Volcano of the Week #28 - Calbuco

I appear to now to be doing the series about Chilean volcanoes that I said I would write for my friend as she was travelling there. The timing is obviously very apt as she has now left Chile so this will all be really useful travel information. I do keep having to write about volcanoes in Chile as they keep fucking erupting, which may or may not be down to her visit, causing volcanic eruptions would be a great superpower. The latest volcano to erupt is Calbuco in the South which is one of the country's most eruptive volcanoes and there was a very large eruption in 1893. This recent eruption has caused evacuations and flight cancellations and is the first major eruption in over 30 years. There are loads of amazing photos of the eruption which everyone has probably seen already. 

Volcano of the Week #27 - Villarrica

Right so I haven't done a post in fucking ages but I'm not gonna be all like - relaunch, yeah I'm back! Because I keep doing that and then not posting again so I'm hoping that I can casually start posting again and no one will ever notice anything and it will just be an indication of my great new life. So basically ages ago my mate was all like 'I'm going to Chile to see volcanoes and shit, can you write about them?' and I was all like 'yeah course I will mate, that's pretty much my thing' so I wrote about Easter Island - where she's obviously not going as its in the middle of fucking nowhere. Then more recently she was all like 'I'm in fucking Chile, the volcano I was going to climb has just erupted, can you find out whats going on?' and 'I was like, yeah of course - that's totally my thing', which I didn't do like the twat I am. The other reason (I think that this is an indication of my staggering immaturity) is that whenever someone says that they are doing something slightly fun or exciting, there's a part of me that a bit too jealous to even slightly engage with anything to do with the fun or exciting thing. Which is obviously fucking ridiculous and petty, also mylife is so fucking great that I spent yesterday evening watching masterchef and making a coral reef to go in my fireplace. But back to the volcano.

Its hard not to be jealous when people send you photos like this!

Villarrica was the volcano that erupted and I know that I'm well behind as there is also the Vanuatu volcano but I can only deal with one eruption at a time as I've been working in admin for 5 months and through under stimulation my brain is seriously struggling. Villarrica is one of those volcanoes that erupts quite frequently but rarely massively - although this has been a fairly large eruption and thousands of people have had to evacuate the area. It's also up there with Mount Fuji in the classic volcano looks - snow capped, lake and forest. The lake is also called Villarrica as is a town and national park. The alert has now been degraded and the exclusion zone has been reduced but probably not enough for my mate to be able to climb it, although she did say that she would do some writing for me - cos she's a babe, I'm lazy and she should really pay some penance for having lots of fun.

Volcano of the Week #26 - Mount Ontake

It's been a while since I've done one of these and it's a bit of a sad one. I've been planning stuff for the blog all week but considering the nature of volcanoes, it is fitting that my plan was disrupted by yesterdays eruption. It's quite big news so I imagine people know quite a lot about it (probably more than me). Mount Ontake is Japan's second biggest volcano, after Fuji, both volcanoes are in the mountainous Chubu region which is just south and west of Tokyo. Its quite hard to find out exactly when the volcano last erupted but there hasn't been a major eruption in modern times. So far over 30 people have died in the eruption, the volcano is a popular hiking spot particularly at this time of year and it's pretty beautiful, it also has religious significance and there are temples and shrines in the area.

as I said, beauts

There were hundreds of people who did manage to evacuate the volcano and the eruption had little warning. Obviously (lying on a fault line) volcanic activity in Japan is quite high and there was a bit of seismic activity but not enough to suggest the volcano was about to erupt so soon. I'm no volcanologist but what I do know is that predicting eruptions is difficult and not exactly accurate all the time. Climbing volcanoes is a risk but so are most worthwhile things (also mundane ones like crossing the road). So hopefully there will be no more fatalities and the rescue efforts go smoothly. There are loads of awesome (in the true sense of the word) pictures and videos of the eruption and here is a more scientific blog if people are interested.

Really scary video. 

Volcano of the Week #24 - Popocatepetl

I realise that this is actually the first volcano of the week that I've done all year making Popocateptl the volcano of the year! Yay congratz! lolz! etc... This is appropriate as Popocateptl has very much been the most active volcano of the year apart from maybe Etna (but @IAmMountEtna, so we've covered that base) unless I'm forgetting another big eruption this year. Which is likely as it's already May- Fuck where has this year gone- oh yeah I remember. Back to Popo (which is what Popocateptl lets you call him when you're friends, but he's not that great a friend- bit moody), the wiki entry is a bit short so I might just make some stuff up - that's just me covering my back in case someone tells me my information is incorrect.

Popo is around 70km southeast of Mexico City, part of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt and 5,426m tall. The volcano used to be covered in glaciers however these became extinct in 2001. The crater is a massive 400x600m, the volcano formed around 730,000 years ago. During the last 20 years or so Popo has become very active and since 1993 one can almost constantly see smoke rising from the crater. In April this year Popo had a pretty large eruption and covered a lot of the surrounding area in ash, in some places up to 7cm thick (reminds me of my old living room). And has continued to do this for about a month, putting the area on alert, an eruption is of particular concern due to the proximity to Mexico City. Thank to this site one of my new hobbies is watching volcanoes on webcams and here is Popo if you wanna check what it's up to.

There are a lot of cool legends about Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, which is a lady mountain north of Popo and I'm not just gendering volcanoes- they're in the stories. What Wikipedia is telling me is that there are three versions of the legend- however I'm sure there are many others. The first (which is a bit Romeo and Juliet) is that Popo went to war under the instruction of Izta's (to he was betrothed) father. As Izta's dad was unhappy about the union he told Izta that Popo had died in battle and Izta died of grief when Popo heard this he lay down beside Izta and killed himself. They were both covered in snow and then turned into mountains and Popo is the volcano because he's angry. In the next version, which is very like the Ruapehu, Tongariro, Taranki volcano story, Popo and Izta are engaged however Xinantecatl (Nevado del Toluca) wants to get it on with Izta. So Xina and Popo have a massive fight and Popo ends up throwing a massive stone and decapitating Xina.

The final one is that Izta was the daughter of the Emperor and Empress of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) and she loved Popo who was the leader of a tribe. One day Popo and tribe went off to battle and one day a warrior who hated Popo (who told him he wore crap shirts when he was on TV or something) sent a message to the Emperor that Popo had died in battle. Izta was very upset and became ill and died through sadness, when Popo came back the Emperor told him Izta had died. Popo carried Izta a long way and then made a funeral table, he then died of sadness watching over Izta, the gods were moved and turned them into mountains, the volcano stills smokes to let us know he is looking over Izta. 

Hopefully it'll less than 6 months before I do another volcano of the week as writing that was fun.

Volcano of the Week #23 - Santa Maria

This is the decade volcano that I don't know much about and therefore decided to feature as the next volcano of the week whenever I could be bothered to write it, that time is now. The volcano is in Guatemala in the Sierra Madre range, which is featured in the excellent film 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' starring Humphrey Bogart. For obvious reasons I get the 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' confused with 'High Sierra' but 'High Sierra' is the one with Ida Lupino and the dog and the 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' is the one with gold, hope that clears things up. That's probably enough about Humphrey Bogart films so back to the volcano, Santa Maria was responsible for a massive eruption (VEI= 6) in 1902, making it one of the 4 largest eruptions of the 20th century. Before this eruption the volcano had been dormant for around 500 years and the eruption was preceeded by an earthquake in April that year. The eruption began on the 24th October and produced around 5.5 cubic km of tephra and was seen in San Francisco. 5,000 were killed as a result of the eruption however a following outbreak of malaria killed many more, wikipedia is unable to tell me if these two things are linked so we will never know.

In 1922 a new lava dome was formed in crater of the eruption 20 years earlier, this has been christened Santiaguito. Santiaguito erupts almost constantly, the summit of Santa Maria is above Santiaguito making exciting eruption viewing opportunities. Santa Maria is a decade volcano which means it is thought to be possible of damaging civilisations, the main threat from the volcano is lahars (mudflows), they are slow moving so more likely to damage buildings than people. The volcano has previously damaged the town of El Palmar in the Quetzaltenango department, so severely that the town has had to be relocated twice a bridge was also destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Stan. The origin site of the town is now to be entered at YOUR OWN RISK but I suppose that's true of anywhere. It is also close to Guatemala's second largest city Quetzaltenango.

Volcano of the Week # 22 - Mount St. Helens

This weeks volcano of the week is mainland's USA most famous volcano, Mount St. Helens, its best known eruption in 1980. It's in Washington (near Vancouver, not to be confused with the Canadian Vancouver) and part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc which starts in Alaska and through Canada and back down into the USA. I do find it annoying how it's American then not and then is again (incidentally America and Not America is how many Americans think the world is divided). It's a pretty volcano and known as the Mount Fuji of America due to dominance over the landscape, however after the 1980 eruption much of the volcano was destroyed and it has become less pretty and Fuji-like. Compared to other cascade volcanoes it is very active and young so the Justin Bieber of volcanoes if you will (is it worrying that he was the first young person I could think of?) As the 1980 eruption is the most famous and probably the most culturally important I will mainly write about that, I will however run through the other eruptive stages as some of them have great names. First we have Ape Canyon (40,000-35,000 years ago); then Cougar (20,000-18,000 years ago); followed by Swift Creek (13,000- 8,000 years ago). The period after those is Spirit Lake which is further divided into Smith Creek, Pine Creek, Castle Creek and Sugar Bowl, then 700 years dormancy was broken by the Kalama period in 1480, the Goat Rocks period lasted from 1800-1857.

 Pre eruption

During eruption

On 18th May 1980, Mount St Helens erupted with a VEI of 5, it was mainland USA largest eruption for 100 years. Prior to this climatic eruption there had been smaller less violent eruptions and earthquakes for a couple of months and there had been a zone of exclusion around the volcano. Due to the forewarning of the eruption it is one of the best photographed eruptions in history, this also helped to limit the fatalities however there were 57 in total. Among these was Harry Randall Truman, as well as the president he also shares a name with the fantastic character from Twin Peaks, who refused to leave Mount St. Helens lodge where he was a caretaker despite the numerous warnings. He became a minor celebrity, gave interviews and received fan letters throughout this time and is thought to have died with his 16 cats but friends and family said he would have wanted to die with the lake and mountain and couldn't have lived without them as he knew them. The eruption caused the north face of the volcano was destroyed which changed its shape dramatically, Spirit Lake which lies next to the volcano is significantly smaller and shallower after the eruption. After the eruption the area was preserved as a National Monument by Ronald Reagan, Mount St Helens last erupted in 2008.

From Portland

Volcano of the Week #21 - Anak Krakatau

It's erupting again which is pretty exciting, the volcano isn't actually that exciting, the main interest of Anak Krakatau is that it was Krakatoa. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883 it blew itself and its island apart, over years and years of tectonic activity another volcanic island Anak Krakatau grew and was visible in 1927. However due to frequent eruptions that followed the island kept disappearing and reappearing, Anak Krakatau in its current form didn't materialise until 1930 and it continues to grow at about 13cm per week. I like the idea of a young volcano struggling to form and become its own entity especially when it has such a large legacy to live up to. It's one of my favourite volcanoes though because of this history and also because it has such a distinctive shape. It is still growing and erupting so I suppose the future for this young volcano is fairly unknown but eruptions are frequent and tend to be Strombolian, the last one has been going on for a while and it has erupted earlier this year.

I wrote a sonnet about the original Krakatoa (when I say wrote I mean it was found in the ruins after the 1883 eruption) for the new travel zine which has just gone to print (when I say gone to print I mean sent to my parents) and I was going to post it here in celebration but I can't remember it. So you can have Bjork's plate tectonic song instead. The moon one is also really really good so if you want to diverse from volcanoes I strongly recommend that one.

New zine should be printed and up next week, let me know if you want one (when I say want one I mean to buy, I am unemployed)

Volcano of the Week #20 - Whakaari

This is a tiny volcano island in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand and is also known as the White Island, but that's not as fun. Its about 2km in diameter and the volcano rises about 300m out of the sea. It is an active stratovolcano which last erupted in 2001. While the volcano had obviously previously been known to Maori who named it Whakaari, which means 'that which can be made visible' which is an accurate name as much of the volcano lies underwater, it was 'discovered' in 1769 by Captain Cook who called it White Island. This was because it was immersed in a cloud of smoke so it looked white, but the didn't realise it was a volcano, I know I'm no explorer but I could have probably told you that the large mountain spewing fire and smoke was probably a volcano. I'm glad I was never in Cook at St Peters- to explain this reference my junior school houses were divided into explorers, I was in Scott which totally ruled, the others were Cook, Raleigh and Drake- they sucked. The Maori used the sulphur from the volcano as garden fertiliser and ate the muttonbirds that lived on the island, the later sold the island to the Dutch for 2 barrels of rum - sounds like a great deal.

Later they tried to use the island to mine sulphur, which may sound like an incredibly stupid thing to do but there are volcanoes in the world where they still mine sulphur. The stopped doing it on Whakaari after a mudflow from the volcano killed all 10 workers- according to wikipedia the camp cat survived- I hope by this they mean he was a bit hammy. The sulphur was used for an anitbacterial aid to sterilise corks and stuff. The island is a scenic reserve and you cannot land without permission so take this into consideration when visiting all volcanoes of the world. There is a drama school called Toi Whakaari which looks pretty cool if you like that sort of thing.

Finally I strongly recommend looking at this on googlemaps- but I say that about everything. 

Volcano of the Week #19 - Soufiere Hills

I have mentioned this volcano before which is located on Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory, and was reminded of it when someone commented on a post below about the Lashings cricket team. It is not however the only volcano in British Territory, there is one on the South Sandwich Islands which sounds very fun and some others in some other places. After a long period of dormancy, the volcano erupted in 1995 and has been going pretty much ever since; the most destructive eruptions took place from 1995-1999. The eruptions destroyed the capital Plymouth and almost half the island. Around two thirds of the population fled the island, many of whom settled in the UK. The UK was criticised for not giving enough aid after the disaster; Claire Short was particularly shit (which is a statement that I only want to link to this particular event), lack of aid is so often the case in the wake of these tragic events. I think it's no coincidence that natural disasters tend to happen in poorer places as due to less stable weather and conditions places cannot grow crops and have limited agriculture which ultimately leads to less stable industry. Then the poorer nations stay poor as we live in a horrible capitalist society so when these terrible disasters strike, the wonderful western world is slow to act. If you look at large nations like America they don't even provide enough aid to their poorer states which I think happened during Hurricane Katrina. Anyway back to the volcano before I go on an even longer, more boring and more agricultural rant.

The volcano is still fairly active and an evacuation order was issued during the 2006 eruption. No eruptions from Soufiere Hills have been particularly large (1995 only had a VEI of 3), it was the fact that the volcano had been dormant for so long and the unexpectedness of the eruption which caused so much chaos. The volcano is also dramatic as due to its large scale on the island and its style of eruption, which follows the dome growth and collapse pattern, eruptions have dramatically changed the landscape on Montserrat. So in every way this small island has been totally altered by the eruptions that took place; it is probably more noticeable in a small community that everything is linked, however larger nations should also not forget this.

There is also a song about Soufiere Hills, well not that much about it, it's really just about volcanoes in general. But according to wiki SH is the namesake.

This will go on the up and coming Volcano Club compilation CD which will be ready when Alice Purton has written her fucking volcano song!

Finally in volcano and Bjork news my mummy heard her on front row talking about lovely volcanoes so I will have to listen to that (this is primarily a reminder to myself).

Volcano of the Week #18 - Puyehue-Cordon Caulle

For the second time in the long history of this feature the volcano of the week is more accurately comprised of multiple volcanoes- in this case four or two (depending on how accurate you are being, all kinds of stratovolcanoes and fissure vents). There is a fault along the Andes which causes all of this volcanism. As this Chilean volcano has been erupting for a while now it's probably high time that I covered it. This eruption started on 3rd June and has caused flight chaos across the southern hemisphere (this definitely happens a lot these days) and the ash cloud has reached Cape Town, Buenos Aires and Melbourne. The eruption has been accompanied by many earthquakes which is characteristic of the plates here, the eruption has also been accompanied by violent storms. Around 3,000 people have been evacuated from the area however as many people have had to leave their livestock in the area this was not well received. The threat to livestock is large and Argentina have declared a state of emergency for farmers which is likely to be the biggest and longest lasting implication of this eruption. This has been seen in many previous eruptions such as Tambora and Laki which have caused loss of crop and famine. Another notable eruption of Puyehue-Cordon Caulle was in 1960 after the largest earthquake ever recorded showing again the unstable plate tectonics in Chile. My favourite thing about this volcano is probably the flora as the volcano is located in a temperature rainforest and then turns in tundra and desert which must be pretty spectacular. 

Volcano of the Week #17 - Mount Teide

This volcano is located on the Canary Islands (Tenerife), is Spain's highest point (3,718m) and the third largest volcano in the world. The last eruption was in 1909, despite the volcano's dormancy it is a decade volcano and it is thought that it may erupt at any time soon. The park surrounding the volcano is a World Heritage Site and is the second most visited volcanic landscape after Mount Fuji. Like Fuji the volcanic soils have given the area rich soils and unique plant life. Tenerife has 33 endemic plant species which are thought to be a result of the nutrient rich soils provided by the pyroclastic flows. The habitat on the volcano is harsh and the plants have therefore adapted to these conditions and have semi-spherical forms, waxy coating and high flower production. I am aware that no one apart from me is interested in plant adaptations so I'll start writing about volcanoes, which you would hope is a common interest to people reading this blog.

There are legends relating to Teide, the Guanches aborigines believed that their devil (Guayota) trapped their god of light (Magec) inside the volcano. The supreme god Achaman then fought Guayota and imprisoned him inside the volcano. This story is quite similar the legend of Typhon becoming trapped inside Etna; it's interesting how different cultures come up with similar legends to explain their volcanoes, however I am sure there are many reasons for this which classical scholars could explain to me. 

The island was formed by the activity of three volcanoes going through four stages of eruption which resulted in Teide's current caldera. This is thought to be formed by either the vertical collapse of the volcano or a series of lateral gravitational collapses. There have been many historical eruptions of Teide, one is thought to have been witnessed by Colombus as he sailed to the new world. Teide remains an important symbol to Tenerife and is on their coat of arms (I have written about volcano flags before so it's good to know that there are some). Finally I would like to dedicate this post to my friend Ian Teader whose name is a bit like Teide. 

Volcano of the Week #16- Paricutin

I have been looking at Mexican volcanoes recently mainly because my Daddy told about the artist Dr Atl who was a revolutionary in both the political and artistic sense. I'll write more on the subject soon, I'm sure, but I thought I'd first write about the volcano that has made them a prominent feature in Mexican culture. There is also literature on the subject such as Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, which is on my volcano reading list (I do have one). Paricutin is amazing as it emerged in 1941 as the farmer was plowing his fields and reached five stories high in a week. For the first year of it's life it grew rapidly in a pyroclastic phase (high speed gaseous eruptions). The volcano continued growing and erupting then stopped in 1952 at 424m high and has been dormant since; most cinder cones tend to only erupt once (mongenetic). As the trans-mexican belt is large there is frequent volcanism in the area, however it is the rapid growth of this volcano that is so iconic.

 Erupting

 Not erupting

Paricutin is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. (Wikipedia fact of the day is that there are also Seven Wonders of Wales which are all in North Wales so its not very comprehensive.) The Volcano buried nearby villages in ash and they had to be evacuated. While the volcano erupted without warning the relatively small size gave people warning to sort themselves out.  Despite the rapid growth of the volcano it caused few fatalities, the biggest loses were to crops and subsequently livestock but this effect was reduced due to the rich nature of volcanic soils. 

This website is devoted to Paricutin

Dr Atl painting

News Relating to Love, Lust and Lava, I have 20 copies left, let me know if you want one and I'm currently in the process of setting Thera aka Kolumbo with a very hot date!

Volcano of the Week #15 - Vesuvius

As stated before I will try and cover all the volcanoes you can vote for. Amazingly although I have written about Vesuvius before it has never been volcano of the week so I though I would rectify that. Vesuvius has also been on my mind this week as I have received a copy of the exhibition catalogue for the Volcano exhibition that I went to at Compton Verney last year in which Vesuvius was the most widely featured volcano. The catalogue was very kindly sent to me by the exhibition's curator for which I am very thankful.

Andy Warhol- Vesuvius

Vesuvius is such a well documented volcano that it is quite hard to write about, The chapter in the exhibition catalogue is called 'The Romance of Vesuvius' which is very apt and shows how the volcano (the 79AD eruption anyway) is swathed in stories and such a common reference. I'd say about 80% of references to volcanoes are to Vesuvius and the destructive event of 79AD is probably the one that most people of think of when they hear the word volcano. And it's hard to say why as many eruptions, Krakatoa, Laki, have been more powerful and others have been just as dramatic, Santorini which produced the same utter destruction to a civilisation as Vesuvius. It was thought that absolutely no life survived on the island of Krakatoa after the 1883 eruption. I suppose it's partly due to Italy being an important centre for artists which firstly gave it a reputation and the volcanoes popularity has grown. Which is why you find it in paintings by Warhol and in songs by Flaming Lips and Sufjan Stevens (I should probably make a volcano compilation CD) and in novels by Susan Sontang and Robert Harris. I think that for me Vesuvius is almost an embodiment of everything I love about volcanoes, the amount of myth and legend relating to it, the references in popular culture and art, and the geological features of the eruption. I do however think that the fascination with Vesuvius is a very Western thing, as Mount Fuji is an equally well documented and referenced, although doesn't have the same destructive history.

Some people hanging out by Vesuvius 

What I should probably say about Vesuvius is that in 79AD it produced a Plinian eruption (the term Plinian comes from Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger who died in and witnessed the eruption retrospectively) and buried the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii which were discovered in 1599. The eruption preserved the towns remarkably well has given the town a ghostly and eerie feeling.

Modern Vesuvius

This has been quite a strange Volcano of the Week for which I apologise. In other volcano news I have done lots for the new zine and there will be a volcano round at my pub quiz on Tuesday, I'll let you know how it goes. 

Volcano of the Week #14- Eyjafjallajoekull

While creating a page for the new volcano club zine- 'Love, Lust and Lava' (I'm allowed to plug myself, it's my website) about the volcanoes in the favourite volcano poll (again allowed to plug), I realised that I hadn't featured all of the five volcanoes as volcanoes of the week. As that sentence was ridiculously long it seems to appropriate to write about a volcano with a ridiculously long name- Eyjafjallajoekull. As I'm sure most people know it's Icelandic and therefore amazing. I have been complaining about the bad names of volcanoes recently and I'm slightly disappointed to find out that Eyjafjallajoekull means island-mountain glacier, at least it's accurate. There were fairly large eruptions in 1821 (which was the same year that Napoleon died) but it's probably the 2010 that  is better researched/ more written about on wikipedia.

There was air disruption in Europe during this period and it saw the biggest disruption to air travel since WWII. The eruption created a massive ash cloud that made visibility very low. Volcanic ash clouds also contain small, abrasive fragments of glass; caused by the rapid cooling of particles, which when moving at hight velocity, as ash was moving directly into a jet stream can cause massive problems to plane windscreens. Which is why to some people ash clouds are known as nature's sandblaster (to find this amusing you need to have a knowledge of both volcanoes and glass, so the joke is niche at best). If you do want to read up on this subject more the best place is probably the first volcano club issue- to which there is a link to on the right hand side of the page.

The eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull is often followed by the eruption of a larger and more powerful volcano- Katla, however this hasn't happened yet...

Volcano of the Week #13 - Erta Ale

As some people would rather do work than play Ghettopoly (which is a ghetto version of monopoly) my evening's entertainment consisted of asking my housemate Spam/Lewis to choose the volcano of the week from my volcano book. The result was Ethiopia's most active volcano Erta Ale which is a 613m height shield volcano on the border with Eritrea. Erta Ale means smoking mountain- I really wish people would name volcanoes more imaginatively, it would certainly make volcano or nocano more fun. Although one pit of Erta Ale is known as the gateway to hell, which is nicer. Erta Ale is located in the Afar Depression which contains the lowest point in Africa- 155 meters below sea level, the land surrounding the volcano is all below sea level.

 Looks a bit like Piton de la Fournaise

The most remarkable feature of Erta Ale is probably its lava lake which at 90 years is thought to be the oldest (and one of the only) in the world. One of the only other volcanoes with lava lakes is last "weeks" volcano- Mount Erebus which must be truly stunning in the frozen landscape. A lava lake is pretty much what it sounds; a crater filled with hot bubbling lava covered by a thin black crust so kinda like cooking porridge, polenta or old soup. It is when cracks in this skin appear that we see the volcanoes beauty when lava spurts and fissures form. Erta Ale's tends to have fairly non-explosive eruptions, VEI around 2- but it is none the less a beautiful spectacle. The lava lake the cover image for Earth on Fire and has some of the books best images- which is why is this weeks volcano of the week and I believe it's my first Africano. 

Best book ever!

Volcano of the Week #12 - Mount Erebus

This volcano was an answer on University Challenge this week (an episode I am yet to watch) which according to my muumy is a good enough reason to for it to be volcano of the week.

Being in Antarctica, Erebus is the most southerly active volcano, it has been constantly active since 1972 and was also active on discovery in 1841 by Henry Peake. The volcano was named after Peake's ship which is named after the Greek God, who represented all darkness and shadow (the child of chaos and darkness).  It wasn't until 1908 that its peak was climbed by Ernest Shackleton, I'm sure avid google logo fans will know it was his birthday a few days ago. The volcano is similar to Etna in some respects as they are both stratovolcanoes with stratocones and eruptions tend to be strombolian. The volcano is 3,794 m high, its phonolitic lava lake is among the longest lasting on Earth and Erebus crystals can be found on its slopes. 

 Penguin and a volcano!

Once again we find a link between volcanoes and air disasters however this time not due to pyroclastic debris in the air (or natures sandblaster). On a sightseeing flight from New Zealand over Antarctica a plane crashed into the volcano and all 257 people on the plane were killed. The crash was due to the coordinates of the flight being changed and the crew not being told (or something similar). The recovery and identification of the bodies was a particularly distressing ordeal. 

Volcano of the week always ends being quite a sad feature I would try and rectify it but it is really the nature of volcanoes. 

Volcano of the Week #11 - Poas

Costa Rica is a country full of beautiful and powerful volcanoes due to the 'crumple zone' caused by the meeting of the North American Plate and the South American Plate. It is also a country that I've been to, well San Jose airport (which counts) and while trying to avoid weird Americans on missions, I do remember that it was very beautiful and surrounded by large hills. According to googlemaps Poas is 43 mins away from San Jose by car, apparently you can't walk there, this stratovolcano is 2,708m high and pretty active; it erupted in December. The volcanoes proximity to the epicentre of the 2009 earthquake caused new fractures to open up in the volcano and an increase in fumarole (gas) activity. In January 2010 the increase in geothermal activity saw a Phreatic eruption occur, which is basically a steam explosion and occurred in one of Poas crater lakes. The largest is the aptly named Laguna Caliente where vents reach up to 800 degrees Celsius. The warm water (50 degrees) and the stunning views may make you think that this is lake is an ideal place for a bath, however your skin would probably fall off because this lake is extremely acidic with a pH close to zero. Sadly a side effect of this is that there is a lot of acid rain in the region which can damage ecosystems. The other lake is located in an inactive crater and surrounded by a could forest so maybe a better place for a swim. 

The picture that made me want to write about Poas.          Laguna Caliente
(both from Earth on Fire, my fave book in the world apart from War and Peace and Comet in Moominland)

Right I'm going to bathe in acid and eat a creme egg and maybe do some origami.
p.s sorry for lack of volcanic activity but have just started a new job.

Volcano of the Week #10- Mount Etna

Etna is Europe's most active volcano and the second largest after Teide in Tenerife. This Sicilian stratovolcano is 3,328m high and is almost constantly active, eruptions tend to have a VEI of 1 or 2. It is a decade volcano and despite today's gentle eruption it has reeked havoc in the past, a Plinian eruption was thought to have occurred in 122BC which caused roof collapses in Catania (Sicily's second city). Etna's most violent eruption killed around 15,000 in Catania on 11th Marck 1669, the only violent eruption since then was in 1928, the village of Mascali was completely destroyed and only a church was left standing. Further tragedy followed this event as Mussolini used rebuilding the village as an exercise in fascist propaganda and the newly built church had a fascist symbol placed above Jesus Christ. Although recent eruptions have not caused much damage to the island they have destroyed the Etna Observatory and other towns have narrowly missed volcanic destruction, the 2001 eruption was particularly violent. The most recent eruption occurred earlier this year on 13th January causing airport closure but no damage to inhabited areas. Etna's summit has four craters, numerous cinder cones and fissure vents around which yellow sulphur crusts can be seen. The soils at the base of Etna are extremely fertile and home to orchards and vineyards.

Etna's four craters 

 Etna's Strombolian eruption in February 1998

Both from Bernhard Edmaier's 'Earth on Fire'

 

In addition to magma Etna is also home to Typhon, the monster of all monsters in Greek mythology. He has a human upper half which reaches the stars, his hands contain a hundred dragons head, the lower half of his body is made from viper coils and his whole body is covered in wings. Along with Hades, Gaia and Demeter he is a chthonic (underworld) figure. One day Typhon went a bit mental and had a fight with Zeus which caused earthquakes and tsunamis, finally Zeus laced Etna on top of Typhon and trapped him there. Typhon is therefore the cause of all volcanic eruptions. 

In non volcanic news Happy Birthday to my mummy, Vic Reeves and Nastassja Kinski.

Volcano of the Week #9- Mount Fuji

It has been a while since I've done this feature some would say too long, some would say not long enough and most were probably blissfully unaware that it ever was a feature. I thought I'd write about what (for reasons that I am about to describe) is fast becoming my favourite volcano, you can vote for your favouritcano at the link at the side. My love of Mount Fuji has started partly because I got two Christmas presents relating to it (boxcano and diarycano, see the post a couple down) and is probably after Vesuvius the most common volcano in popular culture. The most famous representations of Mount Fuji are two series both called Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai (boxcano) and Hiroshige (diarycano), if this is making sense to anyone I'll be impressed. Below is an image from each of those series. 

 Hokusai- The Great Wave. Which is apparently the best painting ever, obviously after Rolf Harris' portrait of The Queen

Twilight Hill- Hiroshige (the other chap)

Fuji is a stratovolcano which is 60 miles outside Tokyo so overlooks the city, making it such a prominent feature in Japanese culture. At 3,776m it's Japan's highest point, it's last eruption was in 1707. The Aokigahara forest at the base of Fuji is surrounded by myths of supernatural beings and in recent times it's gained a reputation as the world's second most popular suicide site after Golden Gate Bridge. The forest is incredibly dense, the floor consists of hard volcanic rock and has signs urging potential suicidees to reconsider. The trees are mainly white cedar, pine and boxwood. I guess there are pro and cons to the volcanic soil and amazing flora there but all I can find out about is suicides so if anyone who has like a degree in Plant Science wants to tell me about the flora that'd be great. The younger Fuji was formed mainly between 11,000 to 8,000 years ago, flank vents were formed between 2000 and 3000 years ago, the 1707 eruption created a new crater. 

Aokigahara Forest

 Massively Japanese

Volcano of the Week #8 - Lakagígar

Lakagigar or Laki is Iceland's premier volcano, it's close to the the village of Kirkjubaejarklaustur and lots of other Icelandic places that I've never heard of. The mountain is called Laki, however as it is actually the fissure vents that have the volcanic activity so the volcano's name is Lakagígar (craters of Laki). Lakagígar's largest known eruption was on 8th June 1783, the entire eruption lasted until 7th February 1784. Though in this time the eruption downgraded from a massive Strombolian with a VEI of 6 to a gentle Hawaiian. The consequences of this eruption were huge and pretty much caused the French Revolution. The resulting problems termed The Mist Hardships killed off a quarter of Iceland's human population and half of the cattle and horses. 

It was not just Iceland that was affected by this natural disaster mainly due to the size of the eruption; Europe's entire industrial output of sulphur dioxide in 2006 was only a third of that from Lakagigar. The following year weather was extreme in Europe with hot, hazy summers and harsh winters (the New-England winter in 1784 was also notably cold). In Britain around 30,000 died from sulphur poisoning and around 8,000 from the cold which contained 28 days of unbroken frost. The frost had bad effects on harvests throughout Europe; leading to famine and, in France, political unrest which climaxed as the Revolution in 1789. France was not the country to suffer from Lakagigar-induced famine as Egypt lost around a sixth of its population to famine in 1784. 

Like the last Volcano of the Week I'll end with another great religious quote this time from Jón Steingrímsson's fire sermon given as the people of Kirkjubaejarklaustur were in church surrounded by lava flow

"This past week, and the two prior to it, more poison fell from the sky than words can describe: ash, volcanic hairs, rain full of sulfur and saltpeter, all of it mixed with sand. The snouts, nostrils, and feet of livestock grazing or walking on the grass turned bright yellow and raw. All water went tepid and light blue in color and gravel slides turned gray. All the earth's plants burned, withered and turned gray, one after another, as the fire increased and neared the settlements."