Why volcanoes are like humans
Carl / 19/09/2016
Agua and Pacaya through the clouds. How we normaly perceive volcanoes.
When you start to study volcanoes you inevitably start by studying the top of the volcano and you inevitably model your understanding about the volcano in reference to the cone or mountain that you see. Some volcanoes are even referred to as "perfect volcanoes" due to them being almost perfectly symmetrical. But, as we will see, nothing could be more wrong than that point of view.
First of all, do not feel bad about your fascination with the mountain part of the volcano. After all even the scientists who study volcanoes spend 90 percent of their efforts upon understanding the cone part of the volcano and that quite often produces errors in the modeling of how the volcano works.
The digestive tract model
Simplified model of subduction volcanism.
Now, put on your imagination hat and try to really believe that you are a volcano and that your digestive tract is the plumbing of the volcano. Like you a volcano needs to eat to produce things. So, by now you need to imagine that you are upside down eating in a barrel or something like that. Uncomfortable for a human, but volcanoes indeed have their mouth at the deepest end.
There are 3 common versions of how volcanoes are feeding. The most common form of volcanism is spread-center volcanism; it is a mild form of volcanism that runs all along every spreading center where tectonic plates are pulled apart. All along those there is spread center-volcanism on and off. As the plates are pulled apart the pressure of mantle is lowered and decompression melt occurs and lava oozes up.
The next version is subduction volcanism where a tectonic plate is slowly sliding in under another dragging down water and other volatiles. As it slides down there is heat being produced by friction and at a certain depth melt will start to pool in an area called the acreation zone.
The third version is mantleplume or hotspot volcanism where the mantle is either pushed up or sucked upwards for reasons that are not very well understood.
There are two ways a volcano can form, if we disregard the spread center volcanism, the most common version of formation is that magma starts to exert pressure upwards into the crust and it start to slowly crack and fracture, and magma continuously flow into those cracks creating more cracks as time goes. Imagine that your hamburger is violently forcing its way into you creating the mouth and gullet as it goes.
The origin of plume volcanism.
The other way is what is happening at many volcanoes in Iceland. The magma upwelling from the mantleplume creates a pressure, but here the mouth and gullet is formed as Iceland is pulled apart by the MAR. This pulling apart causes the magma to be sucked upwards. In many respects this is like you eating a hamburger while hanging upside down.
Now it will be the same for most volcanoes after this. The magma will soon reach an area that is in many ways the equivalent of the stomach. Here the magma will rest for a while and start to change over time and take on different properties. The longer the magma sits in your stomach, the more it will change (digest).
The entire process so far has taken years, in some cases thousands or even millions of years. And still there will be no sign at all on the surface of all this fantastic activity. Now we just lack one thing before you are born as a fully fledged volcano. And that are the bowels leading up to your…
Now imagine that you have been eating a really large meal and your stomach is really full and now the waiter comes with the desserts. It would by now be handy if the food could leave your stomach in some expedient way wouldn't it?
The increasing pressure will start to crack the lining on top of the magma chamber and magma will start to go upwards driven by both buoyancy and pressure. This magma conduit works as the bowels of a human and leads inevitably towards the surface, but now always in a straight path.
If the pressure is large enough the magma will arrive at the surface. And depending of what the volcano has been eating and how long it has been digested what comes out will differ quite a lot. I imagine that you can easily understand this without me explaining it further. Instead just imagine what happened the last time you had Mexican food and you will understand explosive volcanism to the fullest.
Agua and Fuego/Acatenango. Yes, the cones are beautiful.
Now that we have understood that the beautiful cones that entice us are only the butt ends of the true volcanoes we can learn and understand a lot better.
Yes, the cones can tell us quite a bit about the volcanoes when they function as normal. You can take samples and see what lava has been produced over time. You can see where lava is likely to come out of the volcano.
You will learn were and what of the volcano by studying it's butt, but not the why and how of its processes. To do that you need to study the other 90 percent that you can't see without using instrumentation.
If you wish to understand when and how a volcano will erupt you need to study and understand the entire digestive tract of the volcano and also study what that particular volcano feeds on. Otherwise you will never understand why a particular volcano can change behavior over time and all of a sudden do the unexpected.
Let us say that you only studied the cone of Volcán Atitlán, then you would never understand why it in the deep future will be a part of a caldera forming eruption. But if you studied the entire plumbing of the volcano you would see how it repeatedly has grown an over-sized digestive tract that will explode like Mr. Creosote in Monty Pythons Meaning of Life again.
Next time you feel like you are sliding back into a cone-centrist view of volcanism, just remember that cone is volcanese for butt and you should be safe again.
CARL REHNBERG
19/09/2016 in Science, Volcano. Tags: hotspot, lava, magma, Mantleplume, Volcanism, volcanoes
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112 thoughts on "Why volcanoes are like humans"
Henrik says:
I love your rumenation, Carl. It ought to bowel over the conecentrics.
Poor volcanoes, always being judged by the sizes of their cones.
VerboselyLaconic says:
So…volcanic cones are just…"turtle-heads"?
Basically it is the least interesting side of a volcano.
I will though not go so far as to say that is why volcanoes stink…
motsfo says:
Hahahahahah… Really wonderful way of explaining how volcanoes work, however You have forever ruined my back yard ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………view of Redoubt 🙂 Best!motsfo
Well, at least you now know why the flowers grow so well. 🙂
re Your response of "why my flowers grow so well", You are actually exactly correct….. it is the volcanic soil that grows anything here… Best!motsfo… i didn't see how i could put this response after Your fertilizer remark..
It is also why the best coffee always grows on the flanks of volcanoes 🙂
You had to mention coffee. Thanks. My wife read that and said, "See, I told you coffee tastes like @$$!"
Nah, coffee is the divine nectar given to us by the volcanic gods!
And you may remind your wife that roses smell better if planted in Sh$t 🙂
And Momotombo is back to happily puffing from the flank.
KarenZ says:
Has anyone confirmed that the flank action is not man-made?
mjf says:
Latest IMO release:
"An earthquake M3.6 occurred in the Hengill area at 22:29 yesterday evening (18 September). Reports have been received that it was felt in Hveragerdi, Mosfellsbaer, Kopavogur and Hella. Another earthquake M3.0 was detected at 22:49 in the same area. Yet another earthquake M3.2 war recorded in the area at 23:32. It was felt in Kopavogur and Reykjavík.
An earthquake of M3.8 occurred in the southeastern part of Bardarbunga caldera at 20:42 yesterday evening (18 Sept). At 22:03 (18 September) an earthquake of M3,7 occurred in the same area."
am57 says:
Sorry, mjf, if you are in a different timezone from us Europeans (Yes, some of us Brits proudly think of ourselves as Europeans!) and you have just checked in to the Cafe for the latest, but there has been a bit of a discussion of this activity: see Carl's post, and the discussion following at 23.27, 18/09/16.
Thank you Carl, for getting to the bottom of things. I'll look at phreatic explosions in a totally new light, now. 🙂 A fun and useful article!
Thanks, I thought I should try a new way to visualize how volcanoes function.
Green stars at Vatnajökull and Hengill, any takers on where the next green stars will be? Somewhere between the two?
Thank you for the digestive analogy for volcanoes (just as I was eating my dinner ). Not sure I want to know the analogy for crater rows, calderas, et al 😀
Luisport says:
Review possible procedure
Martha Rose Karlsdóttir resources director with the Energy nature segr earthquakes last night came as a surprise. "We have been continuous injection into the long term so that these are not movements that we know. We have remained with this procedure because we know that if we make major changes we have seen increased seismic activity as a result, but not that big earthquakes. Now we have not made any changes so this brings us surprises, "says Marta Ros. She says the earthquake last night warrant to review the procedure." That is what we are looking at right now with this analysis today of the seismic activity of weekend. If we need to change something in our practice and then of course we do it. "
… http://www.ruv.is/frett/skjalftarnir-komu-a-ovart
So, they are surprised and don't know why this is happening… interesting no?
The earthquakes has not really been either big or unusualy frequent if you think about that they are happening on a very powerful triplejunction on the MAR. The spot is capable of earthquakes up towards M7 and with earthquake swarms counting into the thousands in a week. So, any effect from reinjection there is dubious.
It is also one of Icelands largest volcanic systems. And we know how noisy Icelandic volcanoes can be without any outside interference.
I think this was natural.
Yes i agree, but it's a bit interesting they saying they are surprised… and saying that something changed. Maby nothing important, but interesting…
The question is if it is aided by reinjection or happening naturally. Personally I am awaiting GPS-data to say what is happening.
OLKE-station is suggesting that there has been a longterm trajectory change, sadly all other stations are off since a year ago.
Irpsit says:
Apparently there is no long term GPS movement indicating inflation or an eruption. I think this is just normal tectonics triggered by the injection of water.
The long term trend after the major quakes of 2000 and 2008 (slightly down and westwards) seems to have stalled in 2015, indicating that the long-term readjustments after the 2008 quake were finished.
Also in everything seems fine
Also checked Hekla, Katla and other GPS stations and everything seems rather stable…
Irpsit, if you look at the up-component on the first plot you will notice that the down-motion has stoped and gone to neutral.
And on the second plot you may notice that there is something on it that you missed 😉
Albert says:
English words that have gone out of use, which Carl's volcanoes now may have a new used for:
Wamblecropt: To have digestive issues that are so severe, you can't physically move.
"I should never have ingested that rhyolite magma, now I'm wamblecropt."
Trullibubs: Ar word for a person's entrails, but can also be an insulting term aimed at an overweight person.
"Oi, trullibubs, have you nearly finished inflating?"
(free after http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2xL1gH6FcyCtYH2NM6zYhTK/lost-for-words-14-expressions-that-have-vanished?)
Albert, you are killing me 🙂
Spike Page says:
I love the inner workings of a volcano as much as anybody, and appreciate how what goes on down below affects what we see above….but when it comes to hot topography, I can be awfully superficial.
Forgive me Carl for I have rapped.
(to the tune of Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back")
I like big cones and I cannot lie.
You lava-lovers can't deny
When a volcano walks by with curvy little flanks
And a lava dome in your face
You get sprung..wanna climb that hill
'Cause you know that reservoir's filled
Deep in the ground magma's cookin'
I'm hooked and I can't stop lookin'
Volcano I wanna get wit'cha
And take your picture
Volcanologists try to warn me
But that steamy little vent is too much for me
Oh Pari-CUTE-in
You say you wanna get in my Benz
Come on! Come on, then!
'Cuz you ain't that average mountain
I've seen you poppin'
To hell with stoppin'
You quake, shake
Got it goin' like a VEI 8
All those geology magazines
Say calderas are the big thing
But I want a cone of layered lava and ash
Stratovolcano stacked
Hey volcanoes! (yeah!) Volcanoes! (Yeah!)
Is that magma chamber 'bout to bust?! (Hellyeah!)
Then blow out! (Blow out!) Flow out (Flow out!)
Make that thing erupt!
Crater got ash!
GeoLurking says:
+25 hitpoints for creativity!
Seconded! 🙂
This should be in our collection of volcano poems!
I didn't know you guys had a poetry section.
It seems to have disappeared. But we used to have one, our house poet is Albert who now and then strikes when we least expect it with something whitty and thoughtful.
cdaley55 says:
ROTFL! 😀
PederP says:
When we talk "man made" earthquakes, are they really created entirely by human activity?
Or is it man triggering the release of natural tension?
And if we only trigger natural tension – isn't it a good thing? In order to avoid bigger quakes i mean.
And thank you Carl, for yet another great post..
Hello PederP!
I actually wrote an entire series about it.
http://www.volcanocafe.org/the-art-of-fracking-a-volcano/
http://www.volcanocafe.org/the-art-of-fracking-a-volcano-ii/
Thanks again Carl. Brilliant 🙂
And a little morning paper for those who wishes to dive into the complexities of what may, or may not, be the reasons behind the activity at Hengill.
https://pangea.stanford.edu/…/papers/WGC/2015/23011.pdf
Beardy Gaz says:
Corrected link:
https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/db/WGC/papers/WGC/2015/23011.pdf
I missed that the link was corrupted.
I wanted to have another read through the new Decade Volcano Program VC created a while back, but I can only find No.10 on the old stolen site and No.7-1 on the new site. Does anyone have a copy of the 8 and 9 posts?
Don't worry, found them whilst manually going from page to page of the older posts… {goes back to the shadows}
I thought we had reposted all of them in here?
Yep, found all of them in the new site, just took a bit of digging.
TJElJohnny (@TJElJohnny) says:
Hekla continues to be twitchy!
20.09.2016 09:43:16 63.990 -19.696 1.3 km 1.1 99.0 1.4 km W of Hekla
Both the location and the depth is very interesting.
And a second quake M 0.3 it seems at 12:03, some 11km north of Hekla
It follows some activity along the SISZ….
Oh Great Master of all things Plutiferous, what in Space could make Pluto emit like that in the X-band?
The X-band is the radio frequency range used by New Horizons, so this is an easy question to answer but presumably not what you wanted to ask. The recent X-ray detection is explained as due to the solar wind hitting its atmosphere.
Recent news is that the red splatch on Charon's north pole is replicated on its south pole. That makes it a residue of a methane ice cap, and makes is more likely that this is indeed methane captured from Pluto's escaping atmosphere. The solar wind probably hits this methane wind rather than Pluto's main atmosphere. It explains why the X-rays are a brighter than had been expected.
I knew I would get a better answer from you than I found elsewhere. Now I get it.
Thanks Albert!
It is though not as fun a theory as imagining 4 million alien dentists using Pluto as a vacationing resort together with their tame ambulatory x-ray machines 🙂
And after days of steaming and degassing from the main-vent with some intermittent steam-puffing from a probable side vent, we finally got a minute ash puff out of Momotombo.
I would say 100 to 150 meters high and with a low ash ratio.
The degassing had gradually increased as the day passed on. No increase in seismic activity was detected during the increase leading me to believe that there is a layer of water that is open towards the top-vent.
100 meter plume, roughly 4 cm³/s DRE.
Mining operations lift more than that with a single cast shot.
It has to begin somewhere..
True. But that has to be the lowest mass expulsion rate that I've calculated for a volcano. It was fun!
It´s a VEI -1
If the eruption lasted about an hour, then 4cm3/s x 60 x 60 = 14400 cm3 or 0.01 m3
1m3 is about a thousand million times smaller than 1km3.
A VEI2 is 100.000m3 and VEI1 is about 10.000 m3.
In fact, if we go by the scale, this eruption was a ridicule small sized VEI -5
0.01m3 is about the size of a rock measuring 10cm thick, 10cm height, and 1meter long.
Just a question, looking at Nicaraguan volcanoes.
Could lake Managua be an old caldera like Toba volcano? Could even lake Nicaragua be a giant caldera?
The two lakes measure up to 65km long and 177km long respectively, and lake Toba is 100km long.
For comparison, Yellowstone measures 72km long, La Garita caldera 75km, La Pacana (Argentina) 70km, Cerro Galan (Argentina) 40km, lake Taupo 46km long, and Long valley 32km long
I am sure that there are more Toba-sized calderas spread across the world, but anything much older, would have been further eroded and more difficult to recognize. Let´s remember that Toba and Yellowstone and geologically very recent and very young (less than 1 million years)
It is a rift/graben, not a caldera (though with plenty of past calderas around there, I expect). The question is why the ridge across the graben is there, the one that Managua is build on? There is a fault line cutting across the graben, undeneath the city.
farmerozf says:
Another really good place to put a big city, then….
cbus05 says:
A long time ago, I wondered this same thing. Alas, it's just a graben as Albert mentioned, with a lake inside of it.
I will say however, very very big volcanoes like Toba tend to develop inside these type of grabens, so maybe a long time in the future, this could become something of a much much bigger caldera volcano.
It is not a bad question, it becomes even more poignant if you turn it around a bit.
Why is there not a caldera there? After all, almost every other feature like this in the region that consist of a Graben and a faultline has sprouted a caldera.
The most obvious answer is probably that the angle of subduction in the area does not produce enough magma for large scale caldera formations to occur, instead we get quite a few somma-volcanoes where smaller calderas have formed that are in the VEI-6 scale.
Did that make it clearer?
Do you know the subduction angle here, and what angle is most prone to producing large volumes of magma? (I had thought steeper angles tended to be more prolific, but I'm not sure on that.
If my memory serves me correctly, I think I saw some reports suggesting that this was a region of a youthful a slab-gab forming with a sinking subduction slab. If true, this could be indicative that in the geological future, things could escalate more here and potentially create a large caldera producer (we will all be dead by this time however).
I do not know the exact angle. But you are correct, a steeper angle is normally good for magma production. Up to a certain degree at least.
If we look at the Atliplano/Puna Volcanic Complex it had its first large caldera formation period while the slab dipped at 30 degrees, then it changed to 10 degrees for 10 million years before all of a sudden going back to 30 degrees and the second (current) caldera formation period.
If memory serves 27 degrees is the number for Guatemala and also according to memory the descent is a bit flatter at Nicaragua.
But, take with a pinch of salt, this is from memory.
I will return to this in about a week.
I spotted two areas of the world with unusual occurance of large calderas.
One is the area of north Argentina, two VEI8 calderas there. Subduction must be at a steep angle here.
Another is the region between Yellowstone hotspot to La Garita and Rio Grande rift. A few VEI8 calderas here too. But these are not subduction ones.
Indonesia, between Sumatra to Flores, must run at a steep angle, especially at Sumatra. This is the region from Toba, Krakatoa to Tambora.
Also lake Taupo is prolific in large eruptions. Subduction must be steep there too.
BillG says:
Klyuchevskoy continues:
according to TASS:
The Klyuchevskoy volcano has been erupting from April. Four lava flows are running down its slopes, and lava is constantly fountaining in its crater. The volcano is located on the territory of the Ust-Kamchatsky district. The nearest settlement is Klyuchi, it is located in 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) from the volcano's foot.
The most prolific volcano in the Holocene in all likelihood. Not a big surprise it has been in almost a constant state of eruption for the last few years.
I would say on pure frequency that goes to Stromboli and on amount erupted to Grimsvötn.
But it is high up on the list, I will give you that.
Was more or less implying volume. Klyuchevskoy has an rough edifice volume of approximately 100km, all of which was built in the last 6000 years. Based on edifice building alone, Klyuchevksoy has an average eruptive rate of .016 km^3 per year, which would come out to a VEI 5 every 60-100 years, and a VEI-6 every 625 years.
Keep in mind, this is only accounting for erupted magma, and not magma that has been influxed into the magma chamber.
If we were to assume 85% of the magma is going unerupted, that would give an influx rate of nearly .106 km^3 per year. I believe this would put it in the same tier as Grimsvotn is.
If we were to assume 50% of the magma is unerupted, that gives a rate of .032 km^3 per year. The issue here, is we don't know how much magma is or isn't erupted. For all we know, it may just be shooting right to the surface, but we have no clue given the lack of monitoring equipment.
Is it larger than Grimsvotn? Probably not, but it easily has to be among the largest / most prolific non-hotspot volcanoes in the world.
For being an arc volcano it is highly active, one of the most active on the planet. But part of the edifice is consisting of the flanks of Kamen and Plosky Blizhny, and the age has been upgraded to 7000 years for the oldest sample.
The Klyuchevskoi group is 50 000 years old so in theory the edifice building may have started prior to 7 000 years ago.
Either way, it erupts a lot.
If we compare with Grimsvötns figures of 200km DRE equivalent of Tephra and more than 100km3 of lava since deglaciation it still leaves Klyuechevskoi as one serious erupter.
The influx of magma is not that far away from the APVC, so depending on the size of the magma reservoir it could in the future be a candidate for a large caldera event. To be honest I never really pondered what a beast this is.
And, the tomographic data seems to imply that there is indeed a large deep magma reservoir feeding the entire volcanic group here, but there seems to be no big shallow chamber yet. So any really big caldera event would be somewhere in the future.
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/bibl/sotrudn/stponom/Aueretal.pdf
Hekla has a mountain volume which I roughly estimated at 15km3. Grimsvotn probably has around 30km3 edifice and Bardarbunga about 50km3 edifice.
Hekla has around 1km3 erupted every 50 years, since 6000 years. That amounts to a bit more than 100km3 erupted. Katla has probably a similar rate.
Grimsvotn and Bardarbunga might have larger volumes, with a handful of 15km3+ erupted lava floods (could amount to 100km3), and many smaller sized eruptions (amouting to another 100km3). I would say that both of them erupted at least 200km3 in the Holocene.
Klyuchevskoy with an amount of 100km3 erupted in the past 6000 years would surely be amongst the top, rivaling the 4 most prolific Icelandic volcanoes.
from the paper Carl cited:
The total volume of Klyuchevskoy's cone is estimated
to be 270 km3 or 0.6 9 1012 tons (Melekestsev 1980), and
thus the average magma output rate is estimated to be 0.04
/year (0.09 9 109 tons/year) for the past *6800 years
dasnowskier1 says:
Mona Loa is pretty big but just taking a nap.
It's bad enough seeing the landscape, clouds & sheep remind me of all things volcano. Now the bathroom? 🙄 😀
My evilitude knows no bounds 🙂
What do sheep have to do with volcanoes….?
They have been seen flying about. Usually, they just mill about the camera while you are waiting for the volcano to go off in the distance, but on some occasions, they get quite energetic in high winds.
It has to do with them flying about around volcano webcams (and getting eaten later by Bear Grylls).
Also in Kkyuchevskaya:
I have the impression that it is a very good candidate for the next VEI6 or VEI7 caldera-forming eruption in the planet.
Why so? First we have a very active volcano that that it´s a very tall volcano (highest active volcano in Eurasia), volcanoes in the region make calderas, and this one has been very prolific, as well as the entire region. In 2012 and 2013, as many as six volcanoes in eastern Kamtchatka were erupting at same time.
This makes me think that the magma production rate is astonishing there. It cannot sustain like this forever. Eventually, a caldera formation event will happen in eastern Kamchatka.
It´s probably a region to really watch out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klyuchevskaya_Sopka
As Carl mentioned, there is no shallow magma chamber at this point, but the region itself is a little bit on the ridiculous scale. It does not receive the same attention other volcanic areas in the world get because the eruptions have not been super explosive or large (yet), and it's also located in one of the more remote areas in the world.
With that said, the sheer influx is pretty insane, especially if you were to consider that the deep magma chamber likely feeds Tobalchik, Klyuchevskoya, and the other 3-4 volcanoes in that region. Under the single deep magma chamber thought, prolific wouldn't quite do it justice.
I've been saying that I believe this region to be a future supereruptor for a few years on volcanocafe. I like to ask the question of "what did Toba look like before it had its first large caldera event?" I tend to believe it would have been something similar to the Klyuchevksoya group. Given, it may take a few hundred thousand years, and I will never know if I am right or not, but it seems highly plausible given what we know.
Also worth mentioning, I personally believe a lot of the large VEI-7+ eruptions occur sourced from deeper magma chambers. The enormous magma chambers that are required for creating large vei-7+ eruptions simply can't be that shallow, otherwise they would go caldera earlier in their life cycle. I know for instance, that the magma chamber at Aira in Japan has a bottom of around 15 kilometers, and that's about standard for that region.
Michael Don says:
You might also consider the Polovinka-Academii Nauk- Karymsky area. Not quite as currently active as Kliuchevskoi et al, but has some form for caldera formation
That area is extremely prolific as well, although it is entirely separate from the Klyuchevskaya group, which is located in a geologically different region of the same arc (the central Kamchatka depression).
In a lot of ways, the Klyuchevskaya region resembles a hotspot more than a traditional arc system.
Interesting coincidence. The trailing end of the Emperor seamount chain, (the other end of which is Hawaii), subducts at about this area along the trench.
Salting says:
Predominant windpattern suggest impact on northern hemisphere sub arctics
Tom Bech (@bechtom) says:
Turrialba now erupting quite strongly at ~10:15 UTC http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/index.php/vulcanologia/camaras-volcanes/camara-v-turrialba
Plume at about 3k according to this image http://www.ovsicori.una.ac.cr/index.php/vulcanologia/camaras-volcanes/cam-2-turrialba (both of these are still quite dark atm)
tomasandersson2 says:
I really like the idea to have an overlay marking the outline of the edifice combined with height indicators. Something for the icelanders to add for Grimsvötn and others 🙂
crazykaz26 says:
A 6 .4 earthquake of the south east coast of Tokyo, just hope there wasn't too much damage and none lost their life.
Ed: Rescued from the dungeons. / H
For the region M6.4 is not that big. All modern building can withstand the tremor, and there would be no tsunami.
So, even given the size the number of dead would be few or none.
Fairly far out at sea, about 100 km from Tokyo. No worries
Craig Heden says:
No worries? Perhaps. Good thing it didn't occur further west near Suruga Bay, where the stress shadow could accelerate (and possibly trigger) the expected failure of the Tokai segment (overdue by most estimates). There have also been a large number of moderate quakes recently (last few months) mostly north of the Sagami trough near/around Tokyo (Kanto) area. Given that the Great Tohoku earthquake is thought to have doubled the chances of a major (>7) event in the Kanto area, this current pseudo-swarm may be a signal that the area is starting to unlock?
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50524/full..
Either way, a large shock in Kanto or along the Tokai segment will be disastrous in a huge way. But, as with most things geologic, while the likelihood of an event may be high, pinning down the exact timing can be low to nonexistent. Fortunately, this latest 6.2 – 6.4 thrust fault quake is quite far away, and likely will have little/none direct impact on either the expected Tokai or Kanto events..probably just another grain in the hourglass, but still something to keep an eye out for.
Quite a vigorous aftershock sequence. Perhaps this is due to the shallow (10km) depth of the main shock?
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22autoUpdate%22%3A%5B%22autoUpdate%22%5D%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22street%22%2C%22feed%22%3A%227day_m25%22%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B23.059516273509303%2C-236.513671875%5D%2C%5B42.27730877423709%2C-203.70849609375%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%5B%22plates%22%2C%22faults%22%5D%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3A%5B%22restrictListToMap%22%5D%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22timezone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%5B%22list%22%2C%22map%22%2C%22settings%22%5D%2C%22event%22%3Anull%7D
The ig-nobel prizes are out, for research that makes you laugh and think. One was awarded for a study on the personalities of rocks. As is it supposed to do, it made me think. Can we do this with volcanoes? Which one is the happy volcano, which is the depressed one, which the bubbly one, etc.? If yo favourite volcano would do a personality test, how would it come out? Hekla would be like lady MacBeth, me-thinks.
Well Vesuvius is definitely a silent assassin…
I suppose you could identify Izalco as the volcano with a sense of humour, given what it did to the financial prospects of one Salvadorean hotel entrepreneur.
Janet says:
Does anyone know why this buoy North of New Zealand is in Tsunami mode?
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/
Neil Law says:
It seems to have registered a 30m spike, which could be one single wave,which is no big deal if it's just a regular storm wave way out in the ocean…or a technical fault…or a tsunami.
In the absence of any reported quake in the area I would guess it's a fault….Unless someone knows different?
Hold that thought… It's come off its moorings.So yeh. I guess that makes it a technical fault.
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=54401&type=2&seriestime=20160923090345
Ian F says:
Here is a short version of an old game "Guess the Volcano"
I saw my first live volcano butt yesterday.
Can anyone identify this, it is old and somewhat saggy
lurk says:
Well, that's not the Arizona memorial, so it's not Hawaii. There also are no pine trees at that part of the base at pear harbor.
Alaska, and that is a forrest mill on a lake I saw in a documentary when I was about 10. But the name of the volcano eludes me.
Bobbi says:
Curiosity got me googling. The volcano could be Mt. Calder. AVO has it listed as a non-volcanic peak that has previously been erroneously called a volcano. If it is Mt. Calder, the mill is Viking Mill.
It's Mt. Garibaldi.
I disagree. Mt. Garibaldi is more remote. (Note utility lines in pic above) Garibaldi Lake is small and has no access to a big river or sea inlet for lumber milling to be feasible. Not saying that my guess is right, just that Mt. Garibaldi doesn't fit IMHOP.
Yep, Mt Garibaldi it is, that town would be Mt St Helened if it decide to go off
😩 I took the wrong road, but the journey was fun. Thank you Ian.
I miss something in the order of the first part of a duology on a certain Icelandic volcanic feature?
Have you seen it around Albert?
DalekDiana says:
VeryOff Topic…..ish…..It's Friday. The world is in a mess and the headlines are depressing….. So This came as a breath of fresh air to my beleaguered brain. Such an interesting situation. Maybe it is time in this complex world to make things more legally clear and every Country should Trademark their own Name. Thus We could sue the USA for using the name England in one of it;s states. Swedish meatballs made in the UK could rake in a fortune for the Swedish government.Working on Iceland's (The store) stance then what will Mars (The planet) be named when the makers of Mars (The chocolate bar) insists it cannot be called after their confection? Can anyone think of any more possible lawsuits by a country or Company in the future.
I can understand the frustration of Icelandic (Country) businesses if they cannot label their products as "Made in Iceland".
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/iceland-country-sues-iceland-supermarket-using-its-name-a7325481.html
We should have trademarked Swedish Sin 🙂
At least then we would perhaps make babies instead of watching bad tv-programming.
On special request (thanks Carl!), the new post is up. It is the first part of a duology or perhaps trilogy on a major disaster in Iceland – which no one noticed
http://www.volcanocafe.org/the-eldgja-eruption-icelands-baptism-by-fire/
I highly recommend that the new post be looked at by the audience. It's a class act work by Albert and illuminates a seldom talked about eruption.
Now an OT to help kill this thread and motivate going to the new.
1st, I live in Florida. When you live in Florida (and are raised in the Deep South all of your life) you learn to deal with the heat. It's what you do.
This girls attire is perfectly FINE given the temperatures. It's not revealing and in no way would be thought of as inappropriate around here. In short, the girls mother is quite on target and correct. Evidently, the school is still quite Victorian. You know, when black wool was the thing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3804320/Does-anybody-NOT-okay-Mom-slams-elementary-school-forcing-ten-year-old-cover-inappropriate-tank-long-sleeved-jacket-90-heat.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
TJElJohnny on Hunting the supernova of 1181
Ryan on Hunting the supernova of 1181