SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 15 April 2009 – 21 April 2009 23 April 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, Batu Tara, Chaitén, Chile, Colombia, Ebeko, Ecuador, eruptions, Fernandina, Galapagos, Hawaii, Japan, Kamchatka, Karymsky, Kilauea, Kliuchevskoi, Koryaksky, Nevado del Huila, Pacific, Paluweh, Papua New Guinea, Rabaul, Redoubt, Russia, Shiveluch, Suwanose-jima, Tungurahua, United States.Tags: Global Volcanism Program, volcanic activity reports
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The Smithsonian Institution/United States Geological Survey Weekly Volcanic Activity Report covering 15 April 2009 to 21 April 2009 is available on the Global Volcanism Program website. The following is a summary and not a substitute for the full report.
- The current report: Weekly Volcanic Activity Report.
- Previous reports: Weekly Reports Archive.
- The SI/USGS map of volcanoes discussed this week.
New activity: Ebeko (Paramushir Island), Fernandina (Galapagos Islands, Ecuador), Kliuchevskoi (Kamchatka, Russia), NW Rota-1 (Mariana Islands), Pagan (Mariana Islands), Paluweh (Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia).
Ongoing activity: Batu Tara (Komba Island, Indonesia), Chaitén (Chile), Karymsky (Kamchatka, Russia), Kilauea (Hawaii, USA), Koryaksky (Kamchatka, Russia), Nevado del Huila (Colombia), Rabaul (Papua New Guinea), Redoubt (Alaska, USA), Shiveluch (Kamchatka, Russia), Suwanose-jima (Japan), Tungurahua (Ecuador).
A look at Vesuvius: closely-watched volcano 22 April 2009
Posted by admin in Italy, natural hazards, Vesuvius, volcano monitoring.Tags: Italy, natural hazards, Vesuvius, volcano monitoring
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Under the headline ‘the world’s most closely watched volcano’, AFP have published an interesting article, with pictures, about the monitoring of Vesuvius.
The article describes how sensors continuously watch various aspects of the volcano’s activity, and that information is passed to the Vesuvius Observatory in Naples (the world’s oldest volcanological observatory), where it is constantly monitored and assessed. If a major eruption appears to be in prospect, the current emergency plan calls for 600,000 people from the 18 towns and cities within the 15-kilometre-radius ‘red zone’ around Vesuvius to be evacuated.
This would take about two weeks.
Vesuvius, the world’s most closely watched volcano – AFP, 22 April 2009
The Daily Volcano Quote: Pompeii built to last 22 April 2009
Posted by admin in daily volcano quote.Tags: daily volcano quote, quotations, quotes
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Pompeii had wine, grain, wool, metalwork, olive oil, an air of thrusting prosperity, and ten smart watchtowers set in vigorous city walls.
‘A place that intends to last!’ One of my sharper remarks.
All right; I do know what happened at Pompeii — but this was eight years before Mount Vesuvius exploded. Any student of natural science who did notice that their local mountain was shaped like a volcano deduced it was extinct. Meanwhile, the Pompeian playboys believed in art, Isis, Campanian gladiators, and ready cash to purchase gorgeous women; few of the flashy bastards were great readers of natural science. 
Lindsay Davies, Shadows in Bronze (London: Arrow, 1992), p. 105.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
More volcanic alerts in Indonesia 22 April 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Indonesia, Paluweh, Slamet.Tags: Indonesia, Paluweh, Rokatenda, Slamet, volcanic activity reports
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To the ongoing concerns about activity at Kerinci and Krakatau, must be added new alerts for Slamet, Java’s second-highest volcano and one of its most active, and Paluweh (also known as Rokatenda) in the Lesser Sunda Islands, which last erupted in 1985. The Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) has raised the alert levels for both volcanoes from the lowest level of Normal to the next highest level of Yellow (Indonesian: Waspada).
Local news reports speak of a higher frequency of earthquakes at Paluweh, 23 per day up from an average of 2 per day in early April, while Slamet has apparently doubled its normal daily earthquake rate to 97 per day, a white plume has been rising to 300 metres above the crater, and water temperatures have risen.
Three volcanoes are currently on the second-highest alert level of Orange (Siaga) in Indonesia: Semeru, Karangetang and Ibu. Thirteen – including, now, Slamet and Paluweh (Rokatenda), are at Yellow (Waspada).
For all our Indonesia coverage: Indonesia « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Activity of three volcanos increases – Jakarta Post, 22 April 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Slamet – summary information for Slamet (0603-18=)
Global Volcanism Program: Paluweh – summary information for Paluweh (0604-15=)
Pusat Vulkanologi & Mitigasi Bencana Geologi – News and information portal for the Directorate of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, Indonesia
Redoubt: Drift River Terminal to stay shut down 22 April 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, eruptions, natural hazards, Redoubt, United States.Tags: Alaska, Drift River, natural hazards, Redoubt, United States, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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Lahar deposits in the lower Drift River valley, north of the Drift River Oil Terminal, 4 April 2009 (photographer Chris Waythomas, image courtesy AVO/USGS). [source]
From the Anchorage Daily News comes a report that the Drift River Oil Terminal, shut down on 23 March and partially emptied of oil on 7 April because of the eruption of Mount Redoubt, will not be back on line any time soon.
With Redoubt volcano still active and potentially explosive, officials have given up trying to restart the nearby Drift River oil terminal anytime soon, indefinitely idling about 10 oil platforms in Cook Inlet.
‘It will take as long as Mother Nature decides’, said a Coast Guard spokeswoman, Petty Officer Sara Francis. It’s unlikely Drift River can reopen before early fall, she said.
All this can come as no surprise to anyone who takes a moment to look at a map showing where the terminal is located. What is surely most remarkable is that anyone has been trying to ‘restart’ the terminal with the eruption ongoing, or is now talking about this terminal being re-opened at all.
News
Active volcano may idle Inlet platforms until fall – Anchorage Daily News, 21 April 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 activity in Indonesia: Kerinci and Krakatau 21 April 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Indonesia, Kerinci, Krakatau.Tags: Indonesia, Kerinci, Krakatau, volcanic activity reports
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News of volcanoes stirring in Indonesia, one of the most volcanically active parts of the globe.
Mount Kerinci, Sumatra, Indonesia. Picture by Tom Casadevall, USGS, 1987.
Mount Kerinci on Sumatra, the highest volcano in Indonesia (3800 metres a.s.l.) and one of the most active, is reported to be producing small explosions, ‘discharges of dust’ and ‘repeated tremors’ and threatening the populated area at the foot of the mountain. The Kerinci Observation Post has warned local people to wear masks when going out of doors. The Indonesian Volcanological Authority alert level for Kerinci is thus far still at the second-lowest level of Yellow (Waspada).
Anak Krakatau, the young volcano emerging in the Sunda Strait on the site of the famous 1883 ‘Krakatoa’ eruption, is apparently causing alarm among local people, some of whom have been leaving their homes in the belief that a major eruption is imminent. The volcano has been producing explosions and eruptions of ash, but the volcanological authorities say that the activity is not unusual and people should not panic. The alert level for Anak Krakatau remains unchanged at Yellow (Waspada). There seems to be a mismatch between what the scientists say Anak Krakatau is up to and what local people perceive: Dr Erik Klemetti has more on this at Eruptions.
For all our Indonesia coverage: Indonesia « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Sumatran volcano shows intensified volcanic activity – The Jakarta Post, 21 April 2009
Lampung residents told not to panic as Mt. Anak Krakatau spews ash – The Jakarta Post, 21 April 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Kerinci – summary information for Kerinci (0601-17=)
Global Volcanism Program: Krakatau – summary information for Krakatau (0602-00=)
The Daily Volcano Quote: volcanic eruptions are very local phenomena 21 April 2009
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Volcanic eruptions are very local phenomena. At any given epoch they are confined to a few localities of very small relative extent. They have no general distribution in the sense of a widely-extended and connected system. Each volcano is an independent machine — nay, each vent and monticule is for the time being engaged in its own peculiar business, cooking as it were its special dish, which in due time is to be separately served. We have instances of vents within hailing distance of each other pouring out totally different kinds of lava, neither sympathizing with the other in any discernible manner nor influencing the other in any appreciable degree.
Clarence Edward Dutton, Report on the Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880), p. 115. For more on this wonderful publication, see ‘Oldies but Goodies: A Report on the Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah’ at Magma Cum Laude.
The Daily Volcano Quote: from Monday to Friday, a new eruption of volcanic verbiage each day.
Dumb things to do on a volcano 21 April 2009
Posted by admin in miscellaneous, volcano culture.comments closed
Parachute into it (Kamchatka Peninsula: Mutnovsky volcano).
Slide down it on a piece of plywood (Nicaragua: Cerro Negro volcano).
Dominica volcano poses Caribbean tsunami risk – researchers 21 April 2009
Posted by admin in Caribbean, current research, geoscience, natural hazards.Tags: Caribbean, Dominica, natural hazards, tsunamis, volcano research
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Morne aux Diables is an 861-metre high stratovolcano at the northern tip of the island of Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. It is a little-known volcano: the Global Volcanism Program does not have an ‘eruptive history’ page for Morne aux Diables, noting that ‘No eruptions are known from Morne aux Diables in historical time’ but that ‘the volcano has a youthful appearance and activity at flank domes likely continued into the late-Pleistocene and Holocene’.
As discussed recently in these pages, a volcano does not have to erupt to be dangerous, and recent research by a team of geologists led by Dr Richard Teeuw of the University of Portsmouth concludes that Morne aux Diables may be very dangerous indeed. Geomorphological surveys by Dr Teeuw’s team and evidence from Google Earth3-D imaging have revealed that one flank of the volcano is in danger of collapse. If a flank collapse occurs at Morne aux Diables a tsunami could be triggered that would threaten the heavily-populated coast of Guadeloupe, 50 kilometres north of Dominica.
Dr Teeuw’s team plans to return to Dominica this summer, and again in 2010, to study the geomorphology of the volcano, and to survey the seafloor for evidence of previous collapses.
News
Research shows Caribbean at risk of tsunami – University of Portsmouth news release, 21 April 2009
Devil’s volcano is tsunami risk to Caribbean island – Bloomberg, 21 April 2009
Caribbean at risk of tsunami, disaster experts warn – ScienceDaily, 21 April 2009
Volcano ‘poses tsunami threat’ in Caribbean – AFP, 21 April 2009
Tsunami threat from Dominica’s Devil’s Peak – RedOrbit, 21 April 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Morne aux Diables – summary information for Morne aux Diables (1600-08=)
Tsunami generation mechanisms from volcanic sources – interesting paper by George Pararas-Carayannis (try to ignore the shocking page design)
Redoubt update, 21 April 2009 21 April 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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Crater of Redoubt Volcano, showing the lava dome, 16 April 2009 (photographer Game McGimsey, image courtesy AVO/USGS). [source]
Redoubt is still at Orange/Watch. The Alaska Volcano Observatory notes that seismicity remains elevated, and that a plume of water vapour and gas is moving to the south-west. A gas measurement flight was carried out yesterday and the AVO reports that ‘scientists observed little to no evidence of significant lava dome growth since the last observations 4 days ago’.
FLIR image taken by Rick Wessels (USGS) draped on top of a Google Earth representation of Redoubt from April 16 2009. The lava dome is seen at the summit, warmer colors indicate higher temperatures. The location of helicopter is on the left at about 2.25 km from the dome. The dome temperatures recorded today were about 420°C, which match well to derived temperatures from thermal satellite imagery. Extrusion rates were estimated for this image and a NOAA satellite image 30 minutes later to be about 0.8 m^3/s. [source]
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
