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Mordor erupts! New Zealand's Mount Tongariro volcano that stars as 'Mordor' in Lord of the Rings erupts on video


indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com
Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:10 UTC

New Zealand's Mount Tongariro volcano sprang suddenly to life on November 21, spewing ash nearly 20,000 feet into the air, canceling regional flights and coating everything in its vicinity in a layer of fine gray silt.

The volcano had erupted in August after being dormant for more than a century, according to news accounts. But since then it had been quiet.

"The eruption itself gave us no warning whatsoever, it just snuck up on us," said an unnamed observer to BBC News in the video below, which showed pictures of people hosing down their front porches and leaving footprints as they walked.

One resident described it as a mushroom-looking cloud not unlike that of a nuclear bomb. No one was reported hurt, though numerous flights were canceled as the ash cut visibility. About 50 hikers in Tongariro National Park, including numerous schoolchildren on a class trip, had to scurry to safety during the five-minute eruption, reported the website Live Mint. The mountain is closed to hikers for at least three days.
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© AFP Photo/GNS ScienceTe Maari Crater on Mount Tongariro situated in the central area of New Zealand's North Island.
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Bizarro Earth

Volcano erupts on New Zealand's North Island


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:37 UTC
Volcanic Eruption
© Agence France-PresseGraphic showing Mount Tongariro in New Zealand’s North Island, which erupted Wednesday sending a plume of ash into the atmosphere.
Wellington - New Zealand's Mount Tongariro volcano erupted on Wednesday, sending a column of ash high into the atmosphere of the country's North Island, scientists said.

The official GNS Science monitoring service issued a potential threat alert after the 1:25 p.m. (0025 GMT) eruption at the volcano which became active in August this year after lying dormant for more than a century.

Civil Defense authorities described the eruption as minor but said conditions could be hazardous in the vicinity of the mountain and nearby areas could experience ashfall.

The August eruption, the first since 1897, hit domestic flights and closed highways but Air New Zealand said it did not expect the latest activity to disrupt services, although it was closely monitoring the situation.

Local resident Clint Green witnessed the eruption and said it sent ash spewing about two kilometres (more than a mile) into the air.

"It was pretty spectacular. All of a sudden a towering black plume just began erupting very quickly, skyrocketing up," he told Radio New Zealand.

"At first I didn't believe what I was seeing."

There were no immediate reports of injuries.
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Bizarro Earth

Mt. Rokatenda spews ash, hundreds evacuated


JakartaPost.com
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:51 UTC
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Mount Rokatenda in Sikka regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), continues to spout volcanic ash. Residents living around the volcano have reportedly been evacuated to the shelter at Hewuli village administrative office in Alok Barat district. The Sikka Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) reports that 196 residents living around Mount Rokatenda had fled to Maumere city.

The ash cloud from Mount Rokatenda has affected water kept in tanks on the roofs of houses around the volcano. Residents have collected rain water to offset the impact of an eruption. As many as six of 109 Awa village residents in the shelters have been taken to Maumere regency hospital suffering from various illnesses, such as respiratory, eye and skin irritation.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand volcanologists warn central North Island mountain of Ruapehu showing signs of an imminent eruption


Xinhuanet.com
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:48 UTC
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New Zealand volcanologists warned Friday that the central North Island mountain of Ruapehu was showing signs of an imminent eruption. The government's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences ( GNS Science) said the temperature beneath Ruapehu's Crater Lake was about 800 degrees centigrade, but the lake itself was only 20 degrees centigrade, which suggested a vent was partly blocked.

That could lead to a pressure build-up beneath the Crater Lake, indicating a heightened likelihood of eruptions over the coming weeks to months. "We think the pressure beneath Ruapehu Crater Lake has increased and this makes an eruption more likely over the next weeks to months," GNS Science duty volcanologist Steve Sherburn said in a statement.

A build-up of pressure beneath the Crater Lake was thought to have caused the last eruption in 2007 and a smaller eruption in 2006.
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Bizarro Earth

Poás Volcano erupts in Costa Rica

L. Arias
The Tico Times
Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:00 UTC
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© RSNExperts from the National Seismological Network are keeping the volcano under surveillance.
The Poas Volcano early Sunday awoke residents of the province of Alajuela with a strong rumble.

At about 1 a.m., the volcano's crater ejected mud and ash more than 500 meters into the air. Ashes traveled hundreds of meters around the national park, rangers reported.

Although the volcano is frequently active, this kind of strong explosion has not been recorded since 2006. Experts said the activity was normal, but they will continue monitoring the volcano.

Poás Volcano National Park will remain open to tourists while experts determine if there is any risk to visitors.
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Info

Mysterious pumice raft in Pacific explained

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:03 UTC
Havre Volcano
© NIWA/GNS ScienceA multibeam echosounder image showing the undersea volcano called Havre Seamount, including a new cone that formed during the July 2012 eruption.
Back in August, an enormous floating mass of pumice was spotted in the South Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Zealand. New evidence of changes on the seafloor confirms an erupting undersea volcano created the sprawling rock raft.

New Zealand scientists aboard the research vessel Tangaroa recently mapped the underwater volcano, Havre Seamount, which erupted on July 19 and was thought to have sent pumice rocks floating over a stretch of ocean 8,500 square miles (22,000 square kilometers). Now, the scientists say they detected a new volcanic cone - a feature built during an eruption - at Havre Seamount, reaching within 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) of the surface.

(Pumice forms when volcanic lava cools quickly. Gas gets trapped inside as the lava hardens, resulting in porous lightweight rocks that can float.)
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Bizarro Earth

Kilauea Volcano lava lake reaches highest level

bigislandvideonews
YouTube
Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:02 UTC
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Phoenix

Scientist warns of Fuji eruption chaos

Mark Willacy
ABC News
Sat, 13 Oct 2012 11:01 UTC
Mt. Fuji
© Wikimedia Commons
A Japanese scientist has warned Mount Fuji is due for a "big-scale explosive eruption" that could affect millions of people and cause billions of dollars worth of damage.

Last month a study found the magma chamber under the mountain has come under immense pressure, which could even trigger a volcanic eruption.

It said the added pressure could have been caused by last year's earthquake, which was followed a few days later by another large tremor directly underneath Fuji.

Professor Toshitsugu Fujii, the head of Japan's volcanic eruption prediction panel, says an eruption could cause chaos and carnage all the way to Tokyo.

"Mount Fuji has been resting for 300 years now, and this is abnormal," he told Saturday AM.

"It usually erupts in some form every 30 years.

"So the next eruption could be a big-scale explosive eruption."
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Bizarro Earth

Indonesia's Mount Lokon spews ash clouds in seventh eruption since September


News.com
Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:05 UTC
One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes has erupted again, spewing clouds of ash, an official has said. The 1580 metre (5,214 feet) Mount Lokon on northeast Sulawesi island erupted at 2pm local time on Sunday with thunderous sounds heard as far as five kilometres away. "Lokon has been quite active the past few months. This was the seventh biggest eruption since mid-September," government vulcanologist Farid Bina told AFP from the volcano's monitoring post in North Sulawesi province.

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© AFPMount Lokon volcano spews a giant column of volcanic ash during an eruption seen from Tomohon town on Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.
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Bizarro Earth

Potential volcanic activity spotted at remote island chain near Antarctica


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:06 UTC
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Heard Island on the Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean consists primarily of the emergent portion of two volcanic structures. The large glacier-covered composite basaltic-to-trachytic cone of Big Ben comprises most of the island, and the smaller Mt. Dixon volcano lies at the NW tip of the island across a narrow isthmus. Little is known about the structure of Big Ben volcano because of its extensive ice cover. The historically active Mawson Peak forms the island's 2745-m high point and lies within a 5-6 km wide caldera breached to the SW side of Big Ben.
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