A major supervolcano eruption is overdue in Yellowstone Park, which could darken the skies over the rest of the U.S. for years to come. Scientists would love to know how to accurately predict this and other eruptions, and now Bernard Chouet says he knows how to do it.

Chouet, of the U.S. Geological Survey, says that volcanic eruptions are preceded by a type of earthquake known as a long-period event, which signals that pressure is building up inside the volcano.

When Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted in 1985, it melted a glacier, causing water and volcanic ash mudflows that killed an entire town of 25,000 people. When Chouet looked at the area’s earthquake records, he saw many long-period events.
read more

We recently wrote that British Columbia has become the UFO capital of Canada. It’s even become a tourist destination, since one-third of all Canadian sightings come from there. For subscribers this week, we interview UFO researcher Brian Vike, who tells about some of the amazing UFO experiences people have had there. The first 15 minutes of this interview will be available to non-subscribers as part of Dreamland for August 30, 2003.Click “Listen Now” on our masthead.

Vike, of HBCC UFO Research, says, “People are aware now that there is actually someone who investigates and talks to people and tries to figure out what people are seeing.”
read more

Mars has come closer to Earth than it’s been at any time since 57,617 BC, when both early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals could look up at the sky and see it. Soon we’ll know the answer to the hottest Martian debate: Is there (or was there) water?and therefore life?on Mars?

Robert Roy Britt writes in Space.com that spacecraft sent to take a peek show that Mars has lots of frozen water. “It’s really a huge amount of ice,” says NASA researcher William Boynton.

There’s also evidence of liquid water flowing down Martian cliffs. Michael Malin, of Malin Space Science Systems, says, “This story, I don’t believe, will be answered until someone goes to one of these cliffs with a pick and shovel and digs into it.”
read more

Scientists are speculating about what will happen if the melting ice caps cause the Earth to change its tilt. Would life would still be possible if this happened? One way to find out is to study other planets with tilts that are greater than ours.

Penn State Astronomer Darren M. Williams says, “I suspect, based on simulations and our own solar system, that many Earth-like planets will have spin axes that are tipped more severely than Earth?s axis.” He used computer programs to create planets with no tilt and with tilts of 54, 70 and 85 degrees. Earth’s tilt today is about 23 degrees.
read more