Posted on 01/09/2007 8:27:27 PM PST by blam
Photo in the News: Volcano Eruption in Caribbean Is "Warning"
January 9, 2007—Smoke signals don't get much more ominous. A volcano on the island of Montserrat discharged a five-mile-high (eight-kilometer-high) cloud of superheated ash and gas yesterday—possibly portending another, disastrous eruption.
"I think it was a warning call … of what it can do," Vicky Hards, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, told the Associated Press.
Residents have good reason to fear the Soufriere Hills volcano, given that in 1997 it wiped out the tiny Caribbean island's evacuated capital, Plymouth, killing 19 people and prompting an exodus of about half the island's population of approximately 10,000.
This week the crater's lava dome continues to grow—a process that began on December 24. Because yesterday's eruption failed to cause the lava shell to collapse, experts are worried that the mounting pressure could be released in a powerful blast.
Such an eruption would likely send hot ash and gas flying down the northwestern flanks of the mountain. As a result, the U.K. territory's government yesterday ordered dozens of families in the area to evacuate.
Bush's fault!
3-15-2006 Eruption
Isn't this island regarded as the potential source of a rather large, east coast tsunami? Some sort of shelf of land, poised to slough off into the Atlantic?
Yeah, I felt that way after eating in Bickford's.
That's the Azores.
There was a Mega Disasters program on THC concerning the island of La Palma in the Canaries. I don't know if Montserrat has the same charactaristics.
Global Warming!
Global Farting!
This used to be such a beautiful little island - very Irish in flavor of all things (it was originally settled by the Irish). Very green and tropical. We stayed there several times at a tiny little hotel on the NW coast -- the Vue Pointe -- with a great beach and very nice staff.
I'm sorry they're having more trouble with the Soufriere . . . shades of Mt. Pelee and St. Pierre . . .
If you haven't seen it yet, go to Google maps and look up Montserrat. They don't have really high resolution images of the island, but the orange glow of the lava lake in the caldera is unmistakable...it was apparently caught mid-eruption.
That jokes getting a little old.
BOOMmarking ;)
There is a new one now that disputes all those conclusions about the mega-tsunami aspect of La Plama.
" I don't know if Montserrat has the same charactaristics."
No. I'm not aware of any tsunami concerns from Monserrat.
No, no. Haven't you heard? It's now Pelosi's fault.
Wow!! Bickford's still exists?
FYI....IIRC we were discussing this a while back..looks like it's about to blow again
All of the carribean volcanoes have some danger of local damaging tsunamis from flank collapses, and it's happened before, but none pose a tsunami threat to the US mainland.
Montserrat Volcano Observatory website:
http://www.mvo.ms/
Proof of Global Warming!! We're all gonna die.
The only way we can stop it is to enact worldwide socialism now. Let's start by having a worldwide income tax for the UN.
Proposed United Nations Income Tax
http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/un_monitor/in_our_opinion/global_taxes.htm
Yeah no joke.
So that's where Karl Rove went!
Update time = Wed Jan 10 5:00:01 UTC 2007
Here is a list of the earthquakes located by the USGS and contributing networks in the Map Centered at 20°N, 65°W area. Most recent events are at the top. (Some early events may be obscured by later ones on the map.)
Click on the underlined portion of an earthquake record in the list below for more information.
You win!
Mine was at Applebees, and after the blast, it put me in the hospital for 3 months - food poisoning! ............... FRegards
Earthquake Ping List. Please send a Freepmail if you want to be added to or removed from this list.
Actually volcanoes relase more particlulates that tend to shade the earth resulting in cooling.
Which of course will be paid attention to by Al Gore when 2040 arrives and things are still pretty much the same. "Well lucky for us that volcano let loose in '07 or it would be 120 degrees today."
Way old. IMO
What does that have to do with this thread?
Do NOT tell me this; I do NOT want to know about this; I am going to St. John next month.
OMG.
Great post.
Thanks for the ping.
Did the article say if there was any quakes at the volcano prior.
I read it fast and so I am not clear if it just poofed or has it been under watch due to quake activity?
BTW The Pups have been pacing, jumpy and panting the last 48hrs. Even the Nurse who gives me a break said they were not acting in sync as normal one wants out then the others refuse then one in the other out, way out of charactor. The baby/pup just jumped of his doggie bed like something bit him and he went back and sniffed around his bed here in our room.
Let's hope it is just post New Year yahoo.
Happy New Year to you BTW.
Shake, rattle and roll...
Caribbean "Ring of Fire"
Well then let's hope it blow over by then so your trip won't be interupted.
Blow over? Is that the kind of thing you say about stuff like this? :-)
Oh, great; there seems to be a big red BLOB over my hotel!
Please don't worry about anything except having a good time. St. John's Island is at least 100 km away from the island of Montserrat. The volcano is in the Southern part of Montserrat.
The earthquakes reported by the USGS will not have any adverse affect upon your vacation. They're too far away, too small magnitude, etc. Relax, enjoy! :-)
Folks still residing at the base of the volcano have been informed that they are at risk and that they should pack up and leave immediately.
This reminds me of the older gentleman who had lived on Mt. St. Helens for decades. He was refusing to leave in 1980 despite noticable pre-eruption seismic activity.
Vulcanologists accurately predicted that a big eruption was imminent. Local authorities pleaded with the man telling him that there would be no one available to rescue him. He stayed.
As I recall, the area where he lived was on the side of Mt. St. Helen's which blew out first.
Taipei Times
Montserrat volcano rumbles, governor orders evacuations
AP, OLVESTON, MONTSERRAT
Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007, Page 7
The Soufriere Hills Volcano that destroyed this Caribbean island's capital in 1997 shot a cloud of ash more than 8km into the sky, prompting evacuation orders for some homes.
With more volcanic activity likely, Montserrat's British governor ordered the evacuations and said police would enforce the decision.
Monday's blast, accompanied by increased seismic rumbling, released gases and steam from inside a lava dome that has grown rapidly over the last week, said Vicky Hards, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.
"I think it was a warning call ... of what it can do," Hards said.
The explosion around sunrise also sent a flow of volcanic material cascading 3km down the volcano's northwest flank, but did not threaten any of the British island's 5,000 inhabitants, Hards said. Sirens alerted people to listen to the radio for updates.
The government has advised about 50 households on the northwestern side of the volcano's base that their homes would be at risk from blistering gas and debris if the dome collapses. Officials conducted door-to-door briefings in the low-lying Belham Valley over the weekend.
Governor Deborah Barnes Jones signed an evacuation order making it illegal for people to remain in that area as of Monday evening.
"People in the affected area know who they are and should work urgently on packing up and arranging for alternative accommodations," she said in a radio address.
"It will be an offense to be in the unsafe zone, and the police will prosecute offenders," Barnes Jones added.
Wind blowing from the east pushed the dark gray ash over the "exclusion zone," a barren, uninhabited area extending from the 900m high volcano across the southwest to the coast. Open water lies west of the island.
A hotel located near the exclusion zone has already emptied, and only "a handful" of residents were believed to still be living in the threatened area, said Mark Twigg, head of the governor's office.
"This causes genuine hardship for people who have to leave, and this is taken lightly by nobody," he said.
The volcano's latest burst of activity began on Dec. 24. Glowing streaks of red from the pyroclastic flows have created nighttime spectacles visible across much of the island. The volcano's rising dome remained in place after Monday's explosion, raising fears of a bigger event soon.
"The flows also could have opened a line to go farther down the valley," Twigg said.
The Soufriere Hills Volcano became active in 1995, and more than half the territory's 12,000 inhabitants moved away. An eruption in 1997 buried much of the south, including the capital of Plymouth, and killed 19 people.
Since then, the mountainous, teardrop-shaped island has gone on a building binge. A new city center is planned for Little Bay, the future capital, in northwest Montserrat. The island already has a new airport to replace the one that was engulfed by lava.
Montserrat volcano rumbles, governor orders evacuations
http://library.lanl.gov/tsunami/221/empel.pdf
"That jokes getting a little old."
I agree !!! I am so sick of "Bush's fault" It is so d***
sophomoric !! It was cute the first few times it was used, but that was over a year ago. Now it is a waste, boring, and plain stupid !
With the Puerto Rico trench (almost 100 miles off the northern coast of Puerto Rico) being about 33,000 feet deep, any volcano or earthquake could slide off the Greater Antilles islands (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dom. Rep. and others) down a watery grave. I have family in Puerto Rico, so this is of special concern to me.
Please add me to the earthquake ping list. Thanks.
No, that risk is from one of the islands in the Canaries off the NE coast of Africa.
You're thinking of the Canary Islands......
You're right, it was La Palma, in the Canary Islands, that was supposed at one point to pose a threat of tsunami upon the east coast of the United States.
It became worthless from ash after the first eruption. Looks like it's fixin' to become worthless a second time if it blows hard again.
Leni
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