Three volcanoes are currently active in the Aleutian Islands: Okmok, Cleveland and Kasatochi. Chris Rowan at Highly Allocthonous ponders on this near-simultaneous eruption of three volcanoes in the same neighbourhood in an interesting post and asks. ‘Could the eruption of one have triggered the others?’ Answer: ‘no’. Disappointing news for volcanic chain-reaction catastrophists everywhere.

There’s a lovely profile, with pictures, of Lunar Crater Volcanic Field, Nevada, at Pools and Riffles - the blog of a ‘hydrologist working on a wildlife refuge in the desert of Nevada trying to balance the needs of wildlife with the ever increasing human demand for water’. A wonderful landscape, fascinatingly explained: ‘Lunar Crater Volcanic Field’.

The excellent Eruptions blog, which set up shop at the beginning of May, has already reached 100 posts. Congratulations to Erik Klemetti on reaching this milestone!

I think copyright is very important. The fundamental principle for me is that I expect my own work to be treated with respect and properly attributed, and I extend the same courtesy to others. When I want to use copyrighted material I always ask first.

And I’m wondering why I bother.

I’ve just been through my list of copyright requests pending and find that I am still waiting for a response from no fewer than eight organizations. In each case I’ve identified the item I wish to use (images, invariably), explained why and how I want to use it, made various guarantees that any permission granted won’t be abused, and framed the whole thing in the politest possible terms. And I’ve had nothing back from any of them.

In the worst case I’ve been waiting three months, and sent three follow-up messages. The rest come in at between six weeks and two weeks. These are not one-person operations: the organizations concerned are all large, have substantial budgets and full-time staff, advertise e-mail addresses through which they can be contacted, and plaster copyright protection notices all over their content. Some are government organizations, some are private companies, two are educational institutions.

They insist that you contact them to get permission to reproduce any part of their content, and when you do, they ignore you. Great.

Why do I bother?

Because it’s the right thing to do. But you can understand why I ask.

(I won’t name any of the guilty parties here. Yet.)

Rafael Peralta has brought his Enjambre de Aysén blog to my attention. It focuses on seismicity along the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault Zone that dominates southern Chile for around 1000km: Chaitén is pretty much right in the middle. The blog publishes seismic maps derived from USGS data (hence the quakes of 28/29/30 May, which seemed to hit a USGS blindspot, are not shown). An excerpt showing the Chaitén region, showing the quakes that preceded the eruption is given below. Visit Enjambre de Aysén to find out more.

[Credit: Rafael Peralta]

For all our Chaitén coverage: Chaitén << The Volcanism Blog

Information
Global Volcanism Program: Chaitén - summary information for Chaitén (1508-41)
ONEMI, Oficina Nacional de Emergencia - Chilean government emergencies office (Spanish)
SERNAGEOMIN - Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (Spanish)

John Van Hoesen at Geological Musings in the Taconic Mountains… has done a great job of hosting the latest Accretionary Wedge on ‘Geology in Art’, and his article bringing together the various submissions is a work of art in its own right. There’s also a very rich crop of submissions, so follow the link below and explore, learn, and enjoy…

Accretionary Wedge #10: Geology in Art

Hot gas plumes thought to consist of volcanic gases have been detected 7km south-west of the summit of Mt Kurikoma, a 1628m stratovolcano in northern Honshu (see Erik’s Eruptions blog for more). Kurikoma last erupted in 1950, and has in general a rather sketchy eruptive history.

The volcano is in the area affected by Friday’s 6.8M earthquake, so are these phenomena related? Here’s what the Japanese press report says:

Associate Prof. Sadato Ueki of Tohoku University’s Research Center for the Prediction of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions said the plumes might be volcanic gases rising to the Earth’s surface.

‘There’s a possibility that volcanic gases that had been confined below ground are gushing out through fissures in the mountain created by the earthquake,’ he said.

Ueki said it was also possible that the plumes were steam coming from underground hot water channels that had their course diverted by the earthquake.

But the professor ruled out the possibility of increased volcanic activity on Mt. Kurikoma, saying that the plumes were very far from the summit of the volcano.

So the professor is suggesting the plumes might be by-products of the earthquake. Kim at All of My Faults Are Stress-Related similarly asks ‘Did the earthquake … cause Kurikoma to start acting up?’, but also observes that this was a rather unusual earthquake. It was along a thrust fault, but it was in Honshu’s volcanic arc, which is not where you would expect a thrust earthquake to be. Kim asks whether the quake itself might be the result of local magmatism: ‘the fault mechanism isn’t surprising. But the location is. Is this a case where the magmatism created a weaker zone in the crust and allowed thrust faulting to take place?’

It will be interesting to watch what happens.

Information
Global Volcanism Program: Kurikoma - summary information for Kurikoma (0803-21=)

News
Hot gas plumes detected at Mt. Kurikoma - Daily Yomiuri Online, 17 June 2008

John Van Hoesen’s blog Geological Musings in the Taconic Mountains…, as well as hosting the current Accretionary Wedge (for my contribution, click here), features a richly-illustrated account of his recent tour of notable Italian volcanoes: Etna, Vulcano, Stromboli … vivid descriptions and some great pictures.

Volcano Tour of Italy…

There’s a great post at Magma Cum Laude about this suggestion that the advance of lava flows could be controlled using limestone or dolomite as a barrier. The hot lava would react with the carbonate barrier, with the reaction drawing heat from the lava and cooling it down, thus: ‘The decarbonation of limestone by the hot lava will therefore rapidly cool the volcanic outpourings, making it far more viscous and quicker to solidify’.

Even the most effective barrier methods (and, confronted with advancing lava, few barriers are really effective) don’t address the problem that great volumes of the hot stuff will keep on emerging from the vent, and have to go somewhere. To quote MCL, ‘A lava flow, even a really fluid one, has a lot of mass, and the source of the flow is constantly adding more. A flow doesn’t stop unless its source stops producing lava’.

Diverting lava flows isn’t just a physical problem, it can also be a socio-political one. An often quoted instance comes from the 1669 eruption of Etna: an attempt by people from Catania to divert the advancing lava flows from their city was apparently thwarted by the inhabitants of nearby villages, who did not want the lava coming their way.

Volcano taming: could geochemistry save lives during volcanic eruptions? - EurekAlert, 5 June 2008
Stop! In the name of the carbonate! - Magma Cum Laude, 5 June 2008 (with full references)

The world of geoblogging is thriving. To see how, pay a visit to Highly Allocthonous where Chris Rowan has posted a list of all the geoblogs currently featured in his invaluable geoblogosphere feed: 45 in all.

And not only do geoblogs have the best images, the best in-depth posts, the best cutting-edge science, the best opinions and insights, they also have the best names. Check them out: Highly Allocthonous, Active Margin, Clastic Detritus, Harmonic Tremors, goodSchist, Magma Cum Laude … inspired stuff. That’s why I chose a boring descriptive name for this place. Just couldn’t compete.