Eruptions Blog
eklemetti | September 1, 2010
Big news from Eruptions (and me.)
Eruptions has always been an evolving space - it started as a little side project on Wordpress that has grown over the last two-and-a-half years into a community of volcano enthusiasts. The blog has drawn over 2.5 million views and 1.5 million visits since I started it in May of 2008 - which, to me, is mindblowing - and I thank of all your for that. I also thank ScienceBlogs for helping more people find the blog over the last 18 months that I've been lucky to be hosted here.
However, with all things, change is sometimes needed. I'm not going to go into the…
eklemetti | August 24, 2010The Doctor fights off a magma creature in Pompeii.
Now, most of the time I talk about why I started this blog, I talk about the eruption of Chaiten in Chile as the catalyst. However, if you look back at my archives, you'll see that one of my first posts was on the Doctor Who episode "The Fires of Pompeii" - so that might also be a good marker to point to on why I started this blog. Why do I bring this up? Well, Pompeii gets mentioned a couple times in the first few seasons of the revived Doctor Who. First off, when the Doctor meets Capt. Jack Harkness (a time-traveling huckster), Capt. Jack…
eklemetti | August 11, 2010Alaska's Augustine erupting.
Big volcano news while I'm off in the woods? Post it here!
eklemetti | August 10, 2010
Well, the summer is rapidly coming to an end - classes start here at Denison on August 30. So, we are trying to squeeze what we can out of the season and to that end, I'll be on one of these things called "vacations" for the next couple weeks. (Oh yeah, and I will be going through Yellowstone, so I'll personally check on those earthquakes, OK?)
That means Eruptions will be operating on the second summer schedule. No new posts until August 23, but some upcoming (automatically posted) articles including the answers to your questions for Sally Kuhn Sennert of the Global Volcanism Program and…
eklemetti | August 9, 2010Quiet weekend on the whole, volcano-wise, beyond the articles about the latest eruption at Karangetang. So, we'll start this week with a new Mystery Volcano Photo. The last MVP was Tarawera in a shot I took from a road on the back side of the volcano, so that leaves the current standings looking like this:
Standings
Boris Behncke - 4
Don Crain - 4
The Bobs - 3
gijs - 2
volcanista - 1
Lockwood - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
Damon Hynes - 1
Marco - 1
Doug C. - 1
Diane - 1
Stephen - 1
MK, Alberta - 1
Kultsi - 1
Henrik - 1
Zane - 1
Now, here is the new one. Good luck!
Click…
eklemetti | August 4, 2010Eyjafjallajökull erupting in the spring of 2010.
I have a request for all of you Eruptions readers! In a few weeks I will be giving a talk here at Denison on the Eyjafjallajökull eruption and especially the aspects of how the eruption unfolded on the web. I think the shared experience of the seismicity, fissure vent eruption and explosive eruption - along with all the ramifications of the air traffic stoppage over Europe - was a fascinating phenomenon. So, I ask you readers: How would you describe your experience on Eruptions during the Eyjafjallajökull events? By that I mean in terms of…
eklemetti | July 19, 2010I'm officially out of the mountains in the Mineral King area - the field work went great, we collected some fabulous Triassic-Jurassic rhyolites from a pendant in the Sierra Nevada Batholith (and also enjoyed blueberry-sized hail and an unfortunate hike through a thorny thicket). I'll have more to say later, but now I'll be diving headlong into working on papers during my few days here in Davis ... but I'll try to catch up on all your comments left while I was away!
The Mineral King region of the Sierra Nevada in California. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image by Erik Klemetti,…
eklemetti | July 14, 2010MVP 23 revealed ... and 24 introduced!
Mystery Volcano Photo #23 was, in fact, Middle Sister volcano in Oregon, part of the picturesque Three Sisters near Bend. Middle Sister is a partially eroded (by glaciers) composite volcano with a mix basaltic andesite to andesite lava flows and tephra deposits. Depending on who you speak with, Middle Sister gets lumped in with North Sister (as Middle Sister build up on the flanks of its slightly older sibling) or stands on its own as a part of the Three Sisters. However, before thinking Middle Sister is dormant, remember, the last eruption might have…
eklemetti | July 11, 2010
New eruption? New volcano research announced? New media attention put on all things volcanic? Post it here and feel free to discuss ...
I'll be back July 20.
eklemetti | July 8, 2010Thanks for all the words/advice about Pepsigeddon here at SB. If you missed it, the powers that be have officially pulled the plug on the PepsiBlog. However, this crisis (as much as blogging can be a crisis) has reinforced a lot of long-standing problems with the management here at SB, so not to sound like Fox Mulder, there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. Now that PepsiBlog is down, I'll return to posting at SB (for the time being at least). However, SB has lost a lot of credibility and very good bloggers as well, so times, they are a'changin'. I strongly believe in keeping a…
eklemetti | July 7, 2010
This hiatus for Eruptions lead me to do one thing I said I would never do ... but strange times call for strange measures. Eruptions has opened up a Twitter account (and I feel a little dirty about it), so if you want to follow the sporadic posts that might show up there, you can follow the blog - eruptionsblog. Now, I can't guarantee a lot of tweets, but for now, if something comes up, you can look there ... and we'll see where it goes from there.
eklemetti | June 28, 2010After last week's attempt to revive Mystery Volcano Photo - and the discovery (by me, thanks to you readers) of Tin Eye - I've had to ponder how to continue. Well, I think the best thing to do is to try using reader images that hopefully aren't hiding out on the web somewhere. So, that is what we'll try ...
As for MVP #20, the answer was, indeed, Edziza in Canada (congrats to Stephen). Edziza is an eroded composite stratovolcano that last erupted ~950 AD (+/- 1,000 years ... !) The volcano has erupted basalts to more felsic magmas, many of which were subglacial eruptions.
The current…
eklemetti | June 25, 2010It has been a quiet week, volcanically-speaking that is. Maybe they're all watching the World Cup, but there hasn't been a lot of new and exciting news to report this week. So, I thought this might be a good time to bring back Mystery Volcano Photo! Now, for those of you just joining us, I post a volcano photo and you have to identify it. The first person to get it right scores a point. We haven't done an MVP in a while (mostly because you all are too good at it), so to refresh our memories, the current standings:
The Bobs - 3
Don Crain - 3
gijs - 2
Boris Behncke - 2
volcanista - 1
Lockwood…
eklemetti | May 2, 2010Chaiten in Chile erupting on May 5, 2008, four days after the volcano came back to life after ~9,000 years of dormancy.
Quick post ... but until I was reminded by Eruptions reader Guillermo, I had forgotten two important anniversaries.
First, today (May 1) marks the 2nd anniversary of the start of the Chaiten eruption in Chile. The eruption is still rumbling along (spanish), with growth of three domes in the Chaiten caldera. I'll have more to say about this on Monday.
Secondly, today also marks the second anniversary for the start of this blog! Yes, if you can believe it, Eruptions turns two…
eklemetti | April 23, 2010I just wanted to leave a quick note - I've been getting quite a bit of email, as you might imagine, so I've gotten a little behind in responding. So, please don't take it personally if you haven't heard back from me. I'll try to get through the backlog, but with the increased volume combined with the end of the semester here, it might take a bit.
On a related note, I might try to figure out how I can embed a chat into the blog periodically for live chats about volcanoes ... we'll see if I can figure out how to do that.
That being said, keep the emails and questions coming!
eklemetti | April 15, 2010
A brief, non-volcano-related note, but sometime between 12:30 and 1 PM EDT today, Eruptions will pass 1,000,000 page views since joining ScienceBlogs in March of 2009. I wanted to thank everyone who has made the blog such a fun thing to do and who pick up on reporting the events when I'm swamped. You've made it into a community of volcanophiles unto itself.
Now, back to the volcanoes!
eklemetti | March 17, 2010Cast your ballot for the next Volcano Profile!
Which volcano should be the next Volcano Profile?opinion
eklemetti | March 16, 2010It has been a while since I've posted a Mystery Volcano Photo, but here is a new one. Just a refresher on the current standings:
The Bobs - 3
Don Crain - 3
gijs - 2
Boris Behncke - 2
volcanista - 1
Lockwood - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
Damon Hynes - 1
Marco - 1
Doug C. - 1
Diane - 1
So, here is the new one ... take your best guess (but I'm sure someone will get it much faster than I would imagine) ... Good luck!
eklemetti | March 14, 2010Big volcano news while I'm away in Death Valley? Post it here - or just discuss all the volcanic bits that you run across ...
Moonrise over Ubehebe Crater, California.
eklemetti | March 4, 2010As many Eruptions readers read, the headlines produced by MSNBC for their coverage of the recent Chilean earthquake raised my ire. To me, it represented the sensationalism of the events - but as with all things media-related, there is a lot of opinions on the matter.
We were lucky to have Alan Boyle, science editor for MSNBC.com, comment on the fray and he has very kindly offered to take your questions about the coverage of science in the mainstream media. This is a unique opportunity for us to discuss how science is portrayed, the rationale for headlines and generally find out about how the…