Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

Italy's Mount Etna volcano erupts again in dramatic fashion, lighting up the night sky


The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:03 UTC
Mount Etna, Europe's highest active volcano sent plumes of ash and lava into the night sky on the island of Sicily. Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology has recently registered increased explosive activity by the volcano, Italy's Civil Protection agency said. There are several inhabited villages on the slopes of Mount Etna. Eruptions are not infrequent, and Italian airliners sometimes have to alter their routes to avoid flying through ash clouds. Tuesday's eruption did not cause any interruption to air traffic at the airport serving the nearby town of Catania, according to reports. -Telegraph

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Ice Cube

New study says volcanic eruptions can dramatically cool the planet


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:08 UTC
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Sulfur dioxide emissions from moderate volcanoes around the world can mask some of the effects of global warming by 25 percent, a new study has found. A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight. The study results essentially exonerate India and China, two countries that are estimated to have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning, said lead study author Ryan Neely. Small amounts of sulfur dioxide emissions from Earth's surface eventually rise 12 to 20 miles into the stratospheric aerosol layer of the atmosphere, where chemical reactions create sulfuric acid and water particles that reflect sunlight back to space, cooling the planet, researchers said.

Neely said previous observations suggest that increases in stratospheric aerosols since 2000 have counter balanced as much as 25 per cent of the warming scientists blame on human greenhouse gas emissions. "This new study indicates it is emissions from small to moderate volcanoes that have been slowing the warming of the planet," said Neely in the study published in journal Geophysical Research Letters. The new project was undertaken in part to resolve conflicting results of two recent studies on the origins of the sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere, including a 2009 study led by the late David Hoffman of NOAA indicating aerosol increases in the stratosphere may have come from rising emissions of sulfur dioxide from India and China.
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Bizarro Earth

Mount Etna's dramatic new eruption

Becky Oskin
OurAmazingPlanet
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:16 UTC
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© Meteo real time/Facebook
Italy's Mount Etna sent lava and gas shooting toward the stars early this morning (Feb. 19), the first big eruption for the volcano in 2013.

The famous Sicilian volcano burst to life overnight, sending a fountain of fire into the air. The dramatic scene was captured in a video by Klaus Dorschfeldt, a videographer and webmaster at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

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Extinction-level super volcano growing in the Pacific, unfortunately

Michael Rundle
Huffington Post
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:35 UTC
super volcano
Bad news, everyone - you have another near-certain world-ending catastrophe to look forward to.

Scientists have confirmed that two continent-sized chemical blobs of partially melted rock are converging in the Pacific, and look set to create a massive new volcano which could prove cataclysmic to life on Earth. (In 100 million years.)

Geologist Michael Thorne at the University of Utah reports in Earth and Planetary Science that the collision is slowly happening 1,800 miles beneath the ocean.

He says that the collision could lead in two possible directions - both of which are bad, and would wipe out millions of species.

One is just a massive single eruption, which would kill us all, the other is a thousand-year flood basalt eruption, which would also kill us.
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Bizarro Earth

Is the Earth cooking up another supervolcano?


The Extinction Protocol
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:45 UTC
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Every few million years or so, the Earth burps up a gargantuan volcano. These aren't like volcanoes in our lifetimes; these "super volcanoes" can erupt continuously for thousands of years. While they might be rare, you'd best look out when one hits. The ash and volcanic gases from these volcanoes can wipe out most living things over large parts of the planet. Michael Thorne, a seismologist at the University of Utah, has some clues about what causes these big eruptions. Thorne uses seismic waves to get a picture of what's going on about 1,800 miles beneath the Earth's surface, where the planet's core meets the outer mantle.

Think of the Earth as an avocado, and the pit is the core. The stuff you make guacamole with is the outer mantle. Thorne has been watching two enormous piles of rock that sit on the boundary between the core and the mantle. One pile is underneath the Pacific Ocean; the other under Africa. Scientists have known about them for 20 years, but Thorne saw something different. "I think this is the first study that might point to evidence that these piles are moving around," Thorne says.
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Bizarro Earth

Dome grows in Alaska's Cleveland Volcano


Associated Press
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:08 UTC
Cleveland Volcano
© AP Photo/NOAA, Kym YanoThis Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 file aerial photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Cleveland Volcano, left, located in the Aleutian Islands 939 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The volcano, which has sent up major ash eruptions in the past, is heating up near its summit. Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory say satellite data obtained a week ago indicates a lava dome is growing in the summit crater. The observatory has changed its alert level for aircraft.
Anchorage, Alaska - Alaska's Cleveland Volcano is heating up and scientists are on alert in case it sends up an ash cloud that could threaten trans-Pacific flights.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory detected elevated surface temperatures Jan. 24 at Cleveland's summit. Satellite data obtained last week indicated that a growing lava dome on the floor of the summit crater had reached about 328 feet, or 100 meters, in diameter.

The summit crater itself is nearly 10 times that size, said Chris Waythomas of the U.S. Geological Survey.

"It does this from time to time and it's a fairly small lava dome," he said Wednesday. "It's not gigantic."

Lava domes form a lid on a volcano chamber that holds magma. When they grow big enough, lava domes can become unstable and collapse. Decompression of the magma chamber can lead to an explosion as the conduit inside the volcano suddenly becomes unsealed and gasses escape.
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Bizarro Earth

Campi Flegrei supervolcano raising anxiety among Italian residents


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:58 UTC
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A restive supervolcano west of Naples is raising nervousness in the local Italian population. The ground of the Campi Flegrei "burning fields," also known as the Phlegraean Fields, has risen more in recent weeks than it has in a long time. This does not necessary indicate a heightened risk of an eruption, however, said Thomas Wiersberg, a scientific drilling expert for the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in Potsdam. The Phlegraean Fields are a large caldera, or volcanic crater, lying mostly underwater off the Italian coast. The caldera is thought to have been formed by a massive eruption some 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. The last major eruption in the fields of boiling mud and sulphurous steam holes, one of a few dozen super volcanoes worldwide, occurred in 1538.

Wiersberg is part of an international research team that began drilling into the ground not far from the caldera last summer to monitor possible early warning signs of an eruption. The team has drilled a pilot hole to a depth of 500 meters but no data has been gathered yet, Wiersberg said in an interview with dpa. Italy's Department of Civil Protection recently raised the alert level for the Phlegraean Fields, where Wiersberg said the ground was rising by about three centimeters a month. There are concerns that a magma chamber under the fields, presumably connected to the one under Mount Vesuvius, east of Naples, is filling up, the rising pressure possibly heightening the danger of an eruption.
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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia's Mount Lokon volcano shaken by double eruptions


The Extinction Protocol
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:57 UTC
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Mount Lokon in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, erupted twice throughout Thursday (31/01/2013) afternoon. Head Volcano Observation Post Lokon and Mahawu, Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) Bandung Geological Agency, Ruskanda Farid Bina, said the first explosion occurred at 6:54 pm and was followed by a second explosion at 10:44 pm, and that was followed by a boom that sounded up to the settlements located around the crater.

"We could not observe the height of the eruption of dust because of the condition of the fog around the crater. At first eruption eruption dust altitude of about eight hundred yards," said Farid. He said the series of eruptions occurred after an increase in seismicity that occurred on Wednesday (30/1) at 22:54 pm. "Until now the status is still at alert level three," he said. - Inilah translated
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Bizarro Earth

Russian scientists voice concerns about dangers of a supervolcano erupting in Italy


The Extinction Protocol
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:54 UTC
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It looks like we may be in for an earth-shattering explosion. A dormant super volcano appears to be stirring under the Phlegraen Fields of Naples in Italy. Rising soil temperatures and surface deformation in the area have alarmed seismologists. In the distant past, volcanic super eruptions caused global climate change responsible for mass extinctions of plant and animal species. So far, scientists are unable to model the potential consequences of an awakening supervolcano. Latest studies show that the Phlegraen Fields have actually been swelling above sea level at a rate of 3 cm per month. Micro quakes and large amounts of gases accumulated in soil indicate that the volcano may be preparing to erupt, says Vladimir Kiryanov, Assistant Professor of Geology at the St. Petersburg University.

"The Phlegraen Fields is a supervolcano. Yellowstone in the United States and Toba in Indonesia are also supervolcanoes capable of spewing more than 1,000 cubic km of magma. These are catastrophic eruptions. There was a huge volcanic eruption in the Phlegraen Fields some 30,000-40,000 years ago. Volcanic ash from that eruption is still found in the Mediterranean, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and even in Russia. We are now seeing the expansion of a magma pocket, which means that there might be an eruption at a certain time."
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Bizarro Earth

Eruption of Japan's Mt. Fuji volcano could force the evacuation of more than half a million


The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:17 UTC
An eruption of Mount Fuji could force some 567,000 people to evacuate their homes, according to a new estimate. The projection is part of an evacuation plan crafted by the Shizuoka Prefectural Government that also says more than 130,000 people, comprising some 50,000 households, would have to relocate if lava were to reach residential districts in the city of Fuji, which lies just south of the 3,776-meter mountain. Depending on the number and locations of vents, evacuation from wider areas could be needed. The plan is based on a hazard map prepared by the central government based on Fuji's last eruption, in 1707. Under the evacuation plan, 10 zones have been designated at the foot of the mountain based on the expected direction of lava flows. The plan specifies evacuation zones in four grades.
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The Yamanashi Prefectural Government is preparing a similar evacuation plan. Plans will be finalized at a consultation forum involving Shizuoka, Yamanashi and Kanagawa prefectures and the central government. Joint evacuation drills in the three prefectures will also be conducted. - Japan Times
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