Jun 28, 2023 05:53 PM
(This post was last modified: Jun 28, 2023 06:00 PM by C C.)
Electrifying volcano eruption set off the most extreme lightning detected
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/...-detected/
INTRO: When Tonga’s underwater Hunga Tonga volcano lost its temper in an eruption on January 15, 2022, it belched gobs of magma and exhaled clouds of ash and water vapor out of the ocean, triggering intense lightning. This was no ordinary thunderstorm.
Hunga is infamous for its tantrums, but it has outdone itself. That storm now boasts the most lightning ever recorded on Earth. Hanging ominously above the Pacific Ocean was a volcanic cloud lit by concentric rings of lightning that flashed about 192,000 times over the 11 hours that the volcano was active (that’s some 2,615 flashes a minute). Lightning shot up to 30 km (19 miles) high—another record, beating even cyclones and supercells.
Led by volcanologist Alexa Van Eaton of the US Geological Survey, a team of researchers who took a closer look at the observations from the Hunga eruption and ensuing storm found that no one has ever recorded lightning so extreme. “Our findings show that a sufficiently powerful volcanic plume can create its own weather system, sustaining the conditions for electrical activity at heights and rates not previously observed,” Van Eaton and her team said in a study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters... (MORE - details)
Most intense lightning ever recorded was produced by Hunga eruption ... https://youtu.be/8unAhokp2LU
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8unAhokp2LU
We have forgotten what a ‘natural’ river even looks like
https://theconversation.com/we-have-forg...ike-206443
INTRO: Britain’s rivers are under the spotlight because of an untreated sewage crisis, and the pendulum of floods and droughts that are the hallmark of a warming world. But hidden within these policy debates is a pervasive and under reported issue: quite simply, people have forgotten what a natural river even looks like.
This is important because it underpins attitudes towards the kind of rivers people expect to live with, and therefore constrains the changes to rivers that people will be willing to accept. Scientific evidence says radically different looking rivers are needed in order to accommodate larger, more frequent floods and droughts, to deliver increases in biodiversity, and to store more carbon.
Why have we forgotten what our natural rivers look like? In the UK and most other developed economies, the network of streams and rivers have been managed, and physically altered in some cases, for more than 1,000 years to support more farms and later more industry.
It is no wonder most people do not realise that the rivers they grew up with, fish in, swim in, or simply walk along are nothing like the natural ecosystems they once were. History and culture has evolved around modified river systems... (MORE - details)
Why rivers shouldn't look like this ... https://youtu.be/zkmJRJaPBXE
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/zkmJRJaPBXE
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/06/...-detected/
INTRO: When Tonga’s underwater Hunga Tonga volcano lost its temper in an eruption on January 15, 2022, it belched gobs of magma and exhaled clouds of ash and water vapor out of the ocean, triggering intense lightning. This was no ordinary thunderstorm.
Hunga is infamous for its tantrums, but it has outdone itself. That storm now boasts the most lightning ever recorded on Earth. Hanging ominously above the Pacific Ocean was a volcanic cloud lit by concentric rings of lightning that flashed about 192,000 times over the 11 hours that the volcano was active (that’s some 2,615 flashes a minute). Lightning shot up to 30 km (19 miles) high—another record, beating even cyclones and supercells.
Led by volcanologist Alexa Van Eaton of the US Geological Survey, a team of researchers who took a closer look at the observations from the Hunga eruption and ensuing storm found that no one has ever recorded lightning so extreme. “Our findings show that a sufficiently powerful volcanic plume can create its own weather system, sustaining the conditions for electrical activity at heights and rates not previously observed,” Van Eaton and her team said in a study recently published in Geophysical Research Letters... (MORE - details)
Most intense lightning ever recorded was produced by Hunga eruption ... https://youtu.be/8unAhokp2LU
We have forgotten what a ‘natural’ river even looks like
https://theconversation.com/we-have-forg...ike-206443
INTRO: Britain’s rivers are under the spotlight because of an untreated sewage crisis, and the pendulum of floods and droughts that are the hallmark of a warming world. But hidden within these policy debates is a pervasive and under reported issue: quite simply, people have forgotten what a natural river even looks like.
This is important because it underpins attitudes towards the kind of rivers people expect to live with, and therefore constrains the changes to rivers that people will be willing to accept. Scientific evidence says radically different looking rivers are needed in order to accommodate larger, more frequent floods and droughts, to deliver increases in biodiversity, and to store more carbon.
Why have we forgotten what our natural rivers look like? In the UK and most other developed economies, the network of streams and rivers have been managed, and physically altered in some cases, for more than 1,000 years to support more farms and later more industry.
It is no wonder most people do not realise that the rivers they grew up with, fish in, swim in, or simply walk along are nothing like the natural ecosystems they once were. History and culture has evolved around modified river systems... (MORE - details)
Why rivers shouldn't look like this ... https://youtu.be/zkmJRJaPBXE