Galapagos volcano erupts after 33 years of silence, threatening species Darwin studied

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How long before I read some nutters rant that its Gods Revenge? Take that Darwin!

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Well at least it’s threatening them with all-natural lava.

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33 years seems like a short span between eruptions to be causing problems for creatures that, per Darwin, have adapted to live in that environment.

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Not to sound morbidly uncaring about a significant scientific heritage site, but wouldn’t the Darwinian reaction be to use this cataclysm as an opportunity to observe the survival of the fittest?

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interestingly, it was one of darwin’s rivals who came up with the phrase “survival of the fittest”.

in several later editions of “origin of the species”, darwin included it – and, then came to regret it, greatly preferring the more accurate “natural selection” instead ( since scientists mostly can’t rank what is “most fit”, until after it has already survived. )

( wikipedia as partial citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest )

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There are going to be some very, very, mean finches come out of this.

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This is how you get flying fire-type Pokemon.

The Galapagos Islands are volcano spew that move eastward on the Nazca tectonic plate, which is submerging under the South American plate. This is why the newest, most west-ward island (Fernandina) is still very active as a volcano (and looks like Mars), the next island (Isabella) still has some volcanic activity, and as you get further east, they’re just more and more rounded lumps from erosion until they dip under the sea as they get close to the continent. It’s a weird conveyor belt.

So, yeah, that beak of yours? Evolved to crack seeds or something? It’s cute, kid, I’l admit; but it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as ‘Evolved to drink greedily the molten blood of the very earth’, does it?

Now buzz off before somebody gets hurt…

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Maybe Mother Nature has watched us fucking the place up with rats, invasive plants, black-sock-wearing tourists, and finally decided to show us how it’s done.

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