The big geology news right now is the M8 earthquake in American Samoa that generated a killer tsunami (which made it all the way to the Bay Area in California).
Mammoth Mountain in California's Long Valley region.
In more benign, volcano-related news:
- The aviation alert level at Redoubt in the Alaska has been returned to Green/Normal, which means that for all intents-and-purposes, the eruption that started earlier this year is over. The new dome totals ~91 million cubic yards of lava, slowly adding back to the north side of the volcano.
- Eruptions reader Doug C. pointed out to me that there was a couple small earthquake swarm (see the update for 9/28/2009 and 9/29/2009) this week at Long Valley/Mammoth Mountain in California. The earthquakes were all fairly small, in the M1 range - and deep, at ~20 km / 12 miles depth. Just shows that there might be magma burbling around down there somewhere, but this doesn't seem like much beyond some transient noise (and the alert level stays at Green/Normal).
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Here it is, my attempt to recap a year's worth of volcanic events. By no means is this supposed to capture every event, but rather the highlight/lowlights and what most captivated me during 2009. I'll be announcing the winner of the 2009 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year tomorrow.
Waimangu…
Image courtesy of Calvin Hall. Taken 3/28/2009 during an eruption at 10:59 AM3:28 PM.
UPDATE 4/2/2009 at 11 AM Pacific: I'm moving this up from the comments, but Eruptions reader Doug Cole pointed out (and I have no idea how I missed this) that Redoubt has a new webcam! This one is at the DFR…
Here's some news bits for all you volcanophiles. Enjoy the weekend!
Ubinas in Peru steaming away in June 2007. Image courtesy of Eruptions reader Mike Lyvers.
There has been a lot of press lately on the theory that a large eruption from an ancient volcanic field in China (the 260-million-year-old…
Not much new to report today, so I'll just add some notes to the two volcanoes in the news right now: Mayon and Redoubt.
Mt. Redoubt in Alaska, taken on September 23, 2009. Image courtesy of AVO/USGS, taken by Game McGimsey.
Mayon:
The volcano continues to show signs that a major eruption is in…
Did you notice the long period (circ 20 second) signal coming from Redoubt Webicorders around 09-29 10:30? (http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webicorders/Redoubt/RSO_EHZ_AV.php) What is the significance of the period length?
Karl
It appears that was an earthquake but not on Redoubt itself.
I have a post up today on the Bishop Tuff, which erupted out of Long Valley Caldera at 760 ka, if readers are interested...
The tsunami wave photo. You will need to hit the 'prev' button on the screen about 13 times to get to the wave photo. Sorry that is the way the link works
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=1060056…
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Callan
Great write up on your visit to Long Valley. Did you get a chance to make it over to Devil's Post Pile or is that area still closed?
I wonder why there was no comment on the massive quakes that triggered Tsunami Warnings and killed scores of people within 24 hours.
The Quake that hit Indonesia happened in a region that includes the the most explosive volcano's which includes the region of lake Toba, the remnant of a eruption that almost caused human kind to go extinct.
There is a suspect connection between powerful quakes and volcanic eruptions.
The Pinatubo eruption happened within a year after the region was hit by a big quake.
There is also a most fascinating link between solar minimum (low solar pressure) and seismic and volcanic activity.
All these theories can now be tested as we find ourselves in a front seat row as nature is conduction a gigantic experiment.
Due to the current solar minimum, cosmic ray levels are up 19% compared to the last maximum values which allows us to test the Svensmark theory stating that the stars in our universe dictate cloud cover on earth which is responsible for warming and cooling cycles in our climate, instead of man.
It would be a discovery if we would find a confirmation of a link between our sun with volcanic eruptions.
There are reasons to assume this link is real.
During the Medieval Warmth period there were ample volcanic eruptions. The same goes for the past century which showed an active sun.
But during the Little Ice Age, the Maunder- and Dalton Minimum earth experienced about five VEI 7 eruptions per century.
These truly are interesting times.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/29/nasa-cosmic-rays-up-19-since-last…
Although there were tsunami warnings along the coast of California, the waves weren't significantly bigger than normal.
Just don't camp on naturally occurring CO2 vents if you're on Mammoth Mountain.
@Origuy: Look at footage of a real tsunami (there's an awful lot thanks to cameras being common and the tragedy in the Indian Ocean); you don't get "bigger waves". You have normal waves and in many cases the water level is observed to receed (if the tide is low during high tide, run away). Then the whole ocean seems to swell and wash over; that is a big wave, but it's so big you probably don't see it coming, you just see the water rising quickly. You will see your usual wind-driven waves on top of the big 'un.
Short story: You get 1 *huge* wave, not an increase in the size of the usual waves you see.
Ron: five VEI 7 eruptions per century during the Little Ice Age??? Could you give details please, because apart from Tambora 1815 I'm not aware of any in the last 1000 years.
Tsunamis are poorly understood by the average person. Even after all the Indonesia footage folks expect to see an enormous breaker, the kind surfers drool for.
They're more like a really quick extremely high tide. Normal waves are tall and wide but short from front to back. Tsunamis can be miles from front to back, so the wave just keeps piling up onto a shore.
Every documantary I've seen goes ahead and shows huge foamy breakers from the North Shore. Great for catching a curl, but not accurately informative with respect to tsunamis.
Kick but! view of from the Halemaʻumaʻu Overlook cam
enjoy
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d166/tie-dyelady383/Halemaumau1.jpg
According to the news there were 4 tsunamis; I won't have time to look up any seismic records though - I'd expect 4 large shocks if there were 4 waves but my local newspaper doesn't mention multiple shocks. I wonder if there was anyone out on a ship in the region who can tell us about the "maremoto".
You dont need 4 shocks to get 4 waves.
Most tsunamis are caused by a vertical displacement of the ocean floor, either up or down on one side of a fault. That sets a large mass of water basically pouring towards whichever is the new low area. Thats your first wave.
Subsequent waves are just the sloshing effect, just like ripples in a pond when you drop in a rock.
Worst part is the water level going down just before a wave hits. It draws the curious closer to the beach.
Back to Long Valley the earthquakes there continue. This morning witness a 5.0 quake it was 5.6 km deep
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/ci14517500.php#d…
Oh and EO picture of the day has an earthquake chart
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40532
Last count is about 57 quakes 4.5 or greater in the area. 10:40 Mountain time.
I flew over Redoubt twice on a commercial flight in July. Some aviation warning! The view of the degassing lava dome was great though, so I'm not complaining.
Springy under a kind organs or action with this disorderliness
Ugh I hate airports. The men's bathroom here doesn't have any urninals! Just a bunch of women screaming. Lame.
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