Benji, the computer entity, was guiding the exploration of Saturn’s moons by Capt. Marcos and his team of spatons (space robots) with his space ship ‘Napolean.’

Napoleon was roving about ‘Find 68’ mapping the region for radio activity carefully. It was not long before Capt. Marco sent message to Benji that the radio active (RA) source pinpointed to what looked like a bundle of Chinese noodles floating the outermost orbit of Saturn’s moons. Their bundle appeared to be 1kilometer wide and about 5 kilometers long. It consisted of long strands of wire bundled together. It was in the same orbit as ‘Rhea’ a known moon of Saturn. A little calculation showed that the bundle of rods was trailing Rhea by 60 degrees in its orbit. It seemed to have been caught in the L5 Lagrange point of Rhea and was its trojan. It was 527,000 km from Saturn and its orbit time was almost exactly 100 Earth hours. The unusual mass seemed to have come from outer space and caught in orbit by Saturn’s gravity and Rhea’s pull without any impact.

As the ship went nearer, Capt. Marco saw that the wiry rods, and said, “Each wire-like rod is cylindrical with a shiny silvery surface.” The ship went closer. He observed, “It looks like a kind of pure metal, but the radio activity is very high. Each strand is about 1 meter in diameter and 50-100 m long. There are hundreds of them tangled together.”

“Send a Spaton down to the rod and take a sample of the material for analysis”, Benji ordered.

Capt. Marco sent down a Spaton who touched the rod with its newly developed ‘claws’ and held firmly on to the surface. He took a shaving of the material and returned to the ship. Capt. Marco put the sample in the analyzer and sent the data down to Earth for Benji. Benji forwarded the data from the material to a specialized lab which identified it as Plutonium. Further analysis and research showed it to be Plutonium 244. The lab sent the analysis report with a short note to Benji. ‘On Earth Plutonium is not found in nature. It is a byproduct in the atomic reactor. It gets made from Uranium 238. When an atom of U-238 is exposed to neutron radiation, its nucleus captures a neutron, changing it to U-239. The U-239 rapidly undergoes beta decay to produce Neptunium-239, which rapidly undergoes second beta decay, producing Plutonium-239. A part of it gets converted to Plutonium 240 in the process, but not to Plutonium 244. Plutonium 239 is a very valuable material. Just 15 kg is enough to make a nuclear bomb. The total quantity of Plutonium 239 in the whole world, stockpiled by nuclear countries was only about 1000 tons!’

Kalpa was the first to speak out. “It is pure Plutonium 244. It’s only 2% spent, indicating that it might have come there about 3 million years ago. The 244 isotope is not made on Earth. It has a half life of 83 million years, much longer than the 24,000 years of Plutonium 239. The longer the half life, the better it is for making nuclear weapons. The contaminant of Plutonium 239 on Earth is Plutonium 240 which has a half life of only 6,500 years. There is no contamination of Plutonium 240 in our Plutonium 244. But we must understand why the mass has not exploded by itself. The critical mass for spontaneous explosion of an unreflecting sphere of pure Plutonium 239 is only 16 kg. Since the density of our Plutonium 244 is the same as Plutonium 239, i.e. 19.8 g/ml, the critical mass must be about the same, as it is inversely proportional to the square of the density. Here we have thousands of kilos of Plutonium 244 existing without having exploded.”

“What is critical mass?” Alby asked.

“It is the mass beyond which the fission reaction becomes a self sustaining chain reaction, leading to explosion” explained Kalpa.

“But when you talk about kilogram, it’s the weight on Earth. As there is zero gravity on the satellite, the weight of 16 kilograms is not achieved and hence there is no explosion” remarked Alby.

“This time you have spoken like a genius. The critical mass depends on density which is measured in grams per ml. The weight in grams in the orbit is a negligible fraction of that on Earth as there is no gravity. The density therefore is near to zero, and critical mass of Plutonium may be more than tens of thousand times that of Earth, and since the critical mass is not reached in this place, there is no explosion.” Benji concluded.

“But there is gravity on the moon where we want to store it. So we have to make it into pieces sized less than its critical mass for moon’s gravity and keep the pieces apart” added Kalpa.

They gloated over the find. Kalpa continued to voice her thoughts. “It is impossible to make so much quantity of Plutonium 244 on Earth, and of such pure quality. It has remained in space because there was no gravity and no oxygen to oxidize it. All the other isotopes have vanished due to their short half lives. Only Plutonium 244 survived with its half life of 83 million years. Generally in a period of 20 half lives, the trace of the substance vanishes. That is the reason why Plutonium 240 was not found.”

“So we have found Plutonium 244. I concede that it’s a huge find. Now what should we do with it?” asked Benji.

“I think we should mine it there and bring it in pieces to the moon base.” Kalpa said.

“I’ll improve on that. Let’s send in a factory ship and cut it into standard sized bars which are at least one tenth of their critical mass on the moon and pack them separately and then move them to the moon base.” Benji concurred with her, and looked at Albert.

“But the entire mass is more than a million tons. We’ll just guard it there in its place and take what we need,” suggested Albert.

Just what did they do with the Plutonium? Read the book to find out.

The author Dilip Dahanukar studied engineering in India and management in the USA. Dilip Dahanukar has written 2 science fiction books; Alien Man and eMaya. Visit the webpage of the author: ‘Dilip Dahanukar’. He is deeply appreciative of the functioning of the Earth and loves Nature.

The amount of warning time a tsunami warning system can provide depends on the distance between your location and the location of the undersea event. A tsunami can travel 500 to 600 mph in deep water, slowing as it approaches shore. If the undersea earthquake that starts the tsunami is 500 miles offshore in deep water, for example, and the tsunami is headed your way, local authorities will be notified within minutes of the event and will have about one hour to issue the warnings to the public and start announcing directions for evacuation to a safe area.

In doing research for my adventure novel TSUNAMI, I found that in some cases, a local earthquake or undersea landslide close to shore can initiate a tsunami that strikes almost without warning. In 1998, a 7.0 magnitude undersea earthquake near Papua, New Guinea, triggered a massive submarine landslide that started a 50-ft. tsunami close to shore. The wave hit the shoreline within minutes and wiped out several villages along the New Guinea coast, stripping the land almost bare. 2200 people died.

However, most major tsunamis are started by undersea earthquakes in deep water. In the Pacific Ocean, a quake will be picked up by seismometers, pressure sensors, and tidal gauges at the reporting stations of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System operated by 26 nations bordering the Pacific Basin. The collected data registers on the instruments at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. The scientists at the Ewa Beach warning center can then determine the location, earthquake magnitude, tidal variations, and changes in ocean pressure. If readings indicate the disturbance may have started a tsunami, warnings are issued immediately to the areas in danger with approximate arrival time of the first wave.

If an undersea event happens near Alaska or anywhere along the West Coast of the U.S., the instrument signals are picked up by the West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning System headquartered in Palmer, Alaska. There the same procedure is followed. Immediate warnings are issued to local authorities in the areas at risk.

As part of the international tsunami warning network, the United States has recently completed its own U.S. Tsunami Warning System that takes in the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, the West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning System, and the Atlantic Tsunami Warning System. The U.S. system is composed of 39 DART (Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami) and DART II stations. Five stations are located in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico, and the remaining 34 in the Pacific. The DART system is made up of a pressure sensor resting on the ocean bottom that transmits continuous data by acoustic telemetry (sound waves) to a surface buoy anchored near the pressure sensor. The buoy is equipped with satellite link that relays the real time information to tsunami warning centers around the world. Certain fluctuations in ocean bottom pressure can indicate the presence of a tsunami.

Many other kinds of reporting stations and observatories are used in the larger international reporting network. These include pier-based and satellite-based tidal gauges that track the height and length of passing tsunami waves, and seismometers buried in ocean bottom caissons that measure the magnitude of an undersea earthquake and determine its location.

One of the most well known undersea seismometer projects is the Hawaii2 Observatory (H2O) located in deep water between Hawaii and California. The observatory was placed next to a retired undersea AT&T telephone cable so that the cable could be used to power the observatory. The observatory package includes a broadband seismometer, geophone, hydrophone, and pressure sensor developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Hawaii.

The installation was performed by ROVs (remotely operated submarine vehicles) controlled from a mother ship. The ROVs drilled a borehole, sunk a caisson into the hole, then inserted the seismic package into the caisson and sealed it. The seismic package is connected to an adjacent junction box operated with 400 watts of power fed from the old telephone cable. The sensor information is transmitted by fiber optic cable to a relay station on a surface buoy, which sends the data to the internet so that it can be used by tsunami warning centers and by universities and scientific laboratories around the world. The H2O installation has had many problems and has never performed up to expectation. However, the overall tsunami warning system works well. The entire system has undergone successful testing.

If you live on or near the beach and if your local authorities issue a tsunami warning, take it seriously and follow evacuation directions. Do not hang around the shoreline to watch the tsunami. It could cost you your life, because the wave can be up to 100 feet high and moves much faster than a person can run.

Gordon Gumpertz, author of TSUNAMI, is a working novelist who writes suspense-packed adventure novels featuring believable characters caught up in the dynamic forces of natural and man-made disasters. His books achieve a sense of immediacy and realism through extensive background research. For more, visit Tsunami.

It is a matter of record that both President Dryden of the Prudential and President Knapp of the Metropolitan were close students of the Prudential of London. Both went to London and witnessed the functioning of the business at first hand. In fact, Mr. Knapp and the Metropolitan’s Attorney, Stewart L. Woodford, and an expert they took with them, were shown every courtesy. They brought back with them a clear conception of the details of management, and implemented this with a complete file of the forms essential to a business as intricate as industrial insurance.

The records of the company show that the procedures and the forms of the Prudential of London were followed to a large degree, and these undoubtedly contributed to the immediate success of the venture. Of course, important adjustments to American conditions had to be made. There was a fundamental difference, for instance, in the basis on which the reserve liability was computed. To be permitted to transact business in the United States, regardless of whether it is life insurance or cheap car insurance, a company was required to maintain reserves computed on the net premium basis, which made it necessary for American companies to maintain larger reserves than those on similar business in England.

The computation of premiums in the earlier days, before the mortality experience on this class of risks or the expense rate of conducting such business was known, was not easy. It was due to the good sense and skill of James M. Craig, Actuary of the Company, that the business was launched properly and safely. The Metropolitan’s industrial business was begun with the issuance, on November 17, 1879, of 34 Industrial policies for weekly premiums totaling $3.95. Before the end of that year a total of 5,143 policies for $516,618 face amount were on the books, and those at the helm knew that their new venture was meeting a real need. By the end of 1880 the industrial business of the Metropolitan had already out

The Worldwide General News (WGN) TV channel was inundated with questions about the danger from the LHC which was commissioned. They decided to devote their next ‘Space Talk’ program to this subject. For the purpose, they invited Albert Burman and Kalpa, the experts to their Studio.

On the appointed day and hour, Larry Newton the presenter of the show appeared on the screen. “Good Evening viewers. I am happy to welcome our distinguished guests Albert and Kalpa for the show to our studio today. Let me begin with a short introduction about them. Albert and Kalpa are space beings written about in the Science Fiction book ‘Alien Man.’ They have explored the satellites of Saturn and discovered Steel, Gold and Plutonium! Albert and Kalpa share their experiences in space on TV from time to time. They are well known all over the World as Space Celebrities. Welcome to you both!” Larry began the session. He continued after a short pause, “The subject of our discussion is the danger of extinction from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the World’s largest and the most powerful particle accelerator. Our channel has received hundreds of messages mainly about the possibility of the Collider destroying the entire planet by converting it into a black hole. We want our viewers to hear your analysis on this subject.” Larry opened the topic for the day.

“Good Evening Larry. We are happy to be here with you today to enlighten all of you about black holes which might emerge from the LHC. At the outset I want to allay all your fears and assure you all that the LHC functioning will not result in the destruction of our beloved planet Earth.” Albert gave his unconditional assurance to the viewers.

“Albert is absolutely right. All fears that the black hole generated by the Collider will eat up the Earth are based on misinformation and have no scientific foundation.” Kalpa endorsed the assurance given by Albert.

“But the Collider will form the black hole. Isn’t that correct?” Larry asked pointedly.

“We don’t know for sure, the scientists are saying that it is highly improbable. But I sincerely hope that a black hole does form. It will advance our knowledge about the fundamental forces in the Universe.” Said Albert.

“But once the black hole is formed, however minute, it will gobble up matter and grow and grow till the whole Earth becomes a black hole. This is what people fear.” Said Larry.

“This fear has arisen out the simplistic view that the black holes that are formed when a star collapses into a dense ball which pulls everything inside and not even light can escape it. This was the view at the very beginning when scientists discovered the black hole in the Universe. But since then science has progressed further and we now have a far greater understanding of the properties of the black hole. It follows the same basic laws of gravity as other objects in space.” Kalpa put the knowledge of black holes in the right perspective.

“What is the power of its tremendous gravitational pull?” Larry asked.

“The gravitational force that a black hole exerts on another body depends on only 2 factors: mass and distance between them. The more the mass of the black hole the greater is its gravity, and conversely, the smaller is its mass, the smaller is its pull. Similarly, the closer the center-to-center distance between the black hole and the object, the stronger is the pull between them. In fact pull increases exponentially as the distance reduces. The actual gravitation attraction between the 2 bodies is dependent on the product of their masses, and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.” Kalpa explained the basic theory.

“The black Hole does not have a unilateral force pulling the object. The black hole itself can be pulled by the gravity of other more massive objects. In the case of the LHC, if the black hole is formed, it will be hardly be made of 100 protons and will be very small indeed. In absolute terms is that the mass of the black hole will be one hundred times the mass of a single proton, about 100 x 16 E-26 kg. If you divide 1 kg. into 10 raised to 26 parts (1 followed by 26 zeros) and take just 16 of them you will get the mass of the black hole. As against that, the mass of the Earth is 6 E24 kg, which means 6 followed by 24 zeros, in kg units. This shows that the Earth is so much larger than the incumbent black hole by a factor of 10 raised to 50! (1 followed by 50 zeros). The difference is stupendous! The small mass of the black hole is truly insignificant as compared to Earth, and consequently it will be pulled by the Earth rather than vice-a-versa.” Albert explained the relative size of the black hole.

“But since it is a black hole, its size will be less than a millionth of that of the 100 protons! It’s so small that it can penetrate everything and anything. It will be pulled by Earth’s gravity and will travel through to the Earth accelerating with its gravity till it reaches the centre of the Earth and the decelerating as it goes out on the other side, to be pulled back in again. It will swing back and forth like a pendulum!” explained Albert.

“No hope of that! The black hole will just evaporate in a fraction of a nanosecond! Stephan Hawkings of the Cambridge University says that the black hole creates new energy particles on its surface which escape. This results in shrinking the black hole. He calls it ‘evaporation.’ He says the smaller the black hole the hotter it is and the faster is the rate of evaporation! I do not know why he looks at the black hole as a liquid which evaporates. I would rather look at the black hole as a solid which sublimes. But no matter how you describe it, the fact is that a small black hole of a few protons mass will evaporate and disappear faster than we can measure the time!” Kalpa explained why the black hole will not last.

“A black hole is made of very dense matter. Our Sun for instance, with its diameter of 1.4 million kilometers will shrink in size to just about 4 km to convert to a black hole. But its mass will be the same, and its gravity will remain the same. If the Sun becomes a black hole, it will not change any of the orbits of its planets in the Solar System. It will not pull the Earth and gobble it up.” Albert outlined the limitation of the black hole.

“If this is so then why do the scientists describe the black star with as a region of space with tremendous gravity forceful enough to prevent even light from escaping!” asked Larry.

“This is because for a given mass, an object can go much closer to the centre of the black hole than a star or a planet of the same mass. For example the radius of the sun is about 700,000 km. An object close to the Sun is stopped by its surface which is 700,000 km from its centre. But if the Sun converts itself to a black hole of 4km diameter, an object can go as near as 2km. from its centre. Since the distance from such a heavy mass is now reduced so drastically, that the gravity just near the centre increases by 700,000 x 700,000 = 490 billion times! But the effect of this incredible gravity is felt only in a region very close to the black hole. Such close distances are not achieved in a normal object like a star or a planet due to limitations of its comparatively large size. The difference in gravity vanishes as the object moves beyond a certain distance. Further away from a distance equal to the radius of normal star of the same mass, there is no difference in the gravity of the black hole and the star.” Kalpa was clear in her thinking.

“What you are saying is that the black hole can only stop light in a certain range beyond which it has no effect.” Larry summarized.

“That is correct. If the black holes could suck everything from everywhere, and prevent light from transmission, how could see the billions of stars in the sky? Their light could have vanished in the black holes!” said Albert.

“In the case of our LHC, the black hole generated will be of the size of about 100 protons. The protons will form into a ball and shrink about one millionth of their normal size. The diameter of a proton in units of a meter, is 10 raised to minus 15 (1 divided by 10 followed by 15 zeros). The diameter of the black hole is likely to be one ten-thousandth of this value. And the extraordinary gravity that the black hole can exert is only with a range of say 10 raised to minus 18 meter; which is a billion-billionth part of a meter! There is no possibility that any matter in the form of any protons or atomic nuclei coming so close to the minute black hole ball particularly in the extremely short duration of its existence. So for all practical purposes, there is no scope of the black hole expanding if at all it is formed.” Asserted Kalpa.

“There is another argument put forth by Steve Giddings of the University of California (Santa Barbara) and Michelangelo Mangano of LHC’s parent lab CERN. They point out that there are minute black holes being generated by cosmic rays hitting a neutron star, But these microsized black holes do not seem to grow inside the body of the star which is more than a trillion times denser than the rocks on Earth. From the observations made of the cosmos, the scientists infer that as black holes do not exist inside dense stars, they couldn’t exist inside the body of the Earth. And in case the black hole does exist it will probably take a billion years to grow to the size of a golf ball! They conclude therefore that there is no danger of the small black hole from snowballing into an Earth gobbler.” Albert brought out an authority on the subject.

“Anyway, coming back to our topic, whether the LHC will create a black hole which will destroy the Earth, the answer is an unequivocal ‘NO’! The LHC was switched on the 10th September but only for checking the functioning of the beams. There was no collision attempted. Now it is down for repairs and will be ready early in 2009. But rest assured that there is nothing going to happen to the Earth and to you when the LHC is switched on and the particle beams are made to colloid face to face at 99.9999% of the speed of light! No fears!” Albert spoke emphatically as Kalpa nodded in agreement.

“I am happy to hear that. To be frank, I was fretting too. But now I am fully relaxed. I have to thank you Albert and Kalpa for explaining the concept in simple language for the benefit of our viewers. The back office has informed me that their phone is constantly ringing with viewers giving appreciative thanks to you both. Now we can all sleep peacefully. Thank you again.” Larry wound up the discussion.

And with that the Space Talk show ended.

The author Dilip Dahanukar studied engineering in India and management in the USA. Dilip Dahanukar has written 2 science fiction books; Alien Man and eMaya. Visit the webpage of the author: ‘Dilip Dahanukar’. He is deeply appreciative of the functioning of the Earth and loves Nature.

Well, it look likes the folks in the Federal Reserve have pulled it off. Money is once again flooding the markets, and the Dow Jones is responding. The Pound Sterling has fallen in value against the dollar, as has the Euro. All is right with the world.

Or is it? Britain is currently experiencing these hardships because they are a relatively small country compared to the USA. They are also a major financial center that was heavily invested in Credit Default Swaps. The same goes for all the other small, European nations. Internationally, this crisis is like a rock dropped in a pond: The smaller the pond, the faster the ripples reach the edges. While these companies are currently experiencing severe devaluations on their currencies, their decline will be short lived. Both the Pound Sterling and the Euro will make a return to their pre-crisis levels. These countries will also recover more quickly, and adapt in a faster manner.

This cannot be said of the US economy. You’re looking at one of the biggest bodies of water on the face of the earth. The “rock-in-a-pond” metaphor doesn’t work here. We’re looking at a growing economic tsunami, that will only grow in force and size as we move along. While it may take a little longer to hit, when it does, the effects will be felt long term. The US Dollar will be permanently devalued, and the nation as a whole may not recover for a few decades.

“But we’re not in crisis anymore, the Dollar looks strong. It’s the last one standing. All these other currencies are sinking.” I can hear you saying that right now, even as I am typing. You would be wrong. There are a few reasons why we are still in the woods, and most of them have not yet been broadcast to the public at large.

What are they? Let me put forth a scenario, and then see the conclusion that it naturally leads you to. You are not a sub-prime borrower. You received a reasonably good deal on your loan, and you are the member of a healthy, two-earner household. There are two cars that you are making payments on. You also have $10,000 in credit card debt. You are only making your minimum credit card payments. Then something happens….a flat tire, an unexpected dental filling. This leaves the mortgage short. What do you do with the excess? Credit Card. An ill-advised shopping spree. Credit Card. Your credit card is now maxed out. The mortgage is now due. You are late on the CC payment. The interest rate jumps. Your minimums are now higher than you can afford. What do you pay, the mortgage or the credit card bills? You default on the card, because you can’t afford to lose the home or the car.

This is not a great exaggeration of what America finds itself on the brink of right this very minute. People living above their means, without savings, and very little room for error. The Credit Card companies (who also happen to be banks) will be looking at over 118 billion in defaults by the end of the year, and this is only the beginning of the crisis.

In addition, it has now come to light that the Credit Default swaps were not just limited to the home mortgage industry. It seems GMAC(the financing arm for General Motors) and Ford Motor company made up CDS’ for their industries as well. It’s been a rough quarter for the automotive industry as well. Their current customers can’t afford the current payments, which is keeping them from trading in on a newer model. They are struggling to convert their truck and SUV lines into manufacturing for smaller, more fuel efficient cars. In the meantime, they will most likely be taking losses to get rid of their current inventories of trucks and SUV’s. The government has already loaned them $25 Billion to keep them afloat, and it is unclear as to whether or not that will keep the Big 3 solvent. There is most likely another bailout on the way.

Now, with our (up ’til recently) most venerable institutions falling on a regular basis, and people’s 401k’s following suit, everyone is fleeing to government issued treasury bonds. This is where the biggest wave has yet to hit, mainly because of how bonds have been marketed. Our financial advisors have always told us that these were the least risky of any type of investment that could be made. We’ve always been sold on the fact that they were backed up by the US Government, and the government always pays. That was true several years ago, but is not true anymore. Bonds pay out a certain percent per month, week, year, or period of years. Once they mature, you take them out without penalty. You might pay $50 for a bond that would be worth $100 when it hits maturity in 12 years. This works fine, as long as inflation does not outpace the interest being paid on your cash.

Guess what happened? The Fed has now made sure that the bonds you were issued will now be worth far less in the near future. Why? Because they just pumped $700 Billion (some reports say up to $5 trillion) into the economy. Do the math. They manufactured that money from thin air. Now, the current bonds you have in a long term position will have, optimistically, double digit negative growth. People who chose “low risk” on their 401K, and then forgot about it, will wake up with nothing in their accounts. “Low risk” does not equal “no risk”, but that is how it is presented. The Federal Government will have no choice, given current conditions, but to default on their obligations, or print even more money to pay back their debt. Why? Because this is the way we get foreign regimes to finance our national debt, in the Trillions of dollars.

Sooo…we either make China(and the rest of the world) mad….or we print more money. This will create hyper-inflation such as the world has never seen, and an economic tsunami that will cause even deeper pain internationally, as their USD slowly inches closer to the currency equivalent of bonfire fuel.

What is the solution? Well, you either buy gold, silver, land, or other stable assets, or you lose you shirt(and whatever valuation your paper currency has). Pay off your debts, live within your means. In doing so, you may not come out of this any richer, but you can at least keep what you have, and weather the biggest wave we’ve yet to see.

Kurt Hartman is Head of Employee Training at Mobile Fleet Service, Inc, and wishes he had extra money to invest in gold right now. His company sells mining tires and otr tires for the construction and mineral industries.

The Hawaiian Islands would not be here today if it were not for the volcanoes of the mid-Pacific. There would be no Kauai, no Lanai, no Molokai, no Oahu, no Maui, and no Big Island. They were all formed by shield volcanoes fed by a constant flow of magma from a superheated pocket in the lower mantle called a hotspot.

Shield volcanoes fueled by hotspots are different from the stratovolcanoes of the Pacific Rim. The magma pouring into shield volcanoes is mainly basalt, lighter and less viscous than the silica-based magma fueling the Pacific Rim volcanoes produced by the collision of tectonic plates.

The hotspot theory might well be demonstrated by the way in which the Hawaiian Islands were formed. The theory suggests that there is an area in the mid-Pacific hundreds of miles below the ocean floor in the earth’s mantle, called The Hawaiian Hotspot. The hotspot size is estimated at 50 miles in diameter. The temperature in the hotspot is higher than that of the surrounding mantle. This intense heat melts the material from the lower part of the overriding tectonic plate and converts it into magma. The hotspot magma is lighter than the material in the rest of the mantle and rises to the earth’s crust in a narrow stream called a mantle plume. The mantle plume brings magma up to the ocean floor, and a volcanic cone begins to build.

Over time, repeated eruptions produce more and more lava that continue to build the cone higher and higher, until it finally emerges above the surface of the ocean as an island many thousands of years later.

The tectonic plate on which the new Hawaiian island sits is called the Pacific Plate. The Pacific Plate moves over the stationary hotspot in a northwesterly direction at about 1 inch per year. Moving at that rate, it takes several million years for the island to clear the hotspot. Island building progresses during this long period of time, and large islands with tall volcanic mountains are created, as is the case with the island of Maui with its 10,000 ft. Haleakala volcano, and the Big Island of Hawaii with its chain of volcanoes in 13,700 ft. Mauna Kea, 13,600 ft. Mauna Loa, and currently active Kilauea.

Once the moving plate carries an island away from the hotspot plume, the volcanoes on that island go dormant and start to erode, and the plume proceeds to build the next island. Niihau and Kauai, the easternmost islands of the Hawaiian chain, were the first to be built up from the hotspot activity. The Pacific Plate continued its northwesterly movement over the hotspot and the islands of Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Maui were created in succession. The last island over the hotspot is the still volcanically active Big Island of Hawaii.

Just a few miles off the Big Island, a new island is starting to build. It is called Loihi, and has pushed up two miles from the ocean floor, but is still a mile beneath the surface of the ocean. It is estimated that Loihi will appear above the ocean surface in 220,000 years.

One source suggests there are 50 active hotspots throughout the world. Some, such as the Hawaiian Hotspot, lie under oceanic plates, and others under continental plates. Among the volcanic islands created by oceanic hotspots are Iceland, the Azores, the Galapagos, Samoa, the Marquesas Islands, the Society Islands, and Reunion.

The best example of continental plate hotspot activity is Yellowstone National Park. The heart of the park is an active caldera that powers hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots, and geysers such as Old Faithful. The thermal energy derives from a large hotspot underlying the caldera. This same hotspot has produced many other caldera and lava bed areas throughout the western states, as the North American Plate moves southwesterly. The Yellowstone caldera was created by a massive volcanic eruption 600,000 years ago.

In recent years, a number of scientists have challenged the idea of a stationary hotspot and of a mantle plume being the source of hotspot magma. Several other explanations have been put forth. Since hotspots are located deep in the earth’s mantle, no one has ever seen one. Their existence and the way they work can only be assumed.

In contrast to hotspot island building, the big mountain ranges of the Pacific Rim, such as the Cascades in North America and the Andes in South America, were formed by stratovolcanic action, earthquakes, and uplifting of the continental plate boundaries. Earthquakes, stratovolcanoes, and uplifting are products of a process called subduction, in which the oceanic plate slides under, or subducts, the continental plate.

Stratovolcanoes tend to erupt less frequently but far more violently than hotspot volcanoes. Subduction produces magma rich in silica. This heavy and sticky material seals the heat and gasses inside the volcano and permits the pressure to build up over hundreds of years until it finally erupts, sometimes in a devastating blast.

Uplifting can be caused by the fault slippage that produces earthquakes and frees the continental plate to rise, and by the compression of one tectonic plate pushing against another. For millions of years, along the west coast of the U.S., the Pacific Plate has not only been sliding under the North American Plate, but also pressing against it. The compression has been a factor in the uplifting process.

Although most spectacular volcanic blowouts are produced by stratovolcanoes, there have also been some historic hotspot volcano blasts. The Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii had a major blowout in 1790 that killed 80 people.

Any active volcano can be considered a time bomb. There are warning signs such as swarms of tremors that sometimes precede eruptions, but no one really knows in advance exactly when a volcano will blow or how big the eruption will be.

Gordon Gumpertz, author of TSUNAMI, is a working novelist who writes suspense-packed adventure novels featuring believable characters caught up in the dynamic forces of natural and man-made disasters. His books achieve a sense of immediacy and realism through extensive background research. For more, visit Tsunami.

In preparing to write my novel Tsunami, about a fictional undersea volcano on the verge of exploding and sending a monster tsunami smashing into California, I did a great deal of research into the world of natural disasters. I leaned heavily on NOAA, USGS, NASA and dozens of library and university sources for my information. One thing became clear as I dug into the research: tsunamis are not self generating. They are always the product of some other natural event.

Tsunamis are triggered by disturbances on the ocean floor that displace water and upset the equilibrium of the surrounding ocean. Undersea earthquakes, landslides, and erupting volcanoes are the main causes. In deep water, the height of a tsunami wave may be less than 4 feet and hardly noticeable on the surface where normal swells are that large or larger, but the wave length, or the trough between waves in a tsunami train, can be 50 miles or more. Once a tsunami is propagated, the long wave travels at 500 to 600 miles per hour. As the wave nears land and the water shallows, the leading edge slows down and the trailing wave closes the gap and compresses the water into a wave that can build to a height of 100 feet or more as it sweeps ashore. The destructive power of a large tsunami hitting the shoreline is hard to imagine.

Recorded history’s most destructive tsunami occurred on Dec. 26, 2004 in the Indian Ocean. A 9.1 magnitude undersea earthquake off the island of Sumatra created a massive tsunami. Waves 30 to 100 feet high struck Indonesia, Thailand, India, and eight other countries. 225,000 died.

Following the explosion of the Krakatau volcano in 1883, 130-foot waves wiped out whole villages along the coast of Sumatra, killing more than 36,000 people.

A tsunami can travel long distances without significant loss of energy. In 1960, a tsunami started by a 9.5 seafloor earthquake off Chile battered the Chilean coast and then travelled undetected thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, causing death and destruction in Hawaii, Japan, Alaska, and countries as far away as New Zealand.

In 1896, a deep submarine earthquake 200 miles east of Japan triggered a tsunami that sped unobserved toward land, quickly rising to 110 feet as it charged ashore. The fast-moving wave smashed into the village of Sanriku during a Shinto festival that had attracted thousands of people. The tsunami obliterated the village and killed 27,000. The wave had passed undetected under the keels of the fishing boats 20 miles offshore.

In Hilo, Hawaii, in 1946, the harbor, waterfront, and downtown area were destroyed by a 30-foot tsunami, and 159 people died.

Following the 1946 and 1960 tsunamis that devastated Hilo, Hawaii, Japan, and other countries around the Pacific Basin, 26 countries throughout the Pacific region collaborated in the installation of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System. Seafloor seismometers and tidal gauges were installed throughout the Pacific and connected to the System’s operational headquarters in Ewa Beach, near Honolulu. Real time instrument readings locate the place and time of an undersea disturbance capable of starting a tsunami. Immediate warnings are issued to the areas of potential danger. The U.S. West Coast is protected by the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning System headquartered in Palmer, Alaska. Unfortunately, no warning system was installed in the Indian Ocean prior to the December, 2004 tsunami that killed over 200,000 people. None of the countries bordering the Indian Ocean had advance warning of the approaching tsunami.

Even with a warning system in place, tsunamis can still take lives if triggered by undersea disturbances close to shore. In 1992 and 1993 over 2,000 people were killed by tsunamis in Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Japan. In 1998 a series of 50-foot waves caused by an undersea landslide only a few miles offshore washed over a small island near Papua, New Guinea, denuding the island and taking 2,200 lives. The first wave struck within minutes of the undersea event, giving the islanders no chance to prepare.

A tsunami is usually made up of more than one wave. A train of two, three, or four waves can strike land at intervals of 10 to 30 minutes or longer. The first wave is usually not the largest. The second or third wave is often the biggest and most destructive.

Very little is left standing after a large tsunami sweeps ashore. The wave’s power smashes buildings, uproots trees, and sucks everything back out to sea when it recedes. The scene is one of complete devastation. If you live near the ocean, take tsunami warnings seriously. Head inland as directed by local authorities. Do not go to the beach to see what a tsunami looks like. By the time you find out, it will be too late.

Gordon Gumpertz, author of TSUNAMI, is a working novelist who writes suspense-packed adventure novels featuring believable characters caught up in the dynamic forces of natural and man-made disasters. His books achieve a sense of immediacy and realism through extensive background research. For more, visit Tsunami.

While those of us in the US have been distracted with primaries, a general election, and a huge economic crisis, Russia’s been making some moves that are raising flags and eyebrows in the intelligence community. While some people actively scoff when a new cold war is mentioned, the concept is not really that far-fetched. If you don’t believe me, let me explain what they have been up to over the past year.

George Bush always claimed to have a sense of Vladimir Putin’s soul. What he has always failed to understand is that Putin’s heart belongs with the former Communist regime. Putin is a pragmatist, and as such, made “friends” with leaders that would leave him alone, while he pursued the rebuilding of Russia as a military and economic superpower. Once his goals are accomplished, the advice of his more democratically minded “friends” will go unheeded. In fact, it has already taken place.

So what has Mr. Putin been up to? He’s been yucking it up with some of America’s most hated enemies. He’s helping Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran build his first nuclear power plant, along with supplying arms to aid their military. He just signed oil, gas, and nuclear power pact with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. It was Mr. Chavez who recently argued that the USA should ditch their constitution, and draw up a new one based upon Communist principles.

By docking their destroyer “Peter the Great” in the port of Tartus, Syria, Russia has signaled that they are reengaging in the Middle East, and could have a significant impact on peace negotiations(or lack thereof) between Israel and its neighbors. That’s not the only overture they’ve made, however.

Russia has signed arms pacts, and done deals with the following nations over the past year, in full view of the public: Libya, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria, Syria, and several other Middle-Eastern/African nations. Putin has made it clear where his strategic alliances lie, and where his bets on the future are placed. Remember, these are just the public alliances, they don’t include shadowy deals done at midnight by a pier, and as a former member of the KGB, Putin has made plenty of this type of deal as well.

Russia also continues to do arms deals with China. Russia and China are just Siamese twins, two bodies that share the same heart. Neither of them particularly like being told what to do by the UN, much less the USA. They have both taken a more nuanced approach in the diplomatic arena, by ignoring criticisms of political opponents, and focusing on accomplishments that are more palatable to their accusers. Capitalism has kept China from having to answer on human rights violations. Capitalism has kept Putin from having to answer charges of a state-controlled/supported religious system, and the fact that he has a puppet-democracy. That’s also how he managed to skate by on the invasion of Georgia, by-the-by.

So what exactly is going on with Russia? In business terms, they call it “restructuring for the purposes of emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy”. In political terms, it’s called the resurrection of a Soviet Union. The goal is to bring glory and power back to Mother Russia.

So far, Putin has succeeded. The question is, how long before the West raises an objection? My guess is, when they finally do, it will be too late for the rest of the world.

Kurt Hartman is a International Political Junkie. While he loves ruminating on foreign policy, his day job is Head of Web Development for Mobile Fleet Service. They sell OTR Tires , of the type used by heavy equipment, on six of seven continents. Go figure.