Volcano watch 2006

A recent ATS thread about the Giant 'Slab' Pushing Through Mt. St. Helens (by onlyinmydreams) ...

A volcano erupted in Russia's far east

The Bezymyanny volcano has erupted in Russia's Far East. This volcano does not pose any threat to local population but is a threat to flights as there is a huge ash cloud.

RIA Novosti: Volcano erupts on Kamchatka peninsula



Eruption expected soon - Central Java, Indonesia

Villagers near Mount Merapi, Java, Indonesia ignore evacuation warnings. They make lots of money by digging sand near the volcano. They can make the equivalent to the pay of a university graduate, so they take the risk and hope they will be able to escape when the volcano erupts.

5.4 at Anak Krakatoa in Indonesial!!! Talk about a Volcano with a history...

Krakatoa Quake

Alert status for Mount Merapi raised to its highest level

Mandatory evacuation of thousands of residents living near the volcano.


Photo: AP/ Purwowiyoto (SCANPIX)

From a source a little closer to the events. Channelnewsasia (Singapore). Villagers fleeing away from the volcano pass tourists on the way up to the volcano... :shk: ... I suspect they might still be busy with their sand quarrying business too...

More info. This is looking a little grim for the locals.

"Pyroclastic flows have started since this morning, mainly on the southern slope of the mountain,'' Superheated flowing rock, ash and gases may spread to a radius of between 8 kilometers and 12 kilometers in coming days.

news.indahnesia.com...

I forgot there was a thread about Mount Merapi already when I made my posts above.

Here it is: Indonesia's Mount Merapi Ready to Blow

Many who refused to leave earlier from Mount Merapi are now fleeing, as the latest eruption sends ash and gas 2 miles down the slope.

source

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) -- Clouds of deadly ash, rock fragments and hot gas surged down Mount Merapi's slopes Monday as activity intensified to the highest level since the volcano rumbled back to life weeks ago.

One eruption sent an avalanche of debris and ash rolling more than two miles down the mountain's western flank, said Ratdomopurbo, the region's chief vulcanologist. It was followed by several other huge explosions.

Mount merapi has now started to go, and apparently the lava dome has collapsed, with lava flows down to two nearby rivers.

www.antara.co.id...

Lava dome collapses or explodes

Merapi is one of the most active volcanoes of Indonesia.

Several huge explosions have taken place on the crater and scientists are warning that the mountain's growing lava dome could soon collapse with potentially catastrophic consequences.

According to Michael Ramsey (Geology Professor at the Univ. of Pittsburg), there can be weeks or months of pyroclastic flows once the lava dome collapses.

Source: CNN

It is said that many residents refused to evacuate.
I wonder if they had time to leave.

In the ongoing ATS thread discussion in "Significant weakening in Gulf Stream detected", Landis (who asked earlier in this Volcano Watch thread) can review the 'bigger picture' possibilities.

Also, if you do a Yahoo! or Google Internet search on the terms of "global dimming" and "volcano", you can see some links to scientific discussion of these posibilities. (Think of the 1995 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Phillipines, later linked to the temporary global cooldown later in that same year.)

Current Internet resources on global dimming include the Wikipedia article on that topic and the recent U.S. PBS NOVA broadcast (with free online preview offered), soon to also have an online full transcript of the show posted:

en.wikipedia.org...

www.pbs.org...

Finally, a recent BBC article on the "A-train" of current (and one more, planned for launch in 2008) climate observation satellites in polar orbit, collecting the world's first complete dataset on global aerosol pollution and its relationship to cloud formation, helps to clarify what info is starting to be collected on these remaining important elements in climate change models:

news.bbc.co.uk...

Yes, FutureLibrarian. I also came across a similar information with regard to the possible eruption of more than 3 other volcanoes on Earth in the next days (Galeras...) and the way it can have an effect on the Earth´s climate.

Furthermore, the Gulf Stream weakening and the Whobble´s strange behaviour is not something to left behind.

Interesting topics, without any doubt.
We should keep an eye on.

Mount St. Helen's just had an interesting burp.

No edit feature on this thread?!? Image in the above post is not the one I was wanting. New link below. I was watching this when it happened. Was perhaps three times bigger than the image captured, lit the whole image up like a flash. Pretty startling when not expected.

image

Orange Alert for Volcano Soufriere Hills in WEST INDIES

www.gdacs.org...

Seems like this volcano is going off now.

www.cbc.ca...

A volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat erupted Saturday, sending burning gas, volcanic rock and ashes careening down the mountain slopes and into the sea.

Green Alert for Volcano Cleveland in ALEUTIAN IS.

www.gdacs.org...

Here is a bit of background on this volcano.

www.volcanodiscovery.com...

On 23 May, AVO reported that an astronaut aboard the International Space Station observed an ash plume from Cleveland at 1500. A plume was visible on satellite imagery at 1507 that drifted SW and reached a height of 6.1 km (20,000 ft) a.s.l. At 1700, an image showed the detached ash plume 130 km SW of Cleveland.

www.volcanodiscovery.com...

[edit on 24-5-2006 by valkeryie]

Here is the nasa pic of the Cleveland Volcano

Nasa



amazing pic,

One of the worlds largest active volcanoes has erupted. Mount Karthala, Comoros islands

Hope the Toba volcano don't erupt, because it's a super-volcano, and the last eruption was 73 000 years ago and put earth to ice age. But it sounds like he's waking up because of the two earthquakes in december 2004 and the last one of 8.7.


Last time it erupted, it unleashed 2800 cubic km of magma and it was the largest eruption in 2 millions years... Yellowstone is only 1000km3... Toba is almost 3 times this as it is 2800km3...

So let's see the next earthquake in this region, could be the last one we see.

Is it my imagination or has there been a significant increase in volcanic activity within the past year?

[edit on 5/29/2006 by Bibliophile]