Volcano Watch 2008,

Well as there seems to be some Volcano activity at the moment i thought it would be a good idea to start the volcano 2008 thread where we can all keep up to date and also add to this thread,

Right ill start with the latest one,


Nevado del Huila in Colombia.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's Nevado del Huila volcano erupted in a shower of hot ash, prompting thousands of people to leave their homes on Tuesday.

Seems though it is calming down, so hopefully the red alert will be lifted,

Ap news
Some helpfull links,

www.usgs.gov...

www.ssec.wisc.edu...

hvo.wr.usgs.gov...

Chile

Smoke rises from the Chaiten volcano, May 2, 2008. The volcano in southern Chile spewed ash before dawn on Friday, triggering tremors 12 miles away and prompting evacuations, officials said.

1000;s of people have been evacuated as the volcano starts to spew ash, this volcano is said to have been inactive for 1000's of years,





News link

There's the possibility Chaiten could be a very major eruption

Source

The Chaiten volcano last erupted more than 9,000 years ago, throwing out millions of tons of material and creating a crater two miles wide.

~ ~ ~

Experts believe that magma has been trickling through the crust into a chamber beneath Chaiten, increasing the pressure as more of the liquid rock and gas filled the void left by the last explosion.

This week’s eruption was caused by magma forcing its way up through the crust beneath the volcano.

Scientists in Chile are now frantically collecting data in an attempt to measure how much magma has built up under the volcano.

"This could be an isolated incident or the start of quite a long period of rumbling," said Prof Clive Oppenhiemer, a volcanologist at Cambridge University.

Chaiten is a caldera volcano, which can explode in a cataclysmic eruption, emptying the magma chamber and causing the dome and surrounding land to collapse into the void beneath.

[edit on 4-5-2008 by Essan]

My english is very bad

Chaiten is an small coastal town, almost 4.000 people where evacuated, some important people stayed, goods and services are being managed by the police and the military

pics:



















Chaiten shouldn´t be so affected, possible affected areas by lava are mostly smaller towns near the volcano, unless there´s a big eruption, ashes are spreading and causing trouble even on argentina

and yes, it looks does like the war of the worlds

Google Map

Those photos are stunning!

Great find; Thank you!

Looks like th Chile Volcano has Erupted! A total evacuation is now in place,

PUERTO MONTT, Chile (AFP) — A volcano in southern Chile erupted with renewed vigor Tuesday, raining ash and lava over its surroundings and forcing a total evacuation in a 30-kilometer (19-mile) radius, the National Emergency Office said.

afp.google.com...


Everyone now is being told to leave includiing reporters as the ash is contaminating everything and the ash is very very thick,

news.sky.com...

reply to post by southern_cross_bowie


Stunning pictures! Did you take them, or did someone else? Still, they're quite amazing indeed. Good find.

Looks like I've found more photos & youtube videos(at the bottom)!The last 4 pictures are quite shocking,like the pictures a few posts above me!
BTW the text on that page is mostly in spanish.

[edit on 6-5-2008 by tormentor]

Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii is still erupting but now is causing a huge problem with the Vog. A new vent opened in March, allowing Sulfur Dioxide to escape from two locations. The new location is higher up and farther inland, so it has been settling down over the island. It's been killing crops and plants, along with causing respiratory problems among the residents. One flower business was making $70,000+ a year, now estimates for this year he'll be lucky to see half of that because of the Vog.

Chaiten is expected to fully blow today, this will be the first time in 1000 years so goodness knows whats going to happen,

One to watch im sure, At least the people are all out of the way now as they say the area is pretty much empty now,




They are trying to get some cattle out but sadly it looks like many will have to die there, Some due to the contaminated plants ect, Navy ships dropped some feed for them, there is over 25,000 cattle and sheep,

They believe that the soil ect may take decands to recover,

news link

[edit on 7-5-2008 by asala]

[edit on 7-5-2008 by asala]

Amazing photos. Just breathtaking. It is amazing to see what our earth is capable of. I feel for all those people who are loosing their homes.

Did this give them any kind of heads up? I know they said it has rumbled forever, but so has many of our volcanoes. Did they know ahead of time this was going to go this explosive or was it a shocker? Ive been out of the loop for a while.

Say goodbye to global warming. That puppy blows and there will be enough ash in the sky globally to cool us all. Remember the 1600's european non summer? And Van Gohs' 'scream'. The lightning pics are intense. Interesting days afoot.

Mt Etna in Sicily is apparently stirring....

Mt Etna Stirring

Ok all you junkies, I have a linkey for ya. The RSOE Alertmap is remodeling their sight. You can keep your eye on all volcanoes, earthquakes, fires, heatwaves, disasters of any and all kinds. Even geomagnetic stormes for all of you who want to see if there is a link.

RSOE Alertmap

and to make sure everyone who wants to can fill their brains with all kinds of volcano coolness, here is a link to

Volcanolive.com

you can get pretty up to date info there, and for ultimate coolness there is a page filled with links to different volcanocams all over the world including Etna. Sometimes its a bit slow, like now prolly cuz etna is giving a bit of a show, but usually its not so bad.

enjoy you fellow eco junkies

[edit on 13-5-2008 by mrsdudara]

Wanted to say the pics posted are awesome!!

My two cents for what its worth is that Etna is going to blow her top big time. But I have been wrong before. I just hope all scientists focus and dont take their time evacuating due to crappy PC mumbo jumbo.

All the recent activity is pretty scary to say the least. The one Im most worried of though is La Palma

La Palma1

Mt Etna Video.

Raw video of Mt Etna blasting lava nearly 1000ft in the air...

Video Link

For a certain level of lateness with regards to posting this, but it's here now:

Yellowstone Activity report:

APRIL 2008 Yellowstone Seismicity Summary

During the month of April 2008, 70 earthquakes were located in the Yellowstone Region. The largest of these shocks was a magnitude 1.7 event on April 17, 2008 at 6:56 AM MST, located about 13 miles North Northwest of Pahaska Tepee, WY and 19 miles North East of Fishing Bridge, WY. This earthquake was not felt. There were no earthquake swarms. Earthquake activity in the Yellowstone region is at relatively low background levels.

Earthquake activity in the Yellowstone region is at normal background levels.

Ground Deformation Summary: Through April 2008, continuous GPS data show that most of the Yellowstone caldera continued moving upward at similar to slightly lower rates as the past year. The maximum measured ground uplift over the past 40 months is ~20 cm at the White Lake GPS station. An example can be found at: pboweb.unavco.org...

The general uplift of the Yellowstone caldera is scientifically interesting and will continue to be monitored closely by YVO staff.

An article on the current uplift episode at Yellowstone and discussion of long-term ground deformation at Yellowstone and elsewhere can be found at: volcanoes.usgs.gov...

A year ago the recent uplift was measured at 15 cm, now it's at 20. Quake numbers last month were low in comparison to preceding months, and currently there are 38 on the last weeks seismicity.

Seismicity maps

Yellowstone Seismograph outputs

Yellowstone Volcano Obsevatory (YVO) home page

Ah yes, Yellowstone....I forgot about that one. Known as a super volcano, it is one giant caldera.










Image Source

You would have over nine inches of ash over 1,000 miles away. The area effected by the blast would be more than 2,000 square miles. And when this one blows, it will be 2500 times bigger than Mt. St. Helens. And where is it? Some of you might have actually walked through it. Its Yellowstone National Park, in the north-western region of the United States.

what will happen when Yellowstone does blow. Well, it wont be pretty. There will be significant ash deposits over two-thirds of the country. The massive amounts of ash, dust, and gases will cause seriously reduced amounts of sunlight to reach the Earths surface for an extended amount of time. There will be massive loss of life, loss of animals and plants and possible extinctions, crops would fail all over the planet, and we would find ourselves living in a mini-Ice Age for at least several years.

I don't know about you guys but I find this place pretty scary in the grand scheme of things.

There is a great program from the BBC all about the possibility of it going up.

BBC Super Volcano

heres another great site talking about yellowstone and other possible erupting volcanoes.

More of Yellowstone and other volcanoes

I couldn't figure out how to embed a really cool 2 minute video of the blast scenario from youtube so here's the link to it instead.

Cool scenario Vid



[edit on 15-5-2008 by QBSneak000]

[edit on 15-5-2008 by QBSneak000]

[edit on 15-5-2008 by QBSneak000]

Just as a useful way of imagining the amount of magma erupted by Yellowstone, imagine a cube of side length 8 miles, that would be the volume of eruption, as a solid lump. Mount St Helens would be a cube about 0.62 miles side length.

8 mile wide square is this big, now imagine it extending 8 miles upwards as well.



Obviously the actual reservoir is much bigger, and not a cube.

Edit, your linked video looks familiar. Also I happen to own the DVD of the Supervolcano docudrama.

[edit on 15-5-2008 by apex]