The flu has retreated and I'm getting back on track. Huzzah!
I'll get back to the blog by posting this week's new USGS / Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcano Report. Looks like some interesting stuff in it ...
- Looks like there were some small eruptions from Oldoinyo Lengai in Tanzania. The volcano is one of the few (only active?) carbonatite volcanoes in the world, erupting a lava composed primarily of calcium carbonate and sodium minerals with very little silica. It leads to the odd lava that erupt black (and cool ~ 500C) and cool to white, making it one of the strangest places on Earth.
- El Reventador in Ecuador appeared to produce some ash and a thermal anomaly was detected as well.
- Russia's Kliuchevskoi produced strombolian eruptions along with some phreatic (water-interaction) explosions related to a lava flow.
- Back in Ecuador, Sangay produced an ash-and-steam plume that reached upwards of 7.6 km / 25,000 feet.
- The level 3 (of 4) alert at Talang in Indonesia was reduced to Level 2 as seismicity has steadily declined since February 2009.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Busy today with scouting out some field location for the class I'll be teaching this fall. Here's this week's USGS/SI Weekly Volcano Report. The report is a little more eventful than last week's, so enjoy!
Kliuchevskoi Volcano in Kamchatka, taken summer of 2009 by Theresa Kayzar.
Highlights…
Sally Sennert from the Smithsonian Institution sent me an email to say that this week's USGS/Smithsonian Institute Weekly Volcanic Report will be delayed due to the inclement weather in the Washington DC area. She can't connect with the server, so the report can't be updated on the Smithsonian…
Somehow I missed a week of the SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Reports and almost missed another. Here is this week's update!
Highlights (not including Chaiten, Soufriere Hills or Cleveland) include:
The alert level at Galeras in Colombia was raised to Red after an explosion on September 30 and…
The SI/USGS GVP site is back up and running - and they've posted a new weekly volcano activity report. Enjoy!
Highlights include:
Nevado del Huila in Colombia has been showing signs that a new eruption might be starting. Seismicity has increased and minor ash fall has been reported, leading to an…
Those carbonatite volcanoes are very interesting. Every few years I go to the Kaiserstuhl volcano in the South of Germany. That volcano is part of the Upper Rhine graben (mentioned in the article Erik linked to) and although the rifting process still takes place there, the Kaiserstuhl has not been active for around 15 million years. It's still a nice place to go look for a big variety of volcanic rocks. The Limberg for example, is a small stratovolcano that's part of the Kaiserstuhl complex. It's the type locality of Limburgite. In the center of the Kaiserstuhl a big mass of carbonatite can be found. Carbonatic lapilli tuff can be found around places where there used to be craters.
Erik, glad you are feeling better.
@Gijs, what is Limburgite? Can you give a description of it? I may be a rock hound, but I sure don't know about a lot of rocks and minerals.
I think Oldoinyo is one of the weirdest places. I have seen films and pictures of it and it is something else. The lava, in the films I saw, just globbed out and also acted a bit like Stromboli, but on a very limited scale; like little burps of stuff and forming hornitos. Yeah, I know I am talking about what most of you know anyway, but it is cool to see what it does.
It's a rock that looks pretty much like basalt, but it contains no or almost no feldspar, and nepheline is also rarely found in it. Limburgite can be found in volcanic areas all over the world, although there are some differences in appearance depending on where it comes from.
My nicest specimen: http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2597/limburgietlimberggroeve.jpg
Glad you're feeling better!
Oldoinyo Lengai is one of my favorites. I flew over it in 2006 in a small plane and got a couple of good pictures. It's the only active carbonatite volcano left on the planet. The lava erupts much cooler than most volcanoes (500°C to 600°C), so it doesn't glow during the day. As it cools, it reacts with moisture in the air and turns white.
It's actually been experiencing a phase of explosive eruptions lately, which it does a couple of times a century, but they seem to be abating and the mountain is returning to its normal modus operandi. It'll be a good number of years before you can walk through the erupting crater again, though.
"Cool, there is certainly in fact some excellent points on right here a number of my readers will maybe discover this related, will deliver a hyperlink, several thanks."
I will like how to Create a website like consumers. might you giving me a hunt for a web site...Hopefully using a great niche? right Now I allow a website. this's when it comes to nothing (verify this out: spearfish.sbboard.com). that's The Problem. Nobody comes to fruition at it reason being this's regarding nothing, as well as nobody searches being nothing. I have been doing digging on build a outstanding blog, I may get a domain blah blah blah, I only have no thoughts. What would be a great website subject? Here's how can I pick a?
Thanks for the greet page, I love reading it! Non IM Riches Review