VOLCANO, Hawaii – A new vent has opened at one of the world's most active volcanoes, sending lava shooting up to 65 feet high, scientists at Kilauea volcano said Sunday.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the fissure eruption was spotted shortly after the floor at the Pu'u O'o crater collapsed around 5 p.m. Saturday. It occurred along the middle of Kilauea's east rift zone, about 2 miles west of Pu'u O'o.
"As a volcanogist, this is what we do. These are the moments we wait for," volcanogist Janet Babb told KHON2. "It is exciting to see an eruption begin particularly if you can see it from the very start."
Kilauea has been in constant eruption since Jan. 3, 1983.
At the summit, lava receded rapidly late Saturday but seemed to slow Sunday. There were also about 150 small earthquakes were recorded within Kilauea in the past 24 hours.
Scientists said areas near the vent could erupt or collapse without warning, posing a threat to visitors or hikers to the area. Also potentially lethal concentrations of sulfer dioxide gas could be present within about a half-mile downwind of vent areas.
Because of the latest activity, the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has closed Chain of Craters Road and all east rift zone and coastal trails. Kulanaokuaiki campground was also closed until further notice.
Babb told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that the fissure has expanded to about 535 yards long and that scientists were hiking into the remote area to observe the fissure and take readings.
No homes are under threat.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Lava spews 65 feet high after crater collapse - Yahoo! News
UN Seeks Access to L
UN Seeks Access to Libyan 'Injured and Dying' | News | English
UN Seeks Access to Libyan 'Injured and Dying'
VOA News March 06, 2011
Photo: AFP / Marco Longari
A wounded fighter is brought into a the Ras Lanuf Hospital from the battle in Bin Jawad on March 6, 2011.
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The United Nations is calling on Libya to allow it immediate access to the rebel-held western city of Misrata, following reports of fighting and deaths in the area.
U.N. emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos said Sunday that people "are injured and dying and need help immediately." She also called on all sides of the conflict to "ensure that civilians are protected from harm."
The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the Red Crescent Society in Benghazi reported that Misrata, 200 kilometers east of Tripoli, is under attack by government forces, and that the Libyan Red Crescent is trying to get ambulances from Tripoli in to collect the dead and injured.
Libyan leader Moammmr Gadhafi's government has retained control of Tripoli in western Libya, while rebel forces trying to topple his government have taken over much of the east.
Protests against Mr. Gadhafi erupted in mid-February, with demonstrators calling for an end to his 42-year rule. The Libyan leader has refused demands to step down, at one point saying he expects to die a "martyr."
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BBC News – Rare Ki
5 Start-ups Bubbling
5 Start-ups Bubbling Up At TED
5 Start-ups Bubbling Up At TED
Five projects to watch from the TED community.
Courtesy TED/Flickr
Marcin Jakubowski started Global Village Construction Set, a global collaboration to open source the plans for the essentials of human civilization.
While the main stage talks are the intellectual core of the TED experience, they're far from the only thing going on. As one might expect from a community thick with ideas and inspiration, there is an immense undercurrent of entrepreneurial excitement and activity that runs through the event. Here are a few of cooler projects in the works by the TED community this year.
Crowdvoice.org - The young people behind MideastYouth.com - a constellation of sites about minority rights and political activism in the Middle East - have recently released Crowdvoice.org. The platform is a human curated site that allows anyone in the world to go straight to the heart of political and human rights issues and sift through the noise to find the most compelling videos, photos, and other user-created reports from the front lines.
The Braille Phone - The world is increasingly mobile, yet for the blind, mobile interfaces have not developed nearly as far as is necessary to truly give them access to modern computing technology. This is even more the case for people in the developing world who still use feature phones more than smart, web-connected phones. The Braille Phone is a prototype by Indian interaction designer Sumit Dagar that is meant to totally revolutionize the accessibility of the mobile phone.
Marcin Jakubowski - Upon completion of his PhD in the physics of fusion, Marcin Jakubowski felt the need to reconnect with the earth. He began farming in middle America, and as his tractor broke and broke again, he began to wonder why there wasn't some form of open source hardware that allowed people like him to build the machines essential for human civilization. That pondering led to the Global Village Construction Set, a global collaboration to open source the plans and implements for everything from tractors to ovens.
Bubbli - Bubbli debuted on the TED stage yesterday, showing the audience a new augmented reality experience. When people take a photo on their phone or iPad, Bubbli augments the information to create an interactive 3D experience. The idea is that if you take a picture and then want to share it later, people can actually move the phone up, down and around to see not only the main frame of the photo, but the environment around it that you were experiencing when you took the shot.
Push Pop Press - One can't help but look at the ebooks of today and wonder if we're still in the 1.0 phase of online reading. So far, the experience of reading a big offline has simply gone digital, rather than taking advantage of the unique attributes of the digital medium. Push Pop Press is trying to actually change the experience, incorporating immersive multimedia into books in a way that simply hasn't happened yet.
