Vikings Volcanic Activity Thread

[Roger J Smith]

I've heard that Krakatoa is rumbling away this summer, numerous small eruptions and earthquakes, not sure how much more than normal though. Nothing major is anticipated according to what I was reading.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

I've heard that Krakatoa is rumbling away this summer, numerous small eruptions and earthquakes, not sure how much more than normal though. Nothing major is anticipated according to what I was reading.

Indeed Roger, I shall be doing an update on Indonesian activity a bit later today

Hi Bob, is Greece a particular volcanic hotspot. I have visited all of the Ionnian islands, and they seem to be prone to tremors particularly Kefalinnia

Hi Jan

Yes Greece is geologically active but tends to manifest this in frequent eartquakes and tremors rather than volcanic activity. Volcanic activity can be violent though as it seems to be the case with Greek volcanos they sit and store up energy over a long period of time and then suddenly, boom!

Santorini is notorious for this and there is no doubt that Santorini will again explode violently in the future.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - KASATOCHI, OKMOK & CLEVELAND

All three volcanos remain at ORANGE alert and are in various states of eruption. Residents of Adak, some 50m W of Kasatochi reported a strong smell of sulphur and seismic activity at the volcano remains elevated, being picked up by monitoring equipment at other volcanos. All three volcanos are obscured by low cloud so AVO was unable to make any visual or satellite observations of the volcanos in the lats 24 hrs.

Seismic activity has again increased at Okmok and currently remains elevated. The activity at Okmok appear to be coming in pulses, with activity falling to just above pre-eruption levels and then rapidly climbing again.

Cleveland has been relatively quiet over the last 24 hrs although observations have been hampered by the weather.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - CHAITEN - CHILE

The activity at Chaiten seems to have picked up again. Looking at the webcam images a fairly substantial eruption column can be seen.

Chaiten webcam

[summer blizzard]

Definitely erupting, but it does'nt look like its higher than 15,000 feet.

[Crepuscular Ray]

Definitely erupting, but it does'nt look like its higher than 15,000 feet.

Looks like the winds are pretty strong, which might have an effect on that - whatever, I'm glad I don't live there.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

Looks like the winds are pretty strong, which might have an effect on that - whatever, I'm glad I don't live there.

Yes I would agree that while the eruption column looks quite large volume-wise its not getting much beyond 10,000-15,000ft. CR you are right Im given to understand the weather in the area is quite blustery at the moment with heavy and often wintry showers which is why the view from the webcam is often obscured.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - KASATOCHI, OKMOK & CLEVELAND

All three volcanos remain on ORANGE alert. Activity has changed little over the last couple of days with all three volcanos in varying states of eruptive activity. Kasatochi is still the most active with seismic activity still being registered on the equipment at nearby Great Sitkin island. The weather in the area has been poor making visual/satellite observations difficult.

[Crepuscular Ray]

SC, have your contacts had time enough yet to even start working out whether this level of activity is statistically unusual, let alone come up with any theories?

CR

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

SC, have your contacts had time enough yet to even start working out whether this level of activity is statistically unusual, let alone come up with any theories?

CR

Hi CR. As far as the Aleutian Island volcanos go, AVO is saying yes this certainly is somewhat unusual although they were not sure why as yet. Normally they would expect 1 or 2 eruptions per year in the whole of Alaska, but to have three going off at the same time, including 2 which have been fairly inactive in recent times (Cleveland has had ongoing eruptive activity for some years now and has, up until recently, been the only really active volcano in the Alaskan chain) is rather unusual. As one of the AVO scientists in her e-mail to me said "we're just sitting watching this and thinking - wow!"

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

Increase in activity - Soufriere Hills - Montserrat

After a spell of relatively low activity it looks as if Soufriere Hills is coming to life again. A recent lava dome collapse seems to have sparked a resurgence in lava extrusion and the crater that was created by the lava dome collapse a few weeks back has now almost been completely filled with new lava. This has also spilled over the west side of the crater, creating rockfalls below Gages Wall. The smell of volcanic gases has increased and SO2 emissions are elevated.

Edited August 22, 2008 by Shetland Coastie

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - KASATOCHI, OKMOK & CLEVELAND

All three volcanos are still at ORANGE alert.

KASATOCHI - AVO scientists have visited the island and at the moment there are no visible signs of an eruption. Seismicity, however, remains at elevated levels and is still being picked up by monitoring equipment at other volcanos. Eruptive activity could recommence at any time with little or no warning.

OKMOK - There continues to be intermittent burst of activity and explosions are still possible. Satellite views have been obscured by poor visibility.

CLEVELAND - AVO has received no new reports of activity from Cleveland but again satellite imagery has been limited due to the poor visibility.

[Will storm]

The KASATOCHI SO2 cloud is shown here http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/index.htm approaching britain.

[BARRY]

what do you make of this image of Veniaminof volcano Coastie, it looks like a plume rising

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

what do you make of this image of Veniaminof volcano Coastie, it looks like a plume rising

Looks fairly wispy and light coloured so probably steam. Ive had a look at the seismic webicorder for Veniaminof and there appears to be little activity. Some volcanos do sit and let out the odd puff of smoke, the Mexican volcanos Popocatapetl and Colima do this regularly.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - LLAIMA & CHAITEN - CHILE

LLAIMA - The episodic eruptive activity at Llaima continues with bursts of ash production and Strombolian activity taking place on a daily basis. Scientists are warning, however, that this activity may be precursory to another major eruption whcih they expect in the near future.

CHAITEN - The eruption continues although the weather is preventing decent viewing of the volcano through the webcam. An eruption plume is still rising from the volcano and seismicity has increased in the last few days.

The link below takes you to the POVI website which has pictures and video of Llaima in action!

POVI website

Edited August 26, 2008 by Shetland Coastie

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

UPDATE - CLEVELAND - ALASKA

Due to the lack of eruptive activity over the last few days, AVO has lowered the alert state at Cleveland to YELLOW.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

UPDATE - OKMOK - ALASKA

Seisimic activity at Okmok decreased markedly yesterday and continues at a much lower level today. Weak seismic events continue to be detected and explosive activity remians a possibility, however, due to the general downturn in activity, AVO has lowered the alert state to YELLOW.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - KASATOCHI - ALASKA

After a couple of days of relative calm, activity seems to be picking up again at Kasatochi. The webicorders on both Adak and Great Sitkin Islands are picking up almost continous volcanic tremors:

Adak webicorder

Great Sitkin webicorder

Whilst the toehr two volcanos which were erupting, Cleveland & Okmok, have now been downgraded to YELLOW alert, Kasatochi remians at ORANGE and it seems there could be more to come from this volcano yet.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

Activity Update - Fuego, Pacaya & Santa Maria - Guatemala

Three volcanos in Guatemala have been active in the last week or so.

FUEGO - Several lahars have descended the flanks of Fuego recently carrying large blocks as well as a great deal of fine volcanic material. On 25-26 August explosions produced ash plumes which reached altitudes of approx 13,000ft and fumarolic plumes which reached similar heights. A short lava flow travelled approx 300m down the Western flank of the volcano.

PACAYA - Again, fumarolic plumes have been emitted by Pacaya up to heights of around 10,500ft. Incandescant Strombolian activity was also observed from the crater and short lava flows descended the flanks of the volcano. Eruptions from Pacaya can often be seen from the capital, Guatemala City.

SANTA MARIA - During the last week several explosions have been noted from Santa Marias Santiaguto lava dome complex, producing ash plumes up to 11,000ft. Constant degassing was also recorded. Santa Maria can have major explosive eruptions. The last one was in 1902, which devastated much of SW Guatemala and blew a 1km dia crater in the SW flank of the volcano.

Edited August 31, 2008 by Shetland Coastie

[Crepuscular Ray]

On a related subject -

In areas where there's been something other than cloud to look at, the volcanic dust in the atmosphere seems to be making itself noticed.

http://spaceweather.com

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1...8&year=2008

[Chris Knight]

On a related subject -

In areas where there's been something other than cloud to look at, the volcanic dust in the atmosphere seems to be making itself noticed.

http://spaceweather.com

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1...8&year=2008

Talking about the cloudy overcast skies, Roger Smith remarked about similar conditions in Vancouver (49N) recently.

Since 7th August the Kasatochi gas plume has been right around the northern Jetstream, mixing well in to the troposphere, as it has mostly been picked up by the water vapour now: link - you can pick the dates you want to look at.

How little volcanic SO2 aerosol does it take in the lower cloud level to stop thin nimbostratus clouds from being burnt off, despite strong sunshine over warm anticyclones? The IR satellites could barely make out the cloud that stuck over the UK last week, but it was bright in the visible. I'd also mention the persistent haze, whether the temperature has been 14C or 24C, breezy (WSW off the Channel) or still, without fog or mist properly over the last week or so? The first real dew was last night, enough to leave footprints in the grass before the thunderstorms came. The few SO2 air quality monitors in the SE have not been raised above level 1 over this time.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

SO2 Emissions

Currently, Kilaeua in Hawaii is emitting increased levels of SO2. HVO states this is at a level of approx 1500-2000 tonnes per day. Im waiting to hear back from AVO about the amount released by Kasatochi, I hope to have those figure in the next day or so.

[Anti-Mild]

SO2 Emissions

Currently, Kilaeua in Hawaii is emitting increased levels of SO2. HVO states this is at a level of approx 1500-2000 tonnes per day. Im waiting to hear back from AVO about the amount released by Kasatochi, I hope to have those figure in the next day or so.

With the SO2 from Kasatochi, Chaiten and now Kilauea, that makes a fair bit released into the atmosphere.

Incidentally, has the eruption of Chaiten been designated a VEI value yet?

[Typhoon John]

Chaiten has been erupting with very low amounts of SO2 so it's contribution to any climate affects is likely to be negligible.

I'm not sure about any VEI rating.

Edited September 2, 2008 by fozi999