Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

Restive Mayon volcano showing new signs of activity with quakes and rock fall

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Mayon
Restive Mayon Volcano showed new signs of activity with four volcanic quakes and one rockfall in the last 24 hours, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Friday. In its 8 a.m. update, Phivolcs also observed a moderate emission of white steam plumes drifting southwest. However, it said there was no crater glow observed Thursday night.

These activities show Mayon remains "in a state of unrest due to the movement of potentially eruptible magma," it added. Phivolcs said Mayon's alert level remains at "3," meaning "magma is at the crater and that hazardous eruption is possible within weeks."

More than 12,000 families living in Mayon's danger zone had been evacuated since Phivolcs raised the alert level at the volcano in mid-September.

Bizarro Earth

Japan warns of possible Mt. Ioyama eruption near nuclear plant

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© NASAMt. Ioyama
Japan warned today that a volcano in southern Japan located roughly 64 km (40 miles) from a nuclear plant was showing signs of increased activity that could possibly lead to a small-scale eruption and warned people to stay away from the summit.

The warning comes nearly a month after another volcano, Mt Ontake, erupted suddenly when crowded with hikers, killing 57 people in Japan's worst volcanic disaster in nearly 90 years. Ioyama, a mountain on the southwestern island of Kyushu, has been shaken by small tremors and other signs of rising volcanic activity recently, including a tremor lasting as long as seven minutes, an official at the Japan Meteorological Agency's volcano division said.

"There is an increase in activity that under certain circumstances could even lead to a small scale eruption, but it is not in danger of an imminent, major eruption," the official said.

The warning level on the mountain has been raised from the lowest possible level, normal, to the second lowest, which means that the area around the crater is dangerous, he added.

Ioyama lies in the volcanically active Kirishima mountain range and is roughly 64 km from the Sendai nuclear plant run by Kyushu Electric Power Co, which the Japanese government wants to restart even though the public remains opposed to nuclear power following the Fukushima crisis.

Bizarro Earth

Colombia-Ecuador border earthquake sparking concern of possible imminent volcanic eruption

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Authorities in southwestern Colombia have raised alert levels on Tuesday after a 5.6M earthquake hit the border region, raising concerns that two nearby volcanoes might erupt in a matter of days. Colombia's Geological Service have changed the alert level of two volcanoes from yellow to orange. The two volcanoes are Cerro Negro and Chiles, both active on Colombia's southern border with Ecuador.

The orange alert level is defined by the Geological Service as "probable eruption in term of days to weeks." The earthquake that hit the border region caused a scare on both side of the border.

Officials in the Colombian town of Cumbal, near the quake's epicenter, were quoted as saying by The Associated Press that they formed an emergency committee to survey possible damage. But so far, there were no reports of injuries in the town of 36,000 residents, the majority of them members of an indigenous tribe.

"It was really strong, every house" felt it, Jose Diomedes Juezpesan, the town's top official, told AP. If the volcanoes are to erupt, it will mostly affect the state Nariño. Local state government have started to take security measures in order prevent tragedies.

Bizarro Earth

Colombia orders evacuation of around 12,000 people amid fears of volcanic eruptions

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Authorities in southwest Colombia ordered the evacuation of around 12,000 people living near the Chiles and Cerro Negro volcanoes on the border with Ecuador, amid fears that recent volcanic activity may result in an eruption.

On Tuesday, Colombia's Geological Service have changed the alert level of two volcanoes from yellow to orange.

48 hours later, it was followed up by the National Disaster Risk Management Unit's (UNGRD) decision to evacuate more than 3,500 families belonging to indigenous reserves of Chiles , Panam and Mayasquer.

According to Carlos Ivan Marquez, the director of the UNGRD, the authorities set up an incident command post in the town of Cumbal where they have delivered 3,000 tents for the people in temporary shelters.

"In accord with the forecast given to us by the Geological Service, the change of alert level from yellow to orange means anticipated eruptions in the coming days or weeks," Marquez told the media.

If the volcanoes are to erupt, it will mostly affect the state Nariño. Local state government have started to take security measures in order prevent tragedies.

Bizarro Earth

A major volcanic eruption could make Japan 'extinct'

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© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The newly created volcanic Nishinoshima island about 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo spews ash and smoke on June 13, 2014.
One major volcanic eruption could make Japan "extinct," a study by experts at Kobe University warns, although the chances of that happening are relatively slim.

The study, by Prof. Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and Associate Prof. Keiko Suzuki, concludes that the chance of a big eruption that would disrupt the lives of everyone in Japan are about 1% over the next 100 years.

The researchers based their findings on the cycles and impacts of major eruptions in Japan on the study of the Aira Caldera near what is now the city of Kagoshima on southern Kyushu island. The caldera was created 28,000 years ago and has a diameter of 20 kilometers.

If a similar eruption were to take place in the area today, within about two hours the flow of molten rock, lava and ash would cover an area in which seven million now live. A large amount of ash would be carried across the country, shutting down transportation and other key systems, disrupting the lives of nearly 120 million people, or almost everyone in Japan.

"We should be aware," the researchers warn in their report to be published in November. "It wouldn't be a surprise if such gigantic eruption were to take place at any moment."

Bizarro Earth

Around 70 earth­quakes in the last 24 hours at Iceland's Bárðar­bunga caldera rim

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© Guðmundur K. Sig­ur­dórs­sonAc­cord­ing to the Ice­land Met Of­fice, no sig­nif­i­cant changes are ob­served in the seis­mic ac­tiv­ity around the Bárðar­bunga vol­canic sys­tem.
Ap­prox­i­mately 70 earth­quakes oc­curred on the Bárðar­bunga caldera rim in the last 24 hours re­ports the Ice­land Met Of­fice this morn­ing. The strongest quakes were of the mag­ni­tude of 4.8 yes­ter­day at 13:21 and at 4.6 at 01:36. Seven earth­quakes al­to­gether ex­ceeded the mag­ni­tude of 4, and 15 earth­quakes were in the mag­ni­tude range of 3-3.9. Sub­si­dence of the caldera is con­tin­u­ous.

Ac­cord­ing to the Ice­land Met Of­fice, no sig­nif­i­cant changes are ob­served in the seis­mic ac­tiv­ity around the Bárðar­bunga vol­canic sys­tem.

Around 30 events have been de­tected in the north­ern part of the dyke in­tru­sion, be­tween north­ern Dyn­gju­jökull and the erup­tion site in Holuhraun. The strongest ones were both of the mag­ni­tude 1.4 yes­ter­day at 10:07 and 13:33.

Bizarro Earth

Japan's massive 2011 earthquake may trigger more, and larger, volcanic eruptions

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© AFP Photo/Yoshikazu TsunoSnow-covered Mount Fuji is seen from Tokyo, Japan, on February 16, 2014
Japan's massive 2011 earthquake may trigger more, and larger, volcanic eruptions over the next few decades, perhaps even that of Mount Fuji - but predicting them remains close to impossible, a volcano expert said on Friday.

The nation last month suffered its worst volcanic disaster in nearly 90 years when Mount Ontake, its second tallest active volcano at 3,067 meters (10,062 feet), suddenly erupted, raining down ash and stone on hikers crowding the summit.

The eruption killed 56 people, exceeding the deaths in the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens in the United States. Seven victims remain missing, and recovery efforts have been suspended until the spring.

Japan may well be moving into a period of increased volcanic activity touched off by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake of March 11, 2011, said Toshitsugu Fujii, a volcanologist and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo.

"The 2011 quake convulsed all of underground Japan quite sharply, and due to that influence Japan's volcanoes may also become much more active," Fujii told reporters.

"It has been much too quiet here over the last century, so we can reasonably expect that there will be a number of large eruptions in the near future."

Arrow Down

Surrounding volcanoes pose threat to Sendai nuclear plant, yet Japan plans to restart the reactor

Mt Ontake
© Reuters/KyodoVolcanic smoke rise from Mt. Ontake, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures, central Japan, September 30, 2014.
A Japanese volcanologist has refuted early claims that two nuclear reactors stationed near a hotbed of volcanic activity were safe, stating that it is impossible to predict an eruption accurately outside the time span of a few days.

The Sendai nuclear power plant in southern Japan could quite easily be the source of a national disaster should a cauldron eruption take place at one of the surrounding volcanoes posing an immediate threat to the site, Toshitsugu Fujii, head of a government-commissioned panel on volcanic eruption prediction told a press briefing on Friday.

"It is simply impossible to predict an eruption over the next 30 to 40 years," Fujii said. "The level of predictability is extremely limited." He added that prediction can happen only in the space of hours or days.

His statements contradict those of nuclear regulators who last month said that the two Sendai nuclear reactors were functioning within the nuclear safety regulations laid out in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Bizarro Earth

Ashen footprints may point to explosive future for Hawaii's Kilauea volcano

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© Don SwansonFootprints preserved in Kilauea volcano ash deposits.
Thousands of human footprints cast in ash at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano are the final steps of people killed in a 1790 phreatic eruption - the same kind of unpredictable blast that caught hikers at Japan's Mount Ontake volcano in late September.

The footprints are evidence that the goddess Pele's reputation for power and ferocity were well-earned in the past, even though Kilauea is a tourist's volcano today. From about 1500 to 1800, Kilauea hurled mighty ash plumes into the jet stream and heaved huge rocks out of its deep caldera, the crater at the volcano's summit. And geologist Don Swanson thinks another round of violent eruptions will happen again.

"Too often, geologists and the general public view Kilauea as safe. It's just a stage that you come to and view a performance of great beauty," said Swanson, a geologist and former director of the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. "I hope that people realize Kilauea is not that way at all. Kilauea is an explosive volcano, and when it gets into an explosive period it can be life-threatening."

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia's Mt. Slamet continues to erupt - hundreds of tremors are recorded every 24 hours

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© ABC NewsMt Slamet
An expert has warned that Mount Slamet's seismic activity remains high although it has not spewed lava in the past month.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's Geology Agency head, Surono, said Mt. Slamet's constantly high volcanic activity made it unsafe, forcing authorities to maintain its alert status at "siaga" (level 3).

"Its activities are still high. Hundreds of tremors are recorded every 24 hours; thus, the situation is not yet safe," he told journalists in Purwokerto, Central Java, on Monday.

Surono further said that due to such fluctuating conditions, Mt. Slamet was still closed to climbers. No activity is allowed within a 4-kilometer radius of the mountain.

Mt Slamet's increased volcanic activity during the past month has caused panic among residents in five regencies located on the slope of the volcano in Central Java. Among the five regencies located on the slope of Mt. Slamet are Banyumas, Brebes, Pemalang, Purbalingga and Tegal.

Tremors and harsh sounds have emanate dozens of times a day from the volcano, which in the past has also spewed volcanic ash up to 50 km away from the peak.