Geobulletin alpha

Sakurajima volcano erupts in southern Japan, 5 Feb 2016 

Eruption Update for October 8, 2013: Tangkuban Perahu, Sakurajima, Veniaminof, Copahue and White Island 

  So, last night I had a dream that I was staying at a lake house in what looked like New Hampshire (to me in my dream) but in the middle of the lake was, more-or-less, Sakurajima. Most people didn’t

Large Eruption at Sakurajima 

“Although Japan’s Sakura-jima Volcano is one of the most active in the world, it rarely makes headlines. One or two small explosions typically occur every few days, with effects no greater than a light dusting of ash in the surrounding cities. On August 18, 2013, a large eruption sent ash 20,000 feet above Kagoshima Bay,

Science Highlights from IAVCEI 2013 

KAGOSHIMA, JAPAN – Although the eruption of Sakurajima on the mid-conference field trip was the ultimate highlight of the IAVCEI 2013 Scientific Assembly, let’s not forget that there were also four full days of excellent talks and posters on the cutting edge of research in volcanology. There were far too many inspiring presentations to name

Impressive Video of the Latest Eruptions from Japan’s Sakurajima 

Very brief post today, but I wanted to share the video of yesterday’s eruption of Sakurajima. Regular readers of this blog will know that Sakurajima is almost always erupting, usually in the form of small explosions from one of the craters (Minami-dake and Showa). However, occasionally things get a little noisier at the restless volcano

Japan's Sakurajima Volcano Has Violent Explosion 

The Sakurajima volcano in Japan had it's most violent explosion since 2009, Japanese media and other sources are reporting. Japan's most active volcano in recent years, it had completed the year 2011 with the highest number of explosions on record since people began counting. Activity at the volcano shows no signs of slowing down. Sakurajima is a complex stratovolcano with many vents, only a couple of the vents have been active in historical time. the volcanic complex is constructed within [...]

New eruption at Japan's Aso caldera 

Japan has had a quite a year within geologic activity - some of it very tragic, some of it less so. Volcanically, both Sakurajima and Kirishima have put on shows that captured the attention of the world. Now it seems that another Japanese volcano might be joining the list for 2011. The Japanese ...Read

Kirishima and Sakurajima seen from space (and more!) 

Quick updates for today, all centered on the Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, along with this great new MODIS image from the NASA Earth Observatory (a semi-exclusive right now to Eruptions) - both Sakurajima and Kirishima in the same shot of Kyushu, showing ...Read

Friday Flotsam: Updates on Bulusan, Merapi, Sakurajima and Kamchatka 

We've made it through another week! Some news to round it out. Bulusan: The Philippine volcano continues to produce ash plumes, but PHIVOLCS announced that none of the ash sampled thus far appears to be from fresh, new magma. How do they know this? Well, the morphology (shape) of the ash shards can ...Read

Tuesday Tidbits: Eyjafjallajökull, Yasur, mud on Mars and more 

Finally, a chance to catch up a bit ... ! Yasur erupting in May of 2010. Some news from the world of volcanoes: The BBC has a series of videos one the fallout from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption - including a look at the area around the volcano and how the economy has been affected by the eruption. However, things seem pretty quiet at the summit of the Eyjafjallajökull summit where snow can begun to settle without melting - and the Icelandic Met Office appears to think that the eruption [...]

GVP Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for June 16-22, 2010 

The latest news from the world of volcanoes, brought to us by the Global Volcanism Program, USGS and the Smithsonian Institution. They are also brought to us by Sally Kuhn Sennert - and if you have a question for her about her job at the GVP preparing the Weekly Volcanic Activity Report and all things volcanic (and hopefully it won't end like another recent volcanically-mitigated interview). Some highlights (not including Gorely and Sakurajima): Ioto (aka Iwojima) in the Volcano Islands of [...]

Sakurajima can't keep its top on, sets new record 

Sakurajima in Japan erupting in 2000. Sometimes, it is the volcanoes that erupt out of the blue that get all the attention, leaving the ones that are constant producers to be ignored by the fawning media. Sakurajima in Japan is just one of those constant erupting volcanoes that doesn't get its just due. Well, over the weekend, Sakurajima broke its own record as it produced its 549th explosive event this year - in June no less - marking the most explosions (video) in a single year at the [...]

Tuesday Tidbits: Testing the volcano-earthquake connection in Chile ... and more! 

Some news for a busy Tuesday: The crater at Poas volcano in Costa Rica, taken February 25, 2010. Image courtesy of OVSICORI by Federico Chavarria. After the MSNBC debacle, it is nice to see some good articles on why the Chilean earthquake was overall less disastrous than the Haitian earthquake, why the tsunami wasn't as large as predicted and why these earthquakes are not abnormal. There are a lot of factors involved - the location, depth, preparedness, wealth - so the comparison can be [...]

Holiday snaps from space: Sakurajima 

Sakurajima Volcano in Japan, taken from the ISS on February 17. Image courtesy of Soichi Noguchi. Eruptions reader Tim Stone sent me a link to the TwitPic feed for Soichi Noguchi, the Japanese astronaut currently on board of the International Space Station. The space traveller got a shot of Sakurajima from space, showing a beautiful plume drifting off - and great detail of the towns and roads near the volcano. Soichi has some other great shots (and comments to go with them), including my old [...]

Wednesday Whatzits: Kilauea takes out the last Royal Gardens home 

News for the snowy (well, here) midweek: Lava flows from Kilauea surround an old structure at Royal Gardens in Hawai`i. A hearty thanks to all the Eruptions readers who offered advice on where to find a couple of great volcano videos I've been trying to track down. I think I've found copies I can get a hold of at the USGS and discovered that Discover Your Northwest (formerly the NW Interpretative Assoc.) is expecting to get a DVD version of one of the videos this spring. The folks at the [...]

Spotlight on two Japanese volcanoes 

Sakurajima in Japan, erupting in December 2009. Image courtesy of Photovolcanica.com Richard Roscoe at Photovolcanica.com has just posted two great sites focusing on two of the most active volcanoes in Japan: Sakurajima and Suwanosejima. These volcanoes are almost constantly erupting with small strombolian events punctuated by occasional plinian eruptions. Sakurajima is on the island of Kyushu (well, technically Kagoshima, but right off the coast of Kyushu) less than 10 miles / 20 km from [...]

Monday Musings: Galeras rumbles, a dome on Mayon, Kilauea lava flows and Sakurajima from space 

All the news to start the week: Galeras with a grey ash-and-steam plume behind Pasto, Colombia. Well, after my article on Friday about Colombian volcanoes, Galeras must have decided it was left out. The volcano has been placed back at alert level Orange/II (eruption in days to weeks). An increase in seismicity and sulfur dioxide emissions (in spanish) prompted INGEOMINAS to put Galeras back on higher alert, but now the country has two volcanoes (Galeras and Huila) that could be erupting in [...]

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 9/30-10/6/2009 

Somehow I missed a week of the SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Reports and almost missed another. Here is this week's update! Highlights (not including Chaiten, Soufriere Hills or Cleveland) include: The alert level at Galeras in Colombia was raised to Red after an explosion on September 30 and returned to orange ... and then yellow ... after activity tapered. Sakurajima in Japan produced 1.8-4.3 km / 6,000-14,000-tall ash-and-steam plumes, along with incandescent tephra that was thrown [...]

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 8/5-11/2009 

Even the SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Report seems a little light -- welcome to the dog days of summer! Highlights from this week's report include: "Thunderous sounds", incandescence and small plumes (hundreds of meters) with more frequent seismicity at Ibu in Indonesia. A sharp increase in sulfur dioxide output was noted at Mayon in the Philippines on August 4 - from ~700-900 tonnes/day to almost 2,000 tonnes/day. ~3,000 meter/10,000 foot gas-and-ash plume from Bagana in Papua New Guinea - you can [...]

Sakurajima Eruption Video 

I am back from the ion microprobe lab at Stanford after a few days of data collection, so I’ll be trying to get back on posting schedule here at Eruptions. However, I did notice this morning at Sakurajima in Japan erupted after rumbling over the weekend. There aren’t many details about the eruption beyond the fact