Posted on 01/09/2008 6:54:40 PM PST by NormsRevenge
QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano is poised for a major eruption, a volcanologist said Wednesday. Authorities last week evacuated 10 villages from its western slopes as a precaution.
Patricia Mothes, a U.S. expert on volcanoes, said the 16,575-foot volcano, located 80 miles southeast of Quito, "is preparing to generate, in days or weeks, a great eruption."
She said that could mean pyroclastic flows — blasts of volcanic material "that descend at high speeds and burn everything in their way."
Tungurahua, which has been active since 1999, has been freeing a high level of energy since Dec. 22, Mothes told The Associated Press by telephone.
"We have indications that there may be important volumes of magma which would be liberated in an eruption," she said.
Juan Salazar, the mayor of Penipe, one of 10 villages evacuated last week from the western slopes of Tungurahua, said 3,000 acres of crops and pasture have been damaged by ash from the volcano.
There have been no lava flows since the volcano began spitting out ash in December, he said.
Villagers return by day to tend to their crops and farm animals but stay in temporary shelters outside the danger zone at night.
Salazar said the government has decided to provide new houses for 286 families that cannot return to their homes at night. He said the families would receive the keys to the houses on Feb. 9 along with small plots for growing crops.
Tungurahua erupted in July and August of 2006, causing at least four deaths. The eruptions forced the evacuation of thousands of villagers and damaged thousands of acres of crops buried under tons of ashes and lava flows.
In this photo released by Ecuador's Geophysics Institute, the Tungurahua volcano, located about 135 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Quito, erupts in the early hours of Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2007. The Tungurahua is poised for a major eruption in days or weeks, U.S. volcanologist Patricia Mothes said. (AP Photo/Ecuador's Geophysics Institute)
What will this do to global warming?
Good, let ‘em Nationalize the out put!
Reverend Algore that is. Too rebuke the volcano and stop more Gorbull Warming.
Bush’s fault.
Ping/bump
Sorry, but the real Ring of Fire is what happens to you after the Carne Adobada plate at Los Dos Molinos. Smokin’
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/south_america/ecuador/tungurahua.html
Tungurahua, Ecuador
Location: 1.467 S, 78.44 W
Elevation: 16,475 ft. (5023 m)
Tungurahua is an active stratovolcano also known as the “The Black Giant.” It has a 600 ft. (183 m) wide crater. Most of the volcano is covered by snow. Its causes many tremors in the nearby city of Banos. Tungurahua’s lava is mostly composed of basalts. Tungurahua has had at least seventeen eruptions in historical times, its most recent occurring in 1944 when it erupted explosively from its central crater. Located about 25 miles (~40 km) west of Tungurahua is the largest volcano in Equador, Chimborazo and to the north about 50 miles(~80 km ) is Cotopaxi volcano.
It's not the ash, it's sulphur dioxide (if it's a powerful eruption and is injected into the stratosphere). It becomes sulfuric acid aerosol that reflect sunlight and causes cooling.
It has to be a pretty big eruption, or have an unusual amount of SO2, to affect climate.
Mount Saint Helens had no climate effect whatsoever. Pinatubo lowered global temperatures by about 1 degree fahrenheit for two years.
Let me be the first to say:
“Bush’s (or more likely, Satan’s) Fault!”
Obviously they're a lot brighter than the Louisiana officials.
Thanks for the correction. Yeah, I remember one in Mexico or Central America in the 1980’s was blamed for some colder than normal winters.
That was El Chichon - it really generated huge amounts of SO2, even though the eruption wasn’t all that much bigger than St. Helens and a lot smaller than Pinatubo. It’s sort of a weird volcano with odd lava.
Also volcanoes erupting near the equator cause more global cooling than volcanoes further away, I can’t remember why.
Good catch.
“Volcanoes cause cooler weather because of the ash they put into the air that circulates around the world”.
The global warmists claim the earth has heated up by one degree in the last 100 years. Well, what do you think the earth temp was before about 100 years ago?
“On Aug. 27, 1883, Krakatoa, a volcanic island between Java and Sumatra, blew apart in perhaps the largest eruption in recorded history. The blast was heard thousands of miles away. So much gas and particulate matter were spewed into the stratosphere that the global temperature was cooled by an average of a degree well into the 20th century”.
Is anyone doing the math?
Actually they’ve had huge problems getting people around Tungurahua to evacuate - it’s been erupting off and on for several years now, and they had several false alarms where people were evacuated and not much happened ( but a couple times in 2006 where people died.)
It’s a problem evacuating people everywhere. In a lot of these third world countries you have poor peasants living in rich soil around volcanoes and they (often correctly) assume what little they have will be looted if they evacuate, in some cases by the very police and army that are supposed to stop it.
Just checked the worldwide ash advisories and as of a couple hours ago seismic activity seems to be increeasing:
VOLCANIC ASH ADVISORIES FROM WASHINGTON VAAC - LAST 7 DAYS
DARWIN VAAC 01:21 UTC, 10/01/2008
Received FVXX21 at 00:14 UTC, 10/01/08 from KNES
VA ADVISORY
DTG: 20080110/0011Z VAAC: WASHINGTON
VOLCANO: TUNGURAHUA 1502-08
PSN: S0128 W07826 AREA: ECUADOR
SUMMIT ELEV: 16480 FT [5023 M]
ADVISORY NR: 2008/039
INFO SOURCE: GOES-12. SEISMIC DETECTION.
GEOPHYSICAL INST.
ERUPTION DETAILS: ONGOING EMISSIONS
OBS VA DTG: 09/2345Z
OBS VA CLD: ASH NOT IDENTIFIABLE FROM SATELLITE
DATA. WINDS SFC/FL200 MOVING FROM N 0-5 KNOTS.
FCST VA CLD +6HR: 10/0600Z
FCST VA CLD +12HR: 10/1200Z
FCST VA CLD +18HR: 10/1800Z
RMK: NO ASH DETECTED IN IMAGERY DUE TO CLOUDS.
SEISMIC ACTIVITY IS HIGH AND CONTINUES UPWARD
TREND. MODERATE TO HIGH ASH CONTENT S/SW OF
SUMMIT REPORTED BY GEOPHYS INST. ...SALEMI
NXT ADVISORY: WILL BE ISSUED BY 20080110/0615Z
Thanks.
looks like it could pop anytime..
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