eklemetti
Posts by this author
May 12, 2008
Looks like we should expect an eruption at Ruapehu (New Zealand) any time now. Tremors are ongoing, along with increased volcanic gas emissions (specifically SO2 here) and warmer temperatures in Ruapehu's crater lake. All of these ingredients point to a higher probability of eruption.
However,…
May 12, 2008
While I was looking at the gallery of Chaiten photos, I noticed another headline (in spanish) saying that the SERNAGEOMIN has issued a yellow alert for potential activity at Puyehue. Now, the "article" doesn't offer much besides pictures and maps, but apparently there has been an increase in…
May 12, 2008
Here is a gallery of some ridiculously cool photos from the Chaiten eruption ...
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May 12, 2008
I've been trying to keep up with the Chaiten eruption in Chile, but the news is just beginning to sound like a broken record: eruption continues, ash falls, don't know much else. However, it does sound like Chile is being realistic about people's chances of moving back to the town of Chaiten - 10…
May 10, 2008
Etna, one of Italy's (and the world's) most active volcanoes, has started erupting again. Saturday night the volcano erupted lava flows, although that is pretty much all the details in the article. The last series of major eruptions at Etna were last fall, but the volcano never tends to stay quiet…
May 10, 2008
Before we get too far, I wanted to make sure that folks understand that I'm just making educated conjectures on the nature of the eruptions I read about and by no means do I have any extra insight over those scientists on the ground at the eruption. I have a very limited set of data to examine -…
May 9, 2008
This marks a full week of eruption at Chaiten and the volcano shows no signs of abating.
You have to feel for Luis Lara. He is apparently the pointman for the SERNAGEOMIN in regards to this eruption and really, I think its anybody's guess what might happen next. Heck, we haven't seen many…
May 8, 2008
There are, indeed, other volcanoes erupting right now worldwide other than Chaiten. Of course, when you have an eruption like Chaiten going on, it is hard to pay attention to other eruptions.
Ubinas, Peru
Ubinas, in Peru, has been having intermittent ash eruptions for the past few months,…
May 8, 2008
Another day, another development at Chaiten. Military stationed near the volcano helping with evacuations reported "booming noises" and saw incandescent blocks getting hurled from the vent area. This suggests that lava is at the surface and potentially that the edifice itself is beginning to…
May 7, 2008
The eruption at Chaiten has now begun to have widescale effects on the region of Patagonia, beyond the ashfall. Air travel has been disrupted due to the amount of ash in the air. It is well-documented that ash posed a significant hazard to aircraft, so this seems like a wise move on the parts of…
May 6, 2008
NASA captured this great image of the ash plume from Chaiten, which has reached 15-km into the atmosphere.
Following this eruption, I'm sure there will be a lot of work into why no one had any clue an eruption of this magnitude was about to occur.
May 6, 2008
Well, this is getting rather harrowing. Volcan Chaiten, the Chilean volcano that sprung back to life last Friday after anywhere between 2,000 to 7,000 of quiet, is apparently erupting lava along with ash now. Sounds like its a good rhyolite/rhyodacite lava based on the description: "very small and…
May 5, 2008
For those of you who have missed it, Halemaumau Crater at Kilauea (Hawai'i, USA) have been experiencing new eruptions - some of them explosive - for the last couple months. These are the first eruptions at Halemaumau since the 1980s and the first explosive eruptions at Kilauea since the 1920s.…
May 5, 2008
Monsters and Critics has some truly fabulous images of the ongoing eruption at Chaiten in Chile.
The pictures of the extent of ash fall are quite remarkable. It is hard to tell exactly how deep the ash is or how far from the vent these pictures were taken, but one can imagine that if a helicopter…
May 4, 2008
Update 5/4/08: Looks like there is now officially a deathtoll for Chaiten, as an elderly woman died during the evacuations. The volcanoes continues to spew ash and I wouldn't be surprised if it did so for at least a few more days. There have also been reports of a sharp increase in earthquakes…
May 3, 2008
Update 5/3/08: SERNAGEOMIN (the Chilean Geologic Survey) is now concerned that the eruption of Chaiten may be a the precursor of a larger eruption, mostly owing to the long (~9,000 year?) repose time. This could be the beginnings of a southern Andean Pinatubo.
The towns around Chaiten are more…
May 3, 2008
I've been following these rumblings for the last few months, but it looks like Colombia's Nevado del Huila is ramping into a new cycle of eruptions. Huila lives in the shadow of its more famous brethren Nevado del Ruiz and Galeras, both of which have had recent and tragic eruptions. Huila is not…
May 3, 2008
Ruapehu, in New Zealand, is starting to show signs it may erupt in the near future. It is a fairly active volcano, last erupting in Septemeber of 2007, but it is also a rather hazardous volcano thanks to the crater lake at the top that could be breached. Combined with the development on the…
May 3, 2008
So, this isn't exactly about current eruptions, but I was able to watch the new (well, to the U.S.) Doctor Who episode centered around the 79 A.D. eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Now, to me, this was two of my favorite things (volcanoes and Doctor Who) fuses into one, and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't…
May 2, 2008
The big eruption news today is an unexpected eruption in southern Chile. In fact, it is so unexpected that depending on when and where you read about it, you might get a different answer to what volcano is doing the eruption. What we do know at this point is an eruptive column has been spotted by…
May 1, 2008
Welcome to the inaugural post on Eruptions, a weblog about volcanic eruptions, volcanoes and the people who live near them. I'm going to attempt to compile everything I can about volcanic eruptions currently going on worldwide on this weblog in a hope to foster better understanding of volcanic…