Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

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

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


Info

Scientists find volcanic activity can be induced by external noise

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.

Attention

Telica volcano, Nicaragua's most active, spews fiery rocks, gases and ash; 30 eruptions reported

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© AFP
Nicaragua's Telica volcano, the country's most active, has spewed fiery rocks and gases, dusting nearby towns with ash.

The volcano has registered 30 small eruptions since it rumbled to life on Thursday, the strongest yet occurring on Sunday night, according to the Nicaraguan Geological Institute.

'It spat hot rocks, gas and ash, reaching a height of 400 metres,' the agency said in a statement.

The flaming rocks caused vegetation on the volcano's slopes to catch fire, and fiery balls of burning foliage created a spectacle for observers.

The nearby towns of Posoltega and Guanacastal were dusted in ash following the eruptions, though no major damage or injuries were reported.

Telica, which is 1,061 metres high, is located in the foothills of the Maribios, about 112km northwest of the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

Health

Turrialba Volcano erupts again - scientists warn of economic damage, increased health risks

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At 4:55 a.m. Sunday, ash spilled from the crater of Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano for nearly an hour. Though the ash barely left the crater, located about 67 kilometer northeast of the capital San José, the wind carried it into the Central Valley — for the umpteenth time in recent months.

The eruption comes less than a week after the volcano shot a tower of ash 2.5 kilometers into the air, shutting down Juan Santamaría International Airport for the third time since March.

Since Turrialba Volcano re-awoke last October, volcanic ash has dirtied homes, damaged crops and mucked up travel plans. With its frequent eruptions, the volcano has gone from an interesting diversion to a nuisance for nearby residents and visitors.

And experts say the worst is yet to come.

Future eruptions, they say, could jeopardize the health of humans and the environment. They could also cause serious economic damage.

"There is a very high possibility that [the volcano] will reach a higher level of activity," said Lidier Esquivel, the chief investigator of risk management for the National Emergency Commission (CNE).

Scientists with both the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) and the National Seismological Network (RSN) expect Turrialba's eruptions to gradually increase over the next few months until the volcano is erupting on a near weekly basis. Scientists have also confirmed that lava has reached the surface.

Attention

Experts warn Japan may have entered an era of great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

eruptions earthquake chart
Mt. Fuji is located only about 25 kilometers from Mt. Hakone. While Mt. Fuji is also an active volcano, will the increased volcanic activity of Mt. Hakone have any effects on Mt. Fuji?

"The magma chambers located beneath Mt. Hakone and Mt. Fuji are not connected, so there is no effect on Mt. Fuji," said Toshitsugu Fujii, who chairs the Japan Meteorological Agency's Coordinating Committee for Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions. The agency has not observed any signs of impending eruption in Mt. Fuji and therefore has not raised the eruption alert level for the mountain.

However, since the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in March 2011, volcanoes in the country have shown signs of increased activity. Currently, a Level 2 eruption alert, which restricts access around the volcanic vent, is in effect for 10 volcanoes, while a Level 3 alert, which restricts approach to the volcano, has been issued for three volcanoes.

Comment: Earthquake and volcanic activity has been on the rise worldwide and experts are predicting that we can expect that to continue in the near future.


Alarm Clock

More than 60 small eruptions at Nicaragua's Concepcion volcano

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© EFE/ArchivoView of the 1,610 meter high Concepcion active volcano located in the picturesque island of Ometepe, Nicaragua.
Nicaragua's Concepcion volcano has experienced more than 60 small eruptions since early Wednesday.

"The volcano has spewed gases but no ash," said the coordinator of the Council on Communication and Citizenry, Rosario Murillo.

"Experts from the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, Ineter, are now analyzing this phenomenon," she explained.

Ineter reported two earthquakes of magnitudes 2.4 and 1.3 near the volcano shortly after the eruptions began.

Ineter investigator Armando Saballos said the volcano had shown signs of activity over the past few weeks linked to seismic activity, with small explosions of gas that tended to subside after a few days.

He added that although this was normal, seismic activity could increase in the coming days.

On April 27, Ineter announced that a group of volcanologists would analyze gases from the volcano after the increase in seismic activity was reported.

The 1,610 meter high active volcano is located on the picturesque island of Ometepe, with 36,000 inhabitants.

Shoe

Hundreds flee Philippines's rumbling Bulusan volcano, approaching typhoon

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© Bicolstandard.com
Hundreds of people fled their homes on the slopes of a rumbling Philippine volcano on Friday as authorities warned of rain-driven mudflows from an approaching typhoon that could bury them alive. Around 500 residents of farming villages around Bulusan volcano in Sorsogon province, many of them children and elderly women, boarded army trucks clutching sleeping mats and bags of clothes as Typhoon Noul (local name: Dodong) bore down on the area. Trucks sent by the local government of Irosin town in Sorsogon and by the army and police on Friday started fetching residents living within the 4-km danger zone of Mount Bulusan. "I have no choice but to evacuate. I may not be strong enough to outrun the mud flows," 66-year-old housewife Dolores Guela told Agence France-Presse. Officials said she and her meningitis-stricken nine-year-old granddaughter would be among about 1,000 people taken to temporary shelters to wait out the wrath of Noul, which was forecast to bring heavy rains in the Bicol region from late Friday.

The typhoon was gusting at up to 185 kph (115 mph) and experts warned debris from two recent ash explosions could rumble down the slopes of the 1,559-meter (5,115-foot) volcano. The state weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration has placed Sorsogon as well as 10 other areas under Storm Signal No. 1. State vulcanologists subsequently raised Alert level 1 — the lowest in a five-step warning system — on Bulusan. Minor ash explosions alone would not normally prompt an evacuation, but authorities ordered one nonetheless because of the threat of mud flows, or lahar, from the approaching storm. Despite the preventive evacuation, some residents chose to stay because they said they still had to take care of their livestock and secure their belongings and harvested crops before they could eventually evacuate.

Bulusan, on the southeastern tip of the main island of Luzon, is about 400 kilometers (249 miles) south of the capital, Manila. It is among the country's 23 active volcanoes. Noul would be the fourth major storm or typhoon to hit the Philippines this year. The disaster-prone nation is lashed by an average of 20 each year, routinely killing hundreds of people.

Source: Inter Askyon


Attention

Hundreds evacuated as Karangetang volcano erupts in N. Sulawesi, Indonesia

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At least 465 people were evacuated from their houses in Siau Tagulandang Biaro district in North Sulawesi province on Friday following eruption of Karangetang volcano, a senior official at Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said here.

Impact of the active volcano's eruption has flattened several houses in Kora village in the region, BNPB Spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, adding that in the afternoon the volcano was still erupting lava, rocks and hot materials as far as several kilometers from the crater of the volcano.

"No death toll was recorded from the eruption. 465 people were sheltered in three sites located around 5 kilometers from the crater," Sutopo told Xinhua by phone.

Sutopo said that hot clouds were seen engulfing the eastern and southern side of the volcano slopes.

He added that the displaced people did not bring any of their belongings as they have been getting used to Karangetang's volcanic activities in the last few years.

"Today's eruption was different from the previous ones as the hot cloud emitted from the eruption was the largest one by far, which made people have to evacuate," Sutopo added.

Sutopo said that the regional disaster mitigation agency has provided necessities for the refugees in the camps comprising of respirators, food supplies, cloths, blankets, baby foods and sleeping mats.

He said that the latest eruption did not change the volcano's eruption which initially stated at level III, or stage of alert.

Bizarro Earth

Typhoon and active volcano force evacuations in Philippines

typhoon noul
© EPAA handout photograph provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Typhoon Noul over the West Pacific, east of the Philippines on May 6, 2015. The Philippines is preparing to evacuate residents along its northeastern coast as a typhoon approaches, as well as those near a rumbling volcano that has been spewing steam and ash over a central province, officials said on Friday
The Philippines is preparing to evacuate residents along its northeastern coast as a typhoon approaches, as well as those near a rumbling volcano that has been spewing steam and ash over a central province, officials said on Friday.

Typhoon Noul was about 480 km (300 miles) northeast of the town of Borongan in Eastern Samar province early on Friday, with wind gusts of up to 185 km per hour (115 mph), and was expected to make landfall as a category four storm at the weekend.

Thousands of passengers have already been stranded in seaports along the central and eastern Philippines after authorities stopped vessels from sailing because of rough seas.

The typhoon, the fourth to hit the Southeast Asian country this year, was expected to bring heavy to intense rainfall when it makes landfall in the northeast, the weather bureau said. It was then expected to weaken as it swung northeast towards the Japanese island of Okinawa by Tuesday.

Officials warned that heavy rain from the typhoon could cause "lahar", or flows of mud and debris, around Mount Bulusan, a volcano that has been spewing ash this week.

Comment: See also: Bulusan volcano in Philippines explodes, ejecting steam and ash


Attention

Volcanic activity shuts part of popular Japan hot springs

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© Kyodo NewsWhite smoke is spewed out in Owakudani valley of Mount. Hakone where increased earthquake activity is found, in Hakone town, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Tokyo, Thursday, May 7, 2015.
Japanese authorities have closed part of a popular hot springs area to the public because of fears a volcano might erupt.

Increased earthquake activity at Mount Hakone prompted the Japanese Meteorological Agency to raise the alert level earlier this week to 2 on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest.

The town of Hakone met on Thursday with tourism industry representatives who are concerned about the possible impact on business.

About 50 people who operate businesses in the restricted area were allowed to make a temporary visit to maintain their facilities and collect necessities, according to Japanese broadcaster TBS. It quoted a cafe owner saying he hopes the situation will be over soon.

The closed area includes Owakudani, a well-visited site where tourists can see steam emerging from vents in a crater from a past eruption. Both a section of a ropeway that passes nearby and trails to Owakudani have been closed.

Hakone, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Tokyo, attracts visitors from both Japan and overseas. Most of Hakone's other sights remain open.

The eruption of Mount Ontake in central Japan last September killed 57 people.

Source: AP