A volcanic eruption in southwestern Iceland has once again forced the evacuation of tourists at the internationally known Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, the national broadcaster RUV reported. The eruption began around 4 a.m. following an intense seismic swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, Iceland's Met Office said.
Nature is amazing. Awesome is an appropriate word in this case.
This is Episode 9 of the episodic eruption in Halema'uma'u crater. Halema'uma'u is a crater inside the main crater of the Kilauea volcano. The current eruption began 23 December 2024.
The video mentions vog. Vog is volcanic smog, or a hazy air pollution caused by the eruptions. It is primarily water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas. Vog can also contain fine particles. It can be both irritating and cause health problems.
The video also mentions tilt as measured in radians, or more precisely, in microradians. 2π radians are equal to 360 degrees. I have no idea if you studied radians in school; it probably depends on your age, and what you studied, but polar coordinates are more useful than Cartesian coordinates for most things in science.
Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has been erupting on and off for nearly two months since it burst to life on Dec. 23. The eruption has been taking place at the the volcano's summit crater inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. No residential areas have been threatened by lava.
The latest release of molten rock began 10:16 a.m. with lava flowing on to the floor of Halemaumau Crater. A half-hour later, a vent shot lava about 330 feet high.
330 feet is 100 meters. I really wish Americans would get on board with the metric system.
OK. My first beef with this article. There is no such thing a small supervolcano. Calling it massive is redundant. [Insert video of "Word Crimes" by Weird Al here.]
The Phlegraean Fields, now considered one massive supervolcano, are beginning to stir, making the scientific community uneasy.
These volcanic fields, nestled just west of Naples, Italy, are among the top eight emitters of volcanic carbon dioxide worldwide.
The estimates are that one crater in the supervolcano is emitting between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide daily. That is like burning half a million gallons of gasoline everyday.
Click thru for the history of the region. I will only say that the last eruption was in the 1500s.
Hat tip to Clayton Cramer. Can We Tax Mother Earth? A lot people say carbon taxes will force people to change their behavior. I don't think that will work in this case. (Actually I don't think it will work in any case.)
There are 7 sites worldwide that are emitting MORE carbon than that daily.
At least 4 active vents have been generating violent pulses of lava fountains with ash columns rising to approx. 3 km, as well feeding both surface lava flows directly from the vents as well as fueling the hidden-from-view lava tubes that transport most of the lava to active areas of the flow field downslope.
The number of earthquakes has increased.
There are some great photos at the site above, as I write this, the video from the live webcam (below) is amazing.
Authorities on Sunday monitored a new stream of molten rock that has added to the destruction of over 1,100 buildings. Anything in the path of the lava — homes, farms, swimming pools and industrial buildings in the largely agricultural area — has been consumed.
The collapse Saturday of part of the volcanic cone sent a flood of bright red lava pouring down from the Cumbre Vieja ridge that initially cracked open on Sept. 19. The fast-flowing stream carried away huge chunks of lava that had already hardened. An industrial park was soon engulfed.
People seem to be amazed (well, reporters are amazed) that a volcano could erput for 3 weeks. Just for reference, Kīlauea erupted almost continuously from January 1983 until April 2018. (Kīlauea started erupting again about 10 days ago.) Of course when the volcano on the Island of Stromboli erupted in 2019 reporters called it "Unexpected." It is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet, but then they are reporters.
The US media seems to have lost interest in the volcano currently erupting on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. The European media hasn't lost interest (it is a Spanish concern, after all) but they seem surprised that a volcano isn't like like a thunderstorm. That is that it isn't over in an hour.
Well, that isn't quite right. Some members of the US media are worried about the displaced pets of La Palma. There have been more stories on that issue in the past week, than on the displaced people, or the destroyed buildings, destroyed infrastructure, crops threatened, etc.
The current eruption of Cumbre Vieja began on 19 September 2021.
The Canary Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa, about even with the Morocco/West Sahara border. La Palma is in the extreme NW of the Canary Islands, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) from Morocco.
A volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma on Sunday, sending lava shooting into the air and streaming in rivers towards houses in two villages from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island.
This particular region last had a eruption 50 years ago in 1971. Though people had a week's warning and the government began evacuations well before the eruption. 5000 people had been evacuated as of Sunday evening local time.
La Palma had been on high alert after more than 22,000 tremors were reported in the space of a week in Cumbre Vieja, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.
Iceland's newest volcano, Geldingadalir, broke through the earth's crust on March 19th of this year.
It has been fascinating. I haven't posted about it because, while volcano's are interesting, they are really not the focus of this blog. Even though I've written about them in the past. Really. Not. The focus.
The current state of the volcano seems to be quiescent. (I am always looking in the rearview mirror.) But the pattern of tremors indicates that it may pick up again soon. Unlike the weather, I think they are getting fairly good at predicting volcanoes.
