Four At Once: Volcano Quartet Erupts On Kamchatka

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Four At Once: Volcano Quartet Erupts On Kamchatka

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 1, 2013 @03:30AM from the taking-cameras-to-cool-places dept.

anavictoriasaavedra writes "A unique show is taking place on Kamchatka these days: Four separate but nearby volcanoes are erupting simultaneously on the Russian peninsula. A Moscow film crew has produced an awe-inspiring 360-degree video of the natural fireworks." The video is well worth watching and panning around in. There are also a bunch of high-res still photo panoramas.

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Beowolf cluster by jfdavis668 · 2013-02-01 03:35 · Score: 4, Funny

of volcanos
1. Re:Beowolf cluster by ackthpt · 2013-02-01 04:15 · Score: 1
  
  Did Mt. St. Rongbad asplode?
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
2. Re:Beowolf cluster by ColdWetDog · 2013-02-01 04:22 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You laugh. This planet is pretty active. Although a quick perusal of recent Alaska activity doesn't show much unusual stuff, we've had a RM 7 and 6 quake on Queen Charlotte / Fairweather fault that's been quiet for the past decade or so (a blink in the geological eye). Time to get off my ass and bolt down the diesel tanks some more.
  The fun thing about today's technology is that we can actually see the actual magnitude of volcanism on the planet in pretty much real time. Never had that ability before.
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
3. Re:Beowolf cluster by ackthpt · 2013-02-01 04:53 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  You laugh. This planet is pretty active. Although a quick perusal of recent Alaska activity doesn't show much unusual stuff, we've had a RM 7 and 6 quake on Queen Charlotte / Fairweather fault that's been quiet for the past decade or so (a blink in the geological eye). Time to get off my ass and bolt down the diesel tanks some more.
  The fun thing about today's technology is that we can actually see the actual magnitude of volcanism on the planet in pretty much real time. Never had that ability before.
  I live on the Ring of Fire. I'm aware on a daily basis of the threats to my welfare, though I'm less than an ant on a beachball to the forces of plate tectonics. If it happens, it happens. If I survive, maybe I'll move somewhere safe ... say, New Madrid, Missouri. (c:
  
  --
  
  A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
4. Re:Beowolf cluster by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 04:57 · Score: 0
  
  Yo dawg, I head you like volcanos....
5. Re:Beowolf cluster by cellocgw · 2013-02-01 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  Given that this is Russia, a more appropriate monster would be bagiennik
  
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  https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
6. Re:Beowolf cluster by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 08:15 · Score: 0
  
  of volcanos
  Imagine that!
Risk by thbigr · 2013-02-01 03:38 · Score: 1

I remember this geo spot on the risk map so well

--
Come the revolution, the Bourgeois, Capitalistic, "A PARKING STICKER HOLDERS", will be first against the wall!
1. Re:Risk by radiumsoup · 2013-02-01 03:46 · Score: 2
  
  came for the Risk reference, leaving a little disappointed. Could have easily been a joke about armies being wiped out, and an invasion from Alaska coming as soon as reinforcements from Alberta and the Western United States can arrive. Oh, well.
2. Re:Risk by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 05:02 · Score: 0
  
  No, no, no. Kamchatka is great and all, but there's one thing I learned in AP Physics during the last week in school when we had nothing to do because we'd already taken the exam. All you need is 1 army on Ural. It's invincible. Put two armies on Ural, and you're destroyed. Put 1 and you win.
3. Re:Risk by unixisc · 2013-02-01 05:36 · Score: 2
  
  Kamchatka is just the peninsula, but on the Risk map, it was the entire Far East right up to the Bering strait. And if one noticed, there was the bridge to Alaska. Four volcanoes? Hope that nobody lives nearby!
4. Re:Risk by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 05:50 · Score: 0
  
  Me, too. Wasn't disappointed though. I think for most of us they could have put Kamchatka anywhere on the board and we would envision the volcanoes there now. It's amazing how much geography we absorbed from that game.
How the heck is the camera mounted ? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 03:39 · Score: 4, Insightful

In that 360-degree video, how on earth is the camera mounted to the helicopter ?
1. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by halltk1983 · 2013-02-01 03:46 · Score: 1
  
  Strap a google maps car to the bottom.
  
  --
  Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
2. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 05:01 · Score: 0
  
  The guy is holding it on a stick out the window. You can see the shadow.
3. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 05:52 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The camera mount is visible in the first, second and last segments if you look into the window where the photographer is closest to the camera, and its also visible from the shadow in the third segment. You can also see him winding in the camera at the very end.
  The camera(s) in use likely have overlapping fields of view that allow for the mount itself to be eliminated from the picture. Couple that with what looks like a smudgy part of the opened window / door through which the camera is sticking out (right in front of the handle) and you've got your pole mounted camera sticking out with the tripod itself simply masked out.
4. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by Anne_Nonymous · 2013-02-01 06:29 · Score: 1
  
  Dunno, but stuff like this always makes me wish I'd spent more than $9.95 on my video card.
5. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 06:38 · Score: 0
  
  it is clearly hard mounted, not handheld.
6. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by mybecq · 2013-02-01 07:26 · Score: 1
  
  Since there is no single lens that can capture a 360-degree view, obviously they are using multiple cameras. When you composite the final video, the view of the arm is obviously replaced by the same area, but from a different camera.
  Does it bother you also that the ends of some of the rotor blades are not attached?
7. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by icebike · 2013-02-01 08:36 · Score: 1
  
  Couple that with what looks like a smudgy part of the opened window / door through which the camera is sticking out (right in front of the handle) and you've got your pole mounted camera sticking out with the tripod itself simply masked out.
  Yup, and there is a reflection in the window just aft of that smudge. Then, at about 1:30 the sunlight comes from the left rear of the chopper and the poll casts a shadow on the pilots window.
  The little box below the pilots side window looks like a transceiver for camera management.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
8. Re:How the heck is the camera mounted ? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 16:30 · Score: 0
  
  Then why does the view move at the end of one of the scenes?
Flash by Skapare · 2013-02-01 03:40 · Score: 2

I can do panoramas w/o Flash. OK, so I use Javascript.

--
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
1. Re:Flash by oodaloop · 2013-02-01 04:09 · Score: 1
  
  Good luck doing a panorama in low light conditions without a flash.
  
  --
  Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
2. Re:Flash by wonkey_monkey · 2013-02-01 04:34 · Score: 1
  
  Good luck doing one with a flash. The lighting would be completely mis-matched when it came to stitching. Tripod and long exposures - done.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Open Door Policy by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 03:41 · Score: 0

Is it a good idea to fly around an active volcanoe with the helicopter door open? Aren't there generally toxic gases about?
1. Re:Open Door Policy by CanHasDIY · 2013-02-01 03:52 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Is it a good idea to fly around an active volcanoe with the helicopter door open? Aren't there generally toxic gases about?
  Well, it is Russia.
  They're probably safer having the window open; those potato-and-vodka farts can be pretty damn toxic themselves.
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
2. Re:Open Door Policy by Forty+Two+Tenfold · 2013-02-01 04:10 · Score: 2
  
  potato-and-vodka farts can be pretty damn toxic themselves.
  Sorry, carbohydrates and ethanol don't produce highly toxic fumes. Proteins do. Very little in potatoes. None in vodka.
  
  --
  Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
3. Re:Open Door Policy by CanHasDIY · 2013-02-01 04:18 · Score: 2
  
  To paraphrase Emperor Palpatine, I find your lack of humor disturbing.
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
4. Re:Open Door Policy by Strider- · 2013-02-01 04:30 · Score: 1
  
  Eh... we flew around Baghdad with the doors open... Acute airborne lead poisoning is pretty dangerous too... ;)
  
  --
  ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
5. Re:Open Door Policy by Technician · 2013-02-01 04:38 · Score: 1
  
  All I can figure is the camera is mounted on the other side of the big plexiglass ball the chopper is inside to keep ash and stuff out of the turbine engine.. ;-)
  
  --
  The truth shall set you free!
6. Re:Open Door Policy by Alain+Williams · 2013-02-01 05:08 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I was more worried about the silicates that could get into the engine. Do you remember what happened when the volcano in Iceland blew up a few years ago? -- the one with the impossible name.
7. Re:Open Door Policy by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 06:10 · Score: 0
  
  You fucked that up too - you were paraphrasing Vader not the Emperor.
8. Re:Open Door Policy by mbone · 2013-02-01 06:59 · Score: 1
  
  I've done it in Hawaii - it's quite routine on the volcano overflights. I think that the pilot generally has a good idea of where the bad stuff might be. Of course, if he doesn't, you would probably be in deep trouble even with the doors closed.
9. Re:Open Door Policy by terjeber · 2013-02-01 08:18 · Score: 2
  
  I would not worry as much about toxic gasses as I would about the general stability of air in a cold climate with insane amounts of heat being pumped into the air. Helicopters are not the most stable and safe things when air gets very turbulent.
10. Re:Open Door Policy by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 15:08 · Score: 0
  
  It's probably not as bad as flying over Beijing has been lately.
11. Re:Open Door Policy by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-04 02:57 · Score: 0
  
  Not all volcanoes are the same. The type of volcano depends on the viscosity of the magma under the surface. Locations like Iceland and Mt. Saint Helens have very high viscosity magma. In Mt. Saint Helen's case, it is high almost to the point of being like glass. Locations like these volcanoes in Kamchatka and Hawaii have very low viscosity magma. When you have high viscosity magma, the pressure builds up and is not released quickly because the high viscosity magma can't just ooze, flow, or spray out of the volcano like low viscosity can. In these locations an eruption is extremely dangerous because the pressure is released all at once usually blowing the top off the volcano and releasing large amounts of ash and debris into the atmosphere. In these cases thing explosion. With low viscosity, the magma releases the pressure by flowing out of the ground and becoming lava. When low viscosity volcanoes like these are erupting, it is not as violent and it doesn't really release lots of ash and such into the atmosphere. What you see is smoke and gasses and at the altitude the helicopter is flying, there is no danger. You would need to be directly over the eruption and have some of the lava spray hit the helicopter for there to be a problem. Think about the photos that you've seen of volcanoes erupting on Hawaii.
Dumb place to mount the camera by Picass0 · 2013-02-01 03:44 · Score: 3, Insightful

There's some type of long armature and a camera mount. The problem is the helicopter is taking up a large portion of the 360 view. They should have placed a mount under the copter instead, preferably one that could be extended during flight.
1. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by rtkluttz · 2013-02-01 03:53 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I think he means that he probably knows that it IS mounted. But you should SEE the arm in the video but don't. I had the same question myself.
  
  --
  Digital is, by definition, imperfect. Analog is the way to go.
2. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by ColdWetDog · 2013-02-01 04:13 · Score: 1
  
  I'm wondering if the helicopter is just CG'd in. I certainly wouldn't have done it that way - I'd stick the camera on the bottom of the chopper - who wants to stare are the pilots?
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
3. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by h4rr4r · 2013-02-01 04:14 · Score: 2
  
  Why not point it out the door and rotate the chopper?
4. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by wonkey_monkey · 2013-02-01 04:34 · Score: 1
  
  I'm going to assume you're not making a joke, and that perhaps you haven't checked out the link - it's a full 360 degree video taken in-flight, not a still.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
5. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by Skiron · 2013-02-01 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  I thought that, but you watch the video, the pilots move in real time. So that means somehow the 'copter was filmed (cgi'ed?) in real time too. Bloody clever - and the stills design page is excellent too. This is great coverage, and the correct way to use advanced techniques for only the objective of reporting news.
6. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by sabt-pestnu · 2013-02-01 04:51 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Probably for the same reason they don't simply hold the camera and chopper in place and rotate the world. It takes more effort to rotate the chopper, or even the camera. And even if you went to the effort, it would be incredibly difficult to rotate the chopper around the camera while moving in any direction, and harder still (because you are, after all, subject to air movement) to keep the image steady. And finally, even if you did all of the above, there are limits to how fast you can rotate a chopper.
  Instead, a common solution is to have a lens that provides a 360 degree view, with various degrees of distortion. (Panomorphic lenses) Note that in many cases it is 360 degrees around a single axis, with only a limited field of view along the other axes. Some variations use mirrors, others appear to be extreme versions of the fish-eye lens. (Example.)
  Another solution appears to be having either a reflector or the camera itself rotate, stitching the continuous stream of images into a series of 360 degree images. ( Android phone example, mirror rotation example)
  And yet a third solution is to simply have cameras pointed in every direction at once. (Example)
7. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by mbone · 2013-02-01 06:56 · Score: 1
  
  Use the cursor arrows, Luke.
8. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by Picass0 · 2013-02-01 07:09 · Score: 1
  
  Why should the pilot be resonsible for the quality of the camera shot when a motorized mount can do the job with the push of a few buttons?
9. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 08:06 · Score: 0
  
  Easier to mount a 360 degree rig on a boom than under a landing box where it could get crushed.
10. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 08:18 · Score: 0
  
  Probably for the same reason they don't simply hold the camera and chopper in place and rotate the world.
  Oh, but they do. It's just that the helicopter doesn't have 24 hours worth of fuel.
11. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by icebike · 2013-02-01 08:28 · Score: 2
  
  I'm wondering if the helicopter is just CG'd in. I certainly wouldn't have done it that way - I'd stick the camera on the bottom of the chopper - who wants to stare are the pilots?
  It would be easier to CG out the mounting arm. (Google does this with Streetview, but they aren't trying too hard, and it doesn't look anywhere near as clean.).
  If you look at the chopper,, such that you are looking backward along the left side, and zoom out (mouse wheel) you will see an artifact of a gray line, Upper Right corner, which changes angle occasionally, but is always there. Swing the video to look forward, and that artifact changes sides. (appears in Upper Left).
  At around 2:33 the segment shows sunlight on the left side of the chopper, and a horizontal shadow of a pole is cast across the pilots windshield and door.
  Between the first segment (up to 1:39) they appear to be taking images or telemetry in thru the third round window from the front. After that point in time, the perspective changes and they appear to be taking in images thru the door way. It appears that the camera position changes here as well.
  An access port below the letter M also is left open for sequences after 1:40. Either sloppy pre-flight inspection or it was needed for power when the camera position changed.
  
  --
  Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
12. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by jalet · 2013-02-01 10:23 · Score: 0
  
  > who wants to stare are the pilots?
  Hmmm... well... In Soviet Russia, the government stares at You !
  It was easy.
  
  --
  Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
13. Re:Dumb place to mount the camera by guspasho · 2013-02-04 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  No shit it's a dumb place. The least they could have done was turn the camera away from the chopper. It's so incredibly annoying and such a waste that when I should have been enjoying the wonderful panorama of four simultaneously erupting volcanoes I instead spent all that time listening to helicopter blades and staring at the helicoptor, trying to figure out how the camera was mounted. Why?
Kick-ass technology by RogueWarrior65 · 2013-02-01 03:46 · Score: 4, Interesting

I would pay money to have this camera rig on every KCAL 9 high speed chase video feed.
In Soviet Russia... by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2013-02-01 04:14 · Score: 1

Oh crap.

--
#DeleteChrome
1. Re:In Soviet Russia... by Megane · 2013-02-01 05:26 · Score: 1
  
  Volcano erupt YOU! And lava is red for glory of mother Russia!
  
  --
  #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Climate effect? by dorpus · 2013-02-01 04:26 · Score: 0

Will the temperature drop from having that many volcanoes erupt simultaneously?
1. Re:Climate effect? by DaMattster · 2013-02-01 06:43 · Score: 1
  
  Will the temperature drop from having that many volcanoes erupt simultaneously?
  I asked myself the same thing since historically large eruptions were followed by global cooling. However, we have an interesting new variable: the axis of the earth has changed significantly since the earthquake off of the Japanese coast in 2011. I vaguely remember an article that the earth's access shifted a fraction of a degree. I guess we shall have to see how this plays out.
2. Re:Climate effect? by mbone · 2013-02-01 06:49 · Score: 2
  
  Depends on how much ash and Sulfur they put high up in the stratosphere.
  Now, if this is the beginning of an eruption akin to the Siberian Traps, all bets are off. You may not see the Sun for a few years.
3. Re:Climate effect? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 15:20 · Score: 0
  
  I don't think even the four of them taken together is enough to have much effect. They're probably not more than a VEI 3 eruption. Pinatubo in 1991, which had a noticeable effect on climate, was a VEI 6, one thousand times bigger than a VEI 3.
Video Looks Fake by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 04:31 · Score: 0

It just does . . .
wow, a levitating camera! by 1800maxim · 2013-02-01 04:32 · Score: 1

that is all.
Priorities by wonkey_monkey · 2013-02-01 04:35 · Score: 4, Funny

Is it bad that all I'm wondering about when I watch the video is how they made the camera's mount invisible?

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
1. Re:Priorities by filthpickle · 2013-02-01 06:12 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  not nearly as bad as me wondering why they filmed the helicopter and not the volcanoes for around 2 minutes before I realized you can move the camera.
  
  Computers are my forte.
2. Re:Priorities by mbone · 2013-02-01 07:01 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, me too. I was wondering what was so cool about a close up of a MI-8.
Important advice for anyone in the area by dkleinsc · 2013-02-01 04:41 · Score: 1

"If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because man, they're gone."
-Jack Handey

--
I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
Forget the volcanoes by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 04:53 · Score: 0

I want to know how you take 360Deg video !
Invert the Y axis!!! by aapold · 2013-02-01 05:09 · Score: 1

I can understand (though still loathe) people who leave the y axis normal for an FPS. But this is in a flying mount, there is no exuse for the Y axis not being the way it was meant to be...

Apart from that very cool video.

--
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
quartet of volcanos, so: by cellocgw · 2013-02-01 05:09 · Score: 1

Which one is the viola?

--
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Its a trap! by gmuslera · 2013-02-01 05:19 · Score: 1

How close are them from the ones that started some trouble like 250M years ago?
1. Re:Its a trap! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 08:24 · Score: 1
  
  Hot spots are staying put below moving plates. The Eurasian continent has moved about 2500km during 250M years and the Kamchatka is about that distance from the Siberian Traps, so it could be a related eruption.
  Now we need to wait for 250M years for the next super continent to have the life wiped out from the inlands.
Anyone seen Frodo? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 05:24 · Score: 0

Did the fellowship of the ring make it there, or have they missed another chance to start an age of world peace?
River of lava by Walter+White · 2013-02-01 05:42 · Score: 1

That looked like one long river of lava!
Same old, same old by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2013-02-01 06:16 · Score: 1

Does that surprise you? They're Russians. Nothing is too big for them. They're just showing off again. Must be some election campaign or something.

--
Ezekiel 23:20
Greenhouse gasses by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 07:41 · Score: 0

So, how much have these eruptions contributed to the greenhouse gasses, and who is going to fine them for exceeding their quota?
1. Re:Greenhouse gasses by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 07:52 · Score: 0
  
  Yeahhh!!! where is the Hybrid version of that.
2. Re:Greenhouse gasses by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 15:25 · Score: 0
  
  All of the volcanoes that erupt around the world release only about 1% of what human CO2 emissions are. Even the largest eruption in the past century, Pinatubo in 1991 only raised that by 1% or 2%.
Okay... by MarkusH · 2013-02-01 10:06 · Score: 1

Who's Performing the great ghost dance in Russia?
Four at once by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 12:54 · Score: 0

You know what I'd do if I had a million dollars?
Four volcanoes at once, dude. Four volcanoes at once.
In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-01 13:32 · Score: 0

In Soviet Russia, standing today,
Czar Vladimir Putin sits on the throne,
An ex-KGB man, seeking a way
To re-establish the Soviet Zone.
[...]
As American Eagle folded his wings
The Bear dug in deeply under the soil
And there he found so many great things
To fund him - gold, gas, and oil!
As Bush flopped his landing
In that 'ol Persian Gulf,
Gazprom was expanding,
Ukraine to engulf.
As Obama's campaigned
On the slogan of "change",
A puppet in Kremlin
Made a timely exchange.
[...]
Kamchatka's lava flows red,
Polish Lava flows blue,
And all in between them
Putin's power is true.
--libman