If there ever was a patron saint of Volcanocafé it would be the author Jules Verne. When he was not inventing cadres of literary genres, he was quite obsessed with volcanoes. When he was not writing he spent his time reading about volcanoes (and other things scientific). And quite often he combined his interests of…
In Part 1 and Part II we went over the current state of Krakatau and its history over the 300 years before the Big One. Now it is time to find out what caused the Big Bang, whether it is a recurrent offence, and to try our hand at the big question: why is such…
In part I, we discussed the geology and current state of Krakatau. Now it is time to look at events before the Big Eruption. Was it hiding in the shadows, or did it make its intentions clear to all? History For centuries before its destruction, Krakatau was a familiar landmark. At least some of the…
All eruptions have history. Volcanoes may sometimes appear to erupt out of the blue; the mountain may not even have been recognized as a volcano, before blowing up. But the unexpectedness stems from our lack of knowledge. In the case of monogenetic volcanoes, which only erupt once, the volcanologist will recognize from the cones in…
In this article I will pick up with the questions regarding age, GPS-tracks and the general setting. Knowing me it is quite likely that I will meander out into wild tangents as I go. Time to Greíp my pen. The age of Greíp For a volcano that has not erupted (we will get back…
Part 1 of a Greip Series This week, under the rumblings of Torfajökull, we return to one of our favourite areas within Vatnajökull that is yet to show it’s true hand. Or has it already and is there evidence to support that? Due to some recent activity, Carl has been getting increasingly excited in…
This is just a short piece about mounting unrest along the extension of the Veidivötn Fissure Swarm as it is running through the Torfajökull volcano. Torfajökull has two known magma reservoirs, one on the south east side that is mainly andesite-basalt, and a rhyolite chamber towards the south-west. The current lineament is having the…
This is both an informal start of our series about a promising central proto-volcano, and a story about the problems of sifting through the bewildering number of signals that the instruments yield for us to peruse. Let me start out in the stars. A friend of mine work with SETI, the search for extra-terrestrial signals.…
This is a revisit due to something Albert spotted out on the Internet; https://phys.org/news/2018-01-great-earthquakes-affected-moon-phases.html GeoLurking / April 22, 2012 Part I: The Moon Time and time again, someone bops along with the idea that the Moon or the Sun causes an increase in seismicity. They climb up on their soapbox and thump their chest denouncing the…
We got a letter from one of our readers this week pointing out a seismic series near Agua volcano and Ciudad de Antigua in Guatemala. “I’ve been living in Guatemala for a while, staying in Antigua. On April 27, the area around, and on, Agua volcano started to shake. We felt at least 8 quakes…
Guest post from Tallis Some of the most beautiful of sights on the planet are the remnants of the most violent of scenes; The amazing Yellowstone National park is in place of the world’s most notorious “Super volcano”. As a rational conspiracy theorist, I have to constantly put up with the claims of Yellowstone’s imminent…
The conifers stand tall, straight. They look old but there are patches where trees have been cut, and there is replanting elsewhere, evidence of tree harvesting. The evergreen forest is popular with tourists. This is in spite of the latitude: there are more northerly places in Scotland, but not many. The climate is not as…
This was the April-1 post for this year. Enjoy! But don’t believe. On the other hand, it is not impossible either and perhaps, one day ? The world is approaching an energy crisis. Oil is due to run out by 2040, and longer-lasting oil shales yield a low quality, heavy oil which is poorly suited…
Back in early 2011 I was sitting down for a late light evening read of “Lower-crustal earthquakes caused by magma movement beneath Askja volcano on the north Icelandic rift” by Soosalu et al. As I read angels started to sing a glorious hymn as I had an epiphany and my view on how volcanoes operate…
Have you ever wondered about which is the tallest active volcano on the planet? It sounds like a fairly straightforward question. But, as with all simple questions it quickly turns into a quagmire of definitions. The first of the definitions starts out in linguistics, and that is what is the definition of “active”. It turns…
