Earthbytes

8 Stunning Maps That Changed Cartography | WIRED

via www.wired.com

I have loved maps just about as long as I can remember anything. I collected them. They showed up in my dreams. I spent significant chunks of time looking at them, reflecting on their meaning, appreciating their beauty, connecting with the hearts and minds of their makers.

I found this article today at WIRED that features the work of a team of contributors that included John Hessler, a Library of Congress cartographer, to publish a new book, Maps: Exploring the World. I would love to read it.

From the article:

Still, all maps serve as some alternate form of world history. Like art, they use visuals to reveal truths about a particular time and place. Maps can act like a memory frozen in time, as seen in John Auldjo’s map of Mount Vesuvius eruptions. They can highlight the issues of the day or chart the trajectory of human exploration and advancement.

You can also check out a great interview with Hessler at The Atlantic/City Lab.

Tropical Cyclone Amanda Kicks off Hurricane Season : Image of the Day

Hurricane photos fascinate me, and (almost) never fail to draw me into their swirls to contemplate order and chaos and what it all means (or can mean) for lived experience at the edges of predictable and unpredictable. Awesome...thank you, Amanda and NASA.

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this view of Amanda—the first named storm of the 2014 hurricane season in the Americas—southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, on May 25, 2014. The image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) at 21:00 Universal Time (2 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time).

via earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Also see:

Chaos in the Atmosphere (American Institute of Physics)

Seven Life Lessons of Chaos (John Briggs and F. David Peat)

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Super Typhoon Utor : Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory

Extraordinary Video of Pyroclastic Flows From the Eruption of Sinabung - Wired Science

I found a link to this awesome video of the Mount Sinabung volcano (Sumatra) at Erik Klemetti's Volcano blog on Wired Science:

   

Here's an excerpt from Erik's post:

In terms of the destruction they wreak upon the landscape, few volcanic hazards can top pyroclastic flows (or more precisely calling pyroclastic density currents). They hug the ground as they flow down the slopes of the volcano. These at Sinabung were generated by the collapse of the extruding lava dome at the summit of the volcano. As it crumbles due to gravity, the hot lava fractures into boulders, smaller debris and ash, which then flows downhill at remarkable speeds — in the hundreds of kilometers per hour. The volcanic debris is still hot, so not only is it moving quickly, it is seemingly hot, probably well over 400°C (~800°F) — hot enough to carbonize trees that are caught in the flow. Now, try to picture any human structure withstanding being hit by a flow of superheated rocks moving faster than an airplane — this is why pyroclastic flows are the most destructive volcanic hazard during these types of eruptions (note: a close second would be lahars — volcanic mudflows — generated by remobilizing volcanic debris).

Read more at www.wired.com

Erik did a related article on 1/8/14:

The Eruption and Humanitarian Crisis at Indonesia’s Sinabung Continues

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Mt. Sinabung: "Going strong, getting stronger"

Intensified eruption at Sinabung

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