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(12-29) 10:57 PST Anchorage, Alaska (AP) -- A remote Alaska volcano has spewed an ash cloud 15,000 feet into the air. The Alaska Volcano Observatory says satellite images show the ash cloud drifting Thursday from Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/29/national/a105700S84.DTL#ixzz1hzDgWa5D

‘Fears of eruption spreading in N.K.’ 2011-12-07 21:12 North Korea’s adoption of a new rule on natural disasters last month indicates that experts’ warnings of volcanic eruptions of Mount Baekdu have spread widely throughout the country, the South Korean government said Wednesday. Pyongyang’s new law stipulates principles for observing and forecasting natural disasters, particularly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, in addition to how to minimize damage and undertake rescue activities, the Korean Central News Agency reported last month, without giving further details. Experts outside the secretive communist country have warned since last year that North Korea’s Mount Baekdu, which borders China,...

Check Out This Volcano Erupting Underwater Near Spain's Canary Islands Nick Jardine Nov. 8, 2011, 9:00 PM Image: Presidencia del Gobierno de Canarias via Flickr This weekend the Spanish government ordered residents on El Hierro Island in the Canary Islands to abandon their homes. The reason? A big volcano, just 70 meters from the surface of the water. Increased volcanic and seismic activity has forced residents out. Since July the volcano has spewed out gas, lava and sulfur into the ocean turning the ocean into a volcanic jacuzzi. Have a look at some more photos of the eruption. Click here...

Not sure on excerpt policy, but recall something about Guardian being bad, so no excerpt.

Mt Etna showing life.....a paroxysm response.

Volcano erupts again in southwestern Japan Mount Shinmoe in southwestern Japan erupted again on Wednesday morning, sending an ash cloud one kilometer into the air. This is the 1st time in over two months that smoke from the volcano has risen to over 1,000 meters. On April 18th the ash cloud rose to 2,000 meters. A weather observatory in Kagoshima Prefecture says smoke is moving toward the north of the mountain. It's advising residents to stay alert for falling rocks and ash. Mount Shinmoe is in the Kirishima range and straddles Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures. It began erupting in January....

Flames reach up to the heavens as lightning flashes criss-cross the sky. These extraordinary images show the full force of Mother Nature as a Chilean volcano erupts for the first time in 50 years. Ash has been thrown six miles up into the sky and the South American government has ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents. Winds fanned the ash toward neighbouring Argentina, darkening the sky in the ski resort city of San Carlos de Bariloche, in the centre of the country, and its airport has also been closed.

A volcano in southwestern Japan erupted Sunday after nearly two weeks of relative silence, sending ash and rocks up to four kilometres (two and a half miles) into the air, a local official says. It was not immediately clear if the eruption was a direct result of the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked northern areas Friday, unleashing a fierce tsunami and sparking fears that more than 10,000 may have been killed.

(TheWeatherSpace.com) -- One of the most active volcanos in Indonesia has erupted, blasting lava and hot gas down the slopes. Mount Karangetang is located on Siau, part of the Sulawesi island chain. It erupted in August, killing four people. This mountain is along the "Ring of Fire, the volcano chain surrounding the Pacific Basin. The eruption took place hours after the Japan 8.9-magnitude Earthquake.

Bárdarbunga dwarves the Eyjafjallajökull volcano,  which shut-down most of Europe's airspace in May 2010 Local experts have observed all the signs that another -much larger- Icelandic volcano is ready to blow, an event that could dwarf last year's series of eruptions that shut down air travel throughout Europe and changed weather patterns for months... Geologists detected the high risk of a new eruption after evaluating an increased swarm of earthquakes around the island's second largest volcano.  Pall Einarsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, says the area around Bárdarbunga is showing signs of increased activity, which provides...

Cinangka, Banten. The crater of Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait has expanded to a diameter of 25-26 meters, an Indonesian volcanologist says. The news comes as the frequency of eruptions of the volcano, once misidentified as Krakatoa, increases: On Friday there were 615 eruptions, on Saturday 623 eruptions, and on Sunday 668. Anton S Pambudi, a official from Banten province monitoring the eruptions, said the eruptions over the past two weeks had changed the shape of the crater. He said the team would continue to monitor the volcano. Banten Governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah said she believed that Anak Krakatau...

Indonesia's Merapi Volcano Erupts Published October 26, 2010 | Associated Press MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia – DEVELOPING: Volcano Merapi erupted Tuesday on Indonesia's Java island, according to a volcanologist. Earlier in the day, Indonesia's most volatile volcano groaned and rumbled, leading scientists to warn that pressure building beneath its lava dome could trigger one of the most powerful blasts in years. Thousands of residents living on its slopes were moved to temporary camps. An avalanche of rocks spilled down Mount Merapi's trembling slopes before dawn and gusts of hot ash shot 150 feet (50 meters) into the air. "The energy is...

Scientists warn of volcanic activity June 19, 2010 South Korea is bracing for possible volcanic activity at Mount Paektu on the North Korean-Chinese border, after detecting topographical signs that indicate the dormant mountain may awaken within years, the weather agency said yesterday. The last volcanic eruption at the 2,744-meter Mount Paektu was in 1903. It has since been considered inactive, but experts became concerned about a possible eruption after a magnitude-7.3 quake hit China’s northeastern Jilin Province in 2002. Since then, minor tremors close to the peak have become 10 times more frequent, experts say. Historic records indicate volcanic activity...

This is from Martin Rietze, volcano chaser extraordinaire, and is absolutely the best video and pictures I have seen of the eruption thus far (see the source link) -- it's really some of the best video footage of a volcanic eruption I've ever seen, period. If you've got speakers and you've got freedom, crank up the sound. It's the next best thing to being there.

At 8:32 a.m., a 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook open Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington, in what was one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the continental United States since the early 1900s. The devastation to the landscape, the forests and the wildlife, was incalculable, and the lives of 57 people were lost that day... Note: it only took Jimmy Carter three days to declare a disaster and visit the area of devastation. Bonus points for the semi-bouffant and extremely geeky Dan Rather appearance, sitting in for Walter Cronkite on the linked video...

May 16, 2010 Scientists forecast decades of ash clouds Many more of Iceland’s volcanoes seem to be stirring Iceland could be at the start of a surge in volcanic activity that may produce more eruptions Jonathan Leake and Chris Hastings THE Icelandic eruption that has caused misery for air travellers could be part of a surge in volcanic activity that will affect the whole of Europe for decades, scientists have warned. They have reconstructed a timeline of 205 eruptions in Iceland, spanning the past 1,100 years, and found that they occur in regular cycles — with the relatively quiet phase...

Get Ready for Decades of Icelandic Fireworks Get Ready for Decades of Icelandic Fireworks We're not quite back to the pre-plane era, but air travel over and around the north Atlantic might get a lot more disrupted in the coming years. Volcanologists say the fireworks exploding from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Iceland, which is responsible for the ash cloud that is grounding all commercial flights across northern Europe, may become a familiar sight. Increased rumblings under Iceland over the past decade suggest that the area is entering a more active phase, with more eruptions and the potential for some very...

Air traffic in Sweden and Europe is currently paralyzed due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. How could a local event in the furthest reaches of Northern Europe paralyze an entire continent? The reason is that the ash that fills the air following a volcanic eruption has a much denser content than a normal dust or ash cloud. The ash affects air-traffic safety in a number of ways. The ash comprises minerals, which are extremely small and hard rock particles. They are so hard that they can have a blasting effect on the aircraft’s cockpit windowpanes when an aircraft meets...

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – A volcanic eruption in Iceland, which has thrown up a 6-km (3.7 mile) high plume of ash and disrupted air traffic across northern Europe, has grown more intense, an expert said on Thursday. The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier continued to spew large amounts of ash and smoke into the air and showed no signs of abating after 40 hours of activity, said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland. "The seismographs are showing that since this morning the intensity of the eruption seems to be growing," he said. Hot fumes had melted up to...

SPECTACULAR ERUPTION: "A spectacular eruption is underway on the sun. SOHO is tracking a bright CME [coronal mass ejection] billowing upward from the vicinity of the sun's north pole: movie. Imagery from NASA's STEREO spacecraft show that this is a farside eruption, tilted away from Earth. Stay tuned for updates."

NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is tracking four active regions strung across the eastern hemisphere of the sun. Click on the image below to set the scene in motion--and keep an eye on number 4. The movie shows an eruption of unstable magnetic loops. The blast occured around 0130 UT on February 5th and it appears to have hurled some material in the general direction of Earth. Images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are not yet available to evaluate that possibility. Stay tuned for updates in a few hours.

December 18, 2009 Deep-sea volcano erupts 4,000ft under the Pacific Sophie Tedmanson in Sydney Scientists have filmed a volcanic eruption 4,000ft (1,220m) under the sea causing molten lava to flow across the deep ocean floor. The incredible footage, recorded by a submersible robot, shows the exact moment that a deep-sea volcano erupts from the ocean floor, sending an explosion of bright red lava bubbles and plumes of smoke-like sulphur through the water. The eruption of the West Mata volcano was filmed by US scientists in May during an underwater expedition south of Samoa. It is the deepest erupting volcano to...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, researchers report. The volcano ejected an estimated 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere, leaving a crater (now the world's largest volcanic lake) that is 100 kilometers long and 35 kilometers wide. Ash from the event has been found in India, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. The bright ash reflected sunlight off the landscape, and volcanic sulfur...

Not hard to figure out the inspiration for this one; frequently active and usually dangerous Mayon is set for another throat-clearing. Mayon erupting: Click for full-size: Mayon not erupting: Context image: Nice panorama (click for full-size):

A vast pool of molten rock in the continental crust that underlies southwestern Washington state could supply magma to three active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains -- Mount St. Helens , Mount Rainier and Mount Adams... Other scientists dismiss the existence... Rather than magma heated to 1,300 to 1,400 degrees, some think it could be water... Seth Moran , a volcano seismologist with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash... said the most telling evidence that the theory was wrong was the lack of any surface evidence, such as geothermal vents or hot springs, among the mountains that would...

The site was found by accident when the Suez Canal was being constructed in 1860. Workers quarrying Santorini's volcanic ash discovered the ruins, but serious excavations at the site didn't begin until 1967. An unfortunate collapse of the roof in 2005, which killed a British tourist, caused the site to be closed. It's scheduled to be reopened sometime after 2010. Greek bureaucracy has brought the repairs of the building to a halt, which has caused Santorini's tourist trade to suffer. Akrotiri is referred to by some as the "Minoan Pompeii" because of the similarities of the destruction by volcano and...

NASA's Earth Observatory inspires a couple of different views this week. First of all, there's this: Fogo, Cape Verde Islandswhich in part notes that there are villages inside the caldera which holds the volcanic peak of Fogo (actually Pico do Fogo, if you're wondering why it's labeled Pico in the picture). I wouldn't think that's exactly prime real estate! In the picture below you can see the villages as small white dots, and the road to them through the caldera. The other images are a few I found that the two villages from various perspectives. View from the 1995 eruption...

Today's subject was inspired by Gunung Karangetang, one of the numerous Indonesian volcanoes that just happens to be percolating a bit right now. In the course of discovering a photostream on Flickr that has a lot of volcano pictures, I also discovered a volcano I never heard of (Mbwelesu on Vanuatu) which has (or had) an active lava lake. Because lava lakes are so rare, and because it's something that I tend to remember, I'm a little peevishly surprised that this one got by me until today. Mr. hshdude doesn't tell us much about himself, so thanks for the pics,...

The reason that these colorful shrimp are important: is because they are living next to this: NW-Rota in Eruption Video (suggest turning down computer sound/speakers, volume level is set on high for this video) More info: Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 Expedition to NW Rota 2009

OK, most of us have heard that Alaska's Redoubt volcano has been erupting. The redoubtable crew behind Stromboli On-line, who have an enviable travel budget, took some remarkable pictures of some phases of the eruption. Two examples are below; try the link underneath the picture for more. Lahar on the Drift River Alaska (in case you can't figure it out, click the image links dated either "4 April 2009" or "4-7 April 2009". Next............................ La Cumbre volcano, which is basically the entire island of Fernandina in the Galapagos, had a class "curtain of fire" fissure eruption over the past few...

Redoubt Volcano has been erupting all day. I am in south Anchorage where ash is falling. 1/8th inch in the last 20 minutes. visibility less than 500 feet. Heavy smell of sulfur in the air. Hunkering down!

The Pacific nation of Tonga is waiting to see if it has a new island, after an underwater volcanic eruption forced a column of smoke and ash into the skies near the country's capital, Nuku'alofa. The eruption began on Monday after an earth tremor and is still sending clouds of smoke, steam and ash up to 100 metres into the air. Seismologists say the tremor was between the low-lying twin volcanic islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai, an area where around 36 undersea volcanoes are situated. Kelepi Mafi from Tonga's Ministry of Lands says a marine survey will begin...

A volcano near Tokyo erupted early Monday, with white smoke billowing and ash falling on the capital, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage following the minor eruption of the 2,568-metre (8,425 feet) Mount Asama, 150 kilometres (95 miles) northwest of Tokyo. The volcano last erupted in August last year. Live television footage showed smoke coming from the snow-covered mountain seven hours after the eruption, shortly before 2:00 am (1700 GMT Sunday).

In case you haven't heard, Mt. Redoubt in Alaska is in a state of imminent eruption (which means it could happen tomorrow or two months from now, or it might not erupt at all. Odds are it will, though.) So I thought I'd put up a picture from the last eruption, which produced some of the most impressive eruption cloud pictures I've ever seen. The linked page has some Quicktime videos of other eruptions; some of the pyroclastic flow videos are from Unzen and Montserrat.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Mount Redoubt continues to rumble and simmer, prompting geologists to say this Alaska volcano could erupt "within days." Scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory have been monitoring activity round-the-clock since the weekend. If Mount Redoubt does erupt, it would be the first time this occurred in nearly 20 years. And if won't likely be pretty. History shows that volcanoes in Alaska, including Redoubt, typically erupt explosively, shooting ash almost eight miles high.

NEW YORK (CBS) ― [Click to zoom.] Click to enlarge Yellowstone remains very geologically active — and its famous geysers and hot springs are a reminder that a pool of magma still exists five to 10 miles underground. (File) CBS 1 of 1 Close numSlides of totalImages Related Stories * Yellowstone Earthquakes May Be 'Precursory' Events (12/30/2008) * Author: Yellowstone Park A Ticking Bomb (7/28/2008) * Wolves Of Yellowstone Spur Love And Hate (7/18/2007) * Yellowstone Bulge May Cause Thermal Unrest (3/2/2006) Related Links * Lowenstern Interview With Blogger * Yellowstone Earthquake Map The recent "swarm" of small earthquake tremors...

Piton de la Fournaise, the Indian Ocean analog to Kilauea on the French island analog to Hawaii, started erupting on September 21. It's a cute little eruption (unlike the last one, one of Fournaise's largest), with lava fountains on the side of the crater pouring down the slope to form a pond. Picture below; the linked Web site above has to very nice videos. Turn down the volume of the top one, though.

Alaska's Okmok volcano started erupting on July 12 and is still going. The most recent update from yesterday indicated an ash plume could be at 35,000 feet. This has a definite current events aspect because a lot of planes flying to China (Olympics) will fly near this event. Aircraft jet engines do not do well on an ash-rich diet. Okmok has always been one of my favorite Aleutian volcanoes because it has an incredible 10-km wide circular caldera, almost like a "Lost World" setting. So after my two-week hiatus, I'll provide a picture of the current eruption, and a couple...

Quarter-size; click for full size.

An "unknown" (meaning it hasn't erupted historically) Chilean volcano erupted starting on Friday. The ash clouds are some of the most impressive I've seen since Pinatubo, and have caused the usual problems in nearby areas. Below is a selection. (Because I'm borrowing mainly from news sources, some of these may not work or may cease working in the near future.)

First of all, before I get to the picture, you may have heard that Halemaumau (the crater within the Kilauea caldera that in the 19th century hosted an active lava lake, which has occasionally reappeared since) had a fairly abrupt change. This change is now a steam-and-ash plume which (as I write this) is still going. Below is the quick-as-an-Easter-bunny new Webcam view of the plume (click to go there). Halemaumau Webcam It was this little event that made me think of showing a big ash (hmm...) event, the Katmai eruption of 1912. The image is from a very nice...

Wow.

Mexican volcano Popocatepetl spews giant smoke cloud Mexico City - Mexican volcano Popocatepetl on Saturday threw a large cloud of gas and ash into the air about 80 kilometres east of the capital, Mexico City. The cloud reached a height of up to two kilometres over the 5,400- metre mountain, the national disaster protection centre said Saturday. Ash rained down on some areas near the volcano and an area of 12 kilometres around the mountain was blocked off. The volcano has been active for some time, and steam cloud has become an ongoing sight over its peak.

How a Volcano Eruption Wiped Away Summer by Michael Sullivan Jessica Goldstein, NPRFor more than two decades, volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson has been researching the volcanic eruption of Tambora. By studying layers of soil, he can decipher the history of the explosion. The biggest volcanic eruption ever recorded in human history took place nearly 200 years ago on Sumbawa, an island in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago. The volcano is called Tambora, and according to University of Rhode Island volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson, the eruption is one of the most overlooked in recorded history. Tambora's explosion was 10 times bigger than...

Indonesia on top alert for volcanic eruption Thursday, October 18, 2007 By Heri Retnowati, Reuters KEDIRI, Indonesia -- Fears of an imminent eruption prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents near Indonesia's Mount Kelud on Wednesday, but many flouted the order and stayed at their homes around the rumbling Javanese volcano. The alert on the volcano, one of Indonesia's deadliest and located 90 km (55 miles) southwest of its second-largest city, Surabaya, was raised to maximum late on Tuesday, meaning it could erupt within 24 hours. Authorities had ordered the evacuation of more than 100,000 people from a 10-km (6-mile)...

TORONTO: A volcano has erupted on a tiny island off the coast of Yemen, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air, a Canadian naval vessel near the island in the Red Sea reported. The Yemeni government asked NATO to assist in searching for survivors. Ken Allan, a Navy Public Affairs with the Canadian Armed Forces, said a NATO fleet just outside the territorial waters of the island Jazirt Atta-Ir reported seeing a "catastrophic volcanic eruption" at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) Sunday. The 2-mile-long (3-kilometer-long) island is about 70 miles (115 kilometers) off the coast of...

Two things: one, in August a fissure eruption took place in the highly active African Rift Valley in Ethiopia. It was initially detected as a cloud of sulfur dioxide gas. Not a whole lot of pictures of this place; it's described as an "uplifted segment of a mid-ocean ridge spreading center". So an eruption here is like seeing what happens normally deep in the ocean. Here's the view from space. and two, I discovered this very cool time-lapse movie of the recent short-lived lava lake in the Pu'u O'o crater of Kilauea. Very fun to watch. Episode 57 West Vent...

One of Alaska's most active volcanoes could be working toward a massive eruption that could affect air travel but was not expected to threaten any of the towns in the area, scientists said Thursday. Satellite images of Pavlof Volcano taken Thursday showed strong thermal readings, consistent with what the Alaska Volcano Observatory is calling a "vigorous eruption of lava" at the volcano about 590 miles southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula. The volcano is below the path of hundreds of daily international flight paths, and an explosive eruption could interrupt those operations, said Steve McNutt, a volcano seismologist with...

Alaska Volcano Observatory reports that Pavlof is erupting. Pavlof Activity "AVO posted an Information Release at 9:30AM today [August 15] raising the Aviation Color Code to ORANGE and another Information release at 12:20PM AKDT today reporting that Pavlof Volcano is in eruption at this time. Eyewitnesses aboard several ships report incandescent blocks down the east-southeast flank of the volcano beginning at midnight last night. Satellite data confirm the presence of lava. Pilot reports indicate that a weak ash plume is extending 5 miles southwest of the summit at an elevation of roughly 8400 ft. Seismic activity continues at a high...

Like rising bubbles in champagne, gases from Earth's interior can ascend to the surface and cause magma to explode in dangerous splatters. A new study, detailed in the July 13 issue of the journal Science, shows that these volcanic "gas slugs" originate from deeper inside the planet than previously thought. The work, by Mike Burton and colleagues at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy, could help scientists understand why some volcanoes erupt more violently than others... Called "Strombolian" activity -- after the Stromboli volcano in Italy where it has been best studied -- these small volcanic blasts...