Volcano Watch

[KNOWTHIS]

Mount St. Helens

300-foot fin grows in crater of Mount St. Helens

A massive new fin sprouts in Mount St. Helens' crater, the result of lava upsurges in recent weeks. Scientists with the Cascades Volcano Observatory expect the 300-foot-tall spire -- the size of a tilted-up football field -- to collapse upon the crater's expanding dome, as others have done since the volcano started erupting again 18 months ago.

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We've got volcanoes, earthquakes, crazy weather & temp., meteors, mysterious booms, red rain, diseases, wars, animals acting strange & threatened with extinction, pollution, out of control greed/poverty, globalism, a horrible economy with a plummeting dollar, governments blowing up their own buildings and staging terrorism, political corruption in general, bomb testing, talks of making and using nukes, genocide, slave labor, racism, borders and sovereignty of countries disappearing, wealthy elites participating in sacrificial ceremonies, a media that lies/Fox News, chemtrails, soldiers dying, civilians dying, professors endorsing population control, fascism spreading, depression on the rise/people self-medicating with chemical pharmacutical poison.

WTF?!?!

No matter which stone you overturn, there's a new problem to be revealed.

www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6PFCHH?OpenDocument
Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano set for eruption



Experts warned defiant residents on the slopes of Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi Wednesday to boost their state of alert as a new lava dome continued to grow on top of the volcano, providing conditions for a major eruption to take place any day.

[chickenlittle]

Yes, the Monolith!!!!!!!!!
Thats how they are wording it here in Washington,I thought that was pretty good name for it.
chicky

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159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060505/NEWS/60505004

Volcano's crater reveals rapid changes

If the skies are clear, volcano watchers who turn out for the reopening of the Johnston Ridge Observatory today will get a spectacular view of a hulking slab of rock that's rapidly growing in Mount St. Helens' crater.


It's jutting up from one of seven lobes of fresh volcanic rock that have been pushing their way through the surface of the crater since October 2004.

The fin-shaped mass is about 300 feet tall and growing 4 feet to 5 feet a day, though it occasionally loses height from rockfalls off its tip, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

It began growing last November, steadily moving west and pushing rock and other debris out of its way as it goes. Mount St. Helens has been quietly erupting since a flurry of tiny earthquakes began in late September 2004. Scientists initially mistook the quakes as rainwater seeping into the hot interior of the older lava dome.

But it soon became clear that magma was on the move, confirmed by the emergence of fire-red lava between the old lava dome and the south crater rim a few weeks after the seismic activity began.

The volcano has continued pumping out lava ever since. Eventually, scientists expect the volcano will rebuild its conical peak that was obliterated in the May 18, 1980, eruption that killed 57 people.

The growth of the new lava dome has been accompanied by low seismicity rates, low emissions of steam and volcanic gases, and minor production of ash, the USGS said.

“Given the way things are going now, there's no hint of any sort of catastrophic eruptions,” USGS geologist Tom Pierson said. “At any time, however, things can change.”

Scientists flew a helicopter into the crater late last week to adjust equipment and take photographs that will likely be used to determine just how much the new lava dome has grown the last several months.

Their latest measurements, taken in December, showed that the new lava dome was about 96 million cubic yards in volume — enough to fill a football field with a stack of rock 10¬Ω miles high, Pierson said.

Scientists know the new dome is now larger than the old dome, a mass that's about 97 million cubic yards in volume that formed from a series of eruptions from 1980-1986.

“The 1980 dome frankly does not look very impressive anymore,” Dzurisin said. “It's starting to disappear.”

The Johnston Ridge Observatory, which closes down every winter, is the closest observatory to the 8,364-foot peak. It sits about five miles north of the mountain and offers the closest views of the volcano's horseshoe-shaped crater.

Johnston Ridge was named after David Johnston, a volcanologist killed in the 1980 eruption.

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link

Volcano Smokes Out Peruvian Farmers

After 40 years of dormancy, the Ubinas volcano in southern Peru has been spewing out toxic smoke and ash over the last few weeks. Polluted air and water, along with the possibility of lava flows, have prompted many residents to evacuate the region.

Most activity stopped by April 16, 2006, but most experts believe the reprieve is only temporary. A dome of molten lava is visibly building up inside the volcano, signaling that a high risk of explosive force may soon follow.

So what has made the Ubinas volcano awaken after four decades of sleep? Well, a clue may be that at the same time Ubinas has become active again, other volcanoes in Galeras, Columbia, and Lascar, Chile, among others in the region, have also flared up in recent weeks.

Scientists believe that the Earth's crust is essentially broken into several plates that float on the planet's surface. These plates slide into, over and under each other, which causes rock to melt. Sometimes the molten rock, or lava, builds up and comes out of vents in the plates, like volcanic craters.

Those recently active South American volcanoes, for example, are affected by the shifting of certain plates.

[David]

I live in an area surrounded by several old volcanos (6) and a whole bunch of very active thermal areas. We have been having up to 100 small quakes per day for the past year most in the 1 - 4.3 range on the scale. They have become more and more frequent in the past few months and the intensity is building as well.
Our main lake sits at the foot of the 4000' volcano Mt. Konocti. Below the lake, ClearLake, sits a giant magma pool estimated to be several miles long and a couple of miles wide. The lake has vents by the hundreds bubbling up along it shores and bays emitting warm water, minerals and nasty smelling gases.
With an average depth of only 25' the lake has the potential of devestating the surrounding communities sitting on it's shores if there is a large or even moderate quake.
Our entire counties surface area is spiderwebbed with fault lines, thousands of minor and not so minor faults and several on the surface that are absolutly huge and growing bigger with each passing year.
Geo changes, you bet, lot's of it recently...

[Mech]

People keep ignoring the fact that SOLAR CYCLES and cosmology are effecting everything including earths magnetic fields, earthquakes, volcanoes..and behavior.

Several solar storms have been occuring over the past few weeks.


Just look at the plots.


www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html

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I think there’s a myriad of factors involved. I myself wouldn’t necessarily pin it down to one sole contributor. I definitely agree that the solar activity is having an effect and is part of the whole equation. I just think there’s a whole lot more to it. I’ve read a lot about the photon belts and such as well, very interesting material.

I agree with many futurists that we will at some point in the near future experience a major pole shift. It’s already happening. My only hope is that it happens slowly and not all at once. The ice caps are melting and throwing the earth’s natural rotation in orbit out of line like a wobbly tire that’s out of balance. The shimmying can produce a tremendous jarring effect on a car, imagine what it could do to the earth’s crust on such a massive scale and proportions? I believe this increased wobble effect is also causing much of the high frequency of sink holes, earthquakes, volcanic activity and other odd events lately.

Another factor to consider is that the earth’s magnetic field is weakening. This I believe has a powerful effect on animals and birds in particular that rely on magnetic fields for their sense of direction in migration.

In my humble opinion, there’s a whole lot of stimuli happening all at once right now. There are effects and then side-effects of those initial effects which can spread very quickly. It all becomes jumbled together and the symptoms can often be misdiagnosed as being the cause and vice versa just like a health condition.

I understand that you can’t blame human activity for all that’s taking place. But there is such a thing as making a difficult situation far worse than it has to be.

[KNOWTHIS]

Technically speaking:

www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-246x.1999.00782.x

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Angular momentum perturbation, polar excitation and axialnear-symmetry

Wobble of the rotation axis can be excited by motion alone, but secular polar shift is always accompanied by a wobble and can only be excited by the products of inertia. The residual products of inertia induced by motion and the products of inertia arising from axial near-symmetry constitute continued polar excitation. During polar excitation, the instantaneous figure axis around which the rotation axis revolves is no longer the principal axis, and the principal axis is no longer symmetrical and its new location is to be determined. This new scheme facilitates a simpler and physically more justified determination of the angular momenta of different parts of the Earth such as the atmosphere, oceans, earthquakes, tectonic movements in the lithosphere and asthenosphere, the outer core, and even meteorite impact that involve motion.

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Polar excitation is due to mass redistribution within part of the Earth and appears as a relative angular momentum that involves both motion and rotation, whilst the rest of the Earth is only in rotation.

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pureenergysystems.com/news/2005/02/27/6900064_Magnet_Pole_Shift/

Earth Magnetic Field Reversal

It is not only the direction but also the strength of this magnetic field that is a concern. In the time of dinosaurs, at an estimated 2.5 gauss, it was eighty percent stronger than it is now. This may have been one of the reasons such gigantic life forms thrived. It is now accepted that a catastrophic event ended the reign of giant reptiles. However, they did not re-evolve to equivalent dimensions. And the disappearance of mammalian “mega-fauna” in more recent times is still considered to be a mystery. The mastodons and mammoths would have towered over modern elephants. Why are there so few large terrestrial animals today?

The smaller average size of modern animals may be due to the gradual decline of Earth's "steady state" (as opposed to “pulsed”) magnetism. Thousands of years ago the Chinese, with their astute discovery of bio-electrical energy flows known as “meridians”, learned that magnetism promotes vigor in biological life. They used magnetic rocks in medical treatment. In the past century there has been a further decline of earth's magnetic field by another five percent down to only 0.5 gauss. This has led Dr. Dean Bonlie to identify a "magnetic deficiency syndrome" resulting from the biological stress caused by the weakening of this "energy base" for life. (3)

The weakening of earth’s magnetism is one of the factors believed to be predictive of a pole reversal. That magnetic field reversals have occurred in the past is confirmed in the geological record. What is unclear is how precisely the transition occurs, and what happens to life forms extant at the time of this pole flip.

[KNOWTHIS]

This field change could very well be responsible for the recent rise in strange dolphin and whale beachings.

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news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1102_TVbirdflite.html

Birds

A new study suggests that birds use the Earth's magnetic field to plan dining locations along their migration route.

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whyfiles.org/shorties/088turtle_migrate/

Sea Turtles

Now comes word from the University of North Carolina that loggerheads navigate by "reading" the intensity and inclination of Earth's magnetic field.

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oceanlink.island.net/oceanmatters/strandings.html

Dolphins

There is mounting evidence that the dolphins use the Earth's magnetic fields as a form of navigation in the open ocean waters. More precisely the theory states that the dolphins are following disruptions in the magnetic field as navigation corridors. The strandings occur in areas of low magnetic field density where the navigation corridors intersected land at right angles. Basically, the theory states that the dolphins are following these magnetic corridors and plough onto land thinking it is where they want to go. In areas where the corridors followed the coastline fewer strandings occurred. While the magnetic field corridors is still a theory there is mounting evidence of a similar ability in birds, fish and reptile species. As time progresses more there will be more scientific resources devoted to this interesting theory.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4538959.stm

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[KNOWTHIS]

The big question is, how much do these fields effect humans and their mental state? Could HAARP be using an artificial magnetic field to intentionally alter our brain waves? What effect does the electromagnetic fields of cell phones have on our brains being so close to our heads during usage?

You know the old Indian adage. The same fire that keeps you warm can also burn you.

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pda.physorg.com/lofi-news-earthquake-earths-pole_2622.html

Earthquake Affects Earth's Rotation

NASA scientists using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it affected Earth's rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the planet's shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters. The earthquake that created the huge tsunami also changed the Earth's rotation.
Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. and Dr. Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. said all earthquakes have some affect on Earth's rotation. It's just they are usually barely noticeable.

"Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car," Chao said.

[In my mind this could easily include melting ice caps and glaciers]

Chao and Gross have been routinely calculating earthquakes' effects in changing the Earth's rotation in both length-of-day as well as changes in Earth's gravitational field. They also study changes in polar motion that is shifting the North Pole. The "mean North pole" was shifted by about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) in the direction of 145º East Latitude. This shift east is continuing a long-term seismic trend identified in previous studies.

They also found the earthquake decreased the length of day by 2.68 microseconds. Physically this is like a spinning skater drawing arms closer to the body resulting in a faster spin. The quake also affected the Earth's shape. They found Earth's oblateness (flattening on the top and bulging at the equator) decreased by a small amount. It decreased about one part in 10 billion, continuing the trend of earthquakes making Earth less oblate.

To make a comparison about the mass that was shifted as a result of the earthquake, and how it affected the Earth, Chao compares it to the great Three-Gorge reservoir of China. If filled the gorge would hold 40 cubic kilometers (10 trillion gallons) of water. That shift of mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch).

The researchers concluded the Sumatra earthquake caused a length of day (LOD) change too small to detect, but it can be calculated. It also caused an oblateness change barely detectable, and a pole shift large enough to be possibly identified. They hope to detect the LOD signal and pole shift when Earth rotation data from ground based and space-borne position sensors are reviewed.

The researchers used data from the Harvard University Centroid Moment Tensor database that catalogs large earthquakes. The data is calculated in a set of formulas, and the results are reported and updated on a NASA Web site.

The massive earthquake off the west coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004, registered a magnitude of nine on the new "moment" scale (modified Richter scale) that indicates the size of earthquakes. It was the fourth largest earthquake in one hundred years and largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake.

The devastating mega thrust earthquake occurred as a result of the India and Burma plates coming together. It was caused by the release of stresses that developed as the India plate slid beneath the overriding Burma plate. The fault dislocation, or earthquake, consisted of a downward sliding of one plate relative to the overlying plate. The net effect was a slightly more compact Earth. The India plate began its descent into the mantle at the Sunda trench that lies west of the earthquake's epicenter.

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www.terradaily.com/2006/060509101057.mcv3q9gs.html

'Powerful' volcano eruption in Russia's far east

A volcano on the Kamchatka peninsula in far eastern Russia erupted Tuesday in a powerful explosion that spewed smoke and ash up to 15 kilometers (nine miles) into the air and sent red-hot lava flowing down the volcano's slopes, news agencies reported.

The eruption posed no immediate danger to populated areas on the remote peninsula but aircraft were advised to skirt far around the vicinity while authorities said tourists and hunters should not approach any closer than 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the volcano, ITAR-TASS said.

A massive cloud from the eruption was blowing east over the Pacific Ocean at an altitude of around eight kilometers (five miles) and had already spread over a distance of up to 700 kilometers (435 miles), the agency said, quoting experts at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The volcano, known by the name of No Name, sits amid a group of 28 volcanos in the central portion of the Kamchatka peninsula and is the most active among them, erupting once or twice a year on average, RIA Novosti said.

Ash from an eruption from the No Name volcano in 2004 was detected in the US Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska.

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www.terradaily.com/reports/Dome_Shape_Of_Indonesias_Merapi_Changing_Quickly.html

Dome Shape Of Indonesias Merapi Changing Quickly

A new dome at the peak of Indonesia's simmering Mount Merapi was changing quickly Monday and more ominous lava oozed down its slopes but residents were not ordered to evacuate, a scientist said.

"Although the morphology of the new dome is changing at a relatively fast pace, my superior has not yet seen the need to raise Merapi's alert status to its highest level," said Triyani from the volcanology office in Yogyakarta, 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) south of the volcano.

Merapi, which towers over a fertile Central Java plain and provides livelihoods for thousands of people living around its slopes, was put on "standby" alert status more than three weeks ago.

If boosted to its highest level, residents face mandatory evacuation.

Triyani said that 67 more lava flows were recorded flowing from the new dome at the peak of the 2,914-meter (9,560-foot) volcano since Sunday night.

"We are still in the process of studying all scientific data that we have obtained before we can decide whether or not the alert status should be upgraded," Triyani told AFP.

More than 5,000 people have fled their homes around the volcano so far but many return to work near their homes during daylight hours.

The new dome has been forming on Merapi for more than a week, signalling that the eruption would involve an outflow of lava and deadly heat clouds rather than a massive explosion, scientists have said.

In its last large eruption in 1994, heat clouds known locally as "shaggy goats" careened down the volcano at more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour, reaching temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius (1,100 degrees Fahrenheit).

The clouds killed 66 people.

Merapi's most deadly eruption occurred in 1930, when 1,369 people were killed. It also erupted in 1994, killing 66 people. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" noted for its volcanic and seismic activity. The country has more than 100 active volcanoes.

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www.katu.com/outdoor/story.asp?ID=85601

Massive lava 'fin' rises up in Mount St. Helens' crater





A spectacular new structure has formed inside the crater at Mount St. Helens, just in time for this weekend's opening of the Spirit Lake Highway.

A slab of rock the size of a football field is standing on end inside the crater.

The giant 'fin' is pushing upwards of four to five feet a day, but is not growing taller because it tends to crumble as it grows.

"Of course, the fin gets to about the height of a football field or so and then it starts to get unstable and we get rockfalls off the top of it, explained USGS Geologist Dan Dzurisin.

The fin joins another structure, nicknamed 'the whaleback,' as one of seven distinct structures that have grown and disintegrated since this eruption began in October 2004.

The growing fin is not the only thing changing inside the crater. While the fin is growing up, the dome is pushing outward at a rate of about a meter a day.

All of the changes have scientists anxious.

"It's been hard to get views," said Dzurisin. "It's been hard to keep track of what's going on. Now the weather's improving and we have an opportunity to go up there and study in a lot more detail what's going on."

If you would like to check out Mount St. Helens in person, the Spirit Lake Highway will reopen on Friday.

You will be able to head all the way up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, where it costs just $3 to get an up close view of the crater.

[Mech]

Wow..that fin is amazing!





I can't believe how quickly the mountain has grown since it blew its top in 1980.

Proves the earth is still active and growing.

[KNOWTHIS]

www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=7843053&PageNum=0

Researchers report eruption of volcano in central Kamchatka

Eruption of the volcano Bezymyanny, located in the central area of the Kamchatka Peninsula began Tuesday at around 21:21 local time (08:21 GMT), sources at the Kamchatka branch of the geophysical service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.

The Bezymyanny is belching out ash to the altitude of 13 kilometers to 15 kilometers above sea level and the trail of smoke and ash is spreading northwards and northeastwards, they said.

Researchers are closely watching the natural phenomenon but they say, however, it does not pose any threat to population centers.

Kamchatka region department for emergency situations issued warnings to tourist groups and hunters to stay at a distance of 20 kilometers as a minimum away from the volcano.

It indicated that approaching the Bezymyanny closer than that may pose danger.

The Bezymyanny, which is 2,900 meters tall, is part of a group of volcanoes related to the Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the largest active volcano in Eurasia.

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www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw114733908490B253

Evacuation as Indonesia volcano rumbles

Mount Merapi in Indonesia's densely populated central Java is spewing molten lava as far as 1,500 metres from its crater, prompting the country's vice president Thursday to urge an immediate evacuation of people living on the slopes.

After a helicopter inspection of the active volcano, Vice President Jusuf Kalla called central Java's government authorities to evacuate residents living in danger zones to makeshift shelters.

"We shouldn't wait until the alert status is raised into the highest level, because volcanologists had says (Merapi) may erupt any day," Kalla said after he held a meeting with local government officials at nearby district town of Magelang.

Kalla urged that all residents living at a radius of 12km from Merapi's crater to leave immediately.

While volcanologists said the red-hot lava sliding down Merapi's west side towards Krasak river is a new development, they added that the 1 500-metre long flow is still far away from any inhabited areas.

Triyani, an expert at Yogyakarta's Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that molten lava was also flowing 200m down the south side of Merapi.

"Looking into this new phenomenon, we feared that the molten lava may flow from Merapi's crater to all direction should the volcano erupt," Triyani said.

Merapi, about 450km south-east of Jakarta, began heating up a month ago and volcanologists upgraded the alert status to level three on April 12.

Though volcanologists have not raised the alert status to the highest level of four, which would require a mandatory evacuation for those living on the slopes, Kalla said, "It's time now to evacuate residents in the danger zones."

Volcano watchers have warned that a new dome of lava on Merapi's peak, which has been growing rapidly in the last two weeks, could cause superheated streams of gas to travel down the mountain sides should it collapse.

"It's very unlikely that Merapi will have a vertical eruption," said another volcanologist Subandriyo. "But the danger is with heat clouds and ash."

During the last eruption in 1994 hot gas clouds, locally called "shaggy goats," travelled at fast speed several kilometres down from the summit and killed at least 66 people, mostly from horrific burns.

Only over 5 000 of about 30 000 residents have already been evacuated to temporary shelters, but many thousands of others have been reluctant to leave the mountain, preferring to take the advice of local mystics who believe Merapi will only erupt after certain omens come, including mysterious beams of light shining over its steep flanks.

The mountain has spiritual significance for many Javanese and is one of only four places where the royal palaces of Yogyakarta and Solo make offerings to placate the ancient Javanese spirits.

The 2 968-metre-high Merapi is one of 65 volcanoes listed as dangerous in Indonesia. The volcano's most deadly eruption took place in 1930, when 1,370 people were killed.

Indonesia has the world's highest density of volcanoes, with 500 located in a so-called "Ring of Fire," along the 5 000km wide archipelago nation. Of these, 128 are active. - Sapa-dpa

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Indonesia's Merapi Volcano Explodes with Gas



Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano exploded with clouds of hot gas and ash rain early on Monday, sending some villagers who had been reluctant to leave scurrying for safety.

Photo: Indonesia's Merapi volcano releases a huge cloud of hot gas as seen from the Kali Adem village, near Indonesia city of Yogyakarta May 15, 2006. Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed lava and hot ash early on Monday, a regional official said, but a volcanologist said he had no confirmation of the report. (Reuters / Crack Palinggi)

Gray ash covered some vegetation and rooftops in the area of Ketep, 10 kms (six miles) from the base of the mountain, and many houses appeared deserted after residents evacuated.

Not everyone was gone, however. Some people cleaned ashes off their houses and others opened shops, while commercial mini-buses continued to run.

The mountain "has exploded already", the head of the Merapi section at the Center of Vulcanological Research and Technology in Yogyakarta told Reuters.

He cautioned, however, that the mountain's eruption process could be gradual rather than a sudden burst.

From Ketep, the top of Merapi was totally obscured by thick gray and white clouds, which trailed down the volcano's slopes.

Earlier, Ratmono Purbo, the head of the vulcanology center in Yogyakarta near the volcano, told reporters the mountain was spewing clouds of hot gas and was raining down ash.

Neither are new since activity picked up in recent weeks on Merapai, one of the most menacing volcanoes in the Pacific "Ring of Fire", and there have been several lava flows in past days.

But Purbo said of Monday's hot clouds: "This is the biggest pile we have so far, adding that they "are billowing out of the crater for four kilometers (2.5 miles)".

Indonesia raised on Saturday the alert status of Merapi to the highest level, also known as code red or danger status, although experts said they could not predict when it would erupt.

They have described the mountain as being in an "eruption phase" for weeks, but are looking for a substantial amount of volcanic material to be ejected straight into the sky to a substantial height to qualify it as a full eruption.

The top alert level for the mountain means residents can be forced to evacuate. Authorities moved more than 5,000 people living near the volcano to shelters in safe areas after the new alert level.

Thousands more moved earlier, but some have refused to leave their homes while others have continued to return during the days to tend livestock, collect grass, or otherwise carry on their daily routines.

Indonesian media reports said many who previously held back were leaving on Monday, carried in hundreds of trucks and cars.

Some residents would rather rely on natural signs than official orders.

They say those signals would include lightning around the mountain's peak or animals moving down its slopes.

Officials put the total number of residents on and near the mountain at around 14,000.

[KNOWTHIS]

Ecuador Volcano Shows Signs of Activity



QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano is emitting its loudest and most frequent explosions since it rumbled back to life nearly seven years ago after eight decades of inactivity, scientists said.

The volcano registered 133 explosions of vapor and gas between Wednesday and Friday, Ecuador's Geophysics Institute reported.


The 16,553-foot-high Tungurahua volcano spews ashes during an eruption as it is surrounded by clouds near Pelileo, 84 miles south of the capital, Quito, Ecuador, Sunday April 7, 2002. The volcano is emitting its loudest and most frequent explosions since it rumbled back to life nearly seven years ago following eight decades of inactivity, scientists said. The volcano registered 133 explosions of vapor and gas between Wednesday and Friday, Ecuador's Geophysics Institute reported. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
The 16,553-foot-high Tungurahua volcano spews ashes during an eruption as it is surrounded by clouds near Pelileo, 84 miles south of the capital, Quito, Ecuador, Sunday April 7, 2002. The volcano is emitting its loudest and most frequent explosions since it rumbled back to life nearly seven years ago following eight decades of inactivity, scientists said. The volcano registered 133 explosions of vapor and gas between Wednesday and Friday, Ecuador's Geophysics Institute reported.


But the increased activity was not necessarily a sign of an imminent eruption, said Hugo Yepes, the institute's director.

"It has been rumbling constantly in the last six years, always registering explosions, emitting ash," he told The Associated Press.

"What's happening now is that since May 10, we have had times in which there are 10 explosions per hour, booms so powerful that they broke some windows in sectors like Cusua," a village on the western slopes of the volcano, Yepes added.

Residents say the thunderous explosions have not been so loud since 1999, Yepes said.

In October of that year, the volcano spewed huge columns of ash into the air, forcing the evacuation of 17,000 residents of Banos, a tourist town about 4 miles northeast of the crater. The 16,550-foot volcano is about 80 miles south of Ecuador's capital, Quito.

[chickenlittle]

Have you guys seen this?
Now could this cause a pacific northwest tsunami maybe???chicky
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5165946

[KNOWTHIS]

fr.allafrica.com/stories/200605311021.html

Comores: Comoros volcano bubbles, residents wait

Lava bubbled from a volcano in the Comoros yesterday, frightening thousands on the Indian Ocean archipelago's largest island who feared a full-blown eruption as they waited to see where the molten rock might flow.

An early-morning reconnaissance flight over the crater of 2,361-metre (7,750-ft) Mount Karthala - one of the world's largest active volcanoes which dominates the island of Grande Comore - gave no new clues.

"The information we have is that the lava is flowing. The crater is full of lava. We don't know which direction it will flow," Colonel Ismael Daho, head of the emergency management team for the Comoros archipelago, told Reuters. He said the lava was covering an area about 3 km square (1.2 miles).

Residents were nervous, but the volcano's periodic past eruptions, which have rarely have caused a major disaster, have tempered some on the island of 300,000 against panicking.

"Everyone is scared. No one could sleep the whole night," Jimmy Mohamed, from the village of Nvouni on Karthala's western slope, told Reuters. "But we all stayed and no one left. We're used to this."

Until the observation flights - flown by African Union troops still on the island after monitoring the May 14 presidential election - determine where the lava might flow, authorities urged people to wait for evacuation instructions.

The lush green slopes of Karthala, covered with vanilla and ylang ylang plantations, form most of the largest island of the three in the Comoros chain, 300 km (190 miles) off the coast of east Africa.
Liens Pertinents
Afrique de l'Est
Comores

Karthala has rarely punished Grande Comore harshly. The worst disaster on record came in 1903 when 17 died from noxious fumes that seeped from cracks.

The last big eruption, in April 2005, sent thousands fleeing in fear of poisonous gas and lava. That was the first eruption in more than a decade, but the volcano has erupted on average every 11 years over the past two centuries.

In November, Mount Karthala fired clouds of ash and sparks across the island, blanketing the capital Moroni and other villages in grey dust. Moroni is about 15 km from Karthala's crater.

[KNOWTHIS]

www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=142&newsid=89458&ch=0

Indonesian Merapi Volcano Active Since Earthquake


The Merapi volcano in Indonesia has been active for almost a week erupting lava and hot gases, AFP reports.
Local volcanologists warned that there is danger for this activity to intensify.
After the volcano suddenly became active in mid May a few days later its activity died away. However, Merapi became active again after the 6,2 earthquake that hit the island of Java a week ago.

[chickenlittle]

The Discovery Channel is on with a whole program about Yellowstone right now.Makes you wonder if tptb don't know something already or are planning causing quakes under this as an ATTACK senerio??
chicky

[KNOWTHIS]

sg.news.yahoo.com/060616/1/41jty.html

Two people killed at Indonesian volcano

The bodies of two men trapped in an emergency bunker at Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi volcano have been found after they were effectively baked to death, officials said.

The men ran into the shelter when the volcano spewed a hot cloud of gas and ash that reached seven kilometers (four miles) down its southeastern slopes on Wednesday, sparking panic among residents.

"Rescuers found the corpse of the second person near the bathroom while the corpse of the other was found near the bunker's door," said Lieutenant Colonel Mursal, who headed a rescue team that got through to the bunker.

He said rescuers concluded that both men were killed by the heat of the cloud, estimated at around 400 degrees Celsius (750 degrees Fahrenheit).

The pair were helping people evacuate their village when the heat cloud and molten lava struck. They were the first human casualties since Merapi began showing increased activity in April.

The condition of the bodies was similar to having been "baked in an oven," a rescue worker who went inside the bunker using heat-protected clothing told an AFP journalist at the site.

Merapi has been emitting deadly heat clouds that can reach temperatures up to 500 degrees Celsius.

Wednesday's large emission led scientists to place Merapi back on its highest alert, meaning they believe an eruption is imminent, a day after they had downgraded it.

On Friday the volcano emitted three heat clouds five kilometers down its southestern slopes, near the site of the bunker where the men were killed, said Triyani of the volcanology office in nearby Yogyakarta city.

She said the men had had ample time to flee.

"They should have fled when there was a sign that the cloud was coming. We don't know the condition of the bunker, whether it's up to standards," she told AFP.

One man who witnessed Wednesday's eruption and was a friend of one of the victims said the two could have survived if they had fled immediately.

"His motorcycle was on stand-by. He shouldn't have entered the bunker," the man told ElShinta radio.

Sunartono, a local relief official, said the bunker had been designed to protect people from passing heat clouds and that the men had died because the bunker was buried under 2.5 meters (yards) of thick hot molten rock.

"Because the bunker was covered by extremely hot materials, the temperature inside was also very hot," he was quoted as saying by the Detikcom news webiste.

About 15,000 villagers sheltering in makeshift camps in safe areas had just begun returning home Wednesday when the heat clouds appeared. The volcano had been on red alert since May 13.

Merapi has shown fluctuating volcanic activity since mid-May but appeared to stabilise after a lava dome that had been forming at its peak partially collapsed last Friday.

Merapi's deadliest eruption was in 1930 when more than 1,300 people were killed.

[KNOWTHIS]

The Discovery Channel is on with a whole program about Yellowstone right now.Makes you wonder if tptb don't know something already or are planning causing quakes under this as an ATTACK senerio??
chicky

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13318067/

Yellowstone geyser erupts for 1st time in 8 years
Eruption coincides with 'thermal disturbance' at Norris Geyser Basin

A large geyser that hadn't erupted since 1998 surprised two hikers near the edge of Yellowstone National Park's Norris Geyser Basin with a roar and burst of steam. Lee Whittlesey and Betsy Watry heard the Ledge geyser before they saw it. "It was like a jet plane," Whittlesey said.

The geyser erupted at full bore around 5 p.m. Saturday, sending a plume of steam about 100 feet high. "I've been in the park 30 years, and this was the first time I'd seen Ledge erupt," said Whittlesey, who is Yellowstone's historian. "Now I can check that one off."

Watry, who works for the Yellowstone Association, said they were shocked at the show that unfolded about a quarter-mile away.
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"We just stood there stunned and watched it for a while," she said.

The eruption coincided with other unusual activity at Norris over the weekend, including the eruption of other sporadic geysers and changes in surface water. Henry Heasler, Yellowstone's lead geologist, said Norris appeared to be undergoing a "thermal disturbance" -- an infrequent and often sudden shift in activity.

A smaller disturbance occurred in February. There were no disturbances last year. Such disturbances result from subsurface activity that brings water closer to the surface.

"Imagine if there was a big kind of geyser burp under most of Norris," Heasler said.

Among other changes, the usually quiet Vixen geyser has been erupting, Pearl geyser's water has changed from clear to opalescent, and water elsewhere in the basin has turned murky.

The duration of such disturbances is difficult to predict. Heasler compared the phenomenon to the ringing of a bell. "Some bells quiet down very quickly, and others can ring for a long time," he said.

Scott Bryan, author of "The Geysers of Yellowstone," said Ledge was active in the early 1970s until a thermal disturbance in 1974. After that, eruptions were less frequent until 1979, when it quieted down completely.

The geyser came back to life in 1993, with eruptions roughly every nine to 14 days, and fell silent again in 1998.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[KNOWTHIS]

Study finds plume extends far under park

The fiery engine that drives the spectacular geysers and other features at Yellowstone National Park extends at least 240 miles beneath the Earth's surface, according to a new study.

The findings lend weight to the argument that a plume of hot rock rising from deep within the Earth fuels Yellowstone's churning geothermal features.

"It's a step in that direction," said Greg Waite, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey who worked on the study.

The research, recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, indicates that the giant plume of magma beneath Yellowstone tilts to the northwest beneath Dillon, Mont.