© NASA
SOTT
SIGNS
OF THE
TIMES
OF THE
TIMES
Welcome to Sott.net
The World for People who Think
VolcanoesS
Australia's only active volcano is rumbling fiercely, with new NASA photos revealing its lava lake has overflowed its crater. The volcano in question, Big Ben, is happily located on Mawson Peak in the remote southern reaches of the Indian Ocean on Heard Island, an Australian territory. People only bother to visit Heard and its neighbour McDonald Island every couple of years, because there's little there but chilly wastelands and the territory is a nature reserve people aren't allowed to visit without a permit. Even fisherfolk chasing the apparently tasty patagonian toothfish, aka Chilean Sea Bass, don't often bother landing.
No permanent human presence exists on the islands, beyond an automated weather station. NASA keeps an eye on the islands, though, because of the volcano atop Heard Island's Big Ben occasionally fires up. Last October we reported things have started to look interesting on the island. NASA has now released the image below showing that the volcano's caldera appears to have filled with so much lava that some has since cascaded down Mawson Peak's flanks.
As North America slowly drifted over the hotspot, the Yellowstone plume punched through the continent's crust, leaving a bread-crumb-like trail of calderas created by massive volcanic eruptions along Idaho's Snake River Plain, leading straight to Yellowstone. The last caldera eruption was 640,000 years ago. Smaller eruptions occurred in between and after the big blasts, most recently about 70,000 years ago. The magma chamber seen in the new study fed these smaller eruptions and is the source of the park's amazing hydrothermal springs and geysers. It also creates the surface uplift seen in the park, said Bob Smith, a seismologist at the University of Utah and author of a related study presented at the meeting.
The average thickness of the spouted material is 120 cm. A lot of cracks have appeared as a result of the volcano. One of them is too big. It spread out over 2 km. The depth of the crack is 2 m, width between 30 - 80 cm. At present the volcano has calmed down. Usually flames are observed when mud volcanoes erupt. No flame is observed in this volcano," he said. According to the department chief, the diameter of the volcano is about 10 sq km meters: "Several volcanic areas separated from each other are located in the crater of eruption. Every time eruption occurs in a separated volcanic area. 21 percent of mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan pull a lot of oil out of surface. This volcano is also spewing oil. Oil soaked into all wastes. It should be noted that there was also oil shale. All of them will be studied in the laboratory and concrete information about the oil and gas resources of the area will be obtained after the tests." - NEWS.AZ
A geophysical engineer at the Department, Sylvain Todman, says local communities are being warned to cover their water tanks and to be aware that ash could spoil gardens and fragile vegetables.
"It means more explosions, an increase of explosivity, more ash falling down to the close village and a lot of ash and some (volcanic) bombs falling down to the parking area and where the tourists used to witness the activity of the Yasur volcano."Sylvain Todman says the Department of Meteorology and Geohazards is closely monitoring the activity and will prepare a response plan if the volcano increases to alert level three.
"Mount Guntur is still at a level that poses no danger; so we ask people not to panic," Zat Zat told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Tuesday evening.
Mount Guntur spewed lava and pyroclastic materials such as hot gas, volcanic ash and rocks, between 1840 and 1847.
"Mount Guntur has not erupted for 162 years," said Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) head Surono via text messages.
VSI raised the alert level to the third highest level Siaga (3 out of 4), because significant changes were observed at the crater lake. The most spectacular was the change of the lake water color to dark brown on 24 March.
In addition, a significant increase in CO2 concentration within 500 m from the Timbang crater was measured, from from 0.01% (by volume) in early March to 2.5% between 11 and 15 March. Also the emissions of the magmatic gas H2S increased. The now elevated gas concentrations are becoming a significant hazard (illustrated by a cat found suffocated by CO2).
Therefore, it is strongly advised not to approach the Timbang crater within one kilometer to avoid the risk of suffocation due to the high CO2 concentrations (note that CO2 is absolutely odorless and lethal when inhaled in larger quantities)
In addition, a significant increase in CO2 concentration within 500 m from the Timbang crater was measured, from from 0.01% (by volume) in early March to 2.5% between 11 and 15 March. Also the emissions of the magmatic gas H2S increased. The now elevated gas concentrations are becoming a significant hazard (illustrated by a cat found suffocated by CO2).
Therefore, it is strongly advised not to approach the Timbang crater within one kilometer to avoid the risk of suffocation due to the high CO2 concentrations (note that CO2 is absolutely odorless and lethal when inhaled in larger quantities)
Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from? Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego now have a better idea after capturing a unique image of a site deep in the Earth where magma is generated. Using electromagnetic technology developed and advanced at Scripps, the researchers mapped a large area beneath the seafloor off Central America at the northern East Pacific Rise, a seafloor volcano located on a section of the global mid-ocean ridges that together form the largest and most active chain of volcanoes in the solar system. By comparison, the researchers say the cross-section area of the melting region they mapped would rival the size of San Diego County.
Details of the image and the methods used to capture it are published in the March 28 issue of the journal Nature. "Our data show that mantle upwelling beneath the mid-ocean ridge creates a deeper and broader melting region than previously thought," said Kerry Key, lead author of the study and an associate research geophysicist at Scripps. "This was the largest project of its kind, enabling us to image the mantle with a level of detail not possible with previous studies." The northern East Pacific Rise is an area where two of the planet's tectonic plates are spreading apart from each another. Mantle rising between the plates melts to generate the magma that forms fresh seafloor when it erupts or freezes in the crust. - Science Daily
Warno, an official at the observation post, added that the increases in Mount Lokon's volcanic tremors was actually not too significant. Currently, the agency's PVMBG is still maintaining Mount Lokon's volcanic activity status at "alert" (level 3) although the frequency of the volcano's eruptions has continued to decline. Previously, Mount Lokon erupted two to three times a week. The eruption on Wednesday morning shocked local residents living around Mount Lokon, as it was accompanied by loud bangs. People left their homes and crowded the Tomohon-Manado main road as well as roads in Kinilow sub-district in Kinilow Satu, Kakaskasen, to witness the eruption. Mount Lokon has been active since July 2011. Its volcanic activity status was once raised to "awas" or level 4, until it was lowered to its current level, said Farid. He said Mount Lokon's most recent eruption before it erupted again this morning was on March 10. - Jakarta Post
