Right as Yellowstone is getting interesting (or at least had signs of interest), Eruptions is going on a bit of a break again starting January 2. This time it is because I'm off to the North Island of New Zealand to do some field work. I'll be headed to Tarawera (hopefully both the 1305 and 1886 eruption deposits), Taupo, Tongariro, the area around Rotorua and maybe even White Island (amongst other). I won't have my MacBook, but I will have my iPod Touch, so I'll try to keep track and make brief posts if something big comes up, but feel free to use this post as a clearinghouse for any news or articles you run across until I return on January 16th.
Happy 2009 to all the Eruptions readers!
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If you get the chance Erik, camp out at hot water beach on the southern shore of Lake Tarawera. You can catch trout from the lake and cook them in the numerous hot pools on the edge of the shore. One of the better volcano-related experiences I've had! Hope you enjoy my home country!
Cool pictures of Chaiten:
http://megagalerias.terra.cl/galerias/index.cfm?id_galeria=30734
There was a 5.1 and 4.9 earthquake near Rabaul caldera.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/150_-5.php
I am in a long term mode of trying to understand the range of overlaps between earthquakes and volcanic activity. I suppose it usually means nothing ... but how often do earthquakes spur volcanic eruptions and what is the range of lag times - and... I've got many other questions like that. They probably can't be answered now ... each volcanic system is different. Some may be close to eruptions and need just a slight nudge to get them active.
Other parts of Indonesia are frequently beset by earthquakesl. At some point I need [want] to know where simmering caldera volcanoes are located ... and know how close occurring earthquakes are to them.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/region/S_Pacific.p…
There were a number of five magnitude earthquakes to the Northeast of New Zealand. I hope nothing too exciting (dangerous) happens on your trip. Exciting finds yes, but climbing on unstable volcanoes in a quake .... I hope you don't get hurt.
A software program apparently predicts these volcano to erupt in 2009.
http://www.intlvrc.org/forecast.htm
I don't know how much credence to give to all this. We'll see what happens.
It appears like Chaiten will not be resettled.
"The Chilean government decided last week that Bahia Pumalin and southern Santa Barbara are the two most likely locations for the reconstruction of the far southern city of Chaitén." The report was produced "by experts at Santiago's Catholic University".
Perhaps lessening the urgency to spend money on this problem is that "almost two thirds of the displaced have already settled in to new locations."
http://www.patagoniatimes.cl/index.php/20090110722/News/Health-Sience/G…
There is good video of a restless Kamchatka volcano here.
It also says that the Russians are tying to get their volcano monitoring program in Kamchatka fully functional.
Video clip.
http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=96873&videoChannel=2603
Erik, check out the latest report about Chaiten from the
http://volcanism.wordpress.com/
Also read my comment there.