Barren Island Ash Plume Image Courtesy of NASA--Click HERE
Scientists Analyzing Ash From Icelandic Volcano
Posted on: Tuesday, 28 September 2010, 09:35 CDT
Researchers working with the British Geological Survey (BGS) are studying ash samples collected from the Eyjafjallajökul volcano that could shed new light on the dispersion of volcanic ash following an eruption, according to a Tuesday report by BBC News.
Neil Bowdler, a science reporter with the British news agency, reported that the samples were collected following the massive March eruption of the Icelandic volcano, and that they could help scientists find out why ash that was fine when it was propelled into the air returned to Earth in clumps.
Dr. Susan Loughlin, the BGS's head of volcanology, told Bowdler that the samples they collected using double-sided adhesive tape at sites in the UK were greatly varied in both shape and size, and were "really quite beautiful."
"Some of the aggregates are dendritic, so they're really angular and have long fingers of... material," she told BBC News, adding that the ash samples ranged in size from less than one micron-diameter individual grains to 200-plus micron large clumps of volcanic ash.
"Others are quite round, quite blocky, quite densely packed," Loughlin added. "And then we've also got really tiny crystals, which are very very beautiful under a microscopic view but extremely tiny."
Bowdler reports that the samples collected by the BGS will be compared to those recovered closer to the volcano, and that the researchers are hoping to discover how the ash turned into clump-like "aggregates" before plummeting into the soil. Specifically, they are hoping to discover how long the process took, and how much of the fine ash remained in the sky.
"What we want to know is how much ash is left up in the plume because that's what the civil aviation authorities are interested in," Loughlin said. "What we need to understand is how that plume evolves through time and how that fine ash is removed from the air."
The eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano, which is located in southern Iceland, is believed to have begun on March 20, and the ongoing eruptions eventually created air travel chaos throughout northwestern Europe, stranding tens of thousands of travelers for nearly a week. The London Volcanic Ash Advisory Commission declared that the eruptions officially stopped on May 23.
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The Reventador Volcano in Ecuador:
The Reventador Volcano in Ecuador:
The Reventador Volcano in Ecuador eruptive activity has been increased, with bellows and small explosions, but without threatening the stocks and the nearby oil infrastructure, said Tuesday the Geophysical Institute. At the foot of the volcano, located 90 kilometers east of Quito, pass road linking the capital to Lago Agrio, the country's oil heartland, and two pipelines.
The Geophysical Institute said in a statement that the volcano seismic activity remains to be moderate, there has been a small number of smaller volcanic explosions and several episodes of tremor (bellows) volcano. "
It stressed that observers in the area, said that he saw "a steaming water with a slight amount of ash, gray cloud is rising about 400 to 500 meters on the summit, heading north."Shortly afterwards there was a plume of steam and ash content moderate gray with a height greater than one kilometer, he added.
The Reventador Volcano a major eruption occurred in 2002, when it dropped ash on the northern inter-Andean region, including the capital Quito, the Trans-Ecuadorian pipeline damaged and destroyed several sections of the road to Lago Agrio.
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Peteroa Volcano Active
Peteroa is part of the Planchón-Peteroa Volcanic complex in the Andes, along thoe broder between Chile and Argentina. This natural-color satellite image was acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard Earth Observing-1 (EO-1).
Reference
Global Volcanism Program. (n.d.). Planchón-Peteroa. Accessed September 27, 2010.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Robert Simmon.
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