An Active Week on the Tectonic Planet

After an unstaffed week off, the USGS volcano list is back with 26 volcanoes shaking and belching and oozing. Indonesia tops the list with 5 eruptions but there are also 5 spewing mountains in South America and Central America (little Guatemala has 3 itself, but I don't think that's the reason for the influx of young Guatemalans spewing across the US border - trace that to the Bush lead congress of '06 and a thoughtful but bad law - of course, our current president is still blamed - and the fact that Guatemala is a corrupt, dysfunctional, dangerous place).
Two Italian islands make the list, hosting Stromboli and Etna that are both quite active these days, the Kamchatka peninsula, as usual, has 4 exploding mountains but only one on the nearby Aleutians of Alaska, Shishaldin, and Kilauea on Hawaii's big island is, as always, piling up more fresh basalt.
Japan, always on the list but with only 2 this week and Bulusan on the Philippines main island round out the large list.  If you want to see volcanoes, you don't have to go far around the Ring O Fire to see some active Earth action up close (although, I would guess most of these mountains have warning areas around them to keep the curious or death seekers out).  I'll continue to check the list and visit vicariously through the power of the wild, and wooly web.
Lots of heat is still trying to get out from deep inside this four and a half billion year old planet and these 26 volcanoes are a direct result.  There is likely lots more action along the 45 thousand miles of mid-ocean ridges circling the earth but at the bottom of the sea floor they go mostly unnoticed, quietly driving the plate activity that has lead to the 26 volcanoes on this weeks list.  Subduction gets the headlines but the sea-floor spreading is the cause, today (and everyday) on Earth.