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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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For those who want to see a volcano without actually having to climb up it, there is a drive-in volcano just outside Bandung called Tungkabun Prahu (meaning overturned boat). According to legend there was a beautiful queen in search of someone worthy to replace her beloved late husband. To make sure that the candidate was indeed worthy he had to build her a boat in a single night so that they could go sailing on the local lake. A handsome young stranger called Sangkuriang who had the gods on his side decided to have a go. He prayed to the gods to prevent the sun from rising until he'd finished his boatbuilding. When the queen came to see how he was getting on, she recognised by a scar on his shoulder that he was in fact her son who had been lost in the jungle as a child. In desperation she woke up a cockerel, which crowed and the sun came up. In a fit of temper the prince threw the boat he'd almost finished at the mountains. The boat broke one of the mountains which was damming up the lake so the lake drained away and the boat became a mountain in its place.
With a bit of imagination and from the right direction the mountain does look like an upside down Noah's ark. Some people say that the story is a folk memory of real geological events.
Anyway, be that as it may there is a road up to the lip of the volcano's crater so that you can go and have a look down into the volcano. Nothing very spectacular to see, just grey and yellow rocks and steam belching out in various places. The volcano did erupt in the 1970s but not much damage was done. There is a geyser where you can boil eggs, and a town in the valley below where you can bathe in hot springs. Very relaxing, once you get in there. Edge in cautiously because they are HOT.
My favourite volcano is Krakatau, which for USns' information is West of Java, in the Sunda straits between Java and Sumatra. This is the big one that erupted explosively in the 1880s causing multi-coloured sunsets all over the world, a small tidal wave in the English channel. The noise of the eruption was heard as far away as Singapore. To get to Anak Krakatau (child of Krakatoa, the original sank in the great eruption) you go by motor boat from Pantai Carita (the beach of stories). It takes about 3 or 4 hours. There's a little bit of vegetation round the edge of the island but the rest is just a gentle slope of black sand up to the crater. Lots of bits of pumice lying around, but not a lot happening (at least not while I was there -- I hear it's got a bit more active since). The beach of black sand is lovely and the water is very clear. It's a great place to have a swim before the boat takes you back to Carita.
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks, Stales. That, too, was edifying information. So, mineral water could be called Mineral Mineral, huh?
Before reading what you and others have written here, I would have simply thought of water as a compound, nothing more or less.
Best regards,
MM (That's WW upside-down for Mineral Mineral)
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old hand
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old hand
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Bingley
Many thanks for your further tales of the fiery furnace within.
There are no active volcanoes in Australia so I have yet to meet my first "live" one. We also have a drive in volcano - but it's as dead as a maggot. On the outskirts of Warrnambool in Victoria. What I would have given for a bit of steam and a sulfurous smell the day I went there!
BTW - you mentioned that Krakatau sank - I was under the impression that the cone was vaporised during the big bang?
I've seen pics of the daughter and she is one pretty place.
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bingley, what a fascinating tale! Thank you. Volcanoes being rather thin on the ground (hi, CK!) in Kentucky, I am having a hard time envisioning a drive-in one. I am imagining a road lined with booths, with sellers hawking "genuine lava rocks", tin miniature models of the mountain, etc.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Pictures of Krakatau: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/southeast_asia/indonesia/krakatau.html The accompanying text says collapse of the caldera, so it seems that at least some of it sank. > There are no active volcanoes in Australia so I have yet to meet my first "live" one. We also have a drive in volcano - but it's as dead as a maggot Why a maggot? They're alive surely, even if they don't give off vapours and a sulphuric smell. Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, they didn't have tin models, but down one of the paths leading away from the car park they did have wood carvings, seashell mobiles, sweaters, tortoiseshell ornaments, T-shirts, and other souvenirs, and guys with polaroid cameras were wandering round offering to take your picture at the volcano.
Bingley
Bingley
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old hand
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old hand
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dunno why we say that about maggots - it's illogical (illogic?? to bring in another thread) but in common usage.
Although I mentioned that we don't have active volcanos IN Australia, it is ironic (yet another thread!) that there is such a thing as an active Australian volcano. Furthermore, it's the highest Australian mountain! Only one thing - the volcano in question is Big Ben - and it's on Heard Island, way down in the southern Ocean, well on the way to Antarctica. At 2,745m ASL, Big Ben is 500m higher than the tallest mainland peak of Mt Kosciusko (2,229m ASL).
This is one that pops up at quiz nights - along with "What is the tallest mountain known?" (Answer = Olympus Mons - on Mars)
BTW: When I say "active", that point is debatable in regard to Big Ben. In the texts BB is generally referred to as dormant, but some fumarolic activity and a possible lava flow were noted in March this year.
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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stales:
OK. OK. Five years of earth sciences in grade school and high school DOWN the drain! You would think I am old enough to know that never doesn;t mean it!
Another interesting element is gallium, which melts in your hand. I don;t know much about it, but I think it's used for the fusible links in fire sprinklers because it can be alloyed to melt at a very specific temperaure.
Ted
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
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Dear TEd: Gallium arsenide used to be important in manufacture of semi-conductors, and probably still is, though things change fast in that business. I can't remember what properties made it so useful.
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old hand
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old hand
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Gallium arsenide used to be important in manufacture of semi-conductors, and probably still is, though things change fast in that business. I can't remember what properties made it so useful.Methinks it's the number of valence electrons. Too lazy to look it up; I should be working! 
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