Eruptions Blog
eklemetti | October 29, 2009The first Q&A with Dr. Jonathan Castro was such a success, I'm going to try to make this a regular feature. On that note, Eruptions reader Dr. Boris Behncke has volunteered to be the second geologist to take the plunge. Here is a little about Boris and his work:
I've studied geology first in Bochum, Germany, then finished my Master's in Kiel, Germany (in 1996), before hopping south to Catania, where I did my Ph.D. in 2001. I live in Sicily since early 1997, but first visited the Italian volcanoes in 1989, and happen to be at Etna when it produced a spectacular eruption just on schedule.…
eklemetti | October 26, 2009A few weeks ago I asked you to submit questions on the 2008-present Chaiten eruption in Chile to pose to Dr. Jonathan Castro. Dr. Castro recently had a paper on the ascent rates of Chaiten rhyolite published in Nature and he kindly volunteered to answer your questions. Here are the answers to selected questions ... enjoy!
Chaiten in Chile erupting in 2009. Image by Dr. Jonathan Castro.
Dr. Jonathan CastroBiography:
B.S. from Humboldt State University
Ph.D. from University of Oregon*
Currently a Research Geologist at CNRS-Institut for Sciences de la Terre, Oreans, France
Soon moving on to…
eklemetti | October 21, 2009Just got back from GSA 2009 and Portland ... so, to tide everyone over until I get my act back together, enjoy Mystery Volcano #10. Coming soon: the answers to the questions posed to Dr. Jon Castro.
The current standings:
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
gijs - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
The Bobs - 1
Boris Behncke - 1
Good luck!
eklemetti | October 20, 2009I did a really terrible job of updating during the Geological Society of America meeting - mostly because (a) I was way too busy, (b) an iffy internet connection at my home and (c) a lack of concentration.
However, there was quite a bit of interesting info I heard which I'll likely post tomorrow including:
The northern Cascades of the US are filled with calderas.
The eruption of Kasatochi was quite impressive (if you didn't think so already).
Bubbles at Erebus come from deep down.
Holocene volcanism in Colorado.
Thanks to all the people I met this week as well, including Callan Bentley, Tuff…
eklemetti | October 16, 2009Mt. Hood seen from Portland, Oregon. Image courtesy of the USGS/CVO.
I will be returning to my old haunts in Oregon (got my Ph.D. from Oregon State University - and yes, that is me in the upper left hand corner) for the next 6 days for the the Cascades, CVO and the multitude of igneous-rock-studying folks at Oregon State, Portland State, Univ. of Oregon, Univ. of Washington and so on, there is an awful lot to see. Two sessions I'm especially excited about are on supervolcanic/ignimbrite flareups and the Cascades volcanism and tectonics. A couple of these talks/posters I had some hand in, so…
eklemetti | October 12, 2009Busy Monday with Dr. Steven Squyres, the Principle Investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER; otherwise known as the plucky Spirit and Opportunity) is at Denison to give a talk and meet with students.
On that note, here is Mystery Volcano Photo #9.
And if you have any more questions for me to consider to ask Dr. Jonathan Castro, email them to me soon at
Good luck!
eklemetti | October 8, 2009I mentioned this at the end of the post on recent Nature paper by Castro and Dindwell on the speed of rhyolite magma ascent at Chaiten, but I'll break it out to get your attention:
>Do you have a burning question about the Chaiten magma you'd love to be able to ask Dr. Castro? He has kindly offered to answer some questions about Chaiten and his research for Eruptions readers. Send me your questions at
and I'll choose some of them for Dr. Castro to answer. I'll post the interview and the answers to your questions here on the blog.
So do it! Send me your questions for Dr. Castro!
eklemetti | October 5, 2009The last MVP was decidely (and unintentionally) way too easy ... but congratulations to gg for getting it on the first guess. To make up for that "gimme", here is a bit more of a puzzler.
MVP Standings
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
gijs - 1
Anne - 1
Cam - 1
gg - 1
eklemetti | October 5, 2009Today's a busy Monday with not much volcano news, so here's a new Mystery Volcano Photo.
MVP Standings:
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Cam - 1
Gijs - 1
Anne - 1
Good luck!
eklemetti | October 1, 2009The current Mystery Volcano Photo standings:
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Cam - 1
Anne - 1
It is a tight race!
Here's MVP #6 ... give it your best shot.
eklemetti | October 1, 2009I've never been very good about asking for donations for anything, mostly because I know that for many of us, money can be tight. However, when it comes down to it, there are almost always people less fortunate than those of us who can spend our time blogging - or reading blogs - on the interweb. October is Donors Choose Month here on ScienceBlogs and us geobloggers - Kim at All My Faults are Stress-Related and Anne at Highly Allochthonous have joined forces to get donations for geo-related charities/projects - for example, helping an inner-city class in Chicago get a set of rocks for the…
eklemetti | September 24, 2009So far, Eruptions readers have nailed every one of the Mystery Volcano Photos posted, usually within the first two guess. That leaves our standings as:
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
Ralph - 1
Cam - 1
The field - 0
Here's a MVP for you to identify. Good luck!
eklemetti | September 16, 2009I'll be off in the mountains of Virginia until Monday, so no updates for the rest of the week. I'll leave you all with a new Mystery Volcano Photo sent in by a friend (I don't want to give any clues away just yet) ... hopefully one that might be a bit more challenging. Enjoy the weekend!
Mystery Volcano Photo #4
eklemetti | September 11, 2009OK, well, apparently MVP #2 was waaay too easy because Elizabeth got it on the first try - it was indeed Villarrica in Chile - I'll post something on Villarrica later this weekend. Anyway, for the weekend, I'll leave you with this photo. Hopefully it won't be so easy ... but then again, you all seem to be pretty good at this.
Scoreboard
volcanista - 1
Elizabeth - 1
all the rest of you - 0
The new photo:
Good luck.
eklemetti | September 11, 2009The first Mystery Volcano Photo worked out so well, I thought I'd try a second one, this time culled from my personal collection. I'll try to figure out a way to post the scoreboard on the blog so you can keep track of your standing as MVP continues.
Take your best guess!
Enjoy the weekend.
eklemetti | September 8, 2009I'm going to start a little feature on these slow volcano days ... Introducing the "Mystery Volcano Photo"! I'll post a picture of a volcano and feel free to take a whack at identifying the volcano. I'll follow up with information on the volcano ... right now you can play for community honor, but who knows, maybe I'll get some prizes to give away.
So, without further ado, Mystery Volcano #1 (9/8/2009). Make your guess(es) in the comments. Good luck!
eklemetti | September 3, 2009Starting sometime later this fall, readers on ScienceBlogs will be able to register with SB to create user profiles, keep track of stories and all that good stuff that social networking has created. In an effort to make it something useful to the readers, the head honchos at SB have set up a poll for readers concerning the new features. Why not wander over there and take the poll to make sure Eruptions readers get their voices heard.
eklemetti | August 20, 2009I've gotten a number of questions about volcano books as of late, so I thought I'd write a little post detailing my favorite volcano-related tomes, mostly pitched towards people without a geology-background, but some technical books for those of you who want the gory details (and be sure, they can be very, very gory).
Pumice from the Newberry Flow of the Devil's Hills scattered on the soil near South Sister, Oregon. Image by Erik Klemetti, September 2008.
Anyway, here we go!
General volcanology:
- Teach Yourself Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis by David Rothery (Teach Yourself Series,…
eklemetti | August 1, 2009If you have any questions about volcanoes, pictures of erupting (or not) volcanoes you'd like to share with me for Eruptions or have any general comments, please email me at
. I'd love to hear from you and maybe your question can make it into my next mailbag post (which should hopefully be coming soon.)
While you're at it, feel free to digg, slashdot, technorati or reddit anything you find interesting on Eruptions. You can also follow me on Facebook by clicking the link at the bottom left-hand side of this page (but sorry folks, no Twitter for Eruptions).
Broken Top, near Three Sisters, in…
eklemetti | July 20, 2009Starting today and going until early August, you might see fewer posts on Eruptions than you're accustomed. This is because I'm in the process of moving to Ohio to get set up to start my new job as an assistant professor at Denison University. I'm excited about the move, but as you can imagine, trying to pull up stakes in California and trek two-thirds of the way across the continent will take up a lot of my time. I will miss the easy access to volcanoes here on the Left Coast, but I am excited to get (mostly) permanent employment, set up my own lab and to be able to teach geology again!…