3 ms·
12k years ago somebody started keeping records of this volcano not erupting.
by onionisafruit 11mo ago
12k years ago somebody started keeping records of this volcano not erupting.
- inemesitaffia 11mo agoTree rings
- onionisafruit 11mo agoIndeed, but the headline evoked the other image in my flu addled brain.
- pfannkuchen 11mo agoNew marijuana euphemism just dropped.
- kabdib 11mo agoI was hoping for a secret society of volcano watchers, handing down carefully guarded records from generation to generation . . . ("There's nothing written in here, Dad")
- stonecharioteer 11mo agoRobert Langdon intensifies.
- sfn42 11mo agoI doubt there are any 12000 year old trees near the volcano.
- defrost 11mo agoHow about 12,000 years of overlapping ring patterns from paleo trees? Live trees, dead trees in buildings, bogs, tidal zones, etc. There's also sedimentation layers from multiple scattered bore samples that will reveal more about patterns of particle fall from the skies and layered flows from years past.
- sfn42 11mo agoI specifically meant live trees, didn't really occur to me that dead trees could be relevant. Not sure how common it is to find 12000 year old dead trees either but I guess it's more common than live ones. And of course geological surveys would definitely tell you something about the past
- defrost 11mo agoOak and other trees, felled several thousand years ago and used as trackway posts, in buildings, etc are the bread and butter of * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendroarchaeology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendroarchaeology Art historians often look at the wood panels of paintings that are 400 years or more old. You might enjoy reading the general overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrochronology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrochronology and, ahh, drilling deeper into the onion rings. The real problem with tree rings here in this specific case is ... Ethiopia .. not a lot of big trees now, nor in the recent past when it was grasslands - but not really my field - there's likely to be very slow growing unassuming trees that are surprisingly old there .. and remains of older trees that have overlapping ring sequences. But yes - geological / geophysical clues are likely more relevant here.
- bit1993 11mo agoLiterally reverse engineering.
- SideburnsOfDoom 11mo ago> How about 12,000 years of overlapping ring patterns from paleo trees? Near this specific volcano? In a dry, "sparsely vegetated" region (1). Not a chance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_Region#Land_features https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_Region#Land_features
- defrost 11mo agoThank you for your thoughts. I addressed this an hour or so prior to your comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46146345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46146345 and would point out that Ethiopa (which I've visited, along with many other countries as part of my work in geophysical surveying) is famous for its Acacia trees: https://www.alamy.com/typical-ethiopian-landscape-with-acacia-trees-image353085193.html https://www.alamy.com/typical-ethiopian-landscape-with-acaci... This particular fact somewhat undercuts your strong assertion: > Not a chance. as there are actual well documented trees in the region that do form annual rings. The Afar isn't solely vegetated by Dracaena ombet which lack annual rings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracaena_ombet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracaena_ombet
- SideburnsOfDoom 11mo agoI doubt there are any trees near the volcano, full stop. Do the basics: go to google maps, find the "Hayli Gubbi volcano", click for the satellite image. Not a forested area at all. I can see some light greenery near Lake Bakili. But not much. "The Afar Region as a whole is sparsely vegetated" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_Region#Land_features https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_Region#Land_features
- SideburnsOfDoom 11mo agoWhat trees? Near this specific volcano, not in a forest but in a dry, "sparsely vegetated" region (1). I don't expect any substantial trees at all. Google maps has the satellite imagery, it's pretty rocky and barren. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_Region#Land_features https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_Region#Land_features
- thaumasiotes 11mo agoIt's weird. The "records" in question appear to be those kept by the Smithsonian: > The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program has no record of any eruptions of Hayli Gubbi during the Holocene, the current geological epoch, which began at the end of the last ice age, about 11,700 years ago. But I'm fairly confident that the Smithsonian's records don't go back more than 700 years.
- bell-cot 11mo agoWhether or not a volcano has erupted during the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene Epoch, roughly the last 11.7k years, is a common "how active is it?" metric for volcanologists - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Holocene_volcanoes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Holocene_volcanoes From there - yeah, zero volcanoes had modern scientific monitoring before ~1980. Some have a few thousand years of written records...well, at least of major eruptions. Nobody ever kept "what did the volcano do today?" diaries. So generally - eruption records depend on field geologists doing a lot of grunt work around a volcano, trying to work out details of its geological history. And in a very poor, remote country like Ethiopia - which has also a history of border conflicts, civil wars, and other nastiness - geologists both bold and well-funded enough to do such field work may be rather scarce. Result - an eruption record may amount to "we have no real evidence that it's done anything big since maybe somewhere around X-ish thousand years ago".