Casablancas

The latest Eruptions Word of the Day is "Tuya". So, what is a tuya? This is a tuya: A tuya! Click on the image to see a larger version. Image by Erik Klemetti. Alright, well, that doesn't entirely help, does it? Lets look at the feature the arrow indicates. Some observations: (1) It is low and broad. (2) It has a relatively flat top. (3) It is steep-sided. (4) If you look real close, you can see crudely columnar jointing in the some of the outcrops near the top. (5) If you had a piece of it in your hand, you'd know it was a volcano rock (andesite, very rarely you can find bits that are quite…
There have been a number of articles floating around the popular press for the last week that I thought I would touch on briefly ... always fun to decipher the real news from the hype. Active fumaroles on Datun Mountain in Taipei. An article out of the Taipei Times suggests that the city of Taipei in Taiwan is in great peril from Datun Mountain/volcano. The volcano, which was previously thought to have erupted ~200,000 years ago is now thought to have erupted only 5,000 years ago. That 195,000 years really does make a difference in terms of worrying about potential future eruptions, but there…