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2 years after new volcano appeared, seismic activity restarts on island
Aerial view taken on October 17, 2011 of a green and brown stain at sea off the coast of the village of La Restinga on the Spanish Canary Island of El Hierro.
DESIREE MARTIN/AFP/Getty Images
MADRID, Spain – Spain’s National Geographical Institute says the Canary Island of El Hierro has been rocked by more than 50 tremors in 24 hours, two years after a new volcano began to appear off its southern coast.
So far the resurgent seismic activity has caused no damage, a regional government spokeswoman said Monday. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to be identified in the media.
The last time the nascent volcano rattled the island the government evacuated the port of La Restinga, banned aircraft from flying over the southern tip and ordered ships to avoid the area.
At one point residents could see smouldering volcanic rocks spewing from the sea.
El Hierro has some 11,000 residents and was originally formed by volcanic activity.
2013 Breaks Record for Volcanic Eruptions
While it is quite rare for new islands to spring up out of the sea, instances of major volcanic eruptions—especially for 2013—are becoming commonplace. In fact, 2013 will go down in history as the year with the most volcanic eruptions since record keeping began.
As of mid-December, the number of volcanic eruption for the year was at 83, according to calculations by Alvin Conway, author of The Extinction Protocol. Considering that the average is between 50 and 60 per year, this represents a significant increase. This number does not even include undersea volcanoes like the Read more…
Volcanic activity world-wide 11 January 2013: new activity at Etna and Stromboli, explosion from Kizimen, elevated activity at Santiaguito
The Plosky Tolbachnik volcano has erupted for the first time since the 1970s in Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.
Activity continues to be elevated. Last night, the eastern lava over flow was weakly active at the outer flank of the NE cone. Strong glow over the summit, despite partially dense cloud cover, indicates that the magma column inside is high and ready to produce more lava flows.
Etna volcano: Weak strombolian activity and a small intra-crater lava flow inside Bocca Nuova’s eastern pit could be seen on a webcam image this night. Tremor remains elevated.
Plosky Tolbachik volcano in Kamchatka continues to erupt fluid lava flows with no signs of the eruption ending soon.
Slow effusive activity and a thermal anomaly visible on satellite images continue also at nearby Bezymianny although Tolbachik’s seismic signal obscures the one from Bezymianny.
Weak intermittent explosive activity continues at Karymsky (Kamchatka).
Kliuchevskoi (Kamchatka) continues to have strombolian activity in its summit crater.
Shiveluch (Kamchatka): effusive and explosive activity from the growing dome continue at moderate levels.
Kizimen (Kamchatka): An explosion this Read more…
4 volcanoes rumble in Indonesia
Smoke and ash billow from North Maluku Smoke and ash billow from North Maluku’s Gamalama on Sunday. (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)
BANDUNG, Indonesia — Three active volcanoes in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi and another one in North Maluku are rumbling due to the impacts of the recent major earthquake in the neighbouring Philippines, the head of the Vulcanology and Disaster Mitigation Agency, Surono, said Thursday.
“All four volcanoes are on alert status now,” Surono said in Bandung.
The three rumbling mountains in North Sulawesi are Mount Soputan in Southeast Minahasa, Mt. Lokon in Tomohon and Mt. Karangetang in the northern part of North Sulawesi, while Mt. Gamalama in Ternate Island grumbled in North Maluku.
Surono explained that the four volcanoes, which were located in one area, had rising levels of activity due to the impact of the Philippine earthquake.
Ash spewed from Mt. Soputan, for example, has been blown by the wind to Bitung. The volcanic ash was released by a volcanic explosion early on Tuesday morning, Surono said. “The explosion on the mountain took place until 2 a.m.,” he added.
The eruption could be heard up to 40 kilometres away. Observers now could not see or Read more…
Nicaragua remains on alert for volcanic activity
On Watch: San Cristobal Volcano is still spewing eight times its normal emission level of sulfur (GRAPHOS Producciones)
The government’s emergency response system (SINAPRED) is maintaining a state of preventive alert in the northwestern departments of Chinandega and León after San Cristóbal Volcano erupted Saturday morning.
Although the volcano is showing some signs of calming down after three explosive belches on Saturday morning, school classes in Chinandega will remain suspended on Monday as the government and local population get to work cleaning up all the ash that fell on Read more…
Giant ‘balloon of magma’ inflating under Greek island could cause first eruption in over 60 years
A giant ‘balloon of magma’ is inflating under the volcanic Greek island of Santorini, warns a new study.
The balloon is so big it has forced the island upwards by 14cm between January 2011 and April this year.
It has also triggered a series of small earthquakes, the first seismic activity in 25 years – raising fears that the volcano could erupt for the first time since 1950.
Volcanic crater on Nea Kameni, Santorini, Greece. The chamber of molten rock beneath Santorini’s volcano expanded 10 to 20 million cubic metresThe chamber of molten rock beneath the volcano has expanded 10 to 20 million cubic metres – up to 15 times the size of London’s Olympic Stadium – between the time – according to a survey conducted by a team led by Oxford University scientists.
The results come from Read more…
Mt Fuji ‘under more pressure than last eruption’
Pressure in the magma chamber of Japan’s Mount Fuji is now higher than it was the last time the volcano erupted more than 300 years ago, scientists say, according to a report Thursday.
Tectonic shifts triggered by last year’s huge 9.0 magnitude undersea quake have left the chamber under 16 times the minimum pressure at which an eruption can occur, researchers said.
Researchers at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention studied the tectonic movements caused by the tsunami-triggering quake on March 11, 2011 and a magnitude 6.4 quake that rocked central Japan four days later, Kyodo News reported.
They estimated that 1.6 megapascals of pressure, equivalent to atmospheric pressure of some 15.8 kilograms per square centimetre (226 pounds per square inch), was being exerted on the magma chamber.
Volcanic eruptions can be triggered by as little as 0.1 megapascals of pressure, and the reading of 1.6 megapascals is “not a small figure”, said senior researcher Eisuke Fujita, according to Kyodo.
Mount Fuji, an almost perfectly cone-shaped mountain that stands as one of Japan’s national symbols, last erupted in 1707, after an earthquake struck and Read more…
Yikes. Supervolcano found under Hong Kong
Hong Kong geologists have revealed for the first time the full extent of an ancient supervolcano with a diameter of 18km sitting beneath the former British colony.
The giant ash monster is thought to be of the same collapse caldera type as the infamous Krakatau volcano which killed tens of thousands and literally rocked the world when it blasted open near the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra in 1883.
The discovery – one of only around 50 such volcanoes in the world – is a coup for the local rock boffins, who have been digging around the Geopark in Sai Kun in the east of the Special Administrative Region for several years.
A supervolcano is one which is capable of producing 1,000 cubic kilometers of ash in an eruption. To put that in perspective, the hugely destructive Krakatau, whose explosion was Read more…
Popocatepetl Volcano Raising Concerns in Mexico
A plume of steam rises from the Popocatepetl volcano seen from the city of Puebla, Mexico, Saturday April 14, 2012. An early-morning exhalation from the volcano sent ashes to towns near the area as moderate activity at the volcano continues. (AP Photo/Joel Merino)A volcano within view of Mexico City has begun to erupt.
Steam, smoke and hot fragments of rock began to be ejected from Popocatepetl this past weekend.
The Volcano is located about 50 miles southeast of Mexico’s capital, Mexico City. The metropolitan area of Mexico City is home to approximately 21 million people.
According to Reuters, Mexico’s National Center for Disaster Prevention this week raised the alert level to three on a scale from one to seven, with seven being the greatest threat.
The volcano has had a long history of frequent minor to moderate eruptions.
In 2000, thousands of residents surrounding the nearly 18,000-foot mountain were forced to evacuate. Popocatepetl is North America’s second highest volcano.
Eruptions have occurred in November and June of 2011.
According to VolcanoDiscovery.com, Popocatepetl was dormant during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
Mexico authorities were recommending limiting Read more…
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