Puggles and Pandas (and more...oh, my!)

You're right, Hilda - it is time to update the blog...

First - addressing some comments and questions:

Loren wrote about the show on Discovery Channel about a "supervolcano" - it's been on before, but it replayed over the weekend. Basically, the show is about what would happen if the magma chamber beneath Yellowstone National Park erupted. It has erupted in the past, with three eruptions 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 millon years ago, and the most recent such eruption 640,000 years ago.

Read more about the show, and play with the interactive eruptions here.

Hilda asked about using carbon-14 dating to date the remains and ruins at Pompeii - well, they don't need to date them, because we know from historical records when the volcano erupted: August 24, 79 AD. However, because we know the date, we can test dating methods on those remains - for example, potassium-argon dating was found to be more reliable than previously thought be testing it on Pompeii remains (read more here).

Sarah - not a silly question, but it's Fiji Water, not Fuji. however, there is a water treatment company called Fuji, as Fujiyoshida Water, from a "naturally filtered volcanic spring" that is available in Japan.

Loren wrote that it would be weird to climb a mountain and possibly see the bodies of climbers who had died. Well, there is a very famous incident about this very thing. George Mallory was a very famous British climber who may have been the first to reach the peak of Mt. Everest (the tallest continental mountain, but not a volcano). We don't know if he made it, because he died - we don't know if he dies on the way up or the way down.

In 1999, an expedition climbed Everest following his path (on the North face - most routes today use the South face). Unexpectedly, they found his body. There was a great book, called The Ghosts of Everest written about the expedition, and an episode of NOVA. Check out NOVA's site here for some cool mountain climbing info.

Will, they can use different types of radioactive dating to date eruptions. Radioactive dating of rock only works on igneous rock, which is what lava and magma becaome when they cool. They take core samples, where they drill into the rock, and date the layers - so it's not too different from tree ring dating. Tree rings and other non-rock information can also provide clues about eruptions.

Tommy - congratulations on becoming a big brother!

Mt. Everest is the highest peak on the planet, 8,850 M or 29,035 feet and that's above sea level. However, if you measure the Big Island of Hawaii (Mauna Kea) from its base on the sea floor, to its peak, it's nearly 33,000 feet (estimates differ slightly). Everest was originally measured using triangulation methods and a lot of math. Now we can use satellites, which is how Mauna Kea was measured.

Even so, there is still a little debate and remeasuring as tools and techniques improve. As far as we can tell, Everest is rising - as the Indian plate continues crashing into the Asian plate, it moves upward. Mauna Kea is sinking - its weight is pulling it down.

Last, but not least - Gabriel and Hilda - I do use YouTube, but the Google search bar comes up automatically on my computer, and so I go there first out of habit (and laziness, ha ha). Since Google is buying YouTube, it'll all be the same soon, anyway!

Oh - I forgot about the puggles and pandas - I'll get to them tomorrow...