volcano monitoring
eklemetti | May 16, 2008
The latest eruption at Kilauea has increased the amount of vog on the big island of Hawai'i. Vog is more or less the same as the anthropogenic "smog" produced by car/industrial exhaust, but produced by volcanic gases (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide amongst others). It definitely doesn't make for good air quality, especially with the current lack of strong tradewinds in Hawai'i right now.
eklemetti | May 15, 2008
If Chaiten, Llaima and Puyehue weren't enough, the Chilean Regional Emergency Office is placing seismometers on Peteroa volcano after its shown signs of increasing activity. The volcano is located out on the border with Chile and Argentina and has a number of glaciers that start from the edifice. Looking at the eruptive history of Peteroa, it seems that it has spasms every 30 years or so, although the last known eruption was ~10 years ago. The eruptions are mostly phreatic explosions (related to magma-water interaction) and the last known eruption that produced significant lava, ash and…
eklemetti | May 12, 2008
Looks like we should expect an eruption at Ruapehu (New Zealand) any time now. Tremors are ongoing, along with increased volcanic gas emissions (specifically SO2 here) and warmer temperatures in Ruapehu's crater lake. All of these ingredients point to a higher probability of eruption.
However, with all that begin said, the Alert Level at Ruapehu remains at 1 (out of 5).