Types of volcanic eruptions
Several types of volcanic eruptions—during which lava and assorted gases are expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure—have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are named after famous volcanoes where that type of behavior has been observed; some volcanoes may exhibit only one characteristic type of eruption during a period of activity, while others may display an entire sequence of types all in one eruptive series. There are three different types of eruptions; the most well-observed are magmatic eruptions, which involve the decompression of gas within magma that propels it forward. Phreatomagmatic eruptions are another type of volcanic eruption, driven by the compression of gas within magma, the direct opposite of the process powering magmatic activity; the third eruptive type is the phreatic eruption, driven by the superheating of steam via contact with magma. Within these wide-defining eruptive types are several subtypes; the weakest are Hawaiian and submarine Strombolian, followed by Vulcanian and Surtseyan.
The stronger eruptive types are Pelean eruptions, followed by Plinian eruptions. Subglacial and phreatic eruptions are defined by their eruptive mechanism, vary in strength. An important measure of eruptive strength is Volcanic Explosivity Index, an order of magnitude scale ranging from 0 to 8 that correlates to eruptive types. Volcanic eruptions arise through three main mechanisms: Gas release under decompression causing magmatic eruptions Thermal contraction from chilling on contact with water causing phreatomagmatic eruptions Ejection of entrained particles during steam eruptions causing phreatic eruptionsThere are two types of eruptions in terms of activity, explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions. Explosive eruptions are characterized by gas-driven explosions that propels tephra. Effusive eruptions, are characterized by the outpouring of lava without significant explosive eruption. Volcanic eruptions vary in strength. On the one extreme there are effusive Hawaiian eruptions, which are characterized by lava fountains and fluid lava flows, which are not dangerous.
On the other extreme, Plinian eruptions are large and dangerous explosive events. Volcanoes are not bound to one eruptive style, display many different types, both passive and explosive in the span of a single eruptive cycle. Volcanoes do not always erupt vertically from a single crater near their peak, either; some volcanoes exhibit lateral and fissure eruptions. Notably, many Hawaiian eruptions start from rift zones, some of the strongest Surtseyan eruptions develop along fracture zones. Scientists believed that pulses of magma mixed together in the chamber before climbing upward—a process estimated to take several thousands of years, but Columbia University volcanologists found that the eruption of Costa Rica’s Irazú Volcano in 1963 was triggered by magma that took a nonstop route from the mantle over just a few months. The Volcanic Explosivity Index is a scale, for measuring the strength of eruptions, it is used by the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program in assessing the impact of historic and prehistoric lava flows.
It operates in a way similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, in that each interval in value represents a tenfold increasing in magnitude. The vast majority of volcanic eruptions are of VEIs between 0 and 2. Volcanic eruptions by VEI index Magmatic eruptions produce juvenile clasts during explosive decompression from gas release, they range in intensity from the small lava fountains on Hawaii to catastrophic Ultra-Plinian eruption columns more than 30 km high, bigger than the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 that buried Pompeii. Hawaiian eruptions are a type of volcanic eruption, named after the Hawaiian volcanoes with which this eruptive type is hallmark. Hawaiian eruptions are the calmest types of volcanic events, characterized by the effusive eruption of fluid basalt-type lavas with low gaseous content; the volume of ejected material from Hawaiian eruptions is less than half of that found in other eruptive types. Steady production of small amounts of lava builds up the broad form of a shield volcano.
Eruptions are not centralized at the main summit as with other volcanic types, occur at vents around the summit and from fissure vents radiating out of the center. Hawaiian eruptions begin as a line of vent eruptions along a fissure vent, a so-called "curtain of fire." These die down. Central-vent eruptions, meanwhile take the form of large lava fountains, which can reach heights of hundreds of meters or more; the particles from lava fountains cool in the air before hitting the ground, resulting in the accumulation of cindery scoria fragments. If eruptive rates are high enough, they may form splatter-fed lava flows. Hawaiian eruptions are extremely long lived. Another Hawaiian volcanic feature is the formation of active lava lakes, self-maintaining pools of raw lava with a thin crust of semi-cooled rock. Flows from Hawaiian eruptions are basal
Fumarole
A fumarole is an opening in a planet's crust which emits steam and gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen sulfide. The steam forms when superheated water condenses as its pressure drops when it emerges from the ground; the name solfatara is given to fumaroles. Fumaroles may occur along long fissure, or in chaotic clusters or fields, they occur on the surface of lava or pyroclastic flows. A fumarole field is an area of thermal springs and gas vents where shallow magma or hot igneous rocks release gases or interact with groundwater; when they occur in freezing environments, fumaroles may cause fumarolic ice towers. Fumaroles may persist for centuries if located above a persistent heat source; the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, for example, was formed during the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in Alaska. Thousands of fumaroles occurred in the cooling ash from the eruption, but over time most of them have become extinct. An estimated four thousand fumaroles exist within the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
In April 2006 fumarole emissions killed three ski-patrol workers east of Chair 3 at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in California. The workers were overpowered by toxic fumes. Another example is an array of fumaroles in the Valley of Desolation in Morne Trois Pitons National Park in Dominica. Fumaroles emitting sulfurous vapors form surface deposits of sulfur-rich minerals. Boiling Lake Cold seep Hydrothermal vent Mazuku Mofetta Mudpot Mud volcano Sulfur Mining on Gunung Welirang Volcano Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Fumarole". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 300–301
Glacier
A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice, moving under its own weight. Glaciers deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses and other distinguishing features, they abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water. On Earth, 99% of glacial ice is contained within vast ice sheets in the polar regions, but glaciers may be found in mountain ranges on every continent including Oceania's high-latitude oceanic island countries such as New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Between 35°N and 35°S, glaciers occur only in the Himalayas, Rocky Mountains, a few high mountains in East Africa, New Guinea and on Zard Kuh in Iran. Glaciers cover about 10 percent of Earth's land surface. Continental glaciers cover nearly 13 million km2 or about 98 percent of Antarctica's 13.2 million km2, with an average thickness of 2,100 m.
Greenland and Patagonia have huge expanses of continental glaciers. Glacial ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth. Many glaciers from temperate and seasonal polar climates store water as ice during the colder seasons and release it in the form of meltwater as warmer summer temperatures cause the glacier to melt, creating a water source, important for plants and human uses when other sources may be scant. Within high-altitude and Antarctic environments, the seasonal temperature difference is not sufficient to release meltwater. Since glacial mass is affected by long-term climatic changes, e.g. precipitation, mean temperature, cloud cover, glacial mass changes are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change and are a major source of variations in sea level. A large piece of compressed ice, or a glacier, appears blue, as large quantities of water appear blue; this is. The other reason for the blue color of glaciers is the lack of air bubbles. Air bubbles, which give a white color to ice, are squeezed out by pressure increasing the density of the created ice.
The word glacier is a loanword from French and goes back, via Franco-Provençal, to the Vulgar Latin glaciārium, derived from the Late Latin glacia, Latin glaciēs, meaning "ice". The processes and features caused by or related to glaciers are referred to as glacial; the process of glacier establishment and flow is called glaciation. The corresponding area of study is called glaciology. Glaciers are important components of the global cryosphere. Glaciers are categorized by their morphology, thermal characteristics, behavior. Cirque glaciers form on the slopes of mountains. A glacier that fills a valley is called a valley glacier, or alternatively an alpine glacier or mountain glacier. A large body of glacial ice astride a mountain, mountain range, or volcano is termed an ice cap or ice field. Ice caps have an area less than 50,000 km2 by definition. Glacial bodies larger than 50,000 km2 are called continental glaciers. Several kilometers deep, they obscure the underlying topography. Only nunataks protrude from their surfaces.
The only extant ice sheets are the two that cover most of Greenland. They contain vast quantities of fresh water, enough that if both melted, global sea levels would rise by over 70 m. Portions of an ice sheet or cap that extend into water are called ice shelves. Narrow, fast-moving sections of an ice sheet are called ice streams. In Antarctica, many ice streams drain into large ice shelves; some drain directly into the sea with an ice tongue, like Mertz Glacier. Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that terminate in the sea, including most glaciers flowing from Greenland, Antarctica and Ellesmere Islands in Canada, Southeast Alaska, the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields; as the ice reaches the sea, pieces break off, or calve. Most tidewater glaciers calve above sea level, which results in a tremendous impact as the iceberg strikes the water. Tidewater glaciers undergo centuries-long cycles of advance and retreat that are much less affected by the climate change than those of other glaciers.
Thermally, a temperate glacier is at melting point throughout the year, from its surface to its base. The ice of a polar glacier is always below the freezing point from the surface to its base, although the surface snowpack may experience seasonal melting. A sub-polar glacier includes both temperate and polar ice, depending on depth beneath the surface and position along the length of the glacier. In a similar way, the thermal regime of a glacier is described by its basal temperature. A cold-based glacier is below freezing at the ice-ground interface, is thus frozen to the underlying substrate. A warm-based glacier is above or at freezing at the interface, is able to slide at this contact; this contrast is thought to a large extent to govern the ability of a glacier to erode its bed, as sliding ice promotes plucking at rock from the surface below. Glaciers which are cold-based and warm-based are known as polythermal. Glaciers form where the accumulation of ice exceeds ablation. A glacier originates from a landform called'cirque' – a armchair-shaped geological feature (such as a depressio
Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
Kenai Peninsula Borough is a borough of the U. S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,400; the borough seat is Soldotna. The borough includes the entirety of the Kenai Peninsula and a few areas of the mainland of Alaska on the opposite side of Cook Inlet; the borough has a total area of 24,752 square miles, of which 16,075 square miles is land and 8,677 square miles is water. Bethel Census Area, Alaska - northwest Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska - north Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska - north Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska - east Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska - west Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska - south Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Chiswell Islands Tuxedni Wilderness Chugach National Forest Katmai National Park and Preserve Katmai Wilderness Kenai Fjords National Park Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Kenai Wilderness Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Lake Clark Wilderness Bear Lake, Tutka Bay, the Trail Lakes, have been the site of salmon enhancement activities.
All three sites are managed by the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association Some of the fish hatched at these facilities are released into the famous Homer fishing hole. Cook Inlet Keeper and the Cook Inlet Regional Citizen's Advisory Council are groups that attempt to influence public policy on the use of the areas resources; as of the census of 2000, there were 49,700 people, 18,400 households, 12,700 families residing in the borough. The population density was 1/km². There were 24,900 housing units at an average density of 2 per square mile; the racial makeup of the borough was 86% white, 7% Native American, 2% Hispanic or Latino, 4% from two or more races. Black or African Americans and Pacific Islanders each were less than 1% of the population. Just under 1% were from other races combined. 1.92 % reported speaking Russian at home. There were 18,400 households out of which 38% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55% were married couples living together, 9% had a female householder with no husband present, 31% were non-families.
25% of all households were made up of individuals and 5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.6 and the average family size was 3.2. In the borough the population was spread out with 30% under the age of 18, 7% from 18 to 24, 30% from 25 to 44, 26% from 45 to 64, 7% who were 65 years of age or older; the median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 109 males. There is a borough-wide government based in Soldotna, consisting of a strong mayor and an assembly of representatives from all areas of the borough, they collect sales and property taxes and provide services such as road maintenance, waste collection facilities, emergency services and major funding for public schools, along with mitigation of damage from spruce bark beetles that infested the borough in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Incorporated towns have their own local governments and city councils; the Alaska Department of Corrections operates the Spring Creek Correctional Center near Seward and the Wildwood Correctional Complex near Kenai.
Homer Kachemak Kenai Seldovia Seward Soldotna Jakolof Bay Kachemak Selo Lawing Razdolna Voznesenka 2006 Arctic Winter Games Kalgin Island List of airports in the Kenai Peninsula Borough State parks on the Kenai Peninsula Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska at Curlie Borough map, 2000 census: Alaska Department of Labor Borough map, 2010 census: Alaska Department of Labor
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, the natural hazards that threaten it; the organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility; the USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The USGS employs 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia; the USGS has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, Menlo Park, California. The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world." The agency's previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary, was "Earth Science in the Public Service." Since 2012, the USGS science focus is directed at six topical "Mission Areas", namely Climate and Land Use Change, Core Science Systems, Ecosystems and Minerals and Environmental Health, Natural Hazards, Water.
In December 2012, the USGS split the Energy and Minerals and Environmental Health Mission Area resulting in seven topical Mission Areas, with the two new areas being: Energy and Minerals and Environmental Health. Administratively, it is divided into six Regional Units. Other specific programs include: Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide; the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location and magnitude of global earthquakes. The USGS runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System; the USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, the public, both domestic and worldwide, about significant earthquakes. It maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research, it conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards. USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast.
As of 2005, the agency is working to create a National Volcano Early Warning System by improving the instrumentation monitoring the 169 volcanoes in U. S. territory and by establishing methods for measuring the relative threats posed at each site. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time; the USGS collaborates with Canadian and Mexican government scientists, along with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, to produce the North American Environmental Atlas, used to depict and track environmental issues for a continental perspective. The USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online. National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center implements partner-driven science to improve understanding of past and present land use change, develops relevant climate and land use forecasts, identifies lands and communities that are most vulnerable to adverse impacts of change from the local to global scale.
Since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global and planetary exploration and mapping. In collaboration with Stanford University, the USGS operates the USGS-Stanford Ion Microprobe Laboratory, a world-class analytical facility for U--Pb geochronology and trace element analyses of minerals and other earth materials. USGS operates a number of water related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program and National Water-Quality Assessment Program. USGS Water data is publicly available from their National Water Information System database; the USGS operates the National Wildlife Health Center, whose mission is "to serve the nation and its natural resources by providing sound science and technical support, to disseminate information to promote science-based decisions affecting wildlife and ecosystem health. The NWHC provides information, technical assistance, research and leadership on national and international wildlife health issues." It is the agency responsible for surveillance of H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in the United States.
The USGS runs 17 biological research centers in the United States, including the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The USGS is investigating collaboration with the social networking site Twitter to allow for more rapid construction of ShakeMaps; the USGS produces several national series of topographic maps which vary in scale and extent, with some wide gaps in coverage, notably the complete absence of 1:50,000 scale topographic maps or their equivalent. The largest and best-known topographic series is the 7.5-minute, 1:24,000 scale, quadrangle, a non-metric scale unique to the United States. Each of these maps covers an area bounded by two lines of latitude and two lines of longitude spaced 7.5 minutes apart. Nearly 57,000 individual maps in this series cover the 48 contiguous states, Hawaii, U. S. territories, areas of Alaska near Anchorage and Prudhoe Bay. The area covered by each map varies with the latitude of its represented location due to convergence of the meridians. At lower latitudes, near 30° north, a 7.5-minute quadrangle contains an area of about 64 square miles.
At 49° north latitude, 49 square miles are contained within a quadrangle of that size. As a unique non-metric map scale, the 1:24,000 scale requires a separate and specialized romer scale for pl
First ascent
In mountaineering, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they entail genuine exploration, with greater risks and recognition than climbing a route pioneered by others; the person who performs the first ascent is called the first ascensionist. In free climbing, a first ascent of a climbing route is the first successful, documented climb of a route without using equipment such as anchors or ropes for aiding progression or resting; the details of the first ascents of many prominent mountains are scanty or unknown. Today, first ascents are carefully recorded and mentioned in guidebooks. Overwhelmingly, the idea of a "first ascent" is a modern one in places such as Africa and the Americas with a history of colonialism. There may be little or no physical evidence or documentation about the climbing activities of indigenous peoples living near the mountain.
For example, the volcano Llullaillaco on the border of Argentina and Chile is known to have been climbed in the prehistoric period due to the presence of Incan artifacts at the summit, yet credit for the first recorded ascent is given to Chilean climbers Bión González and Juan Harseim, who summited in 1952. The term is used when referring to ascents made using a specific technique or taking a specific route, such as via the North Face, without ropes or without oxygen. In rock climbing, some of the earlier first ascents for difficult routes, involved a mix of free and aid climbing; as a result, purist free climbers have developed the designation first free ascent to acknowledge ascents intentionally made more challenging by using equipment for protection only. Second ascents are noteworthy in climbing circles involving improving on a pioneering route through lessons learned from it, experience which may span from technical improvements to having a better understanding of how much gear and provisions to take.
Some other "first ascents" could be recorded for particular routes. One is the First Winter Ascent, which is, as the name suggests, the first ascent made during winter season; this is most important where the climate of winter is a factor in increasing the difficulty grade of the route. In the Northern Hemisphere conventional winter ascents are made between December 21 and March 21 and are not related to the conditions. In the Himalayan area, although Nepal and China's winter season permits start on December 1, the conventional winter ascents begin on December 21. Another is the First Solo Ascent, the first ascent made by a single climber; this is most important on high-level rock climbing, when the climber has to provide his own security or when climbing without any protection at all. Another type of ascent known as FFA is the first female ascent. While not considered as important, this designation remains significant on some difficult, limit-pushing climbs, where the first female ascent may not happen until well after the FA, due to possible difficulties encountered by female physicality.
The term last ascent has been used to refer to an ascent of a mountain or face that has subsequently changed to such an extent – because of rockfall – that the route no longer exists. It can be used facetiously to refer to a climb, so unpleasant or unaesthetic that no one would willingly repeat the first ascent party's ordeal. List of first ascents Notable first free ascents List of first ascents in the Alps List of first ascents in the Himalaya Glossary of climbing terms Alpinist Magazine – Peter Mortimer's First Ascent, Issue 17
