Posted on 02/02/2010 7:06:54 PM PST by Steve Van Doorn
Since January 17, 2010 Yellowstone has had the second largest swarm ever recorded. The swarms have been steady at about 10 miles in depth and they have subsided a few days ago.
In the past two days the depth has raised up to around 7 miles and in the past couple hours quakes vastly increased.
http://www.quake.utah.edu/helicorder/ymr_webi.htm
http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/111-44.html
Remember this doesn’t mean we will see an eruption and it most likely means a normal volcano. It is very unlikely we will see a caldera eruption.
But these changes are significant and cannot be over looked
Some history:
Since the most recent giant caldera-forming eruption, 640,000 years ago, approximately 80 relatively nonexplosive eruptions have occurred. Of these eruptions, at least 27 were rhyolite lava flows in the caldera, 13 were rhyolite lava flows outside the caldera and 40 were basalt vents outside the caldera. Some of the eruptions were approximately the size of the devastating 1991 Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines, and several were much larger. The most recent volcanic eruption at Yellowstone, a lava flow on the Pitchstone Plateau, occurred 70,000 years ago.
Fascinating.
Thx.
Thanks thanks.
Will try to get to them this evening.
Those were three independent and objective looks at the Icelandic hotspot, it will be continued to noticed as one due to other factors eroding the tetra as quick as it does but I think if you reanalyze your hot plume graph:
http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/harvard-plumes.GIF
you will note that it is in agreement that there is not a hotspot plume under or near Iceland.
A lengthy PDF file on the magma intrusion under Eyjafjöll.
http://www.vedur.is/media/vedurstofan/utgafa/skyrslur/2009/VI_2009_013.pdf
If you want to follow along here is Iceland Met Office monitoring page.
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/
Page does not refresh on it’s own.
Those in the know up there are thinking this is going to blow soon, as in real soon!
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/03/increasing_signs_of_activity_a.php
Steve, I know you don’t believe in it but this could be a really big.
Interesting.
Thanks.
What’s opposite the globe from the 8.8 Chile quake?
3rd of August, so we’ve got time.
This graph plots the earthquakes recorded yesterday in a three dimensional view. Note the pattern suggests large scale magma intrusion from depth and the most fascinating aspect to be the quakes observed near the surface contained in the glacier field itself. Truly great work went into this graph!
http://666kb.com/i/bhjf4ob7ghdmopulg.jpg
Fascinating.
I love graphs like that.
INDEED.
The Yellowstone one like it is also well done, imho.
Don’t have the link handy. The one showing the plume way down deep and far off . . . orange globules in 3 D
An interesting article from NYTIMES on Iceland’s Ice-capped cano’s!
snip
Nearly 60 percent of volcanic eruptions in Iceland occur beneath glacial ice.
That is what worries scientists. Katla, one of Iceland’s most notorious volcanoes, has erupted five times since 1721, at intervals ranging from 34 to 78 years. The last one was in 1918, so an eruption may be overdue.
“Basically everything you see to the east of Reykjavik is a wall of mountains formed in eruptions under glaciers,” said Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, who added, “Katla has been showing signs of unrest over the last few years.”
To head off catastrophe, geologists and civil engineers here have developed an extensive, exquisitely sensitive monitoring system intended to provide early warnings of floods. It has issued 16 accurate forecasts since 2001, though it has yet to contend with a major eruption.
When the birth pains of an eruption begin, pressurized magma oozes toward the surface of the volcano, leaving boiling groundwater in its path. Glacial ice acts as a lid on a giant pressure cooker: the thicker the ice, the more force with which it presses back against the erupting lava.
When a volcano erupts, magma as hot as 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit meets ice and boiling water, sending vast plumes of steam and rock particles rocketing upward in what Matthew J. Roberts, a glaciologist with the Icelandic Meteorological Office, compares to a classic mushroom cloud.
That is not all. Steam combines with tiny particles raining out of the eruption to create high static charges, causing lightning strikes several times a second. The 1918 eruption of Katla is said to have killed hundreds of heads of livestock grazing nearby - by electrocution.
Then come the jokulhlaups. “An eruption beneath a thick glacier often leads to a hazardous glacial flood that can begin within minutes to several hours after the eruption has started,” Dr. Roberts said.
Floods after a volcanic eruption are a mixture of water, ash, mud and ice; they tend to leave the surrounding countryside covered in ash.
Records from floods in the 1800’s indicate that icebergs of Titanic proportions were seen drifting near farmhouses. And one flood is thought to have heaved ice blocks for miles. Geologists are still uncovering this ice, which was buried by so much insulating debris that it is still there more than 150 years later.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/science/17icel.html
Second page is an interesting read as well.
Ahh, that’s okay, I think I remember the one you speak of!
Yes it is a fantastic job.
SigmaPlot was the name of the program. I am not familiar with it.
thought you might like to read this article. It was penned by a weather Met and seems like he has caught the EQ-Bug but it was still informative to some degree.
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