In the beginning there was sheep

Volcán de Fuego erupting stars. Photograph by NASA.

“When in doubt, data shall provide the answer!”

 

In the beginning

A decade ago to the day, the first article was published here at Volcanocafé. It was not one of the memorable ones that I remember without checking, but from humble starts came many memorable articles over the years.

Starting Volcanocafé was quite unexpected to me, it was never my intention, and never what I wanted. So, how did Volcanocafé come about? As with all great things it involved a sheep and nagging elderly English ladies.

The embryo was seeded one stormy night in Iceland during the easy to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull eruption. As we were sitting chatting and gawking at the eruption on one of the webcams a sheep came flying past the camera and passed out over the cliffside.

This image stuck with us, and we became sort of the club of the flying sheep. At the same time many of us was dissatisfied with the early volcanic blogs, mainly with the commenting sections. And during the aftermath of the eruption the elderly English ladies decided that enough was enough and elected me as the person who should write all the articles.

At this point I got the idea that I could get away from this daunting responsibility by refusing to do it alone, so I said that I would do it only if Lurking tagged along, to my utter horror he accepted to do so.

I then tried to get away by stating that I knew nothing about setting up and maintaining a forum like this, but one of the ladies then unfolded her wings and came out as a fully-fledged forum-coding-demon.

After that I was told in no uncertain terms that I had to write an article. The rest is sort of history now.

I will though say that I completely by accident got my comeback against the dear old English ladies a few years later. As most know I am not a native English writer, and sometimes upon a blue moon I miss entirely the cultural connotations of an English word.

I just never expected that canines would be one of those words fraught with peril. In an offhand sentence I wrote, “To doggedly dog where no dog has doggedly dogged before”. My intention was to point out general stubbornness, but from the shocked, giggling, and red-faced elderly ladies I kind of understood that there was something more to it.

So, I mercilessly questioned them about what it was that I had written that shocked them so much, and slowly the truth of the English national weekend pastime of “Dogging” came out into the open. In the end I just had to ask them how on earth they knew what this was… innocently asked of course.

Oh, the sheep you ask? Well, it is rather memorable to watch a flying sheep, so we made it into the Patron Sheep of Volcanocafé. Having a Patron Sheep sort of made certain that we would never take ourselves to seriously, even though we obviously took the science part seriously.

However, we never expected to see the sheep again. So, it was with utter horror we watched as Bear Grylls found the sheep in an episode of his tv-series. He then ate the rotting carcass, made a sleeping bag out of it, and then profusely vomited sheep all over.

After that the flying sheep was elevated to Martyr Patron Sheep, and nobody watched Bear Grylls again (at least I hope so).

 

The four foundations

The Flying Sheep of Iceland. Photograph by Helgastina.

From the beginning there were four things that was important to set into place. The first was that we would not enforce any out of topic rule for the comment section, as long as it was about science, we let it slide.

The reason for this is that there can be years in between interesting eruptions, and we wanted people to hang on, read articles, and generally be friends. After all, we who founded the place wanted it to be our living-room where we could discuss all sorts of topics as we pleased.

It worked as a charm. As soon as a volcano came around of importance everyone set aside the conversations and started to discuss the topic at hand.

Then we needed a rule to moderate with. We came up with a rule that both explained itself and had enough wriggle room to be useful in pretty much any circumstance, “Be Nice!”. On the few occasions that we have had to use it, we voted before banning repeat offenders.

In a world of trolls and argumentative people it is remarkable that we are still below 10 people that have been banned. This is not due to a lack of arguments, but in general people remember to argue themselves blue in an ever so polite way. We do have the best readers in so many ways (thank you).

The third thing was science above else. What we wrote should be factual and based on science and follow the data at hand. The reason back then was that we were stunned at some of the early volcano blogs playing loose with science and facts when talking about volcanoes. We wanted to be the opposing force of that.

Later came the clickbait youtubers bleating out ever weirder prophecies about ginormous volcanic eruptions. Science and facts in this day and age turned out to become ever more important, and we do our best to do our part.

So, it is with quite a bit of joy that we find that we are referenced as people try to point out those who produce hogwash. Every time I see someone referencing us as a means of stopping nonsense my heart leaps with joy.

Do get me right, there are very good Youtubers out there doing fabulous work in letting the images do the talking for them. I will especially mention Roman over at GutnTog, we have all drooled over his fabulous drone footage of Fagradalsfjall and La Palma.

Just a little while ago he emailed us and told us that he was a fan of ours since we kept to science and facts and offered us to use his drone footage (something that we will most assuredly do) and asked if we had any volcanoes in Iceland that we wanted droned to oblivion. Oh boy, do we want that!

So, hopefully there will be a bit of collaboration with Roman in the not-so-distant future with his wonderful videos, and us doing the best we can to explain what we see and how it came to be. Finally, we might have answers to our biggest riddle, Herdubreid.

And here we come to the most important thing. Nobody can do it alone. From the moment of inception I knew that I could not do it alone. We needed to be more writers than one. First of all, we all have working lives, families and so on.

Secondly, one voice will not be able to create a discussion and a foundation for scientific debate. Opposing views are important. It also forces us to do better, at least it forces me to be better.

Over the years we have had many guest writers, recurring guest writers, specialists writing about their volcanoes, and in the end a small group of staff-writers that uphold the bulk of the writing.

Let me talk about one of them. I do have a more than passing interest in the field of astrophysics, and I read a lot about astrophysics. And I noticed that a certain (back then) commenter wrote really astounding comments about volcanoes and now and then about astrophysics.

And since I am a curious person, I looked at the registration email and noticed a name out of the stary sky of astrophysics that I knew about quite well, as it happened, I had just read one of his papers.

I mentioned this to Henrik Lovén, and he had for quite some time wanted to write about exo-volcanology, so he contacted our dear Albert, and history was made. In his very unassuming and kind way Albert lifted the bar for factual correctness and showed us what a true popular science article could be.

Due to Albert, I found that I had about one week to become a far better writer than I had ever been. And I better had to have all my reasoning and facts straight, otherwise I would receive a polite professorial thumping in our backchannel.

There are also the unsung heroes who perform our daily technical maintenance, Gaz Dale, Tommy Wallace and Ingrid van der Voort. Without them the place would fall to pieces in a heartbeat, you guys are the best.

 

The New Decade Volcano Program

Out of the trio of Albert, Henrik, and I, came our claim for fame during a session of having beers together. We somehow got it into our heads that the Decade Volcano Program needed an update since it had been running for a decade.

We also felt that the volcanoes did not truly fulfil the original requirements for the decade volcano program. On top of that we wanted to update those requirements a bit.

Out of this came a monster-set of articles. To our surprise the series got wings and flew out over the world, and in many ways, it influenced how decadal volcano programs are used today.

 

My two favourite articles

Okay, who of you invented this? It gotta be one of our readers. Spike, this be you?

Even though I am happy about how the NDVP turned out, I have two other articles as my personal favourites. The second one on my list of best articles is one I wrote myself (modesty be my middle…).

It is the one about Aniakchak. It is the only time I have read everything written about a volcano to be able to write an article. But it did not end there. I also had to read a substantial amount of everything that was written about a completely different volcano to be able to write the article. And then almost everything ever written about dendrochronology during that time period.

It is probably the only article I have written that changed how we look about one of the worlds most famous eruptions. It turned out that I could link Aniakchak’s eruption to the same year as the more famous eruption of Thera.

And as I studied the ice-core data I found out that the eruption over at Aniakchak was the far larger one, and that the Minoan civilization was hit by a double-whammy-eruption.

To my sadness that article never really took off, due to its historic implications it deserved that, I guess it is a case of parents and their favourite child.

Now over to my personal favourite article of all time. One of those ideas that had turned into “truth” was that the moon and the tide causes earthquakes, eruptions, and dandruff. Almost everybody used to believe it back then.

I argued against this but did not have any hard facts to back my opinion with. Lurking decided to just go and ask the data itself a few hard questions. Without any bias he started to pound the entire dataset that he had on earthquakes to see what would drop out.

It turned into a tour-de-force of scientific “Question-data-answer”. Even the USGS nowadays link ever so often to The Moon and the Moonies-article. It has also been used by Nature as a tool for vetting an article prior to publication.

 

Our fallen comrades

I would here like to mention two people who formed Volcanocafé. The first one was one of the English Ladies. Well, except that Sissel Skramstad was Norwegian and lived in Holland. She was one of the two that set the place up from a technical standpoint and helped to run the place.

Sadly after a few years we suddenly lost her, and I lost a dear friend who I had chatted with late nights when neither of us could sleep. Without Sissel there would have been no Volcanocafé to begin with.

Then we come to irascible artillery major and world-class anglophile Henrik Lovén. If there was ever anyone who could give me a run for the money on having had a career with many twists and turns it was Henrik.

Besides a long and illustrious military career, he also did a stint as the CEO of a major league bandy club, proprietor of a gem store, and an assortment of other ventures. In the end he fought a very long and painful fight with cancer. He knew from onset that he would not stand a chance and was given 3 months to live. But he went at it like the soldier he literally was and fought back with gusto and got 3 years before the end.

He was through his life a man of grand ideas, so it should come as no surprise that he was the champion of our grandest project, the NDVP. From day one Henrik wanted to pen the final piece himself. In many ways it was his own Eulogy that he penned, it was truly glorious and true to form it was larger than life.

No jubilee would be complete without upholding the memory of our fallen comrades.

In memory of Sissel Skramstad | VolcanoCafe

Henrik Lovén 1958-2019 | VolcanoCafe

 

The future

The future of Volcanocafé is both complex and simple at the same time. All I will say is that we will not change one bit in how we strive to uphold science and data above all else. The format and the writers will change over time, and there will be changes in technology.

But I am not the one to present that. I leave the technology to one of our technology wizards in an upcoming article.

I leave the changes in content up to you dear readers. Both in regards of what we write, but I would at the same time kindly ask that you also help with content and writing, the more we are, the more fun we will all have.

After all, it is not my place, it is your place dear readers and writers. I am but the custodian of the place until it is my time to have beer again with Sissel and Henrik.

Until then, here’s for many more years of Doggedly dogging like no dog has doggedly dogged in the sulphur mines of science.

CARL REHNBERG

438 thoughts on “In the beginning there was sheep

    • I think a thunderstorm is heading to La Palma.

      I hope the rain doesn’t generate lahars.

      • Just had a look at La Palma- the view shows steam arising from the whole lave field- impressive-the poor locals must be so over it!

    • I noted that too.
      I do not have a serious explanation.
      At first I though it might be flashes from a secondary eruption (very bad thought, apologies 🙂 )
      Then it looked like in fact a thunderstorm was coming for La Palma.
      But, watching closely, you could see the light being emitted from the ground and shone at the clouds as opposed to produced in the clouds themselves.
      Because of that I remain clueless what the heck that was really….

      Only other clue would be combustible gases trapped in the lava, that explode to daylight and instantly light up. But owing to the intense flashes it still seems somewhat unlikely to me.

      What can we say, La Palma, never boring, each day something new…

  1. “And as I studied the ice-core data I found out that the eruption over at Aniakchak was the far larger one, and that the Minoan civilization was hit by a double-whammy-eruption.”
    https://www.volcanocafe.org/the-great-american-volcano-aniakchak/

    It was even possible that it was a triple whammy. And the whole area went down.
    That story starting with a caribou is very well written, the caribou at a seemingly safe distance of 30 miles or km. The fate of that imagined caribou makes it crystal clear what a volcano like Aniakchak is able to do. Pictures beautiful.

  2. Made a map of the earthquake swarm at Vatnafjoll, as well as the vents that were either obvious on google earth or actually had some detailed mapping. Not sure about two of the fissures on the southeastern side, they might be part of Torfajokull instead given location, but most sources include them here so I did too.
    Same as for Hekla there is a general clustering of the vents along a narrow zone but not exactly a single defined fissure that erupts repeatedly at the surface level, each eruption seems to be a little independant.

    Really the location speaks for itself, there is no obvious rapid shallowing but the swarm is right under the part of the swarm that has the most vents.

    https://imgur.com/a/gKpC0Qs

    Carl has disappeared again, I might be safe to guess he is writing something on exactly this subject 🙂

    • Do you know this phenomenon (Pineapple Express)?:
      AccuWeather forecasters say this major flooding event was a result of a phenomenon known as an atmospheric river. This particular atmospheric river setup is known colloquially as “the Pineapple Express” since the moisture extends back to Hawaii and the tropical Pacific.”
      https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/state-of-emergency-issued-in-wake-of-disastrous-flooding-in-british-columbia/1049096

      • denali/weather.
        Its been known for some time, there was a scientific american article about it about a year ago (when one hit further south).

        Hmm, several in fact, 5/2/2019, 20/3/2018, 27/10/2021, 30/12/2016, 1/1/2013

        So, er, quite well understood……

      • We sure know about Atmospheric Rivers here in California. They provide a good fraction of our early precipitation.
        These rivers are plumes of moisture moving up from the ITCZ (InterTropical Convergence Zone) usually in the form of a “dirty ridge”…i.e. the flow around the periphery of a high pressure system. Here along the EPacific coast, there is a quasi-permanent H.P. cell that at times can tap into the ITCZ usually near Hawaii and fling the moisture NNE. Then, when a low pressure system to the north of the high sets up, the cyclonic flow around the low and anticyclonic flow around the high start to phase (i.e. merge).
        As the two flows converge, the dirty ridge gets compressed, forming a narrow “river” of moisture-laden air. When the river of moisture hits land, like here along the coast, this juicy air is lifted by the mountains/hills providing orographic lift which wrings out the moisture in copious quantities.
        This is what’s happening in the PacNW around Seattle and British Columbia as an atmospheric river set up from stationary high pressure off the California/Baja coast directing moisture NNE until it encounter’s low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska…with the area of convergence then plowing the area with over 30 inches of rain (localized) over a 10 day period, with well over 15 inches widespread. THose poor people have really had it tough this last 8-months, with first a prolonged heat wave that peaked at an incredible 122F in Lytton, B.C., which was then followed by 5 months of fire & smoke, and now flooding on a historic scale.
        Here in drought-stricken NorCal, we just had a record-breaking AR in late October that brought up to 20 inches near Mt. Lassen and 8-10″ to many other areas, setting all kinds of daily/monthly records…yet we’ve been so dry the last several years that our extreme drought was only marginally mitigated.
        Hope this helps.

        • Atmospheric rivers are the ultimate yin/yang out here on the West Coast. They provide a huge percentage of the life-giving moisture to the region, but can cause massive destruction. It is thought that a series of atmospheric rivers has the potential to be equal to or greater than the impact of a San Andreas slip – “The Other Big One”. The USGS did an amazing simulation of what a historical set of AR events would do in the modern day. It is amazing and sobering reading.

          https://www.usgs.gov/natural-hazards/science-application-risk-reduction/science/arkstorm-scenario

          • Check out the Ark Storm of 1861-62 to get an idea of what an ultimate series af AR’s can do. During this long-duration series of mega-precip events, over 10 feet of rain along the west coast was recorded in the local mountains.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARkStorm
            Virtually the entire state’s lowlands (California) became a lake that extended into Oregon, Nevada and Arizona.
            If something like that were to happen today, the economic loss would probably reach into the Trillions of dollars.

          • Sorry Jazz…the link you posted just showed up….we are talking the same thing per my reply below.

        • I thought you might answer to this, Craig. I’ll read the link. Thank’s a lot and also to Jazz_Chi.

      • Maybe, I am not so familiar with the seismology aspect, but I guess the difference is not always important. What I understand is that in Iceland (and presumably also in other rifting areas) tectonic movement can turn into magma activity, particularly if it is prolonged.

        It is the location in particular that is what intrigues me, it is right smack at the actual mountain of Vatnafjoll, right above where a magma chamber probably sits at the bottom of the crust.
        If the quakes were more distant then it would probably not mean anything, but there seems to be more to it now.

        • It has the signature of a typical SISZ quake. It’s very similar to the 1987 Vatnafjöll quake, which was larger, almost M6. There’s no sign of magma moving and it behaves like you would expect from a mainshock-aftershock sequence. Yes, the location is exciting, but I think you need something much bigger before magma gets involved.

          • Yes, probably expecting two long dormant volcanoes to erupt in the same year is poor odds. But in that same field Vatnafjoll is technically a much better bet than Fagradalsfjall.

            In saying that if there is still magma supply to Vatnafjoll it will have to erupt eventually, and if it has the same tendancies as Hekla for larger eruptions after longer intervals, that has obvious big implications. Either that or as some point the deep system will merge with Hekla, in both cases will be obvious.

            The broad level inflation seen recently is very interesting, seems regardless there is something in the works.

    • read somewhere from an ign volcanologist that magma composition changed after the stop on sep 27, after that pause more “fresh” and deep materian started coming up

    • I like this film as it shows how it will look later. Basically the South is full of basalt and also Lanzarote. First it is a big damage and loss for people, later it turns into an impressive landscape. Volcanoes have two sides. Thank you.

  3. Congratulations from another occasional lurker and very rare contributor. I have followed VC from the start, in fact before the start 10 + years ago, great to have so many intelligent and well-informed presentations and comments. Thanks to you all, and especially the band of merry folk who have kept this place going over the years. What you have achieved is remarkable, well done!

    My interest in this topic was kindled in 2010 when my flight to the World Expo in Shanghai was in doubt due to the volcanic eruption. I realised I needed an intelligent but accessible place to learn more after a famous TV interview discussing Katla volcano. Since then I’ve visited Iceland, toured around the south of the island, seen the famous volcanos, plenty of sheep (but no Daleks), waterfalls, geysers and thankfully avoided the fermented sharks!

  4. New depths of magma puzzling scientists

    The National Geographic Institute (IGN) has confirmed the presence of new magma contributions from high depths of the eruptive system to the intermediate reservoirs from which the La Palma volcano feeds. This increase in the volume of magma puzzles the scientific community, amid what appeared to be a decline in activity.

    The appearance of more magma could suppose the prolongation in time of the volcanic activity and, therefore, a greater probability that the lava emissions overflow old flows and generate new damages.

    It would be the worst of the scenarios that scientists have studied in recent hours after the highest peak of earthquakes occurred since the eruption began. They are divided between different opinions but they coincide in indicating that the volcano has “revived” after several days of certain stability and a downward trend in the data being monitored.

    Those scenarios speak of various possibilities. According to Itahiza Domínguez, IGN seismologist, in the best of scenarios “we could be faced with a compensation of magmatic material in the reservoirs, or with the direct contribution of magma to the surface, as it seems to be”. Not surprisingly, last night the lava flows intensified, even with a considerable overflow in the cone.
    What we believe is that magma has accumulated for years at that depth of more than 30 kilometers, what we do not know is how much contribution there is at that depth and if there is another connection below that takes magma to that level,” Domínguez clarified .

    The appearance of days ago of the possible “depleting reservoirs” was just that, a theory or conjecture that has been dismantled by this new behavior of the volcano. Indeed, IGN has already pointed out that “these processes can seem like one thing and change suddenly”.

    Itahiza Domínguez is clear that, although there is a probable negative scenario that there is much more magma in the depths than previously thought and this could last much longer in time, “the most explosive moment of the volcano has already passed, with magma shallower with more gases and little evolved. The eruptive event will not go beyond a strambolic event, “no matter how long it lasts.

    The best parameter to measure this duration is sulfur dioxide (SO2), which despite the large current magma contribution has dropped considerably according to satellite measurements.

    The SO2 depends on the amount of magma and the degassing that all this material generates. That is why it is important to check the behavior of this parameter in the coming days, to measure the presence of more magma in the system.

  5. Signs of some tremor/hydrothermal activity showing up on several stations near Hekla?
    Here’s the FAL sil to illustrate.

  6. We live in very exciting Kilaūea times
    Kilauea is probaly entering its Peak of main shield building. The next 160 000 years will be INSANELY active. transforming Kilaūea into a Mauna Loa sized beast possible even much larger. That process have began and started perhaps 10 000 years ago

  7. Now I’m not someone who tries to judge things be more extreme than they really are.
    But notice however how the steam and ash clouds are really looking orange right now when some lava is erupting out of the main vent, as opposed to the earlier days when they used to only look pale red?
    While this might have been that way for some days or even weeks now, it is only today that I notice.
    That means, as derived from the black body theory, that the lava must be well in the 1000 °C currently, which never seemed the way with respect to the main vent fountain.
    Owing to better insulation, the hidden effusive vent may be even hotter.

    Of course, could be the case that they applied more realistic camera settings in the mean time, but right now I don’t think that is the reason…

    Btw: The cloud color is the real thermal color, as it hardly ever oversaturates the camera.

  8. Everyone is ignoring the biggest ecological crisis that’s going on right now, and I am not talking about climate change. We breath in over 7,000 particles of plastic every single day and now it’s everywhere. It’s even raining f&#ing plastic! there is over 10 million tons of microplastic in the atmosphere. This stuff messes with all of our biological functions and is even potentially carcogenic and already there is no avoiding. There is so much plastic in the atmosphere I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s affecting the climate. There is no way to clean these plastic out of the air and even if everyone stopped using plastic now, the plastic in the air would remain for decades If there is anything that can cause a real mass extinction it’s the plastic

  9. 😈
    Non verified… isn’t quite true either?
    😉
    Just teasing Q.

  10. Happy Birthday to the Volcano Cafe!
    Congratulations!

    In 5 years I never saw sheep flying in Iceland, but I saw once a flying birch tree (that nearly hit me).

    Yes, Iceland could have been named Windland.
    And it could have been Strangeland (because of the mix of different elements).

    It has been a lovely community, with whom I had the joy to participate over this last 10 years, almost right from the beginning, when I moved to Iceland in 2010. And having written hundreds of comments, and a few posts, it has been my greatest joy to contribute.

    In the beginning there were sheep.
    Well, those poor flying sheep can always be used in Svið.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svi%C3%B0
    If you are vegetarian, please don’t click on the link

    • What about buried Greenland Shark? 🤣😝🤮🤢🤢🥴 Hakarl, Surkarl
      Eeeeeeewww simply all traditional Icelandic foods are either rotten, or heavly salted. One dish in Faroe Islands ”canned seabirds in barrels ” But Swedish food are just as awful, rotten fish and snails and canned moose noses

      I cannot eat traditional Scandinavian food .. simply to yucky..

      • Scandinavian tea is very civilised…
        After visiting Norway, my tea drinking habits were changed for life!

      • Have you tried that fermented shark they have in Iceland? Yack.

  11. On another note, I want to remark that I am currently living in a village where literally half of the people around me has covid. Streets are so quiet. A few are struggling hard (mostly unvaccinated ones). People just lived life as if there was no pandemic, and then suddently delta comes and strikes everyone like a domino. However I have seen a few vaccinated people failing to contract covid (despite big exposure). And other vaccinated people got it, but it was only a bad flu for them.

    Anyways, I seemed to have emerged from this outbreak untouched. I had only a tiny sore threat after contact with 2, 3, 5, or more people with covid. My PCR came negative. But knock on the wood. If there was one thing I learnt with this virus back with my covid experience in 2020, is that you don’t trust it. This is a sneaky little bastard. And it is very different than a cold or a flu. It is creating a chaos again in Europe. Many people still live in the fantasy world of conspiracy theories, which I understand, it feels much better subconsciously pretending that there is no danger around.

    I have seen people doing a 180degree flop after they were hit hard with covid. A friend of mine did not wear a mask and was all conspiracy and natural cures. Now, she changed overnight after she recovered from covid. Took the vaccine (after covid), wears always a mask, and is still suffering from long covid. Yup I know, not easy, I have been there (but my encounter with covid was before vaccines existed while hers was after). She shares “I wished I have taken the vaccine before” Yes, it could have been prevented. . Why do we deny reality? I still cannot understand most humans!

    • My offtopic is meant to underly my anedoctal and empirical evidence that vaccines do indeed work against the pandemic. Science shines. Thankfully.

      • Of course it works, problem is if it works then people think there was no problem to begin with. Also, as in my personal case, those with no exposure are always the ones who fight, it is all a conspiracy. Vaccines are not harmless, but neither is the live virus.

        My location is just like yours, a place that has been nearly untouched by the pandemic directly. Out of necessity our border will open unrestricted in a little under a month. Our target is 90% vax, which is close but now rates have plummeted because apparently more than 10% think it is fake and refuse. It wont be a total disaster as we are above 80% but the last two weeks of the year are going to be a bit of a shitstorm I think, not waves of death just a lot of chaos, basically the start all over again 🙁

        • Should make it more clear I know a lot of die hard anti-vaxers, unfortunately. I am not one of them.

    • Irpsit,
      Your experience is not unique, sadly.
      I trust the rest of your family were equally unaffected.

  12. Hawaii is already really warm and tropical at sealevel. Kona pretty much never go below 28c
    And Noon shadow temperatures of 33c is common in both winter and summer. Humidity at sealevel is also high and makes the Hawaii heat worse.

    If Hawaii was on the Equator it woud be No dry side at all right? because there is no trade winds at the equator. Hilo haves an equatorial climate as the rain is generated by ortographic rainfall from Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, while Kona is Tropical Moonsoon Savannah climate.

    But on Equator competely green Big Island right?

    • Depends where along the equator you put the “new” Hawaii. (i.e. +/- 5 deg latitude)
      If you put it within 1,000 miles west of South America, that region actually get’s less precip than “current” Hawaii.
      But, put it in the far west Pacific, and Hawaii would be lucky to have even a spot of bare land…save for the beaches.

  13. Maybe there is something in the lava chemistry that is favoring transition to a’a at La Palma. This video shows the lava channel and it is flowing very fast, as fast as I have ever seen lava flow in Hawaii from tube breakouts like this.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvIXmDIgdks

    Tholeiitic basalt is silica saturated, it is also really hot so is very fluid. But that composition probably makes it easy for the thin glass crust to form. Cumbre Vieja (and also Etna) is silica undersaturated, so the crust probably doesnt form the same way, and is different if it does. The lava would look black as both pahoehoe or a’a. Maybe in such lavas it can be difficult for pahoehoe to form at all in fact, so you get a’a lava but it is as fluid as pahoehoe. There are alkali basalt pahoehoe flows but maybe La Palma just doesnt have the right chemistry to produce it on large scale.

      • Those also have shallow magma chambers, at least Nyamuragira does. Both also have long histories of lava lakes, quite notoriously. I think pahoehoe flow fields are really always associated with lava lakes.

        I did notice that the lava on La Palma stays incandescent for longer and has none of the crustal plates, in Hawaii it gets a visible thin crust nearly immediately. Maybe the glass crust on alkaline basalt is transparent. It isnt so farfetched, it is not exactly so far from soda-lime glass in composition. Really it is looking like the lava is turning to a’a for reasons other than viscosity, it is a combination of composition and flow rate/velocity.

    • https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uvIXmDIgdks

      While the video you show haves low viscosity, it is already at vent, Aa like with not competely smooth flow surface. The solution is to have even higher temperatures to form smooth pahoehoe.

      At extremely High temperatures all mafic and even basaltic andesite lavas will form pahoehoe close to the vent.

    • Hawaiian lavas are indeed extremely hot and fluid, and quite rich in sillicon
      Kilaueas chemistry is similar the to moon mare basalts.

      The high fluidity and at same time good polymerization is why Hawaii is fantastic at producing peles hairs, Halema’uma’u 2008 – 2018 was very much a glass / rock wool machine

    • 5.1 mbLg SW VILLA DE MAZO.ILP
      2021/11/19 01:08:47IV
      36

  14. 4.6 mbLg SW VILLA DE MAZO.ILP
    2021/11/20 10:19:36IV
    37

  15. Happy Birthday VC 🙂
    I must have found you pretty early on because I still vividly remember all the discussion about Bob (El Hierro). After lurking for a long time the (usually) very friendly discussion here made me feel safe enough to add to the discussion from time to time, something I never do anywhere else. In fact this is the only blog that I have read regularly, sometimes daily, for the last ten years.
    Congratulations, and thankyou for providing level headed and informative articles and commentary in the face of general hysteria, may it continue long into the future!

  16. https://imgur.com/a/KPX0O5B

    Rough outline of the lava flows from Vatnafjoll, at least I think. Hekla has probably buried a lot of flows, but it seems for the most part the lava flowed southwest then westwards, so maybe the flow field as we see now is most of the total. It seems also that even though the fissure swarm is large, the biggest flows all come from the southern end where the actual mountain called Vatnafjoll is, northern eruptions are smaller. Probably the deep conduit is at this southern end and eruptions further north are dike fed from here, where those at the southern end are pressure fed like Hekla. Also probably means fissure length for the biggest flows is relatively short, maybe only a few km or even less.

    The exposed area of flow field is about 400 km2. If the eruptions here really were as fast as I hypothesised, then the biggest eruptions would have been like opening the flood gates of hell.

  17. Saturday
    20.11.2021 12:25:03 63.858 -22.631 6.1 km 3.5 99.0 7.4 km NNE of Reykjanestá

  18. Now a new earthquake swarm at the very end of Reykjanes. This fissure swarm seems to be very narrow and much more intense than Fagradalsfjall, curtain of fire lava flood eruptions, and then that goes off into the ocean too, not at all so tourism friendly…

  19. La Palma volcano eruption rises to level 3
    This does not mean that there is greater explosiveness or that there is any variation in the strombolian mechanism of the natural phenomenon.

    The Scientific Committee has reassessed the magnitude of the eruption of the La Palma volcano , which has gone from a value of two (out of a total of eight) to three, without this implying that there is greater explosiveness or that there is any variation in the mechanism strombolian of the natural phenomenon.

    At a press conference, the IGN volcanologist, Carmen López, recalled that the magnitude can be established on a scale from zero to eight that is calculated from the volume of pyroclastic material emitted.

    “Given that 10 million cubic meters of emitted pyroclastic material have been exceeded,” he said, “it goes from value two to value three, and it does not imply that the eruptive mechanism has changed, which is still strombolian effusive fissure”.

    Likewise, he stressed that there is no change in the explosiveness of the eruption, which remains with the same characteristics as during the entire process.

    https://diariodeavisos.elespanol.com/2021/11/la-erupcion-del-volcan-de-la-palma-sube-a-nivel-3/?utm_source=webpushr&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=589661

  20. What do you all make of the latest data from Taal? Quakes are down as are SO2 emissions? Ground is still inflating…

    • I don’t know why it hasn’t erupted but this has been happening all year but the trends is still points to a major eruption

      • I don’t fully trust the data, because it isn’t fully transparent from Phivolcs… When institutions start being opaque about stuff like this; I become King Cynical IV of Earth. What they don’t say becomes more interesting.

        For instance from 150-250 earthquakes per day to 0 within a day seems a bit dodgy to me; I would expect a gradual slow down. I am no volcanologist but I do know a thing or two about waves and vibrations, I do that to stop an huge vibrations instantly, requires greater energy. Like when you hit a cymbal, it keep ringing until it gradually fades, unless you physically stop it.

        A gradual slow down over a week or so, can be explained away, but not from a lot to nothing in a short space of time… unless there is huge pressure?

        Out of the box thinking here from someone who knows more than what I did about volcanoes, still relatively little. If I am to take the data at face value. Phivolcs say that the ground is still inflating; I would expect earthquakes from the influx of magma etc, but they are minimal according to the “released” data (I suppose that does depend on the rate of inflation). So taking the cymbal analogy, could the force of pressure beneath the volcano be enough to minimise the earthquakes?

        Could we be potentially facing another Krakatoa?

        • Probably because Taal is not a silicic caldera, and that is what everyone is basing the model off of. It hasnt erupted big yet because there isnt the enormous body of rhyolite that is expected. Taal is a lateral drainage caldera like Kilauea, just the environment it is in leads to much chance of an explosion.

          2020 was a lateral drain, and the SO2 emissions have gone up since. This could be from reduced pressure of the chamber. If the lake was slightly moved inwards towards the caldera center then the wide ‘inflation’ is probably just rebound. Seems to me that the big caldera is not that young, probably not active in the typical sense, so unlikely to do much. The size of Volcano Island probably does underestimate the real volume but likely they max out in the lower VEI 5 range, and probably would be more strombolian like in the 1960s.

          In saying that, a hydrothermal blast or a decompression ring fault eruption could be way more powerful than the volume suggests. No VEI 6, but a VEI 4 with the intensity and magnitude of a 6… That is what seems to have happened in 1756, a prolonged caldera collapse that began in 1749. After 6 years of deflation it cracked and began collapsing properly. Each collapse forced out some magma which was by then so oversaturated with volatiles it exploded despite being basalt. Probably some major effects of water too. Maybe each bang was only a few tens of millions of m3 of magma (technically VEI 3) but the power was enormous, and such small volumes allowed successive events which was noted.
          So no VEI 5+ but rather a VEI 4-low 5 with some real kick to it. Get more bang for your buck so to speak.

          Really this mode needs to be investigated academically, most mega calderas are in rift zones, they are structurally nothing like silicic stratovolcanoes. Taal is a relatively tame example when you compare it to the likes of Taupo or the calderas of Kyushu…

  21. https://twitter.com/involcan/status/1462074882594906112
    The eruption passes to VEI-3, as our experts announced days ago. The large quantity of fallen ash clearly indicated the passage to this level, after a reassessment by the PEVOLCA committee. The VEI-3 does not indicate that the rash is getting worse or that its behavior changes.

    • In Wikipedia It has been claimed to be a VEI 3 for about a week now…
      Unfortunately no source had been given back then.

    • The lava volume is 250 million cubic meters for now I think ( as Big as Mauna Loa 1984 but much slower )
      Thats a smaller VEI 4

      • Wasn’t VEI about ash only? At least that’s what currently is in my layman mind…

        • Ejecta volume is essential, but the VEI estimation also takes account of the intensity, from the ash column height if I remember correctly.

  22. Ok I think it is much more about the camera settings than I thought last time.
    Now it is looking like the fountain’s temperature dropped by 200 K, which I honestly don’t believe.
    Looks like the lava wasn’t particularly hot when I made my previous statement on black body theory.

    • Thanks for posting that Jesper. I have spent an enjoyable hour reading the comments.

    • Gosh – there I am all those years ago at 19:51 wishing Carl and the blog well. And he and the blog both have done well!

  23. Just noticed the very interesting swarm of 142 quakes at Reykjanesta between 12:11 hours and 19:41 hours today with a magnitude 3.5 confirmed quake amongst the swarm at 12:25 today. Does anyone have any idea what may be happening here? Could this be a new supply of lava towards Fagradalsfjall or even a new outbreak at Grindavik area or Kelir area. Conversly could this just be purely tectonic quakes? They are certainly not really deep quakes.

    • Good spotting! That’s not the first swarm in that area lately. I’m perplexed by them.

      If I understand correctly, there were a heck of a lot of quake swarms in the lead up to the eruption at Geldingalir, and the swarms not close to the dike were due to stresses caused by the dike. However, I don’t recall them being as far away as Reykjanesta, plus there’s (as far as I know) no actively expanding dike near Keilar at the moment. There are occasional swarms there, though.

      So, what might cause the swarms at Reykjanesta? It’s a volcano, so it’s possible it’s building towards an eruption, though it’s rather coincidental that it comes so soon after the eruption that just ended. My wild speculation is that perhaps they are connected; is it possible that the deep source that produced the magma for the recent eruption found itself blocked, and is coming up somewhere else?

      Caveat: I’m a total novice at this, so people take whatever I say with a truckload of sodium chloride.

      • I have had a theory for a while now that there are really no true individual volcanoes on the Reykjanes peninsula, it is a rifting volcanic field. There are defined deep magma chambers at Svartsengi and at Krysuvik (and shallower chamber at Hengill if that is considered part) but none of the fissure swarms really has a defined boundary, it seems a made up concept for easy visualising.
        Maybe there is a chemistry gradient between them, but then I am also not entirely convinced that always distinguishes volcanoes, mostly because of Kilauea.
        Kilauea has basically a whole satellite volcano system through its ERZ, each of the pit craters (really borderline satellite calderas) is a polygenetic magma chamber, fully in every way its own volcano except it is primarily fed laterally from Kilauea itself hence is largely dependant on activity there. The ancient Hawaiians used the name of Kilauea only to refer to the area we now call its caldera, seems they were quite on the money even if they never knew the reason.

        Basically at Reykjanes there whole peninsula should be considered active now, everything. From what I have been able to find there were probably a lot of unreported eruptions in the middle ages, I doubt there will be longer than a few years between eruptions there from now onwards, most of the msmall but never far apart. There might be one more big eruption in this century, probably at either Veidivotn or Vatnafjoll, but aside from that though most of the volcanic action by numbers will be at Reykjanes and at Grimsvotn.

    • The actual lava flow on the central has a abobination….:(

  24. A new deformation on some GPS stations on la palma.


  25. Volcanoes grow much much much much faster than non volcanic mountains like Everest. And specialy Hawaii and Etna

    Why are there No volcanoes that are taller than Everest above sealevel?

    The non volcanic mountains are always the tallest above waves, althrough individual
    non volcanic mountains are not very tall, and are part of other mountain massives in orogeny.

    • Me <- absolute laymen. But I see several reasons:
      1. material is much more loose and when exposed to erosion gives way easier?
      2. magma chambers collaps when weight above becomes to large?
      3. "hotspots" (not technical term) move?

    • Mount Kenya grew into a behemoth before it was eroded away by pleistocene glaciers, due to inactivity
      The original stratovolcano may have stood 7500 meters tall

      The African continetal stratovolcanoes are the largest stratovolcanoes on Earth, but still dwarfed by Hawaii of course

    • Wow. Is this near the cone or the ocean?

      At night the more red part of the surface does have exactly the same fractured pattern as the crust on top of lava channels in Hawaii. I think maybe my hypothesis the thin crust is optically transparent actually has some merit.
      That might be why we dont see any pahoehoe surfaces, it exists but it is transparent up until it can clump together more and forms the a’a texture, or if it is smooth but thick. That breakout was moving very fast, even at the flow front, I really doubt it is any less fluid than lava in Hawaii or Iceland now.

      • I think it’s a tube that burst open. Not sure of the location.

        • I think it is the first opening of the lava tube that we coud see in drone videos, where it came down from the cone and split into the different channels, looks like hotter lava now

        • It is by the cone.

          Checkout RTVE Noticas live cam. One cam looks at the sea the other at the volcano.

  26. The volcano is really noisy at the moment lots of pulsating then very loud explosions and lots of the very hot white lava in the plume.

  27. Yep, something happened 😮
    Why would there be a pipe burst though? Is this common with lava piping?

  28. https://imgur.com/a/6X2RTCV

    Map of all the holocene vents in the south Iceland volcanic zone. There are certainly more within the caldera of Katla, and around Vestmannaeyjar, but data on exact locations for those is pretty hard to find, so I only did recent eruptions for those.

    One can see how big Eldgja is here… Seems it really was quite an extreme event for Katla, probably its biggest eruption in the Holocene by a long way. Surprising really this magnitude of eruption didnt happen earlier, like it did for Bardarbunga.
    Hekla/Vatnafjoll area is also very much more active than surroundings too. Seems these two and Torfajokull all transition into Veidivotn, not magmatically but through tectonics. Rifting at Veidivotn is at least plausible this century so if that happens it could set off one of these places too.

    Was also surprised by some cones at Tindafjallajokull, and the large size of a flank fissure on Eyjafjallajokull. 2010 was maybe smaller than it could have been.

    As a side note, is it at all possible Katla is a younger satellite of Eyjafjallajokull? Hector’s Hawaii idea has got me thinking about that possibility elsewhere too, this seems a good candidate.

    • Eldgja also haves that flood Aa lava texture so flowed very fast indeed When it was going. Gravity drain eruption that sourely deepened its caldera If it was a shallow drain.

      Now Imagine Mauna Loas gravity drain potential thats 10 000 meters high from the seafloor, and almost
      18 000 meters from its pressed down base. Lucky perhaps No massive edifice shallow chamber stoorage dont exist for now in Mauna Loa, the last one was destroyed during the caldera formation at the summit 1500/1400 years ago.

      • Last caldera formation at Mauna Loa was in about 1700, the one you talk about (and HVO) was the Pana’ewa basalt, which was 1500 years ago, but there has been at least 2 more since then. 1700s eruption was recorded in the story of Na Pu’u a Pele, and happened where Ocean View estates is now.

      • Chad How Big where the drainouts since 1500 s ?
        Was there shield building after Panaewa or just fast rift eruptions? I remeber speculations estomations one Pahoehoe shield building phase in Mauna Loa lasting 1100 years recently.
        When Mauna Loa was at height of shield building in the latest pleistocene its entirely possible she erupted lava tubes non stop.

        Kilauea is going full on shield building soon / already started

        • Probably better for Hector to answer, but I tried to calculate the volume of the Hapaimanu flows (the 1700s eruption) and fount it to be at least 2.5 km3, and possibly as hig has 8 km3 though it is probably at the smaller end of that specturm if I was to guess. Panaewa was about the same. The other caldera formations were Kipuka Kanohina (1200s), Pohue Bay (1100 years ago) and Pu’u Ohohia (1800 years ago). So there have been at least 5 in the last 2000 years. But 3 of the 5 were before 1000 AD, so perhaps that shows general lower activity now than 1000 years ago, maybe reflecting Kilauea being the way it is now.

          Kilauea has had major collapses in the 1500s (possibly 2, at least 1), in the 1700s (again at least 1 and possibly 2), and now has just had a nestled but still large collapse. By the pattern in the last two it is distinctly possible 2018 was only the starter and the main event is yet to come…

          I think actually, far from being a sign of dominance, the dominant Hawaiian volcano is really the one which is creating large calderas and major rift eruptions, which is exactly what Kilauea has been doing for the last 500 years. Those big flood basalts at mauna Loa mostly coincided with the summit overflow period at Kilauea, and not the Power’s caldera or the modern one.

        • I have revised the paleomagnetism and radiocarbon data of Hawaiian lava flows. It looks to me that Mauna Loa behaves in a similar way to Kilauea, it has a period of frequent eruptions which culminates in a lateral draining event and collapse, then Mauna Loa goes into a period of low activity while Kilauea is more active instead.

          This doesn’t happen always though, the last period of high activity of Mauna Loa in 1850-1950 did not culminate in a caldera collapse. But the preceding period of activity probably culminated in the gigantic Hapaimamu eruption, around 1720, which created the caldera of Mokuaweoweo that stands now on top of Mauna Loa. Kilauea probably took over following Hapaimamu.

          The previous caldera collapse may have been the enormous Kipuka Kanohina eruption, the age is not very well known, because there is only one radiocarbon date and no paleomagnetic data but I’d guess 1350. I think perhaps marking the transition between rift eruption of Mauna Loa and the start of major summit overflows from Kilauea, the Observatory Shield.

          Periods of shield building with overflowing lava lakes at the summit of the volcanoes are rare. Most of the volume of Hawaiian volcanoes actually comes from the rift not the summit. Mauna Loa’s last important phase of summit overflows was about 450-550 AD and the one before was around 900 BCE. They probably last only a 100 years or so and are very rare so only contribute a small part of the volume. There were some very minor overflows before Hapaimamu but they were probably from fissure eruptions in the summit and upper flanks and not an overflowing lava lake.

          Same is true for Kilauea. The last phase of summit shield building was about 1400-1500 AD with the formation of the Observatory and Aila’au shields, it erupted 10 km3 or so, I’d say. But the previous important shield building was around 100-200 BCE with the Kipukanene flows. So most output of Mauna Loa and Kilauea goes into caldera filling and rift eruptions, only a small part to shield building from the summit.

      • Mauna Loa is gentle effusive but enromous ammounts of magma are erupted over a short time. and the south part of Big Island is relativly steep and the fluid lava can really get up speed and many housing developments are built directly on earlier lava flows and the hazard is quite huge according to Hawaiian volcano obervatory. Current earthquakes are sporadic and not in order. but she is
        ”far overdue” and keeps inflating soo the next eruption maybe very huge indeed…althrough No volcano can be overdue really. They live on difftent timescales compared to human ideas.

        Mauna Loa is probaly due to erupt from the south rift zone….and enromous ammounts of lava means a hazard from fast flowing lava rivers….ocean view estates is in serious danger.

        Hualalai is just as dangerous If not even much more, steeper slopes, but it haves a much much lower activity level than Mauna Loa. Hualalai also acts somewhat as protection from some Mauna Loa flows, But a non rift radial Mauna Loa eruption coud take parts of South kona too.

        We all acossiate Mauna Loa with big fast Icelandic style looking rift eruptions, since thats been the style in modern recent history of Mauna Loa.

        But most of Mauna Loa in Google Earth is covered by older pahoehoe flows, so slow shield building is of course the dominant type of activity in Mauna Loa. Most of Mauna Loa have been constructed by lava lake, and tube feed pahoehoe flows. Souch eruptions coud have lasted 1000 s of years possible When Mauna Loa was competely dominant over the Hotspot. During these times Kilaūea was smaller and less mature than it is now. Mauna of these Mauna Loa pahoehoe outpurings are very young so its entirely possible that ML coud one day again grab the Hotspot and go non stop shield building before Kilaūea takes over completely. You will get very long lava tubes indeed over Mauna Loas slopes. During height of Long lived Shield Building Mauna Loa probaly hosts more or less constantly overflowing lava lakes at its summit feeding tube systems. But Mauna Loa is also enlongated so rift activity is very common, perhaps are Many Buired Puu Oo like shields on Mauna Loas flanks

        • My stay at the Four Seasons Resort at Kona in 2003 was not without recognition of the fact that some nut job of an entrepreneur was building million dollar homes just inland of that property which my wife, out of habit, insisted on our having a look at ‘just to see’. As we departed our ‘tour’ I had her look over her shoulder at Hualalai and reminded her that ‘Big Momma’ was only asleep and that some day this investment will be for naught. Some time later I had correspondence with a PhD candidate who had just completed a paper on the hazards and risks in the Kona area. The likely circumstance is obviously on many minds.

          • Chance of burial is low, but really the only place on the Big Island that is pretty well safe is around Waimea etc.

            Maybe also the south side of Mauna Loa, at Pahala, though that is only under present conditions and not safe at all if Kilauea has a bigger eruption, all the vog.

          • You recall that the Kona Four Seasons is built on a lava field. The golf course alone is a marvelous design carved out of the basalt. IMHO, it wouldn’t take the likes of 2018 or the events on La Palma today to make the entire real estate effort a loss. Just enough to make the infrastructure unusable and uninhabitable.

      • ZZDoc

        Yes When Hualalai erupts it Will be INSANELY bad If the Fissures open up towards the beautyful kona town.

        Hualalai haves huge cinder and spatter cones, and many spectacular lava channel systems. The lava is low sillica alkaline basalt thats also high in temperatures.

        Floodgates of doom it is.. down the steep slopes of Hualalai, and some of these Spatter cones may had substained eruption rates higher to much higher than Fissure 8. It will look very much like Nyiragongos lava floods, and flow just as fast, perhaps even faster. It will be a terrible and spectacular sight with the mountain enraged with yellow lava rivers flowing in their channels

        Luckly Hualalai is not very active compare to Mauna Loa

        • Hualalai has got a good chance to erupt this century, not a certainty but more likely than not. Its last eruption was in 1801 but there was an intrusion in 1929. The eruption in 1801 was a part of a lpnger event beginning around 20 years earlier. There was also an eruption in about 1650, which was a small shield building eruption right at the summit.

          1650, 1780-1801, and 1929. Most eruptive episodes at Hualalai lasted for several centuries, typically 400-500 years. 1650 was only 370 years ago, this one is likely far from over yet.
          Hualalai is decidedly more violent than Mauna Loa or Kilauea. A lot like Cumbre Vieja there is no shallow storage, so you get a gas rich magma, eruptions at Hualalai are superfluid but have gigantic fountains…

          • One really has to wonder if Hualalai really counts as a shield. It us very steep, and has abundant pyroclastics. At the very least it is both steeper and has more pyroclastic component than Etna, which is considered a stratovolcano. Really it has always struck me how similar Hualalai is to Hekla, and now more recently to Cumbre Vieja, those are both considered stratovolcanoes too…

            I guess the whole idea of there being anything other than basaltic shields in Hawaii is too weird to allow such a proposal though.

        • The steep parts is probaly Hualalais upper post – shield Alkaline cap. Deep below all the steepness there is probaly an real shield. It coud also have skipped normal Hawaiian shield development

    • And because Mauna Loa is hyperactive 33 eruptions since 1844
      Perhaps there is +10 km3 events from Mauna Loa Thats been buried and is invisible to geological mapping. Is there any chance of a huge deep eruption from Mauna Loas main magma accumulation zone? 1950 came deeply, and Im soure it can get much much bigger than that one

      • 1950 was a shallow intrusion, but the magma feeding it rose out of the deep feed fast. It was pretty much the same as a lava lake drainout except with fresh magma, the 1949 co duit was still open if not directly erupting or visible, and there were lots of unobserved eruptions in the 1935-1950 era (was WW2 after all). So when a big pulse came in 1950 everything just broke and the whole thing drained. That is really the only way to get an eruption of such an extreme calibre.
        1950 was not huge volume, 0.35 km3, but it erupted at least half of that in literally a few hours. The eruption is notorious for the speed of the lava flows but not many know the fissure itself, all 21 km of it, was fully opened even faster than that. The whole length of the fissure was a raging curtain of fire for about an hour, up to 200 meters high. The eruption rate was as high if not even higher than the plinian opening phase of a Hekla eruption, somewhere well in excess of 10,000 m3/s. Think VEI 5 eruption rate with no explosion…

        Basically it can be thought of in the same boat as an eruption like St Helens or Krakatau, an eruption which is far more extreme than just the basic information shows. It is maybe the best example there is as to why there needs to be a better scale than VEI.

      • Yes I knows that 1950 was the most Impressive fluid basaltic eruption ever caught on camera! Laki sized in scale the first hours.

        Yet tiny compared to CAMP flows .. : )

    • Real flood basalts that haves some
      Individual flows that can be as Big as many Vatnajökulls in volume, must have a very difftent mechamism than Eldgja and Holuhraun, tapped directly from deep litospheric melt zones. Real VEI8 flood basalts comes from great depths and are probaly quite much hotter than Laki was, since not stoored at shallow depths, we see on Mars and Venus too how fast and far these flow too. I see them as direct Intrusions from the plume head melt top. Really gigantic flood basalts probaly involves a special type of
      ”superplume”rather than normal smaller plumes that we haves today.
      Also the gigantic LIP s last shortly, the plume heads of these burns off in one big LIP, leaving the stalk left as a longer lived Hotspot

  29. I see the Fagradals web cam page now has a link to the AfarTV La Palma camera.
    I was idly glancing over the page to see what’s new there, and was alarmed at the traffic camera:

    Driving in Iceland must be very dangerous. 🙂

  30. Is it raining substantially on La Palma?? You cannot see sh** on the cameras, at least on some of them.

    • Very cloudy yet and has incoming a new low presure system.

Comments are closed.