Mount Maipo

Mount Maipo, among the most active border stratovolcanoes in the south-central Andes, sits mightily on the Chile-Argentina borders.  This volcano partially fills the Pleistocene Diamante caldera, and is elevated nearly 1900 meters above the caldera’s floor as a result of strombonian-vulcanian activity.  Its aesthetic appeal comes mostly from the luscious layer of ash and glacial deposits which neatly blanket Maipo’s surface.  This ash comes from the last significant eruption which occurred in 1826, with the explosive emission of lava and other volcanic material.  Other than that, Maipo’s eruption level has diminished to mild explosions here and there, most of which barely reach a VEI of 2.  The latest dish on activity  on Maipo is the claim of of a landslide or avalanche in 2004 just to the east of its peak, as a result of the season’s increasing temperature.  Besides this and the last recorded eruption, which occurred in 1912, Maipo’s active calderas merely continue to rest peacefully.

The Copahue Volcano

-Photo by bqviajes.com

Located in the Andes, amidst the central area of the Argentina-Chilean border, lies the breathtaking Mount Copahue.  This stratovolcano with a 8 km-wide caldera came into existence about a half a million years ago near the Pliocene Caviahue caldera.  There is particularly frequent fumarolic activity in the eastern summit crater, as well as intense acidity in the hot springs below the eastern crater lake.  However, Mount Copahue itself is not very active in terms of volcanic eruptions, as the number of recorded eruptions since the 18th century have been scant and few.  Though the last eruption there occurred in as recently as July of 2000, and its strength marked a record high for the volcano’s eruption history.  Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism program reported that ash deposits 3-5 cm thick coated the surrounding village, a sulfurous odor littered the air, and the acidic waters of Copahue’s crater lake poisoned the freshwater in Rio Lomin.  So, too, did the phreatic explosions and pyroclastic flows contribute greatly to the overall destruction of this eruption in 2000.  Since then, Copahue has been relatively quiet, with only mild fumarolic activity disturbing its peace.

San Pedro

           -Photo from letsgochile.com

 Behold the tranquil, picturesque image of Mount San Pedro nestled beautifully on the edge of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.  It is also one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, with a staggering altitude of 6,145 meters.  This volcano features two, large peaks, San Pedro is the western summit and San Pablo is the eastern.  Notice the shadow this massive basaltic andesite-to-dacitic mountain casts on its twin, Mount San Pablo.  Exploration from world renowed, Australian scientist John Seach confirms the thick avalanche of debris that coats the western slope of San Pedro.  This material resulted from the collapse of an older edifice, which then formed the youngest cone in the volcano’s crater.   There’s not much significant activity these days to alter the material on San Pedro’s surface, as the last eruption was recorded on December 2, 1960, with a mere VEI of 2.  Thus for now, this intimidatingly tall volcano, sits quietly, a mere image of (non-dangerous) beauty.

Mount Láscar

-photo from Smithsonian/Global Volcanism Program

Mount Láscar  is situated on the northern end of the Chilean Andes and is the most active stratovolcano there.  This means that Láscar is capable of emitting both pyroclastic and magmatic material.  Very frequently, too, do phreatic eruptions occur there in which hot water and even hotter volcanic rock come together and cause an explosive eruption of pulverized rock, but no magma.  Recent reports on Láscar’s eruption activity indicate that little more is occurring than explosive, central vent eruptions, which dwarf in comparison to Láscar’s most massive, historical eruption to date.  This is, of course, the 1993 eruption, which including phreatic eruptions, pyroclastic flows and an extrusion of the volcano’s dome structure; this eruption was also reported of having a VEI of 4.  The photo above shows smooth, light-colored deposits left over from the pyroclastic flow.  The column of erupted matter exceeded the volcano’s 5km altitude by an additional 12 km, emitting as much as 0.1 cubic kilometers of volcanic material.  Láscar is yet to experience an eruption quite as massive since then, but with magma flows and explosive rock bursting from its craters so often, who’s to say what’s cooking inside of her.

Final Ecuadorian Update!! Eruption!

Above is an Image of the 2011 Tungurahua eruption. The original image

can be found here.

So here we are, it is the end of the year and after much waiting and anticipation,finally there is an eruption in my region.the Ecuadorian volcano Tungurahua roared to life in recent weeks after being dormant for just over two years. It had another strong eruption in 2008. The volcano originally gets its name from the ancient Quechua language.  This eruption sent ash spewing into the atmosphere, to an altitude of around 33,000 feet. This caused the local aviation authority to ground flights.  Luckily the Volcano with is located in southern lowlands, is located in a sparsely populated area.  The government of Ecuador has only had to evacuate around 300 people from this eruption.  Right now the eruption is a fairly small one and hasn’t had many effects on anything but if it grows, then it could possibly endanger the town of Banos which is a popular tourist spot famous for its thermal springs.

its been fun!

Jack

Giant Rats, Parrots, and Frogs with Fangs..OH MY!

In light of the lack of recent activity in the Papua New Guinea region, I wanted to share a fun fact about one of the island’s volcanoes. Mount Bosavi is described as an “eroded volcanic cone, with a caldera.” Mount Bosavi is located within Papua New Guinea’s lush rainforest, tucked away from the untrained researcher. The volcano is 2.7 kilometers high and the crater is one kilometer deep and   four kilometers wide. The last eruption of Mount Bosavi was 200,000 years ago. This volcano is not active, but within it life has been discovered.

The British Broadcasting Channel (BBC) sent a film crew and biologists from Oxford University, the London Zoo, and the Smithsonian Institute on an expedition to Papua New Guinea in 2009. This was set in motion after many of PNG’s rain forests began to fall into danger  Over forty new species, including giant rats, frogs with fangs, and a new species of bat! The Bosavi wooly rat is one of the largest rats in the world weighing 1.5 kilograms and measuring 82 centimeters long. A multitude of species of rats and mice live in Papua New Guinea due to the fact that predators like big cats and monkeys are few in number. Other species like  the camouflaged gecko, a net-dropping spider, and the world’s smallest parrot were also found upon investigation of Mount Bosavi.

Papua New Guinea is one of the least explored places on the face of this earth, but as this blog post reveals, the beautiful island and its volcanoes have a lot to offer the world!

Thanks for Reading!

Get More Information Here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2009/09/08/biology-papua-new-guinea-species.html

http://earth.esa.int/applications/data_util/SARDOCS/spaceborne/Radar_Features/Land_Features/mount_bosavi.htm

Maderas, Nicaragua

Volcan Maderas is a stratovolcano in Nicaragua that has an elevation of 1394 m (4,573 ft) and sits as an island in Lake Nicaragua. Since Maderas is located on a body of water, it produces highly basaltic-to-dacitic material. Inside the bottom of the 800 m crater lies Laguna de Maderas, which is located on the western side of the central graben. On the NE side of the volcano lay many pyroclastic cones, though little volcanic activity has been reported. Despite Volcan Maderas’ size and appearance, no eruption has been recorded in historical times. A lahar traveled down the east side of the volcano, killing six people in a local village, but the cause of the lahar was not confirmed volcanic.

Sources: Global Volcanism Program and Hotel Travel Tour

Zara Holderman, April 19, 2011

Merapi

Indonesia’s most active volcano, mount Merapi, erupted six months ago. There were 322 dead and an additional 136,585 locals had to be evacuated. You might wonder why this is relevant now. Of those 136,585, 100,000 lost their houses during the eruption, but since then another 3,750 had to leave their homes as well so as not to be swept off with them by what this article calls “cold lava”, more commonly known as mudflows. These mudflows careen down the slopes of the volcano, torrents of water, ash and debris creating a cement-like substance. These people have fled to shelters set up by the government and various Non-governmental Organizations or been taken in by kind-hearted inhabitants of surrounding villages.

By Clara Lang-Ezekiel.

April 19^th 2011

More info at: http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=52222&t=Indonesia%3A+Volcano’s+victims+still+unable+to+rebuild

Recent Activity in Hawaii: March 30th-April 5th

The picture above is from March 28th, showing the lava that reappeared in the Pu`u `Ō `ō crater, covering the floor with a small lava lake

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

Kilauea Update:

From March 30th to April 5th, The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported that the lava lake in the deep pit within Kilauea’s Halema’uma’u crater was for the most part crusted over. Incandescence was observed through web cameras on March 30th, and lava was visible at times during March 31st and April 3rd and 4th. A gas plume from the vent deposited small amounts of  ash nearby, derived from rockfalls and occasional spatter from the lava lake.

At Pu’u ‘O’o crater, the lava lake was fed from a few sources in the center or West portions of the lake. The deepest part of the crater was episodically filled and drained. From April 4th-5th, the central lava sources produced two or three small lava flows and infrequent spatter.

Smithsonian Volcanic Activity Reports

By Sarah Nye

April 12th, 2011

Mt Fuji

Mount Fuji is known worldwide as one of Japan’s symbols. It is named for the Buddhist fire goddess Fuchi, and though it may not hold too great of meaning to outsiders, the Japanese consider it the holiest of their three scared mountains and place great importance in it.

Despite it’s beauty and serene appearance, Fuji is indeed a “perfectly” shaped stratovolcano. Fuji last erupted in 1707. This eruption began on December 16^th and lasted into the next year until January 1^st. Although there was no lava flow, the volcano erupted an immense amount of ash, the estimated amount to be around 800,000,000 m³. Fields and crops were ruined and the falling volcanic ash contaminated freshwater streams. As a result of this many parts of Japan suffered from famine and slowly starved. The ash in the rivers slowly settled to the bottom, and caused many of them to become shallower. The Sakawa river flooded because volcanic ash flew and made temporary dams here and there and eventually the downpour of rain the year following the eruption caused an avalanche of volcanic ash and mud and broke the dams, causing the flooding.

As of now Mt Fuji is till considered to be an active volcano, but the chance of an eruption any time soon has been deemed to be low.

Above is a view of Fuji in the spring time

http://japaneseprints.org/

Mt Fuji has been inspiring art for centuries, and above is a well known print of it by the japanese artist Hokusai.

Another view of Fuji

If you’ve got the patience, above is a fun and interesting video tracking two guys attempting to climb Mt Fuji.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoei_eruption_of_Mount_Fuji

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0803-03=

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2172.html

Priya Nalluri 4/12/11