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Pastimes : Mexico -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (137)	9/6/2013 4:12:10 PM
From: average joe	1 Recommendation Recommended By Tom Clarke Respond to of 143

New Mexico-size volcano discovered in the depths of the Pacific Ocean William Sager/University of Houston - A perspective 3D plot of the topography of the largest single volcano on Earth, Tamu Massif. By Meeri Kim, Friday, September 6, 12:07 PM E-mail the writers The largest single volcano on Earth lay quietly hiding in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, about a thousand miles east of Japan, having been extinct for millions of years. Scientists have now uncovered the dome-shaped behemoth that has a footprint the size of New Mexico. The discovery topples the previous world record holder for largest volcano — Mauna Loa, one of the five that form the Big Island of Hawaii. The area covered by the new discovery volcano rivals the biggest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons on Mars. (William Sager/University of Houston) - The largest single volcano on Earth, Tamu Massif, is located within the Shatsky rise, an oceanic plateau located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Inset depicts the location of Shatsky Rise relative to Japan. Grey area (lower right) shows the footprint of Olympus Mons (Mars) at the same scale. Biggest volcano on Earth discovered in depths of the Pacific Meeri Kim 12:07 PM ET Tamu Massif is only a few miles tall, but it has a footprint the size of New Mexico. The percentage of middle- and high-schoolers who said they’ve used the devices more than doubled in a year. “Olympus Mons is the 800-pound gorilla of the solar system,” said geophysicist William W. Sager, of the University of Houston, the study’s lead author. “We didn’t know these massive volcanoes were here on Earth.” The team named it Tamu Massif. (TAMU is the acronym for Texas A&M University, Sager’s home institution when he and colleagues first studied the undersea mountain range that contains the giant.) Tamu Massif formed layer-by-layer as fast-moving lava flowed out from a central area at the peak and ran down its flank, cooling in place. Completely submerged underwater, Sager doesn’t believe that it ever peaked above sea level over its 145-million-year lifetime. There is also no danger of an eruption. “That’s probably a good thing, since we’ve been able to correlate mass extinction with some of these beasts,” said Clive R. Neal, a volcanologist at the University of Notre Dame. Neal, who was not involved in the study, said the discovery of such an oversize volcano on Earth is ground-breaking for volcanology. “This finding is paving the way to really rewriting some of the textbooks,” he said. “The term ‘supervolcano’ might be a reality.” Although Tamu Massif has an gigantic footprint, it is relatively short compared to Olympus Mons: The newly discovered volcano rises only a few miles above the sea floor, the gargantuan Martian mountain rises 14 miles at its peak. Gigantic volcanoes can form more easily on Mars because unlike Earth, whose crust is made up of many separate plates constantly in flux, the Red Planet has a thick, rigid outer shell made of a single plate. If a volcano forms over a hot spot under the Martian crust, it can keep growing bigger and bigger because the plate stays stationary. For an Olympus Mons-size volcano to form on Earth, magma must have flowed out extremely quickly in order to keep adding layers before the plates moved away from the hot spot. Sager compares Tamu Massif to an ice cube in a glass of water — most of its bulk is submerged below the surface — while Olympus Mons is like putting an ice cube on a two-by-four. The study was published online Thursday in the journal Nature Geoscience. Sager and his colleagues first studied Tamu Massif on a research cruise almost 20 years ago, without knowing it was a single volcano. At the time, they were taking data on a larger undersea mountain range called Shatsky Rise, which contained the giant within its features. Two decades, with over a year total at sea, passed by before they managed to gather enough evidence — through core samples and seismic reflection data — to confirm that much of Shatsky Rise is comprised by one central volcano. “It’s nice to be able to find something that’s new and exciting and makes people look up from their cup of coffee,” said Sager. Neal said the discovery proves how little we know of our own planet and that he is eager for other large volcanoes to be uncovered. Both Sager and Neal suspect that the Ontong Java Plateau in the southwest Pacific Ocean — the size of Alaska, even larger than Shatsky Rise — contains a single massive volcano that could dethrone Tamu Massif. Kim is a freelance writer. washingtonpost.com

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (137)	10/24/2013 11:10:56 AM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 143

Mexican clowns deny drug lord's costumed killer is one of them In this Monday, Oct. 21, 2013 photo, clowns chat after registering to attend the 17th International Clown Convention in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Mark Stevenson, The Associated Press Published Thursday, October 24, 2013 7:36AM EDT MEXICO CITY -- Leaders of clowns gathered for a convention in Mexico City said Wednesday they are saddened that a killer disguised himself as a clown to kill a drug lord last week, and insisted no true member of their profession would have committed the crime. Convicted drug trafficker Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix was shot to death Friday in the Baja beach resort of Los Cabos by a gunman wearing a clown costume, including a wig and a rubber nose. The dead man was the eldest brother of Mexico's once-feared Arellano Felix clan. Clown leader Tomas Morales, a 21-year veteran of the trade who goes by the stage name "Payaso Llantom," said he was certain the killer was not a professional clown. He said clowns in Mexico, especially in outlying states, know each other and their costumes and makeup are individualized and recognizable. "The people who do that, they're not clowns. I can swear on my mother's grave it wasn't a clown," said Morales, whose costume includes frizzy blue hair and a tiny top hat. "We are not like that ... we are nonviolent." "Bufon Marley," the stage name of 49-year-old Alberto Villanueva, who dresses a bit like a medieval jester, said of the killer, "It's sad that it has fallen to that level." "I don't think it has anything to do with us; we do the complete opposite," Villanueva said. "I don't think it will hurt our profession, because in our communities, people know us." Morales said there have been past cases of thieves stealing clown costumes to commit crimes. "We clowns suffer robberies," Morales said. "The criminals have stolen our vehicles, our costumes, our sound equipment, our makeup, and with these same tools we use to work, they use them to commit robberies." An estimated 500 clowns from around Mexico and the rest of Latin America gathered Wednesday at the International Clown Meeting and held a 15-minute laugh-a-thon "to demonstrate their opposition to the generalized violence that prevails in our country." As hard as it might sound to be a clown in a country so riven by crime and violence, the laughing came naturally, Villanueva said. "We laugh at the very things that hurt us," he said. "It is a very special, very Mexican humour." http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/mexican-clowns-deny-drug-lord-s-costumed-killer-is-one-of-them-1.1510986#ixzz2ieVrmu7k