Apocalypsathon; Post 21/12/12 Appeal…

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…

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…

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… 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)

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 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.

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:

• El Hierro : a tectonic compression/relaxation mechanism? Author Peter Cobbold ,September 19^th.
• A Volcanic ‘Grand Tour’ Part 1 Author UKViggen, October 26^th.
• Sakura-jima: Why is She Nearly Always Erupting? Author KarenZ, October 31^th.
• Redoubt Author Bobbi, October 16^th.
• The (ash) history of Iceland, in my backyard – Part I Author: Irpsit July 25th.
• Edinburgh – Volcanic heart of Scotland  Author: Alan C, February 28^th.
• Welcome to Ukraine – You’re arrested! (Sheepy Dalek Russian Style)  Author: Carl, December 9^th.
• Some points on El Hierro seismic  Author: WAGABOND, December 6^th.
• Biology, Sheep, and Human Survival  Author: Diana Barnes, November 21^st.
• Images of El Hierros magmatic system  Author: Geolurking, November 27^th.
• The Little Prince  Author: The Behemoth Dragon (aka Sissel), December 13^th.
• Mount Erebus, Ross Island and the Age of Exploration  Author: Newby, December 3^rd.

El Hierro – Day 7

Photograph by Cestomano. The lighthouse of the Orchillas was once known as the end of the world. Under this lighthouse is where the new magma chamber is forming.

This will mainly be a short update. Not much new has happened during the last few days, I will just try to explain why.

What we are seeing now is the formation of a new part of the magma chamber(s) under the island of El Hierro. The progression of earthquakes that we have seen moving roughly from Tanganasoga volcano towards the WSW is magma following a weak seam between two rock layers in the crust. This is creating a rather low, but wide, layer filled with magma. You can think of it as a cake, where the magma is a layer of custard cream between two pieces of bread.

Initially I thought that this layer would not be able to take a lot of magma before the magma would break through into the two older layered magma chambers that were created before the last eruption. My line of thinking was that as soon as that happened magma would move up into the old feeder channel leading towards the volcanic vent known as Bob south of La Restinga.

Image by IGN. The darkblue and read area is where a new magma chamber has started to form like a stacked layer in a cake.

Instead a large quantity of magma has gushed into this new formative magma chamber, which is continuing to grow. There is a rule in fluid dynamics that state that as a bladder (balloon) grows the rate of growth will decrease as the volume increases. This is why it takes more and more magma to keep the pressure at a constant level during the expansion. This is why we see fewer earthquakes as the size grows. It takes a larger amount of magma going into the system to create the pressure for the earthquakes to happen. We will also soon see that the rate of rapid uplift will be decreasing. Do not take this as a sign of the risk for an eruption decreasing. It is quite the opposite. Why? The rate of magma arriving is still constant, so, in due time it will break through.

Magma seems to have entered into the old feeder channel to Bob, how far up though is anyone’s guess. But, it seems to have stopped flowing upwards now, probably due to the opening being plugged up.

Instead we are now seeing a small amount of earthquakes entering into the zone between 16 and 8 kilometers from the surface. What is most likely is that we will see more of them during the next 48 hours; with a bit of luck we will be able to pinpoint the formation of an earthquake stack. That would be good since that could point towards a general area where there could be an eruption. Currently that is pointing towards the western area of the island, but that might change rapidly.

Image by IGN. A few earthquakes have started in the 16 to 8km depth range.

When the magma enters the region 8 kilometers and above the earthquakes will most likely stop, or be few and far apart. The reason for this is that there is a layer of old sediment there. Then there will be a brief flurry of earthquakes as the magma breaks through to the surface, unless it finds an old lava-tube, then it would be a quiet onset of eruption. The eruption would be of basalt or basanite, so it would most likely be a quiet effusive eruption. In the beginning it could be more vigorous due to gas pressure release.

I would still not rule out that the eruption will happen somewhere along the old feeder channel that lead out to Bob. If that happens I believe the eruption to happen somewhere closer to land than during the last eruption. It could also happen on land.

During this second phase of the eruptive cycle the level of information given out has been much improved. IGN is now giving out real GPS data instead of cumulative data. That is a huge improvement. Also Pevolca has started to write reports that are filled with technical details that helps a lot, and removes any chance of people accusing them of hiding data. If IGN and Pevolca keep up with this new openness they will find that people will be much happier. So, from us a big thanks for this new approach.

I would also like to point out to the political establishment of El Hierro that the last eruption will in the end be a big boon for the Island. Before nobody pretty much knew that El Hierro existed. Now many do. And that should in the end raise the number of visitors, especially from the rather large cadre of volcano aficionados. So, instead of trying to hide your volcano, flaunt it a bit. Be proud of it, and people will come to watch your beautiful island.

CARL