I'll be busy for a couple days when I'm off at University of Iowa, so I thought I'd leave this thread available for you to talk. Specifically, I'm interested in what you might be interested in seeing (or not seeing) on Eruptions. I've tried a number of features (Mystery Volcano Photo, Q&A, Volcano Profiles) - do you want to see more/see less of these features with the usual volcano news? More/less coverage of volcano research from the literature? Let me know what you think and how things might be better.
See you next week!
Comments (46)
I would like to have more features that give us a gut feel - (and intellectual grasp of) the power and potential disturbances that volcanoes might cause.
I'd like to go back in time a little bit to better grasp volcanoes in their historical context. Just a few thousand years ago there were serious volcanic eruptions across the US. Now, Africa might be experiencing an upswing in volcanic activity with the rift zone becoming more active. Lake overturn was recently discussed as ready to take many lives in an African city. The 1800,s had both Tambora and Krakatau as noteworthy eruptions. I'd like to bridge the gap between an excited popular media sounding alarm bells about Yellowstone and supervolcanoes to general volcanic studies which tend to involve scientists who might only study one or several long-period volcanic systems or just study the frequently erupting low-danger volcanoes.
I'd like to have some sense of how many potential Mt. Pinatubo's are out there - and what to expect if these types of volcanoes erupt. The mid-power volcanoes like Crater lake, Santorini, Pinatubo, Krakatau, Tambora, Mt Rainier? Camp Flegrei? are the type of volcanoes that are most likely to next capture the world's attention.
Low power volcanoes that are frequently mentioned in the weekly volcanic reports and that are always erupting to me have a bit of value in-as-much as people are affected by them or in that we can draw lessons about larger eruptions.
Maybe a few lessons can be put together (with links) on some basics of predicting a volcanic eruption. That way - it will help your readers be better prepared to understand what might happen when long-sleeping volcanoes (like Mt. Pinatubo) start showing signs of life again. Now, Mt. Pinatubo will sleep again for centuries. I am not asking for predictions, but just in general (if the knowledge is out there) what to expect if different Alaskan, Kamchatkan, Indonesian or Kurilian volcanoes start coming to life. I'd like to know what are the major gaps in understanding volcanoes. Have most volcanoes around the world have been studied for records of previous volcanic eruptions? Has strata been examined in most of these places? Are there many areas of the world that potentially large volcanoes haven't been studied at all?
Chaiten erupted and all we knew was that it erupted before about 9,000 years ago. Is this the current state of lack of knowledge for most volcanoes around the world?
I recently got several of the volcano books that you earlier recommended - and a few additional ones. So I appreciate your guidance, inspiration and diligence in helping us learn about volcanoes.
Posted by: Thomas Donlon | November 19, 2009 4:38 PM