Hawaii On Volcano Watch After Hundreds Of Earthquakes Spark Eruption Fears

Hawaii is on volcano watch after a series of earthquakes struck the island in less than 72 hours.  Hundreds of quakes were reported before the Kilauea Volcano was put on watch as a volcano that could potentially erupt.

The Kilauea Volcano is located in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which has since closed off nearly 15,700 acres due to “the possibility of a new eruption and unstable geologic activity.” But most of the park remains open, according to a statement released by the park.

Officials are now keeping a very close watch on the Kilauea volcano, which is one of the world’s most active while residents in the area are being urged to prepare an eruption and review emergency plans in case of evacuation, warned the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency on Wednesday.

According to CNN, since Monday, hundreds of earthquakes (most of them around a 2.0 magnitude) have been recorded in the area. The series of earthquakes came after a collapse of a crater floor of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, which is a volcanic cone in the eastern rift zone of the Kīlauea Volcano.  Since that fateful collapse on Monday, about 250 earthquakes were reported in the area stretching into Tuesday evening, according to Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Status Report.

The tremors have been going on for days now, causing residents to fear an imminent eruption. Many residents have been reporting nearly constant ground vibrations in some areas. “It has now become unnerving,” Carol Shepard, a resident, told CNN affiliate KHON. She said the flurry of earthquakes seemed to happen every minute. “It’d be like the house would shake. It’d be like somebody that weighs 300 pounds came in my living room, and jumped up and down,” she said.

Although it’s impossible to determine if, let alone when an eruption would occur, scientists felt it was necessary to warn residents of the volcano’s recent activity.

The US Geological Survey said no steam or heat were seen escaping through the cracks. They added that the cracks were small, only about several inches across. These cracks are appearing from “deformation of the ground surface due to the underlying intrusion of magma,”  which is the molten rock that is underground, according to the agency.

“An outbreak of lava from the lower East Rift Zone remains a possible outcome of the continued unrest,” according to USGS in a Wednesday night update. “At this time it is not possible to say with certainty if or where such an outbreak may occur, but the area downrift (east) of Pu’u ‘Ō’ō remains the most likely location.”

Unusual Eruptions At Yellowstone’s Largest Active Geyser Baffles Scientists

The world’s largest active geyser has erupted three times in the past six weeks at Yellowstone National Park, including once this week, in a pattern that is highly unusual, according to geologists.  And scientists cannot explain what is causing the geyser to erupt.

One thing all scientists can agree on is that, as they’ve repeatedly told us before, the supervolcano churning below the serene scenery in Wyoming is not going to erupt anytime soon.  We shouldn’t be taking any of the anomalies to mean as much either.

According to Reuters, the Steamboat Geyser, which can shoot water as high as 300 feet (91 meters) into the air, erupted on March 15, April 19 and on Friday. The last time it erupted three times in a year was in 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory said.  The last time it erupted prior to March was more than three years ago in September 2014.

As always, there’s nothing to worry about.  “There is nothing to indicate that any sort of volcanic eruption is imminent,” Michael Poland, the scientist in charge for the observatory, said in an email.

This year’s eruptions have been smaller than a usual Steamboat eruption, but the two in April were about 10 times larger than an eruption at the park’s famed Old Faithful Geyser in terms on the amount of water discharged, he said.

Geologists have not pinpointed a reason for the latest series of eruptions, but say they could indicate a thermal disturbance in the geyser basin, or that Steamboat may be having smaller eruptions instead of one large. –Reuters

Since most geysers do not erupt on a regular schedule, “it might just reflect the randomness of geysers,” Poland said. While the Steamboat eruptions are unusual, what would be far more worrying would be the water in the hydrothermal systems drying up, which could indicate that the super hot magma deep below was making its way to the surface -and an eruption could occur.

Yellowstone Supervolcano Strengthens Every Year Because Of ‘Hotspot’ Found Deep In Earth

Scientists say that the Yellowstone supervolcano gets stronger every year, and they now think they know why.  An 1,800-mile deep “hotspot” has been discovered under the caldera which scientists believe is the volcano’s heat source.

Yellowstone’s hotspot is situated within our planet’s mantle, and scientists believe it is part of a surge of atypically hot rock known as a mantle plume, according to a recent study. They are thought to begin some 1,850 miles below Earth’s surface at the boundary separating the mantle from the core.

Researchers and scientists have been studying Yellowstone in hopes of preventing or at least having some advanced warning when the supervolcano next erupts. “A supervolcano explosion is capable of “plunging the world into a catastrophe” and pushing humanity “to the brink of existence,” NASA researchers wrote in a 2015 study. The information we have on the rare eruptions today are estimates based on the geologic record and the massive deposits left behind by them.

The ash spewed by such an explosion could create a global “volcanic winter” by blanketing parts of continents with soot.  Using prediction models from Yellowstone’s last major eruption 630,000 years ago, the researchers revealed Yellowstone could produce more than a meter of volcanic ash in its immediate vicinity. As you can see, the ash would blanket a vast majority of the United States.

But NASA’s plan to help “fix” an eruption could have the opposite effect. The space agency suggested drilling into the volcano to release heat, making it less volatile. But that comes with potentially humanity eliminating consequences. “It has been suggested that the hydrothermal circulation at Yellowstone may cool the underlying magma and may lead to decreased long-term volcanic hazards,” wrote the scientists.

More research needs to be done to figure out how to best protect the planet from a supervolcano eruption, the researchers also said.  As of now, people would have mere minutes at most should the Yellowstone volcano erupt.  That would not be enough time to save lives.

But scientists also say that it isn’t going to erupt all that soon.  We seem to get evidence to the contrary seemingly daily, yet those studying the caldera ask to trust them when they say it’s acting completely normal. The Washington Post recently wrote an article titled “The Yellowstone Supervolcano is a Disaster Waiting To Happen.”  Yet right in their article, they state:

The Yellowstone region has seen three big eruptions, the first one 2.1 million years ago, the most recent 630,000 years ago. Contrary to Internet rumor-mongering, as well as conspiracy theories about government coverups, there’s no sign that a fourth cataclysmic event is about to happen. –The Washington Post

 

The Public Fears An Eruption At Yellowstone: ‘Spate Of Tremors’ Reported

Laying underneath the tranquil and beautiful geysers, waterfalls, and mountains of Wyoming lies the Yellowstone caldera.  The supervolcano has been worrying some for decades, but now experts fear an eruption could happen soon after reporting a “spate of tremors.”

According to WMD, a spate of four mini-tremors in the area following a period of “rest” has raised fears among some that the supervolcano is about to blow. Although the Yellowstone supervolcano hasn’t erupted for 631,000 years, scientists have been diligently working to understand the last eruption so they can more accurately predict when a big one will happen again.

The most recent quake came on March 11 when a small 1.5 tremor took place beneath the surface. The strongest one, a 1.8 magnitude earthquake, came just hours before this, and people are concerned that Yellowstone could be about to blow.

The growing concern among the public is evident, but many scientists still say the activity at the supervolcano is perfectly normal. Tom Skilling, a meteorologist for WGN News, a local news site in Chicago, explains that is it normal for the volcano to have less active weeks. “Minor earthquakes occur in the Yellowstone area 50 or more times per week, but a major eruption is not expected in the foreseeable future.”

Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas in the world and there are regular earthquakes detected in and around the supervolcano.  This latest spate of tremors follows a period in February where more than 200 small tremors detected were detected over a period of 10 days. According to experts with the US Geological Survey, that swarm began on February 8 in a region roughly eight miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana and increased dramatically in the days following.

Despite experts trying to calm nerves, concerned citizens have taken to Twitter to voice their concern about a potential eruption.  One person wrote on Twitter: “Pray to Yellowstone caldera. We can end it all.” RyGuy said on the social media site: “Yellowstone’s gonna blow up and get us all”.

If the volcano does explode, a climate shift would ensue as the supervolcano would spew massive amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, which can form a sulfur aerosol that reflects and absorbs sunlight. The large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter.”

ALERT: Shinmoedake Volcano Erupts In Japan

Powerful eruptions at a volcano in southern Japan spewed ash thousands of feet into the air on Wednesday as authorities warned locals not to approach the mountain. Shinmoedake volcano has erupted several times in violent explosions recently.

The Shinmoedake volcano, located on Japan’s southernmost main island, Kyushu, has been bubbling and rumbling since last week. The entrance to the volcano was closed and monitoring increased last week before it finally began shooting ash and smoke into the sky on Tuesday.

According to Channel News Asia, “The plume reached the height of 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) for the first time since Apr 3, 2011,” following a total of 29 eruptions at Mount Shinmoedake, Japan’s weather agency said in a statement.  People have also been ordered to stay away from the volcano as major ash deposits spread from the crater, the agency said.

The volcano, which featured in the 1967 James Bond film “You Only Live Twice,” has been grumbling since last Thursday. Footage captured by the Meteorological Agency showed lava and thick grey smoke rising from the mountain around midnight on Wednesday.

The volcano also produced so-called “explosive” eruptions, which also featured air blasts. This volcanoes eruption doesn’t appear to be triggering fear in the masses of a more violent “Ring of Fire,” but it’s nonetheless significant geologically.  Japan, has scores of active volcanoes and sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire” where a large proportion of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

There were no reports of injuries or property damage, but Newsweek reported that eruptions were expected to continue and the risk of flying rocks and pyroclastic flows were possible.

New Data: Yellowstone Supervolcano STRAINED, Magma Chamber Under Immense Pressure

According to a group of seismologists who are monitoring the potentially catastrophic supervolcano, Yellowstone is “under strain.” This new report has reignited fears that the caldera could erupt at any moment.

Experts were alerted to the volcano’s strain after noticing deformation. This process, where subsurface rocks subtly change shapes, is occurring beneath the surface of Yellowstone right now. Researchers state deformation occurs when there is a change in the amount of pressure in the magma chamber and experts are keeping an eye on the development.

Seismologists from UNAVCO, a non-profit university-governed consortium, are using “Global Positioning System (GPS), borehole tiltmeters, and borehole strainmeters” to measure minute changes in deformation at Yellowstone. In an article for the Billings Gazette, David Mencin and Glen Mattioli, geodesists with UNAVCO, say “the strain signal is larger than would be expected if the crust under Yellowstone were completely solid.”

“What that means, at least in their eyes, is that there’s lava flowing that’s allowing pressure to build in the chamber,” says Joe Joseph of The Daily Sheeple.  “I don’t know if this is good or bad!”

These independent observations agree with other instruments at Yellowstone, like seismometers, that indicate a zone of semi-molten rock starting about 3 miles beneath the surface. The term “semi-molten” is used because the entire zone contains only between 5 and 15 percent liquid rock that occupies small pockets of space between the solid rock.

But the scientists want to assure the public that these observations are no cause for alarm. “Of course, they’re always gonna say that,” says Joseph. “It’s about 700,000 years ago they say when it erupted and it’s long overdue. So here we are, Yellowstone, yet again, thrust into the news because of some of this new data coming out…,” Joseph said.

If the Yellowstone volcano nestled mostly in  Wyoming were to erupt, an estimated 87,000 people would be killed immediately and two-thirds of the USA would instantly be made uninhabitable.  The large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter.”

Is this a cause for alarm? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s interesting this new Yellowstone information is coinciding with news that a pole reversal is near, the Ring of Fire is waking up, and the sun is approaching its solar minimum which could cause a mini ice age.

Mount Mayon Erupts Beautifully But Violently, Spewing Lava, Smoke, And Ash

Warnings that Mount Mayon would soon erupt have caused over 50,000 Philippines residents living in the area to flee their homes.  Well, the volcano has erupted, complete with lava fountains and ash, and it’s eerily beautiful.

Mount Mayon has spewed lava up to 2,000ft high and its ash plumes stretched up to three miles above the crater.  Cedric Daep, a provincial disaster response official, told a news conference that he has recommended electricity and water supplies be cut in the no-go zones to discourage residents from returning. “If pyroclastic flows hit people, there is no chance for life, Daep said. “Let us not violate the natural law, avoid the prohibited zone, because if you violate, the punishment is the death penalty.”

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the volcano that’s been erupting for almost two weeks, at times very explosively, and still appears to be swelling with magma under the surface.

Mayon’s most destructive eruption, in 1814, killed more than 1,200 people and buried the town of Cagsawa in volcanic mud. The Philippines, which has about 22 active volcanoes, lies in the “Ring of Fire,” a line of seismic faults surrounding the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common.

This is the third time since its eruption that Mayon has generated a lava fountain. Pyroclastic flows, superheated gas and volcanic debris that could incinerate anything in their path, reached 3 miles from the crater in one area, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. “It’s a logistical nightmare,” Office of Civil Defense regional director Claudio Yucot said of the government’s effort to look after the still-swelling number of evacuees in at least 66 emergency shelters in nine cities and towns in northeastern Albay province, where Mayon lies.

Based on its previous eruptions, Mayon’s restiveness could last from two to four months, prompting Albay and national authorities to take steps to ease the impact on schools, public health and safety, livelihood, and law and order, officials said.  Officials have already had problems keeping people from entering the restricted zones to check on livestock or the condition of their homes.

Should any of these trends continue, Mayon could severely impact not only the global climate but become deadly.

 

Mayon Volcano Alert Level Raised, Explosion Anytime: ‘Just Be READY’

The Philippines most active volcano, Mount Mayon, has been rumbling for days.  Because of the volcano’s ongoing activity, the alert level has been raised to 4 and the danger zone around Mayon is now 5 miles in diameter.

A recent explosion has taken place at the volcano in the Philippines as well, sending a huge plume of ash and steam into the sky. Authorities have since raised the alert level to four out of five, meaning a potentially deadly major eruption is possible within days.  The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised its alert on Mayon to level 4, signifying a hazardous eruption is imminent, from level 3, which warns that such an eruption could be “weeks or even days” away. “We strongly advise all people, both residents, and tourists, to avoid the danger zone, and airlines to avoid flying near the volcano summit,” agency chief Renato Solidum said in a public news conference.

PHIVOLCS reported “increased seismic unrest, lava fountaining, and summit explosions” in the area and Solidum warned of two possible scenarios in the press conference on Monday: continuous lava eruptions, or a more dangerous pyroclastic flow.  (A pyroclastic flow is a mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash, and volcanic gas that moves at high speed down the slope of a volcano while typically following valleys, according to the United States Geological Survey.)

Solidum said this eruption was a possible “smaller version [of the] 2001 eruption,” which had pyroclastic flow. Solidum said the agency had recorded increased seismic activity and “lava fountaining and a summit explosion” from Sunday night, indicating more explosions could be ahead, including a hazardous eruption. A level 5 would signify that a violent and possible deadly eruption is underway.

Mayon, which at 2,462 meters (8,077 ft) is also one of the tallest mountains in the country. It has been issuing lava and pyroclastic material since it started showing activity and a red-hot glowing core back on January 13. About 40,000 residents living near Mayon have been evacuated. Authorities have also closed schools and encouraged those in the outskirts of Mayon’s danger zone to stay indoors.

Mayon lies in the central province of Albany.  “In some areas…it’s already zero visibility, especially along the foot of the volcano,” governor Al Francis Bichara told CNN Philippines, adding that strong winds could carry ash to distant towns. “The public is reminded to observe the danger zone — not to panic, but in essence just be ready. Prepare either gas masks, handkerchiefs or clothes to prevent inhalation of fine ash,” said Solidum.

“This kind of eruption is not over yet. Just like what we experienced a long time ago, it might extend up to a month,” said Bichara. “Maybe tomorrow, there will no eruption, and the following day there will be [one].”

12,000 Flee As Philippines Volcano Crater Glows Red Hot

The Philippines’ most active volcano has awoken again. On Sunday, lava pooled to the surface of the volcano’s crater showing a glowing red hot core just below.

By Monday, the crater of a rumbling Philippine volcano was glowing bright red. Coupled with vulcanologists’ warnings it could erupt within days, the glowing crater caused thousands of residents to flee from their homes in search of safety. The volcano lies in the coconut-growing Albay province about 210 miles southeast of Manila.

More than 12,000 people have been ordered to leave a four mile (seven-kilometer) evacuation zone as scientists fear the eruption of the Mayon volcano, and there are warnings of destructive mudflows and toxic clouds. Volcanic earthquakes and rockfalls have also violently shaken the summit of Mayon over the last 24 hours, after a number of steam-driven eruptions, scientists said. Lava flowed just less than half a mile down a gulley from the crater and on Monday morning, ash clouds appeared mid-slope, said Renato Solidum, head of the volcano institute.

“It is dangerous for families to stay in that radius and inhale ash,” Claudio Yucot, head of the region’s office of civil defense, told AFP. “Because of continuous rains in past weeks, debris deposited in the slopes of Mayon could lead to lahar flows. If rain does not stop it could be hazardous.”

Three steam-explosions since Saturday have spewed ash into nearby villages and may have breached solidified lava at the crater and caused lava to start flowing, Solidum said. With its near-perfect cone, Mayon is popular with climbers and tourists but has erupted about 50 times in the last 500 years, sometimes violently.

Experts are concerned about a major eruption which could trigger pyroclastic flows (superheated gas and volcanic debris that race down the slopes of volcanoes at high speeds) that would be capable of incinerating or vaporizing everything in their path. More extensive explosions of ash could drift toward nearby towns and cities, including Legazpi city, the provincial capital, about 9 miles away.

Earth’s Volcanoes Are Waking Up: DORMANT Papua New Guinea Volcano Erupts For First Time

Hundreds of people are fleeing the island of Kadovar after a violent volcano has erupted for the first time in history.  There have also been warnings that tsunamis could strike the island after the alarming eruption.

Mount Tavurvur, in the town of Rabaul in East New Britain province, erupted at 3 a.m. Friday morning, local time. The volcano, located in Papua New Guinea, was thought to be dormant.  It has now erupted for the first time in known history, spewing ash thousands of feet into the air and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents. But the worst could be forthcoming, as experts now fear this surprising eruption could lead to landslides and tsunamis in the area.

“Due to the steepness of the island, landslides are possible and together with the explosive nature of magma, tsunamis may be generated,” the Rabual Volcanological Observatory said in a statement.  “It appears from satellite imagery and aerial photographs that it started with mild Vulcanian activity from a vent at the southeast base. It appears a fissure may be opening just inside of the western wall of the net’s breach descending down to at least sea level,” the statement continued.

Cheyne O’Brien, a forecaster at the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, said that the ash clouds had been thrown up steadily to a height of 6,998 feet, forming a plume that is traveling west-northwest. “It’s just a continuous emission of volcanic ash at the moment,” he added. O’Brien also said that although the plume does not yet pose a threat to aircraft, that could change if the wind switched direction towards Papua New Guinea’s Wewak airport.

Just last week, Mount Saint Helens experienced earthquakes while the heavily populated Bay Area in San Francisco was rocked by a small quake that shook millions.  Could this be the beginning of the Earth’s crust “waking up?”

I have been writing about the shaking that has been happening on the west coast quite a bit lately, but I don’t think that people understand the seriousness of what we are facing.

Scientists assure us that the “Big One” is coming, and when it does arrive the devastation will be absolutely off the charts. –Economic Collapse Blog

But this rattling of Earth’s foundation could go beyond the West Coast of the United States.  There has been an increased level of volcanic activity around the globe, leading many to wonder if scientists were correct when they claimed that 2018 is shaping up to be a year of violent activity in the Earth’s crust.

Earthquake Alert: Swarms Reported Near Mt. Saint Helens Volcano

A magnitude 3.9 earthquake that hit near Mount St. Helens early Wednesday was followed by a swarm of aftershocks.  This earthquake swarm is sparking fears that the volcano could be awakening once again.

The first earthquake hit east of Mount St. Helens, 23 miles south-southeast of Morton,  just after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Nineteen aftershocks have followed with the largest being 2.7 in magnitude.

Mount St. Helens, 96 miles (154 km) south of Seattle, Washington and 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Portland, Oregon, is part of the Cascade Mountain Range that runs from northern California to British Columbia, Canada. It isn’t the only active volcano in the region. In fact, there are 12 other major volcanoes and nearly 3,000 other volcanic features in the Cascades but scientists consider Mt. Saint Helens the most active within the past 10,000 years.

Seismologists said they are confident the earthquake was a tectonic event and not related to magma activity within the volcano itself, but were also rather careful to point out that the location and strength of the quake were atypical. “We have had a lot of small, tiny earthquakes in this zone. What we haven’t had is an earthquake that size, a 3.9 in that area,” said  Bill Steele with PNSN.

Although the large quake happened on the east side of Mt. Saint Helens, seismologists primarily expect to see are smaller swarms of quakes on the west side of the mountain. People from Mountlake Terrace to Seattle and from Portland to Astoria told KIRO 7 they felt the quake. Others in Glenoma, Randle, Morton, and other towns along Highway 12 in Lewis County told KIRO 7 they felt some significant shaking. No damage was reported.

“The trains running, the cars, the airplanes landing, there are a lot of things you can do with just a few seconds of warning,” said University of Washington seismologist John Vidale.  Scientists are working on plans to give a 7 to 10-second warning in the event of a major seismic event near Mt. Saint Helens.

 University of Washington seismologists say they log about 17 earthquakes a month on average near Mount St Helens, however, in the past month, they have tracked more than 80.  But they say there is no cause for concern although these tremors appear very strange, to say the least.

Mount Agung In Bali Erupts SEVEN MORE TIMES Raining Down Ash On Villages

Volcanic ash rained down on the villages which are spotting the countryside in Bali. Mount Agung erupted again sending a massive plume of ash into the sky.

The Bali volcano threat level has been raised to the highest possible level, putting it at a level 4, while the aviation ash warning is now orange. The latest Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation (VONA) was issued after Mount Agung erupted yesterday morning following several days of calm.

The tourist season has been widely interrupted because of Mount Agung’s volatile and unpredictable behavior. This evening Mount Agung was still sending a plume of ash almost 5000 feet (1,500 meters) into the sky in what was a beautiful yet ominous sign of the ongoing threat. The Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency (PVMBG) has said that greyish-white plumes of ash have soared as high as 6500 feet (2000 meters) above the crater. Hot magma produced an eerie red glow just above the crater as cold lava mudflows have poured down the slopes.

As previously reported by SHTFPlan, more than 70,000 evacuees have fled their homes and are staying in more than 230 shelters across Bali, according to the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB). BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho ash rained down on Temakung village at 7:50 am local time today when the volcano erupted and sent out ash once again.

PVMBG volcanologist Gede Suantika said there were seven eruptions of ash between midnight and 10 pm today, according to Indonesian news agency ANTARA News.  “Sometimes it is hard for the lava and magma to come out, and when there is pressure, it will spew ash,” he told Reuters.  Meanwhile, volcanic earthquakes are continuing to rock Mount Agung, prompting fears that a major eruption could be imminent.

The Indonesians have told about 100,000 people to evacuate from the radius of the danger zone surrounding the volcano.  The Mount Agung volcano, which is capable of very violent eruptions, has shown a marked increase in activity in the last few weeks, stoking fears of a repeat of the 1963 eruption which killed 1,100 people.

Apocalyptic Super Volcano Eruption Could Be Much Closer Than Previously Thought

A lot of geology news has circled around the possibility of a supervolcano eruption that could wipe out humanity.  And a new analysis is not very comforting, as scientists discover that the apocalyptic scenario may be much closer than they previously thought.

The largest super-eruptions are capable of covering entire continents in volcanic ash and changing weather patterns around the world for decades. And a new study suggests the next eruption of this magnitude could be sooner than was previously assumed.

Regular volcanic eruptions, such as the recent activity of Mount Agung in Bali, might be enough to close airports, but a super-eruption would have the potential to destroy human civilization as we know it. Like Mount Agung, one of the last known super eruptions also took place in Indonesia.

Scientists previously estimated that super-eruptions happen every 45,000-714,000 years, a length of time Professor Jonathan Rougier, statistician and lead author of the new study, describes as “comfortably longer than our civilization”. (Civilization is often dated to the time humans moved away from hunting and gathering and towards agriculture, around 12,000 years ago.) In the new Earth and Planetary Science Letters study by Professor Rougier and his team at the University of Bristol, they used a database of geological records to produce a new estimate of between 5,200 and 48,000 years, with a “best guess value” of 17,000 years.  Although still a while from now, it could be much sooner than the 45,000 years conservative estimate from before.

“On balance, we have been slightly lucky not to experience any super-eruptions since then,” said Professor Rougier.  He also took care to note that just because it’s already been roughly 20,000-30,000 years since the most recent super-eruption, doesn’t mean the next one is “right around the corner.”

“Nature is not that regular,” he said. “What we can say is that volcanoes are more threatening to our civilization than previously thought,” said Professor Rougier.

Another Earthquake Swarm: ‘These Types Of Swarms Are Common In ACTIVE Volcanoes’

Twenty-two earthquake in four days have rocked a famous tourist location.  This recent swarm has sparked more fears that yet another volcano could be on the verge of erupting.

Mount Teide last erupted in 1909 and is the highest mountain in Spain and a huge tourist attraction. The flurry of tremors struck the village of Vilaflor on the slopes of the 12,000-foot mountain volcano between October 28 and October 31.  Mount Teide’s summit is the highest point in Spain and a major tourist attraction located in the Canary Islands.  Mount Teide boasts around three million tourists visiting every year.

Several days ago, officials were monitoring a separate volcano on the Canary Islands after thousands of earthquakes rocked the La Palma island sparking fears that the Cumbre Vieja volcano would violently erupt soon. The Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan) have been trying to calm people over the fears that Cumbre Vieja or Mount Teide could explode.

All of the quakes near Mount Teide were relatively minor, however, with the most powerful tremor recording a magnitude of 1.4. That quake was recorded as striking at 11.05 am local time (11:05 GMT, 06:05 GMT) on Tuesday morning.  But, they all took place directly beneath the surface of the volcano.  According to Oregon State University, most earthquakes directly beneath a volcano are caused by the movement of magma and that places pressure on the rocks until it cracks the rock. Magma then moves into the crack and begins building pressure again. Every time the rock cracks it makes a small earthquake.

[https://www.facebook.com/INVOLCAN/posts/1746921158674602]

But scientists are saying that there’s still time and that everyone should remain calm. “This swarm is similar to the other Seismic Swarms Recorded in Tenerife since last June 2017 and as always important to emphasize, it does not represent any kind of concern to the population,” a representative wrote on their Facebook page. “These types of swarms are common in active volcanoes,” they wrote, explaining that it was caused by changes in the pressure in the hydrothermal system.

Lucan Duria, a physicist and volcano monitoring expert at Involcan told MailOnline there are normally two or three earthquakes every day near Mount Teide, so there was “nothing special” about recent activity.

But with all of the earthquakes swarms occurring across the globe right now, many are rightly concerned that a volcanic natural disaster coupled with an earthquake could be next.

Yellowstone Super Volcano: We May Have Far Less Advance Warning Time Than We Thought

A new study done on ancient volcanic ash revealed that we may experience an eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano even sooner than previously warned. Scientists are also concerned that we will probably have much less advance warning time than we had thought before.

According to National Geographic, we may have mere decades before Yellowstone erupts. If the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone national park erupts again, we could also have far less time to prepare than originally thought. After analyzing minerals in fossilized ash from the most recent mega-eruption, researchers at Arizona State University think the supervolcano last woke up after two influxes of fresh magma flowed into the reservoir below the caldera. The new paper adds to the lengthening list of surprises scientists have uncovered over the last few years as they have continued to study and closely monitor the supervolcano.

A 2013 study, for instance, showed that the magma reservoir that feeds the supervolcano is about two and a half times larger than previous estimates. Scientists also think the reservoir is drained after every monster blast, so they thought it should take a long time to refill. Based on the new study, it seems the magma can rapidly refresh—making the volcano potentially explosive in the geologic blink of an eye. –National Geographic

“It’s shocking how little time is required to take a volcanic system from being quiet and sitting there to the edge of an eruption,” study co-author Hannah Shamloo told the New York Times. But scientists insist that this may seem scary, however, it may still be awhile before the eruption occurs.

About 630,000 years ago, a powerful eruption shook the region, spewing forth 240 cubic miles’ worth of rock and ash. The violent eruption created the Yellowstone caldera, a volcanic depression 40 miles wide that now cradles most of the national park. That eruption also left behind the Lava Creek Tuff, the ash deposit that Shamloo and her ASU colleague Christy Till used for their work. The two scientists presented their findings in August at a volcanology meeting in Oregon. The pair also presented an earlier version of their study at a 2016 meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Based on fossil deposits like this one, scientists believe that the supervolcano has seen at least two other eruptions on this scale in the past two million years or so. Almost everyone who studies Yellowstone’s slumbering supervolcano says that right now, we have no way of knowing when the next big blast will happen. For its part, the U.S. Geological Survey puts the rough yearly odds of another massive Yellowstone blast at 1 in 730,000. That’s about the same chance as a catastrophic asteroid collision with earth.

Yellowstone is one of the best-monitored volcanoes in the world, notes Michael Poland, the current Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory for the U.S. Geological Survey. A variety of sensors and satellites are always looking for changes, and right now, the supervolcano does not seem to pose a threat. “We see interesting things all the time … but we haven’t seen anything that would lead us to believe that the sort of magmatic event described by the researchers is happening,” says Poland via email, adding that the research overall is “somewhat preliminary, but quite tantalizing.”

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 1 people
Date: October 16th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

‘UFO’ Sighted Zig-Zagging Over Yellowstone Supervolcano

A new video has surfaced on YouTube which shows what appears to be a UFO zig-zagging it’s way over the Yellowstone supervolcano in northern Wyoming. The video was taken on June 9, but only recently uploaded to the video-sharing site.

The bright metallic object can be seen zipping across the sky on the left.

Yellowstone has long been a hotspot for alien sightings and UFO enthusiasts. According to the National UFO Reporting Center, there have been hundreds of reported sightings in the state of Wyoming, going all the way back to 1871. Jeanetta Foresta uploaded a video of the sighting under the heading “Things R flying all over – overnight”. She posted: “There were more than four at the beginning and this is overnight so there is no sun to reflect off of a plane.”

A still image from the video of the UFO.

This is not the first sighting of an unidentifiable object in the sky near Yellow Stone. In 2016 there too was a sighting of what appeared to be a drone-like object hovering directly above the head of the summit. Footage of this sighting can also be found on Jeanette’s channel under a video titled “Things Are Flying All Over The Night Sky! Upper Basin – Overnight!”

The famed Yellowstone volcano has garnered national interest in recent months, especially over the summer when more than 400 earthquakes hit in one week near the volcano. “This is the highest number of earthquakes at Yellowstone within a single week in the past five years, but is fewer than weekly counts during similar earthquakes swarms in 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010,” scientists explained in a June statement to the Star Valley Independent. The scientists added, however, that the swarms are nothing new and are not a cause for worry. Experts at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) say the risk of the Yellowstone supervolcano erupting is quite low, with a probability of one in 730,000.

There is still no official explanation for what was captured on this video.

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 50 people
Date: October 11th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

Ominous Earthquake Swarm At Yellowstone Supervolcano Now One Of Longest Ever Recorded

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

The rumblings beneath the formerly dormant supervolcano known as the Yellowstone caldera just won’t quit. And the ongoing earthquake swarm at the Yellowstone National Park supervolcano is now one of the longest ever recorded, having started on June 12.

Over the past three and a half months, almost 2,500 earthquakes have been recorded in the western part of the national park. This is on par with the biggest swarm ever recorded, where more than 3,000 earthquakes took place over three months, Newsweek reports.

In its latest monthly update about activity at Yellowstone, the US Geological Survey said 115 earthquakes had been reported in the park during September. Of these, 78 were part of the ongoing swarm 6 miles north of West Yellowstone. The biggest event in the swarm last month was magnitude 2.3.

“This is the sort of work that will happen in the months to come, as we gather up all of the available data and start crunching numbers,” Poland says. “What we can say now is that through the of September, the University of Utah has located 2,475 earthquakes in the swarm. This puts the 2017 swarm on par with that of 1985, which lasted three months and had over 3,000 located events.

“[This is] certainly a fascinating event and one that we hope to learn more about through some post-swarm analysis,” he adds. “There’s a lot to work on this winter, for sure.”

While scientists at the USGS have brushed off the threat of a supervolcano eruption, scientists at NASA have said it represents a potentially devastating threat to the US population. These same scientists have suggested several risky strategies to prevent an eruption if one appears imminent.

Brian Wilcox, a former member of the NASA Advisory Council on Planetary Defense, and several other NASA researchers over the summer shared a report previously unseen outside the space agency about the threat Yellowstone poses, and what can be done to prevent an eruption.

According to NASA, an eruption at Yellowstone could plunge the earth into a volcanic winter and destroy crops and livestock, precipitating widespread famines. Food reserves would only last about 74 days, according to the UN, after an eruption of a super volcano, like that under Yellowstone.

With an eruption long overdue, NASA has devised a plan to drill into the caldera and try to artificially cool it – a strategy that researchers say comes with its own risks.

Scientists at the USGS say the monthslong earthquake storm at the caldera has ended; however, they played down the risks posed by the swarm shortly after it started over the summer, only for the rumbling to continue. Others maintain that an eruption is long overdue.

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Tyler Durden
Views: Read by 474 people
Date: October 6th, 2017
Website: http://www.zerohedge.com/

Copyright Information: This content has been contributed to SHTFplan by a third-party or has been republished with permission from the author. Please contact the author directly for republishing information.

Indonesian Volcano Mount Sinabung Erupts

Fears that Mount Agung would explode in Bali sparked the evacuation of 50,000 mere days ago.  But the volcano hasn’t erupted yet, instead, Mount Sinabung is now exploding.

More than 75,000 people living in the area have fled since the announcement that the Mount Agung volcano’s eruption is imminent.  The fear that Mout Agung will go off at any time has just been ratcheted up to the highest level as well, leaving displaced residents rightly concerned.  While all attention was focused on the potential imminent eruption of Mount Agung in Bali, another deadly Indonesian volcano has dramatically exploded in Sumatra.

Sinabung is located on the “Ring of Fire,” a volatile zone of seismic activity with hundreds of active volcanoes and 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes.

Mount Sinabung, in northern Sumatra, spewed plumes of ash 2.5km into the air as it erupted at 1:23 pm local time on Wednesday. The volcano actually explodes so frequently, warning signs are permanently stationed around it warning against going near it. Authorities feared the new lava flows could cascade down the mountain and destroy homes, as has happened several times.

Just last month another eruption rocked the area, blasting ash 4.2km into the air and causing pyroclastic flows many kilometers across surrounding countryside. Earlier in the year, 10 people were killed in another eruption by Mount Sinabung, with its death toll sitting at 20 in the past decade, including four high school students and their teacher on a school excursion.

Scientists said there were 1,000 tremours around the island’s highest peak, Mount Agung, occurred in a single day and if they continue, that volcano could erupt in only a matter of hours.

Authorities continue to insist that Indonesia is safe for tourists even though the “Ring of Fire” has been experiencing some seismic shakeups and volcanic activity appears to be increasing.

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 250 people
Date: September 27th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

Island Nation Of Vanuatu Evacuated As Volcano Erupts

Natural disasters are coming fast and furious around the globe.  About 6,000 people have been evacuated from the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu because of an erupting volcano.

Although the Monaro volcano on Ambae island has been active since 2005, however, sudden activity on Saturday raised fears of a major eruption.  The director of Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office Shadrack Welegtabit said on Tuesday that Vanuatu would declare an emergency on the island after the volcano’s activity measure was raised to Level Four for the first time over the weekend.

Vanuatu is located about one-quarter of the way from Australia to Hawaii.  It’s made up of 80 islands, about 65 of which are inhabited, and is home to around 280,000 people. The nation is considered one of the world’s most prone to natural disasters, with a half-dozen active volcanoes as well as regular cyclones and earthquakes.  It rests on the Pacific’s ‘Ring of Fire,’ the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.

Welegtabit also said those villagers had been moved into schools and community halls in the island’s eastern and western regions and that authorities have already planned to send a ship to the island filled with water, food, and other supplies to help those people who had been displaced. That ship is due to arrive on Wednesday.

Almost 50,000 people are currently evacuated from the island nation of Bali in Indonesia as well, due to an imminent volcanic eruption there.
‘There’s ash, fire, stones, and lava being thrown out from the mouth of the volcano,” Welegtabit said. “There’s a lot of activity going on.” He also said that it’s difficult to say whether there will be a major eruption and that those who have been evacuated will just have to sit and wait for further instruction. At this time, evacuees are in limbo.

Vanuatu was also close to a 6.4 magnitude earthquake that occurred on September 20 of this year.

Vanuatu’s Meteorology and Geohazards Department said that villagers within 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) of the volcano face the biggest risk from airborne rocks and volcanic gas.  The department also warned that acid rain could damage crops across a broader area.

“With the seismic machine, we can measure what’s happening but we can’t really predict what the volcano will do next,” he said.

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 208 people
Date: September 26th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

50K Evacuated From Bali, As Nation Is On Volcano Alert For Imminent Eruption

Fears of an imminent eruption on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali have led to the evacuation of an estimated 50,000 people.  The Mount Agung volcano is going to erupt, scientists say.

Waskita Sutadewa, the spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency in Bali, said people have scattered to all corners of the island and some have crossed to the neighboring island of Lombok. Indonesian authorities raised the volcano’s alert status to the highest level on Friday following a dramatic increase in seismic activity. It last erupted in 1963, killing about 1,100 people.

Evacuation post #SiagaGunungAgung is in 9 distric; Karangasem, Buleleng, Klungkung, Bangli, Tabanan, Denpasar, Gianyar, Badung &Jembrana pic.twitter.com/Z49iOG0UCj

— Indonesian Red Cross (@palangmerah) September 25, 2017

Villagers are staying in temporary camps, sports centers, village halls, or with friends and relatives. Some do return to the exclusion zone during the day to tend to their livestock or shift the animals to areas further from the volcano for their safety. Others say they are selling their cows because they don’t know when they’ll be able to return.

“It’s obviously an awful thing. We want to be out of here just to be safe,” said an Australian woman at Bali’s airport who identified herself as Miriam. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said hundreds of thousands of face masks will be distributed in Bali as part of government humanitarian assistance that includes thousands of mattresses and blankets. Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Government volcanologist Surono, who uses one name, said the feared eruption could be huge and potentially also close airports in East Java and Lombok, according to local media reports. Agung is in the north of the island about 43 miles from the tourist hotspot of Kuta. People have been told to stay at least 6 miles from the crater, but to stay 7.5 miles away when to the north, northeast, southeast, and south-southwest.

Over the past 5,000 years, Agung has erupted once a century on average and about a quarter of its eruptions have been a similar or stronger strength than 1963. Macquarie University volcanologist Heather Handley said the eruptions in 1843 and 1963 had a Volcanic Explosivity Index of about 5 on a scale where 8 would be the strength of an ancient supervolcano eruption such as Yellowstone in the U.S. or Toba in Indonesia.

Although officials have said there is no immediate threat to tourists, a significant eruption would force the closure of Bali’s international airport, stranding thousands. The island is famous for its surfing, beaches and its elegant Hindu culture is still safe to visit. Bali’s Ngurah rai International Airport has been operating normally since the alert status for Mount Agung was raised to the highest level on Friday.

Nearly 5 million tourists visited Bali last year.

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 1 people
Date: September 25th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.