My usual photo of Honolulu has rainbows and sunsets. However, this is one of those voggy Sundays. It was nearly a third of century ago on 3January1983 when on the back nine of the Volcano Golf and Country Club, the ground shook, followed by the beginning of the current Kilauea eruption. We saw fountains of lava less than a golf course away from where we were standing. Well, all this haziness is caused by the emission from this long erupting volcano a little more than 200 miles away. I do worry about the effect of particulate natural pollution on our lungs.
Well, let me do a little more editorializing, starting with an article today following up on my blog yesterday about California (just scroll down to the next posting):
1. Turns out there is at least one state, Vermont (state flag to left), on the verge of launching universal health care. No Tea Party Republicans wanting to shut down their economy. Like California, just another example of Democratic supermajorities running the state. It also helps that there are only 15 hospitals, and all are already nonprofits. As Hawaii has an even greater supermajority of Democrats running the state, why don't we do anything monumentally inspiring anymore?
2. I've invested a lot of time and effort on the tragedy known as Fukushima. Here are two of my Huffington Post articles related to that earthquake/tsunami/nuclear cataclysm:
Can you imagine a 7.3 earthquake striking your city? Well, the ocean just outside of Fukushima yesterday had a 7.3 aftershock. There was a tsunami of about a foot, but nothing much else. That 11March2011 monster which killed 19,000 was rated at 9.0 and was a subduction zone event. Oregon is the mirror image of Japan and these faults are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire where tectonic plates are colliding.
3. In 1700, the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ, left) suffered a 9 earthquake. This fault was responsible for the Mount St. Helens explosion in 1980. Well, there is a 10-14% probability that the CSZ will produce an event of magnitude 9 or higher in the next 50 years. There is a 37% chance of 8 or larger. Major cities to be impacted include: Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and Sacramento...yes, Sacramento! Worse, geological evidence shows that activity here could well affect the San Andreas Fault on which San Francisco sits, with their 1906 earthquake suggested to be 7.7, 7.9 or 8.3.
If you were awaiting my synthesis of how volcanoes, Vermont and mega earthquakes are related, well, they aren't. Vermont has no active volcanos and their largest earthquake of 4.2 occurred in 1962.
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Likewise, if perchance you were wondering what happened to Raymond, this hurricane just attained Category 2 strength at nearly 100 MPH, is now moving towards Baha, but should weaken by midweek:
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