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© Valleyconservation.orgMolehill viewed from Oldtown in Harrisonburg
How Mole Hill in Virginia became a mountain is an old story, but not as old as some geologists think. The reason for that has to do with volcanoes - and may help explain why the U.S. East Coast, so long removed from geologic upheaval compared with the West, still suffers from relatively powerful earthquakes like the one that shook Mineral, Va., and much of the East Coast, in 2011.
Five years ago or so, newly minted professor of geology Elizabeth Johnson needed something for her undergraduate students at James Madison University to study on field trips. Locals suggested the unusual geology of Mole Hill, just a few kilometers from campus, where one could find black obsidian (a superhard rock glass formed when magma cools quickly) or rocks that when cracked open looked as pure white as newfallen snow thanks to the carbonate minerals inside.
When Johnson and her students started to poke around through the dense vegetation swathing Mole Hill, the very texture of the volcanic rock appeared unusual. The igneous rock was fine-grained with small crystals of various kinds, except every once in a while where a relative giant crystal - 1 centimeter or more across - intruded. Intrigued, Johnson studied up on the local geology, finding that this is not the first time these interesting igneous rocks had been spotted. As far back as 1899, such obsidian and minerals had been reported in this area. Most other geologists simply assumed they were much older.
© GettyA woman carries her daughter as Mount Sinabung spews pyroclastic smoke in Karo District, North Sumatra, Indonesia.on Jan. 4, 2014.
The worst-case scenario would be applied if the evacuation zone reaches between 7.5 kilometres and 10km from the crater. Currently, the evacuation zone is still between 5 and 7km on the southeast slope of the volcano.
"No activity is allowed on this side of the volcano. It has to be free of any activity," BNPB spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
He said this particular part of the volcano was particularly vulnerable to disaster as it was the lane for the volcano's pyroclastic flows.
He added that there were already 60 pyroclastic flows running from the crater of Mt. Sinabung, stretching to a distance of between 2 and 5 km down the slope of the volcano. He also said that the volume of the pyroclastic flows was increasing every day.
© The Independent, UKScientists have analysed the molten rock within the dormant supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park and found that eruption is possible without any external trigger
An analysis of the molten rock within the dormant supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in the United States has revealed that an eruption is possible without any external trigger, scientists said.
Scientists previously believed many supervolcanic eruptions needed earthquakes to break open the Earth's crust so magma could escape. But new research suggests that this can happen as a result of the build-up of pressure.
Supervolcanoes represent the second most globally cataclysmic event - next to an asteroid strike - and they have been responsible in the past for mass extinctions, long-term changes to the climate and shorter-term "volcanic winters" caused by volcanic ash cutting out the sunlight.
The last known supervolcanic eruption was believed to have occurred about 70,000 years ago at the site today of Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia. It caused a volcanic winter that blocked out the sun for between six to eight years, and resulted in a period of global cooling lasting a thousand years.
A supervolcano under Yellowstone Park in Wyoming last erupted about 600,000 years ago, sending more than 1,000 cubic kilometres of ash and lava into the atmosphere - about 100 times more than the Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines in 1982, which caused a noticeable period of global cooling.
Thousands of residents have been forced to leave their homes after Mount Sinabung erupted
The volcano had been dormant for over four centuries before erupting in 2010 and then again in September
The crater erupted more than 50 times on Saturday night and forced remaining residents to scramble from homes
Panicked residents of a mountainside village in western Indonesia were forced to scramble from their homes when a nearby volcano erupted late on Saturday night.
Women and children were packed into vans and driven away from Mount Sinabung as it spurted gas and lava just after midnight in Northern Sumatra province.
Natural disaster authorities said more than 50 eruptions occurred, with rocks and debris landing three miles away from the mountain, though no casualties have been reported.
The volcano was still spitting gas and lava as high as 13,00 feet this morning.
The volcano had been dormant for over four centuries before erupting in 2010 and then again in September
The crater erupted more than 50 times on Saturday night and forced remaining residents to scramble from homes
Thousands of panicked villagers have been forced to flee their homes after Mount Sinabung erupted more than 50 times in a single night
Women and children were packed into vans and driven away from Mount Sinabung as it spurted gas and lava just after midnight in Northern Sumatra province.
Natural disaster authorities said more than 50 eruptions occurred, with rocks and debris landing three miles away from the mountain, though no casualties have been reported.
The volcano was still spitting gas and lava as high as 13,00 feet this morning.
© AP/Carmelo Imbesi
The crater spewed out smoke and dust as lava poured from the top of the most active volcano in Europe.
© The Indepentdent, UKEl Salvador issues yellow alert as evacuation begins in San Miguel.
The government has issued a yellow alert and is expected to evacuate families within 3 kilometers (approximately 2 miles) of the volcano to emergency shelters.
More than 5,000 people live near the volcano according to civil protection officials.
Civil defence director Jorge Melendez said: "We have implemented emergency measures to evacuate villages located within 3 kilometres of the volcano."
There were no immediate reports of serious injuries, although two people are being treated for respiratory problems.
© Unknown
After the announcement, one of the largest temblors ever recorded at the volcanic island, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake, struck offshore of El Hierro at 12:46 p.m. ET (5:46 p.m. local time) today, the National Geographic Institute reported. Residents on the island reported strong shaking, and the quake was felt throughout the Canary Islands, according to news reports. The earthquake's epicenter was 9 miles (15 kilometers) deep.
Before the earthquake struck early this afternoon, the island's volcano monitoring agency, Pelvolca, had raised the volcanic eruption risk for El Hierro to "yellow." This warning means that activity is increasing at the volcano, but no eruption is imminent. A similar burst of activity prompted a yellow warning in June 2012, but the volcano soon quieted down.
© NASA Earth ObservatoryEl Hierro island.
After the announcement, one of the largest temblors ever recorded at the volcanic island, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake, struck offshore of El Hierro at 12:46 p.m. ET (5:46 p.m. local time) today, the National Geographic Institute reported. Residents on the island reported strong shaking, and the quake was felt throughout the Canary Islands, according to news reports. The earthquake's epicenter was 9 miles (15 kilometers) deep.
Before the earthquake struck early this afternoon, the island's volcano monitoring agency, Pelvolca, had raised the volcanic eruption risk for El Hierro to "yellow." This warning means that activity is increasing at the volcano, but no eruption is imminent. A similar burst of activity prompted a yellow warning in June 2012, but the volcano soon quieted down.
© Mark Ralston, AFP/GETTY IMAGESThe 'Grand Prismatic' hot spring in the Yellowstone National Park, home of a massive underground supervolcano.
"We found it to be about two-and-a-half times larger than we thought," said analysis team scientist James Farrell of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "That's not to say it's getting any bigger. It's just that our ability to see it is getting better."
The size finding, presented at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco last Thursday, has big implications for the extent of the volcano's impact when it next erupts.
The supervolcano underneath the national park last erupted on a massive scale some 640,000 years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It is a potential supervolcano, capable of spewing more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic kilometers) of magma across Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with global climate effects.
"We believe it will erupt again someday, but we have no idea when," Farrell said.
Comment: Video of the 2011 underwater volcanic eruption courtesy of ITN: