Spring Break Open Thread

Big volcano news while I'm away in Death Valley? Post it here - or just discuss all the volcanic bits that you run across ...


Moonrise over Ubehebe Crater, California.

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Cleaning up some news ... busy week leading up to a field trip I am helping co-lead to Death Valley next week. Ubehebe Crater in Death Valley, California First off, I want to say how amazed I am at the great discussion that went on all weekend about the signs of potential activity in Iceland. It…
Mineral King valley in California. Well, we are in the peak of the summer, so Eruptions will be running a bit of summer schedule while I'm off away from the interweb tubes. First off, from July 11-20, I'll be off in the mountains, doing some much-needed fieldwork with my (first) undergraduate…
You'll have to excuse the curtness of this post. An bad hop in softball will do that to you. Here's some news: Mt. Dempo in Indonesia Xinhua offers some nice pictures of the current activity going on at the summit crater at Nyiragongo in the Congo. Note the partially-crusted-over lava lake in the…
By Dr. Rosalba Bonaccorsi Environmental Scientist at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute, and Gail Jacobs Rosalba, what first sparked your interest in science? I've always had big dreams -- even as a young girl. As soon as I started to walk, I took an…

Nice pic!

@2
Jon,
Since this thread is newer and cleaner,maybe you should move your updates to this thread.

@EKoh, The other blog post is too long for me to update it. I just wanted to point out that there is a new swarm of earthquakes happening in Eyjafjallajökull at the moment. This activity started earlier tonight and appears to be growing fast in number of earthquakes.

I'm an amateur at geology/volcanolgy. In Regards to eyjafjallajokull there seems to be something going on at 1.1km. If I was a little more organized I would plot these earthqukes out and see if it makes any sense. Help me out experts.

By mark burns (not verified) on 15 Mar 2010 #permalink

Eyjafjallajokull is really rocking tonight. 1 EQ every minute, most of them shallow.

The area in which the quakes happen is quite large... Eyjafjallajökull is known to occasionally produce more explosive eruptions from it's 2,5 km summit caldera, but the current activity is located more to the east. Still, with a seismic footprint this big, if an eruption is going to happen (of any type), it might get big o_ô . I wonder if there's an increasy in the amount of SO2 emitted.

Definitely very interesting ^_^ !

By Gijs de Reijke (not verified) on 16 Mar 2010 #permalink

@Gijs. Historically, Eyjafjall has produced VEI 2 eruptions we are informed, and consequently shouldn't it have "VEI 2-sized plumbing"? Wouldn't you as an expert agree that the time factor, we are still waiting for the magma to force it's way through, speaks AGAINST anything larger? If it was a substantially bigger body of magma, say enough to result in a VEI 4, should it not a) have resulted in greater EQ activity (magnitude, numbers and frequency) and larger GPS displacement, and b) forced its way to the surface much sooner? Could the large number of low-intensity EQs be explained by tubing more similar in appearance to a linden tree with hundreds of narrow channels and fissures rather than the popular image of a large tube with a gigantic subterranean magma chamber a few kms down?

Erik, would you please start a new Eyjaf activity discussion thread? Please post a link to the old one, whose posts now exceed 530 and is presenting problems for those with slow internet speeds, when you do. Thanks, sir!

There is new earthquake swarm starting in Eyjafjallajökull at this moment. The earthquake swarms come at 24 hour intervals at the moment it seems. This is regular swarms, so the lowdown for 24 hours does not tell much of a story it seems.

Ey-kull is hopping again.
I agree with Jon ( post #12) that each seismic crisis appears after a 24 break. My "split-spread-pressurize" hypothesis still appears valid, but the epicenter field seems to be restricting down to the eastern edge of the caldera - the magma isn't exploring every nook and cranny under the volcano.

I wonder if tidal strain has any input into the system? It's so close to the coast that a pseudo-hinge could be in effect. (A hinge has been used to describe the Balcones Fault on the Texas Coast) - when sea levels rise is the fault reactivates as millions of tons of seawater moves inland. Here it could be a micro-hinge (my term) pressure on the coast closes the conduits. Only we're not talking a major transgression (Texas style), but rather just a daily squeeze. Anybody know where to find the tidal predictions for Southern Iceland?

@Kver. There is more to this then appears. I was reading some stuff in Icelandic about the 1821 - 1823 eruption and according to that text, it appears that the eruption took place a 2 km long fissure on top of Eyjafjallajökull.

After reading that I did check the reviewed earthquake data more up close on the picture, and look. The earthquakes align them selfs on a ~2km long strip on the top of Eyjafjallajökull. They might well be opening up the 1821 - 1823 fissure again. So the question now remains. How long time is it going to take the magma to open up that old fissure (it might well be older then ~200 years).

At the moment, I have put the time scale down to 2 to 6 months. But the reality is that this might be a lot shorter waiting time if the fault is weak already.

Can I change the subjsct (briefly)? GVP Weekly report has updates from Stromboli and Yasur this week, two regular performers that don't usually get mentioned there

I am trying to put together a weekly magazine for Sr.Citizens in the Los Angeles area. I am retired now, and donât have the resources to bring on a writer for any extended period of time, but was hoping someone could direct me to a good place to find a temporary and reliable labor source? Any help you can provide is really appreciated...

By smooftord (not verified) on 19 Mar 2010 #permalink

Everyone what a good site this is, i love home life, Children, Pets, Dolls house miniatures, Fashion, Crafts of all kinds ,Cookery, and gardening too, so this is perfect for me.
Oh and chatting of course. Looking forward to meeting you all.

Look forward to 'meeting' you all, Carol from Personal Loans!