Supervolcanoes can sleep for centuries or millennia before producing incredibly massive eruptions that can drop ash across an entire continent.
One of the largest supervolcanoes in the world lies beneath Yellowstone National Park, which spans parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Though the Yellowstone system is active and expected to eventually blow its top, scientists don't think it will erupt any time soon.
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Yet significant activity continues beneath the surface. And the activity has been increasing lately, scientists have discovered. In addition, the nearby Teton Range of mountains, in a total surprise, is getting shorter.
The findings, reported this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Solid Earth, suggest that a slow and gradual movement of a volcano over time can shape a landscape more than a violent eruption.
For the past 17 years, researchers used Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to monitor the horizontal and vertical motion of the Yellowstone caldera — a huge volcanic crater formed by a super-eruption more than 600,000 years ago.
The movement of the caldera indicates what's going on underground where magma, or molten rock, is stored for the next eruption.
When magma builds ...   more »

By Ryan Jones
An Iranian defense official who reportedly defected to the West last week may be in possession of evidence that could be used justify military action against Iran.
Former Iranian deputy defense minister Ali Rez Asgari was secreted away from Turkey to an undisclosed location in Europe by Western officials.
This after he informed American officials several weeks earlier that he wished to defect and provide assistance in bringing down those running his country.
According to a London-based Arabic newspaper, Asgari was in possession of documents definitively linking the Iranian regime to the actions of Lebanon's Hizb'allah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the two main insurgency forces in Iraq - the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps.
Asgari was also well acquainted with Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as Tehran's preparations for possible military conflict with the US.
If the evidence - particularly regarding Iran's role in Iraq's instability - is verifiable, it could be enough to prompt Washington to begin putting war preparations in motion.
Original Source

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Americans can have a direct role in winning the war on terrorism by shutting down the flow of cash to terror-supporting nations through their investment decisions, according to an initiative presented in Washington.
Frank J. Gaffney Jr., president of the Center for Security Policy, says many Americans have been horrified to learn their money is being invested in publicly traded companies that do business with U.S.-designated state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran, Sudan, Syria and North Korea.
"For too long, far too many Americans have felt powerless in the face of the terrorists who are determined to hurt this country and other freedom-loving people," Gaffney said a presentation at the National Press Club in Washington.
Gaffney said some of the ways American citizens are financing terror are personal investments, public pension funds, mutual funds, college endowments and life insurance portfolios.
A study issued by Gaffney's group two years ago showed about 100 of the leading American public pension funds had $188 billion invested in companies that partner with terrorist-sponsoring regimes. The study, "The Terrorism Investments of the 50 States", indicated approximately $73 billion of that total was flowing to American enemies.
A new poll by Luntz Maslansky Strategic Research ...   more »

Tehran has lost contact with a senior Iranian officer serving in Iraq, according to London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat. Iranian source speculates that he may have been taken into custody by Americans
Roee Nahmias
Iranian Disappears  
‘Iranian general defected with classified documents’ / Roee Nahmias  
Former colleague says Ali Rez Asgari left Turkey with documents, maps that shed light on Revolutionary Guards' links to Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad; defector was privy to confidential information regarding Iran’s plans in case of conflict with US, he adds 
Three weeks ago the Iranian armed forces command in Teheran lost contact with a senior officer who had been serving in Iraq with the al-Quds unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to a senior Iranian official cited in the Wednesday edition of the London-based Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awsat.
The Iranian source said that it is still unclear why contact with the officer, Colonel Amir Muhammad Shirazi, was lost. "It is possible that the American forces in Iraq arrested him along with a group of 13 Iranian military and intelligence officials," he said, adding that this is just one of the scenarios being investigated by Tehran.  
Former Iranian defense minister's fate still ...   more »