Volcanoes
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Attention

Reunion Island volcano erupts again after four years

Nelson Alcantara
Travel Video News
Sat, 21 Jun 2014 00:00 UTC
Reunion volcano
© Richard Bouhet/AFP/Getty ImagesA picture taken on June 21, 2014 shows lava flowing out of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano, one of the worldThis morning at 1:35 am tourists on the French Indian Ocean Islands La Reunion tourists witnessed a spectacular many had been waiting to see for some time. The Piton de la Fournaise volcano erupted.
This morning at 1:35 am tourists on the French Indian Ocean Islands La Reunion tourists witnessed a spectacular many had been waiting to see for some time. The Piton de la Fournaise volcano erupted.

"It made a few days that we were waiting for it, said Pascal Viroleau, CEO of Reunion Island Tourism, about the eruption of the volcano of Reunion Island, the Piton de la fournaise. According to Viroleau, "the volcano entered in activity this morning at 1:35 am."

Most recently, an eruption occurred on December 9, 2010 and lasted for two days. The volcano is located within Réunion National Park, a World Heritage site. It is considered one of the major attractions of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands.

"Sleeping since December 2010," Piton de la fournaise is considered as one of the major attractions of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands.
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Bizarro Earth

Earth's biggest volcano Hawaii's Mauna Loa, might be waking up

Arden Dier
Newser
Sat, 21 Jun 2014 08:23 UTC
Mauna Loa Summit
© USGSThe summit of Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
Ready to rumble? The world's largest volcano - Hawaii's Mauna Loa - appears to be stirring back to life after a relatively quiet 30 years, geologists say. Don't fret: It isn't about to erupt at any minute, but four separate clusters of smaller earthquakes have been reported under Mauna Loa over the last 16 months, including as recently as April and May of this year, reports LiveScience. Geologists from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory note that similar events preceded the volcano's last eruption in 1984 - though these latest quakes are smaller in comparison - which may indicate magma is on the move.

As Wired explains further, the depth and location of the quakes suggests that magma is "refilling the reservoir that feeds Mauna Loa." Prior to the 1984 blast, scientists also observed ground deformation at the volcano's surface, as well as changes in gases streaming from cracks, and nothing like that has been seen in the last year or so. Still, the US Geological Society posted a photo on Instragram this week with the phrase, "A Stirring Giant?" notes EarthSky.org. You can track updates from the USGS on Mauna Loa here. (Scientists recently discovered a pair of rare tar volcanoes while searching for shipwrecks.)
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Attention

Sabancaya Volcano in southern Peru becomes active after 15 years of silence

Rachel Chase
Peru This Week
Wed, 18 Jun 2014 00:00 UTC
Sabancaya volcano
© El Comercio

Geological authorities are reporting that the Sabancaya volcano in southern Peru has become active after 15 years of silence.

According to information released by the Peruvian Geophysical Institute (IGP), Sabancaya has erupted several times. The first recorded activity at Sabancaya was in 1750, and the volcano became active again in 1784. 200 years later, in 1986, the volcano once again displayed activity. Now, the volcano is once again active, having gradually intensified since late February.

Speaking to El Comercio, IGP investigator Orlando Macedo said "All this activity is part of an expected process. Before the eruption, tremors were occurring closer and closer to the volcano and the crater. However, the process is taking longer than that which we saw at the Ubinas Volcano, when everything happened in a matter of days. In the case of Sabancaya, this could go on for several months."

Comment: Only halfway through 2014 and already the reports of volcanic activity around the globe are fast approaching the total for both 2013 and 2012. See below -


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Attention

Mount Etna eruption forces shutdown of Sicily's major airport

Kiran Moodley
The Independent, UK
Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:28 UTC
Image
The eruption of Mount Etna on Sunday created scenes reminiscent of the infamous Icelandic ash cloud of April 2010, albeit it on a much smaller scale.

While Catania airport in Sicily remained open, flights into and out of the terminal were disrupted as the island's volcano began spewing molten lava and ash from a crater on the south-east side of Etna.

The eruption did not led to the evacuation of any mountain villages near to the volcano, but the temporary closure of flights to and from Catania will cause a headache for many travellers and airport authorities. Catania is the busiest airport on Sicily and one of the most frequently used within Italy.

The last major eruption of Etna was in 1992. Italian authorities had to carry out a controlled explosion to diver the flow of lava away from the village of Zafferana, home to some 7,000 people.

The halting of flights in and out of Catania airport will remind many of the eruptions from Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland in April 2010. The ash that emanated from the volcano cause major disruption to European air travel for several days, with roughly 20 countries closing their airspace to commercial jets, affecting around 10 million passengers.

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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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
© 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
Image
© 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
Image
© 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
Image
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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