Welcome to the Volcano Café bar, a place for all things on or off topic and inane ramblings. There has been a need of late to find a place better suited to various theories, long comments and enthusiasm. This page will be less moderated than the main article pages and cleared out every month (this may change depending on use).
Have fun and don’t forget to tip the barman 😉
Got a question here… after looking at the Pico mountain in the Azores in papers, I am very confused – how could such a stratovolcano like that form (dumb question, I know), and I mean what this paper describes:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236213423_VOLCANIC_HISTORY_OF_PICO_AND_FAIAL_ISLANDS_AZORES_AN_OVERVIEW
Basically a combination of mostly hawaiian and a few strombolian eruptions (mostly effusive) they say, whereas a typical stratovolcano has a more extensive range. I tried to look everywhere for the processes that would form it, but nothing nonetheless. I have a few hypotheses for this:
1. Lava lake slight over-spill, where the cone contained a lava lake that doesn’t spill very far, building steeper and steeper slopes.
2. Cone burial, of which some sort of spatter cone existed and got buried by another cone, and repeat the process until you get a true mountain.
3. Explosive component, of which a cinder cone forms and gets buried by a newer, more effusive cone ’till the next explosive eruption.
4. Shield short-flow, similar to lava lake overflow but with more vigor.
5. Combination of a few?
With that, I have no idea. It makes me think of some giant hornito (ironic, since it has one on the peak).
Like Pu’u O’o in the mid 80s, a high fountaining vent. Though more gas rich, so probably more like Etna. Nyiragongo was probably the same, up to maybe not that long ago really.
Shishaldin and Villarrica are probably the best present comparisons. They are in an arc setting but despite being stratovolcanoes erupt lava that is very fluid, Villarrica has pahoehoe around it and a lava lake. Vesuvius before 1944 might be another comparison, mafic but quite explosive at times.
I guess maybe a large volume of deep magma managed to find a clear way to the surface and erupted slowly for a long time.
While we wait for something exciting, I did a few pieces of artwork I have been working on this week:
This one is based on the current project I am working on.
This one I did, just because… (called Mountain of Fire).
I’ve just published an article as a preprint on the Eartharxiv platform. It’s my most ambitious work, one I’ve spent months on doing graphs and writing, and longer than that on investigating. It’s aimed to redefine paradigms in Earth’s sciences. But it’s a lot, and it’s very controversial, yet to be considered by the academic community, so I will only post in Volcanocafé if the readers are interested in looking into some of the ideas:
https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/7656/
Hi Hector – following up on your comment on the tsunami thread:
That is especially interesting since the 2024 hurricane season is underperforming quite significantly. It was initially projected to be more active than average but so far has been very quiet.
That would fit with your hypothesis, since if nucleation of rainclouds is reduced at the height of the solar cycle, which we now are at, that might reduce the convection-driven generation of hurricanes.
CERN did a quite detailed experimental study of cloud nucleation, which I mentioned:
https://home.cern/science/experiments/cloud
They found a lot of interesting things, like the interaction of SO2/H2SO4 with ionizing radiation to seed high altitude clouds, and likewise the effect of things like terpenes that trees emit – which also seed cloud formation.
My hypothesis has nothing to do with nucleation, though. My understanding is that major hurricanes peak in the second half of SCs, see (note the secondary y-axis is inverted, more is down, “grandes huracanes” means major hurricanes, 3-year averaged, and “manchas solares” solar sunspots, it’s from a Spanish internet post):
It could fit the solar wind dynamic pressure peak in the near-Earth environment which encompasses the second half of SCs, probably because sunspots move towards equatorial regions of the Sun and point more directly towards Earth towards the end of cycles. At least that’s my personal opinion.
The current SC25 has yet to pass the mid-point, assuming average length, should do so in some months.
Sure. I’m just pointing to a possible mechanism for the data you have published. It’s good data! The CERN study is nice since it is from a completely independent dataset, so if the one is truly correlated to the other you would have a nice explanation for your data!
Thanks, it certainly is a possible mechanism for the size of hail. I don’t think it works for volcanism though; you have to turn to other mechanisms, like electromagnetic induction as proposed in the article, which can easily penetrate hundreds of km into rock material and target thick layers of conductive material like the asthenosphere.
Icelands current latitude 63 – 66 N and yes I wants to live there due to being basicaly free citizen and having that unqiue volcanic geology even if the weather is cool and wet for most of the year in Reykjavik. Woud Iceland look diffirent in glaciers size and landscapes if it was 53 – 56 N in latitude? woud Vatnajökull be any smaller not soure if the sun woud be any stronger ? Im soure it woud have been glaciated during LGM even at that locale
You need cold and snow to form a glacier. So the first question to ask is whether there would be more precipitation. At the moment, South Iceland gets much more than North Iceland which is why all the glaciers are in the south. The LGM was cold and very dry, and it is not automatic that glaciers would form. Altitude is important, of course. A thick glacier makes its own altitude and that helps stabilize it: it is much colder because it is much higher than the ground. It seems unlikely that Vatnajokul could form glaciers much further south if they didn’t already exist. But if you were top m ove Iceland with its glaciers, some might survive – at least for a while. With current global warming, most of Iceland’s glaciers will be gone in 200 years even in their current location. Moving south would not help.
I meant what Iceland woud look like today.. at that latitude 53 – 56, that latitude in atlantic is very humid and rainy indeed perhaps Vatnajökull woud not exist in that locale more than being a few small icey spots in Bardarbunga and Orfa if Iceland was there today. Grimsvotn caldera lake woud be a huge cold Ireland highlands looking thing with dark waters, rest of Iceland woud likey be rather very green and agicultural expansed woud be more widespread, it woud overall be even milder and more habitable than it is today. Reykjavik woud be a mild and green place in that situation with likey temperate broadleaf forests being natural tree covering in an interglacial even if it still woud not be very warm, still summers woud get up to t shirt temperatures much more often in that version of Reykjavik, Ireland woud likey be analougus in climate conditions and Iceland woud be just as overgrazed. Vik and Reykjavik woud get warm enough to support some subtropical plants at latitude 53 in the mild breezes of the Gulf Stream like Ireland do, the highlands woud become prime sheep grazing lands, Svartsengi eruption flows over farmlands in this scenario
🙂 And If you move Iceland to latitude 83 – 86 N I guess it woud have never even be settled for more than a few Inuitan villagers from greenland, Vatnajökull woud likey cover everything down to Katlas glacier coasts and strectch towards Langjökull as a single solid Icesheet.. ( Laki woud be a mega sized gjalp with an effusive tuya stage ) the icecap may reach way beyond Krafla perhaps towards Husavik at that location, another huge Icecap near westfjords merging with langjökull icecap. Katla woud get the name ”uunnaavik” Iceland itself woud likey have the name ” Nunamik ”competely icecapped with perhaps only the fringe of sourthen coast and coastal reykjanes penninsula being unglaciated, many of todays volcanoes woud be un – named buried under ice, Holuhraun woud be a gjalp like event just bigger with perhaps a short lived effusive tuya stage. Much of Northen Iceland woud be totaly unpopulated
Latitude 73 – 76 is intresting colder than todays Iceland but perhaps not very much so, woud likley not be that much diffrence than current more than that Vatnajökull woud be much bigger and souch and that natural vegitation woud be a marine type tundra rather than todays birch forests, Hekla woud have a small icecap covering most of it in that scenario, likey almost as settled today just with a colder climate overall, perhaps cool enough to form some small ice domes over hengill, Snaefellsjökull woud be icecapped down to a few 100 s of meters to sealevel, another ice dome covers Westfjords in this scenario almost to sealevel, Torfa also haves a small icesheet in its caldera. Reykjavik and Vik woud get good snow every winter and get a rather forgettable summer that woud be 10 c as high summer unlike todays 18 c as a warm summer day. Husavik and Akureyri gets some brutaly cold winters in this scenario
Its possible that Vikings from Scandinavia woud get to Iceland first in all these climate scenarios the Nordic seafarers where looking west to colonize new lands areas
Greenland’s viking colonies were quite a bit further south than Iceland, so that gives an idea what is possible. Jan Mayen is further north and is as tall as Iceland, so that is the opposite idea. Perhaps no real need to speculate when actual examples are available!
Westfjords at 86N woud be named Kippasissut – kangerlui : )
Does anybody know where the hell I can find some good InSAR data for Iwo-Jima?
So…there was an event where the scientists from the IGEPN discussed potential crustal failure at CCN and some other scientists from Japan did an analysis on Iwo-Jima magma system. If anybody has access these findings, it would put a big smile on my face.
https://congress.iavceivolcano.org/content/uploads/2024/02/full_conference_program_v6_feb_revised.pdf
As I said in April, If we get WW3 or Avian Flu pandemic before my VEI 7 eruption, I will be pissed
As Trump promised, the presidential elections in November could become the last ones …
I saw a recent answer in a science magazine to a question that I’ve thought about myself. Einstein’s theory of special relativity states that no real particle (one with mass) can reach the speed of light, but a particle approaching a black hole’s event horizon is also approaching the speed of light and slowing down (in our time frame) and would need an infinite amount of time to reach it. So, no particle can ever cross the event horizon. The answer to this paradox was that in the particle’s time frame there is no slowing down and the particle crosses the event horizon without any issues. This answer is pretty useless because the particle’s time frame is irrevelant to us. In our time frame that particle never crosses the event horizon, and no particle can ever cross the event horizon in less than an infinite amount of time.
The real answer to this paradox must lie outside of classical physics, possibly in quantum mechanics, but I’ve never seen a discussion online or in the science magazines that I read. Are any of the Volcano Cafe commenters aware of anything relevant?
That is one way to think about it. As information takes longer and longer to get back to us, we are seeing the surface of the black hole as it was an infinite time in the past. But this picture fails if we allow the black hole to grow (which it will if mass falls into it), as we could see objects falling when the hole was smaller, which are then overtaken by the event horizon. It is complicated and classical physics (and even special relativity) does not get all the details. Quantum physics as yet does not relate well to gravitational physics (which is general relativity). What happens at the quantum scale near a black hole is not understood. For example, the uncertainty principle does not seem to allow a precise position of the infalling particle with respect to the event horizon.
Thanks for the reply, Albert. I’m not surprised by a lack of information regarding what happens at the event horizon. However, I don’t understand how we can see anything that occured an infinite time ago. I thought that we see the surface of a black hole as it was however long ago that it takes for light to travel from the black hole to earth.
This is of course theoretical. Light from deep down is so far redshifted and so weak in power that it is undetectable. But from the event horizon, light would take an infinite amount of time to get to us. You’d still see the big bang – except the black hole won’t be old enough.
Interesting (to me anyway) chart from NZ
The single larger event is a presumably unrelated M4.5 shake in the very active Hikurangi trench region – E and closer to the recording instrument.
The ~<1 minute pulsing traces locate to the Kawituhi Seamounts:
https://i.imgur.com/1c6meVq.jpeg
Largest shakes in the sequence about M3.5. I don't recall seeing anything quite like this before in NZ.
Watching current events fills me with so much rage. Watching stupid people carry on like they have intelligence and brashly act on impulse and feeling without the slightest amount of consideration on how the garbage that they beg would affect them. Duplicitous, Dumb, and Arrogant.
Cheers everyone,
What are your long term bets for which one will erupt first: some (possibly new) cone in Campi Flegrei area, or around Santorini/Kolumbo (either of those, or a new cone between or nearby them)?
Of course it can take a long time for either to happen.
Alien Isolation on Switch, PC and PS4 that I have is by far the scariest, the most sinister game that I have ever played! its a total masterpiece of ultimate terror horror that captures Ridley Scotts 1979 vision right spot on and haves a female protagonist as the films. Its the ultimate hide and seek survival horror and haves a plot thats acually much better than any of the films too! In my opinion its the top horror masterpiece of any media content really thats ever been made. I have for months been trying to escape San Cristobal Medical Area on Sevastopol station without sucess ( getting killed ) but its so scary and stressing that one almost gets a panic attack. Alien Isolation it is the ONLY game that does any justice to Xenomorph XX121 as an unstoppable, killing machine that you can never beat only avoid.. and Alien Isolation 2 is comming in development after 10 years since Alien Isolation was released.
Im not intelligent enough really to summarize what a masterpiece of horror and desgin that Alien Isolation really is! its an atmosphere so tense and ominous onboard that space colony that my partner cannot play it ( without getting panic attack )
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0QwiD3yb1HQ
I guess that packing as many Earths togther like this woud create something very strange indeed it woud become almost like an inert sillicon – star core or something, ultra massive rocky planets maybe a thing althrough this is an extreme way to go 🙂
Todays ”poetry”
In the solemn deepest kilometer depths of the sea, a giant whale’s lonely carcass lies. Its dead mouth gapes at the deep blackness surrounding it and its hollow lifeless milky eye sockets reflect the void they stare lifelessly into. This twisted deformed corpse, once filled with color and vigor, is now as pale, grey and lifeless as the slowly shifting silt sand dunes it rests upon. Writhing over the sickly thing that was once a whale are a multitude of black hagfish. These shadowy, disgusting, alien creatures twist and spin as if in agony, as they where in pain..with all force to pry off the smallest piece of flesh with their jawless mouths. The dark deep sea is nearly silent, only thing is heard is the sound of the slow tearing of inanimate flesh. Other creatures, too are also tempted by the smell of rotting flesh. Many large blind sharks quietly glide, circulate over the whale’s remains until they they slowly slowly goes into the carcass, at which point they twist and writhe like every other nameless thing upon the whale to claim their grisly meals. Given time, nothing of the whale will remain but bones, picked clean….
Good video explaining how the small Nordic countries became the worlds richest countries, they always winns all the worlds international ratings every year and had been so for decades now. Perhaps the only downside of living in an ultra high income economy is the ultra high cost of living even if one gets most stuff for free
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zdRHZiM1RWY&pp=ygUWbm9yZGljIGNvdW50cmllcyAgcmljaA%3D%3D&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwKVgkBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHramBqAQJJs4tb35eTpTHZgSn-Tu_SPzZV5U2-K-QEN6bhTfLRDQ3-Eo_U9t_aem_DVPmxeDPAzRjCG31SvA6nQ