volcano monitoring
eklemetti | July 12, 2008
Okmok Caldera in Alaska's Aleutian Islands erupted today, sending an ash column to at least 30,000 feet. Very little news has been released about the eruption so far beyond this information about the eruption column and some bits about precursor seismicity. A number of flights to Unalaska Island were cancelled due to the eruption. I'll pass on more information when I get it.
Okmok is located near Dutch Harbor, Alaska and is a large shield volcano with two prominent calderas at the top. In fact, whenever I see pictures of the caldera, I am reminded of what Crater Lake (Oregon) might look…
eklemetti | July 8, 2008Â
Kilauea is busy keeping geologists and tourists alike wondering what the volcano will be doing next. The current report on the volcano tells of a new fire fountain at the Thanksgiving Eve Break-out "rootless cone", about 6 miles from the ocean. The fire fountain started on Sunday night, issuing lava up to 40 feet in the air and the USGS has posted an amazing video of the fountaining on the HVO website. However, unlike the predicted behavior where magma at Kilauea starts near the summit and moves into the rifts, these lavas appear to be unrelated to the activity going on at the summit of…
eklemetti | July 4, 2008[wp_caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Anak Krakatau"][/wp_caption]
Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (whew, that is a mouthful) has placed Anak Krakatau on high alert for increased activity. Tourists were warned not to climb on the volcanic island in the Sunda Straits that rises from the remnants of the famous 1883 eruption of Krakatau. Anak Krakatau formed within the caldera of the ancestral volcano and have been fairly active since the 1920's, producing incandescent bombs and small ash…
eklemetti | July 1, 2008
Update 7/2/08: Sounds like the lava flows from Llaima are increasing ... or that there are more of them. The lava flows, as mentioned below, pose a threat to melt the ice on the volcano and produce lahars, or at least flooding.
Lots of news this morning about a new eruption at Llaima in Chile. The composite volcano is in south central Chile (the lakes region) about 430 miles south of Santiago. This is at least the third time this year that Llaima has erupted, and this time a lava flow is heading down the volcano towards the Rio Calbuco as far as 800 m downslope. The fear is the lava flow…
eklemetti | June 29, 2008
Almost 9 months since its last eruption, Ruapehu is keeping New Zealanders guessing about its next move. Brad Scott of GNS Science (NZ) reports that the crater lake at Ruapehu is reading unusually warm temperatures and high gas emissions, well after geologists there would have expected after the last eruption. Their conclusion doesn't seem to point to an imminent eruption, but rather just "unrest" at the volcano. Ruapehu is a fairly unique situation, mitigation-wise, as the volcano is a popular tourist destination for its skiing, but is also a relatively active volcano. This means that…
eklemetti | June 25, 2008
Since the "surprise" eruption of Chaiten in southern Chile (still erupting away), I'm sure there has been a lot of talk about better monitoring and predictions for volcanic eruptions. Now, we don't know the full extent of the facts, but usually an eruption of the magnitude of Chaiten (VEI 6, i.e., BIG) don't just go off out of the blue. There are precursors, such as seismicity under the volcano, uplift of the land over the volcano (think of the bulge of Mt. Saint Helens prior to the 1980 eruption), increasing emissions of volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide, increase in…
eklemetti | June 24, 2008
If Alaska wants to take a cue from Iceland, it might find itself with more power than it can use. That is, if the dreams of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas come true. They are planning to lease land on Mt. Spurr and possibly Mt. Augustine for geothermal exploration. Both of these volcanoes are active, with Mt. Spurr erupting last in 1992 (famously almost taking out a KLM 747 due to volcanic ash EDIT: Oops, this was not Spurr in 1992, but Redoubt in 1989. Luckily, AVO knew to warn aviation about the Spurr eruption thanks to the lessons learned from the near disaster at Redoubt) and…
eklemetti | June 23, 2008
Things have quieted down on the volcano-news front lately. I did catch a report that Fuego (Guatemala) is having small explosions (stombolian eruptions; link in Spanish), producing small (100s m-tall) ash columns along with some throwing incandescent blocks 30-50 meters from the vent. Just the typical noises expected at an active volcano. In the meantime, you can check out the volcanic hazards information that the Guatemalan survey (INSIVUMEH) has posted on their website. I'm always a fan of a country trying to educate their citizens of the real dangers of volcanoes and how to prepare.
eklemetti | June 20, 2008
Not much in the way of science to add here, but photographers at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park are still busy around the clock documenting the summit vent activity at Kilauea that started in March. Most of the activity is steam escaping from the vent, but at night, the vent glows red, proving just how close to the surface the magma is right now. Occasionally, the volcano throws out some volcanic clasts, probably in phreatomagmatic (water/magma interaction) explosions. The USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory has a nice series of photos of the current activity and research as well, mostly…
eklemetti | June 16, 2008
I am always amazed by the number of volcanoes that show signs of activity every year that I have never heard of before. Case in point is this report of activity near Mr. Kurikoma, on the island of Honshu in Japan. The last known eruptions at Kurikoma were back in 1950, and they seem to be water-magma interactions that produce phreatic explosions - and even beyond this 1950 eruption, there isn't much information about the eruptive history at Kurikoma.
However, if you look at the report, the activity is actually rather far from the summit of Kurikoma - a full 7 km to the southwest. There are…
eklemetti | June 16, 2008
The newest reports out of Chile are indicating that the eruption at Chaiten has reached levels of intensity not seen since the eruption first started over six weeks ago. I have to admit, that isn't a good sign in terms of keeping the volcanic edifice in one piece. There have been frequent, small (<M3) earthquakes along with "rumbling noises," which might indicates that the domes are collapsing to form pyroclastic flows. Alternately (and need I remind you, very speculatively) it might be the the edifice itself beginning to show the wear of this long eruption and the emptying of the magma…
eklemetti | June 14, 2008
Just a quick update for today (busy watching Red Sox vs. Reds, sorry, that is my other love: baseball). New reports concerning White Island suggest that an eruption is not imminent. Although there have been earthquakes nearby, whether or not they could directly lead to an eruption is unclear, but it sounds like geologists in New Zealand on trying to be cautious. This is the fun/challenge of predicting and monitoring volcanoes - the signs might be there, but you never know if the signs are all leading the same way.
eklemetti | June 13, 2008
Authorities in New Zealand have issued an alert for White Island. After a fairly sizable earthquake (M=5.4) near the island, the state agency that oversees volcanoes (GNS Science) is warning people to stay away from White Island for the next 48-72 hours on fears it might erupt. Normally, just because there is an earthquake near a volcano you don't instantly jump to the idea that it will erupt, but the 5.4 and subsequent earthquakes have been both near White Island and shallow (5-km depth), indicating it could very well be related to magma moving under the system.Â
White Island itself is a…
eklemetti | June 12, 2008
Most people don't realize that a majority of the earth's volcanoes are underwater. That is to say, the mid-ocean ridge system that runs along the bottom of all the major oceans can be considered one big volcano. However, thanks to its location deep underwater, we have only had second- or third-hand evidence of eruptions at mid-ocean ridges or seamounts.
Not any longer according to my graduate alma mater, Oregon State University. An active eruption was captured at Brimstone Pit in 2006, near Guam, by a team looking for hydrothermal activity at the sea's bottom. The eruption appears to be a…
eklemetti | June 6, 2008
A few reports this morning that Mt. Soputan, on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, is currently erupting. The reports indicate that there has been a lot of seismic activity and some ash emitted from the volcano. As with many volcanoes in the densely populated nation of Indonesia, there are people living on the slopes of Mt. Soputan and the authorities are preparing to evacuate them, if necessary. The last eruption at Soputan was way back in ... 2007 (see photo above), so it seems like the volcano is another one of many active Indonesian volcanoes.
eklemetti | May 30, 2008
We've been hearing a lot of conflicting reports about the state and future of the Chaiten eruption. Now ending its fourth week of eruption, Chaiten was said to be easing up a bit, but recent reports have Luis Lara from the SERNAGEOMIN still worried about a potential collapse, followed by a devastating eruption. I'll have to take his word for it as the explanations in the article don't really make a lot of sense. It sounds like both Lara and Dr. Petrinovic (Argentina) are worried about dome collapse, but that would just form large pyroclastic flows ... unless the dome collapses enough to…
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…
eklemetti | May 26, 2008
I'm always amazed by the number of volcanic eruptions captured by satellites that we might not have ever even had known occurred otherwise. Case in point is Rabaul on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. An Aqua satellite captured this shot of Rabaul erupting on May 20th, leaving a gorgeous plume heading off into the Pacific. Sure, most likely someone might have noticed the eruption, but its good to see that we can find eruptions going on even when we're not really looking.
Rabaul is a caldera volcano that is most famous for the simultaneous eruptions of Vulcan and Tavurvur in 1994…
eklemetti | May 26, 2008
I think we know who wins this battle. At Ruapehu (New Zealand), it isn't really the lava that is the problem, but the lahars produced by mixing snow, crater lake water and volcanic debris. However, that is not stopping people from wanting to ski on the volcano. Never ceases to amaze me how people assess the riskiness of activities.
eklemetti | May 19, 2008
It has been rather quiet on the volcano news front over the weekend. A couple tidbits:
- There are some new data showing the sulfur dioxide flux from Mt. Etna (Italy). The image above is an eruption of Etna from 2001 (and it makes a great wallpaper).
- I've heard very little about Chaiten lately, mostly because I don't think much has changed. The last update provided by the SERNAGEOMIN was on 5.16 (in spanish) and pretty much that is exactly what it says: the volcano continues to erupt. Apparently some USGS folks will be arriving on the scene soon as well. Most of the town of Chaiten has…