricane-force winds before making landfall.

"In addition to the high winds, high surf and storm surge may be expected as well as heavy rains and thunder showers. " the HCD reported. "We are asking Hawaii Island residents to monitor your local radio broadcasts for updates and to prepare for possible storm conditions which could begin to affect the Big Island by Friday."

In preparation for this, the US Coast Guard plans to close all Hawaii ports east of Oahu on Friday, and could also close the ports of Honolulu and Nawiliwil over the weekend, according to Hawaii News Now.
So, just dealing with lots of trouble at once - not as big a deal as I thought.

Re: Great article (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-19 01:05 (#2TF7)

Not too squarely on the main topic of technology & electronics, but it's sciency and I found it interesting enough. Plus I figured the weekend was going to be pretty dead (no Friday Distro?) and wanted to come up with something...

Re: Great article (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-10-19 14:14 (#2TFG)

I think the general mandate here is science and technology, and not so much of that drama-bait being posted elsewhere, so this is a direct hit. As for Friday Distro, I'm looking around for another good one. Last couple rolls of the dice have all been "Ubuntu but with LXDE and a great theme!" type distros - boring, and not that useful!

Re: Great article (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-19 17:04 (#2TFR)

How about some utility-type distros once in a while?

* http://www.linux.com/directory/Distributions/livecd

Haven't ever seen System Rescue CD, OpenWRT or Zentyal mentioned here. Even "Android-x86" and "Chrome OS Linux" could be... weird and interesting subjects.

Re: Great article (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-10-19 19:57 (#2TG0)

That's exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping to look into. Thanks for the tip.