One of our more popular editions of the Signs page was the "Super Volcano Special!", which we then followed up with the occasional article as we ran across an informative one in our daily forays into cyber space. We decided to pull them all together into one convenient document, for those interested, so they do not have to search through our ever growing archives.

If you run across an article that you think would add to this page, feel free to email us. We will continue to keep an eye out for further information regarding this topic and update the page accordingly.

Also see our other Signs Supplements:

Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and NEO's

Sonic or "Mystery Booms"

Ethinic Specific Weapons

Deep carbon could trigger mass extinction

Richard Ingham
Agençe France-Presse

Carbon stored beneath the Earth's crust could be released by volcanic eruptions (NASA)

A vast reservoir of carbon is stashed beneath the Earth's crust and could be released by a major volcanic eruption, unleashing a mass extinction of the kind that last occurred 200 million years ago, German geologists report. [...]

Bulge in lake worries YNP scientists

By CAROLE CLOUDWALKER

Beneath the serene surface of Yellowstone Lake, where death from hypothermia comes within 30 minutes, seethes a boiling underwater world.

And like a pot too long on the stove, it could boil over, says U.S. Geological Survey geologist Lisa Morgan, Ph.D., of Colorado.

She and others from the USGS have been studying the hottest hot spot in the 7,731-foot elevation lake, a spot which Morgan has termed an "inflated plain." It lies south-southwest of Storm Point near Mary Bay, in the northern end of the lake. [...]

"We're thinking this structure could be a precursor to an hydrothermal explosive event," Morgan said last week. "But we don't think this is a volcano." [...]

Supervolcanoes

BBC

Hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface lie one of the most destructive and yet least-understood natural phenomena in the world - supervolcanoes. Only a handful exist in the world but when one erupts it will be unlike any volcano we have ever witnessed. The explosion will be heard around the world. The sky will darken, black rain will fall, and the Earth will be plunged into the equivalent of a nuclear winter.

The last supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago in Sumatra. Ten thousand times bigger than Mt St Helens, it created a global catastrophe dramatically affecting life on Earth. Scientists know that another one is due - they just don't know when... or where.

It is little known that lying underneath one of America's areas of outstanding natural beauty - Yellowstone Park - is one of the largest supervolcanoes in the world. Scientists have revealed that it has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago... so the next is overdue.

Comment: Could there possibly be a connection between the above story of the "bulge" at Yellow Stone National Park, this BBC article mentioning the fact that the last of these "super volcano" eruptions was 74,000 years ago in Sumatra, and Mars about to make it's closest pass for 73,000 years? What, if any are the possible gravitational effects on earth of such a close pass? We don't know, but we may know the answer soon.

Very interesting also is that this figure of 73,000 years, initially calculated by Jean Meeus was revised to 60,000 years as of May 2003, by Myles Standish at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "as new calculations were supplied"

New research proves existence of super volcano beneath Loch Ness

Professor Tom Plume PhD (51) of the EU Volcanic Research Committee has warned that the famous fault-line, known as the Great Glen, may be about to rip apart as a result of a Super Volcano, which has lain dormant for millions of years. [...]

Super Volcano In Yellowstone National Park

Comment: Take a look at the maps of volcanoes in the Western United States.

Tiny Crystals Predict A Huge Volcano In Western United States

[...]With insight gained from new analytical techniques to study crystals of zircon and quartz, minerals that serve as veritable time capsules of geologic events, a group of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has proposed a new model for the origin of volcanism in young calderas.

These are volcanoes that occur over "hot spots" in the Earth and they erupt every few hundred thousand years in catastrophic explosions, sending hundreds to thousands of cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere and wreaking climatic havoc on a global scale. [...]

Super Volcanoes: Satellites Eye Deadly Hot Spots

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer

[...]A host of U.S. and European satellites have been trained to see "hot spots ," where underground molten rock is pushing its way to the surface. The new view is giving researchers an unprecedented peek into how volcanoes work.

What they see is often illuminating. Sometimes it is just plain frightening. [...]

Supervolcanoes could trigger global freeze

By environment correspondent Alex Kirby
BBC

[...] The threat of climate change caused by human activity could turn out to be a minor problem by comparison with a scarcely acknowledged natural hazard.

Geologists say there is a real risk that sooner or later a supervolcano will erupt with devastating force, sending temperatures plunging on a hemispheric or even global scale.

A report by the BBC Two programme Horizon on one supervolcano, at Yellowstone national park in the US, says it is overdue for an eruption.

Yellowstone has gone off roughly once every 600,000 years. Its last eruption was 640,000 years ago. [...]

Red Planet at brightest for 60,000 years

Alan Pickup
The Scotsman

IT IS almost 60,000 years since Mars was as bright and close to the Earth as it gets this month. It shines at magnitude -2.4 and stands 62 million km away when it rises in the east-south-east during the evening twilight on the 1st. By the 27th, though, the Red Planet is 55,670,000 km distant and blazes at magnitude -2.9, more than three times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star. [...]

Comment: Sky maps are included in the above article.

New Volcano Portland

Move over, Mount St. Helens. There's a new volcano in town.

The Oregon Geographic Names Board has formally renamed the massive volcano that sprawls across 630 square miles of Central Oregon.

Newberry Crater is now to be known on maps and in conversation as Newberry Volcano. [...]

And geologists say Newberry is not extinct. Evidence indicates that magma lies about two or three miles beneath Newberry Crater, and scientists say the next eruption probably will be in the caldera. [...]

GIANT CRATER FOUND UNDERSEA

By Irene Brown, Discovery News

[...]A quest for oil in the North Sea has turned up an ancient impact crater so well preserved that it could give scientists fresh insight into the effects of large meteorite impacts on Earth. The 12-mile wide crater is buried under 120 feet of water and more than 900 feet of sediment, which has helped preserve features that on Earth's surface would have been eroded away. [...]

"540A.D."

The Science Show
Radio National

[...] Mike Baillie: Well what really made this event take off was when it became obvious from chronologies built by colleagues in Germany, Finland, North America that we were able to see the same event, a growth downturn in trees all the way from Siberia across Scandinavia, across Northern Europe, across North America down into South America, it became obvious that this was a global event and that the confines of it are between 536 and 545AD it’s centred on 540.

Robyn Williams: Do you know what happened then?

Mike Baillie: I wish I did. There are two basic schools of thought that all of these events were initially thought to be the results of volcanic dust fields, big volcanoes loading the atmosphere with dust and acid causing an environmental effects, basically cooling on the earth’s surface. The problem with that is that there in fact there is no categorically good evidence for a volcano in the vicinity of 540 and certainly not a very big effective volcano. This event stands out as being the worst environmental event as far as the trees are concerned in the last 1500, possibly in the last 3000 years. And just any old volcano won’t do. This would have to be almost a super volcano and there just isn’t any evidence for a super volcano or a really massive eruption around that time, and that caused me to then look at the next most likely possibility, which is something to do with bombardment from space. You’re loading the atmosphere with dust from outside the earth rather than from inside the earth. [...]

When humans faced extinction

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

"Humans may have come close to extinction about 70,000 years ago, according to the latest genetic research. The study suggests that at one point there may have been only 2,000 individuals alive as our species teetered on the brink." [...]

The 79 AD Eruption of Vesuvius

Vesuvius entered the history of volcanology with the eruption of 79 AD, described by Pliny the Younger. The eruption destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplonti and Stabiae and caused the death of Pliny the Elder among many other people.
Before the eruption of 79, earthquakes occurred for some time, but were disregarded by local inhabitants because of their familiarity with the phenomenon. Seneca reports that an earthquake occurred on 5 February of 62 (according to Tacitus) or 63 AD. [...]

Dio Cassius (150-235 AD) also reports some precursors of the eruption. He tells that for several days before the eruptions there were earthquakes and subterranean rumblings and giants were seen wandering on the earth (giants are a common feature associated with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; Scandone, 1987).

Volcano Monitoring at Yellowstone National Park

Earthquakes Of Yellowstone

[...] The earliest account of Yellowstone's earthquakes was given by Ferdinand Hayden (1872, 1873) based upon his late 19th century, pioneering field expeditions into Yellowstone. Hayden recognized that Yellowstone was the center of a giant volcanic system and remarked on the occurrence of numerous earthquakes that he and his colleagues felt [...]

So persistent were earthquake tremors at Yellowstone Lake that Hayden named this camp "Earthquake Camp", an aptly named site as Yellowstone Lake has persisted as one of the most notable areas of earthquake swarms in the entire Yellowstone region. [...]

Ecuador volcano rumbles to life

From correspondents in Quito
August 22, 2003

ECUADOR'S Tungurahua volcano, in a state of simmering eruption since October 1999, rumbled to life overnight, sending a column of smoke and ash three kilometres high, the Geophysical Institute said.

The development followed reports from the institute on Wednesday that the volcano, in the country's central Andean region, had entered “a new phase or state of activity” signaled by a small sequence of earth tremors and gaseous and ash emissions over an extended period. [...]

Sleeping Giants: Keep One Eye Open

May 20, 2002

[W]hen a volcano grows four inches in four years, there's cause for alarm. Something is happening underground — and that something might just signal the events leading up to an explosive volcanic eruption. [...]

Aftershocks still rumble in Te Anau

August 23, 2003

The New Zealand South Island town of Te Anau continues to be rocked by aftershocks from Friday's big earthquake.

The quake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, was centred 70km west of Te Anau, at a depth of 20km...

The quake was followed by a 6.2 shake at 2.12am, and GNS duty seismologist Warwick Smith told NZPA that aftershocks had been recorded throughout the night. Many of them would have been strong enough for people to feel, he said.

"We've had one event of magnitude 5.0 and about five others above 4.5 throughout the night. This is totally expected, and will continue for a few days. Probably all of those would have been felt in Te Anau, maybe the biggest one as far away as Queenstown."

Tilting at volcanoes

Posted by HVO at 9:50 AM on Aug 22, 2003

Volcano Watch

Last week, Maurice Sako and Kevan Kamibayashi, physical science technicians from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, spent three cold nights high on Mauna Loa's southwest rift zone. Their objective was not to see a bright red Mars or the brilliant trails of Perseids -- although they did see both -- but rather to install two electronic borehole tiltmeters...

As most Hawaii residents are well aware, Mauna Loa began to reawaken in May 2002. The gradual swelling has continued for more than a year. Last week's installation of the two tiltmeters is part of a long-term plan for better monitoring of Mauna Loa, a plan that has been accelerated significantly in the wake of Mauna Loa's stirrings...

Eruptive activity at the Pu'u 'O'o vent of Kilauea Volcano continued unabated during the past week...

Two earthquakes were felt in the Kapoho-'Opihikao area on the evening of August 18.

British Scientist Puts Odds for Apocalypse at 50-50

Mon Jun 9,
By Deena Beasley

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This is the way the world might end: A genetically engineered pathogen is released, debris from an erupting "supervolcano" blocks the sun or scientists in the biggest "bioerror" of them all accidentally trigger a matter-squeezing "big bang."

The demise of civilization has been predicted since it began, but the odds of keeping Planet Earth alive and well are getting worse amid a breakneck pace of scientific advances, according to Martin Rees, Britain's honorary astronomer royal.

Rees calculates that the odds of an apocalyptic disaster striking Earth have risen to about 50 percent from 20 percent a hundred years ago.

The 60-year-old scientist, author of the recently published "Our Final Hour," says science is advancing in a far more unpredictable and potentially dangerous pattern than ever before.

He lists as mankind's biggest threats: nuclear terrorism, deadly engineered viruses, rogue machines and genetic engineering that could alter human character. All of those could result from innocent error or the action of a single malevolent individual.

BIOTECHNOLOGY COULD CHANGE HUMAN NATURE

"For the first time ever, human nature itself isn't fixed. Biotech drugs and genetic engineering are empowering individuals more than ever before," Rees said.

With rapidly advancing DNA technology, "even a single person could cause a disaster," Rees warned, noting that the United States, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and anthrax scare, is well aware of this threat.

Thousands of people have the ability to engineer viruses and bacteria to cause deadly plagues. Even if one such "weirdo" didn't kill many people, that type of biological terrorism would profoundly change daily life, the scientist warned.

Nanotechnology -- the subject of a recent Michael Crichton thriller about the havoc caused by runaway microscopic machines -- are also a potent threat, he said.

If the field advances far enough, rogue self-replicating nanotechnology machines -- feeding on organic material and spreading like pollen -- could devastate a continent within a few days, Rees said.

The dangers of global warming (news - web sites) are also addressed in the book, subtitled "A scientist's warning: How terror, error, and environmental disaster threaten humankind's future in this century -- on Earth and beyond."

Rees does not discount the possibility of disaster caused by scientific experiments involving particle accelerators. "Perhaps a back hole could form, and then suck in everything around it," he cautions.

So what's to be done? The British scientist calls for better regulation and inspection of sensitive data and experiments. "We need to keep track of those who have potentially lethal knowledge," Rees said.

Volcanic hot zone seethes five km beneath Arctic ice

Margaret Munro
CanWest News Service
Thursday, June 26, 2003

Scientists have discovered a remarkable hot zone beneath the Arctic ice, where the Earth's thick, rocky crust has come apart at the seams and lava and scalding water spew out of volcanoes and hot vents.

An international research team spent two months dangling probes and dredging gear off icebreakers in the high Arctic to get a close look at the "spreading" ridge. It stretches 1,800 kilometres along the seafloor from Greenland to Siberia, most of it in international waters.

The scientists retrieved tonnes of rock, including chunks of "black smokers" created as hot, mineral-rich water gushed out of the seafloor, lava tubes from volcanoes and rare samples of rock from deep inside the Earth.

The researchers describe the scientific treasure fished from the deep in the journal Nature today.

They have also produced the most detailed map yet of the zone, called the Gakkel Ridge.

The ridge is about five kilometres beneath the Arctic ice and is the most remote and deepest spreading ridge on the planet.

Such ridges, which are also found in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, form when hot rock from inside the Earth wells up between the 100-kilometre-thick crustal plates that cover the planet.

"The Earth is pulled apart at these ridges and material from the interior comes up," says Prof. Peter Michael of the University of Tulsa, one of the expedition's chief scientists.

The Gakkel Ridge has proved unexpectedly active. At least 20 volcanoes rise out of the ridge, and one erupted as recently as July 1998, Michael says. The largest rises about two kilometres off the sea floor...

Michael says the Arctic vents are so isolated they likely harbour life that is different from the tube worms, clams and other creatures that inhabit other deep-sea vents.

But Michael, a geoscientist, is most intrigued by the exposed mantle rock they discovered. Mantle is "white-hot" rock that rises from as deep as 2,900 kilometres inside the Earth. Normally, mantel rock is covered by magma and crustal rock, but on the Gakkel Ridge it is exposed in a canyon about 100 kilometres long and two kilometres wide...

Comment:

Feb 27, 1997

Q: (T) Is the Earth expanding? That's just putting it bluntly, but, is the Earth expanding, how did you put that? (Ark) Yes, that's the theory: the idea is that the continents move away because the Earth
is expanding, and this is much faster than you know, than geologists were thinking.

A: Continental "drift" is caused by the continual though variable, propelling of gases from the interior to the surface, mainly at points of magnetic significance.

Q: (J) What causes the change in the axis?

A: By slow down of rotation. Earth alternately heats up and cools down in interior

Dome of Montserrat volcano collapses

Monday, July 14, 2003 Posted: 1030 GMT
OLVESTON, Montserrat (AP)

Explosions rocked Montserrat's volcano on Sunday, spewing thick clouds of ash into the air after heavy rainfall caused part of the volcano's dome to collapse.

Tree branches were snapped off from the weight of the ash and significant damage was done to surrounding vegetation, said Richard Herd, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory on the British Caribbean island.

"There's no one in the area right now but as a precaution we're asking people in surrounding areas to stay indoors. There's still a chance of more explosions and rock fall," said Herd.

Part of the volcano's dome that faces the Tar River Valley collapsed late Saturday, sending a torrent of mud and ash down the valley and pelting distant houses and buildings with a hail of rocks. In October, 300 residents who live near the valley were evacuated after scientists warned the volcano's dome had shifted its growth toward the north.

The Soufriere Hills volcano sprang to life in 1995, chasing away more than half the island's population. An eruption in 1997 buried much of the south, including the capital, Plymouth, and killed 19 people.

Today, the peak still casts a reddish-orange glow at night. Scientists monitor it and report any changes to the island's 4,500 residents, who live in northern areas declared safe.

Once a bustling island where sheep and cattle roamed the hills and chartered yachts pulled in weekly on tourist runs, Montserrat's economy has been hard hit by losses in tourism and farmland in the south, which is now uninhabitable under mountains of volcanic, gray ash.

Comment:

August 22, 1997

Q: Okay. Now, we are onto the subject of our friendly local volcano down on Montserrat. What is it up to?
A: Seismic swarms... Much fear and concern by officials; muted...
Q: Can you give us an idea about what this volcano is going to do? What are the percentages in favor of a cataclysmic eruption in the near future?
A: Look to geologic map patterning for answer.
Q: What in particular should we be looking for?
A: Sequences, locators, historical telltale hints and signs. The signs always point the way for those who bother to read.
Q: Is there something about sequences of locators? Is it like a moving series in a general direction or pattern?
A: Yes.
Q: What general way does the sequence move? East to West? What?
A: Reverberatory.
Q: So, if something occurs in one place...
A: Like the wavelets in a small pool of water.
Q: Well, where does the stone drop?
A: Look to 18 degrees North and South.
Q: What, in specific, is at 18 degrees, that we need to see?
A: Magnetic colliders that balance.
Q: What do they balance? Magnetic fields of the earth?
A: Close.
Q: Would there be specific points along this 18 degree line, and if so, how many lines of longitude apart would they be?
A: Think of a parallelogram.
Q: What is this parallelogram going to tell us?
A: Cosmic "puncture points."
Q: You mean like cosmic windows?
A: Closer.
Q: And these parallelograms are located along the 18 degree lines of latitude.
A: Yes.
Q: And these parallelogram windows do they straddle this line, or are they above or below it?
A: Near, as measured on the surface.
Q: Where do they originate from? Within the globe, or externally?
A: Both, as in positive/negative charge.
Q: What is within the globe, the positive or negative?
A: Think of static electricity to "ground" your answer.
Q: How many of these parallelograms are there along this 18 degree line of latitude?
A: Four shooting energy bars.
Q: Where are they shooting energy to, space?
A: And back.

The Volcano That May Destroy Mankind

By  Zaynab El-Fatah

Approaching Lake Toba in North Sumatra, one could be forgiven for thinking that the beauty of the lake was heavenly, without thinking of how it was formed. [...]

In Britain, a scientist has predicted that another volcanic super- eruption the size of Toba could pose twice as much of a threat to civilization as a collision with an asteroid or a comet. [...]

White Island Volcano (New Zealand)

Sunday 10th August 2003

Over the last few months a substantial lake has formed in the active crater at White Island. This is the largest lake to have formed within this crater and has recently drowned the active vents. As a consequence future eruptions will occur through the crater lake and, if ejected by eruptions, moderate volumes of water could flood down the Main Crater floor towards the sea.

This is a significant change in the nature of volcanic hazards on the island. The current lake volume is large enough that it will influence the next phase of eruptive activity from the volcano and result in a new hazard to people visiting the island.

Comment: Interesting, considering all the recent earthquakes and aftereshocks that have occured in New Zealand recently.

Yellowstone Volcano (USA)

Saturday 9th August 2003

Scientists plan to set up a temporary network of seismographs, Global Positioning System receivers and thermometers to monitor increasing hydrothermal activity in the Norris Geyser Basin and gauge the risk of a hydrothermal explosion...

A Dream Of a Mountain, A Nightmare Of a Volcano

Mount Rainier Called 'Monumental Threat'

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 11, 2003

[...]"A monumental threat," said William E. Scott, scientist in charge of the Cascades Volcano Observatory, a USGS center that monitors volcanoes from California to Alaska.

Volcanologists determined in the late 1990s that the mountain is far more unstable than previously thought, and they have since persuaded local emergency management officials to launch an early-warning system and a major public-awareness campaign. Tens of thousands of people are being told to "enjoy the volcano in your back yard" but to be prepared to run away from it -- fast. [...]

Beneath its dreamy mantel of snow, Mount Rainier is an active volcano, and it is rotting from the inside out, especially on its western flank, which drains toward population centers. The volcano has a long, spotty history of spontaneous collapse and massive mudflows called lahars. [...]

No volcano in the lower 48 states packs so much risk so close to so many people, Scott said [...]

Comment:

July 4, 1998

Q: (L) Okay, you just said we are going to have a reversal in our weather. Are there any other conditions that we should be aware of at the present time?

A: Point is to watch, look, listen. [...] How about a shattering subductionquake in Pacific Northwest of U.S.? We estimate 10.4 on the Richter scale. We have warned of Rainier. Imagine a 150 meter high tsunami in Puget Sound...

Q: (L) Anything else other than a tsunami in Puget Sound and a big subduction quake... 10.4 on the Richter scale is almost inconceivable.

A: Rainier... caldera.

Q: (L) What about the caldera?

A: Expect one.

Q: (L) Other than floods, anything else for Florida upcoming?
A: All areas experience accelerating "freak weather patterns."

Q: (L) Okay, all of these freaky weather patterns and bizarre things going on the planet, how does it relate to the comet cluster and the brown star? Is it related?

A: Human experiential cycle intersects.

Q: (L) Any specific physical manifestation of either this brown star or this comet cluster or this realm border, that is related to these events on the planet?

A: Approach of wave stimulates precursor activity which in turn causes effects which in turn stimulates further "heating up" of activity...

Yellowstone thermal activity increases

Monday, August 11, 2003 (AP)

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (USA) -- Scientists plan to set up a temporary network of seismographs, Global Positioning System receivers and thermometers to monitor increasing hydrothermal activity in the Norris Geyser Basin and gauge the risk of a hydrothermal explosion. [...]

Woman recalls horror of historic earthquake

By JOAN HAINES
Bozeman Daily Chronicle

[...] Between 1920 and 1960, Montana experienced a hefty earthquake every 10 years, but the state hasn't had a temblor that measured 6 or higher on the Richter scale for 44 years. Some geologists believe the state is due for a big one. But in this modern era, when scientists can predict the coming of most major disasters, they don't have a handle on this one. [...]

TEMPORARY HYDROTHERMAL MONITORING PROGRAM
TO BEGIN AT NORRIS GEYSER BASIN

In response to notably increased heat and steam emissions in parts of Norris Geyser Basin, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory will deploy a temporary network of seismographs, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, and temperature loggers. The temporal deployment is intended to document chemical and physical signals that accompany this increased activity, to identify the underground locations of hydrothermal steam sources and the relationship of the Norris geyser basin to the background general seismicity, and crustal deformation of the Yellowstone caldera. It may also detect any precursory signals to geyser eruptions and hydrothermal explosions.

The GPS equipment is designed to detect very small movements of the earth, and the seismic array can measure earthquakes associated with flow of thermal water and earthquakes located on buried faults. Seven seismometers that record a wide range of seismic frequencies typical of hydrothermal and volcanic systems, called broadbands, will be placed throughout the Norris Geyser Basin, five of them within and around the hydrothermal disturbed area itself. These "broadband" seismometers are especially sensitive to the long-wavelength ground vibrations that occur as water and gas move through underground cracks as well as deeper volcanic sources.

The seismic array will be complimented by high precision GPS receivers that precisely measure the coordinates of points on the ground from data transmitted by an array of satellites that can be compared with each other to measure the relative ground velocities through time. These data compliment Yellowstone's permanent GPS network.

Movements of the ground associated with underground pulses of water and steam (including geyser eruptions) may be detected by this new technology. Thermometers placed in hot springs and creeks will continuously document the flow of water out of the geyser basin. The scientists hope to link individual pulses of water, changes in their chemistry and temperatures to pressures in the earth. This information may provide information on ground motions and seismic signals that precede them.

The Norris Back Basin has been closed since July 23, 2003, after formation of new mud pots, changes in geyser activity, and significantly increased ground temperatures (up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas near the Back Basin trail. Additional observations include vegetation dying due to thermal activity and the changing of several geysers' eruption intervals. The heightened rate of steam discharge has continued to the present time.

Ecuador volcano rumbles to life

From correspondents in Quito
22aug03

ECUADOR'S Tungurahua volcano, in a state of simmering eruption since October 1999, rumbled to life overnight, sending a column of smoke and ash three kilometres high, the Geophysical Institute said.[...]

April 18, 2002 - Dormant Volcanoes waking up!

October 24, 2002

More on Earthquake Swarms from a reader: super-swarm" of earthquakes offshore Tokyo that struck in the summer of 2000. In the super-swarm of earthquakes the authors studied, a staccato-like burst of 7,000 magnitude-3 or larger shocks occurred over 2 months about 100 miles south of Tokyo, underneath the Pacific Ocean. There were 45 magnitude-5 shocks and 5 magnitude-6 shocks.

The energy released by this swarm was almost ten times greater than the 1980-81 Long Valley, Calif., swarm.

Swarms are most common in volcanic areas, such as in Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, Yellowstone, and parts of northern and southern California. However, such swarms also may occur on tectonic faults, including California's famed San Andreas. Why swarms occur has always been a mystery.

The results of their investigation enabled the researchers to infer, with highly accurate data, that the Izu swarm was caused by a blade- like injection of molten rock into the earth's crust over a distance of about 10 miles long and 10 miles deep. Although the magma did not reach the earth's surface, the blade -- or dike -- was forced open by the magma pressure a massive 65 feet. In comparison, the amount of magma injected beneath Long Valley caldera in 1980-81 was one-tenth this amount, Stein noted.

The Izu islands, said Stein, moved 3 feet apart as molten rock was forced into a vertical conduit beneath Miyake volcano. Then the magma burst a wall of the conduit like a ruptured artery, and magma was injected into the crust in a thin, blade-like shape, extending 10 miles to the northwest in one week.

Unlike a 'standard' earthquake, in seismic swarms, the seismic clock is rolling along at a thousand times its normal rate, triggering earthquakes as far away as 25 miles from the dike," Stein said. "The distribution of earthquakes in a swarm is related to the stress of the dike opening and forced expansion by magma." More information here

November 5, 2002

The Yellowstone supervolcano has erupted regularly over the past 2 million years at intervals of about 600,000 years. The last time was about 640,000 years ago, making another eruption "imminent" in geological time. - Geologists warn of the threat posed by a supervolcanic eruption that could devastate the global climate, disrupt agriculture and cause severe food shortages. -

Bill McGuire, professor of geohazards at University College London, said many supervolcanoes are not typical hill-shaped structures but huge, collapsed craters called calderas that are filled with hot magma and are harder to detect. One potentially dangerous supervolcano exists under Yellowstone National Park in the United States and was only detected in the Sixties when infra-red satellite photographs revealed a magma-filled caldera 70km long and 30km wide.

One of the biggest supervolcano eruptions, 74,000 years ago, was at Toba in Sumatra, may have pushed man to the brink of extinction. Toba, which is estimated to have been a maximum eight-point explosion, caused a volcanic winter lasting several years and reduced the population to a few thousand, resulting in a genetic "bottleneck" that can be observed in our genes today. - "There's nowhere to hide from the effects of a supervolcano. When one goes off it will be like a nuclear winter without the radiation," Professor McGuire said.

Supervolcano Questions - Examples of volcanoes that produced exceedingly voluminous pyroclastic eruptions and formed large calderas in the past 2 million years would include Yellowstone, Long Valley in eastern California, Toba in Indonesia, and Taupo in New Zealand. Other "supervolcanoes" would likely include the large caldera volcanoes of Japan, Indonesia, Alaska (e.g. Aniakchak, Emmons, Fisher), and other areas.

Three extremely large explosive eruptions have occurred at Yellowstone in the past 2.1 million years with a recurrence interval of about 600,000 to 800,000 years. More frequent eruptions of basalt and rhyolite lava flows have occurred before and after the large caldera-forming events. For example, scientists have identified about 30 different rhyolite lava flows that erupted after the most recent caldera eruptions, about 640,000 years ago, from vents inside the caldera. The most recent was about 70,000 years ago. Many of these eruptions were separated in time by several ten's of thousands of years. Because the evidence of earlier eruptions may have been either buried or destroyed, we do not really know how often the volcano has actually erupted.

The volcanic system in Yellowstone National Park is displaying the same general types of restless activity today as it has since volcanic activity was first analyzed more than 50 years ago. Current behavior includes extensive seismicity, periods of uplift and subsidence of the caldera related to the movements of hydrothermal fluids that are produced and maintained by deeper magma beneath the Park, and intermittent changes to hydrothermal features at the surface.

Alaska Quake Triggers Yellowstone Jolts - By 8:30 a.m. MST Monday Nov. 4 – about 17 hours after the Alaskan quake – more than 200 small earthquakes had been detected occurring in clusters throughout the Yellowstone area. The quakes were recorded by the Yellowstone seismic network operated by the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. - There also are preliminary reports the Alaska quake may have triggered smaller tremors at The Geysers geothermal area in northern California.

The apparent triggering of the Yellowstone tremors by the Alaska quake “confirms what we are beginning to see worldwide – that earthquakes can be triggered by other earthquakes at great distances, more so than we had thought before,” said Robert. B. Smith, a University of Utah professor of geology and geophysics and coordinating scientist for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Clusters of small earthquakes in time and space are common in Yellowstone. However, the clusters of Yellowstone earthquakes following the Alaskan mainshock extended across much of the park and were not concentrated in a single location.

Comment: As it happens, the time given above for the supervolcano eruption at Toba is right in the ballpark of the time the C's have said that the planet that used to be between Mars and Jupiter exploded and many of the inhabitants fled to colonize earth. Perhaps the genetic anomaly from that time is related? And perhaps that eruption - and other periodic eruptions - are related to the approach of "visitors" in our solar system? And I don't mean aliens either.

Q: (L) Does this cluster of comets orbit around the Sun?
A: Yes. Your government already knows they're coming close again. [...]
Q: (A) I understand that the main disaster is going to come from this comet cluster...
A: Disasters involve cycles in the human experiential cycle which corresponds to the passage of comet cluster.
Q: (A) I understant that this comet cluster is cyclic and comes every 3600 years. I want to know something about the shape of this comet cluster. I can hardly imagine...
A: Shape is variable. Effect depends on closeness of passage.
Q: (A) We were asking at some point where it will be coming from. The answer was that we were supposed to look at a spirograph. ...Now, spirograph suggests that these comets will not come from one direction, but from many directions at once. Is this correct?
A: Very good!!!
Q: (A) Okay, they will come from many directions...
A: But, initial visibility presents as single, solid body.
Q: (A) Do we know what is the distance to this body at present?
A: Suggest you keep your eyes open! ...Did you catch the significance of the answer regarding time table of cluster and brown star? Human cycle mirrors cycle of catastrophe. Earth benefits in form of periodic cleansing. Time to start paying attention to the signs. They are escalating. They can even be "felt" by you and others, if you pay attention. [...] Point is to watch, look, listen.
Q: (A) When you watch, look and listen, you are getting some signals, and these signals cause a certain pattern of thinking which was not yet able to emerge. But after you receive certain signals, you start to think in a different way. So, you cannot now think in a different way, but when you learn that this and this has happened, then you start to think in a different pattern. So, you cannot now DO things, but you always have to be ready to change your thinking at any moment when you understand more, when you see more, when you notice more, when you put things together which are not yet together. Then, there may be a big change of perspective, a total change. And this we have to keep our minds and thinking patterns open and ready to change, and work and put the puzzle and mosaic together. And, this is all that counts. It is this work that we are now doing that counts. It is only doing our best, and what is it? Our best? It will change. I believe so. That is the idea. So, everything depends on this.
A: Yes. You see, my dear, you cannot anticipate that which is not anticipatable. [...] We are glad you noticed this birth of the spike. [...] 27 days of record heat out of 30, oh my oh my! Suggest you awaken your internet pals, as they are too busy chasing "goblins" to notice. [...] In Florida now, where to next? How about a shattering subduction quake in Pacific Northwest of U.S.? We estimate 10.4 on the Richter scale. We have warned of Rainier. Imagine a 150 meter high tsunami in Puget Sound... Rainier... caldera... Expect one. ... All areas experience accelerating "freak weather patterns."
Q: (L) Okay, all of these freaky weather patterns and bizarre things going on on the planet, how does it relate to the comet cluster and the brown star? Is it related?
A: Human experiential cycle intersects. ... Approach of wave stimulates precursor activity which in turn causes effects which in turn stimulates further "heating up" of activity... "El Nino, La Nina," etc... Global warming, a part of the human experiential cycle. ... You may do as you wish, just keep one eye and one ear tuned to current events. And, very important, log dreams. Arkadiusz too!
Q: (L) Is there going to be some communication to us through our dreams?
A: Visions.

For Earthquake Data at Mount Rainier -

Earthquake Maps of Mount Rainier

How Asteroids Trigger Volcanos - Large asteroid impacts have nasty side effects, as any dinosaur could have told you were she not obliterated by one of these calamity combos 65 million years ago. The ground shakes. Fire arcs across the sky and beyond the horizon. Clouds of debris race around the planet and blot the Sun out for months. At least that's what theory tells us. Since the scenario has never played out in modern times, scientists don't really know exactly what will happen when the next space rock slams into Earth. One long-supposed incendiary side-effect is enhanced volcanic activity, which can make life pretty miserable for survivors who find themselves on or near the flanks of a newborn plume of molten rock. Some scientists suspect the Hawaiian Islands were born of an asteroid impact. [...]

Dallas Abbott of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Institute and Ann Isley from the State University of New York at Oswego examined existing impact data going back 4 billion years. They found 10 major peaks in activity -- stretches of time when asteroids and comets hit the planet in relative flurries. During nine of the 10 peaks, volcanic activity also peaked, as measured by evidence of magma from deep inside Earth, in the mantle, flowing to the surface. Further, two prominent lulls in impact activity also matched up with periods of decreased volcanism. The volcanic activity is most likely a tertiary effect, Abbott and Isley figure, resulting from the massive earthquakes triggered by the impact. Other studies have shown that the shaking would reverberate through the planet and even cause serious surface earthquakes on the other side of the globe, at a point called the antipode. "Large impacts generate large earthquakes," Abbott explains. "These earthquakes can trigger volcanic eruptions. If the earthquake is large enough it could do more, it could make the eruption more intense by allowing more magma to escape."

September 5, 2002

Michael Mandeville Reports: Based on new scientific principles which have emerged during the past thirty years, many of the dynamic activities of the Sun and Earth can be linked together to see how a range of effects are linked together. This makes it possible to paint "the big picture" into a perspective which explains many diverse events and processes, especially climate and weather patterns such as global warming and El Nino. From the "big picture", long range predictions can be made for weeks and even months ahead.

All of the important news continues to be in the current peak of Sunspot Cycle No. 23 as it drives Earth’s weather and climate patterns into 100 year plus record extremes. A steep wavefront has driven sunspot numbers up to 260 today, from a low of ~85 on ~August 28th. The numbers are likely to continue rising but the graph curve suggests they may not rise quite as high as the last peak (~310) on ~August 18th.

With the upsurge in sunspots, the velocity of the solar wind increased from 350 km/s to 450 within the last 24 hours and this is loading the Earth’s atmosphere with massive new quantities of energy to drive global patterns into another round of extremes. Last night most of the high Northern latitudes saw massive green aurora’s and there will no doubt be plenty of energy for bright aurora’s during the next two or three nights, possibly for another week.

All conditions will worsen this month. - Earth’s atmosphere appears to take about two to three weeks to fully express the impacts of a sudden new input of energy from the Sun. The second wave of sunspot numbers, which peaked on August 18th, is just now beginning to produce another round of increased rains and storms in the Northern tier of Canada, Europe, and China. This extreme wet pattern should continue to develop during the next week and new flood surges probably will be experienced in these latitudes, quite possibly on top of the areas which have already been flooded during recent weeks. [...] These effects should be spent by about the middle of September but they will be followed by another impulse of wet weather commencing about the third week of September. [...]

During the last week the most interesting seismic activity was a cluster of four large earthquakes about 210 miles (340 km) WNW of Coos Bay, Oregon at about 10 km in depth (about 6 miles). Ranging in size from about 4.0 mag up to 5.7, these quakes are at the edge of a tectonic plate fragment which is wedged between the Pacific Tectonic Plate and the North American Tectonic Plate. These quakes may be associated with underwater rifting and underwater volcanism.

Quake activity around the world was widely distributed but the overwhelming majority of quakes 3.0 mag plus were in the South Seas, from Fiji and New Zealand through to Papua New Guinea. On Papua there has been a major upsurge of volcanic activity, focused especially on Pago which has been eruptive for the past three weeks.

The Southwest Volcano Centre reports 35 volcanoes on the alert status list, 5 volcanoes on the restless list, and 21 on the active eruption list. All activity appears to have become more muted after having peaked in intensity during last week and the prior one.

Reports of severe crop failures worldwide are mounting.

September’s and October’s huge influx of ionic energization will once again increase emotional over-reactions and intellectual incoherence, esp. on the subject of violence, war, invasions, guilt, blame, revenge, and so on. JUST SAY NO. DARE TO JUST SAY NO TO ALL EMOTIONAL APPEALS, ESPECIALLY TO FEAR OR DESIRE FOR REVENGE. SAY NO TO ALL OF THE DRUM BEATS OF WAR. Demand that all things be logical and consistent. Clarity is sanity.

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