Ash fall
eklemetti | May 3, 2008
Update 5/3/08: SERNAGEOMIN (the Chilean Geologic Survey) is now concerned that the eruption of Chaiten may be a the precursor of a larger eruption, mostly owing to the long (~9,000 year?) repose time. This could be the beginnings of a southern Andean Pinatubo.
The towns around Chaiten are more or less deserted now as the volcano continues to spew ash and pumice - upwards of 15 cm of ash in some places.
Edit: fixed link (thanks Mark)
Edit 2: fixed date of last eruption from ~7,000 years ago to ~9,000 years ago.
eklemetti | May 3, 2008
I've been following these rumblings for the last few months, but it looks like Colombia's Nevado del Huila is ramping into a new cycle of eruptions. Huila lives in the shadow of its more famous brethren Nevado del Ruiz and Galeras, both of which have had recent and tragic eruptions. Huila is not believed to have been active since the 1500s, but little research has been done on Huila (or any Colombian volcano beyond the aforementioned duo), so it might have had some fits and spasms in the last 500 years.Â
Reports from INGEOMINAS, the Colombian Geological Survey, say that Huila has been…
eklemetti | May 3, 2008
So, this isn't exactly about current eruptions, but I was able to watch the new (well, to the U.S.) Doctor Who episode centered around the 79 A.D. eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Now, to me, this was two of my favorite things (volcanoes and Doctor Who) fuses into one, and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't my favorite thing ever.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The premise is that the Doctor and Donna accidently end up in Pompeii the day before the volcano erupts and buries the city in pyroclastic flows and ash fall. Of course, there is more than that going on. We find all sorts of nasty alien-related things going on…
eklemetti | May 2, 2008
The big eruption news today is an unexpected eruption in southern Chile. In fact, it is so unexpected that depending on when and where you read about it, you might get a different answer to what volcano is doing the eruption. What we do know at this point is an eruptive column has been spotted by people on the ground and the Washington VAAC, with estimates of an eruptive column height of between 35-55,000 feet. In other words: pretty darn sizeable. Ash is also coming down in town to the east of the eruption in Argentina. Now it seems that Chilean officials say Volcan Chaiten is the culprit…