Comments by "David Ford" (@davidford3115) on "Astrum" channel.

  1.  @astrumspace  I tend to agree. So long as people are out of the area of danger, let nature show her full fury and might.
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  2. Part of the problem is that someone close enough to photograph the explosion might not survive to deliver it. Many of the most spectacular pictures taken of the Mount St. Helens eruption did not live once the cloud overran their location. it was the fact that they used their own dying bodies as protection for their film that we have those pictures.
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  3.  @ZeteticPhilosopher  Yeah, but our aircraft have injected a large amount of water vapor into the stratosphere at 40,000 ft. elevation. That DOES have a similar effect to particulates at high altitude.
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  4. Geology Hub also has been covering this in pretty good detail. Though I admit that he has a rather monotone delivery.
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  5. Indeed. As George Carlin said, "The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas".
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  6. Some of the people who took photos of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens did not survive. The only reason we have their pictures is because they used their dying bodies to shield the film so that it would survive to be found.
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  7. Actually, we do. The US Navy's Baker test during Operation Crossroads.
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  8. Water vapor in the stratosphere still creates clouds, though typically they are thin Nacreous ones. They still have the effect of reflecting incoming solar radiation.
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  9. Indeed. Change is the only constant in the universe. Why is it so hard for some people to accept that?
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  10. Depends on the route, but you are probably correct that some of the trans-Pacific flights will be disrupted.
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  11. Geothermal power plants do harness the power of volcanos, but the amount of energy released in this one event was too much to collect by any human means.
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  12. I agree, though on a sister channel to Astrum, maybe under the name Gia or Gaia?
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  13.  @zounds010  Yeah, they tend to put out much more sulfur-dioxide (SO2). And the sulfur output is far and away more than humanity produces.
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  14. I think 1816 was the year without a summer caused by Mount Tambora. But you are correct that 935 was a significantly colder year because of Mount Paektu's humongous eruption.
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  15. Wasn't there a typhoon or tropical storm to the East of Tonga?
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  16.  @catou060195  Water vapor injected into the stratosphere can still cause a cooling effect. And the plume going as high as 55Km means there was ample water vapor to take the places of ash and dust particulates.
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  17. I think we are making a chicken and egg argument. Some have described the event similar to Mount St. Helens. Did the eruption of Helens cause the landslide, or did the landslide uncork the volcano allowing the eruption to take place?
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  18. And yet despite the devastation from the tsunami, there were very few deaths. When Indonesia experiences a Tsunami, it often results in hundreds to thousands of fatalities. At least give the Tongas credit for their quick response even if their preparations were lacking.
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  19.  @jimbobeire  Yeah, and the USGS is politically motivated just like all of the other executive branch agencies. Truth of the matter is that the numbers they put out are estimates, not actual numbers. Incidentally, no new carbon is being created as it has been here since the formation of the planet 4 billion years ago.
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  20. Water injected into the stratosphere can still have a significant effect. Water Vapor can create stratospheric clouds that reflect solar radiation just as easily as dust particulates do.
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