Friday For messages about today's picture, see Cam Notes. This area is for other friendly conversation. Please read our Acceptable Use Policy.

Some other links of recent interest to Pasty Cam watchers:
• In Search of our Ancestors    • New Arrivals
• Politics and Religion, Ketchup or Gravy
Decade of the Pasty Cam on this day ^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Name the Mountain and the Island seen from the air in today's review.

iron mountain and beaver island

Looks like Iron Mountain and Beaver Island. Happy day ... tax returns are finished! :)

another tie!

See, this is what I get for getting up and actually doing work; I missed that wiley ole bird...... ;-)

Capt. Paul and Dr.Nat....there was an interesting piece this morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe". The producer of "Advatar" Joe Cameron is getting very active relating to the enviornment esp. in the Amazon River. Mostly right now due to a series of dams planned that will hughly effect the environment possibly worldwide. You know anything about that?

While we're hitting up Dr. Nat and Capt. Paul on questions......

Any comments on the volcano and all the recent earthquakes? Will all the ash from the volcano result in a cooler summer? Global cooling?

Fine photography.

I believe there will be a Discovery Channel program on Brazil's power needs coming on soon and it looked like part of that included water diversion around the Amazon.

The volcano is cool (or in this case, I suppose hot!). I'm jealous that I can't be there to witness it and get some photos. There's not really enough ash being produced to have much of an effect on global climate; it's just not big enough.

I really believe there are no more earthquakes than what have always been. I do believe that news travels around the world better now, so we hear about these events much quicker than in the past. It is common to have earthquakes around the world; in fact, earth averages around about 18 Mag. 7+ quakes each year. Nothing out of the ordinary so far.....

Capt. Paul, not enough ash? I think it might be different if you were over there inhaling it.

Wonder what Al Gore has to say?????

The question was concerning ash cooling the climate, not the health impacts of inhaling ash. That is a completely different thing.

As of right now, the amount of ash erupted by the volcano in Iceland is a very small volume compared to other eruptions. The most recent eruption to cause a measurable effect on climate was Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. This was an eruption of 5 km³ (dense rock equivalent) and it caused a drop in average temperature of 0.5 to 0.6° Celsius. As of right now, the volume and height of the Icelandic ash plume just isn’t enough to have a major impact.

That being said, if this eruption continues for a long enough time and enough ash and sulphur dioxide is ejected, climate could be affected. Icelandic volcanoes have caused climatic perturbations in the past. In 1783, Laki erupted for about eight months. This eruption created about 80 times the amount of sulphuric acid aerosols as the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption and caused average temperature to drop ~1° Celsius. In the Northeastern United States, the average decrease in temperature was close to 5° Celsius. Haze from this eruption was noted as far away as Syria and ultimately ¼ of the Icelandic population perished as a result of this eruption, most due to the resulting famine. Icelandic eruptions have also dropped ash across Europe in the past. A measureable ashfall occurred in Scandinavia in 1875 when a volcanic crater named Viti erupted.

What is different today is that air traffic is disrupted, so people are noticing a relatively small eruption.

And why would I consult Al Gore about volcanoes? He’s a journalist and politician. If I want to know about volcanoes or geology, I’ll go to an expert. Oh, yeah, I am an expert on that. And as far as inhaling ash, just look up Ruapehu eruption 1995. There’s some pretty good video online. I was there. I felt that ash and those lapilli hitting me. That was an experience!

Thanks Capt. Paul!

Are there any studies concerning the impacts of the gases produced by volcanoes compared to those produced by human activity? How does the impact of the Iceland volcano stack up to 'xx' number of cars/trucks or whatever? Or are they so totally different as to be not comparable?

And Dr. Nat ~

I was so enjoying the explanation that i didn't read who the author was of each post! My bad~

Dr. Nat! You go girl! I guess you told "her"!!!