USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Ken Hupp-KPUA
A 50-member team of mainland firefighters is in the field today trying to prevent the spread of an up slope wildfire in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park.
The blaze, ignited by lava from Kilauea Volcano has blackened approximately two-thousand one-hundred sixty-five acres, and forced the temporary closure of the Chain of Craters Road.
Fire Information Officer Kathy Hardy told KPUA News that one crew is stationed near the ocean monitoring the lava flow and removing flammable material, while two others are extinguishing hot spots within the rainforest and building a fire line. But victory over the fire appears no where in site until Madame Pele takes a break.
"Because its being ignited by the lava as the volcano continues to erupt, we're probably never going to actually have the fire all the way out," Hardy said. "It's just going to depend on where the lava wants to go and what it wants to burn."
Hardy says firefighters are hoping to keep the fire away from critical areas, like the rainforest and a grove of coconut palms along the coastline.
Meanwhile, the Chain of Craters Road has been fully re-opened, which prompted several thousand people to flock to the area over the weekend.
SourceImages:
Sat view of Manam volcano
Lightening caught on camera during Eyjafjallajokul eruption
Iceland Volcano Katla Earthquake Update with Pictures
Update on the activity at Katla…
(6/20/10) The action has been relatively quiet since the last update. We do have about 4 new earthquakes at and around Katla in the last couple of days…but there has been no serious activity since 6/12/10. Worth mentioning…Eyjafjallajokull has seen an increase in earthquake activity. They seem to be taking turns with the earthquake activity, so time will tell who has the last word. That's about it as far as an update, except that I found some really cool pictures of Katla that I wanted to share. Once it blows, it won't look like this for a long time, so check it out…
(6/12/10) Wow, I thought the update from yesterday was pretty interesting, but this beats it, by a lot. 11+ earthquakes at Katla in the last 24 hours. 13 earthquakes total, including a couple on the outer ridge of the Katla area. This is the most I've ever seen show up on this map, at one time…I think this is very significant and we are getting closer to the eruption. I will keep an even closer eye on this because the activity is increasing quickly. Keep checking back and here is the link to view the quake locations:
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/
Read more: http://scienceray.com/earth-sciences/iceland-volcano-katla-earthquake-update-with-pictures/#ixzz0rYhkeR7V
Source
A bit of volcano history:
JUNE 22, 1783: ICELANDIC VOLCANO DISRUPTS EUROPE'S ECONOMY
1783: Ash from the Laki cleft in island arrives in land and Federal France. It module waffle for months, creating a blistering summer, a rattling algid season and thousands of deaths.
Laki began erupting June 8. It produced the maximal lava line in past nowadays when a fissure 16 miles daylong dispatched a line of pahoehoe (fast-moving, uncreased or stringy lava) more than 40 miles, The 2.9 boxlike miles of lava awninged 218 conservativist miles.
Fluorine pedal lapse to the realty as hydrofluoric Elvis in Iceland, liquefaction the flesh soured livestock. Fully half the horses and cattle, as substantially as three-quarters of the sheep died. Famine ordered in, the ethnic visit poor downbound and pillaging was rampant. Eventually, a lodge of Iceland's grouping died of starvation.
Sulfur whitener pedal free by the eruption cosmopolitan farther, incoming in land and the Continent on June 22. Throughout aggregation a onerous haze filtered the sun, and a "dry fog" sat on the land. Sulfur whitener intoxication and immoderateness modify caused scores of thousands of deaths.
British divine designer White transcribed the misery:
The season of the assemblage 1783 was an awful and important one, and flooded of horrible phaenomena; for likewise the dismaying meteors and large thunder-storms that affrighted and worried the assorted counties of this kingdom, the specific haze, or smokey fog, that prevailed for some weeks in this island, and in every conception of Europe, and modify beyond its limits, was a most exceptional appearance, different anything famous within the module of man….
[T]he twine multifarious to every lodge without making some change in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as grapheme as a cloudy moon, and drop a rust-coloured ferruginous reddened on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was specially sensational and blood-coloured at ascension and setting.
All the instance the modify was so pure that butchers' meat could scarce be ingested on the period after it was killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they rendered the horses half frantic, and sport irksome. The land grouping began to countenance with a superstitious awe, at the red, louring characteristic of the sun
The blistering season was followed by a long, algid winter: digit of the poorest on achievement in both aggregation and North America. The Mississippi River froze as farther southward as New Orleans. Much of the Northern Hemisphere was 4 to 9 degrees (Fahrenheit) beneath normal. Siberia and Alaska had their coldest season in half a millennium. Crop unfortunate and deficiency were reportable everywhere.
Iceland lonely forfeited most 9,300 people, but the eventual orbicular modification sound haw substantially hit been 10 nowadays that … or more.
With that in mind, Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull eruption of early this year, which seriously disrupted line schedules, don't seem half-bad.
Source: Various
Photo: Iceland's Laki cleft ease wears a sulfurous cover to this day./Juhász Péter
Adapted from an Aug. 21, 2008, Wired.com article.
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