All the volcano news that's fit to print

[Isgrimnur]

Too many different one-off volcano threads that don't fit with present news. So here's a catch-all thread. A "Volcano Randomness", if you will.

[Isgrimnur]

Calbuco in Chile

The Calbuco volcano in southern Chile erupted again Thursday, releasing a large column of smoke just over a week after it spectacularly roared to life following half a century of inactivity.

"As predicted, the third eruptive pulse at the Calbuco volcano has arrived. Red alert," the National Geology and Mines Service wrote on its official Twitter account.

A towering plume of grey smoke and ash rose from the crater, prompting authorities to once again evacuate a 12-mile radius around the volcano, where workers and residents had been granted limited access to begin the clean-up effort.

The volcano surprised residents of the Los Lagos region with two eruptions last Wednesday and Thursday after 54 years of inactivity, belching a 9-mile column of ash into the air before spewing bright orange and red lava.

[Freyland]

Too many different one-off volcano threads that don't fit with present news. So here's a catch-all thread. A "Volcano Randomness", if you will.

Hey now, let's not be too quick to segregate and lump together an entire subset of a geological population. Pretty soon we won't be able to say "death by magma is unpleasant" without somebody claiming the phrase has negative connotations.

[AWS260]

Cotopaxi in Ecuador:

Hundreds of thousands of people living south of the Ecuadorean capital, Quito, could be at risk from an eruption of the Cotopaxi volcano, officials say.

The volcano, located about 50km (30 miles) from the city, last erupted on Saturday, prompting President Rafael Correa to declare a state of emergency.

Risk Management Minister Maria del Pilar Cornejo said 325,000 people lived in areas that could lie in the path of mud and rock flows from the Cotopaxi.
Its last major eruption was in 1877.

[El Guapo]

I demand a separate volcano issues forum. There are too many of these threads cluttering up EBG!

[Jeff V]

Keep an eye on Taal volcano.

Not that an eruption is terribly imminent -- I was there in January 2010 and later that year it became all toxic and steamy. We took a boat across the lake in the large crater to an island where the caldera rose...and rode horses to to the top of that. There were columns of steam in various locations.

Now, I wouldn't expect anything catastrophic for a number of years yet (but since I am documenting it now, Izzy will remember when the time comes). In about 17-18 years or so, expect it resemble Mordor, as this is where my wife wants to retire to, ostensibly so she can throw my by then useless carcass into a bubbly lava floe.

[GreenGoo]

Too many different one-off volcano threads that don't fit with present news. So here's a catch-all thread. A "Volcano Randomness", if you will.

Volcanoes are mountains that spew fire! That's the very definition of awesome! 'miright?

[rshetts2]

Too many different one-off volcano threads that don't fit with present news. So here's a catch-all thread. A "Volcano Randomness", if you will.

Volcanoes are mountains that spew fire! That's the very definition of awesome! 'miright?

Fire?! You sell the mighty Volcano short, my friend. They also spew extremely hot liquid rock, poisonous gases and flaming chunks of rock as well! I see your awesome and raise you a fuckin' incredible!

[Kraken]

Meh. Let me know when they get laser shows.

[El Guapo]

If you ever drop your car keys into a volcano, just forget 'em, because man, they're gone.

[Grifman]

If you ever drop your car keys into a volcano, just forget 'em, because man, they're gone.

They're bad for rings too, I've heard.

[GreenGoo]

They eat virgins like candy, is my understanding.

[rshetts2]

Meh. Let me know when they get laser shows.

As you wish:

[DD*]

So.... what do you think the odds are that the Yellowstone supervolcano goes up in our lifetime? From what I understand, it is somewhat overdue for its next big appearance.

If it erupts, does the country survive? Does the world? Enquiring minds want to know!

[Redfive]

If you ever drop your car keys into a volcano, just forget 'em, because man, they're gone.

If you go parachuting, and your parachute doesn't open, and your friends are all watching you fall, I think a funny gag would be to pretend you were swimming.

[Jolor]

You might not have liked Mussolini but he got the volcanoes to erupt on time.

[Kraken]

So.... what do you think the odds are that the Yellowstone supervolcano goes up in our lifetime? From what I understand, it is somewhat overdue for its next big appearance.

If it erupts, does the country survive? Does the world? Enquiring minds want to know!

Google says:

ANSWER: Although it is possible, scientists are not convinced that there will ever be another catastrophic eruption at Yellowstone. Given Yellowstone's past history, the yearly probability of another caldera-forming eruption could be calculated as 1 in 730,000 or 0.00014%.

Better than the odds of winning the lottery? Inquiring minds want to know (but not so much that they're going to google it)!

[Moliere]

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!

Cotopaxi in Ecuador continues to rumble after its first eruption in 70 years earlier this month. Over the last week, the volcano has been emitting almost constant steam-and-ash plumes punctuated by small explosions—all signs that magma is rising into the volcano.
...
Meanwhile, Tungurahua, one of Ecuador’s other active volcanoes, is also erupting. The latest report from IG-EPN lists ash plumes reaching 2 kilometers over the volcano from a series of small explosions with constant tremor.

You can check out webcams pointed at both Cotopaxi and Tungurahua.

[Isgrimnur]

Mount Etna

Europe’s tallest active volcano, Mount Etna, has erupted in spectacular fashion, filling the sky above Sicily with flame, lightning, and a gigantic ash cloud. Mount Etna has been mostly quiet for two years, but after intensifying volcanic activity in recent weeks, things came to a head with the dramatic eruption you can see in the video [at the link].

The footage, shot by Sicilian photographer Marco Restivo, captures what it looked like when Mount Etna’s Voragine crater let loose. According to Italy’s National Institute of Public Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), this was a short but very violent eruption, ranking among the most violent Etna has seen in the past two decades.

Occurring between 2:20am and 3:10am UTC, the eruption saw a sustained lava fountain reach heights of over 1 kilometre, although some jets of hot material made it as high as 3 km above the summit of the volcano. The large volcano boasts five craters in total and is estimated to have been active for some 2.5 million years.

Ash fell onto the nearby villages Linguaglossa, Francavilla di Sicilia, Milazzo, Messina, and Reggio Calabria, and resulted in the closure of at least one airport.

[Moliere]

Evacuations from Bali volcano swell to about 50,000

Nearly 50,000 people have fled the Mount Agung volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, fearing an imminent eruption as dozens of tremors rattle the surrounding region, officials said Monday.

Waskita Sutadewa, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency in Bali, said people have scattered to all corners of the island and some have crossed to the neighboring island of Lombok.

Indonesian authorities raised the volcano's alert status to the highest level on Friday following a dramatic increase in seismic activity. It last erupted in 1963, killing about 1,100 people.

[Moliere]

Yellowstone supervolcano may blow sooner than thought — and could wipe out life on the planet

Scientists working in and around Yellowstone National Park say that the supervolcano sitting under the tourist attraction may blow sooner than thought, an eruption that could wipe out life on the planet.

According to National Geographic, the researchers, from Arizona State University, analyzed minerals in fossilized ash from the most recent mega-eruption and found changes in temperature and composition that had only taken a few decades. Until now, the magazine reported, geologists had thought it would take centuries for the supervolcano to make the transition.

[Holman]

1) I have too many human-caused disasters to worry about right now.

2) Fine. Just do it already.

[Kraken]

Thanks, Obama!

(I miss that.)

[gameoverman]

I thought it was not that it would blow sooner than anyone thought, it's that it would advance faster from build up to eruption than previously thought. So, in effect, we'll have only decades from the first signs of impending doom until the eruption instead of centuries of warning time. They aren't saying the clock is ticking now.

[Moliere]

I thought it was not that it would blow sooner than anyone thought, it's that it would advance faster from build up to eruption than previously thought. So, in effect, we'll have only decades from the first signs of impending doom until the eruption instead of centuries of warning time. They aren't saying the clock is ticking now.

What can be done when a foot of ash covers the U.S. and the sky is full of ash except colonize space?

[Kraken]

I thought it was not that it would blow sooner than anyone thought, it's that it would advance faster from build up to eruption than previously thought. So, in effect, we'll have only decades from the first signs of impending doom until the eruption instead of centuries of warning time. They aren't saying the clock is ticking now.

Yup, poor (or deliberately sensational?) writing/editing. "Sooner than thought" should be "more quickly than thought."

[Moliere]

What will really happen when the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts?
5/17/13

Air traffic would be grounded, of course, as we saw after the 2010 eruption in Iceland. But mostly this ash would pollute farms in the midwest, as well as the Mississippi River. In a sense, it would be like an industrial accident, clogging waterways and agricultural areas with toxic sludge. The worst outcome of this event would be the destruction of our food supplies and waterways.

[Enough]

The range of effects will be strongly determined by the total cubic miles of ejecta volume. The first Yellowstone caldera ejected 600 cubic miles, but the second was 67. St. Helens was 0.25 cubic miles. On the other end of the spectrum, the La Garita Caldera in CO ejected on the order of 1,200 cubic miles when it blew roughly 28 million years ago. That's insane, like enough volume to fill Lake Michigan insane, or just imagine the Front Range of CO and poof. La Garita was the most energetic event on earth since the K/Pg impactor asteroid that possibly took out the dinosaurs. It would have really sucked to be anywhere near Colorado for that event.

[Jeff V]

That's insane, like enough volume to fill Lake Michigan insane, or just imagine the Front Range of CO and poof.

That'll make fishing a challenge. OTOH, think of the black sand beaches!

[Punisher]

2 solutions..
1) A giant cork.
2) A giant umbrella that helps funnel the ash to the side.. then a giant slide leading to the Grand Canyon.

I mean, I'm not even a scientist and I came up with solutions..Our real scientists should have no problems..

[Freyland]

2 solutions..
1) A giant cork.
2) A giant umbrella that helps funnel the ash to the side.. then a giant slide leading to the Grand Canyon.

I mean, I'm not even a scientist and I came up with solutions..Our real scientists should have no problems..

Have you considered a Presidential Campaign?

[Moliere]

Evacuations from Bali volcano swell to about 50,000

Nearly 50,000 people have fled the Mount Agung volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, fearing an imminent eruption as dozens of tremors rattle the surrounding region, officials said Monday.

Waskita Sutadewa, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency in Bali, said people have scattered to all corners of the island and some have crossed to the neighboring island of Lombok.

Indonesian authorities raised the volcano's alert status to the highest level on Friday following a dramatic increase in seismic activity. It last erupted in 1963, killing about 1,100 people.

Two months later....

Flights cancelled, people evacuated after massive Bali volcano erupts

The weekend's volcanic eruptions sent ash 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) into the atmosphere, and created plumes as high as 3.7 miles (6,000 metres), Reuters reported.

[Moliere]

Thousands evacuated as volcano threatens big eruption

Nearly 15,000 people have fled from villages around the Philippines' most active volcano as lava flowed down its crater Monday in a gentle eruption that scientists warned could turn explosive.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology increased the alert level for Mount Mayon late Sunday to three on a scale of five, indicating an increased prospect of a hazardous eruption "within weeks or even days."

Lava flowed just less than half a mile down a gulley from the crater and on Monday morning, ash clouds appeared mid-slope, said Renato Solidum, head of the volcano institute.

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

At least 56,000 Filipino villagers have fled from Mount Mayon as it spewed fountains of lava nearly half a mile into the sky on Tuesday, and authorities warn the volcano could erupt violently within hours.

“It sounded like an airplane that’s about to land,” Quintin Velardo, a farmer who lives five miles from the volcano, told the Associated Press from an evacuation center Tuesday, as Mayon continued to blast molten rock and a two-mile-high column of ash floated above the province of Albay.

Officials had raised the alert level to four on Monday, an indication that a hazardous eruption is imminent. Nevertheless, Velardo told the AP, he needed to return to his village to rescue his livestock. Minutes after he spoke, Mayon coughed up another jet of ash.
...
Renato Solidum, the agency’s director, described two possible scenarios during a news conference Monday. Mayon will either continue to ooze lava with small eruptions in between — like what happened in 2006 and 2009 — or we’re seeing the early stages of a major, and far more catastrophic, blast or pyroclastic flow, a deadly combination of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash and volcanic gas that barrels down a volcanic slope and can devastate residential areas.

Compounding the threat is what’s called lahar, a potentially deadly mud flow of volcanic material that can happen even without a major explosion. Solidum said heavy rain could drive mudflow in the region and cause landslides near already swollen bodies of water.

The AP reported that by Tuesday, more than 56,000 people had been evacuated to nearly 50 evacuation centers across the country. They include families in areas far from the danger zone but who could be affected by mudflow. No one had been reported killed by Tuesday, according to the AP, even as rocks and debris cascaded down the mountain’s slopes.

[Jeff V]

And now my wife no longer wishes for us to move to Taal volcano (second most active in the Philippines). But her reason isn't the possibility that the back yard would suddenly become fire.

[Moliere]

Guatemala volcano: Several dead as Fuego volcano erupts

Seven people have been killed and nearly 300 injured after Guatemala's Fuego volcano erupted, officials say.

The volcano, about 40km (25 miles) south-west of the capital Guatemala City, has been spewing black smoke and ash into the sky.

The National Disaster Management Agency (Conred) said a river of lava hit the village of El Rodeo, destroying houses and burning people inside.

In Guatemala City, La Aurora airport has been closed due to ash.

President Jimmy Morales said a national emergency response had been launched.

[Moliere]

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

New Zealand has ordered 1,292 square feet of skin to treat patients injured in Monday's volcanic eruption on White Island, authorities said Wednesday.

A total of 47 people were on White Island, off the coast of North Island, when the eruption occurred. Eight people have been confirmed dead, and more than 20 others are currently hospitalized in critical condition. Search and recovery operations are continuing for those still missing and presumed dead on the island.

The skin is now needed to treat patients severely injured by the volcanic ash and gas. On Tuesday, medical officials said 27 people in hospital had burns to at least 30% of their bodies and many have inhalation burns that require airway support. Every burns unit in the country is at full capacity.

"We currently have (skin) supply, but are urgently sourcing additional supplies to meet the demand for dressing and temporary skin grafts," said Peter Watson of the District Health Boards on Wednesday. "We anticipate that we will require an additional 1.2 million square centimeters (1,292 square feet) of skin for the ongoing needs of the patients."

To put that into context, the average human body has about 11 square feet (1 square meter) to 21 square feet (2 square meters) of skin surface area.

[Jeff V]

Taal Volcano.

Manila, Philippines (CNN)Philippine authorities have urged a "total evacuation" of nearly half a million people near the capital Manila, after a volcano spewed ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air Sunday prompting warnings of a possible "explosive eruption."

The Taal Volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, is one of the country's most active. Images from the scene on Monday showed streams of lava beginning to gush out the volcanic vent, the sky above still thick and dark with ash and steam.

On the last day of my first trip to the Philippines (in a few weeks, it will be 10 years ago) we visited Taal volcano. The volcano is on an island within a lake that's within an island which is in the sea. It is also, I believe, the shortest volcano in the world at 322 feet. That makes it no less dangerous and it has killed more than 1500 in the past century or so.

Four of us took a taxi from Manila to the lake (2 hours going there, 3 hours returning). From there we hired a catamaran to take shuttle us to the volcanic island in the center of the lake (about 45 minutes each way). Once on the island, we rented horses to carry us to the top, where there was an observation deck. My poor horse seemed ready to give out at any moment and seemed to be wondering how it deserved my fat ass on it's back. It got final vengeance though -- the saddle was made for a little Filipino ass, not a gigantic American one and had chafed me bloody...18 hours of flying the next day was not pleasant.

The holiday town of Tagaytay, which lies close to the water's edge, is a popular getaway for Manila residents who often take boats onto the lake and hike up the volcano.

Tagaytay is once of the towns my wife fancies us retiring to some day. It's a nice town, but getting buried in ash would suck.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Taal lake gone. Lava and water do noy mix, wonder if will refill.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44661949