Tag: volcano

Connecting to Elementals: Fire Spirit Meditation

by Derek J. Healey, posted in Connecting to Fire Elementals, Meditations, Music & Media

This comes a bit early, but global events have sparked this post. More will come in the future for Fire Elementals, but until then I hope you enjoy this post and article.

For me, my favourite moments are:

3:04. Imagine this view outside your window.

5:43. Such a beautiful balance of lunar and earth fire energies.

7:05. As the clouds of ash cover the moon’s light, it can only be looked at with nostalgic awe and fear. True balance as the heart fire of the earth breaks free…

Below is the original article by Chris Carrington who is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared.

This article t details the Seven Volcanoes In Six Different Countries All Start Erupting Within Hours Of Each Other.

This hit me as strange, beautiful, and slightly worried. What is Mother Earth trying to tell us? About this ring of fire?

A new island has appeared in the Pacific. A submarine eruption just off Nishino-Shima Island Japan has erupted for the first time in 40 years. The Japanese Navy noticed the explosions as boiling lava met sea water giving rise to plumes of steam and ash.

Almost 7,000 miles away in Mexico, the Colima volcano blew its top after a period of relative calm. A steam and ash cloud rose two miles into the sky and the grumbling of the mountain could be heard in towns a few miles away.

In Guatemala the ‘Fire Mountain’ belched out lava and sent up a moderate ash cloud causing an ash fall over nearby towns. The explosions and shock waves occurring in the volcano can be felt by residents over 6 miles away. Doors and windows are reported to be rattling, but there has been no damage so far.

In Vanuatu the Yasur volcano is giving some cause for concern. Although the explosions are quite weak the continuous ash that is coming from the mountain is starting to build up on farming land.

Over to Italy, Mount Etna is putting on quite a display. The current eruption started a few days ago and has been getting stronger as time moves on. A massive eruption lit up the sky and disturbed residents yesterday. The ash cloud was high enough to see flights canceled. The lava flow was the biggest in years, and the town of Zafferana which lay in its path saw some damage. Lava diverters were put into place, and most of the town escaped unscathed.

In Indonesia a four mile high ash cloud is making life hard for residents. Mount Sinabung came back to life in 2010 after dormancy of hundreds of years. Occasionally coming to life after its 2010 awakening, the rumbling of the volcano prompted the evacuation of over 6000 people as scientists feared a major eruption. There has been no lava flows so far but the ash cloud is growing.

Mount Sinabung ash cloud

Still in Indonesia but on the island of Java this time, Mount Merapi exploded yesterday. Hundreds of people were killed when it last erupted in 2010. There is no news of casualties at this point.

So, we have eruptions big enough to prompt evacuations. Flights are canceled, and a new island pops up off the coast of Japan. I would have called that newsworthy myself but obviously I’m wrong. If I was right it would have been common knowledge right? Reports may have been on the news right?

So many volcanoes throwing so much gas, ash and particulates into the air can have an effect on climate, this is a scientific fact. I’m not saying that these volcanoes herald the start of a new ice age but the planet certainly seems to be getting a bit more active of late.

Continued large eruptions put a huge amount of particulate matter into the atmosphere, and these particles reflect sunlight away from earth and when there is enough of them the temperatures can drop.

The Mount Pinatubo eruption lowered temperatures by around 0.5°C across the Northern Hemisphere.

Considering that we are in a cooling period anyway, having so many volcanoes going off at the same time is not good. Aside from the devastating effects the lava and ash can have on the lives of those living near to them, the global impacts can be enormous.

Lost crops due to ash fall and lower temperatures can lead to hunger and famine, as happened after the Tambora eruption in 1815.

Economic losses due to lost crops and canceled flights runs into millions of dollars a day, as with the Icelandic eruption of Eyjafjallojkull (pronounced: aya fiat la u cud la) in 2010.

The spasms of the earth come without warning, but at the same time those spasms should be a wake up call to all of us that change can happen in the blink of an eye.

Better be prepared for it.

Sources:

Krakatoa Day

by Derek J. Healey, posted in Art, Events, Inspirational

edvard-munch-the-scream-01

Beneath all of our feet is a beautiful spinning orb of molten magma. It is the core of our very existence. Sometimes, if we are lucky, we get a glimpse into this deathly yet life sustaining energy. The doorways of active fault lines create monuments for all brave enough to see. One such monument was Perbuatan volcano in Krakatoa

One-hundred and thirty years ago in 1883, the loudest known explosion in our recorded history in Krakatoa erupted. The volcanic mammoth called Perbuatan erupted and the following day collapsed in four gigantic explosions that could be heard 3,000 miles (4600 kilometers) to Rodriguez Island in the Indian Ocean.  The shockwaves registered on barometers around the world, and the tsunamis released by its collapse decimated the area’s land, sky, and water life. Perbuatan’s released energy is estimated to be 10,000 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima (100+ megatons of TNT). According to recent figures, 36,000-100,000 people were sadly killed as a result.

The resulting sound wave rumbled 4600 kilometers to Rodriguez Island in the Indian Ocean. A plume of debris—magma, rock, and ash—rocketed 5 kilometers into the sky, as 18 cubic kilometers of the island exploded upward. Ash fell to the ground 840 kilometers away in Singapore. A 40-meter wave scoured a path that destroyed the coral reefs and coastal towns in its path. A cloud of volcanic sulphur dioxide and dust dissipated 50 miles high into the stratosphere, creating green sunrises and red sunsets, and lowering global temperatures as much as 1/2 degree centigrade for five years following the blast.

“In London, the evening sky in November 1883 turned such an intense red that people thought there was a huge fire and called out fire engines. In Norway, blood red sunsets are thought to have inspired Edvard Munch’s surreal sky in The Scream, as he wrote at the time: ‘clouds like blood and tongues of fire hung above the blue-black fjord and the city.’ The dusty atmosphere also made the sun and moon turn blue or green, and in 1884 another phenomenon, the Bishop’s ring, appeared, as bluish-white, bronze and brown circles enveloped the sun.”

A massive underwater crater and a sickle-shaped, barren remnant of land were all that remained after the eruption; and the new landmass named Rakatoa was born.

However, what was uninhabitable by humans would soon to become a paradise for new life.

“In the months and years that followed the eruption, wildlife returned to the island by surprising methods. Spiders released silken threads into the wind and took to the air, floating over miles of open water before falling down on their new island home. Scientists suspect that the monitor lizard and the reticulated python swam to the island. Bats and birds—brave enough to venture out from the safe forest cover of Java and Sumatra—flew to the island. Rafts of floating debris such as logs or branches, provided transport for larger animals: mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.

Once these animals arrived to Rakata, they entered a growing, dynamic environment. The new arrivals created and filled novel habitats, continually changing and reshaping the face of Rakata. Some creatures flourished and then became extinct without explanation. Others remained extant when conditions were far from ideal. Populations of some species have reached an equilibrium while other populations continue to grow or decrease.

Krakatau and Rakata offer much hope for the resiliency of ecological systems. If you were to visit Rakata today, after a mere century of recolonization—a quick flash in geological time—you would see an island teaming with life. By studying the pattern of recolonization, regrowth, and population dynamics on Rakata, we can extrapolate and apply this understanding to help manage the isolated wildlands carved out by human development.”

This is why we need balance in the world. Coming to terms with this dynamic living on our Mother Earth is hard to digest at first. Understanding however does not condone the horrors that are caused as a result of an act of nature. These acts are out of our hands, save the hand of the HAARP Project. Mother Earth is a living breathing super-organism that is self sustaining, however her methods are not always safe, but they are always beautiful. If we can learn to appreciate the enormous power that our planet’s biosphere and natural world community has, we can learn something.These self-reinforcing cycles of volcanic activity help to shape our world. Literally. They shape the very land we walk on, the very air we breath, and the very waters we drink. We as smart humans should learn from our past and attempt to live more in alignment with nature, and create systems to promote our own self sustainability using our Earth-given intelligence.

REFERENCES