volcanic hazards
eklemetti | October 4, 2009And not because the Indians' season is finally (mercifully) over (zing!)
Cleveland steaming away in a 2008 AVO image.
Cleveland (the volcano) erupted on Friday, producing an ash column that reached 4.5-6 km / 15,000-20,000 feet. The full report from AVO:
Satellite data indicate that Cleveland volcano erupted briefly this morning at ~0730 UTC (2330 AKDT) 02 October 2009, producing a small, detached ash cloud that drifted northeast of the volcano at maximum altitudes of 15,000' to 20,000' (4.5 - 6.1 km) .
AVO has no real data seismic data right now for Cleveland, so only satellite imagery is…
eklemetti | October 2, 2009News to finish up your week:
Summit area of Hualalai in Hawai'i
Another day, another "threat" of volcanic eruption in Australia. I'm impressed with the abject fear Aussies seem to have for this perceived increased threat of an eruption - or at least what the press wants you to believe. This time, watch out near Bundaberg, Townsville and Cooktown in southeast Queensland!
In more press-related exaggeration, the Siberian Traps - a flood basalt eruption from, well, thousands of rift/vents in Siberia - is boiled down to being one Siberian volcano by the Telegraph. Dr. Mark Sephton of the Imperial…
eklemetti | October 2, 2009Gaua volcano in Vanuatu.
Gaua volcano in Vanuatu is showing signs that it could be headed towards an eruption. News reports from the island nation in the south Pacific Ocean mention "increased seismic activity, generating sulphurous gas and ash into the atmosphere and affecting water supplies." However, officials in Vanuatu have only raised Gaua's alert status to 1 on a scale of 5 and stories of previous evacuations suggest that people might not take the volcano that seriously if it does continue to rumble:
My father and one of my brothers was on Gaua when there was evacuation in 1973. They…
eklemetti | September 30, 2009The big geology news right now is the M8 earthquake in American Samoa that generated a killer tsunami (which made it all the way to the Bay Area in California).
Mammoth Mountain in California's Long Valley region.
In more benign, volcano-related news:
The aviation alert level at Redoubt in the Alaska has been returned to Green/Normal, which means that for all intents-and-purposes, the eruption that started earlier this year is over. The new dome totals ~91 million cubic yards of lava, slowly adding back to the north side of the volcano.
Eruptions reader Doug C. pointed out to me that there…
eklemetti | September 28, 2009A bit of news for your last Monday in September:
Pumice deposits from the ~13,000 year old Laacher See eruption. Image by Erik Klemetti, taken in August 2007.
More press for Dr. Joyce and his campaign to make the people of Australia terrified that volcanoes will destroy them. He warns of "new volcanoes" springing up in the Ballarat region to the northwest of Melbourne (which, incidentally, is where I pointed out might be the most likely place for future volcanism). Yes, sure, we should expect that a new, unknown scoria cone may form in the Newer Volcanic Province - I mean, that is what…
eklemetti | September 25, 2009OK, I admit it, this was a tough one. The MVP photo wasn't entirely distinctive, but the basaltic rift volcano of Ardoukôba in this small African nation was the answer. Nice job, Anne, for narrowing down the possible locations and nailing it.
MVP Standings (as of 9/25/2009)
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Cam - 1
Anne - 1
Ardoukôba volcano in Djibouti.
To give a little info on the volcano, Ardoukôba is a rift volcano that is part of the East African/Red Sea rift system in Djibouti. As the picture implies, the volcano is a low, broad rift extending 12 kilometers / 7.5 miles between…
eklemetti | September 23, 2009I missed the weekly report last week (sorry), but here is the new USGS/SI volcano activity report.
Highlights include:
Shiveluch in Kamchatka is still erupting away, producing ~7 km / 20,000 foot ash columns as the lava dome grows. There has also been pyroclastic flows spotted emanating from the new lava dome.
There was a report of a ~7.5 km / 25,000 foot ash-and-steam plume from El Reventador in Ecuador.
More small plumes and incandescent lava bombs were spotted at the Tavurvur Crater at Rabaul in Papau New Guinea
eklemetti | September 22, 2009The Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland, Australia.
Nothing makes me shudder like any article titled "Blankety-blank volcano is overdue". Typically the article that follows is full of nothing but vapid speculation and media fear-mongering. So, it wasn't too surprising that an article titled "Volcano eruption 'overdue'" in the Brisbane Times (amongst many other sites) didn't disappoint (or, in particular, it did). Dr. Bernie Joyce is quoted as saying "It is much more likely to be a matter of when, rather than if..." in regards to potential future volcanism on the Australian continent.…
eklemetti | September 15, 2009Mayon in the Philippines, taken in 2007
There has been a lot of waiting over the summer to see if Mayon in the Philippines was going to begin a new eruption sequence. This morning, the volcano had its first "eruption" since August 2008, producing a very small (~700 m / 2000 foot) ash-and-gas column that drifted to the southwest. PHIVOLCS reports that the plume had very minimal ash, but it is still worth noting. No new evacuations were called, but the 6-km "danger zone" and 7-8-km "extended danger zone" are still in effect.
Mayon is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines, erupting…
eklemetti | September 15, 2009There are a couple article out today concerning volcanoes and the economy, one on the plus side, one on the minus side.
Volcano Buono in Italy near Naples.
First off, nothing like volcanism to get me stoked for buying stuff, eh? Actually, I have to admit, the Volcano Buono mall (yes, mall) in Italy near Naples (and yes, near Vesuvius) is one of the rather more attractive malls I've seen in a long time (above). It is designed to look like a volcano - I suppose it looks most like a monogenetic scoria cone, a little out of place for that part of Italy - but its design was based on trying use…
eklemetti | September 14, 2009Monday is here again already ...
A pyroclastic flow from Soufriere Hills heading towards the ocean. Note the large volcaniclastic debris fan being formed by repeated flows. Dated March 2006.
The "Science Advisory Committee" at Montserrat in the West Indies suggests that the current eruption of Soufriere Hills on the small island could be drawing to a close. This is mostly based on the ever-decreasing seismicity under the volcano and that the volcano has not experienced any new dome growth or explosions over the last 6 months. Gas emissions have remained relatively constant over the last 18…
eklemetti | September 11, 2009Undated photo of Shiveluch volcano in Russia.
In case you haven't seen the report yet, Shiveluch in Kamchatka has gone, as they say, "non-linear". KVERT has raised the alert level at the volcano to "Red" with reports of many strong explosions and an ash plume of >32,800 feet / >10 km. This all suggests that the volcano might have experienced [WARNING SPECULATION] a massive dome collapse followed by rapid decompression of the magma under the dome - causing the plinian eruption that seems to be underway. The size of this eruption plume will definitely have some effect on air travel over…
eklemetti | September 9, 2009The first Mystery Volcano Photo (MVP, for short) seem to go well and indeed, the volcano in question was Concepcion in Nicaragua. Congratulations to volcanista for nailing it on the first try. I'll have to keep a tally of the winners for each MVP to name a, well, MVP MVP. So far, the scoresheet looks like that.
Volcanista - 1
All the rest of yous - 0
I think we know who has the upper hand.
Volcan Concepcion on Isla Omtepe in Nicaragua.
Anyway, Concepcion! The volcano is a stratovolcano on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua, which it shares with Madera, another active stratocone. It is…
eklemetti | September 6, 2009San Cristobal in Nicaragua
I don't have much in the way of details, but the Associated Press is reporting that San Cristobal in Nicaragua has erupted this evening. The volcano reportedly experienced an explosive eruption and that nearby villages (how nearby is unclear) have received ash fall from the eruption. If it is any indication, government officials did issue a warning to 25 districts around the volcano and so far no casualties have been reported.
UPDATE 8:30 AM (EDT) 9/7/2009: A few more details have come out about the eruption. The ash plume reached ~8,000 m / 26,000 feet, although…
eklemetti | September 4, 2009Lets get right to it!
"Manmade volcanoes": can they solve global warming?
It does indeed seem that something is happening beneath Kanlaon in the Philippines. PHIVOLCS reports that the volcano experienced 257 volcanic earthquakes from August 23 to September 1, well above the usually "background" level of ~20-30 a week. Most of this seismicity is centered on the northwest slope of the volcano, suggesting that if magma is moving, it is moving up under this side of the system. However, the seismicity doesn't necessarily have to be magma moving up to erupt. It could very easily be moving up in the…
eklemetti | September 2, 2009The move is complete (finally) ... so maybe I can settle down a bit, right? Right?
The world's deadliest volcano?
Anyway, a few things I stumbled across this week:
Forbes Traveler.com has a list boldly titled "World's Deadliest Volcanoes", which more or less is a slideshow of nice volcano pictures and some dubious ranking - mostly based on death toll (and cribbing a bit from IAVCEI's "Decade Volcanoes"). Of course, I find it amusing that they made a list of "deadliest volcanoes" and then proceed to tell people (read "tourists") what to do near the so-called "deadly" volcanoes. I suppose it is…
eklemetti | August 28, 2009Not much in volcano news, however a lot of earthquake news this morning.
Did anyone else notice that two M6+ earthquakes occurred last night within one minute of each other last night (eastern daylight time)? The first was in the Banda Sea near Indonesia at 01:51:19 UTC (M6.8), the next was in northern Qinhai in China at 01:52:06 UTC (M6.2). I'm guessing that is just the sort of coincidences that occur when you have thousands of earthquakes globally a week, but still an interesting coincidence. There was also a series of earthquakes, all less than M3.7, last night in Oklahoma of all places.…
eklemetti | August 27, 2009Koryaksky (Koryak) in Russia
Yesterday in the USGS/SI update, I mentioned the current eruption going on at Koryaksky (a.k.a. Koryak). Today, the NASA Earth Observatory has some images of the plume from the Russian volcano heading out to the east over the Peninsula. The plume itself looks fairly diffuse and mostly whitish steam rather than laden with grey/brown ash. The last significant eruption from Koryaksky was a VEI 3 eruption in 1956-57 that produced ash fall and pyroclastic flows from the volcano.
One thing that is noted on the EO page is this snippet:
MODIS captured this plume days…
eklemetti | August 26, 2009The slow summer for volcanic eruptions continue. Only 11 updates in this week's USGS/SI report. Thanks again to SI's Sally Kuhn Sennert for compiling the news!
Highlights this week include (not including Kilauea) include:
Tungurahua in Ecuador produced some minor lahars on August 21 to go with steam-and-gas emissions.
Popocatépetl in Mexico produced an ash plume that reached ~8.2 km / 27,000 feet on August 20 and continued to produce steam-and-ash plumes throughout the week following.
Over on the Kamchatka Peninsula, both Koryaksky and Shiveluch produced significant ash plumes (reaching 3-5…
eklemetti | August 23, 2009Some brief notes before I dive headlong into the exciting world of faculty orientation!
A small steam plume coming from Turrialba in Costa Rica. Photo taken in August 2007.
There are some preliminary reports of the state of wildlife (and everything) around Kasatochi Island in the Aleutians from the US F&W and USGS team that headed to check out how the island has recovered since last year's eruption. The shoreline has been radically transformed by the ash and although some seabirds have made attempts to nest in the loose ash, it doesn't seem to have been very successful. However, not…