Seriously, though, it’s a gorgeous video of an eruption that happened just before (and during) sunset last night. You can find out more about this volcano and what it’s doing by clicking the “Popocatepetl” link at the top of this page.
As for the book, since the update last week, someone whose opinion I implicitly trust reviewed the book draft and suggested that I break it into two parts, because it’s house cats.
I agree. The rest of the cat family already has its overarching narrative, so to speak–“wild cats!” This ties a book of 50 short essays together very nicely.
But we know Fluffy better, and there are many layers to our acquaintance. In fact, there are so many different kinds of information available on moggies, fancy-cats, and strays/feral cats that 25 facts per book are much easier for readers to digest.
So I’ve set the milestone.
On that day–January 10th–check back with this blog for a special offer from Amazon on the books.
And as always, thank you for your interest!
Featured image: An explosion early on the morning of December 5, 2018, image by CENAPRED.
. . . Because the Spanish seismologists spend around three months each year on Deception Island (generally between Late November and late February), which also corresponds to the major period of human activity on the island, they also provide volcanic warnings to the island’s visitors including masters of vessels intending to arrive at the island and pilots of aircraft flying near the island. The warnings are colour-coded and come through bulletins from either Gabriel de Castilla Station (Spain) or from a spokesperson from one of the other national Antarctic programmes such as the Argentine Antarctic Institute, British Antarctic Survey or National Science Foundation.
— from Robert Brears’s interesting overview of the island’s volcanic history.
Per the volcano’s Global Volcanism Program page, observers raised the alert level to yellow for a few days in 2015 because of inscreased seismicity and deformation.
Also, Argentina has a Deception Island Observatory page (Spanish). Here is more observatory information in English.
And here, via Google Translate, is some information from Spain’s University of Cadiz on an earlier volcanic crisis at Deception Island around the turn of the century.
See update at bottom of post, or click the Popocatepetl link at the top of this page.
This is a 2011 view of nearby Popocatepetl volcano from downtown Puebla.
Today, people in this Mexican city are watching Popocatepetl with concern (you can follow updates on its activity through the link in the top menu–it has been a bit more restless lately).
Reportedly (Spanish), Puebla State’s Civil Protection director has made a public statement. Per Google Translate of this linked news story:
The incandescent fragments, explained the head of Civil Protection, are pieces of the dome . . .
Even though spectacular fumaroles have been seen in recent days, the largest of which is 2,400 meters above the crater, there is nothing to worry about; “Another point that is constantly monitored is the seismicity and that is totally low, we have very few reports of seismicity, which gives us peace of mind,” said Herrera Cabrera, adding that the volcanic warning light continues in Yellow Phase 2.
This is an image from last night’s explosion as seen from one of CENAPRED’s webcams:
This is a night-time image, but the camera is a very good one and the Moon is quite bright. That’s chunks of incandescent material blown out of the crater, not flowing lava. Popo’s lava is very sticky and forms a dome in its crater that eventually pressurizes and blows up–apparently this is the demise of Dome #78. (CENAPRED)
Again, just click on the link at the top of the page for links to more information about Popocatepetl and updates from me.
Update, September 25, 2018: Popo got into a dramatic mood yesterday; updates are at the Popocatepetl link at the top of this page. Meanwhile, here is an eruption the volcanologists monitoring this volcano captured–it’s just one of several yesterday:
Featured image: Luisalvaz, via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0
As we saw last time, when this volcano broke its five-decade silence with a VEI-2 bang in 1994, local people responded with traditional ceremonies; artists were drawn to the event; government officials took emergency measures; and scientists expanded their monitoring networks.
For almost a quarter of a century now, Don Goyo has been on center stage. People have adjusted to it and are moving on with their lives, as people always do after a natural disaster.
The volcanologists did reassure everybody that there is no sign of any increased or upcoming increase in activity; the volcano is still at a “Yellow, Phase 2” alert level.
Also, to counter popular rumors, they stated in no uncertain terms that Don Goyo is not connected to Guatemala’s Fuego, which recently had a deadly eruption, or to Kilauea, out in Hawaii, with its spectacular lava flows. Each of these three volcanoes has its own plumbing system and exists for different geological reasons.
The dotted line shows the area that would get at least 4 inches (10 cm) of ash if Don Goyo had another eruption as powerful as one about 14,000 years ago.
Red: In a big eruption, this unfortunate area could get lots of volcanic ash (up to yards/meters in depth) as well as a bombardment of rocks up to a foot (30 cm) in size.
Orange: Just a little ash would fall here in a small eruption, but up to 3 feet (1 meter) or more in a big one.
Seismic sensors, deformation monitoring, and gas/hydrothermal studies can pick up signs of such approaching events, especially the big ones. Continue reading →
Indonesia is an exciting place for geoscientists, but the rest of us get a little confused by all the headlines about erupting volcanoes there: Tambora, Bromo, Sinabung, Agung, Merapi . . .
Let’s focus on that last one, because it has recently begun to stir again.
Perhaps you’ve seen this video from May 11, 2018:
Indonesian volcanologists later determined that was a steam-driven (“phreatic”) explosion that happened when magma came in contact with ground water circulating in the volcano’s walls.
Wonder why ordinary people would be relaxing and eating in such a desolate place?
Here is a bubble that formed inside of sea salt in a solution that a student at Finland’s Tampere University of Technology was making.
Gas pockets also form naturally in halite (rock salt). These are even more awesome because this air is the atmosphere as it was back in the day, not what we have today. Such air bubbles allow Earth scientists to directly study conditions in the distant past.
This recently made the news when researchers analyzed 800-million-year-old air found in Australian halite and found more oxygen than they expected. The discovery could change our understanding of how early animals evolved.
Inclusions have been found in volcanic rocks, too.
Molten rock degasses–this is why volcanologists measure CO2, sulfur, and other gases on a sleeping volcano. As magma rises toward the surface, those gas levels increase. It’s a way to see inside the volcano before it erupts.
Some gas remains in lava after it has erupted. There isn’t much and it’s not as easy to measure as a gas bubble, since what was once molten rock is now frozen. This is why melt inclusions are solid and glassy. (Oppenheimer)
Nevertheless, there is sometimes enough gas left for scientists to get an idea of how much climate-changing gases an ancient eruption released. (Self and Rampino)
For instance, one reason the Deccan Traps flood basalt in India is sometimes associated with the dinosaur-killing K-Pg mass extinction (in addition to the asteroid impact) is because its eruption may have released at least 200 times as much sulfur as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo (Oppenheimer), whose sulfur cloud cooled the world 1 degree Fahrenheit between 1991 and 1993.
Melt inclusions also convey a lot of information about the physical conditions at the source of the magma they formed in, many miles below our feet.
And then there are Hadean zircons. These small crystals found in igneous rock contain information that is changing how we picture the very early Earth.
Mineral inclusions in antarctic zircons also provide clues about what was going on back in the Hadean.
Perhaps the biggest inclusion-related surprise for geoscientists is the discovery of tistarite–a very rare titanium-based mineral–in melt inclusions found in rock that was erupted during the Cretaceous in what is now northern Israel.
How rare is it? Tistarite formed along with the Solar System and only one grain of it has been found in a meteorite. No one suspected there was any on Earth.
Now it looks like geologists may have to rewrite their textbooks on the deep Earth’s geochemistry!
Self, S., and Rampino, M. 2012. Flood basalts, mantle plumes and mass extinctions. The Geological Society. https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/flood_basalts_1 Last accessed March 23, 2018.
Just saw in the online news that there is concern about increased seismicity at La Palma volcano in the Canary Islands.
According to experts who reportedly met Friday, magma did move inside the volcano, but it was a relatively small amount and very deep–almost 20 miles below the surface.
Of course they are monitoring this closely, but no warnings have been issued yet.
Vog is volcanic smog, and thanks to Kilauea’s longstanding eruption, there’s a lot of it in Hawaii right now. But this video from the University of Hawaii also shows somebody climbing a snow-covered volcano, and someone else snowboarding. In Hawaii. Cool!
Featured image: Vent at Kilauea’s Halemaumau crater, by Scot Nelson (Flickr). CC BY 2.0.
Today, volcanic eruptions are spectator sports…whee!
The volume of lava poured out by Bardarbunga volcano’s ongoing eruption just surpassed that of all other effusive eruptions in Iceland since the eruption of Laki Volcano in 1783-1784. Bardarbunga is tiny in comparison to Laki, though.
Time is a bit short this week, so today I am just sharing some USGS videos about volcanic hazards and Yellowstone volcano. (Be sure to check out the USGS website listing alert status of all US volcanoes.)
What’s that? Yellowstone?
Yes! Here is a three-part series of informative videos about the supervolcano by Jacob Lowenstern, scientist in charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
