Environmental Graffiti

Image: Tommy Huynh

When you wish upon a star, you may not be wishing on what you think you are. The reason is that shooting stars are of course not stars at all but meteors, the incandescent streaks of light we see etched in the sky when the chunks of rock from space known as meteoroids burn up as they hit the Earth’s atmosphere. When a number of meteors appear to radiate from one point in the sky, we are treated to the celestial event known as meteor showers – but forget your umbrella; break out your telescope or camera!

Here we’ve picked four of our favourite meteor shower families and explained a bit about how they work.

1. Orionid meteor shower

Image: midendian

The Orionid meteor shower takes place every year, peaking around October 21. It is strongly visible and typically spits out up to twenty speeding yellow or green meteors an hour. Orionid is the name of the meteors’ radiant, which is the point in the sky from which they appear to originate. Cometary meteors may be seen all over the sky but their lines of motion will invariably point to their radiant. The radiant of Orionid meteors is located near the constellation Orion, and its showers are caused by the famous Halley’s Comet, which last zipped past us in 1986 on its 75-76-year orbit.

Image: Mila Zinkova

Above is an Orionid meteor striking the sky below the Milky Way and to the right of the constellation Venus. Zodiacal light is also visible in the image.

2. Perseid meteor shower

Image: Tommy Huynh

Perseid meteors are probably our best watched, and are mainly seen in the northern hemisphere, during warmer summer nights. Bright, numerous and prolific, Perseids are associated with the wonderfully named comet Swift-Tuttle. These meteors appear to hail from a radiant in the constellation Perseus and occur when the Earth moves through a meteor stream known as the Perseid cloud – actually residue from comet Swift-Tuttle’s tail. In the shot above, the meteor in the centre is almost eclipsed by star trails, which show up strongly under long camera exposures.

Raining Perseids Image: Space Shuttle
Image: Mila Zinkova

Most of the dust from the Perseid cloud is around 1000 years old, though some relatively young cosmic dust evaporated off the comet as recently as 1862. Fortunately from a star gazer’s perspective, the rate of meteors from this newer filament is much higher. The Perseid meteor shower has been observed for around 2000 years, and today is visible from mid-July each year, its activity peaking around August 12.

3. Geminid meteor shower

Image: Jimmy Westlake

The next image shows a Geminid meteor shower overlain by star trails. The Geminids are not typical meteors born of comets; instead they are derived from an asteroid, a rocky planetoid near Earth named 3200 Phaethon. Generally, asteroids don’t eject dust into space, and indeed it is thought this asteroid was a comet in a previous life. Phaethon’s orbit is elliptical like a comet’s, and takes it much closer to the sun even than Mercury, the solar system’s innermost planet. The repeated blasts of solar heat every 1.4 years may well have reduced a once proud comet to the rocky specimen we see today.

Image: Mila Zinkova

The first Geminids appeared 150 years ago, and since then they have been regular showers, peaking every year in mid-December. They are reckoned to be getting more intense by the year, and recent showers have seen well over a hundred meteors an hour in good conditions.

4. Quadrantid meteor shower

Image: NASA, Caltech, Jeremie Vaubaillon et al

Many meteor streaks are visible in this next image, despite almost being outshone by the green glow of aurora on the right. A red beacon is also visible on the left as the flight was part of research trip taken by astronomers aboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft above northern Canada to study a Quadrantid meteor shower. With the help of specialised cameras to produce composite images that combine short exposures, the scientists hope to ascertain where this meteor shower comes from.

Image: Radek Grochowski

The parent body of this strong, early January meteor shower has been tentatively identified as the minor planet 2003 EH1 – which may actually be the rather unimaginatively named comet C/1490 Y1 – possibly observed by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers half a millennium ago. At their peak, an easy-to-miss window of less than an hour, Quadranids are exceptionally intense as they blaze brightly across the sky.

Meteor Showers Explained

People assume that meteors shooting across the heavens are caused by friction as fragments of cosmic debris rapidly enter the atmosphere, but friction is not actually the main player here. Ram pressure is the more accurate description for the way meteoroids are made to disintegrate in such bright flashes, a shock wave generated by the extremely rapid compression of air in front of the earthbound space rock. This heats the air around the meteoroid, which in turn heats the meteoroid as it flows around it. What’s cooked up? A delectable glowing meteor.

Leonids and Phosphenes Images: Andrew Coulter Enright

Meteor showers themselves – occasionally hailed as meteor outbreaks or even meteor storms – are generally caused by the interaction of a given planet and various comets, specifically the tails of these dirty celestial snowballs. Comets are made up of rock embedded in ice, and travel round the sun just like the planets do, except with weirder, elliptical orbits. Each time a comet gets too close to the intense heat of the sun as it swings by, some of its dirty ice vaporises, and cometary fragments are jettisoned out into interplanetary space, streaming behind the comet and forming its tail.

Each solid piece of debris in a comet’s tail is a type of meteoroid, and once spread along the length of a comet’s orbit, they form a meteoroid stream – kind of like a high-speed jet or fast-moving dust trail from a huge stellar vehicle. As the Earth orbits the Sun, its path sometimes takes us crashing through a meteoroid stream and this is what causes meteor showers to break out. The meteoroids meet the Earth’s atmosphere head on at extremely high velocities, and when this happens lucky observers are greeted by the spectacle of meteor showers falling from space.

So there you have it. We hope you’ve enjoyed our little meteor party. Keep watching those skies – and making those wishes!

Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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Zorbing – Argodome – Rotorua – New Zealand – April 2005
Image: Bartux

At a moment like this, you wonder at the oddball ingenuity of an extreme sport while also feeling like the idea might have been rolling around inside your head all this time. Sphereing, also known as zorbing or globe-riding, involves little more than climbing inside a glorified hamster ball and being sent careering down hills for the sheer heck of it. Rock and roll, we hear you cry sarcastically? Don’t knock it before you’ve tried it.

Wet or dry: There are several variations of sphereing

Image: carscantescape

Some spheres are designed for a single globe-rider, while others can accommodate two or three people. Riders can be safely strapped inside the spheres or left free to run, rodent style, with the rolling motion of the sphere, which inevitably results in their being bounced around uncontrollably. Water can also be added to this latter scenario for what is known as a wet zorb; said one reporter of the experience: “We looked like two drunks in a washing machine.”

On the ball: The large, bouncy spheres are double-layered with an air cushion

Image: Brianmc

The inflatable spheres used in this peculiar pastime tend to be made of translucent plastic and are typically around 3 metres in diameter. There are actually two balls, one inside the other, with a cushion of air in between that acts as a shock absorber, preventing bumps and bruises or worse. Thus, zorbers can proudly proclaim their lightweight, flexible zorbs are far removed from the rigid plastic of hamster balls, and hold their heads up high knowing they are men, not mice.

Balls the size of a hamster’s? Is globe-riding an extreme sport?

Image: Anna Caswell via TravelBlog

Now there may be adrenaline-mad naysayers ready to kick sand in the face of this so called extreme sport, wondering where the thrill is in being bowled about in an oversized beach ball, even on the longer half mile runs. But check this: while your novice zorber may not be living on the edge, in 2006, Ken Kolver, the world’s fastest ‘zorbanaut,’ reached a top speed of 52 km/h to claim a new world record. Enough to get your pulse racing? Well maybe not as fast as a small caged pet’s.

A global sport: Zorbing originated in NZ but is now practiced all over

Image: andy & eilidh

On a serious note, in 2008, reporter Rebekah Metzler suffered a broken back after the ball she was riding hit a post and shot 8 feet up in the air before landing hard. Yes, this sport has had its ups and downs in its short history. A similar concept may have debuted in Russia as early 1973, while Britain’s Dangerous Sports Club built a giant sphere supporting two deck chairs in the early 80’s, but it wasn’t until 1994 that the zorb as we know it was patented in New Zealand. Recently, activities like pool and pinball have been performed with zorbs. Never say zorbing is for squares.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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Image: Patrick Emerson

Remember spotting a rainbow as a child and feeling the sudden urge to jump up and down, point and shout: “Look, a rainbow!” Well, the following pictures of semicircular, double or sunset rainbows might make you do just that. In any case, if this were a rainbow beauty pageant, they’d all be perfect tens. So heed this warning that extreme beauty will follow and scroll with care!

A double sunset rainbow in McFall, Missouri, spanning a lone tree:

Image: Carl S.

Silicon Valley is rarely as beautiful as it is with this sunset rainbow:

Image: Steve Jurvetson

The next picture is an absolute favorite that looks like one of those kitschy posters of islands in a soap bubble, only this one is real!

An island in the Maldives spanned by an almost semicircular rainbow:

Image: muha

If that was a favorite, here’s another one:

A perfectly clear primary rainbow, reflected in the water, with a secondary rainbow above as photographed in Kansas:

Image: Patrick Emerson

Time for a little break, perhaps?

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionay, a rainbow is “an arc or circle that exhibits in concentric bands the colors of the spectrum and that is formed opposite the sun by the refraction and reflection of the sun’s rays in raindrops, spray, or mist.”

Basically, the sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the atmosphere, like rain, mist, dew and spray, and forms a reflection of the sun’s rays. Though rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colours, what we see is a finite sequence, usually according to Newton’s seven identified colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These are often remembered with popular mnemonics like “Richard of Yorke gave battle in vain.”

An illuminated rainbow in Serrieres in the canton of Neuchatel, Switzerland. The picture looks a bit unreal because it was taken with HDR technique:

Image: Tambako the Jaguar

The person in this picture says it all. Caught in the middle of natural beauty, what would you do? And does anyone else strangely feel like yodeling?

A perfect, semicircular rainbow at Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park:

Image: Eric Rolph

Somewhere over the rainbow… A rainbow taken from a helicopter:
Image: Mila Zinkova

A picture perfect double rainbow spans the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia:

Image: specialkrb

A 200-degree rainbow with a faint secondary one taken on St. Johns, U.S. Virgin Islands:

Image: Tom Harnish

Another rare, semicircular sunset rainbow at the beach of Carsethorn, Scotland:

Image: Mike Bolam

Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops. The space between two rainbows is called Alexander’s band after a scientist with the enticing name Alexander of Aphrodisias, who first described the phenomenon.

A stunningly perfect semicircular rainbow that seems to be radiating out of the secondary one over a field in Whitestone, Alaska. Notice the reversed colour sequence for the secondary rainbow.
Image: Jeremy Austin

This photograph of a rainbow in Iceland also demonstrates beautifully that the air below a rainbow is always brighter than the one on top.

The rainbow over the Gulfoss Falls in Iceland is created by sunlight hitting the falls’ mist:

Image: Laurent Deschodt

Er, well, not always… Notice how in this picture, New York City is under such a blanket of smog that the part of the sky over the rainbow actually looks much brighter.

A perfectly semicircular rainbow spanning New York City, seen from New Jersey:

Image: Andrew Wong

This photograph proves that rainbows looks stunning even in black and white. Notice the pronounced and dark Alexander’s band between the two rainbows.

Double rainbow caught in black and white over Melbourne:

Image: Jes

Semicircular rainbow over a field with a lonely tree in Germany. Can you make out the faint secondary rainbow?

Image: mnmlbeats

This semicircular rainbow in Zelenograd, Russia, seems to protect the scenery from the bad weather outside the soap bubble:

Image: Saiga20K

A rainbow spanning the Andes, its tip dramatically ending in the clouds. The ancient city of Macchu Picchu is on the right:
Image: Thomas Quine

And finally, a rainbow that is no rainbow. An upside-down rainbow is actually a rare optical illusion called a sundog. Sundogs appear when a low sun catches the atmosphere’s thin vapour of ice crystals, six miles above the Earth’s surface. The sun’s rays are refracted by the sun and produce something like a halo around it. Often, it appears white but can also display a spectrum of colours, which is why sundogs are often confused with rainbows.

Sundog taken at the beach of Tulum in Quintana Roo in northwestern Yucatan, Mexico:

Image: Robert Brands

Source: 1, 2

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Image via Dark Roasted Blend

Repurposing old buildings is quite the thing to do these days, but it’s not a scratch on applying such recycling principles to giant-sized vehicles. A Boeing 747, the first jumbo jet to be flown commercially, sits in South Korea – a decommissioned airliner that found a new lease of life converted into a restaurant.

It looks a little out of place stuck in the middle of the city, looming over the highway yet dwarfed by surrounding apartments, but it casts even more of a forlorn figure when you find out it has been abandoned for the second time and is no longer in use as an eatery either. Crying shame; we’d have definitely sampled the aeronautically themed ambience.

To see loads of extra pics and learn more about this strange converted aircraft, fly on over to Dark Roasted Blend

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All images: Vicki DaSilva

Vicki DaSilva is a light graffiti legend. Influenced by the birth and boom of graffiti in New York City, she decided to develop her own more ephemeral but no less inspiring take on the art form, making thin air instead of subway cars her canvas, swapping spray cans for light sources, and capturing the play of light in long exposure photography. She has been creating light graffiti and light painting photographs since 1980.

McCarren Pool (1985)

Vicki DaSilva’s work is broad in scope, from technical conceptual pieces involving track systems like those from her ‘Light Tartans’ series, to the more direct socio-political throw-ups of her ‘Financial Meltdown’ series. After concentrating on installation-based work for a long time, she became inspired to make some new light graffiti work during the Obama campaign. Here the artist herself talks exclusively to Environmental Graffiti.

Bailout Bull (2008)

EG: How would you explain the way light graffiti works to the novice?

Vicki DaSilva: Light graffiti is a very basic technique of using any light source as a method of drawing for a time exposure photograph in the dark, or at night. Using a camera that allows a ‘bulb’ setting for an extended time, while on a tripod, the light source is directed at the camera and the camera documents the movement of the light. Trial and error are needed to perfect any number of variables.

AIG = IOU (2009)

EG: What is your modus operandi in a nutshell?

Vicki DaSilva: My modus operandi is to create single frame time exposure photographs at site-specific locations at night that combine principles of drawing, painting, sculpture, performance and installation art with light. And to make lightgraffiti.com the most popular site for light graffiti.

Light Tartans: Fountain Park #4 (2007)

EG: What is the thinking behind your two – very different it seems – current projects?

Vicki DaSilva: My light painting photographic installation based works are made with the pursuit of contributing to contemporary fine art photography with a body of work that is historically significant in terms of originality and execution of process.

Light Tartans: Fountain Park #6 (2008)

Vicki DaSilva: My current light graffiti photographic works are intended to comment on social and political news issues. My Future ‘wish list goal’ is for the organization of ‘Smart Mob’ type social visual protests through my site lightgraffiti.com , with artists using light graffiti technique for shared global activist activities.

Justice For Ramirez (2009)

EG: So what’s the latest piece you’ve completed?

Vicki DaSilva: These photos are from a shoot I did last night about an hour from where I live at the Schuylkill County Courthouse in Pottsville, PA where a murder trial is set to begin on Monday, April 27, 2009. A 25-year-old Mexican illegal immigrant named Luis E. Ramirez was brutally murdered by three white teens in Shenandoah, PA – known to locals as Shen-Doe – who beat him on July 12, 2008.

Shen-Doe Shame (2009)

EG: How were you inspired with your work in the Obama campaign?

Vicki DaSilva: The Obama campaign re-ignited my passion for light graffiti. With the outpouring of artists making Obama inspired works, I had the idea to go to the White House and write, ‘OBAMA IN THE HOUSE!!’, and ‘OBAMA 08!’ in June 2008. I was on my way to Raleigh, NC after the DC shoot and continued the series on the campus of North Carolina State University in their ‘Free Expression Tunnel’ where graffiti is allowed and encouraged. It made a perfect light graffiti location.

Obama Hope at the End of the Tunnel (2008)

EG: In what ways do you think the unique qualities of light graffiti make it environmental?

Vicki DaSilva: The environmental aspects of light graffiti are extremely important. We know that neurotoxins in spray paint are extremely harmful to people and the environment. We also know most graffiti artists do not wear the proper masks while working. The pollutants of that paint also go into the air, the ground and the water. Because of the controversial vandalistic tendencies of spray paint or marker graffiti on public and private property, the constant battle between the opposing forces also brings the chemicals of removal into play. Those chemicals are highly pollutant.

Obama in the House (2008)

Vicki DaSilva: Light graffiti allows for a green solution to those problems as an alternative medium. By choosing environmentally friendly lamps such as compact fluorescents and fluorescent tube lamps, powered by portable battery packs, a clean, green solution can be had. My vision is for a new generation of light graffiti artists expressing themselves through photographic means.

Bedford Avenue #1 (1985)

EG: Can you tell us a little bit about what got you started as a light graffiti artist?

Vicki DaSilva: While in art school I was seeking a way to make photographs that were unique in execution and process. I was fascinated with extended time exposure photography and the infinite possibilities of the process. I was studying the history of photography and artists such as Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy and Brassai. I saw the light graffiti photos by Gjon Mili featuring Picasso drawings from 1949. I was also studying contemporary art, especially at that time – the early 1980’s – artists such as Dan Flavin and James Turrell.

Interior #1 (1986)

Vicki DaSilva: Graffiti art was a huge influence on me visually and in terms of being site-specific, and light graffiti seemed obvious to me to use in order to combine all these ideas into my own work by approaching those elements through photography. My recent return to light graffiti incorporating the application of social and political commentary through the technique is very exciting for me.

We leave you with some footage of the artist in action, creating a piece from her current ‘Financial Meltdown’ series:

With special thanks to Vicki DaSilva for agreeing to be interviewed for this article. To see more of her work, go to her website vickidasilva.com, or check out her new blog lightgraffiti.com.

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Image: Walter Rodriguez

Like deer caught in headlights or moths to a flame, these wolves are doomed. It’s almost like the artist took a snapshot of them in time, just as the front runners of the huge pack meet with a clear glass wall that painfully stops them in their tracks. All the while, so much momentum has been created that the wolves behind can’t change course, and will follow their leaders to the same horrible fate.

Created by Cai Guo-Qiang, Head On is just one example of this accomplished Chinese artist’s many works currently on display at the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. The show, called I Want to Believe, is a retrospective of the artist’s works and spans over 20 years. It includes a variety of different types of art, including early works, gunpowder drawers, explosive events, installation and social projects.

A visitor squats in front of a shower of wolves to take a picture of them hitting the glass in Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, where Head On was first exhibited in 2006

Image: stomen

In this impressive installation, 99 life-sized replicas of wolves run headlong into a glass wall. But what does it all mean? Up for interpretation, it could be a comment on the extinction of species, or perhaps this pack of wolves symbolizes a lack of courage to deviate from the norm. Whatever it means, the work doesn’t just make visitors stop in admiration, but in thought as well.

A close-up shows how the wolves are suspended in the air. One wolf seems to stare at us, temporarily distracted from its fate.

Image: stomen

The wolves look so real, you’d think they were sad products of road kill and a hard-working taxidermist; instead, they were handcrafted in a no less meticulous fashion using papier mache, plaster, fiberglass and resin, with the hide of each wolf painted on.

In New York’s famous Guggenheim, the wolves look like they’re sprinting on the ledge of one of the circular rotundas

Image: artant

Born to a historian and painter in 1957, Qai studied stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute between 1981 and 1985. Since the beginning, his work has tended towards a scholarly and often politically charged nature. Having explored the use of gunpowder in his drawings, he has also had an ongoing fascination with explosive work; his most recognizable large-scale work is his spectacular fireworks displays from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he was a member of the creative team and Director of Visual and Special Effects for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Qai’s retrospective I Want to Believe can be enjoyed until September 6, 2009 at the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. If you can’t get to Spain in time, visit Cai’s website to see more amazing pictures of his work.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

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All photos: Tom Pfeiffer / www.volcanodiscovery.com

Dr Tom Pfeiffer treads carefully across the Kilauea lava flow. It is hard to tell which direction to go in, and in the harsh volcanic landscape, even harder to judge distances. The terrain is tough as hell, undulating underfoot and too hot to proceed in places. Then there is the lava to think about. In a flash, the base of the fresh cone above the lava skylight collapses, giving way to a huge surge of molten rock that rapidly begins flooding the entire area where he and the others are stood.

As it happened: The hazardous hornito collapse and lava flood

It was day three of an expedition to observe Hawaii’s ever active volcanic vents. That morning, Tom and the others in the group had established camp, following a stunning hike to fetch water – water now invaluable for wetting parched throats and splashing over boots half melted by the scalding terrain. Thank heavens for good soles; the footwear will still need fixing, but hopefully that’s all. With the encroaching lava, the more pressing challenge is to climb their way out of there – and fast.

Scenes through the eyes of Dr Tom Pfeiffer: An erupting skylight after sunset

The life of volcanologist sounds either supremely exciting or downright foolish, depending on how far your definition of adventurous extends beyond the latest Wii game. But for those geologists and volcano aficionados whose very blood runs like pyroclastic flows, it has to be the perfect job – and leading expeditions to many of the planet’s most active volcanoes, like treading a heaven on earth. But isn’t it dangerous?

Lava dance: A 2m-high, pulsating dome fountain of fluid, boiling lava erupts

Upon hearing the word danger, Tom Pfeiffer is cool; not dismissive, but he thinks the word is overused when people talk about volcanoes. The media especially likes to focus on their destructive power, but that’s not how he sees them. “It’s the beauty and deep emotions felt in the presence of lava and eruptions,” he tells Environmental Graffiti. Rather than of danger, the guide of over 50 volcano tours across three continents prefers another word: “Excitement.”

Hornito’s nest: One of the small, rootless spatter cones erupts, throwing out lava

A few days earlier, the group had spent two nights close to some lava cones. On the second night, a surge of lava went shooting up into the air. Five smouldering hornitos – small, rootless lava cones – suddenly ignited, spitting out fountains of lava 10 metres high. “It was magical. Lava had accumulated in the pond of lava lying beneath the tall volcanic cones, and suddenly there was this – while all around stretched a vast lava field, a vast lava landscape.” Magical.

Eyes to the ground: observing an active vent in the center of the crater

“Adventure,” says Tom. “The people on the exhibition had an extraordinary feeling that day. Of course you need luck. For conditions to be ideal you need extraordinary luck. But then the emotion! It’s less a sense of danger than the excitement of entering the unknown – the unknown of volcanic activity, of the weather – and the feeling of being alone with one of nature’s great forces. For while there are thousands of visitors, nobody sees the same things.”

Safe distance: A spatter cone spits lava inside the gap of Kilauea’s active vent

Are there risks? “Of course there are risks. It’s risky if you don’t know what you’re doing. But if you know what you’re doing it’s as safe as riding a mountain bike.” And it has never been dangerous, except on the one occasion. “I don’t make it dangerous,” explains Tom. “I don’t do it unless I think it’s safe. It can be safe even when we’re up close. Risk is apparent because it’s an alien environment. You’ve got to know how to prevent danger, then you’ll be OK.”

What doesn’t kill you: The incoming wave of lava flood once more

So did he prevent danger in Hawaii when the overflow of lava occurred? “We were forced to leave our observation positions quickly and retreat to higher ground. When we got to around 30 metres away from the source, we saw that the arriving wave of lava was at least one metre high.” Naturally, it’s all part of the appeal: “What’s exciting – good conditions, good weather, hiking, camping out in the testing volcanic terrain, the risk – but it’s all worth it for the beauty.”

Rivers of lava: Kilauea’s sea entry point, where hot lava rushes into the ocean

It should be clear by now that feeling and passion are what interest Tom Pfeiffer about volcanoes. It is not even always possible to take photographs, what with technical limitations and not having film handy; yet photos cannot capture what it’s like to be face to face with these stirring ruptures in the earth’s crust. “The passion comes first. And people might then be inspired to study and explore the world of volcanoes further.”

Lava toes: A pahoehoe lava field class with its smooth, billowy or ropy surface

In his time, Tom has spent months on end working as a volunteer at the volcano observatory at Hawaii as well as elsewhere, setting out on many expeditions with friends and colleagues. After studying in Europe, he founded Volcano Discovery, an international team of volcanologists who take tours in places as far flung as Iceland, Indonesia and Alaska. As with any work, it’s not all excitement; there is book keeping and databases – but they’re another story.

Hot shots: Another sea entry point, and a hornito throwing out spatter (below)

With special thanks to Dr Tom Pfeiffer for agreeing to be interviewed for this article. To find out more about Volcano Discovery and the destinations they can take you too, visit www.volcanodiscovery.com.

Literally wow: Littoral explosions caused by sea water trapped in the lava tube

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Struck by a meteor? A Setenil Street Image via Oddity Central

The 3,000-odd inhabitants of Setenil de las Bodegas, a city in Spain’s beautiful Andalucia region, seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. When they enter their houses, they see rock face; when they stroll through their city, they walk on rocks. Has the city been hit by a meteor and if not what caused its unusual construction?

Setenil’s “hard rock cafe”:

Image via Oddity Central

Stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Image: Elli & Beau Capper

Setenil de las Bodegas, about 18 km away from Ronda in the province of Cadiz, has wedged itself between the cliffs eroded by the Rio Trejo river. The old houses especially are built under the cliff overhang and the newer ones against the hillside.

The name Setenil developed from the the Latin septem nihil – “seven times no” – which refers back to the period of the Christian reconquest, when Catholic kings tried to win back territory from the Moors, who had come from Africa and ruled the Iberian peninsula since 711. In Setenil’s case, only the seventh reconquest attempt was successful, in 1485, making the city one of the last bastions of the Moors until they were driven out of western Europe in 1492.

The city of Setenil and the Rio Trejo valley:

Image: Panarria

Regarding the second part of the name, “de las Bodegas,” at least two different stories circulate. According to one, Sentenil proudly added “de las Bodegas” to its name in the 15th century, because of the many vineyards that had sprung up. Sadly, vine pests ended this tradition in the 1860s.

According to another story, since the early 16th century, “bodegas” referred to Sentenil’s big storerooms under the rock that kept all kinds of produce cool even in the hottest of summers. Regardless of which version is true, fact is that even today, Setenil is famous for delicacies like chorizo, cerdo, olive oil, honey, jam and excellent Andalucian wine.

Other than being built into the rock, Setenil is also one of the typical White Villages of Andalucia; villages that try to stay as cool as possible in this hottest region of Spain by whitewashing their houses every year, as white reflects sunlight best.

Old and new: most houses in Setenil have a rock connection:

Image: Falconaumanni

When looking at images like this, with a whole village literally living in the shadow of a huge rock, one wonders: Why, isn’t it depressing, especially in the winter?

Image via Oddity Central

The reason people choose to live here is pragmatism, more or less. The natural caves at Setenil proved perfect living quarters, it is believed since pre-historic times. Instead of having to build a whole house and insulating it against heat in the summer and cold in the winter, many rock caves just needed a façade and voila, there was a house in tune with nature!

One of Setenil’s oldest streets:

Image: Elli & Beau Capper

Also, one shouldn’t forget that Setenil de las Bodegas is a city that is many centuries old and thus has seen its fair share of fighting. And which enemy would go for the city with rock solid defenses, literally, when the next town over has no such protection? After all, that’s why it took the Catholic kings seven attempts before they won Setenil back from the Moors…

Overall, a very minimally invasive building style. Rock on, Setenil!

Source: 1, 2, 3

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Menwith Hill Aerial Photo: Yorkshire CND

Man has climbed the highest mountains; he has penetrated the densest forests, crossed the greatest deserts and descended miles below to the murky depths of the ocean floor. He has conquered the skies, the land and the sea, but there is one battle he has not won – yet – the battle to conquer the mind.

In a sleepy suburb on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Margaret Newsham is attempting to lead a normal life away from the days where she worked at a giant listening station at RAF base Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, England. Despite this, she is unable to escape her past.

She sleeps with a loaded gun under her bed and is protected by her 120-pound German shepherd, who is trained to guard and attack. At any time, certain factions in the NSA and the CIA may attempt to silence her for her role in the most extensive espionage network on earth, capable of tapping into millions of phone calls an hour: project ECHELON.

Las Vegas Photo: Donar Reiskoffer

Mrs. Newsham was an employee for Lockheed Martin, the largest munitions suppliers to the US military and intelligence agencies, the NSA and CIA. Newsham says:

“It is almost impossible to tell the difference between NSA agents and civilians employed by Lockheed Martin, Ford and IBM. The borderlines are very vague. I had one of the highest security classifications which required the approval of the CIA, the NSA, the Navy and the Air Force. The approval included both a lie detector test, and an expanded personal history test in which my family and acquaintances were discretely checked by the security agency.”

For her part, Newsham was regretful for the part she played in spying on politicians and ordinary people:

“On the day at Menwith Hill when I realized in earnest how utterly wrong it was, I was sitting with one of the many ‘translators’. He was an expert in languages like Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Suddenly he asked me if I wanted to listen in on a conversation taking place in the US at an office in the US Senate Building. Then I clearly heard a southern American dialect I thought I had heard before.”

“Who is that?” I asked the translator who told me that it was Republican senator Strom Thurmond. ‘Oh my gosh!’ I thought. We’re not only spying on other countries, but also on our own citizens. That’s when I realized in earnest that what we were doing had nothing to do with national security interests of the US.”

And US Senator Thurmond is just the tip of the iceberg. In 1983, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher asked that government ministers who had challenged her on policy issues be placed under electronic surveillance, although it wasn’t until 2000 that former Canadian secret service insider Mike Frost blew the whistle: “[Thatcher] had two ministers that she said ‘…weren’t onside,’” says Frost. “[She] wanted to find out, not what these ministers were saying, but what they were thinking.”

President Ronald Reagan with Senator Strom Thurmond

Photo: Darth Kalwejt

Spy chief and spied upon: PM Margaret Thatcher meets Senator Strom Thurmond

Photo: White House Photographic Office

Ever since investigative journalist Duncan Campbell first exposed ECHELON’s existence in 1988, various other ex-intelligence service employees have broken their silence on the network’s activities. Former NSA man Wayne Madsen claimed his former employers held hundreds of pages of information on Princess Diana. The surveillance network was also involved in international economic espionage and could well spy on NGO’s like Amnesty International and Greenpeace.

All these informants seem to agree on one thing. This was electronic spying for the 21st Century, capable of listening in on the most confidential contents of people’s lives.

ECHELON

At least ten ECHELON stations operate around the world, and the network has the capacity to monitor huge volumes of international fax, phone and Internet communications. It operates on behalf of five states signed up to the UK-USA Security Agreement: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.

No phone call you’ve made or text message you’ve sent is ultimately safe from their electronic eavesdropping. ECHELON is able to intercept and inspect the contents of communications via a global network of satellite stations and monitoring centres that capture radio, satellite, microwave, cellular and fibre optic traffic. It can automatically sift out flagged keywords and flagged addresses from masses of sent information.

Spying centre: Menwith Hill communications and intelligence station

Photo 1: E Asterion Photo2: Imran

Says Margaret Newsham: “Even then, ECHELON was very big and sophisticated. As early as 1979 we could track a specific person and zoom in on his phone conversation while he was communicating. Since our satellites could in 1984 film a postage stamp lying on the ground, it is almost impossible to imagine how all-encompassing the system must be today.”

“I just think of ECHELON as a great vacuum cleaner in the sky which sucks everything up,” says ex-Canadian intelligence insider Mike Frost. “We just get to look at the goodies.”

Beneath the surface: Undersea cable tapping pod laid by US submarine
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Photo via: Cyber Rights

Southern Cross Subsea Cable Route

Image: J.P.Lon, Mysid

Mass surveillance is nothing new. After the interception of short-wave radio communications from great distances during WWII came new opportunities afforded by satellite technology. Now, of course, we live in an age of fibre optics, with over 99 percent of voice and data traffic transmitted via this medium. Yet while fibre optics appear harder to access, they’re far from failsafe. Long-distance cables can be tapped even at submarine levels and intercept equipment placed where fibre optic communications are switched between networks, meaning emails could easily be hijacked.

Ascension Island

In 1996 Nicky Hager, in his book Secret Power, claimed that a remote location in the South Atlantic, Ascension Island, was the secret location for a station that represented a missing piece in the ECHELON puzzle. Installing a station on this volcanic outcrop would have completed the international intelligence 1990s network – a lucky seventh station to help intercept communications in the southern hemisphere, alongside newly added stations in New Zealand and Australia.

Satellite tracking station: Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, Australia

Photo: Unknown Photographer

Unlocated spying station: Ascension Island

Photo: startedrabbit III

Several ground stations are key to ECHELON’s global communications network, among them Menwith Hill, Sugar Hill government communications station in West Virginia, Pine Gap in Australia, and New Zealand’s communications bureau GCSB Waihopai. Canada, Japan, the UK, Australia and various states in the US are also known sites for other stations. Then of course there is less known likelihood of a station on Ascension Island. Perhaps it’s worth a mission to that far-flung outpost to find out what’s going on there. You only live twice.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13

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Photo: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation

With today’s super telescopes, we are better placed than ever to witness the astonishing celestial beauty of stars, nebulae and quasars. But while telescopes are invaluable to our understanding of the distant Universe, there are luminous cosmic energies at play far closer to home that can be seen clearly with the naked eye. Most people have heard tale of the legendary Northern Lights – a.k.a. Aurora Borealis – but their southern cousins, Aurora Australis, make no less magical a spectacle.

Photo: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation

Like the work of some immense extraterrestrial artist, auroras are intensely beautiful natural light displays seen in the sky, primarily in polar areas and mostly at night. Forming great swathes of colour, the lights are more visible nearer to the poles due to the longer periods of darkness and magnetic fields.

Photo: Calee Allen, National Science Foundation

When observed close to the magnetic pole, aurorae may appear high overhead in what are actually altitudes some 100 km up. Yet from further away they can also light up the horizon as a vivid green radiance or at times as a hazy red – as if the sun were rising from a bizarre direction.

Photo: Chris Danals, National Science Foundation

Aurorae commonly appear either as a diffuse glow or as a curtain-like wash stretching in a roughly east-west direction. Sometimes subtly formed in “quiet arcs”, sometimes constantly shape-shifting as “active aurora”, these wonders of the heavens are dynamic in the way they dance before our eyes.

Photo: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation

Woven like a cosmic curtain, each aurora is made up of parallel rays of energised particles aligned to magnetic field lines. See, auroras are produced by charged particles in the outer reaches of Earth’s magnetosphere like electrons and protons clashing with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere.

Photo: Samuel Blanc

Auroras are the upshot of something like an astro-pinball machine, with particle collisions electrically exciting atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere. Most aurorae are green and red, emanating from atomic oxygen, but nitrogen molecules and ions also emit some purple and blue hues.

Photo: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation

But what is the ultimate source of these stunning lightshows? It’s our very own Sun. Aurorae are powered by solar winds that constantly steam past the Earth via its upper atmosphere. Solar winds are actually a flow of hot plasma – very thin gas given off by the million-degree heat of the Sun’s surface.

Phtoto: Keith Vanderlinde, National Science Foundation

When solar winds hit the Earth’s magnetosphere, they effectively ricochet, and so cough up their energy and material. The newly energised electrons and ions in the geo-space environment around Earth travel along the magnetic field lines to the polar regions of the atmosphere. Cue aurora.

Photo: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

The Southern Lights are observed less frequently than their more familiar northern counterparts – chiefly because so few people live in Antarctica during the austral winter – but such rarity only enhances the extraordinary quality of this atmospheric phenomenon.

Photo: Paul Moss

Aurora are named is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora. Borealis comes from Boreas, the Greek name for the “north wind”; Australis on the other hand is the Latin word for “of the south”, since Aurora Australis is only detectable from latitudes in Antarctica, South America or Australasia.

Photo: Jason Stauch, National Science Foundation

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica is one of the Earth’s best observation points for taking in the splendour of Aurora Australis. Here the luminescence blankets the sky over the 10-metre South Pole Telescope, which is used to collect data on cosmic microwave radiation and black matter.

Photo: Ethan Dicks, National Science Foundation

Amundsen-Scott is one of three US research posts on the Antarctic run by the National Science Foundation’s US Antarctic Program. Telescopes like the one there represent both our advances into the future and our gaze into the origins of the Universe. Aurorae are as old as the Earth itself, yet there are some stand out moments in their recent history recorded by man.

Photo: Jonathan Berry, National Science Foundation

In the great geomagnetic storm of 1859, the activity of aurorae was so powerful that they were reported across four continents. During one night in Boston the aurora was brilliant enough for printed words to be read by their light. Elsewhere, telegraph line operators reported communication minus battery power, but working solely with a current caused by the aurora.

Photo: Jonathan Berry, National Science Foundation

What else is there to say about aurorae, and Aurora Australis in particular? Science will continue to try to explain them, explorers will continue to be stunned by their radiance, and all who see them will be need no further convincing that there is not finer painter than nature itself. Perhaps with images so fantastic, we’ve already said too much.

Photo: sandwichgirl

Sources: 1, 2

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