The Instituto Geofisico of Ecuador issued bulletins on 22 December 2007 (PDF) and 24 December 2007 (PDF) reporting ongoing activity at Tungurahua Volcano. Earth tremors, ash fall and a glow from the crater have been reported. Some of the tremors during the night of 22-23 December were described as strong enough to rattle windows in nearby towns and villages. On 24 December 1200 residents were evacuated from the surrounding area. The Instituto Geofisico warned in its 24 December 2007 bulletin that, while there are no immediate signs that a highly explosive episode is imminent at Tungurahua, ‘it cannot be ruled out that the volcano’s activity could evolve into a more explosive state over the coming weeks’.

Tungurahua is one of the most active Ecuadorean volcanoes. The current phase of activity began, after several decades of quiescence, in October 1999. On 16 August 2006 an eruption destroyed several villages and killed six people, and ash fall disrupted agriculture, industry and communications across a large area of central Ecuador.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - summary information for Tungurahua (1502-80=)
Instituto Geofisico (Escuela Politecnica Nacional) - Geophysical Institute of Ecuador

News
Alerta por nueva actividad de volcán Tungurahua - El Universo, 23 December 2007 (Spanish)
1,200 evacuated after increased activity at Ecuadorean volcano - Jerusalem Post, 24 December 2007
El volcán Tungurahua disminuye su actividad pero se mantiene alerta - El Universo, 26 December 2007 (Spanish)

A study to be published in Science magazine for 21 December 2007 argues that volcanically-produced sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide may have kept Mars warm enough to sustain liquid water oceans during the early history of the red planet, around 4 billion years ago.

The paper, ‘A sulfur dioxide climate feedback on early Mars’, by Itay Halevy (Harvard University), Maria T. Zuber (MIT) and Daniel P. Schrag (Harvard University), is in Science, vol. 318, no. 5858, pp. 1903-1907. Abstract:

Ancient Mars had liquid water on its surface and a CO2-rich atmosphere. Despite the implication that massive carbonate deposits should have formed, these have not been detected. On the basis of fundamental chemical and physical principles, we propose that climatic conditions enabling the existence of liquid water were maintained by appreciable atmospheric concentrations of volcanically degassed SO2 and H2S. The geochemistry resulting from equilibration of this atmosphere with the hydrological cycle is shown to inhibit the formation of carbonates. We propose an early martian climate feedback involving SO2, much like that maintained by CO2 on Earth.

Related articles
Fire and brimstone helped form Mars Oceans - LiveScience (20 December 2007)
Sulfur dioxide kept ancient Mars ocean flowing - National Geographic News (20 December 2007)
Sulfur dioxide may have helped maintain a warm early Mars - ScienceDaily (20 December 2007)
Greenhouse clue to water on Mars - BBC News (20 December 2007)

Some interesting recent open-access articles of volcanological interest: National Geographic Magazine looks at the place of volcanoes in Indonesian culture, The Economist explores the climate effects of the Laki eruption of 1783, and Geology.com has an account of the 1912 Novarupta eruption.

Volcano Culture - National Geographic Magazine (January 2008)
‘On a less earthly plane, volcanoes stand at the heart of a complicated set of mystical beliefs that grip millions of Indonesians and influence events in unexpected ways. Their peaks attract holy men and pilgrims. Their eruptions augur political change and social upheaval. You might say that in Indonesia, volcanoes are a cultural cauldron in which mysticism, modern life, Islam, and other religions mix—or don’t. Indonesia, an assemblage of races, religions, and tongues, is riveted together by volcanoes. Reverence for them is virtually a national trait.’ Read on >>

18th-century climate change: the summer of acid rain - The Economist (19 December 2007)
‘In Europe, the summer of 1783 had been unusually warm, the warmest recorded in England before 1995. White called the season “an amazing and portentous one, full of horrible phenomena”, and complained of the abnormal number of wasps. The heat may have been a short-term greenhouse-gas effect from high concentrations of sulphur dioxide. … At the time, some people suspected the volcano might be to blame. Benjamin Franklin, then America’s ambassador to Paris, wrote to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester that “[the sun's] effect of heating the Earth was exceedingly diminished. Hence the surface was early frozen. Hence the first snows remained on it unmelted. Hence the air was more chilled. Hence perhaps the winter of 1783-84 was more severe than any that had happened for many years.” In speculating upon the cause, he wondered “whether it was the vast quantity of smoke, long continuing to issue during the summer from Hecla in Iceland [near Laki]“. It was.’ Read on >>

The most powerful volcanic eruption of the twentieth century - Geology.com (12 December 2007)
‘On June 6th, 1912 a tremendous blast sent a large cloud of ash skyward and the eruption of the century was underway. People in Juneau, Alaska, about 750 miles from the volcano, heard the sound of the blast – over one hour after it occurred. For the next 60 hours the eruption sent tall dark columns of tephra and gas high into the atmosphere. By the time the eruption ended the surrounding land was devastated and about 30 cubic kilometers of ejecta blanketed the entire region. This is more ejecta than all of the other historic Alaska eruptions combined. It was also thirty times more than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and three times more than the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, the second largest in the 20th Century.’ Read on >>

Further to our earlier post, the Alaska Volcano Observatory has a KVERT information release relating to the current explosive event at Shiveluch (or Sheveluch) volcano, Kamchatka:

Kamchatkan and Northern Kuriles Volcanic Activity
KVERT INFORMATION RELEASE 63-07
Wednesday, December 19, 2007, 19:50 UTC (Thursday, December 20, 07:50 KST)

SHEVELUCH VOLCANO: 56°38′N, 161°19′E;
Elevation 3,283 m, the dome elevation ~2,500 m.
CURRENT LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS RED
PREVIOUS LEVEL OF CONCERN COLOR CODE IS ORANGE

According to satellite data, new explosive event at Sheveluch volcano occurred ~ at 05:30 UTC on December 19. Ash cloud is moving > 300 km to the south-west from the volcano to the Central Kamchatka for this time. Puff the cloud is at 6-8 km ASL. Possibly the explosive eruption of the volcano will continues.

Ash explosions up to 10 km (32,800 ft.) ASL could occur at any time. The activity of the volcano could affect international and low-flying aircraft.

Strong culmination explosive eruption of the lava dome of Young Sheveluch volcano occurred in 1993, 2001, 2004 and two in 2005.

Level of concern colour code of RED indicates that ‘Major explosive eruption expected within 24 hours. Large ash plume(s) expected to reach at least 25,000 feet above sea level. Strong earthquake activity detected even at distant monitoring stations. Explosive eruption may be in progress’. Nevertheless, the reference to ‘Puff the cloud’ is rather charming. The full text of the information release is here.

Shiveluch, the northernmost volcano of Kamchatka, erupted powerfully on the night of 18/19 December 2007, according to Russian reports. The collapse of a 100-metre lava dome produced large volumes of ash, gas and magmatic materials. Ash rose to heights of 10-12 kilometres, and pyroclastic flows travelling 6-7 kilometres and reaching temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius occurred on the southern slopes. Satellite images show a dark ash plume stretching 600 kilometres to the west of the volcano.

The current phase of eruptive activity at Shiveluch began on 15 August 1999, and the last large-scale eruption was in December 2006. The most recent ash emissions were recorded on 29 August 2007. Shiveluch is one of the most active Kamchatka volcanoes, with over 60 Holocene eruptions recorded.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - summary information for Shiveluch (1000-27=)
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Kamchtaka - Shiveluch volcano
Alaska Volcano Observatory - Activity - includes AVO reports on Kamchatka volcanoes
Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team - KVERT information page from the AVO

News
Powerful volcano eruption in Kamchatka - Russia InfoCentre
Powerful eruption last night at northernmost Kamchatka volcano - Nakanune.ru News (Russian)

Fuego volcano in Guatemala is one of the most active volcanoes in central America, with frequent and vigorous eruptions recorded since the sixteenth century. Its current phase of activity began with a central vent eruption, producing pyroclastic flows and lahars, in January 2002, and the volcano has exhibited constant low-level activity ever since. On 9 August 2007 an explosive eruption took place producing lava and ash falls and leading to a small-scale evacuation.

On 12 December 2007 the Guatemalan Instituto Nacional de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrologia (INSIVUMEH) reported a series of explosive eruptions, two or three per hour, producing an ash column 10-15 kilometres in height. A posting on the Volcano listserv on 15 December 2007 reports that Fuego began producing a significant plume of ash and steam at approximately 05:30am local time (11:30 GMT) and was still doing so, uninterrupted, at 07:00 local time (13:00 GMT), and that a considerable flow of ash (and possibly lava) has occurred on the eastern slopes, which are visible from the nearby city of Antiqua, and that more significant flows may be present on the western slopes which are not visible from the city. Other reports have said that lava was visible on the eastern slopes, and being expelled from the vent at the peak, on the evening of 14 December 2007.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - summary information for Fuego (1402-09=)
INSIVUMEH - volcanism bulletins

The Yemen Observer today reports warnings from the Yemeni authorities that the continuing volcanic acitivity at Jebel at Tair poses a threat to fishing and other navigation in the southern Red Sea:

The Ministry of Fisheries Wealth (MFW) sent a warning to all fishermen not to get close to the Island of Jabl al-Tair due to the reawakening of the volcano that erupted last Monday. Sources say that this is a precautionary measure aimed at ensuring the safety of the fisherman and nearby citizens. ‘The Ministry of Fisheries Wealth announced in a circulation note to all fishermen to report any dangerous developments they may have witnessed to the office in order to take the necessary actions and inform the concerned parties,’ said Abdullah Abdu Borji, general manager of the MFW office in Houdeida.

In response to Jebel at Tair’s recent increase in activity, additional earthquake monitoring stations have been established on the islands of Zogar and Hunaish Kubra. Earthquakes were detected in the region on Monday and Tuesday of last week.

The general manager of the General Authority for Development and Promotion of Yemeni Islands has used the recent awakening of Jebel at Tair to call for increased regional co-operation in dealing with such natural hazards: ‘There is a great need to set up a regional center for monitoring earthquakes and other natural disasters in order to be able to take early action, as the safe area is shrinking and this increases the risks, especially for regional navigation’.

(The form of the name used by the Yemen Observer is ‘Jabl al-Tair’; this blog uses the Global Volcanism Program form of ‘Jebel at Tair’.)

Precision dating of a lunar meteorite indicates that the Moon was volcanically active hundreds of millions of years earlier than was previously thought, reports the BBC. A study published in the journal Nature gives a date of 4.35 plus/minus 0.15 billion years. The small quantities of basaltic lunar rocks collected during manned exploration of the Moon date to around 3.9 billion years. From the BBC report:

Volcanoes were active on the Moon’s surface soon after it was formed, a new study in the journal Nature suggests. Precision dating of a lunar rock that fell to Earth shows our satellite must have had lava erupting across its vast plains 4.35 billion years ago. This is hundreds of millions of years earlier than had been indicated by the rocks collected by Apollo astronauts.

The paper, ‘Cryptomare magmatism 4.35 Gyr ago recorded in lunar meteorite Kalahari 009′, by Kentado Terada (Hiroshima University), Mahesh Anand (Open University) et al, is in Nature, no. 450 (6 December 2007), pp. 849-852. Abstract (references removed):

The origin and evolution of the Moon remain controversial, with one of the most important questions for lunar evolution being the timing and duration of basaltic (mare) magmatism. Here we report the result of ion microprobe U–Pb dating of phosphates in a lunar meteorite, Kalahari 009, which is classified as a very-low-Ti mare-basalt breccia. In situ analyses of five phosphate grains, associated with basaltic clasts, give an age of 4.35 plusminus 0.15 billion years. These ancient phosphate ages are thought to represent the crystallization ages of parental basalt magma, making Kalahari 009 one of the oldest known mare basalts. We suggest that mare basalt volcanism on the Moon started as early as 4.35 Gyr ago, relatively soon after its formation and differentiation, and preceding the bulk of lunar volcanism which ensued after the late heavy bombardment around 3.8-3.9 Gyr. Considering the extremely low abundances of incompatible elements such as thorium and the rare earth elements in Kalahari 009 and recent remote-sensing observations illustrating that the cryptomaria tend to be of very-low-Ti basalt type, we conclude that Kalahari 009 is our first sample of a very-low-Ti cryptomare from the Moon.

Turrialba volcano, Costa Rica, began discharging gas and vapour on Wednesday 5 December 2007. The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica reported that by 05:40 local time (11:40 GMT) on 5 December a 2km column of gas and vapour was visible. The volcano, which is 40km east of the Costa Rican capital San José and overlooks the city of Cartago, last erupted in 1866. It has been subject to close observation since an increase in seismic and fumarolic activity in May 2007.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - summary information for Turrialba (1405-07=)
Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica - news page, including latest bulletins (which are in PDF format)
Red Sismológica Nacional, Costa Rica - Turrialba image gallery

News
Costa Rica volcano begins spewing gas, vapor - Inquirer.net, Philippines (6 Dec 2007)
Turrialba volcano acts up - Tico Times, Costa Rica (6 Dec 2007)
Dormant volcano in Costa Rica began discharging vapor and gas - AHN (6 Dec 2007)

In 1820 the Rev James Little, rector of the Irish parish of Lackan, published Conjectures on the Physical Causes of Earthquakes and Volcanoes, in which it is proposed to explain these Phœnomena on a New Hypothesis, of the Structure of the Earth, and of the Existence of an Internal Atmosphere communicating with ours (references to the pages of this work are given in brackets below). As is so often the case with works of this period, the subtitle gives away the main argument: Little was an advocate of theory of the hollow Earth, and believed that fire constantly rushed through vast empty spaces beneath the Earth’s surface, undermining it (leading to earthquakes) and occasionally breaking through to the atmosphere above (producing volcanoes).

Little was convinced that his era was characterized by an ‘unusual frequency of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions’ (4), an unusual perception at a time when most geologists held that these phenomena had been more marked in the past than in the present. He refers to ‘the more rainy and inclement seasons, especially of the present (1817) subsequent to them’ (4), suggesting that he may have been thinking in particular of the recent cataclysmic eruption of Tambora in 1815 and its marked effects upon global climate; and indeed he describes the eruption of ‘Tamboro’ in some detail (23-5).

Little’s theory of the interior structure of the Earth does not depend upon the entire globe being hollow, but envisages a highly complex system of interconnected cavities. He writes that ‘a considerable part, if not almost the whole of the surface of this globe, both land and water, is undermined with cavities, set on fire, scattered irregularly underneath its surface’ (53). His conception of this network of cavities is almost architectural, and echoes contemporary notions of the sublime:

… this surface resting on the solid parts variously posited; like a tract of Bridges ramified in every direction, and formed of irregular arches, varying in span, in breadth, and in order of position; resting on their abutments; and some of them of the fearful dimensions of a thousand miles square, sometimes violently shaken throughout their whole extent, and (as we might from any thing except our confidence in the Architect, justly apprehend,) in danger from this construction, of one day falling down, far beneath the ocean, into a warmer bed than appertains to it. (53)

As the mention of the beneficent ‘Architect’ above underlines, Little was a clergyman, and his discussion of volcanic activity is naturally informed by his Christian standpoint. He is concerned, as were many of his contemporaries, to find an interpretation of such destructive phenomena consistent with the idea of a loving God, arguing that the earth tremors that always accompany volcanic eruptions serve as a warning mechanism:

I recite chiefly the accounts of the eruptions of volcanoes, because these are always attended by the shocks of Earthquakes, more or less violent … both arise from the same cause, and that the former are the preservative appointed by the author of nature, against the destructive effects of the latter. (5)

His attempts to argue through this conviction lead him to a recognition that the apparently unstable structure of the Earth’s surface hardly seems to possess the harmonious and enduring character of divine creation: ‘I confess I deem more reverendly of the beauty and solidity of the architecture of the Deity, than to suppose that such a structure came from his Hands’ (53). Yet his conviction that God has built warning mechanisms into His creation, and that it is the duty of humanity to understand and heed those warnings, reconciles the apparent contradiction and enables Little to point a moral with wider application: ‘However, He may contrive to warn us mortals, that we rest only on His unknown foundations, which will fail partially or totally when He pleases, but not from their own instability’ (53).

As for the ‘fires’ of volcanism, Little rejects the theory that they are ‘produced by combustible minerals existing in veins and caverns in the bowels of the earth and spontaneously igniting and exploding’ (39), but does not really make any attempt to put forward a theory of his own, taking refuge in a theological explanation of the presence of fire beneath the earth’s surface:

… we must suppose the existence of subterraneous fire, which so often and in so many places makes its terrific appearance; and it must either be casually kindled in separate vaults … or permanently undispersed and lining the concave surface of the shell of the globe. I confess the latter to be my opinion, and that the more just and philosophical description of it is that given by the sublime prophet Isaiah; ‘that Tophet is ordained of old, yea for the King is it prepared; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.’ Isaiah 33.33. (61)

Little’s work is a mixture of scientific observation and religious explanation. He had an interest in scientific matters, having published A Description of a Reflecting Level or an Artificial Horizon for taking Altitudes of the Celestial Bodies, &c. in 1800, and was well-read in accounts of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, noting that earth tremors always precede the latter (5), and that the eruptions of volcanoes such as Vesuvius tend to follow settled sequences of events (18). He also notes ‘the elevation of the surface of that region where the shock is to be’ in the case of many earthquakes (93). In interpreting the ‘fires’ of volcanism as a form of combustion he was representative of the scientific orthodoxy of his era. When he comes to explain these phenomena, however, he writes as a Christian minister, seeking messages of divine benevolence even in the destruction of earthquakes and volcanoes, and finding hellfire rushing through the caverns of the underworld.

The Rev. James Little, Conjectures on the Physical Causes of Earthquakes and Volcanoes, in which it is proposed to explain these Phœnomena on a New Hypothesis, of the Structure of the Earth, and of the Existence of an Internal Atmosphere communicating with ours (Dublin: James Byrn, 1820).