Word: moltenly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...peak's north face before the May explosion. Scientists were not sure if it was caused by a swelling on the rim or the settling of material on the floor of the crater. Inside the crater a lava dome has been forming. It glows red as molten rock roils underneath its hardened crust. The questions: Will it be able to cap the volcano? Or will pent-up gases blast through again...
Glassmaking is one of the oldest of crafts: it was an estimated 3,500 years ago that some unknown artisan in Mesopotamia pulled a chunk of quartz from a primitive furnace and found that it had become the fascinating molten glob that is glass. There has never been a single museum detailing and displaying this long history. The Corning Glass Works has remedied the situation by opening a stunning new museum in Corning, N.Y., devoted to just this purpose. The building is worthy of its mission. It is an innovative and handsome structure designed by Architect Gunnar Birkerts, sheathed...
...last week the seemingly inexhaustible volcano gave another lively performance. A second major eruption shook the mountain over the Memorial Day weekend, and steam and ash belched forth in fitful bursts throughout the week. More ominously, seismologists detected tremors originating from deep within the volcano's molten rock core, another sign of restlessness...
...latest round of activity caught scientists by surprise. Though volcanologists have been able to predict almost to the hour when the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands will erupt, Mount St. Helens presents a more difficult problem for would-be prognosticators. The molten rock, or magma, underneath the Washington volcano is a thicker, silica-rich material (unlike the less viscous molten basalt of the Hawaiian chain); more pressure must build up before the hot gases trapped within it are released. Thus the mountain erupts infrequently and violently...
According to their scenario, some of the molten rock from the subterranean cauldron of magma under the mountain will slowly be forced upward, like toothpaste being squeezed out of a tube. It will push through the vents in the "plug" of debris within the volcano's throat and emerge as lava. When it is finally exposed to the air, the lava will harden rapidly; it will probably not have enough volume or velocity to overflow the volcano's rim. Instead, as it solidifies, it will likely form a dome or cap over the vents. Eventually the dome should...