Hard to believe that the 2009 holidays are upon us and 2010 is around the corner. Eruptions will be going on a short break until the 28th of December - you likjley won't see any new posts here until then unless something big happens. However, there will be a special Christmas-themed MVP coming out on Christmas Day and the nominations for the "Volcanic Event of the Year". What is that, you ask? Well, for 2009, Eruptions will have a 2009 volcanic summary coming out sometime around New Years and at the end I'll name the 2009 Volcanic Event of the Year - some eruption or events leading to an eruption or leading to nothing that captured our attention more than any other volcanically-related news. If you want to look back on 2009, check out Eruptions archives for the year. Look for the post to nominate your "Volcanic Event of the Year" (I'll come up with a better name for it by the time I award it) sometime next week.
Until then, Happy Holidays and safe travels!
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Oh look Christmas tree lights in the shape of red trousers lol!!
I think a lava flow would definitely qualify as the wrong trousers.
I would like to nominate the eruption of Chaiten for event of the year. Yes, I know it started last year, but it kept going and going. And the eruption led to a challenging question: what to do about the town of Chaiten, which was evacuated due to lahars (and I think ash and the possibility of pyroclastic flows?) The discussions of Chaiten dealt not only with volcanic hazards, but also with Chilean politics and with some basic human questions dealing with natural hazards: do people have the right to continue to live in dangerous places? And if they choose to do so, what responsibilities to governments, scientists, and other groups (relief agenies, for instance) have to the communities?
S.T., I believe the lights depict the rare Pantaloian type eruption
I think that Sarychev Peak has to be the eruption of the year for this year. Unless Mayon does something big in the next ten days, not unlikely at this point.
Looks like Piton de la Fournase as had yet another eruption!
Chaiten would qualify as eruption of the decade IMHO.
So I was reading this at National Geographic and I was reminded of a hypothesis put forward several years ago concerning volcanism and thought I might ask your thoughts.
The notion is that dark matter, while only infrequently interacting with "normal" matter, imparts a little heat when it does so. As a particle of dark matter travels through the Earth, it is more likely to interact deeper down where the density of the "normal" matter is higher. The idea was that over time this heat can accumulate and is eventually released by periods of volcanism. Also, there was the idea that dark matter might be "clumpy" in its distribution and as we travel our path around the Galactic plane, we encounter greater and lesser amounts of it. This could, it was thought, make for periods of more heating resulting in periods of greater volcanism. Some several thousand years after passing through an area more richly populated with WIMPs, we would see an increase in volcanism as the heat worked its way up to the surface. I also read that it could account for the creation of mantle plumes as a quantity of material convects upward like a blob from a lava lamp.
Just wondering if there has been any further thought along that line. It has been several years since I first read that and have heard nothing more since. The recent National Geographic article served to jog my memory.
Have a Merry Christmas Erik and a very good New Year.
I am fascinated by Chaitén for more than one reason, extensively discussed on the volcanism Blog and here and therefore would like to nominate this Volcano.
Regards,
Ron