volcano monitoring
eklemetti | February 6, 2009Just to keep us appraised of the situation at ever-steaming-and-shaking Redoubt:
From AVO (2/6/2009 11:05 AM)
Unrest at Redoubt Volcano continues.Â
After the tremor episodes of yesterday, seismic activity has remained slightly elevated relative to the last few days.Â
The volcano has not erupted.
That is about it. A few quick hits about Redoubt (as the world waits) include an article on potential redirected air traffic if the volcano erupts, an update mentioning that if the snow is falling during an eruption, radar won't pick up the ash until its at 15-20,ooo feet , how British Columbia is…
eklemetti | February 6, 2009
For those of you interested in what happens in the realm of submarine volcanism, I can pass on some tidbits I've gotten about NW-Rota 1, a submarine volcano in the Mariana Islands (see bathymetry above). Dr. Ed Kohut (Petrogenex), a friend of mine from my days at Oregon State Univ., is currently on a JAMSTEC research cruise in the Mariana Islands, visiting the area about NW Rota-1. He reports:
"We just reached NW-Rota 1. It is still actively erupting. To put that in perspective, it has been observed erupting every time it has been visited since 2003. Today's actvity is not as vigourous as…
eklemetti | February 5, 2009For all you Redoubt vigil holders...
According to AVO at ~12:30 (2/5/09):
Starting at 11:18 AKST (20:18 UTC), a burst of more intense seismic tremor occurred. This episode lasted for about 4 minutes and was the most most energetic since January 30. Radar and pilot observations confirm our analysis that no eruption occurred.
eklemetti | February 5, 2009
Bored with waiting for Redoubt to erupt? Well, Nevado del Huila in Colombia looks like it is also on the eruption watch list. A fly-over of Huila performed by Colombian officials (unclear from the article if it was done by National Emergency Management or INGEOMINAS) revealed a large lava dome growing in the crater, suggesting that an eruption might follow considering all the lava being extruded. This eruption might come in the form of an explosion caused by the collapse of this lava done - the collapse itself could generate a pyroclastic flow and the release of pressure on the underlying…
eklemetti | February 5, 2009
A week ago, if you asked around, I'm sure most people would have thought Redoubt would have erupted by now considering all the seismicity and melting that was seen at the end of last week. However, volcanology is not an exact science, and here we are continuing to watch Redoubt tease us with signs of pending activity. New holes have appeared in the snow that caps the volcano, the seismicity continues and the volcano is still spewing sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide - all signs that magma is intruding the volcanic edifice. However, as on this morning (2/5/2009), the volcano…
eklemetti | February 3, 2009
Redoubt (above) is definitely taking its time. After catching everyone's attention last week with seismic activity, melting of its snow cap and increased gas emissions, the volcano is still, well, doing all those things, but not erupting. AVO's update are beginning to sound like a broken record:
"(2/3/09 04:10) Unrest at Redoubt Volcano is continuing with elevated seismicity well above background levels. The volcano has not erupted. A gas/observation overflight yesterday reported continued changes in the summit glaciers indicative of heating of the summit area. Photos from both the…
eklemetti | February 2, 2009
Mt. Asama near Tokyo did, in fact, erupt within the "two day" window predicted by the Meteorological Agency of Japan. The reports this morning put the ash column at ~2,000 meters (~6-7,000 feet), so relatively small, but big enough to dust parts of Tokyo (~145 km away) with ash. No evacuations are planned for the area around Asama, but people who live within 4 km of the volcano are to "take caution".Â
There are also new reports that Mt. Sakurajima in southern Japan erupted yesterday. Block were thrown up to a few kilometers from the volcano. The article suggests that ash spread as far as…
eklemetti | February 1, 2009
UPDATE 2/1/09 5:02 PM Pacific: Indeed, Asama did erupt today. The eruption was relatively small, throwing ballistic clasts up to 1 kilometer from the vent and ash into the outskirts of Tokyo.
Redoubt in Alaska has dominated the volcano news as of late, but it is clearly not the only volcano on Earth that is showing signs of eruption right now. The Meteorological Agency in Japan has just raises the alert level at Mt. Asama and warn that the volcano could erupt in the next "two days". Asama is ~150 kilometers from Tokyo and is very active (see above), having last erupted in September 2008. The…
eklemetti | January 31, 2009
The "eruption watch" continues at Redoubt ... Saturday revealed that things are getting hotter at the summit near the 1989/1990 dome (see picture above that made Redoubt famous in 1989). The overflight of the volcano revealed new holes in the summit glacial and a multitude of muddy streams formed from the meltwater. This area of very intense fumarolic activity is just below the 1989/1990 dome (~7,100 feet) and has been growing over the past few days. They also report an area at ~9,000 feet on the volcano that shows signs of ice collapse, indicating heat from underneath the snow and ice (…
eklemetti | January 31, 2009
The Anchorage Daily News has an excellent article today on the Drift River Oil Terminal, a depository for oil collected from the platforms in the Cook Inlet. This oil terminal stores at least 1,000,o00 barrels of oil (see article for why we're not sure) and sits, well, at the base of Redoubt (see map below from Anchorage Daily News) on the floodplain of the Drift River (~25 miles from the vent).Â
Now, this oil terminal was more-or-less destroyed during the last episode of volcanism at Redoubt twenty years ago when the terminal was wiped out by floods resulting from the eruptions. Not only…
eklemetti | January 30, 2009
I am surprised as anyone how the public has become captivated by this geologic drama unfolding at Redoubt. Headlines about the volcano are popping up everywhere from CNN to the MSNBC to Slashdot to Popular Science - yes, even the nerds are enthralled, which might be the reason that the AVO servers are overloaded today (and that Eruptions has set new records in visits each day for the last 4 days). The stories are pretty typical: everyone is preparing/panicking, the volcano might have a giant eruption, and so on. This is rapidly becoming the most eagerly anticipated (is that the right word…
eklemetti | January 29, 2009
It is either a slow news day, or something about the eruption watch at Redoubt has captured the attention of someone at CNN.com as it is now the headline on the website (see above). This is interesting (and odd) to me considering that, over the last few days, very little has changed in the status of Redoubt. In fact, AVO has said things have, in fact, settled down a bit. However, they are still thinking that an eruption is imminent, but maybe in the scales of days to weeks rather than hours. The Anchorage Daily News does have a nice map of Anchorage's area volcanoes and when they last…
eklemetti | January 28, 2009
A quick note (as I'm buried in zircon): The Alaska Volcano Observatory has installed a webcam at Redoubt to monitor for an eruption. It is a little cloudy today (not the image above), so not much can be seen, but who knows, maybe you can catch the volcano in action if it erupts. The status remains at Orange (heightened risk of eruption) and AVO will monitor the volcano around the clock until things change (eruption or return to background).
UPDATE (11:34 AM): Just as I posted this, I saw a very brief article that mentions something I hadn't heard before: AVO has noted some muddy debris flows…
eklemetti | January 27, 2009
Sorry for the headline, but this is a quick update to emphasize the media and their love of destruction. For example, Redoubt is, indeed, showing signs of a pending eruption, but how large of an eruption is anyone's guess. Most news sources have been fairly restrained with their headlines, such as:
Rumbling Volcano has Geologists on Alert (although oddly filed under "strange" news)
Attention Alaska Pilots - Alert Mt. Redoubt eruption may be Imminent (note that this one incorrectly says Redoubt is on "red" alert)
Inlet volcano Quieter but still Simmering
Alaskan Volcano Rumbling
You get the…
eklemetti | January 27, 2009
The Colombian government has extended the evacuations near Nevado del Huila, taking 800 families out of the danger zone near the rumbling volcano. Huila has been making a lot of noise as of late, and Colombian officials in Ingeominas and the National System for Emergencies are worried that the volcano will erupt soon, sending avalanches and lahars down the valleys of the Paez and Simbola Rivers as happened in November of 2008 (see above or the link to the Volcanism Blog). They also note that Ingeominas is installing microphones on the volcano to detect explosions in the crater to better…
eklemetti | January 25, 2009
Eruptions reader Ross was very right in pointing out that something is up at Redoubt. The Alaska Volcano Observatory has put Redoubt on orange alert for aviation and suggest that an eruption could occur with "hours to days". The most recent update from AVO says that a recent overflight of the volcano done this afternoon shows no evidence that an eruption has started, but steam and sulfur output has increased. Meanwhile, seismicity at the volcano is also well above background. In all, it sounds like the Aleutians might have yet another volcano erupting if these signs continue.
eklemetti | January 24, 2009
It is hard to believe that the eruption at seem to come out of nowhere at Chaiten started over 8 months ago now, and apparently is still not showing many signs of abating. I did get a chance to see some great talks and posters at AGU last month about the Chaiten eruption, with the key points I took away being that Chaiten is erupting a very crystal poor rhyolite (<1% crystals) and that it seems that the source of the magma is relatively deep in the Andean crust. Also, there are some indications that the eruption at Chaiten may have been tectonically instigated - i.e., that earthquakes in…
eklemetti | January 20, 2009
Nevado del Huila continues to cause problems in Colombia. Over 4,000 people had to be evacuated today from the Belalcazar area after the volcano showed new signs of eruption. No description is given to exactly what those signs were/are, however after the lahars in November (2008), it sounds like the Colombian government is not taking chances. Huila has been rumbling for almost two years now after almost 450 years on silence (that we know of) at the volcano.
eklemetti | January 1, 2009
I just wanted to point folks to an interview in US News & World Report with the USGS scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, Dr. Jacob Lowenstern. He plays down the swarm, noting that things like this happened in the 1980s and that Yellowstone has seen over 80 eruptions in the caldera since the last "supervolcano" eruption 640,000 years ago. I know Dr. Lowenstern pretty well, and even at AGU when I talked to him (before the swarm), he seemed to play down the huffing and puffing the caldera experiences on a yearly basis. It would take much more activity to get the YVO…
eklemetti | December 31, 2008
Yellowstone looks to be keeping everyone on their toes as we ring in 2009. The earthquake swarm reported earlier this week is continuing, with multiple events between 2-3.5 on the Richter Scale. Again, the folks monitoring the caldera - this time the Univ. of Utah - play down these events as normal for any active caldera system ... and they're very likely right. However, the media love to bring up the "supervolcano" angle and we're even getting expert opinion from (wait for it) Garrison Keillor!. Â The earthquakes are just normal earthquakes so far - none of the dreaded/anticipated harmonic…