Subway Push Murder Suspect Implicated Self: Police

A suspect believed to be responsible for throwing a man into the path of an oncoming New York City subway train who was taken into custody today has made statements implicating himself, police said.

According to Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne, the suspect has been questioned by police since at least early afternoon and while the suspect is in police custody, he has not been officially charged.

Police are continuing to question the suspect and more lineups have been scheduled for tomorrow, Browne said.

Police have not released the suspect's name but began questioning him Tuesday afternoon about the death of Ki-Suck Han, 58, of Queens, N.Y.

Han was tossed onto the subway track at 49th Street and Seventh Avenue around 12:30 p.m. Monday after Han confronted a mumbling man who was alarming other passengers on the train platform. Han tried to scramble back onto the platform, but was crushed by an oncoming train.

The suspect fled the station, prompting a police dragnet for a man described by witnesses and see on surveillance video as a 6-foot-tall, 200-pound black man wearing dreadlocks in his hair.

Witnesses tried to revive the victim after he was hit and provided descriptions of the suspect to police.

Dr. Laura Kaplan, medical resident at Beth Israel Medical Center who was standing on the platform during the incident rushed to give Han aid after he was hit, she said in a statement released by her medical practice today.

New York Police Department

Bystanders Pull Mom, Son From Subway Tracks Watch Video

"A security guard and I performed 3-4 minutes of chest compressions. I hope the family may find some comfort in knowing about the kindness of these good Samaritans, as they endure this terrible loss," Kaplan said.

"I would like the family to know that many people in the station tried to help Mr. Han by alerting the subway personnel," she said.

Kaplan said she wanted to console the family of Han, who she called "a brave man trying to protect other passengers that he did not know."

The suspect had reportedly been mumbling to himself and disturbing other passengers, according to ABC News affiliate WABC. Police told WABC that the suspect could be mentally disturbed.

The suspect could be heard arguing with Han just moments before he hurled Han onto the track bed, according to surveillance video released by the police. The suspect is heard telling the victim to stand in line and "wait for the R train."

A freelance photographer for the New York Post was on the platform and said he ran towards the train flashing his camera hoping to alert the train to stop in time, but the train caught Han against the shoulder deep platform wall.

The photographer, R. Umar Abbasi, caught an eerie photo of Han with his head and arms above the platform and staring at the oncoming train.

Han was treated by EMS workers on the platform for traumatic arrest and rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Fire Department of New York.

"I just heard people yelling. The train came to an abrupt stop about three-quarters into the station and that's when I heard a man was hit by a train," Patrick Gomez told ABC News affiliate WABC.

Police set up a command post outside the train station Monday night searching nearby surveillance cameras to try and get a clear image of the suspect, reports WABC. They said Tuesday that the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.

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Heavy hydrogen excess hints at Martian vapour loss

Gravity means most things are lighter on Mars but it seems the Red Planet likes its hydrogen heavy. In its first chemical analysis of the Martian soil, the Curiosity rover has discovered an unusually high proportion of heavy hydrogen, also known as deuterium. Combined with future results, the finding may help pin down when and how Mars lost most of its atmosphere.

Most hydrogen atoms contain just a proton and an electron, but some contain an extra neutron, forming deuterium. On Earth, deuterium is much rarer than hydrogen – for example, in our oceans one in every 6420 hydrogens also has a neutron. As deuterium is thought to have been produced in the big bang, it should have once appeared in similar abundances on all the planets in the solar system.

That's why the new discovery by Curiosity, which landed in an area of Mars called Gale Crater on 6 August, is intriguing. After heating a soil sample to 1100 °C and analysing the resulting vapour, Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) experiment found a deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio that is five times higher than that on Earth: one deuterium for every 1284 hydrogens.

"This is one of those ratios that's just way, way different," SAM principal investigator Paul Mahaffy told a press conference on 3 December at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco.

Bygone water

Mars's atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's and is thought to be vanishing. Mahaffy suggests that Mars could have lost a bunch of its light hydrogen when its climate was warmer and wetter. Ultraviolet light from the sun could have broken up water vapour in the atmosphere, creating free hydrogen. The lighter isotopes of hydrogen would then escape into space more rapidly, leaving proportionately more deuterium behind.

Knowing the modern deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio doesn't paint that picture on its own. But looking at the ratio captured in hydrated minerals on Aeolis Mons, a mountain thought to preserve a layered history of Martian geology, could help fill in the historical record. "It will help us understand the processes that may have stripped an early atmosphere from Mars," Mahaffy said.

More details will come with the MAVEN mission, set to launch in 2013, which will measure the current rate at which hydrogen is escaping from the atmosphere.

"Those escape rates extrapolated back in time, combined with atmospheric measurements we're making, and hopefully combined with what we might find in very ancient rocks 3.5 billions years ago when a lot more water could have been at Gale Crater, all of those will help us make a model of the early environment and whether it's conducive to life," Mahaffy said.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Indian retail reforms face parliament debate

NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Tuesday braced itself for a test of strength as parliament debated reforms ahead of a vote on allowing in foreign supermarkets, a policy that has revitalised opposition parties.

The Congress-led government believes it has the numbers to win a vote in the lower house expected on Wednesday, and hopes that victory will enable it to push ahead with further reforms to tackle the slowing economy.

Parliament was deadlocked for days during the current winter session as opposition lawmakers held noisy protests demanding a vote on the retail policy. The government conceded even though the reform requires only cabinet approval and has already been declared law.

Supporters of the arrival of chains such as Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour say it could revolutionise shopping in India, with consumers shifting to large supermarkets, and improve India's antiquated food-supply chain.

But the decision has been attacked by the opposition as a sellout to foreigners that will force family-owned stores, which currently dominate India's retail landscape, to shut.

The Congress-led coalition lost its majority in September when a regional ally exited the government over the policy.

Although the non-binding vote will not affect the government's ability to enact the policy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would suffer a major public setback if it fails to win enough support from lawmakers.

Indian media on Tuesday reported that Congress should win the vote in the lower house, but would rely on support from regional parties to win a vote in the upper house expected on Friday.

"We are confident of the numbers," parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath told reporters. "I urge all parties to reject the politics of it and vote against the politics in the house."

Singh's push for pro-market reforms comes as the government faces a sharply slowing economy, a gaping fiscal deficit and high inflation, which has stoked pressure on the left-leaning alliance.

The media has dubbed the reforms push a second "big bang" following Singh's efforts when he was finance minister to begin opening India's economy to the world two decades ago.

While the retail decision did not require a parliamentary vote to become law, the government's other proposals to open up the insurance and pensions markets to wider foreign investment will need lawmakers' approval.

- AFP/de

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iTunes Store lands in Russia, 55 other countries in hefty expansion

Apple's iTunes in Russian.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET)

Just days after releasing a new version of
iTunes, Apple has announced an expansion of its iTunes Store into Russia and dozens of other countries, nearly doubling the number of countries in which it has a presence.

In addition to Russia, the popular music platform has landed in Turkey, India, South Africa, and 52 other countries, Apple announced today. The addition of the 56 countries brings the total number of countries with iTunes Store access to 119.

With the launch, Apple touted the selection of local and international music tailored to its new audiences.

"The iTunes Store features local artists including Elka in Russia, Sezen Aksu in Turkey, AR Rahman in India, and Zahara in South Africa, international artists including The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Coldplay, and world-renowned classical musicians including Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma and Yuja Wang," the company said in a statement.

Russia, in particular, will prove one of Apple's greatest challenges in the music sector. While the home of Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, and Pussy Riot has several legitimate download services, is also home to rampant piracy. The Intellectual Property Alliance, an organization dedicated to eliminating piracy, has placed Russia on its "priority watch list" as a major pirate.

Despite the challenges posed by piracy, Russia could be a revenue goldmine for Apple -- if it can persuade Russians to purchase rather than pirate.

After a monthlong delay, Apple last week released iTunes 11. The latest version of its popular music software features a visual redesign that takes a cue or two from Apple's iOS software, with a focus on large album covers that can expand to show you songs -- both in your library, and other tracks from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

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Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected several simple carbon-based organic compounds on Mars, but it remains unclear whether they were formed via Earthly contamination or whether they contain only elements indigenous to the planet.

Speaking at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Curiosity mission leaders also said that the compound perchlorate—identified previously in polar Mars—appeared to also be present in Gale Crater, the site of Curiosity's exploration.

The possible discovery of organics—or carbon-based compounds bonded to hydrogen, also called hydrocarbons—could have major implications for the mission's search for more complex organic material.

It would not necessarily mean that life exists now or ever existed on Mars, but it makes the possibility of Martian life—especially long ago when the planet was wetter and warmer—somewhat greater, since available carbon is considered to be so important to all known biology.

(See "Mars Curiosity Rover Finds Proof of Flowing Water—A First.")

The announcements came after several weeks of frenzied speculation about a "major discovery" by Curiosity on Mars. But project scientist John Grotzinger said that it remains too early to know whether Martian organics have been definitely discovered or if they're byproducts of contamination brought from Earth.

"When this data first came in, and then was confirmed in a second sample, we did have a hooting and hollering moment," he said.

"The enthusiasm we had was perhaps misunderstood. We're doing science at the pace of science, but news travels at a different speed."

Organics Detected Before on Mars

The organic compounds discovered—different combinations of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine—are the same or similar to chlorinated organics detected in the mid-1970s by the Viking landers.

(Related: "Life on Mars Found by NASA's Viking Mission?")

At the time, the substances were written off as contamination brought from Earth, but now scientists know more about how the compounds could be formed on Mars. The big question remains whether the carbon found in the compounds is of Martian or Earthly origin.

Paul Mahaffy, the principal investigator of the instrument that may have found the simple organics—the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)—said that while the findings were not "definitive," they were significant and would require a great deal of further study.

Mahaffy also said the discovery came as a surprise, since the soil sample involved was hardly a prime target in the organics search. In fact, the soil was scooped primarily to clean out the rover's mobile laboratory and soil-delivery systems.

Called Rocknest, the site is a collection of rocks with rippled sand around them—an environment not considered particularly promising for discovery. The Curiosity team has always thought it had a much better chance of finding the organics in clays and sulfate minerals known to be present at the base of Mount Sharp, located in the Gale Crater, where the rover will head early next year.

(See the Mars rover Curiosity's first color pictures.)

The rover has been at Rocknest for a month and has scooped sand and soil five times. It was the first site where virtually all the instruments on Curiosity were used, Grotzinger said, and all of them proved to be working well.

They also worked well in unison—with one instrument giving the surprising signal that the minerals in the soil were not all crystalline, which led to the intensive examination of the non-crystalline portion to see if it contained any organics.

Rover Team "Very Confident"

The simple organics detected by SAM were in the chloromethane family, which contains compounds that are sometimes used to clean electronic equipment. Because it was plausible that Viking could have brought the compounds to Mars as contamination, that conclusion was broadly accepted.

But in 2010, Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center and Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico published an influential paper describing how dichloromethane can be a byproduct of the heating of other organic material in the presence of the compound perchlorate.

They conducted the experiment because NASA's Phoenix mission had discovered large amounts of perchlorate in the northern polar soil of Mars, and it seems plausible that it would exist elsewhere on the planet.

"In terms of the SAM results, there are two important conclusions," said McKay, a scientist on the SAM team.

"The first is confirming the perchlorate story—that it's most likely there and seems to react at high temperatures with organic material to form the dichloromethane and other simple organics."

"The second is that we'll have to either find organics without perchlorates nearby, or find a way to get around that perchlorate wall that keeps us from identifying organics," he said.

Another SAM researcher, Danny Glavin of Goddard, said his team is "very confident" about the reported detection of the hydrocarbons, and that they were produced in the rover's ovens. He said it is clear that the chlorine in the compounds is from Mars, but less clear about the carbon.

"We will figure out what's going on here," he said. "We have the instruments and we have the people. And whatever the final conclusions, we will have learned important things about Mars that we can use in the months ahead."

Author of the National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012, Marc Kaufman has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including the past 12 as a science and space writer, foreign correspondent, and editor for the Washington Post. He is also author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth, published in 2011, and has spoken extensively to crowds across the United States and abroad about astrobiology. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lynn Litterine.

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Kate's Illness Sometimes Linked to Twins

Hyperemesis gravidarum, the reason newly pregnant Kate Middleton is in the hospital, is a rare but acute morning sickness that results in weight loss and accounts for about 2 percent of all morning sickness, doctors say.

The condition is sometimes associated with women having twins, experts said.

Women diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum have lost 5 percent of their pre-pregnancy weight, or 10 pounds, said Dr. Ashley Roman, a professor and OB/GYN at New York University Langone Medical Center.

It poses little danger to the tiny heir, doctors said.

"It's traditionally thought that nausea and vomiting is a sign of a healthy pregnancy," Roman said

Dr. Nancy Cossler, an OB/GYN at University Hospitals in Ohio said the condition does not cause loss of pregnancy or birth defects, but it can be a torture to endure.

"The biggest problem with this is how it interferes with your life," Cossler said. "Constantly feeling sick and puking is difficult."

Click here to read about other women with hyperemesis gravidarum.

Hyperemesis gravidarum is thought to be caused by higher levels of the pregnancy hormone, hCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, Cossler said. Extra hCG can often be brought on by carrying more than one fetus, she said.

Chris Jackson/AFP/Getty Images

Kate Middleton Pregnant, Admitted to Hospital Watch Video

Kate Middleton, Prince William Expecting Their First Child Watch Video

Prince William and Kate Middleton's Big News Watch Video

In other words, it could be a sign that Middleton is carrying twins. Although there's very little data on twins and hyperemesis gravidarum, one study showed that women carrying twins had a 7.5 percent higher risk of experiencing the acute morning sickness, Roman said.

The extreme morning sickness is usually diagnosed about nine weeks into the pregnancy, and in most cases resolves itself by 16 or 20 weeks, Roman said. In rare cases, it can last the whole pregnancy.

"As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, Her Royal Highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter," a statement from St. James Palace said. Prince William is at the hospital with Middleton, according to the Britain's Press Association.

Click here for photos of Kate through the years.

Roman said doctors prescribe vitamins and ginger capsules at first. If that doesn't stop the vomiting, they will prescribe antihistamines and stronger anti-nausea medications.

Women with hyperemesis gravidarum are also treated with fluids, said Dr. Jessica Young, an OB/GYN at Vanderbilt University. But if left untreated, a pregnant woman who is severely dehydrated for a long period of time could die, "just like any person," Young said.

In extreme cases in which the woman is losing weight and unable to eat, doctors will treat her with intravenous nutrition, Young said.

Hospital stays can vary, and women will often have to be admitted more than once before the condition passes, doctors said.

Hyperemesis gravidarum is somewhat mysterious because some expectant mothers have acute morning sickness during only one of their pregnancies, but have no morning sickness for subsequent pregnancies.

There is a chance that higher levels of hCG, which likely caused Middleton's nausea, could be a sign of a molar pregnancy instead of twins, Cossler said. This would mean Middleton is carrying only a benign growth in her uterus instead of a fetus, or she is carrying a fetus with abnormal DNA and a benign growth. Neither is considered a viable pregnancy.

However, Cossler said molar pregnancies become apparent early on, and doctors would already know whether Middleton had one.

"They would not have released this information," Cossler said of the birth announcement. "I'm certain that they have already eliminated both of those [types of molar pregnancies]."

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Elon Musk: Mars base will open the way to other stars

The SpaceX founder says he'd like to "die on Mars". Why the obsession with going to the Red Planet?

Why are you so keen to get humans to Mars?
Because this is the first time in 4 billion years of Earth's history that it has been possible. That window may be open for a long time - and I hope it is - but it may not be. We should take advantage just in case something bad happens. It wouldn't necessarily be that humanity gets eliminated; it could just be a drop in technology.

Why go to Mars, when advances in telepresent robotics could give us all the physical sensations of being there?
Maybe I'm just being romantic but I do think there is some value to being there in person. We can learn a lot from robotics but it is no substitute for being there. And having a base on Mars, where there is a lot of travel to and from Earth, will create a powerful incentive for developing technology that will enable us to travel to other star systems.

Like the exoplanet recently found in Alpha Centauri 4 light years away?
I think you could figure out how to get there. With a nuclear thermal rocket you could definitely reach a tenth of the speed of light. It would take 40 years, though, which is a long time. You'd have to start off not too old if you wanted to see it.

What could change that?
There are some interesting things I've seen lately about warp drives. You can't exceed the speed of light but you can warp space and effectively travel many times the speed of light. That's kind of exciting. People have found increasingly smarter ways of minimising the energy required [to warp space]. Before, you would need the mass-energy of Jupiter.

Is a warp drive something that SpaceX, your space exploration company, could use?
Sure we'd love to have a warp drive. I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

As a pioneer, is it nerve-wracking to know that the world is watching you and SpaceX?
I'm getting more comfortable with it. It was super-white knuckles in the beginning. We made many mistakes. We only made orbit on the fourth flight. We reached the edge of space on flights 2 and 3, but didn't have enough velocity. If flight 4 hadn't worked, it would have been curtains for SpaceX.

Your Dragon capsule has just returned cargo from the International Space Station. When will you start taking astronauts?
We're hoping to do our first flight with people in three years. Actually, if somebody were to stowaway on the present version of Dragon they'd be able to go to the space station and be fine.

Will you be on the first crewed flight?
It's really up to NASA, our customer. I used to do quite dangerous things, like flying a fighter jet at low altitude. Then I had kids and companies and I want to see them grow up, so I've curtailed my dangerous activities. I'd like to go up, but I won't be the first. The very first flight will be on automatic pilot, so there will be no people on board.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

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Indian factory index at five-month high: HSBC

MUMBAI: India's manufacturing activity rose in November to its fastest pace in five months led by a rise in new orders, a private business survey showed on Monday.

The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) from HSBC India Manufacturing, which gives a snapshot of manufacturing health from output to jobs, climbed to 53.7 in November, compared to 52.9 in the previous month.

A figure of over 50 indicates growth in the sector while below 50 points to contraction.

"The manufacturing sector gained momentum thanks to a strong pick up in new orders, which lifted output growth," said HSBC chief economist Leif Eskesen.

The survey's findings -- based on data from more than 500 manufacturers -- come after India's economic growth eased to 5.3 per cent in the July-September quarter, extending a slowdown since the start of the year.

The survey showed that both input and output prices rose sharply in November.

"Inflation picked up again as higher raw material prices increased input costs for firms," Eskesen said, adding that data suggests the country's Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would continue to abstain from easing its monetary policy.

Indian inflation was at 7.45 per cent in October, still well above the central bank's comfort zone of around five per cent.

The RBI has kept its benchmark interest rate on hold since April due to inflationary pressures, disappointing government and business leaders who want a cut to boost the economy.

- AFP/jc

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Election, iPhone 5 top Yahoo's list of 2012's popular searches

The iPhone 5 was one of the most searched terms this year.

(Credit:
CBS Interactive)

The
iPhone 5 couldn't quite edge out the election to be No. 1 on Yahoo's list of most-searched terms for 2012. But it came pretty close.

Yahoo today released its data for the most-searched terms in 2012. The lists include information on "obsessions" (viral sensations), memes, gadgets, Olympians, sports teams, songs/music lyrics, TV comedies, "what is" searches, how-to searches, recipes, and several others.

At the top of the list of terms most searched overall, unsurprisingly, was "election," followed by iPhone 5. Rounding out the top five were Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, and Kate Middleton.

As Yahoo noted, politics saturated news headlines and ads, but people still searched online to see what was happening in the presidential election, as well as their own state and local races. As for the iPhone, anticipation for the device kept it toward the top of the list.

"iPhone was No. 1 last year, and the fact the iPhone made it back on the list is incredible," Vera Chan, a Yahoo Web trend analyst, told CNET.

It did end up the top-searched gadget of the year, followed by iPad 3,
iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy S3, and
Kindle Fire. Interestingly, iPhone 4 nabbed the No. 6 spot.

Kim Kardashian, meanwhile, reached the height of her popularity as the most searched person on Yahoo. She has been a staple in the Top 10 since 2009, the site noted.

Some of the top obsessions, or searches that became viral, in order, are iPhone 5, political polls, Mega Millions, The Hunger Games, and Honey Boo Boo. And the top-searched memes were Kony 2012, binders full of women, Hurricane Sandy fake storm photos, ridiculously photogenic guy, and Big Bird.

Search rankings from other sites have also been released in the past couple weeks. Microsoft's Bing search engine deemed the iPhone 5 to be the most searched for news story of the year. The debut of the device beat out the 2012 presidential election, the Olympics, and Superstorm Sandy, which followed respectively for the next top searches. The Honey Boo Boo reality TV show came in at No. 5 on Bing.

Over at Ask.com, most people wanted to know if Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were getting back together.

The site also noted that the iPhone 5 may "have made big waves in the press, but it barely registered a ripple among U.S. adults." It said 49 percent of people surveyed said they don't see a big difference between the iPhone 5 and the previous version of the smartphone.

Here's the top 10 searches overall from Yahoo:

1. Election


2. iPhone 5


3. Kim Kardashian


4. Kate Upton


5. Kate Middleton


6. Whitney Houston


7. Olympics


8. Political polls


9. Lindsay Lohan


10. Jennifer Lopez

And here are the top-searched gadgets:

1. iPhone 5


2. iPad 3


3. iPad Mini


4. Samsung Galaxy S3


5. Kindle Fire


6. iPhone 4


7. Nook


8. iPod Touch


9. Samsung Galaxy Tab


10. Samsung Galaxy Note

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Into the Sea

  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters

  A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.

  Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Sea of Fire

  
  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
  

  The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.

  The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Volcanic Flare

  
  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
  

  A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.

  The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Fiery Encounter

  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters

  “Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Point of Contact

  
  Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
  

  A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  

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