eklemetti
Posts by this author
February 5, 2009
For all you Redoubt vigil holders...
According to AVO at ~12:30 (2/5/09):
Starting at 11:18 AKST (20:18 UTC), a burst of more intense seismic tremor occurred. This episode lasted for about 4 minutes and was the most most energetic since January 30. Radar and pilot observations confirm our analysis…
February 5, 2009
Bored with waiting for Redoubt to erupt? Well, Nevado del Huila in Colombia looks like it is also on the eruption watch list. A fly-over of Huila performed by Colombian officials (unclear from the article if it was done by National Emergency Management or INGEOMINAS) revealed a large lava dome…
February 5, 2009
A week ago, if you asked around, I'm sure most people would have thought Redoubt would have erupted by now considering all the seismicity and melting that was seen at the end of last week. However, volcanology is not an exact science, and here we are continuing to watch Redoubt tease us with signs…
February 3, 2009
Redoubt (above) is definitely taking its time. After catching everyone's attention last week with seismic activity, melting of its snow cap and increased gas emissions, the volcano is still, well, doing all those things, but not erupting. AVO's update are beginning to sound like a broken record…
February 2, 2009
Mt. Asama near Tokyo did, in fact, erupt within the "two day" window predicted by the Meteorological Agency of Japan. The reports this morning put the ash column at ~2,000 meters (~6-7,000 feet), so relatively small, but big enough to dust parts of Tokyo (~145 km away) with ash. No evacuations are…
February 1, 2009
UPDATE 2/1/09 5:02 PM Pacific: Indeed, Asama did erupt today. The eruption was relatively small, throwing ballistic clasts up to 1 kilometer from the vent and ash into the outskirts of Tokyo.
Redoubt in Alaska has dominated the volcano news as of late, but it is clearly not the only volcano on…
January 31, 2009
The "eruption watch" continues at Redoubt ... Saturday revealed that things are getting hotter at the summit near the 1989/1990 dome (see picture above that made Redoubt famous in 1989). The overflight of the volcano revealed new holes in the summit glacial and a multitude of muddy streams formed…
January 31, 2009
The Anchorage Daily News has an excellent article today on the Drift River Oil Terminal, a depository for oil collected from the platforms in the Cook Inlet. This oil terminal stores at least 1,000,o00 barrels of oil (see article for why we're not sure) and sits, well, at the base of Redoubt (see…
January 30, 2009
I am surprised as anyone how the public has become captivated by this geologic drama unfolding at Redoubt. Headlines about the volcano are popping up everywhere from CNN to the MSNBC to Slashdot to Popular Science - yes, even the nerds are enthralled, which might be the reason that the AVO servers…
January 29, 2009
It is either a slow news day, or something about the eruption watch at Redoubt has captured the attention of someone at CNN.com as it is now the headline on the website (see above). This is interesting (and odd) to me considering that, over the last few days, very little has changed in the status…
January 28, 2009
A quick note (as I'm buried in zircon): The Alaska Volcano Observatory has installed a webcam at Redoubt to monitor for an eruption. It is a little cloudy today (not the image above), so not much can be seen, but who knows, maybe you can catch the volcano in action if it erupts. The status remains…
January 27, 2009
Sorry for the headline, but this is a quick update to emphasize the media and their love of destruction. For example, Redoubt is, indeed, showing signs of a pending eruption, but how large of an eruption is anyone's guess. Most news sources have been fairly restrained with their headlines, such as…
January 27, 2009
The Colombian government has extended the evacuations near Nevado del Huila, taking 800 families out of the danger zone near the rumbling volcano. Huila has been making a lot of noise as of late, and Colombian officials in Ingeominas and the National System for Emergencies are worried that the…
January 26, 2009
I'm just toying with the new Wordpress Poll option, so I thought I'd throw this out at Eruptions readers. Enjoy! Feel free to leave comments justifying your pick.
[polldaddy poll=1315061]
January 25, 2009
Eruptions reader Ross was very right in pointing out that something is up at Redoubt. The Alaska Volcano Observatory has put Redoubt on orange alert for aviation and suggest that an eruption could occur with "hours to days". The most recent update from AVO says that a recent overflight of the…
January 24, 2009
It is hard to believe that the eruption at seem to come out of nowhere at Chaiten started over 8 months ago now, and apparently is still not showing many signs of abating. I did get a chance to see some great talks and posters at AGU last month about the Chaiten eruption, with the key points I…
January 24, 2009
We really don't know much about the current and ancient volcanism on Antarctica, but researchers from British Antarctic Survey claim they have found evidence of subglacial eruptions in western Antarctica, mostly in the form of ash and volcanic debris intercalated with the ice. It would not be…
January 21, 2009
I wouldn't normally use this blog for something like this, but google has failed me. When I was in New Zealand, I saw a video on the 1995-96 eruptions at Ruapehu titled Witness to Eruption made in, I believe, 1999. It had some excellent footage of the eruptions in the 1990s as well as the 1950s,…
January 20, 2009
Nevado del Huila continues to cause problems in Colombia. Over 4,000 people had to be evacuated today from the Belalcazar area after the volcano showed new signs of eruption. No description is given to exactly what those signs were/are, however after the lahars in November (2008), it sounds like…
January 19, 2009
One of the more impressive areas I visited while in New Zealand was the Waimangu Valley near Mt. Tarawera (above). The valley itself was created by blast explosions (phreatic explosions) during the 1886 eruption of Mt. Tarawera. These eruptions cut right down the axis of the rhyolite domes (most…
January 17, 2009
I made it back from New Zealand yesterday after spending the last two weeks looking at some of the most remarkable volcanic landscapes you could imagine. I'll add more detail soon for those of you interested in the volcanism of the North Island, but I'll leave you with a picture of yours truly in…
January 1, 2009
I just wanted to point folks to an interview in US News & World Report with the USGS scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, Dr. Jacob Lowenstern. He plays down the swarm, noting that things like this happened in the 1980s and that Yellowstone has seen over 80 eruptions in…
January 1, 2009
Right as Yellowstone is getting interesting (or at least had signs of interest), Eruptions is going on a bit of a break again starting January 2. This time it is because I'm off to the North Island of New Zealand to do some field work. I'll be headed to Tarawera (hopefully both the 1305 and 1886…
December 31, 2008
Yellowstone looks to be keeping everyone on their toes as we ring in 2009. The earthquake swarm reported earlier this week is continuing, with multiple events between 2-3.5 on the Richter Scale. Again, the folks monitoring the caldera - this time the Univ. of Utah - play down these events as…
December 29, 2008
Some more information is coming out about the activity at Koryak (aka Koryaksky) in Kamchatka. Russian geologist Alexei Ozerov says that the activity at Koryak (note: the image in the article linked here appears to have nothing to do with Koryak) has started with more power than the last known…
December 29, 2008
2008 is almost finished and we've seen one of the few high-silica rhyolite eruptions in the past 100 years at Chaiten in Chile. Chaiten was definitely not high on the list of potential locations for a rhyolite eruption worldwide. However, Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming definitely is high of the…
December 28, 2008
News is filtering in that Koryak (aka Koryaksky) Volcano in Kamchatka might be heading towards an explosive eruption. The details are scarce, but it seems that a breach on the northwest slopes of the volcano might cause an explosive eruption, however, it is not clear why this is. All this talk has…
December 24, 2008
Well, the holidays (and its visitors) have derailed my blogging ability, so in that note, I will officially declare the Eruptions holiday until 12/30. Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) to all the Eruptions readers - and I just hit the 100,000 visit mark, a great Christmas gift for me…
December 16, 2008
Today was a lot of talking and posters. Talking mostly about all things concerning Taupo and Okataina volcanism in New Zealand. Posters ran the spectrum from learning some nifty new tricks to extract zircon crystals from a crushed rock to what happens to clay when you breathe it into your lungs.
I…
December 15, 2008
I was chatting with a fellow from AVO and he called the simultaneous eruptions of Kasatochi, Cleveland and Okmok a "once in a millennia" event. So, enjoy it!
He also mentioned that the Kasatochi eruption released the most sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere since the 1991 Pinatubo eruption ... but…