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How big was the Tonga eruption?

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Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#261

Post by obmelvin »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #251
obmelvin wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

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

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#262

Post by scythe »

dheera wrote: post #50
scythe wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reasoning cannot lead to a practical policy directive. Volcanoes often lay dormant for thousands of years and their eruptions can deny huge amounts of land, which is not a reasonable tradeoff compared to "just rebuilding the railroad every 5000 years", since its service life is probably shorter than that anyway.

Maybe, but building a railroad invites towns and cities to be built around it.

Only if you build a stop there.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#263

Post by LeoPanthera »

andrewinardeer wrote: post #225
LeoPanthera wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My back yard weather station picked up the shockwave here in the bay area: https://twitter.com/DavidCWG/status/1482451910154014720 I had no idea that was even possible. Crazy stuff.

May I kindly ask the make and model of your weather station please?

It's a Davis Vantage Vue.

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#265

Post by ChrisClark »

mlindner wrote: post #220
ChrisClark wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 1 hour actually, not 24 hours. But it is really mostly a huge ash cloud, not the explosion itself.

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.

Actually, when you put it like that. Yikes! That's a crazy amount of energy!

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#267

Post by NikolaNovak »

Clubber wrote: post #63
NikolaNovak wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting; on aside, I would call: Florida - State Ontario - Province Spain & UK - "Country" colloquially; might use the term "Nation" if I needed to be more inclusive/ambiguous (Understanding that formally, State might in fact be a better term: e.g. it's "Minister of the State" or "Statesmanship" etc; but this is how I'd use them in daily life. ESL, 25 years in Canada FWIW)

State and Country are used interchangeably. The United States, before the Civil War was just that, a union of self governing entities. A nation is a group of similar peoples such as the Nation of Islam or Navajo Nation. Country and State are synonymous terms that both apply to self-governing political entities. A nation, however, is a group of people who share the same culture but do not have sovereignty. https://www…

I interpreted the question to be about common/colloquial usage, not definition.

In colloquial usage, for me, state and country are not typically used interchangeably, and are fairly asymmetrical: i.e. I'd never call Nebraska a Country. I'd much more commonly call Netherlands a country, and only call it a state in formal political discussion.

Everybody's mileage will vary significantly :)

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#268

Post by distribot »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #251
obmelvin wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

I know this is days late but I don't understand how you can say the voyage was a failure? They hobbled back home for sure, but they made it!

Re: How big was the Tonga eruption?

#269

Post by dmissp »

lnwlebjel wrote: post #178

I posted a visualization of the shock wave as a submission, but I"ll repost it here. This is a satellite measurement of integrated atmospheric water vapor (IIUC), so changes in the density of air change the integrated measurement, such that you can see the shock wave travel around half the globe. https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/images/2022/01/22... (it take a few seconds to load, but I believe this is one…

Honest question - is this animation in real time, or sped up?
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