Alaska senator makes case for volcano monitoring 31 March 2009
Posted by admin in natural hazards, Alaska, United States, volcano monitoring, Redoubt.Tags: volcano monitoring, natural hazards, United States, Alaska, Redoubt, volcano politics
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As Mount Redoubt rumbled its approval, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski told the U. S. Senate yesterday that she intends to introduce legislation to improve volcano monitoring in the United States. Murkowski proposes a $15 million annual budget for the United States Geological Survey to run a National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System (click here for a press release from Sen. Murkowski’s office).
News
Murkowski points to Redoubt for increased volcano monitoring – KTUU, 30 March 2009
Murkowski seeks reliable funding for volcano monitoring – Anchorage Daily News, 31 March 2009
Jindal may not like volcano monitoring, but this Republican does – Miami Herald, 31 March 2009
Volcanoes discussed in Senate – ABC Alaska News, 31 March 2009
Murkowski to introduce bill creating national volcano monitoring system – KFQD, 31 March 2009
Dawn at Redoubt… 31 March 2009
Posted by admin in Alaska, Redoubt.Tags: Alaska, Redoubt, volcano images
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… is an excuse for posting a nice picture. Image from the Redoubt Hut Webcam, 07:21 AKDT, 31 March 2009.
For all our Redoubt coverage: Redoubt « The Volcanism Blog.
The Daily Volcano Quote: volcanoes are indispensable evils 31 March 2009
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That, in the arrangements of the globe, volcanoes are indispensable evils, as far as they are evils, must now be apparent, if the view which we have given of their intimate union with the entire structure of the earth is correct. And if that structure be a necessary one, as we must suppose, we must not forget that the evils of volcanoes are, perhaps, infinitely overbalanced by their affording a vent to those volatile or expansible substances which are the causes of earthquakes, and which, as too many of these phenomena prove, would, if still further restrained, cause a far wider mass of evil. And if they do overwhelm lands, it is but to replace them with the materials of a better and more fertile soil. The most delightful and the richest parts of Italy are the produce of volcanic fires. Nay, even Italy itself seems almost indebted to them for its very existence; and thus, if they do destroy, so do they, to a far greater extent, add new tracts, new territories, to the globe. 
Review of G. Poulett Scrope, Considerations on Volcanoes (1826), in The Westminster Review, vol. V, no. X (April 1826), p. 372.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
Dome growth at Redoubt? 31 March 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, eruptions, Redoubt, United States.Tags: Alaska, Redoubt, United States, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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Photograph taken during AVO observation and gas data collection flight on 30 March 2009, showing north flank of Redoubt (photographer Heather Bleick, image courtesy AVO/USGS). [source]
The Alaska Volcano Observatory has issued a new update (2009-03-31 00:25:02), which reads as follows:
At 23:26 AKDT Redoubt sent an ash plume to 25,000 ft asl. The plume headed east and dissipated over Cook Inlet. Strong thermal anomalies suggest a fresh dome is growing at the surface.
There has been some earlier talk of dome growth during the current eruption: ‘Redoubt lava dome could trigger eruption’ (KTUU, 24 March 2009). This would be in line with what has happened in the past. The repeated extrusion and explosive destruction of lava domes has been a feature of Redoubt’s previous activity: see the reports for December 1989 to February 1990 at the Global Volcanism Program Redoubt Monthly Reports page.
For all our Redoubt coverage: Redoubt « The Volcanism Blog.
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Redoubt – summary information for Redoubt (1103-03-)
Alaska Volcano Observatory – Redoubt – AVO information and updates for Redoubt
Alaska Volcano Observatory – main page for the AVO
Redoubt update, 31 March 2009 31 March 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, eruptions, natural hazards, Redoubt, United States.Tags: Alaska, Drift River, lahars, natural hazards, Redoubt, United States, volcanic eruptions
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Photograph of Redoubt Volcano in eruption taken during observation and gas data collection flight on 30 March 2009. View is to the east. Continuous emission of volcanic gas, water vapour, and ash is producing a plume rising to about 15000 feet (4500 metres) above sea level. The haze at left below the drifting cloud is a region of active ash fall. AVO scientists observed ash falling up to 25 miles (40 kilometres) downwind (photographer Heather Bleick, image courtesy AVO/USGS). [source]
The Alaska Volcano Observatory reports that there have been no significant new eruptive/ash emission events at Redoubt since 09:44 AKDT (17:44 GMT) yesterday, 30 March, which produced a plume to 27000 feet (8200 metres) above sea level. From 10:50 AKDT yesterday ‘fairly continuous emission of ash’ was reported, with the emission cloud reaching about 20000 feet (6000 metres) above sea level. Ash production diminished during the afternoon of 30 March, with AVO reporting a ‘steam-rich plume at ~15-20,000 feet [4500-6000 metres] that contains varying amounts of ash’. Seismicity has been low with small, discrete earthquakes. An ash and gas data collection flight took place yesterday afternoon; some pictures from that flight (including the one reproduced above) are available on the AVO Website.
The Drift River Oil Terminal continues to loom large in Redoubt news coverage. Local news channel KTUU reports that the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the Cook Inlet Pipe Line Company have formed a ‘unified command’ to deal with the situation. ‘Unified command is putting together a plan to deal with any contingency, including the loss of oil’, says Cmdr. Jim Robertson (Coast Guard), ‘But we’re not going to endanger people by putting them in harm’s way’. Bob Shavelson, executive director of environmental group Cook Inletkeeper, said this was ‘better late than never. ‘We were happy to hear they finally got together and recognized the heightened risk here’. They certainly need to agree a coherent approach. At a news conference yesterday, according to Reuters, when the issue of draining the oil tanks was raised Cmdr. Robertson stated that ‘The safest place for that oil is inside that tank at the present time’, while Gary Folley of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said that The straightest path to eliminate that threat is to remove the oil from these tanks’. (Not that draining the tanks is a simple matter.)
As far as is known, so far the oil terminal’s defences, which were strengthened after the 1989-90 eruption caused some damage at the facility, have largely withstood Redoubt’s mudflows. There has been some overtopping of the dykes and flooding, but the tanks (two of which out of seven currently contain oil) have not been damaged and there has been no sign of oil leakage. For pictures taken on 22-23 March, see Drift River Oil Terminal vs. the volcano.
For all our Redoubt coverage: Redoubt « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Unified command formed to deal with Drift River Terminal – KTUU, 30 March 2009
Volcano threat forces officials to consider oil removal – Reuters, 30 March 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Redoubt – summary information for Redoubt (1103-03-)
Alaska Volcano Observatory – Redoubt – AVO information and updates for Redoubt
Alaska Volcano Observatory – main page for the AVO
‘Volcanic Top Ten’ curse strikes again 31 March 2009
Posted by admin in miscellaneous, volcanoes.Tags: Popular Science, top ten. volcanoes, volcanoes in the media
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When I was a child it was never enough simply to like things or be interested in them: you had to chose the ones you liked best. ‘Yes, but what’s your favourite?’ would be the automatic question, when one admitted to liking this type of sweet, or that type of film. Things had to be arranged in order of merit. ‘Would you like a blackcurrant milkshake?’ ‘No, blackcurrant is only my third favourite.’ I grew out of it eventually.
Anyway, hot on the heels of Discovery Magazine‘s Top 10 Volcanoes in Geologic History, which is not without its problems, we now have Popular Science‘s Top 10 Volcanic Eruptions, which, within the limits of the form, is actually rather better. Listing eruptions rather than volcanoes makes for a better focus – they seem to have gone for VEI=6 and above, sudden and violent events rather than gradual (hence no flood basalts), and with a preference for events that had significant consequences beyond the local. Thus Mount St Helens is not promoted beyond its desserts (as it was by Discovery), whereas the big calderas such as Toba, Tambora and Lake Taupo are included. They spoil it a bit by putting Io in at the end though. Gratuitous extraterrestrialism is always regrettable.
See what you think: Popular Science‘s Top 10 Volcanic Eruptions.
The Daily Volcano Quote: volcanoes and the weather, 1932 30 March 2009
Posted by admin in daily volcano quote.Tags: daily volcano quote, quotations, quotes
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Will South America’s recent volcanic eruption change our weather? Experts anticipate that possibility since a 400-mile string of volcanoes along the Andes roared into action like a salvo of big guns a few weeks ago, shaking Chile and Argentina for two days and nights with their cannonading.
The greatest eruption of modern times, in area involved and quantity of lava emitted, left thousands of square miles of country looking as though it had passed through a snow-storm. White volcanic ash, lava blown to a fine froth, was borne clear across the continent on the wind. This ash may affect the weather since its particles serve as nuclei around which cloud droplets form.
‘Erupting volcanoes change weather’, Popular Science, vol. 121, no. 1 (July 1932), p. 46.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
‘Continuous ash plume’ at Redoubt 30 March 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, eruptions, Redoubt.Tags: eruptions, Redoubt, United States, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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Redoubt 30 March 2009, 09:55 AKDT.
Redoubt 30 March 2009, 11:28 AKDT.
The latest Status Report from the Alaska Volcano Observatory (issued at 11:56 AKDT) observes:
Over the past twelve hours, ash emissions at Redoubt Volcano have become more frequent, but lower in altitude than during the highly explosive events of the past week. A continuous ash plume has been observed in web camera, satellite and radar images, and by pilots. These plumes vary in their intensity and have generally been at low altitude (less than 20,000 feet above sea level). Occasional, short lived events have produced ash clouds that rise as high as 27,000 feet above sea level. Ash fall from these events is currently not likely to reach population centers in the Cook Inlet.
A continuous ash plume has been visible from the Redoubt Hut Webcam since the ice/ash on the glass cleared enough to make anything visible, about six hours ago. There’s still a bit of muck in the top left corner, but otherwise it’s providing a clear and very dramatic view of Redoubt with its plume heading north-east, just to one side of the camera’s position (see above).
UPDATE: A new report from the AVO (2009-03-30 13:25:32) says that ‘Seismic activity and webcam views suggest that ash production has diminished over the last hour’.
For all our Redoubt coverage: Redoubt « The Volcanism Blog.
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Redoubt – summary information for Redoubt (1103-03-)
Alaska Volcano Observatory – Redoubt – AVO information and updates for Redoubt
Alaska Volcano Observatory – main page for the AVO
Eastern Congo volcanoes show heightened seismic activity 30 March 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Africa, Congo (Dem. Rep.), Nyamuragira, Nyiragongo.Tags: Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nyamuragira, Nyiragongo, volcanic activity reports
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Reuters is reporting today that heightened seismicity has been registered at Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira volcanoes in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dieudonne Wafula, head scientist at the Volcanological Observatory of Goma (which has no website), told Reuters: ‘There is heavy activity around Nyiragongo, but it’s more centred on Nyamulagira … The risk is greater for the villages west of the Nyamulagira volcano’. Walufa said that the low level of lava in the Nyiragongo lava lake meant that the city of Goma, extensively damaged (with many fatalities) in the most recent eruption of Nyiragongo in 2002, was less at risk on this occasion.
The local Red Cross is on the alert to assist the local population in the event of an eruption. Political instability and fighting in eastern DR Congo have led to the already heavily-populated region around the volcanoes becoming home to thousands of refugees.
There’s more on this at Eruptions.
[The Global Volcanism Program uses the form Nyamuragira for Nyamulagira volcano.]
News
Eastern Congo volcanoes show eruption warning signs – Reuters AlertNet, 30 March 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Nyiragongo – summary information for Nyiragongo (0203-03=)
Global Volcanism Program: Nyamuragira – summary information for Nyamuragira (0203-02=)
Redoubt eruption timelapse videos 30 March 2009
Posted by admin in Alaska, eruptions, Redoubt, United States.Tags: Alaska, Redoubt, United States, volcanic eruptions, volcano videos
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A kind reader has alerted me to four interesting timelapse videos of Redoubt made by Bretwood Higman, who lives near Seldovia, Alaska, around 130km away from the volcano.
The first, ‘Redoubt Eruption March 27 2009′, shows Redoubt’s eruption column during the eruptions of the evening of 27 March. The big pulse near the middle of the video is the eruption of 19:25 local time, which the AVO reported sent the plume up to 51000 feet/15200 metres.
The second, ‘Time lapse of Redoubt Volcano ash’ shows the 26 March ash plume swinging across the film-maker’s snowy Alaska backyard.
Third, ’28 March Redoubt Eruption’ is a short video of the 15:29 AKDT 28 March eruption.
Finally ‘View toward Redoubt Volcano on 28 March’ captures two eruptions on that day, the 13:40 event and the larger 15:29 eruption.
For all our Redoubt coverage: Redoubt « The Volcanism Blog.
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Redoubt – summary information for Redoubt (1103-03-)
Alaska Volcano Observatory – Redoubt – AVO information and updates for Redoubt
Alaska Volcano Observatory – main page for the AVO
