Volcanoes
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Bizarro Earth

Canary Islands Government Monitors El Hierro Earthquake Swarm

The Canary Islands Government has said it is monitoring an earthquake swarm on the small island of El Hierro where in excess of 400 tremors of low magnitude have been recorded in the past four days.

On Friday, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Government Security Canary convened the first ever meeting of the Steering Committee and Volcanic Monitoring, reflected in the Specific Plan Protection Civil and Emergency for Volcanic Risk, given what it described "the significant increase in seismic activity".

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© Google EarthLocation of tremors on El Hierro
A statement (translated from Spanish) issued following the meeting outlined: "This committee met this morning (Friday) at the headquarters of the Directorate General Security and Emergency Tenerife, established after the assessment of information gathered from seismic and volcanological last July 17 by the National Geographic Institute (IGN) and Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands, the situation is total normal for the green light for the information population, activating mechanisms for monitoring and oversight needed to coordinate the actions of self civil population and information contained in the Plan."

Bizarro Earth

Ecuador: Reventador Volcano Activity Increases

Reventador
© galapagosonline
The Reventador Volcano has shown increased activity and government officials ask no one to approach. Revenatador is located 90 km west of Quito and has a long history of activity. In November 2002 the volcano erupted for the first time in 26 years destroying roads between Quito and Lago Agrio. The 17 km high ash cloud affected 2 million people as it spread over the provinces of Pichincha, Napo and Suscumbios and forced the closure of the Quito Airport causing flights to be rerouted to Guayaquil or Latacunga. A subsequent eruption in November of 2008 effected residents of El Chaco in the Amazon basin.

The Geophysical Institute of Ecuador stated "it is clear that the volcano appears significantly more active than in previous months, this being much more noticeable in recent days " Rash on the volcano Reventador occurs "significantly active than in previous months" and "in these circumstances the presence of people near the crater of Reventador is dangerous and in no way recommended to climb to the summit."

Sun

SOTT Focus: Connecting the Dots: Cosmic Changes, Planetary Instability and Extreme Weather

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© NASA / SDOThe Solar Dynamics Observatory's view of the coronal mass ejection of June 7, 2011.
With Earth Changes now clearly happening and time pressing, the editors of Sott.net are faced with the urgency of catching up with an avalanche of significant news items and trying to make sense of things! Recent weather events have been unprecedented: both spring and early summer have been bizarre across the globe, to say the least.

You name the weather or geological type of phenomenon; someone in the world had it: volcanoes, earthquakes, torrential rain, floods, sinkholes, tornadoes, droughts, wildfires ... even summertime snow! Let's review them all as best as we can, starting from the top: the cosmic factor.

Solar Activity
© Mike BormanImage Taken: Jun 4, 2011
Location: Evansville, Indiana, USA
Cosmic Changes Are Under Way

Changes on planet Earth comprise such a wide variety of phenomena, from extreme weather anomalies to volcanoes and earthquakes, so perhaps it's a good idea to zoom back and see if we can make sense of any changes in the cosmic climate that may be affecting us. Yes, we are aware that this approach goes against the sanctioned narrative claiming that these changes are caused by carbon-burning human beings living in an isolated bubble that can only grow warmer. But the pieces of the puzzle on the table point to a different, larger picture.

A huge central piece is our sun, which is not surprising, since this ongoing explosion in space is what brings order to our corner of the universe and to life to Earth. For the last couple of years the sun was expected to go into high activity in accordance with its usual 11-year sunspot cycle. But scientists were left scratching their heads as our local star remained quiet. Now it's giving off such a display of flares that it has NASA scientists going 'ooh and ahh'.

Bizarro Earth

US: Alert Level Raised for Alaska Volcano

Cleveland Volcano
© AP / NASAThis 2006 photo shows an aerial view of the eruption of Cleveland Volcano.
Anchorage, Alaska - The alert level for an Alaska volcano is being raised after officials say persistent thermal anomalies have been spotted in satellite data.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory on Wednesday raised the level Cleveland Volcano to advisory from unassigned.

There is no real-time seismic network at the volcano, located 939 miles southwest of Anchorage on an uninhabited island. Officials are not able to track local earthquake activity related to volcanic unrest.

Short-lived explosions with ash clouds or plumes exceeding 20,000 feet above sea level are frequent on Cleveland. It last showed signs of unrest last summer, with a small ash emission and lava flows on its upper flanks.

The observatory says the last significant eruption of the 5,676-foot volcano began in February 2001 and eventually produced a lava flow that reached the ocean.

Radar

Mt. Etna erupts with fountains of lava

Image
Tom Pfeiffer/VolcanoDiscovery
Iceland's gotten all the press of late, but there are other volcanoes in the world. One of the more famous ones, Italy's Mount Etna, spent Monday night into Tuesday morning sending up cascading fountains of lava and throwing out car-sized molten rocks.

The volcano's southeast crater began to show fractures on the Monday afternoon, says volcanologist Tom Pfeiffer, who leads volcano tours through Volcano Discovery. At just after midnight Tuesday morning it began to mildly erupt and the tour group walked to a viewpoint on the rim of the Valle del Bove.

At around 2:30 am the volcano began to send up fountins of lava 1,600 feet into the air, Pfeiffer said via email from Italy.

"At the peak of the eruption at around 3 am, the fountains pulsated between an estimated 500-800 m height, with large incandescent bombs visible more than 1 kilometer above the vent and landing behind southeast crater," he wrote. "The fountains gradually decreased by around 4 am and the activity turned into exploding giant lava bubbles, detonating with loud noise, and throwing large bombs up to 1 km in spherical directions above the crater. This activity slowly waned until dawn. While the fountains lasted, the crater wall was completely covered by incandescent lava."

Bizarro Earth

Double Eruption at Indonesia Volcano

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© ReutersResidents reacting as Mount Lokon spews volcanic ash during an eruption in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, on Sunday. Mount Lokon continued to erupt on Sunday, prompting panicked villagers racing back to crowded government shelters.
An Indonesian volcano erupted twice on Monday following its biggest eruption in weeks over the weekend, a government volcanologist said, forcing people to remain in safety shelters.

"The two eruptions happened within ten minutes which sent a column of ash and smoke up to 600 meters into the air," government vulcanologist Freddy Korompis said from a monitoring post.

[Incredible Images of this Event]

The 1,580-meter-tall Mount Lokon experienced its biggest eruption on Sunday with huge clouds of ash propelled 3,500 meters into the sky.

More than 5,200 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters since the volcano erupted on Thursday and its alert status was placed on the highest level.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia Mount Lokon Volcano Spews Ash in Biggest Eruption

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© AP PhotoThe glow of lava from Mount Lokon's eruption is seen against the night sky as seen from Tomohon, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, early Thursday night, July 14, 2011.
A volatile volcano in central Indonesia unleashed its most powerful eruption yet Sunday, spewing hot ash and smoke thousands of feet (meters) into the air and sending panicked villagers racing back to emergency shelters. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Mount Lokon, located on northern Sulawesi island, has been dormant for years but rumbled back to life late last week.

A series of overnight blasts Thursday and Friday claimed one life - a woman who suffered a heart attack as she fled.

But Surono, a government volcanologist who uses only one name, said Sunday's 10:35 a.m. eruption released the greatest amount of energy so far, shooting soot and debris 11,400 feet (3,500 meters) into the sky.

"We're hoping this helped ease pressure building up behind the magma dome and that we'll now start seeing a reduction in activity," he said. "But it's too early to know."

Phoenix

Indonesia: 4,600 evacuated in volcano eruption

More than 4,600 people have been evacuated since an Indonesian volcano erupted on Thursday and its alert status was placed on the highest level, an official said. Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island spewed grey ash up to 800 metres (2,600 feet) high early on Saturday as it continued to rumble.

"The evacuees are placed in six shelter points. No one has died because of the direct impact of the eruption," disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia: Lokon volcano erupts near Tomohon

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© AFPThe Lokon volcano erupts near Tomohon on July 15, 2011.
An Indonesian volcano erupted late on Thursday, spewing rocks, lava and ash hundreds of metres into the air, an official said, three days after its alert status was raised to the highest level.

There has been a significant rise in volcanic activity at Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island since June 9, prompting hundreds of people to evacuate the area.

'There was a big eruption around 10.31pm local time (1531 GMT, 11.31pm Singapore time), which saw ash, sand and rocks thrown 1,500m into the air,' government volcanologist Kristianto told AFP.

Grass and shrubs in an area stretching 500m around the volcano were on fire but there was no immediate danger to people living nearby, he said. The volcano's status was raised to its highest red alert level after it spewed ash 500m into the air over the weekend, leading to a 3.5km evacuation zone being established in case of a bigger eruption.

Bizarro Earth

Vanuatu Evacuation Alert as Volcano Rumbles

Ambae Volcano
© ABC, AustraliaMV Brisk lands at Pentecost island, just east of Ambae.
Vanuatu's Ambae volcano has begun spewing volcanic gases, and residents could be forced to evacuate part of the island.

An expert from the Vanuatu Geohazards Observatory has been sent to monitor the volcano, which has been known to trigger earthquakes.

They have measured an increase in tremor activity in the area and are expecting more explosions.

If the volcano does becomes more active, people living around it will be forced to evacuate.

Volcanologist Sylvain Todman, from the Vanuatu Geohazards Observatory, told Pacific Beat they were watching the situation very closely.

"At the moment we have sporadic explosions but the explosions are getting bigger and bigger every time," he said.