Volcanoes
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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."
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."
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.
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'.
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.
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."

Residents 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.
"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.












