Brief announcement 21 July 2011
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Apologies for the lack of updates at the moment, I’ve been unwell (nothing serious). I’ll be catching up with things as soon as I can. In the meantime, here’s a nice painting of Vesuvius from 1797 to enjoy: Giovanni Battista Lusieri, ‘Vesuvius from Posillipo by Night, during the Eruption of 1787′.
Another large eruption at Lokon (updated) 17 July 2011
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Another large eruption of Mount Lokon in Sulawesi this morning (Sunday 17 July), according to news reports: a 3.5 km altitude ash plume, and the first confirmed fatality of the current eruptive episode, a woman suffering a heart attack as she fled the eruption [CORRECTION: apparently this unfortunate event occurred during last week's eruptions]. Indonesian volcanologist Surono describes today’s eruption as the largest yet. As the eruption started, local residents who had been returning to their homes and crops following earlier evacuations cleared out in a hurry once again.
Darwin VAAC issued a volcanic ash advisory at 07:37 GMT reporting no volcanic ash emissions visible on satellite imagery, but noting media reports of ash between 3 km and 5 km altitude, moving north, and confirming that ‘situation will be closely monitored’. According to the New Zealand Herald flights from Manado airport have not yet been affected by the eruption, but the airport has been warned to be on alert for possible ash at altitude. The Jakarta Post reported earlier today that ‘at least 4,889 people’ had been evacuated following the latest eruption. The local paper Tribun Manado reports that civil protection authorities have been touring villages in the area and warning their residents to evacuate, and that the security of the exclusion zone around the volcano has been tightened following today’s eruption, with even local residents being denied access. Tribun Manado also has extensive photo galleries of the eruption: gallery 1- gallery 2 – gallery 3 – gallery 4 – gallery 5 (links from Earthquake-Report.com).
Some distinctly oddball stories on the eruption have also been appearing in Tribun Manado: one on traditional beliefs that certain areas will be protected by supernatural agencies from the volcano’s activity, and another on an alleged appearance of Jesus’s face in the volcano’s ash cloud.
Regularly updated coverage of the Lokon eruption can be found at Earthquake-Report.com. Thanks to Raj in Manado for reports and translations, and thanks also to reader Raving who has posted a video of the eruption in the comments below.
News
Indonesia volcano spews ash in biggest eruption – Associated Press, 17 July 2011
Indonesians flee new volcano eruption on Sulawesi – BBC News, 17 July 2011
4,889 evacuated after Mt. Lokon eruptions – Jakarta Post, 17 July 2011
Indonesia’s Mount Lokon volcano erupts – Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2011
Sketsa mirip wajah Yesus muncul saat letusan lokon – Tribun Manado, 17 July 2011
‘Katanya Desa Warembungan dilindungi Tatawiran dan opo Lokon’ – Tribun Manado, 17 July 2011
SAR imbau warga Desa Tinoor 1 untuk berhati-hati – Tribun Manado, 17 July 2011
Kapolres perintahkan tutup akses ke pos pemantauan Lokon – Tribun Manado, 18 July 2011
Flight alert after new Lokon eruption – New Zealand Herald, 18 July 2011
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Lokon-Empung – summary information for Lokon-Empung (0606-10=)
Volcanological Survey of Indonesia – information and status reports in Indonesian
Mount Lokon eruption continues 15 July 2011
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Mount Lokon volcano, North Sulawesi, erupting on 14 July 2011 (image courtesy Tribun Manado, via Earthquake-Report.com).
The eruption of Sulawesi’s Mount Lokon that began yesterday (after days of lower-level eruptive activity) continues, with spectacular explosive activity and the eruption of ash and lava. Ash has darkened the sky over the city of Manado. Darwin VAAC has issued a Volcanic Ash Advisory for the eruption which notes that no ash cloud is yet detectable on satellite imagery, but that volcanic ash from the eruption has reached 1,500 metres above the crater. The Indonesian aviation authorities are warning flights in the area of the presence of volcanic ash at low altitudes, but Manado airport is operating normally and no diversions or cancellations have yet been ordered. No casualties have been reported from this eruption, and evacuations had already taken place around the volcano earlier this week; the evacuations have now been expanded to encompass over 4,000 people.
Mount Lokon is the higher peak of the very active twin volcanoes Lokon and Empung. The latter peak last erupted from its summit crater some time around 1775 (give or take 25 years or so), but all 24 subsequent eruptions listed by the Global Volcanism Program (and the current activity) have originated from Tompaluan Crater, situated in the saddle between the two peaks. Most of these eruptions were VEI 1 or 2, although eruptions in July 1951 to March 1953, May 1991 to January 1992 and September 2003 were VEI 3.
More up-to-date coverage of this eruption is available at Earthquake-Report.com.
News
Peringatan kemenhub: Lokon meletus, maskapai miminta waspada – Tribun Manado, 15 July 2011
Thousands evacuated as Sulawesi volcano erupts – Jakarta Globe, 15 July 2011
Indonesians flee volcano eruption on Sulawesi – BBC News, 15 July 2011
Indonesia’s Mount Lokon erupts, thousands take refuge – Reuters India, 15 July 2011
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Lokon-Empung – summary information for Lokon-Empung (0606-10=)
Volcanological Survey of Indonesia – information and status reports in Indonesian
The Daily Volcano Quote: the rock band and the volcano 14 July 2011
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Perhaps the most incredible Weather Control story involves the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. The Dead was reportedly playing at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. A short way into the second set, the Dead played the song “Fire on the Mountain”. Legend has it that while the band was playing a particularly “hot” version of that song, the volcano erupted. When the show was over, Deadheads emerged to find volcanic ash falling everywhere. Though it was never explicitly said that the Dead “caused” the mountain to erupt, everyone agreed that the intensity of the song and the eruption were somehow connected. In fact, the Dead did not actually play in Portland until June 12, 1980, almost a month after the major May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens, but they did play “Fire on the Mountain” at that show, probably as a tribute to the volcano. This legend shows how history and folklore combine very quickly — in this case within ten years — to create a memorable story. 
Revell Carr, ‘Deadhead tales of the supernatural: a folkloristic analysis’, in Robert G. Weiner (ed.), Perspectives on the Grateful Dead (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999), pp. 209-10. The Grateful Dead may not actually ever have made a volcano erupt, but they could have done if they had wanted to.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
The tale of the mantle-plume thermal anomaly and the lost landscape 14 July 2011
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Using three-dimensional seismic reflection data, UK scientists have recovered the topography of a landscape that has been buried beneath the sea-floor sediments of the North Atlantic for 55 million years. The researchers, from the Bullard Laboratories and the BP Institute in Cambridge, have traced the coast, drainage patterns and contours of a landform that emerged north of what is now Scotland some 57-55 Myr ago, and have reconstructed the sequence through which the land was uplifted and, after about 1 million years of exposure, reburied. Their results are published in Nature Geoscience (see references below). They conclude that the driving force behind the rapid rise and fall of this large landmass was a thermal anomaly in the Icelandic mantle plume flowing beneath the lithospheric plate. The uplifted mass was located ~600 km from the centre of the Icelandic plume: a short-period thermal anomaly in the plume produced pulses of hot mantle material that spread out radially and caused the elevation of the landmass at the rapid rate of ~1km over two million years, and then its equally rapid subsequent disappearance.
The power of convective mantle processes is demonstrated once again. The result: a lost landscape sunk beneath the waves, just like Atlantis.
References
Ross A. Hartley, Gareth G. Roberts, Nicky White & Chris Richardson, ‘Transient convective uplift of an ancient buried landscape’, Nature Geoscience 2011 (advanced online publication, link to abstract only) doi:10.1038/ngeo1191
Heather Poore, Nicky White & John Maclennan, ‘Ocean circulation and mantle melting controlled by radial flow of hot pulses in the Iceland plume’, Nature Geoscience 2011 (advanced online publication, link is to abstract only) doi:10.1038/ngeo1161
News
A lost world? Atlantis-like landscape discovered – Live Science, 10 July 2011
Lost landscape discovered off the Scottish coast – BBC News, 14 July 2011
Indonesia: new eruption at Lokon 14 July 2011
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Reports from Indonesia indicate a significant increase in the intensity of the ongoing eruptive activity at Mount Lokon in eastern Sulawesi. Under the superb headline ‘Blarrr!! Gunung Lokon Meletus Kuat, Api Keluar dari Kawah’ (‘Blarrr!! Strong eruption at Mount Lokon, fire from crater’) the local paper Tribun Manado quotes local residents reporting powerful earth tremors, ‘a very loud roar’ and ‘huge fire’ from the Lokon. Another Indonesian-language report describes the eruption as producing ‘red fire’, ‘lava and billowing smoke’ and ‘powerful tremors’; according to an eye-witness, the eruption was visible at 10 km distance from the volcano. An AFP report, quoting an Indonesian government volcanologist, says that there was a large eruption at around 22:31 local time (15:31 GMT) on Thursday in which ash and rocks were thrown 1,500 metres into the air, and vegetation within 500 metres of the crater was set on fire.
An Associated Press report adds a few more details, reporting that there were three eruptions in all: the first eruption was at 22:46 local time on Thursday night and was followed by a second just after a midnight and a third at around 01:10 on Friday morning. Soldiers and police were said to be helping about 500 people evacuate the slopes of the volcano. Some pictures of the latest activity can be found at NowPublic.
No new reports on this activity have so far appeared on the Volcanological Survey of Indonesia web site.
(Thanks to VB reader Raj in Manado for reports and translations.)
News
Blarrr!! Gunung Lokon meletus kuat, api keluar dari kawah – Tribun Manado, 14 July 2011
Indonesian volcano erupts after red alert warning – AFP, 14 July 2011
Volcano erupts in central Indonesia – Associated Press, 14 July 2011
Volcano erupts in central Indonesia, triggering evacuation – Washington Post, 14 July 2011
Gunung Lokon kembali meletus – detikNews, 15 July 2011
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Lokon-Empung – summary information for Lokon-Empung (0606-10=)
Volcanological Survey of Indonesia – information and status reports in Indonesian
The Daily Volcano Quote: Vesuvius bubbling away 13 July 2011
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Vesuvius, which for some time back has been giving exhibitions of Nature’s methods of illumination, is growing even more demonstrative.
Its eruptions are accompanied with strange rumblings and tremors of the earth, and there is an abundant outflow of scoria.
At Sanvito a slight earthquake has occurred.
It appears that the splendid phenomena visible around the cone and reflected on the clouds at night are so many indications that the lava in the heart of the mountain is in a boiling state. The loud explosions heard every few minutes are merely the effects of this ebullition, and correspond to the bubblings of boiling water in a pan.
No danger is apprehended at present, but the conditions are considered to presage a great reawakening of volcanic force and action.
The new cones formed are expected to fall in.
‘Vesuvius getting up steam’, Daily Express, 1 December 1900, p. 1. Despite its lava bubbling like ‘boiling water in a pan’, Vesuvius did not get around to erupting until July 1913. EDIT: this is quite wrong, see Boris Behncke’s correction below.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
Lokon eruption: an update 13 July 2011
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I’m grateful to reader Raj in Manado, capital of Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, for sending over some translations of coverage of the Lokon eruption in the Indonesian press. From what he says, it seems that yesterday’s eruption was more a continuation of the earlier activity than a new large-scale eruption, although Tempo Interactive reported yesterday that there had been ‘a significant rise in volcanic activity since Saturday, July 9′. Fajar Online describes the event as a ‘re-eruption’ that ‘threw up ash that was expected to reach heights of a few hundred metres’, which sounds similar to the type of activity reported on Saturday. There was an increase in seismicity before the eruption and a falling-off afterwards. A local civil protection official has warned local residents of the danger of pyroclastic flows. Tribunnews.com has a photograph of Lokon-Empung with emissions visible from the saddle between the two peaks, and reports that Lokon (along with Sulawesi’s other recently active volcano, Soputan) is quiet today, although volcanologist Surono continues to warn of the danger of pyroclastic flows. Local paper Tribun Manado has extensive coverage and pictures, and reports that about 7,000 people were told yesterday that they had to evacuate.
My correspondent also says that evacuated residents are complaining about poor facilities at their shelters, and that generally speaking local residents are not bothered about the volcano’s activity and have tended to be reluctant to evacuate, despite the authorities’ warnings of the danger and reassurances that their properties will be guarded in their absence.
The Volcanological Survey of Indonesia is maintaining Lokon’s alert status at the highest level. The excellent Earthquake-Report.com site has detailed coverage of the Lokon activity, frequently updated as news comes in.
News
North Sulawesi’s Mt. Lokon erupts – Tempo Interactive, 12 July 2011
Lokon awas, 7 ribu warga tomohon akan dievakuasi besok – Tribun Manado, 12 July 2011
Gunung Lokon meletus, 900 warga dievakuasi – Fajar Online, 13 July 2011
Aktivitas vulkanik Gunung Soputan dan Lokon sudah menurun – Tribunnews.com, 13 July 2011
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Lokon-Empung – summary information for Lokon-Empung (0606-10=)
Volcanological Survey of Indonesia – information and status reports in Indonesian
Underwater Antarctic volcanoes discovered 12 July 2011
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Just a brief note (for now) on what looks to be a fascinating discovery. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have discovered previously unknown underwater volcanoes in Antarctica. During research cruises in RRS James Clark Ross the BAS team discovered no fewer than twelve sub-sea volcanoes, some up to 3 km high, with at least one showing signs of recent activity. The volcanoes were identified in the Southern Ocean near the South Sandwich Islands, using shipboard 3D seafloor mapping technology.
News
Huge volcanoes mapped in sea near Antarctica – MSNBC, 11 July 2011
Antarctic survey finds undersea volcanoes – UPI, 11 July 2011
The Daily Volcano Quote: Dr Erik Klemetti on Yellowstone 12 July 2011
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To celebrate the Eruptions blog reaching 1,000 posts, here’s its only begetter, Dr Erik Klemetti, puncturing, in typically measured and well-informed style, one of the favoured obsessions of the disaster-mongers and doomsday-lovers: Yellowstone.
Sometimes I think that people have an unhealthy obsession with Yellowstone Caldera. Sure, it is big, powerful and the stuff that disaster movies are made, but in terms of a volcanic system that poses a high threat to life/property in the U.S. on a daily basis, it is relatively low. I know what you are thinking (well, some of you): “How can you say that? Look at how big the past eruptions were?” Yes, indeed, the previous eruption from the modern Yellowstone Caldera were indeed big, some of the biggest we have identified on the continents (it is still no Fish Canyon Tuff), so I’ll give you that. However, looking at the recent volcanic history of Yellowstone, you’d see that these big “doomsday” eruptions are only a very small piece of its activity, so even if tomorrow the caldera began to show signs of imminent eruption, there is a very good chance that it would be a relatively minor eruption – possibly on the scale of the 2008 and onward Chaiten eruption in Chile. … And if you ever worry, Yellowstone is also well-wired to see all the real time data, including earthquakes in the region and in the park, temperatures of hot springs, webcams, deformation within the caldera and hydrologic changes in the area. You would expect that if Yellowstone were headed towards an eruption, we would see lots of rapid inflation, lots of constant seismicity that gets shallower through time, a change in the temperature/composition of the hydrothermal systems and possibly even cracks forming in the land around the caldera. In other words, there will be lots of signs. So, the next time you see a doomsday article about Yellowstone, remember, calderas are busy places and the media loves its disasters.
Erik Klemetti, ‘Yellowstone: the public and media obsession with the caldera’, Eruptions, 25 January 2011.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
