Tag Archives: Alan C

Langjökull quaking and NTV Riddle and the return of Alan’s Evil Riddle

Post by Inge B.

Photo and Copyright IngeB

Photo and Copyright IngeB

Photo from Kalidalur highland road, Langjökull (western side) left, Presthnúkur in the middle, Þórisjökull to the right

There was a unusual swarm of about 20 quakes which took place between Langjökull ice cap and the highland road Kjölur on the western side of the ice cap these last days and it made a new start now.

This is a region which has not been very active lately regarding earthquakes or eruptions.

Source: Icelandic Met Office (IMO), 5 April 2013

There are three main factors influencing Langjökull and its surroundings also regarding the earthquakes occurring there:

  1. glacier mass balance
  2. plate spreading
  3. volcanism

Langjökull is the next biggest Icelandic ice cap (after Vatnajökull), its dimensions being acc. to Wikipedia 925 km² at an volume of 195 km³ and up to 580 m (1,900 ft) thickness. This big glacier though has been receding heavily these last years, probably due to climate change. Scientists even prognosticate this glacier being reduced to next to nothing very soon, if the tend in climate change is continued.

This will of course have an influence on the glacier and its surroundings, eg. due to glacier rebound. This last technical term means that when the enormous weight of the glacier is lifted in a rather short time span, the earth’s crust beneath will move upwards. Near Höfn in the east under Vatnajökull, there has been measured a uplift of over 11 cm in the last years.

Earthquakes may be caused by this kind of “resettling” of earth’s crust.

Wikimedia Commons: Present and former rift zones of Iceland. 1v: Western Rift Zone (WRZ); 1n: Northern Rift Zone (NRZ); 2: former Snæfellsnes-Skagi Rift Zone (SRZ); 3: former Westfjords Rift Zone (WRZ); 4: Eastern Volcanic Zone (EVZ) - most likely a future rift zone.

Wikimedia Commons: Present and former rift zones of Iceland. 1v: Western Rift Zone (WRZ); 1n: Northern Rift Zone (NRZ); 2: former Snæfellsnes-Skagi Rift Zone (SRZ); 3: former Westfjords Rift Zone (WRZ); 4: Eastern Volcanic Zone (EVZ) – most likely a future rift zone.

From commons.wikimedia.org <, 1n=NVZ; 1v=WVZ with Reykjanes; 2 and 3 are former rift zones; 4=EVZ

Then there is the spreading which influences the MAR (Middle Atlantic Ridge) and all parts of Iceland on active spreading ridges. These ridges have been going through several rift jumps in some millions of years. The active rift zone was placed over Snaefellsnes and Vatnsnes, till it shifted over to today’s location which is divided in the south into a Western Volcanic Zone (WVZ) – with Langjökull as its center – and an Eastern Volcanic Zone comprising a.o. the more active volcanoes Hekla, Katla and Grímsvötn. This rift zone has been active now for about 2 million years. Northwards this continues in the NVZ (Northern Volcanic Zone) reaching from the Vatnajökull, over Askja and other volcanic systems out to the sea where it combines with the Kolbeinsey Ridge.

The WVZ has been less active than the Eastern Volcanic Zone during the Holocene, so it is proposed that the spreading zone, the rift is again “jumping” in the south of Iceland. In the whole there were only 17 eruptions representing 64% of its whole production and these took place from around 10.000 BP till about 7000 years ago.

Nevertheless, Langjökull is part of one main zone of the Icelandic rift and MAR, so these quakes could also be part of a rifting episode.

And finally, as with all the big ice caps in the centre of Iceland, also Langjökull is concealing some mysteries. The ice of its cap is not flat. There are mountain tops, nunataks and strange indentations. And after some screening done, scientists discovered not only one, but at least two volcanic systems stretching out under the ice with two calderas under the glacier and two high temperature areas near its edge. There could also be a big table volcano under the ice. And a further high temperature area, the one at Geysir in Haukadalur perhaps connected to one of the systems.

The known volcanic systems under Langjökull are

a) Prestahnúkur, in the southwest, there was sometimes talk about it having some quake swarms in the vicinity and someone – was it Newby – intended to drive up there in a high-wheeler.  The volcano’s tentacles in the form of dikes are reaching at least under Geitlandsjökull, an outlet glacier.

b) Hveravellir in the northeast. This is a famous stop-over for people traversing the country on the Kjölur highland road, with an high temperature area forming sinter terraces.

Image Wikimedia Commons: Hagavatn – View from the southeast on the eastern part of the lake. In the background Hagafell and a glacier tongue of Langjökull, in the foreground the outflow of the lake with the remains of a destroyed bridge.

Image Wikimedia Commons: Hagavatn – View from the southeast on the eastern part of the lake. In the background Hagafell and a glacier tongue of Langjökull, in the foreground the outflow of the lake with the remains of a destroyed bridge.

Lake Hagavatn, not far from the hypocenters.

The hypocenters of the ongoing quake swarm are placed beneath an old lava shield.

Where the deeds are done

Langjökull Glacier

Langjökull Glacier

Source:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kjolur.jpg

The last eruptions in the Langjökull area took place around the time of settlement in the 10th century when 2 craters on the northwestern side of the glacier shield produced an impressive lava field called Hallmundarhraun (length around 50 km).

Will there soon be another?

Sources:

re. the glacier

re. the volcanism beneath:

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/SINTON/publications/wvz_g3.pdf

Inge B.

————————————————————————————————

NTV Riddle

*** Beware the red herrings ….
1 point for the volcano 1 point for the red herring

No 1 - Pixar; Sakhalin Oblast; 2001; Citroen; SOLVED Nemo Peak
No 2 - Yellow alert; Dog breed; D.O.C.; Licking County; SOLVED Mt Etna
No 3 - Shield volcano; Scenic railroad; Lahar alert system; Ice caves; SOLVED Mt Rainier
No 4 - Mosquitoes; Inaccessible; Desert; Salt lakes; SOLVED Waw an Namous
No 5 - Spiders; Tiger flowers; Smoke rings; Local Capital; SOLVED Colima

Points …

Diana Barnes 2, Grimmster 3, Inge B 2, El Nathan 2

Kilgharrah

————————————————————————————————

Alan’s Evil Riddle ….

All this stone writing could really give printers the bird!

For a change, 3 alternative answers, so what are they?

Alan C

———————————————————————————————— 

Hekla Eruption Sweepstake …. Who’s gonna wear the ‘bragging rights’ T?

NOT ….
Chryphia March 26th at 19.17
Islander March 26th/27th up to 4pm
Jamie March 26th 23pm to midnight
LAKAT March 27th anytime
Diana Barnes March 27th at 7.30am
Lamiah87 March 27th 12.37
Talla March 28th at 2pm
Georgiade March 29th at 2.30pm
Sam March 29th 4pm onwards
Karenz. March 30th 4pm tp 5pm
Stoneyard April 1st midnight to 4am
Spica April 1st 00am to 06am
Floodwarn April 1st/2nd midday to midday
Inannamoon667 April 1st midday to midnight
CJWINWIN April 2nd anytime
Ursh April 2nd anytime

BUT MAYBE ….
Irpsit April 6th at 8.30am
Newby April 7th 3am to 7am
Cowboy Andre April 9th 1pm to 5pm
El Nathan April 9th late afternoon
Barbara Germany April 12th 6am to 8am
harrie April 12th/13th 8pm to 4am
Bobbi April 14th 2am to 6am
Stephanie Alice Halford April 14th 5.05pm
Denise April 17th midday to midnight
Jim Ludwell April 17th 4am to 11am
Lughduniense April 19th, in the (late) morning
Kilgharrah April 19th midday
Kobba April 20th 9pm and 10pm
Schteve42 April 23rd 6am to 8am
Christian Thordin April 27th 3.30am
Tyler Mannison April 30th midday and 5pm
Bo Minik May 2nd 1pm to 3pm
microcollector May 18th at 8.32am Granyia May18th daylight hours
Grimmster May 21st anytime
Alison May 25th midnight to midday
Summer May 30th anytime
GeoLurking June 25th anytime
Bruce Stout July 1st 1pm
Stefan August 16th 00am to 6am

Kilgharrah

Apocalypsathon; Post 21/12/12 Appeal…

I think Tyler Mannison found this one...

I think Tyler Mannison found this one…

Send your urgent and much needed donations for those poor unfortunate endotheworlders who were not wiped out (they must be devastated) to schteve’sschwissbanking.ch

Please spare a thought and a dime for those not raptured up to heaven in the recent non- apocalypse; give generously, it’s nearly christmas after all…

since this didn't happen everywhere all at once...

Since this didn’t happen everywhere all at once…

I intend to set up a refuge high in the hills of La Gomera with a nice piece of (terraced) land and a look out tower; we’ll charge post 2012ers top- whack to come and contemplate… Me n’ Lizzie will be there most of the year looking after the goats and generally taking care of the place (and going for long walks and jaunts to El Hierro and stuff.) So once again Volcanocafers please dig deep for this very worthy cause…

Somewhere like this, Pico del Teide is in the distance...

Somewhere like this, Pico del Teide is in the distance…

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/La_Gomera_1.jpg/1280px-La_Gomera_1.jpg

But seriously, and since we are still here; a genuine appeal (and some of my highlights):

This rather special place was started by Carl and Ursula after a group Volcanoholics decided they wanted their own place with their own rules… Those that wanted to go multidisciniplary, collaborative and friendly came here and (boy!) the discussion was, and still is, far ranging… The Welcome page and blog rules are here:

http://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/volcano-cafe/

The average post rate is ~ one every 3 days, (that includes before and after Carl statistics…) some volcanoblogs manage more, but usually these are brief updates. What we get here are crafted pieces, made by amateurs in their spare time…

The hit rate is around ~150 visits per hour; this doesn’t include dragon visits…

I won’t lie to you; a blogpost can be quite a bit of work, depending on your skills… Carl once mentioned that he could write a 1200 word opera review in 20 minutes, and Geolurking seems to be able to get something revolutionary on tectonics done in only slightly more time…

Birgit deserves her own paragraph; she can research, compile, edit, post and get an intelligent layman up to speed on a particular subject in less time than it takes a crocodile to swallow an unwary victim!!!

Me? I’m at the other end of the scale; maybe 20 hours work on Teneguia Technicalities and Context, but that did include editing with wordpress which was a first for me… Don’t let me scare you, I can be quite ambitious…

I am asking everyone to keep the posts coming; think of it as an extended comment and you will do fine…

This one's for our resident geologist...

This one’s for our resident geologist… The little engine that could x

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Snowdon_Mountain_Railway_No_6.jpg/1280px-Snowdon_Mountain_Railway_No_6.jpg

Visits to volcanoes “a la Ukviggen” are always popular; (Mount Snowdon anyone? The narrow gauge, rack and pinion railway is the only one of it’s kind in the UK.) as are summaries of your favorites; (Karenz on Sakurajima is a very good example.) and memories of eruptions that were special to you; (Bobbi’s piece on Redoubt is a classic, and don’t forget Newby’s uncle on Erebus.)

Ascending eruption cloud from Redoubt Volcano as viewed to the west from the Kenai Peninsula April 21, 1990 (R. Clucas)

Ascending eruption cloud from Redoubt Volcano as viewed to the west from the Kenai Peninsula April 21, 1990 (R. Clucas)

For the more ambitious how about an original piece of research? (Irpsit wrote a fascinating series about a big hole!!!) Controversial stuff is great, got an alternate theory? (Peter Cobbold on El Hierro is excellent.) What about something inter- disciplinary? (Diana Barnes on Scheeps helping to revive volcanic badlands is wonderful!) Technicalities more your bag? (Wagabond on marine seimic sounding; great insights.) Plotters, hows about “beefing up” a special plot? (Plotting for Beginners 2 may get done one day, but feel free to jump in!!!)

One of Birgit's SEM images of material from El Hierro

One of Birgit’s awesome SEM images of material from El Hierro…

If none of these inspire how about something outrageously off topic for the Scheeepy Dalek?

Nothing is like the smell of a Motorcade in Depresneyville in the morning. Remember that when people shoot at you, they just wish to greet you welcome to Ukraine.

Nothing is like the smell of a Motorcade in Depresneyville in the morning. Remember that when people shoot at you, they just wish to greet you welcome to Ukraine.

So please, go and do yr research, track down the info on yr chosen subject and write something up… Include the standard Volcanocafe disclaimer and a reasonable list of references; and you’re done…

Posts are best submitted as plain text word documents; attached to an email. Pictures should be separately/ individually attached; most formats are fine but please no psd, crw or nef (they are too big and probably not supported by WP either; they need to be converted first). Jpg, gif, png, tiff are commonly supported formats and will do well.

However; when I asked Sissel about this, she said: “Just send it, I will edit what is neccessary!” (another inspirational blogger; remember The Little Prince?)

Have you ever made a comment that you (later) wished you’d saved for a guestpost? Then we want to hear from you; (give us as much detail as possible: approx dates, subject, etc. and we will go digging) dragons can search all 70,000 comments and extract that moment of inspiration…

My top tip (I know it’s environmentally unfriendly) is to print out the papers that you are really interested in; the references for yr article; that kinda thing…

Posts and comments are the lifeblood of the blog, there are (almost) no stupid questions or statements.

So there you have it, no more excuses for not handing in your homework!!!

With Love and Respect,

Schteve x

Links to inspirational articles:

Sheepy Dalek, Name that Lava XXIII

I normally like to sum up the weeks happenings before we go into the weekend with a Name that Lava competition and a riddle. But i could not find much to report on volcanoes. We saw 2 bad earthquakes and aftershocks. One in Costa Rica and one in southwestern China. The death toll is unfortunately still rising. See Earthquake Report for more details.
Here is this weeks lava pic!

An extra point if this is solved within an hour! Good luck.

This weeks NtL image was sent in by someone who will stay anonymous for now and she/he also asks the questions and will, most likely go around shouting Ding Ding within an appropriate time.

Easy one this week, four points available
1) Q: What am I?
2) Q: Where am I?
3) Q: When was I born?
4) Q: What is the local savoury ‘fruit’?

Our evil riddle master Alan sent a new edition too. (Don’t ask me, i don’t know the answer.)

I sound as if my home area is from Eastern Europe-ish! Wrong! You may find a ruffed mouse tho’!
Where is my type locality?
What are my main constituents?
What rarity has been landed on my shores?

And i want to share 2 images. Both of something as unspectacular as sand. One was collected by a friend close to Gullfoss recently and the other sample originated in Riad, Saudi Arabia. Both images share a magnification of only 100 fold.


Have fun guessing and spend a nice weekend
Spica

Update:

As many of you have noticed I disappeared for a while. In the end even I have to work for my living, so I ended up with some 160 hour weeks.

During my leave of absence many people stepped up and helped out with marvelous posts that I am reading up on now. But I still would like to say a personal and heartfelt thank you to Spica. Nobody could have done a better job of it!

CARL

Answers to Name that Lava III and a friday riddle

As long my master did not show up the last few days, we are all hoping that he is just busy and that everything is OK but the blog urgently needs a new post and so i am taking this duty on my shoulders. Please forgive me, i do not have the same way with words as our leader Carl does.

Summary of the week.:

Erik repots that 3 volcanoes are more active than usual on Eruptions. Three Rumbling Volcanoes: Little Sitkin, Reclus and Tangkubanparahu. Little Sitkin lies in Alaska, Reclus is located in Chile and Tangkubanparahu is to be found in Indonesia.
Jan Mayen saw an earthquake 6,8 which is the largest earthquake ever reported in or Norway. Earthquake report has an article on this event.
Our Icelanders report that a glacial flood started coming out of Vatnajokull near Hamarinn.

Claude Grandpey writes that Kilauea started to deflate since the 27th of August.

And the GVP weekly Volcanic activity report can be found here.

Answers to NtL #3.

Name the volcano, and name the type of lava.

Answer: Villarica basaltic andesitic lava

Sheepy Dalek Name that lava III  Author: Carl, March 23th.

With the third edition of Name that Lava Carl underestimated the tricks many volcanophiles developed. Many here are real masters of a competition now called Google Fu and really deserve a black belt in this art. So the riddle was blown into bits after a very short time and we found out this image was even used in the Wikipedia article on Villarica.
This volcano is a quite active one and the current eruption is still ongoing since 2010. Villarica lies inside a larger caldera and it is located in the south of Chile close to a town and a lake with the same name. A lava lake has formed which left a glow on the web cameras. I am not giving the link to said cameras because they have been unreachable for some weeks.
If you enjoy hiking up an active volcano you can book tours, but then the guides drag you up the mountain in a long line with many other people. So many that this would not be my cup of tea to try. If you have a feeling your life is too boring you could even do a bungee jump from a helicopter into the active volcano. I am not providing this link either because in case you plan to do right that, i am sure, everyones Google Fu abilities are favorable to find out where you can book such a tour. I especially liked the last question…

Quote: “Could I die?
Yes. You could. You’ll be signing a waiver, so we’re cool.”
Relief, i feel so much better dying after a signed a paper than i would without.

Here are a few images all from Wikimedia Commons:



Additional Info:

Wikipedia: Villarica
GVP Villarica Summary
Volcanodiscovery on Villarica
John Seach on Villarica
How volcanoes work: Andesitic to ryolitic lava
Basaltic Andesit: Journal of Petrology
Wikipedia: Andesit

The Score was:
2 Talla
1 Schteve
1 Jim
1 Luisport
1 Heather B
1 Spica

This week Alan sent a riddle to me which is really evil.
Quote Alan: ” There’s no answer to it so you can join in! It’s ‘reasonably’ eviil – well very evil – so perhaps you could preface it with ‘health-warning’!!
It may ‘run’ ’til Sunday for ‘hints’, so if they can be ‘warned’……..”

And for this week’s brain killer we have:

Of ancient origin and of violent birth, into this world I came; all but to end in fire!
With almost my Masters name, I am located near the home of a small dog!

What is my name?
Of what is this rarity composed?

Current ranking: ( last updated 26.8.12)

7 Sissel
6 Talla
5 KarenZ
3 Henri le Revenant		 3 Chyphria
2 Ursula
1 lughduniese
1 purohueso745		 1 UKViggen
1 Carl
1 Spica

Spica

Answers to Alan´s riddle #15 and NtL #1 and #2

Riddle #15 on Sheepy Dalek and NtL XXII, an evil riddle and answers to Name that Lava I and XV: Pico del Teide

Yes, German, sub-marine hydrothermally altered lava may exist, but it’s not me; I suppose I’m just a bit of an ole’ ’rusty’ prototype rock!
What is my name?
What do I look like!

Winners: KarenZ, Sissel;
Answers: Jaspilite Protore – ie banded early Gondwana iron ores as Hammersley etc; Yes=Ja (german) + Submarine hyrdo altered lava= Spilite Hence Jaspilite
prototype deposit-Protore. It is the Gondwana banded Ironstone, mix of Fe oxides and quartz species as jasper.
Protore is a raw mineral deposit which may be enriched to produce ore.
So the ranking is now:

7 Sissel
6 Talla
5 KarenZ
3 Henri le Revenant		 3 Chyphria
2 Ursula
1 lughduniese
1 purohueso745		 1 UKViggen
1 Carl
1 Spica

More informtion: Mindat Jaspilite

Picture by DF Morvan showing the first mystery lava.

Image by dfmorvan

Correction, the solutions to the very first Name that Lava competition was Gran Canaria not Teide.

Answers: Gran Canaria Volcano, Pillow lava (at 1500 meters height!)
Winners: Jim and Schteve


More Information:


Roque Nublo ( Wikipedia)

The second edition of Name that Lava was published on Sheepy Dalek – Name that Lava II! Author: Carl, March 16th.

Photograph by Hailey. Please click to see a bigger version.

Talla says: March 16, 2012 at 21:54 : it’s a potassium feldspar matasomite known as Charoite with Canasite found only on the Murun Massif, Sakha Republic, Russia (volcanic event – Siberian Traps).

Answers:

Norilsk deposit, a part of the Siberian traps.
Charoite:
Quote Wikipedia: “Charoite (K(Ca;Na)2Si4O10(OH;F)·H2O), pronounced CHAR-oh-ite, is a rare mineral, first described in 1978 and named for the Chara River. It has been reported only from the Sakha Republic, Yakutia, Siberia, Russia.[3] It is found where a syenite, the Murunskii Massif, has intruded into and altered limestone deposits producing a potassium feldspar metasomatite. Charoite is translucent lavender to purple in color with a pearly lustre. However, it is a discrete mineral rather than a rock. Charoite is strictly massive in nature, and fractures are conchoidal. It has an unusual swirling, fibrous appearance, sometimes chatoyant, and that, along with its intense color, can lead many to believe at first that it is synthetic or enhanced artificially.”

Quote: “The Murun massif is located on the Aldan Shield. In the atlas you can find it between the Charaa and Tokko river, south of Olekminsk. The Murun massif is of course famous for charoite. The Murun massif is (type) locality for a number of unusual minerals. This is caused by the very complex geology of the Murun massif.  Vastly simplyfied the Murun massif is a differatiated alkaline intrusion. “
http://maurice.strahlen.org/yakutia/murun_massif.htm

Mindat.org Murun Massif

http://www.sandatlas.org/2012/03/charoite/
Mindat.Org Charoite
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charoite
Canasite, Tinaksite, Aegirine, Charoite: http://www.mindat.org/photo-397263.html
PDF: Thermal X-Ray Diffraction Study of Charoite from Russia

Spica