Hawaiian volcanoes, Hawaiian eruptions and Hawaii big island.

In Hawaii there is currently a volcano related disaster. This is the slow moving trail of lava from the volcano Kilauea which is located on Hawaii's biggest island, called Hawaii big island. The volcano has been erupting for a really long time (since before I was even born) in a not very violent eruption this type of eruption is called Hawaiian (volcano terminology can be very easy). The reason it is such a disaster is that the lava is travelling towards a town, however as the lava is so slow moving and the eruption has been going on so long people say that this was inevitable. The videos are pretty cool and scary but also make Hawaii look lovely, the video of lava reaching the ocean is just incredible.

Kilauea is thought to be the body of Pele so my theory is that he's still really fucking angry about the state of Brazilian football (hahaha). On a more serious note, the nature of Hawaiian eruptions means that damage is relatively low which obviously isn't much of a comfort if your home and land is being destroyed.

I will try and write a longer post but I working full time which is leaving me fucking knackered. 

Eruption update

Sinabung was one of the first volcanoes of the week, way back in September 2010, (amazing that this format of VC has been going for so long) and has since been erupting sporadically (trying to up my clueless references). Before this the volcano had been dormant for 400 years. The volcano is in North Sumatra which is one of Indonesia's biggest islands and has been severely deforested (but that's a topic for later). In general the eruptions haven't been particularly plinian or explosive (VEI = 2) but they have been really fucking ashy. This is really shit because it means that communities have to be evacuated and relocated with crops being destroyed. Constant raining ash must just be so depressing, just seeing endless grey skies and having to protect your homes and families. There was a more violent phase to the eruption in January and February this year which killed 17 people. At the moment the eruption is continuing and the alert level has been raised this week.

See really grey ash

To me it seems that volcanic activity has been increasing lately, but whether this is true or not is in doubt. Obviously no one really knows if it is and there are loads of conflicting theories and I haven't read them, but it is actually really interesting and if I can be bothered I will research it. To summarise possible theories are it's part of climate change/ general planet in crisis shit or that its do to with globalisation/ access to information shit. Which is all very interesting. 

Easter hotspot

A dear friend of the volcano club asked me the write about Chilean volcanoes and after some brief research I'm decided to focus on Easter Island. Which being not being mainland Chile may not be want was wanted but fuck it, it's my blog (aforementioned dear friend is a fan of VCs 'insane amount of swearing'). I didn't really know much about Easter Island apart from the obvious 'blah blah blah shit loads of massive heads blah blah blah how the fuck did they get there blah blah', but there is actually way more interesting stuff than all that bollocks. Such as the island is volcanic and has really interesting vegetation, I suppose that this is quite obvious it being in the middle of the Pacific. The map of the island is very pleasing because it's a nice triangle shape and the three corners have volcanoes in, presumably how the island was formed. All the volcanoes on the island are extinct, the largest is Terevaka, top of the map and is under 4000,000 years old and according to wikipedia easy to walk up, which sounds like a laugh. The island (and volcanic activity) is the result of being between the Nazcar and Pacific plates creating the Easter hotspot, which it's what I'm going to call the VC Easter weekend event.

As I'm sure everyone is aware Easter Island is in the middle of fucking nowhere, the closest inhabited island is Pitcairn which is also in the middle of fucking nowhere. Around 6,000 people live on the island, the island was probably populated around 1000CE with people travelling by canoe from around 2,000 miles away (most probably because they were absolutely mental). After settling the island went through a period of habitat degradation and deforestation (where was REDD when you needed it, little forestry joke for you there), this was caused by clearing and the introduction of the Polynesian rat. Many of the indigenous trees are now completely extinct or extinct in the wild like the toromiro tree which they are trying to reintroduce to the island. Birdman or Tangata Manu cults existed on the island, where members of each clan had to collect the first tern egg of the season from the 3.9 hectare island Moto Nui (bottom left on the map) and swim back to Rapa Nui (Polynesian name for easter island), the winner got to do loads of cool shit for the next year. To get back to the island the contestants had to climb the Orongo volcano and then lead a procession to a beach on the west or to another volcano on the east of the island. The practised was stopped by Christians in the 1860s, then the islanders went through a really shit time with Peruvian slave raiders and small pox. The indigenuous population decreased by 97% in 10 years. There were over 800 statues or Moai found on the island which are made from volcanic ash or tuff (which is easy to work with).  Islanders didn't get Chilean citizenship until 1966. 

Toromiro tree (above) and Rano Raraku (below)

So that's some shit about Easter Island which is pretty cool, there is more interesting stuff about the island like the indigenous rights movement and its the only place they've ever found Polynesian script. But I can't be fucked to write about that now. I might write about more Chilean volcanoes as they do look interesting or more Pacific islands soon.

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. 

New Year, New Island

Following a volcanic eruption in the Red Sea a new island has formed. It is fairly common for underwater eruptions to create new islands but they normally don't last long, sometimes they disappear and regrow many times before becoming stable, this was the case with Anak Krakatau. But for some reason islands in the Red Sea tend to be more stable than in other places. The island has formed around the gaps in the Arabia and Africa tectonic plates close to the Zubair Group of islands between Haycock Island and Rugged Island (which the quick minded among you may have noticed is the name of the 'Rival Island' on Father Ted where Father Dick Byrne lives). The new island has not been named yet, probably because it may not be stable, I don't have any ideas for the name (apart from Craggy Island) but I don't think I'm qualified to name an island.

Perhaps the most interesting example of a new island performing after an eruption is Surtsey which is the southernmost point of Iceland and formed in 1965 and has been eroding away since then. Which has happened to other Icelandic islands formed in this way. Surtsey is interesting because during its short lifetime we have been able to track the formation of life on the island as the island was firstly inhabited by lichen and moss. Flora, birds and insects also live on the island, however it is thought that the island will fade away.

Happy New Year and I only got one volcano related Christmas present this year which I'll post about when I can be bothered. 

If anything will ever make you want to go anywhere

I've just watched this programme Julia Bradbury's Icelandic Walk where she walks up to Eyjafjallajokull and sees lots of beautiful volcanic landscape, hot springs, sulphur vents, nice huts and lovely Icelandic people with jumpers. I really enjoyed the simple explanations of geology which are made easier to understand by seeing the stunning effects they have on the landscape. Another thing that was significant was the recentness of the landscape which means it is quite barren so this not only fascinating from a geological point of view but also a biological one as you will actually be able to see the vegetation and life forming. I just think I'm going to have live in Iceland, be a hut warden and paint volcanoes every day, going to Sweden should bring me a step closer. The lunar like landscape slightly reminded me of the Outer Hebrides which have a similar barren bleakness, geographically they are fairly close too I suppose. I also watched this video which has a nice culinary slant on the guardian website. It's really great for me to see so much about Eyjafjallokull as its eruption was really what restarted the Volcano Club and while I do love all volcanoes, there is something really magical about Iceland; maybe it is the new landscape, the contrast of fire and ice or just the fact that it's like no where else in the world. If you're not an Icelandophile (it's a real term) then here are some more pretty pictures of volcanoes, having said this if you're not an Icelandophile you really need to look at your life. I just did a Google image search for Iceland and literally every picture was amazing so I just picked the first one.

Now I have to find a costume for Fake Christmas- which is tomorrow incase you were unaware, I can dress up as anyone from history, ever. Which is a harder theme than you may think. 

Happy Volcano Listening.

For a while now I've been mentally compiling a volcano play list (and slightly on this blog) and I aim to do a pop culture zine special soon. The main reason I haven't is cos my friend Alice said she'd write me a volcano song and I am currently too wrapped up in guilt for not contacting her in ages to ask her about said song. So Alice if you're reading this then writing you a letter is lit on my to do list- well it will be as soon as I can find a pen. But anyway I recently got notified to some new volcano music by a friend Rob. Firstly here is a pretty picture of a volcano record he bought (records with pictures of volcanoes on is a whole new field that my mind had never considered before but I'm pretty sure I don't have any).

 

Then we have a band called Volcanos with (It's Against) The Laws of Love, which is a lovely little song.

 

This has reminded of another band called Volcano who are a punk/country supergroup! Formed by one of the Meat Puppets, I haven't listened to this song yet because I'm listening to the radio now, its Josie Long's show and I need to pay attention so I can convince her that we should be best friends one day. But anyway it must be a good song as the band, album and song are all called volcano.

 

Finally the Bjork volcano song cos I don't think I've posted it here yet, even if I have, you can never have too much Bjork. 

Feel free to post more volcanic music below. 

Issue Five

Free poster

Let me know if you want a copy

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)

Semiconductor

Last Wednesday I went to the Semiconductor exhibition at FACT in Liverpool, semiconductor are a Brighton based duo who do volcanic video installations, needless to say I have been wanting to go to one of their exhibitions for a while. They did a residency in Ecuador studying volcanoes and also the practices involved in studying volcanoes, the methods used and the people who do it. The videos from Ecuador really showed how much the volcano is part of daily life, workers were playing football in the foreground of the volcano and there were also pictures of it drawn onto the windows. There were also images of volcanoes in beautifully untouched landscapes which gave a sense of timelessness and absence of the man made which was juxtaposed with images inside laboratories reminding me how modern science compels us to understand and research everything. While I do find beauty in scientific findings there is also great beauty in mystery and bizzare yet logical interpretations of it. Other videos were the formation of crystals which were created from sounds, this is so like Bjork's single, which isn't a criticism as similar things often happened around the same time like convergent evolution which is one of the coolest things in the world. And I if could convergently evolve to be like Bjork I'd be pretty happy. 

While Bjork and convergent evolution are of course incredibly relevant, they weren't actually what the exhibition was about. There was however a room which looked like a junkyard of discarded TVs which showed archive videos of people studying volcanoes. Again one on hand it showed how much a volcano becomes part of life, while monitoring people were eating sandwiches and drinking coffee, but it also showed the wide range of completely mental ways people study volcanoes such as running up to lava lakes with massive sticks and ramming them in and then using whatever is on the end of the stick to light cigarettes. But I can really understand how people do become that obsessive (especially about volcanoes) and I always love to see it probably because I can see myself becoming one of them. There was also a room where you could make your own volcano, by make I mean pour some bicarb, vinegar and washing up liquid down a papier mache volcano, but it was amazing. Sadly it has now finished so you can't go and make your own volcano but I suppose you could actually make your own volcano.

Volcano leaflets

I was given two amazing leaflets at the weekend; the first of which is from Scotland. My aunt went to the Shetland Islands recently- she sent me that picture of the odd volcano monument thing on a beach. Part of the Shetlands were formed by a volcano (Eshraness) - back in the old times when the UK was part of pangaea and close to the equator. This has given the islands amazing and dramatic landscapes, although I've never actually been there so I'm just guessing from the leaflet which guide you through some volcano trails taking you to a magma chamber and beaches where you can find volcanic rock. Even though it's highly illegal Kate stole me some of the volcanic rock which is very light and aerated, you can see it in the photo below. So in addition to wanting to go to all Hebridean islands I now also want to go to the Shetlands.

If you're thinking that all this seems a bit implausible then the second volcano leaflet is far more accurate. My brother is a TEFL teacher- which means he teaches English as a foreign language as opposed to teaching frying pans how to be non-stick. For a lesson his students had to create an island (if this seems like an odd task, he has also made them play Bargain Hunt) and the centre of one of the islands had a volcano. I think it was perhaps bad town planning that the mall was positioned next to a volcano; but it is amazing how much the map looks like a map of Hawaii's volcanoes.

Finally in Volcano news people have decided that volcanoes are so fantastic that they will create artificial ones to solve all the worlds problems. And I'm also finally going to go to this exhibition in Liverpool. I'm sure it'll be fantastic and I will write a full review.

Biophilia

Isaac and I went to Bjork's Biophilia on Saturday which was as predicted absolutely amazing it was her last show in Manchester so the encore was slightly more 'hooligan' than all the other nights (which was a lot of fun). Biophilia is about the extremities of nature; from the cellular and microscopic to the galactic and planetary, I have always found these aspects of biology a lot more interesting than the organismal and ecological. But I think this is because I find comfort in the fact that we are insignificant; that life in both the tiny and massive scale is much more advanced and complicated than humanity. Because while we will eventually fade and disappear, life will exist in some tiny molecule and there will still be some habitat in space for it to survive in. In the words of Rick Blaine "it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world" I think that my childhood love of Casablanca has led to my bleak view of the world.

Anyway back to Bjork (I will need to do stuff to my mushroom ragout soon so tangents will be at a minimum), so many of the songs in biophilia were about my favourite things such as the moon, DNA, solstices and cells there was of course a song on plate tectonics. If only she had done a song on photosynthesis it would have been perfect. Every song had some video to accompany it which are all going to be iPad apps and I think the idea is that you can alter the song by playing with the app (which is pretty cool). The plate tectonics one showed magma moving around under the earth's surface and the breaks in continental plates; this was very useful for me as volcanoes tend to be formed around the spaces between these plates. The volcanic ring of fire marks the edge of a tectonic plate; I say it was useful for me as I find it very interesting but don't really know where the plates are and the video showed this. The song didn't have an eruption and seemed to be constantly building up to one but never quite reaching it and was more about the events leading up to it. There was a female Icelandic choir who were fantastic, the other best new songs were the moon one, crystalline and the virus one. However some slight critisms would be that it was half way between a concert and an art installation but not quite either therefore the delivery wasn't quite right so you couldn't really see the stage. Also pretty much all of her old songs sounded better than the new ones, Isaac was particularly happy as she did Mouth's Cradle which is his fav but I loved the time lapse fungi growth to Isobel. But it was absolutely amazing and I might have to buy an iPad so I can play with the Bjork apps.

Sorry this has been very rambling; maybe Casablanca isn't really that relevant so in the words of Bjork 'thank you' (really its funny when she says it as she has a great accent)

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. 

Hawaii, I'm Sorry!

I feel that after all my slagging off Hawaiian volcanoes there is some lava karma going on. Kilauea has been erupting since 1983 and the latest stage is pretty spectacular as one of the craters collapses creating a new fissure. It's pretty beautiful and I particularly love the lava spewing into and from the new features created by the volcanoes reminding you of the forgotten layers of the earth's surface. Looking at these images reminds me of how ancient the world is and it's very easy to see how people came up with the idea of hell and the underworld, which comes up time and time again with volcanoes and how people used to make sense of the unexplained. Regeneration and rebirth from something violent and destructive is also partly shown by this eruption. This is what my friend Luke loves about Hawaiian volcanoes; how they can create and hold new and diverse life which is very beautiful (see comments on Erta Ale post).

The area and national park have been closed but there is no threat to humans, which is another lovely thing about Hawaiian volcanoes. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website is where I stole this beautiful pictures from and also this lovely graph showing the collapse of the crater. Here's a link to the website which has more up to date and correct information. http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/

Diamond Head, Halekala, Hanauma Bay Craters, Hualalai, Kahoolawe, Kilauea, Koko Craters, Koko Head Crater, Koolau, Loihi Seamount, Mahukona, Maui, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Waianae are all fucking great, no more criticism of Hawaii and its volcanoes will occur on this blog. 

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 #6- Yellowstone Supervolcano

This is a pretty super volcano (I should really stop making volcano jokes), it's located in Wyoming in the first ever nation park Yellowstone. While the volcano is inactive it is responsible for some of the largest ever eruptions; three notable ones (all VEI=8) occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago. The volcano also helped shape the beautiful landscape of the national park, there are volcaniclastic piles in Yukon, Canada; calderas in Idaho and volcanic fields in Nevada and Oregon created by the hotspot. Due to the age of the volcano and ever changing landscape it difficult to tell exactly when and how these volcanic feature where created. However it is known that the Yellowstone caldera formed during the eruption of the Henry's Fork Caldera which was in turn formed by the Island Park Caldera.

Today there is very little volcanic activity in the national park, the most recent lava flow was 70,00 years ago. The Park is however famed for its Old Faithful Geyser which is a result of the volcanic hotspot, the uneasy plate tectonics and ever mobile magma also produce many earthquakes. The caldera floor is moving constantly moving upwards and the and was rising at an unprecedented 7.6cm a year between 2004-2008. This volcano is not likely to erupt any time soon.

Earthquakes in London

I know this isn't actually about volcanoes but it's all plate tectonics so I think I can bend the rules a little.



Earthquakes in London was an excellent play that I saw at the national theatre at the weekend, amongst other things it was about social breakdown, climate change and a massive earthquake in the capital. Like many people said about the recent Eyjafjallajoekull eruption this earthquake was seen as a punishment in result of our abuse to the world. Showing us how weak and insignificant we are compared to nature, which is either a very comforting or depressing thought. I'm personally quite reassured by the fact that nature can continue on without humanity and will grow and evolve to probably produce much more beautiful and interesting things. That to ecosystems we are insignificant and could just be wiped out by a massive earthquake, volcano or other natural disaster but life will continue. However I can kinda see how others find this depressing.

Anyway the play was absolutely brilliant had loads of really interesting issues and themes, brilliant performances and a killer soundtrack. Also while it was insanely sad, it did give me an uplifting feeling that everything was gonna be alright (but then I'd probably always think that if Do You Realize? by The Flaming Lips is the exit music)