Bad health blogging 26 July 2009
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The Volcanism Blog took an unannounced break this week because my health took a turn for the worse on 19 July. Things are better now, but I can’t promise a return to full service for a little while yet. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
In the meantime, here’s something to enjoy from Sticky Comics: lil’ volcano.
Update 10 August 2009: I’m better! Back to blogging this week. Thank you to everyone who has left messages and/or sent e-mails with good wishes. Your kind thoughts have been much appreciated.
Elevated activity continues at Mayon 19 July 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Mayon, Philippines.Tags: Mayon, Philippines, volcanic activity reports
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Beautifully elegant Philippine volcano Mayon, currently at Alert Level 2, continues to show elevated activity, according to information from Phivolcs that is being reported in the local press. The Manila Bulletin reports that Sunday 19 July has seen continuing volcanic earthquakes, intense crater glow and moderate steaming. ABS-CBN News reports that the local provincial governor has asked Phivolcs to investigate closing down all tourist activities around the volcano as a precaution. Local Philippine Army commanders, meanwhile, are seeking a truce with the Communist ‘New Peoples Army’ guerillas who are known to be operating in the area, so that fighting doesn’t get in the way of humanitarian activities.
There are also reports that animals living on the slopes of Mayon are in some way sensitive to environmental changes associated with impending eruption and are clearing out: some locals say that ‘wildlife has been restless’, and ‘restive snakes’ have been ‘crawling down the slopes’. Is there anything in this? Well, so far, says Dr Erik Klemetti, ‘there are no robust scientific studies … that can directly correlate animal behavior and volcanism (at least before an eruption)’. Probably best not to rely on the snakes, on the whole.
News
Is Mayon nearing eruption? – Inquirer.net, 16 July 2009
Mayon exhibits seismic activity – Manila Bulletin, 19 July 2009
Army officer seeks local truce with NPA due to ‘restive’ Mayon – ABS-CBN News, 19 July 2009
Information
Global Volcanism Program: Mayon – summary information for Mayon (0703-03=)
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology – website for Phivolcs
Saturday Volcano Art: Giovanni Battista Lusieri, ‘Vesuvius from Posillipo by Night’ (1797) 18 July 2009
Posted by admin in Saturday volcano art, volcano art, volcano culture, volcano images.Tags: Giovanni Lusieri, Saturday volcano art, Vesuvius, volcano culture
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Although this picture was painted in 1797, it depicts an eruption that took place some ten years earlier, in the summer of 1787. The painter was Giovanni Battista Lusieri, who was born in Rome around 1755 and from around 1782 worked as a painter of local views in Naples, producing pictures of the city and its picturesque surroundings – including Mount Vesuvius, then very active – for travellers visiting Naples on the ‘Grand Tour’. Demand for Lusieri’s work was such that he produced multiple copies of some of his most popular images by printing outline etchings of them which he then coloured by hand.
This view of Vesuvius in eruption was painted using Lusieri’s characteristic technique of watercolour washes, with ink used for outlines and some detailed modelling, producing an image of precision and delicacy. He was dedicated to accuracy, spending long hours perfecting his images, and insisted on the primacy of nature over the artist’s imagination in art: ‘one should faithfully imitate nature’. This view of the volcano erupting in the moonlight, its orange lava contrasting with the silver sky and the tranquil waters of the bay, nonetheless has a powerfully romantic atmosphere.
From 1799 Lusieri worked as an agent for Lord Elgin, overseeing Elgin’s programme of acquisitions of art and antiquities in Greece from 1801 onwards, including the removal of the Parthenon sculptures now known as the Elgin Marbles. Lusieri died in Athens in 1821, lamenting that his work for Elgin had prevented him from devoting himself to his art. Further disappointment was in store, had he lived to see it: a ship carrying the majority of his watercolours sank in 1828, leaving little of his work for the appreciation of posterity.
For all ‘Saturday volcano art’ articles: Saturday volcano art « The Volcanism Blog.
Further reading
Giovanni Battista Lusieri – biography from the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Giovanni Battista Lusieri – another biography, from the National Galleries of Scotland.
Vedutismo e Grand Tour – complete text in Italian of Fabrizia Lucilla Spirito, Vedutismo e Grand Tour: Giovan Battista Lusieri e i suoi contemporanei (doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 2006); link is to a page from which the PDF can be downloaded.
Vesuvius on the Grand Tour – volcanic tourism in the eighteenth century, from the Georgian Index.
[Thanks to the Volcanism Blog reader who sent in this picture and suggested it as a subject for 'Saturday Volcano Art'.]
SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 8-14 July 2009 15 July 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Africa, Alaska, Batu Tara, Chaitén, Chile, Dukono, eruptions, Fuego, Guatemala, Hawaii, Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Kilauea, Manda Hararo, Pacaya, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Sakura-jima, San Miguel, Sarychev Peak, Shishaldin, Shiveluch, 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 for 8-14 July 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: Manda Hararo (Ethiopia), Mayon (Philippines), San Miguel (El Salvador), Sarychev Peak (Russia), Shishaldin (Alaska, USA).
Ongoing Activity: Batu Tara (Indonesia), Chaitén (Chile), Dukono (Indonesia), Fuego (Guatemala), Kilauea (Hawaii, USA), Pacaya (Guatemala), Rabaul (Papua New Guinea), Sakura-jima (Japan), Shiveluch (Russia).
The volcanic hazards of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico 15 July 2009
Posted by admin in Mexico, natural hazards, San Martín, volcanology.Tags: Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, natural hazards, San Martín, volcanology
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The Los Tuxtlas region consists of an isolated range of volcanic mountains in southern Mexico, in the central southern area of the coastal state of Veracruz. The isolation of this elevated region has given it a virtual island ecosystem, enabling flora and fauna to flourish there in the most northerly tropical rainforest environment on the American mainland. In 1998 a nature reserve was established there by the Mexican Government, the Reserva de la Biósfera Los Tuxtlas.
So, it’s a very interesting part of the world. Yet while the flora and fauna of Los Tuxtlas have been extensively studied, the geology of the region has been somewhat neglected: which is unfortunate, not only because of the intrinsic geological interest of this anomalous volcanic belt, but because it is region of active volcanism. Volcán de San Martín, the dominant volcanic edifice of the Tuxtla volcanic field, last erupted in 1793 (VEI=4) and 1794 (VEI=2), if more recent uncertain reports of activity are disregarded.
However, a detailed study of volcanic activity and potential hazards in Los Tuxtlas is now under way, reports the Veracruz newspaper El Golfo (drawing upon a report in the Mexican university periodical UniVerso). A team of experts from the Universidad Veracruzana are working to compile a detailed hazard map of Los Tuxtlas which will help local authorities plan for better civil protection:
In addition to studying past eruptions and estimating future ones … [the team] will assess the hazards faced by local communities through mud and debris flows generated by the rains and storms that constantly sweep the region with its abundant vegetation and proximity to the sea.
In communities of Pajapan municipality important effects have already occurred, including the loss of human life because of debris flows caused by the heavy rains, comments Sergio Rodriguez Elizarrarás, an expert in geology and volcanology from the Centro de Ciencias de la Tierra (CCT). ‘What we want is that these tragedies are not repeated’.
The project involves mineralogical and soil studies throughout the Tuxtla volcanic complex, and detailed study of the little-known eruptive history of San Martín volcano. Funding for the project, to the tune of more than 4 million pesos (around $300,000 or €200,000), is being provided by the Mexican Government’s Fondo Nacional de Prevención de Desastres Naturales (Fopreden).
Information
Global Volcanism Program: San Martín – summary information on San Martín (1401-11=)
News
Realizarán mapa de peligros volcánicos en Los Tuxtlas – UniVerso, 13 July 2009
Especialistas mantendrán vigilancia en volcanes – El Golfo, 14 July 2009
Drift River Oil Terminal back on line next month 14 July 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Alaska, eruptions, natural hazards, Redoubt, United States.Tags: Alaska, Drift River, lahars, natural hazards, Redoubt, volcanic activity reports
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In response to ‘a significant decrease in the rate of lava extrusion’ and indications that the growth of the lava dome had ‘significantly slowed, if not stopped’, the Alaska Volcano Observatory lowered the alert level at Redoubt volcano to aviation colour code Yellow and volcano alert level Advisory at the end of last month (AVO advisory 30 June 2009). The eruption may be coming to an end … or it may very well not. In an extended information statement, the AVO warns:
Despite evidence for the significant slowing, and possible cessation of its growth rate, the lava dome is potentially unstable and the possibility of a full or partial collapse remains high at present. Such a collapse would likely be accompanied by the production of a large ash plume and lahars in the Drift River valley. This event could occur with little or no advance warning.
Against this background comes the news that the Cook Inlet Pipe Line Company is planning to have the Drift River Oil Terminal back on line by the middle of next month. The terminal is 40 km from Redoubt’s main vent, at the mouth of the Drift River Valley, which forms a channel for the volcano’s lahars. Plans are apparently in hand to modify the facility so that oil will be shipped directly from the pipeline into tankers, by-passing the vulnerable storage tanks that have been the focus for much concern.
This will get the oil flowing and the people working again (dome collapses and lahars allowing) but the long-term future of the terminal is unclear: ‘The facility remains in pretty good shape’, says CIPL spokesman Casey Sullivan, ‘the concern is the location.’ No kidding.
For all our Redoubt coverage: Redoubt « The Volcanism Blog.
News
Volcano-halted Alaska oil production to resume – Reuters, 13 July 2009
Cook Inlet pipeline operations expected to resume in August – Radio Kenai, 13 July 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
Sarychev Peak SO2 emissions 13 July 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, eruptions, Russia, Sarychev Peak.Tags: Kuril Islands, Russia, Sarychev Peak, sulphur dioxide, volcanic activity reports
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A sulphur dioxide cloud emitted by Sarychev Peak volcano in the central Kurils can be seen on the NOAA Kamchatka map compiled from OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) data early today:
[Click on the image above to enlarge.]
The SVERT update on Sarychev Peak for 13 July 2009 reports low-level activity with gas emission but no ash explosions: ‘According to satellite images from today, (MODIS 0907130031UTC), (NOAA 17 0907122247 UTC) ash-gas emission is observed at Sarychev volcano. It stretches east 40 km’. The gas cloud visible in the north-west of the Sea of Okhotsk is the residue of that emitted by Sarychev Peak earlier this month (e.g., see the update on 9 July 2009).
[Thanks to Volcanism Blog reader Gijs de Reijke for spotting this SO2 data.]
For all our Sarychev Peak coverage: Sarychev Peak « The Volcanism Blog.
Dr Erik Klemetti is in The Reef Tank 13 July 2009
Posted by admin in blogs, geoblogosphere, volcanology.comments closed
The Reef Tank is a bulletin-board (although there’s much more to it than that term implies) for aquarists to discuss matters aquatic. They take an admirably broad view of their subject area, and have published a great interview with Dr Erik Klemetti of the Eruptions blog in which marine connections with volcanism are expertly dissected. Dr Klemetti also talks about his inspiration in setting up Eruptions (and has some nice things to say about The Volcanism Blog in passing).
- Point of eruption – The Reef Tank, 10 July 2009
Ethiopian eruption: scientists on ground, shoes melt 13 July 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Africa, eruptions, Ethiopia, Manda Hararo.Tags: activity reports, Africa, eruptions, Ethiopia
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The first on-the-ground reports from the location of the recent eruption in the Manda Hararo volcanic field in Ethiopia have come from David Ferguson, a doctoral student in geology at the University of Oxford. He is reporting on his work on the volcanics of the Afar region in a series of blog postings for The Guardian.
Part 1 describes how he dropped everything and flew out there to take a look at what was going on, part 2 and part 3 (with photographs, including a wonderful aerial view of an eruptive fissure) see him reach the location courtesy of the Ethiopian Army, while part 4 (with more pictures) is an account of what he found once he got there with his Ethiopian colleagues:
As we reached the front of the lava flow one of our group, Dr Elias Lewi, walked out over its brittle surface, quickly turning back as his shoes begin to melt. Although only a few days old, the lava had a dark black crust and was deceptively similar to other, much colder flows. The real temperature was revealed by Talfan Barnie, a PhD student from Cambridge, who used a thermal infra-red camera to ‘see’ temperatures of up to 162C around the cracks and fractures across the flow surface.
We had to be very careful where we trod.
David Ferguson reports extensive (~10 square km) fresh lava flows from the eruption, about 3 m high at the margins, gas emissions, and a 5-kilometre fissure and central vent producing a small plume. There is more on Manda Hararo in the Global Volcanism Program’s Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for 1-7 July.
- News from Afar: my date with a volcano – The Guardian, 3 July 2009
- News from Afar: diversionary tactics – The Guardian, 6 July 2009
- News from Afar: Ground Zero – The Guardian, 7 July 2009
- News from Afar: melting shoes and choking gas – The Guardian, 9 July 2009
SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 1-7 July 2009 13 July 2009
Posted by admin in activity reports, Africa, Batu Tara, Chaitén, Chile, Dukono, Ecuador, El Salvador, eruptions, Ethiopia, Hawaii, Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Kilauea, Krakatau, Manda Hararo, Mayon, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Rabaul, Russia, Sakura-jima, San Miguel, Santa María, Sarychev Peak, Shiveluch, Suwanose-jima, Tungurahua, Ubinas, United States, Weekly Volcanic Activity Reports.Tags: Global Volcanism Program, volcanic activity reports, volcanic eruptions
comments closed
The Smithsonian Institution/United States Geological Survey Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for 1-7 July 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: Manda Hararo (Ethiopia), Mayon (Philippines), San Miguel (El Salvador), Sarychev Peak (Russia).
Ongoing Activity: Batu Tara (Indonesia), Chaitén (Chile), Dukono (Indonesia), Kilauea (Hawaii, USA), Krakatau (Indonesia), Rabaul (Papua New Guinea), Sakura-jima (Japan), Santa María (Guatemala), Shiveluch (Russia), Suwanose-jima (Japan), Tungurahua (Ecuador), Ubinas (Peru).
