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Scale is impossible to judge when there's nothing nearby with a size you can judge by: this lava fountain on the flow field of Kilauea is 12-15 meters high. Click for full-size. Click: Kilauea Eruption Images to access a Quicktime movie of this fountain.

Learn something new every day entry: this image and accompanying article (click the source link above) told me about Nea Kameni, which is in the Santorini lagoon and which had volcanic activity in 1950. I never knew the name of the island and that it was recently active until yesterday. Click for full-size. Here's a view taken from Santorini. And this image is just to put everything into proper perspective.

Study finds Arctic seabed afire with lava-spewing volcanoes The Arctic seabed is as explosive geologically as it is politically judging by the "fountains" of gas and molten lava that have been blasting out of underwater volcanoes near the North Pole. "Explosive volatile discharge has clearly been a widespread, and ongoing, process," according to an international team that sent unmanned probes to the strange fiery world beneath the Arctic ice. They returned with images and data showing that red-hot magma has been rising from deep inside the earth and blown the tops off dozens of submarine volcanoes, four kilometres below the...

I can't post any of the pictures that I want to, but they're remarkable. 13 June 2008: Strong Activity at the Fissure in Valle del Bove Here's another site from Volcano Discovery on the May 2008 eruptions that's similar. From: Etna eruption May 2008 Here's a couple of context images. The first shows where the Valle del Bove is. The second is from space, and the Valle del Bove is the broad dark-brown area to the right (east) of the summit craters.

Footprints in the ash By Sid PerkinsMay 29th, 2008Humans may have been walking around what is now central Mexico 40,000 years ago HUMAN PRINTSFootprints (one left) left in volcanic ash that fell in central Mexico’s Valsequillo Basin about 40,000 years could be evidence that humans have inhabited the Americas far longer than previously confirmed. Laser scans of the prints (right) confirm their human origins, the researchers report today at the American Geophysical Union meeting. Footprints left in volcanic ash that fell in central Mexico’s Valsequillo Basin about 40,000 years ago are evidence that humans have inhabited the Americas far longer...

QUITO, Ecuador - A volcano on the largest of the Galapagos Islands has begun erupting and authorities are evaluating possible dangers to the island's famed plant and animal life, officials said Friday. Rangers and tour guides spotted lava flowing down the northeastern flank of the Cerro Azul volcano on the seahorse-shaped island of Isabela late Thursday, the Galapagos National Park said in a statement. Ecuador's Geophysics Institute said that satellite data and a flyover of the island by park officials showed a "small amount of ash" coming out of the volcano, located on the southwestern edge of the island. The...

I've been to the Pacific NW a few times, and Mount Adams has always fascinated me. It's very prominent from Mount Saint Helens, and the face of the mountain is dominated by a deep opening which harbors Adams Glacier. The funny thing is, very few pictures of the mountain give a good impression of the side with the glacier. Anyway, here's a couple views of it. I didn't realized that Mount Adams is the second-highest peak in Washington State after Rainier. Adams Glacier This one shows it, but it's lower resolution that I would like. This one is pretty good....

Halemaumau emissions plume, half-size (click for full size): Wheeler Geologic Area, Colorado -- love the hoodoos. Apparently this place is so hard to reach that there was an attempt to make it a national monument, but that attempt collapsed because of lack of interest and potential visitorship, so it's a geological area in a national forest. Wheeler Geologic Area Crystal Cave of Giants, Mexico: Giant Crystal Cave's Mystery Solved (this article has a link to a different cave discovery, a very nice limestone cave in Sequoia National Park). It's pretty amazing that places like these are still being discovered in...

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanos are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them. Picture taken May 2, 2008. REUTERS/Carlos Gutierrez (CHILE) The Etna volcano in Sicily rumbled back to life on Tuesday with a "seismic event" followed by a burst of ash, volcanologists said three days after minor eruptions shook the cone. A "seismic...

PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) - A towering plume of ash from an erupting volcano in Chile's remote Patagonia could collapse back down to devastate the surrounding area, a leading expert warned on Friday. Luis Lara, a geologist and volcano expert with the government's geology and mining agency Sernageomin, says his models show the vast column of ash, which has soared 7.5 miles into the air, at a critical stage. A sudden collapse would shroud vast areas with hot gas, ash and molten rock, killing anything in its way. Authorities have evacuated thousands of people from the immediate vicinity of Chaiten...

Few sights in nature can compare to the sheer magnificence of a volcano erupting in full flow. But while scenes of molten lava are relatively commonplace, this otherworldly picture of Chaiten Volcano in southern Chile shows a truly spectacular, and devastating, volcanic phenomenon.

PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) - Experts believe Chile's Chaiten volcano could continue belching out vast clouds of ash for months but distraught people evacuated from nearby towns say they yearn to return as soon as possible. Ash that has reached as far as Argentina continued to spew for a sixth day on Wednesday, disrupting flights to the southern Patagonia region with no sign of let-up. "Everything is so uncertain," said Patricio Ide, 40, who was evacuated from the remote village of Chaiten to Puerto Montt, 125 miles away from the volcano. "This could last a month, three months, maybe we...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The long-dormant Chaiten volcano blasted ash some 20 miles (30 kilometers) into the Andean sky on Tuesday, forcing the last of thousands to evacuate and fouling a huge stretch of the South American continent.A thick column of ash climbed into the stratosphere and blew eastward for hundreds of miles (kilometers) over Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean, closing schools and a regional airport. Chilean and Argentine citizens were advised to wear masks to avoid breathing the dangerous fallout.Chilean officials ordered the total evacuation of Chaiten, a small provincial capital in an area of lakes and glacier-carved fjords...

Quarter-size; click for full size.

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Lava started to spew from an erupting volcano in southern Chile on Tuesday, authorities said, ordering the immediate evacuation of all remaining residents and journalists from a nearby town. Chaiten volcano, in Patagonia around 760 miles south of the capital of Santiago, began erupting on Friday, sending a towering plume of ash into the sky that has since coated the surrounding area and reached as far as Argentina. Fernando Aguila, governor of the affected Palena province, told local radio lava was flowing and said 180 civilians and around 100 troops remained in Chaiten. Local television reported...

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.)

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Hundreds of people fled remote villages in southern Chile on Friday after a snowcapped volcano erupted, sending minor earthquakes rippling through the region. The Chaiten volcano belched fire and ash on Thursday night, causing more than 60 small tremors in Los Lagos, a region about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of the capital of Santiago. More tremors can be expected in the coming days, warned Emergency Bureau Director Carmen Fernandez. The government evacuated as many as 1,500 people from nearby villages and the town of Chaiten, just 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) from the volcano, as ash...

Click this link to view.

Sendhwa (Madhya Pradesh), Apr 16 : Small quantities of molten rock erupted near a habitation at Sendhwa near Indore, leaving neighbourhoods awestruck. Locals said the eruption began with a small explosion on Tuesday causing a two-feel wide gap in the soil. The eruptions continued with less intensity on Wednesday with the lava cooling around causing a small hump like structure. People from places in the vicinity rushed to the spot to watch the natural phenomenon. "When I got to know about this volcano, we came here to see this. We saw that this vermilion coloured eruption coming out of the...

Volcano-area residents advised to evacuate Shifting winds lead to Big Isle civil defense alert Rod Thompson Helen Altonn rthompson@starbulletin.com | haltonn@starbulletin.com HILO >> Hilo and surrounding areas were blanketed with sulfur dioxide fumes from Kilauea volcano this morning while the Volcano Village area and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, 30 miles away, braced for conditions that may require evacuations later today. Two gas monitors in the park showed “green” conditions this morning, meaning mere background levels of the gas, but a change in winds later today was expected to bring conditions in neighboring Volcano to Hawaii County’s purple condition, the highest...

Melting ice caps may trigger more volcanic eruptions 10:38 03 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic Vatnajökull in the south-east is the largest ice cap in Iceland and conceals several volcanoes (Image: NASA) A warmer world could be a more explosive one. Global warming is having a much more profound effect than just melting ice caps – it is melting magma too. Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Iceland, and is disappearing at a rate of 5 cubic kilometres per year. Carolina Pagli of the University of Leeds, UK, and Freysteinn Sigmundsson of the University of Iceland have...

"These are near real-time images of Mount St. Helens, taken from the Johnston Ridge Observatory (JRO) using our VolcanoCam Classic camera and the new VolcanoCamHD camera. The (JRO) and VolcanoCams are located at an elevation of approximately 4,500 feet, about five miles from the volcano. You are looking approximately south-southeast across the North Fork Toutle River Valley."

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...

A plume of ash towered from Kilauea Volcano's Halema`uma`u caldera on Monday, according to scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey. Lava erupted from the crater overnight in relatively small amounts. It is the first time lava erupted from Halema`uma`u Crater since 1982, according to USGS officials. Scientists candidly told KITV that this is new ground for them. The ash plume thousands of feet high, erupting from the Halema'uma'u caldera of Kilauea indicates a change of geophysical plumbing deep under the volcano which scientists said they do not understand quite yet. "Not quite sure. It could involve water, the rapid expansion...

The more things stay the same... the more they change, of course. The famous Halemaumau crater (formerly the site of an active lava lake) has had a couple of changes, and yesterday a new steam vent exploded violently, casting rocks about. Below is an image of the crater, half-size (click for full), with the new steam vent. The link below is to the images page, where you can see other pictures of what happened. In the first comment, the picture and link is from Stromboli Online, which recently visited Erta Ale in inhospitable Ethiopia, which hosts an active lava lake...

Ancient Global Dimming Linked to Volcanic Eruption Ker Than for National Geographic NewsMarch 19, 2008 A "dry fog" that muted the sun's rays in A.D. 536 and plunged half the world into a famine-inducing chill was triggered by the eruption of a supervolcano, a new study says. The cause of the sixth-century global dimming has long been a matter of debate, but a team of international researchers recently discovered acidic sulphate molecules, which are signs of an eruption, in Greenland ice. This is the first physical evidence for the A.D. 536 event, which according to ancient texts from Mesoamerica, Europe,...

Lava left its mark on Grand Canyon Friday, 15 February 2008 Larry O'Hanlon Discovery News Volcanic lava flows onced dammed the river that ran through the Grand Canyon (Source: iStockphoto) The Grand Canyon was not just carved by water. It has also been the scene of periodic wars between the Colorado River and volcanic eruptions that dammed the river, then burst. New airborne elevation survey data and radioisotope dating of Grand Canyon lava flows sheds new light on the battle between water and molten rocks there over the past 725,000 years. Over that time there have been no fewer than...

Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano shot columns of ash miles into the air on Wednesday, as officials ordered the evacuation of 3,000 villagers living near its slopes. About a thousand villagers from the western flanks of the 16,575-foot (5,000-meter) volcano fled their homes for shelters at dawn, said Roberto Rodriguez, director of civil defense. He said 11 families who refused to leave, fearing looters, were removed by force. "We've taken all of the precautions possible," President Rafael Correa told reporters on Wednesday, adding that a state of emergency already in place in the area will be extended for 60 days. Juan Salazar,...

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano shot columns of ash miles into the air on Wednesday, as officials ordered the evacuation of 3,000 villagers living near its slopes. Some 1,000 villagers from the western flanks of the 16,575-foot volcano fled their homes for shelters at dawn, said Roberto Rodriguez, director of Civil Defense. He said 11 families who refused to leave, fearing looters, were removed by force. "We've taken all of the precautions possible," President Rafael Correa told reporters on Wednesday, adding that a state of emergency already in place in the area will be extended for 60 days. Juan...

Tsunami threat hangs over southern Italy 05 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service Southern Italy's active volcanoes mean that living in the region is not for the risk-averse. Less well known, though, is the threat from the sea. Tsunamis occur around once a century in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1908, a magnitude 7 earthquake created a tsunami that almost destroyed the Italian cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria. Stefano Lorito of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome and his team used historical data to estimate earthquake risk for three different fault zones in the Mediterranean region, and simulated...

First one is from Kaphoto.ca, which has a LOT of pictures of Canada (mostly eastern Canada). This is Tews Falls in the Spencer Gorge near Hamilton: The second is a view of a rockfall from a dome eruption of Santiaguito volcano, from Photovolcanica's Santiaguito/Santa Maria Volcano page. This page has a lot of other great views and a short animation of a "ring fissure" eruption.

Scientists have discovered a huge active volcano under Antarctica. - The BAS team says data from the volcano will help it predict future rises in sea-levels caused by melting ice.

Another factor might be contributing to the thinning of some of the Antarctica's glaciers: volcanoes. In an article published Sunday on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience, Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey report the identification of a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica. "This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet" in Antarctica, Vaughan said. Volcanic heat could still be melting ice to water and contributing to thinning and speeding up...

PARIS (AFP) - A powerful volcano erupted under the icesheet of West Antarctica around 2,000 years ago and it might still be active today, a finding that prompts questions about ice loss from the white continent, British scientists report on Sunday. The explosive event -- rated "severe" to "cataclysmic" on an international scale of volcanic force -- punched a massive breach in the icesheet and spat out a plume some 12,000 metres (eight miles) into the sky, they calculate. Most of Antarctica is seismically stable. But its western part lies on a rift in Earth's crust that gives rise to...

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."

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...

Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2008) — Asteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new argument is that the mightiest creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much less dramatic force -- biting, disease-carrying insects.Tick found in Burmese amber. (Credit: Image courtesy of Oregon State University) An important contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs, experts say, could have been the rise and evolution of insects, especially the slow-but-overwhelming threat posed by new disease carriers. And the evidence...

Wow.

Searched on Andes volcanoes, and I was thinking of this: Osorno (Chile) But I found this and couldn't pass it up. Reventador (Ecuador) Can't have the first without the second. This was the November 2, 2002 eruption of Reventador.

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 to get there: What it looks like from space: Showing where the campground is (click for full-size): and up close:

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Anak Krakatau, built on the same lava plume as the Krakatoa volcano that killed tens of thousands in 1883, continued to spew lava, hot gas and rocks Thursday into the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Anak Krakatua, or "Child of Krakatoa" in the official Indonesian language, rose from the water in 1930 at the same spot where Krakatoa had blown itself apart. Elsewhere in Indonesia, the government lowered the alert status of the Kelud volcano, meaning that thousands of people who fled its slopes for government shelters can return home.

When last we visited Kilauea (I think), the Pu'u O'o crater was hosting an active lava lake, and I thought there was a possibility of an overflow or a below-rim outbreak. Neither happened. Instead, the lava lake drained smoothly and a fissure eruption commenced. This is where all the action is currently. If you want to see where it's located, click the Maps link at the header link. I realized that I hadn't checked for images of this for more than a month. So I did. Below is my favorite, reduced to half-size. Click on it for full-size.

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)...

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia warned that one of its most deadly volcanos was poised to erupt and ordered nearly 30,000 villagers living along the mountain's slopes to evacuate late Tuesday. Mount Kelud, which has been rumbling for weeks, was placed on the highest alert level, meaning scientists believe a major eruption is imminent, said a posting on the government-run volcanology center Web site. The status requires local authorities to begin evacuations. Surono, a top scientist at the center, said all people living within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of the peak must leave. Authorities started transporting some away from the danger...

Indonesia late Tuesday raised the status of a volcano on Java island to the highest alert level and recommended people evacuate the area immediately. Officials have advised residents living within a 10-kilometre (6.2-mile) radius of Mount Kelut to leave, with the Indonesian volcanology and geology disaster management centre saying the highest alert level status meant "an eruption is possible within 24 hours." The agency said on its website it raised the alert level "based on the seismic activity, deformation, visual observation and temperature of crater lake... at 17.15 WIB, 16 October 2007." Volcano monitoring post head Kristanto told a national...

A two-topic post. First, you may have heard "Andromeda Strain" type reports of a meteor impact in Peru that reportedly caused illness in 300 people or so. The reports were unclear; some doubted there even was a meteor at all. Well, there was. The linked article in the header is about it; apparently the meteor (meteorite when it hit, of course) hit where the water table was shallow, causing some steaming. Analysis has confirmed the extraterrestrial origin, and maybe about 30 people were bothered by it. This is a summary of the article; read the whole thing for the more...

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...