Wednesday Whatzits: Cleveland heats up, blowing ash from Eyjafjallajökull and 10,000 days of eruption in Hawai`i

"10,000 Days in Hawai'i" sounds like a good title for a book.

Thanks, Erik, for all the ongoing information.
Satellite Aqua Modis got a good shot from some amount of ash, blowing from Eyafjallajökull out to sea today.
http://i46.tinypic.com/1zqgavs.jpg
Detail from: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?2010146/crefl2_1…

Volcanic dust clouds approaching Mulakot airfield on 25 May 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZFygs0WVQc

To celebrate the 10,000th day, I'm watching the Hawaii webcams all day-- maybe Pele will grant us some fine views;-)

The Pu'u 'O'o cam is quite romantic today.

There are other volcano activities in Kurils Islands and Kamchatka. See AVO-Homepage.
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/index.php
Color Codes have changed.

Someone thought after the cessation of Eyjafjallajökull's activity the world of volcanoes would be gray and bland?

No way: yesterday (25 May 2010), there was increased fumarolic activity at Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador, which caused apprehension among inhabitants of nearby towns and villages. The Instituto GeofÃsico of Ecuador (IGEPN), in a special report (www.igepn.edu.ec/VOLCANES\COTOPAXI\ACTIVIDAD\2010\BoletÃn Especial Cotopaxi 25 mayo 2010.pdf), underlines that the fumarolic activity is normal and not an indicator of increased volcanism or an imminent eruption. Let's hope they're right because a new eruption at that volcano would not be a happy thing.

Then, today (26 May 2010), Tungurahua (also in Ecuador) ended a very quiet period of several months with a powerful explosion that generated small pyroclastic flows and an eruption plume 7 km tall. The IGEPN report is here: www.igepn.edu.ec/VOLCANES\TUNGURAHUA\actividad\2010\Informe Especial Tungurahua 26 may No 07.pdf

Finally, there are press reports about destructive mudflows from Reventador, still in Ecuador, which damaged a road and a bridge: here's a report (in Spanish): www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=397779

I understand the fact that there are still some shallow earthquakes. Indeed, they are provoked by the deflation of the volcano after the last eruptive phase. And there is even a slowdown of the rythm of these earthquakes as the deflation phase has stopped. On the other hand, there are still less numerous and less frequent deep earthquakes (18, 19, 20 km). How the bottom of the crust can be affected by the movement of shallow deflation above the magmatic cavity supposedly located between 3 and 5 km below the surface? If not, what happens in the depth of the Eyjafjöll?

4 EQs under Hamarinn (the central volcano responsible for the Bardarbunga system) in the last 12 hours. All of them are very close to each other.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/#v…

Here is an great high quality video from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption made by Sean Stiegemeier. http://www.vimeo.com/11673745 One of the best videos of the eruption that I have seen.

Hello Every one,
today has been an interesting day indeed.

I have just learned that the 3d biggest supervolcano,lies in Norway,( in the ocean just outside Nordland county) Vøringplatau(Vøring Escarpment).The caldera there have been meassured to be about 40x50 km long, and several km deep, its tought its not active, but still its impressive to read about.
and there is more.
Under Oslo, there is one large supervolcano, that is meassured to be 35 km wide(Ramnes caldera)

oh joy, Im really amazed I tough we had only fissures and smaller eruptives here.

All Volcanic areas in Norway are tought to be extinct today. But its really interesting to know that such enourmous Volcanic forces has been active in this country too.

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B8ringplat%C3%A5et

sorry that the link is to Norwegian wikipedia,. but there is an English link on that page about those volcanic areas,.
enjoy..

-thor

Thor, would you care to swap? All the active volcanoes here in Iceland for the extinct volcanoes in Norway. Its getting pretty tiresome all this volcano activity on this island. Bardarbunga, Katla, Hekla, Grimsvötn, Ãræfajökull, Eyjafjallajökull, Laki, Eldgjá, Snæfellsjökull...............

#6 Thanks for the post, Boris.
From what I read, there are in Equador three volcanoes at stake:
Tungurahua: "present activity is considered to be low, but tends to increase."
El Reventador: "this volcano began present eruptive process in 2002."
Cotopaxi: "The Geophysical Institute rejected fears that the volcano, located in the central Equadorian Andes, was showing any signs of abnormal unrest, even though fumarolic activy had been observed from various regions near Lacatunga city."
Wonder why I've been looking for volcanic activity so far away in Iceland with so much taking place next door. Although this is one of only two countries in South America (with Chile) that does not have a border with Brazil, it's still close enough to grant us, Brazilians, with big ash clouds.

#10 #11 @Steinn: I understand your concern and the sufferings caused to Icelanders by volcanoes, but take our last too posts (Thor's and mine) as a comfort. Somehow you should be flattered, because, from this blog's point of view, we sort of envy you for the beautiful volcanoes you've got. Think of it as if you people are closer to "the heart of Mother Earth".
Thor, I envy you too - we don't have something even similar to an extinct caldera in our country. :)

Occasionally some people have noted a few quakes over at Bárðarbunga. I took the image from www.seismology.harvard.edu/projects/unusEQ/Iceland/index.html and extended the APPROXIMATE scale to get a better idea of the depth, and then filtered out the quakes from the last 5 days in that area to get a reasonable fit to the graphic in order to get an idea of the quake relationship to the hypothesized magma chamber(s). One idea that is presented by the listed site, is that there is a two layer magma chamber there, with the depth of the lower magma source possibly even lying under the crust. (mantle)

The relationship of the quake positions to the background graphic is close, but no where near exact

http://i48.tinypic.com/ib9rbb.png

#14 @Lurking: Very interesting, indeed. Do you think that this deeper chamber could respond for supposed connections to Katla?

@Renato I Silveira

The deeper chamber (magma source) may very well be the mantle plume itself. At least one reference I've see stated that the source might be beneath the crust itself. GrÃmsvötn and Katla both lie on the Eldgjá fault system that stretches from there off to the SW, so yes, I guess the "lower chamber" (which is likely the mantle plume itself) could be connected. And, from a mantle plume perspective, probably has a lot to do with a lot of Iceland's volcanoes.

What's up on Jon's heliocorder?

Not sure about Jon's helicorder, but it has been showing steadily increasing activity for the last 24 hours or so. I suspect Eyja is not finished and we should be alert for some activity. From what I have seen so far, Icelandic volcanos waste no time and give little warning when they spring back to life.

They are rather sneaky...but the last 2 lines show a huge jump

@renee, There is a strong wind in this area at the moment. You are just seeing that on my Hekla sensor.

In swedish news this morning some "experts" has flagged for an impending eruption at the Katla caldera. Now this is in newspapers so in regards to how journalists write and want attention I am inclined to read this as a sceptic.

However if you look at the larger picture of tremors since the start of the eruption you can see that there is only one station which is coming alive again. And that is HVO station, the closest one to Katla on the south east side on the glacier.

Anyone know what that may be? The plot seems to be erratic.

Daniel, I heard that in the radio too. Newspapers refer to a report from "University College London's institute for risk- and catastrophe reduction "

@Daniel, swe, It is a background noise (wind, ocean, etc..). However there is a interesting spike at snb (SnæbÃli) station. That might be a dike intrusion in Katla that took place yesterday I think given the time scale of those plots that IMO has. This might also be some other type of volcano related noise that I cannot explain in details. There also appears to be a lot of earthquakes that are only recorded on snb station (maybe two or three other stations, but might be low quality), and do not show up on the map for that reason. Earthquakes appear as spikes on IMO tremor plots.

Before Katla starts spewing ash and making glacier floods we are going to see a lot of earthquakes inside the caldera of Katla. That might last for up to ~2 hours or longer before the eruption starts. Until then I am easy on what I see on the IMO plots.

Hi all! Missed you as I was offline lately. I just saw that 4 deeper EQ popped up quite near Hekla. http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/

For all: I made a drawing of my Cryptia for all you guys that don't want E to quiet down lol :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryptia/4643795037/

@Dagmar (#25)
Awesome picture. You certainly got some talent. It made me laugh. :-)

Thanks Daniel! I thought you all deserved a drawing for all the wonderful posts and the friendly discussions at this great blog, I have learned so much :-)

Hi all,
Has anyone seen the UCL report what they said to been published yesterday?

I did'n find it from UCL's site or from elsewhere.
It would be interesting see the whole report especially it's now on the news worldwide.

"A report on the eruption and its ramifications,
will be published on May 26th to mark the launch of the
UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction"

http://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/department/news/2010/05-mcguire.html

Eruption at Kirishima today according to Tokyo VAAC, the first one since 22nd August 2008. Ash to 5000ft.

The volcano is in close proximity to Sakurajima, which has drastically reduced activity over the last couple of weeks.

@Jón: How would you interpret the Grimsfjall (grf) station? The 2-4Hz band has been going quite strong. is it a lot of EQ´s or just cultural noise? (Cultural would be a stretch since its on top of the glacier).

And HVO is still showing alot of spikes. I guess the relative increase could be wind, ocean etc but the spikes?

And i sould agree with you on the SNB satation as it increases in tremors and at the same time there are quite alot of spikes on the 1Hz band.

A report (in Japanese) has been published by the Japanese Meteorological Agency about the Kirishima eruption. It contains two interesting photos, evidently taken by webcams, and the first shows a beautiful, typical "cock's tail" phreatomagmatic steam and ash jet.

www.seisvol.kishou.go.jp/tokyo/STOCK/monthly_v-act_doc/fukuoka/10m05/50…

@Timo #28, I've done some research on the internet regarding that report, but it apparently has not yet been published on-line. However, the latest (25 May 2010) issue of EOS (the AGU weekly newspaper) has two articles on Eyjafjallajökull, one entitled "Eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland" and written by Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson and others, the other discussing "Aircraft and Volcanic Ash a Key Focus of EGU Meeting".

Here is something I found of the content of UCL report: (still not the org. report yet..)

"The authors warn that an eruption of Katla is likely
to be preceded by new earthquake activity - volcanic activity at the site
has increased by over 200% in recent days"

http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/international-news/121358-stark-forec…

@ Daniel,swe and others about the "Katla news" Is this a journalist hype or rumors or is this some kind of facts?

@Lena: Well since the eruption first started at EF journalists have been known to paint a grim picture so if this is based on facts or fiction in order to sell more papers I do not know.

However looking at the journalists trackrecord I tend to take this bit of news with a grain of salt..Or a bucket even. :-)

If the journalists ask a volcanologist or geologist if Katla will blow the answer would be "Katla will have an eruption sooner or later. Not possible to know exactly when"
And the headlines in the papers would say "Katla is about to erupt!!"

Thanks, tack Daniel
bucket of salt until "real facts" is coming...

Re Katla "news", yesterday on tv news here in Ireland they interviewed some Icelandic scientists, who said that the activity under Katla is completely normal and until they see high rates of inflation and much higher seismic activity, they are "quite calm about Katla", as they put it.

@Daniel, swe, It is wind noise and glacier noise. But the glacier makes a lot of noise because it moves.

But there is something happening at Snæbýli SIL station according to the tremor plots. It is showing abnormal signals in forms of spikes on the tremor plots. This is not background noise. This is something else. What exactly I am not sure of. But given past experience (events of 17th of July 1999) I would think that the signals are indicators of magma change inside Katla.

hraun.vedur.is/ja/kotlufrettir/oroi.html - Tremor plot from the year 1999 in regards to events in Katla that year on 17th of July.

The whole report in Icelandic.

hraun.vedur.is/ja/kotlufrettir/jar_strain.html

Very strong activity at Turrialba today. The webcam shows a very strong plume.

Thor et al, if I lived near Yellowstone I would cheerfully trade calderas with you, the more extinct the better =) .
BTW, I read that Japan is going for geothermal energy in a big way....would be nice for the Icelandic economy if you could get them to join a joint technology development effort.

I have made a screenshot of the activity of Turrialba which shows, that the plume is rising up through the whole crater and not only on one spot as it was before. Here is the link of the webcam: http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/vulcanologia/videoturri.html Strange: The actual helicorder display (05/27/2010) is not working right now. I also want to mention the helicorder showing an EQ at 05/26/2010 (12) http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/sismologia/sismogramas_linea.htm Any ideas what is going on there?

Thanks for posting that report Boris. Some nice images there!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1281890/Icelandic-volcan…

Hmmm Paddypower has 9/4 on Katla going off! Anyone fancy a flutter?

The increasing activity of the Yasur volcano since January 2010 led us to upgrade the hazard
rating of this volcano at Alert Level 3 starting from May 27, 2010.

http://www.geohazards.gov.vu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&…

@Thor #10 - With reference to "supervolcanos" in Norway, the Voring Basin is written up as part of Large Igneous Provinces (Svensen and Planke 2008).

"The volcanic basins offshore Norway

The Vøring and Møre basins offshore Norway are two prime examples of volcanic basins in the northeast Atlantic (Figures 2 and 3). A huge magmatic complex of dominantly subhorizontal sheets (sills) of basaltic composition intruded the Cretaceous Vøring and Møre basins before, and during, the northeast Atlantic continental break-up about 55 million years (Myr) ago (Skogseid et al., 1992; Berndt et al., 2000). This represents the second pulse of the NAVP (also known as the NAIP; the north Atlantic igneous province) for which the initial pulse occurred at about 61 Ma (e.g., Storey et al., 1998)."
http://www.largeigneousprovinces.org/index.html

I have enjoyed this animation of the opening of the Atlantic: http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fossils/geol/globe.htm

Bet everyone would have been glued to webcams then -- if not "running for one's life".

Good morning all -
@25 Dagmar - HAHA - thank you. Now you should make some t-shirts or posters with that design for this group of die-hard E-enthusiasts to wear with pride! :)
@10 Thor - see Iceland Review for today for an article about pumice/other eruption products found on the sore in Norway - (probably Hekla from the Markarflot floods, it said.)

@ Dagmar ...and yes I want a t-shirt with your drawing :)

# 24 Dagmar:

That is soooo cute! And you draw real well. Thank you for sharing.

# 45 Birdseye: that t-shirt idea is good! I like it.

Hello to everyone and hope we are all o.k !

The quiet before the storm perhaps, or just my imagination.

Dagmar, your drawing was superb and very apt;brought a big smile to my face, he he...

Long Valley had more earthquakes overnight. Very shallow.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/special/Long_Va…

The windspeed has been more or less constant today (around 8-10m/s) which would create some "noice" on the tremorplots on http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html and http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

And as i wrote before the SNB station is interesting just as Jón mentioned as it is increasing steadily tremorwise.

But if the wind has remained stable and that would mean that the wave sounds would remain more or less the same why is HVO showing the same steady increase? Its not keeping a stable high level, its increasing by the hour.

I know its still on a low scale considering that the main activity showed a three or four times larger tremors but if you look at both SNB and HVO they are showing similar patterns and they are both on the east side of Katla.

@Jón: What are the GPS stations showing? Cant get any plots from there. :-/
Any inflation worth mentioning?

Good morning or evening as the case may be. :-)

Dagmar, that drawing of yours made me laugh! Great Job. It remindes me of a display they used to have at Knott's Berry Farm not far from Disney Land in S CA. It was of a little red devil making the noise and eruption of a volcano. As kids, we all wanted to gather at that spot and just watch what he was doing. Really cute display. And it had sound to it, too.

Jen, if I could get hold of the seizmologist I was communicating with for a short time, I would be able to find out if the quakes there just north of Mammoth Lakes are techtonic or magmatic. My guess right now is techtonic. I must admit I don't remember seeing a swarm in that area before, but, then, I have been watching the quake maps of CA since I got online and I had Win95 then. I it has been about 17yrs or something like that. I am not exactly sure. LOL It is an interesting swarm and depending on where it is exactly, it could be right under one of the Mono Craters. That area is ridded with craters and domes as George has pointed out. If you have Google Earth, I bet they would look really cool. They did on the MS program that the local TV has for interactive weather. You can really see the chain of craters. I wish I could fly over them to really see what it looks like in person.

Bonjour à tous, hello all,

I am a French woman. I live in north eastern France near the Swiss border.
I'm the blog from the beginning and thank you all for followed. We learn every day. Forgive me for bad English.I like the drawing Dagmar. Merçi et à bientôt

Lookks like 2 men are nea Eyjafjallajökull frá Ãórólfsfelli web-cam taking photos :O).

Iceland looks like such a beautiful country, especially when it is alread4 90F/33C at the Noon-hour here in Arlington, TX.

Looks like there have been about 5 deep quakes from Wed-today near "E". Looks like more magma may be moving onto the main eruption chamber. Has there been a recent update from the folks at the Iceland Met office? They have not updated the status report for today.

Two more deep quakes just occurred near "E", per the Iceland Met office. "E" is still VERY MUCH alive :O)!

DateTimeLatitudeLongitudeDepthMagnitudeQualityLocation
Thursday
27.05.201016:42:1063.627-19.71819.5 km1.199.012.9 km WSW of Básar
Thursday
27.05.201016:24:2063.626-19.70519.3 km0.899.012.4 km WSW of Básar

@Diane N CA and Long Valley fans...

Long Valley 27 May 2010 Profile View Looking East

http://i47.tinypic.com/s49nop.png

Long Valley 27 May 2010 Profile View Looking North

http://i48.tinypic.com/25z0cj7.png

Eyjafjallajökull Quakes 25th to 27th, perspective view.

http://i46.tinypic.com/2hcpab5.png

#56) Thank you for the awesome graphics. I am no expert, but it looks like "E" is refilling her magma chamber at the moment.

Has the Iceland Met or their volanologists had anything to day about the new activity. Is "E" inflating again? I don't know how to read the GPS deformation information :O)!!

@57 Robert Bordonaro, the Icelandic Met Office are no longer going to post daily updates of 'E' because of the down turn in activity. The next update will be Friday.

#58) Thanks a million. I am sure they are watching "E" closely. The HVO/PORO and Mulakot web-cams are all shrouded by have/fog/drizzly conditions at the moment.

M7.6 Vanuatu

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010wubj.php

@56 Lurking:Very good graph, certainly seems to say a lot !

OMFG.... I can't believe I am sitting here watching a live shot of an ROV at a leaking oil fitting in ultra deep water... beating on it with a wrench.

http://i47.tinypic.com/34ew55v.png

Okay... enough hilarity, I'm off in search of digital terrain info for Vanuatu. Don't get your hopes up, seismic data there has no where near the resolution we have seen in Iceland.

It's really getting difficult to find the right real estate deals these days. As they say: "location, location, location". ;)

www.adelaidenow.com.au/doomsday-fugitive-visited-vanuatu/story-e6frea6u…

Article on "volcano chasers" in USA Today includes quotes from a few of the excellent photographers we've talked about here.

www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-05-27-Volcano_chasers27_ST_N.htm

Oww thanks all :-)

27-MAY-2010 17:45:29 Mag 5.2 35.0km VANUATU ISLANDS
27-MAY-2010 17:24:23 Mag 5.7 35.0km VANUATU ISLANDS
27-MAY-2010 17:14:48 Mag 7.2 36.1km VANUATU ISLANDS

Does anyone have a good link real-time wave data? Half the ones I'm finding don't actually have data. ;)

Tsunami warning is in effect due to the quakes in Vanuatu.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=1&id=pacific.2010.05.27.173725

With this latest quake at Vanuatu, I am wondering if it will affect Ambrem or Yaser. The quake was rather shallow so it remains to be seen what if any affect it will have on Vanuatu's volcanoes. It may not do anything.

Princess Frito, I did a bit of searching for you, but I haven't found anything yet and I have to got to an appt. I am sure someone has already found a site for you by the time I get this sent. :-)

Hey Janet and everyone, do you know of any wave height buoys in that area that are actually working? It seems Australia is more interested in paying for fancy webpages that describe their tsunami monitoring system than having buoys that actually work. )-:

Tsunami warning has been cancelled.

@70 ~ Princess Frito, I've been looking for info on the buoys also. So far I'm finding the same thing as you. Non-working buoys! Wow...that's sad.

TANNA VOLCANO
19°32â0âS 169°26â30âE Summit 1184ft (361m)
Current Vanuatu Volcano Alert Level: Level 3

The increasing activity of the Yasur volcano since January 2010 led us to upgrade the hazard rating of this volcano at Alert Level 3 starting from May 27, 2010.

http://www.geohazards.gov.vu/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpag…

There is a interestin little swarm 12 miles South of Lee Vining, Eastern slope of it Inyo craters.

@66 Princess Frito; You may know these already but
WILBER (through the IRIS web site: http://www.iris.edu )

QuakeView, MichSeis (http://geo.lsa.umich.edu/MichSeis )

Live Internet Seismic Server (LISS) through the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL) of the U.S. Geological Survey (http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov ) for near real time data

University of Arizona Seismograph Station (http://www.geo.arizona.edu/saso )

Southern California Earthquake Center âSeismocamâ (http://www.scecdc.scec.org/seismocam )

Princeton Earth Physics Project (PEPP; http://lasker.princeton.edu/index.shtml )

COSMOS Virtual Data Center for strong motion accelerograms (seismograms recorded with instruments that have a response that is approximately proportional to acceleration) are available for viewing or download (http://db.cosmos-eq.org/ click on "Earthquakes," then select an event of interest and click on it, such as the Loma Prieta, CA earthquake under the Northern California listing, then select a station and click on "ViewPlot of Data")

@71 ~ Janet, yes it's pathetic. Don't get me started lol.

So, do we know if "Tanna" is a boy or a girl? Anyone? ;)

By chance, I just found this:

Electric Ash Found in Eyjafjallajokull's Plume, Say UK Researchers
ScienceDaily (May 27, 2010) â In the first peer-reviewed scientific paper to be published about the Icelandic volcano since its eruption in April 2010, UK researchers write that the ash plume which hovered over Scotland carried a significant and self-renewing electric charge.
Read more:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100527013219.htm
Journal Reference:
1.R G Harrison, K a Nicoll, Z Ulanowski, T A Mather. Self-charging of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash plume. Environmental Research Letters, 2010; DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/5/2/024004

WOVOdat.org (which is referenced at wovo.org but doesn't work) sounds promising at the concept stage and might have some value if they ever finally get it functional:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1117/

Update on Eyjafjöll seismic activity : on the last 24 h, there was 10 small earthquakes and 6 were at great depth. One of the seismic station (hvo) is exhibiting a slight increase of the tremor. At the beginning of May a nice picture showed that the rising of magma can last 48 hours. Then, there will be perhaps an answer to the suspense during the week-end.

@66 Princess:http://www.iris.edu/dms/seismon.htm for map and seismic data available on links at bottom of page.
I sent it earlier but it got held up for some reason.

Eyja now putting out a lot of steam, showing on both Thoro and Mulakot cams !

And possibly ash but still too hazy to tell for sure.

Hey! Look at the size of that plume on Múlakot and Hvólsvóllür cams!

Mt Baekdu? ever heard of it?
Information on possible future eruption? or Trash. Worth a skim read

Mountain Baekdu, a dormant volcano on the border between North Korea and China, is showing signs of a possible eruption in the near future, experts warned Tuesday. "Baekdu could erupt anytime soon," said geologist Yoon Sung-hyo at Pusan National University, who has monitored the nation's highest mountain (2,744 meters) for any changes. "A variety of indicators are backing this scenario. The thing we should try to predict is when. It's clear it's imminent." The geologist cautiously raised speculation that an eruption could take place in a couple of years. According to historical records, Baekdu was an active volcano. Major activity in the 1960s created a caldera on its peak, whose circumference is nearly 14 kilometers with an average depth of 213 meters and maximum of 384 meters. Volcanic ash from this eruption has been found as far away as the southern part of Hokkaido, Japan, according to records. Small-scale eruptions were recorded roughly on a centurial basis - in 1413, 1597, 1668 and 1702. The latest volcanic eruption recorded at the 2,744-meter mountain was back in 1903. The mountain has stayed inactive since then, leaving it categorized by scientists as dormant.

The Chinese government developed the mountain and surrounding areas as a tourist destination drawing tens of thousands of visitors from around the world each year - many of them from South Korea. Yet, "unusual signs," including minor trembling among others, began to emerge in June 2002 and a 7.3-magnitude earthquake rattled areas in the vicinity of Baekdu, according to geologists. The frequency of the quakes has notably increased since then. "It seems that a shockwave from the quake reactivated magma approximately 30 kilometers beneath the mountain," said Prof. Hong Tae-kyung at Yonsei University's department of earth system sciences in Seoul. "The more frequent these are, the higher the possibility of an eruption." According to a recent TV program based on interviews with officials at a Chinese institute monitoring volcanic activity at Baekdu, minor quakes which are too weak to be felt by human beings take place nearly 100 times per day. "We saw the number steeply increase in recent years," the program quoted an official as saying. The program showed crumbled stone steps leading toward the top of a scenic waterfall at the heart of the mountain, explaining they recently fell apart due to frequent trembling in the region. Among other indicators backing the scenario of a future eruption is the height of Baekdu, which has grown nearly 10 centimeters since 2002. Experts say bloated magma, a precondition of eruption, is gradually pushing up the height of the mountain as well as the temperature on the surface. On October 1, 2006, a Russian satellite found the surface temperature of the mountain notably higher than before. The finding came just days after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear bomb test in its northern region, indicating the test was a catalyst reactivating the magma, analysts said.

The increase in the number of withered evergreen trees on the mountain may be another indicator. "It was confirmed that pollutants from the surrounding areas are not to blame. If so, toxic gases spewing from the volcano could be a possible culprit," Yoon said. If the eruption is major in scale, it would bring about massive consequences to the two Koreas as well as the surrounding states, including China, Japan and Russia. "The amount of volcanic ash from the most violent eruption nearly 1,000 years ago was enough to cover the entire the Korean peninsula to a height of 1.2 meters," he said, citing scientific studies. "Baekdu's caldera contains nearly two billion tons of water. If it evaporates into the air all of a sudden mixed with volcanic ash of a major eruption, it would be blown to the east and consequently engulf Vladivostok in Russia and Hokkaido in northern Japan."

Baekdu Mountain is stratovolcano whose cone is truncated by a large caldera, about 5 km (3.1 miles) wide and 850 m (2,789 ft) deep, partially filled by the waters of Heaven Lake.

@78 Thank you kindly Stigger. Now if we could only find some wave height buoys in tsunami-prone areas that actually work ...

Maybe it's only steam, but pushing up with far more pressure. The FLIR cam doesn't show much heat at the rim, though...

Hi Renato,still a lot of haze around the base of the plume.Hard to tell visually or with the Thermal Imager. I would give real money for the Voda Cam to be online !!!!

@83 Hi Princess, click on a buoy you are interested in and it takes you to the data page (with plots)
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/obs.shtml

@Adrian, I think our Lady is back. She was just giving the time for us lurkers to proceed with our to-dos and now she wants our attention!:)
But I think winds are not as strong as in the last two days, so maybe that's why steam is reaching higher altitudes.
Have you, or anyone else, noticed there's a small plume from the cliff to the left of the crater? Yesterday it was more visible, but looks like it's still there.

full moon

@86 Hi again Stigger. That was the site that was getting me frustrated. The two buoys northeast of Australia haven't been giving any data for a while now. )-: I appreciate your help though~!

@Dagmar: I loved your drawing (I looked at some of your others too), you are very talented.

@everyone: Thanks to you all for making this a wonderful place which I love coming back to.

Hi Renato,yes I can see the steam to the left.A lot of steam coming off the top of the Glacier in general.

Why is it impossible to get the Vodafone cams anymore, i haven't been able to get them for at least a week now ?
Not sure it's time for the popcorn just yet but if and when 'E' does start again i hope it doesn't affect people's livelyhoods to bad. One thing i know however is that Icelanders are a tough bunch .

Thanks so much Anita!

The plume is getting even bigger, if I'm not mistaken

I was poking through the Vodafone archives and ran across this shot from Thorolsfelli. The gleaming water is so eye-catching that I almost didn't notice that _other volcano_ formed by the shape of the light. :) Looks a little like Mt. Rainier. Or Arenal.

twitpic.com/1rm9tr/full

@ 89 Last try Princess; https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/index.html Firefox doesn't like it (asks you to make an exception) but interesting.

OK! People from Europe, that's it for tonight.Good dreams. I'll be back from work later, hope SHE won't fall in sleep again. See you!

hello every one,.
mila cams are still up, and Eyjafjäll looks goood tonight,.
nice plume and not bad weather.
The cams at mila is still up and running.

http://eldgos.mila.is/english/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

btw, im so sorry Sweden , for not getting in to the finals in eurovision, your song was great.

@95 Thanks a million Stigger!

Experts, does it look like there's a bit of inflation at SOHO?
hraun.vedur.is/ja/gps/predorb/soho_enu_p.png

Location map for reference:
hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/gps/stationmap.html

@92 Zander,Hi, Voda cam has been down since May 21st.I remember that there was a problem with it some weeks ago and that Anna from Rekjavik knew someone in connection with Vodaphone.Is who got it working again. Unfortunately,I have not seen Anna on here for some time. Maybe someone else could help ??

I also agree that the things that none of us wants is for any Icelanders,there animals or there livelihoods to be affected or harmed.

Mama don't take my vodafone,
Mama don't take my vodafone,
Mama don't take my vodofone away eh eh eh!

looks like "E" is still very much awake and alive :O)!! Looks like at the current time she is steaming nicely, about 7-8,000 ft on the PORO/HVO and the Mulakot web-cameras.

Cannot wait to see what "E" has planned for her next act..

It looks like all the ash has blown off our ledge. Time to take a rock inventory ;)

Attention, we need a volunteer in Iceland to clean the lens of the PORO web-cam please!! Thanks a million :O). Must be that fine dust that mixes in with the fog and drizzle and glues itself to the camera lens.

Nice thought. Let me quoting Peter Francis (Volcanoes, OUP, 1993) in the chapter about pyroclastic fall deposits (vulcanian section) : "Many volcanologists have watched vents from which a stream of fine ash and gas boils silently and ceaselessly, forming a plume which climbs a few kilometers into the air, drifting off downwind in a rolling grey-brown plume; compulsive to watch and photograph, but misery for the people living in towns and villages nearby." OK, the last Eyjafjöll eruptive phase was more in sub-plinian style and more explosive than what described Peter Francis but the effects are much the same.

@103 I will start if you like Princess, but I may need help after the number 5......

@100 Adrian, cheers. It's a pity, it was an amazing cam for looking at the glacier tongue. I sat glued to it for weeks waiting for the lava to appear through the ice arch.

@103 ~ Princess Frito, I'm on it! I actually think that they are all accounted for. Hmmm...upon closer inspection it looks like there are more there than before. :) The rock fairy has visited!

Hi Erik & All,

About 3 hrs ago, Yellowstone's seismographs show an event centered near the center of the caldera (Old Faithful seismo) which appears to be me to be highly atypical, since it is a virtually pure sine wave, with a *very* long periodicity of 15 to 20 seconds between peaks. The pattern was fairly strong for 15 minutes and lasted for half an hour or so in total.

It occurs at 18:15 UTC on this seismo:
http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/wrapper.php?file=YFT_SHZ_WY_01…

Most of the YVO stations record the same pattern ... even at nearly 100 km away in the mountains:
http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/wrapper.php?file=YPK_EHZ_WY_01…

Here are clickable thumbnails of all the seismos:
http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/daythumbs.php?glayout=1&thick=…

Is this likely to be caused by magma?

Opinions anyone?

William, Boston

Quote from "Supervolcano" Docudrama on Yellowstone:
"There's only one sure-fire sign of an imminent eruption and that is harmonic tremor ...indicates that magma is on the move ..but even then, you can't tell how big an eruption you're looking at .. but you know that it's coming. Well, on the 26th of June, for the first time, we saw just that ... we saw harmonic tremor."
- Supervolcano part 5/6 @2:42 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHGh9PocCFU&NR=1

@107 Hi Zander, yes I hoped that that would happen too. Maybe we will yet see it.

@106 I'd help but those rocks are looking a lot 'fuzzier' than they did an hour ago. Could be the pint I just drank but I strongly suspect it's the cam.

@104 Pick me! For airfare, one night's accommodation and a trip up there with our Gummie Bear I'll do it! (Probably be cheaper to just ask Gummiey nicely though ...)

Janet to the rescue! Janet, it's funny you say that because I was just thinking earlier "wow, where did all those rocks come from?". It does look like there's a lot more!

Geologists: is there such a thing as "rabbit rocks"? Just asking.

@107 I remember sticking my neck out and predicting the lava would come through the arch.
"Off with his head" said the Queen of Hearts. A job for Princess Frito perhaps?

And now? A watched arch will never fall... but the Mila cam does not have the definition required to see.

Weather forecast is for sunshine and cloud there tomorrow.Lets hope that its more of the former.

Goodnight all and Happy Watching !

Princess Frito @74 - Tanna appears to be a girl's name, although whether the girl or the volcano was named first is open to question.

@Diane and anyone else interested in Long Valley:

I posted the link before but in case you didn't see it, here's the swarm location in google maps/earth

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.8228+-118.9847(M1.4+-+CENTRAL+CALIFORN…

@112 Gordon, it made sense to me as well that the lava would eventually find its way down to our beloved "Helen's Arch" (where the heck has she been lately?) Anyhoo, I'm sure our kind Queen Diane will grant us clemency.

@114 I just clued in that the volcano "Yasur" is on the mountain Tanna. I remain clueless as to Yasur's gender (there are too many "Survivor" websites to look through. Uggh.

I did find this site with way-cool volcano pics though!

http://s1.zetaboards.com/anthroscape/topic/1081500/1/

82# Mt Baekdu is a bit interesting. But I think ther must be something wrong in the sentence "Major activity in the 1960s created a caldera on its peak, whose circumference is nearly 14 kilometers with an average depth of 213 meters and maximum of 384 meters." Wasn´t the most recent eruption in 1903? I think they mean the caldera eruption around 1000 years ago.

If anyone want to check some info about the volcano Mt Baekdu it is good to know that it is also known by the name Changbaishan.

Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baekdu_Mountain)
Global volcanism program: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1005-06-

Here is interesting pdf on setting up of Yasur observation system, it includes 1:50,000 map of area. English translation in second half of the doc.

http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/griseli/35391…

Princess Frito, the one Yasur "survivor site" I looked at was actually an article on going to the top of Yasur and surviving!

Hi
@birdseye Someone posted an earthquake site earlier. I have another link even though you might probably already have this.
http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/geofon//seismon/globmon.html
This is my startup screen, and i watched it on december 26 hm 2004 or was it 2005? Time flies. anyway i watched it saw an earthquake 8.3 and turned tv on. CNN reported 30 mins later that there was an earthquake in sumatra again a little later that there was a tsunami and serveral hundred people are supposedly dead. Now we know over 200 000 died. I watched that, i knew this was bad, i could have called people and maybe saved them.
Something different.
Jon Frimann ( sorry i dont konw where to find the ´ above the o and i on my keyboard) and Christian sent ash samples to me and i did SEM images on the ash. My museum will upload all those images to some site ( maybe flikr) and i will continue to do more SEMs and upload them. I will let you know about the adress as soon as it is set up. Very unique things could be found in some samples, i was amazed and still got no clue what those tiny tiny particles might be.
And to the austrians here, ( or anyone else interested and per chance closeby) My museum will hold a special Deep Space about Eyja with a volcanologist on June 10. 8 pm. ( AEC www.aec.at)

Hi P'handle Dan; LI BOB

2nd large EQ ( 6. + )at Vanautu. Tsunami network looked quiet for the ( 7. + ) .

We have seen with the recent signals from iceland, that sensitive electric instruments can sometimes be difficult to find, understand or simply maintain. Sink em 2-4000 meters with a surface float sat link, and the fun begins.

Keep your hair on.

Hey G'rider, how are you :o)??

Our Lady "E" is currently gently steaming on the PORO web-cam, the HVO cam is covered and our Mulakot cam the steam plume is visible every once in awhile.

Many have written off Lady "E". Not I. There will be cycles of activity, increasing and decreasing for awhile yet. Last eruption in 1821 lasted on and off for almost 2 yrs.

No serious damage in Vanautu and no tsunami reports, which is a great thing.

@117: I think that's supposed to be the 960s, not the 1960s.

@117 Mattias That is the reason I usually use Wikipedia only as a resource to find other resources. Too many errors in it. I never trust it without checking other more reliable resources. Once I trust an entry I may quote it because it's a single source that is easy to copy and paste once verified.

There are people on twitter right now saying the Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala is spewing ash on them. Anyone here have any info on that?

@119 Birgit Austria, I think it must have been someone else who was looking for the earthquake link, but I like this one anyway,thanks : ) I am enjoying all the conversations even tho' I don't seem to have anything useful to contribute at this point...time to quit for today, anyway. Back tomorrow.

Janet, according to this report there is an evacuation at Pacaya volcano:

http://www.latercera.com/contenido/678_263322_9.shtml

Looks like we have someone to thank for cleaning the Thorocam lens...I just checked in for a 'good night ' glance,and it seems pretty spotless...so, THANK YOU,whoever you were! : )

@Guillermo ~ Thanks!

#119
@Birgit Austria: Servus! I would love to visit your museum, in my next trip to Ãsterreich. There's a big coincidence here! I was in Salzburg on December the 26th, 2004,(I usually go there every three years - overdue know) and I happened to be watching on earthquakes maps when I saw the "8.3M" EQ on Sumatra you mentioned. Hours later I read on a newspaper a small note talking about "Flutwelle" in Indonesia. I didn't know the German word for "tsunami", I thought it was just a flood. Well the rest of this sad history we all know. Thanks for the link! (You'll probably be reading this tomorrow, but I was pretty amazed with both of us sharing the same experience - BTW: Ich wohne in Brasilien!)
#126 Gracias por el link, Guillermo! Looks like latin american volcanoes are joining the gang. There's a big activity taking place also in Ecuador and Chile (Villarica, as you posted before, and Chaitén's dome still growing). Please, keep us updated.

@Guillermo, forgot to mention Turrialba, in Costa Rica - see the other thread.

Heavy ash falls in Guatemala City following the violent eruption of Pacaya this night:
uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100528/twl-uk-guatemala-volcano-a7cf3b4.html
www.estrategiaynegocios.net/ca/Default.aspx?option=10583
www.abc.es/20100528/internacional-iberoamerica/pacaya-201005280512.htm

Pacaya has been going on for many years now producing lava flows quietly from flank vents, with only very minor explosive activity at its summit. Since there were no access restrictions, zillions of tourists have been there to see the lava flows close up. This night's eruption seems to be the first major paroxysm since early 2000.

Visibility still not good, however FLIR is tracking hot spots on top of the mountain.

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano....is she a sleep or are there coming lava? The poro cam shows hot spots....

The FLIR is showing a lot more heat on the glacier. What was a boring purple hue barely above background six hours ago has become a line of orange and white dots. Did the lens get cleaned? or is something new happening?

Kver maybe both;)

Okay... I don't like Vanatu. Tracking down the terrain data was a real pain and then trying to piece together thousands of square miles of open ocean just to retrieve a few islands sort of p-o'd my computer. It's mad right now. On the plus side, I was able to find terrain data. The bad side is that you don't really get a decent grasp of location when you see just how small these islands are.

Before anyone asks... remember, these quakes are in a subduction zone... and having quakes is something subduction zones love to do... unless it's the Pacific Northwest, in which case the fault just sort of sits there pouting... waiting for you to turn your back.

Anyway, Here's Vanatu. Perspective Plot, recent quakes.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2ng670w.png

Thor (#97) "btw, im so sorry Sweden , for not getting in to the finals in eurovision, your song was great."

It is of course a National Disaster similar to a completely unexpected VEI 5 eruption near Ãrebro (~200km from Stockholm and Gothenburg), at least if you'd believe the media. Personally, I stopped taking an interest years before ABBA won in Brighton.

But thanks anyway! "Det ar moro når det ikke går vel for sötebror da!"

Henrik, Swe but you still make the best car in the world:)

@Kver (#134), Darth Nix (#135). Could we have an effusive eruption of basaltic lava with lava flows? If so, I stand to collect several hundred eBeers and you'll finally get yours Randall. If not, there's still over three weeks to go before I lose out on the sweepstakes. ;)

Henrik, Swe I think with this volcano and it's close friends anything is possible;)

Re Guatemala's Pacaya volcano: "Volcanologists measured plumes of ash reaching 1,500 meters above the volcano's peak". This is towards the end of the article. Compare that with the first bit in bold "Guatemala's Pacaya volcano erupted on Thursday covering the capital with a cloud of black ash that closed the airport and forced evacuations of nearby villages."

Responsible journalism or a race for as many readers as possible? As a comparison, 1500m above the summit equals 3100m a.s.l at Eyjafjallajökull, a height easily bettered until the eruption was almost over.

Hi
@Birgit#119: Thanks for telling us about the exhibition. I don't think I'll be able to come, but I wish you all the best with it. It's great you can integrate your fascination with volcanoes into your work.

@all: I just wrote an e-mail to the Vodafone people. The Mila cams are good with the heat cam and everything, but the whole mountain always looks to me as if she were hyperventilating, which is kind of interesting, as it does make the volcano look like a rather big organic creature (I've come to think of her that way). But on the whole, it is just too blurred to make out the interesting details.

@137: VEI5 near Ãrebro, LOL! That's almost as unexpected as the spanish inquisition.

*cleaning coffee from keyboard*

and now for something completely different (as Monty Python also used to say)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281970/Swooping-150mph-golden-…

wonderful, wonderful pictures

Re: Beautiful photo (at top of thread) of 'Laze Plumes/lava haze' at Kilauea.

Thanks, Erik.

More on "laze plumes" for anyone interested is found here (scroll down to: 'Secondary Gas Emissions'):

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/index.php

New post:

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/05/friday_flotsam_pacaya_eyjafja…

I spoke too soon last night :-0 In the morning light, there are still SPOTS...on THORO cam. Phooey.

@82 The caldera-forming eruption of Baekdu was in the 960's not the 1960's.
Remarkably, close to three literate and record-keeping civilizations, no notice has been found in contemporary Chinese, Korean or Japanese writings.

Romantically umbrageous and trippin' nigh the national

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beneficial! thanks for that points, i am going to keep it in the mind the next time

Fantastic story! Going to need a bit of time to entertain this story!!

Very interesting read. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. - You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred. Woody Allen Born 1935