mitigation
illconsidered | January 9, 2009So it seems there is another advantage to owning a hybrid! It can double as an emergency generator in case of a blackout:
WHERE WAS YOUR HYBRID WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT?
Ever been caught with no power in the midst of a winter storm and not have a generator? Well, if you have a hybrid, you may not need one. An enterprising Boston man hooked up his house to his Toyota Prius recently during a three-day-long power outage. The Boston Herald reports: "John Sweeney of Harvard, Mass., has provided a tantalizing glimpse of the future. ... Sweeney, an electrical engineer, told the Boston Business…
eklemetti | December 29, 2008
Some more information is coming out about the activity at Koryak (aka Koryaksky) in Kamchatka. Russian geologist Alexei Ozerov says that the activity at Koryak (note: the image in the article linked here appears to have nothing to do with Koryak) has started with more power than the last known eruption of the volcano in 1956. He also mentions that the volcano is already a danger to aviation in the area (as the closing of the Petropavlosvk-Kamchatsky Airport suggested).
We also have some great images of the volcano, showing the vent on the side of the volcano (see above). It is hard to tell…
eklemetti | December 11, 2008
When people think about volcanic mitigation, a lot of time is spent worrying about monitoring and science. There is nothing wrong with this as we need to know what the volcano has done in the past and what it is doing now to predict its future activity. However, a very important piece of the mitigation puzzle is education, because without educating the public of the dangers of the volcano, many times they will not listen to officials when time for evacuation comes (see Nevado del Ruiz, Colombia in 1985). That is why this report from Tanzania is great: scientists going out and educating the…
eklemetti | November 24, 2008
The lahars and mudslides near Nevado del Huila - or, in particular, the threat of more - have prompted more evacuations. Although the known death toll from the eruption and its associated lahars is still officially only in the low double digits, at least 150 people are still missing, so that may change. You can see in the photo from Belalcazar (above) that the mud inundated the town and destroyed roads and buildings easily. This is what to expect whenever lahars are generated, along with the potential for flooding afterwards due to the dewatering of the mudflows and the blockage of drainage…
eklemetti | November 23, 2008
I've found a few more details about the ongoing activity at Huila in Colombia, including a video report from the BBC. It seems that the eruption at Huila is a photocopy of what happened at Nevado del Ruiz in 1985 in its style: hot ash and gasses erupted from the crater melted ice/snow near the summit to create a lahar - a deadly mix of volcanic material and water that ends up like a surging flow of liquid concrete. The lahars travelled down the Rio Paez valley (see linked map - the landslide on the map is not volcanically related).
Beyond the unfortunate victims caught in the mudflows, many…
illconsidered | November 17, 2008As the CO2 in the atmosphere continues to climb, already at a dangerous level, and the argument about doing something about it seems to have only just begun in the power circles, I fear that actively removing it is rapidly becoming an imperative.
But is this doable?
I don't know...I sure hope so. And not just for climate change, but also for ocean acidification. Removing CO2 directly from the atmosphere is really a form of geoengineering and part of a principal that I find extremely worrisome. I would have counted myself deadset against geoengineering of any sort before reading an essay…
eklemetti | November 11, 2008
El Reventador, the composite volcano in Ecuador, has been producing explosions and ash for the last few days, so says reports from the country's  Geophysics Institute. El Reventador is only 100 km from Ecuador's capitol, Quito, and in 2002 the volcano blanketed much of the city in ash. However, the eruptions currently occurring are much smaller and limited in scope, producing ash and throwing incandescent blocks out near the vent (see above). No evacuations are currently planned. These types of eruptions are typical for El Reventador since 2002, with increased activity every few years…
eklemetti | October 31, 2008
After nearly a year and a half of little lava dome growth at Soufriere Hills in the West Indies, this past July 26th, the volcano erupted new dome material. Why do I remind us of this, you ask? Well, the Scientific Advisory Committee at Montserrat feel that the dome growth might be restarting in earnest:
Since August, any new supply of lava has been minimal. Thus while there is evidence that the eighteen-month long pause in lava dome growth may be coming to an end, it has not happened yet.
The most troubling event, in their minds, is the new activity at the Gages Wall vent, which means that…
eklemetti | October 27, 2008Sorry about the dearth of posts. It has been a busy week here in Davis and I've been a little distracted by the upcoming election. Combined with the relative lack of volcano news this week, the posting has been lackluster.
However, that being said, I will try to make up for some of it by starting my Volcano Profiles series that will bide the time between volcano news. I start with a volcano that was suggested by Eruptions reader Thomas Donlon: Rabaul.
VOLCANO PROFILE: RABAUL
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Location:Â Papau New Guinea
Height: 688 m
Geophysical location:Â Boundary of Australian plate and Pacific plate…
eklemetti | October 15, 2008
There isn't really much information in this report, but Galeras in Colombia has been put on "high alert" for a potential eruption. The volcano did emit a ~2,400 meter steam (and ash?) column today, but beyond this, it is unclear what else might be happening at the volcano.
Galeras is the most active volcano in Colombia, having erupted frequently in the past decade, producing mostly ash falls, ballistic bombs and other explosive volcanic products. It is also located within a few kilometers to Popayán (see photo above of previous activity), a city of ~200,000 people, making it a potentially…
eklemetti | October 7, 2008
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UPDATE 10.9.08: This photo is not from the current eruption (see the comments below), so disregard any comments I might have about the current state of activity.
Contrary to some of the earlier reports, the eruption at Soputan in Indonesia might be more impressive than previously though. Pictures of the eruption (above) show a fairly healthy eruption column coming from the volcano, although it is hard to tell if the image is just an eruption column or a column with an associated column-collapse pyroclastic flow heading down the far side of the volcano (in the picture). The former would…
eklemetti | October 7, 2008
Nevado del Huila in Colombia continues to keep officials in the southeast region of the country on their toes as they wait to see what the volcano might do. There was increased seismicity over the weekend according to Jair Cardoso of the Attention, Prevention and Disasters Committee, along with minor steam and ash emissions. The Colombian geological survey, INGEOMINAS, will be sending experts (including Marta Calvache and Cesar Eduardo Lopez) to examine the current state of the volcano and try to decipher what state the magmatic system is in: ready to erupt or just gurgling away.Â
(Of…
eklemetti | October 6, 2008
There are a few brief reports of a minor eruption at Soputan in Indonesia. The reports from the Associated Press mention a small eruption column that reached ~1,000 meters and was accompanied by ash fall and explosions. From the sound of it, the eruption(s) are minor Strombolian types, common at arc stratovolcanoes like Soputan. Indonesia officials have warned people to watch for potential lava extrusion that might follow these explosive, possible "throat-clearing" blasts. Soputan was reported to have erupted earlier this year and has erupted frequently over the last decade.
eklemetti | September 16, 2008
It is always fun to me when we discover that a volcano long considered dormant or extinct has seen activity in the recent past. I bring this up because Mount Nantai in Japan, a volcano that was considered to have last erupted over 10,000 to 20,000 years ago (if not longer) looks to have actually erupted as recently as 7,000 years ago. This might not seem like a big different to some folks, but this definitely puts the volcano in the "active" category if this date turns out to be accurate. The volcano looks to have had a number of explosive ash and pumice eruptions along with some dacite lava…
eklemetti | September 16, 2008
For those of us who track volcanoes and the hazards they present, the general consensus is that Mount Vesuvius in Italy is probably the most dangerous volcano in the world today. This is not because it is the biggest or most powerful, but because it is located on the outskirts of Naples, Italy, a city with over 2 million inhabitants (including the surrounding area). Evacuating such an area quickly and efficiently during a time of crisis might be, well, impossible. We know that Vesuvius can be destructive - just look at the fact that much of the Naples area is built on the deposits of the…
eklemetti | September 11, 2008
(Note: Yes, I am posting when I said I wouldn't, but I felt I needed to post about Colombia).
Colombian authorities are evacuating the area around Nevada del Huila after increased seismicity suggests that the volcano will erupt soon. There have been over 700 earthquakes - many of which are clearly related to moving magma - over the last week or so, indicating that Huila might be entering a new period of eruption.
One thing to note: The article I've linked to mentions an avalanche at Huila that was related to an eruption in 1994. I can't find any evidence that there was any volcanic activity…
eklemetti | September 2, 2008
Two volcanoes on the island of Luzon look like they might be primed for activity, at least according to PHILVOLCS, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Both Mayon and Taal (above) are showing signs of increased seismicity. Only Mayon is actively steaming right now and the volcano had a mild ash eruption on August 10 as well. Officials in the Philippines have both volcanoes on Alert Level 1 (potential activity).
Taal is actually part of a bigger system that occupies a 15 by 20 km caldera. The island where most historic activity has occurred is made up of a series of…
eklemetti | August 11, 2008
We had a brief bit over the weekend that Mayon in the Philippines had a number of small explosive events (less the one minute worth of activity). However, Philvolcs (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology)Â is downplaying the idea that a major eruption is in the works. There have been a number of explosion-related seismic events and harmonic tremors, along with 12 mm of inflation on one side of the volcano (although over what time period the inflation occurred is not mentioned in the article). It appears that the Philvolcs scientists just think that magma is moving under the…
eklemetti | August 7, 2008
Finally, in a very slow week for volcano news, we find a report from the Alaska Volcano Observatory about concerns of another eruption in the state. Currently, both Okmok and Cleveland are erupting, and now AVO has issued a warning about Kasatochi Volcano on the island of the same name (~100 kilometers east of Adak, roughly near 175W on the map above). The volcano is the island - more or less - and any people on the small island are being evacuated due to increased seismic activity underneath the volcano/island.
Not much is known about the eruptive activity at Kasatochi. The volcano does…
eklemetti | July 21, 2008
I suppose this is more "unnews" than "news", but workers at Ruapehu in New Zealand report that seismicity has decreased, gas emissions have returned to background and the crater lake has cooled, indicating that the current eruptive cycle which started in September 2007 might be winding down. There was some concern earlier in the summer (well, northern hemisphere summer) that it was cranking up to erupt, but these fears seem to have abated. As always, though, Ruapehu remains on "elevated alert" for eruption.