Mystery Volcano Photo #24

This looks a bit like SURTSEY to me (the new island born in 1963-1967 off the southern coast of Iceland), after the activity shifted from violent phreatomagmatic to Hawaiian-style lava lake and fountaining in spring 1964 ...

ol doinyo lengai?

hang on, now I'm not sure if carbonatite lavas are incandescent in normal daylight...

what about Erta Ale?

Having a guess here... Mauna Loa?

Reminds me of a recent picture a friend took of Stromboli, but I guess I am reaching there.

Steve, Leeds, UK
A flank vent of Nyamuragira, DRC,

Elfdell, on Heimaey, Iceland

A doozy indeed. My first thoughts were either a Nyamuragira flank eruption OR Heimaey 1973, but both of these have already been submitted so I wouldn't win even if I got it right :o(

So I'll go with Puu O'o on Kilauea

Yeah, I was thinking about the african volcanos too. (all three, had settled on Erte Ale--taken) I don't think it's a Hawaiian Volcano-- their pits are huge. Hmmm. Ah. Anak Krakatau?

I think this could also be Piton de la Fournaise. I saw a youtube video once with a similar cone.

I'm going with the 1984 Krafla (Iceland) eruption.

I think Anne might have it this time.

Is that a dog sitting there with them watching?!?! People always seem to amaze me...

Hey, let's take the dog for a walk out to the eruption. LOL

I have a feeling Boris is right. Anne may be, too. I thought of Mauna Loa, but it just didn't look right for that one. I don't think the authorities would let people go to it if it was erupting, depending on when it occurred.

I remember when Surtsey erupted and there was just as much attention to it as there was to Eyjaf. Possibly even more as there was a song written about it (didn't someone write about Eyja, too, though)and everybody was excited. A new island. Talk about whether there would be a break-water to keep the ocean from eroding it into nothing again. A break-water did form and Surtsey was saved. It was on the news a lot and I remember being awed by it, and I wished I could have been there to see it. I was 14 when the fountaining started. Truely awesome.

S*. I think I got here too late. Either an Icelandic or African rift volcano. Doesn't look Hawaiian... But people are too dressed to be in Africa, so I go with the Icelandic bets. :)

Krafla

I am going to go with Krafla too.

I agree with Boris that it may be Surtsey. I say that, not from any profound volcanological insight, but because the men sitting there watching it look very similar to these guys sitting there watching it in 1966: http://www.heimaslod.is/index.php/Mynd:1966.37.jpg ;-)

Bamboo stick? Something isn't right.

Mauna Ulu or Kilauea Iki?

Geologist Sigurður Ãórarinsson wrote SurtseyjarrÃma, Ãórir Baldursson put music to it and the trio SavannatrÃóið sang it. It seems to be written while Syrtlingur was erupting.

I can't remember anything specific about Eldfell on Heimaey, but I have very surely only heard a very small fraction of everything about the Westman Islands and the eruption.

Hm... Moosehead is far better than I dared to hope.

Hmm... the setting is pretty flat, with spatter ramparts. It might be a stupid guess, but I'm going with Kilauea here, and since that is such a generic thing to guess, Ima stick my neck out with a specific eruption: 1960 lower-east-rift-zone eruption which curiously erupted lava that had already been erupted once at the summit.

Kilauea Iki

I was going to say Ardoukoba (in Djibouti - there was an eruption there around 1979), but these people in the picture seem more dressed for cooler weather than the utterly hot weather of the Afar Triangle!

someplace in Japan, maybe Mihara hama on the Izu peninsula 1986 time frame?

bamboo hiking staff

no dog, but nicely wrapped lunch package.

You cannot see sh*t in this photo, because it needs adjustment. Crafty Erik. But we are handy with our graphics packages, so we copy and import the photo and alter the contrast to bring out image details.

What do you see when you do this?

I ⤠NY ?

Anyone notice the two quakes near the monster that is Mount Tambora earlier? Two 5's. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php

@Helen Leggatt #28
The quakes were in the sea, somewhere between Tambora and Sangeang Api. In my opinion not really connected with the volcanoes.

Okay, another truly insane guess:

Mount Michael - Saunders Island (South Sandwich Islands)

It's insane because I don't know that anyone actually would go there to take a photograph, but it has boasted an active lava lake and has Hawaiian-like eruptions. I cannot find a single eruption photo not taken from space. But Erik has sources I don't, so perhaps not so out-there. He said it was a doozy.

Piton de la Fournaise?

I'm guessing that the vapor cloud in the background is from an ocean entry. I'm going with Surtsey, although if that's the case no dogs would have been allowed!

Wait.....there was a dog in the photo?

no dog, but nicely wrapped lunch package.

Posted by: doug mcl | July 15, 2010 9:03 PM

An offering to the volcano gods

I see a helmet. A Viking helmet, horns and all. Like those you can by in souvenirs shop.

Heimaey '73 or Surtsey; the photo looks like film not digital too

I was going to guess Bol'shoi Tolbatchik 1975 eruption - but don't think our Kamchatka colleagues can get bamboo poles. The bamboo suggests tropics somewhere.... This is really fluid spatter involved - must be tholeiite. Piton de la Fournaise?

Still nothing...or maybe there's a right answer somewhere above and Erik hasn't had time to verify it.

Alright, how about Fernandina? Seems as good a guess as any at this point.

I think Thomas (Wipf) is the closest this far. Erik may have made a frame grab from an 80's series shown on Discovery Channel made by the Kraffts (it looks like Katja Krafft on the right) - or from the vast Katja Krafft collection/library - and I think it may well be the episode that dealt with Piton de la Fournaise. I'll rummage through my old VCR casettes & see if I can find it.

PS. I would like my point for Emi Koussi, thank you!

This is a very tough one! I do not have any idea, but as has been said before, could be Surtsey, but the people... mmmm... could be not:

http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~csav/gallery/decker/images/Surtsey.jpg

I'll go with Dylan Ray here - Mauna Loa, 1984 eruption that started on March 25th, Maurice's birthday, one hour after a sending-off party for the then current director had ended. The formation in the Mystery photo is very similar to one from that eruption and I do believe it may be Katia Krafft on the right.

I believe it's Pu`u `O`o

I'm going for Mauna Loa. It's just visible on the image shown, manipulating it makes it clearer: this is very high up, looking down on clouds, with a coastline in the distance that looks a heck of a lot like the view from near the top of Mauna Loa. +1 Henrik.

Mauna Loa 1940 cone vent, presently bisected by a 1984 fissure

hvo.wr.usgs.gov/maunaloa/current/archive/2009/Jun/IMG_0035_L.jpg

hvo.wr.usgs.gov/maunaloa/current/images.html

USGS period photo, same cone vent, summit caldera.

www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1302-02=&volpage=photos&photo…

The ash pattern is very similar.

Thank you Fireman, but Dylan Ray (#4) was first to get Mauna Loa and Passerby, as far as I can tell, has nailed the exact feature. But I would like to know if it's the 1984 eruption and whether or not it is Katia Krafft and if Erik's "doozy" refers to the story told by Maurice Krafft on the commemorative programme, "Katia & Maurice".

PS. erm... Emi Koussi? ;)

Not convinced that it is Mauna Loa. It is probably a caldera in a shield volcano to be sure, but that saddle-shaped side-profile of an eruptive vent is not uncommon, not to mention the fact that having been to Kilauea Caldera (depth 165 metres, 6 km diameter), I know that the 180+ metre walls of Moku'aweoweo would look larger regardless of where you were standing within the 3-5 km wide caldera. If the observers were not within the caldera and there's a sharp drop-off in front of them, there are no features within Moku'aweoweo that I am aware of which have approached the height of the caldera walls and it certainly looks like the top of this vent is near-level with the observers.

My newest guess is Sierra Negra, in the Galapagos. Massive, shallow caldera on a shield volcano (biggest caldera in the Galapagos)...and over 1000 metres above sea level so the coast in the background makes perfect sense.

Good shot, VolcanoMan:
Summary on Siera Negra -
"Lava flows from a major eruption in 1979 extend all the way to the north coast from circumferential fissure vents on the upper northern flank. Sierra Negra, along with Cerro Azul and Volcán Wolf, is one of the most active of Isabela Island volcanoes."
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1503-05=

The largest volcano on earth is Mauna Loa.
It's a real doozy of a mountain!

Emi Koussi was mystery volcano #19.

Nobody noted the white steam plume in the right background? That's lava flowing into the ocean not far away from the active vent, that's why I thought (see #1) it's Surtsey. But if someone of you can lay your hands on the fabulous book "Surtsey: The New Island in the North Atlantic" by Thorarinsson, you'll find a photo in there that shows exactly the cone we see in the photo above, but without the people.

Actually the photo Erik has posted here is one I've never seen before and I've seen a LOT of volcano photos over the past nearly 40 years :

Well, I didn't know the meaning of the word "doozy" (had to consult a dictionary). But now I think I'm learning it the hard way. :)

Boris; I see what you mean, it's virtually identical, even to the steep 'lip' on the left-hand side of the crater rim (I've got the book, it's plate 41)

.. which would mean the most obscure photo so far was got in the first response... lol poor Erik.

Boris, I believe you - someone saw and remarked on the steam plume earlier in the thread. I saw what I took to be clouds below, and a distant shoreline, which put me in mind of a high flank vent on Mauna Kea. But I guess the perspective was all wrong and those clouds are actually *above*! No fair - you have the book, we don't! :-)

Fireman: I have the book as well; but it's no good unless you think to look into it -or remember one plate from 50+. Which I didn't. My bad, as they say.

Ha, I'm still chuckling about it.

I'm just glad I'm not married to Boris is all I can say. And I thought my wife's photographic memory was hard to live with.

OK, I suggest that we should go on guessing about who are those people, the "bamboo"stick, and the "dog"/"lunch bag"/"Viking helm" near the volcano. And next time we ask Boris not to participate until the 30th post of the mystery volcano thread.
>:-)

Why shouldn't he? There have been 23 challenges and Boris has been beaten to it on 20 of those occasions. Also, I suspect Boris enjoys the challenge. All work and no play etc. ;)

Furthermore, I'm not so certain he is correct because a) the two pillars of steam are nowhere near as tall as those shown in other photos of Surtsey, and b) if you compare it to
http://tlacaelel.igeofcu.unam.mx/~GeoD/spreading/iceland/surtsey1963.jpg
the people would be on the far side and the terrain does not match up with the view they ought to have had and the place where the steam rises does not match up either.

Anyway, "hat tip" to Erik 'cause he's got us all more or less bamboozled!

@Henrik: OK. In this case I'll "let" him participate. But Erik should say in advance when he would post his new puzzle so I can come in time. I always get here too late, and you know, I'm too short of options. Always get bamboozled! (You should get extra points for the hilarious neologism.) :)

@Henrik I saw the picture, I think you're right. But the eruption could have changed, since it lasted long, couldn't it?
And I must not forget that my bet was for an Icelandic volcano. So I should be in good terms with Boris... :)

Renato, you give me far too much credit my friend as bamboozle is a word significantly older than myself:

http://east.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bamboozle

But it is rather apt!

#61 @Henrik: Living is learning, my friend, specially at the Eruptions blog. I was so sure you made up that one I didn't even bother to check the dictionary, so perfectly fit for the occasion the word seemed to me. My fault, though. But you still deserve the points, but only if it becomes proved that the plant in question belongs to the Bambusa genus.

Copied and pasted from the other thread Posted by: Thomas Wipf
"Wow Erik, this is a great volcano-mystery photo. Really difficult with many traps. I still think it could be Piton de la Fournaise, but this ist whishful-thinking. But I don´t think it is Surtsey (no bamboo there). I compares fotos of Katia and Maurice Krafft and she had definetely little jug ears. And the hair of the guy in the middle could be Maurice Krafft because of the curly hair. I know they have been at the eruption at Heimaey but not at Surtsey. So it could be Eldfell, but I have never seen such a cone there. So if it is Katia and Maurice there, it could only be Piton de la Fournaise (which would have the nice side-effect, that I would habe win my first Volcano-Mystery contest) or Hawaii. Unfortunately there are also people form Island with jug ears, so I´m afraid Boris Behncke could be right!"

A new guess before Erik solves the question:

Thanksgiving Eve Breakout from PuÊ»u Ê»ÅÊ»Å

@ Renato Rio Thanks a lot for copying my post into the right thread. Well done.

A crazy answer but I keep coming back to the spatter cone. OK, I'm daft enough to suggest it.

Fimmvörduháls

I saw something about that topic on TV last night. Good post.