volcano tourism
eklemetti | August 23, 2010Finally, a chance to catch up a bit ... !
Yasur erupting in May of 2010.
Some news from the world of volcanoes:
The BBC has a series of videos one the fallout from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption - including a look at the area around the volcano and how the economy has been affected by the eruption. However, things seem pretty quiet at the summit of the Eyjafjallajökull summit where snow can begun to settle without melting - and the Icelandic Met Office appears to think that the eruption is more or less (but not officially) over. And take this press release as you will, but a recent study by…
eklemetti | July 22, 2010Tourists hiking next to an active lava flow on Pacaya in Guatemala in 2006.
I'm flying back to Ohio today after a successful few weeks of fieldwork/paper writing. Apparently I have a pile of tomatoes waiting in our garden in Granville ... !
On to news:
To go with the news that lava flows from Kilauea creep ever closer to structures in Kalapana, the NASA Earth Observatory posts its first volcano image in a bit. The shot shows the steam-and-gas plume from the Halema`uma`u Crater in Kilauea's summit caldera. You can also see some video of the lava flows near Kalapana as they move along the road…
eklemetti | June 28, 2010News!
The summit crater lake at Gorely in Russia, taken on June 21, 2010. Image courtesy of KVERT.
Eruptions readers have been abuzz about how KVERT will be closing shop (yet again) at the end of June. This would, of course, leave no local monitoring and expertise in the very active Kamchatka Peninsula and Kuril Islands in Russia. Right now Shiveluch and Gorely are both showing signs of increased eruption (along with other volcanoes in the arc). In fact, Gorely, which hasn't erupted since 1986, looks primed to have an eruption, with increased tremors, steam-and-gas emissions and a new summit…
eklemetti | June 13, 2010Volcano Island in the caldera lake at Taal.
The Philippine government is upping its concern about an eruption at Taal - and cracking down on tourists and resorts trying to get near Volcano Island in the volcano's caldera lake. Tourists are only allowed to take boat tours in the lake that go halfway to the island - which doubles as the most recently active vent at Taal - and if resorts on the lake bring tourists any closer, they may face repercussions from the government. Of course, this still isn't stopping tourists and natives from going to the island anyway. Now, one thing interesting to…
eklemetti | June 6, 2010Looking for some volcano news - you've found it.
A shot of volcano "tourists" near the erupting Pacaya. Photo by the Associated Press.
Eruptions reader Dr. Boris Behncke dropped a note that Kilauea has not one but two active lava lakes right now. The lava lakes can be seen on the webcams for the Halema`uma`u Crater and the Pu`u O`o flank vent. The latest status update from June 6th by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory talks about both the summit and rift activity (video) on Kilauea as well. Meanwhile, Hawaii 24/7 has a piece in the Volcano Watch series about whether residents of Maui need…
eklemetti | May 14, 2010Time to play a little catch up ...
Eyjafjallajökull erupting in early May. Image by and courtesy of Martin Rietze.
A brief update on our friend Eyjafjallajökull - the eruption plume from the volcano was considerably taller yesterday, reaching 6-9 km (20,000-30,000 feet), but prevailing winds meant the ash hazard was confined to areas in the middle of the North Atlantic and northern parts of the British Isles. However, even as the ash hazard for Europe wanes (for now), you shouldn't forget the amount of ash being dumped on parts of Iceland. If you want to see some stunning images of the…
eklemetti | April 23, 2010A night shot of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption showing the glowing plume from the strombolian explosions and the Aurora Borealis overhead.
A quick update on the current activity at Eyjafjallajökull eruption: the eruption continues at the summit craters, but there seems to be less ash being erupted, at least yesterday. The latest update from the Icelandic Met Office suggest that things are settling down - but floods are still periodically being produced by melting of the glacier:
Volcanic tremor has been similar the last 24 hours. GPS stations around Eyjafjallajökull showed deflation…
eklemetti | April 12, 2010The Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption at night on April 10, 2010.
I mentioned this earlier in the Monday Musings column, but the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in Iceland that started last month seems to be at a nadir of activity since its inception. This is being interpreted by the Icelandic Met Office as a sign that the eruption itself may be winding down after less than a month of activity - the earthquakes and inflation associated with the eruption appears to be subsiding along with the actual eruptive activity. Now, there is always the chance that the fissure will…
eklemetti | April 12, 2010Lots to do!
Tourists flock to the Eyjafjallajökull-Fimmvörduháls in Iceland.
The media does love the term "supervolcano", and a number of Eruptions readers sent me a link to the article on the dreaded submarine "supervolcanoes". I would delve into this article from Live Science, but it sadly again does a dreadful job with a lot of this - remember, "supervolcano" is a made-up word by the BBC with no strict definition, so trying to say there are a dozen supervolcanoes worldwide is just silly. And why does it take multiple paragraphs and multiple mentions of "scientists" before they get a…
eklemetti | April 5, 2010Quick hits for a Monday morning (however, the week did have a good start).
Lava fountaining on March 27, 2010 at the Eyjafjallajokull-Fimmvörduháls eruption in Iceland.
The Eyjafjallajokull-Fimmvörduháls eruption is still going strong with two active fissure - and a lot of tourists poking around as well. If you watch the webcams closely, you can even see the cars and hikers trekking up near the erupting basaltic fissure (except today, as there seems to be a blizzard). Not to say that people are getting a little, well, nonchalant, but there is a story of serving meals cooked on lava up by…
eklemetti | March 24, 2010The fissure vent eruption near Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland. Image by Ãorsteinn Gunnarsson, March 22, 2010.
It has been hard to keep up with the flood of news from the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland. Eruptions readers have done a good job with getting new images, videos and info up as they happen, so you might want to peruse the comments for those sorts of tidbits (along with discussion of what might be happening).
Here is the latest:
The eruption at Fimmvörduháls (considering the eruption is actually occurring between the ice caps) could last weeks to months, which isn't too…
eklemetti | February 17, 2010The rhyolite domes of Chaiten in Chile in an undated photo. Note how much of the previous Chaiten Caldera has already been filled by the new domes that started after Chaiten erupted in May 2008.
CNN International has a report that the National Emergency Office (ONEMI) in Chile has reinforced the "red alert" status of Chaiten (spanish). The volcano, which has been erupting since May 2008, had recently settled down to slow, but constant, dome growth. However, over the last 3 weeks, seismicity has been increasing at the rhyolite caldera, suggesting that we might be heading towards an upswing of…
eklemetti | February 1, 2010First off, I wanted to thank all of the Eruptions readers for making January the most popular month ever on this blog. I suppose I should give an assist to Yellowstone, but really, thanks for coming to the blog, reading the posts and engaging in all the great discussions that go on within its (cyber)walls.
KÄ«lauea's east rift zone eruption site. Image courtesy of the USGS/HVO.
On to some news!
I suppose you've made the big time when you're in the New York Times, and sure enough, the current Yellowstone earthquake swarm is in the Old Grey Lady. Nothing much new to read, but summarizes the…
eklemetti | September 2, 2009The move is complete (finally) ... so maybe I can settle down a bit, right? Right?
The world's deadliest volcano?
Anyway, a few things I stumbled across this week:
Forbes Traveler.com has a list boldly titled "World's Deadliest Volcanoes", which more or less is a slideshow of nice volcano pictures and some dubious ranking - mostly based on death toll (and cribbing a bit from IAVCEI's "Decade Volcanoes"). Of course, I find it amusing that they made a list of "deadliest volcanoes" and then proceed to tell people (read "tourists") what to do near the so-called "deadly" volcanoes. I suppose it is…
eklemetti | August 31, 2009First day of class! As you might imagine, I'm a little scattered (well, with classes and the fact that we bought a house over the weekend. You know, just that).
The Tavurvur Crater at Rabaul erupting in 1994.
News!
The Examiner.com (SF) has a slideshow and brief article on the current excavations of ruins buried by the Santorini/Minoan eruption that occurred ~3950 years ago. The eruption wiped out much of the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea, but whether there was anyone actually still living on the island when it happened is still a mystery. It seems that most of the Minoans left the…
eklemetti | August 23, 2009Some brief notes before I dive headlong into the exciting world of faculty orientation!
A small steam plume coming from Turrialba in Costa Rica. Photo taken in August 2007.
There are some preliminary reports of the state of wildlife (and everything) around Kasatochi Island in the Aleutians from the US F&W and USGS team that headed to check out how the island has recovered since last year's eruption. The shoreline has been radically transformed by the ash and although some seabirds have made attempts to nest in the loose ash, it doesn't seem to have been very successful. However, not…
eklemetti | July 27, 2009Again, sorry about the paucity of posts. Getting prepared to move 3/4 of the way across a continent will do that. Look for the next Volcano Profile, this time for Erebus in Antarctica, to be posted sometime in the next week or so.
We did get some news over the weekend of a large eruption at Shiveluch. The volcano in Kamchatka has been active all summer, but on Saturday it produced a 5,000 meter / ~23,000 foot ash plume. This was accompanied by 170 earthquakes and multiple avalanches, likely produced by the collapsing dome on the summit of the volcano. There is a little more information about…