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Galapagos Island Volcano Erupts After 33 Years, Threatening Fragile Ecosystem

Posted by samzenpus on from the when-the-volcano-blows dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Wolf volcano in the Galapagos islands has erupted for the first time in more than 30 years, sending lava flowing down its slopes and potentially threatening the world's only colony of pink iguanas. The Galapagos National Park says that currently there is no risk to tourism operations, but the Environment Ministry is notifying tourist operators to take precautions. A tourist boat passing by took an amazing picture of the eruption.

24 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. A link to a broken facebook page.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Doesn't this place have editors?

  2. Photo? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a freakin' volcano erupting and all we get is a Reuters article without any photo and a link to lame-ass Facebook which doesn't even work?

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    1. Re:Photo? by jklovanc · · Score: 2

      Found the problem, you have to be logged in to Facebook to see it. Or you could Google it.

    2. Re:Photo? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      Same here. Facebook is not the Web. Requiring someone to be on Facebook to access your content is just stupid.

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    3. Re:Photo? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It seems the problem is that I don't have a Facebook account. If you call that a problem.

      Shame on samzenpus for thinking everyone is a lemming, especially on Slashdot.

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    4. Re:Photo? by Cederic · · Score: 2

      I'm just confused about people deep-linking walled off content. It's fucking pointless. It's a bit like me offering you this awesome picture of Mel Gibson riding a motorbike with a chipmunk balanced on the handlebars:
      file:///home/cederic/pictures/awesome/mel/motorbike-chipmunk.png

      Awesome, isn't it?

  3. Seems to me that the volcano... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    would be PART of the ecosystem, no?

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  4. Tourism by Livius · · Score: 3, Funny

    Good to know that the exceedingly wealthy will not be suffering from slight inconvenience. And to think I was worried about the possible loss of irreplaceable ecological assets...

    1. Re:Tourism by Livius · · Score: 2

      I know it seems like tourists are an infinitely-renewable resource, but how can we be sure?

  5. Working links with pictures by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://phys.org/news/2015-05-p...

    https://volcanocafe.wordpress....

    http://www.volcanodiscovery.co...

    http://www.andes.info.ec/en/et...

    1. Re:Working links with pictures by bobstreo · · Score: 3

      You're welcome. I was irked everyone was complaining about the submission, and I wanted to see pictures. I enjoy volcano pictures and
      videos. From a safe distance.

    2. Re:Working links with pictures by pjt33 · · Score: 5, Informative

      FWIW, the Spanish-language version of the last link has much better pictures than the English-language version.

  6. White Man's Fault by pubwvj · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly this is a manmade disaster caused by White American Republican Males. They should stop volcanoing!

    1. Re:White Man's Fault by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

      If you think about it it only makes sense that fracking in America creates underground pressures which *must* force volcanos to erupt worldwide to alleviate the pressure. Frackers Drilled, Volcanoes Killed!

      Look for my paper on this in Science next month. It contains MANY data points which took me ages to fabri---er, collect.

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  7. Why would I want a Facebook account? by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Found the problem, you have to be logged in to Facebook to see it.

    And why on earth would I want to do that? Facebook has nothing of value to offer me that I care about and I sure as hell do not trust the company. I do not have a Facebook account and don't expect to get one any time soon. I'm certainly not going to sign up to get some random news article that undoubtedly will be available elsewhere.

    1. Re:Why would I want a Facebook account? by Dog-Cow · · Score: 2

      You are incredibly self-absorbed if you think anyone other than the slash-shit echo chamber cares the slightest whether you would ever sign in to FB. It's not like it's an achievement worth crowing about. There are thousands, if not millions, of sites with sign-ins that I haven't signed up for. No one in the world, including my wife and daughter, give even the slightest shit.

      Basically, you're so wrapped up in yourself you firmly believe in the sjbe-centric model of the Universe. Too fucking many "good effort" gold stars when you were in Kindergarten.

    2. Re:Why would I want a Facebook account? by Rakarra · · Score: 2

      You are incredibly self-absorbed if you think anyone other than the slash-shit echo chamber cares the slightest whether you would ever sign in to FB

      So basically everyone on the planet should trust their private information to an untrustworthy data-mining company. And we're just supposed to... all be fine with this and hope that it works out?

  8. You realize... by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...if humans save these pink iguanas, we are interfering with nature. Can't have it both ways, by saying our actions that make stuff go extinct is bad, and actions by nature that makes stuff go extinct is bad, too.

    1. Re:You realize... by vux984 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...if humans save these pink iguanas, we are interfering with nature.

      Yes. And?

      Can't have it both ways, by saying our actions that make stuff go extinct is bad, and actions by nature that makes stuff go extinct is bad, too.

      Can't have what both ways? The premise is that things going extinct is universally bad. Yes, even when its entirely due to natural causes its still in our bests interests to preserve it. Biodiversity is objectively valuable; because we can learn from it.

      Letting a species go extinct is like shredding the last copy of a book. The more interesting and unique the species the greater the loss to science.

      Finally, and perhaps tangentially, its also rational to put higher value on the larger / famous species -- the extinction of some obscure spider or toad is perhaps just as much a loss as the extinction of tigers scientifically. But tigers are culturally significant in addition to being scientifically significant. So the extra awareness and priority to them is warranted.

    2. Re:You realize... by GrahamCox · · Score: 2

      The premise is that things going extinct is universally bad

      Says who? You realise that >99% of species that have ever lived are extinct? Of course it seems sad when a species goes extinct, especially as it's often because of unnecessary predation by humans (e.g. elephants, rhinos), so let's concentrate on stopping our own species being such arseholes. However, in general extinction is totally natural, and as in this (rare) case when it's not our fault at all, then let it be. I suspect that those Iguanas will be perfectly fine if we just leave it alone for a change.

    3. Re:You realize... by Dog-Cow · · Score: 3, Informative

      Perhaps I should have clarified that things going extinct is universally bad for humanity.

      Except that it's not. In the vast majority of cases it's neutral. In some cases it might be good. You have some kind of Greenpeace-like attitude that humanity == bad, every other species == good. That's not how the Universe works.

  9. Re:Earth-made Global Warming Baloney by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Funny

    Didn't you hear? The Fracking in the US caused the Volcano to erupt.

  10. Got a bit of irony on you by sjbe · · Score: 2

    You are incredibly self-absorbed if you think anyone other than the slash-shit echo chamber cares the slightest whether you would ever sign in to FB.

    Apparently you care since you got all worked up about it here in the "slash-shit echo chamber". Little bit of irony there that seems to have escaped your notice. You also apparently are unable to comprehend that my point was in regards to the annoying assumption that everyone has a facebook account. I use myself as an example but I'm hardly the only one. I would make the exact same point about a NYT paywall link although to be honest I trust the NYT far more than I ever would trust facebook.

  11. Re:Incorrect by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 2

    My point is that the characterization of a potential eruption as a "threat" to the ecosystem ignores the simple fact that the source of the "threat" is as natural a part of the ecosystem as the plants and animals that are being "threatened".

    The species plants and animals that are living there have evolved in that place WITH the local geology. Periodic volcanic eruptions are an intrinsic PART of that particular ecosystem. The fact that the plants and animals are still there after untold numbers of past eruptions says something about how nature tends to shrug off these kinds of "threats".

    It seems to me that using the word "threat" here is misplaced. This isn't something coming from outside this area to have a negative impact like your asteroid or some external pollution source. Yes, the eruption might very well change the biodiversity of the area in the short term. But such change itself is an intrinsic part of nature. It only seems to be considered as a bad thing by humans because some species of "cuddly animals" may be impacted.

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