Klyuchevskaya

Thursday Throwdown: Stromboli's tiny bubbles, Hawaiian lava flow update and recovering from EyjafjallajÃ¶kull

eklemetti — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:51:59 +0000

Thursday Throwdown: Stromboli's tiny bubbles, Hawaiian lava flow update and recovering from EyjafjallajÃ¶kull

Lots of little pieces of news I've run across ... time to play a little catch up.

Stromboli: A volcano after Don Ho's heart.

Every once in a while, my RSS feeds will dredge up some articles from years gone by ... and this week there were two New York Times pieces that are a few years old, but interesting nevertheless. The first is about research conducted by Dr. Robert Sohn at WHOI on explosive undersea eruptions. The second is work by Corr and Vaughan about finding subglacial volcanism in Antarctica. Both are interesting reads if you missed them (like I did) the first time around.
Yesterday I talked about lava flows - and specifically the Kilauea lavas that are in the Kalapana subdivision. Here is the current update from HVO on the flows along with some details from the local news (link has video).
We have a new Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report - again, filled with great information, including news from Rabaul, lava flows and a >6 km ash plume from Kliuchevskoi, and continuing strombolian activity at Pacaya.
There was some news last week about recently published research on the mechanisms for eruptions at Stromboli. I haven't had a chance to digest it all, but the long-and-short seems to be to think about these eruptions like Don Ho would: "tiny bubbles". The original paper was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
In case you haven't been visiting the NASA Earth Observatory page in a while, they posted an image taken last week of the current activity at Nyiragongo in the DRC. The image shows the sulfur dioxide-rich plume coming from the main summit crater.
And there have been a lot of articles this week with airlines reporting the cost of the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull airspace closures. The reports are all in the tens of millions of Euros, but across the board, the airlines say ticket sales are back on track. Funny how quickly businesses recover after something like this eruption (even after all their wailing and moaning at the time).

eklemetti Thu, 07/29/2010 - 04:51

GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for June 30-July 6, 2010

eklemetti — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:35:13 +0000

GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for June 30-July 6, 2010

So, I'm a little late with this thanks to a little hiatus, but I thought I would post the latest GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report. Thanks again to the Smithsonian, USGS and especially Sally Kuhn Sennert!

Some highlights include:

There were more ash explosions spotted at Ebeko in Kamchatka, producing ~1.8 km (5,900 foot) ash columns. This activity prompted KVERT to raise the Alert Status to Yellow. This goes along with news from a pile of other Kamchatka/Kuril Island volcanoes: Gorely, Tiatia, Karymsky, Kliuchevskoi and Shiveluch.
More activity at Arenal in Costa Rica - its almost always busy - including strombolian activity shaking windows up to 4 km from the vent.
Over in Hawai`i, activity at Kilauea continues, with the lava lake in the summit Halema`uma`u Crater and the growth of several rootless shield vents on the East Rift Zone.
Finally, light ash fall was observed around Soufriere Hills on Montserrat for the first time since February of this year - coincident with some seismicity underneath the volcano. Alert Status remains at 3 for the volcano.

eklemetti Thu, 07/08/2010 - 21:35

Rootless shield vents?

What is that? Would that be small shield volcanos never connecting to the magma-chamber or?
Feeling more stupid than ever. Could this be a topic for "Word of the Day"?

hi all can someone tell if katla ruv webcam is on live or switch off i tried codec9 windows and still not getting no images tried different codec but nothing just the web page with a blank webcam, using vista any help

look at lady E PLUME BIG

Thanks for keeping us updated!

Has a new fissure opened at Eyja? There's been a large plume for a while now...

Something has happened at E... What is up for grabs, but a 3km steam plume is a bit to large.

Could be shadow but looks like plume has got darker over last half hour, too.

Probably just shadow, the cloud is imense by now. It is a bit easier to see at the Hekla-cam. You can see the plume right above the barn.
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalen.html

For those of you who where sleeping when it started.
In just a few minutes the plume grew 10 times in height and about 100 times in volume, and it has now been going on for 3 hours without slowing, it is not a big burst of steam, it is an ongoing process. If I didn't know better I would say that E just decided to become Kilauea without even making a farting quake and foregoing any large tremors. I would guess that the tremors have been hidden behind all the storming during the last few days.

I think one can see it both on JÃ³ns helicorders now that one knows what to look for and here at HVO and ESK

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

I have started to see things that is impossible.
I think I just saw a couple of lava-bombs and a side vent opening up on the Thoro cam... which is impossible and probably an illusion, but what is clear is that the steam is not pure any more, definite smoke.
http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

http://www.weatherline.co.uk/cgi-app/volcanic?lang=en&am=1
web cam for lady E i have katla cam back on re installed windows media 9

Could someone take a look at this picture who is online.
EyjafjallajÃ¶kull is right above the red barn in the foreground. What is that thing to the left. Is that another plume? It couldn't be?

http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalen.html

@Carl [10] -
Yes, you've started to see things. ;) For something to be visible at that distance (about 7 km from the cam to the shoulder, I think) it would need to be colossal. OTOH, not quite impossible: the hardened lava cracks open enough to let water in - remember the glowing insides of the FimmvÃ¶rduhals lava - and a relatively big bang might follow. There was, indeed, grayish steam for a while, but the sun is just on the opposite side, so anything, especially in the shadow of the other clouds, looks gray.

I just saw a helo up GigjÃ¶kull - now they are doing the check we just talked about. Did they read us?

the link above has 2 letters missing sorry
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/volcanic?LANG=en&cam=1
maybe this will help

Or I could be seeing things, too. Anyway, something white up there, moving pretty fast horizontally.

@Carl [12] -
I think that nuke cloud is a nasty weather system - at least I hope it is, 'cause otherwise it's deep s*t.

I guess that a 3 kilometre steam-plume had them racing to have a look. You missed it Kultsi, it was rather spectacular seeing it develop. The Heklubyggd camera is very good for some lazy trigonometry in the morning:)

I would hazard a guess, we will have an update later today from Vedhurstofa Islands.

You can still see it, it is the thing right behind the red barn (swedish "lada"), the thing to the left that looks like a huge plume is probably just a cloud.
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalen.html

i can see white dots down moving to the bottom left of porol cam

@leon [15] -

What ARE you trying to accomplish? How would that map link help in anything? It's ages old, and there is no web cam in the location of the pointer in the map, not for two months, at least. I repeat: there is no web cam in that location.

Try eldgos.mila.is or www.ruv.is/katla and you'll get some pics of volcanoes in Iceland.

leons delivery-trucks, or whatever it was have driven away now. I guess that was a gang of party-goers, or take-away pizza. Â¨
Looked like thos coolish icelandic mega-trucks. Nice catch leon.

@Carl - an inside joke; I beg the others for pardon

Q "Var har Ryssen sin hÃ¶?"
A "I Lada."

@Kultsi:
Muahahaha! Had completely forgotten that one! (Sorry all, it would take half a day to explain that joke)

Something good came out of leons link, this movie really put the original Eyja eruption into proportion. Best photage I've seen sofar of the eruption.
http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/video?LANG=en&ID=54

Useles math excercise warning (Public health)

I just calculated that during Laki-eruption the average sinkage of Iceland was 2 decimtres. If we then take into acount that Iceland is 60 metres above average earth height and then imagine what would happen if all of that was released in a volcanic eruption, then that would release 5250 kubic kilometres of lava.
Why I should never have a friday off and no bear at home.

Mag 5.2 Quake adjacent to KrakaTau in Indonesia in the last hour. Now, there will be an interesting subject if some activity sparks up there.

@Carl, nice job! Good final product, an Eyja-main-eruption tutorial....

@Kultsi #22: Heh. Good'yin. For the Nordically-challenged, Lada is not only the Swedish word for 'barn', but also a Russian car make. Thus, "Where does a Russian keep his hay?" "In the Lada." gets a Swede grinning.

Aside: HeklubyggÃ° is a summerhouse village.

Waving at thorolfsfell camera. Guess some volcanologist up there, or tourists that are in luck.

@20 yes its old new but click onto it and click web cam then you get what i mean

Shame the clouds are closing in :( not stopping the party at Thoro cam tho!

Two interesting links for people who are interested in old earthquakes:
Graphical view: hraun.vedur.is/ja/viku/2010/vika_26/index.html#mark
table view: hraun.vedur.is/ja/viku/2010/vika_26/listi
You can change year and week in the URL and go back to 1996 this way.

@leon #29: No worries. It's the apron cam in MÃºlakot. I usually go to this page to check it: www.mulakot.net/myndavelar.html

Did they just steal the camera???
Must be german souvenir-hunters... My bad...

Back on and something is coming over the top of the glacier...

@32 lol its ok yeah my link is link to your link which i only just realized carl was asking some of us on line to check if there was a new plume eariler and thought this link could help but you got it with the main server mulakot cam

It has gone behind the white cloud now, but something was definitely flowing down over top of crest of glacier... v. strange.

Screen shots of the earlier plume in view here (scroll down through page): http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread561305/pg84#pid9180382

http://www.mulakot.net/images/myndavelar/14flugv.jpg
seems to have 2 plume's going on one at the regular location the other above the circular light spot on the side of the hill
but having been fooled by the dragon before i am a bit cautious to say for sure

Hi to all !,
Just got back from getting some provisions in and whats been going on !!! Carl,reading your posts from the last two hours,I was just on Mulakot and it definately looks as if another vent has opened to the right of the main plume,big brute too ! Of course,I could be completely wrong and it may be .....just cloud.
Keep this frequency clear.
Birdseye,im glad that you did,nt throw the towel in !
Hi Helen,long time no hear !

Been concentrating on left of crater via Thoro and I wonder if there has been a "leak" down that side as seems to be steam generation there (different formation and movement to the clouds).

Now I can see the white thing Helen saw earlier just below the rim.
Looks like a rather oddly placed fumarole.

G'day Adrian :)

2am here but I'm loathed to leave the screen - shame hubby won't allow the lappy in bed LOL

Not sure about the other vent, but something's going on - although no tremors or quakes to suggest movement of magma etc. Hopefully by the time I awake there will be more info.

@41 Carl - I'm certain it's steam now... it's constant and unmoving in location. I thought it might have been cloud hanging / rising from the crevice there but now I'm sure it's steam

It appears to be descending? Or do I need sleep?

its is a 2nd steam plume i think

@Helen:
It is definitly steam, not cloud. And I think it is descending slowly. And there looks like another fumarolic thingamabit quite far down.
There was two like that up on the right side earlier today.

Has already anyone mentioned, that there seems to bee a shift in earthquake activity towards Katla in the recent days? i'm just wondering what others think about this "develoment" or is it just some "nomal" activity?

Are we looking at same thing? I don't think it's a fumerole, too big? I am looking at the steam rising from behind the slope of the "peaked" part of the lip of the crater - to the right of centre of horizon.

@47 maybe the magma is going toward that area i dont no for sure i just a bystander who has intrests in this stuff and learning from the above

My take on what's up!

I think that a crack opened up directly under the lake.
The cracking was probably so small that it didn't really register, but I think one can see when the water hit whatever is under and hot, both on JÃ³ns helicorder and at the spike on GOD (link below). Remember that even if the crack is just one square metre 9,82+ cubic metres of water would fall down into the hot crack, and I guess the crack is larger than that. The spike at GOD would then be the initial steam explosion when the water hit.

Something like that would make steam gush forth out of every nook and cranny in the mountain I think. I wouldn't even be surprised if it started to gush steam from one of the other two open craters when the water fell down from Eyjalake.

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

@various people wondering about steam down GigjÃ¶kull -
The way the water gets splashed from the crater (or crumbling of the lava channel walls) sends periodical steaming down the lava channel in GigjÃ¶kull. Often that stops before it reaches the shoulder of the glacier (I suspect there's an obstruction that stops the flow) but every now and then some of the water flows as far as approximately about 600 meters from the split rock.

It appears that the lava (solidified on the outside) is still plenty hot enough to steam away most of the water escaping the crater lake.

I don't know what's going on at the moment; the steaming, however, is very vigorous in the crater area and the uppermost part of the lava channel. Steaming downslope, however, is fairly recent and has been going on for about two hours at the time of writing this - that kind of steaming is not a new phenomenon, so don't get your britches in a twist because of it.

@Kultsi:
I guess it would take the bravery of a Finn to actually wear britches:)
I agree with you, I guess this is not enough excitement to put on a bungy-rope and shout cawabungah at;)

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull frÃ¡ Hvolsvelli far right side has huge white cloud or steam rising really fast

No twisted britches here :) - as I thought, steam, off to bed, hope she behaves overnight!

Hello, perhaps you wanted to see 'E' steaming quietly this morning? Click here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvNtBxLQP8g
But if you want to see yesterday's storm clouds, click here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1J9aoLDbCo

It would seem that Taal remains at Level 2

My appologies for Google Translate's (Tagalog?) unintended humor :-|

Taal Volcano, is still alert level 2
Posted: 11:52 AM 07/09/2010 Posted: 07/09/2010 11:52 AM

Defined by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) in alert level 2 still Taal Volcano in Batangas even naitatalang shaking down around it.

PHIVOLCS Director Renato said Solidum continue to expand the bubbling activity on the lake with a recorded temperature of 34 degrees Centigrade.

Still heating the main crater and tumitindi more swelling of the volcano so that means you still aalburuto Taal Volcano.

In the past night, five volcanic quake recorded compared to yesterday but only two can mean a lower level of warning for them not only pinagbabasehan.

PHIVOLCS reminded of taboo still go to the main crater of Taal Volcano. Despite this, said Jing Segismundo, Public Information Officer of Batangas, the most evacuee, who going home to their home but also allegedly prepared the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) in case required

Google translation of http://www.dzmm.com.ph/tabid/82/Article/10101/Taal-Volcano-nasa-alert-l…

@#56 Hi Raving,
Two points,(1)So Taal remains classified as Level Two and
(2)Im going to write a programme to translate
Google Translator......
Meanwhile,there are far too many clouds cunningly disguised as Volcanic plumes at Eyja.Hopefully,sigh,the cloud will clear.
Kultsi;I love your words of calm and objectivity in the face of,albeit,intelligent speculation.Thank you.
As for "twisted britches",I hope that the IMO have'nt been caught with their britches round there ankles....

On the live Katla website there is steam rising far off just left of the center of the screen. Here is the link,
http://www.ruv.is/katla/

Why is it I wonder..that every time I log on and see reports of new dramatic plumes from Eyja, I check the webcams and see only weather clouds (and maybe a wispy steam plume just above the crater lip)?

For those who didn't see it, a nice Hvol view of plume at http://www.ruv.is/frett/gufustrokur-ur-eyjafjallajokli along with Icelandic text available in english at Iceland Review, where I found the link. Also a Thorocam pic around 22:30 last night (cam time) showing steam picking up, a 'bump' in the cloud. http://yfrog.com/5dpicture12eyxp

@Mike don, it is probably the same reason it happens to me. I live in CA and I am late getting to the computer because I am still asleep! LOL

@Carl, #1, a rootless shield is caused by lava breaking out of a tube and flowing on top. If it keeps flowing on the top, it will form a shield and sometimes the lave will pool and form a lava lake on top of the shield. It will over-flow and that helps build up the shield. The reason it is called a rootless shield is because it does not come from a vent, but rather from a break in the tube system.

I hope this helps. I know Erik can provide a more in-depth explaination and he probaby will evenutally. Lots of things to discover here.

@Birdseye, glad you stayed around. I would have missed you!

Thanks for posting the pictures. It helped me to see what everybody was talking about earlier. I have to rememeber what time the posts were made about seeing what is happening because it is usually gone by the time I get online. Oh well...

Umm, I must be tired.Thanks birdseye for the "heads-up" re the ruv.is link.It got me thinking and I found this http://grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Steam-rises-from-Eyjafjallajokull
Looks as if you were spot-on Kultsi.May'be they do read what we say lol.

@Birdseye [60] -

Heh. I like it better the way I got it from the Icelandic text, "...a lot of water in the kettle and the heat under..."

Of course, the words could be what are called "false friends", i.e. apparent cognates when they are not.

Ditto Mike Don

Too much weather to see anything conclusive.

Been watching these cams for months...look too long and stuff moves and mirages happen. We could watch these Icelandic cams for many years before the next VEI 4 eruption happens.

@Renato, #13 on the last thread, nooooo I have not been to Venice, LOL. I have this brain that sometimes goes against me when I am trying to remember a name, LOL. Sorry about that. :-}

@Birdseye [60] -

I looked at the pic at your link, http://yfrog.com/5dpicture12eyxp - and I got pissed off: why don't we get the same quality of feed? Look at that pic, sharp as a razor; not the pixel mush we are forced to look at!

Eruptions blog Volcano Word of the Day:

Rootless Shield
USGS definition
Rootless Shields are not a Gang of Nomadic Warriors
volcanoes.usgs.gov/images/pglossary/rootless.php
hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/2008/08_01_24.html

@Kultsi 67 - that was my screenshot - I don't look at the cams full-screen - and some times of day are definitely better than others,(once the sun comes around around and goes low in the sky, for instance) plus for once there wasn't any cloud or dust or fog!
@Adrian, DianeNCa, thanks. Couldn't not keep checking on the family, at least.

@Birdsyey [69] -

Well, the time of the screen capture is one of those when I prefer sleeping - midnight in Iceland is 3 am here.

I agree that the pic quality is very much a function of the available light - but I'd wish for more Kodak moments for me.

@#69 Hi birdseye,
Your more than welcome.Im glad your still here and Thank You for your comment.Friendship,even like this,means a helluva lot !
@#70 Kultsi,
Reminds me of a song.I want my,I want my,I want my Vodacam.
It's ok,im going back under my rock now...

@Adrian [71] -
lol! And how many of us have not been seeing things on the Vodacam? (The original was banned 'cause it was thought to promote hallucinogens.)

@#72 Kultsi,
Woops,I did'nt know that.Well,now that I have recovered my sensibility (sanity)I will see you on the new thread,'Bye.

@#55 Hi d9trotterdam,
Fascinating time-lapse as per usual.Thanks for those two,especially the one from today,Cheers !

Well, I've been so blasted busy I seem to miss all the fun. And of course as I am now getting ready to fly to England I come in here and find EyjafjallajÃ¶kull causing a little fuss. Guess as long as I only see white on the cams I'll be fine. At the very least, if things start kicking up and I get detoured, it can wait until my flight and I get stuck in Iceland so I could see things first hand. Wife kind of likes the idea. :)

@Adrian #71: That's the way to do it!

Screenshots for nothing and those pix for free!

Too right Reynir,there has to be a little humour at times !

Good points. I will require a bit of time to toy with this job.

love your blog, however it is obvious to me that to eliminate the

GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for June 23-29, 2010

eklemetti — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:25:26 +0000

GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for June 23-29, 2010

Just a reminder, if you any questions for Sally Kuhn Sennert of the Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program - about the Weekly Report, about life at the GVP, about volcanoes - be sure to send them to me soon at .

Now, on to this week's update!

Some highlights (not including Gorely):

Lahars from Tungurahua in Ecuador moved blocks upwards of 2 m in diameter downstream over the last week and ash fall was reported over 20 km from the volcano's vent. For some reason, FoxNews decided to use an image of Tungurahua for an article on stats of natural disasters in 2009 - nice image, but the volcano isn't mentioned anywhere but in the captions.
Small ash-and-steam clouds were spotted at Karymsky in Kamchatka over the last week, reaching upwards of 10 km / 32,000 feet. This goes with the current activity at Kliuchevskoi and Shiveluch, both of which are experiencing explosions produced ash-and-steam columns that reach over 7 km / 22,000 feet. I've been trying to figure out the situation at KVERT now that we've past the date on which they said they would be "closed" due to lack of funding, but no luck. I did notice that the statement about the closure was removed on June 28 from the June 24 update, but that is as far as I've gotten. Anybody have any more insight?
Kirishima in Japan might have has a small eruption on June 28, however the details are scant at best.

eklemetti Thu, 07/01/2010 - 04:25

Would someone like to look at the Porosfelli cam, and the heat cam? I have been checking this for some hours to make sure I am not mistaken (but could be). There seems to torrents of water flowing in front of Lady E and a smoke plume travelling from left to right (that is also the wind direction) that is traversing over the top of the Eyjaf crater.

At first I thought it had to be cloud, but now I am really not so sure. Is there any indication on the tremor measurements that might suggest activity around Katla?

After hours of checking on what looked very much like an ash plume from something to the left of Eujaf, it appears to be settling - but if someone is still recording time lapse at the poro cam, please do take a look. No doubt there will be more if it is an eruption close by.

There are gale warnings for Iceland for today,July 1, so tremor plots may not be very useful. Could be gusts of wind blowing ash/dust up as well. There does seem to be some steam, near the crater lake or at least near that area-its hard to tell with the camera angle.

hey, you are right about the steam from the left side of the old crater rim..
there has been some earthquakes lately, that probably has opened some hot steampockets and small fissures, so steam and hot air can rise up under the ice..
but yes its steaming goood, and Its probably very very hot indeed,.

and here comes the water down GigjÃ¶kull!!!

Can Zombies survive volcanic eruptions?

-If they not are staying near the explotions and near or in the lavaflow or pyroclastic flow..Then Zombies can survive a volcanic eruption..Just as humans does,or animals for that matter..

but why asking about zombies??

Anyways I think, im pulling back the water post,

- It was just steam,I think ,even tough I swear it looked like water flowing down the glacier(GigjÃ¸kull),can anybody confirm or bust me on that one or is it plausible that it actually was some water flowing??..

@#1, #2, #3, #6 - No

Lady E is steaming nicely and every now and then water gets into the lava trench, which appears to be pretty hot and is steaming very well, too.

The hurricane force winds around ThÃ³rÃ³lfsfell (and it's Thorolfsfelli, Jules, if you can't do copy paste; the first letter is what used to be 'thorn' in Old English) have played havoc with good viewing today.

@Thor - I've been following the passage of water down the GigjÃ¶kull lava trench, trying to spot places where the flow gets dammed, trying to estimate the probability of a jÃ¶kullhlaup. One of the best indicators of water passage is, indeed, the steam emitted, and that is the only way to see it, until it bursts out at the end of GigjÃ¶kull.

Hi folks !,

Just found this http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=29314&ew_…

@Adrian -

That article is one way to look at things; the other opposite is the Japanese way: according to their counting, Shakurajima has erupted about 600 times - this year. Apparently, if there is a lull of a few hours, the next spew of ash counts as a different eruption. (IMO, Shakurajima has been erupting for ages)

Umm,thats a very good point Kultsi; so,using Japanese reasoning,Eyja can't be too far behind Shakurajima!(I do like a bit of a contest,hehe).

Thor, re Zombies, check this blog for today:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

Impressive view on MÃºlakot cam!
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalmulaen.html

If anyone is interested in current Iceland water/floods/water, check out the Skafta River, which flow comes out of Lake Grimsvotn in the middle of the Vatnajokull Glacier. It has been flooding, which is normal in the summer time, but since its partially glacier fed it may indicate one of the several volcanoes under that ice cap are heating up.

Ok, now it's gone, but I got an image of it:
http://picasaweb.google.com/110366256140084081552/Eyjaf#548909439380714…

Hey, random thing not really related to EJ or the post.

I'm currently in Kihei, Maui, HI, and will probably be travelling up to the top of Haleakela Saturday or Sunday morning. Of course, I'll be after sunrise pictures (and some night sky if the moon cooperates), but if there's anything in particular you folks here would like a shot of, I'll do my best. Remember, though, I'm just a guy with a camera, so it's not like I've got a back-stage pass or anything.

Regardless, I'll post whatever pictures I get. I plan on doing at least a little hiking in and around the crater, weather permitting. I just wanted to offer a little something back for all the fun times you guys have given with regards to the Iceland eruption.

Anyway, either post here (I'm day-tripping to Lana'i Friday, but I'll check back before I head up the hill) or email me at dstarfire (at) hotmail (dot) com if you've got anything particular.

The 600 count for Sakurajima is for explosions. The volcano has been in nearly continuous eruption since 1955, and that is counted as one eruption.

Renato, that looks like a huge tornado on top of the volcano. Wait, is that Dorothy? And Toto too? :)

#18 Yeah, Dan, just waiting for her to come from somewhere over the rainbow... ;)

"Alex may continue to spawn isolated tornadoes today over South Texas and northern Mexico." Wunder Blog Weather

@20 And I have relatives in both places, but all is well so far.

#21 That's not to worry, I'm sure the worst is gone for them. But Surges are not helping much for oil spreading, but looks like Florida is being spared for the moment.

https://twitter.com/fitumitradingco

Oh yah eh

Iceland, cumulative quake energy, 15 minute binning window + 48 hour moving average.

http://i49.tinypic.com/10iat7n.png

... so. They gather up about 40 to 50 thousand sea turtle eggs and move them to a part of Florida unaffected by the oil. If, as I have seen mentioned elsewhere, the turtles know what beach to lay their egg on by navigating back to where they hatched... does that mean that some stretch of beach is soon to inherit a large influx of native turtles? Turtles that will return come egg laying time?

And a cross section from Eyj to Grim looking North. Period 06/20/10 01:48:30 to 07/2/10 04:06:21.

http://i48.tinypic.com/n2ykax.png

Last Updated: 07/01/2010 18:50 GMT
Substantial ash storm is now under EyjafjÃ¶llum. Ãlafur Eggertsson farmer in Ãorvaldseyri says that nothing has rained. Very windy is in these areas and has Hvid exceeded 40 meters per second. He says that the ride is dust, ash and sand that blow to the ground and damaging trees and bushes, and leaves of tÃ¦tist eyÃ°ileggist. There is not any way to be outdoors unless it be well-armored in the sand so the wind is full of travel in front of people. Visibility is about 300 meters.
frettir@ruv.is

@Lurking #24 #25 How does it look for you? Seems to me the shaking is somewhat less frequent?

@Lurking:
Thank you for the E to GrimsvÃ¶tn graph, it kind of clarified one thing that I have suspected since I was recuperating from Midsummer-partying. I had mentally maped into my poor (then) hungover brain to ask if you could do a picture like that, and here it is without me asking:) Are you a mind-reader?
I have been working on a fluid-motion/stress-tensor modell for that part of Iceland in particular and Iceland in general based on a modell for how ice behaves when breaking apart. The results was pretty odd, but that picture actually showed that I at least am not that totally off and that you can use the ice-modell for calculating the fluid motion patterns of Iceland out of it. Problem was that I used pen and paper for my calculations (normal for me) so getting that into a nice computer picture for all was beyond me. Thanks!

I will write a short summary on my thoughts after some more coffee. I had originally planned to actually write something more substantial for you all to laugh at, but due to changing conditions I do not have time any longer. My plan to retire at the old age of 38 failed after only four weeks:(
My friends are laughing their pants off right now since they hade a book running on how long I would stand sitting on my buttocks doing nothing...

GrimsvÃ¶tn-Askja Vortex Plume, part 1

The local tectonics of Iceland bear a strong resemblance to ice breaking up in moving low salt ocean water where a large sheat of ice is being pulled apart in two different directions.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Iceland_Mid-Atlantic…
As seen in the image-link above there is a strong motion (2.5cm year) apart of the eastern and western parts. It is also possible to see a large fractured part in the middle that is also modeleable according to ice-fracturing.

Here one should make an exception to the ice-modell, iceland has been around long enough to actually be reshaped by the pent up pressures, ice is not around long enough for that to happen in the modell I am using.
The result of this is that mid-atlantic-rift here is bent strongly. Out of this we can deduce some things.

1. As the bend progresses it becomes to far stretched and the fracture should become detached from the main band and "die out" over time. Which is shown on this image:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Volcanic_system_of_Iceland-Map-en.svg
Look at the ÃraefajÃ¶kull belt, that is probably the original part of the MAR before it started to bend wildly across Iceland.

2. As the ÃraefajÃ¶kull belt moved far enough the Vestmannaeyjar/GrimsvÃ¶tn/GrimsÃ¶y-line opened up and was then the actual part belonging to MAR propper. But as motion of that line went to far a new line was formed from Reykjaness Ridge, but instead of going straight it fractured its way up to GrimsvÃ¶tn, something that will have large implications in the next posting.

3. A new line should soon (geologically speaking) open up from the northern tip of the WVZ to KolbinsÃ¶y-ridge since the pent up east to west-skewing energy is to large in the Reykjaness Peninsula to Hekla area to be contained for long. When and if that happens there will probably be an epoch of rapid tectonic movement as the pent up stresses quickly releases, partnered with very large magmatic release. Something that probably happened back when the Reykjanes Ridge to GrimsvÃ¶tn opened up. Please note that the main bulk of the magma then did not come up for obvious reasons in the RR to GrimsvÃ¶tn line, instead it of course flowed up in the line from GrimsvÃ¶tn to KolbinsÃ¶y line.

After that diversion, back to the GAVP.
(I will post that in a new posting since I do not know how long posts are possible)

GrimsvÃ¶tn-Askja Vortex Plume, part 2

The main part of storing energy in the Icelandic tectonic system is in lines going west to east where the plates rub against each other causing tension stresses, which are released in larger earthquakes now and then. The figures I used for the pent up energy is to be found here:
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/skyrslur/June17and21_2000/index.html

I then recalculated those nombers as a whole for the RR to GrimsvÃ¶tn line.

That pent up energy gives the energy potential for the Vestmannaeyjar to to KolbinsÃ¶y line and the WVZ combined. The pent up tension-stress is of course translated into negative values since we are here talking of something as basic as suction when the parts are pulled apart.
When Ice is torn apart water is pulled up into the crack by this suction-force, here it is magma pulled up, but the principle is the same.

Then we can go into simple fluid dynamics. A rule of thumb is that we will get small vorticii in the water sucked up and that these will be spread out evenly if the fracture is straight-lined. If it is not we will get differently sized Vorticii. The power of the vortex increases with the angle of any corner-structure in the ice, and if the corner is at 90 degrees the vortex will be squared compared to a straight-line vortex. In this case we have 2 (almost) 90 degree corners adding up the power. The vortex thusly created is so powerfull that it can and will controll any other vorticii in the straight-line zone that is ripping apart.
I am not here going to explain why vorticii is always going to start in fluid dynamics, that is really school-book physics and I am pressed for time today.

So what is so wonderfull with a Vortix?
Well it can explain a few things. If a vortex like that exists (remember that this is a theoretical modell based on fluid dynamics using calculations normally used on Ice and water, not magma) it explains a few things and makes one prediction (possible to falsify).
The pent up energy in the RR to GrimsvÃ¶tn line is large enough to sustain a vortex streatching from GrimsvÃ¶tn up to Askja, the spead of outer edge movement would be 10cm a year, and it sucks up an average of five centimetres of magma per year, and the area is large so we are talking about something rather massive here. That sucked up magma then spreads out from the Vortex when it hits the crust. When I did the first calculations I got a number for how much Iceland could be sucked up to be between 25 to 100 metres. Then someone posted a link from BBC that gave the actual number to be 50 metres.

(Next instalment, What does Vorticiis have to do with Volcanos?)

GrimsvÃ¶tn-Askja Vortex Plume, part 3

So what did this all have to do with a Volcano?
Well, a large vortix sucking up water is not so bad when we are talking about fracturing ice. But things change if we add one factor. Let's say that it is really cold and that the water in the fracture almost emediatly freezes over creating a new (thinner) ice-layer. That is what is happening here, almost emediatly the upwelling magma cools of and solidifies into new crust. But the water, sorry magma is still welling up and wants to surface. And it will at the weakest points, and those will be found where the outer edge of the vortix (fastest moving, highest energy) meet the fracture in the ice.
In this case that would be the GrimsvÃ¶tn volcanic system and the volcanic system around Askja.

Sub-vorticii:
Any main vortix will dominate any other vortix that is along the straight-line fracture. There is a mathematical rule that tells us that from a large vortix there will be subvorticiis in a progression outwards and that those are calculable to be the power potential times (in relation) both distance and sub-energy-potential and that is relative to the mathematical irrational constant of approximately 1.6180339887 (I know, but nature really loves that one).
When you calculate it the main southern sub-vortix would be quite a distance away around where one finds Katla. (The same proportionality actually goes for Katlas little slave vortix EyjafjallajÃ¶kull.) The main subvortix is about one quarter in energy potential to the Main-vortex (give or take 25 percent). So that is why E has one quarter of Ks energy-potential, next in line would be HeimÃ¶y then.
Northward we have Krafla and so on.

So what has this to do with a plume?
Well the suction force is so large that it will start a very deep-going vortix. If you want to you can see it as an inverted tornado, sucking up magma from far below (ground) up to the surface (cloud). Albeit here surface is the core boundary and the surface is either crust or actual surface during an eruption.

This gives that we are here talking about a plume that is actually generated at the surface, and not at the bottom as the standard modell plumes generating heatspots. The standard modell plumes move over time so you get timelined volcanos (Hawaii for instance) as the heatspot generated by the plume moves since the plume is "anchored" to the bottom at the core boundary.
Here instead we are talking about a plume that (for now at least) is anchored to the surface, that is why we are not seeing any timelined volcanos on Iceland. Though we are seeing timelined volcano-bands as I talked about in part 1.

Now someone will probably say that GrimsvÃ¶tn and Askja has different magmatic composition, and that is probably true. Does this falsify the theory? No, not really. One has to keap in mind that we are talking about a large slowly turning (in human time-understanding) vortex that is succing magma over a large distance of depth, in that vortix you are bound to have "globs" of different origin. But if someone finds lava that is wildly out of line it probably would put the entire theory in jeopardy (I suspect Eric will shot this theory in the foot about here).

So, what does this help? Well, if one want to one can calculate the tension-break points for the intersections of the fractures and the vorticiis. There is probably a pretty distinct height that those parts of Iceland can stand before breaking. Let's say that Askja can be lifted 10cm before magma is pushed up starting an eruption. That number would have to be calculated from the zero level and not todays plus 50 number, but that is just a small problem mathematically. The real problem is to calculate with any grade of exactitude the point of breaking for Askja.
But, when an area is lifted enough it will erupt, release enough of lava to lower to magma level-pressure untill the vortix has moved and sucked up new magma and it all starts over again.

My guess is that this entire area is allways very close to the breaking point and that is why the period of increasing signs of eruption is in many cases so short on iceland. Just think about it, if all that is neaded is a couple of centimetres over a (comparatively) small area just one little wave can tip the waggon and start an eruption in minutes.

It wass rather fun to think about this, I am probably wrong, and you are all welcome to shot me in the fot now. I am sorry though that I didn't have time to write a proper paper about this presenting the graphs for it, and of course the mathematical formulae, but I guess that most of you can deduce those on your own.

Oh, and thanks Lurking (whomever you might be) for that wonderfull image showing the vorticiis of "GrimsvÃ¶tn-Askja", Katla and the sub-slave EyjafjallajÃ¶kull.
http://i48.tinypic.com/n2ykax.png

Oh, and by the way, if I should do a prediction out of this my little theory, it would be that the likelyhood of the next eruption on Iceland would be either around GrimsvÃ¶tn or Askja, and the statistical likelihood is 42 percent and that the apparant pent up energy is large, so that would probably be a VEI-3 or larger and will release a larger than average amount of lava. The likelihood of this happening within 15 years is 73 percent.
But the margins for error is massive since I haven't been able to calculate the fracture points...

@Carl That makes sense to me, though I'm no expert, and it would explain the strange "mantle plume" behavior ("the plume is "anchored" to the the surface" ).
I have my own inferred suspicions that next eruption was to take place in the region you mentioned, just didn't know why. Now you got me into this. Good job.
@Lurking: Thanks once more to the invaluable contributions.

English version of @32
02/07/2010 | 14:00
Ash Storm under EyjafjallajÃ¶kull
Last night, a severe ash storm raged in the area around EyjafjallajÃ¶kull glacier, ruv.is reports. According to the farmer at Thorvaldseyri Ãlafur Eggertsson, it has not rained.

The area was extremely windy with gusts exceeding 40 meters per second [89 mph and it's still blowing hard this morning by Thoro cam]. Dust, ash and sand were being blown around, causing damage to trees and bushes with leaves shredding and being destroyed.

There is no way to stay outdoors if not well prepared, since in a storm such as this one, the sand hits peopleâs faces with full force, Eggertsson explained.

The visibility last night was approximately 300 meters.

@31 Carl,
You have to understand the situation is not analogous to ice (solid) floating on water (liquid). There is not a vast ocean of magma beneath the crust. The mantle beneath the crust is crystalline rock, but it does flow (as a solid) very slowly at the correct pressures and temperatures.
Where plates pull apart(such as in Iceland), what is pulling apart is the crust with the very top part of the mantle. Deeper mantle will well up into the area and the rock will melt a bit as it rises. That's the source of the magma.
Iceland has more melting and heat flow than the other parts of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, such areas are "hotspots". This hotspot has been attributed to a "mantle plume", which again is not rising hot magma, but solid, crystalline, yet plastic and flowing rock from deep in the Earth.
There is quite a bit of study of mantle flow, geophysics can image it because the mineral crystals deform and align, which affects the behavior of seismic waves passing through.
Also, the plume model for Hawaii assumes the plume is fixed in place, there is a linear chain of islands because the plate moves over it. Imagine holding a pen in one place, pointing up. Then move a paper over it -same idea.

@Carl. I think your theory is intriguing. I'm not by any means an expert, but I'm pretty good at seeing connections. (think Podkayne of Mars ;-D) As I've been reading the papers over the last few months, it appears that there is no certainty over plume vs MAR as the source of magma. This would explain the confusion-- a vortex. (Albeit very slooooowww). My (current) understanding of the mantle is that it's semi-solid (mushy ice). So I guess the question may be: what's the take of someone who understands fluid dyanamic?

I keep thinking that the rotation of the earth has got to be bumping the mantle around so that it circulates like the oceans, and massive earthquakes now and then cause waves through the mantle. Then, these waves hit the equivalent of blow-holes (volcanoes, rifts) and the magma starts rising. Your vortex theory would make the mixing-up of plume magma, MAR magma, and local rock explain the differences between the various lava compositions.

Hmm. More thinking and research.

@Ekoh:

Yes, I am aware of the semi-solid state of the mantle. Thing is that what we in ordinary life concieve as the "solid" part of the word semi-solid is not at all solid. They are just less viscous than pure non-solids like water. But if you go into the geological scale the difference between a semi-solid like the mantle and the non-solid like water is none at all. The mantle behaves exactly as a fluid in longer timespans.

But you are very much correct in me being unclear concerning mantle and magma interaction, I am very much an amateur concerning that. Regarding fluidity in solids, non-solids and semi-solids I am not.
You are also correct in that I knowingly stretched the Ice-water/magma-crust analogy quite a bit, but I tried to explain in things in laymans terms. There are differences, but the fluid dynamic model from ice-water that I used is still quite aplicable for semi-solids interacting with solids. It is as I said, just a question of the timescale, and here we are talking about 100Ks of years...

Concerning Hawaii, I wrote that it is fixed in the coreboundary, which if I have understood plume-theory is where it is suposed to be attached, and I wrote that it is the upper part that progresses. What I was probably unclear about is that the plates glide over the mantle, mea culpa:)

For those who want a more earthly example of what I am talking about, if you remember your school science you will remember that the flow-rate of silicate-glasses are one millimetre per hundred years in supension-state. And that is counted as a solid since it is in a chrystalline lattice.

I am quite certain that the physics is correct, the things I worry about is the geological facts.

hi does anyone have a link/sat/webcam to show above volcano E would be nice to see above on a clear day

Eyjafj webcam shows past eruptions maybe useful if you have not got, http://www.vodafone.is/eldgos/en

@Carl #36 are you talking about how window glass flows and using that as an analogy for the mantle's crystaline state, yet being able to flow as glass?

I am wondering about the vortex idea and how much the rotation of the earth can affect that and also the tilt of the axis. I would expect if there is any affect at all, it would not be dramatic from our perspective, but it may be from a geological perspective. Now what would cause some of the magma to be so fluid it runs like pancake syrup out of a bottle and at other times it is like holding a catcup bottle waiting for something to come out and you end up having to bang on the side or bottom of the bottle to get it to come out? I know it has different chemical make-up. The more silicic it is the more viscous it is. How does your vortex (I think of eddies)theory fit into this senario? Also you have to figure in all the gases that come along with the magma. I would think if there was a lot of gas, it would affect the vorticii. When it boils down to it, we really don't know exactly how things are working below the crust, though we do have some ideas about it based on what we see when there is an eruption and also what we see from studying areas that have had a lot of eruptions.

There is so much we don't know and I know you agree with that. I don't have a very good grasp of physics as I did not take it in high school. I did have some in college, but I don't remember anything about water-ice interactions. What I had was just a basic course and then a course called Electron Optics. And all that was 30 years ago. LOL

I will say I do know something about vorticii, though, of a different kind. I was taking flying lessons and my instructor and I were coming in for a landing behind a Piper Cherokee or Dakota (I think it was the Dakota) and all at once our little Cessna 152 started bouncing around and behaving sort of weird. I asked my instructor what that was all about and he told me it was the vorticii from the wings of the plane ahead of us. I can tell you I did not like that at all. I have been told that a 757's wing vorticii can flip a 737. You really get them when the plane is flying hot, heavy, and slow. They teach you how to avoid the problem by either landing in front of where the plane in front of you landed or waaaay behind it. Otherwise, you may find yourself up-side-down.

Vorticii are powerful whether you are talking about water, air, or maybe even magma. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some very slow eddies in magma, but it is so thick and crystaline that it may not work as I don't think there are any vorticii in window glass. But you never know. What could be going on at the molecular level? I have seen the original glass double doors at Jefferson's home Monticello and you can see the waviness in the glass. BTW, you open one of the doors and the other one opens as they are driven by a figure 8 chain under the floor. Original chain, too. If you have never been to Monticello, do go if you can. It is a really neat place.

Here's a Mulakot webcam time-lapse of yesterday's dust storm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzOmr6u8k5E
You wouldn't want to be out in that!

@dt9Rotterdam -

No, I would not want to be out in that - although at MÃºlakot it was... pretty tame, as inferred from other data.

I appreciate the fact that our storms very, very seldom reach 25 m/s, compared to 40 m/s in gusts in this one.

@dt9Rotterdam -

No, I would not want to be out in that - although at MÃºlakot it was... pretty tame, as inferred from other data.

I appreciate the fact that our storms very, very seldom reach 25 m/s, compared to 40 m/s in gusts in this one.

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/ click on the home page and look for eyjafjall webcam its shows video footage one i like most was Eyjafjallajokull at the crater

OT:

Just plain odd. Using the USGS data, this is a plot of the number of days between quakes mag 6.9 or above, world wide.

http://i49.tinypic.com/15d50mv.png

The odd part is 1988 to 1990. Any Geo specialists around then care to elaborate what was going on? Major shift in technology and/or resources?

Just curious.

Apologies if these have already been posted, but there are some awesome photos taken of Yasur in Vanuatu.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/volcano-bombs-eruption.html

@44: data gaps, 1986-1990, and outlier bias.

So I guess that makes this a lunch bias for Iceland...

11:00 to 12:00, look for 18 to 21 km deep quakes.

http://i50.tinypic.com/ve4zsj.png

Magnitude isn't so weird.... not a real specific cluster at midnight or lunch.

http://i50.tinypic.com/dos7c3.png

(bored s'less)

Sampling temporal duration isn't long enough to establish a trend, because there could be confounding factors, like seasonal (temperature, melting, wind) bias, or sources of electronic (false signal positives) errors*. You also have questionable data quality in negative magnitudes reported.

*Could have bias from ongoing regional geothermal project construction during this period.

Another source of induced analysis bias is the smoothing window selected.

All your data is telling you is that there isn't much of a discernible pattern of distribution about the average.

Is the distribution of values 'normal' (natural phenomena usually post as normal or log normal distributions)?

(on boredom, you too could be writing reports on WNV, be glad)

Nonetheless, I still think there is a trend for lunch. Lunch is always a good thing. It give you a chance to ponder the 200 miles you put down that morning and contemplate what exactly you are gonna do once you get there.

I hate road days, but they pay well.

And... the lunchtime cluster is amusing. As for the smoothing window, that's the line, the raw data are the dots. Dunno if I can wrangle them into a smiley face though...

Hi to you all !

Quite a good steam plume coming from Eyja,now visible on Thoro cam.

POPO is glowing again though not as vigorously as last week.

I think he'll let out a blast or 2 sometime this summer.

Just after I posted I went back, there must have been clouds before because the glow is now quite strong.
It is reflecting off the billowing material(steam?) for probably hundreds of feet.

@Diane:
Yes, in a way I was thinking about windows flowing like in the Monticello (One of the places I must go to one of these days:). But I was more thinking in the way of a glass rod hanging suspended, the flow pattern is more exact there and you do not have to worry about the glass shattering.
Here I do have to make many sad, the waviness seen in old glass is not glass-flow, it is due to the glass panes having been blown, not floated. Pilkingtons floated glass technic was not invented when Monticello was built.
The way to see glass flow is to measure the top and bottom of old glass, if the top is thinner than the bottom, then you have glass-flow. The waviness and stuff in old glass will rather even out over time than oposite.

Back to the vortex (eddy) thingamabit:)
Yes as you say, we do not really have a clue about how the mantle is built up. We have secondary (tertiary really if you think about it) samples from it, but no real samples from the mantle since no one ever has drilled into it. As far as I know the only real tertiary sample is the drill core one from Kraflas magma-chamber. Otherwise only quartiary samples from the top of volcanos. The rest of it is only deduced theories not tested against reallity.
With the risk of angering Erik here, the only thing we know is that there are gasses, and that the viscosity in the mantle can differ in between placces and that when it cools off (as magma) it can become rhyolitic mush (one sample). Otherwise it might only be nice theories, even though I agree with many of them and that the Krafla drill sample made many of the theories much more likely.
But for all we know the actual mantle might consist of snowman dung for all we know. Science is a hard thing.

Know with that off my chest, back to your question.
Yes, gasses and different viscosities would affect a vortex heavilly since it chanes the rate of possible ascent upwards. Highly viscous gassy material would rise much faster and would probably be what tipped the balance and made the volcano go off. But this is speculation on my part since we do not know enough of the composition of the mantle.

Tilt and rotation caused by earth revolvement.
Yes, you are absolutely correct. A magmatic (Yes Ekoh, I know) vortex would revolve in the same direction as the toilett next to it when flushed.
I am though not so sure of earths polar tilt affecting it though.
Normal plumes are tilted due to tectonic plate movement (If I have understood things correctly), but here we do not have real tectonic movement. What! Am I Crazy? Here we have the mother of all tectonics!
The tectonic movement at the MAR is pretty much the lowest on the planet, due to it being the origin of the american and eurasian plate movement. Yes it moves apart with 2,5cm a year on average, but those the MAR in itself move? I do not know. If the MAR in itself is moving, then we have a tilted plum, if not it might be untilted.
The might be untilted comes from me not really being fully shure about if the MAR, the mantle, and the cores relative speeds. If all of them move in the same speed, Straight vortex. If the MAR is standstill and mantle moves, un-straight. And the most fun of them. Let's say that MAR and Core are same-speed and the Mantle is moving at another speed, then we have a strangely curved vortex that would loose some energy. And this was more idle speculation.

Your airplane analogy is nice, the energy in a vortex can be tremendous, if there is a vortex like that between GrimsvÃ¶tn and Askja then it is so powerrfull that it has lifted the entire Iceland and a large portion outside of it 50 metres from just the shear upwelling force of it. Really humbling if you think of it.

@#48 Hi Lurking,

Your last comment,in brackets,sums things up perfectly.

Lurking, what you are seeing in your plot is a cessation of the lowest level seismic signals. You have it again at 7pm. You have a minor opposite in the early hours. For the geotech folk, it is typically interpreted as a change in background level - ie, noise within raw data, bias from human activity.

Rock embedded piping will resonate with major changes in heat flow. We see these in water demand plots. A serious chunk of the population gets it's hot water and heat in Southern Iceland from long, long network runs of geothermal system piping. That would bias a large portion of the seismic detection network, the SIL.

*squint* Get a clue: if I use a statistical term like 'smoothing window', ya think I might know a bit about data plotting??

In this case, you, like Carl, are chasing red herrings with his vortices and flowing glass.

Window glass doesn't flow perceptibly, even over many hundreds of years- it's another of the endless physics myths that is perpetuated by the public.

http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/mirrors/physicsfaq/General/Glass/glass.html

Ed, a geology expert who knows a bit about mantle processes (he's a petrologist), tactfully dispatched Carl's theory'. Carl didn't get the clue. Now he is prattling on about 'How Much We Don't Know', the fallback of the science-naive public when their ignorance is laid bare.

What's happening at Mulakot? Lots of people, cars and truck are there now and were there yesterday. Conference? Science Club? Fishing?
http://www.mulakot.net/myndavelar.html

@#57 Hi Jane,

Mulakot is primarily an airfield so im surmising that the activity is "aircraft orientated".The weather is pretty bad though.

@passerby. I guess the question is (as a beginner): Has anyone applied fluid dynamics to the movement of the mantle and plates? Solids move, albeit slowly. I think pointing Carl in the direction of geophysicists who use fluid dynamics might be more useful than just shutting him down. -)

Hi Carl. Intriguing ideas and thank you. Although my primary degrees are in biochemistry and related sciences, I have spent a lot of time lately studying theories of bioenergetics, which first took me in the direction of particle and theoretical physics, and now I am looking at the earthâs regulatory systems on a macro level, ie considering the earth as a living entity in itself. I am trying to gain a greater understanding of earthquakes and eruptions as part of the earths self correction mechanisms, especially during a period of global warming, but need to gain a greater understanding of the geophysics of earths itself as a starting point. I hope that some of the real experts here will debate your ideas further, and while the model may not be perfect it will be interesting to see why this could not be occurring, if that is the case.

Thanks d9tRotterdam for the Mulakot webcam time-lapse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzOmr6u8k5E. If you look, especially at the early section there is what looks quite like an eruption plume, which at first glance appears to come from Ejaf; the only problem with this is that high winds are blowing from left to right, so it cant be coming from Ejaf. Comments anyone?

The only eruption plume on that video, is the Original plume, wich sits on the top of the main crater.
there is somewhat that looks like steaming from the side, but i recon its only low fog clouds, generated by the mountain and rising air,..

@Jane [57] -

Looks like a party - and like always, the weather participates. :D

@Passerby

"Get a clue"

Nice. You make a blanket statement that dismisses the whole graph and I point out that the raw data is also in there and you take offense?

"...Sampling temporal duration isn't long enough to establish a trend, because there could be confounding factors, like seasonal (temperature, melting, wind) bias, or sources of electronic (false signal positives) errors*. You also have questionable data quality in negative magnitudes reported."

I never claimed to be an expert at seismology and geophysics, I just make plots and ask questions. I don't put forth any ground breaking theories that rattle the framework of human understanding. I just look at data and make plots. The lunch time cluster just looked amusing to me, and since it's at about 18 to 21 km deep.... seemed to be a bit outside of the realm of human activity. I can't hazard a guess as to why... other than possibly being an artifact of someone coming in after lunch and looking at a chart that was spit out while they were absent. It wasn't until I had posted that I noticed that there is a lighter and more diffuse version of the deep lunchtime cluster from midnight to 3 am UTC.

As for Geothermal plant influence, I don't think they drill that deep... 65600 feet would be one very deep well. It would be interesting to read an idea of what mechanism could do that.

The obvious connection is the position of the Sun relative to Iceland.. but as has been pointed out, this is just a fractional slice of time, even though it is over two months long. To incorporate a longer series of observations would require access to data that I don't have. I could disassemble the Icelandic quakes from the Google plugins, but those points seem to have a loss of depth resolution, even for recent data.

In summary, laypeople such as myself rely on people who seem to have a clue to explain the oddities we see. I for one am enjoying the alternative to mantle plume / buried crust block idea as being stated by Carl. And I also enjoy the ideas concerning the extensional movement of Iceland's fault complexes and seismic zones that you have presented.

So... for now I'm just going to go can some pickles.

@62 Kultsi
And they didn't invite us? After all the publicity we have given them? tsk :)

about that vortex theory,.

as I have learned, the MAR(Mid Atlantic Ridge), does not move much, but it moves, it expands and contracts,and shifts directions from time to time, remember that Greenland and North America have colided with Norway(europe) creating the largest mountain range ever created , the caledonian mountain range(it was heven taller than the Himmalayas,the remains are still visible as the SunnmÃ¶rsalps and Langfjella mountain range, and it extends well in to Sweden and Finland, and down to wards the British isles(mountain ranges in Scotland are also a part of that if I dont remember wrong,.

so that means that the MAR, has been contracting, before it started to expand again(why these occur no one really knows)

the MAR, has an arm expanding downwards towards Norway, and outside the Northern Norway lies a gigantic hotspot VÃ¸ring platau)(its not reconed to be hot anymore??) but the caldera there is tremendous 50 Miles wide(Norwegian Mile = 10 Km)
that hotspot caldera(volcano) must have been formed the same way Iceland was formed, maybe by the same hotspot ,and the Hotspot Moved with the MAR, so the Norwegian caldera cooled down, its logic,when the MAR expanded and the continents drifted apart the hotspot plume folowed and later formed Iceland??

and now back to the vortex, deep down there, of course its logic and makes somekind if sence ,the whole mantle and magma moves and rotates, and are effected by the rotation of the planet. as the oceans and Airmass moves,so there must be vortex movement down deep, probably looking much like large hurricanes and lov preassures,and they probaly rotates somewhat the same..
But we must not forget the large tidal wave ,from the moon.. the moon makes a large wave, that move with the moon around the Earth, and it retracts and expands every 6 hours,.
I recon that this is the same deep down under the crust, the pull from the moon and the sun must make a similar wave on the magma??

#63 Gentlemen, please! No grudges. Keep the interesting discussion going. Of course, there are brilliant experts here, to whom we are mostly grateful, but this is not the Academy. After all, what is the purpose of a blog like this? I suppose people are entitled to post their comments freely, and should be glad to be contradicted from those who know more, or at least, who are able to contribute with a different point of view. And in doing so, some light may be cast upon controversial issues concerning the invisible deeds of Mother Nature.
@Lurking's graphs may not be the state of the art, but they help us a lot, computer dummies, to visualize things from a different perspective, and thus, gives room to someone like @Carl to theorize with his own tools, in a brilliant way.
And therefore, thousand thanks to @Passerby whose keen eyes and ears are always attentive to detect whatever slips maybe made regarding scientific procedures.
Could it be any better?
Meanwhile, Lady E still shows signs that she might not be over yet.

btw, could man make a volcano , by drilling? if they drilled deep enough??

@Thor #67 All I can say with my poor Geological knowledge is that they've drilled into magma both in Hawaii and Iceland when exploiting geothermal energy. Well, if you injected water and dug a wider hole, hmmm... I don't think it could lead to anything much different from an eruption. But, to state that would become a real volcano, I don't think I could. I'll try to get the links to these incidents and post them further.

Aircraft... rainbow... horses... steam plume!
EyjafjallajÃ¶kull volcano eruption 3 July 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoM-U0hGORk

http://hvg.heinemann.co.uk/login.aspx youtube How volcanoes form click on this and you will find the page is broken but wait a second or two and scroll down the page

ignore the above link i got it from youtube the above you have to pay just look for it on youtube

god im dumb you can go on the link@ 70 go to the bottom right to his blog

@67 if we drilled in to earth and drilled into hot magma.the hole would cool very rapid and seal almost straight away you would need millions and millions liters of vodka {Topgear} and magma prove drill just to get the tip in it wont happen

ejaf is emitting a nice steam plume best seen on the

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull frÃ¡ Hvolsvelli cam

look at porolf cam mila down to the right that fog thing

so its totaly impossible to make a man made volcano?? im not so sure..

#76 @Thor That's the link to the post I mentioned:
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2009/06/drilling_into_active_magma.php
If they stopped drilling they feared something, didn't they?

oilspill Bp is man made i would class that a volcano.And why would you want to create a man made volcano?looking on the web its already been happening man made volcanoes.
Anyway could this be happening to Eyjafj,One such obstacle is an accumulation of pumice,which can create a massive stoppage in the magma pipes.How ever once the magma finally breaks through its barrier and explosion type eruption will usually takes place. taken from Topbits.com http://www.topbits.com/how-a-volcano-erupts.html

#69 Thanks for the new time-lapse, d9tRotterdam. There are so many details to see in it, I had to replay it a couple of times.

@78

Well... If a volcano is where something fluid/semi-fluid is coming up from the ground. Then yes. But it's more of a man-made Asphalt Volcano. Those occur naturally, but as far as I know, are not as prolific in their activity. In 1906, one probably went off in a violent fashion, but usually they are content to stay in an "ooze" state.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt_volcano

" Using high-resolution sonar equipment, David B. Prior from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and his colleagues identified the crater in 2,176 meters of water southeast of the Mississippi River delta. The elliptical hole measures 280 meters across, 400 meters long and some 58 meters deep, and sits atop a small hill. Downslope lies approximately 2 million cubic meters of ejected sediment.
Because the area is known for its reservoirs of hydrocarbons, Prior surmises these substances caused the explosion that produced the crater. As one possible explanation, he suggests hydrocarbons seeping upward along cracks in the seafloor might have collected under some impermeable barrier until pressure forced the buoyant gas to blow off its cover. Based on the crater's appearance, the researchers think it may be younger than a century old. In 1906, sailors in the area reported seeing bubbling water, which may have been caused by such an eruption."

Science News, Feb 4, 1989

As for the man-made volcano status... it's about as valid a candidate as the Sidoarjo Mud Volcano in Malaysia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidoarjo_mud_volcano

Well... ya got me to reading again.

The Sidoarjo mud volcano, if you can believe data derived from wikipedia, is still at the 100,000 mÂ³/ day flow rate. Over the period o June 06 to Sept 07, about 45,000,000 mÂ³ have come out of the hole. During this time, subsidence is estimated to be between 0.5 to 14.5 m.

Our BP cano... if you use the high FRTG number of 40,000 bbl/day, is at about 457,883 mÂ³ of total flow. 686,825 mÂ³ if you believe the higher flow estimate of 60,000 bbl/day that a University of Georgia scientist stated.

The depth of the fetid fizzling fissure in Sidoarjo was 9,298 feet. The source of BP's boiling pustule is 18,000 feet.

So... BP is over twice the depth, and at 6% to 9% of the flow rate of Sidoarjo. I imagine that things would have to get substantially worse in order for a caldera like depression to start forming at BP's shindig.

@Passerby:
Hm, I think you missed a couple of points in what I wrote.

But that is only good since I obviously was a bit unclear:)

First of all I agree with Ed (I guess that would be Ekoh), he most likely has a good and vallid point. Why? He pointed to something that might actually put my little theory out completely.
What is that then? Simply put (simplified), the internal resistence (friction times pressure) of the semi-solids making up the composition of the mantle might be to large for a vortex to be able to spin up.
But, and this might be a big but that needs a lot of thinking! That would probably make all kinds of plums go out the window. Because if the internal resistance is to big for one type (vortex) than it is likely to be to big for a straight up-welling plume too.
Intriguingly enough Ed pointed out something in what he wrote that is massively interesting and that I did not know. (That is why I love to chat with the real experts when I am out of my own field of expertise.)
The thing he pointed out was that plumes are probably made up out of hotter and more viscous material. What so great with that?
Well, let's say that you had a nice blob of hotter and more viscous material to start with, and that started spinning. Then that would slowly start to suck up the slightly colder and more "un-viscous" material. Whats up with that? Friction! Friction equals energy production, and that energy can only go into one form. Heat. So the un-viscous colder material would than heat up and go into viscous. That process could then probably keap up as the pent up energy just keapt on building up untill you had a vortex-plum reaching far down.

Passerby, I am very much aware that I am fishing a bit in my theory and that I am not in my field here. But, I am a good physicist and the logics is sound in its own way. There is probably something wrong somewhere in my theory and I am looking forward to someone shooting me in the foot.
But thing is that there is a plume there, the only difference with the standard model and my vortex is that I put into a spin since that explains a couple of things more than the standard plume.

Glass! If you re-read what I wrote you will see that I killed of the myth of glass flowing being visible. I was talking about the much slower actual flowing of glass.

Mantle-composition! You know as well as I do that nobody have taken a drill-sample of the material in there, so I do not really get what you are talking about. Theory is one thing, and most of them are probably correct, but without physical proof, they are just theories.

And Passerby, you idea of of hot water piping causing lowered earthquake energy during lunch was the funniest red herring I have ever heard. There quite simply is not enough energy around in the pipes for that. The Icelandic thermal plants are very small, around 20 to 80 megawatts each. And what it had with lunch I do not understand at all, unless you actually had a red herring for lunch. Think about it...
I guess you got it from the alarmist theory that the drilling at Krafla having started the "Krafla-fires". And that was ludicrous to start with since the energy in a drill hole is very small. If your pipes is a fly in the next block over, then a drill hole is like a mosquito in sahara affecting you. Word for the day, power-proportionality.

@thor:
Good points!
It shows how unclear I have been:)
I would like to say that if by chance I would have a point in my speculation of the plume spinning and being caused top down instead of down to top, I have to warn against even trying to use it in other places than this particular spot of Iceland since it is derrived out of the unusual circumstances of that region in Iceland.
I would also like to point out that it is a short lived phenomena (in geological times). This vortex I am talking of would probably not have been around at the times you are talking about, it was started and is powered by that unusual bend in the fracture zones and volcanic zones.
Let's say that the line from Hveragardhi to Kolbinsey ridge became the main point where iceland separated instead of the line GrimsvÃ¶tn to Kolbinsey, then the vortex would start to die off emediatly. But that would still require that a new line of fracturing opened up from LangjÃ¶kull to Kolbinsey (the part from Hveragardhi to LangjÃ¶kull is already fractured.

My point is that if my little model is correct, then it would still only be a local modell for iceland.

KVERT and Ebeko Volcano Lives!

KVERT released an update for Ebeko due to it's increased acticity on the second of july so it seems like they didn't die off.

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/avoreport.php?view=kaminfo

@Carl, the lunch thing was mine, Passerby just commented on it. I though it was as good a reason as any to explain an odd cluster in my graph of 18 to 21 km deep quakes that tend to occur in Iceland around lunch (1100-1200 UTC). There is also a more temporally diffuse and deeper group (25 km) that occur from midnight to three (0000-0300).

http://i50.tinypic.com/ve4zsj.png

The sample group is limited, only taking in about two and half months, and was more of just a weird plot to see what it looked like. I never was trying to make a point.

Well, for my 2c, Carl, I am very much enjoying the theorizing and debate. I like your style.

re the suction aspect - that reminds me of the push/pull discussion going on: i.e. as to whether continental drift is driven by the MOR pushing the ocean plates apart or, alternatively, the ocean plates are getting ripped apart by the pull exerted on them as they "sink" at destructive plate margins.

One thing that comes to mind about your theory is that if such a vortex is a product of a shear in the MOR it would suggest you would also find anomalous amounts of melt at other "kinks" in the ridge, like the Kane Fracture Zone off the coast of Brazil or the Chile Rise to take two at random. Is this the case? Or is the tectonic setting there "cleaner" in its fractures than Iceland?

ive just watch a movie called Magma,volcanic Disaster The core expanding they used nukes in the North Atlantic Ridge to ease the pressure the film was released in 2006

@Leon #86 Maybe you and Diane N CA should meet for a discussion (or laughter) on the subject. :)
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/07/mystery_volcano_photo_22.php #36

How strange thanks Renato also just watch volcano under new york drilling to make energy, both films gave ideas even the co2 that got mention made me think of the current co2 rise that has made headlines in recent months, Can volcanoes be to blame there no other answer than that surly, you cant see co2

@Leon: I didn't watch the film, but CO2 is an issue concerning volcanoes. I'm not quite sure, but I read there was a number of incidents in California (Yosemite Park?) with dead trees and people getting intoxicated in ponds. CO2 emissions are not felt, but can be pretty hazardous in high concentrations. But there are other volcano gases far more toxic than CO2 and the amount of CO2 produced by burning of fossil fuel (incident in the Gulf) or wood fires is far greater than that from volcanoes, but it will affect the whole climate not individuals as I think is what you meant.

my last question for today. looking at the Supervolcanoes monitoring system what does last activity mean? i do have an idea but iam not sure as some of them are saying current dates,example:Naples-Italy-27/06/10..New-Zealand-Toypo volcanic zone-03/07/10 and New-Zealand North islands again-03/07/10 as these have not erupted for thousands to millions of years. I have done a lot of reading on Yellow stone and there a two way debate 1 says no it will never erupt like has done the three times in history before, and other says yes it will!.i also understand that 2009 was a new record for increase in earthquakes worldwide with 2010 set to beat that with 150per cent increase.It seems to me that its quite possible for at least one super eruption to happen in our life time i say within ten years if the current trend continues,everything is increasing co2,climate shift/change, storms/hurricanes, worldwide cooling,volcanic with the Bp oil spill adding to the problems.maybe all fields of research and data science every piece info should be brought together to the table everythink has a connection or chain link possible or not?.

Renato yeah didnt think to add them its been a long day .what i find strange is that co2 continues to rise while worldwide temps level of.And i didnt say you watch the film i found it strange how i pick the same 2 film as Dianne.i leave you these two links he makes me laugh. http://www.accuweather.com/video/73146...major-cooling.on.way.worldwide…
http://www.accuweather.com/video.asp?search=co2

@Leon: I understand your concern. Maybe one of the problems is that one you mentioned of much information brought together (via Internet) but not in an evidence-supported way. You have to be careful with information you get: there are many websites that say whatever they want, with no scientific basis. And we tend to assume that problems happening now are bigger then they've ever been, but if you look back into historical data you'll see it is not quite so. Yes, we have concerns with a world becoming smaller and growing populations, affecting global climate with industries and all, but we also know that big peaks of CO2 have happened before, so we must take good care of this planet, which so far is the only home we have. But don't get stuck on those apocalyptic stuff , it won't happen as easily as it sounds. Yes, there are big volcanoes that formed calderas, but there's nothing "super" on them, since they've behaved most of the time as gently as other regular volcanoes.

@Leon #91 Funny video, thanks for posting. And take the good advice from it: enjoy the weather!

@Leon / Renato I Silveira

Back before I had this gee wizz graphing program, I did several plots of Yellowstone during a couple of it's swarms. ( it tends to have them ) The plots I did were limited to depth verses time in Excel, they were a hoot. You could see the depth trending up from the magma chamber and then back down again. I still have the Feb 2010 graphics from that.

http://i47.tinypic.com/207q8te.png

And an over view of where in the Caldera it was at.

http://i50.tinypic.com/520yhc.png

The 2008/2009 swarm started under the lake and slowly migrated to the North and eventually petered out northeast of Fishing Bridge. That area is where logically, if you DR out the historical track of the hotspot (15 million year run) is about where it should be at. Most of the sensible people were expecting a hydrothermal explosion at worse along the north shore area. Digging around the net a bit, you would find that there is a ridge with fresh rock that was found in the lake a few years ago. This was where the swarm began. It was quite the show... from a data plotting point of view.

Precious material, Lurking! I'll have to go to bed now, but tomorrow I'll watch them more carefully.
Good night everyone.

@leon 99

Leon, Renato is right. Take what you read with a big grain of salt. For example the info on the Taupo Volcanic Zone is just plain wrong. The TVZ had its last major eruption in 1886 which is just the blink of an eye in geological terms. Taupo itself has erupted at least 27 times in the last 26,000 years, three of which were huge eruptions by todays standards.

More to the point, the Taupo system is described as a chaotic system, meaning its past behavior makes it almost impossible to predict its future eruptive patterns and certainly frustrates any attempt to forecast any exact dates for a future eruption.

re my false alarm about Ngauruhoe. Have a look at this for some serious wind noise (there is a winter storm going through):
http://www.geonet.org.nz/images/volcano/drums/ch/wtvz/10/drum.png

Makes me more confident that Geonet actually did bump up its amplitude gain recently.

@bruce stout [96]

"...the Taupo system is described as a chaotic system, meaning its past behavior makes it almost impossible to predict its future eruptive patterns..."

{snicker}

Now where have I heard that before...

... oh yeah, the Stock Broker caveat:

"past performance is not indicative of future results"

@Bruce Stout:
Thank you for pointing out my obvious flaw:)
Now that I have read up on KFZ it seems like there are no processes like the vortex at all going on there. But, it is an old inactive fracture zone. Though I found some intriguing comments on it in an article. It is there mentioned that the KFZ has a slow rotation xounter-clockwise. That might, or might not, support the vortex idea. Mainly it is a bit interesting.
My take KFZ is that it lacked something that Iceland has, that I haven't taken into account. There is something more playing in Iceland I would guess. What? Help!
http://www.springerlink.com/content/m3276ul60127821p/

I found some other fracture Zones that was equally clean as KFZ that didn't have any volcanic signs, but then I found 2 that actually could have or had a vortex plume. I know waaaay to little about these volcanic islands to say anything really.

At Ascension Fracture Zone you have some features that actually look quite a bit like Iceland with local ridges pushed up, complex rifting and a volcanic island close by that seems to be fairly stable. You also have 2 nice seamounts (Grattan and Stewart) close by. What these might have to do with anything I do not know. If, large if, there is a vortex here it is a small one.

The second is of course the Azores. There you have complex rifting, a nice uplifted bank (hotspot?), fractore zones, volcanix zones, what looks like a local subducton zone. Without having done any calculations or going indepth it looks very intriguing from my point of view and might hold a quite large vortex-plume. And I just love the pictures of the Good Morning volcano:)

Another thing I noticed is that it looks like there was a rather large island around the same spot about a hundred million or more years ago, and that the island cracked apart and that half drifted to the east, and the other half to the west.
If you look at google earth you will find Great Meteor Tablemount and Cruiser Tablemount to the East, and to the West the Rockaway-Yakutat Seamount. Interesting if nothing else. If that once was a large island, then that vortex would have been going, stopping, and starting again. That suggests there is some triggering factor I don't really get.

Nice question Bruce!

@ lurker.. my history on the share market is absolutely abysmal. The only think I have ever half-way prophesized correctly (apart from having my account tax-barred which I am getting pretty good at predicting) is the eruption at Fimmvorduhalsi.

@ Carl, it's interesting you mentioned the Azores as I looked at those in Google Earth while zooming around the planet's MOR's and thought, hmm, they're could be another candidate for your theory. BTW, what is that massive circular feature directly south of Sao Miguel Island and stretches all the way to Sao Pedro? Looks like an impact crater but I am reticent to read too much into Google Earth as there are some artifacts in there (look at the scar crossing the Kermadec Trench for example).

@Bruce:
Are you looking at "the collapsed caldera-mathingy" between Sao Miguel and Sao Maria?
If that is the crater-like thing you are talking about I would guess it is a collapsed caldera. You have 3 small rim islets in the south-east.

I guess you could get vorticii as soon as you have complex rifting. But it would of course never occur close to subduction volcanos.

Thing is that one should really check which of the volcanos are still active. It probably is a Hawaii like moving hotspot since the islands are stringed out like that. But if the volcanos are "active" on most islands in the chain, then it would be a vortex candidate. Off to read up on the azorian volcanos for me.

@Bruce part II
Just looked at the sum of volcanos in the azores. Pretty much all of the main volcanos in the eastern grouping are active like crazy. The 2 islands to the west of MAR seems to be less active, and for obvious reasons I totally disregarded Madeira since the inly reason for their inclusion in the azores seems to be political and not sub-surfaces tectonical;)
I would say the likelihood increased of this being another place with surface static plumes that can be explained with a collection of vortix-plumes.

Carl, yep that's it. If its volcanic its bigger than Toba!
100 km x 70 km.. that's just a wee bit too far on the side of mind-boggling, so for the moment I'll just assume it's another artifact.
I'm at work at the moment but I'm itching to read up more about the Azores now!! All I know is they have some pretty impressive calderas for a MOR setting so there is obviously much more at play here too, just like Iceland in fact!

check out the activity right now, july 5, EDT 9:13 AM, on Bardabunga, Iceland. A 3.0 --if verified.

Hello everyone, I am really enjoying reading your comments about the worldwide volcanic activity.

I have been looking at the sheer number of volcanoes located in Iceland and I am awestruck at how many there are in a relatively small area. I brought Iceland up on Google Earth and zoomed in just enough to see the water surrounding the island, it almost seems that the entire island is just the peak of a large caldera, if you look just south of the island you can almost see where there was a very large lava flow at one time

Not quite the peak of a giant caldera... what exactly is down there is a subject for discussion. Hotspot, Underlying oceanic crust fragment... it gets kicked around a bit. Iceland is about 40km thick in the vicinity of GrÃmsvÃ¶tn and about 20km thick near EyjafjallajÃ¶kull. It has lots of volcanoes, some of them active, sits astride a spreading center (Mid Atlantic Ridge) and to top it off, has all these neat quake stacks poking up through the crust... usually to a pre-existing volcano.

30 Days of Quakes - 5 June to 5 July, perspective view looking North West.

http://i46.tinypic.com/331d287.png

@106 i like your graphs looks easy to read and to my question of above i dont believe in everythink i read thats why i ask you all here you seem to know what your taking about.i got the supervolcanos info from National association of radio Distress and infocommunication [Emergency and Disaster infomation services]EDIS. havaria@rsoe.hu or http://hisz.roes.hu/alertmap/index2.php and lot of them showed recent activity[meaning EQ or Tremor] as you go on to this site you get a map of the world scroll out and you get all this info

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/

@#106 Lurking,Hi,

Do you remember back around a month ago you did a correlation graph showing 'quakes under both Eyja and Katla,looking North ? Any chance of an updated one from 01/06/2010 to 05/07/2010.
Many Thanks in advance,Adrian.

Well, as of right now they don't show any quakes there on the 5th. (19:01:00 on the 4th is the latest)

But here is a rendition from June 1st to July 5th, view North.

http://i49.tinypic.com/fdvrz4.png

Lurking,many thanks thats great.Seems to be more quakes under Godabunga....New fissure that you we're wondering about ? I tend to agree.

Yeah,I know,a lot of speculation ! Who knows etc..

A plan view of that area was placed in "Mystery Volcano Photo #22" at post 46, but it only covers 12 to 13 days of quakes.

i47.tinypic.com/jl15dv.png

Umm, I tried copy/pasting that link but it just took me back here.

Well, many browsers will auto complete for you.

I strip the http bit off to keep from setting off the Spam Filter on the blog.

At three is gets mad.

Try this:

http://i47.tinypic.com/jl15dv.png

hi does anyone have a web cam link for katla, the one i have is switched off

I have two questions to post before I go to bed:
1. I was looking for the âmissing partâ (at least to me, so far) of volcanism over the so called âPacific Ring of Fireâ and I found out on Google Earth that there IS a belt of volcanoes in Antarctica closing the southernmost part of the circle. But no subduction zones showing. What causes these Antarctic volcanoes to be there? Mantle plumes?
2. I read that the rocks of SÃ£o Pedro e SÃ£o Paulo located to the northeast of Brazil are a rare example of exposed mantle. Are they quaternary or tertiary mantle? Was it caused by rifting? They arenât aligned with Ascension and Azores-Madeira archipelagos...
Donât bother to answer, but I would love to understand the processes involved.
Be back tomorrow. Night folks!!!

@Leon #116 I tried this one and works for me
http://www.ruv.is/katla/
Night!

To add to the science debate, The vortex idea is very interesting, one wonders if, to quote Nasa
'NASA scientists using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it affected Earth's rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the planet's shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters. The earthquake that created the huge tsunami also changed the Earth's rotation.'

This MUST have created currents inside the mantle
Now we know viscous solids move very slowly, and that iceland is pretty much opposite Indonesia on the globe, so perhaps the recent activity in iceland is the 'ripples' from Indonesia travelling around the planet and all kind of meeting at iceland and sloshing up.

Bit like if you had 4 people at each corner of a bath of water who all create a wave at the same moment, when they all meet, you can get a fairly large spike of water forming in the middle of the bath.
Its just a thought, and I'm no scientist, just an artist who has spent many hours observing the motion of things around me.

And reading through this http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050112194812.htm

' Earth's oblateness (flattening on the top and bulging at the equator) decreased by a small amount', which might account for the volacnic activity at the north pole,the earths 'waistline' at the equater got tighter, stands to reason the pressure caused by that has to be released somewhere

@Renato thanks but thats one i got and its blank unless they switched off

@#115 Lurking,Hi,

Thanks very much for that link.That data really is food for thought;got me thinking.
Thanks again,Adrian.

@leon [121] -

You must have the Windows Media Video 9 codec installed to play that one.

at121 arr cheers mate i did have this working at one time somethink must of gone wrong i have had to re install other codec as well a week ago. thanks dude

@Bev Wallace #119 - #120 And if you think in geological time span the EQ in Chile happened when the whole mantle was still sloshing a bit from Indonesia's EQ (since it only happened 6 ys. later), so it would add up to the shifts and moves. Can you imagine?, the whole S. America was displaced by ~3 m in minutes!

Hello everyone,

Speaking of displacements,the IMO have issued another severe gale warning for Southern Iceland;winds up to 40m/s.
Thoro cam is already starting to shake.......

July 8th--look at the Porosfelli webcam for the steam coming out? Beautiful view..not a cloud. Heat cam shows it as well. And from HVO, a good look too. HVO tremor plot does show a few little spikes, and a few tremors near Katla. Gale is passed now.

is pissed off thinking, Why they call it shipment when he send things through Car and Cargo while sending through ship...!!

is posting on Twitter that he is updating his Facebook status update.

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Friday Flotsam: Plume images and a restless (?) North Korean volcano

eklemetti — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:08:35 +0000

Friday Flotsam: Plume images and a restless (?) North Korean volcano

This week went fast, didn't it?

The Baekdu caldera along the North Korean/Chinese border.

The NASA Earth Observatory have been giving us a steady diet of volcanic plumes over the last week, including PNG's Ulawun, Russia's Sarychev Peak (a very faint plume), both an ASTER and Terra image of the summit region at Kliuchevskoi and finally a mix of plume and clouds over PNG's Manam volcano.
I wanted to also mention a brief article I ran into on the Changbaishan/Baekdu caldera along the Chinese and North Korean border. Although short on specifics, this article mentions a number of interesting (and potentially odd/wrong) things: (1) Baekdu is showing signs of "becoming active" - this is the first I've heard of that, but the article does mention increased seismicity, inflation of 10 cm since 2002 and an increase in surface temperature; (2) the North Korean government is creating "comprehensive countermeasures" in case of an eruption - I have no idea what this means, it almost suggests they want to come up with ways to stop the eruption, which is ridiculous; (3) that the recent North Korean underground nuclear test might have had an effect on the magmatic system at Baekdu - and this strikes me as 100% pure speculation. The volcano has a caldera lake at the top, known to the Chinese as the "Lake of Heaven" and a Korean-speaking population living around the edifice. If Baekdu were to erupt, it would be a very large problem for North Korea's already teetering economy and government - the eruptions tends to be explosive with the last coming in 1903. However, Baekdu/Changbaishan did likely produce a VEI 7 eruption ~1000 A.D., meaning any activity at the volcano should be closely monitored (which could be difficult with its location on the Chinese-North Korean border).

eklemetti Fri, 06/18/2010 - 02:08

Off-topic: "Seventh Graders Find a Cave on Mars" http://www.physorg.com/news196003436.html
It appears to be a lava tube "skylight" of really big dimensions.

Hi Erik,

i just took a look on Google Earth at the Changbaishan/ Baekdu caldera.Its a monster,thats for sure. Could be another case for media speculation though?.

Wow,

Big smoke vent alongside the old lake on Thoro cam !

And there is at least one more "plume" to the right of that one !

Umm,im not so sure now,sorry(Gets back under his rock...)

Could Baekdu produce another minor eruption? Yeah, no question. Will it produce another monster eruption?

Not very likely.

'Comprehensive countermeasures' probably refers to evacuating the affected population, presuming there actually *are* emergency plans in place for an eruption response.

The North Koreans, true to form, have heavily deforested their side of the mountain, which has caused erosion and probably affords a more significant risk to the locals than danger from a large and aggressive eruption.

@Birgit, last thread, cool micrographs. I like the one with "7" on it, too. Another one I like a lot is the one that has all the holes in it filled with tiny "boulders".

I have a quick question for you. Did you have time to answer my questions on the thread where you posted your first pics? If you did, I missed it.

When I took EM, I liked the scanning EM the best. I had some fun with that one.

On the Thoro cam, I think I see a water fall to the right of Gig glacier. Can anyone confirm? It is a bit of a distance from it , but it sure looks like one. It could be just a ribbon of ice, but I think it is a water fall.

I have also noticed a different area of water coming into the river to the right also. Not much right now, but here is a channel there. Has it always been there and I just didn't see it, or is it a new feature?

OOPS! I was referring to the small ribbon to the right of Gig almost level with the spot of ice in the crevice, not the larger obvious water fall further to the right.

Hi Diane,

Yes,I concur with you there.The water flow (stream or larger) from the right has been there for about two weeks.The waterfall I first spotted two or three days ago.

Baekdu is in an odd location for a volcano..what's the explanation?

What does anyone make of the light at the back of the lake area on Thoro cam ? Just to the left of the main cleft/split.

an amateur here loving the blog.

completely OT as it's not a volcano but wouldn't it be cool :)

--
peel.

Great time for the Flir cam to still be down !

@ #12 I see it too, it's really weird? If it was lava would it not be more black and smouldering, rather than bright and fire like? Probably some simple explanation though? The picture quality doesnt help though, the constant refocusing of the camera really plays tricks with the eyes!
I'm no expert here, just an Eruptions blog addict watching/waiting for some new developments!

@15 Marginata,

Its been there pretty well all day.At first I thought that it was sunlight reflected off of a section of ice.Now im not so sure.The light is very poor now but the thing is that that area is pretty big in real life.

@#8-#10, #12, #15: Sorry, folks, I think you are seeing things that just aren't there.

The two white spots in the ThÃ³rÃ³lfsfell picture of the glacier are, as far as I can fathom, freshly-revealed, clean ice: a bit of the ice has collapsed there. I don't see any waterfalls, they would move, and there is no movement visible. (not counting steam, clouds, birds, cars and planes.)

@ Adrian
I havent been watching all day, but know exactly what you mean about the sunlight, it can really play tricks with the eye. The bright light is still visible though, even through the gloom and it must be quite big, given that cliff face is maybe a couple hundred feet high (maybe?). I also thought that there was a lot more water at the bottom of the glacier, but maybe that could be a trick of the light.
I'm totally intrigued does no one have any suggestions?

Gawd I hate getting distracted by wandering thoughts.

Baekdu is â75 miles from Nuke Test #2. Reportedly, this was stronger than test #1 about 3 years earlier... though no radionuclides were detected. This has led some (including me) to the possibility that it was a faked nuke. North Korea produces quite a bit of Ammonium Nitrate for use in farming. If you remember, there was a train disaster there a few years ago was most likely a batch of this stuff going up. In mining, explosive shots (ANFO) are fired in a sequence in order to direct the shock wave and get a better fracture of the rock. A side benefit is that this keeps the mining blasts from being mistaken as nuclear tests on the seismographs. Boring a hole and dumping one massive charge of ANFO down there it not something that I would count out... though there is no evidence that that happened. It's pure conjecture on my part.

Either way, the USGS measured whatever it was at about Mag 4.7

This leads me to the distraction.

On April 05, 2010, a mine disaster/explosion occurred in West Virginia. News debris from that event still pops up now and then. The high levels of noxious and explosive gases hampered rescue and recovery operations, and most recently the news spit out the hairball about there being a "crack" in the mine that was the likely source of gas. Okay... if they say so. One thing the "news" never elaborated on, or even mentioned was that on the day before the explosion, 09:19:14 UTC on April 04, there was a Mag 3.4 quake (38.599Â°N, 80.916Â°W) This is 58 miles from the mine incident.. and the (poorly constrained) depth was above the level that the miners were operating at.

I'm not saying that the quake caused the disaster, just that the equiv energy was about 125.9 tons of TNT, or 7,943 mJ. This is about 1/10th of Hiroshima blast. That was the amount of stress those coal seams and rocks were under... squeezing out the gas.

But.. that was not the distraction.

I did a Joule/mile comparison between the W VA mine and Quake, and the NK blast to Volcano distance. I'm not real sure about the energy dissipation of rock, but if you use a linear relationship, the volcano felt 68 times the energy that the mine felt from the VA Quake. If you use an R square relationship, it's 58 times the energy... pick whichever one you think is the best fit.

Either way, not a whole lot of energy got to the piping of the volcano.

Just found this at Physorg.com "Like fireflies, earthquakes may fire in synchrony" http://www.physorg.com/news196090397.html

Uhh, I commented on this here briefly. I also contacted and suggested to the Mine Owners that there may be more to the failure than meets the eye, in that the surficial quake (at near ground level) that occurred the day before had the potential to cause a fault rupture and discharge/vent gas into the mine at a much faster rate than could be removed, especially give the faulty ventilation system (for which the firm had been found in violation, several times).

I believe the cause of the quake (in a relatively low EQ probability setting) to be climate related, specifically, rainfall related. Of course, the company never responded.

Their loss, not mine.

Did the 'nuclear test' set off the volcano? I concur with your back-of-the-envelope estimates.

No.

What is probable, is that climate is playing a role in disturbance in the northern latitudes.

For a potential answer, we need to look at a trends that has been evaluated quite a few times by many reputable research groups.

A paper that addresses some of the result variability appeared in the journal Nature on May 20.

Robust warming of the global upper ocean. There is a figure in that paper that we want for purposes of our discussion here.

Figure 2: OHCA curves (upper ocean-heat content anomalies), 1993-2010.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v465/n7296/fig_tab/nature09043_F2…

Study this one carefully. Think about the patterns of activity in Iceland in the same time period.

I believe you have been party to our technical discussions on cause. I've discussed at length upper ocean heating and current transfer of that heat to air in the temperate coastal maritime environment of South Iceland, and its effect on glacier recession.

Our Eyjaf's glacier has been the most affected by glacier recession.

Now, the idea here is that this glacier thinning and outlet recession (very vivid photos have been posted here by others) has displaced many thouands of millions of tons of water from the icecap to the surrounding environment in the flood plains over a very short time period. It can and does exert a large force potential on a very dynamical force-couple and moment (horizontal plane pivot from the coastal land mass being sqeeeezed between expanding MAR relict limb and Reykjanes peninsula/WVZ interface) system that Eyjaf sits on, with respect to the SISZ and southern terminus of the EVZ/interplate region.

Thinning of the icecaps and rebound is one of several complex mechanisms in action here in the eruption of Eyjaf, and they have a common source.

Brought forward from earlier thread in the hopes that someone might be able to answer:

On the charts at

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/gps/predorb/theypred.html

will the upper-limit on the chart (specifically the North chart) be adjusted if inflation increases beyond +20? After staring at it for so long, this is the first time I've noticed the reading this high.

Thanks in advance.

Also, FWIW I too thought the white on the right of the Thoro cam was a waterfall for the past few days.

There have been two deep earthquakes in this are over the past few months. Both of them where at the depth of +500km or more (I don't remember).

It might well be that this volcano is becoming active. But don't count on North Korea telling you that it is.

@Princess Frito

Yes, the scale will be adjusted when needed; on the same page there's the vertical movement plot that's +/-60 millimeters, which, I'm sure, started with a smaller scale.

I found one large deep EQ back in February at the NK-China border, nearly 7.0 at 350 miles deep.

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2010/eq_100218_swaf/neic_swaf_h.html

From the look of the historical seismicity maps, this isn't an uncommon occurrence in Jilin province (couple of ripsnorter mag 8s on the 1990-present map).

Thank you kindly Kultsi.

I did notice the different scale of +/-60 for the "Up" but (and my memory might be failing me) I don't ever remember seeing the upper limit of +20 for the North and East scales adjusted higher when readings got close to it but then I've never seen the top of the little black bars go beyond +20 until last night.

Thanks again for your response. I'll keep an eye on it :)

@Diane #8
"On the Thoro cam, I think I see a water fall to the right of Gig glacier. Can anyone confirm?"
I have noticed that too, earlier today, and now it's still quite visible.

Any comments on EQs and tremor plots under Eyjaf today?
Weel, guys, I must hit the bed now. Be back tomorrow!

A last look at ThÃ³ro cam and I notice a tiny eruption at the crater ...

Sorry. Looking better I can see these are cliffs behind the regular steaming that looked like lumps of tephra. Good night everyone!

Boy, you know you've hit the big time when the NYT's travel section recommends buying insurance against volcanic clouds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/travel/20prac.html?src=me&ref=travel

Wow, just back from a trip to southern Calif and there is so much catch-up to do here. Juicy material, thanks all! Incidentally, my host there felt the two recent desert quakes as gentle swaying but felt none of the aftershocks. Having grown up on the west coast, I experienced many smaller quakes and several big ones, including the Northridge quake in CA (as a kid) and Nisqually in WA. I also rode out the 1996 quake in the Kingdome, right after Edgar's home run. All this quake talk has me checking my earthquake insurance policy (I do have one). Calling my agent Monday to update my insured value. It's too low. Back to catching up...

Here is an oddity - Giant sinkholes appearing across china.

http://itn.co.uk/b7a2345bae65fa99ada8d962eec50f25.html

@Diane#7
Sorry Diane, i must have missed your question on the earlier thread. Could you ask again, please?

@ JulesP[33]

Odd. Any connection to massive aquifer usage? I know that they have an issue with water availability in some areas.

Shift the water table in the right geological settings and you get sinkholes.

Lurking
I know that some areas of China have had prolonged and severe drought conidtions over the last couple of years, especially mongolia, so your suggestion makes sense. They must have been tapping deep water reserves to keep irrigation and water supply going.

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/natural-disasters/katla-volcano-10x-100x-…

Katla could it be 100 times as big as the last one?

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/h…

Now there is a live link to watch the Oil Volcano in the gulf

hi me again just looking at Greg on the Bp oil spill on the live link that not good.Been looking through North Altantic logbook live journal by Michaelix,Can Jonkulhlaup debris cause undersea landslipes if Katla erupted.What are the odds on this? and if so do the governments know bout this?As media only pointed out ash risks fallout and Tempature fall on the climate for a year or so,But no mention this.

Off topic, but would be very interested in people's thoughts:

"L'Aquila, June 3 - Experts who told L'Aquila city officials there was no risk of an earthquake six days before last year's catastrophic quake are under investigation for gross negligent manslaughter, prosecutors said Tuesday."

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/content/prosecutors-probe-experts-who-said-l…

The gist of it seems to be that because the experts said that a series of small quakes didn't necessarily mean that a large one was on the way, that they are culpable for the fact that many people did not leave their houses six days later when the big quake struck, and are thus responsible for the death of 300 people.

That seems like a stretch to me. I've read a little bit about how it's possible to map stress shifting through well understood fault systems, as in Turkey, but not that it's possible to predict the timing of a quake. For less well understood systems (and I don't know how well understood this faultline was) it must be pretty hard to be able to say what's coming.

Reminds me of volcano prediction, where some people seem to expect scientists to magically produce a date and time of eruption.

What I worry about - in addition to the future that these scientists face - is the chilling effect it might well have on research in EQ/volcano prediction in Italy.

@40 Hi Suw! It strikes me that that sort of 'it's their fault' thinking also goes along with the idea that someone could 'do something' about Eyja's ashfall...serious lack of general public basic scientific knowledge about their own surroundings. Some people ready to capitalize on the 'opportunity' provided. Schools should teach not only science 'mechanisms' but realistic views of our only-too-human ability to predict anything. We are able gain inklings but not necessarily hard-and-fast truths.

RE (#37): The last two eruptions in Katla following eruptions in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull was rather small as far as I know. ;)

"Probabilistic model for eruptions and associated flood events in the Katla caldera, Iceland"
http://www2.verk.hi.is/vhi/vatnaverkfrstofa/greinar/Probabilistic_model…

"Postglacial lava production in Iceland"
http://www-old.isor.is/~ah/dr/AH6_eruptions.pdf

"Volcanic hazards in Iceland"
http://www.almannavarnir.is/upload/files/Volcanic%20hazards%20in%20Icel…

i dont agree with any1 being charge for any natural event anywere in the world were human life has died we can not prevent or stop every think that can happen.If anythink maybe up scale the square radius to the earthquake area so includes a larger area maybe.im going to have to go with the experts on this one and Suw comment prosecutors should drop this all together

Whats going on with the tremor plots? Increased activity overnite....

RE (#37): The last two eruptions in Katla following eruptions in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull was rather small. ;)

"Probabilistic model for eruptions and associated flood events in the Katla caldera, Iceland"
www2.verk.hi.is/vhi/vatnaverkfrstofa/greinar/Probabilistic_model.pdf

"Postglacial lava production in Iceland"
www-old.isor.is/~ah/dr/AH6_eruptions.pdf

"Volcanic hazards in Iceland"
www.almannavarnir.is/upload/files/Volcanic%20hazards%20in%20Iceland.pdf

Hello to all,

@43 Renee.Hi,I think that the I.M.O. have lowered the tremor amplitued on some of the Helicorders.Try this link,http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/eyja_trem_eruption.png.It really puts the recent activity (or lack of) into perspective.

@43 Renee.Profuse apologies,just checked the link I gave you to find that it is old.Try this one.http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

@ Adrian Thankx for the link I did compare and I realize that the activity we are seeing now is way down compared to before. I tend to watch the smaller daily changes right now and they are increasing almost a sine wave until todays activity which is the highest of late on the graph

@47 Renee,

Hi,yes,todays activity has been high and there has been a small rise in the number of Quakes in the vicinity.

@suw: local officials are seeking a legal scapegoat for blame. The hazard map is the tool they should have used, not simply checking views of geologists.

But more importantly, the level of damage sustained and loss of life reflect the degree of earthquake preparedness, especially in enforcement of building codes.

Historical seismicity 10-year map, USGS, for the quake.
neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2009/eq_090406_fcaf/neic_fcaf_h.html

Italy is one of the most earthquake prone nations in the world. The investigation is assinine and officials are making fools of themselves.

There is no shortage of geotechnical and civil engineering specialists who would back a counter-investigation, of civil authority culpability for failure to anticipate the eventuality of a damaging quake and lack of code enforcement to prevent loss of life and property damage, with aggravating factors in the underlying geology of the city that magnified risk disproportionately to the surrounding area.

From the wikipedia page:

'Earthquakes mark the history of L'Aquila, a city built on the bed of an ancient lake, providing a soil structure that *amplifies seismic waves*.

Second aggravating factor: \'According to firefighters and other rescuers, some concrete elements of the fallen buildings "seemed to have been made poorly, possibly with sand"'

Historical evidence of exceptional susceptibility:
The city was struck by earthquakes in 1315, 1349, 1452, 1501, 1646, 1703, and 1706. The earthquake of February 1703, which caused devastation across much of central Italy, largely destroyed the city and killed around 5,000 people.'

'The main earthquake was preceded by two smaller earthquakes the previous day.'

The crux of the issue is that small slip movements were hinting at accumulated stress that had not been relieved for hundreds of years in the complex fault system in this region.

It would be next to impossible to accurately forecast the date and time of fault rupture. Even if an accurate forecast were made, the nature of the sediment base is such that, even when people are out-of-doors, they may be subject to serious injury or death from falling debris, ground ruptures or landslides.

The geophysical community would be HAPPY to explain principles of liquifation physics and risk to local officials and prosecutors in terms even simpletons can comprehend.

The Italian experts under scrutiny need only reach out to their colleagues in Seattle for supportive testimony.

Birgit #34 I don't remember all of it, but here goes.

I was wondering what you coated the ash with to prevent charging. When I took EM, we were mostly using carbon arcs in the vacuum evaporator. I know things are way more advanced now than when I took the course to be a tech. We also used germanium and one other metal that I don't remember what it was. I also want to know if you were using secondary or another of the ways you can use to get the micrographs. When takeing EM we uses secondary and backscatter and we did some x-ray anaysis also. A friend of mine gave me a piece of metal for my rock & mineral collection and when I put it in the scope, it turned out to be strontium. That blew me away.

It has been a long time since I took EM and I never did get a job as a tech. I came close, but now I am glad in a way I didn't get one. The chemicals in the lab were not exactly what I needed to be around.

I have a funny story about what someone did at UC Berkely. There was a PhD person that wanted to look at a frog. He stuck the entire frog into the scanner and, well, you can imagine what happened then. What a mess that must have been!

The Cenapred webcam for Popo is showing steady steaming activity this morning.

http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/popo/UltimaImagenVolcanI.html

@35, 36 - On the Chinese sinkholes: not drought, but heavy rains, in karst areas with a notable history of mining activity.

Refereence: The formation of sinkholes in karst mining areas in China and some methods of prevention. Zhou Wanfang Environmental Geology May 1997. Second paper in March 1999, same title, with Li Gongyu, Engineering Geology vol 52.

The three factors identified by the author(s) in the formation of China sinkholes in these metals and coal mining areas are: the presence of caves in karst formations, thin overlying soil strata (highly permeable substrate), and recent water activity (flooding, suction).

Passerby #50. They ARE reaching out for support. Just look at some of the 4500 (and counting) signatories ( http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/archive.php ) to INGV's open letter/petition to the President of Italy ( http://www.mi.ingv.it/open_letter/ ).

In the meantime, why aren't we hearing more about this travesty from the rest of the world media?

@MJKBK, we are probably not hearing about it because it isn't important enough yet to the media. It isn't a disaster, you see. And right now most of the media stuff is either on the gulf oil disaster or the World Cup. I think it is so stupid to charge people for something they had no hand in. Some people are just not thinking here. It is the blame game again and I doubt they will listen to anybody. I hope I am wrong about that, but Italy is what it is: Burlisconiland.

@ Greg[38]

A wider link that gets you access to all of the bot video feeds is:

www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033572&contentId=7062605

My Fav are the Skandi Neptune ROVs. They provide a N: and E: coordinate set. It took a while to figure it out, but a friend and I puzzled over it and came to the conclusion that it reads in feet. The equator (according to Google Earth) is ROUGHLY 10419719.52 feet from the site. The site position was derived from a planning chart overlaid on Google Earth and the actual position is only as good as my eye/hand coordination. However, it was good enough to show that the N: value is probably reference to the Equator. The E: coordinate was more tricky. Underwater navigation is usually accomplished by setting up an acoustic array that is geo-referenced by the controlling unit. Best I could figure, this was somewhere around 92Â° West Longitude. This makes sense, since that cuts roughly though the middle of active oil field region of the GOM. It still adds a lot of ambiguity for the casual observer when trying to figure out where the Bots are at on the seafloor.

With patience comes rewards. I caught one of Skandi Neptune's ROV's in the handling bay on the ship being hosed down and looked at. At that moment in time, MarineTraffic.com showed Skandi Neptune at 28.738770Â° -88.368900Â°. Bingo. A second fix that logically fit with a previous ROV/Skandi Neptune observation. The coordinates from Marinetraffic are the ones that come in via an automatic system that the ship's nav system broadcasts.

So.. with that, and working out the coordinates using an Earth Radius of 20855487.84 feet... (converted from Wikipedia) I was able to put this chart together:

Enjoy.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2i76ydd.png

Indeed, we're thinking of a more direct approach: frontal assault.

Additional perspective of the issues is warranted here.

Excellent seismic perspective, in a recent article with risk evaluation: 2009 L'Aquila Earthquake (Central Italy): an InSAR source mechanism and implications for seismic hazard.
www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2009GL039337.shtml
www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~richardw/laquila/

A tiny fraction of the existing structures in Italy meet Eurozone requirements for earthquake proofing. Italy does not require retrofitting of existing structures to code, even when modification permits for structural upgrades are made. There are issues of substantial cost and legal requirements to meet 'code' in new versus updating existing structures.

Low-cost, innovative partial-retrofit measures that afford baseline protection from seismic shock are needed, in Italy and elsewhere.

'After a reassessment of this complex geology three years ago, LâAquilaâs seismic danger was upgraded from moderate to severe'.

Not quite enough time to upgrade building code and make structural modifications to newer buildings, but more than enough evidence that *ample* expert warming* was given of heightened seismic risk to LâAquila before the earthquake.

www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/23a-7d9-7-e

There is also recent evidence that the risk of another moderate rupture in historic building settings (very old cities) in adjacent fault systems remains significant and is therefore of substantial concern.

It is more than possible to turn the accusatory tables on prosecutors and serve the public at the same time, by highlighting these results and emphasizing 'geotechnical lessons learned' with 'further risk-reduction needed, now, now, now!'.

L'Aquila anniversary highlights need for better buildings. May 6, 2010.
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1005/10050602

INGV has not been sitting on their backsides, but working hard on better risk communication tools. Touche!

Are short-term evacuations warranted? Case of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. (2010) Geophysical Res Lett 37: L06306, doi:10.1029/2009GL042352

'Earthquakes cluster strongly in space and time, leading to periods of increased seismic hazard. During such seismic crises, seismologists typically convey their knowledge of earthquake clustering based on past experience, basic statistics and âgut feeling.â However, this information is often not quantitative nor reproducible and difficult for decision-makers to digest. We define a novel interdisciplinary approach that combines probabilistic seismic hazard and risk assessment with cost-benefit analysis to allow objective risk-based decision-making.'

www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2010/2009GL042352.shtml

Strong foreshock signal preceding the L'Aquila (Italy) earthquake of April 6, 2009. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 10, 19â24, 2010
www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/10/19/2010

Foreshock seismic signal series from October 2008 to the time of rupture may be useful as a risk diagnostic tool.

Another:

A group of collaborators (Russian-Austrian-Italian) have investigated VLF precusors to this rupture and demonstrated a diagnostic tool for forecasting earthquakes. This is not exactly new science with approximately a decade of previous publications in print (and we introduced the concept here by showing HAARP Rio signal match against Icelandic miniquake swarm energy intensity), but maybe useful to INGV in the future if it can be used, with the foreshock series and advanced communication tools, to refine elevated occurrence risk windows.

europlanet-jra3.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/presentations/11_VLF_signal_precursor_Molchanov.pdf

http://en.rian.ru/Environment/20100619/159491100.html

Russian volcano no threat to planes

The problem is that quake prognostication is difficult if you have a bunch of lawyers standing around ready to whack you with a lawsuit if you even try to hazard a guess. I'd much rather hear that something is up with a fault line from a Geologist rather than a tarot card reader.

If the Geologist is wrong, he looses reputation. If the tarot card reader is wrong, they make an excuse and another prediction.

#51 Diane
Nothing. I used a FEI Phenom http://www.fei.com/products/scanning-electron-microscopes/phenom.aspx
and fortunately the samples did not really get charged too much which is probably due to the chemistry of the ash itself. When you look at the ash under a normal mikroscope you can easily see that there are very different particles. They look like what Erik showed us in an earlier thread. In some of the samples i would say, 50% is volcanic glass but the ash seems to be magnetic and it is not easy to spread it out thin enough to get good pictures. WHen i do SEM images on pollen or insects, i often have a problem with the charging of the samples.
The SEM, i used, belongs to a Museum, the Ars Electronica Center in Linz Austria We have different Labs there ( RoboLab robots etc FabLab fabrication lab with a lasercutter and a 3D printer, BrainLab with a visucam where you can have a photo of your retina taken and email it home and a BioLab where we are cloning plants or do gene sequencing in workshops with our visitors. ) When i did the SEMs i did them with the vistors watching me and deciding onto which particle we should take a closer look. I did study pharmacy, so i have been working in chemical labratories but i am no tech but an Infotrainer, a person who does guided tours. The museum is trying, what we call an open lab situation, so visitors can get to see things which are normally not accessible to them or shown in tv shows like CSI.
Sorry that was completely OT

Oh and something else. In case someone here has ash from other volcanoes and would like scanning electron images done on it. Just send a sample ( very little is necesary for a SEM) We could compare it with the ash from Eyjafjalla.

@ Birgit [60]

I went back digging though the posts in the other thread to try and find the link to the images, could you please repost them?

---
OT: Rigzone posted a somewhat glitzy article about a heavy vessel (27,270 metric tonnes) that will be joining the spill effort. "the sheer mass of this unique vessel means it is perfectly suited to handle this type of large clean up."

It sounded impressive, I just had to get look at a picture of this vessel, the "Mighty Servant 3." The first one I found did not instill confidence.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2ni2kvt.gif

It seems the thing sank itself about 4 years ago and has since been recovered and repaired.

Sorry for the OT... this thing keeps nagging at me.

@Lurking [61]
You mean these http://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronicacenter/

Erik, I ran across the Korea Times article when it was six hours old and posted the salient information here plus a link to the (then) only publicly available paper on it, concerning inflation prior to c2002. Since you were preoccupied with end-of-term work at the time, you are forgiven for not paying due attention. ;) ;)

Looks like the obstruction higher up on GigjÃ¶kull has given up and the warm water is now flowing much farther - and is apparently dammed again.

@Kultsi 64 Good morning - I think that the dark area is vegetation - it never reflects, and in the afternoon you can see little silver streams cutting through it- but the lowest part of the glacier has had its face washed of a lot of ash, yesterday afternoon it looked almost shiny.

@Kultsi - on re-reading, I think you must have been able to see the glacier higher up this morning - It has been cloudy since I have seen it, so I don't know what you were looking at earlier- sorry - but I think if there had been a break in the ice wall, the force of the water would have carried all the way down?

@Birdseye (#65-66) - I was looking at steam emissions at the upper slope of the glacier. I haven't seen any increased water flow from the glacier and that's why I think it's dammed up there somewhere.

The rain has, indeed, washed the glacier face and the collapses here and there show almost pristine ice faces shining in white.

A glacier flood has started in the glacier river SkaftÃ¡r, they flood is called SkaftÃ¡rhaup and they happen regularly. Last flood there was in the year 2008. Follow this type of flooding there are usually a large spikes of harmonic tremor coming from the volcano area where flood comes from. This year won't be any different. In rare cases there might even be a eruption there.

Icelandic news on this flood.

http://www.ruv.is/frett/skaftarhlaup-er-hafid (Translate with Google at your own risk!)

On SEM, clearing up more misconceptions.

This Eyjaf ash is clearly HIGHLY conductive and carries quite a surface charge. We had several discussions on this interesting aspect, from the perspective of chemical composition but also a proposed charging mechanism and observation of retention of charge/recharging at distance.

Our sample is also known to be enriched in higher atomic number atoms, so the two conditions necessary to run the sample as is rather than coated, are met. Hence, no need to coat the ash sample. The ash samples could be mixed with epoxy and thin-sectioned to yield additional information on particle size and composition. This technique was demonstrated and used for analysis of Mt Redoubt ash from the 1989 eruption.

www.ees1.lanl.gov/Wohletz/MethodAshCharacter.pdf

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_electron_microscope#Sample_preparation

On to Lurking's comment.

Mighty Servant 3 was completely rebuilt after salvage recovery. Very common operation, although the ship type is unique. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Servant_3

Q: Why are they using one of the largest semi-submersible heavy-lift vessels in the world at the Deepwater Horizons oil recovery site?

A: They have to lift something very, very heavy. Like maybe the 450-ton blowout-preventer.

Q: Why might they be lifting the BOP? We thought it was there to put pressure on the wellhead to slow down the leak rate?

A: Conditions down below are a little more complex than we thought.

If you want to worry about what is happening in the Mexican Gulf, read this.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593#comment-648967

In the US Congressional hearings with BP corporate heads earlier this week, a question was asked about the integrity of the casing below the seabed floor. The response was frank but foggy: they didn't know the condition of the wellhead casing because they weren't able to test it and can't see into the well to examine it.

What we do know is that BP has given up trying to plug the flow of oil and appears to have reversed course, possibly to relieve pressure on the thin and poorly consolidated seabed floor around the wellhead.

If this layer caves in and BOP falls over, the rupture will be...a worst case scenario. Since the BOP doesn't rest on the seabed, it's being held up by the pipe and casing. The pipe is thin and apparently, the BOP is starting to list.

So, you would want to bring in heavy lifting gear, I suppose, to support it while you figure out what you're going to do next.

scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2010/06/worst_case_scenario_on_gulf_sp.php

www.theoildrum.com/node/6593#comment-648967

Remember, all of the facts aren't known and The Drum Beat reader report is 'knowledgeable conjecture'.

As bad as the Gulf spill is, the situation in Nigeria is now and has been dreadful.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-de…

@Birgit #59 thanks for the info. I had not idea there was even such a scope out there. Things have progressed so far from when I took EM. It was not an easy course. It took me four years to do a supposedly two year course of study. I have a two year degree and certificate as an EM/SEM tech. Used both scanning and transmission scopes. Ancient ones at that. The college now has an entire building dedicated to EM study instead of just a lab. I want to get in there and see what they have some day. I know they now have a microprobe which does a better job of xray analysis. One of the things I had to do was a quantitative analysis of Hexel hip joint material. Now that was 30 years ago so I know hip replacement parts are far different now.

BTW, I also had to be able to describe what the electron beam was doing when it was going down the column of the scopes. The ones we were using make the one you are using look like a simple OLM. :-)

Sounds like you work in a neat enviornment. I do know where I can get some ash from areas in CA so I will be sending you a sample when I can get to the area. Right now it is most likely under snow and the road is closed.

Sorry for the OT for the rest of you, but when it comes to microscopes, I get going. LOL One of my dreams was to be able to use an electron microscope and I was able to do it so I am happy. I would love to have one of those things you use, Birgit. I used to say I would like to have a trailer with "Have scope, will travel" on the side. LOL

@stigger[70]

The article seems to want to piggyback on the hype of the GOM event. Let's compare the two.

From the article:

'The government's national oil spill detection and response agency (Nosdra) says that between 1976 and 1996 alone, more than 2.4m barrels contaminated the environment.'

At 60,000 bbl/day the GOM event far outpaces that. 2.4 million barrels over a 20 year period (7305 days) is about 274 barrels/day. The GOM event passed 2.4 million barrels back around the 1st of June... and that took about 40 days.

On a lighter side... Crude oil averages a carbon content of about 85%. Living tissue averages a carbon content of about 18.5%.

At a flow rate of 60,000 bbl/day (2.5 million gallons/day) and at an average mass of 25 tons (short) for a Sauropod (Brontosaurus)... that's about 72 Sauropods per minute coming out of that hole... 4321 dinosaurs/day.

Sort of adds weight to that abiotic oil idea.

@Passerby[69]

Thanks for that link. Lengthy read but worth the trouble. It also explains this screen cap from 3 June 2010... it's an inclinometer affixed to the BOP:

http://i45.tinypic.com/2exy9za.png

Lunatic press seems to be of the opinion that the "sinkhole" will expose millions of gallons of water to "400Â°," flash to steam and cause a tsunami wiping out the Gulf Coast. All I can say is "so?" At 1000 psi the boiling point of water is 285Â°C (545Â°F) and the hydrostatic pressure at the BOP is what? 2226 psi? Good luck with that scenario.

No, the more plausible horror story is the opening up of the borehole to the ocean. I can find nothing factually wrong with the information in that article. I think that scenario is what's been eating at me. The stressful part of it is that there isn't a [expletive deleted] thing that I can do about it... let alone any body else.

*sigh...

@ lurking. Way back when I was in college, one of my professors was a founder of the zero population growth group. I remember asking him how he could keep working given what we knew then about the not-so-great-future. He said "You grieve, and then you fight on". My condolences.

@Kultsi, Askola, FI

Thank you for the SEM link.

Any one know how they (the 'not us' people) determine what the clasts are composed of?

Good evening everyone!
Someone look at HvÃ³lsvÃ³llÃ¼r cam. I think there's a plume rising above the clouds... (Toggle full screen mode)

#72: Thank you for the comparison. My point is that whilst the GOM is bad, people are taking action. Nigeria has lived with oil pollution since 1976 caused by Exxon and Shell (amongst others) but it is still happening and little action has been taken against them. That is wrong.

BP and the unmitigated disaster
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2010/06/bp-and-unmitigated-disaster…

@stigger [76]

I agree that it's wrong, but technically... what their corrupt government arranges with the oil companies is between them and their government. The Great Lakes Brewing Company of Cleveland, Ohio reportedly named their Burning River Pale Ale after the Cuyahoga River. It seems to have a habit of catching on fire... some estimates place it at 13 different fires since 1868. I don't expect the people of Nigeria to come over here and fix it for us or to do anything about it. When I was growing up in Central MS, there were areas of marsh that bubbled up ... "stuff" with the consistency of rubber. Again, I didn't expect some other country to come rescue me.

Bad? Yes, I do agree with that. But again, a corrupt government allows it to happen unfettered.

Back to Passerby. Later in that thread there is a set of two images that show what appear to be puffs of oil from the seafloor. Based on that Bot coord transformation thing I figured out (which could be wrong), it maps to a position 40 feet from the LMRP.

http://i47.tinypic.com/20fovbp.png

Lurking, I suppose my primary concern at the moment would be the consequences of applying dispersant directly into the spill flow at depth.

This is A Very Bad Idea for several reasons, the foremost being that the nonsolubilized plume components ('heavy ends', large polycyclic compounds) are will hover at low oxygen, low light levels and eventually sink.

This would explain the formation of the odd, murky subsurface plumes. The solubilized stuff is forming thin-film 'oil-sheen' surface plumes that will continue to thin fully disperse and biodegrade with wave-mixing action in the weeks-to-months ahead.

No such luck for the heavy residuals. The oil plage will slowly sink to the bottom, covering vast areas of the cold anoxic depths with a stiffly amorphous sludgy mass.

Out of sight, out of mind is the game being played here.

I went back to The Oil Drum website to look for telltale comments from BP that may indicate the corporate engineers knew they were facing bad news.

May 29th summary post:

'He (Suttles) noted that their inability to stop the well âscares everybodyâ but is reasonably confident (no success percentage estimates) that this (Lower Marine Riser Package) will collect the majority of the oil and gas.

Because they do not know the flow path of the oil below the seabed, it is difficult to estimate what is actually going on in terms of oil path below the BOP. Thus they are, again, trying something that has never been done before, but expect, based on the RIT, that it will work.'

'On being asked about the cleanup of the dispersed oil â he pointed out that the reason that the dispersant was used was to break the oil into small droplets. These are small enough to be consumed by the microbes in the sea, and thus there is no plan to do other than let nature take its course. For the oil on the surface, they are getting better at spotting oil pools and sending skimmers to deal with them. '

Huh? The BBC News website has a map graphic series showing the progression of the oil plume. Last two frames look they are reversed - bit confusing, since the LMRP would be gaining in recovery efficiency with 'tune-up' over time.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10309001.stm

@Passerby[80]

Humor is where you find it.

While doing my best to dig up data on the amount of spume that is lofted at various wind speeds, all I could find (so far) is information on the enthalpy issues... heat transfer to and from the low lying strata of hurricanes. In these papers, the idea of surface tension came up, having a heavy influence on spume formation. With that thought, I began following lines of info on surface tension modifiers... surfactants came up. Surfactants are commonly used in dispersive agents. How this will affect storm formation/efficiency is beyond me. I'm just a data monkey rooting around in what I can find, playing with the dots.

But I also revisited the Wiki page on Corexit, the dispersion agent being used by BP. Both varieties have unspecified sulfonic acid salts, but now the Wiki page has been updated to state:

"An organic sulfonic acid salt is a synthetic chemical detergent, that acts as a surfactant to emulsify oil and allow its dispersion into water. The identity of the sulfonic acid salt used in both forms of Corexit was disclosed to the EPA in June 2010, as dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate."

And looking that up I find:

"...an anionic surfactant and a common ingredient in consumer products, especially laxatives of the stool softener type."

Um... how appropriate.

There appears to be some pretty sustained tremor going on at Ngauruhoe in NZ (probably just got excited about the world cup):

http://www.geonet.org.nz/images/volcano/drums/ch/otvz/10/drum.png

AOT structure:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioctyl_sodium_sulfosuccinate

Too big to fit in enzyme binding sites (fortunately), because it has 'steric inhibition' written all over it, from a structure-activity standpoint. Sure enough, early biochemical studies show protein degradation (trypsin degradation of casein milk fats, for example) is blocked by AOT irreversibly.

Toxicity chitchat
www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v28je16.htm

We want section 2.2.5 Special Studies, and 2.2.6 Laxative Effects.

The section on pulmonary edema indicates that the surfactant altered the air-water cell membrane at aveolar-vascular interface (probably affecting ion channel and porin water channel function).

May explain the respiratory distress reported by cleanup workers, although it could have arisen from hydrocarbon fumes, too. Do not think it was the ethyl glycol monomer, because the AOT surfactant concentration was much higher than the stabilizer (predominantly nephrotoxic effects for the former) in the Corexit formulation.

*Real* interesting to find it reported in bile, as AOT was reportedly efficiently metabolized in rat liver.

I know you meant your entry to be humorous, but the toxic info turned out to be kinda interesting. Long ago, in a galaxy far far away, I studied surfactant-enhanced bioremediation of oil components.

Anionic surfactants, at the concentrations needed to efficiently disperse and solublize waxy alkanes and highlyh insoluble polycyclic hydrocarbons, were not kind to naturally occurring oil degraders in fresh- and saltwater treatment systems.

#69 Passersby, I have deliberately been trying to avoid the goings on in the Gulf of Mexico because the environmental, social and financial disaster that this has turned into is causing pain that I don't want to expose myself to unless I can do something about it; which I can't. I decided to read your link to the oildrum.com however as the grandstanding politicians, and the apparently less than open oil companies are becoming unavoidable on the news here.

I think that there is a need to explore these hydrocarbon bearing areas,as I see no sign that the move to a post oil world is going to be a quick one. It can also be expected that activities which are really pushing the envelope are going to run into difficulties from time to time. However to find that these operations were being subject to "cost savings" on a well which was apparently in serious difficulties is just ludicrous and negates any sympathy I had for BP at the hands of the US politicians.

The local press in Aberdeen "Oil capital of Europe" is staying very quiet on the subject, and while the US, Brazil, and Norway have all halted progress on deep drilling meantime, the UK government is still gung-ho about prospective deepwater drilling in the Shetland Basin.

I could go on, but this is more than enough for a rant.

@Passerby

"I know you meant your entry to be humorous, but the toxic info turned out to be kinda interesting."

Agreed. The humor is a dry one. It's a sort of "laugh or else cry" ifelse statement.

@Gordon

I'm not too happy with Oildrum. Lots of load this load that stuff going on in the browser. That or it's the four simultaneous Oil-Cam-Bots I have running.

I think I'm going nuts.

Mt Hood creaking again....worth keeping a note of

Beautiful view on the thoro cam now.
(22.25 Icelandis time)

If you perused The Oil Drum, you must have come across two 'must read' posts:

Waiting for the Millennium, Parts I and II.

Read them if you want to be *really, really* depressed.

@ Steve
Yes it is isn't it.
There is a long way to go before we see an eruption, if there is one.... but you never know.

Questions for Hekla

Hekla over recent time has erupted every 10 years or so. Are there any signs that it will erupt soon again, or did it not give much seimic warnings last time?

Last time there was a small pyroclastic flow. What is the significance of this.

@90: See Eruption history, on the wiki-webpage on Hekla regarding the most recent reports of magma chamber pressure. Hekla is said not to give much notice of an impending eruption. On the meaning of finding evidence of a pyroclastic flow in the last eruption, see

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hekla#2000

I now what a pyroclastic flow is, question is is it changing?

You didn't read the text, did you?

'Up until this eruption, it had always been assumed *that Hekla was incapable of producing the most dangerous of volcanic phenomena, the pyroclastic flow*.

----> This will call for a reappraisal of volcanic eruptions of the basic rock type, which up to now were generally thought not to produce large pyroclastic flows.

----> It will also require that the public and curious spectators who always rush to the scene at the start of a new outbreak, be kept much further away from the volcanic activity than was thought necessary during previous outbreaks.

How can you tell if anything is changing if it has only occurred once?

Ok, I don't usually read wikipedia anyone can write that :P

Well if it's occured once, maybe the system is changing?

Aww, come on Wikipedia is fine as long at you verify the info. It's good as a quick reference, especially if the sources are cited.

If you move to the political info, caveat emptor applies.

@Nick #90 and following. The pyroclastic flow at Hekla in 2000 was probably not the only one ever recorded at this volcano - there was nearly certainly one at the start of the 1947 eruption and again, during the first few minutes of the 1980 eruption. My bet is that these pyroclastic flows are generated by explosive interaction of magma (or rapidly flowing lava) and thick snow and ice, because such things have been observed at a number of other volcanoes such as Etna, Llaima, Kliuchevskoi and Pavlof. Possibly some small pyroclastic flows were generated earlier this year at EyjafjallajÃ¶kull during its first basaltic eruptive phase, when lava cascaded over snow-covered cliffs.

By the way, I am convinced that pretty much every volcano is capable of producing pyroclastic flows. At Etna we know of eight or nine cases in the past 30 years where small pyroclastic flows were produced, some by the collapse of an eruptive column, some by interaction of lava with snow or wet rocks, and one by the collapse of a sort of a lava dome. Kilauea is known to have produced dilute pyroclastic flows (base surges) most recently during an explosive eruption in about 1790. So I would refrain from saying that a volcano is incapable of producing pyroclastic flows ... maybe we should rather speak in terms of a volcano being unlikely to produce major pyroclastic flows unless there are significant changes in its plumbing system (as at Etna, where large pyroclastic flows occurred about 15,000 years ago when its magma was more evolved and gas-rich).

he he I was just kidding about Wikipedia. Thanks for the info guys :)

Yes Boris, GVP Hekla webpage list of eruptions does indeed list pyroclastic flows for the 1980 and 1947 eruptions.

www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1702-07=&volpage=erupt

Nice little article on the 2000 Hekla eruption that explains the mechanics of the initial phase that resulted in pyroclastic flows: column collapse following early explosive eruption, a function of magma water and silicic acid content, and probably tightly related to repose duration (result of previous publications evaluating older, plinian eruptions at Hekla - a familiar theme of theolitic primordial crust reworking and mixing, but with a twist - feedforward strain from the SISZ).

If one wants to know the hints of pending eruption at Hekla, look for:

sudden jump in thermal and SO2 emissions in air and groundwater are useful for fine-tuning eruption probability to a 1-2 day window; larger eruption window probability can be deduced from a drop in geothermal and hot springs elevation and in the nearby lake level and correlations with warm, dry seasons during the same time period (1-2 years in advance of a central fissure eruption).

SISZ activity is, as on the Tjornes Transform Fault system, associated with a sudden jump in deep fissure pore pressure from liquid injection at depth. Look for a similarity in general timing in the pressurization of the magma reservoir under Hekla.

Hekla dances to a different piper than the EVZ.

Lovely and insightful paper, crafted by a talented group of Iceland's finest, on the subject of the Hekla eruption of 1980-81, open access on the 'Net. Read it.

The millennium eruption of Hekla in February 2000. (2007, Karl Gronvold and friends)
www.springerlink.com/content/p25157781v031261/

The Hekla Eruption of 1980-81.
www.lsndocuments.info/Documents/wp0056.pdf

Hybrid magma generation preceding Plinian silicic eruptions at Hekla, Iceland. (2007)
geolmag.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/144/4/643

Seismic activity related to the 2000 eruption of the Hekla volcano, Iceland. (2005, Pall Einarsson and friends)
www.springerlink.com/content/j58611614567716u/

I would love to visit this volcano at least one in my lifetime. I have heard a lot about it and I wanna see it live from my eyes.
http://healthproductadvice.com/acai-max-cleanse/

KVERT has posted some more images of Klyuchevskoy(Kliuchevskoi, Ð²ÑÐ»ÐºÐ°Ð½Ð° ÐÐ»ÑÑÐµÐ²ÑÐºÐ¾Ð¹ ) at http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/klch/index.html

Steam plume visible on MÃºla and Thoro cams.
Another EQ near EyjafÃ¶ll:
Saturday 26.06.201018:51:4663.741-19.5511.1 km2.790.017.9 km NNW of BÃ¡sar

@103Renato,Hi,

Not as much activity as last night.Btw,you're on the wrong thread.Everybody else seems to be on the Mystery Volcano Thread.

Definately the best blog post I've read today. Just an FYI, my Motorola Cliq shows this page great in it's browser.

Pitty i discovered your site too late!

Excellent read, I added your feed to my RSS Reader http://www.acaimaxcleansereview.com

What youre saying is totally true. I know that everybody should say the same factor, but I just believe that you place it inside a way that everyone can comprehend. I also adore the images you put in here. They match so well with what youre attempting to say.

I know you meant your entry to be humorous, but the toxic info turned out to be kinda interesting. Long ago, in a galaxy far far away, I studied surfactant-enhanced bioremediation of oil component http://acaimaxcleansecanada.org/

Hello.This post was extremely motivating, particularly since I was investigating for thoughts on this issue last week.

It will also require that the public and curious spectators who always rush to the scene at the start of a new outbreak, be kept much further away from the volcanic activity than was thought necessary during previous outbreaks

Keep 'em guessing: Crazy volcano names

eklemetti — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 01:48:16 +0000

Keep 'em guessing: Crazy volcano names

On advice of Eruptions reader Ekoh, I thought it would be fun to try to come up with a list of the most tongue-twisting and bizarre volcano names out there. I know there are a few out there that I've only typed once (the rest of the time I cut-and-paste), so lets review some recent fun ones:

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull (Iceland) - everyone's favorite tongue twister.

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull erupting in mid-May, 2010.

And people are still talking about the how the ash crisis was handled.

Kliuchevskoi (Russia) - It doesn't help that it has like ten names to boot (from the Smithsonian GVP):

KAMCHATSKAIA GORA
KAMCHATSKY VULKAN
KAMTSCHATSKAJA
KLIUCHEVSKAIA SOPKA
KLJUTSCHEW
KLJUTSCHEWSKAJA SSOPKA
KLUCHEV
KLYUCHEVSKAYA

1994 image taken from STS-59 of a plume from Kliuchevskoi.

Make up your mind already! See a brand new NASA EO image of the volcano erupting on June 6.

PopocatÃ©petl (Mexico) - Mayan and Aztec names are always fun, but there is a reason that this volcano is usually just called El Popo.

El Popo steaming away in Mexico.

Aucanquilcha (Chile) - As I've mentioned, I did my dissertation work on Aucanquilcha, so I am especially fond of this one. Typically the first question I would get at any poster I gave on my research is "how do you produce that". Interestingly, I've never been able to find a definition for what the name means.

Volcan Aucanquilcha near the Chile-Bolivia border. Image by Erik Klemetti, taken in November 2000.

Some reader suggestions:

SkjaldbreiÃ°ur and Ãeistareykjarbunga (Iceland) - You could fill a book with Icelandic tongue twisters.

SkjaldbreiÃ°ur, a shield volcano in Iceland.

Pululahua (Ecuador) - I would have guess Hawai`i for this one, but nope, it is in Ecuador (along with one of my personal favorites, Guagua Pichincha).

So, Eruptions readers, what else can you suggest? Remember, we're looking for recognized volcanoes - not random features on the volcano. Bizarre names are good too, they don't need to be tongue-twisters. Post your suggestions here - and links to any info on the volcano too.

eklemetti Thu, 06/10/2010 - 21:48

Tags

volcanoes in the media

Popocatepetl

Pululahua

class participation

volcanoes in the media

A bit of ifonix googling suggests Aucanquilcha may derive from Quechua "auka" = enemy, rebel and "quincha" = pen, enclosure i.e. rebellious stucture which seems plausible. I can dig up the ref to support that when I am using a decent keyboard...

Hi Erik,

Not too much of a tongue twister but I do love Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai. A formidable name for a formidable Volcano !

Perhaps Mount Nyamuragira or Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0203-02=
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0203-03=

Or Emuruangogolak in Kenya
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0202-051

How about Semisopochnoi in the Aleutians?
Russian, apparently means "seven hills". One can see why some Americans informally renamed it after the active cone (Cerberus)

My favourite volcano names aren't tongue-twisters, though:

Kick-'em-Jenny
Blup-Blup
Billy Mitchell (was it REALLY named after the U S General?)

And what must be the shortest of all:

E-San (Japan, Hokkaido I think)

Ngauruhoe seems to throw non-NZers. Apart from the name, I kind of like the legend of Taranaki as well:

http://www.roundthemountain.co.nz/?PageID=1219

I'm originally from a Slavic country, so although I don't speak Russian, I recognise the meaning of these names:

KAMCHATSKAIA GORA = The Kamchatka Mountain
KAMCHATSKY VULKAN = The Kamchatka Volcano
KLIUCHEVSKAIA SOPKA = KLJUTSCHEWSKAJA SSOPKA = The Kliuchevski sugarloaf

Off Topic: Two interesting links: The first one is a documentary on the german news-channel n-tv (I play soccer against a team of this company in Berlin from time to time)about volcanoes showing Dr. Boris Behncke several times on the Etna. And then there are news about Katla presented on the very good German Channel 3sat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlZF24V_P8c Interesting the new theories about the connection or not connection between EyjafjallajÃ¶kull and Katla. (only in German). Oh and we had 3 earthquakes at Katla today - almost at the same time. Tremors are also very high again.

Great post! Some of my favourite volcano names: Emuruangogolak (Kenya), Tangkubanparahu (Indonesia), Kookooligit (Alaska). I like Karangetang (Indonesia) too, reminds me of a heavy metal guitar chord.

There's more on volcano names here:

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/from-throat-of-fire-to-many-b…

And this is quite fun:
http://www.thenewecologist.com/2010/06/volcano-names-infographic/

@Parclair, from old thread re: keyboards and accents etc - think I threw it in a few threads ago, but downloading "PopChar" makes it very easy to do other languages...works for windows or Mac. Not free but not very expensive.

Forgot to add that there are two new Eyja photos here, the last two - poor glacier!
http://www.earthice.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?pictureID=101642…

@Bruce - Great minds and all that... ;) I also thought of Ngauruhoe, which also is of undying fame for another reason: it's Mount Doom in LotR, the movie.

The maori words are not hard to pronounce, not for a Finn, once you learn that the vowels are the same, 'w' is 'v' and 'wh' is 'f'. Besides, many seem to have a meaning in Finnish, so they are easy to remember: 'ngauru' is close enuff to 'nauru' (= laugh [noun]); 'hoe' (= say something repeatedly [verb imperative]). Kiri Te Kanawa is 'finishing kick in a run - you [2nd plural & polite address form] - canal'. We put a lot of mileage in our words.

@birdseye (#8), Parclair, etc. - in windows there is also the program charmap.exe, which displays the character set, lets you pick them into your text, and it also displays their Alt - NumKeypad combinations. On vista, type the program name into the start menu, and once it displays in the search list, right click the name, select Send To --> Desktop (create shortcut), and you have the program easily accessible forever after.

I love Hawaiian Volcanos-- HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u and PuÊ»u Ê»ÅÊ»Å and HaleakalÄ and KÄ«lauea and....

I had a Hawaiian-speaking friend explain the rules of Hawaiian pronunciation to me, and then proceed to tell me a pronunciation for HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u that diverted from the rules! All those vowels! ;-)

Hah-- went to look at PopChar-- it's about 40$US. Yikes! So, tried help in Mac Finder, and up popped a chart complete with an insert button. Now, all I have to do is *remember* it's available. Heh ;-S

Pululahua photo appears to carry a malware sneaker (adware).

For me, the funniest names are in Chile: Tinguiririca, Irruputuncu, Llullaillaco, Mocho-Choshuenco (I would love to hear English-speaking people trying to say the first two. I'll have my friends here giving it a try).
I hope Ãeistareykjarbunga will never erupt, or I would have a hard time to pronounce and spell it.
I like all volcano names in Iceland ending in -bunga. Sounds very funny, and not Icelandic to me. (Is Google right? - bunga = bulge?)

Thanks for this cheerful blog, Erik.
When I was a child, back in the sixties, our family used to live in Libya for some years. From that time I remember very well the name of Wauenamus deep in the desert of Libya (translation: Oasis / hole of mosquitoes). My parents had once been there and found the name warranted ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waw_an_Namus

A swarm of persistent dust devils on the ThÃ³fÃ³lfsfell webcam at 15:55 local...

Once more, steam in the lava trench of GigjÃ¶kull, right at the shoulder where the flow drops downwards.

#7 Karangetang - I have a friend who used to write reviews for the Heavy Metal magazine Kerrang!!
The deep base rumble echoed across the valley, Karangetang had returned and was ready to Rock... Sorry, I can get a bit carried away.

#9 Can somebody please carry me away to the point that the photo of Eyja's ruined glacier was taken. I want to to sit there, take the view in, and think about what it must have been like when the lava was flowing. Looks like it so nearly made it into view of the Vodaphone cam.

Quakes under Katla, inside the caldera. From my very humble view it would seem that quakes has stopped under Eyja, now blackened (from white lady, pristine and untouched, to etchy scarred and black). Could the pressure now transvert to the bigger neighbour, or are the FimmvÃ¶rduhals still weak? I didnÂ´t watch the cam back then, could you watch the eruption on-line even then?

I wouldnÂ´t be surprised if we soon see new action.

As for volcanoes, I always have had icelandic volcanos at heart, shortnamed and strong, like Katla, Hekla, Herdubreid,and so on. Powerful names. Seems to be two cultures in naming volcanos, either very short or very long names.

Thing is though, they are all very shallow. Couldn't this just be glacial movements due to summer and warmer temps coming around?

Laura, I suppose they could be that, IÂ´m just speculating here :). But shouldnt there be quakes all over where the ice is then? It should be melting even more in the rim than in the middle and I remember right the ice is 600 m thick in the caldera. I have a hard time believing that sun on top should affect the mountain below. But IÂ´m no expert in this area. For a living I work with quality issues in the pharmaceutical industry, no EQ:s there on a regular basis...;)

While we all ponder what the eq's at Katla mean (if anything) would anybody who understands dilatometers be able to tell me if there is any significance to the Postpile graph at this link?

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/deformation/data/?region=LV&days=…

I lack any frame of reference for what the graphs mean, other than that all of the other graphs show significantly less deviation from the horizontal.

You could be very right snotra :) Myself- I'm in marketing, so even further from the science end of things. Just always fascinated by mother nature's fury. I agree with you though, on the rim comments especially. That's what confused me a bit.

Need some recreation here and have to stay in bed, having a cold. I want to watch volcano movies. Any suggestions apart from DantÃ©s Peak and Volcano? I have also seen "Supervolcano", staging an eruption in Yellowstone. I donÂ´t care if there not that good, I just want to spend some time.

Well, you could always watch the Gulf of Mexico "Volcano"

www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage…

They pulled the cap ostensibly to put something else on there, and the FAA set the whole area off limits cuz they don't want any prying eyes.

tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_5100.html#areas

If that doesn't work there is always "Crack in the World"

www.imdb.com/title/tt0059065/

@lurking Looks like access has been pulled for that BP link. I get a "forbidden" error.

viking 26: I have no idea if it's available anywhere on video or DVD, but the best volcano film I've ever seen was a documentary by Haroun Tazieff released in 1958 ('Volcano' in the English version, 'Rendezvous du Diable' in the original French). Some amazing footage covering eruptions at Izalco, Sakurajima and others. Wish I could see it again

Wow, a disaster movie from 1965. I have to see that! The Oil volcano is a disaster itself, but itÂ´s happening and thatÂ´s hopelessly depressing.

Thanks, Lurking!

The newly launched UCL INSTITUTE FOR RISK & DISASTER REDUCTION has published a review of the Eyjaf eruption.

Volcanic Hazard from Iceland: Analysis and Implications of the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull Eruption.

You can read the report executive summary and download a copy here:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/rdr/publications/iceland

About the Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction Information: Reducing global risks and disasters presents a colossal challenge that requires coordinated and collaborative action. UCL (University College London) is uniquely well placed to lead research in risk and disaster reduction, with at least 70 academics across 12 departments and 7 faculties involved in world-class research, teaching and practice in the field.

The Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, responding to the UCL Grand Challenges, will bring together this wealth of knowledge and expertise, and through research, teaching and knowledge exchange aims to overcome the barriers to understanding risk and reducing the impact of disasters.

Common themes of the institute include: how society sees risk, how to link understanding of the causative mechanics to statistical approaches, and how to increase resilience and reduce the risk of disasters; cutting across research in natural, environmental, health and technological hazards.

For further information and for a video of the launch discussion and question and answer session, please see the website on: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/rdr/

Viking #26 and mike don #29: There are 3 videos (in the original French) called Les Yeux de Vulcain, featuring Haroun Tazieff here. Amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fPbJgDKuRg

A short view of Haroun Tazieffs Volcan Interdit here http://www.maxisciences.com/volcan/1966-l-039-etna-le-volcan-interdit_a…

Is this the same youÂ´re referring to Mike?

The journal Eurosurveillance has published a study examining the public health effects of Eyjaf ash-fall over the UK in the June 10th issue (open access pdf):

Syndromic surveillance to assess the potential public health impact of the Icelandic volcanic ash plume across the United Kingdom. Elliot AJ, Singh N, Loveridge P, Harcourt S, Smith S, Pnaiser R, Kavanagh K, Robertson C, Ramsay CN, McMenamin J, Kibble A, Murray V, Ibbotson S, Catchpole M, McCloskey B, Smith GE. April 2010. Euro Surveill. 15(23):pii=19583.

www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19583

way back @4, Mike Don, Kick-'em Jenny is always one of my favorites. Very Caribbean.

@Jen

Link works for me... dunno why the "forbidden error." I don't use that one though, I took the akamai link from inside it and dropped it in the Video Lan Player(VLC), I've even been able to convert some of the feed to a file on the fly for later viewing.

From inside the page linked:

mfile.akamai.com/97892/live/reflector:46245.asx

Stigger & Snotra Viking: Nope, both of these are later (Tazieff made a number of documentaries) In fact, I think I saw the YouTube one while I was looking for his 1958 film

EKoh: out of curiosity, I once googled to find the origin of that name. Allegedly it took its name from a nearby islet of that name; which in turn is the Anglicised pronunciation of a French name (which I can't right now remember) translating as "the troublesome cay" Believed to refer to the odd and unpredictable currents in the area

Which made me think about a posting here on another thread by Passerby about eddy currents and whirlpools developed at the surface by otherwise undetectable eruptions at depth. After all Kick-'em-Jenny wasn't discovered until 1939, and might well have erupted at depth many times before that..who knows?

A lake has formed in the crater!

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/1884

That's one thought that never even crossed my mind! Is this lake something that can remain or is it a temp thing? This would make another eruption from this crater a bad thing.

@ 26 snotra viking: More volcano films:
Magma: Volcanic Disaster (2006, tv)
Trailer works better after clicking on "replay" button; by the third time you can see more picture and the sound is synched up. You only have to see the commercial once. ("expedition to Iceland", could "extinguish every living thing on this planet","Are you seriously considering the global launch of nuclear warheads....") http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445548/

Joe vs. the Volcano (1990), Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, an adventurous comedy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099892/

Volcano: Fire on the Mountain (1997, tv), Dan Cortese, Cynthia Gibb
http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0120462/maindetails

#38 - Wow, exciting development. I wish they would publish high-res versions of the flyover images like AVO does. The details are impossible to make out at that size. Still, very interesting to see.

@Lurking #27 "Crack in the World" is one of those B or C movies that is sort of weird. I found it rather entertaining when I watched it, but I was rather young then.

@ Snotra Viking, there is one about quakes called Mag 10 or something like that. It is about the US being divided by a major quake. Hope you start feeling better.

I like Karangetang (Indonesia) too, reminds me of a heavy metal guitar chord.

@lurking BP link still doesn't work for me. I notice it's their UK site, are you in the UK?

Maybe access is blocked in the US?

Can anyone from the US get to this link:
www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage…

I have a cute name of a volcano: Sunflower. How it got that name I have no idea. It is one in the US.

How about Tungurahua? Not sure I spelled it right, but I remember some news people talking about how to pronounce it.

You could fill a book with Icelandic tongue twisters.

that book's already been written, and the Icelanders call it "a dictionary".

(/rimshot)

The 26th May report from link @38 gave temperature in crater as 300C per heat sensitive camera. Has there been enough rain and snowmelt since then to cool things down far enough for water to settle? If the eruption does restart from its current "pause", and in the same place, then Lady E will make herself heard with a big bang.

@Diane, thanks, IÂ´m at least enjoying myself, looking at various movies. Why is disaster movies so common, is it the ultimate situation? I've liked to see them ever since I saw the movie "Skyscraper on fire" a loong time ago. USGS says this on their page: " * Earthquakes
* Hazards
* Learn
* Prepare
* Monitoring
* Research

Earthquakes, Megaquakes, and the Movies
Lights! Cameras! Disaster!

Throughout the history of Hollywood, disaster films have been sure-fire winners for moviemakers. Beginning with âThe Windâ in 1928, Americans have been plagued by a âTwisterâ and âThe Perfect Stormâ. Weâve survived âVolcanoâ and âEarthquakeâ and âThe Swarmâ all followed by âArmageddonâ. Thatâs not even mentioning us getting through âThe Towering Infernoâ and finally making it to â The Day After Tomorrowâ. #

I just read on a weebpage about a chinese film called Aftershock about a large EQ that happened around 1950?

A few names from Latin America I like...

Minchinmavida in southern Chile - that was where the eruption of Chaiten was mistakenly originally attributed to when it first began in 2008.
CitlaltÃ©petl (Pico de Orizaba) - Popo's evil twin and Mexico's highest volcano. The Conquistadores must've found it easier to pronounce the other more commonly known name than the original Nahuatl name. "Orizaba" is actually a Hispanized version of the Nahuatl word Ahuilizapan (roughly "place of playing waters"). CitlaltÃ©petl is "Star Mountain" in Nahuatl (Nahuatl was the main language spoken by the Aztecs and is still spoken by a number of people in Mexico even today).
IztaccÃhuatl - this the other, more eroded volcano near PopcatÃ©petl.

I want to let everyone know that a lake has formed in the new crater in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull. But because of that, it is dangerous due to flooding risk from it.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/1884

snotra viking, I proclaimed my love of disaster books here not to long ago, and following the Robert Heinlein thread of 2 days ago, I came across an old favourite by DF Jones titled Don't Pick the Flowers (Panther Science Fiction, 1971) in my attic.
This managed to combine experimental drilling to the mantle, vast outpourings from a drilled pocket of nitrogen, suffocation of half the world, collapse of pocket and subsequent multiple tsunamis and Californian megaquakes. Our heroes escape meantime by mooring their boat in a Pacific atoll sheltersd by the crater wall of an old volcano

This combination should make it onto any must read list on "Eruptions"

@Renato #16: Yep. 'Bulge' pretty much covers it for 'bunga'.

@NN #44: Actually, we call it 'orÃ°abÃ³k' (book of words).

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

There is a small steam plume on the THORO web-cam from Lady E. This noble lady in not quite finished yet. And when Lady E starts up her next eruption phase, with the lake in her crater, things may be wee-bit "explosive"!!

Occasionally, a Google search will take you places you'd rather not be. Found while searching for the mythic Sunflower volcano mentioned by Diane:

http://www.tacobell.com/menuitem/Volcano-Burrito

*eyes rolling back in head*

@48 See #38, posted a full hour ago. Flooding risk?? Really?

Now, Brigid posted some cool SEMs of the ash, and her comments indicated that it was quite different than other ash samples she's examined. She was puzzled about a particularly weird image that she reposted in yesterday's thread chitchat here.

See this blog post, with definitive photo of the highly unusual ash deposits, from the Volcano Museum blog (Iceland).

http://volcanomuseum.blog.is/blog/volcanomuseum/entry/1019216/

I think I see a mechanisms that may explain how your extruded nano-oddity might have formed. Not seawater in this case, glacier meltwater in the vicinity of the crater.

Hmm... Wouldn't pretty much any Indonesian volcano fit the bill set out by this blog post?

@42 Jen, your link is incomplete. Use this link.

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/h…

Link below gives info and pictures on Pululahua

www.ecuador-travel.net/andes.volcano.pululahua.htm

Some Hawaiian fish names. Which may also be street names. I love Hawaiian, it's so very liquid in nature, but all those vowel ;-p

Lagoon Triggerfish: Humu humu-nuku nukuÂÄpuaÊ»a

Spotted Coral Blenny: PÄoÊ»o Ê» kauila

Big longnose butterfly fish: Lauwiliwili nukunuku Ê»oioÊ»oi

Cocos Island frill goby: Ê»oÊ»oopuÊ»ohune

#50 @Reynir: Many thanks. Sometimes Google plays tricks on us, but not this time. Still, it sounds amusingly non-icelandic to my ears. Every time I read "BarÃ°abunga" I smile. If I was to write a story about pirates I would name their chief "BarÃ°abunga". :)

Sometimes Google also takes you to places that warm the cockles of your heart:

vulkan.blog.is/blog/vulkan/entry/1061162/

Run that sucker through google, and hit the [translate] hyperlink.

Heraldur's blog, May 20th.
Photos of the eruption in the year 1821-23 EyjafjallajÃ¶kull.

Happily, Haraldur's blog post points to an instructive blog entry on another site that has a very interesting description of the last eruption, 1821-23.

visindavefur.hi.is/svar.php?id=56021

You should also run it through google search box and select the 'translate this entry', too. A bit more work to slog through the translation babble, but worth it for the facts gleaned. Maybe our Icelandic friends here will give us a hand with a phrase or two to clarify meaning in English.

A sad note to this funny thread: A Canadian tourist was found dead and his Australian wife is missing from an accident in the Tungurahua region, Ecuador. But it doesn't seem to be volcano-related: their car fell into an abyss.
http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/un-canadiense-murio-y-australian…

@Renato (#59)

A sad note to this funny thread: A Canadian tourist was found dead and his Australian wife is missing from an accident in the Tungurahua region, Ecuador. But it doesn't seem to be volcano-related: their car fell into an abyss.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2n1hvsg.jpg

The horny devil is up to no good!

@Raving #60
It's a tragic fate, indeed. They've probably been attracted there, just like us, by fascination and awe inspired by volcanoes.
I feel very much sorry for them and their families.
May this unfortunate success serve to us all as a reminder that volcanoes are dangerous deeds of Nature and should be regarded with respect and humbleness.
(Wish I wasn't the one to have posted the bad news)

Dawn at ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell.

Ring of clouds above Eyjaf on Mulakot cam.

Here's a riddle:

What's shaking?

Answer: Katla!
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

A note on the issue of high-res images raised by Carla (#40). With Firefox you can right-click on an image and click on the first command (something like "visualize image"; "visualizza immagine" on my Italian computer) see the image out of its web page even when it's not a clickable image (I have not found a similar command with IE). This will reveal also the link to the image, which in this case is
en.vedur.is/media/jar/myndsafn/medium/si-hj_11jun2010_075506.jpg
Now, if you delete, in the URL bar, the "medium" from the full link, it will allow you to see the full size image (if there is any, and there often is for these in-line images on the IMO site).
en.vedur.is/media/jar/myndsafn/si-hj_11jun2010_075506.jpg

Look, there are warm Spring temps that are heating of the icecaps and causing stress/strain tectonic release.

We have seeing the SAME PATTERN of small-quake groupings, on the Reykjanes Peninsula/Ridge, on the (thin crust) boundary transform fault-MAR intersects, North and South and beneath the large icecap of Vatnajakoll and related fissure systems just to the north of it.

As has been aptly opined before, you would need a concentrated burst of MANY miniquakes to raise red flags regarding volcanic activity at Katla.

I guarantee you, the forces necessary for rising magma to overcome the deep iceap of MÃ½rdalsjÃ¶kull and the force-moment coupling from the Eastern Volcanic Zone/Rift System and transverse forces from the SISZ and Eyjaf that tends to squeeze magmetic paths shut - is nowhere close being sufficiently present.

Eyjaf = MAR-interplate (vertical force) acting on thin crust (margin) + thinner ice-cap depth + accumulated *in-line* (horizontal) SISZ force-moment couple

Katla = MAR-interplate (vertical force) acting on thicker crust + much thicker caldera-fissure icecap + accumulated EVZ and *perpendicular* SISZ-EYJAF-force-moment couple

Big, big difference.

The driving force mechanisms (and there are several BIG players here - and simply not enough to overcome inhibitory stressors at Katla.

So please take a chill pill, sit back and watch your webcams, thank the folks who make so much technical information available to us for analysis.

And take each day as it comes to us, virtually, on the warm Southern Icelandic maritime coast.

I have the fortunate circumstances of living within a couple hours of all the Washington volcanoes, with the time and means to visit them. So, road trip! Where would you go, Eruptions folk? Seriously, I'm offering to put my camera on a tripod in any location I can reach without technical climbing skills, then I'll post them online for you to view. I've been to the (David) Johnston Ridge and observatory at Mount St Helens but it would be fun to visit this or any other WA volcano from a new angle. Any requests?

My vote, Carla, would be Three Sisters and the volcanic tube (Lava River Cave) area near Bend OR. The High Desert Museum is a must since you are in the area. Very do-able drive from your location.

If you could beam me there, Scotty...

@Passerby, thanks! I have put the Three Sisters on the list. I haven't been in that area before but would love to see it.

@Boris, yes, good reminder for 'hacking' the URL. I use "view image" a lot but I didn't try to test for higher res images yet, so thanks!

Dr Hazel Rymer, a volcanologist at The Open University, presented scientific evidence today suggesting that Askja, an active volcano in North Iceland, is showing signs of a build up to an eruption.

http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/research-suggests-active-icelandic-vol…

-erupt

*cough*

www.pressreleasepoint.com/research-suggests-active-icelandic-volcano-li…

Carla @ #67
Carbon Glacier Trail (see Google) Mt. Rainier.

Winds are low, but tremor plots are high at JÃ³n's Helicorders...

Risk of flooding in EyjafjallaÃ¶kull persists:
"Civil has decided to block public traffic to the location. This was decided at a meeting of civil defense today because the water has accumulated in the crater EyjafjallajÃ¶kull and risk of sudden flooding. Helicopter flew over with scientists gosstÃ¶Ã°varnar tonight to check conditions. She landed just before ten tonight(...) Although it is not clear how fast the water accumulation will most likely lead to run down GÃgjÃ¶kul. However, there is a high likelihood that it will happen over the next few days, "said Magnus Tumi. It is, however, every reason to restrict traffic to the location as the authorities have decided."
http://www.ruv.is/frett/lokad-fyrir-umferd-inn-i-thorsmork

Jon...your thoughts about Katla?
I didn't saw 7 eartquakes in katla's caldera in one day since i looking at seismic activity there

Wind speed increase showing on JÃ³n's Helicorders.

@Matte, Don't forget that there was rain recently - that will add to glacial melt, plus, there is sun almost 24/7 now in Iceland. I have seen snow melt in Greenland a foot a day in May/June, we used to mark it off on sticks for fun - so, movement around the top of the Myrdals ice sheet no surprise, I should think...lots of extra liquid to help. Ice is alive. We'll see.

@Renato, Wind are low. But there is a lot of human noise on the sensor this moment.

@Matic, I am just waiting an seeing what happens about this.

Note on Katla: Currently the amount of is just about normal background level. So while that is all easy on this. But I am still watching for a change in the activity.

Yesterday's Mulakot webcam timelapse, EyjafjallajÃ¶kull volcano eruption 11 June 2010http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtoqKyTEO1U

I have several favorites on the difficult to pronounce (or even spell) list.

Amchixtam Chaxsxii is a submarine volcano in the Aleutians: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcinfo.php?volcname=Amchixtam Chaxsxii
AVO's website will even pronounce this one for you!

Semisopochnoi is also in the Aleutians:
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcinfo.php?volcname=Semisopochnoi

Ingakslugwat Hills is a volcanic center in SW Alaska:
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/volcanoes/volcinfo.php?volcname=Ingakslugwat Hills

Again, for the Katla-worriers: The # and depth of quakes at Katla suggest to me that Katla is not waking up. These quakes strike me as near-surface seismicity related to faults or ice in the caldera. If we start seeing lots (tens to hundreds per day) quakes starting at depth (greater than 5 km), then we can start talking Katla. Until then, the seismicity at Katla is likely benign (volcanically-speaking)

5 EQ's over 5m on table between EJ and Katla

Thanks for the comment, Eric. Good to have some benchmarks to help us amateurs keep things in perspective.

@Jon are your Seismograms affected or can they be affected by solar activity such as radio waves etc or am I really off on this question?

Interesting images on ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell cam. Weather is deteriorating, winds blowing from all directions, bringing what seems to be hail or ash close to the lens. Steam and clouds everywhere. Plume looks darker and there's what seems a steam flow all the way down GigjÃ¶kull. Worth taking a look.

Guys, please, toggle ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell cam full-screen and tell me what's going on.

Report that Gorely is active

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/06/12/9692858.html

Renato-- The thoro cam lolks odd-- for weird, check the mulakot cam

@parclair It's difficult to match both MÃºla and ThÃ³rol. Don't you think that the plume is sturdier and darker, or it's just my eyes?

In my amateur opinion there's some lava interacting with the lake in the crater generating explosions from different locations in the crater. But I may be wrong. Tremor plots are high in JÃ³n's Helicorders, but so are the winds.

Mulakot webcam has water and maybe ash from mowing that took place yesterday (see d9tRotterdam time-lapsed video link, above) on the lens from rainfall in the past 6-8 hours.

Thank-you for your kindness in the continued provision of these webcam movies, d9t.

If Gorley is indeed active, then it must have happened after KVERT issued it last update, on June 10th/11th.

Ironic that Moscow news reports the eruption plume before AVO and KVERT.

Gorely webpage at GVP:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1000-07=

Renato--I really don't see anything different. Lots of spots on the thoro cam-- rain and dust, I expect. Could that be it?

Ok, I'll risk a little further: winds are blowing from ESE straight onto MÃºla cam. From ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell cam we are looking towards south, but still we get ash and sleet on the lens. My guess is that this huge dark cloud is generated by Lady E and is coming from the crater towards the observer. I maybe totally wrong, but this eruption gained a lot of strength from interaction of lava with the crater lake. And I think tremor plots are showing more than just wind and noise from outside. This is the advantage of being a total amateur: you can place guesses and don't get sued for them. :)

According to yesterday's IMO report (Google translated with a little "help"):
"Scientists flew over EyjafÃ¶ll this morning. As clearly shown in the accompanying photo a crater lake has formed. There is still potential for magma eruption in a small channel or small eyes on the west or southwest of Gig wall, see edge veils far right. Water vapor mainly from the north edge."
http://www.vedur.is/skjalftar-og-eldgos/frodleikur/greinar/nr/1863
What I am seeing now on ThÃ³rÃ³lsfell cam is a dark plume originated from "behind" the top , to the left (SE), and heavy ashfall.

Seems to be some interesting activity around the Geirfuglasker Volcano, 3.1 kilometre from Eldey, nice deep quakes coming now.

Geirfuglasker was, before it simply blew up in 1830, the last refuge for the Great Auk (bird). After the explosion of Geirfuglasker the last 50 pairs moved to Eldey where museums had them killed and stuffed.
The last pair was slowly strangled in 1844 by JÃ³n Brandsson and SigurÃ°ur Ãsleifsson while their steadfast friend Ketill Ketilsson stomped the eggs into "scrambled Auk-eggs" with his boot.

Well... ya got me.

According to the ultra reliable Wiki-'hunch'-ia, Geirfuglasker is at 63.3177, -20.4979 and Eldey is at 63.733333, -22.933333, a distance of about 130 km.

The www.volcano.si.edu site doesn't list either one (at least where I can find it).

So, going on what may be bad data, here is the plot of the area that Wikipedia lists for Geirfuglasker.

All June quakes, perspective plot.

http://i46.tinypic.com/j93fbr.png

Hi folks, There is a "Big hole" in the ground and a "Crack in the ground" in Oregon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hole_%28Oregon%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_in_the_Ground

Worth the trip...

IMO EQ map indicates activity on the Reykjanes peninsula.

Geirfuglasker, with listed coordinates of 63Â°19â²3.72â³ N and 20Â°29â²52.44â³ W, lies in the Vestmannaeyjar islands.

The IMO Iceland seismicity map shows *zero quakes* in this immediate area.

look at the thorolfsfelli cam, cool clouds, seems like they are wallclouds, and some roations..

@Passerby, #52, that one is hillarious!

The Sunflower crater is not mythical. It is a real volcano and an old one at that. The last time it erupted, it sent ash and pyroclastic flows in a number of places and it blew out due north so the northen part of the crater is gone. There are remnants of another crater near it that are much less defined. There isn't very much info about it and I don't know why because it did some real talking when it blew.

Earthquake at the Nicobar Islands 7,7. A tsunami warning is out for all places around the Indian Ocean.

B@101... Tsunami watch and it has been downgraded to a 7.5.

The link... http://www.weather.gov/ptwc/index.php?region=3&id=indian.2010.06.12.201…

There's just been a spike for some reason on the Eyjaf tremor plots
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html

the spikes probably comes from the winds, that rotates on the top.. it looks like small tornadoes touching down, from time to time,. Just a wild guess that those might just make some waves on the plots,.

or EyjafjÃ¤ll might ,just have another show for us the next hours or so,.

we have to watch and see,.

These may not be wall clouds or tornadoes in the sense that we think of them in the Midwest. Dependong on the air temps about EJ etc we may be seeing her make her own localized "weather" as the warmer humid air near the crater meets the cooler drier air in the clouds going over. Just a thought.

@Alison, That is the Mw7.5 earthquake in the Indian ocean.

Look at the Hvo cam and you can see clearer definition of the clouds and crater top.

Good evening, fellows!
While you were watching the WC game(!) there was a lot of action taking place around Ejjaf and JÃ³n's Helicorders.
Yes, there were winds and dust devils, sleet and snow and heavy weather, but still I'm waiting for a confirmation that there has not also been any kind of phreatic eruption in that crater lake.
Well I'm sure you wouldn't miss the game for that, but it was interesting to watch, though.
And probably I'm totally mistaken here... :)

@JÃ³n I had wondered if that could be the case with the times coinciding. It is very impressive that they can detect an earthquake so far away.

@renee #107 I know what you mean, but the winds have been blowing straight towards HvÃ³lsvÃ¶llur and MÃºla cams, I think the dark cloud came from the southern part of crater and the white steam is blocking the view of the base of the plume. If you look on MÃºla cam you'll have a better idea of what I mean... But all is just a guess here. :)

Whatever it is, the image from HvÃ³lsvÃ³llur looks gorgeous!

Midwestern ,Tornadoes is a faaaar other game,they are made by rising hot air from the gulf ,meeting coller air from the North, creating explosive thunderstorms(supercells) that frequently creates Twisters,we all know as Tornadoes..
Tornadoes ,can occur all over the world even on iceland,been recorded a few times, tough in a weaker state than the tougher American ones..

I have seen , two, floridian Tornadoes, and even tough they were small comapared to the midwestern winds, they killed 4 peoples, uplifted house roofs,and uprooted some trees.

-we have tornadoes even in Norway,(mostly small F0-F3,and some have done quite a lot of dammage) and most places in Europe have them too,actually Is GB the one place that has more Twisters, pr squaremile than any country in the world,tough I have never seen one in GB, when I have been there.

The Nature around us is quite wonderful,and quite Amazing, but sometimes i just wonder if its out to get us all.. :))

@JÃ³n FrÃmann #106 JÃ³n, what do you think the red spike on 21:22 accounts for?

@thor

The Florida tornadoes that scare me the worst are the ones embedded in land falling feeder bands. You never see them coming and the wind is already moving pretty fast... plus the tress are already bent to near breaking. But with sustained 60 to 100 kt winds, why not have a fast spin-up twister to brighten your day...

something is happening it looks like 2 places are active or the lighting is fooling me yet again
cant tell if it is steam or ash

#115 @Gina Ct I agree with you.

Lurking, I agreed with you on that, tornadoes in landfall Hurricanes are the worst, you dont see them, and you dont hear about them before theyre there..
"normal" tornadoes are easier to detect unless its dark, just watch the clouds for the classic round shaped mushrom folding overhead, and the colour dark, blue grey,green, is good indication that something is brewing, and if the winds pick up , and you have rotation, then you know whats comming..

But the freakyiest thing in FL, they dont have the sirens(only one siren in Universal St Orlando) the rest of the place is dead silent about the weather. thank God for weather channel..
I was on Epcot,during my first Tornado experience in FL, 2005, good year for weather :).
I saw the twister long before the cast members saw it, I told one of the members, and pointed at it, he saw it, and said that there were no Tornadoes In Florida, haha, I told him otherwise.. he then called one of his buddies, and he saw it, he was from somewhere Midwest, and then things happend pretty quick..

and he called on his handfree, and the park was quikly evacuated inside the buildings,I was standing outside the whole time just to watch the storm pass by.. cant forget that sight.. and what a windy experience.it took the small twister about 2 mins to pass over the park,and over the lagoon,notting serious in dammage, only smaller loose objects and branches from some trees, where lifted in Epcot area, but in Brandon, Fl, 4 peoples were killed,and some houses and cars and trees were dammaged.

the second experience was in july 2007, a storm came over us in Orlando, near I drive, that storm was not the strongest, but, it had a smaller twister, that touched down some seconds,maybe a minutte or so.I would guess it was maybe F1 in size.

After theese experinces with thunderstorms, and all that ,I have been hooked ever since..

and the Hurricane that hit North western parts of Norway 1992.. was just the beginning of my enhusiasm for weather and nature phenomenons..
its just truly amazing, but sadly many peoples looses theyr lives,in these events, and that is the down side of Nature..

Gina Ct & Renato I Silveira

yes the steamplume has some ashcolour in it, so its darker, the wind is blowing towards the thorolfscam, so its hard to tell,but on hvollscam, you can see the cloud is darker.
probaly water in the crater that makes it more explosive again.

Just to confuse things there seems to be a few Geirfuglasker lurking in Iceland.
1. A lighthouse outside Vestmannaeyar, LAT: 63Â° 19.0' N
LON: 020Â° 30.0' W
2. A rock next to Surtsey.
3. A former "thingy" 3km NNE of Eldey.

I guess it is the same silliness that goes on around in all oceans, that people reuse the same name again and again...
Thing is that I am now not sure of which Geirfuglasker blew up in 1830, nor which dang Geirfuglasker was the Great Auk homestead before Eldey...
But the one I was talking about is the "thingy" close to Eldey, of that I am still sure:)

And I still think that Geirfuglasker is a strong candidate for the most tongue-wrenching volcanic name. (Here talking about the blown up Geirfuglasker:)

#118 @Thor @Gina Ct: Yes, I'm worried because local authorities are afraid that the 300 m x 10 m lake could flow into GigjÃ¶kull. They blocked the area for safety but scientists don't think a jÃ¶kullhlaup will occur any soon, but still, with all the weather/eruptive activity and big spikes on helicorders we keep wondering if there's any imminent danger to people underneath. Thank you for your kind attention.

Winds are shifting direction. Interesting how it shows on MÃºlakot cam.
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalmulaen.html

@thor re: 'canes and 'nados.

The only time that I ever cursed at my mom was around 1996 in central Mississippi. We had been visiting at my grand dad's place where she grew up and it was a typical hot/humid summer evening. Storm watches and warnings went out, and we started monitoring NOAA's broadcasts. In one of them, a funnel was sited at a location 9 miles south and 9 miles west of our location. I went out on the front porch and marveled at the intensity of the lightening, which was so bright and frequent that you could read a newspaper, interrupted only by momentary flashes of darkness. I then saw a dark region of the sky with no lightening.. putting two and two together I rushed back in the house and shoved the couch up against the wall and had my wife and mom throw blankets and pillows back behind it and to crawl underneath them while I went and killed the electrical mains and dove in on top of them, doing my best to burrow underneath the cushions. Tornado yanked the roof off and uprooted 150 year old pecans tress... and sheered all the nearby pines off at 30 feet up. We were lucky. To this day my wife freaks out at the slightest inclement weather... and riding out Ivan in 2004 didn't help any. (~115 mph for 3 to 4 hours)

Yee Haw. BTW, when it's your turn, your gonna bite it no matter what you do.

Um, the problem with asking people for "difficult" volcano names is that the names seem difficult only to someone who doesn't speak the language. Someone said that Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai was difficult -- not if you speak Tongan. Halema'uma'u? Piece of cake if you speak any Hawaiian.

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull is difficult to those, such as myself, who speak no Icelandic.

What volcano names are tonguetwisters to those who speak the language?

@ lurking #122

Thanks for sharing that story, very lucky indeed.

Two questions if you don't mind answering,
1: How long did the tornado take to get to you when you realised it was coming?
2: Why did you curse at your mother?
Thanks.

No Carl. Only you are confused.

Geirfuglasker is an volcanic island (eg, its a large rock) and is part of the the Vestmannaeyjar island group. It has a lighthouse, installed in 1956 and converted to solar power in 1993. The original island rose and later subsided, but it was replaced by another push of eruptive basalt.

Here is a picture of it.
www.heimaslod.is/index.php/Mynd:IMG_3019.jpg

The wikipedia page on Vestmannaeyjar lists the islands.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestmannaeyjar

@Dylan Ray [124]

Mostly it was a blur, but in times of stress when you have a person in your charge that just blankly looks at you when you issue a directive... you tend to emphasize what you want done in no uncertain terms. That is what happened. I had no time to discuss why I wanted her and my wife under the relative protection of the pillows and blankets.

As for the time of arrival? In retrospect I'm gonna have to guess at about 3 to 4 minutes. No sooner than we were hunkered down than the floor started bouncing up and down and the porch swing came crashing through the front window as the roof was lifted off. I figured we had a problem when I felt the water running down by back.

My concern for cutting of the the electricity was due to my uncertainty about how much of the knob and tube wiring had been replaced. I didn't know, and thought it would be a good idea to kill it while I had the chance. (knob and tube uses exposed wires on insulator posts) It's amazing what goes through your head in a sheer panic.

Lava flow descending through GigjÃ¶kull producing various steam plumes.

My introduction to Atlantic hurricanes was Hurricane Frederick. Rode that storm out in the apartment loft over a converted barn, as it swept inland and rode buckshot northward over the Alabama-Mississippi border. The entire barn structure swayed, shook and creaked loudly in protect but somehow managed to remain upright and intact, despite the Cat 4 howling winds and intense rains.

Our idiot landlords didn't even have the courtesy to offer (nor we, being hurricane-naive Midwesterners, the sensibility to demand) proper shelter.

As Lurking observed, these powerful storms can chop-off tree-tops to a uniform height for many miles of surrounding Pine Barrens: that damage remained visible on the hillsides for at least a decade afterwards. The flooding that followed cut us off from town for a few days as it caused the local 'crick' to overtop its banks, in the 'loop-de-loo' deep dip in the road, under which it traversed, when in normal flow. At extreme flood stage, it widened to several hundred feet; not even the most 'shine'-powered mini-pickup, the preferred wheels of the locals, managed to ford it at speed, although there were several noteworthy attempts.

However, it was living in proximity to a genuine piggery, about a quarter-mile away (upwind, thank the gods), whose tiny forms of boisterous pigglets could be seen romping and hurtling around the pens - clearly visible from the tiny apartment kitchenette window each morning, and lowing cattle herd (replete with a very large but docile bull) that could be seen up close and personal as they grazed on the rolling hillside across the road, that reminded us daily of our truly rural setting.

Frederick was our 'Welcome to the Deep South' surprise.

Remember the post was about strange volcano names. I like the Kick em Jenny and was near to add Michinmahuida, but some readers won me.
To Renato Silveira: Cowabunga!!

@Passerby (#91)

If Gorley is indeed active, then it must have happened after KVERT issued it last update, on June 10th/11th.

Ironic that Moscow news reports the eruption plume before AVO and KVERT.

Surely not the Ironic Curtain ? +1 KVERT

About us
The âVoice of Russiaâ â is the veteran of radio broadcasters. On air since October 29th 1929, âVoice of Russiaâ shapes Russiaâs image worldwide and introduces the world community to Russia and its opinions on global events.

âVoice of Russiaâ today broadcasts to 160 countries in 38 languages 151 hours per day on short and medium waves, in FM band, via satellite and through mobile link. In 2003 âVoice of Russiaâ was among the major international radio broadcasters to launch daily broadcasts to Europe in Digital Radio Mondiale.

@Alison #109, it is indeed possible to record large earthquakes all over the world - you can also clearly see them on the INGV helicorders transmitting data from Etna. In this very moment, you can see them here

193.206.223.22/Etna2007/SegSismici.asp?Staz=ESVO_HHZ_IT&Pos=3

(note that the graphs are gradually shifting back in time, and will disappear from view after 1 day, like those of the Yellowstone helicorder graphs)

@Renato I Silveira #127, I think there may have been hot water flowing down from the crater lake - a new lava flow would have been reported loud and clear and probably a resumption of eruptive activity would be rather explosive than effusive (lava emission). The situation is certainly very delicate due to the lake that has formed in the crater, because (a) it will likely enhance explosive activity in case eruptive activity resumes, and (b) strong explosive activity will possibly expel the crater lake, along with loose volcanic material (tephra), which will produce mudflows.

The ten or so names of Klyuchevskaya are basically two. There're different transcriptions and variants along the lines of Mt. Klyuchevskaya, Klyuchevskaya Volcano etc. Just nitpicking.

@Passerby: no, it is you who is confused, look at the end of this posting:)

@All: The quakes at 63.46'26''N and 22.55'38''W, 2 nautical miles NNE of Eldey (Reykjanes Ridge), is still going on nicely.
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/reykjanesridge…

Oddly enough the epicentres are not in any of the known shallows of the Eldey chain of shallows.
Hard to say if it is normal rifting of MAR or if it is something else. But it is nicely concentreted.

And here is the nice tidbit for Passerby, absolut proof of the Geirfuglasker where the Great Auks lived in 1830 untill it disapeared. It is the shallow smack in the middle of this very government page.
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/skjalftar/geirfugl.html
I guess you are now going to say that Eldey and Reykjanes Ridge is in the Vestmannaeyar?

On nautical names:
When I sailed from Stockholm to UmeÃ¥ (Sweden) I tried to count places named SjÃ¤lahÃ¤llan (Soul Cliff), but I lost count after 20.
I have noticed this fenomenon all over the world when I have been sailing, the same name is used over and over again. This especially goes for descriptory names like Geirfuglasker, if my forn-nordic serves me correct it would be roughly translated into "Great Auk Small Island". Any Icelander feel free to correct my translation:)

This is why one should never be sure of a name being that singular. That also goes for rather quaint land-placenames to...
In Sweden there are no less than 2 KrÃ¤kÃ¥ngersnoret (Bovine Regret Mucus-Snot).

Sorry for this OT on names.
I though very much wish that KrÃ¤kÃ¥ngersnoret was a Volcano, would have been great hearing foreign news commentators trying to pronounce it:)

You know... with the brief amount of time that has passed since the Auk was wiped out when compared the Mammoth or Mastodon, you would think that the geneticists would try to reconstitute that species first... or the Tasmanian Tiger. There's a far greater chance of getting functional DNA.

Well you know Lurking, there was a team who wanted to do it for the Tasmanian Tiger, but the project was stoped due to legal reasons.
As far as I get it there is no problem attaining viable Auk and Tas Tiger DNA, problem seems more to be right-wing christians trying to stop any research that they see as un-godly. In their view God wanted the Auk and the Tas Tiger extinct, and he in his infite wisdom used humans to kill them... Rubish in my opinion.
But then I am strongly in favour of both constructing new versions of known life, and even wet-lifing entirelly new and hitherto unknown forms of life. And no need to ask, I am in favour of tampering with humans, we are a rather shoddy design to beginn with:)

Interestingly pulsed tremors on JÃ³ns Helicorder.
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/tremoren.htm

A couple of nice links for the Reykjanes Ridge.
It for instance clarified the actual name of the Volcano that seems to both have created the shallow of Geirfuglasker (which for a short while in 1830 was the Island of Geirfuglasker).
The name of the Volcano seems to be if I interpreted Erik Klemetti correctly Reykjaneshryggur, ie. Reykjanes Ridge, and not Geirfugladrangur as was my last guess:)

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/icelands-reykjanes-ridge-a-ru…

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/02/rockin_on_the_reykjanes_ridge…

The last swarming was around 18 february of 2010.
The Volcanism sited above page has a stunning picture of the quaking for the entire Iceland on that day, look at Eyja and Katla area. It looks as it does today, calm and quitet with only small shakings, and that was pretty much 2 months before FimmvÃ¶rduhals blew up. If nothing else it says something about how hard it is to predict volcanos.

Boris Behncke, this seems like one of your favourites, what is your take on the subject?

I found an interesting article by Weir about the Reykjanes Ridge and Peninsula.
If you look on page 2 you will see that the center of activity right now is in the intersection between line A and line B at the A2 point 2 nautical miles NNW of Eldey.

Interesting reading to say the least:)

http://gizmo.geotop.uqam.ca/darbyshireF/Weir_et_al_JGR_2001.pdf

@Boris #131 Thanks for your experienced evaluation. I was kind of confused during yesterday's activity. There were too many things happening at the same time (strong winds, whirlwinds, precipitation, steam emissions)and the weather clouds were frequently covering the crater. But every now and then I could see on ThÃ³rÃ³sfll cam strong dark plume emissions rising from both the southern slope (darker) and from the northern (white steam) for short bits of time, these plumes were rising vigorously upwards. Meanwhile JÃ³n helicorders were showing violent spikes (probably due to high wind gusts) and sleet/ ash was falling unceasingly. Later, when "tremors"/ winds had decreased I saw in GigjÃ¶kull various steaming plumes being emitted from different segments along the previous lava path, but then it all became diffuse.
In the last hours JÃ³n's helicorders were again showing variations, but I wasn't here on time to check wind strength, which now returned to calmer levels. I was really concerned about the possibility of some interaction of lava with the water in the crater which could, indeed, cause some significant jokÃ¼llhlaup. Thank you!

@ Thor #112: if I'm correct the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Poland have more tornadoes every year than GB. But it doesn't really matter, because all of the mentioned coutries are part of the 'European Tornado Alley'.

Last Tuesday I went for a little storm chase with a friend of mine. We chased two supercells, of which at least one produced a funnel (it didn't reach the ground for as far as we could see). I'll upload the video some time later in the coming week :P .

No Carl, it was you who babbled about seismic activity on Geirfuglasker because you associated it through a quick read of webpages on the Great Auk. I pointed out that the activity focus was on the Reykjanes peninsula in my response, above and Lurking also responded at about the same time to correct your geography gaff.

Typically the first question I would get at any poster I gave on my research is "how do you produce that".

I knew it! Far from being mind-mannered geologists questing only for the sake of pure knowledge, you vulcanology guys really are trying to create doomsday weapons to take over the world!

@142 (Passerby)
In my post #95 I clearly wrote about the Geirfuglasker and the eruption there in 1830. Then you stomped on me so hard that I in a later post checked and found 2 more references to Geirfuglasker (Lighthouse and rock beside Surtsey. Again you stomped on me. You never ever said there was a Geirfuglasker in Reykjanes Peninsula (which would be hard since it is in the Ridge, not the Peninsula at all as you now claim to have known all time along).

And in the end I was correct to beginn with, the Great Auk Geirfuglasker was just to the west of Eldey, and that it is/was a volcano that erupted in 1830 causing the Auks to migrate to the neighbouring Eldey to be slaughtered.

Sorry for sounding a bit testy, but when somebody out of the blue decides to stomp on me, is wrong, and still tries to roughshoe me then I get irritated.

So in simple words, you are proven wrong and the proof is ambundant in the posts above.

To the rest, sorry for the tremoring the crust:)

OT The University of California is proposing that its scientists boycott Nature due to a 400% increase in subscription prices. I know we've discussed the problems of access to research. Pharyngula has an interesting discussion on the topic:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/06/boycotting_nature.php

@ Carl [136]

"... problem seems more to be right-wing christians trying to stop any research that they see as un-godly..."

Odd, considering that I fit that bill. If it's un-godly then why did they exist in the first place? I hardly think that two cretins hopping around in the last known nest of the great Auk is an act of God.

Now when it comes to things like the movie concept of bringing back a T-Rex... well, that falls into the category of how do you control it, and what happens if it gets away from you. As we can see from the BP event in the Gulf and the wildly chaotic world wide financial issues, mankind has achieved near perfection in controlling the forces around us, both natural and non-natural. Perfect ineptitude that is. I sit here and marvel at the push of technology, watching 4 separate video feeds and musing at the one Oil-Cam Bot that had to cut the other one loose.

This is getting depressing. Bah... I got to go find more quakes to plot.

@145: I wonder if Elsevier will give a care. What's not discussed in public is science-publishing dilemma: internal flow of profit, from popular core journal subscriptions and bibliographic/citation databases moneymakers to cash-sucking niche-market conference proceedings, scholarly reference texts (including those used for college coursework) and technical newsletters.

That point was raised here recently by another blog poster in response to discussion on public access to science and technology journals and technical reports for research funded by government and thus indirectly subsidized by taxpayers.

Once again, I suggest that Erik invite another Scienceblog author, John Dupuis (Confessions of A Science Librarian), head of the Science and Engineering Library at York University, for a Q&A session on the Eruptions blog.

While I can identify with the Pharyngula commentary closing, of access limitations when library subscriptions do not include journals to which one needs access, he can still use the regional university interlibrary loan system to gain access to those articles.

For those who work outside of academia, subscriptions and paper publishing costs (as well as attendance/traveland registration to national meetings, software tools, etc) are paid for out of pocket by science and engineering professionals as budgets are squeezed dry of research 'fringe costs' coverage.

@150: >Bah... I got to go find more quakes to plot.

Would you please plot up the quake swarm on Reykjanes Peninsula?

This is a little OT but since it's seismic related I thought maybe I could find an answer here. You guys have been so helpful with my novice volcano questions I'm going to toss this one out. I've been watching the live seismic server and it's looking rather odd today. Would this be a computer glitch or actual activity of some sort? It almost looks like the whole earth is vibrating!

http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov/Seismic_Data/heli2.shtml

@ Passerby

Reykjanes area.

Perspective view, looking NE, quakes 06/7/10 00:17:40 to 06/13/10 17:47:21

http://i49.tinypic.com/eirthw.png

Profile view, same set, looking North.

http://i48.tinypic.com/jv69o7.png

Question... in the pronunciation of Reykjanes, does that rhyme with Rick James?

Lovely and informative plots as usual.

See Weir et al JGR 2001, the citation Carl linked, above, Figure 11a.

It's the crustal structure/thinness under aesthenosphere-crust lower boundary flux, as suspected, a key player in sudden bursts of miniquake activity.

Thank-you, Lurking, for your help once again.

@153 I really hope that is a glitch in the system!

@Lurking (#154) - No, Reykjanes does not rhyme that way: the Reyk part is 'rake', the latter part is 'yuhnehs'. Try Spanish, only 'j' is not 'h', it's initial English 'y' - and that goes for _all_ Nordic languages, including Finnish.

Hi Folks!,

Re 153@Janet. Would those violent tremors be from the 7.5 "quake from the Nicoman Islands last night ??

For the sake of completeness... same set, profile view looking East.

Interesting "V" at the top of that quake stack.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2ezikoi.png

158@My Idiot Self,

Sorry, should have been Nicobar Islands (LOL).

@Kultsi, Askola, FI

Thank you. That settles a minor dispute I had with the rest of my gaming clan. When I started describing the tectonics of the area the idea of "Rick James" came up and it was found to be good for a snicker or two. I had an In-Law stationed at ReykjavÃk and I was pretty sure the pronunciation was different than that. I'm still miffed that he didn't come down and meet me in Napoli when we both happened to be in the same city that year.

Speaking of Napoli... I am still amazed at how easily amused the sailors of some countries are. On New Years eve, while the town is erupting with fireworks, smoke and noise, some sailor on the ship next to ours grabbed some distress flares (high way flares) out of their helo (parked on deck) and were running up and down the pier waving them around. Quite the show.

[Country name withheld due to the international nature of this blog]

@Janet, #153, on the way the quakes look on all the graphs, it is most likely the Nicobar 7.5 quake. Quakes are measured all over the world and any large quake is picked up everywhere with one exception: there is a so called dead zone that, if my memory is correct, is directly opposite where the quake is located.

I mentioned some time ago that I had the privilege to see an old book of the 1906 SF quake from all over the world. It was very interesting because the seizmographs were different from different countries. One was all in circles. Most seemed to be what is familiar to us today. The instrumentation is so much more sensitive that they are picking up quakes that have been there, but not detected. I asked about the seeming more quakes in CA than there used to be since I have been watching the maps. I was told it was most likely due to better and more equipment to measure quakes.

I hope this helps you to understand a bit about what is going on. I think quakes and volcanoes are some of the most facinating things that happen on earth. Scary sometime, too.

Have you been in any quakes that you felt?

@159: your seeing differences in response along (horizontal) substructure lines, see Fig 11, Weir et all. We saw this deviation in off-vertical EQs on response lines that clearly showed this layers, in other plots you've posted, but this complex but elegant paper really spells out why, in their model.

You can see an example of what Diane is referring to in the San Andreas/Imperial fault quake map.

http://i45.tinypic.com/v5li8n.png

Note the stark difference in the number of quakes South of the US/Mex border as opposed to North of it. This is mainly due to instrumentation.

You can also see that the number of quakes plotted on the north segment increase with time as the station population increases (â1977).

@158~Adrian: Looks like that's what it is. You and Diane seem to agree.

@162~Diane: Thanks for the info. I knew I hadn't seen so much "black" on those graphs before. I guess the big quakes are sort of like hitting the earth's tuning fork.

I have never experienced a quake...I am in tornado country. I've only been in one and hopefully I'll never experience that again. I don't think I want to experience the earth moving under my feet either. LOL! Ain't nature great?

Latitude Limits 63.6N to 64.2N, longitude set to the limits of Weir et al Fig 2(c).

Quake Dates 06/7/10 00:17:40 to 06/13/10 17:47:21.

http://i47.tinypic.com/5fgrpf.png

Background image is Journal of Geophysical Research, vol 106, No B4 pg 6351 Figure 2(c), cropped to match plot.

Distortion of symbols is due to scaling to plot and rescaling back to original background aspect ratios.

@Janet, #165, the quakes aren't too bad if they are small. I have felt many quakes. I was driving on I80 when the Loma Prieta quake hit and I was on my way to Sacramento and had just left UPS. I thought the road needed fixing big time and what I was feeling in the car was the "corregated" waves of the quake perpendicular to the direction I was headed. It didn't dawn on me until later that it was the longitudinal waves on the road I was seeing, not a bad road. LOL That quake hit at the right time as most people were at home or in the stadium to watch the Battle of the Bay.

Once I was sitting in the library at school when a fairly strong quake hit. The books were rattling on the shelves and I was wondering if they were going to fall off. None did. There was a gal sitting across from me and her eyes got wide and I asked her if she had ever been in a quake before. She hadn't. It scared her. Thing is, it wasn't that big a deal to me because it wasn't that big of one even if the books rattled in the shelves. The epicenter was somewhere near Truckee which is on I80 in the Sierras not too far from Reno, NV. That one was probably the stongest one I have been in. I have not been close enough to a large quake near enough to the epicenter to really get the full brunt of it and I'd just as soon not be.

I was in Yosemite over a 4th of July weekend and there had been a couple of 6+ quakes before that and I was feeling aftershocks all weekend. Some were very mild. Others were a bit stronger, but nothing over about 3+.

I don't mind being in small quakes no larger than, say, 4.5. Anything more than that? Not!

OT, I was in N DAK in Mandan once when the siren went off. I could have seen the tornado if I had gotten outside quick enough, but by the time I did, it was gone. There have been some in Sacramento, btw. Once a friend of mine and I was in a restaurant and we were not far from an intersection. The weather was crazy that day and we were looking at the clouds just east of the interesection. We saw the rotation! It did not form into a tornado or a funnel cloud, but we both decided I needed to go home. There was a tornado that did touch down in Sacramento that day. I think there was more than one. So CA can get them, too, just not as many as the mid-west. Lately, though, in the last few years, it seems like we are getting more of them.

HAH!!!

I just noticed that you all were discussing a Mag 7.5. I must have gotten caught up fiddling with graphics.

Interesting page from the USGS is

neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2010/eq_100612_xkbv/neic_xkbv_t.html

It shows the antipode of the quake, which would be somewhere off the coast of South America, vicinity of Ecuador. In the seismo graphs that you linked, station IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Equador is pretty close to that region, and shows less "wiggliness" than the others. Same thing for IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil. Now why they were going nuts at the start of the day, I don't know. It could be geomagnetic since we have been having a few M- and C-class eruptions on the Sun. Seismographic equipment has to be sensitive to get high quality data, and that does make them prone to noise from the electromagnetic background.

I have seen that series of plots do wild simultaneous gyrations with no quake reported before. I could have sworn that we had seen an impact event... something as big as it looked would have been reported immediately, but there was nothing.

Never been in a quake. Been in to many hurricanes. And was in Wichita Falls Texas for the 1979 Red River Valley tornado outbreak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Red_River_Valley_tornado_outbreak
Saw it from my 3rd floor apartment. Had gotten my 2 year old out of the hospital about 2 hours earlier. Mother had flown up to help with son. I didn't curse at her like Lurking did :), but she said I had never spoken like that to her before went I sent the family into the bathroom with a mattress, so she knew it was serious.

@166: yeah, not too shabby of a 'data fit', considering the logistics of EQ positioning. Thanks!

@Diane: I was in a meeting with USGS-Sacramento in Spokane (that's clear across the state), discussing data from a jointly funded project, when a large quake struck near south western WA* a while back. We were 10 floors up; the building moved quite fluidly, as expected. Most of us were plainly startled as main and then aftershock undulations continued for some time.

The Sacramento folks barely noticed, and so we continued our meeting as though nothing had happened.

*Nisqually quake, Mag 6.8, near Olympia, WA struck on February 28, 2001.

In the UK eathquakes are not common. We had a few in the early 1980's in which people reported being 'moved' sharply along in their houses on the Welsh borders. My experience is of 2 small quakes, firstly lying on the ground (sunbathing)in East Anglia as 2 ripples passed underneath through the soft earth of the fens. The only accompanying sound was a kerdunk kerdunk of a lorry passing over them on the road nearby. It caused minor damage to buildings in the City of Cambridge
In Wales the hills locally are of shale, and a quake centred 80 miles away arrived with a crescendo like an express train but merely wobbled the house gently for a few seconds after it roared through. Most people slept through it, though a late night radio show at the epicentre reported it in detail as it occurred. These were not frightening, just interesting to compare.

@Passerby, I was on the 4th floor of the "tower" at Haward State, now know as Cal State, East Bay, when the Colinga quake hit. We were in a room that has large windows on one side and so we just caually moved away and when down the staircase to the outside. One of the buildings in SF swayed three feet side to side durning the quake and the radio station I listened to was located in that building and they reported it.

Two weeks after that, I was in a classroom that was on the first floor of that building (part of it was underground and sort of a daylight basement) and I felt a jerk and that was it. The person across the table from me looked at me at the time and I think we were the only ones who felt it. I wanted to go to the seizmograph drum recorder I had been watching just before! I didn't and I wish I had. I later found out that the Hayward fault moved. Cal State East Bay is on the escarpment hills just above the Hayward fault and I lived just down the hill on the other side of Mission Ave that is right on the fault! I bet people away from the fault felt more of it than we did. That can happen if you are on the epicenter and the quake isn't very big.

Rumble, rumble, rumble. ;-D

Oops. During the second quake I was not in the tower, but a different building.

Anyone see this article concerning Askla volcano?

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/180291/Volcano-expert-warns-of-anot…

@168. Well whaddya know. If you play with an overlay projection of the USGS pode-antipodal map onto the present global EQ map, you get quite a nice match of recent (last 24 hours) EQ activity.

Makes sense. Nifty.

Don't forget Tupungatito (for non spanish readers), Descabezado Grande & Descabezado Chico

Activity at Gorely confirmed (...?...)

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/kvertarch.php?releaseid=320

Thanks for the post, Raving. Looks like KVERT is being reasonably cautious about attribution of an eruption at Gorley (considering their meager monitoring resources), as it could also be it's close neighbor.

Recent activity/photos, KVERT (captions in Russian): 2005-2006-2007.

http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/current/mtn/index.html

Regarding Borely (translates as "Burnt") and other volcanoes in Russia, current information can be found here http://emsd.iks.ru/~ssl/index.htm

Use Google Translate

Hear is three interesting names for volcanoes. All in Madagascar.Ambre-Bobaomby,Plus two real good ones, they are cones of the Itasy Volcanic Field. (1). Andranojavatra and (2) Ambohitritainerina. It gives me a headache just trying to say the last one.

If only more people could hear about this.

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Thanks for spreading the word about this.

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GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for 6/2-8/2010

eklemetti — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:41:05 +0000

GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for 6/2-8/2010

The latest update from the Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program!

Highlights (not including Taal, EyjafjallajÃ¶kull and Bezymianny) include:

Another thermal anomaly was spotted on an Kuril Island volcano - this one being Tiatia. The volcano has no seismic monitoring network, so the thermal anomaly is all that has been observed.
Lava flows and strombolian explosions continue at Guatemala's Pacaya. Some of the explosions have launched bombs hundreds of meters into the air.
Kliuchevskoi was another busy Russian volcano, with a large thermal anomaly and ash explosions that produced a plume at least 7.3 km (24,000 feet) tall.
Mexico's PopocatÃ©petl produced one of the larger explosions it has experienced over the last year on June 8, producing an ash plume that reached 8 km (27,600 feet).

eklemetti Wed, 06/09/2010 - 09:41

IMo forecast for EyjafjallajÃ¶kull (Translated by Google Translator)
High precipitation forecast and risk aurflÃ³Ã°um - recorded at 09.06.2010. 17:10
The night is predicted up to 40 mm of precipitation EyjafjallajÃ¶kull. It is expected that most of rain during the period between at. 5 and 9 in the morning. Under these conditions the risk of ash and the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull can crawl down the channels and rivers that flow south from the hills. This is mainly for SvaÃ°bÃ¦lisÃ¡, washed and KaldaklifsÃ¡ but also by such floods can come down HoltsÃ¡, MiÃ°skÃ¡laÃ¡ and Ira.

Images of Popo:
http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/cgi-bin/popo/album/ult.cgi

So, picking up a subject from the Mt. Baker posting, what is the name of the volcano in the background of the HAARP photo in the wikepedia article?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HAARP_site.jpg

# @Doug McL - I had to do some research on this, but my guess goes to Mt. Sanford, but let's wait and see what are others' guesses. :)

6.0 EQ at vatunato 4 minutes ago

sorry Vanuato no tsunami warnings as of yet

I think this is only preventive. Remember it is been monitored since only a few months ago:

http://www.onemi.cl/html/noticias/noticia_561.html

@Renato - you're right this is Mt. Sanford (in the upper left of the HAARP image). Sanford is part of the Wrangell volcanic belt in eastern Alaska a few hundred km northeast of Anchorage. It is a large, hulking shield volcano apparently made mostly of andesite and dacite - similar to those of the stratovolcanoes in the Aleutians or the Cascades despite its shield morphology. On the right horizon is Mt. Wrangell, yet another unusual andesitic shield.

MAP 6.0 2010/06/09 23:23:19 -18.586 169.471 17.8 VANUATU
I am no expert, but i have noticed that when there is a large earthquake in Vanuatu there is a large one on the west coast.. so this i a test and a log so we all can see if there is a conection.. OK

SHANE..

Sorry,, (west coast of south or north america...

So, what's this I'm reading that ChaitÃ©n in Chile erupted violently only 320 years ago (according to Luis Lara of SernageomÃn)? Whatever happened to "dormant for 9000 years"? A bit of an oopsie there, I guess.

#5 @renee Thanks for the info, but remember this blog has a time lag of circa -4 hours to UTC.

#3 @Doug #8 Thanks for posting the quiz. It was amusing to look for the answer and I learned a lot about volcanoes in Alaska (my knowledge didn't go beyond Redoubt, Novarupta, Cleveland and two or three others.) Keep more coming!! :)

#11 @mjkbk - Yes, it's true. The link to the information has been posted before by Guillermo. ChaitÃ©n has been upgraded to one of the 15 more dangerous volcanoes... from Chile! (Thanks again Guillermo!)

Hello to All,

Interesting upswing on all 5 Helicorders and increased activity on Jon Frimmans.

@ Adrian very interesting indeed...lets wait and see.

See @43 from yesterday's thread for Ems photos of Taal, just posted over there.

Thanks for the photos Ems, they give a really good sense of scale and environment. Shame about the blade of grass!

Yes, I clearly didn't know what I was taking pictures of back then! In picture 2 the island is slightly more visible on the left of the pic
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/107090910741035698162/Taal?authkey=Gv1sRg…

@ems 17, thanks for the photos! Good perspective on the lake. ;-)

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, Kliuchevskoi and PopocatÃ©petl: The theme of next year's national spelling bee should be volcanoes!
Especially if you throw in the Hawaiian ones.
Erik, you should have a search here for the volcano name that is the most difficult to spell.

I'll put in a vote for another difficult to pronounce-and spell-Icelandic (shield) volcano:

SkjaldbreiÃ°ur.

Ãeistareykjarbunga

I bet they loose it on the first letter.

Have been rather busy this week and there has been lots here to catch up on - thanks Erik and everyone, interesting stuff!

Has there been a discussion, recently, on the earthquake swarm which seems underway for Grimsnes (?) listed as a fissure/crater rows volcano in the WVZ? Any interesting data?

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/

I can offer Pululahua, looks easy but lots of opportunity for confusion.

@23 Gordon, that's the thing about the Hawaiian volcanoes as well.

Other nominees are Chigniagak and Quezaltepeque

How about Abu ? :)

Is Katla waking up? There's a swarm of small quakes there...

@26 - Again, for the Katla-worriers: The # and depth of quakes at Katla suggest to me that Katla is not waking up. These quakes strike me as near-surface seismicity related to faults or ice in the caldera. If we start seeing lots (tens to hundreds per day) quakes starting at depth (greater than 5 km), then we can start talking Katla. Until then, the seismicity at Katla is likely benign (volcanically-speaking)

What was the date for all of the volcano evuptions i need toKnow for my homework!!

Ever fear a journey of retaliate without tantalizing an sore buncombe

I'm a Senior Lecturer from the Cultural Studies department at Central Saint Martins exactly where I'm also earning a living on a project for that sector.

When I saw this page was like wow. Thanks for putting your effort in writing this blog.

Thursday Throwdown: EyjafjallajÃ¶kull update, VPOW and the weekly SI/USGS Report

eklemetti — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:21:45 +0000

Thursday Throwdown: EyjafjallajÃ¶kull update, VPOW and the weekly SI/USGS Report

Grading grading grading!

A webcam capture of the eruptive plume from EyjafjallajÃ¶kull on the morning of May 6, 2010.

News:

A quick update on the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull eruption: The volcano has been producing an impressive ash plume over the last day (see image above). The current ash plume is reaching 5.8-6 km height (19-20,000 ft) - and causing some trouble over Ireland and Scotland. However, much of airspace closed yesterday has reopened (for now). You can see two new images of the ash plume over at the NASA Earth Observatory. As for the continued fallout from the ash plume from April, British Airways says it cost the airline ~22% of its normal passenger load. The Icelandic Met Office has an interesting piece up on the depth that the magma is rising for the current eruption - and it looks like it is coming from >20 km. And if you're one of the many webcam watchers, the ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfelli webcam has added an additional thermal viewer (FLIR), ~~so you can even watch the volcano through the Iceland fog~~ (apparently FLIR can't see through fog, sorry!). You can also check out some of the sulfur dioxide output from the volcano, measured by satellite.
Do you stare at your IAVCEI volcano calendar longingly, which each month revealing another stunning volcano photo? Well, now you can get a new stunning volcano image over at Volcano Picture of the Week (VPOW). There are a great number of volcano photographers - amateur and professional - that have capture amazing images of the planet's volcanism and now you have a chance to show off. Richard Roscoe of Photovolcanica has set up VPOW to be a volcano-version of the Astronomy Picture of the Day (and maybe someday it can become VPOD).
We have the latest USGS/Smithsonian GVP Weekly Volcano Activity Report. It includes information on the most recent activity at Villarrica in Chile, Rinjani in Indonesia and Kliuchevskoi in Russia (and that other volcano, you know, the one in Iceland).
Finally, lava flows from Kilauea have been causing some problems, closing a popular viewing site. A home in Kalapana might be in the path of the lava flow as well. You can see a great picture of the lava flow overtaking a Highway 130.

eklemetti Thu, 05/06/2010 - 08:21

Tags

Global Volcanism Program

NASA Earth Observatory

volcanoes and the economy

volcanoes in the media

volcanoes and aviation

volcanoes and the economy

volcanoes in the media

The IR webcam is looking very colourful now that the cloud cover has thinned

(copied from old thread FYI)

For those watching the thermal cam, a few words of advice. I've used thermal imagers extensively, and they have their advantages and limitations. Remember they record the temperatures, usually in the far infrared, of *solid surfaces*. This means they're fairly good at seeing through smoke, mist, and dust, and they're totally unaffected by darkness. But this also means, for instance, that they may well not show the plumes. I can be in a burning building, point my thermal imager directly at flames - and the imager will pretty much indicate the temperature of the wall *behind* the flames.

And of course, as you can see, *heavy* cloud can stop them seeing very far. I'm not sure if we would even see a LARGE heat signature through those clouds, if you take my meaning!!

@Dubliner re:#470 Its funny you should mention the colour changes in the sky over Ireland. I took this picture the other day and i'm just outside of Dublin in Kildare http://img217.imageshack.us/i/img20841024x768.jpg/ i couldn't believe how yellow the sky was. I had a polarising filter attached to the camera at the time.

@Dubliner Yes I'm up in N.Ireland and right now the clouds have a funny unusual yellow tint to them

Hi,

How thick is the crust in this part of the World? And how does 23km compare to the earthquake patterns found in other Icelandic eruptions?

Thanks!

Ref:4 sorry it was meant for Dubliner and Kaboom. Although Kaboom that is a beautiful picture and the sky here tonight is not as spectacular as that just a weird hint of yellow

@4 Ruby: Since you guys are talking about weather in Ireland and the funny looking clouds I thought I would post this link to a weather webcam in Ireland. As of right now it is focused on the clouds. I do see the yellowish color you are talking about.

http://meathweathercam.webs.com/livecam.htm

Hoo-boy! Ash accumulation on FimmvÃ¶rÃ°uhÃ¡ls and SkÃ³gaheiÃ°i since mid-April is over 10cm (4in). [ruv.is] Very little or no lava flow, and the eruption is in an explosive phase. Lot of tephra expected. [mbl.is] Repairing the road to ÃÃ³rsmÃ¶rk (a very popular tourist destination) for four-bys and trucks probably easy. [vegagerdin.is]

Hi all,
I too am puzzled by the EQ-silence over the entire Iceland over the last 7 hours or so (here http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/eqlist.html and here http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes on the timescale bellow)! It can't be real, there must be something wrong with the data feed, right?

#9: It's odd, sure, but not unique. Not too long ago I spotted a 12-hour period of quiet.

@7 Thanks for that Janet I had a look, but it is even more of a yellow tint with blue skies in between it is really quite beautiful

re:data feed for EQ's - resting, just resting.... ; )

The photos on Volcano Picture of the Week are just amazing! Some truly awe-inspiring images. I just wish they had an RSS feed... :(

Obtw, Janet... In the weeks before and after summer solstice, it's reading light outside at midnight in Iceland.

@suw, re: Erik's Volcano of the Week link - I second that - the pyroclastic flow one has interesting info attached...

I am going through ash/steam plume withdrawls once again. The FLIK Infra-red is not quite the same as actually seeing the plume in black/white and gray.

#14) It must be nice to see 21 hrs of daylight by the way. I just would go mad during the winter months. I am here in Dallas-Ft Worth, TX, where we have 9hrs 50min daylight on 12-21 and about 13hrs 20mins daylight on 6-21.

Hoping the clouds break, we're missing one beautiful eruption :o)!!

#16: If you ever find yourself in N. Alaska (say, Prudhoe Bay) around that time, you can enjoy it yourveryownself.

Iceland Met "E" update, hot off the press :o):
Current events
Assessment - 06 May 2010 20:15

Explosive activity has increased and effusive part has decreased for the last two days. This results in a higher eruption column with increased tephra fallout.

The ash plume, observed from commercial pilots between 0530h and 0800h: 30,000 ft/9km. ICG helicopter flight between 13h and 14h: sometimes under 20,000 ft (where there is a cloud bank) and oscillates up into the cloud bank (over 9 km).

Considerable ashfall at ÃykkvabÃ¦jarklaustur in Ãlftaver (at a distance of 65-70 km), (everything has turned black). It has not been established whether the ash cloud south of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull is ashfall or ash that has already fallen and is being blown from the ground.

Discharge from GÃgjÃ¶kull decreases further and meltwater seems to be running from the eastern side of the glacier. This is different from tuesdays meltwater were water was running from the west side. Lava flow might be changing the direction of meltwater flow. Such changes should be taken seriously with regard to possible outbursts due to accumulation of meltwater.

Earthquake activity is still being recorded. At least 10 earthquakes have been located since midnight. Most of the earthquakes are sourced beneath or south of the top crater in the eruptive conduit that has formed since 3 May. Most of the earthquakes are less than magnitude 2, the biggest M2.2.

There are no signs that the eruption is about to end.

See more in Status Report issued by Icelandic Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, at 18:00.

Iceland Met office has updated activity

Link below to recent article from "The Guardian" News out of the UK:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/06/airports-reopen-volcanic-as…

Water being held back to some degree? Not good when it lets loose, if that's what's happening. Spectacular show when it let loose, though.

Small steam plume just above the crevace.

I wonder if there is a new melt-escape area to the left (on the fimm cams) of the area that we've been watching. The new thermal cam shows a fuchsia area to the left of the glacier which appears to be the same color as the melt water on the cam. I can't see it on the normal light cams, mainly because it's too hazy.

What does anyone else think?

Yay another EQ at last

06.05.201020:19:2063.600-19.60928.1 km1.890.039.6 km NW of SkÃ³gar

the flir cam is good at showing the small steam plume just below v shaped notch i think the red glow in the notch is not a false image

Boris Behncke (from the previous thread):

"All you folks who pass half of their current lives here clinging to the web cams, what are you gonna do when Etna erupts next - there are about 10 web cams looking at that volcano"

Answer: 3500 comments per thread here at Erik Klemetti's blog?

I'm not familiar with the volcano webcam situation in the world. I expect a lot of webcams are pointed towards volcanoes in Europe, N-America and Japan. But what about S-America, Africa, Indonesia etc?

"... has added an additional thermal viewer (FLIR), so you can even watch the volcano through the Iceland fog"

Not with a thermal imager - you can go blind in very humid conditions (which probably doesn't happen in Iceland), but fog is a definite killjoy. Now if it were a cooled "short wave infrared" camera you would be able to see through fog, although the volcano would go invisible at night except for the nice hot spots. The great thing about the thermal imager is that things look pretty much the same any time of day or night (well, except in fog, mist, rain, and very high water vapor content in the air).

@23 vodafone is showing it also when clouds allow

http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/VolcanoWebCams.php

@Anna quite a few volcano cams here.. :)

To make it more real, @Gislio on Twitter - Eyjafjallajokull - Scientists near the crater describe ash falling on them being like hail falling - #icerupt #ashtag

#23: As far as I can tell, it is a river already shown on maps. If you have DMA map C761-1812-3 (EyjafjallajÃ¶kull), it's on vertical 69.1, horizontal 60-61. If you don't have it, I'll try to dig up the link at lmi.is - I got my copy there.

@Reynir: Thanks for the info. I'm learning. I just can't imagine having that much light at midnight. A weather question...Is this foggy~cloudy the norm for May in Iceland?

#32: This close to the seaside, I'd have to say yes.

@Fireman: Actually, it's mid-infrared. Far infrared would require somewhat different equipment. You know how you set up a sheet of water to cut out the radiant energy from a fire? Well, the same technique will work for those infrared cameras - they just won't see through such a thing. Water vapor is something they see pretty well, so you'll see plumes from the volcano; in fact, against a nice cold (cloudless) sky, the camera will see plumes that are invisible to humans. What you won't see are, say, a huge plume of hot CO2. You won't see SO2 either unless it's very hot and/or very plentiful or you put an appropriate filter in front of the lens. Yeah, in the band this thing operates at, most gases are invisible.

Thanks Shelly (29)!

A bewildering array of web cams!

#32, I believe Iceland receives about 30% of total possible sunshine/yr. Normally a very snowy/rainy area, as an area of Low Pressure called the "Iceland Low" is near Iceland most of the year.

@31 Thank you, I've no maps at that fine of a resolution. Where I'm looking is a triangular area on what I think is the side of the mountain. (the new image is truly foreign to me). Is there a river on the side of the mountain?

Regarding the Katla cam, it's pointed in a direction of close to 330Â° true.

on the flir there is a constant fusha blob to the left of the glacial outlet by carefully matching the size of the flir and vodafone images to get a idea of it's actual location i am wondering if there is a weak segment of the wall that is allowing some heated water to seep through if so it could be the source of a possibly huge outflow when or if it fails

#36: Yes, the lines I gave fall almost exactly on a small river shown on the map. They are the best match I can get to a feature.

The map: http://atlas.lmi.is/kortasafn_kort/2001-540-qv.jpg

@MadScientist 34: Hah. Water curtains. We *used to* set up a sheet of water, many years ago. We don't do that any more. Fire science has known for years that the water curtain, great idea you would think it is, doesn't work; radiant heat goes right through it! And sets the house next door on fire if you're not careful. The only thing that works is cooling the house next door directly, with hose streams.

http://books.google.com/books?id=i4bmE2TqY6sC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA657#v=onepag… - see section on 'Exposure Protection'

I would however agree that exactly what we see or don't see will depend on the precise wavelengths the camera uses. We'll see when the weather clears a bit!

Mike

#41: I get the idea that a water curtain doesn't work because a practical curtain is too b4y thin. Probably too coarse, too.

that is a great map thanks now wait for daylight without clouds ;-)

when i was ship board us navy we used a fog nozzle that was very effective at cutting radiant heat from huge fuel fires let us get close enough to apply foam directly to the fire and god save you if the foam cover was broken the fuel would re flash and eat you right up

#40 Thank you for the terrific map link:-)

I'm still studying the situation-- the map is in oppositional direction, and it's been a few years since I read a topo map. I think I agree with you; I'm having a problem visualizing why the top would be wider than the bottom (it looks from the map that the valley widens, rather than narrows, but I'm still trying to read the surrounding cliffs.

I'd like to end this with the icon for "my mind is thoroughly twisted and confused, but totally happy with the problem" but I don't know what that might be;-D

Opening on the glacier is rather big.

Mind you, folk... this is not home territory to me, so I may very well be wrong and that the actual vertical of the fuchsia spot on the DMA map is 68.7 rather than 69.1.

There will now be a brief interlude.

Whilst we wait:

http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/sismologia/sismogramas_linea.htm

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica(continuously erupting over many years)steps up her tremors today, and Turrialba has quietened right down this week but don't trust Turri - she could now be ready, after all those drumbeats refer March 3rd.

#45: I'd guess said icon to be an eye-smiley with a typhoon over the head.

Just the humble physicist coming out in me...but to explain the IR cam - the ocean is blue for a reason... So if you ever go diving on say a reef, a red fish looks green.

Figure that out, and you have figured out the IR cam and it's limitations.

In addition to the usual thanks to Erik, Boris and the other star players. The folks at Mila really deserve a big word of thanks for going out of their way with the cams on this one and making much of this debate possible.

Oh, and good morning from Singapore!

Another interlude:

I recently discovered that not only could I not identify most of the new countries in Europe and Asia, I was a dismal failure at identifying places in Africa. http://www.geosense.net/ 8-(

So, I decided to combine my education about volcanos with my education about Africa. I've discovered that there is very little information about the volcanos there. ;-( I think they're too poor? to have monitoring of any sort. I've recently started my search in French in hopes of finding data. This seems promising. But there's not even a category in USGS for Africa. Hmmmm

Back to the topo

Regarding the fire curtain.

it still has its place, last year i was sent to plymouth on a ship firefighting course as our brigade has many ports in its area. Going down into a room fully engulfed in fire ( gas powered for safety) through a hatch and with a vertical fixed ladder. A hose was held with a wide spray under arm as we went down with another coned over me by firefighters above. Its was very effective and no other way would you be able to enter that room.
So although not used in property fires this demonstrated that a water curtain is pretty damn effective in protecting from heat and flame.

@#40 thank you for the map!!
And its wonderful informative glossary!!!

#53: One can say a lot about the military, but they do take their maps seriously. In fact, I tend to look at this map before the Icelandic maps. Furrfu.

Anyway, I had a look at FLIR's website. My first guess would be that the new cam is a longwave (ten-micron) security camera.

If this is the ash plume, as I suspect it is, heading SSE then WSW, Europe is fortunate the winds are as they are. I wonder how much is ash and how much is water vapor that is making the plume visible in this satellite image?

http://www.sat24.com/Eyjafjallajokull-volcano.aspx

@La Kat previous#300. I dont know if Eyjaf's EQ swarm consisted of Chouet's long or conventional period EQs. The spikes in EQ rate ( up to 70 per hour) finished about ten days before eruption started. For those ten days the EQ rate was only about 1 to 5per hour. The only obvious change in those ten days was a trend from 8km to about 4km mean EQ depth, and a rise in tremor. So EQs per se would be bad predictor of Eyjaf eruption. Redoubt muts be different.

@Henrik previous#250 We need more spikes. If Eyjaf does not come up with more there's always Katla... BTW we are no longer alone in our quest for understanding, real heavy weight expertise is rising to the challenge. Hope it does not turn out ot be damp squib!!

aliens on flir

Can I add my thanks for the map, it adds another dimension to what we are looking at, and again shows the scale of what we are looking at. The webcams make the landscape look smaller than it is without any human reference points.

Going back to yesterday (I think) the link to the paper regarding Iceland's tectonic origins was fascinating. Like most people I've always assumed Iceland to be on a hotspot, but the (now) obvious observation that there is no evidence of previous seamounts along the line of plate drift
does suggest another cause of volcanicity is required.

Only problem with all this info being hurled at us is the feeling that sometime soon Eric is going to give us a due date for essay or exam!

Finally, Ive been dipping in and out all day and everytime I look, that notch at the top of the ice wall is bigger. It's going to go sometime soon...

So as the new camera is thermal image type it will not see heat through water curtain I.e. thick cloud or fog with cold water droplets. Heat will show up as white or light areas. It will contrast thou so more heat and colder stuff will go darker. Ie heat will show relative to surroundings. Ground may look light as warmer than the air, but get lava in picture and the lava will glow white and ground will darken as of the relevant difference in temperature. I hope this helps a little.

humans show as bright yellow to white on the flir cam if that holds for the valley floor that dirt is HOT

@53 I think you can thank the Defense Mapping Agency for the glossary. I particularly like the "red-light readable" and "Destroy when no longer needed" legends.

I suspect DMA (now NGA) are also responsible for Google's Icelandic place names - check out http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/namefiles.htm for a pretty comprehensive database.

#60: All I'm willing to say is that the ground is the hottest part of the image. It may be that the cam scales the image for max. contrast.

Reynir you may be right
the last time i had anything to do with IR cameras the colors were locked to a fixed temperature scale

@Reynir #62

You are right, the camera scales the image according to the highest and lowest temperatures in the image. Earlier, when the backpackers walked through the image, the whole color scale shifted and the ground got darker relative to the people. Therefore, the valley floor is not that hot, it's just the warmest place visible right now.

As the friendly "E" volcano is shrouded in fog and low clouds today, those of us, including myself, who were lucky enough to see her massive ash plume earlier can appreciate this MSNBC.COM article link below, "Massive ash cloud closing some Irish airports". The ash cloud is 1,000 miles WIDE:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36985416/ns/travel-news/?utm_source=twitter…

This a link that Gandalff posted on the previous thread that shows the ash plume very well. As Gandalff noted, play for the last 24 hours. This is a URL that is worth bookmarking.

http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/IPPS/html/MSG/RGB/ASH/ICELAND/index.htm

@Robert Bordonaro [37]

The only problem is that the Icelandic Low (as well as the Bermuda/Azores High) has been pretty much AWOL for most of the year. For a while, it was parked over the UK, and it also spent some time over Nova Scotia. Right now, it's parked just East of Newfoundland.

Gina CT ; its thermal image not infrared.
Thermal image picks up contrasting heat and infrared gives visability in darkness.
Please see my post above for discription.

Holgar: That is what i would expect, visible warm body parts will shine as light and cooler objects will then darken due to temperature difference.
I took the time to explain this but seems no one read my post No 59
What you saw is typical of a thermal image cam and thick water droplets will hinder any view of heat coming from the volcano.

@45 The narrowing of the valley could be related to the hardness of the rock. with ice and water flow cutting througth softer area at the top then being squeezed between harder rock/lava deposits right to the valley floor. It may also be related to the change of slope, with ice flow accelerating at the break of slope, becoming more erosive, and therefore cutting down rather than spreading out

#67, I blog quite a bit in Weather Underground, www.wunderground.com. We all marveled at the fact of the negative North Atlantic Oscillation, and the position of the A/B High and the Icelandic Low. We truly appreciated the cold and snow, 14" of snow fell in Arlington, TX in 2/10. At least the great folks in Iceland are getting a break from all the miserable weather!

@Robert Bordonaro [70]

It's going to make for an interesting season come June. The path of the ITCZ waves is pretty much determined by the B/A High. If they are in as much flux then as they are now, good luck calling a path.

@pyrotech #69

Sorry, I didn't want to duplicate your explanation. The example of the backpackers walking through the image was just too good to pass up as an explanation for the camera behavior.

@pyrotech: I read your post 59 and thank you for the post.

#71) All the folks at Weather Underground are expecting a very, very busy Hurricane season in the Atlantic/Caribbean Basin.

All the major forecasting agencies are calling for an above normal season, I have this gut feeling that this year will be a BIG mess!!We may have a slow start, but come August/September things are going to be WILD!

Pyro, Gina:

We're not talking about the same kind of water curtains. You're talking fog nozzles; they are of use in the kind of situation you describe, to protect an individual firefighter. Hell, here's a video of me practicing exactly that kind of technique:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ehR7yJdnZ4

This is what we mean by an actual water curtain device, a device you place on the ground to spray a thin sheet of water into the air:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqokc6_lsaE

That's about all it's good for! They *did* work in firefighting occasionally, but that was more by luck than judgment: when they did work, it's because they were wetting down and cooling the structure they were hoping to protect, NOT because they were preventing the radiant heat impinging on the structure - which is what the theory was.

Which end of CT are you at, Gina? I'm only about 4 miles from the CT line...

#68: Yep, we noticed that effect earlier as the clouds lifted off ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell.

@Fireman: Maybe you'll enjoy this as well: Firehose footy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ4KyyWCAnY

This is a yearly event here during the town fest Neistaflug (Flying Sparks).

The latest earthquake has unusual depth of 28 km. I did record it, it was quite "clean" earthquake and had a sharp signal.

@pyrotech 59 Did too..was part of a (very) small-town mutual aid FD for a while long ago.

Reynir 77, thanks for that! We play a similar game, but the ball is suspended from a wire, and the game is to push the ball to the other end of the wire. One good way to do it is to use the hose stream to 'take out' the other team, *then* play the ball... ;-)

There is something interesting happening on ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfelli web camera.

Anyone else see that speck of light on ÃÃ³rÃ³?

La Kat, I saw Turrialba today, it had a big gas plume and still closed to public. Poas also degassing strongly but no eruption. Heading to Arenal manana.

I have been away for some time so I decided to check on Eyja again. I see that she still is going strong. Interesting to hear about the larger plumes today and the increased SO2 amounts. Those deep earthquakes are also interesting, something might be moving down there.
I wonder about the latest GPS measurement from the SOHO station, the vertical drop seems strange. But meiby it is a incorrect measurement that they will correct tomorrow http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/gps/predorb/sohopred.html

Yesterday, there was someone on the opposite side of the gully taking a night-time video. Perhaps that was happening tonight as well (I saw the light too).

Looking at the FLIR, I can just see the lava flow. It doesn't appear to have advanced very much over the last few days.

Now they want new satellites to monitor for volcano ash.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8663884.stm

I'm seeing a 'hot spot' below the 'V notch'- between it and the split rock - could it have broken through there?

Looks like something may be happening inside the meltwater tunnel. The FLIR is showing a temperature change - a little line of colour is starting to flow from the bottom of the lava flow/steam plume heading towards the top of the meltwater tunnel.

#88) It appears some magma has mad it to the surface in the FLIR pic. It would be awesome to have at least one clear day over the summit of "E" to watch this awesome eruption!

@ [86]

Of course, always have to have a new project to spend non-existent money on. Just look at some of the less than optimally financed countries.

While remote sensing has it's place, terrestrial research is always in need of financing.

But... if you have well financed cattle hauling operations like Delta, Pan-Am, Spirit, Southwest, etc. throwing money at the politicritters, well, they tend to do what the master beckons them to do.

It seems to have been the spot that was intermittently puffing the wisp of steam yesterday. There was a fair steam plume showing for a while showing distinctly on the new camera....but of course, it's now stopped.

two new photos @ http://www.earthice.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?pictureID=101639…

Wow, I have come back after a 2 day business trip to FLIR.
GREAT. We are so lucky to have this technology.
I however, do not see any break through.

two new photos from the met office of today's plume www.earthice.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?pictureID=1016395&id=10…

I'm watching a decent show on this eruption on Discovery Channel right now. 9-10 EST

I'll have more to say tomorrow, but here is some fodder for everyone:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/05/icelan…

USA today article has the plume at 421,000ft high. LOL! Ice age is coming! LOL!

That's about 79 miles... almost at Low Earth Orbit. A bit higher and they might hit the ISS.

Yeah, I noticed that height for the plume ... nice typo, eh?

Noticed another light over Katla Cam.
Could be aurora.
Here's a good link for possible aurora sightings
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/gif/pmapN.gif

Best!motsfo

Discovery Channel is doing a thing on EyjafjallajÃ¶kull and Icelands more nefarious eruptions. They mentioned the Laki eruption of 1783. The show narrator stated that it put out about 120 million tons of SO2, and that it erupted for 8 months.

That works out to about 500,000 tons of SO2 per day. In "Friday Flotsam" of 30 Apr 2010 (here) it was noted that Kilauea sulfur dioxide emissions have dropped to about 520 metric tons/day versus the 2,600 metric tons/day it was putting out in 2008.

According to Wiki, Pinatubo did 20 million tons of SO2 during it's 1991 event. It's been widely reported that this resulted in 0.5ÂºC drop in global temps.

Is there a site or reference that gives an estimate of global volcanic SO2 output, and/or takes a stab at the relationship of SO2 an cooling?

I'm aware that there is quite a bit to it... atmospheric circulation, latitude etc. But is there a generic rule of thumb that anyone has come up with?

Discovery program pretty good until the global warming thing came up. Iceland volcanoes have been going off despite how much ice is over the volcanoes. Even the ice sheets of Antarctica don't stop the eruptions that happen under them. Nor does the deep ocean stop underwater volcanoes. Give me a break!

Daylight is coming to Iceland now. It should be bright around 03:30 or something like that. Daybreak has already started.

#101) A "Pinatubo" or larger eruption is needed to inject SO2 into the stratosphere.

SO2 is an aerosol and it reduces the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface. The cooling can be 0.5C for smaller eruptions and more pronounced cooling in the order of 2+C in larger eruptions, like the 1783 Laki eruption. The effects last from 1-3 yrs, depending on the amount of SO2 released.

Thankfully, those eruptions are the exception rather than the rule. The Jet Stream helps to carry the SO2 around the globe. There is the Polar Jet and the Sub-Tropical Jet in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. The SO2 injected into the stratosphere slowly dissipates over a 1-3 yr time period in larger eruptions and climate returns to normal.

#103 :o), The top of the ash plume is barely visible in the upper portion of the Hvo web cam!!

On the Hvol cam you can just start to see the top of a plume

'night all - wake me up if something happens...

Re comparative SO2 amounts. Earlier today Hasis posted

http://www.cntv.at/EGU2010/?modid=18&a=show&pid=88

It's a press conference at the European Geologist's Union about a theory of mass extinctions and flood basalt volcanos (think Deccan Traps). The whole thing is worth watching, but in the initial 5-10 minutes there is a discussion and slide showing the relationship of SO2 between famous eruptions.

@Erik #96

Well, if nobody else takes a stab at it, how about this:

If the volcano starts to bulge out again, supposedly towards the south-east, and shows renewed seismic activity, we may be heading for another rift opening up. Perhaps on the flank of the mountain with less / no ice covering the eruptive edifice. Could be quite a show, if it were to happen that way.

Of course, the people that live around that side of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull would suffer badly from such a thing. Therefore, let's hope this is just idle fantasy....

The top of the plume looks quite nasty at the moment. It is a little bit smaller at the moment then the plume yesterday.

@Fireman: I meant the drop in radiant energy you notice if you're, say, holding a 60psi hose (or even a garden hose for that matter) and approaching a bonfire. It's pretty easy to block all the thermal infrared for such a small target as a human; when dealing with something like a house, forget it - you have to pump water way too quickly and you're better off wetting the house; you'll achieve the same effect with orders of magnitude less water. If you have a fire cam handy you can try the garden hose trick in the back yard to see how easy it is to blind the camera.

@Scott: The ocean looks blue because it is reflecting the blue light scattered in the atmosphere. Try going out to sea at night and shining the brightest lights you can find - the ocean is nice and black. I can't remember if blue is transmitted better than other colors in water, in which case if you go deep enough everything will have a bluish tint when lit by the sun.

#110) Jon, considering the plume height is about 20,000 ft, yes, the plume is a little smaller than yesterday. The "E" volcano is not finished by any means, she is taking a "break". Yesterday, "E" shot ash up over 42,000 ft. We have the "bulge" being picked up by the GPS sensors and the 10-20 earthquakes tell us "E" will continue to put on quite a show!

For those of you who have been looking at the FLIR camera its a neat addition and under certain circumstances, it will work in some fog conditions. But someone was saying that it will look through fog. Actually not, in fact its worse if there is a humidity level of more than 55% and /or smoke. The fog conducts the heat and makes it pin point invisible mostly. You would though see a bright flash if it goes. Lightning might put it into reset mode too because of its heat and a small aperture.

The Iraqi's figured it out and would set large oil fires during Desert Storm and create clouds of smoke that would blot out the IR signatures of the targets for the GBU's. Thats when we turned to mostly laser guided sight bombs. After a while they ran out of this and that and we got them one by one. But, if the volcano goes on a foggy night the ash, smoke and very likely the very humid conditions could produce a blank screen. Its appreciated that they are trying but it rarely goes the way you want.

Oops ... I missed Gina's post on the fog nozzle - a great practical example of how water does block that radiant energy.

I wish the colors were set up differently on the IR camera though - and that we had a scale for the apparent temperature. It's still pretty neat to be able to watch it almost any time of the day and night.

Ok am I the only one who's not getting any value from this new thermal cam? If it's foggy/cloudy/etc. all I "see" are the usual landmarks. If it's not, then I can see what I need to see on the regular cam anyway. Am I alone here, or should I be more excited about this new gizmo? :)

Water Latent Heat Vaporization = 2260 kJ/kg

I was going to say that earthquake activity continues to look suspiciously low on the IMO site, but just a few minutes ago there were two under EyjafjÃ¶ll.

@Pyrotech #68: There's infrared and infrared and infrared and infrared. Some cameras sold as "infrared" are near-infrared and the scene can be lit with something like an LED which produces no visible light. Then there are the "SWIR" cameras (short wave infrared) which are in the "mid-infrared" region; the scene for those cameras can be lit up with a nice hot lamp with a germanium filter in front (so no visible light is transmitted). Then there's the "LWIR" (long-wave infrared) which is somewhat misleading because it's also mid-infrared, but those cameras are also known as "thermal infrared". Although you can light the scene as with the SWIR, you don't need to unless your scene is at a uniform temperature - otherwise you see objects via the energy they emit at whatever their temperature is. And then there's the "far infrared", but I don't even know if there are imagers for that region; I never had a need to do imaging in the far IR.

@beedragon: Generally lava doesn't advance quickly - you can outwalk it. Personally I've only seen very fast moving lava in movies (or right where it's coming out where it's still incredibly hot - it flows much easier then). When Etna was gurgling lava a few years ago people were having parties and watching the wall of lava creep on (unless they were in the path in which case they packed what they could and left). There's also that guy in Hawaii who's right in the middle of a region of flow but he refuses to leave while his house is still standing.

MadScientist Mount Nyiragongo lava has been clocked at 60 miles per hours that is just a little faster than walking pace;)

@Jon #86: well, what Dr. Prata says is true (after all, he's the one who worked out that volcanic ash can be detected using some satellite instruments). One of the older meteorological satellites happened to have channels that allowed the detection of volcanic ash, but the currently flying replacement can't do it - I think the next bird to fly in 2011 or 2012 will be able to again - I'm not sure though, that might just be wishful thinking. The satellite images can give you the lateral extent of the ash which is above about 4km altitude, but you can't locate the height of the plume with any accuracy. That's improved a bit since Calipso was launched, but Calipso can't provide enough timely data for the entire plume, just a little strip here and there. Whether it's worthwhile or not to build such satellites is another issue.

Randall Nix: not if the person has stolen Katla's "walking pants" ;)

#109 reference to Erik article posting
"If the volcano starts to bulge out again, supposedly towards the south-east"

http://www2.norvol.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption
"Meltwater:
Discharge from GÃgjÃ¶kull decreases further and meltwater seems to be running from the eastern side of the glacier. This is different from tuesdays meltwater were water was running from the west side. Lava flow might be changing the direction of meltwater flow... "

Today's update also stated there was a change of meltwater toward the eastern side.

On the FLIR view - I do not have the directions orientation on this view so can we see the eastern side in this Poro cam??

@Randall #120: I won't go to that volcano then! I'll stick to Hawaii or Sicily or any number of other places where the lava takes its time ...

JS US: yes, if you're looking at the thermal cam, it's the leftmost pinkish-purple vertical (i.e. go left of the black stuff ;)

MadScientist guess I could walk pretty fast knowing Mount Nyiragongo lava was following me.

@Randall #120: where did you get the figures for Nyiragongo? (I don't even know what type lava it puts out.) Looking at other sources, they agree with my own (very limited) experience:

www geo mtu edu/volcanoes/hazards/primer/lava.html

hvo wr usgs gov/volcanowatch/2002/02_02_28.html

"The lava emitted in eruptions at Nyiragongo is often unusually fluid. Nyiragongo's lavas are made of melilite nephelinite, an alkali-rich type of volcanic rock whose unusual chemical composition may be a factor in the unusual fluidity of the lavas there. Whereas most lava flows move rather slowly and rarely pose a danger to human life, Nyiragongo's lava flows may race downhill at up to 60 miles per hour (up to 100 km/h)."

Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nyiragongo

MadScientist here is one source:
Because of the extremely high speeds of the 1977 lava flows, estimated by some observers to peak at 100 km/hr (62 mph) on Nyiragongo's steep upper slopes, the death toll from the 1977 eruption was staggering. Some reports put the number killed in the thousands. Exact numbers will never be known. The fast-moving flows swept through rural villages in the middle of the night, catching the villagers unaware and, in most cases, asleep.
hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/2002/02_01_31.html

I can find you more but it will be after the EJ volcano show on Discovery is off.

The lights at Villarrica summit is because the lava lake has rised almost to the surface, so the explosions (they are usual) are more visible, but the cameras show it spectacularly. It looks like (according to the POVI) that is a normal cycle, because 5 years ago happened the same.

MadScientist here is something from John Search's site:

According to eye-witnesses, lava flows reached the outskirts of Goma in 20 minutes, at a speed of 30 km/hr. Further uphill lava flowed at 60 km/hr, reaching 100 km/hr at the fracture point. Fast lava flows generated strong winds which unrooted eucalyptus trees and destroyed banana plantations.
nyiragongo.com/1977.html

Here'a the wiki link for Nyiragongo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nyiragongo

I'm still trying to translat ethe French site.

@Randall and parclair: Thanks. What a curious volcano. I'll stick with the more usual types.

I am wondering why there is such a huge drop in melt water coming from the glacier. Anyone have a good idea that could explain this ??

1. There's still a bloody good plume occasionally visible on the Hvolsvelli cam.

2. The thermal imager is doing a pretty good job of picking up the incandescent (in the IR at least) material hidden behind the steam on the glacier.

3. Where is all the meltwater going? I worry.

By the looks of the tremor plots etc it sure looks like she's holding her breath!

Nice white bright spot on the flir cam

Fireman, I am with you being concerned about the lack of meltwater flowing from the glacier. Where is it going? If it is just dammed some how there could be a huge out burst when it is finally released..

Its seems to be new (for me) steamvent on left side of vodacams "big picture". Just below clouds you can easy spot it righ now. Its near at left blank of the picture. Meltwater is maybe going over there??

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

Clouds trying to clear - you see the top of plume

Peter! (#56) The phenomenon is real. We have just observed one such ~48 hour long oscillation on an Icelandic scale end 18 hours ago. Over the past 3+ months we have seen too many of them for it to turn out to be circumstantial. Even if it does turn out to be a squid (an unusually large squid I am confident), I am convinced it will not turn out to be a damp one. As you were the one person who recognised what we were seeing, I do hope that you get some sort of recognition for it!

I love when bird flocks fly in front of the plume totally unaware of the danger. It's a squabby cloud!

Ash cloud is coming visible on the Hvolsvell camera.
http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

Oh, plume becoming visible now on the infrared cam, too.

Hey guys: don't miss the wonderful view of the plume on Vodacam!

Why did the IR image go so very very very bright during the last mins? ( Obvious answer it is hotter) but whats the reason for this?

It's heading southeast. Beware Europe!

@Renato #147

Thanks for the tip! That's a stunning view, finally.

#150 After so many hours avidly peeping through clouds it is really rewarding! We deserve it, Holger!

@Renato #151

The Vodafone cam has so much better resolution. It's a truly stunning view.

Let's keep it a secret, so that the server doesn't get too busy again ;-) (like that is going to happen....)

It's interesting how steam plume from the lava flow is not as bright as the eruption from the vent seen from the IR cam.

;)

@Renato #153

The eruption plume could easily contain hot particles that radiate brightly in IR, particularly when seen in front of the cold / dark background of the more or less cloudless sky.

Looks like not many other people still up tonight / not up yet in Europre.

This ash cloud is quite big, and appears to be getting bigger at this moment. It seems like that the size is variable over time, but that might be normal.

Did you just see the guy taking pictures? And I was already thinking my screenshots would be worth some euros!LOL!

@Renato #157

Yup, the early bird gets the great picture!

Jon Friman, glad to see we aren't the only ones here today.

Some guy is taking photoes of EyjafjÃ¶ll:
lh3.ggpht.com/_-BJWzKwFjeg/S-OviMKjTcI/AAAAAAAAVF4/uNWtsApYy3M/ey0507reg2.jpg
lh6.ggpht.com/_-BJWzKwFjeg/S-OviXGBV2I/AAAAAAAAVF8/XH-S25OHv0Y/ey0507reg3.jpg
lh6.ggpht.com/_-BJWzKwFjeg/S-OviXGBV2I/AAAAAAAAVF8/XH-S25OHv0Y/ey0507reg3.jpg

I hope he would show us his pics here :-)

Our favourite Icelandic lady don't seem to be tired at all.

#156 It's my great honor to witness this wonder with you, JÃ³n. You're the man! Wish I were in California now, Holger, so I could get some more hours of sleep. But the view is breathtaking - it's going to be another of those volcano "hang overs"!

If we get lucky we might get another stunning time lapse movie of todays action from Phillip if and when he gets hold of Vodafone's image dump on Picasa.

I'll post screenshots tomorrow. Lots of people will envy us! They came out beautifully!

The guy taking pics was visible on the IR cam too.

New flight restrictions in place over Ireland from today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8666185.stm

I don't think that Mila's decision to put the FLIR picture on the same page is a good one - the refreshing rates are appalling, probably because of the need of bandwidth at either sending and/or receiving end. The visible light picture sort of toggles between focused/unfocused - loss of pixels, I suspect.

There seems to be few minutes difference between IR-cam and normal view @ mila. This guy with camera was visible in heat picture before real ligh cam.

You fore casted the rise of the eruption JÃ³n. Congratulations!

@Birgit #163

There was an interesting time delay between the Vodafone cam and the Mila IR picture. It took about a minute or two longer on the IR picture for the guy to show up.

Renato, even with the Pacific Daylight time zone I'll have to turn in soon. I have a big presentation to give tomorrow. Gotta be fresh and sharp...

#168 You need some rest, pal. I think we've seen the best of it. Soon I'm hitting the road too! Good luck everyone! Save the nice pics to me!

Here's the composition of the lava we're all waiting for....

(Nordvulk)

http://www2.norvol.hi.is/page/IES-EY-CEMCOM

No wonder it's explosive... 61,5%SiO2... That would qualify as dacitic...

# 170 @Volcanophile Does it mean we will have to upgrade eruption status to plinian?

It appears there is very little or no new lava flowing in - they did point to this in yesterday's statement - and whatever is there, is rapidly cooling: the steam plume is considerably smaller than in the previous days.

Alright, last post for tonight:

Actually, the FLIR image is quite fascinating. It shows the radiant heat of the rising plume well. No wonder the plume is so vigorous and strong. Over the last half hour or so the plume has begun to out-shine the steam emissions of the lava flow.

#172 Is it because it turned more viscous from the concentrations of silica?

Peter, Bruce & other oscillationists! I've been thinking about why we see EQ almost exclusively in the rift zones and how that would affect the bolus theory. Why only there and not uniformly over the bolus impact area, which might be most of Iceland?

Are you familiar with the principle of Chobham armour? Basically, Chobham armour is multi-layered armour where each successive layer is of a different material which gives it a different RI (refractive index) visavi the plasma jet of a HEAT warhead. The effect is to scatter and break up the jet, thereby greatly reducing its penetrative potential.

Could it be something similar with the observation that earthquakes almost exclusively occur in the rift zones? Peter, earlier you postulated that magma accreted in certain locations just below the crust. If this is so, there is a theoretical possibility that the magma could fractionate and/or have a different temperature. If we assume that different magmas at different temperatures have different permeability/RI to the bolus propagating energy form, this could explain why EQs occur almost exclusively within the rift zones. Yes, EQs are due to rocks breaking, but which phenomenon causes the rocks to break?

It's 4:20am here in Newfoundland ... can't sleep so I might as well watch the show :)

Yeah like I said yesterday in the other thread we have entered a new nasty phase....I got a real bad feeling about this.

#176 3:55 in Rio de Janeiro. I'll have only three hours of sleep, but she's addictive!

@178 ... very much so ... it looks very active today! The eastern sky is just starting to wake up this morning ... looks like it will be a nice day for a change!

But I think new clouds are coming to say good night! :(

Yes ... too bad ... they are moving in fast.

Dacitic? After three weeks of continous basaltic to basaltic - andesitic eruptions? With a fresh influx of lava from the depths forecast from the recent EQ activity, ie more primitive = basaltic magma? Isn't this eruption, very peculiarly, working in reverse? What a reprobate our Lady Eyja turns out to be!

Does the image from the new visible spectrum camera at ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell seem to be stretched vertically to anyone? Something about it doesn't seem quite right.

Ok who ordered the clouds? lol

#183 I've noticed that too...

@184 ... I don't think this volcano likes being watched :)

Volcanophile thanks for that info.

Henrik it may be time for GÃ¶tterdÃ¤mmerung.

Morning all, quite a show at the moment, though I think the cloud has actually calmed down over the last couple of days. Those brief glimpses we got during the cloud cover suggested a MUCH bigger plume and I think we missed the really big action that produced that SO2 cloud which is currently floating of the west coast of Spain and the Bay of Biscay.

However, the plume looks noticeably greyer (and not just from steam diluting a black mafic cloud). I wouldn't be surprised if the ash is indeed richer in SiO2 which begs the question of whether this is coming directly from a deep source or whether basaltic magma from a deeper source is injecting into a shallow fractionated sill or chamber. The seismic patterns seem to suggest the former but I don't know if you can get SiO2 rich magma from the mantle/crust boundary like that. Maybe EKoh or Boris or someone can fill me in on that (hint, hint).

@ Henrik, I'm afraid you lost me on the refractive indicies thing (no fault of yours, just my limited knowledge!) To start from the beginning (so that I don't confuse myself!):

I think the boluses thing refers to capsules or pulses of melt (probably eclogite to follow Ms. Foulger's paper) rising through the mantle to stall at the mantle/crust boundary. When their buoyancy overrides the resistance offered by the crust an intrusion event occurs. The resistance offered by the crust will vary depending on local faulting and the nature of the crust itself, e.g. any existing dikes etc. that will facilitate the rise of the magma.

The oscillating pattern, as I understand it, is an expression of the arrival of such pulses at this boundary (which seems to be in surprisingly ordered succession - hence the string of pearls analogy) and their subsequent propagation through the crust. So far so good.

So, to get back to your question as to why EQ's only occur at rift zones: wouldn't the most obvious explanation be that rift zones are already fractured and this is where the crust offers least resistance?

If this is what you are actually saying anyway, then pardon!!

In The Halls of Valhalla I finally take my place
With my sword and my shield I enter Odin's realm
I'm an immortal spirit now with a heart made of steel
With the gods on high forever I will live
and laugh at the fears of man

Hi folks:
I am comming back to Katla connection. Could it be possible the following way: Eyj. inflates, erupts ... finally deflates and this strong subsidence extends as far as the Katla fault system, thus opening it and triggers Katla ?

Any comments?
Hanns

It looks like the whole Mila camera operation went belly-up.

Sometimes it works when you say that something doesn't - it starts working right away!

I still don't like the picture quality on the visible light camera, not one bit! It's like it had auto focus on, and it keeps focusing between the fog and the far wall - quite useless at full screen.

Whoooowwww...Lavaausbruch auf Voda on the right side...

191

It looks like the whole Mila camera operation went belly-up.

Posted by: Kultsi, Askola, FI | May 7, 2010 3:37 AM

I couldn't get any of the cams for a few mins. Just try reloading a few times. Worked for me.

Hard to tell through gaps in the clouds, but the plume may be getting bigger.

I made a small time-lapse video from today (05:50-06:20 utc):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu6JQ76Bsxk

Hope you like, best regards.

Whoooowwww...Lavaausbruch auf Voda on the right side...

Henrik thank you I needed that right before I go to sleep:) BTW between work and the volcano I am still studying and enjoying your thesis.

@Bruce (#188), yes and no. Thinking of it as a physical body of eclogite makes it comprehensible. The way I try to think of it is in terms of energy, energy forms and interactions. I think of theses boluses not as boluses of eclogite or other materials, but as carriers of energy, an energy bolus if that makes sense? As with the discussion above about steam/cloud permeability to IR, the materials/strata the energy bolus encounters on its upward path will react differently. Some will be permeable and the energy bolus will continue its upwards rise. Some will be opaque and stop further propagation in that direction. Some will react and it is the reactions we (theoretically) can detect. Since what differentiates solids from fluids is a crystal lattice, is it too far-fetched to think of energy in the form of a bolus interacting with and affecting crystal lattices? Something akin to phenomena such as piezo-electricity?

I hope that makes it clearer - even if I managed to confuse myself thoroughly! My brain is not used to this level of abstract visualisation and conceptualisation, and I find that I lack both knowledge and language to think precisely. :o

Yeah, the focus problem is rather irritating. Also, as someone mentioned earlier, the refresh/framerate has really taken a hit. Seriously, at times, the vodafone still cam has been smoother. But they've been good at getting stuff fixed so far, so I'm guessing we won't have to put up with these niggles too long.

The FLIR cam is pretty spiffy.

Thanks for that video, Vince.

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

Plume looks higher than an hour ago now.

Sorry my bad english..
Here two Pics, see the right side.

h**p://mitglied.multimania.de/mchard1/Eyja/07052010_0950.jpg
h**p://mitglied.multimania.de/mchard1/Eyja/07052010_0949.jpg

#193 naaaah... Just light playing with your head. Those have been seen b4.

Das dÃ¼rften Lichtreflexionen in einem Tropfen oder sonst was auf der Kamera sein, ist mir auch schon Ã¶fter aufgefallen. Lava ist das nicht.
Just a reflection on the lense, the spot would not be possible for lava to appaer. I have been waiting to see lava on this cam for days but so far i have not seen any.

@ McHard 196 - I think what you are seeing is a rejuvenated stream of water from the right hand side of the glacier (pretty small though).

@ Henrik, yes, that makes sense to me. I said this before somewhere but a geologist once explained quakes to me as like when silly putty snaps, i.e. a crystal lattice will only take so much strain before it breaks. The different structural properties of the surrounding strata as well as existing faults and so on will interfere with the propagation of the resulting seismic wave so I guess a pressure wave rising through a volcanic system will be subject to similar discontinuities.

I really wish we had a 3D map of the seismic activity over time (like Korfs but animated over time) because we may have actually been able to see this.

@195 Thank you so much for the video I was asleep while all that was going on and missed it. Great to be able to see it.

An impressive plume on the HvolvÃ¶llur camera.

Mila have zoomed the Poro cam right in on the top of the opening.

They've shifted the Thorolfsfell camera to point more upwards. Still the same pixel mush for picture.

I do not believe it was, that only water is, look here the picture of picasso voda verge, it looks as if something would explode.

h**p://mitglied.multimania.de/mchard1/Eyja/07052010_0945_2.png

MÃºlakot webcam is far enough to see the massive ash plume.
mulakot.net/myndavelar.html

You go your views on the Voda with the control at 7 hour and 42 minutes and 43 back ...
Then you get the two pictures:

http://mitglied.multimania.de/mchard1/Eyja/07052010_0942.jpg
http://mitglied.multimania.de/mchard1/Eyja/07052010_0943.jpg

Ich habe genau den Flecken angeschaut und das auch bemerkt wie gesagt. Ich wÃ¤re wirklich froh wenn es Lava oder eine Explosion gewesen wÃ¤re, wars aber meiner Meinung nach leider nicht. Aber Philip wird uns hoffentlich wieder mit einem Videozusammenschnitt dieser Kamera beglÃ¼cken und da kann man dann nochmal genauer nachsehen.
I know it is impolite not to talk Englisch here, i just wanted to help Mc HARD a bit.
And McHard, if you keep following this blog i am sure your english will improve, i am learning A LOT here, not only about volcanism.

@ McHard.. ich glaub, dass Du nur eine kleine WolkenlÃ¼cke gesehen hast. Ein Lavastrom wÃ¤re mit ziemlich viel Dampf verbunden. ;-)

#211 Again, that is just a trick of light, no lava outburst. Take a look at the Voda pic http://extras.vodafone.is/trailers/fimmvorduhals/mx10-4-235-80/2010/05/…. The UFO is not there...

Sorry, but the pictures it was really over
Birgit @ 212 and @ 213 Bruce
Thank you:)

The FLIR camera is now showing its worth. Impressive hot plume and evident lava flow.

Did the plume become significantly darker?

@Ragutis, It seems so. I guess the new magma has finally reached the surface. This is not a trick of the light.

Nifty little lenticular cloud.

And - when the cloud at the top disperse, the column changes to a (much) darker colour and does not attain the same height. Since this seems to be a repeating phenomenon, I give you two choices:

a) Changes in magma composition and force of eruption coincide with changes in cloud cover.

b) The eruption column interacts with any cloud present which results in the changes in colour and altitude observed.

Since b) is the far simpler explanation, it's the more likely (See Popper and Ockham)

On the heat camera the colours have changed. It was said last night that the colour range adjusts to the temperature range on screen. in other words the hotest thing is white and the coldst purple, a given colour doesnt equal a certain temperature constantly.

Given this fact it is interesting that the ground is now mostly red, when it was yellow earlier. this suggests the the white area, the plume, is alot hotter. would this make sense since you are suggesting the new magma has arrived?

This is indeed a new phase just starting.

@ Peter Cobbold 156
@ Henrik Sweden 142

All volcanoes are said to have their own unique seismic signature but Redoubt was certainly notable in her short period of quiescence just before she blew her top. (Fooled a few people, there!) After much misbehaving, and cause for concern, she suddenly settled down gaining a reprieve for good behaviour from The Alaskan Volcano Observatory who officially reduced her alert level i.e. put it back down a level! Hence my comment (300 6th May) that Turrialba may be doing the same and is not to be trusted.

#220 I'll offer a c) When the clouds disperse, the amount of light reaching the camera changes and it reacts with adjusting to the total amount and that will make the plume look relatively darker.

Ooops! Meant @ Peter Cobbald's comment at no.56 (not 156)

sorry guys, but I beg to differ. The cloud only looks darker because the sun has shifted behind it. :-)

It looks more uniformly grey to me which would indicate less or even no phreatomagmatic activity. Henrik, I still don't buy the cloud explanation for the huge cloud of SO2 put out the other day.

For a colour comparison remember the densely black clouds at the beginning of the eruption? This is nothing like this.

#222 To compensate for Redoubt, Pagan went yellow VONA level yesterday...

Jamie (#221)! Consider the alternate explanation - there no cloud there to interact with, ie to cool, the eruption column.

LaKat, I agree - "Human wishes rarely influence natural phenomenae" or "If an observed phenomenon can be linked to either a benevolent or a destructive event to follow, get the H outta there!".

Darn! en.vedur.is is having a glitch.

Bruce! SO2 does not build huge, billowing clouds, H20 does. Remember the unique properties of the water molecule!

Henrik, I'm not that stupid!! (ok so I might look it ;-))

i mean this:
http://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/OMI/OMISO2/images/OMI_NH_SO2_DDC…

which was erupted overnight two nights ago. At the time you poo pooed our thoughts that the eruption had ramped up and said it was due to local cloud cover adding moisture.

Everybody, look at the FLIR cam now.
It looks like they're experimenting with temperature readings.

Look a temp scale and a Hotspot reading. Mila, IÂ´m impressed with your sensitivity to what we spectators want.!!

had a 47 degree hotspot just now

Well, very interestingly, some more data has appeared on screen on the thermal camera. It shows a temperature scale and there seems to be someone using it to assess the temperature of the plume and the lava flow.

@Kultsi (#223). Nice explanation but it does not explain the observed changes in altitude! ;)

Bruce (#230), I didn't poh-poo you did I? Since there was no corroborating evidence for a substantial increase, I merely offered an alternative - and in my opinion more likely - explanation. If I offended you or anyone else, I sincerely apologise! :(

@232: Thinking more about it, I'm not sure if they will keep it though. Temperature readings from a FLIR camera can be misleading. Certainly hot spots aren't in reality only 38.5C hot or so.

Does anyone else think that the water flow on the left hand side is coming from under the glacier tongue. If this is the case then i think this is where our meltwater extrusion burst(if one is to occur)will manifest itself. Any thoughts.

Also the judging by the size of the jeep that was parked here yesterday and various video's that have been shown the flow from under the tongue is most likely quite violent.

: ) !

@#234 Henrik: wind is the logical explanation to that, but sadly, well lack data to assess that factor. Wind speed at one level would not be enough, we would need speeds at several altitudes to assess the wind shear.

New flood on lefthand side of glacier tounge just now

Ha, Henrik, no offense taken (I'm kind of difficult to offend on this kind of thing).

No, I was referring to the discussion yesterday morning when we were all getting excited and you dismissed it as the result of excessively damp cloud cover, even though there was indeed a ruddy great cloud of SO2 bearing straight down on Ireland that hadn't been there the day before.

You might be right, particularly as there hasn't been any associated reports of excessive ash, just I don't see how something like that huge cloud of SO2 can be explained by local airborne moisture interacting with the plume.

My understanding of thermal imaging is that it measures infrared. In which case the intensity is a function of the distance the object is from the camera. In order to get a decent reading they would need to know the distance the plume was from the camera and probably also a reference distance to an object of known temperature, for example the glacier. Perhaps that is what they are doing now, calibrating it.

@Henrik, Swe. I hope you don't mind if i suggest your use of exclamation marks gives the impression you are shouting all the time :) That might be why people get a bit upset. What you are saying is always interesting though.

@ Henrik no. 227

I think you meant to say: "malevolent". (Bene = good!)

BTW: Your standard of English is excellent - just thought you would like to know.

As for the clouds i don't think they effect the height of the ash plume. With cloud convection you are talking a few degress in temperature difference to create updraft. With the volcano the ash plume is most likely very hot and will push through the cloud with little or no resistance. 850mb and 500mb temperatures have been fairly constant for the last few weeks ranging in temperature from -10 to -15 DegC.

I take things as i see them, the ash plume is higher because the eruption is stronger.

Nice colours showing on the Poro cam - looks like the lower bright spot tallies with the areas of steam that have been seen above the arch.

@Birgit #148: The camera is set to automatically adjust the dynamic range of the image so you can see the most detail when there is little temperature difference in the scene. This makes it useful for some things but absolutely useless for other things (such as gauging the temperature of objects). If you have a very large contrast in the image such as a clear sky (about -40C) and a warm plume (about +80C) or even volcanic bombs (~600C or more) you tend to lose all features and see only silhouettes. This is even more obvious if some object is so hot that the detector cannot correctly register the energy received. So that's probably the effect you see - just a large difference in contrast and the camera's computer automatically attempting to scale things. There are other techniques which can be exploited to show better images in such a situation, but then the usual image from the camera would not be interesting at all - if only they would automatically switch between image processing techniques.

#244 I don't agree. The hot spot upslope GigjÃ¶kull seen on the Thorolfsfell (or ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell, if you want to use the local character set) is probably the only glimpse we have of actual lava - and it really is much higher up, at least a mile, maybe more, along the glacier, I'd guess.

Mila cams are down for me

Thank you MadScientist. That explains. I think the cam turned bright just when the new more active phase started.
And i would like to thank the people of Mila for providing the cameras for us and constantly improving things. After all we are people living far away from iceland and still we can watch this eruption right when it happens. With the pictures and Jons helicorders and the tremors one can get a really good idea whats going on. Not that i understand everything our experts here are discussing but i am learning more and more about volcanoes. Eyja sure is faszinating and i became a scienceblogs/eruptions addict.

So did the eruption enter a new phase today?

This may be a case of crystal mush "rejuvenation" as someone said earlier....

The almost-crystallized rhyodacite magma under Eyjaf has been melted back to eruptible status bay week after week of basaltic injections, and we see it erupting now.

I wouldn't be surprised if we had yet another switch-back to basaltic magma after a few days, then back to andesitic, etc etc....

Anything seems possible in this eruption. We could even have dome growth, then basaltic lava flows, then back to dome growth, or even the two erupting simultaneously, or magma mixing to any extend.

Now on Hvolsvelli we can clearly see the plume. It is HUGE, as big as it was at the start of the eruption... and there is NO WATER involved in the eruptive process now.

This looks just like St Helens or Pinatubo right now, LARGE mushroom cloud.

This.... is at the very least a *solid* subplinian activity.

@Ruby I can't get any of the Mila cams right now either. I get a server down message.

@ Volcanophile 249

yep, that makes perfect sense to me too.

I think Mila has set up a program to automatically follow the hottest spot in the picture.

@Henrik, Swe

In general you have a valid point with your water-theory.
Even if you haven't said it water has a much higher energy containment potential than water-free air. It also as you state has some rather unique qualities as dispersers and as cloud-builders. So far your theory is bang on the money.

Now to the small flaw.
Your theory would have been valid if you had made the comparison between dry air and watery clouds. But that is only possible normaly in laboratories or in some degree over large desserts. Not in Iceland during fog-season:)
I would say that the air humidity is about 60 - 80 percent in clear (no cloud) air and between 60 - 90 in the clouds. The only large difference between the clouds and the clear air is temperature driven, ie. if the clear air reaches a certain temperature point it starts to go into steam.
And do not for all parts forget that cloud-building is also in large parts driven by micro air particles. You can get a whopping good rain if you "seed" clear air with silver-nitrates.
Conclusion: The difference between the clouds you say enhances the plume and "clear air" is only a couple of degrees and some dirt.

Conclusion 2: Actually Henrik might be right though if I reverse order you theory. A larger plume will increase the "cloudabillity" due to wind increase (lowers dew point and temperature), particle amount (will give adding points for the airs watermolecules, and of course lower the air temperature).

Conclusion 3: (Public health warning, philosophical humour) Soros Law, if one has to invoke Popper one has forgotten to look for a new solution.
All is Poppers fault since he was the thesis supervisor for George Soros. And as we all know he has built a fortune out of global crisis management, so in any good logic, since he benefits from large crisises all is his fault, or more to the point. Popper blew up the volcano;)

dagnabbit,rabbit,no view for me either except Mulakot -glad I got up early . Those who can see, please post occasionally what you're seeing, especially any changes in water, etc.

The Mila cams have all been up and down like a yoyo since they installed them new cameras at ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell.

JÃ³n FrÃmann's helicorder is detoxing right now :)

detoxing! Haa! nice way to put it...

crikey is that a small pyroclastic flow on the vodafone cam or just another trick of the light? whoa.. sun just came out, that will be it.

Vodaphone cam is showing more water coming out from under the east side of the glacier tongue this morning.

A lot of ashfall in the town of VÃk (SE of Eyja) yesterday and today.

http://kort.vista.is/

Got my access back to the Mila cams. As much as the FLIR image is fun, I'd love it if they'd put the Thorolfsfell cam back the way it was! The new image is not good.

Vodafone is giving a better picture, but the constant refreshing of their page is headache-inducing.

Can anyone else see a big yellow square in the voda cam - what's that all about?

@Volcanophile (#250). Steady on there, I've checked with old screenshots (HvolsvÃ¶llur camera). Although it is certainly large today, it is nowhere near as big as on the 16th and 17th of April when it overtopped the screen by some distance. Nor is it as high as on the 27th. It is slightly higher than it was on the 21st, 22nd and 2nd albeit more voluminous today. :)

#262 I can't see any squares, but there's an X on the west (right) side of the split rock, "Treasure Be Here"...

The lava flow appears to have increased. The steam in the glacier is greater but more significantly there is much more of a 'hot' line coming north from the plume site on the thermal camera.

Here's a link to the July 22,1980 St. Helens eruption,which was similar to what this one looks like today.
Re post #250- I agree...

http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Images/july_22_images.html

Are all those signals on Jon Frimann's helicorder only noise or is there some earthquake too?

Upcoming 'Megavolcano' documentary ... I don't know how over the top this will be but it might be worth watching.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/2010/megavolcano/

Somebody who is good with time-lapse movies. I would like to see how fast the lava is moving in the ice, could that be done with timelapse on the heat cam? IÂ´m trying to decide if the hotspots are increasing in size, hard to see in normal motion.

@268 well from the blurb, I am not holding out much hope for it. They make it sound like they just discovered the Toba eruption well, doh! No doubt I will watch it anyway given the chance but it hardly looks like news.

love this bit: "to predict if such a disaster could happen again" lol

@Snotra (#269)

I don't think the lava has advanced one bit in the past two days or so.

If I remember correctly scientists said yesterday that the lava (what little there is of it) seems to be pooling in some hollow high above the split boulder outlet.

@snotraviking I think we've been waiting nearly two weeks - since we saw the first steam plume at the top of the glacier tongue - for lava to be visible. We're still waiting.....

New post for today:

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/05/eyjafjallajokull_update_for_5…

@Anna

Yesterday they said this, "The lava stream down GÃgjÃ¶kull has been stationary for the last two days."

There are two hot spots in the upslope channel, but how hot they really are, is anyone's guess, as the FLIR only shows relative temperatures.

@Bruce 188 Henrik 198. A bolus of energy could embrace any of: heat, kinetic energy, buoyancy, chemical reactivity, (others?). Boluses of heat seem less likely at Eyjaf because of Prof Foulgers cold plume papers (no evidence for hot plume). Chemical reactivity- seems to ne to be too slow to produce very sudden EQ-rate rise and a symmetrical spike.Kinetic energy we've visited before- negligible with respect to mass of crust above bolus. That leaves buoyancy. Maybe hydraulic coupling, but we have not considered sinking of the overlying crust into a lower density bolus (think of boat sinking into mass of rising methane bubbles). To me crustal sinking into a bolus would lead to compression of surface of crust , but GPS show expansion. On other hand bending (expansion) of lower crust could explain deep EQs at 25km. And maybe compression of surface reduced strain and EQ numbers in the top 1km we saw in the swarm.

Hi Peter, nearly missed you here.

What you are referring to would be the top pressure/squeeze mechanism I mentioned above. Unfortunately I think the observed inflation rules this out. Did you see this when it came out?

http://www.earthice.hi.is/page/ies_Eyjafjallajokull_eruption?259,72

Scroll way down to near the bottom of the page or do a text search in the page for "crustal deformation associated with magma intrusion" for that great interferometric map.

Earthquake swarm around noon, Jons helicorder is showing crazy things... while watching the Webcams (I watch Vodafone, Mila and Mulakot at the same time on 2 Monitors) it seems that the eruption is getting stronger reaching a Sub-Plinian characteristic very soon.

I love the way you sound so passionate about what you are writing. Keep up the great work!

Interesting post, I look at us again and hope more of them to read.

Volcanoes from space!

eklemetti — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:05:55 +0000

Volcanoes from space!

Actually, no the volcanoes aren't from space, but pictures of the volcanoes were taken from space. The NASA Earth Observatory has posted three more gems of volcanic activity taken by one of the fleet of earth imagers in orbit:

A recent image of Chaiten taken by EO-1. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.

There is a great image of the busy Kamchatkan Peninsula, where four volcanoes are seen erupting in a single image - Kliuchevskoi, Bezymianny, Shiveluch and Karymsky. The plume from Karymsky is especially prominent as a grey streak above the white snow of the Russian winter (albeit it already April 2 when this image was taken).
The EO keeps presenting us with great shots of the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull-FimmvÃ¶rduhÃ¡ls eruption in Iceland. This one, taken April 4, shows both vents and the lava flows snaking down drainages out of the snow zone into the lowlands near the FimmvÃ¶rduhÃ¡ls Pass. Based on the activity last night, the eruption is still going strong. The Icelandic Met Office posted an image of the collected seismic data leading up to the eruption that shows the ascent of the magma as well.
Finally, as we approach the 2nd anniversary of the Chaiten eruption in Chile, we have a new image (taken April 3) of the dome and surrounding landscape around the volcano. It is remarkable how much the new domes have filled in the caldera. Soon, the old caldera will no longer be a negative relief feature on the map and Chaiten will again be a "mountain" rather than a hole in the ground.

eklemetti Wed, 04/07/2010 - 05:05

Your Chaiten question also makes me wonder if this activity is cyclical.
1)Eruption clears plug
2)Eruption fills previous caldera
3)Climactic blast creates new caldera
4)Dormancy follows after new material plugs vent
5)go to step 1

At the rate the current caldera is filling it might not take too long to answer this! Save maybe for step #4 (9000 years was it?) The webcam shows change in the dome size everyday.

hello

i have a follow up on a blog that was made here a few days a go that was for Redoubt volcano

http://newsminer.com/bookmark/6981915

The NASA EO satellite image managements is very kind to us here. They've responded generously to a humble request for image assistance.

Thank-you so very much, NASA EO! You rock!

The dormancy time of ChaitÃ©n was later estimated in 300-450 years, but the activity could be still dangerous between eruptions.

I'm not sure if that was already mentioned somewhere but there was another interesting article posted on Wednesday on the JPL website: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-117
"A NASA research team is using the latest advances in satellite artificial intelligence to speed up estimates of the heat and volume of lava escaping from an erupting volcano in Iceland. [..]"

Totally go along with writer. At last somebody has the cojonies to tell it like it is.

Fast Friday Flotsam: Volcano updates a'plenty!

eklemetti — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:54:50 +0000

Fast Friday Flotsam: Volcano updates a'plenty!

Leaving for Death Valley tomorrow - I'll be sure to take some pictures of Ubehebe Crater and the volcano at the Mirage. This will likely be the last new post until about a week from now, but look for the Erta'Ale Volcano Profile, maybe a new Mystery Volcano Photo and I'll leave a thread open for any new volcano news.

Colima in Mexico.

Eruptions reader Tim Stone sent me this image from Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi's Twitpic feed - it is a stunner of the caldera on Jebel Marra in Sudan. The only known historical eruption for this volcano was ~2000 BC within the Deriba Caldera, but it has produced pyroclastic flows that travelled upwards of 30 km from the caldera.
There are a couple new pictures from Colima in Mexico posted on the Colima Volcano Database. The picture show the growing phases of the dome since 2008 and the new lava flow on western side of the volcano.
A number of Eruptions readers have mentioned an increase in activity at Costa Rica's Turrialba. OVSICORI said that it appears clear that new magma (spanish) is moving into the volcano based on the current seismicity and gas emissions at the volcano. Turrialba experienced its first phreatic eruption in the last 100 years in January, but new magma has yet to be seen at the summit crater.
You can always count on great shots of volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula from the NASA Earth Observatory team, and this new image of Klyuchevskaya (Kliuchevskoi). It shows the new dark grey ash from the current eruption on the snow the lines the flanks on the volcano. Some of the recent eruptions of Kliuchevskoi have produced plumes upwards of 6 km / 20,000 feet.
Before I forget, here is this week's Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report.
And for those of you not following the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull (Iceland) earthquake swarm thread, the swarm does continues to march on - the question still is, to what is it leading?

eklemetti Fri, 03/12/2010 - 02:54

Have a good time in Death Valley. Don't forget the offset cindercone at the south end of the valley below Jubilee Pass. Hopefully the flowers are blooming by now. They were just starting to sprout when we were there last month.

Volcanism in Dar Fur, Sudan ? If the region ever gets independency from that horrible bloodstained country, they might get electricity from geothermal energy, reducing their dependence of their unfriendly neighbour.
With their luck, they are likely to get a disastrous eruption when the other troubles settle down....

Turrialba may not have surface lava yet but it is getting closer by the day. This one may go before Iceland.
Vigorous degassing and possible small rock slides on the web cam.
http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/videoturri.html

what kind of the name is EyjafjallajÃ¶kull

where did they come up with that one the newspaper?

try saying EyjafjallajÃ¶kull 3 time fast

Turrialba is already glowing at night - see photo at http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/informes_prensa/2010/turrialba_boletin_te…

I'm excited as I am planning a trip to Costa Rica in May!

@ David (#4) ""what kind of the name is EyjafjallajÃ¶kull""
It's Icelandic as is apparent from Dr Klemetti's notes. Eyj is island, fjall mountain and jÃ¶kull glacier. What kind of comment is yours, genuine or condescending?

@Mike, That's a pretty dirty plume for a degassing volcano.. It's certainly got a lot thicker over the last week or so. What do you think is making it so brown? Heavy SO2 concentration?

I would have thought fine ash particles, and the fact that the light source is directly behind it and low in the sky.

The fact that there is glow at night suggests there is magma near the surface and tiny particles of it may be carried aloft with the plume along with increasing density of gas.

On the other hand, the glow might be due to gas ignition. I've seen this happen at a couple of volcanoes.

The plume has a brown/orange tinge in the day light.
I have done a lot of photography in my day including working for several photographic companies. I would say most if not all of the glow is from the back lit subject and not due too a ground based light source.

Mud Volcanoes from space!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=43127

Dasnowskier, I was referring to the nighttime shot, not the daytime backlit one. There is no nighttime light source at Turrialba other than the volcano itself.

The lava pond at Kilauea is back on camera tonight.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/cams/HMcam/

Don't forget DST...

@mike . When I looked at the web cam at night I saw no glow. There may have been one just not when I looked.
I would love to see a glow. I agree there is no night time light source except the town in the valley and that a very dim.

The link I posted above has a photo of the glow:

http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/informes_prensa/2010/turrialba_boletin_te…

Go to the bottom of the last page, where there is a reference to incandescence in the crater (in Espanol).

Mike,
oooo, yup the pic at the bottom definitely has "glow", and you can see the light from the village in the background.
Thanks Mike.

The Costa Rican volcanologists describe the pic as showing incandescence in the crater, not as reflected glow from a background village. If they have misinterpreted their own photo that would be pretty surprising!

Glow does not show up on the webcam but a time exposure would be more sensitive and I assume that is what the posted pic is.

That is a very good time exposure. I did not mean to imply it was a reflection from the village.
Lava must be at the surface.

I don't know yet whether the crater glow is from fresh magma or from high-temperature fumaroles heating the surrounding rock..but either way, Turrialba is definitely heating up.

when was the last eruption

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SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Report for 2/17-23/2010

eklemetti — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:03:08 +0000

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Report for 2/17-23/2010

The flu has retreated and I'm getting back on track. Huzzah!

I'll get back to the blog by posting this week's new USGS / Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcano Report. Looks like some interesting stuff in it ...

Looks like there were some small eruptions from Oldoinyo Lengai in Tanzania. The volcano is one of the few (only active?) carbonatite volcanoes in the world, erupting a lava composed primarily of calcium carbonate and sodium minerals with very little silica. It leads to the odd lava that erupt black (and cool ~ 500C) and cool to white, making it one of the strangest places on Earth.
El Reventador in Ecuador appeared to produce some ash and a thermal anomaly was detected as well.
Russia's Kliuchevskoi produced strombolian eruptions along with some phreatic (water-interaction) explosions related to a lava flow.
Back in Ecuador, Sangay produced an ash-and-steam plume that reached upwards of 7.6 km / 25,000 feet.
The level 3 (of 4) alert at Talang in Indonesia was reduced to Level 2 as seismicity has steadily declined since February 2009.

eklemetti Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:03

Those carbonatite volcanoes are very interesting. Every few years I go to the Kaiserstuhl volcano in the South of Germany. That volcano is part of the Upper Rhine graben (mentioned in the article Erik linked to) and although the rifting process still takes place there, the Kaiserstuhl has not been active for around 15 million years. It's still a nice place to go look for a big variety of volcanic rocks. The Limberg for example, is a small stratovolcano that's part of the Kaiserstuhl complex. It's the type locality of Limburgite. In the center of the Kaiserstuhl a big mass of carbonatite can be found. Carbonatic lapilli tuff can be found around places where there used to be craters.

Erik, glad you are feeling better.

@Gijs, what is Limburgite? Can you give a description of it? I may be a rock hound, but I sure don't know about a lot of rocks and minerals.

I think Oldoinyo is one of the weirdest places. I have seen films and pictures of it and it is something else. The lava, in the films I saw, just globbed out and also acted a bit like Stromboli, but on a very limited scale; like little burps of stuff and forming hornitos. Yeah, I know I am talking about what most of you know anyway, but it is cool to see what it does.

It's a rock that looks pretty much like basalt, but it contains no or almost no feldspar, and nepheline is also rarely found in it. Limburgite can be found in volcanic areas all over the world, although there are some differences in appearance depending on where it comes from.

My nicest specimen: http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2597/limburgietlimberggroeve.jpg

Glad you're feeling better!

Oldoinyo Lengai is one of my favorites. I flew over it in 2006 in a small plane and got a couple of good pictures. It's the only active carbonatite volcano left on the planet. The lava erupts much cooler than most volcanoes (500Â°C to 600Â°C), so it doesn't glow during the day. As it cools, it reacts with moisture in the air and turns white.

It's actually been experiencing a phase of explosive eruptions lately, which it does a couple of times a century, but they seem to be abating and the mountain is returning to its normal modus operandi. It'll be a good number of years before you can walk through the erupting crater again, though.

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