Here’s the on-line helicorder view of January 5 — a quiet day at Lake Woebegone Yellowstone. Click on the image to go to the site and see for yourself (in a larger format, too).
Compare the image below, with the image here, to see the difference a few days makes.
Helicorder data from January 5, 2008, Yellowstone Lake, West Thumb station (YLT)
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Disasters, earthquakes, Geography - Physical, geology, Natural history, Natural resources, Science, Volcanoes | Tagged: Disasters, earthquakes, geography, geology, Science, Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
No Few significant quakes recorded at all for January 4, nor so far for January 5 (6:30 a.m. Central) — maybe the quakes took a day off in honor of Utah Statehood Day.
Update, January 6, 6:00 a.m. Central: The map now shows 11 quakes magnitude 1 or greater on January 3, 5 on January 4, and one on January 5. This is significantly less action than the quakes every ten minutes or so when the swarm was at its peak.
Is the swarm done? This is the longest period of no-quake activity in Yellowstone since at least December 27, 2008.
Here’s the USGS data for 11:30 p.m. (Central), January 4:
Update time = Mon Jan 5 5:27:27 UTC 2009
Here are the earthquakes in the Map Centered at 44°N, 110°W area, most recent at the top.
(Some early events may be obscured by later ones.)
Click on the underlined portion of an earthquake record in the list below for more information.
MAG UTC DATE-TIME
y/m/d h:m:sLAT
degLON
degDEPTH
kmLOCATION MAP 2.6 2009/01/03 00:23:22 44.669 -110.163 1.0 43 km ( 26 mi) SSW of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT MAP 2.7 2009/01/02 20:33:53 44.553 -110.338 0.9 61 km ( 38 mi) SSW of Cooke City-Silver Gate, MT MAP 2.2 2009/01/02 20:24:50 44.509 -110.371 0.0 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT MAP 2.7 2009/01/02 20:23:57 44.556 -110.357 1.3 60 km ( 38 mi) SSE of Gardiner, MT So there was only one quake on January 3, and none on January 4.
Swarms are “not uncommon,” but caldera supereruptions are extremely rare.
Time Magazine tracked down the head of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), Jake Lowenstern:
Jake Lowenstern, Ph.D., YVO’s chief scientist, who also is part of the USGS Volcano Hazards Team, told TIME that a supervolcano event does not appear to be imminent. “We don’t think the amount of magma exists that would create one of these large eruptions of the past,” he said. “It is still possible to have a volcanic eruption comparable to other volcanoes. But we would expect to see more and larger quakes, deformation and precursory explosions out of the lake. We don’t believe that anything strange is happening right now.” Last summer YVO installed new instrumentation in boreholes 500 to 600 ft. deep to better detect ground deformation. Says Lowenstern: “We have a lot more ability to look at all the data now.” (See an interactive graphic depicting how scientists monitor volcanoes.)
Plan your vacation to Yellowstone now. Transportation will be cheaper (you can fly to Jackson Hole), and if there is any effect of the earthquake swarm, it would be to reduce tourist reservations at local hotels.
Now is the time to book your visit.
13 Comments | Disasters, earthquakes, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, geology, Natural history, Natural resources, Science | Tagged: Disasters, earthquakes, geography, geology, Natural history, Science, Yellowstone | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Yellowstone Lake, site of swarm of earthquakes, December 27-30, 2008
Yellowstone National Park holds more than 70% of the world’s geysers, and rumbles with earthquakes and eruptions all the time. It is, after all, rather in the middle of the great Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano that probably will erupt with astounding destruction someday.
Massive, super eruptions in the caldera occur about every 600,000 years (take THAT Don McLeroy!). The last eruption was about 640,000 years ago, which means that we may be a bit overdue for the sort of eruption that would make the destruction of Krakatoa look like a firecracker compared to a nuclear bomb.
So, of course, some people worried a bit with the cluster of earthquakes under Yellowstone Lake in the past two days. A swarm is a better description, perhaps — 250 little quakes, all under 3.5 on the Richter Scale.
It is unusual in the number, but they are all small.
Watch that space!
(See update for December 31, here: ‘Yellowstone not likely to blow’)
USGS Regional map for earthquakes, Yellowstone Region
According to the USGS system, at the time of this post, earthquakes are occurring frequently around Yellowstone, with about 35 in the past 24 hours (I copied the chart to preserve the historical data; click on the link to get more current data):
| MAG | UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s |
LAT deg |
LON deg |
DEPTH km |
LOCATION | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAP | 2.4 | 2008/12/30 00:36:39 | 44.510 | -110.384 | 0.2 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.4 | 2008/12/29 21:25:15 | 44.525 | -110.360 | 2.0 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.6 | 2008/12/29 21:18:51 | 44.521 | -110.362 | 2.2 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.8 | 2008/12/29 21:18:36 | 44.522 | -110.359 | 2.1 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.9 | 2008/12/29 20:38:25 | 44.514 | -110.381 | 2.1 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.3 | 2008/12/29 20:38:04 | 44.511 | -110.385 | 2.3 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.0 | 2008/12/29 20:26:29 | 44.520 | -110.355 | 2.2 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.9 | 2008/12/29 20:14:26 | 44.498 | -110.364 | 2.3 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.4 | 2008/12/29 20:13:31 | 44.508 | -110.359 | 2.2 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.2 | 2008/12/29 19:56:46 | 44.522 | -110.365 | 1.2 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.2 | 2008/12/29 19:53:50 | 44.511 | -110.377 | 2.2 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.1 | 2008/12/29 19:46:13 | 44.515 | -110.386 | 2.4 | 59 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.7 | 2008/12/29 19:44:50 | 44.525 | -110.373 | 0.0 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.7 | 2008/12/29 19:40:27 | 44.511 | -110.379 | 2.5 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.4 | 2008/12/29 19:37:07 | 44.502 | -110.366 | 1.8 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.2 | 2008/12/29 19:36:08 | 44.521 | -110.385 | 2.0 | 59 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.7 | 2008/12/29 19:35:27 | 44.511 | -110.385 | 2.4 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.9 | 2008/12/29 19:29:38 | 44.513 | -110.381 | 0.5 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.5 | 2008/12/29 19:28:55 | 44.515 | -110.381 | 0.0 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.8 | 2008/12/29 19:26:21 | 44.519 | -110.370 | 2.0 | 60 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.5 | 2008/12/29 19:24:43 | 44.520 | -110.342 | 2.3 | 63 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.3 | 2008/12/29 19:14:49 | 44.521 | -110.369 | 1.8 | 60 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.2 | 2008/12/29 18:47:45 | 44.523 | -110.371 | 2.1 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.4 | 2008/12/29 18:40:00 | 44.533 | -110.359 | 4.8 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.1 | 2008/12/29 16:32:12 | 44.494 | -110.360 | 2.4 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.6 | 2008/12/29 16:31:55 | 44.491 | -110.360 | 2.3 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.2 | 2008/12/29 16:15:28 | 44.480 | -110.363 | 2.3 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.5 | 2008/12/29 14:58:37 | 44.486 | -110.354 | 1.3 | 63 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.7 | 2008/12/29 10:25:18 | 44.523 | -110.371 | 2.4 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.8 | 2008/12/29 09:14:04 | 44.527 | -110.376 | 0.3 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.4 | 2008/12/29 08:57:55 | 44.527 | -110.378 | 0.5 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.4 | 2008/12/29 08:28:24 | 44.527 | -110.382 | 0.4 | 59 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.0 | 2008/12/29 05:30:35 | 44.517 | -110.372 | 1.0 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.3 | 2008/12/29 05:30:04 | 44.477 | -110.349 | 6.5 | 63 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.7 | 2008/12/29 05:29:23 | 44.489 | -110.354 | 4.2 | 63 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.4 | 2008/12/29 05:23:36 | 44.516 | -110.361 | 6.4 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.9 | 2008/12/29 04:29:18 | 44.522 | -110.385 | 1.0 | 59 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.8 | 2008/12/29 04:25:53 | 44.514 | -110.370 | 0.1 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.6 | 2008/12/28 23:57:56 | 44.521 | -110.371 | 1.4 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.0 | 2008/12/28 23:08:25 | 44.491 | -110.390 | 1.7 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.1 | 2008/12/28 19:55:17 | 44.511 | -110.353 | 0.7 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.0 | 2008/12/28 19:32:15 | 44.511 | -110.356 | 2.7 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.8 | 2008/12/28 15:37:40 | 44.514 | -110.359 | 0.0 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.2 | 2008/12/28 09:25:14 | 44.508 | -110.364 | 1.9 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.2 | 2008/12/28 09:23:57 | 44.511 | -110.361 | 0.4 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.9 | 2008/12/28 07:16:13 | 44.513 | -110.374 | 2.0 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.5 | 2008/12/28 07:15:18 | 44.495 | -110.359 | 0.0 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.5 | 2008/12/28 06:37:41 | 44.492 | -110.356 | 2.6 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.0 | 2008/12/28 06:37:20 | 44.497 | -110.379 | 2.1 | 60 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.9 | 2008/12/28 05:28:49 | 44.498 | -110.383 | 2.3 | 60 km ( 37 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.9 | 2008/12/28 05:28:05 | 44.485 | -110.371 | 2.5 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.8 | 2008/12/28 05:26:14 | 44.484 | -110.359 | 2.0 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.2 | 2008/12/28 05:26:03 | 44.470 | -110.355 | 5.2 | 63 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.3 | 2008/12/28 05:24:39 | 44.489 | -110.359 | 4.1 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.8 | 2008/12/28 05:23:54 | 44.489 | -110.354 | 2.5 | 63 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.9 | 2008/12/28 05:21:16 | 44.480 | -110.344 | 4.0 | 64 km ( 40 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.7 | 2008/12/28 05:20:10 | 44.494 | -110.379 | 2.4 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.6 | 2008/12/28 05:19:11 | 44.492 | -110.372 | 2.2 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.9 | 2008/12/28 05:15:56 | 44.502 | -110.366 | 0.3 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.6 | 2008/12/28 00:08:50 | 44.493 | -110.354 | 0.4 | 63 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.3 | 2008/12/27 22:30:03 | 44.498 | -110.358 | 4.3 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.5 | 2008/12/27 22:28:53 | 44.500 | -110.368 | 2.1 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.8 | 2008/12/27 22:27:36 | 44.499 | -110.367 | 2.5 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.0 | 2008/12/27 21:28:06 | 44.500 | -110.362 | 3.5 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.6 | 2008/12/27 21:22:08 | 44.495 | -110.372 | 2.6 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.1 | 2008/12/27 21:08:49 | 44.496 | -110.370 | 2.0 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.2 | 2008/12/27 20:26:27 | 44.505 | -110.364 | 2.4 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.5 | 2008/12/27 20:17:33 | 44.488 | -110.357 | 4.1 | 62 km ( 39 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.3 | 2008/12/27 18:56:35 | 44.484 | -110.367 | 0.5 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 3.0 | 2008/12/27 18:23:07 | 44.495 | -110.364 | 2.8 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.0 | 2008/12/27 18:21:36 | 44.493 | -110.362 | 7.2 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 1.2 | 2008/12/27 17:01:46 | 44.484 | -110.373 | 2.4 | 61 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.7 | 2008/12/27 17:01:07 | 44.490 | -110.366 | 1.2 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
| MAP | 2.6 | 2008/12/27 16:30:54 | 44.498 | -110.362 | 2.5 | 62 km ( 38 mi) ESE of West Yellowstone, MT |
At the site of the Deseret News (published in Salt Lake City), one commenter noted he is from Texas, a commented he was safely out of the way. One might do well to remember that volcanic activity in the Yellowstone often affects life well outside the area. Ashfall Beds State Historical Park in Nebraska, for example, marks a prehistoric waterhole where dozens of mammals died from ash from a volcano that erupted 10 million to 12 million years ago — a volcano in Idaho, south of the Yellowstone Caldera, and considerably smaller.
While danger is probably slight right now, and this swarm most likely does not presage anything of great note, one should not forget the power of volcanic eruptions from supervolcanoes, like the Yellowstone Caldera.
Update, December 30, 2:20 p.m. Central:
Resources:
Great photo for the heck of it:
![Aerial view of Grand Prismatic Spring, Wikimedia photo (all text in caption from Wikimedia); Hot Springs, Midway & Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. The spring is approximately 250 by 300 feet (75 by 91 m) in size. This photo shows steam rising from hot and sterile deep azure blue water (owing to the light absorbing overtone of an OH stretch which is shifted to 698 nm by hydrogen bonding [1]) in the center surrounded by huge mats of brilliant orange algae and bacteria. The color of which is due to the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoid molecules produced by the organisms. During summertime the chlorophyll content of the organisms is low and thus the mats appear orange, red, or yellow. However during the winter, the mats are usually dark green, because sunlight is more scarce and the microbes produce more chlorophyll to compensate, thereby masking the carotenoid colors.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_prismatic_spring.jpg "Aerial photo of Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park - Wikimedia")
(Caption from Wikimedia) Aerial view of Grand Prismatic Spring; Hot Springs, Midway & Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. The spring is approximately 250 by 300 feet (75 by 91 m) in size. This photo shows steam rising from hot and sterile deep azure blue water (owing to the light absorbing overtone of an OH stretch which is shifted to 698 nm by hydrogen bonding) in the center surrounded by huge mats of brilliant orange algae and bacteria. The color of which is due to the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoid molecules produced by the organisms. During summertime the chlorophyll content of the organisms is low and thus the mats appear orange, red, or yellow. However during the winter, the mats are usually dark green, because sunlight is more scarce and the microbes produce more chlorophyll to compensate, thereby masking the carotenoid colors.
10 Comments | Disasters, earthquakes, Geography - Physical, geology, History, Science, Volcanoes | Tagged: Calderas, earthquakes, geography, geology, Science, Volcanoes, Yellowstone Naitonal Park | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Hell-raising site called Red State Rebels remembers that the Love Canal disaster came to a head 30 years ago, with the evacuation of the homes surrounding the toxic dump site.
Your students probably don’t know about it, and the textbooks will do the story no justice, if they mention it at all. While this article is written from a biased perspective, it’s a solid recounting of the history — and your AP kids need to read stuff with viewpoints, anyway.
Adeline Levine, a sociologist who wrote a book about Love Canal, described to me the scene she had witnessed exactly 30 years earlier, on Aug. 11, 1978. “It was like a Hitchcock movie,” she said, “where everything looks peaceful and pleasant, but something is slumbering under the ground.”
That “something” was more than 21,000 tons of chemical waste. The mixed brew contained more than 200 different chemicals, many of them toxic. They were dumped into the canal — which was really more of a half-mile-long pond — in the 1940s and 1950s by the Hooker Electrochemical Co. In 1953, the canal was covered with soil and sold to the local school board, and an elementary school and playground were built on the site. A working-class neighborhood sprang up around them.
“The neighborhood looked very pleasant,” says Levine, who was a sociology professor at the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 1978. “There were very nice little homes, nicely kept, with gardens and flowers and fences and kids’ toys, and then there were young people who were rushing out of their homes with bundles and packing up their cars and moving vans.”
Love Canal was in the midst of an all-out panic when Levine arrived; just nine days earlier, the state health commissioner had declared an emergency and recommended that pregnant women and children under the age of two evacuate the neighborhood. A week after that, the state and federal governments agreed to buy out homes next to the canal.
Resources:
1 Comment | Disasters, Environmental justice, Environmental protection, History, Politics, Science | Tagged: Environmental Disaster, Environmental protection, History, Love Canal, Politics, Science, Toxic wastes | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
| 1805 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1874 | The first cartoon depicting the elephant as the symbol of the Republican Party was printed in Harper’s Weekly. [Thomas Nast was the artist.] |
| 1916 | Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. |
| 1917 | The Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian government in St. Petersburg. |
| 1940 | Only four months after its completion, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state, the third longest suspension bridge in the world at the time, collapsed. No one was injured. |
Video of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster:
_______________
Update: Blue Ollie has more information on the bridge collapse — and is generally worth a visit.
1 Comment | Cartoons, Disasters, History, Political cartoons, Russian Revolution, Technology, World War I | Tagged: Bolshevik Revolution, Disasters, History, Lewis and Clark, Republican Party, Russian Revolution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
High school students weren’t alive when Yellowstone burned in 1988. Do you remember?
NASA infrared satellite photograph of Yellowstone fires in 1988
It was a conflagration that made hell look like good picnicking. 1988 was a particularly dry summer, and hot. Lightning and human carelessness ignited fires across western North America. Five huge fires raged out of control, and burned huge swaths out of forests in Yellowstone National Park that probably hadn’t seen fire in 80 years, maybe longer.
The Salt Lake Tribune featured several stories about the fires and Yellowstone’s recovery today, “Yellowstone: Back from the ashes,” how wildland firefighting changed, a great chart on fire succession stages, and another chart on the effects of the fire on larger animals in the Yellowstone system.
Old Faithfull erupts against background of smoke from 1988 fires - NPS photo by Deanna Marie Dulen
The 1988 fires made history in several ways; it was the first time so many fires had burned simultaneously. Ultimately some of the fires merged into even greater conflagrations. The fires forced the shutdown of tourism and other activities in the Park. Inadequacies in fire fighting equipment, staffing and policies were highlighted and displayed in newspapers and on television for weeks, forcing changes in policies by cities, states and the federal government.
Some good came out of the fires. Much undergrowth and dead wood had choked off plant diversity in some places in the Park. The fires opened new meadows and offered opportunities for some species to expand their ranges.
Scientifically, a lot of information came out of the fires. The mystery of when aspen would seed out was solved — new aspen seedlings appeared in areas where the fires had sterilized the ground with extremely high temperatures that seemed to trigger the seeds to germinate.
Our visits in 1989 offered a lot of opportunities to look at very bleak landscapes.
Yellowstone National Park in 1989, a year after the big fires - Copyright 1989 and 2008, Ed Darrell
Recover of the forested areas began rather quickly, but will take time to cover over all the scars of the fires.
Other resources:
3 Comments | Biology, Botany, Disasters, History, Natural history, Natural resources, Science | Tagged: Botany, Disasters, Fire Fighting, Forest Fires, History, Montana, National Park System, Natural Disasters, Science, Travel, Wyoming, Yellowstone Park | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
While everyone is patting themselves on the back for getting people out of New Orleans in fine fashion, and nervously tracking Hurricane Ike, another tragedy unfolds out of public view: Baton Rouge got hammered by Gustav. A week after the storm hit, half the city is still without power.
Anna West, at right with her son Anton Guevarra, and Zahli and Mira Bhayroo at the Baton Rouge, La., home of Lori Waselchuk, a freelance photographer (New York Times)
Baton Rouge provided refuge for New Orleanians fleeing the devastation of Katrina. While the city braced for a new wave of global warming refugees, it wasn’t prepared to get hammered itself.
Have you heard or seen much on the news about the levels of destruction in Baton Rouge?
What if we had a hurricane wipe out a city other than New Orleans, and no one noticed?
How many other places are in rather desperate straits, with no notice from national media? The New York Times appears to have missed the damage, though a reader named Allison tried to tell them in comments to one post at the Lede:
Oy.
Old American Airlines pal Gil Brassard called to say he’s got a new generator, and can charge his cell phone to call out, but still doesn’t have any other electricity. He complimented Jindal on the job he’s doing. Is the rest of electricity-short Baton Rouge doing as well as Gil? Who knows?
Do you think the McCain campaign’s presence in the early part of the storm distracted FEMA, the president and the governor?
Signs a news story is being missed:
2 Comments | Capturing history, Climate change, Disasters, Government, History, Politics | Tagged: Baton Rouge, Climate change, disaster, Government, Hurricane Gustav, Media, New Orleans, Newspapers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
[2008] Today’s the 52nd anniversary of a horrendous accident in the air over the Grand Canyon. Two airliners collided, and 128 people died.
In 1956 there was no national radar system. When commercial flights left airports, often the only contact they had with any form of air traffic control was when the pilots radioed in for weather information, or for landing instructions. Especially there was no system to avoid collisions. As this 2006 story in the Deseret News (Salt Lake City) relates, the modern air traffic control system was spurred mightily by this tragedy.
About 9 a.m. Saturday, June 30, [1956], the TWA flight bound for Kansas City, Mo., and the United flight bound for Chicago left Los Angeles International Airport within three minutes of each other. The TWA flight, carrying 70 people, filed a flight plan to cruise at 19,000 feet. The United flight, with 58 people on board, planned to cruise at 21,000 feet.
About 20 minutes into the flight, TWA pilot Capt. Jack Gandy requested permission to climb to 21,000 feet. An air traffic controller in Salt Lake City turned down Gandy’s request. Then Gandy asked to fly “1,000 on top,” meaning at least a thousand feet above the clouds, which that morning were billowing as high as 30,000 feet. That request was granted.
By the time both planes were over the Grand Canyon, the pilots were flying in and out of the clouds, on visual flight rules and off their prescribed flight plans, apparently typical in those days as pilots veered off course to play tour guide.
No one knows exactly what happened.
It was the last big accident before instigation of the “black box,” so investigators had to piece together details from debris on the ground.
They decided that the left wing and propeller of the United plane hit the center fin of the TWA’s tail and cut through the fuselage, sending Flight 2 nose-first into the canyon, two miles south of the juncture of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. The United DC- 7, which had lost most of its left wing, began spiraling down. Capt. Robert Shirley radioed Salt Lake City a garbled message that controllers understood only after they slowed down the recording: “Salt Lake, ah, 718 . . . we are going in.” Flight 718 smashed into a cliff on Chuar Butte.
The accident plays a key role in a Tony Hillerman mystery, Skeleton Man — Hillerman writes about two Navajo Nation policemen.
I’m thinking of the crash today for two reasons. I’m off for a tour of canyons, including both rims of the Grand Canyon, in the next two weeks. The last time I was there was 1986, with the President’s Commission on Americans Outdoors. We flew in on a Twin Otter, coming up from Phoenix, over the Roosevelt Dam, up over the Mogollon Rim, over the Glen Canyon Recreation area and stopping it Page. From Page to Grand Canyon, we took full advantage of the huge windows in the Otter — seeing first hand the sights that the controversial tourist flights were designed to reveal. Safety was a key concern, and we talked about it constantly with the pilots.
A few weeks later, on June 18, 1986, that DeHavilland Twin Otter collided with a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter over the Canyon. 25 people died in that crash.
I have flown over the Canyon a dozen times since then — no longer will airliners dip down to give passengers a better view, not least because airliners cruise tens of thousands of feet higher now than they did then. I think of those airplane accidents every time I see the Canyon.
We’re driving in. We’ll spend a day and a half on the South Rim, and another couple of nights on the North Rim. We’re taking our time on the ground. But if we had time, and we could afford it, I’d love to get up in an airplane or helicopter to see the Canyon from the air again.
7 Comments | Airplanes, Disasters, History, Transportation, Travel | Tagged: airplane crash, Aviation, Disasters, Grand Canyon, History, Transportation, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Chief Scout Executive Robert J. Mazzuca issued this message yesterday, regarding the tornado strike at Mid-America Council’s Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa. For the record, for your information and action:
Robert J. Mazzuca
Chief Scout ExecutiveJune 13, 2008
To our Scouting family:
We were all shocked and saddened by the news coming out of Western Iowa. The tornado that ripped through our Little Sioux Scout Ranch left a terrible wake of destruction in its path. We mourn the lives lost and injuries suffered as a result of the storm. And we extend our deepest sympathies and concern to the families of those who were affected.
BSA President John Gottschalk and I have pledged the full support of the National Council to assist in any way. Particularly during this period of front-line response, most of the effort is being managed by the outstanding Mid-America Council. We are grateful for Lloyd Roitstein and his staff, who have shown remarkable leadership during this very challenging time. The local council has placed a very high priority on tending to the needs of the impacted families. We continue to remain in close contact and are helping to coordinate communication across the local council network. The National Council is prepared to engage further at any time.
Understandably, we are receiving many calls from all across the country from staff, volunteers, Scouts, and families who want to be supportive. Thank you, everyone, for this outpouring of support. We have put into place a process for properly channeling offers of financial assistance for the impacted families, as well as interest in volunteering time to the effort. Right now, we need to give emergency responders and the local council time to attend to the task at hand. Very soon, the effort will turn to rebuilding and reconstructing. Upon the determination of exact needs, we will follow up with you.
Please forward contact information and offers of support to our emergency response e-mail at oomcd@netbsa.org. Anyone interested in making a donation to help rebuild Scouting in the communities affected by the tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest go to www.scoutingfriends.org. Select “BSA Disaster Relief.”
Again, we are deeply saddened by this tragedy. At the same time, however, we are moved by and proud of the way in which our Scouts, leaders, and the local council have responded. There is no question that this terrible situation would have been worse if it were not for the heroic efforts of the young men who were on the ground when the tornado hit. They epitomize what is so very special about being a Scout.
Please join me in keeping all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers. God bless our Scouts.
Yours in Scouting,
Robert J. Mazzuca signature
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Robert J. Mazzuca
Chief Scout Executive
Tip of the old scrub brush to Debie Franz, Wisdom Trail District, Circle 10 Council
2 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Capturing history, Current History, Disasters, History | Tagged: Boy Scouts, disaster, Iowa, Tornado | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
President John F. Kennedy died 44 years ago today. Five year anniversaries tend to get more attention.
High school U.S. history students have been alive less than half the time since the assassination. To them it is ancient history, even more than the Vietnam War. Teachers need to find ways to make the history stick even in years that are not multiples of 5.
A new film offers some aid. “Oswald’s Ghost” had it’s world premiere at the Texas Theater in Oak Cliff, the place where Lee Oswald was arrested. Restoration of the theater is not complete, but it is far enough along to host events.
The movie is in severely limited release prior to a January 14, 2008 premier on PBS stations. Director Robert Stone places the assassination in history and tells some of the effects on America, rather than dwelling on facts or controversies around the shooting. The movie got a good review from the Dallas Morning News:
“Nobody had stepped back and told the story of the debate itself,” he says.
“How did these ideas come about? Who propagated them and why were they so widely believed? And what had they done to this country? Seventy percent of Americans still believe the government was involved in the Kennedy assassination or has worked to cover it up. And that’s had a huge impact.”
In the end, a seemingly disparate chorus of voices – including the late Norman Mailer – accomplish the filmmaker’s objective.
As he says, Oswald’s Ghost is “a way of explaining the ’60s. We’re not arguing anymore about what happened in Dealey Plaza. It’s an argument about explaining what came after … and how did everything go so wrong.”
With luck, it will be on DVD for classroom use by early February.
Dallas’s PBS outlet, KERA, is showing another locally-produced film this week that I have found useful in the classroom, focusing on the news coverage that day, JFK: Breaking the News. For slightly more adult teachers, there is the fun of finding news people in their infant careers, people like Robert McNeil then of NBC, Peter Jennings, and then-local Dallas reporters Jim Lehrer and Dan Rather, and Fort Worth reporter Bob Schieffer. Few other one-day events have produced such a stable of news greats — the Kennedy assassination spurred the careers of more new people than any other event with the possible exception of World War II. Jane Pauley narrates the story.
There is a webcam view of Dealey Plaza from the Texas Book Depository Building — the cam claims to be from the 6th floor window from which Oswald shot, but it looks like the top of the building to me.
The Kennedy assassination kicked the wind out of America. In many ways it was the event that triggered 1968, perhaps the worst single year in American history.
44 years, and we still don’t know the full set of ramifications of the events of that day. Historians keep chipping away.
1 Comment | Disasters, History, History images, History museums, History video sources, JFK assassination, Texas, Texas history | Tagged: History, Kennedy assassination, Movies, Oswald | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
It’s being called the McCandless Bus, after the young man who died there, but its roots in local culture, lore and history are quite a bit deeper. Alaskans debate whether to preserve the bus where Chris McCandless died, how to preserve it, or whether to get rid of it, on Public Radio’s Talk of Alaska.
The rant of commenter Will Forsberg was the most informative and entertaining part of the on-line version — I didn’t listen to the radio program.
Tip of the old scrub brush to PB.
1 Comment | Capturing history, Disasters, History, Natural history | Tagged: Alaska, Chris McCandless, historic preservation, History, history or nuisance, public radio | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Day in and day out, this cartoon of a poor African kid getting hit by a tsunami of drought is among the most popular posts on this blog, and one of the most popular cartoon images on the web. I think the cartoonist Alberto Sabat was trying to make a point, that kids in SubSaharan Africa were (are) being clobbered by a disaster as great as the great tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean after Christmas 2005.
In other words, there were other disasters, other victims, and we ignore them.
If Al Gore had a lot of media clout and enjoyed bias from media in his favor, you’d hear about a great storm ready to smash one of the poorest, lowest countries on the planet, where recent increases in povery-struck populations has put millions of people in a great river’s delta, in a most dangerous place to be in a cyclone. But you’re not hearing the story.
If our news media were biased to the liberal side, a story about such a pending disaster would be on the front page of every liberal newspaper, and leading every liberal television news broadcast.
If our private charity groups were groveling to the climate change Cassandras, they’d be begging for money to evacuate people from the path of a category 5 cyclone, now.
If Katrina’s aftermath alerted us to the dangers of powerful storms hitting areas of great poverty, we’d be glued to our television sets if there were another such drama unfolding anywhere on Earth.
If the Bush administration were concerned about preventing the growth of al Quaeda and similar movements, it would be doing what it could to help out a nominally friendly government of an Islamic nation in the path of a great storm.
Right?
The photos are spectacular. The news is . . . eerily quiet.
This is Cyclone Sidr. It’s a category 5, and it keeps defying predictions that it will weaken as it moves north, oddly acting as if it has targeted the low river delta regions of Bengla Desh. Chris Mooney calls it “beautiful but deadly.” P. Z. Myers raises an alarm about our ignorance of the storm. More details from Mooney. Lamentations from Mooney’s co-blogger Kirshenbaum (are they playing the role of Jeremiah or Cassandra? Rather depends on your reaction, no?)
Do any high school geography, world history, government or economics courses still do current events? Here’s the raw material for a good, consciousness-raising warm-up. Prelude to a disaster, we hope not. The lack of news coverage is disturbing.
Resources:
Horrible thought: Is the dearth of reaction partly because broadcasters don’t know how to pronounce the name of the storm?
5 Comments | Climate change, Disasters, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Politics, Poverty | Tagged: Cyclone Sidr, natural disaster, political disaster, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You won’t find this in your world history text.
Events in Congo trouble at so many levels. Reports in The New York Times and other places document unspeakable violence: 27,000 sexual assaults in South Kivu Province in 2006, just a fraction of the total number across the nation of 66 million people. The assaults are brutal. Women assaulted are often left so badly injured internally, they may never heal.
Map of Congo, highlighting province of Bukavu where violence against women is epidemic, from New York TimesGenocide you say? Many assaults appear to be spillover from the Hutu-Tutsi conflict in next-door Rwanda. But assaults by husbands on wives also are epidemic. Result of civil war? Then how to explain the “Rasta” gang, dreadlocked fugitives who live in the forest, wear tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys, and who commit unspeakable crimes against women and children? What nation are they from, and against whom do they fight, if anyone — and for what?
The facts cry out for action:
Surely intervention by an international group would help, no? However
Americans looking for a quick resolution to the situation in Iraq might do well to study Congo. At Congo’s independence in the 1960s, there was hope of prosperity and greater peace. Foreign intervention, including meddling from the U.S., regional civil wars, bad government and long international neglect, ate up the hope. Achieving what a nation could be is difficult, when so many forces align to prevent it from being anything other than a violent backwater. Pandora’s box resists attempts to shut it. Quick resolution is unlikely.
So the violence in Congo continues. In this world, when is the “never” in “never again?”
How many other such cases fall outside our textbooks, and off the state tests?
Resources:
2 Comments | Africa, Disasters, Economics, Genocide, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Human Rights, Natural resources, Politics | Tagged: Africa, Congo, Genocide, Human Rights, Politics, World history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress, (House of Anansi Press, 2004) (Carroll and Graf, 2005)
(This book resulted from Ronald Wright’s 2004 lectures in the famous Canadian series, the Massey Lectures. The lectures are broadcast on radio by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), whose website features an excerpt from the Wright lectures. You may get a podcast of Wright’s lecture 1, here; and lecture 2, here. Wright suggests that, after 10,000 years of experimenting with civilization, generally leading to failure, we have a chance to get things right, now, if we act wisely. “It describes in particular how four historical civilisations – those of Easter Island, Sumer, the Maya and Rome – self-destructed due to a lack of foresight and to wrong choices. Wright argues ‘each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.'” Martin Scorsese is developing the movie rights.)
Wright’s use of the phrase is the earliest I’ve been able to document quickly; but it’s a popular phrase now. Please note in comments if you know of an earlier use that can be tracked down.
1 Comment | Disasters, Environmental protection, History, Lessons of history, Quotes, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: disaster, Environmental protection, History, price of history, Ronald Wright, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Another piece of history of the 20th century often overlooked: June 30, 1956, two airliners collided over the Grand Canyon.
6 Comments | Disasters, Technology, Transportation | Tagged: 1956, airplane crash, disaster | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Some say Baton Rouge would not be swamp kill from Gustav, had Bobby Jindal been elected governor of Louisiana.