Satellite images
eklemetti | July 2, 2009Three days ago, I received an email from Eruptions reader Gijs de Reijke who was curious about something he noticed in the daily OMI SO2 images:
OMI sulfur dioxide map over Ethiopia for June 30, 2009.
Now, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it other than the fact that there was an awful lot of sulfur dioxide in the vicinity of Addis Ababa, which seemed odd. If we look at a map of the active volcanoes in Ethiopia (below), a majority of the ones we might suspect if the SO2 was volcano are to the north (Erte Ale, Dallafilla), but this patch is smack-dab in the middle of the country, looking…
eklemetti | June 30, 2009The NASA Earth Observatory has posted some excellent images of Matua Island in the Kurils that show the before and after of the Sarychev Peak eruption of June 2009. There are some impressive changes ... so lets see if you can spot them! Post your comments on whats changed and why and I'll chime in periodically with what I've noticed.
BEFORE: Matua Island and Sarychev Peak in May 2007 (big version)
AFTER: Matua Island and Sarychev Peak in late June 2009 (big version)
eklemetti | June 25, 2009The Q&A post will be coming over the weekend (there's still time to send me a question!)
Icy cold volcanoes (well, geysers) on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.
In the meantime, here are a few quick hits:
Mt. Cleveland in the Aleutians had a small eruption. The plume was only ~15,000 feet / ~3 km. Cleveland is one of the more active volcanoes in the Aleutians, so this eruption is not out of the norm.
Landslides and rockfalls at Arenal (in spanish) in Costa Rica continue to prompt evacuations of tourists near the volcano. It is interesting to note that officials don't seem worried about hotel…
eklemetti | June 18, 2009
Sarychev Peak erupting on June 12th. Image taken on the ISS, courtesy of the NASA EO.
The eruption as Sarychev Peak seems to be waning a bit, at least according to some of the latest images from the NASA Earth Observatory's collection of MODIS shots. The ash plume is less prominent - and strikingly more grey than before, possibly if it contains a higher proportion of water vapor than the earlier plumes. However, it isn't these brand new shots that captured my attention but rather one of the possibly most stunning volcano images I've seen in years (above). This captures Sarychev Peak as a…
eklemetti | June 17, 2009
Flight path for Continental Flight 009 from Newark to Tokyo, diverted back to Newark due to the threat of ash from Sarychev Peak. Image courtesy of Flight Aware.
The eruption at Sarychev Peak is continuing to disrupt all sorts of flights that head towards Asia. There are lots of unhappy travelers who have had to "enjoy" a 12 hour flight that took them from Newark, NJ to ... Newark, NJ (see yesterday's Continental Flight 009 above). There have been a multitude of flights affected by the ash, many reported here on Eruptions by travelers or relatives (keep them coming!) It will be interesting…
eklemetti | June 16, 2009
Matua Islands (also known as Matsuwa Island), home of Sarychev Peak.
The eruption of Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands has been wreaking havoc on flights to and from Asia for the past few days (as many Eruptions readers can attest). You can see the latest VAAC (Volcano Ash Advisory Center) statement here that shows ash to at least FL380 (38,000 feet / 11 km). Predicted ash movement (see below) for the next couple of days has ash moving to the southeast of the volcano and the U.S. Air Force has detected ash as far as 1500 miles / 2400 km southeast and 575 miles / 900 km northwest of the…
eklemetti | June 15, 2009
Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands in 2007, the source of the large ash column currently disrupting transpacific air traffic.
It seems that the eruption at Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands of Russia might be a lot bigger than it first seemed. I've gotten a couple reports of flights to Tokyo from North America being diverted or delayed due to the ash threat, including All Nippon Air Flight 1 (Washington DC to Tokyo) and Continental Flight 7 (Houston to Tokyo, diverted to Anchorage). The NASA Earth Observatory has some great new images of the eruption taken today from the MODIS on the Aqua…
eklemetti | June 14, 2009
Sarychev Peak in Russia erupting on June 14, 2009. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.
The transpacific air routes over the Aleutians, the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands are a prime location for the threat of ash to commercial aviation. Many of these volcanoes, especially on the western side of the Pacific Ocean are not closely monitoring and sometimes only remote sensing techniques can keep track of the activity.
Case in point is the current eruption at Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands. The volcano is on one of the southern-most Kuril Islands (Ostrov Matua) in Russia…
eklemetti | May 22, 2009
Pohutu Geyser in Rotorua, New Zealand. Image taken by Erik Klemetti in January 2009.
It has been busy busy week for me, capped off today with a talk about my field work in New Zealand (see above), so I don't have much to say. Not much new news today about the Saudi Arabian earthquake swarms, but again, I'll keep my eyes pealed (incidentally, I still haven't been able to figure out why no western news sources have even mentioned the swarm).
Anyway, here's are some volcanic tidbits to enjoy over the long weekend:
Vog, as seen from space. Volcanic fog, fashionably shortened to "vog" is a real…
eklemetti | May 21, 2009
UPDATE 5/21/2009 4:30 PM Pacific: The latest news suggests that there are little to no evidence of volcanic gases since Wednesday according to the SGS, but they continue to monitor.
Lava flows from a 1256 A.D. eruption near Medinah in Saudi Arabia (to the south of Harrat Lunayyir) taken by the crew of the ISS in 2004. It shows nicely the volcanic heritage (dark lava flow on right of image) in western Saudi Arabia. Image courtesy of JSC Earth Observation Lab.
Well, as the days go by, there are more and more indications that an eruption is about to occur in the Harrat Lunayyir region of Saudi…
eklemetti | May 20, 2009I have finally gotten together enough to create a Google Earth image (below) of the location of the Saudi Arabian earthquakes and their depths/magnitudes. I only have the data from the USGS earthquake list, but it is very illuminating:
Harrat Lunayyir volcano in western Saudi Arabia from Google Earth with the current earthquakes shown on the image. Image courtesy of Google, earthquake data from the USGS. Click here to see a larger version.
The earthquakes look like this (all times are Universal Time):
Date Time Mag. Depth
5/17 19:50 M4.6 10 km
5/19 06:38 M4.9 10 km
5/19 16:54 M4.9 10 km
5/19…
eklemetti | May 18, 2009
Mauna Kea from space taken April 2009. Image courtesy of the NASA EO.
Just a quick link to a stunning photo of Mauna Kea in Hawai'i taken April 29, 2009 from the International Space Station. You can clearly see the pyroclastic material and abundant cinder cones that litter the flanks of the volcano.
{Thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory for the image link.}
eklemetti | May 15, 2009Volcano news ahoy, today brought to you by Islands.
Lake Kivu, located along the border the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda
A gorgeous satellite image (brought to us by the NASA EO) of a steam plume and ash from the ongoing eruption at Shiveluch in Kamchatka. The ash distribution stands out remarkably well on the white snow, with the central circle of ash near the vent/dome and then the wind-aided ash blanketing the terrain to the northeast of the volcano (and a little bit to the south).
Nature has a post reminding us that one of the big hazards at Nyiragongo/Nymuragira is not…
eklemetti | May 14, 2009
The Harrat Khaybar volcanic field in Saudi Arabia. Image courtesy of NASA, taken in 2008.
Now, I might take this report with a Volvo-sized grain of salt, but I've seen a few reports lately of an earthquake swarm going on in Saudi Arabia, near the Harrat Ash-Shaqqah in Al-Eis region (apparently near Madina, but I'm not 100% sure). I might normally just chalk this up to the tectonics of the Arabian Plate, however, the latest article I read this morning, Saleh Al-Muhawis, Director General of the Civil Defense in Madina Region mentioned this as the cause of the seismicity:
... magma (molten…
eklemetti | May 6, 2009
Nyiragongo as seen from Goma, Congo in 2002.
There isn't much to go on so far, but there are indications that an eruption has started at Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Satellite images has found "thermal anomalies" at the summit and along a 3-km swath of the eastern and western slopes. The report mentions that these could be "fires and /or volcanic material" and more interestingly, noticed at least 6 times since April 10, 2009. From the sound of it, this might be multiple vents or a central summit vent with lava flows going to multiple sides of the volcano. The Volcanism…
eklemetti | May 6, 2009Some brief tidbits from the volcanic realms:
Active volcanism at NW Rota-1
Kilauea? Explosive? You might think of Kilauea as a volcano that generates impressive Hawaiian-style eruptions with fire fountains reaching 100s m and dazzling lava flows, but Don Swanson at HVO sees evidence of a big explosive event at Kilauea. This eruption was ~1,000-1,600 years ago and may have produced a plinian-scale eruptive column and threw cm-scale chunks up to 17 km from the vent.
The intermingling of life and active volcanism always seems counterintuitive, but when you're talking undersea volcanism, all…
eklemetti | April 28, 2009
Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines taken by STS-050 in July 1992. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory
Few websites offer so many unique views of active volcanism than the NASA Earth Observatory. That is why I'd like to wish the EO a happy 10th birthday. The website first came online April 29, 1999. Keep up the good work and here's to more stunning volcano images (like the one above of Mt. Pinatubo) to come!
eklemetti | April 27, 2009
Shiveluch volcano in Russia. Image courtesy of KVERT.
Over this past weekend, Shiveluch in Kamchatka experienced a plinian eruption, producing a 7-km / 23,000 foot ash column. The NASA Terra satellite caught a great image of the ash plume over the snowy landscape of the Kamchatkan Peninsula on April 26, 2009. KVERT issued these comments on the current eruptive activity:
Seismic activity of the volcano slightly decreased but continues to
remain at high levels. A continuous spasmodic volcanic tremor and
series of weak shallow events continue to registering at volcano at
present.
According to…
eklemetti | April 22, 2009
Satellite image of the island of Tenerife with the main vent of the volcano (El Teide) in the central part of the island.
I will be out of town for the next few days, so I thought I'd leave this thread for breaking volcano news that any of you Eruptions readers notice.
However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to point out some abysmal science journalism before I go. I mean, I shouldn't have been surprised considering this is from the The Sun(UK), but, come on, could you at least put some effort in?
The article in question pertains to the recent controversy about the level of danger people…
eklemetti | April 21, 2009Well, after lamenting the slow volcano news, things are beginning to pick up again. Beyond the news of a potential increase in activity at Anak Krakatau, there are a few other newsworthy bits that have come up:
Mt. Kerinci in Indonesia
Mt. Kerinci in Indonesia is showing signs of eruption. The volcano is the highest mountain on the island of Sumatra, reaching 3,800 m / 12,400 feet and last erupted in March 2008. Its volcanic activity is marked by small (VEI <2) explosions of ash and tephra. Currently, the volcano is experiencing increased tremors and minor explosions that rained ash on a…