Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Tregear Reserve Bushcare

Saturday 4 July 9am-noon

Saturday 1 Aug 9am-noon

Saturday 5 Sep 9am-noon

For more details call the Bushcare Team on 9839 6074.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Other things

Tregear seems very quiet lately. The mob digging up the footpaths are still there and they have progressed to digging across the roads, both Ellsworth and Forrester. Still don't really know what they are doing. Someone spotted a sign with writing way too small to be useful and the only words they could see while they were driving past were 'flow control'.

I've been way too focused on work (and after work recovering) to pay much attention to anything. Not good when that happens, I always tell others not to let work rule their lives. I get very cranky when I realise I've let work take over most of my attention to the point of not keeping up blogs so today I'm writing about something completely different.

Volcanoes! I've been getting Google news alerts using volcano as the keyword. (For those not in the know, go to Google, click on 'News' link at top, middle left is a link for 'News Alerts', pick a keyword that interests you and follow instructions.) We don't get all the volcano news in the regular news by a long shot. I'm amazed at how many volcanoes are erupting on our planet! Some we will hear about if it's a slow news day or if they threaten US interests, but a lot we don't hear about. There's also other odd things come up because there's a couple of companies with the Volcano in their name and the word is also used in a descriptive way in all sorts of situations.

Mt Redoubt in Canada, near Anchorage erupted a little while ago. It's still being active. They are pumping out oil from a terminal at it's base in it's quiet times.

Mt Chaiten in Chile has erupted to the point where the town Chaiten had to be permanently evacuated and they've arranged to rebuild it about 10 Km away. About 50-60 people refuse to leave. They have to use generators for electricity because it's been cut off and they have to carry water from clean streams because there's no running water any more. But they aren't leaving.

A poet who was researching for a book of poems about volcanoes went for a hike on a volcano on the Japanes island of Kuchinoerabu-jima and is missing. They have now given up the search. (No that volcano isn't erupting).

Mount Nyiragongo in DR Congo is being very active and they think it might erupt again soon. There's more than one active volcano there. Half the city of Goma was destroyed in 2002 when one of them last erupted.

The 'child of Krakatau' Mount Anak Krakatau is being very active again, it's closed to tourist traffic and is worrying people on nearby islands.

A volcano on the Galapagos has erupted and is threatening the ecosystem there. Lots of people are concerned because of it's historical connection with Darwin and the theory of evolution, but somehow I don't thing they can do anything about it!

Kilauea on Hawaii get into the news all the time, mostly because of it's tourist connection, but the scientists are now warning that it might not be as 'friendly' as they thought. It is capable of throwing ash and rocks around. They aren't saying it will happen again soon.

Tanzania’s Oldoinyo Lengai Volcano is delighting scientists at the moment because it has a very rare type of lava. The details are a bit over my head.

Barujari volcano on Lombok in Indonesia has erupted and caused the area to be closed to tourist traffic.

Mt. Kerinci, in Sumatra is increasing in activity, Mt. Slamet in Central Java and Mt. Rokatenda in West Nusa Tenggara are also increasing.

On the Caribbean island of Dominica is an old volcano, Morne aux Diables, that is highly likely to cause a tsunami when it erupts (they don't know when, but they stress 'when') because there is slippage and cracks all down one side and they are sure it will fall into the sea.

Shiveluch (or Sheveluch) Volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula released continuous plumes of ash and steam in late April 2009.

There's undersea volcanoes erupting all the time, they make great photos and fascinate scientists.

We even get new of volcanoes on other planets! Malea Patera on Mars has been featured recently with photographs and description.

Fascinating, eye opening, sometimes sad when there's news of people dying or being displaced by volcanic activity. We live on an interesting planet.

Australia is the only continent without active volcanoes. We're ok here in Tregear. The only natural disaster likely to be a problem here is flooding from Ropes Creek. It does flood. Locals say the floods haven't crossed Elsworth Drive in the 50 years they've been here, but it has come up to the top of the embankment in the reserve.