Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano unleashes 9 low-level emissions
March 15, 2012 – MEXICO – The National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) reported that in the last hours, the volcano Popocatepetl has expelled nine low-intensity exhalations accompanied by emissions of water vapor and gas, and sometimes small amounts of ash. The body of the Ministry of the Interior (Interior Ministry) reported that the monitoring parameters remain without important changes. He explained that at night, a glow was observed in the crater of the volcano and that for now; there has been a constant emission of steam and gas. He said the advisory code remains yellow in color phase 2 and the likelihood of prevailing moderate exhalations, some with ash emissions, and sporadic bursts of low to moderate probability of emission of incandescent fragments could be expected within walking distance of the crater. The Cenapred called for authorities to continue the safety radius of 12 kilometers around the volcano. Civil Protection has been urged to maintain preventive procedures in place, according to their operational plans and that people should keep advised to the latest news bulletins. –Cronica (translated)
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Indonesia’s Lamongan volcano awakens from sleep after 114 years
March 15, 2012 – INDONESIA - A new volcano in Indonesia, Lamongan volcano in Eastern Java, is showing signs of unrest: weak steaming from its active crater and increasing earthquakes were reported by Indonesian scientists. The increase in earthquakes started on 23 February and seismicity increased again significantly on 8 March when tremor was recorded continuously the next day. CVGHM raised the Alert Level to 2 (on a scale of 1-4) on 9 March. Residents and tourists were prohibited from going within a 1-km-radius of the active crater. Lamongan is a small, relatively unknown stratovolcano east of the large Tengger massif (which contains the famous Bromo volcano). It was very active in the 19th century when it produced several lava flows, but has remained more or less silent during the past 110 years. It’s last eruption was recorded in 1898. –Volcano Discovery
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Alaska Aleutian Island Cleveland volcano explodes for third time in a week
March 15, 2012 – ALASKA (Aleutian Islands) - Cleveland Volcano has exploded for the third time in just over a week. The latest eruption of the Aleutian volcano Tuesday afternoon was relatively small, according to a release from the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Scientists at the Observatory weren’t able detect an ash cloud associated with this event or either of the other two. There’s no real-time monitoring equipment on Cleveland. None of the recent eruptions have interrupted air travel in the region. Cleveland’s last major eruption in 2001 sent ash clouds as high as 39,000 feet. The volcano is on uninhabited Island, about 160 miles west of Unalaska. –Alaska Public
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Montserrat’s Soufrière Hills volcano unleashes small pyroclastic flow
March 14, 2012 – MONTSERRAT – A small pyroclastic flow occurred from Montserrat’s Soufrière Hills volcano on 9 March, MVO reports. The flow was small, but happened with no warning at around 5:20 pm (local time) from the western flanks of Soufriere Hills Volcano down into Spring Ghaut. The pyroclastic flow traveled about 1 km to the west towards Plymouth before its ash dissipated to form a small ash cloud rising 1.3 km and drifting towards St. Georges Hill and out to sea. MVO has published further details and photographs of this event which is significant as it occurred during a quiet phase of the volcano with no current active lava dome growth and illustrates the hazard of sudden pyroclastic flows. “There were no precursors to this event. Although activity has generally been low, this event clearly illustrates that Soufrière Hills Volcano is still an active volcano and that pyroclastic flows can occur at any time with little to no warning.” –Volcano Discovery
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Costa Rica’s Poás volcano continues to simmer
March 14, 2012 – COSTA RICA - During February, Poás activity consisted in strong high-temperature fumarolic activity and sporadic small phreatic explosions, reported by park rangers. The latest monthly bulletin of Costa Rica’s volcano observatory OBSICORI published a more detailed summary of Poás’ activity during February summarized as follows: The ultra-acid crater lake had a greenish-gray color with sporadic convection cells visible in the central part carrying sulfur in suspension. Lake temperature were measured at 44° C, which is a value significantly lower than those measured during most of 2009-2011. The pH value of the lake water was measured at 0.01, slightly “less” acidic than during November 2011 (pH -0.4). The lake volume continued to decrease and its level dropped by 1.16 m between 25 Jan and 24 Feb. Concentrations of sulphate and chlorine increased. The composite pyroclastic cone (the “dome”) has high-temperature fumarolic activity and a strong emissions of blue gas (SO2). Fumarolic activity in the northwest sector of the “dome” had temperatures between 685 and 725°C. In the northern part of the “dome”, temperatures were ranging between 640 and 727°C (at accessible points). –Volcano Discovery
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Cities on alert as smoke and ash rise from Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz volcano
March 14, 2012 – MANIZALES, COLOMBIA (CBS) — A rising smoke plume from a Colombian volcano put nearby cities and towns on alert as it continued to emit smoke, vapor and ash Monday. The Nevado del Ruiz volcano, located in central Colombia about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Bogota, has been on yellow alert since October 2010 and began spewing ash and smoke last week. The director of the Manizales seismic observatory, Gloria Cortes, said they are keeping a close eye on the volcano and monitoring seismic activity as they work with local officials to ensure the safety of nearby residents and tourists in the area. “The local committee leaders, led by the area mayors, and given the current state of activity, have made a decision regarding the level of alert for the different areas and cities,” Cortes said. Authorities from cities in the volcano’s proximity say they too are carefully watching the situation and have issued green and yellow alerts depending on how close they are to the volcano. The mayor of Manizales, Jorge Eduardo Rojas, said his city is on green alert for now adding that could change if activity increases. “Everyone needs to be ready for any situation. However, the city alert, which is at green, is still green and is not going to change though we are of course carefully watching for any changes on Nevado [del Ruiz],” Rojas, said. Other cities closer to the crater are on an elevated yellow alert, though they say populated centers are not in imminent danger at the moment. Thus far, the smoke plume has not caused any problems for air traffic. The volcano’s yellow alert means an eruption is possible though not definite. If it passes to orange it signifies an eruption is likely in weeks. –Today’s THV
March 14, 2012 – GREECE – The British Broadcasting Company named it the world’s best island in 2011. Santorini is a tourist magnet, famous for its breathtaking, cliff side views and sunsets. It’s also a volcanic island that has been relatively calm since its last eruption in 1950. Until now. The Santorini caldera is awake again and rapidly deforming at levels never seen before. Georgia Tech Associate Professor Andrew Newman has studied Santorini since setting up more than 20 GPS stations on the island in 2006. “After decades of little activity, a series of earthquakes and deformation began within the Santorini caldera in January of 2011,” said Newman, whose research is published by Geophysical Research Letters. “Since then, our instruments on the northern part of the island have moved laterally between five and nine centimeters. The volcano’s magma chamber is filling, and we are keeping a close eye on its activit
y.” Newman, a geophysicist in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, cannot be certain whether an eruption is imminent since observations of such activity on these types of volcanoes are limited. In fact, similar calderas around the globe have shown comparable activity without erupting. However, Newman says the chamber has expanded by 14 million cubic meters since last January. That means enough magma has been pumped into the chamber to fill a sphere three football fields across. Should Santorini erupt, Newman says it will likely be comparable to what the island has seen in the last 450 years. “That could be dangerous,” notes Newman. “If the caldera erupts underwater, it could cause local tsunamis and affect boat traffic, including cruise ships, in the caldera. Earthquakes could damage homes and produce landslides along the cliffs.” –E Science News
Santorini’s violent past destroyed much of the early Minoan civilization. The volcano is a pressure point between a juxtaposition of tectonic plates that dissect the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. -The Extinction Protocol
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March 13, 2012 – JAPAN – Sakurajima continued its second day of violent eruptions on Tuesday, spewing hot rocks and ash, but there was no major damage in the vicinity, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. The agency said Monday’s powerful eruption was the most forceful since 2009. The volcano is located in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima. The Meteorological Agency added that the volcano has been erupting steadily for the last two years, but the eruption on Monday turned violent, throwing 50-centimetre (1 foot 6 inches) rocks nearly 1.2 miles away, the furthest since 2009. In response, the Meteorological agency extended the eruption warning to residents living further away from the mouth of the volcano. The volcano has already had over 300 eruptions this year. Sakurajima volcano, one of Japan’s more active volcanoes, resumed activity in 1955 and has been active ever since. Sakurajima volcano in Japan’s southern Kagoshima prefecture erupts violently in what officials say is the most powerful since 2009, though there has been no damage so far. –Dig Triad
Scenic Greek Island Shows Signs of Volcanic Unrest
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:59 CDT
© Maugli, Shutterstock
The crowded cliffsides of Santorini island in Greece.
The volcanic caldera on the picturesque tourist island of Santorini is showing signs of unrest. But researchers detecting the caldera's movement say it doesn't necessarily mean an eruption is imminent.
The Greek island was the site of one of the most massive volcanic eruptions in history 3,600 years ago. That eruption, which created tsunamis 40 feet (12 meters) tall, may have spawned the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. The volcano last erupted in 1950, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Global positioning system (GPS) sensors placed on the caldera have detected renewed movement after decades of peace. The earth around the caldera (a depression at the top of a volcano) is deforming, or expanding outward, researchers report in an upcoming article in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. GPS instruments on the northern part of Santorini have moved between 1.9 and 3.5 inches (5 to 9 centimeters) since January 2011, said study researcher Andrew Newman, a geophysicist at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
"What we're seeing now is the first significant deformation and the first deformation that has any significant earthquake activity associated with it," Newman told LiveScience.
In the same time period, the magma chamber under Santorini has swollen by almost 500 million cubic feet (14 million cubic meters).
Newman and his colleagues say it's unlikely that the deforming caldera portends an eruption. Excavations of extinct volcanoes suggest that 90 percent of the time, belowground magma movements don't end in eruption. A similar caldera system, the Long Valley Caldera in California, started deforming in 1980, Newman said. It then quieted again until 1989, repeating the cycle in 1997 and 2002, with nary an eruption.
If a Santorini eruption did occur, Newman said, it would be nothing like the Minoan eruption of 1650 B.C. that birthed the myth of Atlantis. That eruption was a once-in-100,000-year event, and the expansion of the magma chamber happening now is only 1 percent of what would have gone on prior to the ancient blast.
Geophysicists are keeping an eye on the caldera, however. An eruption could generate local tsunamis within the Santorini archipelago, Newman said, damaging ports and disrupting ship traffic. Even if the volcano doesn't erupt, the shifting caldera could increase earthquake risk, and the island cliffs are vulnerable.
"We don't need an eruption to have earthquake-induced landslides," Newman said.
There's no telling how long the deformation will continue, but it could stretch years or decades, perhaps cycling between activity and peace, Newman said. While no reason to be alarmed, the restless caldera is important for scientific study, he added.
"It is one of very few of these really large caldera volcanoes," he said. "So anyinformation we gather from ongoing activity adds significantly to our database of how these systems evolve."
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March 13, 2012 – INDONESIA – The official alert level for Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia, has been raised again to 3 (“alert”) due to an increase in activity, our Indonesian correspondent Andi reports. A new 10 m wide gas vent, which erupted burning gasses, was observed on 10 March at 17 m distance from the shore. Thick steaming, larger than usual, forming a thick white column of sulfur steam 200 m high was already noted since 3 March. Measurements of the lake water temperature at 5 m depth had also shown increased values of 42.70 deg C. On 10 March, the lake surface was 2 meters higher than normal, although this could be attributed to heavy recent rain fall. Another sign of increased activity is that many leaves of trees and other plants around the crater have died recently, suggesting higher than normal SO2 levels. Seismic activity has been rising as well. Since 22 Feb, a near continuous tremor signal has been being recorded. In the interval 22-31 Feb, there were 52 harmonic tremor periods lasting up to 20 minutes, as well as 17 2 low-frequency earthquakes, 38 mostly shallow volcanic quakes. This number increased to 306 tremor episodes lasting up to 25 minutes, 27 low frequency, and 125 mostly shallow volcanic earthquakes during the latest observation period between 1-10 March. Ijen volcano in East Java, famous for its turquoise acid lake Kawah Ijen and the sulfur mine inside its crater, had been on higher alert starting 18 December 2011, but was lowered to alert 2 on 4 Feb this year, but is now again at the second highest level of 3, meaning that volcanologist think an eruption could be imminent. Access to the crater is currently closed. Ijen last erupted in 1999. –Volcano Discovery
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March 10, 2012 – MEXICO – The drills continue in all the communities surrounding the volcano Popocatepetl, said the director of Civil Protection, Jesus Morales Rodriguez, who said that the drills will be permanent in the area. The state official said they have instituted the Special Plan Popocatepetl, where they indicated that the performance of the drills need to be performed at least once every 15 days, at random to include participatants in all communities. These actions were recommended to keep the community aware of the dangers and the need of evacuations should threatening conditions arise. According to the website of the National Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) the current alert status is in phase two, in yellow, so that the conditions of the volcano are normal. The agency also disclosed that in the last 24 hours, 11:00 hours, Popocatepetl has registered 12 exhalations of low intensity, accompanied by water and gas emissions, without major changes. Because the probability remains moderate exhalations emission of ash and a slight glow seen at night, it is recommended the Civil Protection Directorate maintain a safety radius up to 12 km from the volcano, to keep traffic controlled between Santiago and San Pedro Nexapa Xalitzintla via Paso de Cortes. The public is also asked to continue to tune in for the latest status updates concerning the volcano’s activity. –Sexenio
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Part 1:
Source : http:\\theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
www.sott.net
March 14, 2012 – GREECE – The British Broadcasting Company named it the world’s best island in 2011. Santorini is a tourist magnet, famous for its breathtaking, cliff side views and sunsets. It’s also a volcanic island that has been relatively calm since its last eruption in 1950. Until now. The Santorini caldera is awake again and rapidly deforming at levels never seen before. Georgia Tech Associate Professor Andrew Newman has studied Santorini since setting up more than 20 GPS stations on the island in 2006. “After decades of little activity, a series of earthquakes and deformation began within the Santorini caldera in January of 2011,” said Newman, whose research is published by Geophysical Research Letters. “Since then, our instruments on the northern part of the island have moved laterally between five and nine centimeters. The volcano’s magma chamber is filling, and we are keeping a close eye on its activity.” Newman, a geophysicist in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, cannot be certain whether an eruption is imminent since observations of such activity on these types of volcanoes are limited. In fact, similar calderas around the globe have shown comparable activity without erupting. However, Newman says the chamber has expanded by 14 million cubic meters since last January. That means enough magma has been pumped into the chamber to fill a sphere three football fields across. Should Santorini erupt, Newman says it will likely be comparable to what the island has seen in the last 450 years. “That could be dangerous,” notes Newman. “If the caldera erupts underwater, it could cause local tsunamis and affect boat traffic, including cruise ships, in the caldera. Earthquakes could damage homes and produce landslides along the cliffs.” –E Science News
Santorini’s violent past destroyed much of the early Minoan civilization. The volcano is a pressure point between a juxtaposition of tectonic plates that dissect the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. -The Extinction Protocol
----------------------------------------------
March 13, 2012 – JAPAN – Sakurajima continued its second day of violent eruptions on Tuesday, spewing hot rocks and ash, but there was no major damage in the vicinity, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. The agency said Monday’s powerful eruption was the most forceful since 2009. The volcano is located in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima. The Meteorological Agency added that the volcano has been erupting steadily for the last two years, but the eruption on Monday turned violent, throwing 50-centimetre (1 foot 6 inches) rocks nearly 1.2 miles away, the furthest since 2009. In response, the Meteorological agency extended the eruption warning to residents living further away from the mouth of the volcano. The volcano has already had over 300 eruptions this year. Sakurajima volcano, one of Japan’s more active volcanoes, resumed activity in 1955 and has been active ever since. Sakurajima volcano in Japan’s southern Kagoshima prefecture erupts violently in what officials say is the most powerful since 2009, though there has been no damage so far. –Dig Triad
Scenic Greek Island Shows Signs of Volcanic Unrest
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:59 CDT
© Maugli, Shutterstock
The crowded cliffsides of Santorini island in Greece.
The volcanic caldera on the picturesque tourist island of Santorini is showing signs of unrest. But researchers detecting the caldera's movement say it doesn't necessarily mean an eruption is imminent.
The Greek island was the site of one of the most massive volcanic eruptions in history 3,600 years ago. That eruption, which created tsunamis 40 feet (12 meters) tall, may have spawned the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. The volcano last erupted in 1950, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Global positioning system (GPS) sensors placed on the caldera have detected renewed movement after decades of peace. The earth around the caldera (a depression at the top of a volcano) is deforming, or expanding outward, researchers report in an upcoming article in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. GPS instruments on the northern part of Santorini have moved between 1.9 and 3.5 inches (5 to 9 centimeters) since January 2011, said study researcher Andrew Newman, a geophysicist at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
"What we're seeing now is the first significant deformation and the first deformation that has any significant earthquake activity associated with it," Newman told LiveScience.
In the same time period, the magma chamber under Santorini has swollen by almost 500 million cubic feet (14 million cubic meters).
Newman and his colleagues say it's unlikely that the deforming caldera portends an eruption. Excavations of extinct volcanoes suggest that 90 percent of the time, belowground magma movements don't end in eruption. A similar caldera system, the Long Valley Caldera in California, started deforming in 1980, Newman said. It then quieted again until 1989, repeating the cycle in 1997 and 2002, with nary an eruption.
If a Santorini eruption did occur, Newman said, it would be nothing like the Minoan eruption of 1650 B.C. that birthed the myth of Atlantis. That eruption was a once-in-100,000-year event, and the expansion of the magma chamber happening now is only 1 percent of what would have gone on prior to the ancient blast.
Geophysicists are keeping an eye on the caldera, however. An eruption could generate local tsunamis within the Santorini archipelago, Newman said, damaging ports and disrupting ship traffic. Even if the volcano doesn't erupt, the shifting caldera could increase earthquake risk, and the island cliffs are vulnerable.
"We don't need an eruption to have earthquake-induced landslides," Newman said.
There's no telling how long the deformation will continue, but it could stretch years or decades, perhaps cycling between activity and peace, Newman said. While no reason to be alarmed, the restless caldera is important for scientific study, he added.
"It is one of very few of these really large caldera volcanoes," he said. "So anyinformation we gather from ongoing activity adds significantly to our database of how these systems evolve."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 13, 2012 – INDONESIA – The official alert level for Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia, has been raised again to 3 (“alert”) due to an increase in activity, our Indonesian correspondent Andi reports. A new 10 m wide gas vent, which erupted burning gasses, was observed on 10 March at 17 m distance from the shore. Thick steaming, larger than usual, forming a thick white column of sulfur steam 200 m high was already noted since 3 March. Measurements of the lake water temperature at 5 m depth had also shown increased values of 42.70 deg C. On 10 March, the lake surface was 2 meters higher than normal, although this could be attributed to heavy recent rain fall. Another sign of increased activity is that many leaves of trees and other plants around the crater have died recently, suggesting higher than normal SO2 levels. Seismic activity has been rising as well. Since 22 Feb, a near continuous tremor signal has been being recorded. In the interval 22-31 Feb, there were 52 harmonic tremor periods lasting up to 20 minutes, as well as 17 2 low-frequency earthquakes, 38 mostly shallow volcanic quakes. This number increased to 306 tremor episodes lasting up to 25 minutes, 27 low frequency, and 125 mostly shallow volcanic earthquakes during the latest observation period between 1-10 March. Ijen volcano in East Java, famous for its turquoise acid lake Kawah Ijen and the sulfur mine inside its crater, had been on higher alert starting 18 December 2011, but was lowered to alert 2 on 4 Feb this year, but is now again at the second highest level of 3, meaning that volcanologist think an eruption could be imminent. Access to the crater is currently closed. Ijen last erupted in 1999. –Volcano Discovery
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March 10, 2012 – MEXICO – The drills continue in all the communities surrounding the volcano Popocatepetl, said the director of Civil Protection, Jesus Morales Rodriguez, who said that the drills will be permanent in the area. The state official said they have instituted the Special Plan Popocatepetl, where they indicated that the performance of the drills need to be performed at least once every 15 days, at random to include participatants in all communities. These actions were recommended to keep the community aware of the dangers and the need of evacuations should threatening conditions arise. According to the website of the National Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) the current alert status is in phase two, in yellow, so that the conditions of the volcano are normal. The agency also disclosed that in the last 24 hours, 11:00 hours, Popocatepetl has registered 12 exhalations of low intensity, accompanied by water and gas emissions, without major changes. Because the probability remains moderate exhalations emission of ash and a slight glow seen at night, it is recommended the Civil Protection Directorate maintain a safety radius up to 12 km from the volcano, to keep traffic controlled between Santiago and San Pedro Nexapa Xalitzintla via Paso de Cortes. The public is also asked to continue to tune in for the latest status updates concerning the volcano’s activity. –Sexenio
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1:
Source : http:\\theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
www.sott.net
Scenic Greek Island Shows Signs of Volcanic Unrest
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:59 CDT
© Maugli, Shutterstock
The crowded cliffsides of Santorini island in Greece.
The crowded cliffsides of Santorini island in Greece.
The Greek island was the site of one of the most massive volcanic eruptions in history 3,600 years ago. That eruption, which created tsunamis 40 feet (12 meters) tall, may have spawned the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. The volcano last erupted in 1950, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Global positioning system (GPS) sensors placed on the caldera have detected renewed movement after decades of peace. The earth around the caldera (a depression at the top of a volcano) is deforming, or expanding outward, researchers report in an upcoming article in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. GPS instruments on the northern part of Santorini have moved between 1.9 and 3.5 inches (5 to 9 centimeters) since January 2011, said study researcher Andrew Newman, a geophysicist at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
"What we're seeing now is the first significant deformation and the first deformation that has any significant earthquake activity associated with it," Newman told LiveScience.
In the same time period, the magma chamber under Santorini has swollen by almost 500 million cubic feet (14 million cubic meters).
Newman and his colleagues say it's unlikely that the deforming caldera portends an eruption. Excavations of extinct volcanoes suggest that 90 percent of the time, belowground magma movements don't end in eruption. A similar caldera system, the Long Valley Caldera in California, started deforming in 1980, Newman said. It then quieted again until 1989, repeating the cycle in 1997 and 2002, with nary an eruption.
If a Santorini eruption did occur, Newman said, it would be nothing like the Minoan eruption of 1650 B.C. that birthed the myth of Atlantis. That eruption was a once-in-100,000-year event, and the expansion of the magma chamber happening now is only 1 percent of what would have gone on prior to the ancient blast.
Geophysicists are keeping an eye on the caldera, however. An eruption could generate local tsunamis within the Santorini archipelago, Newman said, damaging ports and disrupting ship traffic. Even if the volcano doesn't erupt, the shifting caldera could increase earthquake risk, and the island cliffs are vulnerable.
"We don't need an eruption to have earthquake-induced landslides," Newman said.
There's no telling how long the deformation will continue, but it could stretch years or decades, perhaps cycling between activity and peace, Newman said. While no reason to be alarmed, the restless caldera is important for scientific study, he added.
"It is one of very few of these really large caldera volcanoes," he said. "So anyinformation we gather from ongoing activity adds significantly to our database of how these systems evolve."
March 13, 2012 – INDONESIA – The official alert level for Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia, has been raised again to 3 (“alert”) due to an increase in activity, our Indonesian correspondent Andi reports. A new 10 m wide gas vent, which erupted burning gasses, was observed on 10 March at 17 m distance from the shore. Thick steaming, larger than usual, forming a thick white column of sulfur steam 200 m high was already noted since 3 March. Measurements of the lake water temperature at 5 m depth had also shown increased values of 42.70 deg C. On 10 March, the lake surface was 2 meters higher than normal, although this could be attributed to heavy recent rain fall. Another sign of increased activity is that many leaves of trees and other plants around the crater have died recently, suggesting higher than normal SO2 levels. Seismic activity has been rising as well. Since 22 Feb, a near continuous tremor signal has been being recorded. In the interval 22-31 Feb, there were 52 harmonic tremor periods lasting up to 20 minutes, as well as 17 2 low-frequency earthquakes, 38 mostly shallow volcanic quakes. This number increased to 306 tremor episodes lasting up to 25 minutes, 27 low frequency, and 125 mostly shallow volcanic earthquakes during the latest observation period between 1-10 March. Ijen volcano in East Java, famous for its turquoise acid lake Kawah Ijen and the sulfur mine inside its crater, had been on higher alert starting 18 December 2011, but was lowered to alert 2 on 4 Feb this year, but is now again at the second highest level of 3, meaning that volcanologist think an eruption could be imminent. Access to the crater is currently closed. Ijen last erupted in 1999. –Volcano Discovery
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March 10, 2012 – MEXICO – The drills continue in all the communities surrounding the volcano Popocatepetl, said the director of Civil Protection, Jesus Morales Rodriguez, who said that the drills will be permanent in the area. The state official said they have instituted the Special Plan Popocatepetl, where they indicated that the performance of the drills need to be performed at least once every 15 days, at random to include participatants in all communities. These actions were recommended to keep the community aware of the dangers and the need of evacuations should threatening conditions arise. According to the website of the National Center for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) the current alert status is in phase two, in yellow, so that the conditions of the volcano are normal. The agency also disclosed that in the last 24 hours, 11:00 hours, Popocatepetl has registered 12 exhalations of low intensity, accompanied by water and gas emissions, without major changes. Because the probability remains moderate exhalations emission of ash and a slight glow seen at night, it is recommended the Civil Protection Directorate maintain a safety radius up to 12 km from the volcano, to keep traffic controlled between Santiago and San Pedro Nexapa Xalitzintla via Paso de Cortes. The public is also asked to continue to tune in for the latest status updates concerning the volcano’s activity. –Sexenio
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Part 1:
Source : http:\\theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
www.sott.net
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