This week’s competition
There has been a small change in the leadership board. Diana Barnes and Lughduniense is now sharing the leadership together with DF Morvan.
This week will be the name of the volcanic system (1 point), the name of the volcano (1 point), the lava (1 point). And since people love odd volcano related facts, three famous beverages from the area (1 point). So, 4 points are out there for grabs.
This weeks picture is unknown to me, and the sender said that I was allowed to compete. To be honest though I am not quite as good at this as the crowd in here is.
The Score is:
3 Diana Barnes
3 Lughduniense
3 DFMorvan
2 Talla
2 Ursula
2 Doug Merson
2 Hattie
2 Schteve42
2 Birgit
2 Irpsit
2 Stephanie Alice Halford
1 Jim
1 Luisport
1 Heather B
1 Jamie
1 Henri le Revenant
1 UKViggen
1 Alan C
As usuall I will not hand out the answers untill tomorrow.
Alan’s Evil Riddle
This riddle is about one (1) volcanic feature. There are 3 riddles and 3 answers, but all of them are about the same volcanin feature.
In the land of the griffin and truck we will be found, by the tower twig zone. Ah, but where!
A) What are we made of?
B) How many – at least – are we?
C) What is the ‘zone’?
CARL
VolcanoCafé 
Andesite for the lava?
basinite to quartz tholeite
DING, DING, DING!!! Basanite it is, well done!
WOO HOO! I am so excited to finally get something right 😀
Way to go Bobbi…
Great, Bobbi!! 😀
Yay! Bobbi! Well done! 🙂
hawaiite,trachyte
also mugearites, latites
Sheepy Dalek – Name that Lava XII
Ladies and gentlemen!
We have our winners in this weeks unduly difficult quiz, more like a quest actually, designed to baffle Carl privately. (Alas that gentleman immediately avenged himself by making it the Official competition for this weekend.) And the winners are:
System: Vogelsberg Volcanic Field – Sissel
Volcano: Vogelsberg – Talla
Lava: Basanite (locale: Rauen Berg quarry) – Bobbi
Beverages: Riesling, Müller-Thorgau and Eiswein – Ursula
Vogelsberg is a Miocene shield volcano of gigantic proportions that began erupting about 18 million years ago. Various sources claim it is Europe’s largest volcano, although I suspect you’d have to qualify what is meant by Europe rather narrowly. In spite of several glaciations, it is still about 800 m high/thick with a diameter just in excess of 50 km and contains some 600 km3 of basanites, alkali basalts, quartz thooleites with small amounts of highly evolved magmas ranging from hawaiite to trachyte. It was last active nearly seven million years ago.
http://petrology.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/3/569.full
Gijs de Reijke (who holds a degree in geology) took this photograph and identifies the lava as basanite. http://gdr-1986.hyves.nl/album/45473817/Stenen_hamsteren/wNHJvL_W/?pageid=AK2Q7JK7JO8C0OO40#mb=663177422.40.|6||2971161|||19||45473817|wNHJvL_W||8||663177422|0QeA|&__state__=21
Riesling, Müller-Thorgau and Eiswein are local wines made from respectively the Riesling grape, the Müller-Thorgau grape and grapes bitten by the first frost, which makes it rare as it is not every year that allows an icewine crop. While most of us will have sampled the odd bottle or two of Riesling, the others are not as commonly seen outside Germany but do well reward those who try them.
Congratulations to Sissel (volcanic system), Talla (volcano), Bobbi (lava) and Ursula (beverages)!
Congratulations to everyone, yay!!!
And thanks for the puzzle, Henri – this was a difficult one, but interesting. I for one had no idea that columnar jointing was so common as it turned out to be from all my googling. Always though it was just in Giant’s Causeway and Scotland and that was it. But see above, it’s everywhere, USA, Italy, NZ, Czech Republic, Germany, …. Surprising (to me at least).
Yes, those columnar jointings are quite abundant. I was seriously looking at the Goat Rocks area in Washington state. But, I just couldn’t get the rocks close enough to a volcano to think this was the right one. NZ didn’t quite fit for me either. After that, I didn’t have a clue.
Henri – the Oxford Journal website listed above is where I finally found the lava answer. How ironic is that?
Ursula, I see that’s where you found it too. We were sooooo close. 🙂
I found that site also, but was to slow. I think we all deserve a glass of wine over at the sheepy bar. Congratulations to everyone. And thank you Henri, that was great.
Thank you for your patience and perserverance ladies! Pros’t!
I raise my glass to all the winners.
Prost to everyone! *raises a glass of white wine*
Proost Henri and thank you!
That article is well worth looking through – but not in too much detail, at least not on a Saturday evening!
Cheers!
For some reason, the link to the picture is broken. If you “copy” all of it and use the option “Paste and open”, it works.
Well done everyone. 😀 😀
Off to the bar to get a drink – seen too much polygonal columnar jointing .. 😀
Congratulations to my fellow winners! That was an epic quest! Now for Eurovision on the TV! Cheers, everyone! 😀
I am sad, because it is near where I was born and I didn’t get it, but then there are many years since, 50 years on May the 28th (tomorrow) I left Germany with my then divorced and now deceased husband, a couple of lifetimes ago.
Hi Ursh maybe this comment so long after yours may not be picked up, but I am sorry for your sense of loss, because if you were born near there it must be a bit hard not to be able to really remember it and as you left there with your husband so many years ago, and he is now deceased, it makes me feel sad that you have left something and someone special behind and just, well, I don´t know how to explain it, but I think my life has been very simple and uncomplicated compared to yours – hope you understand what I am trying to say…
thanks Debbie, I am all right, just sometimes things happen and it brings up the past…
Confratulation to everyone
That was a hard nut to crack !
It was really very interesting and more and more exciting! Never ever heard about the Vogelsberg before, even it is not at all far away. But now it will be added to my list of places wishing to visit.
Thanks everyone, I find this a great way to learn. Out for now guys have to do the dishes.
Off topic (but it’s sheepy dalek, soooo…): anyone watching the Eurovision tonight?
Not if I can help it, no. I’ve had my dose of quality entertainment, English of course, (Midsommer Murders) and more than one such spot is too much of a good thing for Network directors intent on ratings only. I shall see if I can locate an episode or two of Yes (Prime) Minister.
I’ve never understood this thing about Swedes and Midsomer Murders. Here in UK it’s a sort of “Take it or leave it, there’s nothing else on so I might as well watch” programme, but all my Swedish friends love it! What’s so special?
Is it the same as us Brits getting very excited about Wallander/The Killing/The Bridge?
It’s all a matter of context. Swedes are singing-mad, hence there’s always one or more “competitions” on. Our take on “Sweden has got talent” is that it should be a mix of “Noël’s Houseparty” and “Hell’s Kitchen”. US poe-lease reality shows are the rage too as is everything that is trashy, tacky or sordid.
We basically have three major tv-companies with their own set of channels, intent on outdoing each other in the area of public appeal. In order to guarantee a good return on their investment every installment is always shown (at least) twice on the same channel before being shown on all the channels of that network. Sometimes competing networks have obtained the rights to the same series such as “Property Ladder” or “Family Guy”.
“Midsomer Murders” is the antithesis of all that rubbish in so many ways and on so many levels. The contrast between the civility of MM and the FUCK YA ASSHOLE WHASSYARR PRAAABLUM of the average US tv show be it Cops, Jenny Jones, Judge Judy or Batman XVII is refreshing.
There is no way I would ever move and try to survive in Midsommer also if the murder attempt failed I would not wish to be treated at Holby City Hospital! They loose at least one patient a week in that operating theater usually because the surgeons are arguing or trying to score some sort of personal point
But I do love the homicidal West Country farmer stereotype (who for some unfathomable reason does not have the accent of Phil Harding) and all the variations on the Squire presented. Even the homicidal maniac of yesterday’s episode was so well-behaved that he wasn’t instantly spotted.
There’s also this – watch a season of Midsomer Murders and you will have seen more genuine actors than the USA possesses and more acting skills on display than at the Oscar’s.
That’s because Midsomer is not in the West Country – the clue is in the title. It’s filmed around Oxfordshire (think Wallingford area) which is sort of mid-south. It is west of London but the West Country starts at Wiltshire. I guess Midsomer is more Home Counties. (They didn’t really look into place names when they made up the name – grabbing Mid- from Middlesex which means the middle state and the -somer from Somerset which means the summer state.) 🙂
Interesting Talla, thanks. I always connected it with Midsomer Norton, Somerset, 12 miles or so SW of Bath.
Ah! I guess you’ve never been to Midsomer Norton then! It, and Radstock, are part of the old Somerset mining community towns so not at all the pretty farming villages of Midsomer. (Not that they are lacking in their own particular charm!) MN means the northern town in middle bit of Somerset, to differentiate it from all the other Nortons. Somerset takes its names from the habit of moving animal stock down to the Levels during the summer to get the lush grass after the winter flooding. It used to be a liminal, magical, land before the Monks of Glastonbury appeared and tamed it with their dykes and canals. Diana Barnes comes from Somerset! 🙂
Ah, English place names, read a few chapters devoted to it during my MA studies in English linguistics. By their names, you can reconstruct the geographical spread of the various tribes that merged into the English. The old pre-William and pre-Dane Saxon divisions Western, Eastern, Southern and Middle Saxonies a.k.a. Wessex, Essex, Sussex and Middlesex. As only East Anglia survives, there must at the very least have been a West Anglia, but what happened to it?
Roman – If a town name contains “chester” the odds are that it’s an Anglicised Roman “Castra” or castle. Chester, Winchester, Worcester, Gloucester, Exeter, Wroxeter (Roman “Viroconium Cornoviorum”) etc. It is not always that the derivation of the modern name is always immediately obvious. Roman “Durovernum” is today known as Canterbury, but once you consider its full Roman name “Durovernum Cantiacorum”, the derivation becomes obvious. Colchester is an example where the suffix -chester would indicate that it used to be a “castra”, but the assumption is not correct as the Roman name was “Camulodunum” and is a Romanisation of the Celtic “Camulodunon”. However, Colchester was also known as “Colonia Claudia Victricensis”, a place of retirement for old veterans – one of the few instances where a retirement home has given the name to a modern city!
England is also chock-a-block with Scandinavian names. Grim’s Village (Grimsby), Scun’s thorpe (Scunthorpe), the Bay of Har (Harwich), the Bay of Jor (York), the Home of Snot’s People ( (S)nottingham) and so forth.
All copies of Yes Minister are hard to find as they are being used for Our Government’s training programme. at the moment
Hey good morning Diana, hope you are keeping well. One thing I missed when coming to Canada was English TV shows.
Hehe! Sometimes I suspect that Question Time was instituted by some foresighted individual in order to press home on politicians that they are not just acting out the various episodes. I’m absolutely and utterly convinced that Sir Arnold and Sir Humphrey do exist.
I’ve been watching – love it to bits! But can never fathom voting! 😀
Yeah, voting is weird, although some choices are very predictable (Cyprus giving 12pts to Greece, etc.). But this year no song was really standing out for me.
ROFL I thought you were talking about the House of Commons voting system 😀 Our British political systems and ancient traditions in Government are ofttimes very Quirky 😀
@ Birgit – Are you out there?
One of my friends who shares my fascination with volcanoes recently returned from a vacation in Hawaii. I asked her if she had brought back any ash — she did not — but offered me a teaspoon sized sample of black sand from one of the beaches famous for that. Is this something you would be interested in for your museum? I am leaving for France next week, and if black sand interests you I will bring it along and post it from France. It is really quite lovely, shiny and almost like tiny little gemstones. I read that is is formed when lava hits the ocean and shatters.
I should also mention that I have only intermittent internet connectivity this weekend, so I’m not sure when I will be able to check back.
Yes Denise, i would be really interested in that. Thank you very much.
OK, then I will take it with me. I leave for Paris on Tuesday, but will be with a group, and might not get to mail it until the following week when I accompany my students to Cannes.
Congratulations to Bobbi, Sissel,Talla and Ursula. Well doneLadies! Bravo!
Thank you Henri for a lovely mystery to solve.. I learned lots and I also was surprised at the number of areas that have columnar lava.
I have been very good. I am doing a friend a favour by listing some of his coins for sale on line and it’s taken up most of my time this week. I have been popping in and out and was happy nothing really gripping was happening. It made my voluntary work easier to concentrate on.
@ Hattie…Good to see you back again.
As I have finished my epic listing session I would like drinks to be on me tonight. I feel so good I would like to share 🙂
So to keep in with this week’s German theme and since GeoLoco is nowhere to be seen I am off to relax>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1035&bih=608&tbm=isch&tbnid=UTcUHiMefMcb8M:&imgrefurl=http://kaufmann-mercantile.com/organic-
And one for the beach bums.
A REALLY NICE explanations of the beach balls… with animated graphics.
http://www.learninggeoscience.net/free/00071/
“Beach Ball” the common term for the Fault Plane solutions that you see on some quakes… and that I posted a sample of in the last thread. (IT quakes)
Thank you. 🙂
Thanks Lurking. I have a mental block with beach balls.I sort of got the gist after your posting . First reading through this and I still cannot really understand. It is such a good explanation I will save it along with your explanation and keep reading until I “get It”. It’s a wonderful feeling when suddenly something you struggle with becomes understood. Usually the solution to that unblocked learning is never, ever, forgotten.
Am I the only one here who is beach ball challenged? 😕
No, Diana, you’re not the only one! Like you, I’m sure I’ll get it one day. 🙂
It appears Sweden has won – and I’ve haven’t even heard the song! 😀
Congrats to the land of Henri and Carl, despite the best efforts of my family on behalf of the Russian grannies. I shall be in Sweden from Wednesday (Yay!) to add my personal congratulations!!! Hopefully staying on enough to miss all the monarchistic mayhem in my own country (Queen’s jubilee and all that malarkey)
The Swedish entry (recorded before the contest itself):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoria
*no volcanic connection, but some connection to activities at (Scheepy Dalek) Bars, i.e. consumption of alcohol or perhaps winning “un´ point” in Carls competitions*
Despite being an old lady I like trance euphoria dance music so I quite liked this one. We Brits love Eurovision as our commentator is always chosen for wit and irreverence (and is usually Irish) and our song is chosen for it’s complete inability to win. The whole point, from our point of view, is to have a good laugh. 😀
Is Santorini a supervolcano? A caldera? Its location in the shallow Adriatic looks feasible. How big is its magma chamber and how deep does it go? Have I missed a link somewhere?
Rescued by Spica
Short answer – no. It is a big volcanic system capable of very large caldera-producing eruptions (VEI 6 – 7) but not a “supervolcano”. Carl has written two excellent articles on the subject:
https://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/santorini-end-of-civilisation/
https://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/santorinis-possible-eruption/
Also, Santorini is not in Adriatic. It’s in Sea of Crete.
A “supervolcano” usually has plenty of small eruptions between the very big ones. Santorini has a large chamber but often has small eruptions. The next one is likely to be a small one. The same goes for Vesuvius or even Toba, they have several small eruptions once in a while.
These are my first 7 points of the night (up to the most likely volcano to erupt):
1 Krisuvík
2 Oraefajokull
3 Kverfjoll
4 Bardarbunga
5 Torfajokull-Veidivotn
6 Grimsvotn
7 Askja
I give 8 points to Hamarinn!
10 points to Katla!
12 points to Hekla!
Nice list! (Though you might want to add Theistareykjarbunga as there’s a bit of interesting activity going on there.)
Null point at Theistareykir .. only wind .. *sigh*
Very peculiar wind then that is local to Theistareykjarbunga only and does not show up on any of the other nine SIL-stations within 30 km… 😉
My point beeing … If its large enough (in meaning to be proper run-up) it shows on more than one station (they are very dense there). Even the smallest of “hamburgers often show on more than one SIL station. ok?
Henri, I would be curious to know your list 😉
My Icelandic “List Of Volcanoes Most Likely To Go Boom”? In my opinion, it’s 50-50 between any volcano put on such a list and one not but impossible to say which. I’d venture that within the next five years, Katla is 99.9% likely to have produced another subglacial eruption that only results in a jökulhlaup (VEI 0 – 2, you’ll see later why I say that). Apart from that, it could as well be a minor repeat at Eyjafjallajökull, an underwater eruption at Reykjanes ridge or a fair-sized eruption of Esjufjöll as a substantial eruption of Askja or Hekla.
1 Hengill
2 Hamarinn
3 Katla
4 Krafla
5 Theistareykjarbunga
6 Bárdarbunga
8 Askja
10 Hekla
12 Grimsvötn
Video clip of an explosive eruption on Sakurajima tonight.
This is a very ashy one.
Where exactly i the location of discolored waters near Iwo-Jima?
6.0 2012/05/26 21:48:09 26.876 140.214 472.6 BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
There were foreshocks to this one…
Very deep quakes…
Is this it? http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0804-12=&volpage=var&VErupt=Y&VSources=Y&VRep=Y&VWeekly=Y
Quakes that deep relate to the subduction zone (Pacific Plate under the Mariana / Philipino Plates).
Forgot the links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Plate & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Sea_Plate
And this: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_b000a07p_h.html
And on the big side for Sakurajima too.
Location of Sakurajima: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakurajima
Thanks, Karen.
Just normal business of deep subducting slabs becoming brittle at such depths.
We get this sort of deep focus quakes in Amazon region. They can reach high magnitudes, but barely felt or known to cause any damage.
I was just trying to relate those quakes to some volcanic activity, but should have looked at the depth before anything. Never learn my lesson!
But deep focus quakes are interesting to understand slab behaviour.
Bonin Islands have had an interesting past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonin_Islands#Formation
“The Ogasawara Islands were formed around 48 million years ago. They are a part of the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc known geologically as a fore arc. They lie above a subduction zone between the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. The Pacific Plate is subducting under the Philippine Sea Plate, which creates an oceanic trench to the east of the islands. The crust of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands was formed by volcanic activity when subduction began 45–50 million years ago, and is composed mostly of an andesitic volcanic rock called boninite, which is rich in magnesium oxide, chromium, and silicon dioxide. The Ogasawara Islands may represent the exposed parts of an ophiolite that has not yet been emplaced on oceanic crust. The rocks of the Volcano Islands are much younger; Iwo Jima is a dormant volcano characterized by rapid uplift and several hot springs.
Most of the islands have steep shorelines, often with sea cliffs ranging from 50 to 100 metres (160 to 330 ft) in height, but the islands are also fringed with coral reefs and have many beaches.[35] The highest point lies on South Iwo Jima, at 916 metres (3,005 ft).”
BBGN all, have a good day.
For KarenZ… mainly. But for anyone else who wishes to dabble in calculating displacement or offset of an earthquake vs the magnitude.
The formulas given, are for Moment Magnitude (M), so you will have to come up with a conversion routine/formula to get from the other magnitude scales into that one. M is based off it the energy magnitude of the quake…. or Mo.
Example: The Norwegian Sea quake is listed as Mag 6.2. Looking at the technicals of it, it is actually MW 6.2 (body wave magnitude) Also from the technicals, you find that it had an Mo Mo=2.9 x 10^18.
The paper uses M = 2/3 * log(Mo – 10.7) to come up with M, which is from Hanks and Kanamori (1979)
Anyway…. if you refer to table 2A and 2B for the meat and potatoes of it all. I had been beating myself up trying to transpose the sample data that it’s all based on in order to grind through it to come up with a formula.
Teach me to read the damn paper first before fighting the data.
Anyway, here is my line of thought… as odd as it may be. if you have a way of calculating the displacement for a set of quakes in a region over time, you may be able to come up with a semi-sane estimate of how much offset and/or strain that a given system is under. Along though same lines, it would be interesting (if one were so motivated) to see at about what level a system “goes off.” Ideally, you would have to know a lot of other things about the quakes, such as the strike/slip and other nitty gritties. But for a cursory examination of an areas conditions, even us here in the peanut gallery may be able to make a more intelligent guestimation about what’s going on.
Anyway, heres the paper.
Click to access WellsCoppersmith1994.pdf
I pass this along just in case something unfortunate happens to me or my ability to post… such as a loss of US infrastructure or the imposition of martial law.
what on earth has you in a …., take care
Correction, that should read M = 2/3 * log(Mo) – 10.7
And since Magnitude to Magnitude conversions still kick my arse,
“THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS
IN SEISMOLOGY” BY HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON
Click to access DLAbssa75.pdf
And beware of the dyne/cm and the Newton/meter nomenclature. That’s tripped me more than once. (1 dyne centimetre = 10−7 Nm)
Yay…. now according to
Click to access 01~Appendix_1.pdf
M and MW are interchangeable.
Fiddling with it, it does smell sane.
The Tohoku Earthquake at Mw 9.0 comes in at 62505 km² rupture area, while the Norwegian 6.2 shows 86 km²
That would make the Tohoku fault face about 300 x 208 km.
I also had to deviate from the 2/3rds value to get the USGS stated Mo calculation to match the Mw. I used 1.1499 and 0.86964. this is a kludge but the fomula works forwards and backwards, and does yield dimensions that pass the sanity test. It probably has an error in there somewhere, but it seems to work.
Thank you for the information and papers. 🙂
Fuego is erupting at the moment.
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/guatemala/fuego.html
http://webcams.volcanodiscovery.com/Fuego
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/VAAC/ARCH12/FUEG/2012E270431.html
Thank you; I just got ashy views when I looked (daytime).
Hekla intensity of tephra and explosivity is very much correlated to the time since previous eruption. The correlation is actually quite good.
So, we can estimate if Hekla erupts now, it will be a strong VEI3, with perhaps about 0.08 cu km of tephra, which is about 1/3 of Eyjafjallajokull eruption (and 1/10 of Grimsvotn).
If it erupts later by 2020, then it will be almost as strong as Eyjafjallajokull (a weak VEI4).
Hekla generally needs resting times of 50 years to cause more strong VEI4 eruptions, and 100 years to result in VEI5 eruptions. In 1000 years, the rule seems to have always correlated to the intensity of eruptions, but still exceptions are possible.
10 years = 0.03 cu km VEI3 (example 1991, 2000)
13 years= 0.08 cu km strong VEI3 (estimation if Hekla erupts in 2013)
20 years= 0.12 cu km weak VEI4 (estimation if Hekla erupts in 2020)
50 years= 0.3 cu km VEI4 (example 1158, 1766, 1947)
250 years= 3 cu km VEI5 (example 1104)
Such good correlations like this do not apply to Katla, which can have violent VEI5 just after 30 years since previous eruptions, and medium VEI4 after 70 years. Also do not apply for Grimsvotn.
http://eldgos.mila.is/katla/ Good day to see the cauldrons in Katla glacier. Magnify the webcam picture as much as possible. Those depressions on the ice are caldrons caused by geothermal activity underneath, of the ice cap breaking, I think the one to left is one of the new ones formed in 2011, the others were already there before 2011 I think (I am not sure).
If the icelandic summers continue as warm as in recent years, then the entire ice cap might break into small fractions by end of this century and disappear altogether in 150 years. Vatnajokull is predicted to disapper in 400 years at current rate.
In recent years some glaciers that were the size of Eyjafjalljokull have disappeared. For example, the OK glacier near Langjokull, and others around Langjokull as well. Kerlingarfjoll glaciers have also nearly disappeared (at least they were tiny when I visited them last summer).
Katla’s cauldrons are not visible from any side of the volcano. What you see is merely a small part of the rim of the caldera. The central part of the caldera, where the cauldron’s are located, is situated lower than the rim and is only visible from the air or from the rim itself.
Is the blob on Hekla new or have I only just noticed something that has been there for years? Suspect the latter but here is the picture:
Original and source: http://eldgos.mila.is/hekla/
Hm check that image and compare them https://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/treasury/
odd thing
I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it before, but looking on Google images there does seem to be something there. Perhaps it shows up because the snow has melted there?
Its mainly a shadow, visible when sun is on south-west to west-side and combined with spots with a littel less snow on it. So nothing to worry about, I think, alomst see it on (other) photos from last years.
It was there before – I have a screenshot from 26 Nov 2011, where it is visible. Unfortunately tinypic won’t let me upload it for some weird reason (says this IP was banned from uploading, although I’ve no idea why and I get a different IP anyway anytime I log on to internet. Meh, whatever, but the bump is on my Nov photo.)
Very dramatic stuff happening on the Hekla cam. The sheep are moving from the left to the right side.;)
Jup, and two lambs competing on who runs faster. Meeeee… wins Meeeeeh… Yess. They are now ready for the London Olympics 2012. Every nation sends it best!
Wow! Real sheep! 😛
Not long now and the cow’s eggs will hatch! 🙂
Uhm… the flying kind of cow?
Or dinosaurs 😯
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3011/2456573999_4619549772_z.jpg?zz=1
Papua New Guinea’s remote Bagana volcano eruption as seen from space. http://earthquake-report.com/2012/05/27/papua-new-guineas-remote-bagana-volcano-eruption-as-seen-from-space/
Proost, gefeliciteerd, skol and hooray to Sissel, Bobbi & Talla! Well done!
It’s the perfect evening to celebrate with a good Riesling or Vulkan Bräu: Enjoy!
(I just came in after a long eventful week. I looked at the pic and my first hunch was “Eiffel”… too late anyways…)
–Has Alan’s riddle been solved yet?
Proost!!!
Proost lughduniense, and thanks!
The very difficult riddle was brilliantly solved by Talla:
https://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/sheepy-dalek-name-that-lava-xii/comment-page-1/#comment-38816
And Carl commented:
https://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/sheepy-dalek-name-that-lava-xii/comment-page-1/#comment-38886
Hmm.
Digitizing the Laki graphics from “IAVCEI General Assembly 2008 Conference Field Excursions
Excursion 1: Historical Flood Lava Eruptions The 1783-84 Laki and 934-40 Eldgjá events”
Click to access IAVCEI2008_Excursion_1.pdf
I get a fissure coverage of about 52%. That means that in the entire length of the 27 km long Skaftar structure, 52% of it was actually a crack in the ground spewing lava… in scattered segments. It’s a guestimate, but it will have to do.
Working back from the total discharge, I get an average daily release of 687.6 m³ of magma. According to the IAVCEI field guide, Laki peaked at about 6600 m³ per day. Using 52% of the length gives me an rough estimate of somewhere between 0.05 to .47 meters in width for the fissure system. There will be a lot of variation, but that’s the ballpark estimate.
So… to make a fissure a half meter wide, a normal faulting earthquake needs to be in the Mag 6.0 to 6.5 range. Or a set of 5.0s that can work it’s way down the line and unzip it. And they would have to be along the dead zone of one of the end volcanoes.
Thats’ according to that oddball link to a pdf I posted here today.
Enjoy the rumination.
Interesting.
From what I have read, the Laki eruption was a series of events along several fissures. I haven’t seen anything that indicates that the eruption was preceded by or involved large earthquakes but the articles I read focused more on the ecological impact rather than the run up. Maybe the Icelanders here have more local knowledge.
That IAVCEI paper/field guide mentions some seismic activity prior to the eruption, though it isn’t as specific as one would like.
“Weak earthquakes in the Skaftártunga district in mid-May were the first sign of what was to come. The intensity of these earthquakes increased steadily and on 1 June they were strong enough to be felt across the region from Mýrdalur and Öræfi. The earthquake activity escalated up until 8 June when a dark volcanic cloud spread over the district, blanketing the ground with ash (Figure 18a). The Great Laki eruption had begun.”
Doing some “eyeballing” on the Quake info… at about MMI-II to MMI-III is where people start to notice an earthquake (MMI-III pretty much every one feels it).
Recently in Bulgaria, a Mag 5.6 yeilded MMI-III shaking over 50km away according to the shakemap. If thats a good estimate, then the Myrdalur felt quakes probably mean that Laki was quite noisy leading up to the eruption.
Thank you; found it now. 🙂
Back in 1783 the only available seismometer was human perception. With a lower limit of about 3.0 to 3.5, the three weeks of increasing intensity until it was felt regionally indicates that it started off in the 3.0 – 4.5 range, grew through 4.0-5.0 at the turn of the month and 5.0 – 6.5 immediately before the eruption.
I wonder how long before the quakes really started as the probably tens of thousands of M 0.5 – 2.5 would have gone undectected and unnoticed.
4.7 — May 27, 2012 at 09:27:11 UTC — 40.629°S, 155.949°E
Depth 9 km (5.6 miles)
Region SOUTHEAST OF AUSTRALIA
743 km (461 miles) E of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
1584 km (984 miles) W of WELLINGTON, New Zealand
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 23.2 km (14.4 miles); depth +/- 2.4 km (1.5 miles)
Parameters NST= 86, Nph=105, Dmin=849.4 km, Rmss=0.97 sec, Gp= 43°,
M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=6,
that would be near/at the Tasmantid hot spot, there is another one coming to live between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, with quiet a few EQ in the lst few years, not in a 100 or so years, I don’t think Iw ill be around then
Computer modelling of the South West Pacific:
Click to access sr130_43.pdf
sorry, can’t read that one to small, even with my glasses. I better go and do some moving stuff, I am getting a new cabinet delivered a bit later, was waiting for things to warm up a bit, but no it is getting cooler already, 11 at 1400, usually thewarmest part of the day, winter doesn’t even start until the 1st of June, we are a lot colder then normal, now for the last few years, but that is life Ice age around the corner
I usually hold the left ctrl key and spin my mouse wheel till its large enough.
This is a good paper, that region doesn’t generally have a lot of coverage, though it’s the reason that New Zealand and the Alpine fault are there.
Santiago Del Estero Prov., Argentina
Magnitude: 6.3
http://geofon.gfz-potsdam.de/eqinfo/seismon/globmon.php
You probably know the plot well. Ordinary town ordinary people, a news report comes across detailing a bizzare attack… things deteriorate and you get wave after wave od Zombies. It’s a common movie lead in.
In Miami…
Man Shot By Police After Eating Another Mans Face
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/26/2818832/naked-man-shot-killed-on-macarthur.html
Has the Free Range Rude season opened then?
The website demands you register as a member (“free”) in order to get any access (“unlimited”), which I won’t.
Your kidding…
Do a news search on face eating naken man and miami and you will find it. I’ve seen it covered in Canadian press and several other places.
When you read stories such as this, you do wonder why eugenics has such an ill repute…
We have now learned something new, it seems like it is cocaine that creates zombieozis due to heat-stroke.
Could it be a new variety, lococaine, that gives this result?
We have all gotten a snicker from some odd place name that show up in Geology. Iceland being the more colorful area.
The US is not without its own strangeness.
Here is a Mag 2.3… near Tightwad Missouri.
http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/nm052612b.html
There’s a Swedish cartoonist who has made a name for himself with his strips about a sparsely populated place where hunting is the be-it-all and the central character is a moose. By combining two of the more common place names of Northern Sweden; -avan (as in Hemavan) and -liden (as in Björkliden), he has created the very plausible-sounding village “Avliden” (= deceased).
You’ve got mail…
Replied to! 🙂
Plus a bonus mail!
The quake-swarm at Herdubreid has restarted.
At the official list two quakes have come up, but there have been 11 quakes larger than 0.8 during the last hour.
And a link:
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myvatn/#view=map
6.7 — Monday, May 28, 2012 at 05:07:23 UTC
Location 28.061°S, 63.077°W
Depth 588 km (365.4 miles)
Region SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA
Distances 52 km (32 miles) NNW of Anatuya, Santiago del Estero, Argentina
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 12.9 km (8.0 miles); depth +/- 6.1 km (3.8 miles)
Parameters NST=571, Nph=640, Dmin=601.1 km, Rmss=0.76 sec, Gp= 22°,
M-type=”moment” magnitude from initial P wave (tsuboi method) (Mi/Mwp), Version=D
New post is up.