Scientists monitor eruptions at Hawaii volcano

Yahoo News, Reuters, Mar 7, 2011

Lava free-falls into the sea from Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, July 26, 2002. The Volcano
has been erupting for the last 19 years.

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Scientists were closely monitoring heightened activity at Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, after a fissure sent lava spewing 65 feet in the air.

No homes were threatened and no campers were injured, said park rangers, who cautioned visitors to still keep their distance from the volcano.

Kilauea has been in constant eruption for 28 years. But geologist Janet Babb of the U.S. Geological Survey said this weekend's activity indicates "new episodes in eruptions and further unknowns."

Saturday, one of the volcano's crater floors, which is named Pu'u 'O'o, collapsed 370 feet, the Geological Survey said. The event was accompanied by 150 small earthquakes, which were all confined to the volcanic area.

Separately, on the volcano's eastern side, a 535 yard-long fissure in the ground opened, spewing lava 65 feet in the air, the Geological Survey said. Also, another crater called Napau began erupting.

Authorities closed a trail on the east rift zone, the campsite at Napau Crater and nearby roads, said Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Park Ranger Mardie Lane.

Visitors can see the eruptions from about 1.5 miles away and still remain safe, she said.

(Reporting by Jorene Barut: Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

German scientists to study mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan

Trend, M. Aliyev, Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.31

German scientists will study mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan.

Researchers from Germany's Kiel University have visited the Institute of Geology of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences in this regard, the institute told Trend today.

The scientists delivered reports on Egypt's underwater mud volcanoes to a wide audience at the institute. The reports were dedicated to research conducted by Kiel University experts in the delta of the Nile River.

Scientists at the Institute of Geology spoke about ground mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan at the meeting. An excursion to the mud volcanoes was organized for the guests.

Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at trend@trend.az

"Gooey" New Mud Volcano Erupts From Arabian Sea

Underwater seeps formed new island off Pakistan, satellite shows.

National Geographic News, Victoria Jaggard, January 26, 2011

Satellite pictures of the Pakistani coast in February (left) and November 2010.
(Photographs courtesy Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, EO-1/NASA)

There's a new island in the azure waters off Pakistan, but you might want to hold off on vacation planning: The tiny dot is a mud volcano that will likely disappear before it sees 1,001 Arabian nights.

Pakistani fishers reported the new mud volcano in the Arabian Sea in late November, and NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite snapped a picture of it (right) on January 11. The volcano was not in a satellite picture of the same region taken last February.

According to NASA, mud volcano "islands" have appeared in the Arabian Sea before, and most have washed away within a few months. In fact, the January picture shows tan sediments steaming from the new mud volcano, suggesting it is eroding and will soon vanish.

Mud volcanoes, which can appear on land or underwater, form when underground layers of silt or clay become pressurized either by tectonic activity or by a buildup of hydrocarbon gases.

(Related: "'Mud Volcano' in Indonesia Caused by Gas Exploration, Study Says.")

Pakistan's mud volcanoes are driven by plate tectonics: The Arabian plate is subducting—or diving under—the Eurasian landmass, churning up sediments that form Pakistan's coastal plains and an offshore slope.

Underneath the plains, subduction is also melting rock into magma, which infuses the groundwater with heat and volcanic gases. The resulting acidic brew dissolves the rocks above into a slurry of mud and hydrocarbons, which then seeps through faults in slow eruptions.

Most mud volcanoes stand only a few inches to several feet high, but the land-based ones on Pakistan's plains can rise up to 330 feet (100 meters). Some of these peaks have been known to spew gas plumes that spontaneously combust, sending tongues of fire high into the sky.

At about two miles (three kilometers) offshore, the new mud volcano is probably poking up from water that's about 98 to 197 feet (30 to 60 meters) deep, said James R. Hein, a U.S. Geological Survey senior scientist in Menlo Park, California.

Its surface mud is relatively cool but "is likely water-saturated, so stays gooey to souplike depending on the amount of saturation," Hein said.

Like hydrothermal vents, underwater mud volcanoes—known as cold seeps—can have their own unique ecosystems filled with life-forms that get most of their energy from chemical sources, such as methane, he said. (See pictures of "Medusa" worms found at a mud volcano near Spain.)

It's rare for such mud volcanoes to breach the water's surface, Hein added. The researcher isn't aware of any that have lasted long enough to support island living, although it's possible the mud contains some bacteria that thrive above the waves.

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Island of mud appears near Hingol in Pakistan, shows seismicity

Island of mud appears near Hingol in Pakistan, shows seismicity

Dawn.com, Suhail Yousuf , November 26, 2010

KARACHI: A soft muddy island appeared a few kilometers from the seashore in Hingol area of Balochistan. According to Pakistan Fisher Folk (PFF), the island is 90 meters (m) high with a span of approximately three kilometers (km).

PFF spokesman, Sami Memon told Dawn.com that the fishermen of Ibrahim Hyderi area described the occurrence after returning from Hingol. Fishermen observed white, slippery hot sand erupting from water, three km away from the beach. Before the upsurge of sludge, fishermen also observed high tides near the coast and several boats were trapped due to the emergence of the island.

Memon told Dawn.com that the island is 30m beneath the water and 60m above the sea level which is a total of 90m in height. According to Memon, the fishermen also registered another island 12 years back which plunged into the sea after four months.

However, the amateur video of the event clearly showed eruption of white hot liquid sludge on top of the island which is still ongoing.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Director of Geolabs at Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP), Asif Nazeer Rana said the area holds three tectonic plates – namely Eurasian, Arabian and Indian plates which are responsible for high seismic activity due to subduction in the Makran area.

Rana said that the Chaman Transverse Fault could also be responsible for the sudden rise of the island at Hingol because the fault is extremely active, moving at a rate of four centimeter yearly.

The Chaman Fault is the only physical feature of Pakistan which can be seen from space and it was responsible for the horrifying earthquake of 31 May, 1935 in Quetta. Over 30,000 people died in the quake.

Rana said that an earthquake of 4.1 magnitude on the Richter scale was also recorded recently in the Chiltan area due to activity of the Chaman Fault and the series of these events need serious attention. – Dawn.com

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New Volcanic Island East of Java, Indonesia

East of the Indonesian island Java, in the sea between Java and Bali,
a new island has risen from nothing within a few days. It is probably of
volcanic origin. The location is not so very far from Tambora.

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Towering undersea volcano mapped off Indonesia

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Jakarta | Mon, 07/12/2010 6:18 PM

A 3,000m volcano deep below the water's surface has been discovered off Indonesia's Sulawesi island. Photograph: Irwin Fedriansyah/AP

Scientists on a deep-sea expedition off Indonesia have discovered a towering volcano: It rises 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) from the ocean floor, yet remains far from sight at the water's surface.

U.S. and Indonesian researchers, using a powerful sonar system and a robotic vehicle with high-definition video, are exploring terrain off Sulawesi island in hopes of getting a glimpse into complex and little-known marine ecosystems.

They have mapped 2,400-sq.-miles (6,200 sq.-kilometers) of sea floor since setting off last month, an area equal to the size of the U.S. state of Delaware, according to a news release from the American embassy in Jakarta.

They found one undersea volcano that rises more than 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) in water 18,000-feet- (5,480-meters-) deep, said Jim Holden, the chief U.S. scientist for the first leg of the joint expedition.

"This is a huge undersea volcano," he said, "taller than all but three or four mountains in Indonesia."

The researchers hope the maps and video produced from the journey will pave the way for others who want to follow up on their preliminary findings.

"The more we understand these undersea features and the communities of life they support, the better we can manage and protect the ocean and its resources," said Holden, a microbiologist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Sugiarta Wirasantosa, the chief Indonesian scientist for the expedition, said the research could contribute to protecting ecosystems that support fisheries.

The expedition concludes on August 14.

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Spectacular Berca Muddy Volcanoes

English.news.cn 2010-06-14 16:50:54

The photo taken on June 13, 2010 shows the Muddy Volcanoes in Berca, Buzau County, about 160 Km NE from Bucharest, capital of Romania. The Berca Mud Volcanoes are a geological and botanical reservation. The mud volcanoes have the shape and act as a real volcano, but at much smaller scale; the eruptions are a cold mixture of gases and mud. This phenomenon is rarely met in Europe and is very spectacular. (Xinhua/Gabriel Petrescu)

Tourists enjoy a hot sunny day at Muddy Volcanoes, Berca, Buzau County, about 160 Km NE from Bucharest, capital of Romania, June 13, 2010. The Berca Mud Volcanoes are a geological and botanical reservation. The mud volcanoes have the shape and act as a real volcano, but at much smaller scale; the eruptions are a cold mixture of gases and mud. This phenomenon is rarely met in Europe and is very spectacular. (Xinhua/Gabriel Petrescu)

Pacific submarine volcano issues 'big burp'

CNN, by the CNN Wire Staff, May 31, 2010 2:29 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- A rapid Pacific submarine volcano eruption has exhaled a steam and ash cloud in the air and left a trail of debris on the surface of the water near Sarigan Island in the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. officials said Monday.

Game McGimsey, a volcanologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, said the vent, lying 1,000 feet under the surface, issued a cloud 40,000 reaching feet in the air.

As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evacuated 16 people, mostly its scientists, from the Northern Islands off Saipan following the eruption, reported the Saipan Tribune. The area is U.S. territory.

The current volcano alert level is advisory, and the current aviation color code is yellow, meaning volcanic activity has decreased significantly but continues to be closely monitored for possible renewed increase.

Satellite images show no sign of ongoing activity, according to a report form the USGS.

Seismographs indicate a rapid and short-lived onset and that the eruption lasted a couple of minutes, McGimsey said.

"It seems to be just one big burp," said Mike Middlebooke, a senior forecaster at the National Weather Service in Guam, about the cloud burst.

The vent lies seven miles south of Sarigan, an uninhabited island that was used as a copra plantation during World War II, in the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain between Hawaii and the Phillipines in the Pacific Ocean about 3,800 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Evacuees from the islands Sarigan and Pagan were all U.S. Marine and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands scientific crews, McGimsey said.

The USGS monitors don't have instruments on submarine volcanoes, and it took a while for scientists to pinpoint the exact location of the volcano, McGimsey said.

Satellites picked up the ash cloud on Friday. The cloud detached from the area above the vent, indicating the underwater eruption had ceased, he said.

Scientists, who originally thought the cloud came from the Anatahan or Sarigan volcano, identified the cloud source by the large amount of debris and water discoloration above the vent, he said.

While people aren't encouraged to hang around, there are no restrictions on the area, Middlebrooke said.

West Java Mountain Observed After Tremor Report

Tempo Interactive, Wednesday, 28 April, 2010 | 19:57 WIB

Gunung Geulis (Beautiful Mountain), located in Tanjung Sari, one of Sumedang's sub district. (Photo: SUMEDANG DAILY PHOTO)

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The geological disaster management office of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department suggested on Wednesday (28/4) the cause of series of unknown explosions and earthquake-like tremors near a mountain in West Java, after one day of field observation following report from residents.

The agency's headquarter in Bandung said the explosions and tremors which according to residents had occurred for five times since Wednesday (21/4) were impacts of seismic movement around Mount Geulis, im Sumedang regency, 40 kilometers east of Bandung .

Residents said the no impacts in previous explosions which heard and felt in four villages, but Wednesday's explosion cracked walls on two houses and broke table glass in a village, head of the Tanjungsari Subdistrict Deni Tanrus said.

Head of The Geological Disaster Mitiagation Office I Gede Suantika said observers had found no cracks on the ground in the area which could harm residents and advised them to remain calm but alert as geological staff continue their work around Mount Geulis with georadar device.

Gede said there were two similar incidents prior to the report from Sumedang the first in Lampung Province and then in Wonogiri Central Java, both in 2006.

SIGIT ZULMUNIR | AHMAD FIKRI

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The Old Map of the Bandung City and the Mountain Range around it

From the map, we can see some of the volcanoes which surround Bandung. They are: Panganten Mt. (on the west side), Burangrang Mt. (on the northwest side), Tangkuban Perahu Mt. (on the north side), Bukit Tunggul Mt. (on the northeast side), Tampomas Mt. (on the east side), Manglayang Mt. (on the east side), Bukit Jarian Mt. (on the east side), Mandalawangi Mt. (on the east side), Guntur Mt. (on the southeast side), Cikuray Mt. (on the southeast side), Papandayan Mt. (on the southeast side), Wayang Mt. (on the south side), Geulis Mt. (on the south side), Malabar Mt. (on the south side), Patuha Mt. (on the southwest side)

Scientists Discover Underwater Asphalt Volcanoes

National Science Foundation, April 25, 2010

Impressive landmarks hidden for 40,000 years rise from sea-floor

About 10 miles off the Santa Barbara coast, at the bottom of the Santa Barbara Channel, a series of impressive landmarks rise from the sea floor.

They've been there for 40,000 years, but have remained hidden in the murky depths of the Pacific Ocean--until now.

They're called asphalt volcanoes.

Scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and affiliated with the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), University of California at Davis, University of Sydney and University of Rhode Island, have identified the series of unusual volcanoes.

The largest of these undersea Ice Age domes lies at a depth of 700 feet (220 meters), too deep for scuba diving, which explains why the volcanoes have never before been spotted by humans, says Don Rice, director of NSF's Chemical Oceanography Program, which funded the research.

Diagram showing formation of an asphalt volcano and associated release of methane and oil.

"They're larger than a football-field-long and as tall as a six-story building," says David Valentine, a geoscientist at UCSB and the lead author of a paper published on-line this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. "They're massive features, and are made completely out of asphalt."

Valentine and colleagues first viewed the volcanoes during a 2007 dive on the research submersible Alvin. Valentine credits Ed Keller, an earth scientist at UCSB, with guiding him and colleagues to the site.

"Ed had looked at some bathymetry [sea floor topography] studies conducted in the 1990s and noted some very unusual features," Valentine says.

Based on Keller's research, Valentine and other scientists took Alvin into the area in 2007 and discovered the source of the mystery.

Using the sub's robotic arm, the researchers broke off samples and brought them to labs at UCSB and WHOI for testing.

In 2009, Valentine and colleagues made two more dives to the area in Alvin. They also conducted a detailed survey of the area using an autonomous underwater vehicle, Sentry, which takes photos as it glides about nine feet above the ocean floor.

"When you 'fly' Sentry over the sea floor, you can see all of the cracking of the asphalt and flow features," says Valentine. "All the textures are visible of a once-flowing liquid that has solidified in place.

"That's one of the reasons we're calling them volcanoes, because they have so many features that are indicative of a lava flow."

Tests showed that these aren't your typical lava volcanoes, however, found in Hawaii and elsewhere around the Pacific Rim.

Using a mass spectrometer, carbon dating, microscopic fossils, and comprehensive, two-dimensional gas chromatography, the scientists determined that the structures are asphalt. They were formed when petroleum flowed from the sea-floor about 30,000-40,000 years ago.

Chris Reddy, a scientist at WHOI and a co-author of the paper, says that "the volcanoes underscore a little-known fact: half the oil that enters the coastal environment is from natural oil seeps like the ones off the coast of California."

The researchers also determined that the volcanoes were at one time a prolific source of methane, a greenhouse gas.

The two largest volcanoes are about a kilometer apart and have pits or depressions surrounding them. These pits, according to Valentine, are signs of "methane gas bubbling from the sub-surface."

That's not surprising, he says, considering how much petroleum was flowing there in the past.

"They were spewing out a lot of petroleum, but also lots of natural gas," he says, "which you tend to get when you have petroleum seepage in this area."

The discovery that vast amounts of methane once emanated from the volcanoes caused the scientists to wonder if there might have been an environmental impact on the area during the Ice Age.

"It became a dead zone," says Valentine. "We're hypothesizing that these features may have been a major contributor to those events."

While the volcanoes have been dormant for thousands of years, the 2009 Alvin dive revealed a few spots where gas was still bubbling.

"We think it's residual gas," says Valentine, who added that the amount of gas is so small it's harmless, and never reaches the surface.

Photo of Christopher Farwell, Sarah Bagby and David Valentine with a piece of asphalt volcano, discovered on the sea-floor of the Santa Barbara Channel.

Other co-authors of the paper are Christopher Farwell, Sarah C. Bagby, Brian A. Clark, and Morgan Soloway, all of UCSB; Robert K. Nelson, Dana Yoerger, and Richard Camilli of WHOI; Tessa M. Hill, UC Davis; Oscar Pizarro, University of Sydney; and Christopher N. Roman, University of Rhode Island.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov
George Foulsham, UCSB (805) 893-3071 george.foulsham@ia.ucsb.edu

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