Chile Volcano Hurts Animals, Farms National Geographic - May 8, 2008
Images: Chile Volcano Erupts With Ash, Lava, Lightning National Geographic - May 7, 2008
Chile: Chaitén Volcano - Erupts after 9,000 years Wikipedia - May 2, 2008
Active Submarine Volcanoes Found Near Fiji Science Daily - June 21, 2008
Lavas from Hawaiian volcano contain fingerprint of planetary formation PhysOrg - June 19, 2008
Livestock, Pets Left Behind As Chile Volcano Fears Loom National Geographic - May 10, 2008
Chile Volcano Hurts Animals, Farms National Geographic - May 8, 2008
Images: Chile Volcano Erupts With Ash, Lava, Lightning National Geographic - May 7, 2008
Chile: Chaitén Volcano - Erupts after 9,000 years Wikipedia - May 2, 2008
Vog - Wikipedia
Vog - Volcanic Smog - kills plants, casts a haze over Hawaii AP - May 5, 2008
Big Island crops are shriveling as sulfur dioxide from Kilauea wafts over them and envelops them in "vog," or volcanic smog. People are wheezing, and schoolchildren are being kept indoors during recess. High gas levels led Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to close several days last month, forcing the evacuation of thousands of visitors. Residents of this volcanic island are used to toxic gas. But this haze is so bad that farmers are thinking about growing different crops, and many people are worrying about their health.
Kirk Brewer, 33, an electrician who moved to the Big Island in 2006 from Southern California, blames his headaches and wife Tracy's itchy skin, sore throat and runny nose on the vog. "It's a bummer when you go to the other islands and see how clear and blue it is, but we'll just deal with it," Brewer said. When educator Ann Peterson of Kona went the bank last week, she and the teller were making the same noises in their throats. They looked at each other and said in unison, "Vog!"
Kilauea on the Big Island has been erupting continuously since 1983. But in mid-March, a new vent formed at the summit, giving Kilauea two large sulfur dioxide outlets instead of one. Sulfur dioxide, a pollutant that is also generated by burning coal and oil, can lead to asthma and other respiratory illnesses and aggravate lung and heart disease. When combined with dust and sunlight, it makes vog. Mixed with atmospheric moisture, it produces acid rain.
Exceptionally thick gray-white vog has hovered over parts of the Big Island for weeks, particularly those areas downwind of the crater. The wind has blown vog to Oahu, some 200 miles to the north, bathing Honolulu in a light haze. (The vog is no threat to the U.S. mainland, some 2,500 miles away.) Some crops are doing fine. Coffee and macadamia nuts, two of the Big Island's mainstays, appear unaffected. Koa and ohia trees are healthy, but eucalyptus leaves are turning brown, as are Asiatic lilies. Protea may be the hardest hit, though experts don't know why. The hand-size blossoms are used in tropical floral arrangements and are a $1.8 million-a-year business in the islands. Kelvin Sewake of the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture said he is not sure if it is the gas or acid rain that is killing the plants. He said Big Island protea growers have always suffered sulfur dioxide "burns," but he has never seen it this bad. Dan Wegner, the biggest protea farmer in Ocean View, with about 15 acres, said he usually records $70,000 in annual sales. This year, he is not sure if he will reap half that. "This is taking my viable business right now and putting it right in the dumper. I don't know what I'm going to do," Wegner said. "It's frightening."
One reason the vog is worse is that the new vent is farther inland than the older Puu Oo vent on the mountain's seaside slope. While gas from the Puu Oo vent often blows out to sea, the new plume is more likely to hit farms and communities in concentrated form. The county has issued only two temporary, voluntary evacuation advisories for Ocean View and Pahala, which have a combined population of just over 4,000. The vog that has settled over the Big Island has little or no odor. The emergency room at Ka'u Hospital in Pahala is seeing an average of three people a day - up from two - with symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath. Dr. Cliff Field, ER director, said he is more concerned about the potential long-term harm. Large amounts of vog may cause emphysema and chronic lung disease over time. Still, he questioned whether living next to Kilauea is any worse than living in a city like Los Angeles. Sally Ancheta of the American Lung Association of Hawaii said people should stay inside when the vog is bad. But she added: "I would not recommend anybody leaving. It's too good of a place to live."
Volcano in 1600 Caused Global Disruption, Study Suggests Live Science - May 5, 2008
Giant Undersea Volcano Found Off Iceland National Geographic - April 22, 2008
Ancient Global Dimming Linked to Volcanic Eruption National Geographic - March 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.
Yellowstone Is Rising on Swollen "Supervolcano" National Geographic - November 9, 2007
Anak Krakatau erupts National Geographic - November 10, 2007
Etna Erupts National Geographic - September 8, 2007
Shifting Volcanoes Made Early Complex Life Possible National Geographic - August 29, 2007
Thick Layer of Magma Found Under American Southwest Live Science - June 23, 2007
Scientists have spotted a thick layer of melted rock beneath the Earth¹s
crust that could be part of a fluid band of hot magma circling the globe.
The magma ring has until now remained a theory.
Surprising Activity Discovered at Yellowstone Supervolcano Live Science - March 14, 2007
Activity discovered at Yellowstone supervolcano MSNBC - March 15, 2007 Caldera bulged and deflated significantly during study period
The power of the huge volcanic hotspot beneath Yellowstone National Park is much greater than previously thought EurekAlert - March 1, 2007
Naples: Ground Rises Near Ancient Italian Volcano, Campi Flegrei Live Science - February 24, 2007
Volcanic Lightning Sparked by "Dirty Thunderstorms," Study Finds National Geographic - February 23, 2007
Pacific Ocean gives birth to new volcanic island: eyewitnesses AFP - November 9, 2006
Volcanic eruptions score melodies BBC - August 10, 2006
The low-frequency, seismic rumblings of volcanoes are being transformed
into delicate musical scores in an effort to predict when they will erupt.
A new type of volcano may be heating up the floor
of the western Pacific Ocean National Geographic - July 28, 2006
Scientists suspect the new volcanoes occur at cracks in tectonic
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Sicily - Volcano larger than Washington, D.C., discovered CNN - June 23, 2006
Legend has it that the philosopher died by throwing himself into Mount Etna, the nearby Sicilian volcano. Giovanni Lanzafame, who works at the institute and led the research, said Empedocles was at least 400 meters (1,300 feet) high -- taller than the Eiffel Tower. The base of the structure was 30 km (18.6 miles) long and 25 km wide, spanning an area larger than the U.S. capital and making it Italy's largest underwater volcano.
But Lanzafame said Sicilians did not need to worry about the sleeping Empedocles. "At this point, there's no imminent danger of an eruption," he told Reuters. Lanzafame and another official said the volcano had numerous fumaroles, openings in the Earth's crust that emit steam and gases, like the ones at Yellowstone National Park in the United States. But they described it as largely inactive.The identification of Empedocles came during research into the submerged volcanic island of Ferdinandea just off Sicily's southern coast. Often held to be the tip of a small volcano, Lanzafame said it was just a part of Empedocles. Volcanic activity has raised the island out of the sea several times in recorded history, with underwater eruptions first described during the first Punic War of 264-241 B.C. Its emergence in 1831 caused months of international wrangling, with several nations making territorial claims before it submerged again. It is now about 7 meters below the surface of the water.
Volcano's lake turns bright red MSNBC - May 29, 2006
New Zealand - A lake atop a rumbling volcano on the South Pacific island
of Ambae has changed color from blue to bright red, puzzling scientists.
Fossil "Pompeii" of Prehistoric Animals Named U.S. Landmark National Geographic - May 12, 2006
Giant Deep-Sea Volcano With "Moat of Death" Found National Geographic - April 15, 2006
The volcano found in the South Pacific is dazzling scientists with
its weird features, including a swirling vortex, strange animals,
and a toxic zone that only one creature can survive.
Supervolcano Raises Yellowstone, Fuels Geysers, Study Says National Geographic - March 2, 2006
Indonesia: 'Pompeii of the East' discovered - Lost Kingdom of Tambora BBC - February 28, 2006
An expedition to the site of the largest volcanic eruption in modern times
has uncovered a lost kingdom. Wiped out in 1815 by the largest volcanic
eruption in human history, the tiny kingdom is known only from a few reports
from the Dutch and British colonial governments that ruled the East Indies
in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Lost civilization unearthed in Indonesia MSNBC - March 1, 2006
Settlement buried by ash, Pompeii-style, in volcanic eruption of 1815
Volcanic Signatures Persist In Oceans Science Daily - February 10, 2006
Researchers Discover Active Underwater Volcano near Samoan Island Chain Science Daily - May 26, 2005
Alaska's Mount Spurr Volcano Continues to Rumble ABC - April 2005
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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Yellowstone: Home of supervolcano has strange new rock News in Science - April 2005
Yellowstone National Park Wikipedia - April 2005
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New Asian quake threat warning BBC - March 2005
Volcanic Soils Yield New Clues About The Emergence Of Powerful Chiefdoms In Hawaii Science Daily - June 2004
Active Volcano in Antarctic Sound Discovered AP - May 2004
The foundation said the research vessel Lawrence M. Gould was returning from a study of a collapsed ice self when it passed over the volcano. The research team led by Eugene Domack of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., used a bottom-scanning video recorder, rock dredges and temperature probes to survey the sides and crest of the submarine peak. While large areas were colonized by submarine life, none was found on dark rock around the volcano itself, indicating that lava had flowed fairly recently.
In addition, dredges recovered abundant fresh basalt, a volcanic rock. It normally would be rapidly acted upon and transformed by seawater. Highly sensitive temperature probes moving continuously across the bottom of the volcano showed signs of geothermal heating of seawater, according to the agency. The volcano stands 2,300 feet above the seafloor and extends to within roughly 900 feet of the ocean surface. It is in an area known as Antarctic Sound, at the northernmost tip of Antarctica. There is no previous scientific record of active volcanoes in the region where the new peak was discovered. The volcano is located on the continental shelf, in the vicinity of a deep trough carved out by glaciers passing across the seafloor.
Early life thrived in lava flows BBC - April 2004
Geologists have discovered microscopic burrows where some of Earth's
earliest life forms bored their way into volcanic glass 3.5 billion years ago.
Volcanic Mysteries Unraveled Underwater November 2003 - Science Daily
Almost all of the active volcanoes on Earth lie beneath miles of seawater
at mid-ocean ridges, creating the long chain of volcanic mountains that
encircles the Earth like the seam of a baseball.
Searching For Volcanic Eruptions In Antarctic Snow October 2003 - Science Daily
Listening to 'singing volcanoes' BBC - February 2003
Infrasound - low-frequency sound beyond the scope of the
human ear - is providing scientists with a new way of detecting
tornadoes, incoming asteroids and erupting volcanoes.
Four 'Dormant' volcanoes found to be active BBC - February 2003
Etna Volcano Becoming Dangerous, Experts Warn February 2003 - National Geographic
How Asteroids Trigger Volcanos February 2003 - Space.com
Hawaii's Kilauea Lava Flow: 20 Years and Counting National Geographic - January 2003
World's 'oldest' volcanic rocks December 2002 - BBC
The rocks date back almost four billion years
were discovered in northern Quebec.
ITALY
Early warning system for Stromboli BBC - January 2003
A volcanic island submerged off the coast of Sicily for the last 170 years
could reappear in the coming weeks if furious seismic rumblings continue
Just about to break surface - a new volcanic island
May 25, 2000 - BBC
The dramatic birth of a new volcanic island in the Pacific has been witnessed by an international team of scientists. The rare event was captured on film by researchers during an expedition to the Solomon Islands. The Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation's (Csiro) Research Vessel Franklin, based in Australia, found the Kavachi seamount had entered a new phase of eruptive activity after nine years of apparent dormancy. Molten ash shot 500 metres (1,600 ft) into the air every five minutes of the team's 20-hour visit.
The peak of the volcano was forming a sandy, ashen beach two metres below sea level, with its regular, violent, bomb-like eruptions. Kavachi is 35 km (21 miles) from the closest island, in the western Solomons, and was first surveyed in the 1950s. Dr McInnes said, "It was magma being ejected from the top of a magma chamber, which is below sea level. This magma has a lot of gas in it so it's a very explosive mixture whenever it comes close to the surface. We were able to approach to within 750 m (2,500 ft) of the erupting centre. We found that the volcano had grown dramatically since it was last surveyed in 1984. Using Franklin to systematically sample freshly formed volcanic rocks from the flanks of an erupting submarine volcano is an unprecedented opportunity in the field of geology. We detected numerous chemical and particle plumes in the water that extend at least 5 km (16 miles) from the centre of the volcano. This has been a great opportunity for us to obtain fundamental data on dynamic volcanic inputs to the ocean environment."
Feb. 3, 2000 - BBC
The threat of climate change caused by human activity could turn out to be a minor problem by comparison with a scarcely acknowledged natural hazard. Geologists say there is a real risk that sooner or later a supervolcano will erupt with devastating force, sending temperatures plunging on a hemispheric or even global scale.
A report by the BBC Two programme Horizon on one supervolcano, at Yellowstone national park in the US, says it is overdue for an eruption. Yellowstone has gone off roughly once every 600,000 years. Its last eruption was 640,000 years ago. Professor Bill McGuire, of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at University College, London, told BBC News Online: "We're getting ready for another eruption, unless the system has blown itself out. But the ground surface deformation and other signs measured by satellite suggest it's still active, and on the move."
Typically, supervolcanoes are not mountains but depressions, huge collapsed craters called calderas, which are hard to detect. The Yellowstone caldera is 70 kilometres long and 30 km wide. Eight km beneath the Earth's surface lies a huge magma chamber, containing vast amounts of molten rock. As pressure rises in the chamber, the surface is also rising and there is a measurable increase in heat. But vulcanologists do not know when Yellowstone will blow.
Professor McGuire, portrays a possible Yellowstone explosion in 2074, says there have been two such events every 100,000 years for the last two million years. The areas where supervolcanoes are most likely to be found, he says, are subduction zones, where the Earth's plates are dipping below one another. The Pacific Rim and southeast Asia are especially vulnerable. But there is a caldera in the Phlegraean Fields near Naples in southern Italy. It could do the same as Yellowstone, though on a smaller scale. When a supervolcano goes off, it is an order of magnitude greater than a normal eruption. It produces energy equivalent to an impact with a comet or an asteroid.
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