Why go to school?
I’m always amazed when a natural phenomenon catches media attention and bewilders local residents. Tornadoes in the Midwest, tsunamis by the ocean, eruptions of volcanoes. What a surprise! What’s next, asteroids in the Solar System?
Seems that even though we’ve been around as a species for maybe more than 250,000 years, most of those with oral traditions that detail both myth and family, we still haven’t gotten the hang of living on Earth and with natural processes. One would think…
Amazing, isn’t it, how we rely on our own experience as truth, but fail to rely on others’ experiences as truth? How every generation seems to be surprised when a drought occurs, when a volcano erupts, when a…? You name it and include blizzards and asteroid impacts if you want.
So, at the time of this writing, I see an eruption in Hawaii is making the news (interrupted only by the royal wedding in England) big time. Concerned officials are offering masks. (That volcanic ash can be airborne little razors of silicates seeking entrances to lungs) And the poisonous gases? Well, some air filter mask to keep particulates out won’t stop sulfur compounds from getting in. And then there are the interrupted vacations and the enhanced ones. “We just went to Hawaii and we got to see the eruption.”
Generally, two kinds of volcanoes on the planet: Shield volcanoes and stratovolcanoes, also called composite cones. The latter are more dangerous than the former. The difference lies in the lavas typical of either: Basaltic, less viscous lava of the shields, and either andesitic or rhyolitic, more viscous lava of the stratovolcanoes. Think flowing water and oozing syrup. Andesitic and rhyolitic lavas can plug the conduit, allow gases to build, and result in highly explosive eruptions, ala Mt. St. Helens, Vesuvius, and Pinatubo, deadly eruptions that release pyroclastic flows of ash, rock, and spit lava in a turbulent mass over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. You’re toast if you’re there. The basaltic eruptions of shields are generally less explosive, though still potentially dangerous. The Hawaiian volcanoes are the latter, and they are both active and big. Mauna Loa is the biggest mountain, rising from the ocean floor more than 30,000 feet, piercing the water’s surface and reaching about 13,000 feet in elevation. And the area covered by the shields is usually large, think the Big Island.
Anyway, there are thousands of volcanoes on our planet; some extinct, some dormant, some active. Those that are active have chased away most of the denizens living in their shadows, whereas those that are dormant provide a beautiful backdrop for the urbanized indifferent. “Yeah, it might erupt, but I’m going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in my home because, well, you know, chances are that it won’t erupt.”
You realize, of course, that just saying something doesn’t make it so. Dormant and active volcanoes are Earth’s slot machines. Yes, and a three-wheeled machine might produce three sevens in a row, but there are 8,000 combinations for those symbols on those wheels. One never knows when they will line up to spew out coins, and chances are greater that they won’t than they will.
“But,” you say, “Earth’s a risky place, and we have to live somewhere: Volcanic landscape, oceanside, Great Plains, high latitudes. You put your money down and throw the dice. Look, we recently had a close by-pass of an asteroid.”
I’m always amazed at how we justify our decisions and ignore our heritage. And I, like you, do so. Along anyone’s life path, someone from an older generation offers advice or reports on an historical event, local or regional, with a warning that such events can recur. Warnings aside, we have as humans a protection against risk: The acquisition of knowledge. Unfortunately, we fail to learn or justify our ignorance by declaring this or that to “be so.” Life below Vesuvius today goes on as though the eruption of 79 didn’t occur. Life along the San Andreas, in Tornado Alley, beneath perched masses of snow, and on islands in the paths of hurricanes continues.
Volcanologists warned people living near Pinatubo, near the Soufriere Hills, and near Mt. St. Helens that an eruption was pending. Still people died because they remained, thinking the three-wheels were unlikely to hit three sevens in a row. The same happened to residents of the Gulf Coast during Katrina. Warnings went out from the President on down. More than a thousand died.
There’s something amiss in our educational system. It’s as though we don’t see any relevance to our lives in that 250,000 years of accumulated knowledge. And maybe our ignorance of very practical matters, like the dangers posed by a volcano, a fault zone, a hurricane, is what marks our education. Think Dust Bowl of the 1930s, for example. Ignorant that they were jeopardizing the very thing, the soil, that gave them sustenance and an economy, farmers of the Southern Plains plowed and plowed and plowed. When the drought hit, the windstorms lifted and carried off the soils, estimated for two windstorms in May, 1934, to amount to 650 million tons, for example. Ignorance of Earth and Earth processes has led to some of the greatest disasters and migrations.
But nothing will change. A question posed to Bill Nye by CNN’s Deb Feyerick indicates that those last 250,000 years of experience with physical processes and entities has gone for naught. Feyerick asked whether or not an asteroid’s passing close to Earth was related to global warming. Duh! Similarly, when a powerful earthquake along a subduction zone caused a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people, some asked whether or not it was the result of global warming. What practical knowledge will such people pass on to the next generation and to the next 250,000 years of generations?
I’m always amazed when a natural phenomenon catches media attention and bewilders local residents. Tornadoes in the Midwest, tsunamis by the ocean, eruptions of volcanoes. What a surprise! What’s next, asteroids in the Solar System?
Seems that even though we’ve been around as a species for maybe more than 250,000 years, most of those with oral traditions that detail both myth and family, we still haven’t gotten the hang of living on Earth and with natural processes. One would think…
Amazing, isn’t it, how we rely on our own experience as truth, but fail to rely on others’ experiences as truth? How every generation seems to be surprised when a drought occurs, when a volcano erupts, when a…? You name it and include blizzards and asteroid impacts if you want.
So, at the time of this writing, I see an eruption in Hawaii is making the news (interrupted only by the royal wedding in England) big time. Concerned officials are offering masks. (That volcanic ash can be airborne little razors of silicates seeking entrances to lungs) And the poisonous gases? Well, some air filter mask to keep particulates out won’t stop sulfur compounds from getting in. And then there are the interrupted vacations and the enhanced ones. “We just went to Hawaii and we got to see the eruption.”
Generally, two kinds of volcanoes on the planet: Shield volcanoes and stratovolcanoes, also called composite cones. The latter are more dangerous than the former. The difference lies in the lavas typical of either: Basaltic, less viscous lava of the shields, and either andesitic or rhyolitic, more viscous lava of the stratovolcanoes. Think flowing water and oozing syrup. Andesitic and rhyolitic lavas can plug the conduit, allow gases to build, and result in highly explosive eruptions, ala Mt. St. Helens, Vesuvius, and Pinatubo, deadly eruptions that release pyroclastic flows of ash, rock, and spit lava in a turbulent mass over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. You’re toast if you’re there. The basaltic eruptions of shields are generally less explosive, though still potentially dangerous. The Hawaiian volcanoes are the latter, and they are both active and big. Mauna Loa is the biggest mountain, rising from the ocean floor more than 30,000 feet, piercing the water’s surface and reaching about 13,000 feet in elevation. And the area covered by the shields is usually large, think the Big Island.
Anyway, there are thousands of volcanoes on our planet; some extinct, some dormant, some active. Those that are active have chased away most of the denizens living in their shadows, whereas those that are dormant provide a beautiful backdrop for the urbanized indifferent. “Yeah, it might erupt, but I’m going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in my home because, well, you know, chances are that it won’t erupt.”
You realize, of course, that just saying something doesn’t make it so. Dormant and active volcanoes are Earth’s slot machines. Yes, and a three-wheeled machine might produce three sevens in a row, but there are 8,000 combinations for those symbols on those wheels. One never knows when they will line up to spew out coins, and chances are greater that they won’t than they will.
“But,” you say, “Earth’s a risky place, and we have to live somewhere: Volcanic landscape, oceanside, Great Plains, high latitudes. You put your money down and throw the dice. Look, we recently had a close by-pass of an asteroid.”
I’m always amazed at how we justify our decisions and ignore our heritage. And I, like you, do so. Along anyone’s life path, someone from an older generation offers advice or reports on an historical event, local or regional, with a warning that such events can recur. Warnings aside, we have as humans a protection against risk: The acquisition of knowledge. Unfortunately, we fail to learn or justify our ignorance by declaring this or that to “be so.” Life below Vesuvius today goes on as though the eruption of 79 didn’t occur. Life along the San Andreas, in Tornado Alley, beneath perched masses of snow, and on islands in the paths of hurricanes continues.
Volcanologists warned people living near Pinatubo, near the Soufriere Hills, and near Mt. St. Helens that an eruption was pending. Still people died because they remained, thinking the three-wheels were unlikely to hit three sevens in a row. The same happened to residents of the Gulf Coast during Katrina. Warnings went out from the President on down. More than a thousand died.
There’s something amiss in our educational system. It’s as though we don’t see any relevance to our lives in that 250,000 years of accumulated knowledge. And maybe our ignorance of very practical matters, like the dangers posed by a volcano, a fault zone, a hurricane, is what marks our education. Think Dust Bowl of the 1930s, for example. Ignorant that they were jeopardizing the very thing, the soil, that gave them sustenance and an economy, farmers of the Southern Plains plowed and plowed and plowed. When the drought hit, the windstorms lifted and carried off the soils, estimated for two windstorms in May, 1934, to amount to 650 million tons, for example. Ignorance of Earth and Earth processes has led to some of the greatest disasters and migrations.
But nothing will change. A question posed to Bill Nye by CNN’s Deb Feyerick indicates that those last 250,000 years of experience with physical processes and entities has gone for naught. Feyerick asked whether or not an asteroid’s passing close to Earth was related to global warming. Duh! Similarly, when a powerful earthquake along a subduction zone caused a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people, some asked whether or not it was the result of global warming. What practical knowledge will such people pass on to the next generation and to the next 250,000 years of generations?
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