The Baddestass Picture Of The Day
Not a special effect! Not a PhotoShop - I can tell by the pixels! This is an actual photograph of a man in a volcano. This is the caption from National Geographic:
A member of the expedition walks on the caldera’s cooled lava floor, turned red by the reflected glow of the lake. “Down here you feel the volcano,” says photographer Carsten Peter. “It’s a low-frequency rumbling that pulses through your body—like being inside a giant subwoofer.”
Awesome.
That’s the inside of Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo; it’s two miles high and is one of the most active in the world. A Congolese expedition is going inside the volcano to try and figure out when the beast might erupt next, and to learn more about this marvel.
Why is it important to figure out Nyiragongo’s explosion issues? Check out this paragraph:
At the base of the volcano sprawls the city of Goma, growing by the day as villagers from the countryside seek refuge from rebel and government forces. An estimated million people are now crammed into Goma. Twice in recent years Nyiragongo’s eruptions have sent molten rock flowing toward the city. In 1977 lava raced down the mountain at more than 60 miles an hour, the fastest ever observed. Several hundred people died, even though the flow had hardened before it reached the main part of the city. In 2002 the volcano shot more than 15 million cubic yards of lava into downtown Goma, destroying 14,000 homes, burying buildings to the top of the first floor, and forcing 350,000 citizens to flee. Both eruptions were mere grumbles, though, compared with the fury Nyiragongo is thought capable of unleashing.
“Goma,” [Italian volcanologist Dario Tedesco] says, “is the most dangerous city in the world.”
Click here to read the full story and click here to see more pictures.
