Which inner child doesn’t like advent calendars! Every day a small window opens to reveal a chocolate, a small surprise, or (less exciting) parts of the nativity story. Luxury ones can be obtained, if needed, but our inner children don’t mind: chocolate tends to be quite good enough. The tradition started in Germany but like everything christmassy, has gone worldwide and become complete commercial.

As fas as we know, there is no advent calendar on the market that contains volcanoes. For obvious reasons: it would need to be quite large, and having a living volcano in the living room is not everyone’s idea of peace on Earth. But VC can fill this gap in the market. Here is your daily volcano. One will be added for every day in advent – or at least we will try! Suggestions for inclusions are welcome, of course.

1 December

On 19 March 2021, the long expected eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula started, on the top of a small hill in the Geldingadalir valley. People flocked to have a view. At first expected to be brief and small, instead it grew and intensified until ver the next months, the valley and hill ceased to exist. It was the perfect tourist eruption. But Reykjanes has not been the same since, and over time the eruption sequence has become less friendly and more threatening. Source: https://www.hiticeland.com/post/how-did-the-geldingadalir-volcano-eruption-start

2 December

Kamchatka is a volcanic wonderland. This photo, by Roberto Lopez, depicts  (from left to right) Bezymianny, Kamen and Klyuchevskoy, viewed from Apakhonchich, 2016. The peninsula contains 160 volcanoes of which 29 are active. It became accessible to foreigners only after 1991, and in the past few years the war has closed Russia again for tourism. To see the beauty of the region, read Roberto’s post about his visit to Kamchatka.

3 December

15 Jan 2022 made volcanic history, although it took days before we realized. The eruption of Hunga Tonga was the loudest bang since the famous Krakatoa explosion. The atmospheric pressure wave went around the world three times. A tsunami swept the shores of the Pacific ocean. The eruption changed the way we look at volcanic islands. But the only picture we have of the eruption itself are from space. Even in the 21^st century, major eruptions can still occur away from human eyes. Source https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-60027360

4 December

This was the island that could. In November 2013, a new island appeared next to Nishinoshima. Over the next year, the new island grew, merged with Nishinoshima itself and kept growing. The same had happened in 1974, but this time the event was much larger. The combined island became more than 10 times larger than the original.  After a few quiet years, Nishinoshima erupted again in 2017 and in 2019. Carl called it the perfect volcano. Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nishinoshima-island-japan-growth_n_6754420

5 December

This is the gentle giant of Africa. To quote Carl, any volcano looks better with an elephant in front. Kilimanjaro is the one volcano on everyone’s bucket list: climbing it is a rite of passage. It consists of three separate volcanoes. Even the youngest one has not erupted for 170,000 years, but is stil considered as dormant rather than extinct. There are world famous glaciers on top, which however do risk going extinct. There are parasitic cones on the slopes which may be a little younger. One of them is associated with Lake Chala, an ancient crater lake. Reports from the 19th century that there had been a historical eruption here are considered as unconfirmed.

6 December

Volcan Masaya in Nicaragua is best known for its intermittent lava lake. The volcano is in reality a caldera within a volcanic complex. The caldera formed 2500 years ago. AT the bottom are a number of pit craters, and one of these, Santiago pit crater, on occasions contains lava, as it did in 2016 when Rene drew our attention to it. There are sometimes small explosions as well, most recently in 2003 with a 5km high plume.
Image source https://www.muchbetteradventures.com/magazine/volcano-hikes-ring-of-fire/

7 December

Kilauea is far from the tallest volcano of Hawai’i. But its eruption have been unsurpassed. They can occur anywhere along the two rifts or at the summit. The picture here was taken during the Maunaulu eruption, by J.B. Judd, October 11, 1969. The dome lava fountain is 20 meters high. The Maunaulu eruption lasted for five years, from 1969 to 1974. It was a tourist eruption: at one point people could look into the lava lake from a viewing platform. High fountaining and impressive lava flows during the first half year gave some of the best images of any eruption, including a famous one with lava falls taller than Niagara. Image source: USGS

8 December

In the spring of 2020, during the covid crisis, we at VC rescheduled an eruption (entirely tongue in cheek). It was a complete success. The build-up to what was to become the new Reykjanes fires ceased, and the first Fagradalsfjall eruption instead occured a year later, in early 2021. Iceland used the delay well. When the lava threatened to flow towards inhabited areas (roads), it was found that embankments could successfully divert the flows (at least on second attempt). This experience became invaluable during the follow-up fires. Now, both the town of Grindavik and the Svartsengi power station (including the Blue Lagoon) have been turned into polders, surrounded by lava tides held back by newly build embankments. Iceland has shown us that eruption mitigation and management is possible. We are awaiting the first university course in eruption engineering. Image source: https://www.icelandreview.com/news/met-office-preparing-to-declare-formal-end-of-eruption/

9 December

Volcano tourism is big business. Bit it can go disastrously wrong. On 9 December 2019, a group of tourist were visiting the crater of White Island, in the Bay of Plenty of New Zealand. The volcano had been stirring, but an eruption was not thought to be imminent. That was wrong. A sudden, large explosion occured. There were injuries and fatalities. It was the dark side of this type of tourism.

10 December

Japan considered it to be the most exquisite volcano in the world, and that says something for a nation that treasures Mount Fuji. Alaid volcano has a wonderful symmetric shape. It is located on (and in reality is) Atlasov island. The volcano changed ownership to Russia 80 years ago. It is the northernmost Kuril volcano, close to Kamchatka. The local folklore tells that it was exiled from Kamchatka when the other mountains became jealous of its beauty. Alaid erupts on average twice a decade. Its beauty derives from its frequent resurfacing. Most eruptions are VEI-2; the most recent VEI-4 was in 1981. Image source: wikimapia

11 December

Mount Spurr is the closest active volcano to motsfo Anchorage. The 3-km high mountain is deeply covered in ice and snow – it is perfect for extreme skiing (like bungee ironing but without the heat).There is a 5-km wide, 5,000 to 10,000 year old caldera, but more recent eruptions have been smaller, although still with pyroclastics and river floods. The most recent vent is Crater Peak, south of the summit. Mount Spurr has erupted twice in living memory, in 1953 and 1992, both causing ash fall in Anchorage. There was an earthquake swarm in 2004 and a cauldron grew at the summit but it did not lead to another eruption. But now the earthquakes are on the march again, the mountain is inflating and AVO has raised the alert level to yellow. Half the population of Alaska would be in view of an eruption. Image source: Alaska Volcano Observatory

12 December

This may be the wedding picture of the century. Taal is a well known, episodically erupting volcano in a large lake, surrounded by densely populated regions. It was part of VC’s new decadal list of dangerous volcanoes. After 43 years of dormancy, the volcano had a major eruption on 12 Jan 2020 with a 15-km high plume and volcanic lightning. 13,000 people were evacuated. The island, covered in thick ash, has been uninhabitable since. Image source: Warren Garcia

13 December

Etna is an underrated volcano on VC. There have even been false rumours spread here about a sicilian affair, doubting Etna’s very existence. Jesper corrected us on that when he described his walking tour around the summit. Etna is in fact the giant of Europe, not its tallest volcano (that is Elbruz) but by far the most active. Long before Star Trek, this was the original home of Vulcan, the god of the forge. There are five summit craters (as many as Olympus Mon) but eruptions can also occur on the flanks. These eruptions have at times destroyed villages, and in 1669 reached Catania where the lava was diverted by the city walls. Even the Etna Observatory was lost to lava in 1971.
Image source https://www.fernandofamiani.com

14 December

Mount Bagana is young. It first started around 400 years ago, as a new vent of the Billy Mitchell volcano on Bougainville, after Billy Mitchell had blown itself up around 1580. Over that time Bagana has grown to a height of 1850 meters, or 1 km above base level – this number may already be out of date! Bagana erupts a viscous andesite which has formed 50-meter-tall lava channels on its slopes, appearing like tall levees. Eruptions are frequent and at time near-continuous. In late 1943 until September 1945, the region was a battle zone between the Allied and Japanese forces. The name ‘Billy Mitchell’ probably comes from this time. At first landing in 1943, the Allied forces described the scene: Behind the curved sweep of the shore line, a heavy, dark green jungle…swept up over foothills and crumpled ridges to the cordillera which was crowned by a smoking volcano, Mount Baranga, 8,650 feet above sea level…It was wilder and more majestic scenery than anyone had yet witnessed in the South Pacific (Source: wikipedia). This wild child volcano is described in VC post. Image source: https://commons.und.edu/infantry-photos/57/

15 December

Calbuco, southern Chile, gave us one of the most photogenic eruptions of the century in April 2015. The VEI-4 eruption came after 40 years of quiescence. Calbuco’s eruptions come on average every few decades. The eruptions tend to be explosive. The 2015 eruption caused pyroclastic flows 7 km from the summit, and affected air travel as far as Brazil. Ash made local roads impassable. The first eruption in the morning of April 22 was captured in daylight with photos of the city in front of the ash column. The midnight eruption that followed, which was larger, gave rise to photos of volcanic lightning where friction between ash particles causes them to become charged, attracting lightning bolts. Image source: https://livetravelteach.com/chiles-calbuco-volcano-eruption/

16 December

Erta Ale, Ethiopia, is famous for its perpetual lava lake. The so-called ‘smoking mountain’ is located in the Afar depression, once of the most desolate, hostile deserts on Earth. The depression is caused by the nearby triple point where three plate are pulling apart, leaving the ground with too little support. As the ground thins and subsides, magma finds easy access to the surface: hence the lava lake in the crater of this shield volcano, which has been present since at least 1906. It can also erupt elsewhere: a 3-year long fissure eruption formed a 30 square kilometer lava flow. Erta Ale is by far the most active though not the tallest on a chain of shield volcanoes.
Image source: https://www.mostbeautifulspots.com/2016/03/15/erta-ale-volcano-ethiopia/

17 December

The Devil’s Tower in Wyoming shows us what lies below a volcanic surface. Nowadays a tall tower, 40 million years ago this was a lava lake or lava dome, situated inside a deep volcanic crater. It might have been akin to the deep lake at Halamaumau. Eventually, the heat went out and the lava, which was still sitting there, solidified. That may have taken decades or centuries. The frozen lake would have become buried under sediment and sand. But erosion cannot be denied. It broke down the sediment, sand and rock. But the solid lava was harder than the surrounding rock, and just like a volcanic plug, it ended up standing out, rising 250 meters above the diminished rock. It isn’t the work of the devil: just the work of time. Some things just last longer than others. This now gives us a view of the inside of an old lava lake or dome. As King said, judge not by the colour of the skin but by the content of the heart. Here lies the volcanic heart, clear for all to see. The columns that can be seen on the side of the tower are the sign of frozen lava: the six-sided shapes come from slow cooling and freezing of underground lava.

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011AGUFM.V33C2659Z/abstract

18 December

To quote Doctor Who, there is always a twist at the end. Volcanoes may not do much to the climate, they certainly can affect the weather. One aspect of this comes from the heat which causes the heated air to rapidly rise. A slight deflection to the airflow will twist the air, and a twister forms. This is the volcanic counterpart to dust devils. They were often seen on or near the lava fields of Iceland during the Reykjanes eruption. Once formed, they tended to meander and at times attack the nearest camera. The image from 2009 shows a lava ocean entry in Hawai’i. The rising plume of vapour above the hot layer of air just above the water triggers the formation of vapour devils. This spectacular picture has 6 of these, plus a 7th one trying to survive.
Image Source: Bruce Omori, https://uk.news.yahoo.com/incredible-photo-shows-hot-lava-155400167.html

Reykjanes can do this too. This video from July 2023 (Fagra episode 3) shows a large volcano twister which (about 4 minutes in) breaks up in a series of small twisters, circling one another. The dance of the 7 veils – with a twist.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/849756648

19 December

On 22 December 2018, Krakatau became famous for a second time. After the cataclysmic eruption in 1883, a new volcano appeared above the waves by the 1920’s, at the location where Verbeek had predicted it would regrow. The new mountain became one of the most active volcanoes in the world, where different from old Krakatoa which had several centuries between eruptions. By 2018 it was some 400 meters tall and its eruptions were spectacular to see. The photo was taken on 19 July 2018. But its demise was already in progress. The flank was beginning to give way. In December, the collapse came. It caused a tsunami. To everyone’s surprise, when the dust cleared, the entire volcano was missing. Not only the flank but the whole cone had slid into the sea. The collapse and tsunami had been predicted but the warnings had not been taken serious enough. And so a volcano was lost – again.

20 December

There is one thing that the story of advent and the story of Volcanocafe have in common. It is sheep. How a flying sheep came to be the emblem of this science blog was re-told by Carl in his decadal reminiscence, linked below. Of course flying sheep are not new. Richard Adams in The Plague Dogs tells us how sheep used to fly, until they put down their wings to graze and the wind blew the wings away. You can still sometimes see their wings high up in the sky but the sheep would never get them back. All sheep have looked sad ever since. It turns out that Icelandic storms are strong enough to lift up a sheep even without wings, although the landing was fatal.

21 December

The Cumbre Vieja eruption in La Palma in the autumn of 2021 showed the dangers of life in volcanic regions. It was a typical eruption for the region, and the time since the pervious eruption (50 years) was also typical. But the region had changed over that time and any eruption would be more damaging. The warning came on 11 September with an earthquake, and the eruption started a week later and the lava reached the sea by 28 September. In between the vents and the sea, like a wanderer between a bear and her cubs, was the town of Todoque; it was fully destroyed in the three-month eruption. The effective response by the authorities helped prevent this disaster from turning into a catastrophe.

Christian Nesset reported on a visit to the eruption: A volcano tourist at La Palma

22 December

Bardarbunga is the largest but also one of the best hidden volcanoes in Iceland. It came out of the shadows in 2014 when it send out magma far out through the rift zones. For over a week we followed the progress of the earthquakes, including the excitement whether it would turn north or south. In the end it went north, where the eruption started on 29 August. The Holuhraun eruption lasted for 6 months and erupted almost 1.5 km³ of lava. It was the largest Iceland eruption since Laki, and kept us glued to VC for days on end. It also showed us how long-distance rift eruptions work.

Source image: https://perlan.is/articles/holuhraun-volcano-iceland

23 December

Mount Nyiragongo in the Virunga mountains, Democratic Republic of Congo, is among the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. It prepares for decades by building up its deep lava lake, then lets go of it in a fast and furious event. The city of Goma lies in the firing line. After 20 years of waiting in the wings, it happened again in 2021. Lava went through new settlements near the city. Afterwards, as in every large eruption, people were on the move, searching for food and shelter amidst the devastation. It is easy to imagine how even a stable would be welcome.
Source image: The New York Times

24 December

Champagne pool brings us the ultimate volcano Christmas colours. Wai-o-tapu (‘sacred water’) on The North Island of New Zealand is a geothermal wonderland with a variety of brightly coloured geothermal pools. The colours clearly say ‘stay out’, ‘look – don’t touch’. Green comes from sulphur, yellow from arsenic, and orange from antimony. If that isn’t enough to argue against that dip, the water temperature reaches 70 C. A hot shower can be had at Lady Knox Geyser, right next door. In true Christmas spirit, the park’s website says that all major credit card are accepted. (They are, however, closed on Christmas day.) This is part of the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The geothermal field lies in the remains of the Rotorua caldera which formed some 200,000 years ago, making it 100 times older than advent. Hats off to New Zealand. Home of sheep, it is a proper place to end VC’s volcanic advent. Merry Christmas, everyone.