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This is an excellent lesson in how shitty my sense of geographic scale is. I would have guessed that the size of the eruption was on par with the size of a sma

This is an excellent lesson in how shitty my sense of geographic scale is. I would have guessed that the size of the eruption was on par with the size of a small city.

vanattab 5y ago
I mean your not wrong, the article is illustrating the mushroom cloud and ash cloud after 24 hours. So the explosive eruption its self is much smaller.
- robotresearcher 5y ago
  "Around the time of the initial eruption, a cloud measuring 38 km (24 miles) wide is thrust into the atmosphere. Its diameter already measures almost twice the length of Manhattan, New York. One hour later, it appears to measure around 650 km wide, including shock waves around its edge." One hour. Sanity check: it's never dark in the animations, which it would be if the images were taken over 24 hours. In other views you can see the night approaching.
- ChrisClark 5y ago
  After 1 hour actually, not 24 hours. But it is really mostly a huge ash cloud, not the explosion itself.
  - mlindner 5y ago
    650 km in 1 hour (in diameter), aka 325 km/hr, aka about 1/4 the speed of sound. So yes that's basically the explosion.
    - ChrisClark 5y ago
      Actually, when you put it like that. Yikes! That's a crazy amount of energy!
divbzero 5y ago
The Pacific Ocean is ginormous (I think that’s the technical term?) I often find myself surprised when I spin a globe (physical or virtual) and compare the expanse of the ocean to my neighborhood of the planet. The scale also makes the history of Polynesian seafaring all that more incredible.
- distribot 5y ago
  Yes, they had incredible techniques. They could detect a remote island by the way the swell is disrupted. Also recently read about Magellan's voyage and it is remarkable that they made it.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > Also recently read about Magellan's voyage and it is remarkable that they made it. Well, they didn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan#Voyage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan#Voyage > Of the 270 men who left with the expedition, only 18 or 19 survivors returned. A 93% mortality rate really isn't a success by any metric. Losing 80% of your ships is nothing to be proud of either.
    - obmelvin 5y ago
      I don't see the point of your snark. What they did was quite hard for the time. What point are you trying to make?
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        They set themselves a task that they weren't up to, and they failed at it. It doesn't make sense to say "it is remarkable that they made it", because they didn't make it.
        obmelvin 5y ago
        You know this happened 500 years ago, right? If someone did this today and had that death rate, I would absolutely agree, but the challenges then were drastically different. No, not everyone made it, but those who did were the first to circumnavigate the planet - and they very much did make it. A little off topic, but as a reminder of how different the world used to be: families used to move across the US on foot, maybe with a wagon carrying their supplies, and many died doing so. I'm quite thankful I can just get on a plane to see my family :). Also, as someone who needs to remind themselves occasionally to be less negative, I would encourage you to be less negative about things that aren't 100% a success. P.S. If you really want to hate on Magellan it would make sense to do so for something like him burning a village in Mactan because they didn't want to convert to Catholicism[0], not this. You may be pleased to hear that this directly led to his death. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan

This is an excellent lesson in how shitty my sense of geographic scale is. I would have guessed that the size of the eruption was on par with the size of a small city.

vanattab 5y ago

I mean your not wrong, the article is illustrating the mushroom cloud and ash cloud after 24 hours. So the explosive eruption its self is much smaller.

robotresearcher 5y ago
"Around the time of the initial eruption, a cloud measuring 38 km (24 miles) wide is thrust into the atmosphere. Its diameter already measures almost twice the length of Manhattan, New York. One hour later, it appears to measure around 650 km wide, including shock waves around its edge." One hour. Sanity check: it's never dark in the animations, which it would be if the images were taken over 24 hours. In other views you can see the night approaching.
ChrisClark 5y ago
After 1 hour actually, not 24 hours. But it is really mostly a huge ash cloud, not the explosion itself.
- mlindner 5y ago
  650 km in 1 hour (in diameter), aka 325 km/hr, aka about 1/4 the speed of sound. So yes that's basically the explosion.
  - ChrisClark 5y ago
    Actually, when you put it like that. Yikes! That's a crazy amount of energy!

divbzero 5y ago

The Pacific Ocean is ginormous (I think that’s the technical term?) I often find myself surprised when I spin a globe (physical or virtual) and compare the expanse of the ocean to my neighborhood of the planet. The scale also makes the history of Polynesian seafaring all that more incredible.

distribot 5y ago
Yes, they had incredible techniques. They could detect a remote island by the way the swell is disrupted. Also recently read about Magellan's voyage and it is remarkable that they made it.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > Also recently read about Magellan's voyage and it is remarkable that they made it. Well, they didn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan#Voyage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan#Voyage > Of the 270 men who left with the expedition, only 18 or 19 survivors returned. A 93% mortality rate really isn't a success by any metric. Losing 80% of your ships is nothing to be proud of either.
  - obmelvin 5y ago
    I don't see the point of your snark. What they did was quite hard for the time. What point are you trying to make?
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      They set themselves a task that they weren't up to, and they failed at it. It doesn't make sense to say "it is remarkable that they made it", because they didn't make it.
      - obmelvin 5y ago
        You know this happened 500 years ago, right? If someone did this today and had that death rate, I would absolutely agree, but the challenges then were drastically different. No, not everyone made it, but those who did were the first to circumnavigate the planet - and they very much did make it. A little off topic, but as a reminder of how different the world used to be: families used to move across the US on foot, maybe with a wagon carrying their supplies, and many died doing so. I'm quite thankful I can just get on a plane to see my family :). Also, as someone who needs to remind themselves occasionally to be less negative, I would encourage you to be less negative about things that aren't 100% a success. P.S. If you really want to hate on Magellan it would make sense to do so for something like him burning a village in Mactan because they didn't want to convert to Catholicism[0], not this. You may be pleased to hear that this directly led to his death. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan