Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

US: Huge Lava Pond Forms On Hawaii's Mount Kilauea

Lava continues to erupt from volcanic vents on Hawaii's Mount Kilauea and has pooled into a huge lava pond on the volcano's active east rift zone.

Spatter cones, formed from molten lava ejected from a volcanic vent, are feeding narrow, fast-moving lava flows, according to an eruption update from the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. This area of Mount Kilauea has been erupting since 1983 with few interruptions.

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© USGS/HVO

Bizarro Earth

US: New Eruption Starts At Alaska's Cleveland Volcano

Cleveland volcano
© Schaefer, JanetLocation of Cleveland volcano and other Aleutian volcanoes.
One of Alaska's most active volcanoes has started erupting, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO).

The 1,730 m (5,676 ft) high Cleveland Volcano, also known as Mount Cleveland, began erupting early on Tuesday. However, the stratovolcano's remoteness is limiting opportunities for its study, reported the AVO which is relying heavily on satellites for monitoring.

According to the AVO: "Without a real-time seismic network on the volcano, AVO is unable to track local earthquake activity related to volcanic unrest, provide forecasts of eruptive activity, or confirmation of explosive, ash-producing events. AVO is monitoring the volcano using satellite data as it becomes available. Such data suggests that effusive eruption of the lava dome in the summit crater is possibly continuing."

One of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian Arc, Cleveland has erupted at least 21 times in the last 230 years. A VEI 3 eruption in 1944 produced the arc's only direct volcanic fatality. Most recently Mount Cleveland has erupted three times in 2009, and twice in 2010.

Bizarro Earth

New Eruption Discovered at Undersea Volcano, After Successfully Forecasting the Event

A team of scientists just discovered a new eruption of Axial Seamount, an undersea volcano located about 250 miles off the Oregon coast -- and one of the most active and intensely studied seamounts in the world.

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© Bill Chadwick, Oregon State University; Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionThe manipulator arm of the ROV Jason prepares to sample the new lava flow that erupted in April 2011 at Axial Seamount, located off the Oregon coast.
What makes the event so intriguing is that the scientists had forecast the eruption starting five years ago -- the first successful forecast of an undersea volcano.

Bill Chadwick, an Oregon State University geologist, and Scott Nooner, of Columbia University, have been monitoring Axial Seamount for more than a decade, and in 2006 published a paper in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research in which they forecast that Axial would erupt before the year 2014. Their forecast was based on a series of seafloor pressure measurements that indicated the volcano was inflating.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesian Volcano Unleashes Fresh Burst

Mt.Lokon
© Associated PressMount Lokon spews volcanic ash as seen from Tomohon, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Sunday, July 17, 2011.
Manado -- A volcano that has been spewing lava and clouds of searing gas high into the air let out a new, powerful burst Monday, sending panicked villagers streaming down the sides of the mountain.

One person was injured, said Ludianto, head of the search and rescue team, a man who fell as he was fleeing. The victim suffered only cuts and bruises, however, and no burns as earlier reported.

Mount Karangetang on Siau -- part of the Sulawesi island chain -- started spitting clouds of gas and lava up to 600 meters on Friday, said vulcanologist Surono.

Phoenix

Light show at the Italian cathedral: Luminous lava lights up Sicilian town as Etna keeps on erupting

Menacing and beautiful in equal measure, Mount Etna illuminates the cathedral of Zafferana Etnea with its latest violent eruptions.

In these stunning pictures, Europe's most active volcano appears to be spewing lava right onto the 19th century church.

The Sicilian municipality was in no immediate danger because the lava flowed into a valley, but flights had to be cancelled overnight because of the resulting ash.

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© Marcello Paternostro/AFP/Getty ImagesAn act of God? Mount Etna's lava spews across the skyline behind the 16th-century cathedral of Zafferana Etnea shortly before midnight
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© ReutersGolden glow: The eruption appears to be running right towards the cathedral in this image, but the lava has so far been flowing safely into a valley
Catania's Fontanarossa airport was shut from midnight to 7am this morning.

Bizarro Earth

Italy: Lava Flow at Stromboli

Stromboli
© INGVA selection of frames captured from video recorded by the thermal monitoring camera SQT (all images except center right, which is of the visible-light camera SQV) located at 400 m elevation on the northern flank of Stromboli, which show the evolution of the lava flow on the Sciara del Fuoco between 2100 GMT on 1 August 2011 and 0716 GMT on the 2nd. The emission of this lava flow has evidently not led to the cessation of the explosive activity at the summit craters, as happened during the eruptions of 2002-2003 and 2007.
On the late evening of 1 August 2011, a conspicuous lava flow started to descend the northern slope of the Sciara del Fuoco at Stromboli. This marks the first lava effusion outside the crater terrace since the emission of a small lava flow in the night of 11-12 December 2010.

Around 2100 GMT on 1 August, a vast accumulation of incandescent material appeared at the base of vent N1, the northernmost of the various active vents that lie within the crater terrace at about 750 m elevation on Stromboli. A few minutes later, this material started to collapse and slide, and then developed two small lobes of lava, the more easterly of which descended slowly on the steep slope of the northern portion of the Sciara del Fuoco, repeatedly generating collapse and small landslides derived from the loose material that the slope is made of. The lava then accumulated on the flat area where the hornitos of the 2002-2003 eruption had been located, before making its way down the steep slope below that flat area (as is shown in the two bottom frames in the figure above). On the late morning of 2 August, the lava flow had descended to about 500 m elevation and was advancing very slowly. During the early afternoon of the same day, feeding of the lava flow appeared to diminish.

This lava flow represents the first major summit overflow at Stromboli for several decades, the most recent similar event being the eruption of November 1975. During the subsequent eruptions, in 1985-1986 and 2002-2003, lava effusion occurred from eruptive fissures on the upper northern slope of the Sciara del Fuoco, whereas in 2007, the main effusive vent was located at 400 m elevation. Differently from these eruptions, the usual Strombolian activity from the summit craters has not ceased with the onset of lava effusion on 1-2 August 2011.

Bizarro Earth

Russian Volcano Shows Signs Of Impending Eruption

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Kamchatka Peninsula marked on GOOGLE EARTH
The Kamchatka Peninsula, along Russia's Pacific coast, is currently the most volcanically active area in the world: four volcanoes are erupting simultaneously, and a fifth is showing signs of an impending eruption.

Ash plumes from two of these volcanoes are visible in this natural-colour satellite image. Along the northern (top) edge of the image Shiveluch emits a broad gray plume from the lava dome growing on its southern flank. 90 kilometres (60 miles) to the southwest a much smaller plume escapes from Bezymianny.

This image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on August 3, 2011. Bright green vegetation covers the river floodplains and mountainsides, which gives way to bare rock and eventually snow at higher elevations.

Bizarro Earth

US: Volcano Watchers Raise Alert Status for Mount Cleveland

Mt Cleveland
© Anchorage Daily News
Signs of lava at Mount Cleveland prompted volcanologists to raise their alert level Tuesday afternoon for the Aleutian Islands volcano.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory reports "heightened or escalated unrest" and the possibility of an eruption at the 5,676-foot volcano, according to the observatory's website.

Cleveland Volcano comprises the western half of Chuginidak Island, which sits about 115 miles west of Dutch Harbor and 950 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Satellite data and visual observations in late July revealed a lava dome about 140 feet in diameter growing in the volcano's crater, said volcanologist Chris Waythomas. The dome grew another 10 feet or so between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the observatory.

"Sometimes lava domes like that can be explosive and lead to ash production," Waythomas said.

The volcano observatory raised the advisory status from "advisory" to "watch" and the aviation warning level from yellow to orange.

Bizarro Earth

Satellite Image Shows Ash Plume Drifting From Krakatoa

A newly released NASA satellite image shows an ash plume drifting from a volcano that produced one of the largest eruptions in modern history.

Anak Krakatau (also known as Krakatoa), a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia, has been intermittently active for the past several decades.

The island exploded in 1883, killing approximately 40,000 people, although some estimates put the death toll much higher. The explosion is considered to be the loudest sound ever heard in modern history, with reports of it being heard nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from its point of origin. The shock wave from the explosion was recorded on barographs around the globe.

Anak Krakatoa
© NASA

Bizarro Earth

Mount Etna In Sicily Erupts, Seventh Eruption This Year

The Mount Etna volcano on the southern Italian island of Sicily erupted this weekend spewing ash and volcanic debris more than 300 metres into the air and sending lava down its slopes.

This is the seventh time that Mount Etna has erupted in 2011. The weekend eruption was the fourth and largest in July. The last eruption occurred on 19 July.

Italian officials had since said the 11,000-foot-tall volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, had calmed down after more that two weeks of activity. Residents in surrounding areas had been warned however, that the Sicilian volcano might have fallen back into a short-lived slumber and another "active phase may just be around the corner."

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity.

On 12-13 January 2011 lava fountaining occurred from the vent on the east flank of Etna's Southeast Crater cone, lasting more than 1.5 hours. Italian Authorities were forced to temporarily close airports for a couple of hours while the ash cloud cleared.