Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

Telica volcano in Nicaragua begins new phase of explosive activity


Volcano Discovery
Thu, 28 May 2015 06:52 UTC
telica volcano nicaragua
After a week of calm, a new phase of explosive activity occurred yesterday at the volcano, beginning with a moderately large explosion at 12:02 local time. An ash plume rose approx. 3 km above the summit.

Several smaller explosions and phases of calm ash venting followed this event. Ash falls were noted in up to 15 km distance to the SW, in areas of the villages Posolega and Quezalguaque.

So far it is unclear whether the explosions are the result of phreatic or hydrothermal activity, i.e. caused by pressurized fluids in the shallow hydrothermal system, or whether they are result of new magma reaching the surface.
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Bizarro Earth

Is 'San Andreas' a cryptic warning about what is going to happen in America's future?

Michael Snyder
End of American Dream
Wed, 27 May 2015 03:46 UTC
San Andreas Movie Poster
© endoftheamericandream.comSan Andreas Movie Poster.
Hollywood has a long history of inserting political messages, social commentaries, subliminal effects and even cryptic warnings about the future into big budget films. So is someone attempting to use San Andreas to tell us something? For many years, doomsayers have been warning that the "Big One" is going to come along and rip the coastline of California to shreds. Up until this moment, it hasn't happened, but without a doubt we have moved into a time of increased geological activity all over the globe. As you read this article, 42 volcanoes around the planet are currently erupting. That means that the number of volcanoes erupting right now is greater than the 20th century's average for an entire year. In addition, we have been witnessing a great deal of very unusual earthquake activity lately. Just in the United States, we have seen unusual earthquakes hit Michigan, Texas, Mississippi, California, Idaho And Washington within the last month or so. Could it be possible that our planet has entered a period of heightened seismic activity? And could it also be possible that someone behind San Andreas is aware of this and is trying to warn us about what is coming in our future?

Of course just about everyone in the scientific community acknowledges that the "Big One" is eventually coming to California. In fact, the U.S. Geological Survey recently came out and said that the probability of a megaquake along the west coast is greater than they had previously been projecting...
A recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the inevitability of just such a quake, which is predicted to hit within the next couple of decades.

"The new likelihoods are due to the inclusion of possible multi-fault ruptures, where earthquakes are no longer confined to separate, individual faults, but can occasionally rupture multiple faults simultaneously," lead author of the study and USGS scientist, Ned Field says. "This is a significant advancement in terms of representing a broader range of earthquakes throughout California's complex fault system."
And it is undeniable that California has been hit by an unusual number of earthquakes recently. Could this be a sign that our portion of the "Ring of Fire" is heating up? Just over the past few days, there have been significant earthquakes at dormant volcanoes all over the state of California and in Nevada. I don't know about you, but to me all of this shaking is reason for concern.
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Bizarro Earth

Galapagos volcano erupts for first time in 30 years


The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 25 May 2015 22:45 UTC
Wolf Volcano
© Photo: EPAThe eruption of Wolf volcano, at Isabela island, Galapagos, on 25 May 2015.
A volcano in the Galapagos Islands erupted for the first time in more than 30 years on Monday, spilling streams of bright orange lava and raising fears for the world's only colony of pink iguanas.

The Galapagos National Park warned on Twitter that Isabela Island, where Wolf Volcano erupted at dawn, holds "the world's only population" of the critically endangered Conolophus marthae, also known as the Galapagos rosy iguana.

But the park later said the iguanas' habitat on the volcano's northwest side appeared to be out of danger.

The iguanas, "which share the habitat with yellow iguanas and giant Chelonoidis becki tortoises, are situated on the northwest flank, which raises hopes that they will not be affected," it said in a statement.

The fiery streams of lava that trickled down the volcano on Monday morning were on the opposite side, officials said.
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Arrow Up

Lokon-Empung volcano in Indonesia shaken by violent eruption


The Extinction Protocol
Sat, 23 May 2015 19:28 UTC
Image
An explosion occurred Wednesday (20 May) at 15:22 local time and produced an ash plume of approx 1.5 km height. The eruption was accompanied by strong explosion sounds, which caused concern in nearby villages and the town of Tomohon. After the initial explosion, mild ash venting continued for a while. The eruption came from two vents, both the Tompaluan crater and the new crater west of it that had formed in October last year.
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Megaphone

Hear Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano rumble

Zach Dyer
The Tico Times
Sat, 23 May 2015 13:14 UTC
Ever wondered what the inside of a volcano sounds like? The Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) has you covered.

OVSICORI took a selection from a seismograph registered inside Turrialba Volcano's central crater and converted it into a sound file. The effect allows you to "hear" the volcano's sub-audible rumbling.

This particular example was mostly for fun, but Dr. Javier Pacheco, a seismology expert at OVSICORI, said that the technique had practical uses for scientists too. Converting the seismographs into audio files can help scientists identify variations in the frequency of seismological activity that would be difficult to identify visually from the readouts alone, he explained.

Turrialba Volcano has been active during the last several months, closing Juan Santamaría International Airport several times after large eruptions of ash that blew across the Central Valley.

Volcanologists expect that the eruptions will get more frequent and more violent in the coming months and the National Emergency Commission (CNE) has maintained a yellow alert in the area. The Commission recently expanded the evacuation zone around the volcano from 2 km to 5 km.

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Bizarro Earth

Hawaiian volcano on brink of eruption

Brett Smith
RedOrbit
Tue, 19 May 2015 01:10 UTC
Kilauea Volcano
© Thinkstock
Kilauea, on the Big Island of Hawaii, is one of the more active shield volcanoes in the Aloha State and observers at the United States Geological Survey are saying that the odds of a major eruption have increased significantly in recent days.

"Activity at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano continues to change, as shown by a pronounced drop in the level of the lava lake within Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, a change in the summit area deformation pattern, and the concentrated earthquake activity in the southern part of the caldera and upper Southwest Rift Zone," a recent statement from the USGS said.

A lake of molten rock near the summit of the volcano had risen to record-high levels, but, as the USGS statement pointed out, the lava level has subsided, dropping almost 500 feet. As lava levels have been rising and falling, a series of earthquakes have radiated out from Kilauea.
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X

Second eruption in 2015 at Piton de al Fournaise volcano


Volcano Discovery
Sun, 17 May 2015 15:03 UTC
Image
A new eruption, so far small, began this Sunday at 13:45 from a fissure vent at the the southeast slopes of the Dolomieux crater inside the Enclos next to the Château Fort cone.

An intense seismic crisis with 5-7 earthquakes per minutes started 55 minutes before the onset of the eruption, as magma pushed its way to the surface. A few minutes after the beginning of the quakes, significant deformation of the Dolomieu crater rim could be measured as well.

The prefecture of La Réunion triggered alert phase 2 and closed access to the Enclos.

The new eruption seems to be similar in its (small) size and vent location as the last one that occurred between 4-16 February this year. Both probably originate from a same shallow magma reservoir that by early 2015 had grown enough to produce eruptions at the surface.

Frequent (several per year), but generally small eruptions have been a typical feature of Piton de la Fournaise during much of the volcano's recent past decades.

Comment: Reports of eruptions and volcanic activity since May 1:



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Red Flag

Scientists: Series of earthquakes could signal new eruptions at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano

Cathy Bussewitz
Yahoo! News
Sat, 16 May 2015 22:38 UTC
Image
© AP/Cathy Bussewitz
A series of earthquakes and shifting ground on the slopes of Kilauea have scientists wondering what will happen next at one of the world's most active volcanos.

A lake of lava near the summit of Kilauea on Hawaii's Big Island had risen to a record-high level after a recent explosion. But in the past few days, the pool of molten rock began sinking, and the surface of the lava lake fell nearly 500 feet.

Meanwhile, a rash of earthquakes rattled the volcano with as many as 20 to 25 quakes per hour, and scientists' tilt meters detected that the ground was deforming.

"Clearly the lava, by dropping out of sight, it has to be going somewhere," said Steven Brantley, deputy scientist in charge of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory of the U.S. Geological Survey.

One possibility is that a new lava eruption could break through the surface of the mountain, Brantley said.

Right now, there are two active eruptions on Kilauea. One is the eruption spewing into the lava lake in the Halemaumau Crater, which is visible in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The other is Puu Oo vent, in Kilauea's east rift zone, which sent fingers of lava toward the town of Pahoa before stopping outside a shopping center last year.
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Bizarro Earth

Guatemala's Fuego volcano becoming more active, officials warn of full-blown eruption


Phys.org
Sat, 16 May 2015 00:00 UTC
guatemala fuego volcano
Ash billowing from the Fuego volcano is seen from the Palin municipality, Escuintla departament, 40 km south of Guatemala City on February 13, 2015
Guatemala's Fuego volcano is becoming more active, belching out increasing amounts of smoke and ash, officials said on Friday.

Fearing a full-blown eruption of the volcano, located just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital of Guatemala City, disaster officials warned that aircraft should exercise caution when flying over Fuego.

Conred, the national disaster coordination agency, said the volcano's eruptions could range in intensity from weak to moderate, and that columns of ash could reach 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) above sea level.

Authorities also warned that wind-borne ash particles could travel as far as 12 kilometers from the volcano, possibly causing respiratory and other health problems for some Guatemalans.

Comment: Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes increasing across the planet

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Info

Scientists find volcanic activity can be induced by external noise


Phys.org
Mon, 11 May 2015 00:00 UTC
Calbuco volcano eruption April 2015
© Reuters / Sergio Candia
Volcanoes are considered chaotic systems. They are difficult to model because the geophysical and chemical parameters in volcanic eruptions exhibit high levels of uncertainty. Now, Dmitri V. Alexandrov and colleagues from the Ural Federal University in Ekaterinburg, in the Russian Federation, have further extended an eruption model—previously developed by other scientists—to the friction force at work between the volcanic plug and volcanic conduit surface. The results, published in EPJ B, provide evidence that volcanic activity can be induced by external noises that would not otherwise have been predicted by the model.
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