Alaska

Polar bears vs Grizzly bears

dr. dolittle — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 16:05:39 +0000

Polar bears vs Grizzly bears

I read an interesting article in the Alaska Dispatch News which examined interactions between arctic grizzly bears and polar bears. They found that although polar bears are larger, they tend to leave food sources when grizzly bears are around. This may be because polar bears typically spend a lot of time on sea ice without the need to be aggressive towards competitors. Of concern is that the relatively passive nature of polar bears may be detrimental considering these animals are increasingly spending more time foraging on land during the summer and fall months.

North Slope bone pile in Alaska. USFWS

It is thought that grizzly bears evolved into polar bears as the climate cooled. It is interesting, therefore, that scientists and hunters are increasingly coming across "Pizzly" or "Grolar" bears which, as the names imply, are grizzly and polar bear hybrids. Second generation pizzly bears have also been discovered. Hybridization is one strategy to speed up adaptation, which is important for a polar bear living in a warming environment.

So does this mean that polar bears will evolve back into grizzly bears?

Image of a "pizzly bear" captured by Steven Kazlowski from www.archive.onearth.org

Sources

Alaska Dispatch News

http://www.adn.com/article/20120426/more-polar-grizzly-hybrid-bears-kil…

PBS

dr. dolittle Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:05

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Life Science

Alaska

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Climate Change Viewed From Alaska

gregladen — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 08:02:46 +0000

Climate Change Viewed From Alaska

Alaska is being called the poster child (state?) for climate change because things have been so strange there lately. One reason for this is the extreme warm conditions in the North Pacific and associated (probably) changes in the jet stream, as well as overall warming, which has caused coastal Alaska to become a warm place, glaciers to melt, and (in the farther north) sea ice to be less. And now, President Obama has made a trip there and given a big speech.

President Obama's speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvIrlaXU28A

More information on the President's trip here.

Meanwhile, another study cites arctic ice loss as a factor in extreme events.

The new study, published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, advances a growing body of science demonstrating that these record-breaking extremes have not been a pause in the advance of human-driven climate change but a result of it.

The newly published study, led by Jong-Seong Kug of South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology, used climate and weather observations as well as climate change modeling to investigate potential connections between these and other extreme cold winter weather systems over North America and South Asia last winter and historically low levels of summer sea ice in areas of the Arctic Ocean.

I've written about this quite a bit before. See:

Linking Weather Extremes to Global Warming

Imperfect Storms: A Controversy In Climate Science

Global Warming and Extreme Weather – #climate #agw

The top of the Earth burns, makes Global Warming Worse

More Research Linking Global Warming To Bad Weather Events

Global Warming Changing Weather in the US Northeast

The text of President Obama's speech in Alaska:

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT GLACIER CONFERENCE

Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center

Anchorage, Alaska

5:00 P.M. AKDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Thank you. (Applause.) It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Alaska. (Applause.)

I want to thank Secretary Kerry and members of my administration for your work here today. Thank you to the many Alaskans, Alaska Natives and other indigenous peoples of the Arctic who’ve traveled a long way, in many cases, to share your insights and your experiences. And to all the foreign ministers and delegations who’ve come here from around the world -- welcome to the United States, and thank you all for attending this GLACIER Conference.

The actual name of the conference is much longer. It’s a mouthful, but the acronym works because it underscores the incredible changes that are taking place here in the Arctic that impact not just the nations that surround the Arctic, but have an impact for the entire world, as well.

I want to thank the people of Alaska for hosting this conference. I look forward to visiting more of Alaska over the next couple of days. The United States is, of course, an Arctic nation. And even if this isn’t an official gathering of the Arctic Council, the United States is proud to chair the Arctic Council for the next two years. And to all the foreign dignitaries who are here, I want to be very clear -- we are eager to work with your nations on the unique opportunities that the Arctic presents and the unique challenges that it faces. We are not going to -- any of us -- be able to solve these challenges by ourselves. We can only solve them together.

Of course, we’re here today to discuss a challenge that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other -- and that’s the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate.

Our understanding of climate change advances each day. Human activity is disrupting the climate, in many ways faster than we previously thought. The science is stark. It is sharpening. It proves that this once-distant threat is now very much in the present.

In fact, the Arctic is the leading edge of climate change -- our leading indicator of what the entire planet faces. Arctic temperatures are rising about twice as fast as the global average. Over the past 60 years, Alaska has warmed about twice as fast as the rest of the United States. Last year was Alaska’s warmest year on record -- just as it was for the rest of the world. And the impacts here are very real.

Thawing permafrost destabilizes the earth on which 100,000 Alaskans live, threatening homes, damaging transportation and energy infrastructure, which could cost billions of dollars to fix.

Warmer, more acidic oceans and rivers, and the migration of entire species, threatens the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, and local economies dependent on fishing and tourism. Reduced sea levels leaves villages unprotected from floods and storm surges. Some are in imminent danger; some will have to relocate entirely. In fact, Alaska has some of the swiftest shoreline erosion rates in the world.

I recall what one Alaska Native told me at the White House a few years ago. He said, “Many of our villages are ready to slide off into the waters of Alaska, and in some cases, there will be absolutely no hope -– we will need to move many villages.”

Alaska’s fire season is now more than a month longer than it was in 1950. At one point this summer, more than 300 wildfires were burning at once. Southeast of here, in our Pacific Northwest, even the rainforest is on fire. More than 5 million acres in Alaska have already been scorched by fire this year -- that's an area about the size of Massachusetts. If you add the fires across Canada and Siberia, we’re talking 300 [30] million acres -– an area about the size of New York.

This is a threat to many communities -- but it’s also an immediate and ongoing threat to the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect ours. Less than two weeks ago, three highly trained firefighters lost their lives fighting a fire in Washington State. Another has been in critical condition. We are thankful to each and every firefighter for their heroism -- including the Canadian firefighters who’ve helped fight the fires in this state.

But the point is that climate change is no longer some far-off problem. It is happening here. It is happening now. Climate change is already disrupting our agriculture and ecosystems, our water and food supplies, our energy, our infrastructure, human health, human safety -- now. Today. And climate change is a trend that affects all trends -- economic trends, security trends. Everything will be impacted. And it becomes more dramatic with each passing year.

Already it’s changing the way Alaskans live. And considering the Arctic’s unique role in influencing the global climate, it will accelerate changes to the way that we all live.

Since 1979, the summer sea ice in the Arctic has decreased by more than 40 percent -- a decrease that has dramatically accelerated over the past two decades. One new study estimates that Alaska’s glaciers alone lose about 75 gigatons -- that’s 75 billion tons -- of ice each year.

To put that in perspective, one scientist described a gigaton of ice as a block the size of the National Mall in Washington -- from Congress all the way to the Lincoln Memorial, four times as tall as the Washington Monument. Now imagine 75 of those ice blocks. That’s what Alaska’s glaciers alone lose each year. The pace of melting is only getting faster. It’s now twice what it was between 1950 and 2000 -- twice as fast as it was just a little over a decade ago. And it’s one of the reasons why sea levels rose by about eight inches over the last century, and why they’re projected to rise another one to four feet this century.

Consider, as well, that many of the fires burning today are actually burning through the permafrost in the Arctic. So this permafrost stores massive amounts of carbon. When the permafrost is no longer permanent, when it thaws or burns, these gases are released into our atmosphere over time, and that could mean that the Arctic may become a new source of emissions that further accelerates global warming.

So if we do nothing, temperatures in Alaska are projected to rise between six and 12 degrees by the end of the century, triggering more melting, more fires, more thawing of the permafrost, a negative feedback loop, a cycle -- warming leading to more warming -- that we do not want to be a part of.

And the fact is that climate is changing faster than our efforts to address it. That, ladies and gentlemen, must change. We’re not acting fast enough.

I’ve come here today, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and its second largest emitter, to say that the United States recognizes our role in creating this problem, and we embrace our responsibility to help solve it. And I believe we can solve it. That’s the good news. Even if we cannot reverse the damage that we’ve already caused, we have the means -- the scientific imagination and technological innovation -- to avoid irreparable harm.

We know this because last year, for the first time in our history, the global economy grew and global carbon emissions stayed flat. So we’re making progress; we’re just not making it fast enough.

Here in the United States, we’re trying to do our part. Since I took office six and a half years ago, the United States has made ambitious investments in clean energy, and ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions. We now harness three times as much electricity from wind and 20 times as much from the sun. Alaskans now lead the world in the development of hybrid wind energy systems from remote grids, and it’s expanding its solar and biomass resources.

We’ve invested in energy efficiency in every imaginable way -- in our buildings, our cars, our trucks, our homes, even the appliances inside them. We’re saving consumers billions of dollars along the way. Here in Alaska, more than 15,000 homeowners have cut their energy bills by 30 percent on average. That collectively saves Alaskans more than $50 million each year. We’ve helped communities build climate-resilient infrastructure to prepare for the impacts of climate change that we can no longer prevent.

Earlier this month, I announced the first set of nationwide standards to end the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from our power plants. It’s the single most important step America has ever taken on climate change. And over the course of the coming days, I intend to speak more about the particular challenges facing Alaska and the United States as an Arctic power, and I intend to announce new measures to address them.

So we are working hard to do our part to meet this challenge. And in doing so, we’re proving that there doesn’t have to be a conflict between a sound environment and strong economic growth. But we’re not moving fast enough. None of the nations represented here are moving fast enough.

And let’s be honest -- there’s always been an argument against taking action. The notion is somehow this will curb our economic growth. And at a time when people are anxious about the economy, that’s an argument oftentimes for inaction. We don’t want our lifestyles disrupted. In countries where there remains significant poverty, including here in the United States, the notion is, can we really afford to prioritize this issue. The irony, of course, is, is that few things will disrupt our lives as profoundly as climate change. Few things can have as negative an impact on our economy as climate change.

On the other hand, technology has now advanced to the point where any economic disruption from transitioning to a cleaner, more efficient economy is shrinking by the day. Clean energy and energy efficiency aren’t just proving cost-effective, but also cost-saving. The unit costs of things like solar are coming down rapidly. But we’re still underinvesting in it.

Many of America’s biggest businesses recognize the opportunities and are seizing them. They’re choosing a new route. And a growing number of American homeowners are choosing to go solar every day. It works. All told, America’s economy has grown more than 60 percent over the last 20 years, but our carbon emissions are roughly back to where they were 20 years ago. So we know how to use less dirty fuel and grow our economy at the same time. But we’re not moving fast enough.

More Americans every day are doing their part, though. Thanks to their efforts, America will reach the emission target that I set six years ago. We're going to reduce our carbon emissions in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. And that’s why, last year, I set a new target: America is going to reduce our emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 10 years from now.

And that was part of a historic joint announcement we made last year in Beijing. The United States will double the pace at which we cut our emissions, and China committed, for the first time, to limiting its emissions. Because the world’s two largest economies and two largest emitters came together, we’re now seeing other nations stepping up aggressively as well. And I’m determined to make sure American leadership continues to drive international action -- because we can’t do this alone. Even America and China together cannot do this alone. Even all the countries represented around here cannot do this alone. We have to do it together.

This year, in Paris, has to be the year that the world finally reaches an agreement to protect the one planet that we’ve got while we still can.

So let me sum up. We know that human activity is changing the climate. That is beyond dispute. Everything else is politics if people are denying the facts of climate change. We can have a legitimate debate about how we are going to address this problem; we cannot deny the science. We also know the devastating consequences if the current trend lines continue. That is not deniable. And we are going to have to do some adaptation, and we are going to have to help communities be resilient, because of these trend lines we are not going to be able to stop on a dime. We’re not going to be able to stop tomorrow.

But if those trend lines continue the way they are, there’s not going to be a nation on this Earth that’s not impacted negatively. People will suffer. Economies will suffer. Entire nations will find themselves under severe, severe problems. More drought; more floods; rising sea levels; greater migration; more refugees; more scarcity; more conflict.

That’s one path we can take. The other path is to embrace the human ingenuity that can do something about it. This is within our power. This is a solvable problem if we start now.

And we’re starting to see that enough consensus is being built internationally and within each of our own body politics that we may have the political will -- finally -- to get moving.

So the time to heed the critics and the cynics and the deniers is past. The time to plead ignorance is surely past. Those who want to ignore the science, they are increasingly alone. They’re on their own shrinking island. (Applause.)

And let’s remember, even beyond the climate benefits of pursuing cleaner energy sources and more resilient, energy-efficient ways of living, the byproduct of it is, is that we also make our air cleaner and safer for our children to breathe. We’re also making our economies more resilient to energy shocks on global markets. We’re also making our countries less reliant on unstable parts of the world. We are gradually powering a planet on its way to 9 billion humans in a more sustainable way.

These are good things. This is not simply a danger to be avoided; this is an opportunity to be seized. But we have to keep going. We’re making a difference, but we have to keep going. We are not moving fast enough.

If we were to abandon our course of action, if we stop trying to build a clean-energy economy and reduce carbon pollution, if we do nothing to keep the glaciers from melting faster, and oceans from rising faster, and forests from burning faster, and storms from growing stronger, we will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair: Submerged countries. Abandoned cities. Fields no longer growing. Indigenous peoples who can’t carry out traditions that stretch back millennia. Entire industries of people who can’t practice their livelihoods. Desperate refugees seeking the sanctuary of nations not their own. Political disruptions that could trigger multiple conflicts around the globe.

That’s not a future of strong economic growth. That is not a future where freedom and human rights are on the move. Any leader willing to take a gamble on a future like that -- any

so-called leader who does not take this issue seriously or treats it like a joke -- is not fit to lead.

On this issue, of all issues, there is such a thing as being too late. That moment is almost upon us. That’s why we’re here today. That’s what we have to convey to our people -- tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. And that’s what we have to do when we meet in Paris later this year. It will not be easy. There are hard questions to answer. I am not trying to suggest that there are not going to be difficult transitions that we all have to make. But if we unite our highest aspirations, if we make our best efforts to protect this planet for future generations, we can solve this problem.

And when you leave this conference center, I hope you look around. I hope you have the chance to visit a glacier. Or just look out your airplane window as you depart, and take in the God-given majesty of this place. For those of you flying to other parts of the world, do it again when you’re flying over your home countries. Remind yourself that there will come a time when your grandkids -- and mine, if I’m lucky enough to have some -- they’ll want to see this. They’ll want to experience it, just as we’ve gotten to do in our own lives. They deserve to live lives free from fear, and want, and peril. And ask yourself, are you doing everything you can to protect it. Are we doing everything we can to make their lives safer, and more secure, and more prosperous?

Let’s prove that we care about them and their long-term futures, not just short-term political expediency.

I had a chance to meet with some Native peoples before I came in here, and they described for me villages that are slipping into the sea, and the changes that are taking place -- changing migratory patterns; the changing fauna so that what used to feed the animals that they, in turn, would hunt or fish beginning to vanish. It’s urgent for them today. But that is the future for all of us if we don’t take care.

Your presence here today indicates your recognition of that. But it’s not enough just to have conferences. It’s not enough just to talk the talk. We’ve got to walk the walk. We’ve got work to do, and we’ve got to do it together.

So, thank you. And may God bless all of you, and your countries. And thank you, Alaska, for your wonderful hospitality. Thank you. (Applause.)

gregladen Tue, 09/01/2015 - 04:02

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Too cold for you in Texas? Move to Alaska!

illconsidered — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 11:02:24 +0000

Too cold for you in Texas? Move to Alaska!

Some remarkable weather in North America recently as most of you probably know. Check out Jeff Masters for some of the details.

Record warmth and precipitation in Alaska
As of January 26, 13.83" of precipitation had fallen in Valdez during the month of January. This is more than 8" above average for this point in the month, and close to the all-time record for January precipitation of 15.18", set in 2001 (records go back to 1972.) With more rain on the way Monday and Tuesday, this record could easily fall. Numerous locations in Southeast Alaska have beaten their rainiest January day on record marks.

Wunderground's weather historian Christopher C. Burt has much more detail on the record Alaska January warmth in his latest post, Record Warmth in Alaska Contrasts Cold Wave in Eastern U.S. A few highlights:

- Temperatures of up to 40° above normal occurred across the interior and West Coast of Alaska on Sunday. Bolio Lake Range Complex in Fort Greely, Alaska, located about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, hit 60°. This is only 2° short of the all-time state January heat record of 62° set at Petersburg in 1981.

- At 10pm local time Sunday in Homer, Alaska, the temperature was 54°. This was warmer than any location in the contiguous U.S., except for Southern Florida and Southern California. The 55° high in Homer on Sunday broke their all-time monthly record by 4°.

- All-time January heat records have been set in 2014 in Nome, Denali Park, Palmer, Homer, Alyseka, Seward, and Talkeetna.

Check out this flyover video of a huge avalanche that has cut off Valdez, Alaska and created a massive ice dam:

This topsy-turvy weather is once again courtesy of a sharp kink in the Jet Stream.

illconsidered Tue, 02/04/2014 - 06:02

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Hello coby

Besides climate change and global warming which are relatively slow processes, is there a more "short term" reason for the abnormal weather in Alaska and also in other parts around the world such as in a more recent post made called "England worst winter weather in at least 248 years" (posted 18 February)?
There seems to be a global trend in abnormal weather since the beginning of the year, even here in South Africa.

Thanks

Yes, the more immediate cause of much of these extreme weather events is the disruption of the jet stream. Large ox-bows in the normally more circular airflow is bringing warm air from the tropics north in some areas and cold air from the arctic south in others.

The Alaskan Winter That Never Was?

gregladen — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 18:49:04 +0000

The Alaskan Winter That Never Was?

I had heard it was warm in Alaska, but holy moly, I didn't know it was THIS warm. Above is an anomaly map showing the Drunken Arctic Air in central and eastern Canada and the US in contrast with the very (relatively) warm air over western Canada and Alaska. Remember, these are anomalies, not absolute temperatures. But still, it is warm enough in at least parts of Alaska that lakes that are normally well frozen by now are not frozen at all and may not even freeze this winter.

Here are photographs taken by A.M.Mueller on January 25th 2014 in Skilak Lake, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and passed on for posting, with some commentary.

Alaska Kenai Peninsula, January, -- 60F, at least in the sun … in the 50s without sun. Super warm for weeks on end.

“Normally” this is covered in snow and Skilak Lake is frozen. The lake is still completely open and may not freeze at all this winter.

The clouds were quite a sight too ….

More clouds and open water.

Meanwhile, it is so cold here in Minnesota that we could not go outside and play in the snow. So we brought some of the snow inside:

gregladen Sun, 01/26/2014 - 13:49

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Get used to it. We all know this is a terraforming / climate-engineering campaign to open up the northwest passage and Arctic oil. Lol

Drill, baby Drill!

It's one of the wackier things I've run into online, worth a chuckle ;)

For the last two weeks it's been above freezing essentially everywhere south of the Arctic Circle. This is the normal pattern when the jet stream loops south over the eastern half of the continent. It looks like we can expect at least another week of it. People are starting to worry about the big dogsled races next month.

Is your temperature scale out of whack in the first image? Zero Celsius should be 32 F.

This is an anomaly map, so it is degrees above or below a baseline.

Only God alone controls the weather. He is trying to get our attention, but obviously not ALOT are listening....

Kathy @#7, I'm not sure who or what God might be. What I do know is that we have met the enemy and it is us (thanks Pogo!). We are pumping crud into our air which is changing the climate. It is particulate and it is CO2. It better stop soon or we're all toast, perhaps literally.

What do you think God wants, anyway? Has He got some tablets for us? Or maybe it's another book? I'm curious because it's been a couple of thousand years since we've heard from him, and I assumed he had moved on.

Global Warming Period !

I just heard on the news. We are expecting a cold spell Thursday here in Minnesota. It is currently -9F.

Monday Musings: Russian activity, tremors at Ngauruhoe and Mayon climbers beware

eklemetti — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:20:18 +0000

Monday Musings: Russian activity, tremors at Ngauruhoe and Mayon climbers beware

News for Monday!

Ngauruhoe in New Zealand, showing the dark lava flows of basaltic andesite on the slopes of the young volcanic cone. Image by Erik Klemetti, taken January 2009.

A couple pieces of news from two Russian volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula: (1) last week's report of activity at Gorely appears to be semi-substantiated with new photos on the KVERT website (Russian). The images from June 6 and 12 (2010) shows steam plumes coming from the volcano - one as tall as 500 meters. Now, this doesn't imply that an eruption occurred, but it might suggest activity on on the upswing. KVERT continues to list the Alert Status at Gorely as "Green". (2) An eruption over the weekend at Shiveluch produced an explosive plume that reached 4.5 km / 15,000 feet. Over the last few days, the volcano has experienced over 150 earthquakes, but the activity is no threat to nearby villages or aviation over the peninsula. The status at Shiveluch remains at "Orange".
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, there are some interesting tremors (Updated 6/21/2010: Nope, likely these "tremors" are just wind in the area of the webicorder - see the comments below) going on near Ngauruhoe in New Zealand. This fairly active volcano is part of the Taupo Volcano Zone and is located next door to Ruapehu near the famous Tongariro Crossing. Now, there is no indication on the New Zealand GeoNet website and the status is still "green", but it could be something to watch. Ngauruhoe last erupted in 1977 and had frequent eruptions in the middle of the 20th century. Ngauruhoe is really the youngest cone of Tongariro volcano - a cone that started forming only 2,500 years ago. The volcano tends to have strombolian explosions with basaltic andesite lava flows (see image above) ... and be sure to check out the Ngauruhoe webcam.
Over in the Philippines, government officials now have the deal with tourists visiting Mayon instead of Taal after they were warned to stay away from the latter volcano. However, dangers still exist at Mayon, where there are frequent rockfalls and small explosions - yet tour guides still bring people into the 6-km exclusion zone. Although the Alert Status at Mayon is at Level 1, the crater still glows red at night, reminding us that magma is still near the surface.
Finally, last year there was a lot of talk about the oil storage tanks near Redoubt in Alaska. This week, the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council heard a report on the storage tanks and whether the CIRCA did an appropriate job in planning for a volcanic eruption from the Alaskan volcano in regards to the potential spill from the tanks. More or less, it appears that the Council may have been complacent in the oversight of the facility - a common problem when it comes to planning for disasters.

{Hat tip to Eruptions readers M. Randolph Kruger and Bruce Stout for information used in this post.}

eklemetti Sun, 06/20/2010 - 20:20

Which tremors for Ngauruhoe do you mean, it looks like it's only had two earthquakes in the last few months, is it the smaller tremours? http://www.geonet.org.nz/images/volcano/drums/ch/otvz/10/drum.png

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

This is great news, I've been waiting for this one to erupt for ages. Last year when I climbed it last year it only has steaming out a few fumaroles at the top at the side and inside the main crater nothing was steaming at all. NZ has been pretty boring of late, I wish something would happen there.

Greg: Be careful what you wish for, especially when talking about eruptions!

Thanks for the info about Mt. Ngauruhoe, Erik. I'll check the webcam when I'm not at work :-)
I did the Tongariro Crossing in 2000 and vividly remember the blue and green crater lakes up there.
As there are many tourists up there every day (at least in summer) I would not wish a sudden eruption or bursting crater lake rims...

I wonder if Ngauruhoe isn't just celebrating the "Victory" of the all whites against Italy yesterday. I guess a volcanic victory dance would be a bit tremorsome:)
And let me just say that for a swede Ngauruhoe is definitly on the list of un-pronouncable volcanic names. Give me something easy like EyjafjallajÃ¶kull any day!

Ngauruhoe is a very beautifull volcano, would look stunning with a nice strombolian eruption, especially since it dont have any ice-cap on top. Hope there are a lot of webcams around! One that up-dates every 30 minutes would be a bit disapointing. A live feed from a few angles and a FLIR for night-time would be good, microphones so one could put it on the speakers, and of course live helicorders so I could feed my finally finished actuating chair... Then it would just be to fire up the videoprojector and pop a beer:) Would beat the Football worldcup any day.

A question:
Is there anywhere one could get translations from the Indonesian volcanic centres updates? I've tried to look but haven't found any on their site. http://portal.vsi.esdm.go.id/joomla/

Would be nice to see if something is brewing there since they do have some of the nicer volcanos around.

Thank's in advance for the avalanche of help that I know will be coming from the knowledgeable pros here!

@Carl #5 Try using the Google Chrome web browser. You can get all sites translated to the language of your choice. It automatically detects the language and you may choose to which language you want the article translated. I would advise you to choose English - you know, as for Portuguese you may get very funny results. I tried the link you posted (thank you for that) in English and it worked fair enough. Of course it doesn't work for images.

On HvÃ³lsvÃ¶llur cam steam plume is visible now. Lady E is still giving signs of life.

#2 as long as lake Tapou or Auckland field doesn't erupt it will be ok. That Ngauruhoe climb really makes you fit lol. And the weather coming in and out and crampons at the top made it lots of fun too. Ruapehu's crater lake softly churning actually looked more creepy :P

not sure if intrested or not, but found this site not sure if its fake or not. National Association of radio-distress signalling and infocommunications,Emergency and Disaster information services {EDIS} havaria@rsoe.hu or zsolt.boszormenyi@rsoe.hu this site shows all the current volcanoes and earthquakes ect.

@ Greg (and all) - Ooops! I somehow forgot to add the link for the Ngauruhoe tremor. I've updated the post above and you can see the webicorder for Oturere (Ngauruhoe). Sorry about that.

Hi, what sort of tremors are they, harmonic?

Greg: well, I was thinking more about Taupo et al. Or Taranaki, which is statistically more likely to reawaken soon than either Taupo or Auckland. Re Ngaurohoe; I've got an interesting book ('Hot Water Country' by Ross Annabell) which has some lively anecdotes about it. Published in NZ, I think, so it's on your patch, I'd guess

Here's Thorvaldseyri's new website, the early 'farm under the volcano' - http://www.thorvaldseyri.is/ Wish there were an English version, but hey...

birdseyesUSA.comment13, It can be in english just click on union jack top left side of the page

Anyone else pondering what this cluster of eq's under Lady E might mean?

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/…

Though, admittedly they are very shallow.

@12 Would be nice if White Island fired up, apparently it's thrown rocks 50km to the mainland before lol

Greg 12: Is White Island still privately owned? (It certainly used to be). In which case lawyers would have a field day if it caused damage on the mainland LOL

Sorry, that should have been to Greg 16

@birdseye, #13, There is an english version of this page, and as far as I have seen, it contains all the info of the icelandic page.

@Laura from Canada [15]

Dunno, but here is how they look in profile. Quakes from 6/16 to 6/20.

http://i45.tinypic.com/34g3cow.png

Hi to all,

Birdseye @13,Hi I just checked out the Thorvaldseyri website.On the main page at top left there are Icelandic and English flags.Click on the English flag and it all becomes much clearer !
Laura @15.Curious little swarm that,and no real depth to any of them.Umm,we will see.

@14,19,21 ...and I just got new glasses ...sigh.....lol, thanks! ;

Not sure if it's anything, but a curious darker cloud is rising on the far left of the thoro cam... and someone just walked by snapping pictures.

And by far left, I of course me far right.... lol

Ngauruhoe is still fast asleep. Doesn'nt look like volcanic tremor at all. Climbed it last year, it could use a new eruption though, the slopes ar getting very eroded by all the people climbing it.

Guys,
I'm 99.9% certain that you're observing wind on the Ngauruhoe (...and other NZ volcano seismometers)! Remember it's winter now down there. If Nguaruhoe,..or any other volcano was producing the observed ground motion, bells and wistles would be ringing off their mounts. Seismometers don't just record volcano-genic stuff,...I've seen helicopter passes on the Ruapehu seismograph from time to time.

Rodger

@ Ber - Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of the noise on the webicorder. Any thoughts from the tremor-hounds out there?

Question: The last I looked Redoubt had been removed from the larger Holocene eruptions list, anyone know why? Here is a copy/paste from when it was there.

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/largeeruptions.cfm

Name - Location - Date - Volcano Explosivity Index

CHAITEN Southern Chile 2008Â Â MayÂ 2Â VEI 4 OKMOK Aleutian Islands 2008Â Â JulÂ 12Â 4? KASATOCHI Aleutian Islands 2008Â Â AugÂ 7Â 4
REDOUBT Southwestern Alaska 2009Â Â MarÂ 22Â 4
SARYCHEV PEAK Kuril Islands 2009Â Â JunÂ 11Â 4

Didn't Redoubt erupt 16 times with plumes over 12 miles high, or am I mistaken?

Garry Hayes over at Geotripper has some lovely shots taken of Kiluea from the ocean-- empty lava tubes, pahoehoe and aa lava in unusual formations==

http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2010/06/where-i-wish-i-wasunique-view-of…

Hello Everyone,. :))

just wonderin if "EyafjatlajÃ¸kutl" has a new eruption, it seems like the plume has become a little darker and goes a little bit higher up than It has been the last days(weeks)??

btw a young customer at my store was just uber cute today and asked me if the volcano was still volcanoing on Iceland,. heheh. She was only 7 years.. aww I tought it was cute,.

@Thor,Hi,its a little hard to say at present;too much cloud,but there was quite a large plume earlier re Laura @23&24.

@Thor and Adrian, the recent eq swarms might point to something POTENTIALLY stirring, but alot of them were very shallow. I'm questioning though the lack thereof any real tremor movements. I'm pretty sure I saw a plume, but there was some cloud cover (and some very dark clouds) so it could have been that. Just thought that it was ironic that when I saw it, someone else ran by the camera snapping pictures. ;)

@Thor

I don't think anything is going on in the way of an eruption right now - but a flood might be in the program, and you can never bypass explosions as long as things are as hot as they are now. The greatest hazards now are, in my opinion;
1) renewed eruptive activity in the current crater with extremely violent interaction vith the water there
2) no eruption, but a breach of the crater rim releasing all the water trapped in the crater and the jÃ¶kullhlaup down GigjÃ¶kull following that

A nice approximation of the pronunciation of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, btw - although the Norwegian/Danish version of 'Ã¶' (Ã¸) might throw some people.

Ed 28: I think the Redoubt eruption plumes reached 12km, rather than 12 miles, which is a big difference! Also the VEI rating is calculated on more than just plume height; it certainly includes the total volume of lava/tephra produced in the eruption, and the 2009 eruption was no bigger than (or maybe slightly smaller than) the 1989 eruption in terms of volume..and that was a VEI 3

Kultsi :))

Hi,..

I was just checking on the Metrolocial pages
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/
and there has been more activity,when it comes to shallow quakes then it has been for days/weeks,.
maybe its because of the ice/water melting and running into the crater and down the plumbings inside the mountain??

If you warm up mountain and then add cold water on it it cracks and breaks so maybe that makes the quakes??

anyways there is something going on up there,
and I agree with you

1) renewed eruptive activity in the current crater with extremely violent interaction vith the water there

2) no eruption, but a breach of the crater rim releasing all the water trapped in the crater and the jÃ¶kullhlaup down GigjÃ¶kull following that

These scenarios will both be diastrous, and extremely dangerous.

Remember that

EyjafjÃ¤ll, has had longtime eruptions that has had on /of breaks in between the eruptions, somtimes longer breaks and other where shorter..
if the water mixes with lava then things will sure become nasty for a while and quite explosive..

and Im sure the eruption on "EyjafjatlajÃ¶kutl" is not over,its just in another fase before starting up again..
and I wont be surpriced if another Volcano will erupt in the meantime, no im not sugesting Katla, that eruption might take some time before starting.. but will sure come with time..

birdseye @ 13, thanks for the link to farm photos. From that, I found a link to more Ejya. photos: http://www.nordicphotos.is/IS/search/Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull The April 14 distance shot of the farm with ash and steam plumes behind it is one I'd be tempted to buy, but I don't see how to find prices. [ http://www.thorvaldseyri.is/skrar/image/Gos_i_Eyjafjallajokli/DSC08496… ]

Oops, this is the purchase site, but it's only in Icelandic, as far as I can tell. http://www.nordicphotos.is/IS/Details/6710791

@ Roger, 26

wind noise was what I thought of first too so I checked nearby seismograms to see if there was anything unusual but they looked normal to me (I check the geonet seismograms out everday) and, knowing the volanic plateau, high winds are more the norm than the exception, so this would mean a really exceptional storm to generate such a localized signal. On top of that, I haven't seen the graph look like this before in over, at a guess, two years of following it. That's why I mentioned it here.

OTOH Geonet haven't mentioned anything at all on their site or bumped up the volcano alert, so I guess you're right. There must be some extraneous source for the signal. Maybe they moved it or some tourists are having a party or something.

@Thor, @Adrian @Laura: Definitely there's a darker plume. Clouds are coming and going, but keep checking on ÃÃ³rÃ³lsfell and MÃºlakot cams. A pity that I must leave now.

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/06/20/glacial-flood-in-south-icela…

Flood in Iceland.

Where is the seismograph in NZ, since when we climbed Mnt Doom it was Novemberish and there heaps of ice on it, so now there must be a lot of ice on that mountain. The weather really came in and out all the time and we had a few white outs. Yeah it's overdue for an eruption since before the 1970s it erupted pretty regularly. There is an old worn out sign up from NZ Geo about "toxic gas" inside the crater and not to climb in, I think it was stirring a bit in the last 10 years but has been really quiet and boring lately. So hopefully it wakes up, since it's erupts differently to it's giant neighbor.

@17 Yeah I think White Island is still private. Arises from the sulphur mining that used to occur there, until one day all the miners were gone :P

As Rodger says, I don't see any tremor at Ngauruhoe, only the usual mid-winter weather. It often looks like that on windy days. Sorry to disappoint!

@41 nooooooooooooooooo I want NZ to go active, so I don't have to fly across the planet to see active volcanoes :P

@ 41 mfs.. Thanks for the feedback. Just by chance, mfs, it sounds like you and Rodger know what you are talking about. Personally I would love to hear more about NZ's volcanoes if you are, um, closer to the source (perhaps not a very apt thing to say when I think about it) e.g. do you have any info about the small swarm under haroharo ? etc.

BTW, I'd still dispute the claim that it often looks like that on windy days. Raoul often looks like that, but as I mentioned above, just about every other day IS a windy day on Ngauruhoe and I honestly haven't seen it look like that before. I am not saying it is tremor (as otherwise Geonet would have issued a statement) just... well I guess I am just trying to save face by tripping over backwards. ;-)

Hi Bruce,

The gain settings (amplification) on each of the NZ volcanoes appears to be different (perhaps according to their levels of activity and also according to their sensitivity to wind, cultural noise, etc). I've watched them for a while as well. Since Ngauruhoe was showing some seismic activity the past few years, I take the GNS seismologists have that station running alittle "hot" so they don't miss anything. If you watch activity at Tongariro vs Ngauruhoe (which is actually a parasitic vent of Tongariro) you'll see what I mean. A good test of their sensitivity is to find a regional earthquake on all the seismograms, and then find out where it occurred in relation to each station. Typically, the regional event will be well recorded on the Ngauruhoe station and rather weak on the nearby Tongariro station (If the amplification of both stations were identical, a regional event should appear nearly identical in size and with similar waveforms).
If you want to see what tremor looks like at a NZ volcano, keep an eye on White Island. There is usually low level tremor there which ebbs and flows over time, sometimes grading into discrete low-frequency earthquakes,...saw that last month in fact!

Rodger

Thank you to everyone who helped clear up this Ngauruhoe webicorder noise observation - I've updated the post to reflect the consensus that it reflects wind in the area. Good to keep us on our toes, eh?

Bruce @ 43,
I might be closer than you but still pretty far (Tasmania). I spend a couple of weeks working in NZ most years and have been keeping a regular eye on Ngauruhoe since the earthquake swarm that happened a couple of years ago. I remember seeing very thick traces quite often in the past and it's always been attributed to weather. Just like Taranaki seismometers used to be near the North Egmont park entrance and showed road traffic noise regularly during opening hours.
If any new activity occurs, the Geonet website is usually pretty much on the ball and issuing alert bulletins at short notice.

I wouldn't be too concerned about that Gorely volcano. It sounds like a girly volcano to me.

Profile View of Eyj/Kat quakes 19th to 21st.

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

Zoomed in Plan View, same color codes for depth, Eyj only. Shows a good layout of the shallow quakes.

http://i45.tinypic.com/mq2k3.png

Ref my last [48], the 2nd graphic has a "Kat" label, ignore it. I forgot to yank it out when I slewed the graph to the plan view.

@49: Thanks, Bud!
Deep pressure continues from below.

Eyjaf eruption rolls along at low throttle. Surficial EQ from peripheral icecap melting and steam flashing with gas bumping.

And.. since I'm doing a slight hiatus from the Oilcano...

15 Minute Quake energy (all quakes from en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/ site, updated to 22 June.

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

Mike @34 Hi, I'm big into the effect volcano eruptions have on weather intensity and cloud formation.

According to this write-up by Joe D'Aleo of http://icecap.us/ fame...

http://www.intellicast.com/Community/Content.aspx?a=223

Redoubt blew over a dozen times to 60-65,000 ft plus and that calculates to 12+ miles.

I keep seeing other climate related data being altered or even hidden by certain agencies, won't go into that, but I'm just plenty curious. For example, much of the past raw Zurich solar cycle data at NASA now cannot be retrieved. Redoubt is suddenly missing from the Smithsonian Holocene list... like what's going on? I want to know. Thx

Love this blog btw!

@Ed Murphy[52]

Have you tried SIDC as an alternate source of Solar Cycle data? It's the Royal Observatory of Belgium and is sort of responsible for keeping a tally of some of that data.

sidc.be/index.php

Kp and AP indexes can be found here : www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/geomag/kp_ap.html

And, if you want to see something really stupid...

http://i49.tinypic.com/i39wlt.jpg

This is a plot of the end of Cycle 23 and the start of Cycle 24. According to SIDC, the cycle began on 12/13/2007 when the first reversed polarity spot appeared. The red line is the monthly SSN of an average cycle (derived from the previous 23 cycles at that particular month in the cycle) and the yellow traces are 1 standard deviation above and below that value. Theoretically, 64% of the time whatever monthly SSN you happen to have should be between the two yellow curves. (standard deviation was also derived from previous 23 cycles)

Eh.. it's late. Sorry for the OT.

Has Mount Egmont had any tremours over recent time, that one is long overdue. Beautiful shape with the flat plane around it. And that volcano is out of line with all the others in the North island system

Thank you Erik for the kind words.....

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Allezeit gelangen nagelneue Telefone auf den Marktplatz. Aber wie einwandfrei sind diese ?

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StÃ¤ndig erscheinen erneuerte Mobiltelefone auf den Markt. Aber wie einwandfrei sind diese ?

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I think that is an enchanting point, it made me assume a bit. Thank you for sparking my thinking cap. Now and again I get so much in a rut that I simply feel like a record.

NASA Earth Observatory images of Cleveland (not the city) and Nyiragongo

eklemetti — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:44:39 +0000

NASA Earth Observatory images of Cleveland (not the city) and Nyiragongo

The NASA Earth Observatory has been dazzling us with images from the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull eruption for months - but they have been dazzling us with volcanoes images for years! Here are two more images for those of you who love seeing volcanoes from above:

Cleveland, Alaska
As I mentioned earlier this week, Cleveland volcano likely had a small eruption over the weekend producing a small ash cloud. Cleveland is already known as an extremely picturesque volcano, both from the ground for its highly conical shape - a textbook andesitic stratocone - and from space. This new June 1 image is from almost directly over the volcano, showing the radial symmetry of the volcano formed by lava and debris flows cascading down the slopes of the volcano. A few new debris flows are observed on the east side of the edifice and a weak grey plume is seen drifting off the southwest with ash fall showing that the plume must have been bigger at some point over the weekend.

Nyiragongo, Dem. Republic of the Congo
On the other side of the planet, Nyiragongo - an alkalic shield volcano that erupts basalts - was captured on May 28 with a white, wispy plume coming from the crater pit. The crater area is a series of collapse craters that periodically fill with lava, sometimes spilling over and sending lava flows down the flanks of the volcano. You can see some younger lava flows on the northwest flanks of the volcano and just above the Shaheru Crater, a flank vent on the edifice. The rapid vegetation growth and weathering hide lava flows from view quickly, unlike volcanoes in the high Andes of Chile which can preserve lava flows in "showroom" conditions for thousands (to millions?) of years.

Both of these images remind us how satellite images have vastly improved our ability to monitor remote volcanoes all around the world - and how quickly we can share that information worldwide.

eklemetti Thu, 06/03/2010 - 20:44

New technology that could minimise future disruption to planes from volcanic ash has been unveiled by budget airline easyJet.

The carrier will be the first airline to trial a new "weather radar for ash" system called AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector).

The system involves placing infrared technology onto an aircraft to supply images to both the pilots and an airline's flight control centre.

These images will enable pilots to see an ash cloud up to 62 miles ahead of the aircraft and at altitudes between 5,000ft and 50,000ft.

This will allow pilots to make adjustments to the plane's flight path to avoid any ash cloud.

Millions of passengers had their travel plans wrecked when airlines had to scrap thousands of flights in recent weeks due to the Icelandic volcanic ash problem.

Short but coherent report on Tungurahua eruption

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthvideo/7802711/Ecuador-volcano-eru…

fabulous photo exhibit of the Icelandic eruption(s) at http://myndlist.is/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=119

I have been reading and following this blog since the first eruption of Ejaf.

This blog along with Jeff Masters blog, which led me here, are my daily must hit places on the internet.

Thank You Eric for such a great place to be educated and informed, this is such an interesting place.

Thanks also to the many contributors.

It is most likely that the eruption in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull is re-starting, given the signals that are appearing on the tremor plots on the IMO web page.

I am still waiting for a confirmation on this.

JÃ³n, glad to see you posted a comment already. I noticed it's been seismically quiet for the past twelve hours, so I checked the tremor plots and wow, sharp upticks! Is the helicorder activity related this, or just wind?

Oh my, what's happening? http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html

Jon, what is happening under EyjafjÃ¶ll??

any activity to give any idea??

Unfortunately the webcams are not useful due to too much wind and ash in the air.

Hi to all,

Cloud is blowing left to right on Thoro cam. Occasionaly the cloud drops and what looks to be a large plume appears,top right corner of screen !

Adrian, I'm seeing the same thing. It sure looks like a grey plume but I won't believe it till view clears up.

@ Jon Frimann no. 5

The uptick STARTED at the hvo and hau seismic stations when the other three listed for Eyjafjallajokull were still at base levels - wonder if this is in any way significant? Any ideas on that? (They are all showing high activity now.)

There has also been some more earthquake activity reported for Myrdalsjokull in last 48 hours: http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

@La Kat, It is hard to say why that is. But it might just be a simple as a distance factor.

The tremor continues to increase at a fast rate.

For comparison:

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

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

Let's hope it's going to be less violent than last time ... and for all the volcano webcam addicts here, that the weather will be better!

@Boris Behncke, Is there a chance that this might be lava flow ? So far there has not been any plume. But visibility is quite bad at the moment, so I am waiting for some view of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull.

We should know soon enough what is going on in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull given the current rising tremors.

But there is still not so many earthquakes, just 4 of them and they are relatively minor to, all of them around 1 in magnitude. All of them are rather shallow, between 1 and 7.5 kilometres in depth. I guess it would be more power and higher frequency than that if new magma was on the way up. And I also suspect they would start at greater depth.
Boris, you'r take on this?

Also, it doesn't look like the weather would be better for us webcamoholics... :-(

Meh. Vertical tremor plots are still very low amplitude in comparison with earlier aggressive eruption phase. The one interesting item is the comment on fumerolic noise observed yesterday during a crater recon by IES, noted in their Activity Update for June 4, posted at noon.

'In the crater area solfatara is steaming out with a noise like that from a hight temperature geothermal drill hole.'

Very high geothermal / pore pressure. Magma may have already moved up (repeated swarms from depth to shallows, last week). However, there is insufficicent MAR-thin lithosphere pressure to actively expel magma, but maybe enough to bring it from the depths to heat the glacier subsurface and produce the occasionally 'hot' (thermal webcam) steam-laden plume observed on Mulakot and Por webcams and reported by IES and Eruptions readers, over the past week.

Low-amplitude is associated with "filling" ( possible re-filling in this case?), isn't it?

The tremor plot have started to fall again already. It might be a question if this was a dike pushing inside EyjafjallajÃ¶kull that did not reach the surface. But that however remains a question at the moment.

It might be dropping for a moment now, before it picks up again. That has happened many times before in the eruption of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull.

@ Jon Frimann no.20

Re: Magmatic dike resonance

Jon this article may be of interest to you.

You might like to analyse your own private helicorder readings in light of this piece of research by a group of Japanese scientists:

http://sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/299/5615/2058

Ow... that's not fair...
I'm going away for a week without access to internet ( hiking in the mountains). And just now something is happening/starts to happen (??) at Eya.

( of course I'm happy to have a short holliday, but...)

@Lavendel #22 & everyone

I guess it remains to be seen, if and when EyjafjallajÃ¶kull is going to resume its (fascinating) eruptive activity.

For the moment the tremors have died down again:

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html#googtrans/auto/en

If I had the choice of watching my favorite volcano erupt on various webcams or going to go hiking in the Swiss mountains, I'd chose the latter for sure....

#23 Holger,
don't worry, I won't stay at home for the small chance that she will do anything *s*
I'm to happy to go away for a couple of days with my partner. Too little time together...
But it would be ironic if she blew her top (again) wenn I can't watch. ( after all the waiting *s*)

@Lavendel #24

Of course, we'll keep posting on this forum and you'll be able to go back and read about each and every 'burp' EyjafjallajÃ¶kull may emit during your absence...

Enjoy the mountains, I'm envious...

that will be true for me as well, we will be driving most of the day tomorrow...but tonite I am 'all ears..'

from Google trans and mbl.is FrÃ©ttir - (someone in Iceland, a better translation??)
Increased gosÃ³ri has been EyjafjallajÃ¶kull in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull and has seen black Mocha from the mountain according to his service.

"There has been increased volcanic tremor in Eyjaf. and a black plume has been spotted, according to the IMO."

Excerpts from a later bulletin: Activity increased sharply just after 17 UT, fell around 19:50 UT, then rose again just before 21 UT. Geoscientist Gunnar B. GuÃ°marsson: " It may have been magma, I just can't say for sure; but it looks like steam blasts or increased gas flow with bangs and ruckus; something explosive, anyway." There have been no deep quakes, and no displacement on the GPS recorders.

Gunnar says it's possible that the black plume comes from the thick deposits around the crater being tossed up by the explosions. "It's more than it has been, but it's not from deep down; it's surface activity. Records from the 1821-1823 eruption describe puffs like this happening."

As an aside, dust levels in ReykjavÃk (wind-blown ash) passed 600Âµg/mÂ³ today. In HvolsvÃ¶llur, the dust levels were over 3mg/mÂ³. That's what... 3000kg/kmÂ³ of air?

And for all that, there's still more than plenty enough for ash salesfolk to ply their trade for a long time.

Is this an ash plume which is blown away, what we can see on the Katla webcam (http://www.ruv.is/katla/)?

@Reynir: Walking outside today was not funny. Its like walking through a very dusty area.

I can imagine. Late summers can be very dusty here on the east side.

www.loft.rvk.is/ - This page (no English section) has data from air quality sensors in ReykjavÃk.

kort.vista.is/ - Pointers to two more sensors, one in VÃk in MÃ½rdalur, the other at Heimaland, close to Lady E.

Right bad seeing on the HvolsvÃ¶llur camera. I think that the hill (and farm) in the centre of the image is named Moshvoll (Moss Hill).

Oh, well, there's always Mt. Benten, alt. 6100mm. Turns out Japan's smallest natural mountain has its own camera - and shrine. http://www.bentenyama.com

Evening, everyone!
Just coming back from a long working day and the first thing I noticed on IMO site was the very slow number of EQs. When I entered the blog you people are telling me she's back to action?
Well, I'm watching on ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell cam now, and it doesn't look that different from the last days. There won't be night darkness so we could see if any lava is showing.
I'll be right here, anyway.

Beautiful plume refracting light on Turrialba cam now, here, for the lurkers:
http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/videoturri.html

And activity in Tungurahua still very high. See beautiful pic!
http://www.prensaescrita.com/adiario.php?codigo=AME&pagina=http://www.h…

Found this page of links

http://www.lattery.com/nwametro/volcano.htm

And video (spanish)showing "Mama Tungurahua" with astonishing cannon shots from the mountain and interview saying there's possibility of "huge pyroclastic flows" at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEj80bmXIwM&feature=player_embedded

Hmm a lot of interesting post tonite - have been in and out of the house all day, so no time for 'net' trawling :0

@Renato 39, 'Mama T.' is indeed impressive, I wish there were more of the various videos (like from rÃºv.is) posted to You-Tube... I can always get the embedded ones to run.

umm - does it look to anyone as though the 'lagoon' under GigjÃ¶kull (Thoro cam) is starting to hold water again?? Maybe a trick of the light, but it looks different.

I was thinking that too birdseye.. I do wish the vodafone cams would get back online..

Looking at MÃºlakot cam, looks like plume is higher...
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalmulaen.html

@41 Yes, and it also seems as if the cam's fuzzy factor has worsened
@, 42 Yes, me too *sigh*
@, 43 Yes, on that cam it does, but doesn't reconcile as that high on the Thorolss cam

I see things were a little busy today. I was out chasing tarballs.
Interesting spikes earlier on the tremor plots. No earthquakes though. But she refuses to give up doesn't she.

pictures and video of tar on the beach here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8388935@N04/

Very peculiar tremor plot! http://i48.tinypic.com/j64tqc.png

It says "digital" to me. Digital as in exactly one thing is happening. As in one flow or resonance in a single harmonic cavity.

@Dan45... eeew..sorry....
@46 Raving - I just looked at the 'short term' plots, & have no idea how to read them but yes, different.
JÃ³n???

Off to sleep now, but I'll check in before we hit the road tomorrow. Blessings on all...

The small eruption earlier tonight has been confirmed. But they also spoke about this being a shallow tremor, whatever that is.

But there is more to this then seems according to news. Given how the tremor have risen and dropped over the last few hours. I would say that this is a slow re-start of the eruption. Since something is pushing the magma upwards at the moment, even if it goes a bit slowly and the pressure is not high to create huge explosions.

http://www.vedur.is/skjalftar-og-eldgos/frodleikur/greinar/nr/1863

This link to Iceland's RUV was posted by Mike Richards on the other thread last morning. It has a report from the crater rim of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull - it's in Icelandic. Wish I could understand what they say.

http://dagskra.ruv.is/sjonvarpid/4472205/2010/06/03/0/

Posted by: Mike Richards | June 3, 2010 9:39 PM

New post:

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/06/small_explosions_at_eyjafjall…

#44 Your Highness: Plume is now visible on ThÃ³rolsfÃ©ll cam too.

Conveniently disorganized and trippin' nearly avoirdupois

Convey me mistakes or you gift whippy under your other

Hey, found your site by accident doing a search on Google but Iâll definitely be coming back. - Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. - Mark Twain 1835 - 1910

Immer kommen neue Mobile auf den Marktplatz. Aber wie erfolgreich sind diese ?

Andauerned erscheinen aktuelle Handys auf den Handelsplatz. Aber wie ordentlich sind diese wirklich?

Agreed, very well written and can't wait for the second half.

Bezymianny, Cleveland and Tungurahua updates for 6/1/2010

eklemetti — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:29:26 +0000

Bezymianny, Cleveland and Tungurahua updates for 6/1/2010

Tungurahua in Ecuador erupting on May 31, 2010.

Two volcanoes along the edge of the north Pacific had explosive eruptions over the weekend. We have some more details on both of the eruptions, so I'll pass them on:

Bezymianny
KVERT is excited because they claim to have predicted the explosive eruption of Bezymianny almost to the day. They had been closely monitoring the volcano and issued this statement on May 20:

According to satellite data by AVO and KVERT staff, a temperature of
the thermal anomaly over the lava dome of Bezymianny volcano began
increasing from May 19 (from -1 (9:49 UTC) to +18 (15:52 UTC) degrees of C).
Possibly a new lava block extrudes at the lava dome of Bezymianny.
And this stand for a preparation of new strong explosive eruption of Bezymianny volcano.
Possibly this explosive eruption of Bezymianny volcano can occurs during May 21 - May 30 or May 21 - June 10.

Four days later, they upgraded the volcano's status to Orange:

Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 23-10
Monday, May 24, 2010, 02:20 UTC (14:20 KDT)
BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO: 55Â°58'N, 160Â°36'E; Elevation 2,882 m
CURRENT AVIATION COLOR CODE IS ORANGE
PREVIOUS AVIATION COLOR CODE WAS YELLOW
Activity of the volcano gradually increased. Possibly a new explosive eruption of the
volcano is preparing. According to satellite data, a temperature of thermal
anomaly over the lava dome continues to increasing from 18 degrees of Celsius on May
19, to 48.8 degrees of Celsius on May 23.

Sure enough, the volcano erupted, producing a 10 km (32,000 foot) ash column on May 31.

Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 25-10
Monday, May 31, 2010, 20:45 UTC (June 01, 08:30 KDT)
BEZYMIANNY VOLCANO: 55Â°58'N, 160Â°36'E; Elevation 2,882 m
CURRENT AVIATION COLOR CODE IS RED
PREVIOUS AVIATION COLOR CODE WAS ORANGE
Strong explosive eruption of Bezymianny volcano occurred from 12:34 till 12:50 UTC on
May 31, according to seismic data. Ash fall in Kozyrevsk village is continuing. The
volcano obscured by clouds.

Not bad for an operation that almost lost all of its funding and only operates 8:30 AM until 6:00 PM.

Cleveland
Meanwhile, Cleveland in the Alaska Aleutians did end up having an explosive eruption over the weekend as well. AVO issued a warning last week that the volcano was likely to erupt and upgraded the alert status to Yellow. On May 31, the volcano did end up erupting, producing a 4.8 km (16,000 foot) ash column. However, the volcano has gone quiet since this small event. (Of course, don't believe all the news you read, like this article that starts with "A volcano in Cleveland, Ohio emitted on Monday night a small ash cloud." Now, that would be news!)

Tungurahua
Halfway around the planet, Tungurahua in Ecuador is still erupting (spanish) after prompting evacuations earlier last week. The latest reports talk about the volcano producing over 400 explosions an day, with incandescent blocks being thrown from the vent - helping to produce the 10 km (32,000 foot) ash plume. Seismicity is still increasing under the volcano, so there could be more explosive events on the way. You can see some video of the eruption over on Benjamin Bernard's blog (french).

eklemetti Tue, 06/01/2010 - 07:29

Great. Another Russian Volcano burps-and another late to no tomato summer in NE Oregon-just watch...
Haven't had much of a spring either...

Dr. Olga A. Girina makes her case eloquently for extended funding for KVERT. The period of 2007-2009 was quite active for ash and volcanic gas release in the Kamchatka/Kurile/Aleutian volcanic zones.

We're politely asking our friends to the North to put up Canookie-Bucks to help KVERT continue it's exceptionally important mission and reminding them that Canada tends to suffer the brunt of volcanic post-eruption detrimental environmental/weather and health effects.

We'll play nicey-nice if you do. We'll share some of our findings with you *quietly*, through appropriate channels in the months ahead, so that your agencies can take appropriate action when needed for risk reduction, with a little advanced warning and knowledge in hand.

ehh,. have anyone seen on Thorolfscam lately??

are there more lava coming down gigjÃ¸kull now?? it seems like there is something going on there, and quite a lot of steaming too,.

What I find ridiculous is the tunnel vision of USGS Volcano Dept. Not a single peep about the eruption across the straits from Alaska (http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/), while on the EQ side they announce and map every significant event on the globe (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/). Still, the volcanoes might prove much more hazardous to U.S. citizens than EQs ever could.

Kultsi, I believe media report what they feel is the current public interest. Before 1980, it was earthquakes - people were "waiting for the big one" on the West Coast. Then it was volcanoes - as evidenced by those two mid-nineties movies "Volano" & "Dante's Peak", "coincidentally" both set in the Western States. After Christmas Day 2004, the good people on the West Coast's favourite fear is a giant tsunami that will wipe them out, generated by? Yes, earthquakes. So what does get funding, because if it doesn't some politicians look bad for "not listening to public concern". 55 million Californians...

AVO did carry a short report of the Kamchatka eruption via KVERT weblink
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/updates.shtml

The link can be found under the KVERT/recent activity section, right-side of the webpage.
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/

AVO works in careful coordination with their Russian counterparts at KVERT/SVERT. AVO isn't ignoring what goes on in Kamchatka and the Kuriles - on the contrary, the Observatory staff* play an important but low key role in supporting Russian volcano observation and eruption/emissions reporting activities.

* I am commenting as an interested professional party and not in the capacity as spokesperson for USGS staff/UA faculty/research affiliates.

Erik, thanks for the Tung. eruption reference great photos and interesting 'in the moment ' commentary.

Hi Thor, maybe a little lava?,or just he usual hot spots, and there was a 2+ earthquake a while ago, only one, I think the rest is just clouds.

@Passerby #6: I know that AVO does a good job with their Russian counterparts, as well as within their sphere on responsibility, but USGS is the top organization, right? So, why don't they show the hazards on their map? (which ONLY shows the Pacific ring of fire)

Wouldn't it be easier to go to the purse-holders and say, "Look, we even showed this threat, but we don't really have the money to keep this up..."

thanks birdseyeUSA, then its not my eyes,..

it looks like its a little bit hotter on EyjaflÃ¶ll, tonight than it has been,. but it just might be those hotspots, but they seem a little bit hotter than before..

could lava just flow out silently without any eruption on the top? or does she just burp up some now and then.. cause the eruption doesnt quite seem like its totaly over..

Kultsi - the USGS page shows those volcanoes which lie in US political union areas. That's their responsibility; the Kamchatkan volcanoes are Russia's responsibility. AVO and KVERT have an operational agreement. Comparing earthquake monitoring to volcano monitoring and eruption response is apples and oranges, in terms of activities required, funding levels, and program scope. The US observatories could use funding, also - see http://www.hazardscaucus.org/briefings/volcano_briefing0410.html

Underwater volcano blows just north of Saipan.

http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=arti…

@#8: the website you cite is the USGS National Volcanic Hazard map. It covers *officially* covers US continental and extra-continental (Alaskan, Hawaiian, and US Possession /Territorial waters) volcanic hazards, per US Congressional order (P.L. 93-288) that the agency issue 'timely warnings of potential volcanic hazards to responsible emergency-management authorities and to the (US) populace affected'.

The USGS is networked through VAAC, including the Washington Office, to communicate risk observations of overseas volcanic hazards to interacting global community of volcanic monitoring entities.

The US and other national geological hazard programs interact within layers of direct and indirect legal, political and economic influence:

regional centers > national agencies > international centers > international authorities (brokered by special accords/agreements)

@9 Thor, the hot spots seem hotter or colder depending on how hot or cold everything around them is, as far as I understand FLIR, so one never quite knows ; ) I go by the plume if I can see it, because I know that is definitely somewhat warm - then I can compare.
Wonder if there will be FLIR on any other volcanoes??? Rocks and lava going up 1km (So. Am. ,) that's amazing.

EYJAFJALLAJÃKULL report
Status Report: 15:00 GMT, 1 June 2010
Icelandic Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences, University
of Iceland
Compiled by: Gunnar B. GuÃ°mundsson, Helga ÃvarsdÃ³ttir, Sibylle von LÃ¶wis and SigrÃºn
HreinsdÃ³ttir
Based on: IMO seismic monitoring; IES-IMO GPS monitoring; IMO hydrological data;
web cameras, ATDnet â UK Met. Offices lightning detection system, web-
based ash reports from the public and scientists that went to the volcano.
Eruption plume:
Height (a.s.l.): Clouds and mist have covered the summit of the volcano both
yesterday and today. At 08:00 GMT today a white cloud was seen at 2
km a.s.l. on web-cameras. Winds of up to 10 m/s are blowing from the
east.
Heading: N/A
Colour: N/A
Tephra fallout: Widespread drifting of existing ash in southwest Iceland, both
yesterday and today. High concentration of airborne dust in ReykjavÃk
yesterday at noon and again at midnight.
Lightning: No lightning strikes have been detected.
Noises: No reports.
Meltwater: Low discharge from GÃgjÃ¶kull.
Conditions at eruption site: N/A
Seismic tremor: Volcanic tremor is still more than before the eruption and has been
rather steady since 22nd May, but small pulses, mostly on the lowest
frequency are being detected on the seismic stations around the
volcano.

Earthquakes: Daily, there are several small and shallow earthquakes under the
volcano.
GPS deformation: No significant deformation at sites around EyjafjallajÃ¶kull.
Overall assessment: There is still a considerable amount of steam coming from the
crater. The tremor is still higher than before the onset of the eruption,
and small tremor pulses have been detected on the lowest frequency.
We continue to monitor the volcano closely.

thanks again birdseyeUSA,..

I just read the update, and saw the earthquake.. then looked on the cam, and it seems like something is going on,. but really hard to tell,.

the flir cam shows that there is somewhat more glow on the plume than yesterday,and daybefore.
and she has her dayly burps of ash and smaller gravel.. but since there are more quakes and movements under there there still are an eruption, yet without the big booms and ash,.

In the previous thread, Daniel (swe) asked about the recent eq swarm at Reykjanes peninsula. I've been curious about that area, too. I've read about the lava tubes (and about the 2001 draining of Lake Kleifarvatn further to the west) but don't know much more. Can anyone shed light about the seismic and volcanic characteristics of this area?

@ thor #15 & @birdseyeUSA #14

What ever it is, there is a remarkably strong steam plume visible in the HvolsvÃ¶llur webcam. I guess it's still worthwhile to keep an eye on EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, even though the 'competition' from around the world has been very busy as of late....

Not bad for an operation that almost lost all of its funding and only operates 8:30 AM until 6:00 PM.

If you want some money then it's easy. The opportunity is there for the exploiting. Go set up a pork barreling NGO under the auspices of the UN.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_System

HVO plot had a small spike around 2-3 hours ago. (HVO is the one just east of Katla, away from Eyjafjallajokull). Also, keep an eye on the Kistufell-Bardarbunga area (Vatnajokull). There have been a few earthquake swarms there, most recently at Kistufell.

That's a pretty impressive steam plume on the Hvollsvelli cam....I guess she got a little jealous over all the attention the other volcanoes were getting;)

@ Randall Nix #20 - And getting better by the minute as the morning sun illuminates the steam plume

I wonder what can be making such a large white plume. It's only been a month, but I cannot remember what the early eruption of the last two vents looked like-- was it steam? heh. Gettin old and tired and in the way--- I think it was steam first.

@Randall #20 & @Kathryn #21

Impressive steam plume indeed, but the FLIR camera still shows the moon to be hotter than the steam plume (see: EyjafjallajÃ¶kull seen from ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfell)...

I guess it's still only the remaining heat from the earlier eruption and no new lava (yet?).

Kathryn, Australia it's just steam but it still makes a nice picture;)

Holger, N California Give it time;)

Only one post for me, been sick. But wanted to let you know don't get hooked on the ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfelli cam or you're going to miss the nice view on Hvolsvelli. :)

@Dan #25 - Got both open!:-)Then I won't miss anything.... hope you're better soon.......

There appears to be some short of tremor pulse going on SIL station hvo (LÃ¡gu Hvolar). I am not sure why this is happening. This might just be a simple glacier water flood or something from Katla internal systems changing and creating this pulse on the sensor.

http://data.emsd.iks.ru/videokzy/videokzy.htm

Nice eruption underway of some order at Bezymianny again...

@MRK 28 Thanks for the heads-up. Busy admiring eyjaf and kiluea.

Hahaha - a volcano in Cleveland - I'm sure that would come as surprise to everyone in the flat flat midwest plains. Presumably whoever wrote the story had never been to Ohio much less Cleveland?

That's an awesome photo of Tungurahua; I wish I had a giant sized poster for my wall.

The Wikipedia entry on Cleveland (the volcano) is not bad; it even has a map of the Aleutian chain (of which several of the volcanoes are pretty active). Cleveland is one of the more inaccessible and difficult to monitor volcanoes on the planet and it's caused trouble before. If I'm not too senile some remote monitoring equipment was put up on Cleveland a few years ago. One of the great challenges for unattended instrumentation there is the extremes of temperature through the year - well, more so the extreme cold.

Have you ever noticed that a watched webcam never refreshes?

A look at the plume from Hekla.
We needed this beautiful weather while the big activity was going. But it's not as it go for volcanoes, it was said...

#32 The link is:
http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/vefmyndeyjafjalen.html

Nyharongo? Nope. Kilauea!
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/cams/POcam/

Can anyone explain the strange activity at HVO station?

Looks like a similar pattern as EF had during the eruption just on a smaller scale.

@Renato I Silveira, Hekla is plume free. EyjafjallajÃ¶kull however isn't. There is a good steam coming from him at the moment.

I hadn't time to check up on Kilauea recently. Took a quick look the other day (Saturday), nothing seemed changed much from end of April 2010.

Tonight, I was startled to see the Halema'uma'u webcam showing a very large incandescence signal.

Normal image is a plume in the distance, sometimes with numerous midfield geothermal field emissions, taken from the webcam located at the volcano observatory visitor center.

I have been watching the HVO webcams for quite some time (couple years) and don't recall seeing this night-time glow on the KIcam.

@ Renato, #33: That camera is in MÃºlakot, which sits about halfway between HvolsvÃ¶llur and Thorolfsfell, on the north side of MarkarfljÃ³t, about 30 km SSE from Hekla.

Which cam are you watching? The two Halema'uma'u cams have shown activity. The view from the observatory has had a fine red glow for months (weather permitting)

Tonight is the first time I've seen Pu'u 'O'o glow red in the night. For the last couple of years, it's been too gassy to see anything. I think I read that the old camera at this site fell into the magma when a cliff gave way. Perhaps this is the new camera. I like it. Also, during the day, the TEB wide-image camera now has a wonderful panorama of the outbreak.

Cam page: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/cams/

Ooops! SSW of Hekla, of course. My bad.

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

Clear view - all the black ash covers the glacier with a background of blue sky and small white steam. Quiet a different look!

EYJ
http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-valahnjuk/

This camera view was shut down when they couldn't access the unit to re-charge batteries due to safety issues of its location. Do you think now they will be able to get this camera view back in operation during the current lull?

I forget where I read that 7 week eruption at EYJ was to be expected and that is what we got.

@28 MRK It appears that the Bezymianny cam has died. Do you supposed that the eruption may have affected it?

#36 #38 I meant Eyjaf view from Hekla, from where you can clearly see a neat plume. :)

@Passerby [37]

I've been meaning to do a historical quake plot along "The Great Crack" but have never gotten around to it. Over the last two days I've been digging over benzene toxicity and saturations levels in seawater coupled with the USGS flow data... it ain't pretty.

My main interest is the Hilina scarp. In '75 the lower part of it suddenly dropped by about 11 feet. This was concurrent with a Mag 7.2 quake.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilina_Slump

The concept takes on a rather ominous tone when you consider the Tuscaloosa seamount... a 25km x 12km x 2km chunk that was formerly part of Oahu. (Nuuanu slide, â2.1 mybp) No, I don't think Hilina is close to failing, but is is something I want to look at.

nthmp-history.pmel.noaa.gov/its2001/Separate_Papers/6-04_Satake.pdf

To the left of the main lava flow in GigjÃ¶kull there's another small plume of steam to the left of the little ice capped summit. I just can't understand how a flow can originate from a site higher then the main crater. I've noticed that some days ago, but all the area was so covered that I couldn't tell for sure. Now it seems pretty clear. Any comments on this?

#46 Those are clouds forming out of thin air - happens all the time in mountains; saturated air needs just a tiny nudge to start condensation. On the lee side of a ridge the pressure is lower and often that is enough to start the process.

Hi everyone,
@Boris Behncke:
I just wanted to tell you, I saw you on TV last night! There was a volcano special (3 related documentaries) on German TV. I didn't get to see all of it (due to other things) and I'm hoping for a repeat, but anyway, you were there, climbing the flanks of your beloved Etna - I was amazed at the massive lava flow approaching that village. Scary stuff, lave that flows in tunnels for long distances before it cools down. The documentary to look out for was called "Vulkane - Die Uhr tickt", Germany, 2006. Given the amount of repeats on various TV stations, I'm sure there will be a rerun some day soon.

Parclair @39, I've been watching Pu'u 'O'o for several years now and this is the first time I've seen a glow like that, in fact I've tabbed back and there appears to be lava/spattering above the pit.

It's also nice to see blue skies over Iceland. It's the first time I've seen the steam plume as clearly as that for ages.

Just to cap it all, I'm looking out over my garden to a beautiful June morning in Aberdeen (Scotland). Summer must be a comin'!

For those not around to see the pretty view from Hvolsvellur early this morning, Iceland time, I've put some screenshots up....
http://picasaweb.google.com/114420151580577086982

#49 I have now worked what I was looking at at Pu'u 'O'o. Later viewing gave more info and the activity is lava pooling on the crater floor,with occasional flaring from gas vents - confirmed by status update page.

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/activity/kilaueastatus.php

#50: Thank you, Kathryn, for the screenshots!

@Anita in Austria #48, thanks for notifying me - it looks like there is a lot of video with me in circulation, and I don't recall this one specifically!

Guatemala has had a tough time with the volcanic eruption
and now storm Agatha which caused major flooding and this rather terrifying natural occurence http://www.mixxbuzzers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/guatemala-sinkhol…

Same as above with better photographs and news.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/huge+guatemala…

The sinkhole in Guatemala City is not a "natural" occurrence since it's (almost certainly) due to a leaky sewer. In any case, though it looks dramatic, it's not nearly as much of a disaster for Guatemala as the mudslides, flooding, volcanic ash, and crop failures elsewhere.

Good morning all - well, sorry, no question of the day from me -this is my first volcano, and I just don't know enough to think of a passable question - to which I have answer! I'm on information overload, no synthesis yet.

@Kathryn 50, thanks for the screenshots. As I get up, so does the wind, and all goes to dust, so it's really nice to see clear air photos. RE: Valahnjuk cam, wasn't that in the heavily ashed area? And on top of snow at the time - so, probably too dangerous up there even w/o an active eruption? I'd be surprised to see it back any time soon.

So many webcams, so little time.....

RE: Guatemala, how does one live day to day knowing that the ground may swallow you at any moment? There used to be little occasional sinkholes in farm fields near where I Iived in Iowa, but not like this!

#56 - There must be an underlying waterway/cave system to carry away the massive amount of sand, it does not just disappear, and the cavity forming must start from the bottom to appear as a huge surprise. A leaky rainwater sewage system is a good candidate for providing the primary erosion.

This is about an unrelated volcano but I figured people here might be interested. The Pu'u O'o crater on Kilauea is filling with lava right now, I think: webcam http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hvo/cams/POcam/

Wow!

Guatemala Sinkhole. I'm pretty sure what we're seeing is the first step in the formation of a cenote. I'll leave it to wikipedia to describe them and their formation (I'm not good enough). Cenotes are a common feature in that area-- really wonderful nature, not so good when in an urban setting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenote

From today's Iceland Review...

02/06/2010 | 09:30
Volcanic Eruption in Iceland Still Not Formally Over
Geophysicist MagnÃºs Tumi Gudmundsson said it is not yet possible to declare that the volcano in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull glacier has officially stopped erupting. There are still tremors and seismic activity down below.

Sveinn RunÃ³lfsson, director of the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland, told Morgunbladid that soil reclamation in a 4,000-hectare area is necessary.

âIt is clear that the area that was subject to extensive ash fall is very large. It is estimated to be at least 3,500 square kilometers,â he said. That is approximately 3.4 percent of Icelandâs overall area.

The Soil Conservation Service has worked on a plan since the eruption in EyjafjallajÃ¶kull began on strengthening vegetation in the area by sowing and spreading fertilizers, to bind the ash where there is risk of it being carried away with the wind.

It is most important to take such measures in settled areas. Otherwise, ash drift could continue for months or even years.

However, the project costs up to ISK 100 million (USD 781,000, EUR 637,000) and funding hasnât been secured. The matter has yet to be discussed with Environment Minister SvandÃs SvavarsdÃ³ttir.

RunÃ³lfsson said the idea is to employ people in the area with spreading fertilizers and seed using their tractors and spreaders.

The wind has been blowing in from the southeast in the past days, carrying ash from the eruption site to the capital region. Car owners have noticed how dirty their cars have become.

Not exactly volcanology but cenotes really interest me, especially the underwater linkages eventually leading to the sea in Mexico.
The link below details relationship between cenotes and Chicxlub crater formed from meteorite impact
http://miac.uqac.ca/MIAC/chicxulub.htm

Hi Gordon nice post, great graphics - but you know that Chix wasn't the crater that really laid down the K/Tboundary, no? : ) Here's the other approach...

http://geoweb.princeton.edu/people/keller/chicxulub.html

Hi - just checking to see the activity of LadyE and noticed that there is a lot of seismicity around Hengill - Is this normal for this area?

twin plumes on the ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfelli visible light cam one at the long standing place, and one far to the right out of the flir view

just wait the clouds clear and give a good view

(next VEI â¥ 3) Paddypower predicts:

Katla 7/4 ... up from 9/4 on May 27th
Eyjafjallajokull 10/1
Etna 28/1

Meanwhile Nature suggests the likelihood of a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake in the Pacific Northwest in the next 50 years at 37% and up from the previous estimate of a 10-15% risk.

The latest news on Tungurahua, from within the last hour

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/326917,hundreds-flee-volcanic-e…

"Quito - Hundreds of people sought to escape the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano Wednesday in Ecuador, days after the evacuation of around 2,500 locals.

Volcanic activity in the Tungurahua, 5,010 metres high and located around 130 kilometres away from Quito, intensified Wednesday, with explosions and other sounds that scared locals.

Residents further sought to move some 420 head of cattle away from the volcano, because pastures have become covered with ash."

Taking a 'cooling off' break from mowing - it's about 30Âº out there...but rain coming, and rain last night so, no choice...

Just looked at the link Erik posted for Tunguraua video/shock waves,it's up now and pretty impressive ...
http://bigbenber.over-blog.com/

a $250,000 grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will put two solar-powered digital seismometers on Anatahan and Sarigan, two active volcanoes in the island chain near Guam. The systems should be fully operational by November, ... To date, there is no money for maintaining the systems.

Stars and Stripes (May 14, 2010)

#68 birdseyeUSA and Erik, good link, good shockwave. Delay in sound puts camera about 6 miles from the crater.

BirdseyeUSA @63 - Just when I thought I knew something... at least the Deccan Traps are still implicated in the KT extinction. Question is, where's the crater that did cause the KT boundary? The thot plickens.

#68 birdseyeUSA and Erik, good link, good shockwave. Delay in sound puts camera about 6 miles from the crater.

#68 Something's wrong with the video "Explosions et ondes de choc au Tungurahua" at that link - all I get is some sound - no picture. The other video "Explosion strombolienne du volcan Tungurahua" on the page works fine.

Hvolsvelli cam makes Lady E look as though she's sending steam signals or having a good huff.

I spotted a car registration plate today that read EYA 20F. Would be nice if the owner was a follower of "Eruptions"

#68 re mowing, do what I do and cut paths to where you want to go. Let the rest grow up. Makes the garden look bigger and helps biodiversity. You can always weed any real nasties that arrive.

Re #68/72 never mind - after 3 or 4 tries with no video, it worked fine on a later attempt to view it. I don't know what changed.....

71: The crater is Chicxulub, in the ocean next to the Yucatan Peninsula.
Despite the work of Alverez Snr and Jnr to identify it, it is not now thought to be the main cause of the KT extinction.
The cause of (KT extinction) is a contentious subject but the crater is real.

New Earthquake...
Magnitude 5.6
Date-Time Wednesday, June 02, 2010 at 18:51:08 UTC
Thursday, June 03, 2010 at 05:51:08 AM at epicenter
Location 13.682Â°S, 166.422Â°E
Depth 35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
Region VANUATU

http://www.geohazards.gov.vu/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpag…

No question that Chicx. is real, lots of work done on it, as Gordon's #62 post showed. (Amazing that we can do that sort of thing when you come to think of it. )
@73 ( OT ) Good exercise. Keeps the bugs down and the deer nervous. The rest of the land is rougher, they're welcome to it.

@Gordon [73]

"...cut paths to where you want to go. Let the rest grow up. Makes the garden look bigger and helps biodiversity..."

Around here if I tried that I would get water moccasins. The mowed grass tends to keep them away since the hawks can see them if they come out. I'm not particularly fond of moccasins.

@Raving #69: Thanks. Sounds like business as usual then - never any money to monitor the volcanoes in the CNMI. I wonder what telemetry equipment they'll use, or if the system is meant to be visited every month or so. I think Saipan (the closest island with anything resembling modern technology) is about 80NM from Anatahan (too lazy to check a map and get a definite figure).

@Dan Florida, - hear that the oil is approaching Pensacola, we're thinking of you.

@80 birdseye. It sucks. Going to head out there tomorrow evening.

Created a page that has links to web cams in the area (well, after the sun comes back up). :)
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/dashboardcowman/show.html

Yeah I live in Pensacola too:( I did get one more good sail in last week....We rafted up several sailboats off Fort McRee, everyone ate fresh shrimp, drank, listened to Buffett and talked about how much we all loved the area. I went for a long swim. While floating on my back in the warm pristine water I looked over at the booms and wondered just what the area would look like in a few weeks? Now it looks like I am about to find out:( I am going to the beach tomorrow and try to enjoy the water just one more time....and say one more goodbye to an old friend.

More news about ChaitÃ©n [spanish]: (last line has a word mistake)

http://www.diariollanquihue.cl/prontus4_nots/site/artic/20100602/pags/2…

M 5.4 2010/06/03 04:32:44 70.777 -14.535 10.9 JAN MAYEN ISLAND REGION

#83 Hola Guillermo! They downgraded alert level, but it still looks angry, doesn't it?

Evacuations ordered from growing activity on Tungurahua:
According to the Instituto Geofisico, the type of activity is characterized by the generation of explosions that ejected blocks about a thousand meters below the crater and columns of steam with low to medium content of ash usually not surpassing 3 km high.
"There was also an explosion at 03:00, which led to the descent of a small pyroclastic flow down to 1.5 km"
www.lahora.com.ec

Sakurajima just cleared her throat quite loudly in the last half an hour. Ash up to 11,000 15nm south of Kagoshima airport reported. Check out this webcam image taken about 30 mins ago:

http://tweetphoto.com/25313747

@randall nix[82]

Fear for the Rainbow Trout and related saltwater residents. Based on the average concentration (all I could find was data for North Sea and Bay of Campeche) the concentration of benzene in raw crude runs about 0.1 to 1.2% by mass. Max solubility in water is 0.8 g/L, or 800 mg/L.

The LC50 (median lethal dose) for Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is 5.3 mg/L or 5.2 ppm. IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health) for people is 500 ppm. At max concentration it sits at about 779.6 ppm. That's likely why you hear stories of the spill workers getting sick. And that's just the benzene.

Okay, enough rant about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Volcano...

Sorry for the OT.

Lurking thanks for the info....I fear for all the little critters. My girlfriend has really bad asthma so I also worry about her breathing this stuff:(

Goooooood Mooooorning Japan!

Anybody out there who has a link to a Sakurajima web-cam?
Just found the research center, but that was not up to Icelandic standards... (pouting) I guess I have been spoiled by the coverage of E.

Here's links to Saku research center and DPRI.

http://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~kazan/research_e.html

http://www.dpri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/web_e/index_topics.html

Here's the link for the Sakurajima cam:

http://kagoshima-live.com/sakurajima.html

I should have said ash reported to 11,000ft south of Kagoshima airport in my earlier post.

Just a quick question to the more knowledgeable - is it normal that we have so many volcanoes around the world active?

Normal? whats Normal the planet does what it has done for million of years,the volcanic activity on the planet has been far more active than it is today. So I guess this is "normal"
but yeah there is many volcanoes active now, and I guess more volcanoes will shake and stirr in the future.
We are living on a living planet,we must not forget that,and the landmasses around us, has not just come here by it self ..

Good morning all -
@94, I like your last sentence in particular, Thor.

#77,78 I think I would cut all my grass too if there was a likelihood of poisonous snakes in suburban Scotland. Deer can be a problem here, but not in my garden to date...

Just stumbled on this...our Icelandic friends are looking for visitors.No, world, Iceland is not entirely covered in ash....
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128503987169140&ref=mf

ummm- maybe I should have previewed the video first....

Caught some bug this week and haven't been up to looking at that inspiredbyiceland thing yet meself. Typical tourist bait, right?

Yet another Sakura-jima camera link: http://373news.com/_sakucap/index.php

Fixed angle and view, lots of pretty blinkenlichter on the frame, no auto-refresh.

Short article in New Scientist today:
The volcanic ash cloud that had a positive electrical charge.

On 19th April, Giles Harrison at University of Reading and colleagues used detectors aboard a weather balloon to measure the charge in the ash cloud over Scotland.
It reached 0.5 picocoulombs per m3 where there were 50 particles of ash per cm3 of air. (Environmental Research Letter, DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/5/2/024004)

That's around 1/20th of the danger level set by te UK CAA.
A similar detector on aircraft could alert pilots to dangerous ash levels, Harrison says.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18966-icelandic-volcanos-ash-blan…

@Reynir: You are not dancing through the country and taking nude baths in natural hot pots? Then you are not an Icelander :-))
The video is funny, but its a commercial.

@97 Birdseye-- NOW I've got an earworm that won't stop=="I'm dancing thru the jungle, yeah" Yikes. ;-)

Hah-- The hole in Guatemala City isn't a cenote, it's a Piping Structure. It's because of the volcanic tuff under the city and bad engineering--

http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2010/06/piping-structure-at-guatemala-ci…

geology.about.com/b/2010/06/03/the-hole-in-guatemala.htm

NS also has fabulous article on Deccan Traps too.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627631.300-deeper-impact-did-me…
I love half term - catch up on reading.

@104 parclair - sorry about the earworm. ; ) Learn something new every day, I didn't know about 'piping structures' at all....good find!

Hmmm...
03-JUN-2010 07:43:42 13.58 -44.84 Mag 5.0 10.0 km NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

#107 arggh I meant to post the two just north of Iceland
03-JUN-2010 10:16:15 70.75 -14.43 4.8 10.0 JAN MAYEN ISLAND REGION
03-JUN-2010 04:32:43 70.78 -14.53 5.4 10.9 JAN MAYEN ISLAND REGION

Turrialba is looking puffy today:

http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/videoturri.html

#109 @parclair I've been keeping a close look on Turrialba. Today it's all BW with the exception of the steam plume at the base. What is it - lava reflected?

Re: Jan Mayen
http://eng.efnahagsraduneyti.is/media/Acrobat/Geology.pdf

Also this, which might be the earthquake related bit -Â Beerenberg Volcano..

sorry, forgot the link - site is run on Jan Mayen. http://www.jan-mayen.no/geology.htm

That's Beerenberg on Jan Mayen Island?
http://geo.hmg.inpg.fr/caplain/janmayen/
photo 7 wander how deep that man sized hole is?

Postings have been great today, piping structures, Deccan Traps, impact craters and K/T origin (or not); keep them coming.

#111 #112 #113 Yes, keep them coming, but I'll have to store them, because I'm still trying to cope with the old crust formation underneath Iceland (posted last week). After going through all this I'll claim a degree in Geology... :)
Thank you guys!

@111 and 113 Thanks birdseyeUSA and Gordon. Interesting stuff!

I meant to add a link before - looks like it hasn't been updated,but shows a '70's eruption at Beerenberg. A link to a Norwegian seismic center showed several big earthquakes not at Beerenberg but near a smaller island, this May.
http://www.jan-mayen.no/geology.htm and http://jordskjelv.no/

@ 105 Stigger - finally had a moment to look at that, thanks.

I'm still trying to read a paper from a couple of weeks ago-- I must have 50 bookmarks in my "to read" folder. Yikes! But, keep them coming.

Um, re Turiallba, I see a pinkish tinge too (or did until the clouds rolled in). I'm not sure what it is, the rocks appear reddish on my monitor, so it could be a reflection of them, or an optical illusion. *sideways question mark*

#102 @Chris: I barely feel up to digesting supper while sitting in front of the monitor.

Aside: Got shouted off the loo to watch fresh pictures from Lady E. on KastljÃ³s ("Highlight") on the telly. It was gummiey and a team from RUV-TV. If those that cancelled their hols up here were to see the footage, there'd be such wailing and gnashing of teeth that it'd make Rama look sunny and quiet.

@birdeyeUSA 116 thanks again for the extra links. Now I can diligently watch the seismos at JMIC :)

Iceland Met N-Atlantic tab shows 6 quakes today from 2.7 up to 4.0. All around 300km NE of Kolbeiney. Kolbeiney 100km north of Iceland. Are these the same events as the 4.8 and 5.0 at Jan Mayen? Seem about 200km too far south, but only guessing really.

#118 @Parclair: Turrialba is putting nice daily shows. Still think it could be glowing lava reflected... not sure... can't see "red rocks" - everything around looks black and white, but for the orange-brownish tint on the plume.
#105 @Stigger: Interesting impact theory on Deccan traps. What if Yucatan's meteor split in two? No matching samples of Iridium in both locations?
Anyway, quite plausible deduction, seems to my amateur approach - impacts causing mantle to destabilize and thus generating hotspots elsewhere (which could also explain Siberian traps, 250 mil. y ago).
As for the non-avian dinosaur extinction, I saw on TV a paleontologist claiming there was no fossil evidence to it: no big amounts of dinosaur bones being found at a same layer corresponding to the extinction period. Where did they go? (Big question mark)

#121 @Mike: According to what I read, if I quite understood from earlier links posted, yes, there's a correlation between Jan Mayen and Kolbeiny. There's old crust material from Jan Mayen under Iceland. But maybe I'm wrong...
If you allow me, @birdseye:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.r.foulger/Offprints/OlderCrust.pdf
I wonder if there's any relation to the Greenland's sea EQs on early May too, further NE.

#122 @ Renato, either giant object which had split in two and hit separately (improbable but not impossible)

or (leaning towards)it hit at Chicxulub and the force (pressure waves) resonated through the Earth causing massive internal damage (like a bullet) and basalt eruption at exit point. Given the different layout of the continents then, Shiva could have been located over a hot spot then enabling basalt lava flow for many thousands of years.

Fragments with similar composition (possibly meteorite) have been found in Antarctica and in Siberian lava dated to 250 Mya.

It is a puzzle as below Shiva, 7km down the neat layers stop. There is a layer of shattered rock, then 1km of solidified volcanic lava, interrupted by intermediate layers of sedimentary rocks, but rooted in the lava are 12km high, 25km across spires of lava that are highly alkaline and rich in iridium. I need to find out if the iridium is chemically similar in Chix and Shiva. That amount of iridium is rare on Earth, apart from impact craters.

As for the non-avian dinosaur extiction, I believe it was very slow,(on a life span scale - rapidly geologically) hence the claim that there is a lack of fossil evidence. Impact, dust, climate change would bring about a slow death; grass and plants for the herbivores and herbivores being food for carnivores. Isn't that why big, fierce creatures find it so hard to survive? My query on his point is that absence of proof is not the same as proof of absence; many, many species have evolved and vanished with little or no fossil evidence. We surmise their existence though gaps in evolutionary structure.

Seems plausible to me too; any experts wish to comment?

@Mike 121 You're correct. They're not the same earthquakes. The ones I posted are farther north and of greater magnitude.

http://www.norsardata.no/NDC/bulletins/gbf/lastweek.jpg

Renato: Crater glow at Turrialba MAY result from high temperature fumaroles, heating rock around the vent red-hot; glow is often reported at Momotombo (Nicaragua) for example even though Momotombo hasn't actually erupted since 1905

@Reynir, glad you're on the mend - hang in there.
@Renato 123 - thanks for your additional info from the earlier post, which I missed - I'm not familiar with any of this, just taking it all in and trying to find useful links (and make sense of it all!- my 'vacation reading' is going to be lots of white paper stapled together, printouts. My pile just from Eyja is huge.) My brain is stuffed, but only with fragments of information... ;)) Now to try to put the pieces together while still keeping up with all of you!! Love it.

@Mike 121 Here's a pretty map showing the relationship between Kolbeinsey Ridge and Jan Mayen

http://www.mantleplumes.org/images3/JanMayenFig1_1000.jpg

Back to Eyja, some farmers are starting a first mowing hoping that the second crop will be OK - but concerned about fluorine content. http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/innlent/2010/06/03/fyrsti_slattur_i_oskufjuki/

#122 http://starmon.com/KT_craters.html and http://www.newgeology.us/Shiva.pdf very interesting stuff.

I seem to have hit a bit of a "hot spot" with Chicxulub, I hadn't come across Shiva before and the links provided are great, seems to me that most researchers are agreed that something hit the Earth very hard ~65 ma, but not where or whether single or multiple hits.
I had come across Silverpits off English coast before before, but at that time it was being put over as salt dome rather than impact crater.
Link below gives a summary of simulation model for initial impact energy propagating through the mantle and popping up antipodally off Australia. Would be nice to see an animation of that?
http://www.newgeology.us/presentation35.html

I started this post about an hour ago, but cat sat on key board and wiped out progress then my better half completed the process.

@ stigger, Gordon check google for 'creationism.'

Do with this as you please, folks:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/jun/03/wanted-best-science-…

#133, BirdseyeUSA, oops you beat me to it. I've just been reading the rest of the site, with increasingly raised eyebrows, (Hawaii not a plume site?). Got to the end and realised I'd hit a dose of Creationism. Sorry.

#132 Gordon: so ... we have a new name for a volcano then?

@134 go 'Miss Frito' : ) ( P.S. see below...)

ref. various 'new geology' source posts, I wondered, and then looked for the home page. A visit to www.newgeology.us will also list several other links to be aware of including mantleplumes.org.

@Erik Klemetti (#134) Lol Huh?

The charm of this place is in the way that it gently diffuses controversy. Maybe that quality of calming down and dealing with the inevitable is normal for Volcanology.

Hello all. Haven't disappeared, just glued to the attempt to stop the oil leak. Which leads to a question that someone here may have an answer to. With so much oil coming out of the ground, there must be a void, or at least a lack of pressure, from the source. Could this possibly result in in an earthquake, or in the very least, a collapse of the sea floor above the oil deposit. FYI, earthquakes have happened in the Gulf of Mexico before.
(my name now directs you to where I have posted links to cams along the coast here, during daylight hours of course)

Good question, Dan - hope you get some answers.
Lady E is bidding good morning/evening with a small plume and a pretty pink & blue sky on Thoro cam. so, g'nite/morning...

#134 Erik: You don't have to be a geologist for this: if you dig through layers of daily threads in this blog you won't find a single day where there isn't at least one post with compliments to its contents and (#138) charm.
#137 Just passing by to say good night and didn't quite understand: so, these are links not to be trusted? Please, keep us informed whenever this happens!
Thanks a lot.

@Dan: we're all hoping for answers. Fare thee well, my friend!

@birdseyeUSA [137]

Be careful at mantleplumes.org, it's very easy to lose track of time while reading.

@Dan, Florida [139]

Yah.. I've been glued to the Oil-Cam-Bots too.

The last time I ran the numbers on flow estimates done by the USGS, it was day 35. At that time, the potential void was 4.6 million cubic feet. (using the 1 million gallon a day estimate) That's actually sort of small... only 0.000032 cubic miles. ( 0.00013 cubic km )

124 miles southwest of there, a Mag 5.3 occurred on the continental shelf. I can't remember the year but it was also the same year that a Mag 6.0 (later downgraded to a 5.9) occurred out in the middle of nowhere 200 miles south by southeast in the abyssal plain.

So, in a nutshell, I haven't got a clue... but it seems a bit early to expect related seismic events. I did spend the better part of an evening this week desperately searching for a live helicorder site just to see if there was some sort of harmonic like tremor that could be seen from it.

I've also managed to get a of concern while looking for data on fluid hammers. With a combination of drilling mud, crude oil and water to lift over a distance of 23000+ feet (5000 feet of water, 18,000 feet of well) you need somewhere between 7500 to 11,000 psi. As reported from a ship that cast off from the rig, they reported seeing the mud/crude/water shoot up like a volcano prior to the explosion and fire. This sort of means that it had quite a bit of momentum behind it. When the rig sank, it bent the riser and probably generated a sizable fluid hammer... which is a dynamic overpressure that is dependent on the flow rate and specific gravity. I'm not very good at fluid dynamics, but from what I have pieced together, the dynamic overpressure could have been as high as 600 to 1000 psi.

And this is where I grow concerned...

At the time of the incident, they were working on pouring the casing for the well (cement). In other words it probably had yet to set or achieve full strength, and along comes this blow-out with whatever radical pressure shift occurred... so, what are the chances that the casing was ruptured somewhere near the surface and is flowing into the shallow strata or will soon be flowing once they get a cap on this thing?

D*** what I wouldn't give for good helicorder link...

Short but coherent report on Tungurahua eruption

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthvideo/7802711/Ecuador-volcano-eru…

for a fabulous exhibit of Eyja eruption(s) photos, see http://myndlist.is/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=119

#132, 133, 135 and Birdseye. Apologies, I was following the piece from New Scientist and didn't realise it had been published on a creationist site as well. I had never seen NewGeology before and never deliberately dip my toe into creationism.

Where things on the web are published is often beyond the control of the author; NewGeology may not be a reputable source of scientific data but should we condemn the article wholesale because it is also posted there?

New Scientist judged it to be of sufficient merit to publish and I would agree, 'The significance of the contemporaneous Shiva Impact Structure and Deccan Volcanism at the KT boundary CHATTERJEE, Sankar, Geosciences, Texas Tech Univ, MS Box 41053, Lubbock TX 79409-3191,etc' still stands alone as interesting (to me as a confirmed non-creationist).

@stigger147 New Scientist, wiki's comment - so, as with everything else, taken in consideration...
"As well as covering current events and news from the scientific community, the magazine often features speculative articles, ranging from the technical to the philosophical.
It is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal,[2]"

I should explain that I have come from a professional field which teaches that every belief is valuable to the person who believes it, but I also had a father who was world-known in his scientific field and scrupulous about stating anything as fact that he could not prove himself or be satisfied that others had proved. The joke was that the most you could expect from him was 'a definite maybe.' And that is how I tend to look at things also.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/06/04/easyjet-unveils-ash-detection-syste…

this may be of interest! let's hope it works.

@144 Lurking Thanks for that.

Reports of oil on our beaches so I'm headed out there.

beach cams - http://www.wunderground.com/blog/dashboardcowman/show.html another of my blog names :)

see newest thread for latest on Eyja activity...maybe something coming???

Im just interest in the facts of the bigger picture. Has the sun of our solar system really flipped its polarity in our solar system?, and if so, how does this event, affect whats going on here on earth. Is our sun emitting a higher ammount of nutrinos that could affect weather conditions and cause events such as earthquakes, and sunamies, and increased hurricane actvities. (superstorms). What's the cause? and can it be remedied? and if not, can the people of this planet be better prepared for such evets. ONE THING IS FOR SURE, what ever is going on, THESE EVENTS ARE GLOBAL, and they are increasing. I'd rather be better prepared than caught with my undies around my ankles. The scientific community owes this to the human populis. If these increasing events are random then just say so, DONT just let the average person assume so (THATS DANGEROUS). And if they they are not random then you guies aught to be advising and notifying everyone.

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Wednesday Whatzits: Cleveland heats up, blowing ash from EyjafjallajÃ¶kull and 10,000 days of eruption in Hawai`i

eklemetti — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:42:48 +0000

Wednesday Whatzits: Cleveland heats up, blowing ash from EyjafjallajÃ¶kull and 10,000 days of eruption in Hawai`i

Brief news!

Lava flows reaching the sea at Kilauea in Hawai`i. Image from November 2009, courtesy of HVO/USGS.

The Alert Status at Cleveland in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands was raised to Yellow (Advisory) by the Alaska Volcano Observatory after new signs of activity emerged. The latest report from AVO on the volcano says a thermal anomaly has been spotted at the summit, which typically is one of the first signs that the volcano is entering an eruption period. However, there is no real-time seismic monitoring for Cleveland, so that is the only clue (right now) that AVO has. Cleveland is a relatively noisy volcano along the Aleutian chain and produces frequent explosive eruptions with plumes upwards of 6 km (20,000 feet), most recently in October of 2009.
With the declining activity at EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, the new hazard that Icelanders have to content with is the blowing ash deposited earlier in the eruption. The weather on the island nation has become dry and breezy, meaning ash is easily remobilized by the wind, causing problems with visibility and acting as an inhalation hazard. Small bursts of ash are still occurring at the vent according to the latest Icelandic Met Office report, but most of the activity at the volcano is limited to a steam plume rising to ~2 km / 6,000 feet and degassing of sulfur-rich volatiles.
I did miss to mark the fact that earlier this month the eruption at Kilauea in Hawai`i reached its 10,000th day. The volcano has been in constant eruption since January of 1983, both along the rift zones and summit of the edifice.

eklemetti Wed, 05/26/2010 - 01:42

"10,000 Days in Hawai'i" sounds like a good title for a book.

Thanks, Erik, for all the ongoing information.
Satellite Aqua Modis got a good shot from some amount of ash, blowing from EyafjallajÃ¶kull out to sea today.
http://i46.tinypic.com/1zqgavs.jpg
Detail from: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?2010146/crefl2_1…

Volcanic dust clouds approaching Mulakot airfield on 25 May 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZFygs0WVQc

To celebrate the 10,000th day, I'm watching the Hawaii webcams all day-- maybe Pele will grant us some fine views;-)

The Pu'u 'O'o cam is quite romantic today.

There are other volcano activities in Kurils Islands and Kamchatka. See AVO-Homepage.
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/index.php
Color Codes have changed.

Someone thought after the cessation of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull's activity the world of volcanoes would be gray and bland?

No way: yesterday (25 May 2010), there was increased fumarolic activity at Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador, which caused apprehension among inhabitants of nearby towns and villages. The Instituto GeofÃsico of Ecuador (IGEPN), in a special report (www.igepn.edu.ec/VOLCANES\COTOPAXI\ACTIVIDAD\2010\BoletÃn Especial Cotopaxi 25 mayo 2010.pdf), underlines that the fumarolic activity is normal and not an indicator of increased volcanism or an imminent eruption. Let's hope they're right because a new eruption at that volcano would not be a happy thing.

Then, today (26 May 2010), Tungurahua (also in Ecuador) ended a very quiet period of several months with a powerful explosion that generated small pyroclastic flows and an eruption plume 7 km tall. The IGEPN report is here: www.igepn.edu.ec/VOLCANES\TUNGURAHUA\actividad\2010\Informe Especial Tungurahua 26 may No 07.pdf

Finally, there are press reports about destructive mudflows from Reventador, still in Ecuador, which damaged a road and a bridge: here's a report (in Spanish): www.abc.es/agencias/noticia.asp?noticia=397779

I understand the fact that there are still some shallow earthquakes. Indeed, they are provoked by the deflation of the volcano after the last eruptive phase. And there is even a slowdown of the rythm of these earthquakes as the deflation phase has stopped. On the other hand, there are still less numerous and less frequent deep earthquakes (18, 19, 20 km). How the bottom of the crust can be affected by the movement of shallow deflation above the magmatic cavity supposedly located between 3 and 5 km below the surface? If not, what happens in the depth of the EyjafjÃ¶ll?

4 EQs under Hamarinn (the central volcano responsible for the Bardarbunga system) in the last 12 hours. All of them are very close to each other.

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

Here is an great high quality video from the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull eruption made by Sean Stiegemeier. http://www.vimeo.com/11673745 One of the best videos of the eruption that I have seen.

Hello Every one,
today has been an interesting day indeed.

I have just learned that the 3d biggest supervolcano,lies in Norway,( in the ocean just outside Nordland county) VÃ¸ringplatau(VÃ¸ring Escarpment).The caldera there have been meassured to be about 40x50 km long, and several km deep, its tought its not active, but still its impressive to read about.
and there is more.
Under Oslo, there is one large supervolcano, that is meassured to be 35 km wide(Ramnes caldera)

oh joy, Im really amazed I tough we had only fissures and smaller eruptives here.

All Volcanic areas in Norway are tought to be extinct today. But its really interesting to know that such enourmous Volcanic forces has been active in this country too.

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B8ringplat%C3%A5et

sorry that the link is to Norwegian wikipedia,. but there is an English link on that page about those volcanic areas,.
enjoy..

-thor

Thor, would you care to swap? All the active volcanoes here in Iceland for the extinct volcanoes in Norway. Its getting pretty tiresome all this volcano activity on this island. Bardarbunga, Katla, Hekla, GrimsvÃ¶tn, ÃrÃ¦fajÃ¶kull, EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, Laki, EldgjÃ¡, SnÃ¦fellsjÃ¶kull...............

#6 Thanks for the post, Boris.
From what I read, there are in Equador three volcanoes at stake:
Tungurahua: "present activity is considered to be low, but tends to increase."
El Reventador: "this volcano began present eruptive process in 2002."
Cotopaxi: "The Geophysical Institute rejected fears that the volcano, located in the central Equadorian Andes, was showing any signs of abnormal unrest, even though fumarolic activy had been observed from various regions near Lacatunga city."
Wonder why I've been looking for volcanic activity so far away in Iceland with so much taking place next door. Although this is one of only two countries in South America (with Chile) that does not have a border with Brazil, it's still close enough to grant us, Brazilians, with big ash clouds.

#10 #11 @Steinn: I understand your concern and the sufferings caused to Icelanders by volcanoes, but take our last too posts (Thor's and mine) as a comfort. Somehow you should be flattered, because, from this blog's point of view, we sort of envy you for the beautiful volcanoes you've got. Think of it as if you people are closer to "the heart of Mother Earth".
Thor, I envy you too - we don't have something even similar to an extinct caldera in our country. :)

Occasionally some people have noted a few quakes over at BÃ¡rÃ°arbunga. I took the image from www.seismology.harvard.edu/projects/unusEQ/Iceland/index.html and extended the APPROXIMATE scale to get a better idea of the depth, and then filtered out the quakes from the last 5 days in that area to get a reasonable fit to the graphic in order to get an idea of the quake relationship to the hypothesized magma chamber(s). One idea that is presented by the listed site, is that there is a two layer magma chamber there, with the depth of the lower magma source possibly even lying under the crust. (mantle)

The relationship of the quake positions to the background graphic is close, but no where near exact

http://i48.tinypic.com/ib9rbb.png

#14 @Lurking: Very interesting, indeed. Do you think that this deeper chamber could respond for supposed connections to Katla?

@Renato I Silveira

The deeper chamber (magma source) may very well be the mantle plume itself. At least one reference I've see stated that the source might be beneath the crust itself. GrÃmsvÃ¶tn and Katla both lie on the EldgjÃ¡ fault system that stretches from there off to the SW, so yes, I guess the "lower chamber" (which is likely the mantle plume itself) could be connected. And, from a mantle plume perspective, probably has a lot to do with a lot of Iceland's volcanoes.

What's up on Jon's heliocorder?

Not sure about Jon's helicorder, but it has been showing steadily increasing activity for the last 24 hours or so. I suspect Eyja is not finished and we should be alert for some activity. From what I have seen so far, Icelandic volcanos waste no time and give little warning when they spring back to life.

They are rather sneaky...but the last 2 lines show a huge jump

@renee, There is a strong wind in this area at the moment. You are just seeing that on my Hekla sensor.

In swedish news this morning some "experts" has flagged for an impending eruption at the Katla caldera. Now this is in newspapers so in regards to how journalists write and want attention I am inclined to read this as a sceptic.

However if you look at the larger picture of tremors since the start of the eruption you can see that there is only one station which is coming alive again. And that is HVO station, the closest one to Katla on the south east side on the glacier.

Anyone know what that may be? The plot seems to be erratic.

Daniel, I heard that in the radio too. Newspapers refer to a report from "University College London's institute for risk- and catastrophe reduction "

@Daniel, swe, It is a background noise (wind, ocean, etc..). However there is a interesting spike at snb (SnÃ¦bÃli) station. That might be a dike intrusion in Katla that took place yesterday I think given the time scale of those plots that IMO has. This might also be some other type of volcano related noise that I cannot explain in details. There also appears to be a lot of earthquakes that are only recorded on snb station (maybe two or three other stations, but might be low quality), and do not show up on the map for that reason. Earthquakes appear as spikes on IMO tremor plots.

Before Katla starts spewing ash and making glacier floods we are going to see a lot of earthquakes inside the caldera of Katla. That might last for up to ~2 hours or longer before the eruption starts. Until then I am easy on what I see on the IMO plots.

Hi all! Missed you as I was offline lately. I just saw that 4 deeper EQ popped up quite near Hekla. http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/

For all: I made a drawing of my Cryptia for all you guys that don't want E to quiet down lol :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryptia/4643795037/

@Dagmar (#25)
Awesome picture. You certainly got some talent. It made me laugh. :-)

Thanks Daniel! I thought you all deserved a drawing for all the wonderful posts and the friendly discussions at this great blog, I have learned so much :-)

Hi all,
Has anyone seen the UCL report what they said to been published yesterday?

I did'n find it from UCL's site or from elsewhere.
It would be interesting see the whole report especially it's now on the news worldwide.

"A report on the eruption and its ramifications,
will be published on May 26th to mark the launch of the
UCL Institute for Risk & Disaster Reduction"

http://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/department/news/2010/05-mcguire.html

Eruption at Kirishima today according to Tokyo VAAC, the first one since 22nd August 2008. Ash to 5000ft.

The volcano is in close proximity to Sakurajima, which has drastically reduced activity over the last couple of weeks.

@JÃ³n: How would you interpret the Grimsfjall (grf) station? The 2-4Hz band has been going quite strong. is it a lot of EQÂ´s or just cultural noise? (Cultural would be a stretch since its on top of the glacier).

And HVO is still showing alot of spikes. I guess the relative increase could be wind, ocean etc but the spikes?

And i sould agree with you on the SNB satation as it increases in tremors and at the same time there are quite alot of spikes on the 1Hz band.

A report (in Japanese) has been published by the Japanese Meteorological Agency about the Kirishima eruption. It contains two interesting photos, evidently taken by webcams, and the first shows a beautiful, typical "cock's tail" phreatomagmatic steam and ash jet.

www.seisvol.kishou.go.jp/tokyo/STOCK/monthly_v-act_doc/fukuoka/10m05/50…

@Timo #28, I've done some research on the internet regarding that report, but it apparently has not yet been published on-line. However, the latest (25 May 2010) issue of EOS (the AGU weekly newspaper) has two articles on EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, one entitled "Eruptions of EyjafjallajÃ¶kull Volcano, Iceland" and written by MagnÃºs Tumi GuÃ°mundsson and others, the other discussing "Aircraft and Volcanic Ash a Key Focus of EGU Meeting".

Here is something I found of the content of UCL report: (still not the org. report yet..)

"The authors warn that an eruption of Katla is likely
to be preceded by new earthquake activity - volcanic activity at the site
has increased by over 200% in recent days"

http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/international-news/121358-stark-forec…

@ Daniel,swe and others about the "Katla news" Is this a journalist hype or rumors or is this some kind of facts?

@Lena: Well since the eruption first started at EF journalists have been known to paint a grim picture so if this is based on facts or fiction in order to sell more papers I do not know.

However looking at the journalists trackrecord I tend to take this bit of news with a grain of salt..Or a bucket even. :-)

If the journalists ask a volcanologist or geologist if Katla will blow the answer would be "Katla will have an eruption sooner or later. Not possible to know exactly when"
And the headlines in the papers would say "Katla is about to erupt!!"

Thanks, tack Daniel
bucket of salt until "real facts" is coming...

Re Katla "news", yesterday on tv news here in Ireland they interviewed some Icelandic scientists, who said that the activity under Katla is completely normal and until they see high rates of inflation and much higher seismic activity, they are "quite calm about Katla", as they put it.

@Daniel, swe, It is wind noise and glacier noise. But the glacier makes a lot of noise because it moves.

But there is something happening at SnÃ¦bÃ½li SIL station according to the tremor plots. It is showing abnormal signals in forms of spikes on the tremor plots. This is not background noise. This is something else. What exactly I am not sure of. But given past experience (events of 17th of July 1999) I would think that the signals are indicators of magma change inside Katla.

hraun.vedur.is/ja/kotlufrettir/oroi.html - Tremor plot from the year 1999 in regards to events in Katla that year on 17th of July.

The whole report in Icelandic.

hraun.vedur.is/ja/kotlufrettir/jar_strain.html

Very strong activity at Turrialba today. The webcam shows a very strong plume.

Thor et al, if I lived near Yellowstone I would cheerfully trade calderas with you, the more extinct the better =) .
BTW, I read that Japan is going for geothermal energy in a big way....would be nice for the Icelandic economy if you could get them to join a joint technology development effort.

I have made a screenshot of the activity of Turrialba which shows, that the plume is rising up through the whole crater and not only on one spot as it was before. Here is the link of the webcam: http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/vulcanologia/videoturri.html Strange: The actual helicorder display (05/27/2010) is not working right now. I also want to mention the helicorder showing an EQ at 05/26/2010 (12) http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/sismologia/sismogramas_linea.htm Any ideas what is going on there?

Thanks for posting that report Boris. Some nice images there!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1281890/Icelandic-volcan…

Hmmm Paddypower has 9/4 on Katla going off! Anyone fancy a flutter?

The increasing activity of the Yasur volcano since January 2010 led us to upgrade the hazard
rating of this volcano at Alert Level 3 starting from May 27, 2010.

http://www.geohazards.gov.vu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&…

@Thor #10 - With reference to "supervolcanos" in Norway, the Voring Basin is written up as part of Large Igneous Provinces (Svensen and Planke 2008).

"The volcanic basins offshore Norway

The VÃ¸ring and MÃ¸re basins offshore Norway are two prime examples of volcanic basins in the northeast Atlantic (Figures 2 and 3). A huge magmatic complex of dominantly subhorizontal sheets (sills) of basaltic composition intruded the Cretaceous VÃ¸ring and MÃ¸re basins before, and during, the northeast Atlantic continental break-up about 55 million years (Myr) ago (Skogseid et al., 1992; Berndt et al., 2000). This represents the second pulse of the NAVP (also known as the NAIP; the north Atlantic igneous province) for which the initial pulse occurred at about 61 Ma (e.g., Storey et al., 1998)."
http://www.largeigneousprovinces.org/index.html

I have enjoyed this animation of the opening of the Atlantic: http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fossils/geol/globe.htm

Bet everyone would have been glued to webcams then -- if not "running for one's life".

Good morning all -
@25 Dagmar - HAHA - thank you. Now you should make some t-shirts or posters with that design for this group of die-hard E-enthusiasts to wear with pride! :)
@10 Thor - see Iceland Review for today for an article about pumice/other eruption products found on the sore in Norway - (probably Hekla from the Markarflot floods, it said.)

@ Dagmar ...and yes I want a t-shirt with your drawing :)

# 24 Dagmar:

That is soooo cute! And you draw real well. Thank you for sharing.

# 45 Birdseye: that t-shirt idea is good! I like it.

Hello to everyone and hope we are all o.k !

The quiet before the storm perhaps, or just my imagination.

Dagmar, your drawing was superb and very apt;brought a big smile to my face, he he...

Long Valley had more earthquakes overnight. Very shallow.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/special/Long_Va…

The windspeed has been more or less constant today (around 8-10m/s) which would create some "noice" on the tremorplots on http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html and http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

And as i wrote before the SNB station is interesting just as JÃ³n mentioned as it is increasing steadily tremorwise.

But if the wind has remained stable and that would mean that the wave sounds would remain more or less the same why is HVO showing the same steady increase? Its not keeping a stable high level, its increasing by the hour.

I know its still on a low scale considering that the main activity showed a three or four times larger tremors but if you look at both SNB and HVO they are showing similar patterns and they are both on the east side of Katla.

@JÃ³n: What are the GPS stations showing? Cant get any plots from there. :-/
Any inflation worth mentioning?

Good morning or evening as the case may be. :-)

Dagmar, that drawing of yours made me laugh! Great Job. It remindes me of a display they used to have at Knott's Berry Farm not far from Disney Land in S CA. It was of a little red devil making the noise and eruption of a volcano. As kids, we all wanted to gather at that spot and just watch what he was doing. Really cute display. And it had sound to it, too.

Jen, if I could get hold of the seizmologist I was communicating with for a short time, I would be able to find out if the quakes there just north of Mammoth Lakes are techtonic or magmatic. My guess right now is techtonic. I must admit I don't remember seeing a swarm in that area before, but, then, I have been watching the quake maps of CA since I got online and I had Win95 then. I it has been about 17yrs or something like that. I am not exactly sure. LOL It is an interesting swarm and depending on where it is exactly, it could be right under one of the Mono Craters. That area is ridded with craters and domes as George has pointed out. If you have Google Earth, I bet they would look really cool. They did on the MS program that the local TV has for interactive weather. You can really see the chain of craters. I wish I could fly over them to really see what it looks like in person.

Bonjour Ã tous, hello all,

I am a French woman. I live in north eastern France near the Swiss border.
I'm the blog from the beginning and thank you all for followed. We learn every day. Forgive me for bad English.I like the drawing Dagmar. MerÃ§i et Ã bientÃ´t

Lookks like 2 men are nea EyjafjallajÃ¶kull frÃ¡ ÃÃ³rÃ³lfsfelli web-cam taking photos :O).

Iceland looks like such a beautiful country, especially when it is alread4 90F/33C at the Noon-hour here in Arlington, TX.

Looks like there have been about 5 deep quakes from Wed-today near "E". Looks like more magma may be moving onto the main eruption chamber. Has there been a recent update from the folks at the Iceland Met office? They have not updated the status report for today.

Two more deep quakes just occurred near "E", per the Iceland Met office. "E" is still VERY MUCH alive :O)!

DateTimeLatitudeLongitudeDepthMagnitudeQualityLocation
Thursday
27.05.201016:42:1063.627-19.71819.5 km1.199.012.9 km WSW of BÃ¡sar
Thursday
27.05.201016:24:2063.626-19.70519.3 km0.899.012.4 km WSW of BÃ¡sar

@Diane N CA and Long Valley fans...

Long Valley 27 May 2010 Profile View Looking East

http://i47.tinypic.com/s49nop.png

Long Valley 27 May 2010 Profile View Looking North

http://i48.tinypic.com/25z0cj7.png

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull Quakes 25th to 27th, perspective view.

http://i46.tinypic.com/2hcpab5.png

#56) Thank you for the awesome graphics. I am no expert, but it looks like "E" is refilling her magma chamber at the moment.

Has the Iceland Met or their volanologists had anything to day about the new activity. Is "E" inflating again? I don't know how to read the GPS deformation information :O)!!

@57 Robert Bordonaro, the Icelandic Met Office are no longer going to post daily updates of 'E' because of the down turn in activity. The next update will be Friday.

#58) Thanks a million. I am sure they are watching "E" closely. The HVO/PORO and Mulakot web-cams are all shrouded by have/fog/drizzly conditions at the moment.

M7.6 Vanuatu

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010wubj.php

@56 Lurking:Very good graph, certainly seems to say a lot !

OMFG.... I can't believe I am sitting here watching a live shot of an ROV at a leaking oil fitting in ultra deep water... beating on it with a wrench.

http://i47.tinypic.com/34ew55v.png

Okay... enough hilarity, I'm off in search of digital terrain info for Vanuatu. Don't get your hopes up, seismic data there has no where near the resolution we have seen in Iceland.

It's really getting difficult to find the right real estate deals these days. As they say: "location, location, location". ;)

www.adelaidenow.com.au/doomsday-fugitive-visited-vanuatu/story-e6frea6u…

Article on "volcano chasers" in USA Today includes quotes from a few of the excellent photographers we've talked about here.

www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-05-27-Volcano_chasers27_ST_N.htm

Oww thanks all :-)

27-MAY-2010 17:45:29 Mag 5.2 35.0km VANUATU ISLANDS
27-MAY-2010 17:24:23 Mag 5.7 35.0km VANUATU ISLANDS
27-MAY-2010 17:14:48 Mag 7.2 36.1km VANUATU ISLANDS

Does anyone have a good link real-time wave data? Half the ones I'm finding don't actually have data. ;)

Tsunami warning is in effect due to the quakes in Vanuatu.

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=1&id=pacific.2010.05.27.173725

With this latest quake at Vanuatu, I am wondering if it will affect Ambrem or Yaser. The quake was rather shallow so it remains to be seen what if any affect it will have on Vanuatu's volcanoes. It may not do anything.

Princess Frito, I did a bit of searching for you, but I haven't found anything yet and I have to got to an appt. I am sure someone has already found a site for you by the time I get this sent. :-)

Hey Janet and everyone, do you know of any wave height buoys in that area that are actually working? It seems Australia is more interested in paying for fancy webpages that describe their tsunami monitoring system than having buoys that actually work. )-:

Tsunami warning has been cancelled.

@70 ~ Princess Frito, I've been looking for info on the buoys also. So far I'm finding the same thing as you. Non-working buoys! Wow...that's sad.

TANNA VOLCANO
19Â°32â0âS 169Â°26â30âE Summit 1184ft (361m)
Current Vanuatu Volcano Alert Level: Level 3

The increasing activity of the Yasur volcano since January 2010 led us to upgrade the hazard rating of this volcano at Alert Level 3 starting from May 27, 2010.

http://www.geohazards.gov.vu/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpag…

There is a interestin little swarm 12 miles South of Lee Vining, Eastern slope of it Inyo craters.

@66 Princess Frito; You may know these already but
WILBER (through the IRIS web site: http://www.iris.edu )

QuakeView, MichSeis (http://geo.lsa.umich.edu/MichSeis )

Live Internet Seismic Server (LISS) through the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL) of the U.S. Geological Survey (http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov ) for near real time data

University of Arizona Seismograph Station (http://www.geo.arizona.edu/saso )

Southern California Earthquake Center âSeismocamâ (http://www.scecdc.scec.org/seismocam )

Princeton Earth Physics Project (PEPP; http://lasker.princeton.edu/index.shtml )

COSMOS Virtual Data Center for strong motion accelerograms (seismograms recorded with instruments that have a response that is approximately proportional to acceleration) are available for viewing or download (http://db.cosmos-eq.org/ click on "Earthquakes," then select an event of interest and click on it, such as the Loma Prieta, CA earthquake under the Northern California listing, then select a station and click on "ViewPlot of Data")

@71 ~ Janet, yes it's pathetic. Don't get me started lol.

So, do we know if "Tanna" is a boy or a girl? Anyone? ;)

By chance, I just found this:

Electric Ash Found in Eyjafjallajokull's Plume, Say UK Researchers
ScienceDaily (May 27, 2010) â In the first peer-reviewed scientific paper to be published about the Icelandic volcano since its eruption in April 2010, UK researchers write that the ash plume which hovered over Scotland carried a significant and self-renewing electric charge.
Read more:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100527013219.htm
Journal Reference:
1.R G Harrison, K a Nicoll, Z Ulanowski, T A Mather. Self-charging of the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull volcanic ash plume. Environmental Research Letters, 2010; DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/5/2/024004

WOVOdat.org (which is referenced at wovo.org but doesn't work) sounds promising at the concept stage and might have some value if they ever finally get it functional:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1117/

Update on EyjafjÃ¶ll seismic activity : on the last 24 h, there was 10 small earthquakes and 6 were at great depth. One of the seismic station (hvo) is exhibiting a slight increase of the tremor. At the beginning of May a nice picture showed that the rising of magma can last 48 hours. Then, there will be perhaps an answer to the suspense during the week-end.

@66 Princess:http://www.iris.edu/dms/seismon.htm for map and seismic data available on links at bottom of page.
I sent it earlier but it got held up for some reason.

Eyja now putting out a lot of steam, showing on both Thoro and Mulakot cams !

And possibly ash but still too hazy to tell for sure.

Hey! Look at the size of that plume on MÃºlakot and HvÃ³lsvÃ³llÃ¼r cams!

Mt Baekdu? ever heard of it?
Information on possible future eruption? or Trash. Worth a skim read

Mountain Baekdu, a dormant volcano on the border between North Korea and China, is showing signs of a possible eruption in the near future, experts warned Tuesday. "Baekdu could erupt anytime soon," said geologist Yoon Sung-hyo at Pusan National University, who has monitored the nation's highest mountain (2,744 meters) for any changes. "A variety of indicators are backing this scenario. The thing we should try to predict is when. It's clear it's imminent." The geologist cautiously raised speculation that an eruption could take place in a couple of years. According to historical records, Baekdu was an active volcano. Major activity in the 1960s created a caldera on its peak, whose circumference is nearly 14 kilometers with an average depth of 213 meters and maximum of 384 meters. Volcanic ash from this eruption has been found as far away as the southern part of Hokkaido, Japan, according to records. Small-scale eruptions were recorded roughly on a centurial basis - in 1413, 1597, 1668 and 1702. The latest volcanic eruption recorded at the 2,744-meter mountain was back in 1903. The mountain has stayed inactive since then, leaving it categorized by scientists as dormant.

The Chinese government developed the mountain and surrounding areas as a tourist destination drawing tens of thousands of visitors from around the world each year - many of them from South Korea. Yet, "unusual signs," including minor trembling among others, began to emerge in June 2002 and a 7.3-magnitude earthquake rattled areas in the vicinity of Baekdu, according to geologists. The frequency of the quakes has notably increased since then. "It seems that a shockwave from the quake reactivated magma approximately 30 kilometers beneath the mountain," said Prof. Hong Tae-kyung at Yonsei University's department of earth system sciences in Seoul. "The more frequent these are, the higher the possibility of an eruption." According to a recent TV program based on interviews with officials at a Chinese institute monitoring volcanic activity at Baekdu, minor quakes which are too weak to be felt by human beings take place nearly 100 times per day. "We saw the number steeply increase in recent years," the program quoted an official as saying. The program showed crumbled stone steps leading toward the top of a scenic waterfall at the heart of the mountain, explaining they recently fell apart due to frequent trembling in the region. Among other indicators backing the scenario of a future eruption is the height of Baekdu, which has grown nearly 10 centimeters since 2002. Experts say bloated magma, a precondition of eruption, is gradually pushing up the height of the mountain as well as the temperature on the surface. On October 1, 2006, a Russian satellite found the surface temperature of the mountain notably higher than before. The finding came just days after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear bomb test in its northern region, indicating the test was a catalyst reactivating the magma, analysts said.

The increase in the number of withered evergreen trees on the mountain may be another indicator. "It was confirmed that pollutants from the surrounding areas are not to blame. If so, toxic gases spewing from the volcano could be a possible culprit," Yoon said. If the eruption is major in scale, it would bring about massive consequences to the two Koreas as well as the surrounding states, including China, Japan and Russia. "The amount of volcanic ash from the most violent eruption nearly 1,000 years ago was enough to cover the entire the Korean peninsula to a height of 1.2 meters," he said, citing scientific studies. "Baekdu's caldera contains nearly two billion tons of water. If it evaporates into the air all of a sudden mixed with volcanic ash of a major eruption, it would be blown to the east and consequently engulf Vladivostok in Russia and Hokkaido in northern Japan."

Baekdu Mountain is stratovolcano whose cone is truncated by a large caldera, about 5 km (3.1 miles) wide and 850 m (2,789 ft) deep, partially filled by the waters of Heaven Lake.

@78 Thank you kindly Stigger. Now if we could only find some wave height buoys in tsunami-prone areas that actually work ...

Maybe it's only steam, but pushing up with far more pressure. The FLIR cam doesn't show much heat at the rim, though...

Hi Renato,still a lot of haze around the base of the plume.Hard to tell visually or with the Thermal Imager. I would give real money for the Voda Cam to be online !!!!

@83 Hi Princess, click on a buoy you are interested in and it takes you to the data page (with plots)
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/obs.shtml

@Adrian, I think our Lady is back. She was just giving the time for us lurkers to proceed with our to-dos and now she wants our attention!:)
But I think winds are not as strong as in the last two days, so maybe that's why steam is reaching higher altitudes.
Have you, or anyone else, noticed there's a small plume from the cliff to the left of the crater? Yesterday it was more visible, but looks like it's still there.

full moon

@86 Hi again Stigger. That was the site that was getting me frustrated. The two buoys northeast of Australia haven't been giving any data for a while now. )-: I appreciate your help though~!

@Dagmar: I loved your drawing (I looked at some of your others too), you are very talented.

@everyone: Thanks to you all for making this a wonderful place which I love coming back to.

Hi Renato,yes I can see the steam to the left.A lot of steam coming off the top of the Glacier in general.

Why is it impossible to get the Vodafone cams anymore, i haven't been able to get them for at least a week now ?
Not sure it's time for the popcorn just yet but if and when 'E' does start again i hope it doesn't affect people's livelyhoods to bad. One thing i know however is that Icelanders are a tough bunch .

Thanks so much Anita!

The plume is getting even bigger, if I'm not mistaken

I was poking through the Vodafone archives and ran across this shot from Thorolsfelli. The gleaming water is so eye-catching that I almost didn't notice that _other volcano_ formed by the shape of the light. :) Looks a little like Mt. Rainier. Or Arenal.

twitpic.com/1rm9tr/full

@ 89 Last try Princess; https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/index.html Firefox doesn't like it (asks you to make an exception) but interesting.

OK! People from Europe, that's it for tonight.Good dreams. I'll be back from work later, hope SHE won't fall in sleep again. See you!

hello every one,.
mila cams are still up, and EyjafjÃ¤ll looks goood tonight,.
nice plume and not bad weather.
The cams at mila is still up and running.

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

btw, im so sorry Sweden , for not getting in to the finals in eurovision, your song was great.

@95 Thanks a million Stigger!

Experts, does it look like there's a bit of inflation at SOHO?
hraun.vedur.is/ja/gps/predorb/soho_enu_p.png

Location map for reference:
hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/gps/stationmap.html

@92 Zander,Hi, Voda cam has been down since May 21st.I remember that there was a problem with it some weeks ago and that Anna from Rekjavik knew someone in connection with Vodaphone.Is who got it working again. Unfortunately,I have not seen Anna on here for some time. Maybe someone else could help ??

I also agree that the things that none of us wants is for any Icelanders,there animals or there livelihoods to be affected or harmed.

Mama don't take my vodafone,
Mama don't take my vodafone,
Mama don't take my vodofone away eh eh eh!

looks like "E" is still very much awake and alive :O)!! Looks like at the current time she is steaming nicely, about 7-8,000 ft on the PORO/HVO and the Mulakot web-cameras.

Cannot wait to see what "E" has planned for her next act..

It looks like all the ash has blown off our ledge. Time to take a rock inventory ;)

Attention, we need a volunteer in Iceland to clean the lens of the PORO web-cam please!! Thanks a million :O). Must be that fine dust that mixes in with the fog and drizzle and glues itself to the camera lens.

Nice thought. Let me quoting Peter Francis (Volcanoes, OUP, 1993) in the chapter about pyroclastic fall deposits (vulcanian section) : "Many volcanologists have watched vents from which a stream of fine ash and gas boils silently and ceaselessly, forming a plume which climbs a few kilometers into the air, drifting off downwind in a rolling grey-brown plume; compulsive to watch and photograph, but misery for the people living in towns and villages nearby." OK, the last EyjafjÃ¶ll eruptive phase was more in sub-plinian style and more explosive than what described Peter Francis but the effects are much the same.

@103 I will start if you like Princess, but I may need help after the number 5......

@100 Adrian, cheers. It's a pity, it was an amazing cam for looking at the glacier tongue. I sat glued to it for weeks waiting for the lava to appear through the ice arch.

@103 ~ Princess Frito, I'm on it! I actually think that they are all accounted for. Hmmm...upon closer inspection it looks like there are more there than before. :) The rock fairy has visited!

Hi Erik & All,

About 3 hrs ago, Yellowstone's seismographs show an event centered near the center of the caldera (Old Faithful seismo) which appears to be me to be highly atypical, since it is a virtually pure sine wave, with a *very* long periodicity of 15 to 20 seconds between peaks. The pattern was fairly strong for 15 minutes and lasted for half an hour or so in total.

It occurs at 18:15 UTC on this seismo:
http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/wrapper.php?file=YFT_SHZ_WY_01…

Most of the YVO stations record the same pattern ... even at nearly 100 km away in the mountains:
http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/wrapper.php?file=YPK_EHZ_WY_01…

Here are clickable thumbnails of all the seismos:
http://www.isthisthingon.org/Yellowstone/daythumbs.php?glayout=1&thick=…

Is this likely to be caused by magma?

Opinions anyone?

William, Boston

Quote from "Supervolcano" Docudrama on Yellowstone:
"There's only one sure-fire sign of an imminent eruption and that is harmonic tremor ...indicates that magma is on the move ..but even then, you can't tell how big an eruption you're looking at .. but you know that it's coming. Well, on the 26th of June, for the first time, we saw just that ... we saw harmonic tremor."
- Supervolcano part 5/6 @2:42 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHGh9PocCFU&NR=1

@107 Hi Zander, yes I hoped that that would happen too. Maybe we will yet see it.

@106 I'd help but those rocks are looking a lot 'fuzzier' than they did an hour ago. Could be the pint I just drank but I strongly suspect it's the cam.

@104 Pick me! For airfare, one night's accommodation and a trip up there with our Gummie Bear I'll do it! (Probably be cheaper to just ask Gummiey nicely though ...)

Janet to the rescue! Janet, it's funny you say that because I was just thinking earlier "wow, where did all those rocks come from?". It does look like there's a lot more!

Geologists: is there such a thing as "rabbit rocks"? Just asking.

@107 I remember sticking my neck out and predicting the lava would come through the arch.
"Off with his head" said the Queen of Hearts. A job for Princess Frito perhaps?

And now? A watched arch will never fall... but the Mila cam does not have the definition required to see.

Weather forecast is for sunshine and cloud there tomorrow.Lets hope that its more of the former.

Goodnight all and Happy Watching !

Princess Frito @74 - Tanna appears to be a girl's name, although whether the girl or the volcano was named first is open to question.

@Diane and anyone else interested in Long Valley:

I posted the link before but in case you didn't see it, here's the swarm location in google maps/earth

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.8228+-118.9847(M1.4+-+CENTRAL+CALIFORN…

@112 Gordon, it made sense to me as well that the lava would eventually find its way down to our beloved "Helen's Arch" (where the heck has she been lately?) Anyhoo, I'm sure our kind Queen Diane will grant us clemency.

@114 I just clued in that the volcano "Yasur" is on the mountain Tanna. I remain clueless as to Yasur's gender (there are too many "Survivor" websites to look through. Uggh.

I did find this site with way-cool volcano pics though!

http://s1.zetaboards.com/anthroscape/topic/1081500/1/

82# Mt Baekdu is a bit interesting. But I think ther must be something wrong in the sentence "Major activity in the 1960s created a caldera on its peak, whose circumference is nearly 14 kilometers with an average depth of 213 meters and maximum of 384 meters." WasnÂ´t the most recent eruption in 1903? I think they mean the caldera eruption around 1000 years ago.

If anyone want to check some info about the volcano Mt Baekdu it is good to know that it is also known by the name Changbaishan.

Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baekdu_Mountain)
Global volcanism program: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1005-06-

Here is interesting pdf on setting up of Yasur observation system, it includes 1:50,000 map of area. English translation in second half of the doc.

http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/griseli/35391…

Princess Frito, the one Yasur "survivor site" I looked at was actually an article on going to the top of Yasur and surviving!

Hi
@birdseye Someone posted an earthquake site earlier. I have another link even though you might probably already have this.
http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/geofon//seismon/globmon.html
This is my startup screen, and i watched it on december 26 hm 2004 or was it 2005? Time flies. anyway i watched it saw an earthquake 8.3 and turned tv on. CNN reported 30 mins later that there was an earthquake in sumatra again a little later that there was a tsunami and serveral hundred people are supposedly dead. Now we know over 200 000 died. I watched that, i knew this was bad, i could have called people and maybe saved them.
Something different.
Jon Frimann ( sorry i dont konw where to find the Â´ above the o and i on my keyboard) and Christian sent ash samples to me and i did SEM images on the ash. My museum will upload all those images to some site ( maybe flikr) and i will continue to do more SEMs and upload them. I will let you know about the adress as soon as it is set up. Very unique things could be found in some samples, i was amazed and still got no clue what those tiny tiny particles might be.
And to the austrians here, ( or anyone else interested and per chance closeby) My museum will hold a special Deep Space about Eyja with a volcanologist on June 10. 8 pm. ( AEC www.aec.at)

Hi P'handle Dan; LI BOB

2nd large EQ ( 6. + )at Vanautu. Tsunami network looked quiet for the ( 7. + ) .

We have seen with the recent signals from iceland, that sensitive electric instruments can sometimes be difficult to find, understand or simply maintain. Sink em 2-4000 meters with a surface float sat link, and the fun begins.

Keep your hair on.

Hey G'rider, how are you :o)??

Our Lady "E" is currently gently steaming on the PORO web-cam, the HVO cam is covered and our Mulakot cam the steam plume is visible every once in awhile.

Many have written off Lady "E". Not I. There will be cycles of activity, increasing and decreasing for awhile yet. Last eruption in 1821 lasted on and off for almost 2 yrs.

No serious damage in Vanautu and no tsunami reports, which is a great thing.

@117: I think that's supposed to be the 960s, not the 1960s.

@117 Mattias That is the reason I usually use Wikipedia only as a resource to find other resources. Too many errors in it. I never trust it without checking other more reliable resources. Once I trust an entry I may quote it because it's a single source that is easy to copy and paste once verified.

There are people on twitter right now saying the Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala is spewing ash on them. Anyone here have any info on that?

@119 Birgit Austria, I think it must have been someone else who was looking for the earthquake link, but I like this one anyway,thanks : ) I am enjoying all the conversations even tho' I don't seem to have anything useful to contribute at this point...time to quit for today, anyway. Back tomorrow.

Janet, according to this report there is an evacuation at Pacaya volcano:

http://www.latercera.com/contenido/678_263322_9.shtml

Looks like we have someone to thank for cleaning the Thorocam lens...I just checked in for a 'good night ' glance,and it seems pretty spotless...so, THANK YOU,whoever you were! : )

@Guillermo ~ Thanks!

#119
@Birgit Austria: Servus! I would love to visit your museum, in my next trip to Ãsterreich. There's a big coincidence here! I was in Salzburg on December the 26th, 2004,(I usually go there every three years - overdue know) and I happened to be watching on earthquakes maps when I saw the "8.3M" EQ on Sumatra you mentioned. Hours later I read on a newspaper a small note talking about "Flutwelle" in Indonesia. I didn't know the German word for "tsunami", I thought it was just a flood. Well the rest of this sad history we all know. Thanks for the link! (You'll probably be reading this tomorrow, but I was pretty amazed with both of us sharing the same experience - BTW: Ich wohne in Brasilien!)
#126 Gracias por el link, Guillermo! Looks like latin american volcanoes are joining the gang. There's a big activity taking place also in Ecuador and Chile (Villarica, as you posted before, and ChaitÃ©n's dome still growing). Please, keep us updated.

@Guillermo, forgot to mention Turrialba, in Costa Rica - see the other thread.

Heavy ash falls in Guatemala City following the violent eruption of Pacaya this night:
uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100528/twl-uk-guatemala-volcano-a7cf3b4.html
www.estrategiaynegocios.net/ca/Default.aspx?option=10583
www.abc.es/20100528/internacional-iberoamerica/pacaya-201005280512.htm

Pacaya has been going on for many years now producing lava flows quietly from flank vents, with only very minor explosive activity at its summit. Since there were no access restrictions, zillions of tourists have been there to see the lava flows close up. This night's eruption seems to be the first major paroxysm since early 2000.

Visibility still not good, however FLIR is tracking hot spots on top of the mountain.

The EyjafjallajÃ¶kull volcano....is she a sleep or are there coming lava? The poro cam shows hot spots....

The FLIR is showing a lot more heat on the glacier. What was a boring purple hue barely above background six hours ago has become a line of orange and white dots. Did the lens get cleaned? or is something new happening?

Kver maybe both;)

Okay... I don't like Vanatu. Tracking down the terrain data was a real pain and then trying to piece together thousands of square miles of open ocean just to retrieve a few islands sort of p-o'd my computer. It's mad right now. On the plus side, I was able to find terrain data. The bad side is that you don't really get a decent grasp of location when you see just how small these islands are.

Before anyone asks... remember, these quakes are in a subduction zone... and having quakes is something subduction zones love to do... unless it's the Pacific Northwest, in which case the fault just sort of sits there pouting... waiting for you to turn your back.

Anyway, Here's Vanatu. Perspective Plot, recent quakes.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2ng670w.png

Thor (#97) "btw, im so sorry Sweden , for not getting in to the finals in eurovision, your song was great."

It is of course a National Disaster similar to a completely unexpected VEI 5 eruption near Ãrebro (~200km from Stockholm and Gothenburg), at least if you'd believe the media. Personally, I stopped taking an interest years before ABBA won in Brighton.

But thanks anyway! "Det ar moro nÃ¥r det ikke gÃ¥r vel for sÃ¶tebror da!"

Henrik, Swe but you still make the best car in the world:)

@Kver (#134), Darth Nix (#135). Could we have an effusive eruption of basaltic lava with lava flows? If so, I stand to collect several hundred eBeers and you'll finally get yours Randall. If not, there's still over three weeks to go before I lose out on the sweepstakes. ;)

Henrik, Swe I think with this volcano and it's close friends anything is possible;)

Re Guatemala's Pacaya volcano: "Volcanologists measured plumes of ash reaching 1,500 meters above the volcano's peak". This is towards the end of the article. Compare that with the first bit in bold "Guatemala's Pacaya volcano erupted on Thursday covering the capital with a cloud of black ash that closed the airport and forced evacuations of nearby villages."

Responsible journalism or a race for as many readers as possible? As a comparison, 1500m above the summit equals 3100m a.s.l at EyjafjallajÃ¶kull, a height easily bettered until the eruption was almost over.

Hi
@Birgit#119: Thanks for telling us about the exhibition. I don't think I'll be able to come, but I wish you all the best with it. It's great you can integrate your fascination with volcanoes into your work.

@all: I just wrote an e-mail to the Vodafone people. The Mila cams are good with the heat cam and everything, but the whole mountain always looks to me as if she were hyperventilating, which is kind of interesting, as it does make the volcano look like a rather big organic creature (I've come to think of her that way). But on the whole, it is just too blurred to make out the interesting details.

@137: VEI5 near Ãrebro, LOL! That's almost as unexpected as the spanish inquisition.

*cleaning coffee from keyboard*

and now for something completely different (as Monty Python also used to say)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281970/Swooping-150mph-golden-…

wonderful, wonderful pictures

Re: Beautiful photo (at top of thread) of 'Laze Plumes/lava haze' at Kilauea.

Thanks, Erik.

More on "laze plumes" for anyone interested is found here (scroll down to: 'Secondary Gas Emissions'):

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/index.php

New post:

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/05/friday_flotsam_pacaya_eyjafja…

I spoke too soon last night :-0 In the morning light, there are still SPOTS...on THORO cam. Phooey.

@82 The caldera-forming eruption of Baekdu was in the 960's not the 1960's.
Remarkably, close to three literate and record-keeping civilizations, no notice has been found in contemporary Chinese, Korean or Japanese writings.

Romantically umbrageous and trippin' nigh the national

Bedbug dog might sound strange to many people. A dog has been manâs best friend for ages. Dogs seem to have been used over the years by military and law enforcement agencies to detect bombs, drugs and other things. You might have heard of bomb dogs, drug dogs, and arson dogs. But now the manâs supporter has launched an attack against bed bugs and is the new weapon in mans fight against these bugs. A bedbug dog is trained to detect the location of bed bugs in infested areas. Dogs can be handy for discovering or sniffing objects wherein they use their senses (usually nose) to locate the object for which they have been ?trained?. These adorable but accurate doggies know their work very well.

beneficial! thanks for that points, i am going to keep it in the mind the next time

Fantastic story! Going to need a bit of time to entertain this story!!

Very interesting read. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. - You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred. Woody Allen Born 1935

Friday Flotsam: the cost of Vesuvius erupting, dome collapse at Colima and the deepest volcanic vents

eklemetti — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:54:40 +0000

Friday Flotsam: the cost of Vesuvius erupting, dome collapse at Colima and the deepest volcanic vents

Hard to believe, but there is other volcano-related news in the world ...

So, with all deference to Eyjafjallajokull, here it is:

Dome collapse on Colima in Mexico, image taken March 30, 2010.

The new Smithsonian/USGS GVP Weekly Volcano Activity Report was issued, with news about increasing signs of activity at Egon in Indonesia, a possible plume at Miyakejima in Japan and more dome growth at Soufriere Hills.
A study on the economic effect of a new Vesuvius eruption was released and the finding show the potential for a staggering $24 billion of economic damage directly related to an eruption. This was part of a list of the top 10 most "dangerous" volcanoes in Europe based on insurance risk, where Vesuvius sat #1 and the Campei Flegrei was #2.
Colima in Mexico has been active over the past few weeks, and Colima Online posted images of the small dome-collapse pyroclastic flows generated by the explosions. Just reminds us that eruptions are going on all the time, even if they're not in the news.
If you're into undersea volcanism, a recent expedition visited what is believed to be the deepest known hydrothermal field, in the Cayman Trough between Cuba and Jamaica. The hydrothermal vents at the ocean's floor were producing strong black smokers of hot, mineral-rich fluids - all related to magma underneath the sea floor in the Caribbean.
The seismicity at Redoubt in Alaska is all but gone, indicating that whatever started the earthquakes wasn't directly leading to an new eruption.
And remember, the 30th anniversary of the May 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens is around the corner. Are you ready?

eklemetti Fri, 04/16/2010 - 04:54

Tags

Global Volcanism Program

Smithsonian Institution

volcanoes and the economy

volcanoes in the media

volcanoes and the economy

volcanoes in the media

I guess insurance companies live by calculating and ranking risk, but there is no accurate way to determine that a Vesuvius eruption would cause more damage than one from the Campei Flegrei system. Sorta like arguing whether its worse to land on land or water after falling 30,000 feet.

If you were not already here, SciBorg would have to invent you.

Thanks, thanks.

Oddly enough, considering the media uproar last month over it, Marsili did not make the list, which does include 3 volcanoes in the Caribbean, 3 in the Azores, and 1 in Iceland (see "Marketwatch" article on this at http://preview.tinyurl.com/y5bz5zl .) The other listed volcano that's actually on the contiguous European land mass is Etna.

As for 30,000-plus-foot falls, a good argument has been made that it's better to aim for land than water; this is what one should read on the way down before making the decision: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/safety/4344036

yes, but you can make a good estimate of how many people and how much stuff is exposed to the potential effects of an eruption and then devise rational plans to minimize the damage from the more likely eruptive scenarios. Which could be more useful for some than arguing about splat sizes.

KLIUCHEVSKOI Central Kamchatka, is puffing away again.

http://data.emsd.iks.ru/videokry/kly.jpg

Another reasonably large earthquake has occurred on the Aleutian Chain today, approximately same mag (mid-5 mag) and location as this time yesterday. Something is up, although AVO is not reporting seismic activity at Shishaldin.

Boris will be happy, Etna comes in at #4, she deserves respect that old lady (Vulcano #12 and Stromboli #13 also make the list). And you have to say that Eyjaf is in good company since Helca is #9 and Katla #15. In the mining business this is known as a 'good address'.

I would like to point out that there has been absolutely no new dome growth at SoufriÃ¨re Hills Volcano since the partial collapse event on 11 February 2010. The multiple small areas of incandescence observed on the volcano are located within the collapse scar. They are related to ongoing fumarole activity and fractures in the scar headwall.

Not just St. Helens, a lot of other notorious eruptions have their, err, "birthdays" coming up in the next few weeks; El Chichon, Pelee 1902 (and St Vincent the same year), Pagan 1982, Chaiten of course; and the Big One, Tambora 1815, 195 years ago on May 10. Not as catchy an anniversary as 30 years, true.

(annoyingly, the Iceland eruption got going just as my internet connection went belly-up, so I haven't been able to join in..I'm at an internet cafe today)

In honor of the St. Helens anniversary, I'd heartily recommend a reading, between now and May 18th, of the book "Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science" by Dick Thompson. It's not a brand-new book (2002), but it really shows how that 1980 eruption got things going with the development of the USGS volcano observatories. It discusses other eruptions, too--most notably Mount Pinatubo, but others as well--as it shows the development of modern volcanology. I found it in the local library but there is a preview of it on Google Books, and it is still for sale at Amazon and elsewhere. Excellent!

Hi Erik,
I just wanted to say that your volcano coverage has been fantastic. Keep up the good work.

I used to be simply browsing for related blog posts for my venture analysis and I occurred to discover yours. Thanks for the useful data!

You are a very intelligent person!

Insightful blog:D I will require some time to think about the stuff..

Monday Musings: Submarine supervolcanoes(?), Iceland's volcanic tourism, Redoubt settles down

eklemetti — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:46:08 +0000

Monday Musings: Submarine supervolcanoes(?), Iceland's volcanic tourism, Redoubt settles down

Lots to do!

Tourists flock to the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull-FimmvÃ¶rduhÃ¡ls in Iceland.

The media does love the term "supervolcano", and a number of Eruptions readers sent me a link to the article on the dreaded submarine "supervolcanoes". I would delve into this article from Live Science, but it sadly again does a dreadful job with a lot of this - remember, "supervolcano" is a made-up word by the BBC with no strict definition, so trying to say there are a dozen supervolcanoes worldwide is just silly. And why does it take multiple paragraphs and multiple mentions of "scientists" before they get a name? I mean, do we spend half an article on a baseball game referring to "players" before mentioning who was involved? Even the part that makes sense just feels like a jumble ... ah well.
We're all still watching the Icelandic eruption at EyjafjallajÃ¶kull-FimmvÃ¶rduhÃ¡ls - although reports from volcano watchers early today suggest the eruption is in hiatus UPDATE 12:30 PM EDT 4/12/10: Well, new reports have Einar Kjartansson of the Icelandic Met Office saying the eruption is winding down. The latest reports have more earthquakes near the active fissure, some close to the EyjafjallajÃ¶kull glacier. There is also a nice piece in ScienceDaily on NASA's efforts to help monitor the eruption using satellites and AI - specifically on the EO-1 satellite, which caught a glimpse of the eruption as it began when it registered an unknown "hotspot" in Iceland. However, the big news in the eyes of the media is the tourist attraction that the eruption has become.
Just to follow up on the Redoubt news from last week: the seismicity at the summit has diminished greatly since it was noticed.
There is also some news from Hawai`i about a lava flow that is snaking its way towards the ocean. It has traveled a couple kilometers over the last week. The Pu`u O`o flow may rejoin the main flow field to its east soon, but there isn't much pointing to any new ocean entry coming soon.

eklemetti Mon, 04/12/2010 - 02:46

I was at FimmvÃ¶rÃ°uhÃ¡ls only about 14 hours ago. The driver who I visited with said that the eruption was definitely smaller than it had been a week ago. Still, it was an incredible sight. There was constant lava fountaining at one crater, occasional outbursts at two others, and a lava flow which was hardly visible when I got there but brightened greatly during the night. I am amazed to hear the eruption might have stopped now!

Ambrym Volcano, Vanuatu (New Hebrides) is showing a SO2 eruption (SCIAMACHY Vertical Column DU) signature this morning. GVP reports continuing activity through 2010, so no surprise.

http://sacs.aeronomie.be/nrt/SciaNrt/2010/04.orb/11/scia_vcd20100411_00…

Thanks so much for that update RW. I'm closely watching events at FimmvÃ¶rÃ°uhÃ¡ls since I'm planning to visit at the end of the week. I'm slightly concerned about reports that activity has diminished but reports from people like you are very valuable.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed the eruption doesn't stop just yet!!

Supervolcano report seems to be a chopped version of this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100409131419.htm

which in itself is a chopped version of a reasonable document.

Report at RUV.is is that there was a 3.2 earthquake shortly after which the activity diminished. If there was shift which pinched off (some of) the lave flow, that'd explain it.
Question is, is it stopped or building up to find another outlet?

In a month's time it'll be thirty years since Mount St Helens erupted so spectacularly. I can only speak for myself, but my feeling is that I am not alone in this.

Unlike previous volcanic eruptions, the awsome power unleashed by a large eruption finally hit home with the well-televised and publicised event - St Helens gave us an understandable scale:

* "Half" a mountain disappeared in a matter of seconds
* Giant redwoods were snapped off like so much matchwood for miles and miles
* A lake was buried under "a thousand feet" of volcanic debris
* The interior of cars melted
* Other cars had their bodywork riddled by stones some 30 miles away as if someone had fired a shotgun at point-blank range
* Giant lorries were wrapped around tree-trunks as if they were so much tinfoil.

Now, how do you describe something even bigger and much more destructive than this which is at the upper limit most human minds can encompass? The terms "supervolcano" and "supereruption" aren't scientific terms, true. They are human terms, intended to give scale to something that is beyond our comprehension.

Undersea Super Volcano's and extinction events!
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/12/one-more-thing-to-worry-about-und…

Steinn #5, it could be that the eruption hasn't stopped, but is going though lava tubes. I posted this under Erik's description of Hawaiian style eruptions. If the quake did shut the flow off, the magma will probably head for another area to come to the surface. My guess is it is flowing through a tube system. I don't think it has ended, but I could be wrong.

The unearthly quiet that every one had been observing had been making me nervous, so I started re-doing my JÃ¶nkulhlaup map. It's just about done, with links, and will shortly be up on my http://michaelbix.livejournal.com page.

The gathering of a punch-up... directly at the caldera this time... as spoken about by Henrik and JÃ³n seems somewhat likely. The most recent quake was low and large - the kind of "clearing of the throat" followed by two quakes at different levels, including near the surface directly above, which I associate as pre-eruptive.

This will come fast, and if so, will include a jÃ¶nkulhlhaup. There will be little warning, as was the case with the past fissure-opening. I would recommend an immediate moving-back from the mountain and possible evacuation of the MarkarfljÃ¶t. Just my humble opinion.

Michael! As others have poined out it seems the M3.2 (5.7 km depth) this morning has blocked the main conduit. If there's still more to come, I'd guess that the first thing we see is that the current site closes down, so to speak, this evening. Then inflation should resume and after that, an increase in tremors. IF this will prove to be the case, it's anyone's guess where as the presumed blockage is relatively deep down. We'll just have to wait and see. ;)

I looks to be that we have a plume.

http://www.vodafone.is/eldgos/en

Henrik-I was up close and personal to St. Helens, Flew a lot
of USGS people and othes around the summit before and after.
My ex-brother in law and his family actually took a vacation to "see the mountain" they almost got killed.
I tried to tell them that going that close was ah, stupid.
but what do I know. Now I think about it I'm glad I didn't have children with his sister...
Being in NE Washington, I did a lot of aerial survey after.
for a while the Columbia river basin looked like the Moon...

we have a plume in the last 30 min it has grown and collapsed 3 or 4 times it has been a mix of team and dirty coulors unfortunately the cloud cover is blocking the eruption side. it looks as though it is going 2 or 3 km over the cloud cover them quickly falling somewhat like a pyroclastic flow event

@ Gordys

It looks to be like Icelandic weather. If you don't like it, then wait 5 minutes for it to change.

at the time the cloud cover was very smooth and dense with a clearly defined top now its messy

vodafone cam allows fetching by time go back to min 20 to 28

@G.T. McCoy

serious envy on that one. Not only are you a helicopter pilot by the sound of it but you got to witness that. Wow. One very lucky guy.

@Raving: You may be correct. It was a white plume rising above the cloud deck that has been there for most of the day. It was rising up from the same location, not moving like the rest of the clouds were, and moving from low to high. Without being able to see everything but the top it is hard to say. Time will tell.

@ G.T. McCoy. Thanks for sharing that! Must be strange to have memories of something that's no longer there such as dropping people off at Goat's Ridge(?) or landing close to Harry Truman's property by Spirit Lake (if you did). I'd love to hear your views on how, if, St Helens changed your understanding of volcanoes!

>Being in NE Washington, I did a lot of aerial survey after.
for a while the Columbia river basin looked like the Moon.

Photo of the sky over Ephrata, WA in the hours before heavy ashfall the morning of May 19th, 1980.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs027-00/

That's not snow on the ground.

Enough ash fell on the mid-Columbia Basin Plateau to near-permanently alter the soil composition and chemistry. In Potholes Reservoir, there are emergent semi-aquatic plants, colonizers that have become a dominant player among community epiphytes in recent decades. These plants only thrive under conditions of sufficient soil-sediment silica.

There were not found here before 1980.

Erik I gotta agree with Henrik....please try to remember that the article wasn't written for a vulcanologist, it was written for a regular person. You are concerned with semantics and just what superlatives are being used to describe one of these events. A regular person doesn't know or even care if it is a Plinian, a Hawaiian or a Strombolian eruption....to us....the great unwashed masses it is either a small, a large or maybe a "super" sized eruption. To us it is something that can kill several ways and at a great distance. When talking about one of these LARGE sized eruptions.....you are not talking about something that just effects a relatively small area. You are talking about something that has the possibility of destroying an untold number of lives across the globe....so really what would you have us call them?

I also flew over the devastated area at St. Helens shortly after the May 18 1980 eruption and was awestruck by what I saw. I will never forget it. One of the lessons was, stay away from volcanoes that a developing a giant bulge on one side.

Creative problem-solving.

Earthquake prediction using accelerometers in laptops.
BBC News April 12th 2010.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8615558.stm (video)

A scientist in California is trying to recruit thousands of people to build a volunteer early warning system by harnessing technology in laptops.

Motion sensors already fitted in computers are being used as seismographs. The hope is a large network of quake sensors could one day help give warning of impending tremors.

I feel that it may be a question of the scientific community having been caught flat-footed by public interest. To a vulcanologist, "VEI 5, Plinian, flank collapse" gives a succinct description of size and type of eruption. Now, how do you convey this to the public? Plinian and flank collapse present few problems as most have seen the pictures and videos. But VEI 5? Defining it as 1/4 cubic mile, 1.0 cubic kilometres or 1,000,000,000 cubic meteres still does little, so the term "very large" is used. Ok, but how do you describe something that is larger? VEI 6 as very, very large? VEI 7 as very, very, very large? VEI 8 as very, very, very, very large. In the absense of a suitable scale, journalists invented their own.

Had volcanology addressed the need to communicate its findings to the public in advance and had an understandable, verbal scale been in place already, the "supervolcano" misnomer might not have happened! At least by journalists who wanted to appear serious about their reporting. St Helens might have been described as a "large, locally destructive" eruption and Toba as "very large, regionally destructive, global affecting" - or something on those lines describing the effects as opposed to giving a number.

Along with failure to mention study authors names and affiliations, my beef with popular science articles is frequent lack of a proper citation, other than mention of the journal name publication day/month.

Science Daily has a few editors that include journal citation as a footnote at the bottom of the page; the majority of their on-line articles do not. Even more irritating is failure to include a critical hyper-link in news stories advertising immediate-release of government and private organization reports/documents that have on-line download access.

While the BBC did create the term 'super volcano', it has been integrated into the professional-technical lexicon and is employed in titles of quite a few journal articles since 2006. Moreover, the term has been fruitful for drawing public attention to volcanic hazards and produced government and private grant funding opportunities.

The article below has useful graphics for understanding relative eruption mass, ejecta volume, plume height, return period to VEI ranking of recent and historical very large volcanic eruptions.

Inclusion of this type of coupled cartoon graphic and information text box inset is very useful for visualizing meaning of technical scales and terminology.

See: Earth's largest volcanic eruptions were an order of magnitude larger. Miller and Wark (2008) ELEMENTS 4:11-16.

activetectonics.asu.edu/teaching/GLG494-ICOG/supervolcanoes.pdf

PS: at least two practical outcomes can be seen in the popularization of some news article-generated 'cataclystmic' terminology that generates considerable public interest:

Analysis and improved understanding of fiduciary risk by the insurance industry and risk recognition and action inclusion in public emergency response and urban planning projects.

Turrialba is really chuffing away this morning. The steam seems to have a blue component to it, but it could just be the angle of the sunlight. A few years ago HVO mentioned this was caused by high concentrations SO2, but the MSDS shows it to be colorless. Anybody help? What gives steam a blue tint?

Redoubt webicorder readouts over the past 48 hours don't look *that* quiet. Note that several recently active volcanoes have had a jump in activity 1-2 days ago, corresponding to a very strong geomagnetic flux perturbation, but has quieted back down as the Planetary-A index dipped in the past 24 hours to near baseline. It is presently rising again with moderate 'solar storm' events early today.

http://www.solen.info/solar/

We are having high winds so webcorder of Redoubt should be read with that in mind.

Best!motsfo

Maybe, maybe not. Wouldn't expect wind noise to generate ringing.

Webicorder primer.

http://www.pnsn.org/WEBICORDER/webicorder.html

@Passerby: Thanks for the last link with Jon's seismometers. I wonder if raw wave data coming from those in a common format could be made available. It would be easier to tell what's going on. Or if it's not possible, making spectrograms graphs available. From the compresseed helicorder it seems there's more than just earthquakes.

Sorry, I replied on the wrong thread, please delete post #31 and this one.

Erik, a little question: in all the bibliography avaiable on-line the Shatsky Rise are referred to a supervolcano. But it seems to me that their description make them much more similar to a LIP - Large igneous province - such as Deccan and siberian trap than to a supervolcano. Also the tectonic environment is not the same, since supervolcanoes are much more related to converging plates situation than intraplate or diverging plates ones.
what do you think about it?