Atacama Bloom

Atacama Desert

Perched on a plateau west of the Andes on the Pacific coast is the driest non-polar desert on Earth. The Atacama Desert is a 600 mile long strip of otherworldly terrain of rocky hillsides, salt lakes, sand, and ancient felsic lava flows.

The hyperaridity of the Atacama has existed for at least 3 million years. It's the oldest continuously arid land on Earth. A few weather stations in the Atacama have never recorded precipitation.

Mean rainfall ranges from 0.04 to 0.12 inches per year in the coastal towns of Arica and Iquique to 0.6 inches per year in the abandoned mining town Yungay.

"Don't think about what you've left behind" The alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. "If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

This year the Atacama is experiencing a rare springtime bloom. The Garra de León or Lion's Claw is a stunning red flower that's blooming in the Atacama. The Garra de León is a plant species exclusive to the Atacama Desert.

Garra de León in bloom
by Tomás Cuadra Ordenes

Historically a significant Atacama Desert bloom occurs every 5-7 years, but unusual March and August rains this year have produced cumulative precipitation not seen in nearly 20 years.

"At the moment it is gently raining. Imagine these flowers tomorrow."
by Tomás Cuadra Ordenes

Uncharacteristic rains have spawned a profusion of flowers. Seeds have germinated that have lain dormant for many years.

Long before I ever saw the desert I was aware of the mystical overtones which the observation of nature made audible to me. But I have never been more frequently or more vividly aware of them than in connection with the desert phenomena.
— Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970)

REFERENCES

• Atacama Desert, Wikipedia.
• Flowers bloom in the Atacama desert – in pictures, The Guardian, 30 October 2015.
• In Images: Stunning Flower Fields of the Atacama Desert by Tia Ghose, 29 October 2015.
• The voice of the desert : a naturalist's interpretation by Joseph Wood Krutch, 1955.
• Twitter feed of Tomás Cuadra Ordenes.

Volcano of Fire

Volcán de Colima is a stratovolcano known as the Volcano of Fire. The Colima volcano has erupted several times this month.

Web cam animation of Volcán de Colima eruption

21 January 2015, 9:13AM

Volcán de Colima is in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt which is a series of volcanic mountains that rise from the high plateaus of central-southern Mexico.

Our earth is very old, an old warrior that has lived through many battles. Nevertheless, the face of it is still changing, and science sees no certain limit of time for its stately evolution. Our solid earth, apparently so stable, inert, and finished, is changing, mobile, and still evolving.
— Reginald Aldworth Daly, Our Mobile Earth (1926), 320.

Crater atop Volcán de Colima

Source: Google Maps

Stratovolcanoes like Volcán de Colima are steep conical mountains characterized by periodic explosive eruptions. Stratovolcanoes have conduits that link them to magma reservoirs deep in the Earth's crust.

Strata is from the Latin stratum meaning laid down. Strato-volcanoes are built from alternating layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice, and ash.

I am here tracing the History of the Earth itself, from its own Monuments.
— Jean André Deluc, Geological Letters Addressed to Professor Blumenbach, 1794


REFERENCES

• Our Mobile Earth, Reginald Aldworth Daly, C. Scribner's Sons, 1926.
• Principal Types of Volcanoes, USGS.
• Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Wikipedia.
• Volcán de Colima, Wikipedia
• WebCam at Volcán de Colima, Web Cams of Mexico.

Geothermal Energy

What is the origin of the heat energy erupting from Earth's surface?

Earth formed by accretion from solar nebula — an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases — about 4,540,000,000 years ago.

Extreme volcanism and collisions with other bodies made much of the nascent planet's surface molten. Volcanic gases formed a fledgling atmosphere.

Bárðarbunga Volcano, 4 September 2014

Image: Peter Hartree

As the planet cooled, it formed a solid crust. Rocks in the core and mantle remain hot from the original materials colliding at high speeds.

Terminology:
Magma refers to molten rock still underground. If molten rock erupts onto the surface, it is called lava. Lava is liquified rock at 1,292 to 2,192 °F (700 to 1,200 °C).

Bárðarbunga Volcano, 2 September 2014

Image: Arctic-Images/Corbis

Collision energy is the source of heat trapped below Earth's crust. Heat below Earth's crust is called geothermal energy.

May not subterraneous fire be considered as the great plough which Nature makes use of to turn up the bowels of the earth?
— Sir William Hamilton

REFERENCES

• 11 Photos of Iceland's Bardarbunga Volcano Erupting That Are Just Unreal, Mashable, 12 Sep 2014.
• Bárðarbunga, Wikipedia.
• How is lava formed, Oregon State University Volcano World.