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Bizarro Earth

"Very intense" seismic vibration under Chaparrastique volcano, El Salvador, Central America


Volcano Cafe
Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:40 UTC
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Volcanic tremor under Chaparrastique volcano now reached similar to the pre-eruption of December 2013 measured values.
Chaparrastique (San Miguel) volcano, El Salvador, Central America

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) reports seismic vibration under Chaparrastique volcano has been very intense in the last days. Local observers reported hearing a booming noise about this day at 2:00 am. There have been very little vapor or gas emissions so far. This indicates that the duct system of the volcano is partially obstructed, withstanding the pressure of magmatic fluids, so there is a high probability of eruptive activity, either through the central crater or on its flanks. Eruptions in the last 500 years have been in the VEI-1 to VEI-2 range.

In the last few days the vibration of the volcano reached similar to the pre-eruption of December 29, 2013 measured values. Since February 2014 several hundred microearthquakes have been recorded under the northern flank of the volcano.

MARN informs about the tremor status every hour and new reports here on twitter.
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Bizarro Earth

'Unheard of in this area' - Volcano-like eruption in Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh triggers panic


CanIndia.com
Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:30 UTC
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A "volcano-like eruption" in Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh triggered panic among the people of the area. Reports said that flames and a hot liquid stream were seen spewing out of a hill 100 m from Gadiyada village. The village is over 200 km from Shimla. State geologists confirmed that the eruption is a 'small magmatic activity'. After the report, a team of Geological Survey of India (GSI) reached the site on Thursday.

Fearing that a bigger eruption could damage their agricultural land and houses, residents of around half a dozen villages in the vicinity of the eruption are anxiously awaiting the final report of GSI team. "Gases and liquids are being emitted from holes in a 10 feet area around the hill where the volcanic activity took place," said Ved Prakash, president of Drang panchayat. He said the eruption, unheard of in this area, caused panic among villagers.


Comment: This seems a bit odd - what exactly is a 'small magmatic activity'? Hopefully, we will find more out about this so-called 'activity'. In the meantime, here is a list of active, dormant, and extinct volcanoes in India.


This is the first time such a volcanic activity has been witnessed in the state. Chief parliamentary secretary Jagjivan Pal in whose Sulah assembly constituency the area falls visited the spot on Tuesday. He said the flames and the hot liquid emanating from the hill had created panic. "Underground temperature in the area has increased manifold and people say that a steel electricity pole had become red hot a couple of days back," he added. Pal said a sulphur-like material and black stone is flowing out from the perimeter of the hill.
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Bizarro Earth

Peru's Ubinos volcano likely to continue eruptive activity next week


Andina.com
Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:39 UTC
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© ANDINA/DifusiónUbinas volcano, in south-eastern Peru's Moquegua region.
Peru's most active volcano is likely to continue its eruptive activity next week with ash emissions and occasional eruptions, government officials have said.The ongoing process of the Ubinos volcano, in south-eastern region of Moquegua, is characterized by major plume of ashes as well as by volcanic gases and explosive activity. The above former activity is expected to generate harmful effects on farming and livestock raising activities in the area, the country's Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Ingemmet) said.

Likewise, the Peruvian agency announced an overall decrease in the volcano's daily seismic energy and a sharp decline in the number of explosions, lowering from more than 40 to 1 or 2 a day.
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Bizarro Earth

Ethiopian volcano spews stunning but deadly blue sulphuric gas

Clare Wilson
New Scientist
Tue, 27 May 2014 17:24 UTC
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© Olivier Grunewald
It's a volcano, but not as we know it. This cerulean eruption takes place in the Danakil Depression, a low-lying plain in Ethiopia. The volcano's lava is the usual orange-red - the blue comes from flames produced when escaping sulphuric gases burn.

French photographer Olivier Grunewald creates such images without using colour filters or digital enhancement, which is no simple task. To get this shot he had to wait until dusk, when the electric blue flames were visible, but before all the daylight had ebbed away. Then the wind had to be blowing away from him so he could get close enough. Photographing the similarly sulphurous Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, where he worked inside the crater, was even more treacherous. "We have to take care when the winds push the flames close to us," he says. "In Danakil it is easier to escape as the land is flat."

Grunewald works in a gas mask to avoid breathing in the deadly fumes - but photographing Kawah Ijen still left him with peeling skin and clothes smelling of rotten eggs for weeks afterwards.

Another drawback of Grunewald's subject matter is that the acidic gases don't agree with his cameras. But it's worth it, he says. "The phenomenon is so uncommon - we really feel like we are on another planet."
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Red Flag

Pavlof volcano erupts with new intensity, prompting 'red' alert in Alaska

Steve Quinn
Reuters
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 04:47 UTC
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© Gina Stafford
An Alaska volcano that has been spewing ash and lava for years began erupting with new intensity this week, pushing a plume of smoke and ash as high as 24,000 feet (7,315 meters) and prompting scientists to issue their highest volcanic alert in five years, authorities said on Tuesday.

But the intense action at the Pavlof Volcano, located in an uninhabited region nearly 600 miles (966 km) southwest of Anchorage, has so far not disrupted any regional air traffic, thanks to favorable weather that has made it easier for flights to navigate around the affected area.

Still, the eruption was intense enough for Alaska Volcano Observatory scientists to issue their first red alert warning since 2009, when the state's Mount Redoubt had a series of eruptions that spewed ash 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).

Comment: The last couple of months has seen a notable rise in reported volcanic activity across the planet -


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Blue Planet

Best of the Web: Signs of change: Video round-up of extreme weather and seismic activity in May 2014

HawkkeyDavis
YouTube
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 08:59 UTC
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Record flooding in the Balkans last month
Large scale disasters continue to strike with regularity, causing catastrophic damage to multiple areas around the globe, and leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced. Rare, strange, unusually extreme and 'biblical' weather conditions have taken place the past week or so. Also included are some dramatically breathtaking weather events caught on video last month.

Thanks for watching and stay safe! Have a plan in order!

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Bizarro Earth

Mount Sangeang Api eruption causes flight delays out of Darwin, Australia

Conor Byrne
NT News
Sat, 31 May 2014 17:03 UTC
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AEROMEDICAL service CareFlight has scaled its flights from Darwin airport until the volcano dust settles.CareFlight Director Ian Badham said it's being monitored on a minute by minute basis."To mitigate risk, we're responding to really urgent cases," Mr Badham said. "All but urgent emergency flights have been temporarily suspended. We're monitoring it like all other aviation operators. We're looking to life restrictions as soon as it's safe to do so." Careflight has six planes and a helicopter based at its Darwn hanger.

Duty Superintendent Geoff Barnhert said the police plane was still flying because the ash affected only high-level aviation.
The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre said most of the Territory is covered by an ash cloud, but it is unlikely to reach Australia's east coast. Flights in and out of Darwin have been cancelled after volcanic ash from Mount Sangeang Api moved across to Australia.

The volcano, which erupted on Friday, is 1373km northwest of Darwin on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. It is roughly halfway between Bali and Timor.

Comment: See also: Menacing 12-mile high ash cloud looms over Indonesia's 'Mountain of Spirits' after volcano erupts

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Rainbow

Unusual dazzling, electric-blue from volcanoes caused by sulfuric gases

Brian Clark Howard
National Geographic
Thu, 30 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
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© Olivier Grunewald/National GeographicIn Ethiopia's Danakil Depression, the sulfur dust in the soil of a hydrothermal vent ignites to form blue flames.
For several years Paris-based photographer Olivier Grunewald has been documenting the Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, where dazzling, electric-blue fire can often be seen streaming down the mountain at night."This blue glow - unusual for a volcano - isn't, of course, lava, as unfortunately can be read on many websites," Grunewald told National Geographic in an email about Kawah Ijen, a volcano on the island of Java.The glow is actually the light from the combustion of sulfuric gases, Grunewald explained.

Those gases emerge from cracks in the volcano at high pressure and temperature - up to 1,112°F (600°C). When they come in contact with the air, they ignite, sending flames up to 16 feet (5 meters) high.Some of the gases condense into liquid sulfur, "which continues to burn as it flows down the slopes," said Grunewald, "giving the feeling of lava flowing." Cynthia Werner, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, told National Geographic that Grunewald's photos show an unusual phenomenon.

"I've never seen this much sulfur flowing at a volcano," she said.
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Bizarro Earth

Menacing 12-mile-high ash cloud looms over Indonesia's 'Mountain of Spirits' after volcano erupts

John Hall
Daily Mail
Sat, 31 May 2014 06:32 UTC
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© Sofia EfendiEruption at Mount Sangean Api in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia
This is the incredible moment when a huge volcano erupted in Indonesia sending ash spewing an estimated 12 miles into the sky.The powerful explosion took place at Mount Sangeang Api in the Lesser Sunda Islands - an area that plays host to 129 active volcanoes - and sent a distinctive spaceship-shaped ring of pyroclastic smoke high into the air.

The photographs were taken by professional photographer Sofyan Efendi during a commercial flight from Bali to the fishing town of Labuan Bajo in West Nusa Tenggara province.Scores of farmers who work but do not live on the island were ordered to leave and not return until the volcano has finished erupting, said Muhammad Hendrasto, head of Indonesia's National Volcanology Agency. There are not believed to have been any deaths or injuries as a result of the eruption.

Authorities have had Mount Sangiang Api - which means 'Mountain of Spirits' in Balinese - on high alert for almost a year, he told China's Xinhua news agency.The volcano sits in Indonesia's notorious 'Ring of Fire' - an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. It has 452 volcanoes - 75 per cent of the world's total.Since Sangiang Api's first recorded eruption in 1512, it is believed to have erupted a total of 20 times.
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Hourglass

Shiveluch volcano erupts in Kamchatka and ejects ash to 10 km height


ITAR-TASS
Tue, 27 May 2014 01:37 UTC
Shiveluch volcano
© ITAR-TASS
The Shiveluch volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula has spewed ash to a height of up to 10 km above sea level.

The plume from the giant mountain moves towards south-east towards the Kamchatka Peninsula, the local branch of Russia's emergency situations ministry told Itar-tass.

The ash cloud poses no hazard to nearby populated localities, the source said.

According to the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), the the second highest hazard level the volcano poses to aircraft - aviation orange colour code remains assigned to the giant mountain.

Shiveluch is the northernmost and one of the most active volcanoes of Kamchatka. It has been erupting with short intervals for about 10 years.
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