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Top 33 volcanoes on Earth

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:04:55 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08

Top 33 Volcanoes

Volcanoes are the result of the tectonic movements of the Earth's crust, when magma from the entrails of the planet goes out as lava. They became present in the legends and mythology of all people living around them, which venerated and feared them at the same time.

Clip Source: news.softpedia.com

Amongst the hundreds of active or non-active volcanoes, here is a list that we should all know, about the most significant volcanoes on Earth. They are not aligned by size or importance.

1.The most important volcano in North America is Mount Saint Helens, located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the US, at 96 miles (154 km) south of the city of Seattle and 53 miles (85 km) northeast of Portland, Oregon. This active volcano is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes. St Helens is the fourth volcanic peak in the Cascade Range.

Tags: volcanoes, geology, tectonic movements, phenomena, vesuvius, mount saint helens, lava, eruption

Quakes Under Pacific Ocean Floor Reveal Unexpected Circulation System

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:32:02 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.nsf.gov

Zigzagging some 60,000 kilometers across the ocean floor, Earth's system of mid-ocean ridges plays a pivotal role in many workings of the planet: in plate-tectonic movements, heat flow from the interior, and the chemistry of rock, water and air.

The systems pull in cold water, superheat it, then spit it back out from seafloor vents--a process that brings up not only hot water, but dissolved substances from rocks below. Unique life forms feed off the vents' stew, and valuable minerals including gold may pile up.

water moves a lot faster than previously thought--perhaps a billion gallons per year--through these systems. The water appears to descend instead through a buried 200-meter-wide chimney atop the ridge studied on the East Pacific Rise, run below the ridge along its axis through a tunnel just above a magma chamber, then bubble back up through a series of vents further along the ridge.

Tags: geology, ocean

Back-seat toilet to end mishaps in traffic jams

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:34:12 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Beep, beep! Just using the bathroom. Beep, beep, WHAT?

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A Japanese manufacturer has developed a new portable toilet for cars, equipped with a curtain for privacy and a plastic bag to collect waste.

The Kaneko Sangyo Co, a manufactuer of plastic car accessories, unveiled its new design to help people stuck in traffic when nature calls.

"The commode will come in handy during major disasters such as earthquakes or when you are caught in a traffic jam," a company official told reporters, according to Kyodo News.

Japan is situated on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

Drivers stranded by tectonic movements or stuck in traffic jams simply assemble the cardboard toilet bowl, fit a water-absorbent sheet inside and draw round the curtain.

The product is small enough to fit inside a suitcase, the company said.

But prospective customers will have to hang on until November 15 when the firm begins selling the new product online.

Tags: offbeat

Gravitational bumpiness exaggerated.

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:58:37 GMT

clipped by: shankargallery

Clip Source: www.solstation.com

NASA -- Larger image

Gravitational bumpiness exaggerated.

While Earth is a fairly uniform sphere,
its gravitational field does vary by small
fractions of a percent from place to place.
Not only is the planet bumpy as the result
of slow geological processes such as
tectonic plate movements or polar ice cap
changes, but these processes also create
mass density variations that affect the
local gravitational field (more from NASA
and Astronomy Picture of the Day).

Earth

Tags: gravity