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The volcano on La Palma, which is part of the volcanic Canary Islands off northwest Africa and is home to about 85,000 people, erupted on Sept. 19. The prompt evacuations of more than 6,000 people helped avoid casualties. Life on the rest of La Palma, which is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point, has been largely unaffected. "We're not in a state of total alarm," the technical director of the volcano emergency response unit, Miguel Ángel Morcuende, told a news conference. "Life on the island is continuing, though those close...

A young volcanic island has been growing in the western Pacific Ocean since 2013. Since mid-June 2020, it has been going through a vigorous growth spurt. According to reports and aerial photographs from the Japan Coast Guard, activity at the volcano appeared to pick up in late May, spewing ash and lava with more vigor than in previous months. On July 3, the volcanic plume rose as high as 4700 meters (15,400 feet) above sea level; the next day, ash was detected as high as 8300 meters (27,200 feet), the highest altitude a plume has risen since the volcano poked...

An Italian couple and their 11-year-old son died in a freak accident on Tuesday when they fell into a 10ft-deep hole that suddenly opened up in a highly active volcanic area near Naples. Police said the child strayed beyond safety barriers and was swallowed up by the pit, plunging into boiling hot mud at the Solfatara Crater in Pozzuoli, part of a huge volcanic area known as the Campi Flegrei or Phlegrean Fields. His father, 45, reportedly rushed to his rescue but also fell into the sink-hole. The boy’s mother, 42, then went to their aid, but she too was...

An undersea volcano about 300 miles (480 km) off Oregon's coast has been spewing lava for the past seven days, confirming forecasts made last fall and giving researchers unique insight into a hidden ocean hot spot, a scientist said on Friday. Researchers know of two previous eruptions by the volcano, dubbed "Axial Seamount" for its location along the axis of an underwater mountain ridge, Oregon State University geologist Bill Chadwick said on Friday. But those 1998 and 2011 eruptions were detected months or years afterward, Chadwick added. Last year, researchers connected monitoring gear to an undersea cable that, for the...

Translated.. El Hierro recorded 28 earthquakes so far of day The recorded earthquakes ranging from 1.9 and 2.6 magnitude on the Richter scale 18.03.2013 | 18:51 EP volcano monitoring network monitoring 24 hours a National Geographic Institute (IGN) has recorded on the island of El Hierro on Monday a total of 28 earthquakes of between 1.9 and 2.6 magnitude on the Richter scale, although none felt by population. The largest of the quakes, which struck at 14.29 pm, had a magnitude of 2.6 degrees, and occurred west of the town of Frontera, on land, 20 kilometers deep. At 14.42 hours...

There’s some good coming off China’s extensive coal exploitation (the nation holds the top place for most pollutant emissions resulting from burning coal), as recent mining activities around Wuda in Inner Mongolia, China, has uncovered an almost perfectly preserved 298 million year-old forest. The forest, which also features intact trees with leaves, branches, trunk and cones, was buried by volcanic ash, and thus kept away from time’s unforgiving touch. The researchers dubbed the forest the “Pompeii of the Permian period, since the manner in which it was preserved bared a striking resemblance to the famous Roman namesake event. The volcanic...

The Little Ice Age was caused by the cooling effect of massive volcanic eruptions, and sustained by changes in Arctic ice cover, scientists conclude. An international research team studied ancient plants from Iceland and Canada, and sediments carried by glaciers. They say a series of eruptions just before 1300 lowered Arctic temperatures enough for ice sheets to expand. Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, they say this would have kept the Earth cool for centuries. The exact definition of the Little Ice Age is disputed. While many studies suggest temperatures fell globally in the 1500s, others suggest the Arctic and sub-Arctic...

Congressional Democrats are set to meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday evening at the White House, and if it’s anything like the “volcanic” intraparty sessions that took place earlier in the day, it could be quite the contentious affair. Senate Democrats were huddled for lunch with Jacob Lew, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, when news broke of a possible deal between Obama and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The reports of the “grand bargain” — potentially worth $3 trillion in savings over 10 years with no upfront revenue raisers — started filtering into the Mansfield Room,...

I apologize (again) for being off-schedule; I've had these pictures ready to go for awhile, but I haven't been ready to go. Also, look in the first comment for a REAL bonus. Anyway, the hot springs at Dallol, Ethiopia have been very "wet" recently, due to anomalously high precipitation, leading to some really remarkable (other-worldly) scenery. Below are a few, with links to where the others are. Dallol (the recent pictures are at the bottom of the page) Dallol in January-February 2011: Large and colorful ponds

In Europe, the volcanic ash danger travels at high altitudes, but for Iceland's farmers the problem is very much on the ground. Farmers across the region where the volcano erupted this week under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier have been scrambling to protect their herds from inhaling or ingesting the ash, which can cause internal bleeding, long-term bone damage and teeth loss. Near Skogar, south of the volcano, the ash blew down from the mountain, blotting out the sunlight and covering everything - pastures, animals and humans - in a thick, gray paste.

All he needs is an iPad and an electrical outlet to run the country. Norway's prime minister, Jens Stotlenberg is again grounded in New York as volcanic ash from Iceland's tempermental volcano continues to close European airspace, but that didn't stop him from doing the daily business of Norwegian govemernment from his iPad in an airport lounge. Stoltenberg, who traveled from Oslo to participate in President Obama's nuclear summit, was stranded along with many thousands of others and will probably be waiting for at least another day before flights can resume, authorities said Friday. The FAA is working to move...

ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2008) — The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica's most rapidly changing ice sheet has been reported. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet erupted 2000 years ago (325BC) and remains active. The subglacial volcano has a 'volcanic explosion index' of around 3-4. Heat from the volcano creates melt-water that lubricates the base of the ice sheet and increases the flow towards the sea. Pine Island Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is showing rapid change and BAS scientists are part of an international research effort to understand this change.

University of Alberta scientists contend they have the answer to mass extinction of animals and plants 93 million years ago. The answer, research has uncovered, has been found at the bottom of the sea floor where lava fountains erupted, altering the chemistry of the sea and possibly of the atmosphere.Undersea volcanic activity triggered a mass extinction of marine life and buried a thick mat of organic matter on the sea floor about 93 million years ago, which became a major source of oil, according to a new study. "It certainly caused an extinction of several species in the marine environment,"...

WASHINGTON - The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider. Some of the 1,213 photos taken by NASA's Messenger probe and unveiled Wednesday help support the case that ancient volcanoes dot Mercury and that it is shrinking as it gets older, forming wrinkle-like ridges. But other images are surprising and puzzling. The spidery shape captured in a photo is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of...

Volcanic Eruptions, Not Meteor, May Have Killed The DinosaursRajahmundry Quarry. Keller's crucial link between the eruption and the mass extinction comes in the form of microscopic marine fossils that are known to have evolved immediately after the mysterious mass extinction event. The same telltale fossilized planktonic foraminifera were found at Rajahmundry near the Bay of Bengal, about 1000 kilometers from the center of the Deccan Traps near Mumbai. (Credit: Photo courtesy Gerta Keller) ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2007) — A series of monumental volcanic eruptions in India may have killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, not a meteor impact in...

Found this in the "waterfall" theme -- and only after taking a look at a few pictures did I realize this is another in my thematic category of waterfalls associated with columnar basalt! This place is almost beyond category in terms of geologic beauty. There are other pictures of the place on the Web; search with "Takachiho Gorge". Three views below. Note bridge at top for scale. And the rowboats, of course.

May 2, 2007—Jupiter's most turbulent moon, Io, is renowned among scientists for its flashy volcanic displays. But even experts were surprised when they saw this plume of gas vaulting nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) over the moon's north pole. The giant frozen jet—about as tall as the state of New Hampshire is long—spewed from a volcano known as Tvashtar in February, just as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was cruising by on its way to Pluto. The passing craft captured several images of the event, providing an unprecedented view of volcanism on Io, the most geologically active body in the solar...

Home Plate, a light-coloured feature in Mars's Gusev Crater, was likely formed by explosive volcanic eruptions, NASA's Spirit rover reveals. It is the first sign of such violent activity yet found on the planet. Explosive volcanic events, known as pyroclastic eruptions, typically occur with a kind of lava that is high in silicates. But Mars appears to have only basaltic lava, which normally oozes relatively slowly.

You may have noticed that ever since discovering Iceland's Skogafoss that I'm a little fascinated with waterfalls in a columnar basalt terrain. Well, I like waterfalls in just about any terrain, but I like the unusual combinations that occur in volcanic terrains. One of the ultimate examples is Tower Falls in Yellowstone, of which images abound. I looked and looked for 4-5 minutes to find a nice one, but there may be better. This one may take a few moments to load: The towers are eroded tephra. On the opposite side of the canyon from Tower Falls, there is columnar...

Volcanic crater lake primed to spill 12:41 11 January 2007 NewScientist.com news service Emma Young Ruapehu is one of the world's most active volcanoes. The deep crater lies between its peaks and fills with a lake between big eruptions The crater lake of New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu is brimming and could burst at any time, releasing at least one million cubic metres of water and sending a mudflow – or lahar – gushing down the volcano. The last Mt Ruapehu lahar, in 1953, was on a similar scale. It swept away a railway bridge, killing 151 people travelling across it....