July Break Open Thread

Is this Mt. Garath, Vanuatu?

I think it is the ever interesting Anak Krakatoa if I am not mistaken. But it is sometime since I sailed past, but I think I had a beer a few metres to the left of where the photo is taken.

It is indeed Krakatau and THE most beautiful photograph of an active volcano ever taken imo. For some more stunning photos by Marco Fuller, please look at this article:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1203028/Will-Krakatoa-rock-w…

Good morning all,
Yes, Anak Krakatoa.It is my favourite photograph of all Volcanoes.
P.S,Carl,i'm actually jealous.

@Adrian:
But sadly it was not erupting when I passed by. I seem to miss every vulcanic eruption possible. I missed Soufriére Hills with a couple of weeks.
But when I passed outside of Krakatao the ocean was filled with this strange floating sand. First I thought it was organic stuff, but the sample I took wasn't after all. Strange with ultralite brownish sand.

@#5,Hi Carl,
Very interesting about the "floating sand". I have a few ideas about what it was/is but would have to see it to know for sure.
Well,even though Anak was'nt erupting,she is still a strikingly beautiful Volcano.Bad luck btw.

#6 @Adrian Don't forget Anak is a very active volcano and we had a 5.2 EQ couple of days ago, so maybe we should expect some action there.
As for Tuya, Erik couldn't be more opportune:Herðubreið!

@#7 Hi Renato,
No doubt about that,she is a very active volcano.
As for The Eruptions Word of the Day,i'm sure that Erik does
most things for a reason...

If I am not very much mistaken,Eyja is producing a rather large darker plume.Only trouble is that it is horizontal.Heading roughly Nne.Showing now on the Mulakot Channel.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano 12 July 2010 Múlakot webcam timelapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXs1Z4K03-A

@raving 142 old thread - I'll add that to my list - I'm strictly a non-science (geology 101 level) amateur w/o other useful technical background other than osmosis from family members, so this is all new to me. I slog on!
A couple of Eyja-related news items.
www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/07/11/iceland-volcano-having-ramification…

There've been quite a large number of small earthquakes rumbling to the northwest of Katla over the last couple of days.... Maybe just more settling from the inflation?

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/…

Remember that Anak is in a very active bend of a fault zone, and that 5.0 earthquakes are somewhat common in that area. If you start seeing swarms then I'll say, maybe something is happening. But it is activity as norm. I was at Krakatoa the week after Marco, and there was regular activity, with some good eruptions. By the time I left around Aug 6 2009, it was down from 1-3 eruptions every 30 minutes to 1 every 3 or 4 hours. Tom Pheiffer went the week later. He hand Gorge Santos got some great shots. Check the link.

Note on Katla, I've been watching the earthquakes and they all seem to be around Katla these days.

d9tRotterdam,perfect timing for a great video.My main observation is there is another plume to the east,left on the camera shot,towards Godabunga.As Marty Mcfly would say"What the hell is that !!".

I thought I saw what looks like a second steam plume last night on the Mulakot cam. To the far left. I figured it must just be a cloud but looking at it now in time lapse it really does look suspicious to my novice eye. Any thoughts?

Thoughts needed on this Folks !!

@15: I also studied this effect late last night (nearly 11pm my time).

Look at the angle of incident light and relative stability of the plume stack, over the last 1/3 of the video. I think you're seeing a optical illusion from the rotating winds, low angle light and local vapor condensation and convection.

Good lord, Adrian, you are quite right. It's very hard to make out where it's coming from though. Either the bottom of the Gigajökull glacier (unlikely as this would have been seen by now on the other webcams) or, more likely from Fimmvorduhalsi. Has anyone in Iceland checked this out lately?

@ Passerby, in the last third that would be a possible explanation but look at around 1 min into the video (and shortly before) where the light is not playing any tricks. It is unmistakeable.

Bruce,thank you ! You've made me a very happy man !
I was racking my brains as to the location and completely forgot about Fimmvorduhalsi !
Damn sure you're right !

There is a report in ruv.is stating that the water level in the glacial lake has dropped, so maybe this is steam from that outflow?

Mangled Google translate below:

Water flows from GÃgjökli

GÃgjökull the left of the picture (Photo: Baldur Sveinsson)
Surface water in GÃgjökli, which lies north of Eyjafjallajökull, has fallen.
Ãrmann Höskuldsson, volcano expert at the University of Iceland, said the researchers were studies in the past few days have noticed that vatnsyfirborðið had fallen. This suggests that water leaked through gÃgvegginn or find another way out from the crater through lava. The water in the crater is very hot.

Thing now is to locate it exactly and work out what's happening. Certainly there's enough hot rock there to power it but where is the water coming from? Or has there been a slide of (still) molten magma into a river? Or what?

That would also explain it Scott. Has anyone seen anything on the other cams corroborating it?

Use Kultsi's mapping source to roughly identify the location of Malakot and the direction of view - that should help.

@d9tRotterdam Thanks once more. These videos show exactly the visual evidence we need to keep up with E's activity.

Using rough triangulation the position does look like Fimmvorduhalsi.Wheres the IMO;anyone on the spot..

Mulakot airfield coordinates
63°42'53"N 19°52'57"W
http://en.ja.is
You can use the GPS coord toggle to locate the exact spot.

Sometimes the simple answer is the easiest...don't make it harder than it is. I believe this is a sunset just descending over the peak, illuminating it.
Were it an eruption with that magnitude of brightness, where is the plume of ash and other volcanic expectorants???
Sunset...I could be wrong, but that seldom is the case!

@ Carl no. 5

Was it this sort of thing, that you saw in the sea near Anak Krakatoa? (Floating pumice islands.)

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/new-pacific-island.shtml

sunset in Iceland this time of year should be towards the west north west but that is a memory from the late 1970's would be nice to get confirmation from a native

Alot of interesting things happen in the EJ and Katla area...one opinion I'd really like is from Jon Frimann nothing looks bad but is picking up. Still he always seems to be right on about these things.

A syou point out, there definitely is a second plume on the far left of the video. If there really was one is another matter. As the second plume seemed to mimic the main one and the sun was more or less shining into the lens, I'd say it's no more than a reflection within the camera lens. I'm sure that if there really had been one, it would have some kind of splash in the media. Interesting all the same!
(Thank you Rotterdam for your time lapse videos!).

The trouble here is that all the evidence of a second plume is on d9tRotterdam's time-lapse film taken from the Mulakot Cam.
There is always a possibility that by the time the weather clears there,the second plume may have ceased.We have seen on many occasions where Eyjafjallajökull's activity has ceased completely,whether it be steam or ash.
The Mulakot cam site at the moment is down probably because of the number of people who have jumped on there to look.
It is not Katla erupting;we would have heard of any jökulhlaups.There have'nt been any.
All the evidence points to a reawakening of Fimmvorduhalsi.
I totally agree with Bruce Stout when he said on his post # 22 "Thing now is to locate it exactly and work out what's happening".
There is another possibility that another fissure has opened somewhere near to Godabunga.
Until we get concrete evidence to prove that it happened/is happening then we are in a state of limbo.

I was up at Fimmvorduhals on 30 June and saw nothing out of the ordinary activity-wise, and no steam plume.

When I saw the "plume" yesterday it was clearly visible on here as well:

http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalen.html

next to the plume from E, smaller at first then nearly as large. It was behind the larger house and visible for several hours. I am sure it was not a reflection in the lens but it may still have been a normal cloud formation masquerading as a steam plume. Too bad I didn't take a screen shot.

Hi folks!
Just taking a break from my work and passing by to watch.
I'm totally with Adrian, Dorset UK in this.
I wouldn't call it an eruption, but there's indeed a geyser-like plume to the east (which could be Fimmvorduhals).
We've been seeing that for days, but always called it a "fog". As d9Rotterdam's video shows, it isn't.
But I also think that, if it were to be a new fissure, we should know it by now.
Múlakot cam is working for me, just don't know what is that queue of cars, trucks or aircrafts lining up to the right of the cam. Can anyone explain?
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalmulaen.html

I can't remember exactly but I think it was just to the left of the house behind the first small elevation. Maybe that helps locate it. I guess if was anything significant we will hear about it.

If you are talking about the items in the distance at the base of the scarp, I think they are white plastic wrapped hay bales. There is an airstrip at Mulakot, but there weren't a lot of stationary planes there when I was there recently.

@La Kat:
Yepp, that was it. But mine was much more finegrain, no pebbles and stones in mine.
I found it floating on bleak water passing Rakata (Largest Island of the Krakatoa remnants on my way from Panaitan to Sunda Strait in 2005. What I don't get is where it came from.

@The Katla Explosive Crowd:
As I wrote yesterday, I think that a crack has opened up under the Eyja-lade so that the water comes into semi-explosive contact with hot remnants from the eruption. The steam thusly produced are then pushed out a little bit of everywhere around the mountain. And the same thing is probably happening around Fimmvörduhals.
And believe me, if there was any new activity around E, Fimmvörduhals or a new Godabunga-fissure, then the world would be full of the news. One tourist or another would have found it by now. Godabunga would be a sensation, much more then new activity at E or F, since it would take some real heavy quaking first to open that crypto-dome up. Think hundreds of deep quakes per day between 1 and 3M for a week or so. Not puny shallow 0's to weak 1's...

If it is steam from hot rocks meeting meltwater, will there be enough particles mixed in to distinguish it from normal clouds when viewed at the right frequency?
I was thinking anything from optical to far infrared.
And what about carbon dioxide released prior to a bona fide eruption...would it have a "signature" that could be picked up by remote sensing?
I do not know anything about vulcanology, I just think it would be nice to spot reliable signs of activity from a distance.

@Renato:
That is cow-eggs, or as some seem to call them "cow-muffins". You know it is so cold up here that our cows hibernate in those during the winter;)
Eh... not really, those are hay-bales, or cow-eggs.

@mabus #38 Hay bales. I would never have thought, since we don't get those down here at the tropics. Thanks for the explanation. I was already wondering if they were crowding up to watch the "plumes".
@Carl #39 I couldn't put it any better. Thanks.

@Carl #41 Cow-eggs?! It's getting ever better. Cow-eggs!!????

@#36 Hi Renato,
Thanks.A "geyser like plume to the east" sums up perfectly what is on the time lapse video.I should have said that myself some time ago..
Case rests m'lord.I stand by my opinion.

Poor cows! They were so used to the peaceful Icelandic environment, that after the opening of the new fissures they've started laying eggs. :)
Sorry, never heard of cow-eggs and cow muffins. Sounds very funny to me.

Right now on the Thoro cam, there is some steam almost at the top on the right third of the glacier. There is some steam (or looks like steam) coming from the crater and there is also some steam coming from the very top of the ridge right next to the right-hand point. This might be a result of the second plume sightings. Just a guess. Then there could be a second steam vent up there, though I don't think so.

As I am writing this, the steam area at the top of the glacier is more pronounced. The plume from Ejaf is not easy to see because of clouds now.

That is what I am seeing at the moment. Any comments?

@Renato do Brazil

Yepp, we have a way with words in the frozen north:)

The silly thing is that they started to make the white plastic in patterns when the word "cow-eggs" got into usage. Now we have white/black cowhide-coloured cow-eggs and military camoflage.
Not to forget the pink ones... There is something rather obscene with large heavilly pinked up cow-eggs in the middle of a green field.

@46 Diane: I think I can see that too; 2 steam plumes, (as you look at it) left is higher and more steam and right is lower and less steam

Here are some screen grabs of Mila Hvolsvellur that might help

July 12 1 am EST
i31.tinypic.com/o5um8l.jpg
i29.tinypic.com/nyci09.jpg

July 12 2:30 am EST
i32.tinypic.com/aw6h6w.jpg
i29.tinypic.com/whd36o.jpg

What has happened to this site?!! All at once there is a bunch of garbage on it and no pictures. What is going on?

For those hoping for a Godarbunga crypto-dome eruption, take a look at the swarms at Herðubreiðartögl. Around 50 per day when the going is good. Neilsharp and ontop of each other is a good sign (not like the spread ones at G), depth is good to (not shallow as at G), but a bit few really deap ones.

So if something like this was happening at Godarbunga instead of Herðubreiðartögl (of course twice as much, and at least double the average Oompf of every quake), then I would go Bananas in the Britches over Godarbunga to. (Thanks Kultsi for the Britches.... I have been britching a lot today.)

Nope, I would think it is likelier for Herðubreiðartögl to go off than Godarbunga. Even the word Herðubreiðartögl makes my britches dance the Fandango.

OMG.
It's happening the same to me.
I thought it was because of my loud laughing on pink cow-eggs.

I looked at that video, and it looks like warm updraft forming clouds. Mountain terrain causes that all the time. Wind direction was just right for that one.

Renato, I went out of it and got back, but the main page has changed and this one is back to what it was, but I sure don't like switches like that all at once. Makes me think of viruses.

@Diane:
Eh..? Okay, I will take a shower. No need for the hard words. And I promise to return the picture in the morning when I am done with them.

Back to normal. I think it happened after @Raving's post. ;)
Hello Diane, did you read my comment on Spencer Tracy's volcano movie on a former thread?

cow eggs!! wonderful.

I agree with Carl, I don't think a new fissure has opened for we would have heard about that by now. The existing lava field or crater lake is also a far more obvious explanation for a steam cloud so I'd go with that as my first bet. Lining up the coordinates (thanks Passerby) the second steam cloud is just behind the northern shoulder of Eyjafjallajökull which would suggest it's coming from one of the valleys below Fimmvorduhalsi or, if from Gigjökull, somewhere near Helen's arch (which we certainly would have seen on the other cams surely).

Couple of points:
In rotterdam's timelapse, the steam cloud is pretty constant but does disappear around 1:45 m into the video. There are a couple of small condensation clouds appearing at the cloud base indicating convection of warm air laden with water vapor coming from the source.

I am pretty confident it is not a trick of the light or sun on the camera. The cloud patterns do not mirror each other and they are there at different times of the day when the sun's angle is different. Also the incidence of the sun is not into the camera when the cloud is most easily visible but away from it.

Neverthless, this thing looks pretty ephemeral, might just have been a one-day wonder, again suggesting to me that maybe there has been a rock avalance of hot rock into one of the valleys below Fimmvorduhalsi.

Lastly, as Scott pointed out, this could equally be the result of draining of the hot crater lake through some tunnel down the slopes/glacial cap of Eyja itself, perhaps in a direction none of us expected.

#49 Thank you @Raving. That's what we've been seeing for weeks and I don't believe that is just weather related, though I may be wrong.

Is anyone around here of the belief that volcanoes and their gasses/particulate control our climate, cool us down and keep us from being roasted by the Sun? That there's a link to eruptions and solar minimums?

Over at http://wattsupwiththat.com/ I could sure use your input. Thanks

#57 @bruce stout: fair explanation. I think there's much relation with water draining from the crater. that explains why it has been happening since last Friday's big hiccup.

@Brian, I'm pretty confident it's not orographic condensation. This looks to me like a localised steady plume over a point source. Watch the video again, particularly from 1:06 through to 1.50. What makes me more confident is that there is a similar plume later in the day at the same location even though the wind has changed in the meantime.

Carl, #55, huh?

Renato, #56, yes I read it and I will have to see that one. I have watched some pretty bad movies (The Scorpion, Attack of the 50' Woman, etc.) when I was a kid and sick at home. LOL All B or C movies and some of them were just off the wall.

Catch y'all later. Went prospecting, got to the gas station and the car conked out just about a block from the tow truck and the garage. Yippee. Glad it didn't happen in the hydrolic pit we were digging in. Now I am tired and going to take a nap with DH. It is hot here. 90 in the shade and for here, that is hot. For Phenix, that is cool and balmy. :-)

@#50 Hi Diane,
I had the same problem and decided to re-boot my system.
Came back to this site and was reading through the posts i'd missed.When i read through your post #50,I thought you meant what was being posted by certain people when you referred to there being a lot of garbage on it LOL.Meow.
@Rialto Rio,hehe,
Thanks for the Mulakot Link,works perfectly.I saw something on there a couple of minutes ago but I won't say anything....
@Carl,
Umm Cow-Eggs eh ? Fancy a E-Bet ??
@#49,Hi Raving,
Only the last shoti29.tinypic.com/whd36o.jpg shows the edge of the "Mystery Plume".
@Bruce Stout.Thank You !
I must admit that after the flac fron a lot of people on here,I was beginning to think that it may have been....Swamp Gas,Hallucinations caused by Methane Gas,A Weather Balloon,Venus or just another "Conspiracy Theory" from the Men In Black !

hmmm, is it only me?
or are there two steamplumes on Eyjafjäll??

looking at hvols cam, and it seems lile there are two plumes,. anyways..

whats shaking under the ground near vatnajøkull?? seems there are some action down there lately..
and what causes the quakes under eyjafjäll, is it only mountain settling or is it magmatic movement that is not pushing upwards but going somwhere else??

@64; thought it was just me! I posted that earlier in #48

The plume looks awesome, and it goes taller than I have seen it for a loong long time,. wow,. anyone else seeing this,?

stigger..

then we are two that sees the same,.. anyways , the plume looks fantastic tonight. I wonder what triggers it to be so impressive..
must be enourmous pressure building up to create such a wide and tall plume,. btw it reaches high over those pesky clouds that comes rolling in,. grr

Only research here involves detemining how much assistance a lawnmower needs to deal with damage caused by a contractor driving a hydraulic lifter across a waterlogged lawn. The answer: A great bloody big lot.

heheh Reynir..

lawnmowers are not submersible you know,. heheh

#64 #65 @stigger and @thor I suggest you guys take a close look on what has been said early on this thread. You are not alone!

@67: glad you can see it too and yes, it does look fantastic (when there are no pesky clouds)

The damage happened just after great rains last year. Today was sunny and dry. The council just can't care any less that it does.

Bruce, I've looked at it and other videos from the same camera even at earlier dates, and this area is prone to making cloud features like this or very similar. Obviously different weather now than back then, but until there is some concrete evidence to the contrary, it's just weather to me.

Mulakot webcam site is gone. '404'

For what it's worth, I'm with BrianD, - altho' the larger steam plume activity and the notice of less water in the crater lake makes a subsurface leak somewhere a possibility, which might create diffuse steam 'clouds' (rather than a plume) here and there depending on where it went or emerged. We'll see. The Mula cam this morning showed the glacier visible on it to be a lot whiter than I had remembered from a few days ago - too bad I didn't screen save it.

@#74 Passerby,
Try this http://www.mulakot.net/images/myndavelar/14flugv.jpg

Sorry,I should have added that that link is refreshable.

Thanks! I normally use the main site with all 5 cameras on a split-screen for weather conditions reference.

Mulakot goes down very infrequently. I saw something odd just before losing main website access: what looked to be an upside down torpedo at the top of the image. Maintenance?

Since we earlier talked about "cow eggs," how about "cow fans?"

I was on a tour to the canyon lands in the SW US and our tour guide told us this story: He was doing a tour in the mid-west and there was a lady from NYC on the trip. She saw the wind mills out in the fields and asked the guide what they were. He thought she must be kidding so he told here they were "cow fans." He showed her some of the cows that were lying down near the wind mills and how content they seemed to be. She took it hook, line, and sinker! He didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise. So now we have "cow fans." LOL

Cow Fans, what a sweet little story, Diane! Liked the Cow's Eggs idea too, whoever came up with it first.

Carl and Carl! Since we seem to have two Carls, one with an eye for fair Icelandic vulcanologists, the other an American(?) expert in SOSUS, could you please sign as Carl, Swe and Carl, US respectively? Guessing from context which one of you is posting isn't always straightforward... Thx!

@Henrik:

To confuse you even more...
I am my own sockpuppet under the same name.
I am a swede who lives in northern Sweden (when not living on my boat somewhere) and who has europe and US as a working place. 2 of the companies I sit in the board of are on the american tectonic plate. One in Canada and the other in the US.
I try my hand at being retired at the age of 38, without any great success.
And I am bad at volcanoes in every way possible, I am physicist dabling around on my spare time and for fun.

Hope that cleared that one up. And no, I am not the suckpoppet for Passerby before anybode get any other ideas.

Carl, Intl

Carl, Intl - love it! But you cannot be the one and same as the other Carl, who was involved with Boomer surveillance during the Cold War?

Re: "Cow Eggs" and "Cow Fans." Back in my long ago youth my
Cowboy Pop and my cousins from the upper Midwest were visiting
NE Oregon. We were going to Boise ID. this was just during the
construction of I-84. While we were waiting in the car, for
a Construction zone to open,my cousin Marie noticed these curious terraces in the hillsides, trails if you will- she asked my Pop who gladly repiled: "Those are from sidehill
gougers-a local breed of cattle." "There are Right hand
gougers and left hand gougers." Incredulous, Marie's sister,Judy said:"But what about those!" There were some
very ordinary Herefords grazing placidly on the road side,
Pop, never missing stride, said well those are the result of artificial insemination of the two breeds of Gouger,
longer legs are the most common." "The ones with shorter legs have to be herded by Dachshunds,just to be fair."
Somehow they didn't quite buy that...
He then told about the Jackalope...

Depends on how far back you are talking. But I am definitly the one who worked at the company who delivered some upgrade-tec for the SOSUS-line familiarily known as GIUK. To be precise I was guilty for parts of the ADS for the IUSS at the ripe old age of 25.

Ah, the joys of the days when one was a young gun at the diffractional pattern analyzis scene, when there where groupies hanging around when one...
Ehm... Let's just say that I was a Nerd that struck lucky through some nifty fourier-transform analytical algorithms;)

I came across this offering the other day...

http://www.mapsofworld.com/iceland/iceland-river-map.html

and offer it as the most useless map I've ever seen. Can anybody beat this?

I've already posted this on Word of the Day, but it'll probably be more at home here amongst the cow eggs and gougers? Incidentally, the story of the gougers remind me of the reality of the Scottish Haggis, evolved with one leg longer than the other for just the same reason...

I came across this offering the other day...

http://www.mapsofworld.com/iceland/iceland-river-map.html

and offer it as the most useless map I've ever seen. Can anybody beat this?

I've already posted this on Word of the Day, but it'll probably be more at home here amongst the cow eggs and gougers? Incidentally, the story of the gougers remind me of the reality of the Scottish Haggis, evolved with one leg longer than the other for just the same reason...

Hi everyone. Looks like waters are rising in Markarflót. Saw some foaming and whirling along the rivulets down Gigjökul.

Hi everyone, I've been away for some time. Is anything new in Iceland, with Katla or any other volcano?

Thanks

@Gordon

The volcanoes in Iceland are responsible for nearly a third of the whole world's total lava output.

The most important volcanoes in Iceland are as follows:
...

http://www.mapsofworld.com/iceland/geography/volcano.html

I notice that Katla isn't on the list.

Natural Resources: Fish, Hydro power, Geothermal Power, Diatomic power

www.mapsofworld.com/iceland/information-on-iceland/facts.html

Got any idea about what 'Diatomic power' is?

Apparently Iceland is famous for it's belly dancing! Learn something new every day. :D

www.mapsofworld.com/iceland/culture/dance.html

@Raving -
Thank you for pointing out that mapsofworld site. Clearly one to avoid.

That 'diatomic power' might have something to do with dihydrogen monoxide.

@Kultsi -

Yes I appreciate your desire to give the site a 'no go' flag. Under the heading of ... Iceland > Culture > Language ... Suomi isn't mentioned.

For more information on Icelandic language log onto the following sections:

* Culture Icelandic
* Culture English
* Culture Faroese
* Culture Norwegian
* Culture Danish
* Culture Swedish

http://www.mapsofworld.com/iceland/culture/language.html

A mighty wind blows and something might have changed ~ a -ÎTemp, a ÎTilt of magnetized structures perhaps (flaky weather-beaten instrumentation probably due to a teenie weenie .com/23dweqz) Have to wonder if the music has stopped playing and the pressure begins.

You wouldn't happen to speak Faroese Kultsi?

Winds blow, clouds pour and the tail wags the dog. Correlation can be as meaningful as causality.

No, I don't speak Faroese; I might figger out something I hear or see in writing, just like with Icelandic. Just as well, I might not.

It's no wonder Finnish is not among the languages in Iceland, as
a) there are few Finns there,
b) they all speak English and/or Swedish in addition to Finnish and
c) it's easier for the Finns to learn Icelandic than the other way round - Finnish is not related to any language the Icelanders may know normally.

That mapsofworld.com site has Finnish as a language option. Not a viable one: totally machine translated and bears little semblance to the actual language. The site is there just for skinning the marks, i.e. advertisers - and the ads cover the text.

@Kultsi Good evening! Is it true there is some resemblance between Finnish and Hungarian? I've heard that the two languages are linked, somehow...

'skinning the marks' (marques)

*tucks away new colloquial phrase*

89 Raving BDE (!)
Don't know about "diatomic power" but diatoms and Iceland are well linked:

http://www.indexmundi.com/minerals/?country=is&product=diatomite&graph=…

Diatomic => diatoms => quantum mechanics (superposition) => harness light for making power and new compounds

Marine Algae Found to Harness Power of Quantum Mechanics
www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/marine-algae-harness-power-qu…

Photoprotein Found in Marine Bacteria Could Improve Solar Cells

www.greenoptimistic.com/2010/05/03/proteorhodopsin-algae-solar-cells/

These 'diatom' solar cells are the front end of Craig Venter's biosynthetic fuel process, in a clever wee collaboration with Exxon-Mobil

But Craig-Babe, we don't want no stinkin fuels, we want petrochemicals!
www.syntheticgenomics.com/media/press/71409.html

And we want algal proteorhodopsin roof-hood solar cells to power our cars in urban settings.

"Look Ma, no combustion pollution!"

Smithsonian GVP has posted their weekly Volcanic Activity Report for 7 July-13 July 2010

New Activity/Unrest: | Soufrière Hills, Montserrat | Stromboli, Aeolian Islands (Italy)
Ongoing Activity: | Bagana, Bougainville | Dukono, Halmahera | Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia) | Kilauea, Hawaii (USA) | Kirishima, Kyushu | Kliuchevskoi, Central Kamchatka (Russia) | Pacaya, Guatemala | Sakura-jima, Kyushu | Shiveluch, Central Kamchatka (Russia) | Tungurahua, Ecuador | Ulawun, New Britain

www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/

New EQs Vatna-Mýrdalsjökull:
Wednesday
14.07.201022:55:3763.630-19.5039.9 km1.381.895.4 km SSW of Básar
Wednesday
14.07.201022:55:3663.565-19.4289.4 km1.190.015.1 km NE of Skógar
Wednesday
14.07.201022:55:3263.657-19.34410.4 km1.230.085.0 km WNW of Goðabunga

Wednesday 14.07.2010 16:32:34 64.113 -18.221 1.1 km 2.2 63.14 4.9 km N of Laki

Does this area experience earthquakes often?

I mean Eyjafjalla-Mýrdalsjökull

@StarBP I was just checking on past EQ activity in Iceland (after dec. 2009), I didn't notice any EQs occurring exactly under Laki, but many under Vatnajökull. As long as it remains an isolated event, there's not much to worry, I think, but I'm no expert.

@Renato [94] -
Finnish and Hungarian really are related: some words and the structure are similar. If I hear a Hungarian speaking but don't hear the words, it sounds very much like Finnish - but I would not understand a thing.

Estonian is a much closer relative to Finnish, fairly easily understood both ways - with some very funny 'false friends', like "pulma" is 'problem' in Finnish and 'wedding' in Estonian... well, maybe much of a difference, after all.

I did not know that Hungarian and Finnish were related. My dad was Hungarian, born in the US after his parents came over. He was bilingual for quite a while, but after he came to CA, he didn't have anyone to speak Hungarian with so he wasn't able to speak it any more. He could understand it, though! One time he was watching the Mike Douglas show and Mike had the Gabor sisters on the show. They got mad at each other and started to speak in Hungarian. Dad told me some of it was not very nice. LOL I remember the look on Mike's face. He was bewildered because he didn't know what to do. It was kind of funny in a way.

Dad used to say "edjah" (not the real spelling I am sure and the "j" sounded like a soft "g" as in the word "judge" ) at the dinner table. It means "eat" in Hungarian. If one of us would ask for something to be passed, he would tell us, "Never mind the potatoes. Eat your supper." He was teasing, of course.

I wonder if any Eruptions readers can help solve a nagging mystery for me? I've started collecting volcano-related fiction. Most of it pretty dire (if they get the volcanology right, the story is cr*p and vice versa) but there's one I read thirty-odd years ago which has eluded me. Can't remember title or author, but I recall bits of the plot.

Scientist is traumatised by seeing his wife fall to her death from a tourist observation platform on Kilauea into the lava lake. To recover from his fear/hatred of volcanoes, he goes to Tahiti to gaze into the extinct summit crater (I said it was pretty daft!) Later goes on a tazieff-tour of various volcanoes, ends up in a fictional Central American state where a volcano -called "The Black Tower" by the locals- is about to erupt. Has to contend both with the eruption and nasty Communist rebels in the countryside. (I suspect that the country is a thinly-disguised Nicaragua, which has a volcano called "The Black Hill" aka Cerro Negro)

Anyone know what book I'm talking about?

@105, Mike Don, try this site. How about "Eruption"
--- Eruption
-- 1997, a.k.a. "Volcano Run", starring F. Murray Abraham, Carlos Carrasco, Cyril O'Reilly, and Patricia Velazquez. An American photojournalist faces a revolution and erupting volcano in the South American country of San Pedro

Long list of films goes all the way back to 1913!
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/PopCulture/movies.html

@Renato Rio, from another thread: Thanks for the photo! Such a contrast between the beautiful purple flowers and the barren black volcano. http://www.centrum.is/jmj/hitt/kob1.jpg This one http://www.landvernd.is/arfjalla2002/myndir/sveinn_herdubreid.jpg is supposed to be the same tuya, but it's spooky looking.

@105, Mike Don, try this site. How about "Eruption"
--- Eruption
-- 1997, a.k.a. "Volcano Run", starring F. Murray Abraham, Carlos Carrasco, Cyril O'Reilly, and Patricia Velazquez. An American photojournalist faces a revolution and erupting volcano in the South American country of San Pedro

Long list of films goes all the way back to 1913!
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/PopCulture/movies.html

106 Jane: It's possible that the film used ideas from the mystery book (the film industry is famous for that) but doesn't get me further forrarder in identifying the book. But it's a lead, thanks!

#103 @Kultsi: Hahaha! In my modest opinion, the Finns got the right acception for the word "pulma". Maybe Estonians will find that out over time.
#104 @Diane, just out of curiosity: one of the most successful playwrights in Brazil was a native Hungarian, whom I happened to know. He was fluent in Portuguese and became a celebrity in Hungary for his plays, originally written in Portuguese and translated by him into Hungarian.
Now, back to volcanoes: do you people see any changes in water levels at Markarflót (Gigjökul) ?

OT
#104 @Diane Just read through Zsa Zsa Gabor's biography. Didn't know she was still alive, but it's a sad story...

Renato @108, Can't say that I see any change in water level or flow, but there is a really nice definition and seperation between cloud and steam at the crater just now.

It's also really nice to see Gigsjokull start to look like a glacier again in the low sunlight

#110 @Gordon
Yes, Gigjökull has been washed from its ash mantle, looking gorgeous at sunset light. Earlier I thought I had seen a waterfall downslope(?!) and the level of waters below seemed to be rising, but now it's all gone, as well as the bunch of 4x vehicles going to and fro.

Funny that, with so little wind, steam is swiftly being blown away from the crater ...

@Diane, @everyone
Good news from oil leak, huh? Where is Dan, Florida? How about Princess Frito? Haven't heard a word from them. Hidden in a royal yacht cruise near the Marianas trench?

@107 Mike Don, oops, I read your vivid description too quickly and "movie" just popping into my mind. Looking again, I found some interesting FAQs about Dante's Peak (film). I wonder if this is still happening:
Q: Can carbon dioxide gas from volcanoes kill trees and wildlife?

A: Yes. At several volcanoes around the world, carbon dioxide gas released from magma has accumulated in the soil in sufficient concentrations to kill vegetation or has collected in low areas and suffocated animals. At Mammoth Mountain in California, carbon dioxide has killed about 100 acres of trees since 1989, and visitors to this area have occasionally suffered symptoms of asphyxiation when entering cabins or below- ground excavations. USGS scientists have concluded that the gas is escaping from a magma body beneath Mammoth Mountain. The magma itself is not currently moving toward the surface, but the USGS is monitoring the situation carefully.
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/PopCulture/DantesPeak/dantes_peak…

No luck finding a book with "Black Tower volcano" though.

A Hawai'ian newspaper has some good write-ups of movies and books about their volcanoes, written by scientists at USGS Hawai'ian Volcano Observatory. Altered link here: www dot hawaii247 dot com/2010/01/28/volcano-watch-lights-camera-eruption-volcanoes-in-the-movies/ The other link ends: /volcano-watch-the-influence-of-volcanoes-on-literature/

Hogtown is a hot place to be at the moment. Potato chip weather http://i31.tinypic.com/b6cbhg.jpg

Yahoo! is fried

For ERUPTIONS afficionados, posted earlier today on former thread:
"Aloha Erik and ERUPTIONS afficionados: Rick Hazlett and I are gratified by your positive comments on our book! Please pardon the high price - when the publisher decided to go full-color for photos and illustrations, costs rose unavoidably.
Erik wrote: "Maybe I can even con Dr. Lockwood into a Q&A here on Eruptions!" SURE - Fire away!
Preparing this book has taken decades - we learned a lot in the process, and our hope is that in some way, people will learn how to have better "relations" with volcanoes - and that maybe lives will be spared by work of future volcanologists who will learn from the book. My main motivation in writing the book can be surmised from the experience I documented on pp 413-414.....
Questions anyone?
Jack Lockwood"
Thank you Dr. Lockwood!

Vatnajökull rumbles and Eyjafjallajökull couldn't look prettier.

http://i32.tinypic.com/rmla2w.jpg

Night.

@Diane -
Your dad probably said, "egyél!", plural imperative "eat!".

During the cloudy time Eyjafjallajökull apparently used up all its water, as the steam plume is really tiny now, nothing visible from Thórólfsfell and just a puny one from Hvolsvöllur.

I just watched cars driving into the river at Thórólfsfell making SPECTACULAR splashes, with the water flying for several times the dimensions of the cars. Yes, they did emerge, too.

105, Mike Don; not found your book yet but this is a beaut.

Welcome to the year 2025. Following a lengthy approval process seemingly driven more by politics than science, the nationâs inventory of high-level radioactive waste is finally stored in underground passageways dug into the guts of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Two years later, the unexpected and unthinkable happens ⦠a violent volcanic eruption blasts its way through the mountain. Because Yucca is saturated with the percolating abundant rainfall brought about by climate change, explosive steam bursts add to an already destructive eruption as two-thousand-degree magma mixes with water. Radioactive waste is erupted along with volcanic ash, creating the ultimate dirty bomb. The deadly mixture is blown downwind where it settles out over Las Vegas and Lake Mead. The city must be evacuated and the lake drained, displacing and disrupting the lives of millions of people for long into the future.

http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/wad3/page2.html

Stigger; that's a doozy (to borrow from Erik). One for my collection, thanks for the heads-up. Any idea what the cover photo is? A good Mystery Volcano candidate.

@ Renato, thanks for pointing this out, I would have missed it!

@ Jack Lockwood: Most definitely on my wish list!!! Cheers!

Well now, no commentary on the odd shake just NW of Rockville MD, eh?

You don't find it to be a bit odd for a location of a pretty shallow EQ? Not much history there.

USGS blab.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2010/07/16/DI201007160…

Montgomery County MD geology
www.mgs.md.gov/esic/geo/mon.html

We got us the Marcellus Shale to the West:
www.mgs.md.gov/geo/marcellus.html

and we got coal in western Maryland and old gold in Montgomery County.

Real interesting geology.

@Passerby:
I know that you from the US love to shorten things down, but what state is MD? I looked for a state named Medical Doctor but no luck... :)
Where and what is MD? I guess I am not the only non-US citizen scratching my head now and then.

Regard's
Carl in AC

@Passerby:
Don't bother, I wikid it and found that it of course is the international shortening of Moldavia, strange I didn't know that one was in the US...
Oh, wait a minute...

I guess you meant Maryland?
By the way, if you are sailing there to check up on your quake, you just have to make a pit stop in Cape Charles, nice little town in Virginia. Go to Kellys Gingernut Pub and have some seafood and a beer. For being in the US they actually had beer that was drinkable, or I was just thirsty...

Passerby #124, somebody mentioned it on another thread. I read the blurb on it from USGS. My thinking is it is too bad it didn't happen along Pennsilvania St. between the Capitol and the White House and been a 4.5 or so. That would have rattled a few nerves. LOL

So Carl, was that AC:

Aachen, Germany, uses the number plate code AC
Acre (state), Brazil, is abbreviated AC
Västerbotten County, Sweden
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Aon Center (Chicago), a skyscraper
Aon Center (Los Angeles), a skyscraper?????

(Since you spoke about Beer, I'm thinking Aachen or Vasterbotten County)

Small Quake Aleutian Islands:

Magnitude 6.7
Date-Time Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 05:56:49 UTC
Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 09:56:49 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 52.970°N, 169.504°W
Depth 35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
Region FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
Distances 45 km (25 miles) W of Nikolski, Alaska
85 km (55 miles) ENE of Yunaska Island, Alaska
1500 km (930 miles) WSW of Anchorage, Alaska
2265 km (1400 miles) W of JUNEAU, Alaska

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 22.5 km (14.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=137, Nph=137, Dmin=222.7 km, Rmss=1.02 sec, Gp=288°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Event ID us2010ywaq

Recent volcanism on Mercury http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10639789

Lot of uncertainty about the epicentre of that quake (Carl 129) but for what it's worth it's said to be c.45km W of Nikolski...Cleveland Volcano is 50km W of Nikolski

We have a photo of the devastation caused by the recent Washington, DC, EQ: http://twitpic.com/25txue

Why does the speeding of the icelanders' on the EJ road remind me of Road Runner? Would it be the rooster tail of dust?

Two strong quakes on New Britain Is. one a 6.9 and the other a 6.8. Are these close enough to Rabal to kick up the volcano by any chance?

NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA 6.9

Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 13:04:13 UTC
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:04:13 PM at epicenter

75 km (45 miles) SSE of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG
110 km (65 miles) E of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG
520 km (325 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea
2385 km (1480 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

6.116°S, 150.522°E
Depth 57.5 km (35.7 miles)

horizontal +/- 6.5 km (4.0 miles); depth +/- 17 km (10.6 miles)

NST=101, Nph=101, Dmin=519.6 km, Rmss=1.18 sec, Gp= 22°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6

Region NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
6.8
Date-Time Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 13:35:01 UTC
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:35:01 PM at epicenter

Location 5.994°S, 150.472°E
Depth 50.9 km (31.6 miles)

Distances 60 km (40 miles) SE of Kimbe, New Britain, PNG
105 km (65 miles) ENE of Kandrian, New Britain, PNG
525 km (325 miles) NE of PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea
2400 km (1490 miles) N of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 8.7 km (5.4 miles); depth +/- 17.6 km (10.9 miles)
Parameters NST=156, Nph=156, Dmin=525.4 km, Rmss=1.37 sec, Gp= 36°,
M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6

@Diane: The 6.8 has been upgraded to a 7.3 and occured on the same island where Rabaul is located. Hmmm...
USGS
7.3 2010/07/18 13:35:03 -6.019 150.497 57.6 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

And John Seach reports activity in Klyuchevskoy, Pacaya, Kilauea and Yasur.
http://www.volcanolive.com/news.html

A nice little photo essay of a walk recently to the two new craters at Fimmvörduhálsi at /www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_life/?cat_id=75139&ew_0_a_id=…

#137 @Birdseye: very nice, indeed! Thanks for posting. Hope one day I'll be able to do the same.

Is anyone aware of any studies correlating the time of asteroid/comet impacts with volcanic activity around the world?

I have a belief that a strong impact on a planet can cause volcanic activity on the other side of the planet.

Heads up,,particularly vigorous steam plume from Turrialba on webcam at the moment

#140 @Mike don, for now I can see the steam, and that's it. I noticed the larger plume earlier too. Is it possible that they have zoomed the cam a bit?

What's happened to the Mulakot cameras? I get the message "404, not found on this server." Vodafone has been turned off for a while now, except for going back in time. Now it's just the 2 Mila cams and Jon Friman's three cameras for looking at Ejya. (except one of Jon's is from Mulakot, and the tiny date says 7/14.)

@Jane -
Múlakot got fed up with sharing their feed with the rest of the world - and prolly having their server overloaded from time to time - and tightened up the setup.

@Kultsi 143 lol

Here is a replacement

http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/alk/english/kelikamerat/kamera-C1450801.html

@Raving -

Heh. That road must have been subjected to the EQs that are frequent here, the veeeryyyy slow kind.

About as informative on volcanoes as this: http://www.mulakot.net/images/stories/myndavelar/mynd12.jpg

Renato 141: by the time I'd taken time out to post the message and return to the webcam, the plume had become much less obvious; I think it might be local weather conditions, with the plume sometimes obscured by ordinary clouds. No point me checking it right now, since it will be the middle of the night in Costa Rica

Eyja's ocean ash research continuing...www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10690062

IcePost will publish some new stamps tomorrow to commemorate Eyjaf. The stamps will be screen-overprinted with fine ash.

WayOT: Does anyone else have to disable Flash or another plug-in/add-on to read this blog on late-model Firefoxes (3.6.4+)?

@145, thanks, Kultsi. I guess if Mulakot is an aviation site, they usually don't have to contend with volcanoes, just winds, etc. http://www.mulakot.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&I… Although, I haven't noticed a wind sock in the camera views...?

Airport Transfer Association is the translation I've gotten for Flugvallarfélag. They might have one set of shots from each day; I found a set from July 15, posted on the 16th, from Googling Mulakot Flugvallarfélag.

@149 thank YOU, Jane!

Your Googling was more than I wanted to do for hacking, but I did the same & then opened the Mulakot pictures page. From there I picked the Eyja pic's address for a separate window. It's precisely the same feed as before, refreshes every 10 secs (no auto refresh, unless you do a bit of web page writing) and it is a very useful view sometimes.

Try using id=7&Itemid=1 in your link...

@148 Reynir -

I'm using FF 3.6.7 and reading the blog is no problem; going into full screen mode with the flash player (MÃla feed) is a PITA way too often: no reaction & requires multiple tries.

I miss @d9Rotterdam's timelapses. No Múlakot, no timelapses. Perhaps Flugvallarfélag could grant him a full entry, so we could enjoy it from here... ;)

@148 Reynir This may explain your problem.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1907723

Hey that's an amazing insight on the subject, thanks so much! never heard it more clear.

I have browsed through some of the reviews in your site at this point, and I truely enjoy your style of blogging. I had your site to my bookmark and definitely will be coming back very soon. Please visit my own web site also and let me know how you feel.

Love another's lover if you would hate open hearts ... Confucius

Thing you are talking about sounds right. Yet, consider this, suppose you integrated a little more? I mean, I do not tend to teach how you can run ur blog, however if you added more stuff which can easily grab peoples awareness? Just simply as a video clip or maybe a snapshot or perhaps two to get viewers interested regarding what you mentioned.

I will be going for an interview with an air tool manufacturer this Wednesday. Any suggestions? - The report of my death was an exaggeration. (New York Journal, June 1897) Mark Twain 1835 1910

Una empresa que ayuda a hacer de este un mundo mejor -- (A company that helps make this a better world --). GRACIAS. - I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown. Woody Allen Born 1935