volcanoes in the media
eklemetti | February 2, 2010UPDATE 2/2/2010 7:30PM EST: Another report, this time placing the activity near Wham. This report is still vague about that is actually happening, saying people saw "flames of burning rocks on the top of the mountain over the last couple of days". The article also says the Headquarters of the Geological Survey of Pakistan has not returned any inquires on the event. My guess (and I emphasize guess) is this might be a misconstrued forest fire ... but this is about as strange a report of a volcanic eruption as you can get.
UPDATE 2/2/2010: A little bit more detail - the "volcano" in question is…
eklemetti | February 1, 2010First off, I wanted to thank all of the Eruptions readers for making January the most popular month ever on this blog. I suppose I should give an assist to Yellowstone, but really, thanks for coming to the blog, reading the posts and engaging in all the great discussions that go on within its (cyber)walls.
KÄ«lauea's east rift zone eruption site. Image courtesy of the USGS/HVO.
On to some news!
I suppose you've made the big time when you're in the New York Times, and sure enough, the current Yellowstone earthquake swarm is in the Old Grey Lady. Nothing much new to read, but summarizes the…
eklemetti | January 28, 2010There has been a ... ahem ... healthy discussion of Yellowstone's current earthquake swarm on Eruptions as of late. We've now reached ~1,500 measurable earthquakes over the last 11 days. The latest reports of the continuation of the swarm isn't going to make anyone happy, but still, there are no signs that (a) this is out of the ordinary and (b) indicates magma making its way to the surface. In fact, if you plot the earthquakes since the 22nd of January, the depth appears to getting, well, deeper:
This plot shows the earthquakes listed on the USGS earthquake page since January 22 (oldest to…
eklemetti | January 25, 2010Two quick notes:
A Costa Rican farmer evacuating in early January 2010 after renewed activity of Volcan Turrialba.
Well, it appears that after a quiet night on Friday, the current Yellowstone swarm picked up where it left off. We're now up to 1,200 earthquakes since January 17th, with a pair over M3 today. Of course, people are still uppity about the swarm, especially after the earthquake in Haiti, but really, they're about as connected as worrying about the rainy day in Boston when there was a typhoon in Malaysia. Just to get people on the same page, YVO still says: "The swarm events are…
eklemetti | January 21, 2010
Sakurajima in Japan, erupting in December 2009. Image courtesy of Photovolcanica.com
Richard Roscoe at Photovolcanica.com has just posted two great sites focusing on two of the most active volcanoes in Japan: Sakurajima and Suwanosejima. These volcanoes are almost constantly erupting with small strombolian events punctuated by occasional plinian eruptions.
Sakurajima is on the island of Kyushu (well, technically Kagoshima, but right off the coast of Kyushu) less than 10 miles / 20 km from the city of Kagoshima. The volcano has been erupting since 1955 with both explosive and effusive…
eklemetti | January 20, 2010Quick news updates for a Wednesday...
The island (and volcano) of Gran Canaria in the Atlantic Ocean. It last erupted in ~20 B.C.
The earthquakes keep coming at Yellowstone - up to a M3.5 in the last 24 hours. Time has already put up an article wondering about whether people need worry about the swarm (there might be other things to worry about before this swarm). YVO's statement on the earthquake swarm seems pretty standard (as it should be): "At this time the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory does not consider the swarm to be unusual and the earthquakes are likely related to tectonic fault…
eklemetti | January 8, 2010The weekend! No updates until next Tuesday - I'll be off to give a talk at Western Michigan University.
Coal-erupting volcanoes defeat the Permian dinosaurs ... according to FOX News.
Anyway...
You know that mainstream media (FOXNews) must have done something appalling when even I can't write about it thanks to my seething rage. I'll let Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous and Ralph at the Volcanism Blog sum up how FOX News tried to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs (hint 1: it happened before dinosaurs even existed. hint 2: volcanoes erupt coal now).
After you've read about that…
eklemetti | January 7, 2010
The steam plume from Turrialba on December 26, 2009. Image by Eruptions reader Sahrye Cohen.
Turrialba
Costa Rican officials extended the evacuation zone around Turrialba from 3 to 6 km, raising the alert status at the volcano to Yellow. Vanessa Rosales of the National Emergency Commission described the seismicity as "intense but low," but says the country is prepared to deal with the emergency. As always, the news chooses oddly what is the "news" of an event, and many article on Turrialba focus on Costa Rica's coffee - yes, it is safe, so far. A news report from the Tico Times quotes Raul…
eklemetti | January 5, 2010Yet another new eruption for 2010!
Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica in an undated photo.
Turrialba in Costa Rica erupted today, prompting the evacuation of tens of people from the region near the volcano. The eruption appears to be relatively small, producing ash and some pyroclastic material. The area around the volcano is not very populated and isn't near the profitable coffee-growing region of Costa Rica. This eruption is the first at Turrialba since 1866, over 130 years ago. That eruption was a VEI 3, so Turrialba is definitely a volcano to watch if the activity continues.
Also in Costa…
eklemetti | January 4, 2010
Gambling and volcanoes go hand-in-hand?
Somehow I didn't pick up on this, but people are gambling on volcanoes now?
I mean, I suppose if they bet on the coin toss at the Super Bowl, people will bet on anything. Now, I'm not one to judge the taste in any of this, but here are the current odds for volcanoes to have a VEI 3 eruption:
3/1 Mt Unzen (Japan)
9/1 Mauna Loa (USA)
10/1 Ulawun (Papua New Guinea)
10/1 Merapi (Indonesia)
10/1 Santorini (Greece)
11/1 Colima (Mexico)
11/1 Rainier (USA)
11/1 Taal (Philippines)
11/1 Teide (Spain, Canary Islands)
12/1 Mt Nyiragongo (DR Congo)
12/1…
eklemetti | January 3, 2010A pile of news for the new week!
The glow of new lava flows from Nyamuragira in the Congo, taken from the Virunga Park Headquarters, January 2, 2010.
Mayon
PHIVOLCS may lower the alert status at Mayon to Level 2 after almost a week of lower seismicity and no ash explosions since December 29th. Schools that were being used as evacuation centers were also returned to teachers and students for the start of classes after the Christmas holiday. However, the Albay provincial government is now considering a plan to permanently move everyone who lives within the 6-km danger zone around Mayon, even…
eklemetti | December 31, 20092009 is over! If you missed the Volcanic Year in Review, check out my summary of the volcanic events that captivated many of us over the past year. However, only one event will get the coveted 2009 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year. A lot of you wrote in with votes and comments - I thank you - and a number of events stood out in your mind. Here we go:
Honorable mention
A few volcanic events got multiple votes:
- Soufriere Hills on Montserrat.
- Mando Hararo in Ethiopia.
- Chaiten, Chile and the new research on the eruption.
- The earthquakes in western Saudi Arabia under the Harrat…
eklemetti | December 31, 2009Here it is, my attempt to recap a year's worth of volcanic events. By no means is this supposed to capture every event, but rather the highlight/lowlights and what most captivated me during 2009. I'll be announcing the winner of the 2009 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year tomorrow.
Waimangu Geothermal Valley in New Zealand, taken in January 2009 by Erik Klemetti.
January
The year started out with a trip to New Zealand (well, for me at least) and vistas of the Waimangu Valley, formed in the 1886 eruption of Tarawera on the North Island. We were also still thinking about the late 2008…
eklemetti | December 18, 2009Finals day for me, so I'll be grading grading grading ... but first, a little news:
The May 2009 eruption of West Mata. Image courtesy of NSF and NOAA.
I covered it in May, but the popular press is now all over the West Mata undersea eruption - mostly thanks to the media boost that AGU can give you. It is worth checking out the new articles on the eruption in the Lau Basin near the Marianas, mostly because of the nifty video of the eruption. In the video, you can clearly see both an explosive component of the eruption as gas "burps" out through a cooled carapace and a more effusive pillow…
eklemetti | December 17, 2009Looks like last night was busy, volcanically speaking. Eruptions readers noted that VAAC warning of ash from both Mayon (to 10,000 feet / 3.0 km) and Bezymianny (to 32,000 feet / 10 km) were issued {hat tip to Chance Metz for the updates}. Here is some more news on these ongoing events:
Mayon erupting in December 2009.
Mayon, Philippines
Evacuations are continuing near Mayon in the Philippines, some of them forcibly by the local authorities. PHIVOLCS is reporting that SO2 output from Mayon has jumped from ~750 tonnes/day to almost 2,800 tonnes/day over the last 24 hours and seimicity…
eklemetti | December 16, 2009
Lava on Mayon, December 2009, with Legazpi City in the foreground.
The mainstream media has picked up on the activity at Mayon - I've seen it splashed across CNN, FoxNews, ABC, BBC and others. Most of the coverage has been decent, however, I do worry when I see that people have found Eruptions using search terms like "Mayon supervolcano". I think that is when we worry that the made-for-TV word like "supervolcano" has gotten a little overused, when people worry every volcanic eruption might be a "supervolcano."
On to the update!
Explosions have continued unabated at Mayon, with the explosive…
eklemetti | December 15, 2009
The new dome erupting at Mayon in the Philippines on December 14-15, 2009.
It appears that the eruption that PHIVOLCS had been waiting for at Mayon has arrived, with new magma reaching the surface and spilling down the slopes of the volcano. Or, as CNN International put it:
The island nation's most active volcano after it oozed fiery lava and belched clouds of ash.
People do love the idea of fiery, oozing lava, don't they?
Anyway, PHIVOLCS has raised the alert status at Mayon to Level 3 (eruption in days to weeks). This new activity has prompted the evacuation of at least 47,000 people in…
eklemetti | December 11, 2009Busy times at the end of the semester right now ...
Concepcion seem from the ISS in 2007. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.
One brief bit of news:
Concepcion in Nicaragua erupted, covering three nearby villages with ash. The brief report only mentions 150 meter / 400 foot explosion columns from the eruption, which makes me thing this is merely for the ballastic clasts. No other details - on the eruption or any evacuations - are available.
Concepcion is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua on the island of Ometepe (and the original Mystery Volcano Photo). The volcano last erupted in…
eklemetti | December 10, 2009Looking for that perfect gift for the geophile in your life?
How about a VOLCANO THAT ERUPTS A DINOSAUR. Honestly, could it get any better?
When I saw this in the store, I was a little dumbfounded ... but really, it just makes sense.
eklemetti | December 4, 2009Its already Friday!
News!
Print of the Temple of Jupiter at Pompeii with a steaming Vesuvius in the background.
You can now wander down the streets of ancient Pompeii from the comfort of your own home or office. Google Streetview now cover the streets of the city wiped out by the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius in Italy. Now, some of the articles on the Pompeii streetview give lipservice to the current threat of Vesuvius to the modern city of Naples, my favorite being:
The authorities continually monitor Vesuvius these days, and estimate they'll be able to give adequate warning if it's ever in…