Back again, with apologies 31 May 2009
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What was intended to be a break of a few days has stretched to over a week, thanks to a car with recurrent mechanical difficulties* and other problems with which I will not bore you. Please accept my apologies for this service interruption: The Volcanism Blog does not like to let its loyal readers down.
I will be catching up with things as well as I can over the next few days. Thank you for your patience.
* Software difficulties, actually. Cars are too complicated these days.
SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 20-26 May 2009 27 May 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, Barren Island, Batu Tara, Caribbean, Chaitén, Chile, Colima, Dukono, Ebeko, Ecuador, eruptions, Fuego, Guatemala, Hawaii, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Karangetang, Kilauea, Llaima, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rabaul, Redoubt, Reventador, Russia, Sakura-jima, Shiveluch, Slamet, Soufrière Hills, Suwanose-jima, Tungurahua, Ubinas, United States, Veniaminof, Weekly Volcanic Activity Reports.Tags: Global Volcanism Program, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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The Smithsonian Institution/United States Geological Survey Weekly Volcanic Activity Report covering 20-26 May 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: Karangetang (Indonesia), Reventador (Ecuador), Slamet (Indonesia)
Ongoing activity: Barren Island (India), Batu Tara (Indonesia), Chaitén (Chile), Colima (Mexico), Dukono (Indonesia), Ebeko (Russia), Fuego (Guatemala), Kilauea (Hawaii, USA), Llaima (Chile), Rabaul (Papua New Guinea), Redoubt (Alaska, USA), Sakura-jima (Japan), Shiveluch (Russia), Soufrière Hills (Montserrat), Suwanose-jima (Japan), Tungurahua (Ecuador), Ubinas (Peru), Veniaminof (Alaska, USA).
Break in service 22 May 2009
Posted by admin in admin, miscellaneous.comments closed
The demands of real life take me away from the internet for a while – until Thursday 28 May 2009, to be precise. No new blogging here until then.
In the meantime, the excellent Eruptions blog will keep you in touch with things volcanic.
Saudi earthquakes update 21 May 2009 21 May 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports.Tags: Saudi Arabia, volcanic activity reports
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There are some new reports tonight from the English-language Saudi media on the earthquakes (possibly with some volcanic connection) that have been affecting the west of the country. The indications that some kind of volcanic activity is under way are mounting up, albeit many are as yet unconfirmed.
The Business Maktoob headline says ‘Saudi volcanic eruption “imminent”‘, a dramatic claim derived from actually rather cautious comments from UK seismologist Roger Musson: ‘Looking at this recent activity it does seem that an eruption is imminent. We cannot say for definite. But the combination of the earthquakes and the release of hot gasses does suggest something is about to happen. The region has experienced volcanic activity in the past so this is possible’.
Meanwhile a report from the Saudi Press Agency, quoted by the Malaysian National News Agency BERNAMA, says that an overflight by the Saudi Geological Survey has revealed the existence of ‘ground groves’ (fissures?) at the seismic activity area, and that ‘The SGS reassured the variables associated with this activity in terms of the rise in temperature and concentration of radon gas in some regions of volcanic area of “Al Harrat AS-Shaqqah”‘. Possibly the translation here is not all it might be. There is a discussion of the significance of Radon measurement in the latest Saudi update at the Eruptions blog.
The particular Saudi Press Agency news release quoted by BERNAMA is unfindable at the SPA’s horrible website, but an apparently more recent report is available which says that:
The Saudi Geological Survey Commission, Saudi Arabia’s authority in charge of monitoring and controlling seismological activity in the country, said today that the volcanic activity at Harrat Al-Shaqa, which showed unprecedented activity over the last 30 days, registered recent remarkable fall in terms of number and strength. In a press statement, the authority said only six minor quakes were registered during the last 24 hours measuring about 3 points on the Richter scale. The statement said nobody felt or reported the shocks neither of which exposed in volcanic vapor.
Only time will tell if things really are quietening down, or if any lull is just temporary.
UPDATE 22 May 2009. The latest story in Arab News quotes the Saudi Geological Survey as reporting no further gas emissions since Wednesday (which is probably also what is meant by ‘neither of which exposed in volcanic vapor’ in the SPA report above):
The Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) said no emission of volcanic gases has been observed since Wednesday in Harrah Al-Shaqah, the epicenter of the earthquake and the location of extinct volcanoes. It said six minor tremors were recorded at Harrah Al-Shaqah in the 24 hours until 2 p.m. yesterday.
‘Our tracking devices did not detect on Wednesday any gas emissions indicating the eruption of lava. However, we are closely observing the extinct volcanoes in the region for any sign of renewed activities’, said Ahmad Al-Attas, acting head of the SGS.
N.B. Whatever the SGS says, the volcanoes in this area cannot be regarded as extinct.
News
Saudi volcanic eruption ‘imminent’ – Business Maktoob, 21 May 2009
Saudi Geological Survey explains Al-Ais tremors – BERNAMA, 21 May 2009
Volcanic activity is in the fall, reports Saudi Seismological Authority – Saudi Press Agency, 21 May 2009
Madinah governor tours quake-prone Al-Ais – Arab News, 22 May 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Harrat Lunayyir – information from the GVP on the area where the seismic activity has been located
Global Volcanism Program: Arabia – information from the GVP about the volcanoes of Arabia
Volcanic Arabia – a detailed and well illustrated article from Saudi Aramco World, 2006, on Arabian volcanism
SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 13-19 May 2009 20 May 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, Batu Tara, Caribbean, Chaitén, Chile, Colombia, Dukono, Ecuador, eruptions, Galeras, Hawaii, Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Kilauea, Manam, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Redoubt, Reventador, Russia, Sakura-jima, San Cristóbal, Shiveluch, Suwanose-jima, Tonga, Tungurahua, Ulawun, United States, Weekly Volcanic Activity Reports.Tags: Global Volcanism Program, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
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The Smithsonian Institution/United States Geological Survey Weekly Volcanic Activity Report covering 13-19 May 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: Galeras (Colombia), Manam (Papua New Guinea), San Cristóbal (Nicaragua), West Mata (Tonga).
Ongoing activity: Batu Tara (Komba Island, Indonesia), Chaitén (Chile), Dukono (Halmahera, Indonesia), Kilauea (Hawaii), Redoubt (Alaska, USA), Reventador (Ecuador), Sakura-jima (Japan), Shiveluch (Kamchatka, Russia), Soufrière Hills (Montserrat), Suwanose-jima (Japan), Tungurahua (Ecuador), Ubinas (Peru), Ulawan (Papua New Guinea).
Galeras: alert level lowered 20 May 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Colombia, Galeras.Tags: Colombia, Galeras, South America, volcanic activity reports
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The INGEOMINAS Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Pasto, which monitors Galeras volcano in southern Colombia, yesterday lowered the alert status for the volcano from the second-highest level of Orange (applied on 11 May 2009) to Yellow (Amarillo), ‘changes in the behaviour of volcanic activity’.
The bulletin announcing the change reports an increase in the emission of volcanic gases, sometimes accompanied by ash, and a reduction in ‘rock fracturing’ earthquakes, leading INGEOMINAS to conclude that the pressure that had been building up within the volcano is now being released without explosive eruption. An overflight on 17 May noted gas emissions from within, and at the edges of, the principal crater, and detected thermal anomalies at the peripheries of the crater.
For all our Galeras coverage: Galeras « The Volcanism Blog.
Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program – summary information for Galeras (1501-08=)
Portal Corporativo de INGEOMINAS – Instituto Colombiano de Geología y Minería
Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Pasto – Pasto volcanological observatory main page
Earthquakes in Saudi Arabia – rumbles and rumours 19 May 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports.Tags: Saudi Arabia, volcanic activity reports
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There have been various reports over the past couple of weeks of earthquakes in western Saudi Arabia, possibly with some volcanic component. Some of the news reports are listed below. Significant earthquakes are clearly taking place: there are reports of structural damage, people fleeing their homes, and confusing references to ‘magma moving’.
Dr Erik Klemetti at Eruptions is doing a superb job of putting together all the information he can (including reports, via his comments columns, from people who are on the spot) and trying to make sense of it. Check out his posts: An eruption brewing in Saudi Arabia? and the more recent Updates on the Saudi Arabian earthquakes.
UPDATE 20 May 2009: Dr Erik Klemetti’s latest post on the Saudi Arabian earthquakes is here. This morning (this post is published at 07:38 UTC) the USGS is listing six earthquakes in the area occurring between 19:50 UTC on 17 May and 20:35 UTC on 19 May: the largest is a magnitude 5.7 event at 17:35 UTC on 19 May. There are reports of large-scale evacuations and of aftershocks and ‘a large crack in the earth’, and unconfirmed accounts of gas emissions, ‘smoke’, and changes in well water – all very suggestive, but there is a lack of hard evidence. Dr Klemetti notes:
So, we don’t really know much else about what is going on that we didn’t know a few days ago. Earthquake appear to be continuing. Rumors of smoke, pungent odors, changes in well water. Evacuations. These items, taken at face value, would suggest an eruption is imminent, however, right now, all I can do is say that things are definitely getting interesting in Saudi Arabia right now.
More news links have been added to the list below, which I will keep updating as new information comes in. Knowing no Arabic, however, I’m limited to English-language sources.
Google Earth users can find the earthquake locations using KML files available from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program site. The Saudi earthquakes are listed on this USGS page: clicking on the date for a particular event will take you to a range of tabs giving further information. The ‘maps’ tab includes a link labelled ‘Google Earth KML’ which will open Google Earth and take you to the location for that earthquake. Over at Eruptions Dr Klemetti has published a Google Earth map of the earthquakes so far, and has interesting observations on the Harrat Lunayyir lava field where they are located.
P.S. An American blogger in Saudi Arabia samples local opinion on the earthquakes here. Another Saudi-focused blog covering the earthquakes is here (most recent post here). And CNN notices something is happening here.
UPDATE 21 May 2009. A report in Arab News says that a total of 2,289 people have been evacuated from villages in Al-Ais:
The evacuations took place as 30 tremors of varying magnitudes — measuring between 3 and 5.4 on the Richter scale — were registered at Harrah Al-Shaqah in the Al-Ais area during the 24 hours ending 2 p.m. yesterday, the Saudi Geological Survey reported. … The Civil Defense has warned people living within a radius of 40 km of Harrah Al-Shaqah, the quake’s epicenter, to keep away. The warning was issued following the discovery of dangerous gases and unusually hot air and water in wells as the frequency of tremors increased in Al-Ais. A Civil Defense source said the discoveries suggested a volcanic eruption was likely.
The USGS and Centre Sismologique Euro-Méditerranéen report no new quakes since the magnitude 4.6 event at 20:35 UTC on 19 May, but smaller quakes since then will not have been reported on these sites.
More recent updates here (The Volcanism Blog) and here (Eruptions).
News
1,200 mild tremors felt in Medina – Khaleej Times Online, 4 May 2009
Tremors continue to shake Al-Eis region – Saudi Gazette, 14 May 2009
Evacuation begins as tremors continue – Saudi Gazette, 15 May 2009
Rumblings from Al-Ais volcanoes send villagers into a state of panic – Arab News, 15 May 2009
More tremors jolt Al-Ais – Arab News, 16 May 2009
Saudi Arabia evacuates 5 villages in volcano scare – Reuters India, 19 May 2009
40% of Al-Eis residents flee from earth tremors – Saudi Gazette, 19 May 2009
Residents told to leave Al-Eis amid stronger tremors – Saudi Gazette, 20 May 2009
Aftershocks rock Al-Ais – Arab News, 20 May 2009
Evacuation called as another quake hits Saudi – Business Maktoob, 20 May 2009
Two tremors hit Saudi volcano region, no injuries – Reuters India, 21 May 2009
Earthquake hits Saudi villages – Times of India, 20 May 2009
Saudi prepares fresh evacuation from volcano zone – Reuters AlertNet, 20 May 2009
Earthquake hits Saudi villages – PR-inside.com, 20 May 2009
Saudi earthquake zone evacuated after spate of strong tremors – Dow Jones Newswires, 20 May 2009
Volcanic tremors recorded in Saudi Arabia – Radio New Zealand, 21 May 2009
Villagers flee Saudi quake zone after spate of tremors – Inside the Gulf, 21 May 2009
Saudi volcanic eruption ‘imminent’ – Business Maktoob, 21 May 2009
Saudi Geological Survey explains Al-Ais tremors – BERNAMA, 21 May 2009
Madinah governor tours quake-prone Al-Ais – Arab News, 22 May 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Arabia – information from the GVP about the volcanoes of Arabia
Volcanic Arabia – a detailed and well illustrated article from Saudi Aramco World, 2006, on Arabian volcanism
Watching volcanoes: Natural Environment Research Council podcast 19 May 2009
Posted by admin in Caribbean, current research, geoscience, Soufrière Hills, volcano monitoring, volcanology.Tags: British Geological Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, NERC, Soufrière Hills, volcano research, volcanology
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The Natural Environment Research Council ‘is the UK’s main agency for funding and managing research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences’ (says the NERC ‘what we do’ page). The NERC is responsible for the British Antarctic Survey and the British Geological Survey, among many many other things, and has a strong commitment to natural hazards research, including (of course) volcanoes. To give a notable current example of the NERC’s involvement in this field, it provided emergency funding for the recent important studies of ashfall at Chaitén carried out by a University of Oxford research team.
All this is by way of background, and to point out that if you’re interested in volcanological and natural hazards research, the NERC is an agency to watch. Today there’s a new podcast available on the NERC’s Planet Earth Online environmental news service: ‘Watching volcanoes’. In the podcast (duration 6 min 42 sec) Richard Hollingham talks to Dr Sue Loughlin and Dr Kathryn Goodenough of the British Geological Survey about how studying currently active volcanoes (Montserrat) and the remains of ancient volcanoes (Edinburgh) informs our knowledge of volcanic processes and improves our ability to forecast future volcanic behaviour. It’s a model of clear exposition and an excellent example of scientific outreach.
The Planet Earth podcast – ‘Watching volcanoes’ (18 May 2009)
Peru practices for El Misti eruption 17 May 2009
Posted by admin in El Misti, natural hazards, Peru.Tags: El Misti, natural hazards, Peru, South America, volcanic hazards
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El Misti volcano from Arequipa, 29 April 2007. [source]
El Misti in southern Peru, a 5822-metre stratovolcano, has an active eruptive history and last erupted in 1985. The volcano overlooks the city of Arequipa, which has a population of 1.2 million people. El Misti’s recent activity has been on a relatively small scale (no eruption larger than VEI=1 since the fifteenth century) but it poses a potential danger to thousands of people — about 2000 years ago a pyroclastic flow from the volcano travelled some 12 km, and winds have spread ash as far as 20 km from the cone.
In July 2001 a NASA commentary noted that the local civil defence and planning authorities regard the volcano as a ‘remote danger’ and that the city of Arequipa is continuing to expand towards the volcano. It seems, however, that some of the Peruvian authorities are now aware of the dangers: Peru.com reports that an exercise has just been held to simulate the evacuation of nearby districts in the event of an eruption. The exercise was organized by Peru’s Instituto Geológico, Minero y Metalúrgico (INGEMMET) with the local authorities in Arequipa and neighbouring areas and the Peruvian Army. Sirens sounded, trucks carried evacuees to shelters, procedures for providing tents, warm clothing, blankets and food were tested. The practice evacuation involved only 150 people, but the aim was to ‘sensitize’ the local population about the dangers of an eruption and the importance of being prepared.
News
Eventual erupción del volcán Misti afectaría a 100 mil personas – Peru.com, 16 May 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: El Misti – summary information for El Misti (1504-01=)
Instituto Geológico Minero y Metalúrgico – Geological, Mineral and Metallurgical Institute of Peru (Ingemmet)
Saturday Volcano Art: Bacchus and Vesuvius 17 May 2009
Posted by admin in Italy, Saturday volcano art, Vesuvius.Tags: Italy, Saturday volcano art, Vesuvius
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Did Pliny the Elder, perhaps the most notable casualty of the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius, know that the mountain looming over the Bay of Naples was a volcano? There is no hint of it in his Natural History, where in Book III he simply mentions in passing that Pompeii, Herculaneum and Neapolis are near Mount Vesuvius (III, 62). Later in the same book (III, 92-3) he writes of the volcanic nature of the Aeolian Islands, where sulphur was mined, but says nothing about volcanic activity in Campania.
The volcanic nature of Vesuvius was recognized by the Greek geographer Strabo who wrote in Book V, Chapter IV of his Geography (published around 7 BC) that the summit of Vesuvius ‘shows pore-like cavities in masses of rock that are soot-coloured on the surface, these masses of rock looking as though they had been eaten out by fire; and hence one might infer that in earlier times this district was on fire and had craters of fire, and then, because the fuel gave out, was quenched’. The Romans seem to have been unaware of Strabo’s work, but references to Vesuvius’s once ‘fiery’ nature also appear in Vitruvius’s De Architectura (Book II, Chapter VI), written around 25 BC, and in the Bibliotheca Historica of Diodorus Siculus (Book IV, Chapter I). Contemporaries did not connect the earthquakes that shook the area around the Bay of Naples in 62 and 63 with any volcanic activity. Vesuvius, for the people living around it in the first century AD, was a green, forested and vine-clad mountain, its crater silent and overgrown.
This is the Vesuvius shown in the wall-painting above, which comes from the ‘House of the Centenary’ in the southern part of Pompeii. The volcano is shown as tall, steep-sided, and green with vegetation. The figure of Bacchus, god of wine, stands before the mountain clad in grapes and holding a vine-leaf-capped staff. Wine drips from a glass in his hand, to be eagerly lapped up by an attendant panther (Bacchus is often represented with panthers having been, according to some legends, nursed by the animals when young). In the lower portion of the image is a serpent representing the agathodaemon, the spirit of fertility that inhabited the local fields and vineyards.
Roman landscape wall-paintings expressed ideas of beauty and fertility infused with sacred meaning. This image of Vesuvius thus works on several levels simultaneously, representing the natural landscape as harmoniously beautiful, richly fertile, and charged with supernatural as well as natural potency. Mount Vesuvius, guarded by the vine-god Bacchus and the agathodaemon vegetation-spirit, is here the central image in a visual and spiritual celebration of the local landscape and its fertility. The volcano is peaceful and unthreatening, its tranquil vine-clad slopes giving no hint of the destructive powers that lurk within.
The eruption of 79 AD unleashed pyroclastic flows that engulfed the House of the Centenary along with the rest of the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum — and incidentally preserved this serene wall-painting of the destroyer for posterity.
[This week's Saturday Volcano Art has come out on Sunday. Apologies for the delay.]
For all ‘Saturday volcano art’ articles: Saturday volcano art « The Volcanism Blog.
