all 18 comments

[–]hennaojichan 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (18 children)

That pyroclastic flow is deadly so why the heck were those people still living there?

[–]jet199 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (6 children)

Areas around volcanoes are more fertile so they attract farmers. They tend to have mineral deposits so attract miners.

Italy still has to clear illegal farms off of the sides of vesuvius every 10 years or so.

[–]hennaojichan 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Good, and I see your point. And that fertility is why weed grown on the sides of volcanos in Hawaii is so good and expensive. Is that what they are growing on Vesuvius? When the pyroclastic flow from Vesuvius hit Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae, in CE 79 it froze guards at their posts and couples making love, forever frozen in stone. Have you lived in Italy?

[–]jet199 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

No, but I've been there. It's crazy to me how people can live under an active volcano and take no notice of it.

My favorite part was they wrote the song Funiculì, Funiculà to celebrate the opening of the wonderful new funicular up the side of vesuvius in 1880 and by 1944 the wonderful funicular was wiped out by an eruption.

I stayed on the greek island of Milos in October and one of the shops there has as it's sign a picture of their volcano with a smiley face. Blows my mind.

Living in what must be one of the safest places on earth gives you a different outlook on things, I guess.

[–]hennaojichan 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Now that you've told me about the fertile ground on volcanos I understand better about why people stay in such dangerous places. I lived half the year on the Big Island of Hawaii for many years and it was so lovely people forget the danger. In fact the whole island could just blow up without warning one day. There are dangers everywhere there. They have something called lava tubes, bubbles that solidified with the lava when it cooled. Once in a while a bull dozer driver is killed when he drives over a tube near the surface and falls a hundred feet or so onto solid lava. Bicyclers fear making a header onto Lava because it doesn't bend if your head hits it, causing a lot of Traumatic Brain Injuries. There are lots of places where there is a tradeoff between living in a beautiful but dangerous place. Oh, I forgot about the Vog (a local word for volcano fog) on the Big Island. Kilauea constantly leaks Sulfur Dioxide gas but some days are worse than others. A heavy day will close your sinuses and make you really lethargic. Otherwise it's a lovely place.

[–]Node 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

I poked lava with a stick as it slowly crept down the beach awhile back. It's pretty amazing stuff. The road along the beach had just been covered and closed the day before. There was a beautiful park with tall palms, green grass, and picnic benches just beside the black sand beach. I think it's under 50 feet of lava now.

[–]hennaojichan 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I knew a guy in Hilo who used to walk out from the place where lava crossed the road (that is probably not there anymore but you remember) with an Instamatic Camera and get some great pics of molten lava. You gotta be really careful to do that. He'd go after midnight when all the rangers were gone. He worked at a hotel so he made a lot of money selling directly to the tourists and me too. I used to have an apartment at Kona Magic Sands. We used to call it Tragic Sands because so many couples broke up there, or worse. You live on Hilo side? Black Sand Beach is under lava? Damn. The turtles. The turtles. That's the good thing about Hawaii lava—it's slow.

[–]hennaojichan 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hello Jet, Speaking of volcanos, It's noon here now but I can still see Mt. Fuji to the WSW from my computer. It was much clearer at about 8 am today. She is wayyy overdue for another eruption but I am not in any hurry. I am over a hundred kilos from her now.

[–]goonmessiah 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

They’ve evolved to have a higher tolerance to pain and burning/melting skin and some can actually swim in lava. I guess their respiratory system changed so they’re able to filter more crap too. There is a video on yt of a mother floating her infant in it while she’s wading beside the child. Super interesting to see.

If you believed that, then just give me all your money.

[–]Canbot[S] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

Because apparently it's not THAT deadly.

[–]hennaojichan 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Neither CV-19 nor any of its variants are deadly, as you know but there are other effects. My wife just told me about her cousin's kid who is twelve and so terrified of CV he refuses to go to school. Mental problems caused by publicity are worse than the supposed disease itself.

[–]Canbot[S] 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Is your wife's extended family stupid? Do they legitimately lack the collective comprehension to explain to a 12 year old that no children are harmed by covid?

[–]jet199 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Depends how far away you are, what your house is built of and whether you are near water.

Pyroclastic flows explode on contract with water, I wonder if that made the ones at Pompeii and Herculaneum worse.

[–]Node 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

People commonly live in known disaster zones. It's inexplicable.

[–]Noam_Chomsky 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

It's inexplicable.

Cheap land.

"... And the weak suffer as they must."

-Thucydides (half a maxim)

[–]jet199 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

San Francisco and Tokyo are quite expensive.

[–]Noam_Chomsky 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Fully gentrified.

[–]Node 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)