Nov 19th, 2009 at 5:00PM: If you've ever seen a lava flow, you know that once the stuff cools and hardens, it's hard to move. In the Congo, this has created a big problem at the airport in Goma. Back in 2002, when the Nyiragongo Volcano erupted, lava flowed onto the runway, thus shortening it. A shorter runway does not sound good. It's not.
Today, this was proved true once more when an airplane flying from Kinshasa to ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Volcanoes posts
Another plane mishap in Africa. This time lava is the problem
Nov 19th, 2009 at 5:00PM: If you've ever seen a lava flow, you know that once the stuff cools and hardens, it's hard to move. In the Congo, this has created a big problem at the airport in Goma. Back in 2002, when the Nyiragongo Volcano erupted, lava flowed onto the runway, thus shortening it. A shorter runway does not sound good. It's not.
Today, this was proved true once more when an airplane flying from Kinshasa to ...Top 7 adventure activities near Arenal, Costa Rica
Nov 10th, 2009 at 11:30AM:
For travelers in search of a little adrenaline, the Arenal region of Costa Rica serves up adventure any way you like it.
The area around the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica, about 80 miles north of San Jose in the center of the narrow country, is known as the adventure capital of Costa Rica. With a diverse landscape that features erupting volcanoes, rainforests full of life, and cascading ...Tips for traveling to Costa Rica (or anywhere) in rainy season
Sep 23rd, 2009 at 9:00AM:
When I heard that flights from Chicago to San Jose, Costa Rica were going for just $260 per person this Fall, I immediately called my husband and asked if we could go for Labor Day weekend. Despite the fact that neither of us has ever expressed a burning desire to go to Costa Rica, he agreed. What can I say - we're suckers for a deal.
We knew that prices were so low for a reason. May to ...Top 10 national parks, thanks to TripAdvisor
Jun 6th, 2009 at 12:00PM: More than 3,000 TripAdvisor readers in the United States have selected the top 10 national parks. Big shock: nine out of 10 are out west. Only Maine made it onto the list. But, let's face it – if you want big, impressive national parks, you have leave the East Coast.
These readers are definitely interested in the national park scene. More than 70 percent plan to visit one this year, up ...Costa Rican rooms have volcano view at a bargain
Mar 7th, 2009 at 2:00PM: How many hotels give you a great shot of one of the 10 most active volcanoes in the world? Shoot down to Arenal, Costa Rica for a few days, and you'll see it first hand from your room at the Lost Iguana Resort & Spa. This top-shelf property has only 42 rooms right in the rainforest. You'll be surrounded by trees that have more than three centuries behind them, and the hiking trails through the ...12 Amazing Crater Lakes
Feb 11th, 2009 at 9:00AM: Environmental Graffiti, the same website that brought us those amazing views from the tops of the Seven Summits last week, returns with even more great images. The subject of their latest story is the 12 Most Incredible Crater Lakes on Earth. These amazing natural wonders are created not from the impact of a meteorite, but instead they are formed when the collapsed cone of a volcano fills up with ...Herculaneum on display in Italy
Dec 21st, 2008 at 5:00PM: I can still picture the Time Life book photograph of a child turned into stone from the eruption of Vesuvius. It was one of those elementary school images that captured my attention and hasn't let go.
Okay, I think it was a Time Life book and I think the photo was a child, but for sure that eruption in Pompeii centuries before I hit 2nd grade has had the power to show just how fragile we are ...An artificial beach 300 meters from the real thing
Nov 18th, 2008 at 8:30PM: There's an absolutely amazing beach in Japan, filled with white sand, blue water, and a lapping wave. But this beach did not exist before 1993. It's known as the Ocean Dome, the most popular artificial beach in an arena that's quickly becoming fashionable. There's now artificial beaches in Monaco, Paris, Rotterdam, Toronto, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The heated beach can accommodate 10,000 ...Krakatau Journal: An island paradise that can kill you (part 2)
Sep 2nd, 2008 at 9:00AM: In the past few years, Anak has been back in the spotlight-quite literally. German and Indonesian volcanologists rigged the island in 2005 with three remote monitoring stations, each capturing a dizzying array of data-meteorological, chemical, seismic-that are recorded 24/7. The raw numbers have been broadcasted online in real-time, including a video feed. And in 2003, Krakatoa: The Day the World ...Krakatau Journal: An island paradise that can kill you
Sep 1st, 2008 at 10:00AM: In 1883, a volcano off the coast of Indonesia erupted, setting off a mega-tsunami that killed some 36,000 nearby villagers almost instantly. But halfway around the world, in places like western Africa and the UK, subtle changes were noticed. The skies turned an ominous red (see the famous Scream portrait, supposedly inspired by this eruption). The tides became erratic. People thought it was the ...The World's Top 10 Volcanoes
Aug 31st, 2007 at 2:49PM: When I was 21, I spent one hot, sweaty day hiking over loosely-packed to shale to arrive at our destination: the peak of the Volcano on the island of Santorini in Greece. I had envisioned the volcanoes from the movies -- steaming, black and full of red-hot molten lava, but this just looked like a large pile of rocks with a crater in the middle. I mean, it's pretty obvious that hiking up an active ...
