Whakaari eruption

[Talltim]

Actually the National Curriculum is hot on spelling, and grammar too, to a far higher level than was taught to my generation in the eighties-nineties. Our introduction to the structure of grammar came in French lessons.

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Death toll has now risen to six with more expected from 27 being treated for severe burns (70%). Two British women are among the injured but it is not known how badly. Another Brit is reported to be among the missing.

The burns are now being quoted as 'worse than senior members of hospital burn unit staff have ever seen'. So does not sound good for many of the survivors.

[spikey]

3 hours ago, Talltim said:

Actually the National Curriculum is hot on spelling, and grammar too, to a far higher level than was taught to my generation in the eighties-nineties.

 

I didn't know that, so thank you.  Hmmmm.  I guess that would make "your generation" prime suspects to work in BBC newsrooms, in which case it might well explain the lamentable standard of English to be found regularly on the BBC News website ...

Edited December 10, 2019 by spikey
Clarity

[F-UnitMad]

5 hours ago, spikey said:

 

Really?  I wasn't aware that spelling is still taught in UK schools.

Yes, I asked that, too, a bit further up the thread

 

4 hours ago, Talltim said:

Actually the National Curriculum is hot on spelling, and grammar too, to a far higher level than was taught to my generation in the eighties-nineties. Our introduction to the structure of grammar came in French lessons.

Well it wasn't so hot a few years ago. Maybe they've finally learned from the error of their ways..??!!

 

[Classsix T]

1 hour ago, spikey said:

 

I didn't know that, so thank you.  Hmmmm.  I guess that would make "your generation" prime suspects to work in BBC newsrooms, in which case it might well explain the lamentable standard of English to be found regularly on the BBC News website ...

Keep that brush topped-up with tar wontcha spike!?

 

C6T. 

[Ozexpatriate]

I imagine that New Zealand will hold some kind of inquest after this tragedy.

 

No doubt they will be looking at the effectiveness of the "GeoNet" alert levels. Clearly the system worked to the extent that a change in the volcano leading to a level 2 alert was detected, but not the level 3 that would have better represented what happened. The alert levels are explained in a video.

 

The problem with these systems is of course that people grow accustomed to under-appreciating warnings. Should an inquest be held I would not be surprised to learn that the tour operators routinely held visits during level 2 alerts, none of which proceeded to explosive venting.

 

The USGS has an alert code similar to New Zealand and project these on their hazards page.

 

In the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, the newly formed US Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Agency issued a colour coded "terror alert". It was utterly worthless, because it did not communicate actionable information. It has since been abandoned. Obviously systems based on scientific measurements are potentially more reliable than the "terror alert" but they can still be vulnerable to being ignored through 'warning fatigue'.

[spamcan61]

8 hours ago, Talltim said:

 Our introduction to the structure of grammar came in French lessons.

Same here for me in the mid seventies.

[Ozexpatriate]

11 hours ago, Reorte said:

... there's a visitors centre at Mount St Helens, and that's still active. It may be that it's well-studied enough that the risk of going there is low but it's still not zero.

The Johnston Ridge Observatory is indeed in the middle of the 1980 blast zone and the mountain is indeed active. Having said that, for the mountain to have the same eruptive power that it had in 1980 it will need to rebuild itself. This will likely take thousands of years.

 

The volcano is heavily monitored and since the eruption there have been periods of dome building in the crater and venting, but nothing like the 1980 eruption.

 

Besides being closed all winter, when the road is impassible, the visitor centre is easy to close and the US Forest Service can revert to other visitor centres that are further away. 

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The Johnston Ridge Observatory is indeed in the middle of the 1980 blast zone and the mountain is indeed active. Having said that, for the mountain to have the same eruptive power that it had in 1980 it will need to rebuild itself. This will likely take thousands of years.

 

The volcano is heavily monitored and since the eruption there have been periods of dome building in the crater and venting, but nothing like the 1980 eruption.

 

Besides being closed all winter, when the road is impassible, the visitor centre is easy to close and the US Forest Service can revert to other visitor centres that are further away. 

Probably. And you can be pretty confident in that, confident enough to visit without any reasonable grounds for concern - but not 100% certain, absolutely zero chance of risk.

[polybear]

16 hours ago, Talltim said:

Actually the National Curriculum is hot on spelling, and grammar too, to a far higher level than was taught to my generation in the eighties-nineties. Our introduction to the structure of grammar came in French lessons.

 

Today we'll learn some new words:

OMG

LOL

WTF

[TheQ]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Today we'll learn some new words:

OMG

LOL

WTF

ROFL 

Edited December 11, 2019 by TheQ

[TheQ]

16 hours ago, Talltim said:

Actually the National Curriculum is hot on spelling, and grammar too, to a far higher level than was taught to my generation in the eighties-nineties. Our introduction to the structure of grammar came in French lessons.

And very confusing it was too,  in 1971, trying to learn a foreign language and structural grammar at the same time. 

[pH]

Scope creep!

[TheQ]

9 minutes ago, pH said:

Scope creep!

What's an oscilloscope got to do with it? 

[Colin_McLeod]

Mt Etna in Sicily is generally active most of the time but tourists can still visit.  There was an eruption in July and when I visited in early September it was still spewing out smoke and ash. 

Edited December 11, 2019 by Colin_McLeod

[kevinlms]

Is it really necessary to intersperse this tragic event, with trivial discussion of spelling and grammar?

 

Plenty of other threads on these matters.

[kevinlms]

An article on the nearest local hospital. Shocking reading.

 

https://www.theage.com.au/world/oceania/we-have-never-seen-anything-like-that-bedlam-at-hospital-as-worker-describes-eruption-aftermath-20191211-p53j3j.html

[Ozexpatriate]

This heli-tour company's website is still up. It is interesting insofar as it shows what kind of exploring people routinely did very near the Whakaari crater.

 

It might also explain the presence of the ash covered helicopter on the ground near the boat landing.

[DavidB-AU]

They have estimated about 120 square metres of laboratory-grown skin will be needed for grafts. Every laboratory in New Zealand and Australia capable of doing this has ramped up production and they are even looking to the USA, Canada, Japan and Europe.

[Oldddudders]

7 hours ago, DavidB-AU said:

They have estimated about 120 square metres of laboratory-grown skin will be needed for grafts. Every laboratory in New Zealand and Australia capable of doing this has ramped up production and they are even looking to the USA, Canada, Japan and Europe.

Marvellous that such techniques may repair serious skin damage. Awful that it is needed in such quantity.

[PhilJ W]

Regretably external injuries are only part of the problem. Many inhaled in superheated air and gas that caused internal injuries.

[DavidB-AU]

10 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Marvellous that such techniques may repair serious skin damage. Awful that it is needed in such quantity.

 

The technique was significantly refined after the Bali bombings in 2002. Professor Fiona Wood in Western Australia developed what is basically spray-on skin which can be cultured in as little as 5 days, whereas as traditional skin cultures require several weeks. It was still experimental in 2002 but used with great success. 

[PhilJ W]

The biggest problem with burns is infection, which causes more deaths than the actual burns themselves.

[PhilJ W]

In todays paper, six bodies have been recovered from the island by the NZ army with the aid of the SAS. Surveys by drone had identified where they lay and it was a quick go in, collect the bodies and out again. It is simply too dangerous to search for the other two missing.

[Reorte]

Have to say that if I died in similar circumstances I'd rather I was left there than anyone risked their life to that degree to recover my body, and I think I'd feel the same if it was a member of my family.