Guest Thinkers — September 1, 2010

Redoubt back to Yellow Alert

After an exciting few hours on Sunday, AVO has decided to lower the alert level at Redoubt in Alaska to Yellow/Advisory.

Erik Klemetti

Image from AVO Hut webcam for Redoubt

After an exciting few days … well, OK … after an exciting few hours on Sunday, AVO has decided to lower the alert level at Redoubt in Alaska to Yellow/Advisory. The alert level was lowered last week after seismicity at the volcano returned to normal after weeks of rumbling (at Orange/Watch status), but then we are all caught by surprise when a phreatic explosion occurred (and AVO returned the volcano to Orange). However, this didn’t lead to a new period of heightened seismicity, so back to Yellow we go (even with elevated gas emissions and a nice steam plume – above).

The lowering of the status was support the idea that Sunday’s explosion was merely caused by water violently flashing to steam and that none of the ash seen on the snow near the 1989-1990 dome was juvenile (new magma). Of course, now we should expect that there could be more phreatic explosions like these, so as with any active volcano, never get too comfortable.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

A third ocean lava entry at Kilauea

Lava issuing from the current eruptions at Kilauea have started a third ocean entry (and the second within the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park). The entry is not as dramatic as […]