Volcanoes

Volcanoes are awesome manifestations of the fiery power contained deep within the Earth. These formations are essentially vents on the Earth's surface where molten rock, debris, and gases from the planet's interior are emitted.When thick magma and large amounts of gas build up under the surface, eruptions can be explosive, expelling lava, rocks and ash into the air. Less gas and more viscous magma usually mean a less dramatic eruption, often causing streams of lava to ooze from the vent.he mountain-like mounds that we associate with volcanoes are what remain after the material spewed during eruptions has collected and hardened around the vent. This can happen over a period of weeks or many millions of years.A large eruption can be extremely dangerous for people living near a volcano. Flows of searing lava, which can reach 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,250 degrees Celsius) or more, can be released, burning everything in its path, including whole towns. Boulders of hardening lava can rain down on villages. Mud flows from rapidly melting snow can strip mountains and valleys bare and bury towns. Ash and toxic gases can cause lung damage and other problems, particularly for infants and the elderly. Scientists estimate that more than 260,000 people have died in the past 300 years from volcanic eruptions and their aftermath.Volcanoes tend to exist along the edges between tectonic plates, massive rock slabs that make up Earth's surface. About 90 percent of all volcanoes exist within the Ring of Fire along the edges of the Pacific Ocean.

About 1,900 volcanoes on Earth are considered active, meaning they show some level of activity and are likely to explode again. Many other volcanoes are dormant, showing no current signs of exploding but likely to become active at some point in the future. Others are considered extinct.

A volcano is a place on the Earth's surface (or any other planet's or moon's surface) where molten rock, gases and pyroclastic debris erupt through the earth's crust. Volcanoes vary quite a bit in their structure - some are cracks in the earth's crust where lava erupts, and some are domes, shields, or mountain-like structures with a crater at the summit.

Magma is molten rock within the Earth's crust. When magma erupts through the earth's surface it is called lava. Lava can be thick and slow-moving or thin and fast-moving. Rock also comes from volcanoes in other forms, including ash (finely powdered rock that looks like dark smoke coming from the volcano), cinders (bits of fragmented lava), and pumice (light-weight rock that is full of air bubbles and is formed in explosive volcanic eruptions - this type of rock can float on water).

Volcanic eruptions can cause great damage and the loss of life and property.

The Word Volcano:
The word volcano comes from the Roman god of fire, Vulcan. Vulcan was said to have had a forge (a place to melt and shape iron) on Vulcano, an active volcano on the Lipari Islands in Italy.

Extreme Volcanoes:
The largest volcano on Earth is Hawaii's Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa is about 6 miles (10 km) tall from the sea floor to its summit (it rises about 4 km above sea level). It also has the greatest volume of any volcano, 10,200 cubic miles (42,500 cubic kilometers). The most active volcano in the continental USA is Mt. St. Helens (located in westernWashington state).

Types of Volcanoes

Many people are interested in ways to classify volcanoes. There is probably a natural human instinct to try and give labels to all things. This is not a bad instinct and many times it makes it easier to understand the particular thing that is being classified. For example, you start to identify patterns when you classify things and these patterns may lead to a better understanding of whatever it is you are classifying. However (and that is a big "however"), when you are classifying natural things (they might be fish, plants, birds, oceans, minerals, volcanoes, or whatever), you MUST remember that the classification scheme is made up by human beings and Nature might decide to not follow the rules exactly. There will ALWAYS be exceptions to your classification scheme and there will ALWAYS be things that fall into more than one category. As long as you realize this and it doesn't bother you, you'll be just fine. Certainly there are different ways to classify volcanoes and all of them have particular benefits and drawbacks. These include classifying by lava chemistry, tectonic setting, size, eruptive character, geographic location, present activity, and morphology. As an example of how these can get mixed together, note that there are basaltic strato volcanoes (i.e. Mt. Fuji), big basaltic calderas (i.e. Taal), big gradual-sloped basaltic shields (i.e. Mauna Loa) and big steep-sloped basaltic shields (i.e. Fernandina). Additionally, although most volcanoes associated with subduction zones are steep-sided andesite or dacite cones, there are a few basaltic shields along these zones as well (i.e. Masaya, Westdahl, Tolbachik). These examples highlight the above-mentioned hurdle that any student of the Earth needs to get over - Nature makes exceptions to human rules.

Unfortunately, there is one particular volcano classification system that many people think is the only system. Not only is it not the only system, it is not a very good system. This is the famous "3 types of volcanoes" (shield volcanoes, strato volcanoes, and cinder cones), and it is found in many textbooks from elementary school to college. Why is this 3-types scheme so bad? First, it has no place in it for large caldera complexes (such as Yellowstone), flood basalts, monogenetic fields, or mid-ocean spreading centers. These are important types of volcanoes that you would never hear about if you thought there were only 3 types. Second, although you can occasionally find a cinder cone sitting somewhere all by itself, it is way more common for a cinder cone to either be one of many vents on a large (polygenetic) volcano or a member of a monogenetic field. Finally, if you actually think about the system you run into logical problems, as a teacher from Pittsburgh pointedly complained to VolcanoWorld about: She wanted to know how Pu'u 'O'o could be a cinder cone on Kilauea if cinder cones are a type of volcano and Kilauea is a shield volcano. The answer is that Pu'u 'O'o is one of hundreds of vents on Kilauea, and it happens to be a cinder cone.

Who knows what the origin of this 3-volcano system is, but the sad thing is that many people use it without thinking as far as the Pittsburgh teacher did. The cinder cone part may come from the fact that some cinder cones have names such as "This Volcano" or "Volcan That" even when they are just vents on a larger volcano. In these cases the cinder cone is probably all that has ever erupted in the collective memory of the local folks. They logically consider it to be "the volcano" and may think of the larger structure that hasn't erupted since they've been around (and may in part be highly eroded or vegetated) to be "just" a mountain.

For most volcanological applications a classification based on morphology is probably the most useful. In their excellent book Volcanoes of the World, Tom Simkin and Lee Siebert list 26 morphological "types" of volcanoes. That's certainly thorough but kind of extreme. You can account for probably >90% of all volcanoes with 6 types. Additionally, any system will be more useful if you use modifiers from the other potential classification schemes with the morphological types (i.e. active andesite strato volcano, extincthotspot shield volcano, etc.).

The following descriptions of 6 morphological volcano types are really brief. They were originally written for an "ask-a-volcanologist" answer - if they tell you things you already know, please don't feel insulted. In most any good volcanology book you should be able to find more details and many more examples

The largest volcano in our Solar System is perhaps Olympus Mons on the planet Mars. This enormous volcano is 17 miles (27 km) tall and over 320 miles (520 km) across.

Mount Merapi Erupts

Photograph by Dwi Obli, Reuters

Smoke rises Monday from Indonesia's Mount Merapi, one of the world's most volatile and dangerous volcanoes. Thousands of people living on the volcano's fertile slopes began evacuating as Merapi started erupting Tuesday, sending hot ash and rocks high in the air. 

Scientists had been warning for days that pressure building in the rumbling volcano has the potential to set off an especially violent eruption.

"The energy is building up. ... We hope it will release slowly," Indonesian-government volcanologist Surono told reporters, according to the Associated Press. "Otherwise we're looking at a potentially huge eruption, bigger than anything we've seen in years."

Meanwhile, officials in western Indonesia are racing to deal with the aftermath of a deadly tsunami that struck the remote Mentawai Islands late Monday, killing at least 113 and leaving hundreds more missing. The killer wave, triggered by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake centered offshore of the island of Sumatra, had many recalling the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which devastated the same region.

While it's unclear whether Monday's earthquake and the Merapi volcano eruption are linked, neither event is uncommon in Indonesia. The archipelago sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a series of fault lines that stretches from the Pacific coasts of the Americas through Japan and into Southeast Asia. 

Three Volcanoes

Mount Semeru, seen with an ash plume, is the highest volcano on the Indonesian island of Java and has been in a constant eruption since 1967.  It lies at the southern end of the Tengger caldera, which contains smaller volcanoes Mount Bromo and Mount Batok (both seen in the foreground), and several others.

On Deep Sea Volcanoes and Ocean Warming: Reprint

Since we regularly get questions about this type of thing, I wanted to repost this excellent post from Erik Klemetti's blog 'Eruptions.'

"I recently read a post about how humans couldn't be to blame for the warming of the oceans.  
The "logic" of their post was this:

• We see water getting warmed by magma at volcanoes worldwide, like Taal andRuapehu.
• The bottom of the ocean is covered in volcanoes, whether it be seamounts or the mid-ocean ridge system.
• Volcanoes at the bottom of the ocean must heat up the ocean water (like in crater lakes), so humans aren't to blame.

There are a number of ways to attack this poor reasoning, but I'll try to go with the ones I think are most convincing.

• This argument suggests that volcanic activity (not just volcanoes) on the ocean floor must be increasing over the last few hundred years. We see no evidence of this - and the author of the post only uses evidence that we have discovered more volcanoes (up to 3.4 million) on the seafloor.
• The author claims "that 3,477,403 number, coming from two well-respected oceanographers, does reinforce my point rather nicely, namely, that underwater volcanoes are heating the seas." Sure, there might be a lot of volcanoes but he makes no mention of how many might be active enough to heat the ocean water. We can see at surface volcanoes that not all of them are erupting or puffing away simultaneously - 
• Finally, you would expect in this situation that ocean water would warm from the bottom (near the volcanoes) upwards, but it is actually the surface waters that are warming, not the deep ocean. This suggests that heating is coming from exchange with the atmosphere, not from some deep source on the ocean floor.

It is very easy to try to throw around some partially baked ideas about volcanism to try to explain the changing in the ocean temperature worldwide, but they would require extraordinary circumstances where ocean volcanic activity was increasing exactly when human carbon dioxide production was also increasing. Sorry, the subsurface volcanoes are no source for your ocean heating (and if I had the time, I'd calculate how much energy would take to heat all the oceans by 0.5C - it is bound to be more than you can get out of a few hundred thousand Ruapehus)."

Working on Volcanoes

  

The following section is meant to give you a flavor of what it is like to work on a volcano. It illustrates some of the techniques that are used to study active Hawaiian volcanoes, most of which are also used to study the rest of the world's volcanoes.   Keep in mind also, that there are lots of indoor techniques that are equally important for understanding what a volcano is doing. Important examples of these are the analysis of seismic signals and geochemical studies of erupted lavas and gases.  

Easy, Accurate Way to Predict Food Allergies Developed, Study Suggests

Dr Audrey DunnGalvin, Department of Early Years and Childhood Studies and Research Fellow with the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, UCC, Professor Jonathan Hourihane, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, UCC and Mr Kevin Dalton, Office of Tech Transfer, UCC (Credit: Image courtesy of University College Cork)

Science Daily  — An online calculator that predicts, within seconds, the presence of the three major food allergies in children has been developed by researchers at University College Cork. They have devised a new 'Cork-Southampton calculator' that gives 96% accuracy compared to current methods that are 61% -81% accurate. The research will be published online March 3 in the journal, Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.

The two Cork researchers, Dr Audrey DunnGalvin and Professor Jonathan Hourihane of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health devised a highly accurate, allergen-specific algorithims for each of the most important food types (cow's milk, egg, peanut). The mathematical model consisted of known or suspected predictors that when combined greatly increased the accuracy of the final model. The researchers reasoned and proved that the more clinical information that could be considered, the more accurate the predictive model would be.Food allergies have increased over the past decade as has the number of patients and parents seeking diagnosis. Double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenges are the gold standard for diagnosing food allergy, but they are time-consuming, costly and, often, a source of parental and medical fear that a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) might occur during a food challenge. In addition, not all clinical facilities have the staff or resources to carry out high quality food challenges.They looked at the outcomes of combinations of data on clinical factors (skin prick test, allergen specific IgE in serum, total IgE, allergic reaction history, sex and age). The researchers then compared those to the results of the children's food challenges. From this analysis, they developed an effective prediction model, a 'calculator' of a positive food challenge that was a more accurate predictor than individual allergy tests.

This new calculator will improve the quality of life of parents and patients (on average seven years old) and will reduce significantly the cost of food allergy tests. "Young children can find the normal food allergy tests quite stressful and this test will take a lot of the distress out of the process, even just by delaying a challenge until the odds of passing it improve over time, which is the norm." says Dr Audrey DunnGalvin. "It has also implications for oral immunotherapy where clinicians try to desensitise children to their allergies by giving them controlled doses of the food to which they are allergic. The Cork-Southampton calculator will help assess appropriate stop/continue/ maintenance points in this treatment."

"Conventional food allergy tests are less than perfect but the UCC patented diagnostic is very reliable and should replace uncertainty with certainty for many doctors treating children with food allergy," says Kevin Dalton of UCC's Office of Technology Transfer. "We foresee a commercial product being launched this year resulting in better patient care and substantial savings for the healthcare service."

Article title:  Highly accurate prediction of food challenge outcome using routinely available clinical data

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

“Having sweets in such abundance that they fill up a large bowl, having the power and glory of a king while remaining humble and forgiving, having worldly assets and spiritual assets at the same time - these [seemingly contradictory] combinations of benefits can be acquired easily by having prema for Shri Rama’s holy name.” (Dohavali, 15) mīṭho arū kaṭhavati bharo rauṃtāī arū chema | svāratha paramāratha sulabha rāma nāma ke prema | Everything in the material world, including enjoyment, is checked to some degree or another. We can’t always get what we want. Even if our dreams do come true, there is a price to be paid, as some delights automatically cause other indulgences to diminish in availability. Much progress has been made in the areas of technology and medicine today, but negative consequences have resulted as well, such as rising medical costs and worries over losing health insurance. With every pursuit, there is another set of actions that is neglected, as the human being is limited in its capabilities. Therefore the engagements and enjoyments that are considered the most important are given highest priority, while the noise and pollution resulting from such activities simultaneously get ignored. The famous saying, “you can’t have your cake and eat it too”, speaks to the difficulty in worldly affairs, wherein the forces of nature check every movement. Even if we believe ourselves to be independent and fully capable of providing for our needs, external forces - such as those originating from the mind or body, Mother Nature, or other living entities - come and attack. Yet with the Supreme Lord, the one person who is always beyond duality, there is no such defect or contradiction in pursuit. He is capable of enjoying at both extremes, showing the full range of attributes and qualities simultaneously and to the fullest extent. As such, He is also able to kindly bestow the same abilities and conditions to His ardent supporters, those sincere souls who cast aside all desires for enjoying or renouncing in excess in favor of remaining in Bhagavan’s company at all times. What are some examples of enjoyments and abilities that are contradictory? Goswami Tulsidas, the celebrated Vaishnava poet and the eternal servant of Lord Rama, mentions a few examples in the above referenced verse from the Dohavali.  He begins by painting the picture of a large bowl full of delightful sweets. In the Vedic tradition, mithai, or sweets, play an integral role in bhoga, or enjoyment, for the Supreme Lord. Since the ultimate objective of human life is to seek out God’s pleasure, there are specific processes that can be adopted that very quickly cause a shift in consciousness. The discipline of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, is the topmost engagement, spiritual or otherwise, because it seeks to alter consciousness through explicit acts of love and devotion intended to please the Supreme Loveable Object, our spiritual life partner, the Supreme Lord. A timeless practice of bhakti is the archana-vidhi, wherein prayers, obeisances, food and flowers are offered to the deityrepresentation of God. Though the neophytes and those unfamiliar with Vedic traditions may mistake deity worship for idolatry, the statue or picture that is honored is carefully crafted to match the figure of the saguna forms of the Supreme Lord. In His original form, Bhagavan is referred to as Krishna, or He who is all-attractive. Yet Krishna doesn’t limit Himself to only one manifestation. He is kind enough to assume many other visible forms which are equally as complete in terms of spiritual happiness, bliss, and worthiness of worship. The incarnations and expansions are referred to as saguna because they give the appearance of having qualities, or material attributes, to the conditioned eye. The full breadth and scope of the original transcendental bodies of Krishna and His Vishnu forms are impossible to comprehend for the living entity destined for destruction within their present body. Therefore Krishna kindly incarnates into visible, spiritual forms that appear on earth and enact pastimes. The deities are non-different representations meant to act as worshipable objects that relay the obeisances and prayers offered directly to the spiritual personality in question. The commonly invoked analogy to the mailbox helps explain how this works. A mailbox is just like any ordinary box, but since it is authorized by the post office, any letter placed into it will automatically reach its intended destination. Dropping a piece of mail into any other type of box will not have the same effect. Similarly, the deity accepts the items properly offered and automatically carries them to Bhagavan, who subsequently enjoys the offering and leaves the remnants as prasadam. Mithai is ideal for offering to Krishna because He especially loves sweets that are made of milk products. Indian sweets are unique in their taste and makeup due to the strong presence of milk and butter. Many Indian sweets take a long time to make, so they are not as readily available as other food items. Neither are large quantities of mithai inexpensive, as milk and butter are not the cheapest food items. Therefore the consumption of Indian sweets is always limited, especially for children, who are given sweets as a reward or delight. How many children are given an entire gallon of ice cream to eat at one time by their parents? The intense sweetness is meant to be enjoyed in moderation, but children don’t always understand the principles behind eating with control. Thus for a child to get such an abundant volume of sweets is unthinkable.  Enjoying such heavenly sweets all the time is not good for the health either, as an imbalance of nutrients results within the body. Just imagine eating candy bars all day and nothing else. Obviously there would be negative health effects. For these reasons the condition of having an abundant supply of sweets, enough to fill a large bowl, is seemingly contradictory, or at least very rare to find. Tulsidas next mentions the reward of having the abilities of a king while remaining forgiving and controlled in desires. The sequencing of this reference is no accident, as it can directly relate to the previous example of the bowlful of sweets. Let’s say that we are on a diet. Our aim is to lose weight by limiting our food intake during each given day. This seems simple enough; we just watch what we eat and don’t give in to temptation. Now let’s up the ante by placing an entire buffet cart full of food and desserts in front of us the entire day. Our task is still the same, that of limiting food consumption, but now we have to avoid the visible temptation that is directly in front of us throughout the day. Obviously most of us would fail miserably in this task, as the inclination would be to simply have a few bites of food every now and then, not worrying about the after-effects. Powerful personalities and people in positions of high authority face similar conditions, for being king means being able to get whatever you want. The famous longing, “If I could only be king for a day”, speaks to the desire to have all wishes and wants granted immediately. As a king can have pretty much any desire satisfied, his behavior becomes more and more like an animal’s. The human form of life is meant for tapasya, or austerity, because only through sense control can the Supersoul, the plenary expansion of the Supreme Spirit residing within the heart, be realized. Connecting with the Supersoul results in yoga, the steady practice of which brings liberation to the heavenly realm in the afterlife. Sense demands, on the other hand, lead one further and further away from permanent yoga. And lest we think the senses will leave us alone after being satisfied a few times, the waves of demands keep pouring in, as the material desires of the living entity can never be truly satisfied. Indeed, the more quickly and regularly we feed our sense cravings, the stronger they become. Therefore the king who has every enjoyment at his disposal automatically has the toughest time trying to control his senses, especially in the areas of illicit sex, gambling and intoxication. When sense control is lost, so are forgiveness and kindness. For a celebrity accustomed to receiving heaps of praise from adoring fans, it is very difficult to remain truly humble and down to earth. Therefore those famous personalities who are kind, generous and compassionate are marveled at for their unique ability to maintain a level head. The third paradox mentioned by Tulsidas is the most broad in scope, and is thus automatically inclusive of the previous two. Artha is a Sanskrit word that refers to profit, which is one of the four primary rewards available to the God conscious individual. Profit doesn’t have to refer to money; it can relate to any type of tangible benefit, or interest. As such, there are two types of profit, worldly and spiritual. In the Hindi used by Tulsidas, artha becomes “aratha”, which can be of the “sva” or “param” variety. Svaratha refers to personal interests, those gains which are seen in the present life. A nice family, a good job, a steady income, etc. are all svaratha. These are very difficult to attain, so it is not surprising to see that this type of profit serves as the impetus for almost all activity and endeavor. Paramaratha is supreme for a reason, however, for it relates to the interests of the soul after it has quit its present body. The spiritual spark within the body forms the basis of identity. As such, it never takes birth or dies. When the body is renounced, a new, temporary dwelling is crafted based on the desires and work performed in the previous life. Paramaratha refers to those benefits that lead to a better condition for the soul in the next life. There is no more beneficial future condition than residence in the Supreme Lord’s personal realm in the spiritual sky, a place wherefrom no living entity ever has to exit upon entering once. “And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.5) Svaratha and paramaratha seem diametrically opposed to one another. As consciousness is the key determining factor in the future destination of the soul, one who is blessed with personal profits will have a mindset firmly attached to their current way of life. If the mind is always pondering how to enjoy money, wealth, home and family, when will there be time to contemplate on the Supreme Object of Pleasure? As such, the consciousness at the time of death will indicate a desire to return to the temporary realm, thus igniting the search for svaratha all over again. To attain spiritual profits, some kind of renunciation from worldly affairs is necessary. If the mind is firmly attached to activities aimed at satisfying the senses, consciousness will never be purified. Therefore spiritual practices aimed at providing benefits in the afterlife entail dedication to ritualistic performances, the adherence to strict austerities, study of the Vedas, and giving in charity. If spiritual activities take up all the time of the individual, however, what opportunity will there be for personal enjoyment? Therefore paramaratha is seen as being contradictory to svaratha. Yet Tulsidas says that by regularly reciting Shri Rama’s holy name with prema, or love, all of these diametrically opposed rewards can be very easily had. Chanting the holy names of the Lord, especially those found in the maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, falls under the category of bhakti-yoga. This discipline is different from any other system of maintenance or regulation, spiritual or otherwise. The soul’s constitutional position is one completely enveloped by bhakti, or pure love for God. When firmly linked to the Supreme Consciousness belonging to one of Krishna’s transcendental forms, such as that of Lord Rama, who is an incarnation of Godhead and the worshipable figure for the sweet and kind Tulsidas, every activity the living entity engages in is considered profitable and beneficial. The devotee is never in need of anything. All of the seemingly paradoxical occurrences mentioned thus far arrive without any effort. “Krishna had one brahmana friend whose name was Madhumangala. This boy would joke by playing the part of a greedy brahmana. Whenever the friends ate, he would eat more than all others, especially laddus, of which he was very fond. Then after eating more laddus than anyone else, Madhumangala would still not be satisfied, and he would say to Krishna, ‘If You give me one more laddu, then I shall be pleased to give You my blessings so that Your friend Radharani will be very much pleased with You.’” (Shrila Prabhupada, Nectar of Devotion, Ch 41) We don’t need to just take Tulsidas’ word for it, as there are countless examples illustrating the divine power of the holy name and the sweetness of the results that come from steadiness in bhakti. During Lord Krishna’s childhood years inVrindavana, one of His closest friends was Madhumangala, who was the son of a brahmana. Madhumangala especially enjoyed eating sweets, so he would often reference different Vedic rituals and make jokes about how they should be performed so that he could enjoy the bhoga offerings. He wouldn’t miss any chance to get jalebis, sandesh, or other wonderful Indian sweets. When Mother Yashoda would call Krishna and His elder brother Balarama to come home from playing to eat, Krishna’s friends would sometimes accompany Him. As any good mother would do, Yashoda would feed them all very sumptuously. Since they were children and such good friends with Krishna, they would receive more food than they could even handle. Therefore Madhumangala would have no problem securing sumptuous mithai by the bowlful; so much so that his stomach would hurt afterwards. King Janaka of Mithila, the celebrated father of Sita Devi [the eternal consort of Lord Rama], had every royal opulence available to him, yet his senses were completely under control. Though he was originally an expert yogi who focused exclusively on the impersonal aspect of the Supreme Truth known as Brahman, Janaka later became an authority figure on devotional service after being enamored and taken by the two brothers, Rama and Lakshmana. Through the medium of his son-in-law Shri Rama and His holy name, Janaka further glorified himself and his line by remaining ever dedicated to virtue and piety while simultaneously having all the glories and perks of a king. The simultaneous possession of svaratha and paramaratha is seen in all elevated devotees, as the bhaktas are never lacking anything either in the material world or in the afterlife. Shri Hanuman, the glorious bhakta of Shri Rama, personally has all his needs met by Sita Devi during his time on earth. Since he only wants to chant Rama’s name all day and hear about His pastimes found in the Ramayana, Hanumanji doesn’t require much. Nevertheless, he doesn’t need to exert any extra effort, as the goddess of fortune, the giver of every boon imaginable, makes sure that he has everything he needs. The incomprehensible workings of the holy name and the benefits its constant recitation provides shouldn’t surprise us. Krishna possesses every seemingly mutually contradictory set of attributes. Though the Lord is the most renounced, being atmarama, He still enjoys transcendental loving affairs with ShrimatiRadharani and the gopis of Vrindavana. He is the most spiritually lusty, yet He is the most celibate at the same time. He is the greatest bow warrior in His form of Shri Rama, yet He is also the most generous, kind and merciful as well. He is the most controlled in terms of indulgence in sense gratification, yet He can still enjoy every offering of heavenly mithai made to Him by the humble devotees. Since the Lord is fully endowed with every beneficial feature, then surely the same gifts are present in those who are never forgetful of His divine nature and sweet form. Our ordinary affairs may be checked in every way, but he who adores Rama’s name and never lets it go can find enjoyment in every situation and surrounding. If we eat the birthday cake presented before us, we no longer have it, but the holy name of Shri Rama can be enjoyed over and over again and still be there for us to invoke and adore. Just as the fire of bhakti never dies, the devotee’s enjoyment and spiritual profits in sharanagati, or full surrender, never exhaust.

Self-Cleaning Anodes Could Facilitate Cost-Effective Coal-Powered Fuel Cells

Regents professor Meilin Liu and postdoctoral researcher Mingfei Liu examine a button fuel cell to evaluate a new self-cleaning anode material. The self-cleaning technique could allow fuel cells to be powered by coal gas. (Credit: Gary Meek)

Science Daily  — Using barium oxide nanoparticles, researchers have developed a self-cleaning technique that could allow solid oxide fuel cells to be powered directly by coal gas at operating temperatures as low as 750 degrees Celsius. The method could provide a cleaner and more efficient alternative to conventional power plants for generating electricity from the nation's vast coal reserves.

To counter this problem, researchers have developed a technique for growing barium oxide nanostructures on the anodes. The structures adsorb moisture to initiate a water-based chemical reaction that oxidizes the carbon as it forms, keeping the nickel electrode surfaces clean even when carbon-containing fuels are used at low temperatures.

Solid oxide fuel cells can operate on various fuels and use hydrocarbon gases directly -- without a separate reformer. The fuel cells rely on anodes made from nickel and a ceramic material known as yttria-stabilized zirconia. Until now, however, carbon-containing fuels such as coal gas or propane could quickly deactivate these Ni-YSZ anodes, clogging them with carbon deposits in a process known as "coking" -- especially at lower operating temperatures.

"This could ultimately be the cleanest, most efficient and cost-effective way of converting coal into electricity," said Meilin Liu, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "And by providing an exhaust stream of pure carbon dioxide, this technique could also facilitate carbon sequestration without the separation and purification steps now required for conventional coal-burning power plants."

The water-mediated carbon removal technique was reported on June 21 in Nature Communications. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences supported the research through the HeteroFoaM Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center. The work also involved researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Conventional coal-fired electric generating facilities capture just a third of the energy available in the fuel they burn. Fuel cells can convert significantly more of the energy, approximately 50 per cent. Suppose gas turbines and fuel cells could be combined into hybrid systems. In that case, researchers believe they could capture as much as 80 per cent of the energy, reducing the amount of coal needed to produce a given amount of energy, potentially cutting carbon emissions.

But that would only be possible if the fuel cells could run for long periods on coal gas, which now deactivates the anodes after as little as 30 minutes of operation.

The carbon removal system developed by the Georgia Tech-led team uses a vapor deposition process to apply barium oxide nanoparticles to the nickel-YSZ electrode. The particles, which range in size from 10 to 100 nanometers, form "islands" on the nickel that do not block the flow of electrons across the electrode surface.

When water vapor introduced into the coal gas stream contacts the barium oxide, it is adsorbed and dissociates into protons and hydroxide (OH) ions. The hydroxide ions move to the nickel surface, where they combine with the carbon atoms deposited, forming the intermediate COH. The COH then dissociates into carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which are oxidized to power the fuel cell, ultimately producing carbon dioxide and water. About half of the carbon dioxide is then recirculated back to gasify the coal to coal gas to continue the process.

"We can continuously operate the fuel cell without the problem of carbon deposition," said Liu, also co-director of Georgia Tech's Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies.

The researchers also evaluated the use of propane to power solid oxide fuel cells using the new anode system. Because oxidation of the hydrogen in the propane produces water, no additional water vapor had to be added, and the system operated successfully for a period of time similar to the coal gas system.

Solid oxide fuel cells operate most efficiently at temperatures above 850 degrees Celsius, and much less carbon is deposited at higher temperatures. However, those operating temperatures require fabrication from special materials that are expensive -- and prevent solid oxide fuel cells from being cost-effective for many applications.

Reducing the operating temperatures is a research goal, because dropping temperatures to 700 or 750 degrees Celsius would allow the use of much less expensive components for interconnects and other important components. However, until development of the self-cleaning process, reducing the operating temperature meant worsening the coking problem.

"Reducing the operating temperature significantly by eliminating the problem of carbon deposition could make these solid oxide fuel cells economically competitive," Liu said.

Fuel cells powered by coal gas still produce carbon dioxide, but in a much purer form than the stack gases leaving traditional coal-fired power plants. Liu noted That capturing the carbon dioxide for sequestration would be less expensive by eliminating large-scale separation and purification steps.

The researchers have tested their process for a hundred hours, and saw no evidence of carbon build-up. A major challenge ahead is to test the system's long-term durability for fuel cells that are designed to operate for as long as five years. Researchers must also study the potential impact of possible fuel contaminants on the new electrode.

Forming the barium oxide structures can be done as part of conventional anode fabrication processes, and would not require additional steps. The anodes produced in the technique are compatible with standard solid oxide fuel cell systems already being developed for commercial electricity generation, home power generation and automotive applications.

"We have started with state-of-the-art technology, and simply modified the surface of the electrode," said Mingfei Liu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center. "Because our electrode would be built on existing technology, there is a lower barrier for implementing it in conventional fuel cell systems."

In addition to those already mentioned, the research team included Lei Yang, Wentao Qin and Kevin Blinn from Georgia Tech; YongMan Choi and Ping Liu from Brookhaven National Laboratory; Haiyan Chen and Trevor Tyson from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Jianming Bai from Oak Ridge National Laboratory