volcano monitoring
eklemetti | March 14, 2009
Photo: The north flank of Mount Redoubt in early February 2009. Credit: Chris Waythomas / Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey
I've been following the waxing and waning of activity at Mt. Redoubt in Alaska for the past two months like many of you have. For a time there, the volcano had the nation's attention, both from the threat of a eruption near major shipping and oil hubs and from some questionable comments made by a certain Republican governor. However, nature sometimes doesn't play well with others, so after weeks of the Alaska Volcano Observatory's warnings that the…
sb admin | March 12, 2009
Welcome to version 2.0 of Eruptions, the blog on volcanic eruptions and volcano research in general. I've been writing this blog (starting over on Wordpress) over the last year or so, but now it has found a new home here at ScienceBlogs. If you're wondering what to expect if you're new to Eruptions, I'll be bringing news of volcanoes that are erupting worldwide, distilling the scientific jargon, dispelling the misinformation and commenting on what the effects of the eruption(s) might be. I'll also try to bring in any volcanoes in the popular media that gets my attention (alas, it has been…
eklemetti | March 10, 2009
AVO has officially downgraded the status at Redoubt from "Watch" (orange) to "Advisory" (yellow). The seismicity at the volcano has dropped off for the last couple weeks and signs that an eruption was imminent have waned. This, again, shows the difficulty in trying to predict the behavior of a volcano. All the signs were there at Redoubt - increased seismicity, increased heat flow at the summit (seen as melting ice and increased fumarolic output), increased volcanic gases (CO2 and SO2) - but as of right now, it seems like these signs only pointed to magma moving up the system, but not out of…
eklemetti | March 3, 2009
Count this as your mini-update for Redoubt, with the news being no news. Even AVO seems a little bored with Redoubt lately (not to say they aren't watching it as vigilantly as ever) as their last three updates have been exactly the same:
Redoubt volcano has not erupted. Seismicity is low, but above background levels and consists mainly of small discrete earthquakes. Night has fallen and no image is visible in the webcam.
However, down the road (arc-wise) in the Aleutians, AVO has raised the alert level at Okmok Caldera. New volcanic tremors were felt yesterday at Okmok, averaging about one…
amillikan | March 2, 2009Following President Obama's address to Congress Tuesday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal delivered a speech on behalf of the Republican National Committee that criticized a government spending bill, claiming it was "larded with wasteful spending" because it allotted $140 million for "something called 'volcano monitoring.' " But with 65 active volcanoes in the United States alone and the well-documented consequences of what happens when natural disaster potentials are not taken seriously, several ScienceBloggers are calling out Jindal and the idea that volcano monitoring isn't a good use of…
eklemetti | February 28, 2009As there has been a lot of chatter about the goings-on at Redoubt, I thought I'd post the latest AVO update (3:35 PM):
Redoubt volcano has not erupted. Seismicity is dominated by small discrete earthquakes and tremor remains at the diminished levels of the past two days. Webcam images are now clear and show no change in the volcano.
Nothing doing. In fact, seems quieter than it has been in the last few weeks.
eklemetti | February 26, 2009The Redoubt watch is now been going for well over a month and this is how quickly things can change when monitoring volcanoes. The headline in my volcano RSS, when I saw it said:
"Redoubt quiets after weeks of activity, though eruption still possible"
By the time I clicked on the link, the headline for the KTUU TV article became:
"Redoubt steaming at strongest level, seismic activity calms"
The seismic event refered to happened yesterday afternoon (Alaska time) and the volcano rumbled for about an hour, getting picked up by seismometers all around the Cook Inlet. They also mention that steam…
eklemetti | February 25, 2009
The people who remain in Chaiten face the potential for a devasting pyroclastic flow, so says Jorge Muñoz of the SERNAGEOMIN in Chile. The volcano is still producing large ash columns on Tuesday and a flyover of the dome forming inside the caldera has lead to the concern that a collapse on a larger scale than those seen last week could wipe out the town for good.
The government hopes news like this from volcanologists might convince the last remaining residents of Chaiten to leave, but no indication of this has come to pass. In fact, things sound like they're getting heated in the fight…
eklemetti | February 25, 2009
So, there has been a lot of talk about "volcano monitoring" over the last 24 hours, now hasn't there?
Now, I'm not going to revisit this discussion, but as an example of why it might be important, there is an article today about the location of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the Philippines (near the potentially active caldera Natib). These are the sorts of issues that need to be dealt with in regards to volcano monitoring - the cascading effect of an eruption. During the 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, there was a chance that volcaniclastic sediment from the eruption could have dammed…
eklemetti | February 24, 2009Not much new to report with Redoubt except that folks in Alaska are getting, well, a little punchy.
AVO currently reports (7:12 AM):
Volcanic tremor and occasional discrete earthquakes continue at Redoubt. Since 00:00 local time on 2/24, tremor amplitude at nearby stations has gradually increased, and the number of small earthquakes on nearby stations has increased slightly.
Redoubt isn't exactly making us volcanologists look too good lately. That is the nature of the beast, I suppose.
eklemetti | February 23, 2009
I have never had to leave my home in an evacuation from a natural disaster. I'll put that out there right now. So, I might not fully understand the emotions going through people when they find out that they have to leave their home by no fault of their own because nature has decided that where they live is no longer livable. I especially don't know what it might be like if you are then told you can never go back. You might have a home there. You might own a business there. You might have grown up there. Your great grandparents might have lived there over 100 years ago. Yet, you are told -…
eklemetti | February 23, 2009Nothing much to report on the Redoubt front except more of the same. The latest report from AVO says (6:44 AM):
Redoubt Volcano has not erupted. Volcanic tremor and intermittent discrete earthquakes continue. Data for the past few hours (since 00:00 AST on 2/23) has consisted almost entirely of low-level tremor, with few discrete earthquakes.
So, it seems that Redoubt continues on its holding pattern. In other fronts, the Anchorage Daily News is running a good synopsis of the monitoring AVO does on volcanoes in the Aleutian chain in Alaska. More updates as seen fit.
eklemetti | February 22, 2009
Lava issuing from the current eruptions at Kilauea have started a third ocean entry (and the second within the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park). The entry is not as dramatic as some, forming a slow, dripping entry of lava into the ocean (see linked video footage), but every little drip adds a little more land to the big island of Hawai'i.
In some other Hawaiian volcano news, the USGS have also posted a video showing the filling and draining of the lava lake in Halemaumau that started last year. Usually, the crater was surrounded by steam and fumes from the degassing magma, but the thermal…
eklemetti | February 18, 2009
I found this little press release that doesn't have a huge amount of information, but is interesting nevertheless. The Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions of Japan (nice name) is putting seven volcanoes on "24/7" monitoring. That sounds like we might see a lot of eruptions in Japan soon ... except that their rationale was that these volcanoes "are likely to affect public life by erupting or becoming active in the coming 100 years". That is quite the window of eruptive opportunity! The question is what exactly "24/7" monitoring - does this mean that someone/something…
eklemetti | February 18, 2009Not much to add to the Redoubt Watch this week. The volcano continuing to experience increased seismicity and AVO is watching it closely. Sounds like we'll be doing the same for the time being.
eklemetti | February 13, 2009We've now had three weeks of waiting for Redoubt, and all we have to show for it is steam, seismicity and lots and lots of press. As of today, Redoubt continues with the same: elevated seismicity, constant monitoring, think it will erupt.
Current status from AVO:
Redoubt Volcano has not erupted. Elevated seismicity is continuing, dominated by ongoing volcanic tremor and occasional small earthquakes. A storm system is moving across the Redoubt area at present, which will make for poor viewing conditions today. Associated winds are causing a small increase in seismic amplitudes on some seismic…
eklemetti | February 11, 2009The NASA Earth Observatory website posted this great image of Redoubt taken from Landsat images in 2000.
You can see a few neat things. The main thing I notice is that the Drift River Oil Terminal is in about the worst place you could put an oil terminal near a volcano like Redoubt. All the material from recent eruptions at Redoubt get focused down into the Drift River, which then heads off into the Cook Inlet via the Drift River flood plain (upper right hand side of the image). When this image was taken, the Drift River is still grey with volcanigenic material even 10 years after the last…
eklemetti | February 10, 2009Is the volcano just toying with us?
After yesterday's steam plume (woo.), Redoubt was relatively normal today, albeit still at the heightened state of readiness. However, the steam plume has waned today compared to yesterday.
Now, whether this is actually a signal that the magma is not rising up into the volcano as rapidly as before or this is just the quiet before the storm is anyone's guess. This very well could be like the 2004-08 Saint Helens episode that ended up being fairly benign with only passive eruption (if there is such a thing) of dome material (hat tip to Boris for bringing up…
eklemetti | February 9, 2009Jury duty is done, so here is a little update.
Redoubt is puffing away, producing a more prominent steam plume than it has over the last week (but that may be more weather-related than magma-related.) Beyond that, the volcanic gases keep coming and the earthquakes keep coming.
eklemetti | February 8, 2009Guess what?
Still rumbling, still steaming, but still no eruption.
I'll put money on the idea that Redoubt will erupt tomorrow, when I have jury duty.