Soufriere Hills
eklemetti | October 31, 2008
After nearly a year and a half of little lava dome growth at Soufriere Hills in the West Indies, this past July 26th, the volcano erupted new dome material. Why do I remind us of this, you ask? Well, the Scientific Advisory Committee at Montserrat feel that the dome growth might be restarting in earnest:
Since August, any new supply of lava has been minimal. Thus while there is evidence that the eighteen-month long pause in lava dome growth may be coming to an end, it has not happened yet.
The most troubling event, in their minds, is the new activity at the Gages Wall vent, which means that…
eklemetti | October 9, 2008
If you ever want your research to be picked up by the popular press, you pretty much need to publish in the journal Science. It (along with Nature) are seen as the Premier League of scientific publication, and even though there isn't a lot of agreement on whether what gets published in these journals is the best science has to offer (or whether it is just the most flashy), it definitely gets the press' attention.
Right now, there has been a lot of noise in the science press about a recent article that discusses predicting volcanic eruption. This research on Montserrat in the West Indies,…
eklemetti | July 29, 2008
It seemed like events at Soufriere Hills had been heading for a dome collapse for the past few week and sure enough, part of the summit dome collapsed last night, producing pyroclastic flows that reached the ocean along with a 40,000 foot ash column. The report I received from the Montserrat Volcano Observatory offered the following details:
The collapse started at 11:27 pm local time on Monday 28th July 2008
without any precursory activity. Part of the western side of the lava
dome collapsed generating pyroclastic flows that reached Plymouth and
the sea.
There were also a few explosions…
eklemetti | July 27, 2008
There haven't been any major developments volcano-wise over the weekend, just a few updates on some current rumblings:
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Soufriere Hills (Montserrat) coughed up more ash, producing ash columns to "thousands of feet" according to reports from the MVO. The eruptions/explosions were centered at the lava dome on the summit of the volcano, Seismicity has also increased, suggesting that a larger eruption might be in the works.
Chaiten continues to worry Chilean geologists. Although the eruption seems to have reduced in intensity over the weekend, the fear of a blockage that could lead to a…
eklemetti | July 22, 2008
There were a number of small explosive events at Soufriere Hills in Montserrat in the past few days. Small ash columns of ~5,000 feet were produced, likely caused by some degassing or interaction with water of the andesite dome at the top of the volcano. The director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory says there is little concern for heightened activity. The volcano has been erupting off-and-on since 1995 and these eruptions are just part of the ebb-and-flow of this period of activity.
eklemetti | May 29, 2008
This isn't really new activity, but a report on the ongoing activity at Soufriere Hills on Montserrat in the West Indies. Soufriere Hills is a composite volcano that has been erupting for almost 11 years now, producing pyroclastic flows and ash fall that have wiped out entire towns on the island of Montserrat. Most of the activity is caused by dome collapses, where the viscous dacite lavas will erupt to form domes that then become oversteepened and collapsed due to gravity. This material is still hot (usually) and forms the deadly pyroclastic flows. Sounds like there have been a few dome…