Volcanology for Student Dummies

Volcano cross-section

We here at the Antisocial Network trot our staff geologist out from time to time – the guy's retired from the oil biz, so he spends most of his time arguing with people about fracking on Facebook – to look over the self-appointed earth-science experts among our freelancers. He'd already outed Catalogs.com's Cindi Pearce last year, but her treatise on orogenesis apparently wasn't enough misinformation: Cindi also attempted to explain "How are Volcanoes Formed?" for the same site (now credited to "Catalogs editorial staff"), with equally sad results.

Like far too many of our freelancers, Pearce is a journalism graduate who seems to think that she has mad skillz as a researcher and can therefore write knowledgeably about anything and everything. Au contraire, Cindi: you managed to botch more than a few basic facts about volcanoes and volcanology as you barfed this stuff onto WhoWhatWhen, etc., .com. Here are a few points you should have researched a bit better:

"Volcanoes are mountains that build up and get taller and taller... Eventually, the volcano will erupt." - Ummm, Cindi, eruptions are how volcanoes "build up and get taller and taller." "The magma or molten rock surrounds the solid rock, and it is buoyant." - Sorry, that makes no sense. Perhaps you could have said, "the magma is surrounded by solid rock"... but you didn't. "When magma reaches the surface it spreads out onto the surface and this creates a volcano. When the magma becomes flat, lava flows out." - Wow: even our staff geologist couldn't unpack that bullpuckey!

• "A shield volcano is made up of basaltic lava that is low viscosity and easily and rapidly flows from the central vent." - you should look up "viscosity" some time: then maybe you'll know why that sentence is redundant.
• "There are large, elongated fissures or plantar vents [sic] from which basaltic lavas erupt, which cool and then form oceanic crust, continental flood basalts and oceanic plateaus." - We had no idea, but the reference Pearce plagiarized does mention "planar vents"... Oh, and Cindi? they're hornitos, not "homitos"...

This is just one of many examples of self-appointed "expert" freelancers who try their hands at science journalism. Frankly, they should leave well enough alone: it's in part because of crapalicious content like Pearce's that people are scientifically illiterate and at the mercy of self-serving political operatives. That's more than enough reason to give Cindi another Dumbass of the Day award, if you ask us.

copyright © 2017-2022 scmrak

SI - VOLCANOES