eruptions

Eruptions is moving!

eklemetti — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:47:50 +0000

Eruptions is moving!

Big news from Eruptions (and me.)

Eruptions has always been an evolving space - it started as a little side project on Wordpress that has grown over the last two-and-a-half years into a community of volcano enthusiasts. The blog has drawn over 2.5 million views and 1.5 million visits since I started it in May of 2008 - which, to me, is mindblowing - and I thank of all your for that. I also thank ScienceBlogs for helping more people find the blog over the last 18 months that I've been lucky to be hosted here.

However, with all things, change is sometimes needed. I'm not going to go into the details of my decision, but starting TODAY, Eruptions is moving to a new home -

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/eruptions/

Update all your bookmarks and feeds!

This wasn't an easy decision for me, but hopefully all of you will see that it is the right decision for Eruptions - so please join me over at the new site.

And remember, you can follow Eruptions on Twitter as well - @eruptionsblog - to keep up with all the volcano news.

Thanks again to ScienceBlogs ... and here's to the future!

eklemetti Wed, 09/01/2010 - 02:47

Tags

Erik Klemetti

Eruptions Blog

eruptions

Thank you for your time here, and seeing you on the new space tomorrow then!

Regard's
Carl

Carl! I meant moving TODAY (September 1) - I've fixed the post ... but I had initially meant to post this yesterday and forgot to change it. Head on over today!

I'm allready there;)

Newly Bowdlerized name and all. But something went wrong with the image-wiever over there, my noose became huge, me ears gargantuan and where did all that fur come from?

Now duly bookmarked. Nice eruption plume you've got to head up the item: is it Redoubt?

sad thing :/
no comments without to register.

Bye Bye comments :/

@Dennis 5, and anyone else who's hesitating - no need to use anything but what you have been using, it works OK with 'first' (whatever) name only filled in - no other info. than what they take here, e-maill address. Hope you stay. Looks different over there, works a bit differently, but hey - not willing to give up on this great gang and all the volcanoes.

This was kind of expected...

Bye bye scienceblogs.

Ack...one thing I like about Scienceblogs is that you just pop up on my facebook...any way to do that from the new site? I only saw Twitter, and I could "like" specific articles, but I didn't see any way to sign up for it sending Eruptions automatically to my Facebook feed. Do you have a Facebook page?

Can't register.

I allowed a tracking cookie for bigthink.com, but can't register ... I guess the site demands I allow sleazy tracking cookies from all the other cross-tracking 3rd party sources listed there ...

doubleclick.net,
quantserv.com,
scorecardresearch.com
crowdsience.com
addthis.com

Man, that sucks.

I'm not allowing all that tracking and cross-tracking shit.

Bye Eruptions

@10: Huh, I haven't heard about this problem from anyone else (and I don't think I had the problem registering).

@Erik, newer Safari (mac) automatically disallows 3rd party cookies - but it may be if you normally disallow most cookies it won't work for windows or non-mac? I collect a big string of bt cookies each time I move around on the new eruptions blog.

@12: I'll look into it ... I do see the BT related cookies, but they don't seem any more nefarious than the SB cookies, but I am using the newest version of Safari. Ah, the fun of moving.

Ahhh... the beauty of linefeeds.

Very nice....

hi all well a new site i just join looks very good

@ Erik Klemetti just wondering with your consent if i can download your pictures/photos along with your picture of you as a front cover of these photos of volcanoes from this to put into my photo album along with title name under 'Eruption'with Eruptions web site address at the bottom of the photo's in my climate/weather facebook for others to see only started building this profile facebook up last week due the Atlantic hurricanes which gave the idea of doing this i have three other links with my site who like the idea which are Storm pulse.com The northeast Quadrant,and Devin Mathew Toporek-The weather vein i be taking no credit for these as they are name by the owner with their website address underneath each photo or picture so if someone has a look and think that a good photo and want more info they can click the website and it would take then to photo's website

I will miss this very open and easily read blog-site and its community of enthusiasts. Thank you all for having shared so much interesting and knowledgeable information, and thank you, Erik.

@ Erik Klemetti - you know that caption for that pic of Seulawah Agam in your new site? Well, it should read "Top left: A May 2007 shot of Seulawah Agam on the island of SUMATRA in Indonesia. Photo by Michael Thirnbeck." Sorry about Sumatra being in caps - had to point out the error. Aceh is a special territory of Indonesia, not a separate island. Seulawah Agam, however, does lie in Aceh.

Anyhow, I will miss seeing the old site, but look forward to a great future. I love seeing new volcanoes I had never heard of dish up some eruptions!

Hmmm...work considers new site "streaming media" and won't let me access. That's too bad.

"all from the tablets and medicines can only provide you with a temporary boost and in the finish what you get is often a waste of money plus the same measurement penis when you initial began with, i do not think losing your funds on that's even really worth it seriously."

The northeast Quadrant,and Devin Mathew Toporek-The weather vein i be taking no credit for these as they are name by the owner with their website address underneath each photo or picture so if someone has a look and think that a good photo and want more info they can click the website and it would take then to photo's website

Speculate your feel and bury this mussiness

He who has once burnt his mouth always blows his soup

There is always somebody worst of then yourself no matter how bad things seem

do not listen to other people, some of us will always appreciate articles like this.

A request from me

eklemetti — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:53:58 +0000

A request from me

As I've mentioned, I will be giving a talk here at Denison on the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull eruption and how the events unfolded on the internet - specifically, I'm interested in the idea of the general public taking an active role in volcano monitoring. So, I have a request from Eruptions readers - and by no means do you have to take part. However, if you are willing, I'd like to know your professional/"day job" and your geologic background - be sure, I will not use your real name or connect your Eruptions pseudonym to any information you send. I am just looking to get a hold on the backgrounds of the very savvy readers on this blog. If you are willing, please send me an email at . Thanks in advance!

eklemetti Sun, 08/22/2010 - 15:53

Tags

Professional background: Major, Royal Swedish Guards Rgt (retired), MA Enlish (linguistics), MA History, College Teacher's exam (equates roughly to to a BA in pedagogy, a hodge-podge of rudimentary psychology, sociology etc).

Geologic background: None whatsoever

If I may (I'll do it anyway *grin*), I'd like to give you two hints - Constructivism (PiagÃ©t & al) plus logic complementation (witness psychology).

Professional background: MSc in computer science, day job in emerging technology & trend analysis

Geologic background: none

Hi, I have a BSc degree that's modular. It is mostly physics but includes chemistry and maths at high level and some engineering. I work in computer systems support. My only geology and biology are at foundation (freshman) level.

Hi Erik:
I am a theater director, playwright and teacher of performing arts and stage direction at the University of Rio de Janeiro. I also translate plays from English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. I have graduated in Biology (Ecology) and took a master's degree in Botany, when I had two periods of Geology and Paleontology (but that was years ago). Now I'm doing an intensive course in the Eruptions blog on Geology and volcanism (as well as a bit of Icelandic). ;)

Day job is company administrator. Geology background - None, but have been interested in volcanology since little. Currently studying BA in Ancient History and have a multitude of other qualification including book keeping and computer science.

B.Sc. with honours in geology from Glasgow, M.Sc. in IT from same. 15 years in the computer business, 6 years as a full-time dad / part-time fireman & hazmat tech.

Hi Eric, I am a 39 year old Electronics Specialist, my career started in the Canadian Navy working on Radars and Computer Mainframes. After serving for 15 years I had to retire early due to being struck by a SUV while I was a Bicycle commuter.

After I retired I tried a few jobs but my most recent was working for a Geophysical Company building, testing, installing and maintaining gravity and magnetic radar systems, this job was great, I was able to travel to some pretty exotic places but that only lasted until May of this year.

Getting divorced isn't easy, especially for my 2 kids but they mean everything to me so I ended my job with the traveling and took a position calibrating equipment for Research and Development companies. Also on the side I am developing ways to generate power without using any fossil fuels, as luck would have it I should have a completely functional prototype running very very shortly.

I developed a huge interest in geophysics while I was in the field, talking with the geophysicists was amazing and they always had more to tell me so when I stopped working with them I took up learning all that I could as a very interesting hobby. I never knew how many eruptions and earthquakes happen worldwide, as troubleshooting and thinking outside of the box is what I am trained to do trying to link geological events is a lot of fun.

This site allows everybody to ask questions and get advice by kind and friendly experts and very knowledgeable people from around the world, so I'll just say thank you Eric for allowing us to learn.

BSc Geology from London. Wanted to be volcanologist but shortage of action in England these last few m.y. Oil (sh, don't tell anyone), computers, ambulances. If you're over 35 there aren't any day jobs round my way - I am not under ... No day job.

Professional: Bachelor of Computer Science. Work as a programmer.

Geological: None. I've read a few pop-sci geology books. I also rock climb as a hobby and am interested in the history of the rocks I climb, so have picked up a little bit from that.

39 years old, retired, but sitting in on five boards of directors in 2 energy companies, 2 defense and one financial company. Before retirement I worked as CEO for 2 companies and then investment director.
Education:
Ph.D. in Physics (Diffractional wave pattern analysis in fluid states) and 2 MA in Archaeology and Litterature respectively.
Geologywise? Hm, did a five week course in it when studying archaeology, otherwise zip, zilch and de nada.

Independent Filmmaker for National Geographic, Discovery Channel etc...

I've passions for volcano since I was in grade 3. I watched a National Geographic program on Krakatau and was hooked. I knew I wanted to be a volcanologist or a filmmaker working for Nat Geo. I managed to achieve both goals in a way. Maid my first trip to Krakatau last year on a new series I'm putting together on volcanos.

Knowledge: Amateur/intermediate

Not a savvy contributer but have learned a great deal since 2008. Clinical Social Worker, Psychotherapist. Masters in Social Work, MA Divinity. Night Job: Operate a 1 acre urban organic market garden. Day Job: Complex Medical/Behavioral Health Clinical Case management and statistical analytics in public sector managed care. I grew up on a ridge an old volcano on Oahu and hiked the Kilauea crater many times in mid-60's. Interested in Solar science, Geology, Volcanism and climate science. Discovered Eruptions through "Watts up".

@11 Micheal, I just wanted to say thank you for your work with National Geographic and Discovery channel, the risks that you take to get the images on film are very much appreciated. My children and I are always watching the shows that yourself and colleagues are filming, your contributions to educating the world is a very wonderful thing.

Day job: line pilot and flight safety analyst for a major airline. Geo background: lifelong interest, especially vulcanology and plate tectonics. Formal ed/degrees in mathematics, physics and meteorology.

Day job Engineer doing gas membrane research.

Volcanism background, well I went to Yellowstone and Volcano national parks in the same year, and read some books while I was there.

Day job:

I'm curently learning Graphic & Print Design in a small Printshop in Switzerland. (in Switzerland it's called Polygraph )

I do things like Image-editing, Layout, Design, small local Magazines, Flyers and all that stuff.

Im fascinated in Geophysics since i was a small child (i think that the Eruption of Pinatubo was the trigger). My Personal Interests are mainly Photography & Imageediting, Plate Tectonics, Volcanism and Climate

Just noticed, only a few of the replies so far have been from what might be called the 'regulars' (apart from Henrik, Renato and Fireman). Maybe they've all emailed Erik directly instead? I did, but for what it's worth here's the gen for all to see:
Day job; selling second-hand books
Geological background: BSc (Hons) Geology at Edinburgh University, some post-grad at Manchester U before a career change to co-owning a bookshop

Lifelong fascination with volcanoes, and an obsessive collector (as funds permit) of books/magazine articles on the subject

Thanks to everyone who has sent me an email or left a comment here - we are definitely an eclectic bunch! Keep 'em coming!

I emailed too, but excerpt - BA sociology, geologist father, husband - geology via 2 college basic courses and osmosis, also 3rd grade school museum with volcano theme and kiddie trips to Hawaii, Iceland, Greenland & New Zealand with requisite visits to places that steam because of volcanic energy. Retired, former B&B owner/operator, worked in history & archaeology,last incarnation was as medically oriented massage therapist, now retired.

BSc Agriculture, MSc computers/business. Did everything there was to do with computers from 1975-2001 when I retired. Now an artist.

Always loved rocks. While growing up, did a lot of camping in the Borrego Desert where I first learned about faults, earthquakes, alluvial fans, granite, and sedimentary formations thru the rangers, my dad and uncle, and osmosis. I can sit in one spot all day a watch the hills.

When we traveled, we camped in national parks across the country to the UP Michigan, so I learned from the rangers along the way about geology. I've never forgotten the trip when we went to Dinosaur National Monument and I saw a whole skeleton being dug out of the side of the hill. And Yellowstone!

But, my study has been peripheral, mostly passive observation and contemplation; wishing I had the time to really learn.

Eric, you and the others on this blog have really inspired me to study geology. I'm moving fast in a two-fold way: reading this blog and the references; and studying textbooks. Any term I don't understand, I wiki, search this blog (and some others). It makes for slow reading, but better understanding. I think I've hundreds of definitions pegged right now.

My lens of study is thru plate tectonics-- after all, earthquakes are a big deal here in CA (I used to plot all the quakes over 3 on a CA map in my office, and in the 70's noticed a cascade-like effect, which I always thought of as Gaia adjusting her skirts) Now I've added the question of how the plate tectonics create the volcanos. Plus, being in California, I can study just about anything I want-- it's a geologist's paradise.

Thank you all. I ran across this 11-minute video the other day, and thought "This is what Eric's doing" Jeremy Rifkin on "The empathetic society" It's utterly charming (and more referential to the earlier post)

http://www.youtube.com/user/theRSAorg#p/u/9/l7AWnfFRc7g

Professional: BS Geology - Texas A&M University. Environmental Hydrogeologist performing investigation and remediation projects mostly on Department of Defense sites.

Geological background: See above for education. Son of a mining geologist who taught geology to the Apollo astronauts. We spent most of our summer vacations from the time I was born until about age 12 visiting my father at various field locations where he was conducting mining exploration projects (Alaska, Colorado, Canada, Jamaica, New Mexico, etc). It wasn't until I was about 8 or 9 before I figured out that most of my friends didn't spend their summers learning the mining geology of the far flung corners of North America. He tried to talk me out of majoring in geology ("It makes a great hobby"), but I think in the end he was proud to have me follow in his footsteps.

Educational background:

Current M.S. student in volcanology at Michigan Tech
B.A. in Geoscience at DePauw Univ. of Indiana

Day job: medical physics (chief of clinical physics and instrumentation in the Dutch cancer hospital).
Geology: interested, spending almost all my holidays in areas which recent vulcanism.
And with respect to the flight disturbances caused by the satellite observations of the dust cloud: previous job: meteorology: surface and satellite observations. With that background I was flabbergasted by the interpretation of an increase in water vapour as dust arising out of thin air.
Found this excellent blog looking for more information: thank you!
Sara Muller

Day job: Software application support for a major international engineering company (the software I support is the enterprise database system for the R&D engineers, mostly). I and my coworkers travel quite a bit and we just had a major version upgrade affecting several thousand users. The EyjafjallajÃ¶kull eruption really put a kink in my team's travel plans and potentially affected the timeliness of the upgrade and the availability of pre-upgrade training. Since I am the self-taught jack-of-all-trades of the group, with a strong interest in the hard sciences, I wound up being the clearinghouse for early information affecting flights through Europe. The only other geology I tend to be exposed to is incidental (the industry we are in has to do with drilling for oil).

Engineering Technologist with experience in Mining and Geotech. Obsessive about all natural processes since I can remember.

While an early childhood awareness came from an enchanting story about ParÃcutin erupting from a farmer's corn field, the clincher for captivating me as a child was reading about Thera. Visiting here I am still feeling like a kid, thrilled with every new discovery.

I don't comment often but I am here daily, very thankful for everything I learn.

Education: BE (Electrical) UCD, Dublin, MSC in Telecoms, UCL
Profession: Software Engineering.
Fascinated with both meteorology and vulcanology.

Professional: Support Ananyst at Citigroup.
Geological background: BSc in Geography from University of Toronto (1986) with some first year geology courses taken out of interest. Visited Iceland in 1985 for one course. We drove very close to Eyjafjallajokull but it was not famous then.
Visited Mt Baker, Mt Hood on a vacation a few years ago. Not too much volcanism where I live (Toronto, Canada) but very interesting geology in the Canadian Shield a couple hours away

Day job; self employed garden designer
Education; 1st year Geology and MA(hons), Physical Geography at Aberdeen University.

I spent much of my formative years in Dunbar, Scotland, the birthplace of John Muir. My playground was the raised rock platform on the shoreline with lots of rockpools,mudstone deposits,sandstone and dykes which left a love of rock and of landforms which has never left me. Have been interested in volcanoes and tectonic activity since my teens and have found a home and place of study at this blog.

I have been a rockhound since I could walk. I have been interested in volcanoes since I can remember and I used to draw them when I was in third grade.

I have a BA+ in psych and a certificate and AA degree in electron microscopy. I took a geology course because I wanted to and I am now wishing I had gone further with it and I probably would have been a field geologist/volcanologist.

I don't remember how I found this blog, but I can tell you it has been a real boon to be able to hobnob with people from all over who know what they are talking about and also those who may not be geologists/volcanologists, but who have been studying it and know a lot more than I do. So much has changed since I took geology that I probably wouldn't know recognize some of it and given I took it 30+ years ago. I am in the process of studying more and this blog helps a lot.

I have climbed Mt. Lassen twice, been to Yellowstone many times, been to Yosemite many times, been to Long Valley and I want to go see more volcanoes and cinder cones, etc. Being part of the Eyjaf watch was so fantastic. I really felt privileged.

Professional: I'm a production manager for a community access television station.
Geologic Background: Nothing more than an interest in geology and a facination with the processes that shape the earth around us.

Day job: golf course maintence.

Professional: Going to Kent State for a 2 year Associate Degree of Applied Science in Horticulture.

I know a lot about geology but I am by no menas a expert, more like a armchair geologist.

Education: MSc Computer Science
Day Job: Embedded Software

Geologic Background:
No Formal education, but keep meaning to take a class of some kind. Read John McPhee's "Annals of the Former World" a few years back which got me interested in geology. I live in Nevada, which is largely uncontaminated by organisms. (There is actually a lot of life in the desert, but looking out an airplane window around here is like looking at a geological map.) Can never remember which feature is a syncline, and which one is an anticline.

I am a computer technician at a community college. Though I am not a professional geologist, I have been fascinated with volcanology, seismology and plate tectonics since 1971 when I was 12. I have amassed an extensive library on those topics over the years. I love visiting geologically interesting places - especially volcanic regions - and I hope to do more of that in the near future.

Day job: Product Development Engineer and business analyst (30 years experience)

Geology background: my BS and MS degrees are in ceramic engineering, so I have a bit of geology from the study of clay minerals and the other ingredients of traditional ceramic and glass materials. The study of ceramics also includes a lot of high temperature phenomena and physics as well as phase diagrams, x-ray diffraction, SEM and related techniques that are used in both materials science and geology. I had just started my job south of Seattle when St. Helens blew. Being a hiker/mountain climber at the time, my interest in active volcanoes was forever lit and with the advent of the internet began to actively search for information on the world's volcanos and thus became a regular visitor to your site.

Re. the Haiku, no professional experiance (obviously)

cheers,

doug mclaren

I've been primarily a lurker, not really feeling I have the expertise or the time to make any great contribution. I have followed your blog very closely since I discovered it, and especially during the Icelandic eruptions.

I have an MS in Biological Oceanography and instruct ecology and oceanography at a small state college. My specialty lies in the realm of marine biology, although I have always been interested in geology (I was an insatiable rock hound as a kid). I am currently preparing a lecture on plate tectonics. I find the recent activity fascinating, considering that Iceland sits on what is essentially the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rising above sea level. I have learned quite a bit about volcanoes and the variations between them. Keep up the good work Eric, along with your regular contributors. I very much appreciate the time spent.

Education: Doctorate in Biology
Day Job: Associate Professor in Neurology at the University of California

Interest in Geology: As a kid I wanted to become a paleontologist (from age ~7 to ~17) and collected a lot of fossils (still have a wardrobe full of fossils back home). To become a paleontologist you either have to study biology or geology and then the other one second. I decided to study biology first, but got bitten by the biology bug (pun intended). Never got around to study geology.

My interest in volcanos is pretty recent. A Yellowstone vacation and the recent earthquake swarm up there got me hooked. Most of my geological (semi-)knowledge is still in sedimentary rocks and what kind of fossils you can hunt for...

PS: It's great to read about the background of the blog regulars here. I knew you guys were a (multi-)talented bunch.

#36 @Holger, N California
It is a big honour to share this virtual space with such an excelling team.

Education: Student of Civil Engineer, Chile (don't want to reveal where)

Geology Background: Two assignments, one related to tectonics, rock classification-identification and glacial geomorphology; the other about natural disasters. In general I was forced to 'study' volcanism after ChaitÃ©n, but I like other sciences, too.

No day job. I think I'm the most non-geologist of this blog

Education; degree in Music and almost finished an Anthropology degree with geology on the side. Fine arts diploma.

Profession - I am a fibre artist and do part time teaching (kindergarten and middle school - I know - its a weird mix!)

Have always been interested in rocks, mountains and volcanoes. First week of school I brought home a case full of gravel because it was different to the gravel on our street :) Been the same ever since.

Found this site through reading Casaubons Casebook. I do like it too although I don't feel qualified to comment much :)

viv in nz

I am mainly just an avid reader of the blog, but here's about me all the same: I have a degree in English and philosophy and work as a freelance translator (German/English) in a wide variety of fields, mainly business, financial, software, nutritional science. My interest in volcanoes originally started when Mount St. Helens erupted in 2004. Reading this blog, which I discovered during the Icelandic eruption this spring, rekindled this fascination and has proved to be a rich and enjoyable source of knowledge ever since.

Doctorate in theology, degree in German literature. Dayjob: Editing books for church purposes and some historical research.
Geological background: just interested in volcanoes and other phenomena of nature for many years. I'm mostly lurking and was very happy to find this blog since I was looking for something like this during the last Redoubt eruption. I appreciated the informations and discussions on EyjafallajÃ¶kull very much, thank you all.

Retired professor history, economics, and psychoanalytic studies; training and supervising psychoanalyst -- adults and children. Always interested in the sciences and the outdoors. Most visited areas as "geology" -- Eastern Sierras, Oregon volcanic areas and Yellowstone/Tetons.

Came to volcanology through the need to understand Anthropogenic Global Warming and the "looming disaster" for Earth and humankind -- both for myself and my students. (Longtime reader of Science and Nature and even taught Gore's film, focusing on methods of persuasion in filmmaking and editing.) Once I began my research in depth I realized there is no valid science (or scientific method, or valid collection of raw data [maintained as unadjusted], or open methods of interpreting that data, or proper use of statistics, or valid peer review, and this is just the beginning) behind the hypothesis, but there is alot of money and politics -- and unfortunately too much corruptability in the academic world of climate science.

To make a long story short, the research led this inquiring mind to the destructive and creative processes on and within Earth and from the cosmos (impact craters, modern Milankovitch, traveling through the Milky Way "arm"). Volcanoes are at the core here -- building continents, evidence of plates emerging and subducting, chemicals necessary and dangerous to life, and new wonderful new theories going through the grinding process of scientific validation, e.g., plumes v plates; crater impact or massive volcano eruption (or both?) that ended the Roman Empire and other "civilizations" dominant at the time. So much that is amazing and awe inspiring. Happy to be a denizen of California where so much evidence exists in its pure form as well as "recently" mashed up in tectonic processes. So glad to be a daily reader of this blog for many reasons, not least of which is reading some of the most immediate volcano monitoring one can find. I am also grateful for all the links for further research from Erik and from knowledgeable and curious commenters. Can't be much better than this. Thanks.

BSc. degree in Physics and a manufacturing engineering technician diploma. Worked as a Millwright for a few years welding and machining. Changed back into the scientific field and currently working as a mass spec technician calibrating, testing and repairing mass spectrometers. I play around with theories and ideas in mathematics software.

Interest in volcanology and geography always, but again became quite interested when I read about the yellowstone eq swarms and a nice surprise with Ejyafjoll shortly after. Thanks to the internet access to all this data makes for very interesting projects indeed.

BS in Geology in the early 80's, now a computer programmer. Found this blog after the "E" volcano in Iceland. Have maintained my interest over the many years, and have educated many of my friends to the point that they can now recognize the much of the mis-information for what is :).

BS Biology
MS Geological Engineering
Currently teach Geology and Physics at a Community College in Oregon
Mostly I just follow the blog to keep up to date on whats going on. But I absolutely enjoy the wealth of information the blog provides

Professional geologist, cave mapper/explorer, karst hydrogeologist, environmental scientist. Volcano junkie from afar...as an undergrad, came upon early index card file of eruption events/volcanic activity (which was early form of the Smithsonian volcanism program notification for department?) Enjoy reading about places where volcanos have been active which one would never expect (France, Germany....etc)

Gordon 28: growing up in Dunbar, did you ever get to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh? Small, beautifully dissected volcano (vent-filling agglomerate, feeder dikes, remnants of surrounding lava flows etc) which was one of the things that kicked off my interest in geology. -Recommended for any Eruptions readers who ever visit Edinburgh, incidentally-

Mark -as an undergrad, my equivalent to the index cards was the discovery of the CAVW Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World in the Geology Dept. library. More interesting than some of the coursework, palaentology was NOT a joyful voyage of discovery :o(

Day job: Quality assurance officer, (drugs)

Education: chemistry, biology, some geology but very basic. Vulcanology: Eruptions-educated!
Self-educated on volcanoes, childhood interest. Much of my knowledge when it comes to geology tracks back to my mom, a amateur field geologist in Sweden. IÂ´ve been to almost every old mine in Sweden as a child, hurling stones.

My participation started with EyjafjallajÃ¶kull on this blog, in search for information. IÂ´m staying! Checking in from time to time!

I just sent you an email. By day I teach science at a middle school, the rest of the time I research volcanoes and perform search and rescue work (Civil Air Patrol) when I'm not volunteering for teaching rocketry & astronomy at a nearby Girl Scout Camp. As a child I memorized Stephen Harris' Book "Fire and Ice" (the 1st edition BTW)in 1979 and felt I had ringside seats when St. Helen's cooked off a year later, even though I lived in Texas at the time. If only we had the Internet THEN!

BSc Geology, MSc Earth Sciences- Professional Geologist, College Professor. Volcanoes were an interest from my childhood. Katia and Maurice Krafft captivated my interest with their insane and crazy adventures and awsome footage of volcanic eruptions. This blog is a great way to keep current and up to date with happenings around the Earth.

I'm currently a student, doing Teacher Education. I specialize in all forms of geography, although my heart goes out to the more physical side.

My mother is a geography teacher, and her father was a geography teacher as well, so it kind of runs in the family ^_^ . I have a passion for geology, and especially volcanism and seismology, since the age of 5.

My geographical background hasn't done my passion for geology any harm. I've always had access to documentaries and books on my interests, and during all of the summer holidays that we had as a family there has always been time for something geologically interesting. Our holidays took us to many different places in Germany, France, Switzerland and other European countries. I've seen nearly every volcanic region in Germany, and since 2007 I go to Scotland every spring to enpand my vast (volcanic!) rock collection that I've been working on since I was a little kid. When I have some spare time during the rest of the year, I try to do the same in the Eifel, Germany (only 200 km from where I live), where I've been going to since I was eight years old, and (to me) still beats the heck out of any other volcano or volcanic region in the world. Still, I intend to see a lot more volcanoes in the years to come. To my shame, I've never witnessed an eruption live (except with the aid of webcams, but I don't think that counts). I'm thinking of visiting Etna next summer, or maybe earlier if it would be putting on a big show.

I'm also very interested in didactical methods, so my current study is a pretty good way of combining several interests I have. I do not intend on becoming a (full-time) teacher when I've finished my studies. Instead I might do a BSc in geology and/or start my own business in organizing and leading excursions to geologically interesting places (e.g. the Eifel), mainly for high schools.

http://94.100.118.204/663150001-663200000/663177401-663177500/663177458…
"That's the one I want..." Tertiairy columnar basalt at the Gangolfsberg, RhÃ¶n, Germany

Btw: with the age of 24, am I the youngest one on the block here?

Hi Erik.
My job is as a social worker, working nights - trying to keep people safe in emergencies, whether children, the mentally ill or any other vulnerable people - and I have been watching seismological sites for a few years. I only found you all here in January this year and wish I had known you were here when I was following the Yellowstone swarms in Dec/Jan 08-09! I have previously worked as an Art teacher.
I always said if I hadn't studied Art, French and European Literature I would have chosen Geology, Geography and Economics.
Thank you to you all.

I work as a network administrator for the School of Architecture at MIT during the day, fixing computers and keeping our servers running. I studied geology here in the 90s, then just never left. There aren't any active volcanoes here in New England, so I ended up working with computers.

One of the benefits of working in education is getting enough vacation time to travel and see all the volcanoes I want. :)

Another lurking daily reader, having found your blog so updating considering my ancient textbook (Lake & Rastell 1951 edition). Failed BScÂ½ in mid 60s (passed the Geology - mainly as the physical question I answered was on plate tectonics, which had featured in that week's New Scientist) so decided to go out into the world and earn some money - Systems Analyst and Programmer on Leo Marconi III/UNIVAC/IBM main frames.
Retired to bring up family.
Now pensioner and still bringing up family, whilst being webmaster, computer wiz and designer for family and friends!
Have the BBC Horizons - Mount St. Helens still on videotape.
Always wanted to visit Iceland back when the only viable transport was hitching a ride on a trawler. Not made it yet, as still insufficient funds.
Moved in '83 to this earthquake prone area (we had a 7 in January) with ancient (Late Cretaceous?) subvolcano nearby with sills, dykes and dinosaur tracks on nearby beaches, so keeping up nearly 50 years of interest... along with archaeology and amateur dramatics. No formal qualifications apart from Geology A-level!

Dr. Behncke's Etna - excellent reading!
Love Lurking's plots and graphs

Nearly commented on ash content in cement/concrete -the Roman stuff set underwater and is impermiable - opus signum
Nearly commented on Carl's vortex theory - seemed reasonable to me! as I always connected mantle plume behaviour with the Hawaian islands chain.

So glad I found this interesting Blog.
My thanks to all who contribute.

Retired IT professional (not by choice). Worked in everything from mainframes, computer repair, network design, and network security. Most was with with State and Federal Government. My formal education ended at High School, life got in the way. :) Tried college couple of times, but, see above. Now trying to learn woodworking just for the fun of it, and trying to finish the mural on my living room wall.

Got interested in this blog because I have visited Iceland before, and had done some reading on it's history and culture. So when EyjafjallajÃ¶kull erupted it peaked my interest. Then I realized I could watch it real time, I was hooked. I have absolutely no background in geology or volcanoes, although I was stationed in Minot, North Dakota when Mount St. Helens erupted and watched the ash cloud come over us. Cultural Anthropology is more my forte, so I was interested in the effects this would have on people (wasn't thinking about air traffic). That being said, the discussions in here have been awesome. I have recently been distracted by the oil spill and hurricane season though.

One result of this blog was me creating a blog on Wunderground.com (link is on my name) where I posted links, pictures and information. It has been visited by people from 46 different countries. As recently as today I had a new visitor from Croatia.

One last thing. After reading Renato's input, I may have to visit and take up theater. :)

Speaking of weather... I just noticed the squirrel that comes by daily. He's put on quite a bit of weight. That doesn't bode well for the upcoming winter.

(P'cola FL)

Education? BSCS including what might have been minors in maths, physics, and electrical engineering. Plus assorted ad-hoc graduate classes (lacking a nearby university with graduate programs worthy of the name, no PhD.) Learned more from having two children in physics.

Work? Transistor-level design of integrated circuit elements that mostly operate between 0 and 1, including I/O stuff.

Geology? The natural world is fascinating, from elementary physics to astronomy and everything in between. Living in the desert Southwest, a lot of geology is there to be seen for those with eyes to see -- and I wish I understood what I'm seeing. Which is why I'm retiring to a town with a school of mines.

Education: MS Geology (with focus on sedimentology). Varied work experience including several years in minerals and oil & gas exploration. Strong interest in igneous petrology and volcanics.

Work: Currently regulator for a state oil and gas commission.

See http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/28/sumatran-volcano-erupts-first-tim…

I have no formal geology background either, but a military one. I'm a risk manager, mainly in logistics and commodities, currently living in Oz. Grew up in Europe and always fascinated by volcanoes and (of course) paleontology, an interest my 4 year old son keeps very much alive. Visited the Eifel area in my youth a lot and was(am) a bit of a rockhound. Made trips to Vesuvius and Etna, and I have climbed extinct volcanoes in the US and Australia (there's one just a few miles from our house, we are practically built on basalt bombs). My parents experienced the 1982 eruption of the Gunung Galunggun from up close (stunning pictures of an ash covered landscape) and that really triggered my interest. Hoping to visit Hawai soon for a close look at a real eruption.

#20 @Parclair : Jeremy Rifkin's Empathic's society youtube video is charming, indeed. Already in my wishlist. Thanks for posting.

The small group that succeeds in MLM is aware there are forever lots more people where the already failed individuals come from.

Summer Open Thread (#2)

eklemetti — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:42:44 +0000

Summer Open Thread (#2)

Alaska's Augustine erupting.

Big volcano news while I'm off in the woods? Post it here!

eklemetti Wed, 08/11/2010 - 01:42

Tags

I hear from my good friends in Indonesia that Krakatau has started to erupt again :)

With all those quakes in the Aleutian islands Alaska it's no wonder one of those babies up there is smoking.

More nicely sized quakes down in Vanuatu today.

Augustine is old news,

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcact.php?volcname=Augustine&erup…

Seismic activity is reported by AVO to be at or near normal background levels.

Kamchatka is percolating along in typical fashion. KVERT reported last week:

SHEVELUCH, KLYUCHEVSKOY and KARYMSKY: ORANGE
GORELY and BEZYMIANNY: YELLOW

Maybe we can put this mostly dull thread to "effective use".

First, you should wander over to Chris Rowan's blog, Highly Allochthanous, for his kickass followup post on the Yellowstone supervolcanic eruption ash and the Lava Creek Tuff deposits.

http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/

Y'all come back here, and we'll answer Lab Lemmings question in comment to Chris' post today, on the unique chemical signature of LCT.

Geotimes Feature Article, 'Yellowstone and Heise:
Supervolcanoes That Lighten Up'

www.geotimes.org/nov07/article.html?id=feature_yellowstone.html

Then it might be time to add to our Big Picture understand of How Things Work, with a technical chitchat about that pesky Aleutian Chain EQ activity.

The loess bluffs in and around Vicksburg MS (which proved to be militarily advantageous during Civil War) are an accumulation of dust blow in off of the Mississippi river delta. Mostly ground up glacial till in origin, they also have a volcanic ash content (as per the docu-tourist film at the welcome center), though I have never seen an analysis of which volcano contributed to it. I do know that this easily carved soil afforded shelter during the siege, provided you had enough beans and hardtack to make it through the day.

@6, yes, deposits carried downriver from Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

Ash Deposits Can be Deceiving.
http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2006/12dec/ash_gulf.cfm

an interesting link,notice reference at the end...
/www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/110810_Baffin_Island_lava_fields…

the rest of the link reads _offer_clue_to_Earths_rocky_start/
sorry, it won't work without that, but it didn't transfer with the copy/paste.

A BIG eruption... in my face :-)

From the end of the Baffin Island news story, mentioned by birdseye:

>The scientists say the magma plume that gave rise to the Baffin Island rock also created enormous lava beds in Greenland. They say the plume is still active and responsible for the volcanoes in Iceland that played havoc with air travel earlier this year.

Nature articles: editorial, News and Reviews synopsis and the Letter Article (if you have subscription access).
www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7308/edsumm/e100812-06.html

'Relative to terrestrial-mantle He, there are extremely high 3He/4He ratios in the solar wind (roughly 310âRa, where Ra is the present-day 3He/4He ratio in the atmosphere, 1.38âÃâ10â6; ref. 8) and the atmosphere of Jupiter (120âRa; ref. 9), a geochemical characteristic that is associated with the building blocks of planets. On Earth, He is continually degassed from the interior during mantle melting and volcanism, and is lost from the atmosphere by gravitational escape to space. Within the solid Earth, the Î±-decay of U and Th replenish 4He, but crustal recycling does not replenish the mantle 3He.

Therefore, recycling results in a long-term decrease of 3He/4He ratios in all terrestrial geochemical reservoirs over time, and the terrestrial mantle may no longer have such high primordial 3He/4He ratios. Nonetheless, the mantle sources of some ocean-island basalts preserve relatively high 3He/4He ratios (more than 30âRa), for example, Hawaii the Galapagos Islands Samoa, Iceland and the proto-Iceland plume.

The highest terrestrial mantle 3He/4He ratios (up to 50âRa) were measured in roughly 60-Myr-old Baffin Island and West Greenland lavas, a manifestation of the proto-Icelandic hotspot. However, such high 3He/4He ratios are extremely rare, and the origin, composition and long-term survival of the high-3He/4He reservoir in the Earthâs mantle are poorly understood.'

Nice catch, birdseye.

In Chris Rowan's Highly Allochthanous blog post on Yellowstone Caldera ash deposition, I replied to Lab Lemmings comment, posted additional info, and LL responded with another comment with two excellent, must-read Yellowstone Geology Basics webpages.

We're carefully keeping Yellowstone technical discussion on Chris' blog and Eruptions blog Summer Schedule thread, because we're churning through Cascade Subduction volcanism of the Pacific plate in another thread, as intro to Aleutian Island Arc subduction and volcanic seismicity this week, in this thread.

That will leave the third most interesting and important spot for volcanic activity on Earth (after Iceland and the PRoF), Italy and Sicily: our friend Boris Behncke's technical forte.

Several of you have noted past increases in tremor activity around Grimsfjall in recent weeks and the surrounding area, and wondered if this could signal increased activity below the ice. We appear to be having a small flurry of 2+magnitude of quakes mostly around Hamarinn, mostly shallow depth of 1km or so. Would this higher magnitude of quake support that theory, or could this still be to do with ice movement? Thank you.

Greg #1:

Krakatoa erupting? Did you have a link for that? I have googled like crazy and not found any news on Krakatoa erupting.
My guess was that it would erupt after the twentysecond of January 2011, when I go home from Sunda Strait. That based on the "fact" that all volcanoes erupt after me passing them in a sail-boat... :)
The correlation between me sailing and large volcanic eruptions is n=2 sofar:)

@11 passerby, thanks for the added info, a fuller explanation helps. I troll the (circumpolar) northern news every so often just in general.

Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco, two sessions related to Iceland and Eyja.
www.agu.org/meetings/fm10/program/scientific_session_search.php?show=de…
and =751

Pretty dull out there with volcanoes. Nothing to look at or worry about, I am bored for now.
I am grateful no one is in harms way but I want some action.
Maybe a nice Alaskan blast on a web cam away from civilization just large enough to reverse some global warming for a few years.
Thats the ticket

#16 @birdseyUSA Thank you. It would be very interesting to attend such a meeting. Any candidates in CA who could keep us updated? :)

#19 @Renato

It is clearly tempting to attend this session, but a day pass for non-members runs at $ 205. That's a bit more than what I would want to spend for such an occasion :-(

Sneaking it wouldn't work either, security is pretty well organized at the Moscone Convention Center. I know since attend meetings at that center almost every year. Too bad, but maybe Erik Klemetti can give us an update on the latest developments?

#20 @Holger, N California :-(
Too bad indeed. Thankfully "we" have developed "our" own Eyjaf's story lurking from the background here.
And yes, maybe Erik could invite some "guest bloggers" from this event, uh? ;)
I'm pretty sure that some of these guys might have peeped in our threads a couple of times and may even have dropped some comments here and there.
(BTW: 250 bucks isn't a bit too much?)

#21 @Renato

Actually, that's pretty much the standard rate for a scientific conferences of that nature i.e. organized by a scientific society. Commercially organized conferences can be much more expensive e.g. $ 1,500 or there about.

But that's a good idea, maybe Erik can recruit some other scientists from that conference to write about their work on this site.

#22 @Holger, what are you telling me! For this amount of money I'd rather buy tickets for the Salzburger Festspiele! No wonder this kind of secretiveness gives way to so much apocalyptic mongering. Are we talking about "the Scientific Illuminati" here?
Well, let us see what Erik can do about it. Thanks for the update.

Anyone interested in earthquakes and rain/groundwater interaction might pay to keep an eye on the upper end of the Taupo volcanic zone (stretching from Okataina up to the coast). Not only are there are couple of very active swarms going on in this region, the crust is extremely thin here and moving apart quite fast.

The interesting bit is that heavy rain is forecast for the region over the next 36 hours (28 mm) which adds up to a lot of weight, so we might see an uptick in activity if this plays any kind of a role. Here's the one to watch:

http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcano/activity/okataina/index.html

PS, don't hold your breath though!!

take a look at these helicorders. It's amazing how clearly the ecuador 7.2 quake is visible on almost all the stations.

http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/tremorusgsen.htm

@Stephan:
This was an "intermediate-depth earthquake" and such quakes can be felt from very far. Yesterday's jolt scared people in 4 countries (Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil, which has no border with Ecuador). Thankfully they don't cause much damage, and so far, no aftershocks.

If all goes according to plan, I will be at the AGU meetings because my other half participates in other sessions and I get to go as a guest. will be sure to attend and at least get the summary of the Eyja sessions posted here, plus whatever I can glean/remember. Looks as though someone from IMO will be one of the presenters. (Each session involves a number of topic-related papers and there are usually related poster sessions as well, normally grad students showing and explaining their work. I can get titles and contacts for those.) Oh goody, a job! I usually focus on the geocryology/arctic stuff.

@birdseyeUSA:
You are our man! May the hands of Zeus Almighty and Thunderbolt Hephaestus guide your steps through this elevated mission. Meanwhile, us, mortals, anticipate your return in excitement and jubilation. :)

@ Renato RIo - I'll do my best, but you have to wait 'til at least mid-late December! And possibly I have to get permission to post some of the abstracts - we'll see what I can do, I'll do the best I can, maybe a 'Happy New Year' gift to this blog which has given me so much.

Heh- looks like I will need some helpers - I just checked 'Iceland -all session' instead of just 'volcanology'...sometimes these things run concurrently -

Listing of All Sessions
Number Title
AE07:Volcano Lightning
B57:Geochemistry and Geobiology of Terrestrial Thermal Systems
NH04:Hazards Associated With Snow- and Ice-Capped Volcanoes
NH07:Remote Sensing of Volcanic Aerosol and Gases Using Ground-Based, Aircraft, and Satellite Observations
V05:The 2010 Eruption of Eyjafjallajï¿½kull ï¿½ A Landmark Event for Volcanic Cloud Hazards
V07:Tracking Magma Through the Crust to Eruption Geodesy

@birdseyeUSA: feel free to pick the ones you fancy, or else it could get boring. We'll benefit from any information you might kindly share with us.
I'm also looking forward Erik's compilation on Eyjaf.
Thx once again.

Only indirectly volcano related, but this was in the news this morning:

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/837945-volcano-bacteria-in-lake-diamante-ma…

(Diamante Lake seems to have existed only since 1826 BTW)

Hi all

Today there is some seismic activity concentrated southwest of Azores islands in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Nine earthquakes with an intensity around 4/5, and all in the same area, and about 10kms deep.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php
http://www.meteopt.com/forum/sismologia-vulcanismo/sismos-portugal-2010…

Any expert here who can tell whether earthquakes are tectonic in nature or may be of volcanic origin?
Thank you.

I was looking for info on Azores swarm and found another big one:
Magnitude 7.2 - MARIANA ISLANDS REGION

@Luis:
I was trying to grasp some information from the link you provided, but so far this remains a tectonic quake swarm. Local people are saying they have never heard of a similar event on the region (neither have I on a divergent plate boundary). But I'm no expert. I thought it could be volcanic, since they all occurred on a very same spot, and we must not forget that the Azores are located on a triple junction, over a hotspot, with seven active volcanoes, some submarine.

What a busy 2 days for earthquakes, there was just a a 7.2 Magnitude in the Marianas Islands and a 6.0 in the Philippines and then add that to the 7.1 in Ecuador yesterday. They said on the news the other day that the earth usually only sees about 15 7+ magnitude quakes in one year, I wonder what's going on to give us a 7+ magnitude quake 2 days in a row.

While trying to find out what is happening in August 2010 with the named Volcano in Iceland that very few people can spell, I found one Icelander who thought it was no big deal. So much for using them as an eyewitness source. ...

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6514316-iceland-volcano-curre…

@37: Mariana islands shake:

neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2010/eq_100813_zxcf/neic_zxcf_s.jpg

Now that is one tectonically varied and busy region: ridges (2), subduction zones and transform faults. Oiya!

@Passerby
It's amazing, indeed. And this one was quite shallow (4.7 km)just to the North of Challenger deep, if I'm not mistaken.
I think I can now better understand earthquakes happening on subduction zones (I've been doing my homework).
As for the Azores cluster, it kind of intrigued me. There are discrepancies between data from USGS and EMSC and I am not sure if it happened on the divergent sector of MAR or in between, over its transform perpendicular segments. But there's a slight N-S orientation, and I have no memories of similar occurrences. There was also a small event, not showing in USGS report, over the dangerous Azores-Gibraltar fault zone too. But maybe not related to this.
Do you think it could be volcanic?

Vanuatu quakes seem to be occuring along a horizontal line which suggest plate movement rather than volcanic activity. The Azores a little harder to tell but they were fairly big. I wouldn't speculate more movement underground than usual because I've only recently started to pay attention to when and where these quakes are occurring.

Azores EQ map. Note the characteristic zig-zag pattern. You can see it's relatively active seismic portion of the MAR.

neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_zxbt_h.html

This map shows the earthquakes today occur near the Azores Triple Junction on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/320_75.php

From the Wiki-page on Divergent Boundaries:

'...Divergent boundaries can create massive fault zones in the oceanic ridge system. Spreading is generally not uniform, so where spreading rates of adjacent ridge blocks are different, massive transform faults occur. These are the fracture zones, many bearing names, that are a major source of submarine earthquakes. '

@Passerby: Thank you once more. It just showed a weird pattern, all quakes of around 5 happening in a row. It's over now. Hope it stays so.
Just trying to flee from the horrible images in Pakistan and Russia, but, as you clearly explained in the other thread, what else can we expect from environmental deterioration of overpopulated areas? And who gives a damn about it?

Katla has started to show a sign of inflation. But one GPS station has started to move south.

That GPS station is called HVOL and has currently moved about 10mm to the south. It has also moved a little bit to the west, but that movement is really small. This change is rather sharp. But if it continues is a good question that only time is going to answer.

@jon, #44: Tremor around EyjafjallajÃ¶kull is also rising. Not much compared to the time of the eruption but much more than before.

Ref: Passerby[42]

"...Divergent boundaries can create massive fault zones in the oceanic ridge system ... fracture zones, many bearing names, that are a major source of submarine earthquakes..."

Speaking of transform fault zones, heres a good way to kill a Saturday.

Previously, I've done temporal plots of the San Andreas, plotting the quakes by latitude verses time. With the spate of recent quakes along the MAR, I decided to do one of the segment that has been making noise. Getting carried away, I did the plot from the intersection of the Barracuda FZ all the way up to the lighthouse in Iceland, right about where the MAR comes ashore.

The query nodes along the MAR are right at 100 km apart, and the queries were for all quakes within 100 km of the node. All the data was dumped into one spreadsheet, and then duplicate events were removed.

I expected to see moving clusters of quakes, either up or down the MAR, but nothing really pops out and says "look at me."

Enjoy.

http://i37.tinypic.com/6jqd5s.png

>http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

Huh? (at #45).

@43: We didn't talk about other places hit hard by prolonged drought from LaNina: Niger. They also got hit with heavy rains and flooding after a long dry period that killed off their livestock and decimated crops.

It's purported to be the worst flooding for Niger in 80 years, but flood and famine hit at a time when global relief resources have been depleted by a succession of disasters in the last few years and haven't been replenished by developed nations who are still mired in recession.

(the WSJ reported today that as few as 61% of the US workforce is presently employed, a number lower than post-war era (85%) and approaching that of the Great Depression (55%), a time when few women worked outside of the home - a telling statistic, if it's true)

Per Pakistan: The Hindu (newspaper) reported today that Pakistan has asked explicitly for help from India, who shares some of the blame for flooding of the Indus River basin. The request was framed in an interesting context:

As a business opportunity for India. Whether India and Pakistan can use this epic disaster to bridge neighbor relations and restore trade remains to be seen.

@Chris, Reykjavik, Those are subsiding tremors I think. Far as GPS data and other indicators are concerned EyjafjallajÃ¶kull is quiet and shows no signs unrest after quieting down in May.

I believe that EyjafjallajÃ¶kull eruption is over for the moment, unless something changes fast soon.

#47 "Whether India and Pakistan can use this epic disaster to bridge neighbor relations"
@Passerby: I think governments all over the world could use some of your objectivity and lucidity: facts and numbers clearly placed in short sentences. But all they do is the everlasting political blabber.
#46 @Lurking I think I can "see" something in your plot between 1996 and 2000.
#44 #48 @JÃ³n FrÃmann: Thanks for keeping us updated. We are all ears.

@Jon, #44, where can one see this? This plot does not seem to show that, hvol looks to have a constant trend in all graphs:
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/gps/cts/emyrfr2004.html

@Ursula, you can see it here, hraun.vedur.is/ja/gps/predorb/hvolpred.html

The long term GPS plot that you linked to is interesting.

@JÃ³n, @Ursula -
I rather use this http://notendur.hi.is/runa/HVOL.png link; the data is "detrended", which I take means the effect of local conditions that might affect the measurements: temperature, continental rift, etc.

IMO, the movement at HVOL is next to none.

For once, not one EQ recorded at MÃ½rdalsjÃ¶kull area for the last 48 hours, as of 15:45 GMT: http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

#53 @Kultsi, I've noticed that too. But if you look at USGS world's report you'll see that it has been the busiest 48 hours this year. More than 30 quakes over mag. 5+.

In case you've tried to se anything at THORO cam today...
www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/08/15/risk-of-flash-glacial-flood-in-sout…

Very good article explaining data detrending and why it's used.
http://www.ltrr.arizona.edu/~dmeko/notes_7.pdf

Kultsi, in citing the detrended HVOL plot, is pointing to 'business as usual' for this most-eastward GPS station, with the exception of an brief elevation excursion in early 2008.

But I think we should look more closely at Ursala's link. Bookmark it, because it's a relatively important piece of evidence that helps us understand the Big Picture affecting activity at Eyjaf and Katla.

This was one of the key bits of data that I used to explain the larger forces acting on the maritime icecapped volcanoes, back in April here at Eruptions.

Motion is to the east and south, with a twist arching northwards, centered roughly under the intersection of Katla and Eyjaf.

That's the SISZ, pushing at the geological structures to the east, with the force-moment couple reflecting the right-hand twist (stick your right thumb in the air and curl your fingers toward your palm) torsion of the south half of the transform fault.

You can see this in the sharp deflections of two stations in the GPS northward motion component graph.

Interestingly, the offshore VMEY station is 'keeping up with the Joneses' in eastward motion, doesn't show nearly as much elevation increase over time (expected) nor northward drift. The SISZ motion extends offshore dragging the southward extension of rift (right-most yellow band that actually runs off the southern coast to the Islands).

Still very little EQ activity over Iceland, in the meanwhile, today's USGS report figures keep growing.

I understand the logic of detrending the data, but one underlying nagging question remains. What is the source of the trend.

Plate movement as the listed stations move away from REYK? Likely, but where is the displacement seen in the terrain?

Equipment degradation or aging? Possible, but at what source? The stations themselves or artifacts showing up in the satellite network? One would expect the stations to show different aging characteristics and not track with each other. If it were the satellite constellation, there would be some serious gnashing of teeth at the amount of change that is occurring.

So, it seems that the first candidate is the likely one. That then leads us to image #3. That leans towards the whole region experiencing 80 mm of uplift over six and a half years. Is this rate what would be expected from post glacial rebound?

Makes ya think.

>What is the source of the trend?

I told you, the SISZ. The transform fault is moving (if we are looking at a map oriented nor, heading to the right above the fault and to the left, below the fault.

>Plate movement as the listed stations move away from REYK?

Correct. Equipment malfunction is unlikely, as it's (a) checked regularly and maintained and (b) a group of instruments would not be expected to have bias in one direction.

>but where is the displacement seen in the terrain?

That would be a small, incremental delta(X) over a large expanse of ground. What were you expecting?

>Is this rate what would be expected from post glacial rebound?

Post-glacial rebound of Iceland during the Holocene. (2010)
http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/cgi/content/abstract/167/2/417

Could be. The uplift rate is variable, depending on crustal thickness and relaxation period. We have a plot for crustal thickness for south Iceland, right?

From the ISGPS plot, THEY, one of two coastal GPS stations, changes the most, and offshore VMEY the least.

I told you the offshore MAR places a counter force on west end of the SISZ and there is an opposite force from the continental ridge at the east end. A similar (but much more complex force-couple system) situation exists on the Tjornes northern transform fault.

The first thing I do when I am trying to unravel a difficult puzzle of cause-and-effect, is to make an engineering mechanics body-force diagram, after reviewing as much information as I can lay hands on.

Mainly, the questions concerned the idea of the trend being there in the first place.

More of general purpose thing.

As for the uplift link, that's enlightening. At the â80mm over 6 years, that comes out to around 1.3 cm/yr. In the link, the rates are 2.1 to 9.2 cm/yr (over a 1150to 2500 year period roughly 9070 yrs ago), so the speed of the current uplift seems to fit with the idea of declining uplift rates.

"That would be a small, incremental delta(X) over a large expanse of ground. What were you expecting?"

Well, what I was expecting is some feature of the terrain where this seems to occur. The potential site of a Laki style event. This would be a hazardous place to be. Being spread over a large area, though most likely, is problematic. You can't point to a spot and say "stay away from that."

@Passerby, #59, somewhere along the line, I missed what SISZ is. Yeah, I know it was posted looooong ago, but my brain is not remembering so please let me know. Thanks.

@Diane N CA : I think it refers to South Icelandic Seismic Zone, @Passerby, correct me please if I'm wrong. Whatever it is, @Lurking, I don't think that no one, not even the brave Icelanders, can live with the idea of their homeland being torn apart. For now, it's all still and peaceful - and beautiful, as usual.

SISZ intro:
hraun.vedur.is/ja/prepared/SouthIcelandEarthq2000/node3.html

Earthquake prediction research in the South Iceland seismic zone and the SIL project. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (1993)83(3):696-716.

'South Iceland seismic zone (SISZ), where most destructive earthquakes in the history of iceland have occurred. The zone has many characteristics of a transform zone and takes up east-west relative motion between two offset branches of the mid-Atlantic rift zone; i.e., the eastern volcanic zone of Iceland and the Reykjanes Ridge. Earthquakes in this area reach the magnitude of roughly 7 and tend to culminate in sequences with duration from a few days to a few years. These events are associated with right-lateral faulting on N-S striking faults arranged side-by-side along the E-W trending zone.

Thus, apparently the general left-lateral transform motion is accommodated by counterclockwise rotation of the fault blocks. The seismogenetic crust is 10 to 45 km thick and is underlain by partially molten mantle material. Earthquake swarms, slowquakes, and strain episodes are commonly observed in the zone and in its proximity.'

The South Iceland Lowland (SIL) project, started in 1988; the IceArray (large motion sensor array) program is a more recent addition to monitoring seismic activity on the SISZ. There's a wikipage that describes IceArray.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICEARRAY

We've talked about magma intrusion on the Tjornes as being potentially responsible for swarm seismicity. This report seems to suggest that magma may also be the cause of uplift deformation under the SISZ as well.

SAR interferometry study of the South Iceland seismic zone.
hraun.vedur.is/ja/prenlab2final/node71.html

@Renato Rio

"...homeland being torn apart..."

That actually isn't really the issue. Everybody in San Diego will be able to walk directly East and go to Los Angeles if they wait long enough. The same applies to Iceland, but instead they are getting lots of new acreage every year.

Back to the linkage provided by Ursula at [50]. If you will note, the E-W trend is about twice the N-S trend. This directly supports a thought/paper kicked around on here a few weeks ago about Iceland expanding E-W faster than N-S. I think the central argument was that Iceland is a bit of continental crust laying on top of a segment of oceanic crust, and accounting for it's rather large thickness.

>I don't think that no one, not even the brave Icelanders, can live with the idea of their homeland being torn apart.

Renato Rio, Iceland is being *made*, not destroyed; although erosive action is also at work, it can can viewed as a formative process in the lowlands that trap transported sediment.

This hardy and stoic Nordic people long ago adapted to the geologic chaos of their beautiful and changeable landscape. Besides being frequent visitors to Eruptions, Icelanders have become more interested in their native geology in the past 5 months, as reported in their national news last week. Good!

Thanks, Passerby. That gives me a pretty good idea of what is going on there. It sounds like the fault systems almost rotate from right lateral to left lateral depending on what direction they are oriented to. Let me know if I am off base as I am still trying to get a grasp of it.

I wish I could go to Iceland. Maybe some day.

Thank you, too, Renato.

#64 - #67
I'm the one to thank my fellow bloggers to keep my gray matter working.
@Lurking: When you mentioned the Laki fissure event, the idea of Iceland being torn apart came immediately to my mind and I reacted to it in horror, even though I know that new land is formed in the process (but with a high price to "hardy and stoic" Icelanders).
@Passerby: Thanks for correcting me. I just didn't know if you were around and didn't want to leave Diane's question unanswered (I got close, though). I have a problem with acronyms and I sympathize with people that deal with a similar difficulty.
@Diane N CA: I followed your example and started to do some "geological inspection" in my neighborhood with amazing discoveries, so you too, have my thanks.
Love you guys!

Some positive volcano news:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/rwanda-gas-lake-kivu

Thank you very much for this article!
For a long time I have done exactly what you warn against. This article was a slap in the face - but a needed one.
That being said, what is the value of an intuitive explanation? Is it to give a lay person an "ah-ha" moment? Is it good to have SOME understanding, even if it is "vague and mush?"

@parclair N CA
Methane harvesting? Very, very interesting. Maybe they could do the same in Lake Nyos, Cameroon, which went through a major CO2 disaster. They've put siphons there for releasing gas but with no profit.
see Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnic_eruption
How about Mammooth Lakes, I think they experienced a similar degassing event, didn't they?

@70: specify comment to which you are replying.

A 4.5 magnitude earthquake was observed a few km from island Lipari (north of Sicily) at depth of 19 km on Monday. I could not find any more detailed information on this to see, if it is connected to Stromboli...

@Passerby[72]

It's not me. Somebody is spoofing. I have no connection with http://www.greenreplica.com/

And, since someone is playing monkey games... similar to the advertising posts we have been seeing on the gaming clan forum posts, I'll make it up to all since the reprehensible idiot used my handle.

Regarding ancient rocks under neath Baffin Island:

"The evidence comes in the form of lava rocks that, themselves, are a mere 60 million years old. But these rocks contain an early Earth mixture of helium, lead and neodymium isotopes which suggest the mantle rock beneath the crust that yielded them is a virgin pocket of Earth's original material.

That pocket had survived for 4.5 billion years under Baffin Island without being mixed by plate tectonics or erupted onto the surface. "

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38661354/ns/technology_and_science-scienc…

There probably a research paper somewhere that relates this if anyone is interesting in squirreling it out.

The Lipari quake was not connected to Stromboli, based on this map: http://earthquake.rm.ingv.it/earthquakes.php

@Renato Rio 71:

Sorry, we tried to do that in Nyos, but the methane levels are not commercially viable.
What you should though know is that this entire article is really old news... The gas deposites where found in 1937 in Kivu and the first pilot plant was launched in 1963 by Union Chimique Belge, now the gas-exploitation is run by Upegaz.
Even though I am fond of us being involved in the project as both investors and technology contributors I am a bit concerned about the CO2 emissions. But this time I see it as a lesser evil to pump it back into the "surface" water.
http://www.upegaz.gov.rw/Accueil.htm

Cameroon on the other hand would make a good case for a geothermal powerplant at Mongo ma Ndemi. But that all depends on the end results from Krafla Power Plant magma chamber drilling experiments.

Open question to anyone who can answer!

I know there is alot of EQÂ´s at approx 1km depth or so that is the result of the MyrdaljÃ¶kull icecap shifting due to summer heat, melting and so on.

But what I cant get my head around is why 90% of all registered EQÂ´s in that area is in close proximity to GOLA station? Shouldnt there be more activity on the north and east side as well? (90% was just an estimate. I am aware that there has been a few "stray" tremors)

>There probably a research paper somewhere that relates this if anyone is interesting in squirreling it out.

*sigh* Done, days ago.

#77 @Carl
Thank you for the update and the cool link. Wish you guys luck.

@78/79maybe Iceland have started a fashion trend Gola trainers all that stamping around to get some activity going only joking i had a pair when i was young...according to past research Katla is most likley to Erupt after summer towards winter when some of the ice melted.maybe its were poss its next eruption going to be at some point in the near future or thats the gate way to the magma chamber as its goes along causing earthquakes only the future can tell @78 what research to you want i have loads on katla; but not on Gola

Re: Passerby

"*sigh* Done, days ago"

Okay, but I was probably busy reversing lat-lon labels.

Lurking, thanks for all the work you have done to give us the quake graphs. I wouldn't even attempt it. :-)

Renato, glad to hear you are studying the geology in your area. Let us know what you are finding.

As for my area, one side of the divide has limestone, ash deposits from pyroclastic flows, mud flows and what ever else I will find. The other side of the divide has a fault that runs through and on one side of the fault is serpentine that ranges from greenish black to white and the other side has vertical slatey rock, and quite a number of dikes that run from vertical to horizontal. There is some folding of rock, also.

As I have another chance to get out, I will let you know what else I find. BTW, some of the rock has a lot of quartz seams running in all directions.

Lurking...poorly. See my entry, this thread (#11), a follow-up to parclair's observant comment and news article.

I tried to morph and reorient your 3-D plot of Etna EQs to fit the Sicily geologic map to look for features that might explain the crustal EQ patterns to the west of Etna. No can do, need a north-looking representation of the 3-D map with the excellent topology overlay layer for reference.

Boris will have his hands full explaining the complex geologic setting and orogeny processes that apparently differs for volcanic islands like Stomboli and Vulcan to the immediate north of Etna.

I started to reply to your posted MAR temporal series graphic on Sunday, but lost my message from keystroke weirdness (some silly old software that got activated by mistake - two 3-key combinations shut my browser down on me. Grrrr!!). The only readily apparent feature is south of Iceland, a clear trend moving northward. The older data is suspect due to seismic station operation discontinuity (US Navy and others) that invites interpretive artifact.

@Eruption just wondering would it not be a good idea to have a share thing going so that we can simply send links to this website much quicker than writing it so if find a Useful link we can send it here!

#83 Diane N CA:
I found out that the complex huge gneiss-granitic formations that shapes the well known Rio skyline (like Sugar loaf, Corcovado etc) are all magmatic intrusions dating from 600 milions years ago (since separation of Gondwana)! They show some characteristics similar to what you have at Yosemite Park (granitic intrusions suffering lateral concentric cracks). But nothing like the products of recent volcanism as you have in California which make it's Geology so fascinating. But you should see the mineral collections here: even gemstones encrusted in many types of rocks and minerals from which I had never heard. Even yellow sulfur, that I have no idea how come it be there. They call this location a "geological paradise". I even found a small geological museum right next-door from where I work exhibiting fossils of different ages. Amazing. Now I know where to go in between classes when I am at the University, thanks to your useful hint. Keep me updated with your findings, and I'll try to do the same, but I'm afraid I'll need a lot of studying until I can even describe what I saw. (I took some pictures too).

@LEON That sounds like a good idea, a share thing website. Just tell us how and where and when.

@JÃ³n FrÃmann (are you around?)
Are these recurrent darker disturbances in your helicorders caused by any source other than wind or human noise? (I do check wind speeds and they don't seem high enough to be blamed for them). I've been noticing these features for a week or so, and I have no expertise as to state if they are somehow connected to your recent observations of increases on Katla's tremors.
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/tremoren.htm

@Passerby

"...readily apparent feature is south of Iceland, a clear trend moving northward. The older data is suspect..."

I knocked down the data series and focused on stuff north of the Hayes FZ, but I'm not too happy with how it turned out. I had the colors of the individual quakes corresponding to the magnitude and it made my eyes hurt. This is about as good as I can get it:

http://i35.tinypic.com/1cgsj.png

"need a north-looking representation of the 3-D map with the excellent topology overlay layer for reference."

Tell me the boundaries you want and I can put that together quite easily. My problem is knowing where to slice the data at. I saw this on Katla when some of TorfajÃ¶ulls medium depth quakes showed up in a view north plot.

After fighting most of the day, I now have a good topological set for Sicily of about 3.7 million points if I need it. (provided the computer doesn't choke)

The plots with the mangled lat-lon lables only used the 37K point set.

@87 Renato Rio:
I have another theory for the tremors that show up at JÃ³ns helicorders, but I am probably dead wrong. But here goes. If you look at the quake plot you will see a rather nicely placed quake 15km WSW of Hekla. Something tells me it is related to JÃ³ns helicorder since it is in Heklubyggd. But I am probably wrong and it is just wind or Gola-dancers loosing weight.
Just a comment about Kivu. We do quite a lot of cool things trying to find new ways of generating power. Rn'D expenditures have reached ten percent annual turnaround. The reason for this is pretty obvious, problem is though that we nor anyone else have found a large source of clean energy. Just a bunch of small ones that aren't really commercially viable.
My current two cents are that we may have to go either for large scale geothermal plants, but as everybody here understands better than most that requires large amounts of studies since it might be rather dangerous to tap energy from volcanos. The other is ultra-large evaporation hydropower (immense investment, low running cost, insane amount of power, quagmired in politics, unknown environmental impacts), but even one plant like that could take care of all the power needs of Europe. And the third would of course be cutting the daytime/nighttime difference in power expenditure with large-scale solarpower-plants. The day to night difference in Europe could be cut with 70 square kilometres of solar-arrays in Sahara. Problem is that the arrays are still to expensive to ever pay off the investment.

@88 Lurking:
3.7 M datapoint geographic overlay computed against another dataset to create a 4D representation? My man, do you have a feline-animal-named Cray in your living-room? Or did I overcomplicate it...

OOPS EDIT!!! Lurking, is it you who are doing quake interpretations on a CrayXT4???

http://cray.com/Assets/PDF/products/xt/HECToRCaseStudy.pdf

#89 @Carl:
> "Gola-dancers loosing weight".
- Deffinitely a quite more interesting (and funnier) explanation.
>"Just a comment about Kivu."
- Did you mean Kivu, or Nyos? I thought that Kivo is already being taken care of.
>"it might be rather dangerous to tap energy from volcanoes."
- That's what came to my mind when you mentioned Mt. Cameroon (you called it by the other name, which is to difficult to remember). This is a very active and dangerous volcano, maybe more then Krafla, which they are taking for example, isn't it?
> "Problem is that the arrays are still to expensive to ever pay off the investment."
- Do you think if there were more interest in investing on research over solar energy arrays, budgets would decrease, or it is expensive - period.?
Thx.

@90:

It was Kivu I meant, the methane content of Nyos is to low to make it ever profitable.

Nah, Mount Fako is not especially dangerous, it has pretty much not killed anyone in the last hundred years due to it's eruptions (directly at least). More people die due to running uphill of it than from the lava runs (most recently in 99).

But what I consider dangerous with geothermal plants is that noone knows what happens if you drill into the magma chamber, hollow out some 50 000 kubic metres ontop of it and then pump down many kubic metres of water under high preasure per second to produce steam for the turbines. And that is what I call the Kowabunga-version of Krafla.
What happens when you more or less rapid-cool a volcanos innards in an explosive H2O-process? It is estimated to produce a continous 3 magnitude quake for years...

You gotta low Africa sometimes, that volcano is multinamed. Mongo ma Ndemi means Mountain of Greatness, Have no clue what Mount Fako means, and Mount Cameroon is pretty easy to get:)

@Carl

Nah... that's just the size of the file. I took a shot at slicing down the area of interest to about a 1 degree x 1 degree area centered on Etna, with hard limits on the boundary. The idea being that when I threw the humongous terrain set at it the stuff outside the box would fall away, and I would still be able to use my computer.

Didn't work.

After about 10 to 20 minutes I had the display, but couldn't do anything with it, like slew or skew. Plan 2 is to extract the data from the orig file by taking only the terrain info for the slice, and not having the graphics program do the filtering.

As for the Cray idea... No. But I do have an Alpha 21164 based system (Alpha PC) sitting in the corner... mainly for nostalgia sake. For it's time, it could blow the doors off of comparable systems. Too bad DEC didn't know how to stay in business. As a trivia note, the AMD64 chip bus used the same signal set as those old Alpha chips... seems that part of the design team went to AMD after Compaq/HP let the Alpha die on the vine.

Interesting article on a "Double-Quake" causing the Samoan Tsunami last September:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNdPEOVLhkBd6eKsJW23c…

#93 @Doug C.
Interesting, indeed. And I suggest further reading of the other three links at the bottom of the page.
According to the articles, the discoveries were made by two different groups of scientists.
I looked for the EQ information at USGA and it says:"On the basis of currently available location and fault mechanism information, we infer that the September 29 earthquake occurred as a normal fault rupture on or near the outer rise of the subducting Pacific plate."
But now they found out that there were two simultaneous megathrust events, both 7.8 M, triggered by the first 8.1 "normal" jolt. They hit in a lapse of two minutes, on the overriding Australian plate, which displaced the island of Niuatoputapu 400 mm to the East, which wouldn't have happened from the first 8.1 jolt on the subducting slab.
Maybe seismologists should review big events like this because now they have more instruments to accurately plot the data (we saw multiple quakes occurring on subducting plates recently, in Moro Golf Mindanao).
Thanks for posting.

#94 Sorry, USGS

Hi everyone!

What is that billowing on the right side of the hvolsvelli cam?

http://live.mila.is/english/eyjafjallajokull-fra-hvolsvelli/

Hi, Your Highness. Good to hear from you.
I can't see what you mean, but maybe because it's already dark.

Hello Sir Renato! Nice to see you again. :)

I should have taken a screenshot of it. It was quite high (a good couple thousand feet) on the far right side of the screen. It's still there, but barely faint in the poor light now.

I'll watch for it again once the sun comes up. Have there been any anomalies lately? I haven't been keeping up lately. *sigh*

@Your Highness: *Sigh* If it was there, it's gone by now. There's a reflective glow that disturbs vision.
As for Iceland, except for some alterations on tremor plots mentioned by JÃ³n FrÃmann's observations under Katla, suggesting "the beginning of the beginning of a possible future eruption", everything is quiet. Lady E is taking a looong nap, puffing a bit every now and then, but she has already been declared dormant.

For now I'm trying to understand Etna, with the outstanding orientation of Boris. It's been very exciting and I'm looking forward to part 3.
I should be doing my work now, but these volcanoes don't let me. :)

@Princess Frito
I was checking at JÃ³n's Helicorders and I noticed very high winds now, showing on tremor plots. I don't know if they are related to your "billowing"

@Renato,

What I found strange was that there were low clouds blowing almost sideways where we normally see it them, but this huge thing on the right was going straight up.

I'll monitor the situation at daybreak :)

Does this tell you anything?

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html

#101 @Your Highness:
One thing I learned from Lady E experience: cloud formations can be the most tricking thing you can imagine, specially over a volcano. Since I started lurking at this one I saw ashclouds and steam plumes everywhere. In one occasion I was at the university looking at the Sugar Loaf (yes, I have a beautiful view of it from my window), and then I caught myself gazing at an enormous "ashcloud" venting from its summit - it looked so perfectly volcanic! From then on I stopped being suspicious about this kind of "billowing", although sometimes Eyjaf grants us with some pretty high steam plumes.
As for the tremor graphs, I confess, I don't see anything abnormal; every time stronger winds blow , graphs go up. ;)

#101 What I have noticed today, was a cluster of pretty strong quakes under VatnajÃ¶kull, at different depths.
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/#v…
It seems weird, because quakes in Iceland had a significant decrease for the past 72 hs. There were a couple very shallow jolts under MÃ½rdalsjÃ¶kull, but they're supposedly caused by ice melting.

A 4.7 M quake hit at REYKJANES RIDGE
2010/08/19 06:57:30 / 54.086 N 35.120 W/ 10.0 km deep - USGS

Other 4 quakes under VatnajÃ¶kull!

19.08.201008:33:5464.737-17.2725.4 km2.076.365.7 km SSW of Kistufell

19.08.201008:32:3364.742-17.2443.6 km3.090.034.6 km SSW of Kistufell

19.08.201008:31:1164.741-17.2662.0 km3.890.085.2 km SSW of Kistufell

19.08.201008:23:0164.745-17.2523.3 km2.690.054.5 km SSW of Kistufell

Big quakes at VatnajÃ¶kull...

Thursday
19.08.2010 09:04:48 64.762 -17.229 3.5 km 2.0 90.01 2.3 km SSW of Kistufell
Thursday
19.08.2010 08:56:28 64.740 -17.217 2.5 km 2.3 90.02 4.6 km S of Kistufell
Thursday
19.08.2010 08:54:38 64.749 -17.250 3.8 km 2.7 90.06 4.0 km SSW of Kistufell

Thursday
19.08.201009:15:4564.746-17.2705.5 km1.664.724.8 km SW of Kistufell

Wow, this area is quite active at the moment.

Yes quite active. Just tectonic activity though since there are no volcanoes in that area (as far as i know). The closest one beein bardarbunga but thats a bit to the south-west right?

I don't know if it is above normality, but it seems to me it is. BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga is a huge volcano, its crater is filled with a 700 m layer of ice. Any idea of tremor plots?
StÃ¦rstu skjÃ¡lftar sÃÃ°ustu 48 klst (EQs in the last 48 hs)

3,119. Ã¡gÃº. 08:31:11Yfirfarinn5,2 km SV af Kistufelli
3,019. Ã¡gÃº. 08:32:3390,04,6 km SSV af Kistufelli
2,718. Ã¡gÃº. 20:39:2390,17,4 km ANA af Hamrinum
2,419. Ã¡gÃº. 08:23:01Yfirfarinn4,3 km SSV af Kistufelli
2,318. Ã¡gÃº. 03:12:25Yfirfarinn11,4 km ANA af BÃ¡rÃ°arbungu
2,018. Ã¡gÃº. 23:34:4590,02,6 km S af Kistufelli

Wait...Correction.

The Trollagigar fissure runs NE from Bardarbunga up to Askja..But still probably just tectonic tremors. ;)

I must go now. I don't think it's merely tectonic this time. Wish I could have any news of tremors. Have you all a good day!

I do think too, that this seismic activity is not only tectonic. The Barbadunga Volcanic System extends over a really large area. I do not know it for sure, but isn't the Lakagigar fissure part of the barbadunga volcanic system?

also the quakes seem to build a line, like a fissure; any comments on that?

@113 Stefan, This paper is a really long one but it explains Iceland's Faults in great detail.

http://www.vedur.is/media/vedurstofan/utgafa/skyrslur/2010/2010_003rs.p…

And this link explains the Southwest part of the Island for both earthquakes and volcano mapping.

http://www.vatn.is/media/vedurstofan/utgafa/rit_200521_subsurfacefault…

Enjoy.

Daniel, #109: I am not sure, what the reason is, so far I haven't heard anything on the news about it. Iy you look on the earthquake map, than you will see, that this area has a number of old volcanoes...
The quakes happen on the edge of the glacier and are quite diverse in depth.

Dyngjujokull satellite view(close to quake activity)

www.satelliteviews.net/cgi-bin/w.cgi?c=ic&UF=-2643314&UN=-3650988&DG=GL…

@all interested in Bardarbunga and quakes there:

Just so that everyone will have a reference.
The series of quakes have an average point 180 metres north of the rim of Bardarbunga and about 200 metres to the west.
That is by far close enough to point to a flank eruption coming up.

But, if we are to believe the Global Volcanism Program and it's coordinates it is actually a part of Askja that is showing activity. The southwestern most parts of Askja are:
KISTUFELLSGJOSKA Fissure vent 64.93Â°N 17.22Â°W
KISTUFELLSHRAUN Crater Row 64.8Â°N 17.18Â°W
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1703-06=&volpage=synsub

If one cross-references those 2 to the quakelist you see that the coordinates matches pretty well.
So my question here is what in the name of the Holy Macaroni is the difference between Bardarbunga and Aksja Volcanic System? Apparantly 200 metres the birdway...

Be that as it may, it doesn't really matter if it is Aksja or if it is Bardarbunga rocking, either of them would be baaaaad news (but terribly exiting) if they started a large eruption. But let me remind you that it is more likely with a VEI-Mouse than an VEI-Megalodon, if it even erupts. It might be just some tectonic settlement or another instance of those pesky Icelandic Gola-dancers.

Strange seismic readings from Utah, Zion National Park is located at the south-west corner of Utah, I was trying to see which monitoring stations showed activity when the big quakes were happening in the Marianas Island region when I noticed strange readings. These readings happen everyday at around the same time and they are no small either, starting at 9:00pm going all the way to 9:00am, on this link look at the earlier dates located just above the graph and let me know what you think.

http://www.quake.utah.edu/helicorder/znpu_webi.htm

A swarm of deep earthquakes ranging 1.4 to 3.1 has hit the northern part of VatnajÃ¶kull. See http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/

@118:

R.Hurst, I would guess it is mining related. The timings kind of suggest that it is the night blast phaze that is visible on the graphs and that the silent day periods are when the out-loading is done.
Many mines does the blasting during the night due to the blasting requiring very few personal (cost-effective), and of course you want a minimum of personel down there when blasting. Mine blasts create quite nice "quakes".
Just my few cents.

Does anyone have any GPS data from the area where the EQÂ´s hit today? Would be interesting to see.

Hmm...This was interesting. Look at the vertical component at the bottom.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/gps/cts/vat.html

It would seem that just in a few days the GFUM station and SKRO station has been elevated alot!!

GFUM is Grimsvotn i would guess and SKRO is Skrokkaldar?

@122:

Thank's Daniel for re-finding the gps-plot:)
I've noted before that there is a long ongoing trend of rising at the GFUM and SKRO. They have been rising on average 17 centimetres in 7 years. Or in GFUMs case 22,5cm in 4,5 years. If we then assume that HOFN is symptomatic of the local landrise due to iceage icewall rebound and the normal magmatic up-push of Iceland due to plume we get that we should deduct about a centimeter per year.

Then we get something spectacular at GFUM. It has risen 18 centimetres above average in 4,5 years, or more to the point, 4,5 centimetres per year after normalisation. Whow!
Then we go to GFUM north movement. And that is minus 20cm, after renormalisation that would be 19/4,5 = 4.2 cm a year.
East-component is nominal compared to HOFN, but that is expexted due to normal rifting.

Now we just need a tremorplot for the area and we are good to go. I know I found one once but I seem not to be able to refind it. bad me for not book-marking it as a favourite.

There is some evidence that the Dyngjujokull fissure system is associated with Grimsvotn.

You can find all the tremor stations here: http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/tremor.html
Unfortunately the last data from the nearest station Grimsfjall is from August 12.

The swarm is continuing... Which volcano does the location of quakes correspond to? BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga?

@ 126-Jack,

Researching that area this morning I came away with that there is objecting opinion to which the Dyngjujokull fissure belongs to. There is evidence of it venting Grimsvotn(some cool satellite pics showing such) BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga and also KverkfjÃ¶ll volcano.

I am likin the Grimsvotn angle though....just my opinion.

VatnajÃ¶kull Area - 8/17/10 to Present

View North

http://i38.tinypic.com/2dhtobq.png

View East

http://i35.tinypic.com/walxmb.png

BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga (64.64 -17.56) and GrÃmsvÃ¶tn (64.42 -17.33) are two of the major volcanoes in the area, though it really doesn't matter that much. When activity occurs, the system has been known to shoot a sill/dike off to the most convenient volcano to commence an eruption. BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga is closest to the current activity.

From a paper on an odd 1996 quake that pointed to a possible dual layer magma chamber.

"A sequence of earthquakes commenced 29 September starting with a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in the BÃ¡rdarbunga volcano.

Similar earthquakes had occurred in this area previously. Ten earthquakes clustered around the BÃ¡rdarbunga caldera are reported in the Harvard Centroid Moment Tensor catalog for the period 1976â1996 (Nettles and EkstrÃ¶m, 1998). However, this time the event was followed by a swarm of small earthquakes that migrated toward a neighboring volcano, GrÃmsvÃ¶tn, and culminated in a subglacial volcanic eruption"

TkalÄiÄ, Dreger, Foulger, and Julian. "The Puzzle of the 1996 BÃ¡rdarbunga, Iceland, Earthquake: No Volumetric Component in the Source Mechanism". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 99, No. 5, pp. 3077â3085, October 2009.

rses.anu.edu.au/~hrvoje/Tkalcic_etal_BSSA2009.pdf

Jon Frimman, where are you?!

I have just read through the posts for today, Aug 19, and the quake activity in Iceland is interesting. I will keep checking back to see what is going on.

@ R. Hurst #118 and Carl #120, I checked the depths of the quakes in Utah and I think they are too deep to be mining related. There is a lot of mining activity in Nevada and when there are blasts, the depths are posted as 0.0 km or miles. I doubt there is a mine in Utah that is 4 miles deep. As for the graph, it is possible it was picking up the large quakes over in the Marianas area. I could be wrong on this because I didn't take a look at the time element.

One thing I have noticed in Nevada is that some of the blasts can generate a 3.0 seizmic wave and sometimes the blasts probably can set off a real quake if the fault near the mine is ready to move.

My DH one time was with a crew that was operating a thumper truck (they don't use these anymore, but in case there is someone who doesn't know what it is, they are a truck that thumps the ground with a "hammer" that is full of mercury) in S CA and they were looking for oil. They let it go and were in the process of gathering the data and setting up the truck again when they were swarmed with geologists and seizmologists who wanted to know what the blip they were doing. They asked them what they were going to do next and they said they were going to set it off again. The geologists told them they were not! Turns out they set that thump right on top of the Garlock fault and if they did it again, it could trigger a major quake! Needless to say, they packed up and left. It is one of those things you can laugh about now, but at the time, it was definitely NOT funny.

@Diane N CA

Those geologists didn't happen to be covered with coffee were they? I can imagine someone sitting there sipping coffee and having the gear go nuts when the truck started it thumping...

@Diane N CA

Thanks for taking a look at the data, what got me thinking was during the quiet times in the Mariana's area they were still happening during the same time periods. Another puzzling thing that I found by looking at the different stations is that they all don't pick up the quakes, only a certain few do, even stations that are pretty close have different data.

@Lurking, I was thinking it might have been more on the back side than the front. LOL

@R.Hurst, that is interesting that the data looks different. There can be a number of reasons for that and I don't have answers. It will be something to watch to see if they get any more in that area of Utah. I wish we had a couple of seizmologists posting once in a while here. It would sure help.

Does anyone know if there is any public webcams covering the northwest vatnajÃ¶kull area?

Utah, view north. Latitude limits 36Â°N to 37Â°N

http://i37.tinypic.com/2cmkh2r.png

"Utak" ... groan.

And it keeps on rumbling...Another one +3 mag...

Thursday
19.08.201017:32:4864.740-17.2402.9 km3.190.074.8 km SSW of Kistufell

Map location
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanarraville,_Utah

Utah shakes are probably geothermal field energy-plant related.

http://www.rasertech.com/geothermal/projects-in-development

(the map shows the only 3 GT projects active in UT at present)

@ People with more knowledge, i.e Boris, JÃ³n, Passerby and so on....

What is your take on the activity on the NW side of VatnajÃ¶kull?

Is there something brewing volcano wise or just some restless plates having a hard time staying still?

Looking at the depth and location i would say that the bardarbunga, trollagigar fissure system beeing restless. And the GPS measurements would seem to support that.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/gps/cts/vat.html

Caveat emptor ...

Askja is also known as Trolladyngja

And of the plants listed, they run 335 to 2133 meters depth.

There is the Newcastle area 18 miles NW of the quake centers. It's used for heating and greenhouses according to utah.gov.

http://geology.utah.gov/emp/geothermal/geothermal_use_utah.htm

Unless some one is going deep with a new facility, I don't think that's it.

My two cents regarding the recent GPS data as a layman.

Looking at the SKRO and GFUM stations since they are the closest ones and should be the ones most affected by any change at the area in question.

One thing that caught my eye is the trend at each "new year". If you look at the years its always a spike. Then it goes down for a month or so only to resume increasing/decreasing (depending on what component) after that. I assume, since there is alot if ice present, that this has to do with temperature shifts and that would only be natural since even a small change in average temp/day would have large impact on the icecap covering the area.

Anyway I was looking at the charts and this is what I came up with.

East component: Same annual pattern as I described without any deviation as far as I can tell except that GFUM has more movement/year than the other stations (13-18cm since 2006).

North component: Same here. The stations follow a predictable pattern while GFUM stands out with a large movement in a short period of time (almost 20cm since 2006) and during the last month a sharp increase in southern movement.

Vertical component: Now it gets interesting. Up until now the SKRO station has been somewhat similar to the other stations except GFUM. Now it joins in and shows a large inflation during the past month. 2-3 cm uplift on both SKRO and GFUM.

And what is also interesting the GFUM and SKRO stations has since 2004 followed the same annual pattern which I described earlier. But not this year. They both got the annual spike but have not dipped down in the same fashion as earlier. And they register a sharp rise!

Man I would love to have a webcam in that area...Any Icelandic with a 4x4 and an extra webcam up for a roadtrip? ;)

Roughly the same map as pointed to in my post [140], but with the Quake area and USGS listed fault lines for the area.

http://i36.tinypic.com/2s1ndbk.png

Ok now i know something has caught peoples interest at VatnajÃ¶kull.

Helicorder at Grimsfjall has been turned off for a while. but today they started it again!

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/grf.gif

Ref my post [128]

Time series plot of that area verses depth.

http://i37.tinypic.com/x5yufc.png

Nothing to write home about, but there ya go.

#144 Good work, fellows. Now we should be some feeding back from the media, but I didn't find anything. But the quakes keep coming. They revised and removed many of them (including the earlier 3.8) from the list of the big ones.
IMO data
The largest earthquakes during the last 48 hours
SizeTime Quality Place
3.119th August 17:32:4890.14.8 km of SSV Kistufelli
3.019th August 08:31:11Reviewed5.2 km SW of Kistufelli
2.718th August 20:39:2390.1ANA 7.4 km of the hammer
2.619th August 14:30:1350.29.3 km of SA HerÃ°ubreiÃ°arlindir
2.519th August 08:32:33Reviewed4.8 km of SSV Kistufelli
2.419th August 08:23:01Reviewed4.3 km of SSV Kistufelli

This is all I find from RUV news, and is still about ashes from Eyjaf:
Ash in the wood blocks fiskgengd
No salmon or trout is caught in a forest under EyjafjÃ¶llum summer the river is more or less full of ashes. The river generally have caught one thousand salmon in summer.

Agreed wrt Vatnajokull area seimicity. If the IMO plots were busier, we get take interest.

Regarding Utah, I downloaded a technical blurb on the St. George Basin Geothermal area, containing the Hurricane fault system, mentioned in the USGS tech discussion of today's EQ, describing activity in the Intermountain Seismic Belt (ISB).

'The most prominent geologically young faults in southwestern Utah are the Hurricane and Sevier faults. The Hurricane fault forms the west-facing Hurricane Cliffs, which define the eastern edge of the Basin and Range within the ISB. Faults in the ISB in southern Utah locally show evidence of displacement younger than 10,000 years, but average recurrence intervals are generally longer than those on faults in the ISB in northern Utah'

The historical seismicity maps are busy (EQ since 1990), with the year's shake accumulation map showing approximately the same areal patterns.

To me, this looks like geothermal activity associated with the Hurricane fault system. *shrug* Not a biggie, either.

earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/uu08181252.php#summary

Well, we will have to wait and see. So far, it is too early to be sure. We need to see something at rise in Lurking's graphs and for now we have them mostly concentrated at a certain depth. Last week there was a 3+, but no cluster. And EQ activity under Vatna has been high most of the time. Nothing definitive.
But something is being cooked there. Matter of time.

To put things in context, here is a plot of VatnajÃ¶kull quakes back to 4/17.

There are three separate quake stacks here. The quakes from today line up in the two northern stacks. Do remember that these stacks are not necessarily indicative of moving magma, as many knowledgeable people have pointed out, the level of activity will likely be much higher than what is currently being seen.

http://i33.tinypic.com/2mpj6af.png

Fireman & family have just checked into the Hotel Ranga; in the unlikely event anything kicks- off in the next few days I'll provide live updates!

@Fireman:
Enjoy your staying and thanks for updates. I don't believe an eruption under Vatna is likely to happen any soon. After early magnitudes of the swarm were reviewed, quakes appear to be within normal levels.
Say hello to Lady E!

Hotel Ranga looks wonderful - www.hotelranga.is/ Hope you and your family have a fab time and - yes? - get to enjoy a mild Hekla eruption from the safety of the hotel room window.

PS. Any chance of a photo of GigjÃ¶kull in order to compare with your stunning pre-eruption one? ;)

@132 Diane N CA, Thank you for your response Diane, things are certainly strange in the Utah region, here is another seismograph for you, it's from the Madison River, Yellowstone monitoring station. There has been a lot of activity just around that site, all of the surrounding stations are really quiet and these are showing larger spikes, the interesting thing is that the station isn't sending any data for a lot of the time on different days, just look back at the earlier dates and compare, here is the graph from yesterday.

http://www.quake.utah.edu/helicorder/ymr_webi_2d.htm

@R. Hurst, you are welcome. Thank you for posting that Madison River helicorder. I checked several days and it has been rocking like crazy. I am not sure what is going on, but it must be picking up not only quake info, but maybe some other unrelated activity. This is why I wish a seizmologist would come here and explain the signals to us so we can at least get an idea of what we are looking at. We know from Jon's helicorder that wind can affect it and, depending how close to the road going though Madison Canyon the corder is, I would suppose there is the possibilty of semi activity creating some of the small seizmic waves.

Madison Canyon is an interesting place. The major quake that happened there in 1959 was devastating. The epicenter was actually out of the canyon, but the quake crated a major landslide in the canyon and ended up creating a lake and wiped out a town and camping area. They now charge you to go up and see the landslide up close and also there is a museum which probably has many pictures of the aftermath. At the time I was there, I didn't have time to check it out, but you can see the slide from the road.

A bit if info about that: my DH was there when the quake happened and he was only about half a mile from the slide. He at first thought he had really drank too much as he was awakened by the first bit of rocking of the car. Then he really got awake and realized it was a major quake and he was able to turn around and get back to West Yellowstone. That quake affected Old Faithful and make it less predictable that it used to be. If I rememeber right, it was a 7.5 or somehthing close to that.

A few times on the CA map there have been false posts of quakes and I would like to know what caused that, too. After a bit of checking things out, the quakes were removed from the map. That was a bit weird to see because when I first saw them, I really wondered what was going on, especially given where they were.

When Erik gets back, maybe he can get a seizmolgist to post some info about how they go about reading the graphs.

"Animal Planet" TV just starting a program on volcanoes of the Pacific Ocean (eastern US 2:05 p.m.)

@Diane N CA, I am here. But at current time I do not comment so a lot here unless there is something interesting going on.

There are regular earthquake swarms inside the BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga volcano system (it is massive). However, the earthquake activity over the past few months in BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga appears in some part be due to dike formation inside the volcano. That has not resulted in a volcano eruption at this time. But I am sure that one day that it is going to do that.

Given historic data (eruption 1996), a eruption in BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga appears to start with a single big earthquake that is Mb5.0 or larger. So we are not going to see a lot of small earthquakes like that did happen in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull. This pattern also goes for GrÃmsfjÃ¶ll volcano. But the earthquakes are smaller, with biggest earthquakes being around ML3.0 or lagers. But never lager then Mb5.0 so far. But that system can make Mb5.0 earthquakes, that is known from historical records.

This also goes for Katla volcano. So the only volcano that appears to be behave different is EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, with his many thousands of earthquakes before a eruption.

I am always watching for earthquakes and possibly of volcano activity. At the moment, things are quiet.

@JÃ³n FrÃmann:
Thank you. We were all needing you to bring us back to our senses. I confess when I saw this big swarm starting with a 3.8, as it was first reported, I hurried to ring the bells.
Over time, we end by learning with them volcanoes that they have their own timing and pace, not ours.
In the meanwhile we are taking an enlightening summer vacation in Sicily. Tell us when, and we'll be rushing back.

As promised, here is my latest on VatnajÃ¶kull... but presented a little bit differently.

I took the boundaries for the chart/map located at en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/ and applied them to the data, tossing out stuff that fell outside of there.

This is a time series plot of the quakes per 12 hour interval for the region during the time frame of 4/18/10 to 8/21/10. As you can see, it fully supports what the more knowledgeable people here have stated. (normal stuff going on)

http://i36.tinypic.com/a5hsv8.png

For the statistically minded of you, here is the distribution of that same batch of data:

http://i38.tinypic.com/30hx6hw.png

From that, it seems that (based on the time interval) that 1.6% of the time, there will be between 10 to 12 quakes in a 12 hour window. 80.5% of the time there will be less than 6 quakes per 12 hour interval. ( 27 + 31.7 + 21.8 )

Is it just me or is there a fair bit of activity around Bardarbunga in Iceland? While everyone is watching for a potential eruption from Katla, could it be Bardarbunga thats next to go?

Looking at the recent activity there seems to have been a good number of shallow mag 2 and almost mag 3 quakes:

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/#v…

@Lurking
You surely deserve the epithet of âmaster of chartsâ.
What would we amateurs do without them? Most information posted in this blog is readily converted into graphs, thanks to your relentless generosity to collaborate, regardless the expertise of those who rise the questions. They provide a clearer picture of figures and dimensions, making it easier to understand what otherwise would be too difficult to grasp, thus giving us the chance to keep up with the hard core discussions.
We can't thank you enough for that. Just tell us to stop, whenever you feel your brain is reaching âdegassing levelsâ.
As for recent swarms under VatnajÃ¶kull, we must rely on JÃ³n's experience: he said that âthe earthquake activity over the past few months in BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga appears in some part be due to dike formation inside the volcanoâ and that an eruption usually âstarts with a single big earthquake that is Mb 5.0 or largerâ.
You said that this last plot âfully supports what the more knowledgeable people here have stated. (normal stuff going on)â.
But what is to be considered ânormalâ? Should we take for granted that it is ânormalâ for a volcano to gather magma within its guts? After all, that's what they're supposed to do, isn't it? What your plot tells me is that, since April, we have more gaps in between the swarms, but each single swarm is getting bigger (more quakes per cluster). The August peak seemed to be special, because we had higher magnitude events, but how far we are from getting a 5+, we donât know.
I gathered some information of 5+ EQs around Vatna since the 70âs, but only a few of them led to an eruption, so, I donât know what to expect here.

MAGDATEDEPTH (km)

5,225/06/7433
5,229/12/7433
5,403/10/7533
5,227/07/7633
5,228/12/7710
5,422/06/7910
5,312/08/8010
5,330/09/8410
5,223/11/8610 * erup
5,303/02/8910
5,515/09/9010
5,122/05/935
5,705/05/948,6
5,526/09/9610 *erup.
5,629/09/9610 * erup.

And for those who missed it, a link to "The puzzle of the BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga volcano"
http://rses.anu.edu.au/~hrvoje/Bardarbunga.html

@ Jon, #157

Thanks, Jon, for reporting about the quakes. I wanted to hear from you because I knew you would be able to tell us what is going on.

Let us know if there is any change in your thinking about the quake sequence. I am sure we will know if there is a big quake in Island and we will definitely need your input about it. After all, you are the one who knows more about what is happening there than we do. :-)

@Renato [162] -
That page is actually broken (an unclosed comment); you cannot view it on Firefox. IE displays it OK; does that mean that IE is, itself, broken?

@Kultsi:
I don't know what you mean by "broken". I got the link here, from our fellow bloggers, and I'm using Google Chrome, so I hope I didn't "break" any Internet rules. :)
There are two links to the downloadable pdf articles at the bottom of the page:
http://rses.anu.edu.au/~hrvoje/Tkalcic_etal_BSSA2009.pdf
http://rses.anu.edu.au/~hrvoje/Tkalcic_etal_AGU2009.pdf
Thanx for the info.
For what I could understand, the 5+ EQ caused the crater to colapse within the glacier causing a major eruption, but there seems to have been another weaker eruption before, causing a jokÃ¼llhlaup.

@164: If you go to Dr. TkalÄiÄ home page and click on 'publications', you'll find the article listed and available for download.

rses.anu.edu.au/~hrvoje/Tkalcic_etal_BSSA2009.pdf

Thank-you for your plot Lurking. Your frequency graphic, however, shows the recent peak of activity to be atypical in occurrence number but not unlikely, in that the excursion and sampling period are brief. If 'something was up' we should see consecutive days of elevated activity.

We have already been through a discussion of probable mechanisms for these earthquakes.

Background reading.
Faulting mechanism of anomalous earthquakes near Bardarbunga Volcano, Iceland
www.seismology.harvard.edu/projects/unusEQ/Iceland/index.html

In fact, this discussion might be timely, as the proposed model of magmetic acitivty looks a bit like the crater/flank fissure cycle sequence at Etna.

Renato Rio's second link is to an wonderfully descriptive explanatory poster (used for technical presentations at annual science society meetings).

It's a hefty 54 MB download, be aware it may take a while, depending on your connection speed. Well worth the effort, though.

#165-166 @Passerby
Thank you for the useful hints.

@165 & al. -

By "broken" I mean the HTML code at the end of the link is not valid and conforming to the rules of HTML. The term I used is normal geek expression for malfunctioning site or program.

That does not mean that I could not or did not read the article and at least look at the two publications from linked from the site.

When I told y'all about the problem with the site, I hoped to alleviate the heartburn some might get from the site not opening correctly.

>I hoped to alleviate the heartburn some might get from the site not opening correctly.

Right. And that's why we replied and supplied the proper link and explanation of how to find it.

Alternatively, one can use Google or Yahoo search engines and type in the article title (which Renato thoughtfully supplied).

>IE displays it OK; does that mean that IE is, itself, broken?

No, it must mean that IE doesn't depend on comment closure to open it. Scripting tolerance for common errors, whatever.

For an alternate search method, one can go to this list of Hrvoje Tkalcic's publications and, if you have a Mac, use Command plus F and type in Bardarbunga in the "Find:" window. Many papers are downloadable in Acrobat.
http://rses.anu.edu.au/~hrvoje/publications.html

Um... does anyone happen to know if there was a fissure event in Iceland on the scale of Laki or EldgjÃ¡ in the early 6th century? I can't seem to find any research on Icelandic fissure events that are not those two. The target year I'm looking for is around 536.

Here is my logic. (if you call it that) 934, EldgjÃ¡ - big fissure event. 1783, Laki - big fissure event. A difference of 934 years. If the spreading rate of 20.3 +/- 0.2 mm/yr is reasonably constant, then the amount of accumulated spread would be 17.1 to 17.4 meters. Since 227 years have elapsed since then, the current accumulated spread would be on the order of 4.6 to 4.7 meters, or about 26.7% of the amount when Laki went up.

535-6 is a period of extreme weather events, complete with famine, rats, plagues and other stuff. Some have claimed it is associated with a volcano such as Krakatoa, or a comet. The period had a dust veil and some research have found increased sulfate deposits in ice cores. (Benjamin Franklin noted a dry fog in some of his documents... probably from the Laki event)

536 is about 398 years before the EldgjÃ¡ fissure event, and would have ment that 8 to 8.2 meters of spread had accumulated before EldgjÃ¡.

The only semi-chronicler guy that may have been in the area would have been Saint Brendan, who allegedly sighted Jan Mayen during his voyages.

This is just a wild arsed idea. Any eruptive history of the fissure system between Katla and GrÃmsvÃ¶tn/BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga other than the 934 or 1783 events would be appreciated.

I am seeing pule activity on SIL station LÃ¡gu Hvolar (hvo). This appears to have started some time before the ML0.8 earthquake that happened few min ago (when I write this) close to place called HÃ¡bunga. This might be the first sign of volcano related activity in Katla. But at some time in the future, not at the moment. As there has not been the necessary high volume earthquake activity that follows eruptions in Katla.

I did mean pulse. This is what happens in late night typing.

#173-74 Thank you JÃ³n. But try to get some sleep. If this activity develops into something any soon, then you see what late night means.

Lurking, good thinking! (#172) What about something such as Mt Rinjani, a volcano with a historical record going back no further than 1847, sports a caldera on the same order of magnitude as Tambora, but one for which the date is unknown? (Wiki, however, says it's thought to have occurred in the 13th Century).
//www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0604-03=

IIRC, one of the reports about the 536 AD phenomenae you refer to(?) is from Rome. In that case, the jet stream divide at about lat 50N would indicate that the source would most likely be below that latitude, so a very large, tentatively or undated eruption in Kamtchatka or Indonesia ought to be a better candidate than Iceland or Alaska?

@Lurking (#172) TrÃ¶lladyngja? //os.is/gogn/unu-gtp-report/UNU-GTP-1986-04.pdf page 7 gives a reference (Orkustofnun 1986) which dates the most recent period of activity as "1000-1500 years old", ie your date falls within this period. However, reading on, it doesn't seem to be large enough to fit the bill.

still on Iceland, BBC Science/Environment has a new little piece on EyjafjallajÃ¶kull with a video..
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11039747

#178 @BirdseyeUSA:
Thank you for the post. I wish I could go visit the site. But it is sad to see how hard hit were the people living nearby. Hope Katla will spare them when it blows.

Not very good news for those living in California:
"Big Quakes More Frequent Than Thought on San Andreas Fault, Research Shows" (From Science Daily)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100820145303.htm
Dark clouds in horizon? Hope not. But better warn in advance. I don't feel comfortable, even living far away from CA, with the amount of quakes we see there everyday. So, please, my friends: take good care of yourselves/properties.

@172, Lurking, this page explains the dust veil as due to Western Hemisphere volcanic activity: http://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_me.html
The journal article footnoted is password protected, though.

This forum page (regarding Scandinavia around 500 AD) from 2007 has clues in its citations (and if it's still active, posters might address your specific question).
http://community.livejournal.com/little_details/1701856.html

@181 Jane, thanks for the great reference. I've been looking for something like this for years. Huzzah ;)

@Jane

Interesting. (I managed to find the reference in the article on Scripd)

In Larsen et al, they list the 536 event as showing up in Greenland's core with the SO2 spike at 533/534 Â± 2, and in Antarctica's SO2 spike at 542 Â± 17. That's a difference of between 10 to 28 years.

For the 1815 Tambora event, both Greenland and Antarctica spike in 1816 (Â±1 for Antarctica).

To me, that would seem to indicate that whatever source there is for the spike would not be located in the tropics, or in the Southern hemisphere since the signal simultaneous, and points to a northern source.

I'm guessing that either the fissure event has gone un-noticed in the geological record in Iceland, or it was buried in later flows... probably Laki or EldgjÃ¡ since it would still be discoverable if it were anywhere else on the island. Of course, there is also the possibility it could be off the northern or southern shores.

Note: "the signal simultaneous"

Should read: "the signal is not simultaneous"

Still mulling this over.

[183] does not rule out another Northern Hemisphere location, but the scope of the event seems to be on a par with the two known Icelandic events. It's pretty hard to hide that much lava. It's possible that it's in a remote, under explored region (Kamchatka?) or it's buried under something.

Katla erupted in this time period.

Either of those two large SO2 signal events could have been Rabaul, VEI-6.

The Cascades and Mexico volcanic provinces were quite active.

When I posted #83, I forgot to tell y'all about one of the strange things in the middle of some serpentine. It is a small pocket of blue shist. I saw that some time ago when I was driving down that particular road and I decided to get a sample of it. It is brittle and rather soft at the same time. In other words, you have to handle it carefully or it will break-up in you hand. It is a very pastel blue-gray color and is beautiful.

I have not been able to get out to do more investigating what it around here, but I will in time. Right now I am very busy with other stuff that needs taking care of. I certainly will be letting you know what else I find.

BTW, this area is known for its crystaline gold and the purity of the gold. There has been some .85 to .92 fine gold found. I have learned that if you know your gold, you can tell where a person found it even if they don't tell you. I am not that savvy. :-)

Lurking, does the nature/signature of the Greenland and/or Antartic SO2 spikes rule out every other type of explanation other than a large fissure eruption such as the Laki/Eldgja ones? Another divergent thought - how about the fissure being covered by a really substantial glacier? In 1500 years, a fast-moving glacier such as the Jakobshavn IsbrÃ¦ on Greenland could theoretically have moved as much as 10,000 miles (based on the given rate of 20-30m per day) or 1,000 miles the case of the Antartic Byrd Glacier (2-3m per day). Even if this is peak movement, an annual average of 11 metres would result in 10+ miles over 1500 years, in other words, be enough to cover even a very large effusion from our prying eyes.

@Henrick.

No, it doesn't rule out any other source. IF it was an event in the Laki/Eldgja system, then that would mean that the 934 event would have only had time to accumulate 7 to 7.2 meters of spread. Provided that all of the stress/spread had been filled by this hypothetical event. That tends to run counter to my idea, but if it's true, then that would mean that the average Laki/Eldgja style event happens every 623 years.

The next "due" one would be 2406 CE. These two (very dodgy) samples would lean towards an SD of 318 years, placing 2010 (today) out in 2 SD land.

As Passerby points out, Rabul had a VEI-6 event in 540 AD Â± 100 years, so other sources are quite possible. However, from it's tropical location, I would think that it would make an Greenland and Antarctic SO2 spike more closely aligned in time, similar to the Tambora SO2 spikes.

Not bad for Sunday musing. Beats drinking a beer.

Grr....

Eraser time again.

"Henrik" vice "Henrick"

and "8 to 8.2" vice "7 to 7.2"

Hehe! You may call me Henrick - provided I can call you Lurcking of course ;). Still doesn't change the fact that collectively, we haven't found the explanation for the "Red Skies of Rome" in 535 AD, which btw sounds like something Doris Lessing might have written. Passerby's Rabaul caldera forming eruption of 540AD (+/-100yrs) is too close to ignore as a likely, if not the most likely, source of the Greenland and Antartic SO2 spikes.

According to http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0803-122&volpage=erupt the Haruna eruption in Japan (VEI-5) is dated to 550 Â±30 days via "Anthropology". Larsen et al roughly equate this to the SO2 spike at 529, but only indicate that the deposition patterns mean a higher latitude event.

Regarding the 536 event:

"The Greenland ice core data suggests that the eruption
associated with the 536 dust veil caused 40% more
SO4 deposition than the Tambora eruption, while the
Antarctic ice core data suggest that the eruption had a
deposition some 15% smaller than Tambora. However, the
uncertainty of the Antarctic SO4 deposition estimates are
too large to draw any firm conclusions."

"New ice core evidence for a volcanic cause of the A.D. 536 dust veil" Larsen et al
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L04708, doi:10.1029/2007GL032450, 2008

At least one author (Robert Key??) went to great lengths and IMO stretched the geological facts to breaking point to 'prove' that the 535 crisis was caused by Krakatau. I'm inclined to agree with Passerby that Rabaul is a better candidate, but there are others which have been put forward, including Churchill (Alaska). Karkar in the SW Pacific had a caldera-collapse about that time too. And it's not impossible that two unrelated major eruptions close to each other in time might have increased the severity of the problem. Unlikely, yes, but it has only needed to happen once..and as recently as 1993 there was a VEI 6 (Pinatubo) and a VEI 5 (Hudson) just three months apart

Well, looking at the graphs in that paper, there are two SO2 events in that time span. One in 529 equated to a higher northern latitude by the author, and the 533/534 (the one in question) equated to the "dust veil." I'm a bit perplexed at the conclusion considering the statement that I quoted above (which seems to contradict the conclusion)... but I'm just a guy sitting in Florida enjoying the thunderstorms.

"Nibblin on sponge cake
Watchin the sun bake
All of those tourists covered with oil..."

(Should be BP's new theme song)

"St. Brendan was an Irish monk who according to the Navigatio Santi Brendani Abatis built a boat made from cow rawhide and sailed from Ireland to North America around 530 AD."

...

"In his 9th chapter, Island of Smiths, Severin describes the experience of approaching Iceland from the east. According to the Navigatio, Trolls would sit on the cliff faces of Iceland throwing fiery balls of fire at St. Brendan and his monks. (Severin, 162-163) ... Severin concludes that due to his experience it is very possible that the "Irish navigators may have seen the volcanos of Iceland, which lie exactly on the Stepping Stone Route to North America, and could provide exactly the scene found in the Naigatio.â (Severin, 163)"

https://thevikingworld.pbworks.com/The-Early-Settlement-and-Trade-of-Ic…

The latin machine translation I found of Navigatio Santi Brendani Abatis makes the Google mangling of Icelandic look like prose.

Trolls throwing fiery balls of fire some time after 530 AD.

Hmm..

Thanks for the interesting link, Lurking! To diverge, the article on thevikingworld says "There are also other accounts that suggest that people knew of the icy island in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean before the major settling in the 9th century."

Now, look up "Red Paint People"! //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Paint_People

Consider these two facts: a) the art of making boats (out of hide or other materials) is considerably older than a thousand years, and b) graves that correspond in every detail with ones discovered and described on the West Coast of the Atlantic have been found on the European Atlantic coast as well.

@Henrick [196]

I have always been a fan of the European origin of the Clovis people. Though first discovered in Clovis NM, the majority of Clovis sites are found in and around the tidewater area of the Chesapeake Bay. (East Coast of US)

Clovis points bear a striking similarity to the points used in the Solutrean culture of France. The major difference being in the fluting on the rear of the points. Archaeological finds of the right age near the North American entry point from the Bearing Sea (bridge) are very dissimilar.

My take is that Clovis culture, or what was left of them following the Younger Dryas, integrated or melded into the arrivals from the North West... or the technology was found and adopted.

The swarm at VatnajÃ¶kull continues... It seems (at least to me), that the average depth is slowly rising towards surface, and the average spread in depths is narrowing. Are my eyes just lying? It would be nice to see an update to Lurking's figures, especially the one including earlier (e.g. April) swarms.

There is a new Swarm of Earthquakes beneath Barbadunga, this time they are closer to the Surface.

And a new Magnitude 3.4 Quake quite close to the Surface, Still only tectonic nature?

Monday
23.08.201006:19:0064.705-17.2810.7 km3.490.19.1 km SSW of Kistufell
Monday
23.08.201006:13:2564.694-17.3003.6 km1.990.0110.6 km SSW of Kistufell
Monday
23.08.201006:11:2264.709-17.2642.8 km2.162.338.4 km SSW of Kistufell
Monday
23.08.201006:10:5264.700-17.2811.5 km2.790.089.6 km SSW of Kistufell
Monday
23.08.201005:52:0264.699-17.3105.6 km1.369.8110.3 km SSW of Kistufell
Monday
23.08.201005:45:4064.675-17.3815.8 km1.686.38.0 km ENE of BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga
Monday
23.08.201004:50:5964.677-17.3014.2 km1.369.3711.5 km ENE of BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga

I meant to say, to Lurking's depth-vs-time figure.

@Stefan #199

I just saw the swar as well and was about to post it. :)

It would really be nice to have a proffessional opinion on the activity at bardarbunga. Seems to alot of activity on the NE fissuresystem. Is it tectonic or magmatic?

Some info about the Eruption in GrimsvÃ¶tn, maybe this can give some perspective. but i would love to read from the professionals.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/eruption_grimsvotn.html

#199 #200 #201 I suggest you guys read through all posts on this thread. Lurking has already made plots dating back from April, maybe he could have an update for the most recent events. JÃ³n FrÃmann says there could be a dike intrusion, but an eruption should only come after a 5+ EQ, so these massive swarms are a bit of a commonplace at the location. There are also links explaining the relations of sub-glacial eruptions under BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga and EQ activity.

@203 ive read trough all the posts and i stand by my comment, after all, the link about the grimsvÃ¶tn eruptions does not mention a 5+ quake that startet the eruption. but with time we get wiser and will see if there is truth to this.

Just take a look on the tremor plotts, and my conclusion so far is, that something is definitely going on, there are massiv spikes and an increase in four of the nearest station to barbadunga:

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/vat.gif
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/grf.gif
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/skr.gif
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/kal.gif

i cant take my eyes of the plotts and the seismicity-map of VatnajÃ¶kull

#202 Thank you for the link, it tells a slightly different story from that of previous explanations. Take a look from post #103 to #166

Well.. no trendline, I used a scatter plot to make these. You'll have to eyeball it. The scatter plot was used to encode the magnitude of the quakes by color. I think you might like it.

Bounding Box of 64Â°N - 65.3Â°N / 16Â°W - 18.5Â°W. Holds both BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga and GrimsvÃ¶tn.

Plot 1 - 4/17/10 to 8/23/10. Depth vs Time

http://i36.tinypic.com/2ezqr2c.png

Plot 2 - 8/1/10 to 8/23/10. Depth vs Time

http://i35.tinypic.com/29fqfxh.png

Plot 3 you'll have to cun-n-paste into a browser, If I link it the forum software will jump on me.

8/14/10 to 8/23/10. Depth vs Time

i35.tinypic.com/15dntax.png

Yes the links and posts from previous discussions do explain alot. But at the same time the report on the GrimsvÃ¶tn eruption seems to be following events we are seeing now.

So..Please any proffessional that has an opinion? A bit torn between the two theories here. :-)

@ Lurking

Tanks for the plotts; could you do one of your 3d like plotts, so that we could se in which area the quakes are located.

i think you made one with an overlayed map, and x,y,z axis.

if its to much work, it would also be ok.

but thanks again for your input, i really aprechiate that!

Still i cant help thinking about the displacement.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/gps/cts/vat.html
20cm East
20cm South
20cm+ Vertical

And all this is since 2006. The South component has taken a turn and increase southward movement just in the last month(s).

Umm.... okay. But I got to go now.

Perspective

http://i37.tinypic.com/2laue83.png

View North

http://i38.tinypic.com/35iqi2u.png

View East

i38.tinypic.com/29pdhtw.png

Plan View

i34.tinypic.com/24mxmae.png

Cun-n-paste on the last two.

Same plot box as the time series in my last... but these only have 8/1/10 to 8/23/10 quakes.

I think many pros are fed up with media mongering about Katla. So I think they are very reluctant "promising" anything until it seems inevitable. I'd probably do the same, especially on a public blog post.

#210 @Jack: I agree. It could be normal and "deceiving", yet, it could be not.
@Daniel_swe: I'm afraid we'll have to wait. So far there weren't any clues from the media or elsewhere. What I can tell from what I read, is that jokÃ¼lhlaups from Vatna happened before without any advise and some eruptions are marked with a big question mark under brackets. If a jokÃ¼lhlaup occurs, we may even get another "question marked eruption". And we shouldn't expect fireworks as those we've seen on Eyjaf. This is my humble opinion. Now, the 3.6 event has been downgraded to 3.0. They'll probably say it is within normality. I'll be waiting here for more news.

strange volcano at such cold place...shocked to see that..guide me something about that.

There are some odd GPS reading at GPS station THEY and SOHO, HVOL has not updated.

There appears to be a lot of movement going on at the moment. That can be seen by the long lines on the GPS plot, the the main center the red dot. I am unsure what is going on, but this might be magma injection at Katla, as the GPS signal is clearly not coming from EyjafjallajÃ¶kull I think. If it is coming from EyfjallajÃ¶kull, then it is expanding into different direction then before.

The earthquakes at VatnajÃ¶kull are so far just tectonic ones.

Thank you JÃ³n..For bringing us down to earth. :-)
Actually it is a good thing that bardarbunga is quiet. As one official said a while back:

likelihood of an eruption in the main volcanic field under BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga is there for not considered very likely, but if it were to happen it could be an eruption of immense proportions that could once again make the one we have seen seem like a firecracker.

Weird cloud over Lady E (HvolsvÃ¶llur cam only) that does not move with the rest and seems to have been stationary over the peak for at least the last 30 mins. Plain weird...

I was looking at other GPS stations, and it looks like a error in the GPS plot for today. But tomorrow should bring more accurate numbers in the case of error today.

In genereal I agree with the far more knowledgeable JÃ³n.
I just want to point out a couple of things.
It is not entirely clear if it is Bardarbunga or the Askja Fisure system. Actually the coordinates support the latter. But it could be a dyke from Bardarbunga to, it is just a few hundred metres between them you know.

The coordinates for the south-west endpoint of Askja fisure system with known eruptions:
KISTUFELLSGJOSKA Fissure vent 64.93Â°N 17.22Â°W
KISTUFELLSHRAUN Crater Row 64.8Â°N 17.18Â°W

So there is actually a rather low probabillity for the need of an M5+ quake to start it if it is not Bardarbunga. And also I would like to point out that the N-value of the M5+ suposition is rather low, only 3 known eruptions of Bardarbunga has started that way as far as I can understand.

That said, I thank JÃ³n for his probably absolutly correct statement about the not imminent eruption of the Bardarbunga dyke and that everything is just tectonic activity.

Are strain measurements available live for Eyja/Katla, like tremor measurements?

hey all... so i'm a woman hitting my later 30's and my sex life with my hubby has been deteriorating. A few friends have informed me about yoga and how it can reinvigorate the body.. (quote unquote reinvigorate). So, i did some exploration on the subject and discovered that ladies who perform yoga have an easier time keeping moisture during making love while simultaneously being capable to tense up the vaginal walls for friction and stimulation. now, this appears great and all but i have personally never seen an actual yoga exercise that utilizes "tightening"? have you people?

I've also read that stretching out and stimulating these muscle groups will enhance your posture, sex elegance and will also help to increase your sexual awareness and ability to feel comfy and attractive with your partner. now, does anybody have any experiences with this that they'd like to share? if not with yoga, has anything else aided you with putting fire back in your love life? Thanks!

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Summer Schedule Part 2

eklemetti — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:34:19 +0000

Summer Schedule Part 2

Well, the summer is rapidly coming to an end - classes start here at Denison on August 30. So, we are trying to squeeze what we can out of the season and to that end, I'll be on one of these things called "vacations" for the next couple weeks. (Oh yeah, and I will be going through Yellowstone, so I'll personally check on those earthquakes, OK?)

That means Eruptions will be operating on the second summer schedule. No new posts until August 23, but some upcoming (automatically posted) articles including the answers to your questions for Sally Kuhn Sennert of the Global Volcanism Program and next week ... it is Etna Week with a week's worth of entries from guest blogger Dr. Boris Behncke.

(Oh yeah, and coming up after the break: Big news from Eruptions ... )

eklemetti Tue, 08/10/2010 - 22:34

Tags

Be sure to take a trip to yellowstone lake. :)

The tremors are increasing around the lake. Maybe a new EQ on the way?

Nevermind my last post. There seems to be a lot more shaking in Grand Teton Nationalpark.

http://www.quake.utah.edu/helicorder/imw_webi.htm

Holy cow, yep. We're nearing that winter solstice period when quakes have been very high at yellowstone the last 2 years. Maybe another swarm on the way before then?

Even if you got to the Yellowstone region and look at the stations around the lake the tremors are steadily picking up.

Look at stations YTP, YLA, LKW and YLT.

YFT is also showing signs of increased tremors. It is a bit west of the lake.

Probably just normal behaviour but still..Gets my interest..;)

Actually scratch my last comment in the post above. Looking at the YTP station it reminds me of JÃ³ns helicorders when it was picking up harmonic tremors.

Sooo..What is it?

A very nice link here if someone wants to look at all the graphs at the same time in Yellowstone. They are clickable as well and placed geographically on the map matching the stations they represent.

http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/daythumbs.php

A few graphs were a bit interesting.

1. Madison River (YMR) which showed alot of tremor but then i realized it was only 125 microvolts and much of it can probably be explained by weather, wind or manmade.

2. The Promontory (YTP) also captured my eye since it seems to be a perfect example of harmonic tremors (as far as I have learned). AND it is 1600 microvolts. this could shurely not be manmade or weather/wind since it is so consistent.

3. Upper falls (YUF). Same as no.2. Just that it is 1428,57 Microvolts.

Another interesting thing is that these three examples are located in three different locations divided by a good distance. And lets not forget Teton (Indian meadows) same pattern just in a different scale (only 100 microvolts) but still very very consistent for many many hours.

Dunno how excited I wo0uld get about that whole "activity verses solstice" idea... a preliminary look at the data doesn't seem to support it.

http://i35.tinypic.com/2pqrls3.png

I was on the Lunar phase vs quake idea for a while and actually got a pretty decent correlation for the time period that I tallied quakes. I ran out of patience with juggling 130K+ quake events and gave up after 5 years of data. While looking at it, I ran the Sun's Right Ascension verses the same data. Sure, you'll see some spikes in activity, but those are more closely associated with large events that happened during some period of the the data set... such as the Bander Ace mega thrust and all the aftershocks that went with it.

As for Yellowstone... no discernible up-tick in activity verses the Solstice shows up... at least as far as I can see.

This is a graph of the quake energy for the sample period, 1998 to 2010. Blue dots are individual quakes, the red line is a 51 point moving average. The general trend seems to be an overall decline.

http://i38.tinypic.com/qxnoeb.png

Caveat: I am not a geologist. I just graph stuff.

Just to round things out... since I have the spreadsheet open, here is a depth plot of the same dataset.

http://i36.tinypic.com/15ow6lg.png

Yellowstone was also covered here back on 28 Jan 2010 when Dr. Klemetti noted that the quakes of that swarm were getting deeper.

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/01/taking_a_look_at_the_yellowst…

This was before I was aware of this site, and I had seen the same thing in my plots and thought it was odd at the time. The previous swarm had started under Yellowstone lake and had progressed North to a region under the north shore, somewhat north of Fishing Bridge. The general talk at the time was that a hydrothermal event might be following, but it never happened.

hi i once read this thing on yellow stone and according to one man the chance of this ever erupting to size we expecting it to, is very slim he stated that it will never in our life time or children/childrens life time i will find this link and post it here as soon as i find it.

Hi there! Well, if we were to chose between Yellowstone and Katla, my bet goes for the latter. :)

Well, I've been reading Yellowstone for quite some time. There is a hotspot down there, I don't think it's petering out the way that some experts believe, but I don't think we have a
"supervolcano" event coming any time soon. Major hydrothermal events? Sure, well within reason. Effusive events? Sure, that's what volcanoes do. But when there is another large scale event, it's going to be further up the track, likely North or North East of Yellowstone lake based on the track of previous caldera forming events. Even this recent spat of quakes down south in Wyoming fit with that logic. As the hot spot moves along, it leaves a wake of seismic activity. The Wyoming quakes fall right inside of that "wake zone" as the terrain relaxes.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the link, Lurking. This post from that thread in February is interesting. Do you think it might suggest that the current deep activity under Yellowstone might be linked to the deep quakes on the opposite side of the earth? See below, from Keith:
23
Erik,
I have looked at the new Yellowstone "Plume" articles published in 12-09. It shows the plume extending downward to the northwest towards Montana from around 40 miles to a depth of 410 miles. The geologists that published the plume document think it goes to the core/mantle boundary. The magma chamber below Yellowstone is around 4 miles to 10 miles deep and is fed by "blobs" of hot rock breaking off the plume and rising upwards to the chamber at 10 miles deep.

The below UTAH http site shows that the 2/2-2010 earthquakes are now at a depth of around 5 km, which puts the most recent quakes in the magma chamber. In your most recent 1-28-2010 entry above, you state that the quakes are around 10 km and don't seem to be moving up to the chamber.

How do you read the data from early February that shows the quakes possibly moving upwards to the magma chamber around 5 km?

Earthquake info below

http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone_full.html

yellowstone magma plume article below

http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=5387

Posted by: Keith | February 2, 2010 11:29 PM

@Alyson [12]

Well, I'm just part of the viewing public, but my take on it is that the Yellowstone Hotspot is the trailing end of the turbulence from the final subduction of the Farallon plate. The back portion of it went under the west coast subduction zone â29 myr ago. At about 17.4 myr, the Columbia Flood basalts started to form. This is on the northern side of where the subducting slab went in, my guess is that as it detached from the Juan de Fuca, Explorer, and Gorda plates (the remnants of the Farralon) the turbulence from this detachment and final plunge caused and upwelling that gave us that formation, which took about 10 myr to make with it's various individual flows.

At about the same time, (shortly after the onset of the CFB), the first of the Snake River "supervolcano" calderas formed at about 15 myr (centered at 42Â° 2'11.99"N). At (roughly 14, 12, 11, 10, 6 and 4 myr, a new caldera eruption would form, tracking up what it now the Snake River plain. The last 3 ended at what we now call Yellowstone. (Island Park - 2.1 myr, Henry's Fork - 1.3 myr, and Yellowstone - 640 kyr) By now, what was Farallon plate is now sitting in a slab graveyard deep under the East Coast of the US.

What I find interesting, and don't have an explanation for, is that the Pac NW might be caldera prone. Prior to the Columbia Flood Basalts, and the Snake River marching caldera... (grin) there was a caldera (on the scale of Yellowstone) that formed roughly centered on the Ochoco mountians. I found this out by mentioning a quake cluster that seemed out of place north of Madras Oregon and Passerby pointed out the info a couple of
weeks ago.

Anyway, that's my take on it.

Info pointing out evidence that the CFB is a plume head:

http://www.mantleplumes.org/RadVolcMigrations.html

The quakes north of Madras came up at post [107] in http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/08/the_eyjafjallajokull_eruption…

See post [120] for the info windfall from Passerby about the Crooked River caldera. (â29.5 myr ago)

As for a connection, only from the standpoint that it's the same planet. All those defunct plates/slabs have to collect somewhere while they melt and mix back into the mantle.

@11 im going to agree with that ,But maybe the Earth's core Expanding outwards in all directions i think i spoke of this before.

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/about/faq/index.php

One of the most informative geological maps the USGS has ever produced. Period.

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/North_america_terrain_2003.jpg

Look at the small volcanic rock map figure, right-hand side of the graphic. See where the motherlode of volcanic activity has occurred?.

Now look at the big map, same area. What is the age group color? See legend.

Thin crust, major melting, deep diving, folding and remixing of that ancient plate mentioned in Lurking's comment, above.

It's one of the reasons that we are *lovingly* exploring the topic of plate subduction and (island and continental) arc volcanism of the Pacific Ring of Fire (PRoF).

Cascadia Subduction Zone Volcanism
/www.emporia.edu/earthsci/student/geller2/cascadia.html

There is only one place in the world that ranks of equal importance to the PRoF, in the Big Picture of Global Effects, and that is Iceland, a topic we have also explored in depth here this Spring.

Open the jpg file in your favorite graphics programs. Overlay the next map as a semi-transparent layer, for geographical reference.

www.50states.com/us.htm

Put the resulting composite graphic on your desktop.
Study it at your leisure. Carefully.

Background webpage that helps put put eastern Pacific plate subduction into perspective:

volcanology.suite101.com/article.cfm/subduction_zone_volcanoes_of_the_united_states

Cascades Volcano Observatory is offline. The Wikipage will have do to until CVO is back in action, because there's a couple of USGS articles we need to read.

Juan de Fuca Subduction volanoes is one of them.

Fortunately, wikipedia can fill the gap for now.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_subduction_zone
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Volcanic_Arc

At your leisure, you should read this article and take a good look at the figures. If you download the text body (2_text.pdf), the document has links to the figures if click with your pointer on the figure legends boxes at the end of the article.

pubs.usgs.gov/ds/91/

Start with figure 1.
pubs.usgs.gov/ds/91/3_FIGURES/Figure_1.pdf

Now we should be set up to explore Aleutian Chain subduction mechanics, in the Open Thread.

@#7 Hmm, yes your graph doesn't seem to show any correlation to the solstice on a world wide scale. Could be activity is more locally affected rather than globally but it's funny about no uptick activity at yellowstone at or around the winter solstice. You would think the Madison plateau swarm would show up. But I was suspicious about the solstice due to the fact that yellowstone swarms became increasingly active over the last two winters, however it's a relatively small time scale to deal with could just be a couple of isolated coincidences.

It's funny how people keep finding the most esoteric outside causes for earthquakes, when the strongest outside forces, sun & moon's gravity (tide) show no correlation to earthquakes or volcano eruptions.

@Kultsi #19, I do agree with you - earthquakes and volcanic eruptions happen because of internal processes within the Earth, very much of which is plate tectonics. These processes alone are sufficient to make quakes and eruptions happen. Maybe - just maybe - solar activity, moon phases, and planetary constellations can slightly influence the timing of such events, but certainly a fault must be just about ready to rupture and a volcano just about ready to erupt, otherwise whatever cosmic constellations will NOT trigger an earthquake or an eruption. So the speculations about whether and how much those outside forces influence quakes and eruptions do not really help us understanding when potentially devastating geological events will happen, and where, and with what characteristics. Working as a team of geologists and geophysicists in a seismically and volcanically active area (Sicily), we rely foremost on the signs that come from within this planet, and from within the volcanoes that we are keeping an eye on. Those signs, especially in the case of the volcanoes, are sometimes extremely helpful, but we've never established any whatsoever correlation with outside forces.

Well, the moon does, and you get the correlation every time you graph it.

Regular as clock work.

Mostly, it's an artifact of how much time the Moon spends as each phase of it's orbit, naturally, if the Moon is at a slow part of the orbit and spends more time there, then there will be a higher count of earthquakes. It's not that the Moon slows down, it's just that it takes longer to transition across either the New Moon or Full Moon than it does the other portions of the phase. Even that is more of a perception issue than anything else... but, if you invert this "dwell time" and back it out of the data, you get a curve that shows that quake incidence slowly goes up as you approach Full Moon, then spike and come back down, decreasing in incidence until you approach New Moon, then you have a tighter spike. Along the way, there are bumps in the curve that (pure conjecture here) I think may be related to the angular relationships of the Sun-Earth-Moon system.

But, the one thing you have to remember, is that I only used five years of data, and this graph is a product of me being bored @#$@less for two weeks. Nothing more.

http://i34.tinypic.com/1zz03eb.png

@19 It's not esoteric. It's an interesting idea to explore I didn't say it was fact. But it sounds like to me you're telling us the moon and the sun have no geological effects on earth at all, I find that actually a little harder to believe.

@ Kultsi 19: I can't speak about earthquakes, but whilst tides don't *cause* eruptions, for some eruptions, or intensity of activity within an eruptive phase, there is most definitely a correlation to tides as a *triggering* factor. See, for instance:

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Outreach/AboutVolcanoes/do_tides_affect_volca…

@Chris [22]

It does have an effect, but it only really shows up in large quantities of data. For me, the phenomena is more of an entertainment issue.

Lets suppose that someone manages to accumulate all available earthquake data, and is then able to obtain the Sun-Earth-Moon positional relationship (the lunar phase serves well as a proxy since it's based on that) and were then able to do a binning, or summing of all quakes that occurred at a particular lunar phase. What they would get is a curve similar to the one I had, with spike on either end. Then, if they back out the dwell time, they get that last curve I posted.

Now, what are you going to do with the data? What bit of science can you do with it? "Somewhere there will be an extra quake mixed in with all the other quakes because we are at Full (or new) Moon."

It's handy knowledge but only so far as being able to do something with it. Personally, I think there is something to the angle relationships that show up as those bumps on the curve, but I can't prove anything, and it could all be a statistical fluke.

I've even gone as far as measuring off the major dimensions of some of the worlds larger plates in degrees to see if I could find a relationship. I'm sure there is one, but it's like trying to predict how the shell of an egg is going to behave when struck with a hammer.

Astronomical effects are excruciatingly small when compared to the amount of energy in an earthquake. Can there be an effect? Yes. Can you point to it and say "See, that's it over there!" No. Nothing proves that. The best that I could come up with it just some odd graphs. Berkley made a press release about a year or so ago that leaned towards there being an effect of the Moon on the San Andreas.

Again. What are you going to do with the data once you know it? How can it help the human condition?

I'm gonna stop now, I'm starting to yammer.

A question for you - we monitor EQs, strain and a host of other measurements. Do we measure temperature variations within the earths crust at differing depths at key locations around the globe?

To my way of thinking, all of these 'esoteric' factors have an effect on the earth that translate to temperature effects (however marginal) through translation of magnetic, gravimetric energy etc into kinetic energy via resultant friction effects, generating heat. Whilst these effects may be very small in themselves, they would be cumulative over time - unless the added energy was immediately released via increased temperatures at the earths surface.

With global warming and warmer oceans, there should be a slower rate of heat loss from the mantle to the earth's surface, as the temperature differential between the two is reduced, which would mean that increases in magnetic/ gravimetric sources of energy combined with global warming could/ should result in an increase in the earths energy and core temperatures as a whole, even if we are only talking about fractions of a degree at a time.

It is worth remembering that this heat transfer from the core to the surface accounts for approximately 50% of the earth's heat, with the remainder arriving from the sun.

Logically (to my mind) any increase in the earth's kinetics and thus core temperature would translate into icreased movement of tectonic plates in the earths crust, and increased kinetics should directly correlate to an increase in quakes and eruptions - but we are probably talking about effects that would only be measurable over decades or centuries, so we would need decades of data to see any correlation, as these accumulation of these effects would initially be very, very slow.

So the question is, are we measuring this temeperature data and ahs anyone looked at this? Hope this made sense.

My apologies for typos above. Brain works faster than fingers!

This nicely written article does a reasonable job of explaining the physics of indirect effects of delta-LOD on shallow earthquakes, through ocean mass (and probably coastal erosional deposition, although it's not mentioned here) loading on coastlines.

Note that lunisolar forces could play a role in deep focus earthquakes.

>The maximum value of the lunisolar stress within the depth range of earthquakes is â¼ 103 N/m2. This value is reached however at the depth of 500-600 km only.

TIDAL INFLUENCE THROUGH LOD VARIATIONS ON THE
TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF EARTHQUAKE OCCURRENCES
Vargas et al. Proceed JournÃ©es SystÃ¨mes RÃ©fÃ©rence Spatio-Temporels" Warsaw. Section 3.3. (2005).

syrte.obspm.fr/journees2005/s3_09_Varga.pdf

Back to Yellowstone, I found the article below to be an interesting addition to the thread regarding mechanisms of volcanism in this region, and whether or not the hotspot is a product of upper or lower mantle convection.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.r.foulger/Offprints/Yellowstone.pdf

What was the big bang earlier today? Shows on all the helicorders but nothing from the USGS.

http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/daythumbs.php

@Daniel [29] -

This? http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010zwa5.php

M7.1, 200 km deep in Ecuador.

A very unusual kind of mountain formation:
"Raisin' mountains on Saturn's moon Titan"
http://www.physorg.com/news200844308.html

#20
I just recently saw some Dokus about the earth magnetic field and the influences solar storms have on it and so on.
Just a question: Could the earth magnet field and the spacequakes have any influence? The magma contains a lot of iron after all.
If you say no absolutely not. Cool, and very interesting.

@Birgit [32]

I'll take a stab at it if you will provide a definition of the term "spacequake."

I fear that it's a media term designed to heighten the appeal of whatever story they are pushing... much like "supervolcano."

There is the field of helioseismology that explores the vibrations occurring on the Sun. They look at things like doppler shifts at differing locations and layers on the Sun, wiggles in the spectral lines (most notably zeeman splitting in the presence of a magnetic field) etc.

The press also seems happy with coming up with terms like "Solar Tsunami"... okay, whatever. It was a large wave, I'll grant you that, but to call a wave with a peak to trough distance greater than the diameter of the Earth as a "tsunami" is a reach in my book.

Now, if you are trying to get at the iron or other conductive minerals attaining heat from the inbound fluctuations in the magnetic or RF field... yes, that is possible, but the amount of heating is far below the amount of heat that is lost/dissipated through other means. Add to that the slight problem of deeper strata being shielded by the overlying strata, the amount of power/heat added will drop off quite fast for RF energy induced heating. LF/VLF/ULF have the ability to penetrate deeper, but the power just isn't there. This is mostly just my opinion, but I did run the numbers verses the power level available from HAARP, a much maligned facility up in Alaska. If the Sun is putting out enough energy to do that on the Earth, radio communications as we know it would not exist. Marconi and Tesla would have given up.

Gravitational and Magnetic interactions are more likely, they both have deeper penetrating power. But if you start looking at magnetic energy levels capable of causing a readily observable phenomena in heating the crust, kiss your magnetic tape goodbye. The same goes for any floppy discs that were ever made. Again, there might be a long range wide scale effect, but I don't think there is enough juice there to cause an individual quake.

Gravity, well, gravity is a different critter. Gravity gives us tidal effects, moves large stuff in almost imperceptible ways. If there is an effect on quakes from outside or away from the earth, Gravity might fit the bill.

I will give you a caveat though, I have done a couple of plots (an old one and a revised version) that pitted worldwide Magnitude 4.5 and larger quakes vs the K index. It proves nothing, but it is an interesting plot.

Since the K Index background has to be spliced to make this plot, this is the last one of these I'll make.

http://i33.tinypic.com/2lxkp2.png

Now, for a really odd thing discovered by watching Zeeman splitting:

"Sunspots may vanish by 2015"
William Livingston, Matthew Penn

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/livingston-penn_suns…

Essentially, they measure the magnetic field inside the sunspots and have noticed that it's falling. If the field intensity drops too low, a spot/active region will be unable to evacuate the flux tube of plasma... and will not show up as a spot.

Strange thing in the Teton Region of Yellowstone, all of the seismographs there stopped giving any readings a few hours ago but all of the stations in Yellowstone are working though.

Does anybody have any idea why?

Interesting about the mag field of the sun weakening and sunspots disappearing, personally I don't buy it. Reminds me of the silly movie Sunshine where the sun is burning out and they have to re-ignite it, interesting plot but quite unbelieveable.

Interesting about the yellowstone recorders, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions though.

Lots of quakes in Nevada popping up, funny though every time I hear of Nevada I think of military installations so I would connect any small quake there with underground weapons testing. I haven't plotted the locations it's only a thought, haven't explored the idea yet.

@Chris[35]

Buy it or not, it takes about 1500 gauss to evacuate a flux tube enough to where it appears black.

Sunquakes: Probing the Interior of the Sun; J. B. Zirker

All Livingston and Penn have done, is to take measurements of the Zeeman effect in and around the sunspots for the last few years. They don't make any assertion as to where this will go, since they don't know if it's a transitory effect coupled with the Sunspot Cycle or not.

Another oddity, is that in October 2005, the Ap index showed an apparent step change... almost as if something switched off. No idea what that was.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/10/11/suns-magnetic-field-still-in-a-fu…

@32: outdated watts blog info.

Cycle 24 has started, sunspot number is slowly inching up, but interestingly, global geomagnetic flux is lagging.

We'll get to the consequences of that, later on.

You may have remembered my post of a few days ago, talking about the Russian fires, cause of the record heat wave, and also ongoing discussion of atmospheric angular momentum and climate teleconnections of jetstream flows and anticlone blocking. I mentioned their connection to the flooding in Pakistan and China. And also now, record fires and heat in Portugal. These are extreme events. They are not coincidental and they are not entirely man-made nor natural. Read this.

http://www.economist.com/node/16799101

We are making progress in the Big Picture.

@7@24 i can give you dates for september 21/22/23 2010 maybe that can be of some help meaning keep these date somewere and remember them and use that as a starting point for your research/experiment that the next phases for high g-factor sun/moon/planets ect as there nothing for august not saying this a fact.. but when lady E and katla was increasing EQuakes on the 30th june 10 again there was a phase going on at the same time.can it be or can it not be?

http://www.supernovae-energy.com/2010_haiti_earthquake.htm this site has some dates from prev quakes and preditble dates

@ leon [38]

I can do you one better than that. On 21 Sep 2010 the Lunar Phase will be 94.8% and the Sun will be at 177.9164Â° R/A (as of 00000 UT)

22nd - Lunar phase 98.1% and Solar R/A 178.8938Â°
23rd - Lunar phase 99.7% and Solar R/A 179.8716Â°

Referring back to the plots that I posted in this thread, you can look up the quake incidence as compared to all the other Lunar phases and Solar R/A values on the plot. If there is anything to it, you should (might) see a correlation. Personally, I don't see anything to get really excited about. But there it is if you wish to try and prognosticate off of it.

#32 #33 Take a look at this, as another "source" of volcanism and EQs:
"Geo-Neutrinos: Discovery of Subatomic Particles Could Answer Deep Questions in Geology"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100621122134.htm

Oh, and about that Livingston and Penn sunspot data. Dr. Leif Svalgaard maintains a running plot of the observations. So far, even with the current uptick of spots, they still fall on the trend line of declining magnetic intensity. That might also be why the rahter busy magnetogram images of the Solar disk don't match up with visible sunspots.

http://www.leif.org/research/Livingston%20and%20Penn.png

See http://solarcycle24.com/ for those images if you wish to compare.

Okay.... finger dyslexia got me. "rather"

@Renato Rio - Good article. I imagine that getting a good grasp on the amount of decay going on will give them firm data to back up other estimates of the amount of radioisotopes contained in the Earth.

There is an ongoing swarm SW to the Azores, on Mid Atlantic Ridge. So far more than 7 quakes, most of them 5+ mag. There are 13 active volcanoes over the archipelago, some of them, submarine. Could it be another on the way?

@Lurking and everyone
Found this website and thought you would like it. There are links to former events in Iceland, quake plots, and nice pics. Just found it during my daily web browsing, but it seems trustful to me, but I'm not an expert to tell.
http://michaelbix.livejournal.com/#post-michaelbix-3218

Hey everyone, all Yellowstone and Teton Region seismic monitors are off now, I'm not sure why though.

I think all of these ones are running.

http://quake.utah.edu/helicorder/yell_webi.htm

I see, only Teton region is offline. Maybe someone tripped over the internet plug?

Passerby @ #37

The reason for the warming in Russia is simple, ash aerosol absorbs Ultraviolet. The sunspots make it, and there aren't many/any reflective sulfates in the NH stratosphere presently. EyjafjallajÃ¶kull loaded the troposphere with water vapor, ash and particulate. That is not global warming, its regional warming.

Whoâll Stop The Rain Lyrics - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Long as I remember
the rain been comin' down
Clouds of mystery pourin' confusion on the ground.
Good men through the ages tryin' to find the sun.
And I wonder still I wonder who'll stop the rain...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fw…

@49 Ed Murphy

Dr. Jeff Masters' blog on Wunderground.com is about the heat wave in Russia.

"Causes of the Russian heat wave and Pakistani floods"

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1576

'Fogerty objected to what he regarded as a misuse of his music in an NPR interview: "Folks..don't remember all the really poor movies that Fantasy Records stuck Creedence music into: car commercials, tire commercials. I'm remembering a paint thinner ad at one point, the song "Who'll Stop the Rain". Oh, boy. That's clever, isn't it?"

In the big picture of Northern Hemisphere hydrologic budget, the Icelandic eruption was a drop in the bucket. The aerosols produced by the eruption were transported out of the region and dissipated long ago.

It's hemispheric warming with regional complications, but the core causes of the fires is drought from altered jetstream flows and landuse changes. The Indus River is shared by Pakistan and India, as source supply for municipal and agriculture. The elevation profile of the basin and over-withdrawal of irrigation water by both countries reduced the flow of the Indus. Without enough water to carry the copious sediment load, it was deposited in the river and in canals, dikes and behind the many dams and diversions that convey surface water throughout the valley.

That caused channels to silt-up, and when record rains finally came, the river had very little excess capacity to absorb the flows. The Indus River basin is heavily populated; the affected population had very few options to escape the floods.

China has had similar issues with river management, soil erosion, and increased urban development in regions that have slope stability issues.

The unusually stagnant jetstream conditions originated in the US in June and hit Europe, Central Asia. They affected temperature and humidity circulation right across the continent to Japan (heat wave and deaths in July, although we heard little of it), trapping jetstream circulation and shifting and concentrating the moonsoon rains.

"The unusually stagnant jetstream conditions originated in the US in June and hit Europe, Central Asia."

I'd like to see proof that the US is the point of origin.

Funny thing about that jetstream, when ever it parks over a really high CAPE area that is already bursting forth in thunderstorms, it tends to act like a venturi and draw the moisture up faster and higher... making tornadic conditions even more prone to larger/stronger tornadoes.

I've seen storm front after storm front exhibit this little coincidence.

Actually, thats a typo. The Jetstream can persist for a thousand miles or more, but that isn't the case here.

"...in the US in June and similar blocking patterns hit..."

>Funny thing about that jetstream, when ever it parks over a really high CAPE area that is already bursting forth in thunderstorms, it tends to act like a venturi and draw the moisture up faster and higher... making tornadic conditions even more prone to larger/stronger tornadoes.

Where in particular? Were you a radar specialist in the Navy?

"Where in particular? Were you a radar specialist in the Navy?"

Funny you should ask. Electronic Warfare (ret). 20+ years

Usually you can see this anywhere from the Central Plains to the Gulf Coast. Nothing to do with radar, but more with watching the patterns. As for the radar, the echo tops generally run much higher when this occurs (via Nexrad)

Continuing our off-topic ramble.

Thought so (career specialist). Maybe we should clue people in on the CAPE abbreviation.

Q: What does "CAPE" stand for?

A: You won't typically come across the term CAPE when watching your local weathercast, but this acronym for "convective available potential energy" makes severe thunderstorm forecasters' eyes light up. It's one of the many index values that forecasters look at when determining whether thunderstorms will be severe, containing damaging winds and hail as well as tornadic potential.

CAPE is a measure of the atmosphere's instability, and its units are given in joules per kilogram. Since joules are units of energy, CAPE essentially tells a forecaster how much energy is available in an air mass. The higher the CAPE value, the stronger the thunderstorms might be. When CAPE values exceed 2500 J/kg for a particular location, severe thunderstorms will be likely.

CAPE can sometimes increase when the atmosphere is "capped."

Excellent descriptive webpage with graphics, describes exactly the situation to which Lurking refers, in #52:
www.usatoday.com/weather/wconvcap.htm

I second the description of that site, very good info.

For the cursory observer... weather has a dramatic effect on how well a radar works. This is mainly due to how much bending (refraction) the radar experiences, and that is strongly dependent on the characteristics of the radar (frequency), the humidity and temperature. And, as many of you already know, this can change with altitude. Get enough of a change in the different layers and you get trapping and ducting. Personally, I have made radar intercepts (detections) at over 450 miles against land based surface to air missile radar systems... something that should have been physically impossible. This was due to the really weird surface ducting in the area.

How this relates to volcanoes is beyond me.

Ref my last, substitute "casual" for "cursory." It's late and beer is good.

I haven't forgotten about posting the Aleutian Arc technical info.

Your post, #57, relates to the detection of ash plumes, perhaps.

Possible that ash could have an effect, but surface ducts are down near the sea-atmosphere interface. Drop a temperature inversion over top of that and you get really weird propagation. Things like a boat 5 miles away not showing up because your radar is above the layer and the boat is below it. Some radars have specialized antenna shapes to try and *burn through that effect.

(* not burn in the the literal sense, just overpower it)

I imagine that since ash has it's own absorptive/transmissive properties, it could wreak havoc with the refractive index.

Dielectric constant of Manganese Dioxide 5 to 5.2, Magnesium Oxide 9.7, Silicon Dioxide 4.5, Silica Sand 2.5-3.5.

Fortunately, not a whole lot of people are really interested in doing operations in and around an ash cloud. Not that this will totally hose up a radar, just that oddities in it's operation might occur more often... as if sand blasting the aircraft part's isn't enough.

Dielectric constants were found here: http://clippercontrols.com/pages/dielectric-values

If you will recall, atmospheric blocking pushes air masses (and ash) towards the ground. A primary concern of air traffic safety is engine damage during variable throttle and engine air intake environment, on take-off and landing.

@55 Lurking, It's a small world, I was a Radar/Electronic Warfare Technician in the Canadian Navy for 15 years and I miss it dearly, I got interested in geology while I was building Magnetic and Gravity Radars for a Geophysical company. After looking at the effects of earthquakes compared to oil and natural gas being extracted I have been building a power generator drive unit that can run any generator using no fossil fuels and giving no emissions, it should be done in a few more weeks. If less oil and gas are taken the earth's crust will keep the pressure that has been there for millions of years and not weaken it.

@40thanks i will have a look and see, it take me a day or two to get bk to you on this having a weekend off.and for the jet stream it had move to far south in 09/10 winter and for blocking effect had started then also in2009 spring but i need to check my records as the weather/climate/climate change/extreme is my main area/hobby/
@41 thats the link i posted weeks ago thats when i was worry bout Katla sending a big wave to Scotland/northern Ireland coast line if she erupted.@62 i also thought the same at one point like extracting the juice from an orange, the orange became squishy lol

@R.Hurst [62]

Very cool... and I agree on the small world part. We had a Canadian from your profession cross deck to us from the HMCS Iroquois on one of our deployments. He kept lauding the "Moose Milk." (nothing like that is available on US ships)

I do have to admit, the displays on your gear were much more appealing that what we had at the time, so much more data can be expressed in color than phosphor green.

@Lurking 64, I was on the HMCS Iroquois for a short time but I was in the gulf on HMCS Algonquin and had the chance to be on the boarding party searching ships, man what a adrenaline rush, as for Moose Milk, it was always a big hit at Pearl Harbor. I fully agree on the colour being more appealing, the green always made my eyesight blurry for hours.

@R.Hurst

I'm sure you remember the (very old) WLR-1? On my first ship I had a the gear on the freq indicator servo pot fall off, the indicator would just free spin. The only way to fix it was to hoist the display unit (IP-480) and partially suspend it from the overhead, and while it was turned on, re-attach the gear and set screw with the indicator held to the correct freq. Cumbersome and dangerous, it worked. I had two guys standing by with brooms just in case I got tangled up in the live voltages, but I don't know how effective they would have been.

@Lurking, Oh yeah, I remember it, we called it the "Whilry", I couldn't stand that thing. You must have seen some pretty good volcanoes in some foreign ports, I saw some great ones in Japan and Indonesia, when I was working for the Geophysical company I was able to go on top of a dormant volcano in Saudi Arabia, that one was great.

Continuing in OT-mode.

>If less oil and gas are taken the earth's crust will keep the pressure that has been there for millions of years and not weaken it.

Extraction usually employs displacing gas and liquids. Most of the subsidence (fall in land surface elevation due to removal of liquid) occurs from chronically pumping groundwater supply faster than it can replenished from horizontal flow or vertical percolation.

A primary concern over rapid depletion of petroleum and coal reserves is how to replace the natural source of petrochemical stocks necessary for making and packaging just about everything we produce in developed economies.

I'm now advocating rationing supply for future chemical production, until such time that we have technology for replacement through microbial manipulation of waste biomass.

It leaves us with an interesting conundrum on what to use for making and repairing road surfaces. Asphalt stock supply is already dwindling quickly.

Passerby #68, the scarcity-we-are-running-out meme is problemmatic given the abundance on Earth and human ingenuity. Please see E.M. Smith on the resources aplenty we got: http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/there-is-no-energy-shortage/ He has more on the variety of possibilities.

From my experience over many years, the scarcity meme usually is pushed by those who have big bucks to gain through cornering the market on the the politically favored energy, e.g., wind, solar, ethanol from corn, anything inefficient. (For another example of fixed outcomes, see AGW, IPCC, Cap and Trade, and the CCX.) Rationing also can bring about a similar outcome, and it means, of course, some governmental power controlled by the few to put the system in place.

Reasonable or rational environmentalism, yes. Authoritarian fiat, no.

@pyromancer76
Thanks for the link to E.M.Smith's article + following discussion. Although it is not this blog's forum, I think we all should be aware of implications and hazards of human's quest for energy.
I don't wholy agree with your statement "the scarcity-we-are-running-out meme is problemmatic given the abundance on Earth and human ingenuity", for one simple reason: there's a huge unbalance between "human ingenuity and human lucidity" which puts the concept of ingenuity itself at stake. But I do agree that there's too much of "authoritarian fiat" and ill-trended explotation of environmental issues (we can see it happening now here, in Brazil).
As for Smith's conclusion statement: "A wealthy society can afford to set large parts of the planet aside for parks; a poor one can notâ¦", I consider it a very, very, simplified and dangerous one, for the same reasons formerly discussed over this thread. To begin with, what can be considered a wealthy society? Hmmm, we need a whole new blog to keep up with all implications here.
But thanks again for the healthy argument.

The quest for alternative energy/fuel is full of bad ideas and outright stupidity, with many side orders of fraud.

Work = mass through a distance. Greatly simplified, but that's the core of it. No one seems to want to deal with that central part of the problem. The only thing that you can do, is to increase the efficiency of how you do work. 30 tons of stuff will always be 30 tons of stuff. How you move it from point "A" to point "B" is the next part of the issue. In commerce, the entity moving it is going to want to minimize the cost of doing that, so forcing them to take a higher cost hurts their business, no matter what method you use.

In just about every bio-fuel that I've seen touted, the bio version has less energy density than straight up normal fuel. As an example, E10 gasoline has only about 96.6% of the energy per unit volume of regular gasoline (85.1% of premium). Biowillie, a B20 fuel branded with Willie Neslon, has only 96.8% of the energy of pure diesel. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with using or augmenting the fuel with a bio version, as long as the cost, both in energy of production and real money, can be kept low enough to make it worth the effort. Subsidizing it with money from other parts of society is ludicrous, and should be criminal. The net effect is line the pockets of the company getting the subsidy and to derive no real gain for the society as a whole. (Hello Archer Daniels Midland).

Reducing the amount of additional mass to move the "stuff" is another method, just look at the size of the high mileage cars. This leads right into the issue of safety. If your "stuff" is your family and you encounter that 30 tons of "stuff" from earlier, the odds of you surviving will have a lot to do with the mass of your vehicle. Both from being able to be seen and having more mass to absorb any impacts that occur, as well as having room for more safety equipment.

Getting back to mass, Hydrogen comes up quite a bit, but that's an energy storage medium, nothing more. Liquid hydrogen contains 24.3% of the energy of gasoline on a per unit mass comparison. Electric? A Lead Acid Battery is 0.91%. Lithium Ion - 4.01%, Lithium-Ion (lithium iron phosphate) - 5.10%, Lithium Ion (lithium cobalt oxide) - 6.93%, Nickel Metal Hydride - 2.19%. All compared to the energy in an equal mass of gasoline. (and that's to say nothing about the extra wear and tear on the electric grid to charge these things)

If we were serious about actually trying to do something productive in the fuel/energy realm, they would shave one foot off the height of any hill involved in all road work/repair as it comes along. That way you don't get into a self flagellation mode of tearing up roads that are perfectly fine.

A few months ago, I ran a GPS recording on a trip that I took. Florida is not known for it's hills and mountains, yet every peak you see here is a spot where improvement could be made, over the course of normal roadwork. Just drop the hill peaks by one foot and over time, the efficiency of moving "stuff" goes up.. and you save fuel.

http://i33.tinypic.com/2afwk61.png

But, that would involve the government(s) to actually do something intelligent.

*sigh... oh well. N/M.

#71 "But, that would involve the government(s) to actually do something intelligent."
Ay, there' the rub!

>Just drop the hill peaks by one foot and over time

?? Surely you jest.

http://www.shadedrelief.com/physical/

Millions of miles of roadway. Roadway that costs 1-2 million per mile (major interstates and expressways). Tens of thousands of dollars per mile for state highways for repave. About 5 grand per mile for chip n' seal, the cheapest paved surface.

As the supply of petroleum crude drops, so does the quantity of new asphalt material. Road surfaces must be rehab'ed about every 6-10 years, more in heavy traffic locations. You cannot use more than 40% remix when recycling asphalt.

Thousands of miles of *new* roadway is added to the US transportation grid each year.

No way that we could possibly repave roadway to lower elevation, because you would have to rebuild the underlying roadbed as well. $$$$$

*squint* That comment wasn't up to your usual standard of intelligence and insightful commentary, sir.

That's my point. Don't do a project just to drop a hill peak. That would be counter productive and wasteful. Just change the profile by about a foot anytime normal major rework is done. Over time the fuel savings would be phenomenal, just from the slight change in infrastructure. Each vehicle passing would use just a bit less fuel.

As for the asphalt, I agree. And some of the mixes that they are using now are completely wasted when the foremen fail to familiarize themselves with the mix and heat requirements, and allow the truck operators to completely shut down the tank and the mix builds up or completely seizes the equipment. County crews are notorious for this since they only use small amounts for patchwork and never stay up to date on the mixes.

Interest in finding alternative ways to generate are just not working unless someone will make the same profit as in fossil fuels, the generator drive unit that I have almost completed has drawn no interest from anybody. I have sent hundreds of e-mails to Governmental Green Initiatives, Green Power Organizations, Environmental Groups etc.... just to let them know that I can generate power with perpetual motion, I'm not asking for funding I just want to see if anyone would like some information about what I'm building. I figured that the responses would be many but on the whole note I haven't heard a thing from anybody, it's really frustrating when there is a potential solution to a huge problem and nobody want to listen.

Unfortunately we are a planet who relies on fossil fuels and other resources and it's going to be really tough to make a change.

@ R.Hurst -
You cannot generate power with perpetual motion; there is no such thing as a perpetual motion engine, not even one that runs forever without generating any extra power. Basic facts of physics show it: water (or whatever) cannot run uphill; heat cannot transfer from lower temperature to higher. Only when something loses energy can the excess be tapped into and used for other purposes.

Power generation is a TANSTAAFL situation.

@Kultsi, The way to do it is by keeping the shaft spinning and I have found a way to do it without using an engine, I am using a store bought generator and I just removed the engine, I designed and installed my new shaft design and that's pretty much it. Anything is possible, you just have to start off at the simplest solution and work your way up from there. Just look at the evolution of the wheel, a guy saw a rock roll down a hill and had a idea, now look how many ways a wheel is used, I just found a way to keep the shaft spinning at high rpm, the funny thing is it works.

@R.Hurst -
OK, I'm gonna ask the ten billion bucks question: what keeps the new shaft design spinning?

Did you hook up the generator to the household electric system?

@Kultsi, I'll let you know the answer to your first question when the patent is done, sorry......... but you will be surprised when you find out what it is.

At this time I have only hooked it up to a light and a radio, I'm just fine tuning it now and doing a few adjustments, I'll keep you up to date though.

@R. Hurst
I wish you good luck with your patent and I'm very curious to understand how you manage this physical "perpetuum mobile". Could it be Coriolis effect generating the spinning? That would create such an unthinkable source of self generating energy!

@Renato,
Hi Renato, actually it is something very close to the Coriolis effect, I just found a way to give it a boost and keep it going, it is something like spinning a top but the top will go and go. In a few weeks I should have everything working perfectly, the most amazing thing is that there are no electronics involved, being a technician I have found that the more complicated something is the more that can go wrong. One very important thing that the Navy taught me about fault finding or fixing anything at all is just to keep it simple.

@R. Hurst
Wish you luck! Keep us updated on this. Thank you.

awsome work...really nice to view..wana read some of those more...

@R.Hurst et Ã¡l:

Let me say a couple of things out of my actual line of expertise.

1. We, ie. the energy-companies actually do fund a lot of alternative stratagems for energy productions. The average for the buisiness as a total is today about 10 percent of the net profit annualy. The reason quite simply is that we need new sources to make profit in the future. So there is no "hiding in the dessert" of great ideas.
2. For the last few years I've gone through about 100 different propositions for making alternative energy, of those I have helped to fund 4 projects; in different windplant design, geothermal powerplant, volcanic lake gas & wave power. So roughly I have calculated that about 1 idea out of a 100 is worthy of actual funding. But if one cuts off the crack-pots and crazies the number is closer to 1 in 10. The craziest sofar is a former policeman retired on mental grounds that had solved the problems with wind-power by removing the blades...
3. A large portion uses the words "perpetual motion" or "perpetual energy", sofar none with those wordings have gotten any dough.
4. Any coriolis-like effect power production runs into a problem. That is that the actual resistance of the bearings is higher than the power out-put. Ie, there is actually power to be had, but that power is sofar lower than the force of internal resistance in the bearing. That might though be a materials problem and not a show-stopper. There was one of those that could have worked, but that was a gyro close to a kilometre wide resting on an electro magnetic vacume bearing, problem was that it was to wind-sensitive;)
5. Long ago I made a bet with Carl-Henric that I would do a Randi on energy, ie. if someone can come with a machine to me that I can go through as I wish and then build a copy of myself (with my staff) and that produces more power than put in, I will personally pay out 1M US$. Second pre-requisite is that it should not work according to a known principle, so no wind-plants (and the rest that sofar works) thank you very much:) Did I say that none of those with "perpetual energy machines" that are out there bamboozling people for money have come to me with a machine, wonder why...
6. There is pantents on coriolis-machines and pretty much on most other possible gravitational and gyrational forces.

But, if you think you can fullfill the requirements on 5 send a mail to Eric and he can hook us up since he obviously have one of my private e-mails.

For the rest I really propose that you read up on the hillarious Tom Bearden and the MEG. It has all the stop and whistles of the best of the conspiracy theory.

@84 Carl on Energy, Hi Carl, thank you for the kind words and advice, the conditions of #5 will be completed shortly, I just have to finish making and assembling some mounting brackets, after it is finished and running I will definitely send a e-mail to Eric and get your contact info.

Thank you.

Carl, are you familiar with Jerry Pournelle? Re your #85 5. Dr Pournelle outlines a "machine" that does just that in "A Step Farther Out". It's an energy pump that utilises the temperature differential between the "surface" water and the seabed a few kloms below. The only pollutant is nutrients dragged up which eventually result in fish. IIRC the idea goes back to the 1930s. Back then, technology would not allow its construction. Now? It could be built, but (I suspect) it appeals to neither Green Lobby nor Power Industry.

Since it fails the criteria "come with a machine to me that I can go through as I wish and then build a copy of myself" I suspect you will not pay out the $1M...? ;)

Lovingly thrilled and doing squarish show