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California's Death Valley, already one of the hottest places on Earth, may have the potential to get a whole lot hotter — and live up to its name in a surprising (and possibly scary) new way, according to new research. Scientists have long known that the craters that pepper this dry landscape were formed by long-ago volcanic eruptions, triggered when hot magma ascending from inside the planet hit pockets of water. Some researchers now think the area erupted far more recently than thought, meaning the parched swath of central California, home to desolate salt flats and scalding temperatures, could be...

Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise. They hope the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that isn’t dependent on sunny skies or stiff breezes — without shaking the earth and rattling the nerves of nearby residents. Renewable energy has been held back by cheap natural gas, weak demand for...

Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise.

The Daily Mail stirs up some Euro anxiety with a headline today "Is a super-volcano just 390 miles from London about to erupt?" The story talks about the little known Laacher See volcano in northwestern Germany. It last erupted about 12,000 years ago and the Daily Mail believes it is due to erupt again. It is not considered extinct, merely inactive. An eruption of the Laacher See volcano would destroy much of Europe as we know it. London is 390 miles away. The German capital of Bonn is about 25 miles away. The potential eruption of the Laacher See volcano...

GLOBAL TRAVELERS BEWARE: Another Icelandic Volcano Is Rumbling Nick Jardine Jan. 3, 2012, 11:54 AM Katla, yet another huge Icelandic volcano, is showing signs that it may soon erupt and cause chaos to world air transport. Al Jazeera reports that earth tremors around the immense volcano are leading to concerns that an eruption could have both profound effects on Iceland's landscape, as well as disrupting travel worldwide. The volcano last erupted in 1918, making it well overdue for a blast, and it's lava chamber is thought to be some 10 times the size of Eyjafjallajökull, which erupted in 2010. (By...

A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up. It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma. This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago. ... Volcanologists believe that the Laacher See volcano is still active as carbon dioxide is bubbling up to the lake’s surface, which indicates that the magma chamber below is 'degassing'.

(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,...

Archaeologists long believed the volcano changed Sinagua culture. Yet because the date of the eruption remained elusive, they could not tell how fast those changes occurred. Ort, however, had a geological clock that let him make a better estimate. The Earth's magnetic north pole constantly drifts. Researchers have records of drift going back thousands of years made by measuring how certain minerals are magnetized to align with the magnetic poles as they settle in lake sediments. What Ort needed was a way to link these paleomagnetic measurements to the age of artifacts found in villages abandoned after the eruption. Ort...

Eruption 'long overdue' Even that caused significant flooding, washing away a bridge across the country's main highway and blocking the only link to other parts of the island for several days. "The July 9 event seems to mark the beginning of a new period of unrest for Katla, the fourth we know in the last half century," says Professor Pall Einarsson, who has been studying volcanoes for 40 years and works at the Iceland University Institute of Earth Sciences. "The possibility that it may include a larger eruption cannot be excluded," he continues. "Katla is a very active and versatile...

The eruption of a volcano in Virunga National Park near Goma is seen at night. Volcano fanatics will have to pay $300...The eruption of a volcano in Virunga National Park near Goma is seen at night. Almost three weeks after a fissure opened amidst dense flat forest, the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park has seen an increasing number of tourists seeking to be guided on treks to witness the Nyamulagira volcano spewing geysers of lava into the night.

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...

SANTIAGO (BNO NEWS) -- The Chilean government on late Wednesday afternoon declared a Red Alert for the country's Aysén region after a significant increase in seismic activity at Mount Hudson, forcing nearly 100 people to evacuate. The National Office of Emergency of Chile's Interior Ministry (ONEMI) initially declared a Yellow Alert for the area, but later raised it to Red after seismic activity continued to increase. It ordered about 100 people in a radius of 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) to evacuate. Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said the decision was taken after regional authorities and scientists flew over the volcano, noting...

Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed. "I call this 'volcano forensics,' because we're using so many different techniques to understand this phenomenon," said Oregon State University professor Shan de Silva, a volcanologist on the research team. Researchers realized about five years ago that the area below and around Uturuncu is steadily rising — blowing up like a giant balloon under a wide disc of land some 43 miles (70 kilometers) across. Satellite data revealed the region was inflating by 1 to 2 centimeters (less than...

Global warming is 'real' and temperatures have climbed steadily over the past decades, a long-awaited, independent study has found, refuting skeptics’ claims that there isn’t enough evidence to assert that the world climate is changing. According to a study published yesterday (20 October) by the Berkley Earth Project, which included U.S. physicists, climatologists and statisticians, the average world land temperatures climbed approximately 1 degree Celsius since the mid-1950s. The Berkley project, funded among others by the Koch Foundation, linked to the company which Greenpeace called a ‘kingpin of climate science denial,’ has analysed data from 15 different sources, in some...

SUMATRA, Indonesia –Several earthquakes have struck near south Sumatra of the 5.0 and 5.1 magnitude range today- making a tense situation on the volcanically-dotted archipelago potentially even more volatile. The Anak Krakatau volcano is showing signs of increased seismic activity. Authorities fear the volcano is building towards an eruption that could dwarf the one which occurred in 2007. Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Disasters Mitigation Center reported the numbers of seismic tremors now registering from the volcano have exceeded 5,000 a day. There are also reports of a gaseous mist which has seeped from the volcano and have enshrouded it in...

Experts in the Azores have alerted the population of São Miguel Island for seismic activity which they considered to be above normal. The seismic events where located in the system of Fogo and Congro lakes, the central region of the island. “The situation is ongoing and the number of microseisms is slightly above reference values” said Wednesday João Luís Gaspar from the Center of Volcanology and Geological Risk Assessment (CVARG) of the University of the Azores.

Update 17/10 – 17:29 UTC : The volcano discussion panel @ jonfr.com is expecting that we are in the stage of a surtseyan eruption. The vent opened in a very shallow depth of 150 m. That means that the magma can form pillow lava so that the “building” soon reaches the surface and then continues with phreatomagmatic eruptions.

Iceland’s Katla Volcano Eruption Imminent: Could Surpass Last Year’s Eruption October 14, 2011 2:16 PM EST Iceland's Katla Volcano, which has a magma chamber that is ten times the size of Eyjafjallajokull, is showing signs of an imminent eruption. Experts are saying that should Katla erupt, the consequences could be disastrous for Europe as it could spew an ash cloud that will turn day into night. In comparison to last year's Eyjafjallajokull's eruption which grounded planes last year and cost the aviation industry nearly $2 billion dollars, Katla's could wreak havoc across Europe. The last time Katla erupted in 1918...

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

The Instituto Geografico Nacional (IGN) has reported an increase in the intensity of earthquakes recorded on El Hierro, the smallest of The Canary Islands, during the last 24 to 36 hours. The number of earthquakes recorded since July 17 , 2011 on El Hierros has now reached 10,000, figures from the IGN confirm. The IGN also confirmed surface deformations exceeding 35mm on the 280-sqkm island, where residents have been put on alert for a possible volcanic eruption. However, seismologists have moved to reassure the local population that a volcanic eruption is not imminent. The agency confirmed on Friday that 890...

09/29/2011 She's Gonna Blow Canary Island Evacuated Amid Volcano Fears Natural DisastersRSS 09/29/2011 She's Gonna Blow Canary Island Evacuated Amid Volcano Fears Photo Gallery: El Hierro Rumbles Photos DPA Worries of a potential volcanic eruption have prompted Spanish authorities to evacuate residents and tourists on one of the Canary Islands. Thousands of tiny tremors have recently intensified, with the biggest one reaching a magnitude of 3.4, they said. The seismic activity indicates magma on the move. Info Thousands of tiny earthquakes have rattled the island of El Hierro since this July. But recently the tremors have grown stronger, prompting concern...

Residents of El Hierro have been put on standby for mandatory evacuation. The Canary Islands are on watch for what scientists believe is a pending volcanic eruption. MADRID, SPAIN - The 108 square mile island of El Hierro is home to about 10,000 people. And the population is on standby orders for emergency evacuation. The island has seen thousands of small earthquakes in what seismologists refer to as an, "earthquake swarm." They believe the earthquake swarm is a sign that an eruption is imminent. Nearly 9,000 tremors have been detected in the last two months. On Monday a 3.8 quake...

Bold farmers in Indonesia routinely ignore orders to evacuate the slopes of live volcanoes, but those living on Tambora took no chances when history's deadliest mountain rumbled ominously this month. Villagers like Hasanuddin Sanusi have heard since they were young how the mountain they call home once blew apart in the largest eruption ever recorded — an 1815 event widely forgotten outside their region — killing 90,000 people and blackening skies on the other side of the globe.

Scientists believe that our warming world may face catastrophic changes to its natural environment, including droughts, rising oceans and fiercer, more frequent hurricanes. Theoretically, it may be necessary to act globally to mitigate the damage. Initially, those efforts will probably take the form of limits on greenhouse gas emissions or forest preservation. But some scientists and policy makers believe it might be necessary for scientists to take an active hand in engineering a solution to our climate problems. Those potential solutions, collectively called "geoengineering," would use scientists' knowledge of the Earth's cycles to curb the rise in temperature, the melting...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A volcano that has been erupting for several days in Alaska's Aleutian Islands may be preparing for a more explosive event, scientists said on Wednesday. Cleveland Volcano, a 5,676-foot peak located on Chuginadak Island, about 940 miles southwest of Anchorage, has been in low-level eruption since the end of July, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said. "An eruption for us is any time that magma is coming up from the surface in the ground," said John Power, scientist in charge at the observatory, a joint federal-state operation. "This is very much happening here." Chuginadak Island is uninhabited...

The volcanic activity, principally at the convergence of the three ridges, resulted in the continual expansion of the island. A mere 50,000 years ago, as a result of seismic tremors which produced massive landslides, a giant piece of the island cracked off, crashed down into the ocean and scattered along the seabed. This landslide of more than 300km3 gave rise to the impressive amphitheatre of the El Golfo valley and at the same time caused a tsunami that most likely rose over 100 metres high and probably reached as far as the American coast.

19 July 2011 Last updated at 00:07 ET Help A scientist tries to get a lava sample from Mount Nyiragongo in Africa's Great Rift Valley, but gets too close to the boiling lake. Dr Dario Tedesco, from the University of Naples, one of the world's leading authorities on the volcano, tries to alert the scientist whose life is at risk. Mount Nyiragongo is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Scientists want to take lava samples from volcanoes because it can give vital clues about what is happening deep inside the planet.

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

A glacial flood from volcano Katla, in Mýrdalsjökull, has disrupted highway no.1 (the ring road), by river Múlakvísl on Mýrdalssandur, in the South of Iceland. The road is closed between Höfðabrekka, east of Vík, and river Skálm, near Álftaver. The flood is thought be the result of a small eruption underneath the icecap of Mýrdalsjökull, probably in the Katla crater. The Civil Protection and Emergency Management has sent out a warning to people in the area, to beware of sulphurate smell near the river, as it might be poisonous sulphurate gas.

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....

Head's up....This could be another Holocene Volcano not unlike Nabro in Africa. However, it could be something else entirely...like a test or industrial mishap.

Latest 5.7 right near the volcano.

Flights in several South American countries are being disrupted by clouds of ash spewed by a Chile volcano range. Flight to and from the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, have been suspended, while in Chile, Santiago airport has also seen cancellations. Earlier, Chilean authorities expanded the evacuation area around the Puyehue-Cordon-Caulle volcano range, about 800km (500 miles) south of Santiago. It began erupting at the weekend and continues to belch a column of ash. Aviation officials say around 60 flights - domestic and international - from Ezeiza and Aeroparque airports in Buenos Aires have been cancelled. The country's main airlines -...

What appears to be an enormous ash cloud rising from the eruption of a long dormant volcano named Puyehuein southern Chile on June 4, 2011, isn’t quite matching up with the location of the recorded earthquakes today in the immediate area. “The Cordon Caulle (volcanic range) has entered an eruptive process, with an explosion resulting in a 10-kilometer-high gas column,” Chilean state emergency office said.The thing is, for some unknown reason, as of this writing, eight earthquakes near magnitude 5 have shook the earth near the Puyehue volcano. The problem is, the earthquakes are located 20 to 40 miles away...

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.

Volcano Erupts in Southern Chile VOA News June 04, 2011 The Puyehue volcano in southern Chile has erupted for the first time in a half century, sending a column of gas about 10 kilometers into the air. Authorities say they plan to evacuate 3,500 people from areas around the mountain, which is nearly 1,000 kilometers south of the Chilean capital, Santiago. The eruption also prompted authorities to shut a border crossing into Argentina. Emergency officials recorded many small earthquakes in the region Saturday. There have been no reports of injuries. Chile has the second largest volcanic chain in the world...

More mysterious animal deaths have surfaced, this time in a volcanic lake in the Philippines. Reports say that 800 tons, or 1.6 million pounds, of fish have turned up dead in a lake near the Taal volcano, which is located south of the capital city of Manila. Officials say the deaths may have been a result of sudden temperature change in the water.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- The Puyehue volcano in southern Chile erupted Saturday, sending a huge plume of smoke and ash into the sky and prompting officials to evacuate about 600 people living nearby. There were no reports of injuries. Authorities had put the area around the volcano on alert Saturday morning after a flurry of earthquakes, and the eruption began in the afternoon. The National Emergency Office said it recorded an average of 230 tremors an hour. On the other side of the Andes in Argentina, heavy ash fell on the city of San Carlos de Bariloche.

Barack Obama has been forced to leave Ireland early due to fears Airforce One could be grounded by a new volcanic ash cloud blowing down from Iceland. - A White House spokesman confirmed that concerns over the ash cloud from the Grimsvötn volcano forced the presidential entourage to make a swifter than expected exit from the Republic. He had been expected to stop off Tuesday morning at Glasnevin cemetery en route to the airport to pay homage at the crypt of Daniel O'Connell, in an acknowledgement of the 19th century Irish nationalist leader's role in opposing the slave trade.

Europe's air traffic control organization said on Sunday it expected no impact on European or transatlantic flights from an Icelandic volcano eruption for at least 24 hours.

A significant increase in magnitude 5+ earthquakes worldwide has occurred in the last 24 hours, especially in the area around Vanuatu Islands. A similar increase in 5+ earthquakes mainly near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, occurred prior to the magnitude 9.1 earthquake and resulting tsunami. MAP 5.0 2011/04/29 22:31:59 28.838 -113.088 10.5 GULF OF CALIFORNIA MAP 5.3 2011/04/29 22:19:33 38.915 141.932 51.3 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN MAP 5.1 2011/04/29 20:24:35 -3.502 100.614 29.8 KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA MAP 5.0 2011/04/29 16:00:41 -19.313 167.705 27.0 VANUATU REGION MAP 5.5 2011/04/29 13:12:46 21.182 121.980 176.7 TAIWAN REGION MAP...

The largest fossil spider uncovered to date once ensnared prey back in the age of dinosaurs, scientists find. The spider, named Nephila jurassica, was discovered buried in ancient volcanic ash in Inner Mongolia, China. Tufts of hairlike fibers seen on its legs showed this 165-million-year-old arachnid to be the oldest known species of the largest web-weaving spiders alive today — the golden orb-weavers, or Nephila, which are big enough to catch birds and bats, and use silk that shines like gold in the sunlight. The fossil was about as large as its modern relatives, with a body one inch (2.5...

Sorry for being gone awhile, but I came back with a superb shot of geysers in New Zealand: Rare triple eruption of Kereru, Prince of Wales Feathers and Pohutu Geysers, Te Puia, Rotorua. Click for full size!

From www.unews.utah.edu via Eurekalert Electric YellowstoneConductivity image hints volcano plume is bigger than thoughtThis image, based on variations in electrical conductivity of underground rock, shows the volcanic plume of partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. Yellow and red indicate higher conductivity, green and blue indicate lower conductivity. Made by University of Utah geophysicists and computer scientists, this is the first large-scale "geoelectric" image of the Yellowstone hotspot. Credit: University of Utah. SALT LAKE CITY, April 11, 2011 – University of Utah geophysicists made the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot...

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea. 'A giant woolly rat never before seen by science' Link to this audio A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from...

SHATTERED Japan is braced for a fresh quake nightmare - with a mega aftershock likely to hit at any moment. The alert was issued as millions who survived the tsunami that devastated the hi-tech superpower spent a third day without food and water - let alone electricity. Japan's world-renowned centre for earthquake prediction said there was a seven-in-ten chance of a tremor with a magnitude of seven or more hitting "within the next three days". Early today there was a hydrogen blast inside No3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. The explosion was similar to an earlier one at...

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.

/begin my translation Volcano in Kyushu of Japan Erupts Again... Spewing Gas and Ashes According to NHK Broadcast in Japan, a volcano in Southern Kyushu has erupted again on Mar. 13 after silent for a month. The eruption sent up gas and ashes 4,000 meter high in the sky. Kyushu had volcanic eruption on Feb. 11 and 24, and has had 10 eruptions since January, and there has been fear that a big eruption is imminent. /end my translation

(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.