A Volcano Erupts
Mark Twain in 1866 hiked through Kilauea Crater and wrote about a lake of molten lava:
"It was like gazing at the sun at noon-day, except that the glare was not quite so white. At unequal distances all around the shores of the lake were nearly white-hot chimneys or hollow drums of lava, four or five feet high, and up through them were bursting gorgeous sprays of lava-gouts and gem spangles, some white, some red and some golden--a ceaseless bombardment, and one that fascinated the eye with its unapproachable splendor."
Until 2008 anyone could walk here, the crater floor. In the background is the smaller Halema'uma'u crater. Until recently one could eat lunch or spend the night at Volcano House on the rim of Kilauea Crater. Today no one is allowed on the crater floor, Volcano House is shut down, and Halema'uma'u Crater looks like this.
The crater has again become a lava lake, and steam isues constantly. At night an orange glow is visible from Jaggar Museum.
Former location of the Kalapana subdivision, now covered with miles of lava. In the background clouds ominously hover over Kilauea.
Humans fear them, but volcanoes are not all fire and destruction. Their heat created the Hawaiian islands, along with wonders like the Punaluu black sand beach. The continents were formed and transported by Earth's internal heat. Life on Earth may have began in undersea vents warmed by volcanic heat.
Humans fear Black Holes, but our planet and solar system may be the result of a tiny Black Hole drawing dust to it. Without a Black Hole, scientists have difficulty explaining how Earth formed at all. Though still smaller than a grain of black sand, it continues to produce the heat that forms islands and continents. The magnetic field produced by the Black Hole's rotation guides compass needles and protects Earth from harmful radiation.
Here at Punaluu evidence for the Black Hole is right at our feet. The volcanic sand with its high iron content must originate deep within the Earth, from the hot plume that built the islands. Old theories of "radioactive decay" would fill these sands with radionucleides, but few such elements are present. Radioactive elements are only common in Earth's crust, where they arrived via meteorites. The core's heat must originate with something even more powerful than nuclear radiation, the heat from a tiny Black Hole.
Two fearsome phenomena may be related, the volcano's heat originating in a Black Hole. Both are subjects of fear and wonder. Humans may speculate for centuries before figuring out the relation. They are both part of the unapproachable splendor that Mark Twain marvelled at.
Labels: black holes, hawaii, volcano
posted by L. Riofrio at 10:21 AM
6 Comments:
Thanks for this post! I've seen similar volcanic scenes at Timanfaya (place of fire) on Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. They pour water down a hole in the volcano and three seconds later there is a blast of steam out of the hole, the vaporized water.
Looking at pictures of the black sandy beaches of Hawaii reminds me of the dark volcanic beaches of the Canary Islands, although the Canary island of Fuerteventura where I go windsurfing is very close to Morocco, and has sandy beaches from sand blown across from the Sahara desert during summer sandstorms.
I've been improving my swimming and breath-holding endurance, so hopefully if I do ever get around to surfing in Hawaii, I won't stupidly be drowned by the first big roller to knock me off balance!
"Old theories of "radioactive decay" would fill these sands with radionuclides, but few such elements are present."
I agree that lava is not very radioactive, but it is only the most buoyant, low-density material that can reach the Earth's surface and erupt from a volcano!
There is fractionation: the dense radionuclides like uranium and thorium are denser than lead and form dense mineral compounds. At the ~ 5000 K temperature in the Earth's core such compounds are reduced to elements, and their density keeps them from rising to the surface, just like the iron and nickel of the Earth's core doesn't get ejected in lava eruptions.
Lava isn't full of iron, nickel, and uranium because they're too dense to buoyantly rise in the mantle. Lava is mainly low density oxides of lighter elements like aluminium, silicon, etc. So don't go chucking out the idea that the Earth's core may contain dense radioactive elements like uranium and thorium, which generate the heat.
I think the idea there is black hole generating the heat inside the Earth is extremely costly in terms of the amount of explanation you out of that idea compared to the kinds of assumptions and problems the idea creates. You have to stabilize the black hole to keep it from swallowing up the Earth, and yet you have to get energy from it to warm the Earth in a stable way for billions of years. I can imagine maybe a Rube-Goldberg machine could be constructed to make it work, but I think it is also quite possible that the core heat is really generated by radioactive decay. That is a simple theory, and sometimes simplicity is right although it is not so exciting as black holes.
Every fundamental particle behaves like a black hole, radiating off-shell bosons (virtual-Hawking radiation), which I think is the basis of the quantum field theory. Because particles are all radiating, they have long attained an equilibrium, and thus normally receive the same flux that they radiate. Moving a particle causes a force, such as inertia, to be experienced, because it disturbs the equilibrium. Accelerating a charge causes an imbalance in the equilibrium which we see as "real" (on shell) radiation, like the radio waves emitted by accelerating electrons in an antenna. Rueda and Haisch have published papers on this "Stochastic Electrodynamics" but I think they have confused the gravitational and electromagnetic field quanta, so I'm now writing up a paper which explains everything properly.
Thanks for the fascinating comments, nige. The Canary Islands sound like a lot of fun. Theories of "radioactive decay" need to work out how radionucleides could have arrived early in Earth's formation, and be concentrated in sufficient quantities to keep the core molten for billions of years. The mathematics of how Black Holes can exist in planets are fun too.
In fact volcanos are connected to dark matter, as is radioactive decay, tornados, earthquakes, PSI-phenomenas, meditation, praying etc. This all happens with aid of brainwaves, very low frequencies. The reaction can happen outside life too, but not so fast (compare biological radioactive decay). I think the radioactivity and dust react together (russia). How this happens is beyond my realm. I try to study it. Look at TGD.
Your theory of a black hole inside Earth is interesting. I have thought in the same manner. Can you tell me what made the core of Mars chrystallize, so that the magnetosphere was lost? What has gravity to do with it and the size of the planets, in reality?
I believed it was going to be some boring previous post, however it seriously compensated for my time.
So, then what makes a volcano erupt after it is initially formed?
Interesting. I've been hearing a lot of stories about it. Hawaiian islanders have many legends that explain the near-constant volcanic activity in their region. They tell stories of the fire goddess Pele, isn't?
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