The Biscuit Basin Explosion The world’s first national park – Yellowstone – contains over half of Earth’s geysers. Powering this incredible fact is the Yellowstone Caldera, an underground supervolcano. Though currently dormant in terms of overground eruption, the system isn’t extinct and still heats the region, creating Old Faithful and the other gushers inside the park. Worrywarts across […]
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Red Adair, the Munroe Effect, & the Devil’s Cigarette Lighter On 20 February 1962, John Glenn became the third American to visit space, as Friendship 7 left Earth. When the craft successfully orbited our planet, Glenn was the first American to circle Earth above the atmosphere. He orbited three times during the nearly five-hour mission, giving Glenn
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The KPK Rescue Situated in northwestern Pakistan, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa contains some gorgeous scenery. Often abbreviated KP or KPK, the province borders Afghanistan and is bisected by the mighty Indus River as it comes down from the Himalayas. The region is home to one of the most famous mountain passages on the globe, the eponymous Khyber Pass. The course
The Lahaina Banyan Tree In early August 2023, a calamitous series of wildfires erupted across the Hawaiian islands. A cauldron of atmospheric conditions turned the islands into something akin to a bed of kindling. The U.S. Drought Monitor showed a majority of the islands to be abnormally dry, with several areas drifting into legitimate drought. Meteorologists
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The Messinian Salinity Crisis & the Zanclean Flood The Mediterranean Sea is massive, covering 2.5 million square kilometers (970,000 square miles). It contains 3.75 cubic kilometers of water, enough to fill more than 310 copies of Lake Superior. The body has nourished some of the planet’s greatest civilizations, from the Phoenicians to the Greeks to
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Children of the Jungle Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle. — Radio Transmission An example of total survival which will remain in history. — Colombian President Gustavo Petro On 1 May 2023, a Cessna 206 departed Araracuara Airport in southern Colombia with seven humans aboard. In addition to the pilot, Hernando Murcia Morales, and a local Indigenous leader, Herman Mendoza Hernández,
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The Worst Year to Be Alive During this year the most dread portent took place. The Sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the Sun in eclipse. — Procopius of Caesarea As we all know by now, 2020 was a difficult year to inhabit
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Documenting Demise As we explored in the previous issue, Mt. St. Helens began to display activity in March 1980, a string of action that led to the largest recorded landslide and an incomprehensible lateral blast on May 18. This two-month period allowed geologists and amateur scientists time to study the mountain in the buildup. Many volcanologists
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The Mt. St. Helens Eruption Today is the 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Located in southern Washington’s Skamania County, the stratovolcano is 50 miles northeast of Portland and 100 miles south of Seattle. In early 1980 the mountain was 9,677 feet high, making it the fifth-highest peak in the state. Rising
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