Geobulletin alpha

Volcanic Sensationalism: Can’t We All Just Leave Yellowstone Alone? 

Sometimes I get very frustrated by the way volcanoes are portrayed in the media. Yes, I realize that most people want to play up the sensationalism and “danger!” aspect of volcanic eruptions, but that doesn’t mean I have to like

Eruption Continues at Pavlof, Less Ash in Plume 

The eruption that started last week at Pavlof, at the far western end of the Alaska Peninsula, is still going strong. AVO says that the lava flows and fountains are continuing, with steam-and-ash plumes reported to be reaching in 5-6

Eruptions Summer Plans 

Well, it might seem early for some of you (and wrong for those of you in the southern hemisphere), but summer is upon us. Classes are 100% done here and I’ve spent the last week slowly changing gears from teaching

Explosions and Earthquakes Still Rocking Mexico’s Popocatépetl 

The high alert at Mexico’s Popocatépetl remains in place as the restless Mexican volcano still shows signs that new magma is at the surface, meaning a larger explosion could occur if pressures builds under the summit crater. Over the last

Lava Flows and Ash Plume as Eruption Continues at Pavlof 

The eruption that started on Monday at Pavlof in Alaska continues unabated. The Alaska Volcano Observatory is reporting a dark steam-and-ash plume reaching ~6 km (20,000 foot) and drifting to the southeast by pilots passing nearby and the glowing lava

Sequestering Scientific Discovery 

Right now, 5 fewer volcanoes have any active volcano monitoring along the vast Aleutian arc. That might seem insignificant to many people — I mean, what harm do five volcanoes in the northern Pacific pose? — but really, it is

Possible Eruption Started at Alaska’s Pavlof 

Earlier today, the Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert status at Pavlof, a stratovolcano near the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, to Orange/Watch. Increased seismicity combined with a strong thermal anomaly spotted by satellite at the summit of the

Alert Status Raised at Chile’s Copahue 

It has been a few months since anything much as happened at Chile’s Copahue. Last December, the volcano had a couple small explosive eruptions that sent ash across the Chilean border into Argentina, but that activity didn’t seem to be

Explosive Eruption at Mexico’s Popocatépetl 

I don’t have a lot of details right now, but it seems that an explosive eruption has started at Popocatépetl outside of Mexico City. The restless Mexican volcano has been producing steam-and-ash plumes intermittently over the past year, but tonight

Five Climbers Killed in Small Explosion at Mayon 

Volcanoes are dangerous places. Even if it has been quiet for months, years, decades or longer, hazards abound. Even if there is no eruption ongoing, their slopes are unstable, in many cases hot gases or fluids escape from the ground,

Small Explosive Eruptions at Cleveland in Alaska 

Little bit of news coming out of Alaska this weekend: the Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the aviation alert status at Cleveland to Orange after a sequence of explosive eruptions were detected. At first, there has been no visual confirmation as

Chaiten: anniversary of an eruption 

May 1st marks the anniversary of the eruption of volcan Chaiten, a small volcano in southern Chile, in 2008. A lot has been written on the eruption elsewhere, starting with Erik Klemetti’s eruptions blog which first reported on the event at the time. This is an opportunity to share some field photos, which I took during

Happy 5th Birthday to Eruptions! 

If you can believe it, today is the fifth birthday for this blog. Eruptions started on May 1, 2013 after I struggled to find useful and geologically-accurate information about the eruption that had just started at Chaitén in Chile (more

Fleeting Volcanic Moments Captured by Satellite 

One of the best things about all the satellites that snap pictures of the multitude of volcanoes on the planet is their ability to capture ephemeral moments that are lost without these observations. Just today, I saw two sets of

Lucky 13: Marvelous HD Video of Etna’s Latest Eruption 

High-def videos of Mt. Etna's latest eruption, by Wired Science blogger Erik

Puzzling Seismicity at Helka, Iceland 

Hekla volcano in Iceland is not known for giving much advance warning, but this time it may be. Scientists in the area have been monitoring the notorious volcano for signs that it may erupt, as it is "overdue" for a show. Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes, and also one of its most disruptive. Typically this volcano does not give much warning in the way of tremor or earthquakes, indeed the earthquakes seem to precede an eruption only by hours... yet Hekla has been rumbling now for [...]

Friday Photos for April 26, 2013: Updates on Eruptions from Around the World 

Rumbling Chilean Volcanoes: Laguna del Maule, Lascar, Copahue, Antuco 

I think it is time to catch up with some of the rumblings going on in Chile. There aren’t any actively erupting volcanoes right now (well, at least not in all certainty — Chile’s volcanoes can be very remote), but a

Imaggeo on Mondays: Explosions in the sky 

Suwanosejima, which lies within the Ryukyu Islands, is one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, erupting almost continuously between the 1950s and mid 1990s. It has two active craters, the central Otake crater and the Bunka crater, to the southwest. While the frequency of these eruptions has declined, the volcano remains active, with strombolian and vulcanian

The Most Dangerous (Manmade) Lava Flow 

One of the things I enjoy most is running across fascinating information when I’m not even looking for it. Case in point, today’s subject. I was doing some research for my class on Fukushima Dai’ichi and Chernobyl when I ran