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Mount Gamalama eruption sends ash and rocks 2 km into the sky, Indonesia

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Mount Gamalama in North Maluku province of Indonesia erupted at 13:41 UTC on Thursday, December 18, 2014, sending ash and rocks 2 km into the sky and forcing the authorities to close an airport and issue warnings to planes. Nine people were injured while running to escape the eruption. One person is still unaccounted for, authorities said.

Increased seismicity around the volcano was observed since 08:30 UTC. It then sharply increased at 13:09 UTC (22:09 local time), about 30 minutes before the eruption.

Evacuation orders are still not in place, however, a senior official from the disaster management agency in North Maluku province said the communities are ordered to be on alert of possible cool lava flowing in rivers as rain is frequent in recent days.

Comment: How does solar activity connect to seismic activity, and in turn contribute to global cooling? See Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection for the interesting electromagnetic connect, of the way things are turning.


Bizarro Earth

Cape Verde volcanic eruption leaves a trail of destruction

cape verde volcano
© Joao Relvas/EPA Many villagers will have little to return to.
Around 60 volcanoes erupt in the average year. On any particular day, there are usually about 20 volcanoes erupting somewhere in the world. Naturally, they can't all make headlines. But when there are human tragedies involved, we need to question the priorities of the news media.

Contrast the fuss about eruption warnings in Iceland with the vanishingly low media profile of the current eruption on Fogo, one of the islands in the Cape Verde archipelago off the coast of West Africa.

In Iceland, great fears of an ash cloud eruption that could down or ground aircraft subsided as the magma broke surface beyond the ice and fed a large and spectacular but pretty harmless fissure eruption across a remote and uninhabited region.

On the other hand, since Fogo's eruption began on November 23 it has so far destroyed two villages and the homes of more than 1,000 people.

Comment: See also: Residents evacuated as Pico do Fogo volcano in Cape Verde erupts after a 20 year silence


Bizarro Earth

Colombia's Nevado del Ruiz volcano shows increasing signs of unrest

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According to the latest report of the Manizales observatory, the volcano's activity recently changed and is showing increased signs of unrest, which could announce a new eruption to come.

A recent aerial survey by the Colombian air force revealed a deposit of fresh ash on the southern flank, indicating that at least sporadic explosions or ash emissions - presumably phreatic in nature - do indeed occur.

In addition, since about 2 weeks ago, seismic activity has been significantly higher than previously. Phases of tremor and more frequent shallow volcano-tectonic earthquakes suggest increased movements of fluids (magma, gas, water) inside the volcano. Most of the events are concentrated in an area southeast under Arenas crater.

Comment: The Earth is waking up of late:

Japan's huge Mt. Aso belching smoke and ash 1,000 metres into the air

Residents evacuated as Pico do Fogo volcano in Cape Verde erupts after a 20 year silence

Aleutian Islands' Shishaldin volcano being watched following increase in seismic activity overnight

6 volcanic quakes at Philippines' Mayon Volcano in the last 24 hrs

Mexico's Colima volcano erupts, sending ash 3 miles into the sky


Bizarro Earth

Mount Aso volcano in South Japan erupts after 22 years prompting flight cancellations

Mount Aso Volcano Eruption
© Associated PressIn this Nov. 26, 2014 photo, volcanic smoke billows from Mount Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, on the southern Japanese main island of Kyushu.
A volcano in southern Japan blasted out chunks of magma Friday in the first such eruption in 22 years, causing flight cancellations and prompting warnings to stay away from its crater.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that Mount Aso spewed out lava debris and smoke, shooting plumes of ash a kilometer (3,280 feet) into the sky. Dozens of flights from Kumamoto, the nearest city, were canceled.

Comment: The seismic activity and volcanic eruptions have been on the increase in Japan for awhile: It's been just two months since Japan's Mt. Ontake erupted: Why all the volcanic eruptions, seismic activity, and other extreme weather phenomena? How could we as a people, be connected in all of this? See:




Bizarro Earth

Japan's huge Mt. Aso belching smoke and ash 1,000 metres into the air

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Mt Aso
A huge volcano in southern Japan was belching smoke and ash 1,000 metres (3,000 feet) into the air Wednesday, the latest eruption in one of the world's most volcanically-active countries, AFP reported.

Mount Aso, whose huge caldera dominates the southwestern main island of Kyushu, rumbled into life on Tuesday.

Meteorologists warned volcanic stones and ash could fall in a one-kilometre (half a mile) radius of the volcano. The eruption is Aso's first in 19 years and comes two months after Mount Ontake in central Nagano killed more than 60 hikers when it erupted without warning.

Last month, experts warned a disaster on Kyushu island, which has been struck by seven massive eruptions over the past 120,000 years, could see an area that is home to seven million people buried by molten rock in just two hours.

Comment: Looks like things are heating up on the BBM of late. Here is another volcano just waking up from a 20 year slumber: Residents evacuated as Pico do Fogo volcano in Cape Verde erupts after a 20 year silence

Aleutian Islands' Shishaldin volcano being watched following increase in seismic activity overnight 6 volcanic quakes at Philippines' Mayon Volcano in the last 24 hrs

Mexico's Colima volcano erupts, sending ash 3 miles into the sky


Bizarro Earth

Aleutian Islands' Shishaldin volcano being watched following increase in seismic activity overnight

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© Dane Ketner / AVO View of Shishaldin from an Alaska Volcano Observatory monitoring site on the southwest flank of the volcano on June 28, 2014. The upper flanks of the volcano are darkened by ash erupted during low-level lava fountaining and small explosions deep in the summit crater.
The Aleutian Islands' Shishaldin volcano was being watched Monday morning following an increase in seismic activity overnight.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory posted a "watch" alert due to the increase in activity, which suggests "that the eruption at Shishaldin has intensified," AVO wrote. Elevated surfaces temperatures were shown on satellite images near the volcano's summit.

Shishaldin, elevation 9,373 feet, is located on Unimak Island on the Aleutians. The volcano has been listed as "orange" for months, coordinating scientist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory Jeff Freymueller said, as small explosions within Shishaldin's crater have been occurring "pretty much all the time."​ The color code "orange" indicates an ongoing level of heightened activity at a volcano.

These small explosions within the volcano are likely to continue for "some time," Freymeuller said, bringing along the "potential that at any moment ... you could have a much bigger (explosion)."

Bizarro Earth

Residents evacuated as Pico do Fogo volcano in Cape Verde erupts after a 20 year silence

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FogoNews via Facebook
Pico do Fogo - a shield volcano on the island of Fogo in the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa - began erupting on Sunday (November 23, 2014). It's the first eruption since 1995, nearly 20 years. Already, hundreds of residents living in the vicinity have been evacuated, and a local airport has been closed.

Erik Klemetti wrote on his excellent Eruptions blog at Wired:
The eruption has formed a small steam-and-ash plume near the flanks of Pico, a small cone inside the main caldera at Fogo. Earthquakes became noticeable to people living on the island starting Saturday night and by morning, an eruption had begun. According to volcanologists monitoring Fogo, the volcano had been showing signs of unrest "for awhile ... " Most of the activity at Fogo for the past 500 years has occurred within the main caldera of the volcano and the eruption in 1995 was centered on the flanks of Pico. The eruptions are dominantly lava flows, although unlike shield volcanoes like Kilauea, Fogo erupts both low-silica basanite (similar to basalt but higher in alkaline elements like sodium and potassium) and high-silica phonolite (similar to rhyolite but higher alkalines). That eruption in 1995 created a lava flow field that spread over 6 square kilometers of the caldera floor.

Comment: 6 volcanic quakes at Philippines' Mayon Volcano in the last 24 hrs
Mexico's Colima volcano erupts, sending ash 3 miles into the sky


Bizarro Earth

Mexico's Colima volcano erupts, sending ash 3 miles into the sky

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© Reuters / Bernardo de NizColima Volcano
Volcanic ash leapt into the sky in a column three miles high on Friday, as Mexico's Colima volcano began erupting.
Located in the western region of the country on the border of the states of Jalisco and Colima, the 12,500 high volcano is less than 500 miles from Mexico City. One of the most active volcanoes in the country - and one of the most potentially destructive ones as well - Colima has certainly earned its nickname of the "Volcano of Fire" from locals.

The country's federal civil defense office said that ash has been raining down as far as 15 miles from the volcano. Super-heated glowing volcanic rocks were reported to be raining down the sides of the volcano over a mile from the now-erupting caldera. So far there have been no injuries reported by Colima's most current eruption, as officials say that this new one seems to be much less in intensity than other instances. The last major eruption of Colima, which occurred in 2005, saw local residents evacuating from the region.

Bizarro Earth

6 volcanic quakes at Philippines' Mayon Volcano in the last 24 hrs

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Mayon volcano
At least six volcanic quakes were recorded at restive Mayon Volcano in the last 24 hours, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Saturday. In its 8 a.m. update, Phivolcs also recorded an emission of white "moderate to voluminous" steam plumes that drifted west-southwest, west-northwest, northeast, and southeast. Also, it recorded a crater glow at Intensity I Friday night.

Phivolcs said Mayon's alert level remains at 3, meaning an eruption is still likely within weeks. More than 12,000 families were evacuated from their homes in Mayon's danger zone since mid-September, when Phivolcs raised the alert level at Mayon to 3.

Bizarro Earth

Mýrdalsjökull Ice Cap: Iceland's Katla Volcano is 'due a big eruption'

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© NASAAfter and before shot shows how ice cap has changed.
A volcano sitting beneath Iceland's Mýrdalsjökull ice cap is due for a "big" eruption, Nasa has said. Satellite images showing Mýrdalsjökull reveal the ice cap has shrunk dramatically over the last 30 years, and experts believe this is a result of recent volcanic episodes.


Comment: Well, it's nice to see the 'experts' didn't blame the shrinkage on 'global warming'.


The images, from Nasa's Earth Observatory, show before and after photos of the ice cap - the first from September 2014, the second from September 1986.

More than half of Iceland's ice caps and glaciers sit either directly above or near active volcanoes, meaning fire and ice often unite.

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