WHY DOES INDONESIA GET SO MANY TSUNAMIS?

70,000 years ago, Mount Toba erupted, ejecting 2,900 cubic kilometers, while in 1815 Mount Tambora threw out 80 cubic km of ash, the largest in historical times, killing more than 71,000, and in 1883 Krakatoa erupted, resulting in an energy release calculated to be 200 megatons of TNT (four times times stronger than the Tsar Hydrogen Bomba, the most powerful bomb ever detonated), causing 36,600 fatalities.    Super Volcano Toba almost wiped out Homo sapiens, Tambora resulted in a summerless Planet Earth and Krakatoa's eruption is said to have created the noisiest sound ever heard.  All three are located in Indonesia.

Krakatau (the recent spelling of Krakatoa) largely disappeared, but Anak Krakatoa was the result.  However, this relatively small volcano this past week erupted, and partially fell into the ocean, creating a 10-foot tsunami that on December 22 killed almost 500 in Indonesia.  

One reason why there was no advanced alert was that there was no earthquake.  Generally, that type of earth movement is what triggers the alarm.

The 26 December 2004 tsunami which killed 228,000 people was caused by a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in the ocean off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.  On September 28 of this year a 7.5 earthquake struck Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province causing an earthquake that killed more than 2,000.

On 5August2018 a 7 earthquake struck the island of Lombok, Indonesia.  There was a foreshock of 6.4 on July 29 and an aftershock of 6.9 on August 19.  The tsunami was perhaps only about a foot high, but the earthquake resulted in 563 deaths.

The problems with Indonesia are:

• They were created by the Ring of Fire.
• There are 18,000 or so islands.
• They have the third longest coastline, 33,939 miles.  #1 is Canada and #2 is Norway, but they are not bothered much by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Thus, what is currently occurring in Indonesia is confusing, for tsunamis can occur without earthquakes.  NASA has developed an ionospheric measurement technique to detect and track any tsunami, but the concept is developmental.  Delft University of Technology also has proposed a Global Navigation Satellite System.  Much of this work was initiated by my golf buddy, Paul Yuen, way back in 1974.

The Anak Krakatoa landslide was only a 158-acre section.  The Six Hours to Seattle novel I was planning to write was outlined in SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth.  Here, I've paraphrased from my 18September2008 posting from this book:

• Suppose the combination of a slow moving Category 5 hurricane stalls just south of the Big Island, bringing torrential rains to the east side, say, 48 inches over two days.  

• An earthquake of magnitude 9.0 triggers the eruption of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. This is a stretch, because the largest previously, the Great Kau Earthquake, only was an 8.0. But, say it happens, and, lava begins seeping into those crevices and faults along the line of the previously defined landslide boundaries, weakened by the horrific quake. 

• The extra percolating rain fluid, which also percolates to depth, becomes steam, and, with more heat, continues to expand like superheated gas. The eruptions continue for several days, heating the interstitial fluids, increasing the edifice pore pressure and, through thermal alteration, expanding fault cracks, weakening critical material interfaces and lubricating slip planes. 

• Decoupling along low friction and strength layers occurs at those flow boundaries of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Kilauea. Of course, those 48 inches of rain added an enormous extra weight to the already metastable underground condition.
• The collective strains induced by all the above cause a catastrophic failure of the vertical and horizontal extension of dyke intrusions, and the whole monolithic block falls at 250 Km/hour (155 miles/hour) piling up 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the coastline at a depth of 3048 meters (10,000 feet), creating a 100 meter (328 feet—about as tall as the highest building in Honolulu, but only half as high as the Seattle Space Needle) tsunami headed toward Seattle. 

To gain more information for the above, this summer I flew to Seattle (and Anchorage, as I thought this Alaskan city also had potential for being a mega-tsunami victim).  I spent ten days developing Six Hours to Seattle (posts in reverse chronological order):

• FIVE HOURS TO LOS ANGELES?
• ALASKA: Earthquakes, Auroras and Cabbages
• THE BEST OF ANCHORAGE
• NOT DOING MUCH IN ANCHORAGE
• SIX HOURS TO ANCHORAGE: The Longest Night?
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Space Needle and Chihuly Gl...
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Victoria
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Seattle is Hot
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Life on the Waterfront
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Hilo and Seattle Okay
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: The Journey Begins
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: The Speculative Science
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Mega Tsunamis
• SIX HOURS TO SEATTLE: Hint of What is to Come

Turns out I eliminated both Seattle and Anchorage as possible mega-tsunami impact sites.  However, the possibility of large chunks of islands falling into the ocean causing mega-tsunamis continue to have validity, for this  has happened in the past.  La Palma of the Canaries has been mentioned, and the Nuuanu Landslide, largest of seventeen such debris avalanche, occurring more than a million years ago, no doubt caused a mega-tsunami that headed off for the west coast of North America.  Of particular significance me, I live on Nuuanu Avenue.  Bathymetric image of this slide to the right.  

There was a flank collapse of Mauna Loa 120,000 years ago that caused a 1,600-foot mega tsunami.  Not a typo...1600 feet tall.  Something like 120 cubic miles of material fell into the sea.  In comparison, the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and landslide was less than ONE cubic mile.  This boulder was deposited half-a-mile inland on the island of Santiago by Fogo Volcano collapsing into the Atlantic Ocean 73,000 years ago. 

So Indonesia will continue to suffer from natural disaster cataclysms for a long time to come, thusly affecting much of Planet Earth also.  As tranquil as Hawaii might be, our volcanoes are still active, and the age of our islands are such that the probability is increasing for mega-tsunamis throughout the Pacific.  However, we only have a few islands and a volcano or two.  Indonesia has 18,000 islands and 127 active volcanoes.  I bet you simply ignored World Tsunami Awareness Day last month.

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DECEMBER 25: The Birth of Jesus

Almost three-fourths of Americans believe Jesus was born of a virgin:

or, by generation:

On the other hand, another Pew poll found that 61% of Americans think that climate change is happening, with only 40% asserting that the cause is human behavior.  Thus, many more (73% versus 40%) in the USA believe in Jesus BEING BORN TO A VIRGIN than humans causing global warming.

HOW AN AMERICAN CHILD VIEWS THE BIRTH OF JESUS

I went to a Christian Sunday school, saw inumerable Christmas Nativity plays and have reason to believe that my view in early youth probably reflects that of most in the USA:

• Songs like Away in the Manger and We Three Kings were influential. 
• Mother was Mary and father was Joseph, who was a little older and had a beard.
• Jesus was born in a stable.
• Three wiseman, who might have been kings, were guided by the Star of Bethlehem, and gave the baby three gifts.
• Remember, the intellectual level of this group is such that they actually believe Santa Claus is being pulled by reindeers to deliver presents.

HOW AN AMERICAN ADULT VIEWS THE BIRTH OF JESUS

Essentially, the same as above, but with more details, such as the birthplace being Bethlehem, Mary being a virgin and the gifts being frankincense (dried sap of trees burned as incense for medicinal purposes), myrrh (perfume for dead bodies...which makes no sense to me) and gold.  Actually, very few adults know what frankincense and myrrh are.  Did you know?


THE BIRTH OF CHRIST FROM GOD'S VIEWPOINT

Geez, humanity is screwed up.  Where is the peace?    I will send a representative to save them.  What better person than Jesus, my son.  I will transfer him as an infant into the womb of an earthly virgin.  Mary is identified, and as she is only around 12 years old, should be a virgin.  But there has to be some sanctity to all this, so I will find her a husband who is really old, like 90, so that there is no misunderstanding of his role.  Thus came the Nativity scene.  

WHAT DOES RICHARD DAWKINS THINK ABOUT THE BIRTH OF CHRIST?

PLAYBOY: What is your view of Jesus?

DAWKINS: The evidence he existed is surprisingly shaky. The earliest books in the New Testament to be written were the Epistles, not the Gospels. It’s almost as though Saint Paul and others who wrote the Epistles weren’t that interested in whether Jesus was real. Even if he’s fictional, whoever wrote his lines was ahead of his time in terms of moral philosophy.

Granted, this from Playboy magazine (September 2012), and, further, that Richard Dawkins is a noted skeptic.  Read his God Delusion.

BIBLICAL SCHOLARS ON THE BIRTH OF JESUS

Of course there was a real Jesus.  He was probably born as early as 6 BC, but more likely late in the year 5 BC or early in 4 BC.  While December 25 is actually a most unlikely date, this day was universally accepted, for it had been used for eighteen centuries.

But this matter of being born where animals lived is not supported by logic and documentation.  As Joseph was from Bethlehem, he no doubt had some important family link for this momentous occasion, and if that home was filled with other people, then an indoor location was nevertheless secured for the birth itself.  

However, God did have some influence in all this, and wanted his son to establish a reputation for starting at the lowest level, so either a well-cleaned manger (a box where hay is placed to feed horses) was used as his display crib.  All this could have occurred outside the house so more visitors could see Him.

Who were these wise men, or magi, or astrologers, and how many showed up?  First, Snopes contends that there was no such thing as three wise men.  Nowhere in The Bible is this stated.  There is greater certainty that Magi did come to worship him, but not on that night, much later, actually, and by then Jesus was indoors.  Matthew 2:1--

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him . . .

But, of course, Snopes is hardly a bibilical scholar, so to be more historically correct, read this.  There is also the matter of some of them being linked to King Herod, who two years later ordered the massacre of two-year old infants born in the vicinity of Bethlehem.  Typical of the variation opined by scholars, the number killed ranged from 10 to 13,000 to 64,000 to 144,000.  Ten is probably closer to the truth.  

But this is the problem about Biblical scholars.  While the Dead Sea Scrolls were significant, they also read the most obscure of manuscripts in vague languages and formed impressions from grossly inadequate data.

THE BIRTH OF JESUS ACCORDING TO ME

Last year on this date my posting was entitled The Truth About Jesus.  Adjusting my statement from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

So, therefore, place yourself back to circa 50 AD. Nothing much can be found about Jesus. Conflicting descriptions can be unearthed about this individual, but absent any miracles and the connection with Son of God. Is it possible that a group sees an opportunity to spur something called Christianity? So they pick a mortal of those days who might just fit a concept called the Messiah. They borrow selectively from early Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, and Greek writings to create the legend of Jesus Christ around a real-life martyr. He was in his prime at the age of 30, so they choose 30 AD as the founding of Christianity. Could this incredible PR ploy have started it all? Did all this lead to the Catholic Church of today!

Want more?  At 4PM (EST, or 11AM in Hawaii) this morning, CNN, for 12 straight hours, airs:

     Finding Jesus:  Faith, Fact, and Forgery

Tomorrow I try to explain the mysterious tsunami this weekend in Indonesia that killed 500 or so.  December 26 is also the 14th anniversary of the Great Sumatra Tsunami, which brought 227,898 deaths in 14 countries.  Certainly looks similar to my Six Hours to Seattle.

AQUAMAN AND SPIDERMEN/WOMEN/THING

I avoided vampire, zombie, comic-book and animated movies.  Until this weekend.  I thought I'd try a combo for special reasons:

• Aquaman (comic-book hero)
• starred Jason Momoa of Hawaii, and his film mother, the Princess of Atlantis, played by Nicole Kidman, was also born in Hawaii
• the Blue Revolution occurs in the ocean
• Rotten Tomatoes Audiences rated it 85%
• Spider-Man 2018 (animated)
• rated 97%/98% by Rotten Tomatoes
• the timing was ideal at Ward Consolidated

All in all, the twin-bill, although somewhat interminable, was an okay experience.  But might be my last, ever.

About Aquaman, Jason Momoa is now a star, up there with the Rock.  Aquaman, the super hero, first appeared in DC Comics a year after I was born.  Frankly, I don't ever remember him.  This was like an underwater Superman, except that there are a lot of them in this movie ocean.

The plot was presposterous, and this is why I generally don't bother with these types of films.  Aquaman, though, made close to $500 million world-wide on this opening, and was #1 for the USA weekend.

I paid extra to watch it with Dolby Atmos sounds (which you won't appreciate at home, for most of you only have front speakers) and reclining/vibrating seats.  The experience was realistic, but the film had too many fights and was so noisy, plus a rather long 143 minutes to endure.

In short, lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry (left) rescues Atlanna (right, Nicole Kidman--she still looks amazing for a 50-year old), princess of the underwater nation of Atlantis.  They fall in love, have a son, Arthur (middle, Jason Momoa), but Atlanna, to protect the two, chooses to go back home underwater.  Supposedly she is executed for mating with a surface being and producing a half-breed...but, maybe not.  Willem Dafoe is sent by Atlanna to train Jason, who can breathe underwater (no gills, but here is how he nauseatingly does it), as do all Atlanteans, like Willem and Nicole.  

All these royal Atlanteans have super powers, and there is a wide range of tamed super creatures, from sharks to dragons.  Imagine Star Wars with all those fighting spacecrafts, but as sea animals.  Amber Heard, an Atlantean princess is the love interest with the brightest red hair ever on the screen.  Momoa is commanding in the film.

However, over the top computer graphics took center stage. This was truly awesome.

Of course there will be an Aquaman #2, with Jason Momoa, in 2021.  He will be King Aquaman.

Spider-Man:  Into the Spider-Verse, is an animated film based on those Marvel Comic characters.  Thought there was only one Spider-Man, with different actors?  Nope, this one featured at least seven.  But, if you keep up with those comics, you know that there are millions of alternate universes, and Peter Parker, for example, is married in one of them, and not in another.

To be gender-correct, these are Spider-People, no, make that Spider-Things, for one, is an awkward looking animal with a snout:

• Peter Parker, the standard and not
• Miles Morales, a black teen
• Gwen, white high school student with maybe a link to Miles
• Spider-Man Noir, comes from the depression days and is in black and white
• Spider-Ham, an anthropomorphized animal
• Peni Parker, a Japanese anime kawaii (cute) girl with a mechanical suit

The villain is Kingpin, voiced by Liev Schreiber.  

Sequel?  Of course.  This next one might feature the female gender, with Lauren Montgomery possibly to direct.

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MIRACLE HUNTER

If you believe in God, as 80% of Americans do, you also believe in miracles, for that number is also in the range of 80%.  The graphic to the right thus somewhat better explain the USA percentage in a poll about being certain about God's existence:

• Japan:  4.3%
• Sweden:  10.2%
• France:  15.5%
• Australia:  24.9%
• Russia:  30.5%
• Italy:  41.0%
• USA:  60.6%
• Israel:  65.5%
• Philippines:  83.6%

I would thus think that few Japanese believe in miracles.  However, they are spiritual, for there are 180,000 GROUPS licensed as religious corporations.  You need to be able to appreciate the difference between superstition and tradition to understand this complexity.

Let me take one more example.  France.  In 1986, more than 82% were Christian.  Today, around half.  In 1986 15.5% were not religious.  Today, 39.6%

I was intrigued about the story of Michael O'Neill from the December 2018 issue of Stanford Magazine.  He graduated as a mechanical engineer from Stanford twenty years ago.  He started out in visual communications and by night became a Miracle Hunter.  He now spends all his time searching down miracles.  See him at MiracleHunter.com.

O'Neill only specializes in Christian miracles, and is not interested in last-gasp touchdown wins or billion-dollar start-ups.  He has his own radio show and television series on Catholic networks.

In particular, he is known as Virgin Mary's Number Cruncher, for he has codified every known apparition of Mary back to AD 40, and there have been around 2000 of them, although only 28 are approved as somewhat plausible.  Read his book, Exploring the Miraculous. As those numbers indicate, the Church is dubious of most supernatural claims.  They typically investigate those claims with an eye toward ending the distraction.

National Geographic three years ago published an article by Maureen Orth:

     How the Virgin Mary Became the World's Most Powerful Woman

Did you know the marigold flower (originally called Mary's Gold) was named after her, and there is, of course, that Hail Mary (a Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of St. Mary--Ave Maria is the Latin form) pass in football.  That is Lourdes to the left, where her 1858 "miracle" is particularly venerated:

Lourdes is the Virgin’s miracle factory, with more than 7,000 miraculous cures claimed since the mid-1800s. Only 69 have been recognized by church authorities.

From that NG article is this quote:

“Miracles transcend physical nature and physical laws,” says Robert Spitzer, a Jesuit priest who heads the Magis Center in California, which according to its website is dedicated to explaining faith, physics, and philosophy. As Spitzer says, “Science looks for physical laws in nature, so you’re up against a paradox. Can you get a scientific test for miracles? No. Science will only test for physical laws or physical results.”

Our Lady of Fatima to the right above.

As many statues as there are of Mary, and there is one more than 100 feet tall in Venezuela, there are probably more of St. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, although most of them are rather small.  I wonder how many St. Joseph Home Sale Kits have been sold?  Has something to do with miracles and home sales.  The most told story is that Mary was 12 or 13 and Joseph 90 when Jesus was born.

About Miracle Hunter Michael O'Neill:

TV:  Go to this site.

Radio:  Relevant Radio (The Miracle Hunter, Sundays at noon, EST) 

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HAPPINESS IN PURGATORY

I don't recall ever being in a constant state of euphoria for eleven weeks.  This all began when I thought I wouldn't be able to walk again.  

I just noticed Pearl's rabbit in a rainbow.  She was born in the year of the rabbit

And speaking of rainbows, I yesterday saw an incredibly colorful one while walking at the Ala Wai Golf Course.  Here, my neighbor John under that Rainbow.

Today is a great day for TV-watching, for the University of Hawaii soon after noon will play the University of Nevada at Las Vegas in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.

Then at 5:30, Hawaii takes on Louisiana Tech in the Hawaii Bowl.  I could go to both, for tickets remain available, but it's free on TV, both on some ESPN channel.

While I have long posted on happiness, the frequency of this topic increased after I moved into 15 Craigside.  Here are just two:

• Happiness (22Nov18)
• Pursuit of Happiness (2July13)

For some, happiness comes from material possessions, including money.  Reputation, good looks, power, good health and friends/family can also be important.  Then, of course, religion can bring full enlightenment, or, at least a sense of peace.

Can't leave out chemicals, for Scientific American this month reported on octopuses taking MDMA--3.4-methylelnedioxy-methamphetamine--the party drug known more popularly as Molly or Ecstasy-- being very happy.  Researchers reported that these tripping cephalopods can help us better understand the roots of sociability.  Our minds act similarly, for MDMA binds to transporter proteins in neurons, increasing the availability of the signaling chemical serotonin.  A flood of serotonin produces feelings of euphoria and sociability.

Mind you, there is an opioid crisis, and, while pain and insomnia can influence one to take them, this sense of being super high can be addictive and lethal.  Former University of Hawaii football star Vincent Manuwai (#67) earlier this month left 6 children and a wife at the age of 38 from Ecstasy and cocaine poisoning.

While euphoria comes and goes for  all, and this pure sense of happiness I'm experiencing I know will disappear when something terrible occurs, just this continuously long period of being near rapture will be a blessing I'll forever appreciate.  Some say that is how everyone feels in Heaven, but my current state of belief in such a place has not wavered much from zero.  In the meantime, happiness in Purgatory is real and delightful.  Snoopy and I have something in common.

In case you missed it, the next World Happiness Summit occurs in Miami next year:

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