Stories tagged volcano
Mount Vesuvius and Naples
Courtesy Mark WalesResidents of Naples had thoughts of Pompeii flashing through their minds yesterday when Italian F-16s flying nearby created sonic booms while flying to intercept a nearby unidentified aircraft. Residents jammed the phone lines to the city's eruption hotline.
Several million people live in areas that could be affected by Vesuvius, making it one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.
Geologists predict that at least 300,000 people would be killed should Vesuvius erupt without ample warning for evacuation. A recent computer simulation used to model an eruption shows that residents to the south of Vesuvius, in the direction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, will have little chance to survive a blast like the one that buried these towns in 79 AD.
Tags : Pompeii pressure: Vesuvius may be easing up
in Earth and Space Science, Earth Structure and Processes, and Forces of Nature
Thing of the past?: New studies show that the likelihood of a major eruption of Mount Vesuvius, like this computer image of the infamous blast of 79 A.D., are decreasing.
Courtesy WikipediaAbout a year ago visitors at the Science Museum of Minnesota learned about the disaster that struck Pompeii, Italy, when Mount Vesuvius erupted, wiping out the city and a lot of its residents in the span of just about a day.
Today, about three million people are living within range of a Vesuvius eruption. But the good news from geologists is that they may be under lessened risk for a devastating eruption like the one that hit in 79 A.D.
A new study shows that the volcano’s magma reservoir has been rising up closer to the Earth’s surface over the past 20,000 years. At that higher level, the magma is likely to produce less violent eruptions.
That magma has actually moved quite a bit. Between the huge Pompeii-devastating eruption and another one in the year 472 A.D., the magma pool climbed about 2.5 miles toward Earth’s surface.
But that doesn’t mean people can sleep totally at peace in the volcano’s neighborhood, experts advise. Other factors also play into the severity of a volcano eruption, including tectonic plate shift and the deposit distribution of the magma, factors that weren’t part of this new study.
The scream: The reddish sky in the background of this famous painting was possibly caused by the 1883 Krakatoa eruption. The ash that was ejected from the volcano left the sky tinted red in most of Europe and Asia from November 1883 to February 1884.
Courtesy Edvard MunchOn August 26 - 27, 1883 Krakatau, a stratovolcano that lies in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, erupted in what was one of the most violent volcanic events in modern times. It erupted with the force of 200 megatons of TNT and was heard as far away as Australia. The tsunamis generated by the eruption reached heights of 140 feet above sea level and washed away 165 coastal villages on Java and Sumatra, killing 36,000 people.
Emissions from Kilauea vent.: Rainbow and sulfur dioxide emissions from the Halema`uma`u vent, Kīlauea.
Courtesy Mila ZinkovaEver heard of vog? I hadn’t until this morning.
Vog is short for volcanic smog, which is formed when the gases (such as sulfur dioxide) from a volcano mix with moisture, oxygen and sunlight. The result is smog, but smog from a natural source, a volcano.
Yesterday the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture gave the Hawaiian Island of Hawai’i (known as Big Island) a Secretarial Disaster Designation as the crops being grown on this volcanic island are being damaged by vog generated by the Kilauea volcano. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives say that vog should be considered a natural disaster much like a hurricane or tsunami.
The risk to individuals from the vog is unknown at this point, but the Centers for Disease Control will assist in assessing the health risk of the vog to Big Island residents.
The volcano has been erupting since 1983 but the vog only became an issue this past March when a small explosion created a new vent on the volcano.
Kilauea is a shield volcano that has been Hawaii’s most active volcano during historical time, and is one of five shield volcanoes that together make up Big Island.
Non Erupting Image of Chaiten: This is a nice picture of Chaiten. But the really cool ones of the volcano erupting and volcanic lightning are in the links in the story. Check 'em out.
Courtesy NASAThe image here is a boring image of Chaiten. The images here are awesome images taken from the May eruption. (Though I suspect if you live nearby like the town on the top of the photo to the right, the boring images are more preferable.) Scientists think that volcanic lighting is caused within volcanic ash clouds by particles rubbing together generating static electricity.
Okmok in eruption, 7/21/2008: Aerial overflight courtesy of Air Station Kodiak, US Coast Guard, photographer Tina Neal.
Courtesy AVO/USGSTwo volcanoes in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands have been erupting since last week – the first time in over 30 years two volcanoes in the region have had simultaneous eruptions.
Scientists from the Alaskan Volcano Observatory were first aware of the eruption of Mount Okmok, a shield volcano on Umnak Island. The eruption began on July 12 with no advance warning and has continued erupting since. The latest update (July 27) indicates that, “The amplitude and duration of seismic activity has increased over the past 11 hours. Satellite data indicate a possible thermal anomaly that may be due to solar reflection of the plume. The most recent satellite images show the potential Okmok plume at less than 10,000'. Stronger explosive activity could resume at any time with little or no warning.”
Astronaut photo of ash cloud from Mount Cleveland, May 23, 2006: Image of Mount Cleveland from a 2006 eruption.
Courtesy NASAWhile studying the eruption of Mount Okmok scientists at the Alaskan Volcano Observatory then noticed that Mount Cleveland, a stratovolcano on Chuginadak Island was also erupting. Reports from fishing boats indicate that the eruption began on July 21 and the most recent update (July 27) says that, “Thermal anomalies seen in satellite views suggest the presence of lava on the surface near Cleveland's summit. Satellite images also indicate a possible ash cloud traveling SE from the volcano at less than 20,000 feet.” Cleveland is a more active volcano than Okmok having last erupted in 2005.
Both volcanoes are at alert level orange, the second highest alert level. The National Weather Service issues a 24-hour ash fall advisory for Umnak Island and the southwest portion of Unalaska Island.
The Alaskan Volcano Observatory has lots of great resources on these eruptions, including a web cam of Mount Cleveland and they have lots of other webcams of other volcanoes too. They monitor seismic activity in real time for 30 volcanoes in Alaska and analyze satellite images of all the Alaskan volcanoes for evidence of eruption. Another great source of information if you are into learning more about volcanoes is the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program.
No, not by a volcano but by poor maintenance. Many of the priceless artifacts recovered from the ancient Roman city have been damaged. The Italian government has declared a "state of emergency" to preserve what remains.
Waking up: Chilean volcano thought to be dormant erupts for the first time in 9,000 years
Ash and lightning: The phenomenon of volcanic activity triggering lightning was seen this week at the eruption of the Chaiten Volcano in Chile.
Courtesy guanoThe residents of the small coastal Chilean village of Chaiten got a huge suprise over the weekend: a long dormant volcano suddenly erupted, forcing 4,500 residents to suddenly evacuate the town in early winter conditions. Be sure to click through all the photos in the link's slide show. The views are spectacular. Here is a slide show from National Geographic. And here is a video report of the eruption. So far, one person has been found dead at the eruption site, but the volcano continues to spew ash into the sky. Because the volcano was thought to be dormant, it hasn't been monitored for underground activity like many other volcanoes across the globe.
Nevado del Huila: Huila, the highest active volcano in Colombia, is a stratovolcano constructed inside an old caldera. The volcano is seen here from the SW.
Courtesy Juan Carlos Diago, 1995 (Bernardo Pulgarín, INGEOMINAS, Colombia).Nevado del Huila, a volcano in Columbia, erupted shortly before midnight on Monday forcing about 3,500 people to evacuate. The eruption was preceded by seismic activity that started on April 8.
Nevado del Huila last erupted in 2007, causing flooding and mud flows (lahars) as the eruption melted the snow and ice cap on top of the tallest active volcano in Columbia.
Before this recent activity, Nevado del Huila had been quiet since the 16th century.
In 1985 25,000 people were killed when another Columbian volcano, Nevado del Ruiz, erupted initiating a series of deadly lahars.
Satelite Imagery of Sidoarjo before and after Sidoarjo mud flow.
Courtesy NASAI saw this story as I was flipping through the January 2008 issue of National Geographic. Since May 2006 a mud volcano has been “erupting” 18.5 million gallons of hot mud a day along with hydrogen sulphide gas in Sidoarjo, East Java, 22 miles south of Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya. The volcano, called Lusi, has displaced 10,000 families and has cost Indonesia over $3.7 billion to date.
What caused the mud volcano to start erupting is interesting – and up for debate. Initially, PT Lapindo Brantas, an oil and gas company drilling just over 200 yards away when the volcano started to erupt from its drilling rig on May 28, 2006, was blamed, and it was ordered to pay nearly $500 million. However, on May 27, 2006, a major earthquake struck and devastated Yogyakarta on Java (5,782 dead, 36,299 injured, 1.5 million homeless) and this too could have contributed to the mud volcano’s eruption. Skeptics point out that the epicenter of this earthquake was nearly 200 miles away and the earthquake was only 2 on the Richter scale in Sidoarjo. Recent rulings regarding the eruption have called it a “natural disaster”.
Given the amount of the damage, and the impact on the people and the economy and businesses, the issue of who, or what, is responsible is being hotly debated. The disaster is being investigated by local, national and international experts.
There are tons of interesting articles about this on the web – I’ll list a few below. What I highly encourage you to check out are the satellite photos of the region that are available – to visually see the amount of mud that has overtaken this area – up to 60 feet deep in some areas, is remarkable.
These satellite images show the difference in the area around the eruption between October 2005 and August 2006 (scroll down on the page to see the images).
This is the most recent photo of the area. Click on the earlier images to see the spread of the mud over time. It’s scary.
A slideshow of images from Greenpeace. The first image is striking.
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