Mystery Volcano Photo #26

I'm sure I've seen either Le Tour or the Giro wind its way past this one so I'll go with Monte Amiata, Italy.

Massif central! Chaine de Puys (France). But which of the cones?

Looks more like Italy to me. But I don't know what.

Could be part of the Tarawera dome complex, NZ?

That kind of landscape is pretty common in the dry half Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji. In that case the mountain would probably be the highest peak, Tomanivi (Mt Victoria), because the clouds usually stop there. (That's why the western half is so dry.)

dammit, zane bet me to it. Judging by the vegetation I'd also say NZ. He's taken Tarawera so I'll say something silly like Kuharua (a dome in the Taupo center).

Mount St. Helena, Napa Valley?

Can I change? I'll now say Haroharo dome rather than Kuharua (though I still think its Tarawera seen from the SSE).

in fact I'm certain it's Tarawera.

I tried to post a superlong link to a pic and it did not go trough so i ll try again.
Somewhere in the vincinity of Puy de Mary and Puy de Griou.
Le Plombe du Cantal or Puy Chavaroche.
On this blog, pic nr 8, Plombe du Chantal.
Check out the slope in the background to the left. This could be it.
http://www.montagnebellevue.com/blog/

Here is a nice image of Monte Amiata:

http://www.hotelk2.net/wp-content/gallery/monte-amiata/amiata03b.jpg

#10 I think Thomas Wipf and Birgit got it. I was doing my research while there was only one comment. Then I started to look for pics at all possible places with this kind of vegetation. Could be Europe (but not Italy - Amiata has a different shape and vegetation around). Then France or Germany. So I take Plombe du Cantal. I also thought of New Zealand, and was very close to chose Apagado in central Chile (at first Puyehue-Cordón Caulle, but it is too high), but I agree. It's in Massif Central, France.
#7 Could be some unknown butte in the Cascades, but I didn't find any match.
#5 Fiji is totally out of question.
Plombe du Cantal.

sorry guys, but I'm dead certain it's Tarawera. Go to
38°17'1.18"S
176°29'35.57"E

in Google Earth. Zoom in to ground level and tilt your view to the north. Et voilá!

#13 Nothing to be sorry for. I love riddles. If you are correct, Congratulations, i just think the vegetation is wrong for Tarawera. ( Especially the trees.) The shape does look very similar but some peeks are missing. ( btw i had a typo in my earlier post Its Plome du Chantal.) But i dont really know if thats our candidate, or Puy Chavaroche or just somewhere round there is my guess.

Ha! me too! I'm going to look silly if I'm wrong!!

Totally OT But does anyone have any information on how Kasatochi is coming back biologically after the August 2008 eruption.
The island was pretty much stripped bare and buried in ash in 2008.

I concur with those who are voting for Tarawera. :-)

Since Dr Klemetti has been doing field work in NZ, Tarawera is a pretty good guess. All the same I agree with Birgit re Tarawera, especially since there isn't a single shot available on the web (Google "Pictures for...") that agrees with MVP #26. That said, there is a volcano that shows many similarities and it's located close to Amiata but I will stick with my guess and let someone else take the other bet. ;)

Looks like Rincon de la Vieja to me, but it's so hard to tell.

How about Clear Lake, CA.

Puy des Gouttes, France.

Sorry, a little bogged down today, but Zane nailed it back at #4 - it is indeed Tarawera in New Zealand. Another uncommon perspective of the volcano from some back roads behind the volcano. Nice job getting it!

@#!#@*%@#$! >:(

Sorry, @Zane, @Bruce and @Don. Just a bad looser here. Congratulations! Next, Erik!!!!

Clincher was actually the fence just visible in the mid-foreground pasture - Classic North Island NZ fence with five or six droppers between posts. That, added to the Kanuka visible in the next field over the gully, and the dome type shoulder of the mountain meant that it had to be a NI NZ dome volcano, and the slip visible in the shoulder convinced me it was Tarawera, although it's been a very long time since I viewed it from that side.

Well, I just got on line and read the posts. At first, I thought of Mt. St. Helena, but it was not flat or slanted enough for that one. And I knew it was not Konokti at Clear Lake. It is a beautiful countryside. As for the fences there, I have seen some like that in the US in the Mid-west. There are even waddle fences in some places.

OT, update on my trek to study the geology where I live. I have learned there is one area that has very hard rock that is unusual. Here is a story about that hard rock.

Under the main road that comes into town, there is a mine tunnel. My DH has been in that and he nearly ruined a rock pick getting a piece of that rock. When the road was being changed, he offered to work for them on the particular area where that hard rock is. They told him they could handle it. Later, they ran into that rock and they had to drill into and they had a very hard time. Such a hard time that they almost ruined the drill! My DH showed up and they knew he would. He later found out that they cussed him up one side and down the other because he knew that rock was there and they didn't.

My DH had the sample analyzed and it had aluminum, nickle, tin, iron, manganese, and some other stuff that he doesn't remember, but it is about the hardest stuff you can have the "good fortune" to get into. It is a strange pocket of hard stuff.

I went on another road and took more pictures and I will go back to take more on that one, and take off on one of the dirt roads that has some interesting stuff. This neck of the woods has a lot of different stuff and some is right next to the other and there will be one kind of rock and a few feet from that will be a totally different kind. As I learn what things are, I will let you know more. I have been by this stuff so much and when I stop (more like drive slow) and really look, there is so much variation I didn't see before. Neat stuff right close by.

Good one Zane!! Congrats!

Yes definitely looks like Tarawera to me. Too late to be a winner though - I'm disadvantaged by the time difference.

Looks awfully like Mt Tarawera to me but not taken from the most common viewpoint? Definately NZ vegetation and foreground topography typical of the central North Island Volcanic plateau pumice country.

#26 @Diane: exciting discoveries there, I hope. US West Coast is amazing for its diversity of geological features. Keep us updated on new findings.
#28 @Mike: I used to think that I always arrived late and put the blame on the time difference, but today I was the first to read the riddle and after hours of research, all I got was a fiasco. Beaten by a fence!(Just kidding) But I'm sure that you, with your travel experience would manage to unweave the mystery volcanoes to come. ;)
@Erik it would be a good idea if you accepted suggestions from blog members here and if any of us cannot guess, the person scores two points, how about that?
Please, it's just a hint, your choices are excellent, but my fellow colleagues are detectives rather than volcanophiles. :)

Oha!
Here we go!

It's not totally confirming that the solar winds, tricker earthquakes, but we got the 1st official statement, that it interacts in "quakes manners" with our earth.

The action begins in Earth's magnetic tail, which is stretched out like a windsock by the million mph solar wind. Sometimes the tail can become so stretched and tension-filled, it snaps back like an over-torqued rubber band. Solar wind plasma trapped in the tail hurtles toward Earth. On more than one occasion, the five THEMIS spacecraft were in the line of fire when these "plasma jets" swept by. Clearly, the jets were going to hit Earth. But what would happen then? The fleet moved closer to the planet to find out.
[..]
The impact sets off a rebounding process, in which the incoming plasma actually bounces up and down on the reverberating magnetic field. Researchers call it "repetitive flow rebuffing." It's akin to a tennis ball bouncing up and down on a carpeted floor. The first bounce is a big one, followed by bounces of decreasing amplitude as energy is dissipated in the carpet.
[..]
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/27jul_spacequ…

So the energy is released into the carpet, its not a final answer, that earthquakes get triggered by it, but its a start.

Heres a pic of the situation

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/410640main_FastMovingKnot_full.jpg
from this site
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/themis/main/index.html

sorry again for going OT for you, but im convinced it plays a key role in our earth activity.

Re Tarawera - there is currently a quake swarm going on in Tarawera's vicinity, specifically Okataina...

Wow, Helen, thanks for the heads-up!

http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcano/activity/okataina/index.html

Though it looks as though it may have quietened down again already.

Oh i see my post was to long, and hasnt been published yet.

also i saw the article was stated in the last post on this site.
but i just need to link it one more time, sorry.
Every sec im going more into this its getting more interesting.
science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/27jul_spacequakes/

I asked it before but i cant remember getting an answer to it.

Is there maybe a connection of the night/day-time of an earthquake? Are more quakes happening during night (time of the location)?
Or Eruptions? sure there are eruptions going on all the day, sure there are some starting at day time, but maybe be more are blowing of at night?

Couple of new quakes at Tarawera.. this is certainly something to keep an eye on.

BTW this must be the first time I have heard of a volcano getting all excited about being posted on an internet blog.

One thing regarding seismicity under Tarawera - the whole dome complex sits over a well-established crustal lineament. That is why Tarawera is a long, straight chain of dome, so some of the seismicity might be from movement along this feature ... however, definitely not out of the question to see future activity at the domes. The real question is whether it would be basaltic or rhyolitic.

Morning Erik!

Exactly what went through my mind as well.

re tectonic activity, the Whakatane Graben is opening up just to the north and has been extremely active over the last two to three years. For example, here is the last 30 days activity for the region. Those two swarms just off the coast mark the eastern and western margins of the graben respectively. There have been literally thousands of quakes in the last couple of years on the western margin. Activity on the eastern margin is relatively recent but, if I am not mistaken, this is also the line that extends down through to Tarawera.

http://images.geonet.org.nz/maps/quakes/262-east-cape-quake.jpg

@Erik 36, IIRC the domes are primarily rhyolitic, but the last eruption in the 19th century was a basaltic dyke emplacement?

Fireman - thats right. The 1886 eruption was a explosive basaltic eruption - almost entirely tephra that erupted in the form of a >100m (possibly as high as 2000m!) fire fountain. The previous eruption was the ~1305 AD Kaharoa rhyolite - most of the domes in the photo are from that series of rhyolite domes and pyroclastic flows.

OT: one of the things I forgot to mention about that aluminum/iron/tin/nickle/manganese rock my DH knew about is that it is also silicic. DH told me that it may have been magnesium instead of mangagnese. Apparently, it is referred to as a type of aluminum silica. Regardless, it is very hard and that it almost wrecked a drill (they had to drill eight holes) testifies to that.

Just checked the paper on the Whakatane graben and I must correct myself.

This swarm is directly under the Haroharo complex (it's being going on for a while actually, just nowhere near so vigorous) and it is NOT anywhere near the western edge of the graben but bang smack in the middle. True, Tarawera is more or less on the eastern margin and lies roughly in line with the swarm up near Whakatane, but Haroharo doesn't (even though it is technically all part of the Okataina complex I think it is a separate volcano).

Linearly, the swarm is in line with Rotoma and the Matata swarm and I would be damned surprised if is there is not indeed a tectonic connection with the western margin of the Whakatane graben. Anyway, here is the paper:

www.frontiersabroad.com/uploads/Graben.pdf

There is also a very juicy paper by Nairn and Beanland on the tectonic setting of the 1987 Mt Edgecumbe earthquake which you can google (the link is too long to post here, maybe someone else can find a better link).

The entire area is extremely fascinating and changing very rapidly.

Brazenly saucy and feeling bad around paradise