Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

Supervolcanoes found in Maine? (Yes, Maine)

Maine has supervolcanoes. Wait, Maine has volcanoes? Yes, and their eruptions could have been among the biggest ever on Earth, geoscientist Sheila Seaman reported here Tuesday (Oct. 29) at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting.

"Long before there were these things called supervolcanoes, we've known about giant, big, horrific silicic volcanic eruptions," said Seaman, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The most massive of these blasts in recent history was Toba, which blew up an island in Indonesia 2.5 million years ago. The explosion heaved 700 cubic miles (2,800 cubic kilometers) of magma out of the Earth's crust.Around 420 million years ago, a series of super-eruptions dropped thick piles of ash and lava fragments along the proto-East Coast. There are at least four volcanoes spread out along 100 miles (160 km) of Maine's coast, Seaman said.
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© Edwin ChaseMount Desert Island in Maine's Acadia National Park as seen from across the Mount Desert Narrows.
The huge volcanic rock piles are consistent with caldera-forming eruptions, Seaman said. These explosions empty a magma chamber, leaving a gaping wound in the Earth - think Yellowstone National Park, or the San Juan volcanic field in Colorado.

Since they formed, the ancient volcanic layers have been tilted up by tectonic forces, providing a top-to-bottom slice through a supervolcano. For example, Isle au Haut, part of Acadia National Park, exposes the heart of a volcano. "The whole magma chamber is lying on its side," Seaman said.

Bizarro Earth

Zhupanovsky volcano erupts in Russia - last erupted in 1959


A new eruption started this week at the Zhupanovsky volcano, about 70 km northeast of the capital of Kamchatka, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which last erupted in 1959. It is a complex volcano composed of several overlapping cones aligned on a roughly east-west oriented axis. The new eruption comes from the same vent that has been also the site of all known historical eruptions, located west of the highest point of the volcanic massif.

Attention

Is this the world's oldest warning sign? 9,000-year-old wall painting of volcano tells people of nearby danger

In a play on the old adage 'if walls could talk', a mural has been discovered that could be the world's earliest warning sign.
The 9,000-year-old painting, found on a wall buried in the ancient Turkish settlement of Catalhoyuk, shows a village in front of an erupting volcano. Researchers now believe, through the use of mineral dating and geochemical tests, that the volcano shown in the painting is the nearby Mount Hasan, found 70 miles from the settlement site.

It is thought the mural was painted to warn about the dangers of this stratovolcano, yet it may also have been the first landscape painting or even the first news report.
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A mural, pictured, found on a wall in the Turkish settlement of Catalhoyuk depicts a village in front of a volcano. The painting is thought to be a warning about the danger of nearby stratovolcano Mount Hasan, located 70 miles northeast from where the mural was found

Bizarro Earth

Mount Etna erupts, shuts down Italian airport

Mt.Etna
© NASAAn image of Mt.Etna erupting taken from the International Space Station in 2008.

Europe's most active volcano shot sparks, flames, and ash into Italy's sky Saturday.

Mount Etna erupts relatively frequently, but the volcano has not had a major eruption since 1992. Saturday's eruption sent a wall of ash so high into the air it could be seen through most of eastern Sicily, the Associated Press reported.

The eruption just before dawn forced the Catania airport to shut down the surrounding airspace. The order was lifted only a few hours later.

No evacuations were necessary as a result of the eruption. There were not fatalities reported, a the Wall Street Journal reported.

The volcano has been famous throughout history. The ancient Greeks believed it was the home of Vulcan, the god of fire. When Mt. Etna erupted the Greeks believed it was because Vulcan was creating weapons for the the god of war, Mars, LiveScience reported.

Mount Etna also sent lava hundreds of feet into the air in January of 2011.

Bizarro Earth

Ash explosion at Indonesia's Mount Sinabung

Mount Sinabung
© YouTubeA still from a video showing the ongoing ash eruption at Indonesia's Mount Sinabung.
A powerful ash eruption shot 2 miles (3 kilometers) into the air at Indonesia's Mount Sinabung on Thursday (Oct. 24), according to news reports. There were no injuries or damage, but authorities evacuated 3,300 people living near the volcano as thick ash fell across the region. There are 29 villages within a 4-mile (6 km) radius of Mount Sinabung.

The volcano awoke last month after a three-year sleep, sparking forest fires and jetting ash and volcanic gas. The 8,530-foot-high (2,600 meter) peak is one of 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Mount Sinabung erupted in 2010 after a 400-year period of inactivity. More than 17,500 people were evacuated at the time.

Bizarro Earth

'Volcano-like eruption' on Manipur hill, India see locals flee to safety

A suspected volcano-like eruption has been reported in a remote village of Manipur near the India-Myanmar border which forced locals to evacuate the area, official sources said on Sunday.

According to locals in Tusom village in Ukhrul district of Manipur, a deafening sound was followed by the rolling down of a huge boulder from a nearby hilltop which then released a lava-like liquid that charred trees and plants on the hill slopes.

Although the incident reportedly occurred on October 13, road link between the district headquarters and Tusom was so bad it took the villagers several days to reach the information about the matter to the officials concerned, sources said.

The district headquarters is 120km away from the village. No casualty was, however, reported in the incident. Official reports from the district said mud, water and other discharges were still flowing from the hilltop. Villagers have moved to safer places in the neighbourhood, they added.

Sources said it would take time to assess whether the event was a volcanic eruption or not.

Newspaper

Volcanic activity worldwide, 12 October 2013: Klyuchevskoy, Kamchatka - Soufriere Hills, Montserrat - Jebel Zubair, Red Sea

Klyuchevskoy (Kamchatka): (11 Oct) We posted the following time-lapse video of the eruption this morning (or evening, in Kamchatka time). At 08:30 UTC (17:30 local time), a new vent opened in the saddle between Klyuchevskoy and neighboring Kamen volcano, producing a fountain of lava and ash rising to about 7 km altitude. The KVERT webcam even captured lightning during this eruption:


Comment: The Jebel Zubair volcano also erupted in December 2011, resulting in the formation of a new island.


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Alaska's Veniaminof Volcano erupts- sends traces of ash over 2 Alaskan communities

Veniaminof volcano
© Unknown
A volcano on the Alaska Peninsula has again become active during a months-long eruption, with a trace of ash falling on communities up to 35 miles away. The Alaska Volcano Observatory says in a release that Veniaminof Volcano resumed its 2013 eruption on Saturday after being quiet for about a month. It's been marked by lava flows, fountaining and intermittent but small ash, steam and gas plumes. The plumes usually only travel a few miles from the volcano, but the communities of Chignik Lake and Chignik Lagoon, about 35 miles away, reported trace ash on Friday. The observatory says ash fall from the volcano 480 miles southwest of Anchorage is not considered to be significant. The eruption started in June.

Candle

New Zealand's White Island Volcano erupts: alert level raised

White Island
© Unknown
New Zealand's geological agency GNS Science said on Saturday that it's raised the alert level for White Island after the volcano erupted. The agency said a moderate explosion eruption, lasting about a minute, happened just after 8 p.m. Friday night. GNS Science said the volcanic alert level has been raised from one to two which indicates minor activity. The aviation color code has been upgraded to orange, the second- highest alert level. GNS volcanologist Arthur Jolly said the eruption was about the same size as the previous one in August 2012, Radio New Zealand reported. Jolly said the eruption threw mostly mud, rather than ash, into the air. He said bad weather on Saturday prevented GNS volcanologists from flying over the island to observe the volcano.

Binoculars

Best of the Web: Signs of change in the last week of September 2013

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The events around the world have been unprecedented over the last few weeks. Some of the most dramatic and unbelievable footage I've ever seen from events that took place in the past week or so. Please use these videos for awareness to these ongoing extremes that seem to be getting worse each week. Prepare for disasters in your area! You're no different than others that are already dealing with them and most were not ready...

In just a couple of weeks we saw a devastating typhoon hit Japan and China, a 'one-in-one-thousand-years' flood hit Colorado, record rainfall in Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, Brazil, and India, fireballs turning night into day over Canada and the US, a powerful tornado in Sao Paulo, a 7.7 earthquake in Pakistan that formed a new island in the ocean, followed just 4 days later by 7.2 in the same region, a 7.0 earthquake in Peru, a daytime fireball in Alabama...these are just some of the highlights from the last week of another crazy month on planet Earth!

Thanks for watching here and stay safe!