Deep-sea Volcano Video

Deep-sea Volcano Video just released:



(Courtesy NSF, NOAA, AIVL/WHOI)

Oceanographers using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason discovered and recorded the first video and still images of a deep-sea volcano actively erupting molten lava on the seafloor.

Jason, designed and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the National Deep Submergence Facility, utilized a prototype, high-definition still and video camera to capture the powerful event nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

Mayon Volcano Alert

20,000 evacuated as Mayon Volcano oozes lava

MANILA, Philippines -- Alert level 3 remained hoisted over Mayon Volcano as of Tuesday because of its highly restive state, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said.

In a bulletin released by the agency on Tuesday, it said the alert level meant the enforcement of a six-kilometer permanent danger zone (PDZ) around the volcano.

In addition, a seven-kilometer extended danger zone on the southeast flank of the volcano is also off-limits.

These areas, Phivolcs said, “should be free from human activity because of sudden explosions that may generate hazardous volcanic flows.”

“In addition, areas in the southeast that are outside the seven kilometer danger zone but within eight kilometers of the crater should be on extra alert for increased volcanic activity,” the agency said.

Reading Ice Core Lesson Plans

Here's a wonderful lesson plan where the teacher makes simulated ice core samples for the students to study:

Frozen in Time: Ice Cores by Jan French


Click here for the Pdf lesson, complete with ice core instructions and student worksheet.



Click here for PBS "Stories in the Ice."



Click here for National Ice Core Laboratory.



Click here for another Pdf lesson in which the students model their own ice cores using play dough and other substances. Then their cores are exchanges and studied. Very kewl!



Click here for a nice "movie" of the life of a snowflake, showing how a glacier forms in layers from snow. Click here for accompanying lesson.

Reading Iceland Ice Cores

An interview with Vasilii Petrenko, who is working in Greenland where cores are being taken from the Greenland ice sheet. They are studying trapped air in the ice to learn about its composition--especially its CO2 content and the clues that it might provide about climate change.