I'll be busy for a couple days when I'm off at University of Iowa, so I thought I'd leave this thread available for you to talk. Specifically, I'm interested in what you might be interested in seeing (or not seeing) on Eruptions. I've tried a number of features (Mystery Volcano Photo, Q&A, Volcano Profiles) - do you want to see more/see less of these features with the usual volcano news? More/less coverage of volcano research from the literature? Let me know what you think and how things might be better.

See you next week!

Highlights (not including Mayon) include:

• Strombolian eruptions and small pyroclastic falls at Arenal in Costa Rica.


• 3 km / 10 000 foot ash plume from Bagana on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea.


• Rumbling noises, ~4.5 km / 14 000 foot ash plumes and incandescence were all reported coming from Fuego in Guatemala.


• Steam-and-ash from Popocatepetl near Mexico City reached 7.4 km / 24 300 feet.


• Satellite images of Shiveluch revealed a large thermal anomaly - the new lava dome - along with multiple ash plumes reaching up to 5.5 km / 18 000 feet.
Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/siusgs_weekly_volcano_activity_25.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/siusgs_weekly_volcano_activity_25.php Global Volcanism Program Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:19:53 -0500 It has been a slow week for volcano news (and a busy week for me), so I apologize for the abundance of MVPs this week. I've tried to find a good one in the many images submitted to me by Eruptions readers, and #15 is just one of those photos. If you have images you'd like to share with me for MVP or other uses, please email them to me at . (However, I should note that you can't win by identifying your own volcano photo!)

MVP #13 was Lava Butte near Newberry volcano in Oregon. It is a lovely small scoria cone that you can walk/drive to the summit. From there, you get a spectacular view of the central Oregon Cascades and Newberry. I took this photo sometime in 2002 (I think).

MVP #14 was an old photo of the summit cone of Mt. Vesuvius went it last erupted in the 1940's.

Current Standings:
Don Crain - 2
gijs - 2
volcanista - 1
Lockwood - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
The Bobs - 1
Boris Behncke - 1
Damon Hynes - 1

Here's #15, submitted by a reader ... Enjoy!


Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_15.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_15.php Vesuvius Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:43:47 -0500 Well, now that Lockwood got #13 on the first try, I will have to reach back into my vault to attempt to find a stumper ...

Current Standings:
Don Crain - 2
gijs - 2
volcanista - 1
Lockwood - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
The Bobs - 1
Boris Behncke - 1

Good luck.


Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_14.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_14.php Mystery Volcano Photo Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:48:39 -0500 Busy week leading up to Thanksgiving for me, with a talk to give later in the week and quizzes a plenty!

The Mystery Volcano Photo series has a couple clear frontrunners now, with both Don Crain and Gijs with multiple points.

Current Standings:
Don Crain - 2
gijs - 2
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
The Bobs - 1
Boris Behncke - 1

Here's #13 ... good luck!



Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_13.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_13.php Mystery Volcano Photo Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:48:49 -0500 Just a note to all my readers: I've discovered today that Gmail has been eating (sending to the Spam folder) a significant amount of emails I've received to eruptionsblog gmail.com. This includes some of the questions submitted to Dr. Behncke (and other emails I'm sure) and comments pending on the blog. Sorry about the inconvenience, especially if I haven't replied to your email. I'll try to catch up over the weekend.
Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/the_email_eating_machine.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/the_email_eating_machine.php Eruptions Blog Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:42:38 -0500 We've arrived at Friday. The local time is 8:45 A.M. Set your watches accordingly.


Batur, Indonesia

Some news!

• More evacuations have been authorized near Mayon as the volcano continues to show signs of significant eruption. Activity has quieted some since Tuesday's explosion, but PHIVOLC still expresses concern that an eruption in impending within weeks. I'll also add a link to this story on Mayon, not because it has new news, but because it has quiet possibly the worst accompanying photo for this story I've seen so far. I mean, really, couldn't you have found some stock picture of Mayon instead of using what looks like a still from Krakatoa, East of Java? It is like posting an article of President Obama and throwing a picture of Bill Pullman from Independence Day in with it.
• Speaking of being annoyed, there is a video about how Roland Emmerich produced the Yellowstone eruption in 2012. Really nothing to do with volcano science, but you could revel about all the wrong things in the portrayal of the eruption.
• There was a very brief note about a special alert for Batur in Indonesia after seismicity increased at the volcano, which hasn't erupted since 2000.
• If you're like me, Friday is a great day to look at pretty pictures - and Seed posted a great gallery called "Earth on Fire" of volcano-related images by Bernhard Edmaier. Striking stuff.
• Somehow I forgot to post this week's USGS/SI Weekly Volcano Report, so here it is.
• Finally, Hawai'i 24/7 has an article on the activity at Halema'uma'u and whether it can be predicted. Not a lot of news in there, but it is interesting to see how dynamically the crater vent system and lava lake behave.
Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/friday_flotsam_more_mayon_evac.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/friday_flotsam_more_mayon_evac.php Mayon Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:50:45 -0500
Mayon volcano in Albay province, Philippines.

Yesterday, Mayon in the Philippines, which has been showing signs that it might be headed towards a significant eruption, produced an ash plume that reached as high as 3.5 km / 12,000 feet according to some reports. Evacuations of villages near the volcano have begun, while many other towns have been supplied with wireless announcement systems to help with evacuating if the volcano continues to show signs that it will experience a significant eruption.

Last week, there were reports that a new dome was forming at the summit of Mayon and if this new dome continues to grow, the likelihood of an explosive eruption that could prompt the evacuation of nearly 300,000 people increases. The volcano is experiencing ~1 earthquake per hour and a glow persists at the summit. PHIVOLCS has left the volcano at Alert Level 2 (of 4).

Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mayon_to_have_significant_erup.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mayon_to_have_significant_erup.php Mayon Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:01:33 -0500 The volcanoes of Italy must have known that Dr. Boris Behncke would be in the Q&A spotlight here at Eruptions because three have shown signs of new activity over the last week. Here is a quick summary based on information from Dr. Behncke and Sonia Calvari of IGVN.


Etna erupting in 1989. Image by Dr. Boris Behncke.

Etna
On November 6, Etna in Italy appears to have entered a new phase of activity. The volcano had not produced any explosive events since July 4, 2009, but since 11/6, Etna has experienced a series of deep-seated explosive events - some of which suggest there is a lava lake just below the surface in the SE Crater - described as "a new glowing pit opened on the lower east flank of the Southeast Crater at Etna's summit, without ejecting any solid material so far by Dr. Behncke. The full update from the IGVN for Etna:

The previous Etna's effusive eruption, started on 13 May 2008, finished on 4 July 2009. No explosive activity has been observed at the summit craters for a few months. On 6 November 2009 deep explosive activity resumed at the SE Crater. The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia monitoring web cameras detected pulsating red glowing from the eastern base of the SE Crater, produced from a vent within the depression that cuts its eastern flank. Explosive activity is quite deep and visible as red glows only at night, and no ejecta have been found on the snow that covers the summit of the volcano. This activity is still going on as on today, 10 November 2009.

In related news, a recent health study suggests that living near Etna increases people's chances of thyroid cancer, with rates twice as high near the volcano on Sicily compared to the rest of the island. The study indicates that the cause might be increased levels of radioactive elements such as ²²²Rn in drinking water near Etna.

Stromboli
Not to feel left out, Stromboli produced an explosion and lava flow on November 8. The lava flow was relatively small (60 m) and confined to the floor of the summit crater. The full news from IGVN:

Stromboli volcano on 8 November produced a major explosion from the vents in the central crater zone, fragmenting and blowing out part of the eastern flank of the cinder cone. The explosion produced an eruptive column more than 350 m high that was drifted SE by the wind. The explosion was soon followed by a lava flow erupted from the widened central vent. The lava flow spread within the crater depression for a few minutes, and reached the maximum estimated lenght of ~60 m. Lava flow within the crater depression formed also between 22 and 25 April, on 3 May, and on 30 August 2009. After the 8 November explosion, the explosive activity returned to the background levels.

Vulcano
Finally, Dr. Behncke mentioned that since late September of this year, Vulcano has experienced a gradual increase in seismic activity and fumarole temperatures (italian). However, it seems to have stabilized for the moment.

Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/busy_week_at_the_italian_volca.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/busy_week_at_the_italian_volca.php Etna Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:40:52 -0500
Geologic and structural map showing the extent of the Campi Flegrei caldera on the north of the Bay of Naples, Italy. Image courtesy of INGV.

One of the writing assignments I always enjoyed in high school was the "compare and contrast". You could sit back and look for stylistic differences between writers and texts - potentially offering signs about the nature of the writers motivations.

I still find it fun - case in point, two article I read about the research drilling that is about to start at the Campei Flegrei in Italy. The Campei Flegrei is a large caldera system that most recently produced Monte Nuovo, a scoria cone on the north shore of the Bay of Naples. It also produced a very large eruption ~39,000 years ago that erupted ~150 km³ (along with the Roman myths of the entrance to Hades). It has produced a number of VEI 3-5 eruptions over the last 4,000 years.

Researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology's (INGV) Vesuvius Observatory in Naples plan to do some research, exploratory drilling up to 4 km into the caldera to look at the innards of the magmatic system - and to read the record of previous eruptions from the system. This depth of 4 km is thought to be much shallower than any magma chamber under the Campei Flegrei. Of course, there are some who might say that drilling into an active volcano like the Campei Flegrei is dangerous - and Dr. Buttner and Dietrich from Univ. of Wurzburg rightly point out that there is a minute chance that an explosive event might happen if the drill hit a pocket of vapor-saturated silica magma - however, the benefits of reading the history far outweigh this very remote chance of a game-ending eruption caused by the drill.

Anyway, what does this have to do the articles? Well, one article I read (the first one I read, in fact) was in Popular Science. The other was in New Scientist (sent to be me by the folks at Blogging Pompeii). Talk about stark differences in science journalism!

My notes on the Popular Science article read like a litany of science writing/volcano media frustrations:




• Who are the "researchers"?


• Who are the "critics"?


• How deep will the drill hole go?


• "Supercolossal"??


• The drilling in Iceland was stopped because the rig broke, not because the fear of a giant eruption (as this implies).


• The drill in Iceland did hit silicic magma - unlike what they say here!


• The research is trying to "avoid" eruption? - rather we want to learn about previous eruptions to understand the likelihood of future eruptions.


• Campei Flegrei is not Vesuvius!


• Why is there a giant CGI eruption of Vesuvius(?) part of this article??



I could go on ... I was fuming: "What is wrong with you people?"

I decided to read the New Scientist article to fan the flames of anger, but thankfully it didn't. The first thing I noticed is that the Popular Science article was more-or-less cribbed from the New Scientist (or some other primary source) - the same sentences and phrases appear in both. However, what seems to have happened is the Popular Science article chopped out all the specifics like who the researchers and critics are, the depth of drilling, the real "science" in the article. It left out the quotes from the scientists and their pros and cons. More or less, it stripped down the news of the drilling to: DRILLING WILL KILL US ALL. Thankfully, the New Scientist article at least shows some moderation in the fear mongering (right down to the toned down title and picture of - gasp! - the Campei Flegrei hydrothermal field instead of doomsday CGI volcano). It means we can all get back to the science here.

Drilling in an active volcano for research or geothermal purposes isn't really anything new - we've done it at Hawai'i (where they hit magma), in Iceland (where they hit magma), at Mt. Unzen in Japan (where they drilled into the conduit), in the Philippines and more. Although a few drill rigs have been destroyed in the process, either through small explosions (and even smaller lava flows), none have lead to anything even close to a true "eruption" of the volcano. Our human drilling is nothing compared to all the geological processes that can make conduits for magma - faulting, explosions, volatiles - what we're doing is the equivalent of getting pricked with a tiny needle and worrying about the bloodloss. Sure, if you hit the exact right artery, you might be in trouble, but the chances are small for disaster. So, as I've suggested before, while it appears that drilling can increase seismicity, there doesn't seem to be a lot of good evidence that we can unleash an caldera-forming ignimbrite with our drilling ... maybe we just like to flatter ourselves about the effect we can have on the planet.

However, buried in the New Scientist article is this little gem that I personally find much more fascinating. A paper by Roberto Isaia due out in Geophysical Research Letters apparently suggests that "hazard planners should prepare for eruptions in decades or less" (my emphasis) at the Campei Flegrei. Wow! This is apparently predicted partly due to 3 meters of inflation at Pozzuoli since the 1960s. Now, why isn't this the news here?

Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/the_tale_of_two_articles_are_w.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/the_tale_of_two_articles_are_w.php Campei Flegrei Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:50:32 -0500 Alright, there has been some complaints that the last few MVPs have been too easy, so I tried to reach back and find one that might be more of a challenge for you all. Maybe this photo will do the trick ...

Current standings:
Don Crain - 2
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
gijs - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
The Bobs - 1
Boris Behncke - 1

Good luck!


Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_12.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/mystery_volcano_photo_12.php Mystery Volcano Photo Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:39:16 -0500

It seems like I've been stepping on a lot of people's toes lately, so in an effort to foster more camaraderie and less belligerence between the "old media" (this is not derogatory, but rather refers to anything pre-internet news source or classic journalistic source) and "new media" (this includes internet-era news sources, bloggers and the like), I'd like to put down my thoughts on the state of science journalism on the internet today.

1. I do not think all media is bad at science. There are a multitude of great science sources out there that handle the issues quite well, mostly associated with professional societies like AGU or APS or through more popular-slanted journals like Science or Nature.
2. I do think that science journalism (not science writing) is vital in news media and bloggers cannot fully replace - heck, I don't have time to track down and talk to all the players regarding a specific issue and that is where science journalists earn their bucks.
3. That being said, if you just look at an aggregator like Google News and look up a current interesting science topic, you'll find that a vast majority of sources are just not very good. Sure, there are the Live Sciences of the internet that handle the material well, but on the whole, there is a lot of misinformation being disseminated.
4. In my opinion, the problem is that many of these news sources are second-, third- or more-handing the news rather than looking at the primary source. This is because (a) they might not have anyone that can understand it; (b) they don't have the time to do it or (c) they don't care.
5. I also think that many media sources will look for the "hook" before looking for the real ramifications - this is the "eyes" problem with internet news: you need to get people's attention and fast. It started in TV news, with sensationalist coverage (Al Capone's vault anyone?) and the internet has embraced the format.
6. I also think the rampant antiscience sentiment in a lot of the US, combined with a lack of proper science education has promoted a generation (or more) that either (a) doesn't care about science and/or (b) doesn't understand enough to question some of these questionable sources.

So, how do we solve this?




1. We need to make science fascinating again. It has become so myopic in many fields - mostly thanks to the current academic structure to publish or perish. People are interested in science, just maybe not the Nd isotopes of minerals found in a specific hydrothermal pool in upper Mongolia.


2. We need our new Carl Sagans, Arthur C. Clarkes or Stephen Goulds - people who understand science and can advocate for it. I have trouble thinking of anyone filling those roles anymore.


3. We need to strength science education at all levels - and I'm not talking about standardized tests. I'm talking about teaching the scientific method and making people want to think about science and how it is done. That is what makes people interested, not memorizing the formulas for 100 minerals, but rather how they form and what that can tell us about the Earth. Science should be a hands-on event that fosters thinking rather than memorization - the current educational system in the US emphasizes the later thanks to the love of testing we now have.


4. We need people who understand science and have been trained to become journalists. I hate to say it, but maybe we don't need another 1,000 science Ph.D.s trying to become professors, but rather they should try to bring their love of science to the public through journalism and writing.



I think that covers a lot of what I think about the state of science journalism on and off the internet. I think the real problem is likely the deeper, societal anti-science sentiment that doesn't foster scientific thought. I also think that we've taken a lot of the wonder out of science - that sort of Victorian mentality that anything is worth pursuing because it might be interesting. The business model that only science that will have a practical end result or that will have a successful outcome has neutered a lot of the ingenuity of science. Science is about looking at the universe and thinking "this is amazing, how does it work?" and somehow we need to get back to that both in science as a discipline and society as a whole.

Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/on_the_media_or_press.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/on_the_media_or_press.php science journalism Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:44:47 -0500
Piton de la Fournaise erupting on November 5, 2009. Image by Julian Balboni in Clicanoo.


Eruptions reader Richard Oliver pointed out to me that Piton de la Fournaise on Reunion Island erupted (in french) on Thursday night. The volcano produced at least two lava flows that reached the ocean flowed downslope to ~1970 m above sea level, but by Friday morning, the seismicity and eruptive activity had waned considerably. Local residents of the island went out at night to see (in french) the lava flows, with the typical words of warning from local officials. The timeline for the eruption (in french) looks like this (all local time):

20:50 - An eruption begins in the south cliff inside the Dolomieu crater
21:05 - The crack extends and opens on the southern flank near the edge of the Dolomieu crater
21:20 - A second crack opened on the eastern slope of the cone summit of the Piton de la Fournaise (Marco crater).

By the middle of the night, two lava flows were visible on the flanks of the volcano. However, new reports say that by 9:00 on Friday morning, the harmonic tremors at Piton had returned to normal. Yesterday (Thursday) morning, the volcano did experience a M3 earthquake (in french), ~12 hours before it started to erupt, suggesting that this seismicity might have triggered the eruption (or the earthquake was a result of the eruption process - a bit of chicken and egg). However, the volcano had been inflating over the past few weeks, so it seems that an eruption was becoming more likely. This is the first eruption at Piton de la Fournaise since January of this year.

Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/new_eruption_overnight_at_pito.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/new_eruption_overnight_at_pito.php Piton de la Fournaise Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:43:09 -0500 The latest of volcano news from around the world, brought to you by the USGS and Smithsonian Institute Global Volcanism Program (and especially Sally Kuhn Sennert!)

Highlights this week include:

• Karangetang in Indonesia produced a couple 3 km/10,000 foot steam-and-ash plumes according to reports from pilots.
• Soufriere Hills on the island on Montserrat has had quite a few pyroclastic flows over the last few weeks since the volcano started erupting again. Mix that with some heavy rainfall and lahars were produced as well.
• The alert level is still at Orange at Karymsky in Kamchatka, which produced a number of ~3.7 km/12,100 foot ash plumes.
• Lava flows from the Thanksgiving Eve Breakout at Kilauea continued to flow towards the ocean, while the Halema'uma'u vent continued to steam from the lava pond near the surface at the vent. The NASA Earth Observatory posted an image today of the current Kilauea lava flows.
• The alert level at Anak Krakatau in Indonesia were lowered this week, back to 2 (out of 4) after both seismicity and plumes have tailed off since August.
Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/siusgs_weekly_volcano_activity_24.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/siusgs_weekly_volcano_activity_24.php Global Volcanism Program Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:33:04 -0500 Lava flows from the 2005 Mando Hararo eruption in Ethiopia.

Alright, I had been attempting to ignore this story because it was, well, a little uninteresting at first, but it apparently has legs so I will tackle it.

Slashdot has a post proclaiming:
'Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two, creating a new ocean, say experts. This is due to a recent geological crack which has appeared in northeastern Ethiopia.'

OK. Where do I start?

This is based on a recent study published in Geophysical Research Lettersthat found that the recent volcanism in Ethiopia is related to the active rifting up and down the east side of the continental - an area already known as the Ethiopian/East African Rift. The continent is known to be pulling apart, forming the valleys and deep lakes (like Lake Malawi and Victoria) that have active volcanoes like Oldoinyo Lengai in them. This is nothing new, we've known that Africa is splitting apart for decades - and the rifting has been going on for millions of years.

From what I can gather from the study, the real find is that the fissures formed during the 2005 eruptions at Mando Hararo in Ethiopia are actually part of that rifting - i.e., the crack is part of the "crack" that is splitting the continent. This is not to say that the rifting is starting NOW due to the crack - rather that the fissure is a new manifestation of the active rifting between Africa and the Arabian subcontinent. As with most fissures in actively rifting area, magma came up the cracks - always nice to have ready-made conduits - so this process of cracking and erupting is akin to what we might expect at a mid-ocean ridge (except, at this point, on a continent).

So yes, at some point in the future, water from likely the Red Sea (also an actively rifting and growing ocean) will spill into the East African Rift system and create a new "ocean." However, this process has been going on for millions of years and to come out and misconstrue the study by Ayele and others in GRL as saying that the activity in 2005 started the rifting or that the crack is the "start" of a new ocean just shows that the mainstream media (a) doesn't know how to read science beyond what other media are saying about it and (b) how quickly the real findings of a study can be lost in the murk of speculation.

Read the comments on this post...]]> http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/the_rifting_of_africa.php http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/11/the_rifting_of_africa.php Volcanoes in the media Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:16:55 -0500