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Japan Probes Mysterious Vapor Eruption

Saeed al-Sahaf writes "From the BBC, Japan's Coast Guard dispatched aircraft Sunday to survey a 3,300-foot-high column of steam rising from the Pacific Ocean off the island of Iwo Jima. MSNBC has a nice picture. The vapor was reported Saturday after Japanese troops stationed on the small island observed the massive cloudy plume rise from the sea about 30 miles southeast of the island. 'It's highly likely that it's caused by an eruption of an underwater volcano,' Japanese officials said. But others are not so sure, and are speculating that Godzilla has awoken from its nap. Tokyo remains calm at this hour."

32 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. I for one... by Tanmi-Daiow · · Score: 3, Funny

    welcome our new steam-spewing Godzilla overlords.

    --
    "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." - C.S. Lewis
  2. I saw this one by DanielMarkham · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't this the one where Mothra shows up and kicks Godzilla's butt? Can you imagine going over that in a ship? That would be a heck of an ocean ride. Everybody's suits would be wrinkle-free.

    1. Re:I saw this one by Mateorabi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is also a theory that evaporating/subliming methane deposits can also sink ships due to the aerated water not being dense enough.

      There is also speculation that the Bermuda Triangle has lots of these unstable deposits. Would explain a few things.

      --
      "You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8

    2. Re:I saw this one by __aaxtnf2500 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Modern torpedos detonate at a significant distance from the keel of a surface target, as the initial expansion wave carries a significant portion, but not all of the potential energy the torpedo can generate. By detonating the torpedo at a deeper depth, the explosion can evacuate the water from under the keel, using the ships own weight against its (explosively) weakened structure. This effect can be seen in most of the SINKEX videos floating around the net. The ship disintegrating would be from the explosive force, not rising gases.

    3. Re:I saw this one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
      Thanks for the pointer. Here's a nice series of pictures with an explanation describing the effect you describe.
      I had shown these pictures to many people. My 12 year-old son, Greg, pointed out to me something no one else had noticed. He said, "Dad, there's no fire in that explosion".

      I guess this wouldn't make it in hollywood.

      The explosion happened underwater. The ship was split by the gas bubble generated.
    4. Re:I saw this one by crawling_chaos · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I suggest that you look for a copy of the sadly out of print The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: SOLVED. A librarian in Texas pulled things like the actual weather reports and did statistical analysis on the so-called Triangle and found a few key things:
      • The "ghost ship" stories like the Marie Celeste are drunken sailor's tales. There is no record of such a ship even being built.
      • Most of the "clear weather" disappearances, like the TBM Avengers, actually happened during foul weather. No reporters bothered to check the actual weather records.
      • Quite a few "Bermuda Triangle" disappearances occurred well outside of the triangle, such that it needs to be redefined as pretty much the entire South Atlantic.
      • And finally, when you factor out all of these circumstances, the unexplained loss rate is average for an area with that much shipping traffic.

      I would furthermore add that since the advent of GPS and more reliable marine radio, we sure haven't heard much noise from the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

      --
      You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
      -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
    5. Re:I saw this one by Savant · · Score: 3, Informative

      While I'd agree in principle with the "no more accidents than expected given the shipping traffic" it seems odd that your librarian claims the Marie Celeste (or Mary Celeste, as it was before Conan Doyle got his hands on it) never existed.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste

      Wikipedia seems to give an identifiable history with a lot of detail for both the ship and captain.

    6. Re:I saw this one by sik0fewl · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wikipedia seems to give an identifiable history with a lot of detail for both the ship and captain.

      That article was probably contributed by drunken pirates.

      --
      I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
  3. SORRY... sorry.... by Brad1138 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nothing to see here, I was swimming there and..uh... well.. I had beans last night.

    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
  4. Oh no. by Silverlancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm worried. Tokyo might be destroyed by the impending eruption.

    At least the Japanese have experience. I mean, Tokyo's been destroyed at *least* 500 times before hasn't it?

  5. It's It's It's Godzilla by infonography · · Score: 4, Funny

    And he ordered the Extra Hot Curry platter.

    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  6. Snow Crash by TerranFury · · Score: 4, Funny

    Steam clouds rising from the Pacific? The Coast Guard better be careful or else some guy in an inflatable raft will make them listen to Reason.

  7. Giant boiling water thingy by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

    Time to get a very large teabag...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Giant boiling water thingy by svallarian · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'll give you a very large teabag. Just keep sleeping on my couch.

      --
      I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."
  8. Re:The water is friggin red! by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Informative

    Someone explain why the water in the picture looks red/brown?

    Probably hematite, sulfur compounds and ashes coming from the volcano. They must be mixing with the water on the ocean floor and rising with the columns of hot water.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  9. Re:The water is friggin red! by istartedi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because volcanos usually send up a lot of smoke and ash and crap (that's the technical term for it). The crap would usually put a lot of smoke in the air, especially from anything that burned. Since this is under water, any minerals such as iron and sulfer that might react due to the heat of the volcano, along with organic matter from dead fish, seeweed, coral, or whatever might be on the ocean floor doesn't turn into smoke. Instead, it dissolves into the water and turns it some nasty foul color, in this case reddish.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  10. "Bloop monster" evolves to phase 2 by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Funny
    Tuning in to a deep sea monster (2002)
    Scientists have revealed a mysterious recording that they say could be the sound of a giant beast lurking in the depths of the ocean.

    Researchers have nicknamed the strange unidentified sound picked up by undersea microphones "Bloop."

    I'm sure we'll soon get underwater Sound Surveillance System reports of a giant "Ahhhh!" sound.
    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  11. Godzilla Godzilla Godzilla... by KajiCo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh no, there goes tokyo, go go Godzilla.

  12. Endless fun on the ocean floor by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

    dead fish, seeweed, coral, or whatever might be on the ocean floor doesn't turn into smoke. Instead, it dissolves into the water and turns it some nasty foul color, in this case reddish.

    So basically what you're saying is, when an underwater volcano goes off, coral and seeweed all leave the surface and rush down to the bottom of the ocean to watch the event, as well as countless schools of fish passing by, only they get too close and promptly die, thereby creating a giant fruit de mer soup?

    Interesting theory...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  13. Re:Apple testing new water-cooling solution? by Krankheit · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes, we are. The slightly overclocked Intel Pentium 4 chips we are using are speculated to cause enough smoke to trigger a mass extinction. We are testing our chips under water. We hope Japan doesn't get pissed off and raise the fees on memory manufacture for our machines, so we are giving Japan the first machine off the line free.

    --
    Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
  14. they THINK it's a volcano? by jim_v2000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Come on people...you don't have to be a scientist to figure out that steam + discolored water = underwater volcano. I was in Hawaii a few weeks ago at Hawaii Volcanos National Park and I was lucky enough to see magma going into the ocean...that stuff puts out a buncha steam probably thousands of feet in the air and makes the water look discolored.

    --
    Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
    1. Re:they THINK it's a volcano? by _KiTA_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, that's the most logcal answer. In fact, I'd say it's the most probable answer.

      But it *could* be something else, which is why they won't say for certain yet. That's just the way it works -- you don't say something IS something until it's been scientifically proven.

      Which, as I understand it, gives certain "Intelligent Design" "scientists" in Kansas all sorts of confusion...

    2. Re:they THINK it's a volcano? by grammar+fascist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Come on people...you don't have to be a scientist to figure out that steam + discolored water = underwater volcano.

      They're scientists. They can't be 100% sure of anything, really.

      Unless it's a methane lake on Titan. Or evidence of life on Mars. Or a new planet that "weighs" x metric tons orbiting a red giant.

      Well, crap. It must be Godzilla, and I'm 100% sure of it.

      --
      I got my Linux laptop at System76.
  15. man it must suck to be in japan by chadamir · · Score: 4, Funny

    man, they are going to go back to the site on monday. Dont they know it's july 4th? Gosh, don't they get off for holidays?

  16. Re:This is a joke, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    That plume is 3300 Miles high?

    Wow, that's several times higher than the space station.

  17. Steam by ImaNihilist · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hate Steam.

  18. Re:Sounds like a nice island... by patio11 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The name means "Sulfur Island" and they didn't just decide to name it after an element because the cool names were already taken. Due to volcanic activity, the place constantly smells like rotten eggs, and looks like Hell relocated to the central Pacific. That was BEFORE the US and Japan fought a major battle over it, littering the place with unexploded ordinance (grandpa did his part cleaning it up, bringing two live artillery shells to his house as souvenirs, where they stayed undisturbed until he died... we then had to call the Chicago bomb squad twice in one week after we found them in the basement). Its still in a vaguely decent geostrategic position, but anything else you'd use an island in the Pacific (tourism, etc) for can be done better at Okinawa or Hawaii, or for that matter just about anywhere other than Iwo.

  19. Re:Sounds like a nice island... by kfg · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why is it uninhabited?

    Because nobody live there. D'oh!

    KFG

  20. Re:look at the bigger picture by anagama · · Score: 3, Informative


    Google news Japan kanji for volcano search ... better pictures!

    Yahoo news for Japan with the kanji search ... some with video. ;-)

    appologies for the self reply.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  21. Re:Damn... Japan Still Exists by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So, in other words, they don't know what this is but they're sure it won't cause a tsnunami.

    Okay.

    "In other news, Japan's Seismological Agency said it would be a good idea if people didn't stand quite so close to the shoreline."

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  22. Re:Mitsubishi F-2 Versus Godzilla by Zancarius · · Score: 4, Informative
    The F-2 is the new Japanese frontline fighter and employs stealth technology developed by Japanese engineers. The F-2 is distinctly inferior to the American F-22 but is a source of pride for the Japanese military.

    It's inferior because it's an F-16 airframe with radar absorbent materials on the leading edges. At least, according to the Wikipedia article to which you linked.

    The incorporation of RAM (ACs: insert lame computer-hardware related joke here) into an aircraft does not make it stealthy. Ever wondered why the F-117, B-2, and for that matter the F-22 look rather unusual? It is because shape is much more important than the coating.

    Having said this, the F-16 (and derivatives) are nevertheless remarkable aircraft. I have heard that some of the more experienced F-16 pilots have been fairly consistent in out-maneuvering the F-22 in exercises. With the introduction of stealth technologies, it is a shame to see such an incredible aircraft see the end of its line. (I would've probably said this about the P-51, too.)
    --
    He who has no .plan has small finger. ~ Confucius on UNIX
  23. Must be Longhorn starting to surface by bursch-X · · Score: 3, Funny

    What else could look like such a huge steaming pile of sh*t?

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.