Vikings Volcanic Activity Thread

[Dartmoor_Matt]

Excellent updates SC, very interesting to read whats going on around the world! Interesting times ahead perhaps!

Thank You.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

Excellent updates SC, very interesting to read whats going on around the world! Interesting times ahead perhaps!

Thank You.

Cheers Matt

[Typhoon John]

I was looking at some of the fantastic photos of Chaiten here: http://www.inglaner.com/volcan_chaiten.htm

July last year.

And a more recent shot from around March 09 I'm guessing. Edit: It's January 09, so loads more growth since then.

But just look at that growth! It's truly stunning; that caldera is 2.5km wide. It makes Redoubt look like Old Faithful in a bad mood.

And who's to say we've had the main event yet? If some volatiles start being mixed with that magma, who knows?

Edited May 27, 2009 by fozi999

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

But just look at that growth! It's truly stunning; that caldera is 2.5km wide. It makes Redoubt look like Old Faithful in a bad mood.

And who's to say we've had the main event yet? If some volatiles start being mixed with that magma, who knows?

Indeed Fozi. And its clear why the Chilean authorities have decided to completely abandon the town of Chaiten itself. Just imagine the devastation that would be caused to the town if that lot collapsed. Its also why the Chilean authorities are maintaining Chaiten at RED alert. They do expect a dome collapse with an associated debris avalanche, lahars and pyroclastic flows and this could also trigger a massive explosive event. One to watch for sure.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

UPDATE - REDOUBT

Little change with the ongoing, frequent low amplitude earthquakes continuing, indicative of the continuing lava dome growth. Incidentally, the big signal you can see on the webicorder trace beginning at about 0907 UTC is the Honduran earth quake registering on the equipment in Alaska.

Redoubt summit webicorder

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

HONDURAN EARTHQUAKE - VOLCANIC IMPLICATIONS?

Getting back to a favourtite topic on here - can earthquake activity trigger volcanism? The jury is still out and there is ongoing research. It will be interesting to see if there is any implication for volcanism in the region of this mornings earthquake of the Islas de la Bahia (Bay Islands) off the coast of Honduras, which measured Mag 7.1, a fairly hefty earthquake.

Of the 3 Bay Islands, Utila, the furthest west and closest to Honduras, has a volcanic history. Originally coral capped, Utila has a thin surface of Holocene lavas and tuffs which were erupted from two pyroclastic cones (Stuert Hill & Pumpkin Hill). Holocene is the current geological era and is thought to have begun some 11,700 years ago. This means that, relatively speaking, Utila does have a recent eruptive history. When you consider that Chaiten in Chile awoke after some 4,500 years of quiesence then things begin to take on a new perspective!

So, it will be interesting to see if this triggers anything volcanic further down the line. The suspicion is that powerful earthquakes do trigger volcanic activity by either re-opening age old magma conduits and allowing magma to reach the surface again or indeed by creating new cracks and channels through which magma from deeper down can flow.

Edited May 28, 2009 by Shetland Coastie

[The PIT]

I was looking at some of the fantastic photos of Chaiten here: http://www.inglaner.com/volcan_chaiten.htm

July last year.

And a more recent shot from around March 09 I'm guessing. Edit: It's January 09, so loads more growth since then.

But just look at that growth! It's truly stunning; that caldera is 2.5km wide. It makes Redoubt look like Old Faithful in a bad mood.

And who's to say we've had the main event yet? If some volatiles start being mixed with that magma, who knows?

How much of that is new dome or did the old get totally blasted away? Mighty impressive and if you could stand beside it even more impressive.

Any projections on how long it would take the fill the caldera at the present rate of growth ????

[BornFromTheVoid]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090529/sc_af...ogyvolcanoquake

A massive underwater mountain discovered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra could be a volcano with potentially catastrophic power, a scientist said Friday.

"It looks like a volcano because of its conical shape but it might not be. We have to conduct further investigations,".

Just spotted this, could be a Volcano so thought I'd add it in here.

Didn't think something that size could go unnoticed for so long...

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090529/sc_af...ogyvolcanoquake

A massive underwater mountain discovered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra could be a volcano with potentially catastrophic power, a scientist said Friday.

"It looks like a volcano because of its conical shape but it might not be. We have to conduct further investigations,".

Just spotted this, could be a Volcano so thought I'd add it in here.

Didn't think something that size could go unnoticed for so long...

Thanks for that NDS, very interesting stuff that :lol:

Its entirely possible something that big has been missed! Its summit is some 1300m (over 4000ft) below sea level so thats a fair old depth and bear in mind that we probably know more about space than we know about the worlds oceans. Even if it had been spotted before its probably been dismissed as just another seamount but it appears, on closer inspection, that this thing has the classical, conical, stratovolcano shape.

They were at pains to stress it may be a volcano and that they are going to examine it more closely. Be interesting to see what they turn up.

Edited May 31, 2009 by Shetland Coastie

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

Further to the above, some are disputing the existence of this 'volcano':

Jakarta Post article

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

UPDATE - ALASKA

Whilst activity at Redoubt continues much as before, there has been no significant activity at Veniaminof in the past few weeks and as a result, AVO have lowered the alert level to GREEN.

Edited May 31, 2009 by Shetland Coastie

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

How much of that is new dome or did the old get totally blasted away? Mighty impressive and if you could stand beside it even more impressive.

Any projections on how long it would take the fill the caldera at the present rate of growth ????

Hi Pit

According to SERNAGEOMIN most of what you see is new lava dome material, the majority of the old one was blown away in the last collapse/explosion episode. The growth of the lava dome is stated as "sustained" and "rapid" without giving any specific figures and the main concern is yet another collapse and explosion cycle, which, given the sheer size of the lava dome, may be more pronounced than the earlier one. The dome is becoming increasingly unstable, in particular a pinnacle which rises some 100-150m above the main body, which could collapse at any time. Seismicity remains high, with hunderds of quakes per day, some in excess of Mag 4.

Edited May 31, 2009 by Shetland Coastie

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

UPDATE - NEVADO DEL HUILA - COLOMBIA

There has been an upturn in seismic activity at Nevado del Huila over the past week with INGEOMINAS giving consideration to raising the alert state to ORANGE. It remains at YELLOW for the time being although a close eye is being kept on the volcano. Some of the earthquakes have been Mag 4.8 at a depth of 8.5km. Growth of a new lava dome continues.

[Typhoon John]

Activity at Chaiten is gathering pace, a 4.4 and a 4.6 earthquake in the last week, a small explosion today and a much bigger plume than in recent days. Seems like a definite increase in activity if that was even possible. Is it just a sign of faster dome growth or could it be the start of a more explosive phase?

It's such a shame we can't see the detailed data like we can for Redoubt in real time.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

Activity at Chaiten is gathering pace, a 4.4 and a 4.6 earthquake in the last week, a small explosion today and a much bigger plume than in recent days. Seems like a definite increase in activity if that was even possible. Is it just a sign of faster dome growth or could it be the start of a more explosive phase?

It's such a shame we can't see the detailed data like we can for Redoubt in real time.

Hi fozi, I think its just continued lava dome growth. SERNAGEOMIN was reporting that in general, there are many ongoing quakes of the order of Mag 4+. The slightly bigger ones will probably be due to partial collapses/rock falls from the lava dome itself. If the whole thing actually collapses we'll certainly know about it!! Its the main fear right now and the webcam will certainly be worth keeping an eye on in the near future.

Chaiten webcam

Edited June 5, 2009 by Shetland Coastie

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

UPDATE - CHAITEN - CHILE

The ongoing eruption of Chaiten continues with an ash/steam plume rising to some 1.5km and continued lava dome growth. There has been high concentration of water vapour in the column and block and ash flows from the unstable lava dome. Seismicity continues much as in recent weeks with frequent earthquakes reaching Mag 4.3 on occasion. These larger magnitude quakes are generall located on the western side of the caldera at depths of between 5 - 9kms. Due to the ongoing eruption and the high likelihood of a dangerous lava dome collapse, Chaiten remains at RED alert.

[Typhoon John]

Some nice views on the Chaiten webcam this morning with this shot my favourite:

A more vigorous plume this morning coming from the western side of the dome complex with clearly more ash content than in recent weeks.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

FURTHER EXPLOSIVE ACTIVITY AT GALERAS

Over the past two days, Galeras in Colmbia has erupted explosively twice. There was an eruption yesterday immediately following a Mag 4 earthquake, located some 3kms SSE of the main crater. This produced an ash cloud up to 2.5km above the summit and ashfall was reported in Sandona an Samaniego which lie NE of the volcano.

Then today, at 0638 local time this morning a further explosive event took place which was similar in character to yesterdays event.

As a consequence, INGEOMINAS has raised the alert level at the volcano to RED.

Edited June 8, 2009 by Shetland Coastie

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

UPDATE - REDOUBT

Activity at Redoubt remains pretty much the same as it has been for the last several weeks now, with elevated seismic activity indicative of continued lava dome growth and steady, continuous steaming (with occasional ash content) from the summit. Webcams are obscured by bad weather at the moment.

Summit webicorder

Hut webcam

[tundra]

Sheveluch volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula is on aviation code orange after eruptions on 06.06.09 and 10 and 11.06.09 which sent ash plumes to between 15,700-25,000 feet.

Sarychev volcano in the Kuril Islands which lie to the N.E of Japan coordinates lat 48-06'N and long 153-12' E is on aviation code red after strong eruptions yesterday with ash cloud over 34,000 feet above sea level.

According to SVERT (Sakhalin volcanic eruption response team ) based on past eruptions at Sarychev explosive activity could continue for days to weeks.

[tundra]

The eruption of Sarychev volcano continues with a powerfull eruption yesterday the 13.06.09 at about 2130UTC sending a ash cloud 54,000 feet above sea level.

Alert code remains at red.

[Rollo]

I picked up the following article from June's "New Scientist" magazine. It is headed Giant chamber could be a supervolcano and is by David Shiga.

Is a supervolcano brewing under Mount St Helens? Peering under the volcano has revealed what may be an extraordinarily large zone of semi-molten rock,which would be capable of feeding a giant eruption.

Magma can be detected with a technique called magnetotellurics,which builds up a picture of what lies underground by measuring fluctuations in electric and magnetic fields at the surface. The fields fluctuate in response to electric currents travelling below the surface, induced by lightning storms and other phenomena. The currents are stronger when magma is present,since it is a better conductor than solid rock.

Graham Hill of GNS Science, an earth and nuclear science institute in Wellington, New Zealand,led a team that set up magnetotelluric sensors around Mount St Helens in Washington state, which erupted with force in 1980. The measurements revealed a column of conductive material that extends downward from the volcano. About 15 kilometres below the surface,the relatively narrow column appears to connect to a much bigger zone of conductive material.

This larger zone was first identified in the 1980's by another magnetotelluric survey, and was found to extend all the way to beneath Mount Rainer 70 kilometres to the North-East, and Mount Adams 50 kilometres to the east. It was thought to be a zone of wet sediment,water being a good electrical conductor.

However, since the new measurements show an apparent conduit connecting this conductive zone to Mount St Helens-which was undergoing a minor eruption of semi-molten material at the time the measurements were made-Hill and his colleagues now think the conductive material is more likely to be a semi-molten mixture. Its conductivity is not high enough for it to be pure magma, Hill says,so it is more likely to be a mixture of solid and molten rock.

Gary Egbert of Oregon State University in Corvallis, who is a magnetotellurics specialist but not a member of Hill's team,is cautious about the idea of a nascent supervolcano where Mount St Helen's sits. "It seems likely thats there's some partial meltdown there"given that it is a volcanic area,he says, "But part of the conductivity is probably just water"

If the structure between the three volcanoes is indeed a vast bubble of partially molten rock,it would be comparable in size to the biggest magma chambers ever discovered, such as the one below Yellowstone National Park.

Every few hundred thousand years,such chambers can erupt as so-called supervolcanoes-the Yellowstone one did so about 640,000 thousand years ago. These enormous eruptions can spew enough sunlight-blocking ash into the atmosphere to cool the climate by several degrees Celsius.

Could Mount St Helens erupt like this? " A really big,big eruption is possible if it is one of those big systems like Yellowstone" Hill says,"I don't think it will be tomorrow, but I couldn't try to predict when it would happen."

Further measurements probing the structure of the crust beneath the other volcanoes in the area could help determine if the zone connects to them all,Hill says. He presented his team's results on 27th May at the Joint Assembly geophysics meeting in Toronto, Canada.

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION! - SARYCHEV - KURILE ISLANDS - RUSSIAN FAR EAST

As highlighted by Tundra above, Sarychev volcano which is on the remote Matua Island in the Kurils has erupted. Due to the remoteness of this area information has been slow to materialise but it would seem, according to latest information, that this is a fairly significant event.

This eruption began on Friday 12th June and a fairly major explosion occurred at 1930 UTC yesterday which sent an ash plume some 8km up. An ash cloud some 600km in length now covers an area from NW to SE of the volcano and latest reports from Tokyo VAAC suggest this enormous ash cloud has now reached some 12km in height.

MODVOLCS thermal alerts from the Hawaii Institue of Geophysics and Planetology suggest significant thermal anomalies at the volcano, hot ash within the ash column and large lava flows.

This volcano is not well monitored. There is no real-time seismic network at the volcano, no webcams and SVERT (Sakhalin Volcano Emergency Response Team) is not manned 24/7, hence the slowness of the information.

Below is a link to NASA Earth Observatory with an image of the ash cloud from the volcano taken by the MODIS instrument on the Terra Satellite (courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team - Goddard Space Centre):

Sarychev ash cloud

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - SARYCHEV - KURILE ISLANDS

Some background infirmation on Sarychev from the Global Volcanism Program:

GVP - Sarychev

And an article from todays Daily Telegraph:

Telegraph article - Sarychev

[Guest Shetland Coastie]

ERUPTION UPDATE - SARYCHEV

MODVOLCS Thermal image. The orange coloured blocks are thermal anomalies, likely lava flows.

MODVOLCS

And some more images from Earth Snapshot:

Earth Snapshot

Edited June 15, 2009 by Shetland Coastie