CNN/AP: Volcano erupts on Galapagos island

[DeepModem Mom]

Volcano erupts on Galapagos island


QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- A volcano has begun to erupt on one of the Galapagos Islands known for its diverse flora and fauna, including the archipelago's famed giant tortoises, park officials said Sunday.

The 1,500-meter (4,920-feet) Sierra Negra volcano, located on seahorse-shaped Isabela, the largest of the Galapagos Islands, began erupting late Saturday afternoon, producing three lava flows, officials from the Galapagos National Park told The Associated Press in a statement.

It has not yet been determined whether the island's plant and animal life have been affected.

Many Galapagos tortoises, some of which have a lifespan of more than 150 years, live near volcano craters.

Puerto Villamil on Isabela's southern coast is home to 2,000 people, but the eruption posed "no risk to the population," the statement said. Tourist centers near Sierra Negra were closed as a precaution....


http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/10/23/volcano.ap/index.html

[Lancer]

1. It's official -- we've run the gamut of Biblical disasters this year

earthquakes
hurricanes
volcano
floods
mudslides
forest fires

All that's missing is famine, and pestilence (if bird flu breaks out). Easy to understand why some think it's the End Times.

[Soup Bean]

2. What kills me about "End Timers" is that they WANT the END.

Growing up in the Bible Belt, all I've ever heard is doom, gloom, "you'd better be ready to go", the "Rapture" is coming, "it's according to the Bible"............no focus on THIS life, just worrying about the next.

It drives me crazy, and I'm sick of it.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. If I grew up in the bible belt...

...I probably wouldn't want to focus on this life either.

[Arugula Latte]

17. *snarf*

Good one!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. Guess what:

Those things happen every year.

[jwirr]

18. For many years we Lutheran's lived with the

knowledge that any day the "end" could come. It could come in several forms: return of Christ or our own death. This did not keep us from continuing with life. We did not stand around staring up into the sky, nor did we use any means at our disposal to pile up a fortune like the repubs are doing. For us "End Times" was God's work, ours was "love others as we would have them love us." Even this has been "bastardized" by the right wing. They have taken the comfort out of God's Word and turned it into a "survival of the fittest" game - a nightmare.

[cyberpj]

20. New Agers have been saying "live every day like it's your last" forever.

The same has been quoted to Frank Sinatra.

[MADem]

21. Famine, sadly, is not missing from the list at all

And it even includes a bit of pestilence as well...

http://www.sundayherald.com/52431
Drought worsens famine in Zimbabwe
...The tragedy of Zimbabwe often verges on tragi-comedy when it comes to official responses from Mugabe’s government itself. Ignatius Chombo, for example, the local government minister directly in charge of Operation Murambatsvina, has written to international donors asking them to fund the provision of tens of thousands of garden sheds to replace the homes his men have destroyed since June.

At a time when people are slowly starving, one of Mugabe’s relatives has been arrested on charges of illegally siphoning off the meagre supplies left in country. Leo Mugabe, the president’s nephew and an MP, was released on bail on Thursday along with his wife, accused of illegally exporting 30 tonnes of flour to Mozambique. He was previously cleared of corruption charges relating to the national football team.

Then there was the suggestion toted by the government in its daily mouthpiece, The Herald, that the grain harvest had failed only because of invasions by Quelea birds, tiny finches that swarm like locusts. Instead of going hungry, the paper suggested people should eat the Queleas, adding that some could even be canned and exported to five-star restaurants in Europe.

Such insane developments make foreign correspondents wonder whether Zimbabwe can be reported objectively any longer. When independence came in 1980, the average life expectancy for a Zimbabwean was 60 years: now it is 33 and falling. Perhaps only when Mugabe is out of office will life expectancy creep up again.

Edit to add this report, as well http://www.guardian.co.uk/famine/story/0,12128,1595431,00.html?gusrc=rss Silently, Malawi begins to starve
With food supplies running out, charities warn that huge and immediate aid is needed

Patrick Barkham in Nsanje
Wednesday October 19, 2005
The Guardian


Farayi Mutsa is slumped in the shade outside Nsanje district hospital, gently holding his daughter, Azineyi. Her wrists are barely thicker than an adult thumb and her mouth is stained purple where nurses have applied zinc oxide cream to her sores. She looks six months old; she is three years.
Mr Mutsa, 33, planted maize, rice and bulrush millet but the rains never arrived and he had no crops to bring home last April. He survived on the pittance he earned from working as a traditional "African doctor" but his unguents could not protect his daughter from the hidden hunger that threatens the lives of five million people in Malawi.

Last week the entire country was declared a disaster area by its president. Aid agencies warn that nearly half the country's 12 million population could starve in the next six months without massive and immediate food donations. So far, it has not been forthcoming. The UN World Food Programme still needs $76m (£43.3m) to feed 2.9 million Malawians until the harvest in April. Sheila Sisulu, deputy executive director of the WFP, described international inaction over Malawi as "deplorable".
While the British government aims to feed 2.2 million Malawians through a voucher scheme in 16 districts, it is not enough. "We know governments only act when they see children dying on their TV screens, but once the damage is done it's very difficult to undo," said Peter Smerdon of the WFP. It's much harder to fund an emergency and prevent massive loss of life than stop one happening."

More at links

[Maine-ah]

22. have we had locusts?

[HR_Pufnstuf]

23. nah..,

..without Locust Storms, this is aint sh*t.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. I wish folks wouldn't raise "end times" even to ridicule it

I wish folks wouldn't raise "end times" even to ridicule it. However, if somebody raises it seriously (as a believer), by all means debunk it and shoot it down.

[IndianaGreen]

13. Bush is the anti-Christ!

I don't believe any of that nonsense, but if you tell fundies that Bush is the anti-Christ because the Bible says that this character will deceive even the very elect, they pause and think about it.

[Gman]

4. Meanwhile, Congress keeps shoving legislation through

that screws all of us and makes corporations richer. Frist and Hastert just go to Bush and say, "Here. Sign this." Bush says, "Ok. Where?"

[niallmac]

5. CNN found a volcano in the Galapagos. Oh no.

There goes any air time for the indictments! Just kidding. No one is throwing a blonde into the volcano...yet.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

6. It's a SIGN, I tell ya1

"Whut better place fer Gawd t' show his displeasure with them seckuler hoomanists than in them Gallopygoy I-lans. After all, thayt's whar that Darwinist Darwin got hisself all demon-possesed and started t'thinking Gawd didn give them birds them funny beaks, but they developed 'em so's they could eats seeds, er seals, er rocks er whatever.

Hail is breakin out in the Gallopygoy I-lans, all a-bubblin' up from Satan's own Sittin' Room!"

-The Right Good Reverend Pastor Shepherd Brother Walter Whackbottom

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Not that unusual

Sierra Negra rises to an elevation of nearly 1500 meters (4890 feet) and is located in the southeast of Isla Isabela, (or Albermarle Island). It is the largest and one of most active volcanos in the archipelago, with 10 known eruptions since 1813, the most recent in 1979. Over ninety percent of the surface of the volcano is younger than 4500 yrs, judging from cosmic ray exposure ages of lavas.

http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/GalapagosWWW/SierraNegra.html

[tabasco]

9. Get away tortoises! As fast as you can!

I hope the volcano doesn't kill too many animals. :(

This place is such a treasure. Of course,I suppose it wouldn't be there if not for the volcano.

[KansDem]

19. My guess is the tortoises will survive...

Many Galapagos tortoises, some of which have a lifespan of more than 150 years, live near volcano craters.

I imagine these animals have a way of sensing when something like this will happen, although a hasty move to safer terrain might be a bit problematic for a tortoise then say, a hare(?)

Tortoise 1: "Say, you've moved 3 feet since I last saw you!"
Tortoise 2: "Yea, I sense a couple of days ago that something big was going to happen, so I started fleeing then to a safer area..."

But then, you don't get to be 150 years old by being stupid (Exception: the GOP was founded 151 years ago...)

[applegrove]

11. It's official. The Planet is taking back all knowledge & scientific insti-

tutional memory because we don't deserve the info. All we do is exploit the planet more!!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

12. Or maybe...

...it's because it's a volcano.

[applegrove]

14. d'ya think! I was being sarcastic. Forgot the sarcastic smilie!!

My bad!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. It's hard to tell around here sometimes. n/t

[applegrove]

16. I hear ya! Sorry n/t