Ecuador Volcano Blows Sky-High

Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano exploded into life this weekend, blasting three times in an hour on Saturday (Feb. 1) and spewing ash 5 miles (8 kilometers) into the air. The ash caused total darkness in the nearby sector of Chacauco, Ecuador's Instituto Geofisico (IG-EPN) reported. The ash is streaming to the south and southwest.

Pyroclastic flows — superheated, flowing plumes of ash, gas and lava — raced more than 5 miles (8 km) down Tungurahua's slopes and crossed at least one road, the IG-EPN said. However, thanks to an early warning provided by seismic tremors beneath the volcano that started Jan. 30, nearby residents were evacuated and a state of emergency declared in the provinces of Tungurahua and Chimborazo, according to local news reports. This is the biggest eruption at Tungurahua since late October 2013.

As Tungurahua woke, an ongoing eruption at Indonesia's Sinabung volcano took a tragic turn. Mount Sinabung's violent eruption Saturday killed 16 people in Sukameriah, the first deaths since the volcano's first blasts four months ago. The deaths came one day after authorities allowed thousands of residents who had been evacuated to return to their homes, saying the volcano's activity was decreasing. However, those killed were inside a 3-mile-across (5 km) "red zone" around the volcano.

Live Science

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13th Century Volcano caused mass deaths in London’s East End

Archaeoligists evacuated skelelons in Spitalfields between 1998 and 2005

Archeologists who discovered thousands of skeletons in medieval mass graves in London’s East End believe many were the victims of a 13th Century volcanic eruption on the other side of the world.
The skeletons were uncovered next to Spitalfields Market when the new Spital Square development was started 20 years ago.
Experts believed for years they were plague victims—but radiocarbon dating didn’t add up.
Now a 10-year ecological investigation by the Museum of London has discovered the likely cause to be a volcano which caused world temperatures to cool and crops to fail, resulting in mass starvation.

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25 Indonesian Volcanoes Showing Abnormal Activity

Twenty-five volcanoes in Indonesia, including Anak Krakatau, above, are showing signs of increased activity, a presidential aide said on Saturday. (Reuters Photo)

Padang, West Sumatra. Twenty-five volcanoes in Indonesia are now showing abnormal activity or have been put on alert or watch status, presidential special aide Andi Arief said here on Saturday.

“According to official data, 25 volcanoes are now under alert or watch status and they must be given priority with regard to disaster mitigation planning at district or city levels,” he said at a workshop on journalists’ role in disaster management.

He said in West Sumatra there were two volcanoes that need to be closely watched, namely Mount Marapi and Mount Talang, as they are still under alert status.

Mount Marapi is located in Agam and Tanahdatar districts and rises 2891 meters above sea level, and Mount Talang (2597 meters above sea level) in Solok district was located around 40 kilometers from the provincial capital Padang.

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S. America rattled by volcano devastation

Add A volcano in southern Chile, some 600 miles south of Santiago, erupts for a second day on June 5, 2011, shooting out a cloud of ash six miles high. Residents evacuated from the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano complex area, and there have been no injuries. UPI/Miguel Angel Bustos  

SANTIAGO, Chile, June 13 (UPI) -- Several Latin American countries in the path of volcanic ash unleashed from a Chilean Andean crater are facing critical shortages of water, agricultural collapse, disruptions in transportation and growing risks to human and animal health.
Toxic ash clouds, seen to be dispersing toward Australia, have dumped the powdery substance across vast swathes of territory in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
Air travel over the weekend remained erratic, with dozens of passenger aircraft grounded across airports in the region.

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Yellowstone National Park is moving

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyoming (ABC 4 News) - The nation's oldest park is also one of the most studied. The interest is not just in it's amazing vistas and wildlife, but in the volcanic beast below the park.

Yellowstone sits atop one of the world's biggest, active volcanoes, one capable of laying waste to much of north America.

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Dual erupting volcanoes in Kamchatka, Russia

NASA satellites have captured images of a rare event – two neighboring volcanoes erupting at the same time. The images taken on February 13th clearly show plumes coming from snow-covered Klyuchevskaya Volcano in the north and Bezymianny Volcano to the south.

The volcanoes reside on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, an active volcanic area much like the rest of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Klyuchevskaya, also called Kliuchevskoi, is a monstrous mountain reaching 15,860 feet (4,835 meters) – the tallest volcano in Kamchatka. According to NASA, it has erupted more than 80 times in the last 300 years. In the fall of 1994 it shot a plume of ash more than one mile high and was easily seen by astronauts on the Space Shuttle Endeavor.

Bezymianny, at only 9,455 feet (2,882 meters), was imaged in by NASA back in November during a prior eruption. It was thought to be extinct until it erupted from 1955 to 1956. Prior to that, it had experienced a period of 1,000 years of dormancy. The 1956 eruption was comparable in size to the Mount Saint Helens eruption in 1980 and resulted in a horseshoe shaped crater that has since been filled by other, smaller eruptions and pyroclastic flows.

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Redoubt Volcano: Waiting to Blow

If Alaska's Mount Redoubt is going to blow its top, will it hurry up already?
For weeks, the volcano has rumbled and grumbled and scientists remain reasonably sure an eruption -- the first since a long series of them in 1989-90 (see photo) -- will occur.
But the tempestuous 10,200-foot peak 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, towering above the Cook Inlet across from the Kenai Peninsula, is keeping scientists and Alaskans guessing.

Photo: Mount Redoubt after an eruption on April 21, 1990. Note the ash cloud mirrored on the glassy surface of the Cook Inlet. Credit: J. Warren/Alaska Volcano Observatory-U.S. Geological Survey

So far at Redoubt, there has not been the long series of earthquakes. The latest AVO update: "Unrest at Redoubt Volcano continues. Volcanic tremor is ongoing and remains elevated since yesterday morning."
Stay tuned. The big bang could happen later today ... next week ... or perhaps not at all.

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A volcano in southwestern Colombia has erupted, blanketing the nearby provincial capital of Pasto in ash and prompting the evacuation of 7,000 people living in its shadow. There were no reports of damage or injuries.
Mount Galeras began erupting about an hour after dark, spewing "an abundant ashfall on urban Pasto and on some rural areas," said Eduardo Alvarado, mayor of the city of 500,000.
Pasto is just over six miles from the 14,110-foot volcano, which is widely considered Colombia's most active.

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Evidence of eruption continues to mount

Alaska
Mount Redoubt still hadn't blown its stack as of Sunday evening, but some awesome stuff was happening high atop the restless volcano. Two holes -- one more than the length of a football field across -- have formed in Drift Glacier below the summit. Each of the holes, known as fumaroles, is blowing steam and volcanic gas 2,000 feet into the air. A vast sunken area known as a "collapse feature" also has appeared in recent hours. And a thin mudflow is streaming down the 10,197-foot mountain. It takes immense heat welling up within the volcano to make the giant holes and other features in so brief a time. Redoubt could explode at any time -- or take its sweet time and keep us in suspense for days or weeks. It also could simmer down and never erupt, though the chances of that are lower. If it does blow, Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula could be showered with ash. Volcanologists detected a sizeable quake at 5:37 a.m. Sunday with characteristics suggesting the movement of underground fluids. 

Image Above: FRAN DURNER / Anchorage Daily News

Redoubt Volcano appears sandwiched between two cloud layers across Cook Inlet in this sunset view from Upper DeArmoun Road Feb. 1, 2009.

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Rio Páez evacuation continued amid fears of new mudslide

Columbia, S.A.
Authorities continue evacuating people from Belalcázar, La Plata and Inza, towns on the shore of the Rio Paéz amid fears of a new avalanche. Official figures say the avalanche set off by the eruption of the Nevado del Huila volcano last Thursday killed six people, but fears are many more died. Some reports say 150 people are still missing. Large amounts of water currently in a recess are still threatening to come down if another eruption, heavy rains or earth quake hits the region. The avalanche that follows the release of this water could produce an avalanche bigger than the one that hit the villages Saturday, when a second mudslide hit the already heavily affected areas.

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Eruption of 3 volcanoes has scientists asking questions

Alaska, USA
Eruption of 3 volcanoes has scientists asking questions - Is there a common thread or were events just coincidence? How likely is it that three neighboring volcanoes would all erupt at the same time - as the Kasatochi, Okmok and Cleveland volcanoes in the Aleutians did this summer? About as likely as a storm that only appears once in a thousand years, says an Anchorage volcanologist. All 40 active volcanoes in the Aleutian Arc - a 1,500-mile-long necklace of volcanic peaks that stretch from Kiska Island in the west to Mount Spurr near Anchorage in the east - owe their existence to the deep, subterranean collision of two tectonic plates. But the plumbing isn't necessarily connected, and the volcanoes don't all go off at once. Each has its own combustion chamber, its own pressure issues, and one volcano under stress may well border another one that's quiet. Since Alaska has so many volcanoes, it's not that unusual to have two that erupt the same year. In fact that's the average. And it's not unheard of to have two volcanoes erupting at the same time, especially since some volcanoes blow off steam and ash for weeks or even months. Having three volcanoes in the 1,500-mile arc erupting all at once, however, is less likely. And it's even more unlikely that three volcanoes would all erupt at the same time within 300 miles of each other, as the three central Aleutian peaks did, more or less, in July and August. That makes it harder to dismiss the triple-eruption as a chance occurrence. So geologists are exploring other explanations. One of them focuses on the fact that all three volcanoes lie within the rupture zone of the 1957 "Great Aleutian Earthquake," a magnitude 8.3 tremor that generated a tsunami that damaged buildings in far-off Hawaii. Because there was so much disruption of earth along the quake's fault line, the ground around it was drastically distorted and compressed.

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Volcano erupts on Colombia’s Carribean coast

Columbia, S.A.
A volcano erupted twice Tuesday in a rural area of the Canalete municipality in the northern coastal department of Córdoba.

Residents of the zone are being evacuated to protect them from further eruptions by the vol, the radio station reported.

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Volcanoes triggering volcanoes?

Alaska, USA
There's lots of volcanic action in the Aleutians arc at the moment, with three volcanoes: Okmok. Cleveland, and Kastochi, all erupting at various points in the last month or so.

Could the eruption of one have triggered the others?

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Chile's Llaima Volcano Erupts

Breaking Earth News
Chile. S.A.
Image: A plume of smoke and ashes rises from the Llaima volcano in Chile's southern Conguillio National Park (File photo - 7 Feb 2008)

The Llaima volcano in southern Chile has erupted for the first time in months, forcing the evacuation of about a dozen people from nearby areas. Authorities, however, say populated areas are not immediately threatened.

The volcano, which is one of Chile's most active, began erupting Tuesday. The eruption sent a stream of lava creeping down the flanks of the 3,120-meter-high mountain.

Llaima is located about 700 kilometers south of the capital, Santiago. It last erupted in January, spewing ash and molten lava.

Two months ago, another volcano, the Chaiten, erupted after being dormant for thousands of years. The eruption forced the evacuation of more than four thousand people from the nearby town of the same name.

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Mount Soputan spewing sand and thick smoke

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Volcano Soputan located between South and Southeast Minahasa districts, North Sulawesi, on Friday at about 16:15 local time spewed sand black clouds into the sky.

An eyewitness, Inyo Rumondor, as contacted by Antara in Amurang city, the capital of South Minahasa, about 15 km from the explosion said the billowing hot ashes formed high cloud which was visible from Amurang city.

Another eyewitness, Jerry Rawis who is also a local resident of Molompar I village, Southeast Minahasa district, through his cell phone said that the ashes were mixed with mud spewed by the volcano.

Other Images: GALAPAGOS ISLAND - eruption photos. Cerro Azul - one of five active volcanoes on one of the islands - erupted for four days.

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Mud volcano filling 60 pools a day

Breaking Earth News
Indonesia

TWO years after it oozed into life, Indonesia's "mud volcano" is still spewing toxic sludge across the Javanese countryside at the rate of 60 Olympic swimming pools a day.

And the more homes and farms that disappear beneath its stinking grey goo, the louder the calls for justice from hundreds of displaced families who are awaiting compensation.

"There is always a fear that even where we are staying we will be flooded with mud. Recently the dyke at Renokenongo subsided two metres, new gas leaks are everywhere," said Sunarto, who lives near the mudflow.

"When the wind blows westward we can smell the strong odour from here. It seems like there's no end, but there would be if only the Government would act more swiftly."

RELATED NEWS
The Indonesian "mud volcano" is collapsing under its own weight, worsening the environmental disaster. Sudden collapses of up to three metres (9.8 feet) have been recorded at the centre of the volcano in East Java. "Such sudden collapses could be the beginning of a caldera - a large basin-shaped volcanic depression." The caldera could be as much as 146 metres deep. "(Scientists) propose the subsidence is due to the weight of mud and collapse of rock strata due to the excavation of mud from beneath the surface." The mud volcano, known as "Lusi", has already been an environmental and economic disaster for local people, and things will get worse as the mud continues to flow and the centre collapses. "Sidoarjo is a populated region and is collapsing as a result of the birth and growth of Lusi. This could continue to have a significant environmental impact on the surrounding area for years to come."

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Volcanologists Keep A Weary Eye on Mt Etna

Satellite Image: The volcanic SO2 plume from the first Etna eruption on 10 May 2008 was tracked by GOME-2 for three days after the eruption. The plume was transported over large distances towards the east with the prevailing wind and travelled from the volcano over Greece to Asia. Credit: DLR.

Italy
The latest eruptions of Etna started on 10 May 2008 around 16:00 CEST. The first eruption lasted for about 4 hours and was dominated by heavy activity of the south-eastern crater. High amounts of lava have been emitted, a lava fountain could be seen at the crater and several lava flows travelling down into the eastern flank of the volcano into the Valle del Bove depression were visible on one of the webcams installed to monitor the volcano. Cloudy conditions and poor visibility obstructed the monitoring of the eruption activity, but it seems that this is one of the heaviest eruptions of the south-eastern crater since 2001. A second eruption occurred on the evening of 13 May from a fissure that opened NE of the SE crater, about 800m long. Catania airport had to be closed because of ash emission from Etna. Apart from the emission of lava, the eruption at Etna emitted large amounts of sulphur dioxide (SO2), a colourless and toxic trace gas, into the atmosphere. It plays an important role in climate change if it finds its way to high atmospheric regions through volcanic eruptions, where it can lead to temporary cooling.

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New rumbling from Chilean volcano worries experts

While scenes of molten lava are relatively commonplace, this otherworldly picture of the Chaiten Volcano in southern Chile shows a truly spectacular, and devastating, volcanic phenomenon.

Chile, S.A.
Chile's Chaiten volcano groaned, rumbled and shuddered on Thursday, raising new concerns among authorities, as lightning bolts pierced the huge clouds of hot ash hovering ominously above its crater. "There's been additional volcanic activity that we're really worried about." Heavy ash kept shooting from the volcano as it generated small tremors. On the ground, heavy flooding hit the area around Chaiten as falling ash swelled rivers, overflowing their banks. The government on Wednesday declared the town of Chaiten, only six miles (10 km) from the erupting volcano, off-limits for three months and reported that about 90 percent of the town had been flooded by the Blanco and Raya Rivers. Rains are normal during the southern hemispheric winter in Patagonia, but the deluge of volcanic ash has caused nearby rivers to breach their banks.

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Chile's Peteroa volcano - Officers from the Regional Emergency Office are planning to install seismometers in the Maule region amid an increase in smoke columns coming from the crater of the Peteroa volcano. The Peteroa volcano is located on the border of Argentina, where it is known as the Azufre volcano. Many glaciers originating from the Claro River also exist within the vicinity. “For now we are asking people to remain calm, since it is very likely that the increased activity is due to the melting of the glaciers near the volcano”. At least 16 smoke columns have been registered lately.

INDIA - The mystery behind the geological eruption at the Murti village in Baramati taluka on Sunday remained unsolved, even as a three-member geologists’ team from Pune visited the place on Wednesday and ruled out any volcanic activity. After inspecting the spot thoroughly, they said, “The eruption is neither a volcano nor an earthquake. Villagers need not worry. Onlookers have stepped on the spot and have destroyed vital clues. We should have visited the spot much earlier. We have taken a few samples of the solidified matter." When asked why the area was not cordoned off to keep it safe from public interference, the police sub-inspector said he had informed the higher authorities about the incidence. Confirming that it was not a natural phenomenon, the DVS secretary said, “The melting of rock-like substances had taken place at the electricity pole. It later solidified in the form of hard matter.” Explaining a possibility, she said since the eruption occurred at the bottom of an iron electricity pole, perhaps it has to do with electricity. The molten lava-like fluid may have taken place due to residual current under the earth surface. According to witnesses, a lava-like substance was oozing out from the six-inch radius hole. A man who was among the first to visit the spot after the eruption said initially there was hot, brown fluid and vapour was continuously coming out. Another man, in whose field the incident took place, said that he saw the eruption of a red-hot fluid. “The government authorities will decide their next course of action after studying the geologists’ report."

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Fresh fears over Chilean volcano

Chile, S.A.
There have been reports of further activity in the Chaiten volcano in Chile. Army staff supervising the evacuation of nearby towns reported hearing rumbling noises underground and seeing flashes of light overnight Wednesday. Authorities have stepped up efforts to force the few people remaining in the surrounding area in Patagonia to leave. Experts say the volcano could continue to erupt for weeks or months. A layer of ash over 15cm (6in) thick has built up in some places and ground-water supplies have been contaminated. A number of animals left behind have been rescued, but many have been reported dead. Chile is in one of the most volcanically active regions on Earth. Experts say that about 20 of its more than 100 active volcanoes are in danger of erupting at any time.

Effects of the Chile eruption could last decades - Chilean scientists warned on Wednesday that the eruption of southern Chile’s Chaitén Volcano could have drastic long-term effects on the surrounding region. “Areas now being covered with up to 40 centimeters of ash are practically lost. The ground will need much more than five years in order to recover. Decades could pass before natural vegetation begins to grow again. These areas will be starting from square one.” The cloud of smoke has spread to Argentina's Atlantic coast, located some 500 miles to the east. Scientists said water sources – particularly around Futaleufu – showed signs of “abnormal acidity” and that falling ash had caused a build-up of a white, pasty residue in many local tributaries. They detected high amounts of sulfur both in the air and water due to the falling ash. The eruption, the first for Chaitén Volcano in recorded history, followed two days of unusual seismic activity in the zone. The phenomenon nevertheless caught residents and authorities by surprise. Indeed, government and media reports initially misidentified the eruption as coming from the Michimahuida volcano, located some 40 kilometers north-west of Chaitén. Image Above: Ash from Chaitén volcano has spread to the Atlantic. Photo courtesy of NASA

A blanket of ash is exerting a stranglehold on Patagonia. Large swathes of the Argentinean region lay under a choking cloud of smoke and ash after the eruption of the long-dormant volcano of Chaiten in neighbouring Chile. And the Welsh community there has experienced terrifying periods of “nuclear nights” when the pollution in the air has been so thick that it has blocked out the mid-afternoon sun. Earlier there were dramatic scenes, as ash was spewed 20 miles into the sky by the eruption. In key Welsh Patagonian towns like Esquel and Trevelin, residents had to wear face masks whenever they went outside. Livestock were also beginning to die from breathing air and drinking water clogged with thick volcanic ash. The area yesterday remained largely isolated from the outside world, with airports closed and roads opening sporadically because of the amount of ash on the road, up to 3cm deep in places. Patagonia is just half-an-hour’s drive from the volcano. “It is an event that has taken everybody by surprise, nobody has seen anything like this before.”

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‘Puja’ at mud volcano

Trinidad
Image: OFFERINGS TO MA DURGA: These Hindu women gather at the foot of the mud volcano as they make offerings to Ma Durga, the Hindu deity said to reside in the earth

Story: Villagers who live on the perimeter of the mud volcano at Colombia Estate, Fullerton Village, said that for the past few days, hot mud has been flowing constantly as the earth trembles near the volcano. The mud volcano is usually dormant. Scattered about the plateau are mounds of other smaller cones which spewed hot mud every few minutes. Villagers said that when there is a steady overflow, the volcanic mud seeped into their backyard gardens. Situated approximately four miles into a heavily forested area, the volcano’s recent activities have left villagers fearing a major eruption. To allay these fears, they went to the site and together with a pundit, offered prayers and even threw flowers and fruits in a solemn act of “feeding the monster within the bowels of the earth’s crust”. Devotees said they performed the puja (prayer) at the mouth of the volcano in the hope that the “devil” in the earth’s crust will not explode. The mud volcano is among some 20 dormant ones in south Trinidad. There has never been an eruption of the Colombia Estate volcano in recorded history. The only such eruption of a mud volcano was at the Piparo mud volcano and this occurred in 1996. It destroyed 15 homes.

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