Pohutu Geyser in Rotorua, New Zealand. Image taken by Erik Klemetti in January 2009.
It has been busy busy week for me, capped off today with a talk about my field work in New Zealand (see above), so I don't have much to say. Not much new news today about the Saudi Arabian earthquake swarms, but again, I'll keep my eyes pealed (incidentally, I still haven't been able to figure out why no western news sources have even mentioned the swarm).
Anyway, here's are some volcanic tidbits to enjoy over the long weekend:
- Vog, as seen from space. Volcanic fog, fashionably shortened to "vog" is a real hazard in Hawai'i, damaging crops and lungs. The current shuttle mission (to repair Hubble), landing tomorrow, took some great images of Hawai'i, showing not only the vog on the island, but also the ocean entry of lavas from Kilauea.
- In the bevy of Mt. Saint Helens anniversary articles this week, there were a couple that mentioned the new monitoring equipment being installed on the volcano. They are relatively inexpensive GPS units called "spiders". They do have a bit of Skynet in them as the spiders will have "computer-programmed "brains" can decide what some data means and which information is most important". However, they do seem to be about as state-of-the-art of any volcano monitoring I've ever seen. {Hat tip to Eruptions reader Richard Gardner for this news.}
- The economic impact of the current activity at Redoubt is beginning to be felt in Alaska. The state figures it might be losing $1.5 million per month for the shutdown of Cook Inlet production due to the threat to the Drift River Oil Terminal. Meanwhile, AVO continues to wait for the big dome collapse that is likely to occur at the Alaskan volcano.
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Not quite right that no Western media have picked up on the quakes; there's this from CNN:
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/19/hundreds-evacuated-after-saudi-…
Mind you, just eight lines of copy, hardly headline news.
hi Erik i found some info on Saudi Arabia
there not march info there but i give you a link and you can look it overe
malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20090523/tbs-saudi-refineries-955c2a1.html
all so Erik do you ues yahoo IM???
i think Long Valley has some in too do with all the quakes we been haveing down there in S CA
entral California Hit With 4.7 Magnitude Earthquake
KEELER, Calif. â A moderate earthquake has jolted an inland desert area in Central California.
The U.S. Geological survey says the 4.7-magnitude quake struck just before 4 p.m. on Saturday.
A preliminary report shows the quake was centered about seven miles southeast of Keeler, a small town in unincorporated Inyo County next to Owens Lake.
Several calls to the Inyo County Sheriffâs Department went unanswered.
it sould be noted that LA CA has been hit with a 4.7 follow by a 4.1 too days later the 4.7 was on sunday of last weekedend and the 4.1 was on tunday of last week and now here we are with yet other 4.7 on sat all in the same week
# Inyo Says:
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 pm
yeah, all these quakes are probably leading up to something. Long Valley has been active too, perhaps Mammoth will erupt
Erik do you think you can look in too this and find out whats going on???
IF the quakes are of volcanic origin -and it's a big if, tectonic quakes are hardly unknown in CA- the Inyo/Mono volcanic system, last confirmed activity <800 years ago, seems a more likely culprit than Long Valley itself. Be good to know the depth of the quakes as well as the epicenters, which is all that news reports usually give you
(message was cut off??) about to continue: ,800 years ago, would seem a more likely source than Long Valley. Be good to know the depth of the quakes rather than/as well as the epicenters
Looks as if the bigger earthquake depth was about .1 miles
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/ci14462064.php
These earthquakes are south of Owens Lake. I am not sure if that area is inside Long Valley.
though...
A couple of weeks ago authorites closed a popular hot springs hang-out near Mamoth. The water temps shot up very high.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3045/
The shaking continues in or around Long Valley. Up to about 60 quakes over the past week.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/35.37.-118.-11…
most of these earthquakes are near the Coso Volcanic field, south of Long Valley
The earthquakes are a little closer to Coso than Long Valley, but still a long way from either - 25 miles / 35 km from Coso and 100 miles / 185 km from Long Valley. I talk a little about it in today's roundup.
I love the way you sound so passionate about what you are writing. Keep up the great work!