General Volcanic Activity Thread!

[Argyllcraig]

Quite a good site for getting an idea about Aluetian and kamchatka volcanoes and which ones are currently being watched.

These are pretty remote and in some cases it needs pilot reports from airliners to confirm whether eruptions have taken place.

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/

[The PIT]

Good video of Merapi

Interesting news about Grimsvotn. At the moment the Volcano isn't erupting but worth watching out for in the next few days.

[Argyllcraig]

Quite a lot of seismic activity clustering around Grimsvotn over the last 24-36 hours.

Reports suggest that melt water is now swelling at least one of the main rivers out of the glacier. Steam is also increasing around the glacier which may suggest increased activity from within.

Icelandic met service is closely monitoring the situation as the situation appears to have similar characteristics to 2004's eruption and flood.

Mean while seismic actvity around the myrdalsjokull glacier has increased in the last 48 hours with several quakes measuring 0.3 - 2.2

certainly worth watching over next couple of days

[Schnee]

I'm no expert but the blue and green lines on the Grimsfjall chart near Grimsvotn are stil climbing. The outburst might be causing some of that but the same thing is also seen before an eruption.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/allarsort.html

Keep an eye on Godabunga as it'll do something similar when Katla gets closer to erupting. I believe the spikes are either earthquakes or wind noise.

[Argyllcraig]

Thats 10 quakes under myrdalsjokull so far in last 36 hours......

make that 11

Edited November 2, 2010 by Argyllcraig

[blitzen]

Thats 10 quakes under myrdalsjokull so far in last 36 hours......

make that 11

Is that more than usual AC? Katla is under that glacier right?

[Argyllcraig]

Katla is under the glacier, however the tremors can be caused by several reasons including the movement from the glacier itself.

What is interesting is the clustering of the tremors, the variety in depth and strength.

it will be interesting to see if the clustering continues.

Of more concern is whats happening under grimsvotn. reports say the river levels have continued to rise today and the govt has put in place the first level of contingency incase it is the start of an eruption.

[The PIT]

Same place where another group of quakes occurred in July.

[Schnee]

Incidentally, This is what happened a few weeks before the Eyjafjallajokull eruption:

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/iceland-something-happening-under-eyjafjallajokull/

Current one for Myrdalsjokull:

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

The harmonic tremor at Grimsvotn has been rising for the last few hours:

http://i55.tinypic.com/4sh6r5.jpg

Apparently there's an earthquake swarm only a few hours before an eruption. Keep an eye on this for lots of red dots appearing:

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/

Edited November 2, 2010 by Stelmer

[blitzen]

Anyone heard of this?

http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov/Seismic_Data/heli2.shtml Talk on the web of some sort of tremor being felt coast to coast in USA today and all the way up to Alaska. Apparently unusual activity in Virginia and Maine? It may be a load of tosh considering the website. Just wondered, so don't shoot the messenger! If you Google: Yellowstone high alert for Appalachian event.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Blitzen

[Argyllcraig]

U.S. Geological survey haven't reported anything today... certainly nothing more than the usual tremors in yellowstone.

As for a coast to coast event.... it sounds a little 2012 enthusiasts

[coldfingers]

Interesting tremor chart for Grimsvotn, seems to be rising steadily. Worth watching. http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/grf.gif

The tremor chart for Godabunga (Katla or Myrdalsjokul) is also showing some interesting activity. http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/god.gif

Looks like interesting watching, for the next few days at least, in Iceland.

Edited November 2, 2010 by coldfingers

[blitzen]

May as well post this. Can these sorts of graphs be tampered with? Seems strange.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReIzME18ilc

Edited November 3, 2010 by Blitzen

[Schnee]

Hmm.....interesting but it could be 2012 doomsday talk.

However, some of them tremors look harmonic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Four-types-seismograms.gif

[coldfingers]

Interesting tremor chart for Grimsvotn, seems to be rising steadily. Worth watching. http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/grf.gif

Update today, tremors rising dramatically. Could an eruption be imminent or is it just the increased flow of water causing the rise?

file:///C:/Users/Frances/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-12.pngfile:///C:/Users/Frances/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-13.png

[Argyllcraig]

reports suggesting merapi has had a major eruption this morning. details seem short on the ground at the mo

[Argyllcraig]

Icelandic media reporting that the ice dam under grimsvotn may have burst over night and may be the cause of the spikes in activity at around 3 am

[blitzen]

I think this link may be the answer to that global seismic event yesterday. Apparently this is normal:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread626218/pg1

[coldfingers]

Further information on Merapi eruption. http://bigthink.com/blogs/eruptions/

Glacier flood from Grímsvötn has peaked, harmonic tremors continue

http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/

Latest Grimsvotn status report. http://en.vedur.is/m...-03_IES_IMO.pdf

A more easily read tremor chart for Grimsvotn. http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/vatnajokulsvoktun/grf_trem.gif

Edited November 3, 2010 by coldfingers

[The PIT]

To add to Indonesia woes Anak krakatua has woken up as well. Good video here

Merapi is also going bang fairly well. Not a great vid from the beeb though http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11688803

[snowray]

Any more about to blow?

Mmm, Makes me wonder now if Kenneth Mckenna's Time Wave Zero was related to the novalty value of seizmic activity!

[Coast]

Already seeing tenuous media links between the Qantas Airbus A380 incident and the Merapi volcano.....

WUKIRSARI, Indonesia — Indonesia ordered thousands more people to evacuate Thursday as the country's most active volcano erupted again, shooting gas and ash into the sky and triggering a new aircraft exclusion zone.Volcanologists said the "high intensity" eruption was the strongest yet from the 2,914-metre (9,616-foot) Mount Merapi, but there were no reports of new casualties after 36 people were killed last week.

"Today's eruption is bigger than yesterday's. Heat clouds and volcanic material were shot 10 kilometres (six miles) into the sky," said Kurniadi Rinekso, a government scientist in Yogyakarta, which lies south of the volcano. An avalanche of heat clouds that can kill anything in their path streamed nine kilometres down the slopes of the volcano, a sacred landmark in Javanese tradition whose name translates as "Mountain of Fire".

Evacuees staying at an emergency shelter in Wukirsari village in Sleman district, about 20 kilometres from the volcano's peak, said it spat heat clouds and debris for about three hours after dawn. Scientists however said it had erupted throughout the night but the scale of the blasts -- which reached almost as high as the altitude of cruising jetliners -- had only become visible after sunrise. Officials said the number of people at safety shelters rose to 90,000 from 75,000 on Wednesday, when the official exclusion zone was widened from 10 to 15 kilometres around the volcano, taking in many more villages.

"The emergency shelters are now overcrowded," emergency response field coordinator Widi Sutikno said. "We've started to move facilities and equipment from the previous shelters to the new locations," he added. In Magelang district military official Ida Bagus Surya said volcanic debris ripped 10 tents on Wednesday. Indonesia's transport ministry told pilots to stay at least 12 kilometres away from the rumbling volcano, spokesman Bambang Ervan told AFP.

The authorities kept in place a flight safety warning first issued on Tuesday, he said, and added the exclusion zone on a "recommendation from the volcanology office". Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia said it resumed flights to the nearby cities of Yogyakarta and Solo Thursday morning after calling off eight flights on Tuesday and Wednesday. SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, has cancelled four flights between Singapore and Solo since Tuesday, the company's staff said.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday visited people displaced by the volcano as the disaster-prone country struggles to cope with dual natural disasters following a tsunami off Sumatra on October 25. The three-metre wave smashed into villages on the remote Mentawai island chain following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast, killing 428 people and leaving 15,000 homeless. Another 74 people remain missing, feared dead. Bad weather and poor communications on the undeveloped islands - a legendary destination for foreign surfers - have hampered efforts to bring food, shelter and medicine to the affected areas.

"We have to use rubber boats to reach isolated villages. We even have to swim to bring the boat over coral reefs," Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) spokeswoman Fitriana Sidika said.

She said survivors were suffering from infections to untreated wounds, respiratory problems and malaria.

"They're living in unhygienic environment. We're coordinating with local government to relocate them to another place," she said from Bulakmonga hamlet on North Pagai island, where about 70 people were staying despite their houses having been flattened.

There was no news on the fate of three New Zealand yachtsmen who have not been heard from since the tsunami. They were believed to have been sailing towards the Mentawais on the night the three-metre wave struck. The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines from the Indian to the Pacific oceans.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iY_fAbCzFmisY9zS4aDotf9J2wNQ?docId=CNG.b4492f600922f04f062f99cc1bbdbf2d.8c1

Aviation: Merapi eruption: don't mention the ash cloud

The skies over Indonesia are a major thoroughfare for many flights into, out of and across South East Asia. And, within a few hundred kilometres of Melapi, there are airports of strategic importance to many airlines. For example Singapore's Changhi airport (SIN) is home not only to Singapore Airlines but also a major hub for BA, Qantas, Air New Zealand and many others. Kuala Lumpur International (KUL) is home to Malaysian Airlines and AirAsia as well as many Middle Eastern carriers. And in Indonesia itself, Jakarta (CGK) and Bali's Denpasar (DPS) are both very busy international termini. Yogyakarta, a mostly domestic airport, issued a statement last week saying that there had been no impact from the eruptions (until that date) on its flights.

Airlines are monitoring the situation closely. Several have contingency plans to fly around Indonesia if necessary. But so far no one is talking about closing airports or cancelling or diverting flights.

Diverting flights in the region would cause untold problems: for example, if the cloud becomes so dense as to be dangerous as far north as Kuala Lumpur (and there is currently no suggestion that it will) then then that would mean massive overload for the nearest fully equipped international airport - Penang (PEN). Although some flights could be accommodated in Kuching (KCH) and Kota Kinabalu (BKI), those airports are on an island which some airlines could turn into a temporary hub but for most passengers would provide no ready access back to the mainland.

If Penang could not cope, the next nearest major airport is Bangkok (BKK). However, passengers landing in BKK would not find it easy to get to Malaysia (and therefore, also, to Singapore) because of the floods in the border areas which have made much of the area impassible by road and rail.

http://chiefofficers.net/888333888/cms/index.php/news/industries/aviation_shipping_freight/aviation/aviation_merapi_eruption_don_t_mention_the_ash_cloud

[Schnee]

Bad times in Indonesia. I hope Merapi calms down soon.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/24804

Iceland seems to have calmed down and seismic activity at Grimsvotn is decreasing. Only time will tell if the relief of weight from ontop of the volcano will trigger an eruption.

[coldfingers]

From a blog on Merapi I have lifted the following:-

I’m afraid your fears about Merapi may turn into reality. The mountain has roared for hours during the evening and night there, but just a minute ago Sezka told, it is now silent! I have a bad feeling about this…

This was posted at 7:44pm

It does sound like there could now be a blockage in the release of pressure from the volcano. If this is so then surely this could be a very bad sign with the eruption poentially becoming very explosive suddenly. Not good news at all I think.

Edited November 4, 2010 by coldfingers

[cyclonic happiness]

not good news at all, my auntie , for whom i'm house/cat sitting, is due back next thursday from Australia.

i've e-mailed her and given her a 'heads up' about it just in case they go mad like they did in europe, dunno whetherit would be advisable to tell her to get an early flight back or what????

Edited November 4, 2010 by cyclonic happiness