Tuesday Tidbits

Anak Krakatau erupting as seen from Rataka Island. Image taken by Marco Fulle of Stromboli Online.

I frequent the Astronomy Picture of the Day website run by NASA on a daily basis. Yet somehow today I didn’t check the site until well into the evening and was greeted by one of the best astronomy-volcano images I’ve seen in a while. Marco Fulle of Stromboli Online captured this image of Anak Krakatau erupting (in 2008 or 2009 … its unclear in the caption) with Ursa Major rising over the volcano. There have been quite a few volcano-related images on APOD, but alas, they don’t have a “volcano” category in the archives. It is well worth checking out each day if you’re looking for great science imagery.

Now that the activity at Redoubt seems to have subsided, we know that the subject of the Drift River Oil Terminal would return. We now have news that oil production in the Cook Inlet will resume very soon, but the DROT will play a very different role. Instead of storing oil at the Terminal as was before Redoubt reawakened this year, the oil will be pumped directly from the production platforms through the terminal into the tankers, bypassing storage in the tanks. This solution is a compromise between those who think the DROT should be permanently moved and the oil producers who know that such a move could permanently stop oil production in the inlet. The DROT survived the 2009 activity at Redoubt without much damage and the rest of the oil in the storage tanks at the facility will be moved by mid August. Redoubt remains on Yellow Alert.