VIDEO: Six months – Kamoamoa eruption in Hawaii, part 2

September 6, 2011

Produced by David Corrigan and Tim Bryan

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii: When the first video of the March 5th Kamoamoa fissure was released, the world got a glimpse of the potential power of Kilauea, commonly known for its relatively peaceful eruption.

As geophysicist Mike Poland explained at a recent After Dark at the Park talk at the national park, this video captured by a heroic Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientist was nearly more than was bargained for.

"So we sent out this geologist in this helicopter", Poland told the crowd at the Kilauea Visitor Center. "And he overflew Pu'u O'o and he noticed that 'yeah' that cater floor is gone. But he didn't notice anything else on his first pass.And then he was over Pu'u O'o and he and the pilot looked over their shoulders a little bit up the rift… and they saw a fissure eruption that had just started. So what did they do? Like any good geologist, he landed… and he took a video."

The crowd gasped as they watched the video of a widening fissure crack, spewing lava, crumble away towards the filming geologist, who held his shot until it was obvious that it was time to run for his life.

Tomorrow, the view from above… a first, in more ways than one.

PHOTO: View looking at the NE end of the actively propagating fissure. Lava is just breaking the surface in foreground crack, courtesy USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

source

###############################################################################

Remote Alaska volcano resumes dome growth

By: The Associated Press | 09/06/11

The lava dome at a remote Alaska volcano has resumed growing, prompting officials to raise its alert level.

The dome now fills the floor of the crater at Cleveland Volcano, 940 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory on Tuesday raised the volcano's alert level to watch status. The threat level was dropped on Aug. 30, but raised against after a persistent thermal anomaly started Saturday. Observatory officials say in a news release that's when the lave dome likely started growing again.

The dome was 262 feet in diameter on Aug. 30, but is now about 394 feet in diameter.

Officials say if that continues, lava flows could start on the flanks of the volcano. The growing dome also increases the possibility — but doesn't ensure — an explosive eruption.

source

################################################################################

Icelandic Authorities Put Katla Volcano on Watch After Tremors

By Omar R. Valdimarsson - Sep 6, 2011

Iceland's Civil Protection Department has increased its monitoring of the North Atlantic island's largest volcano, Katla, following increased seismic activity in the surrounding area, according to a statement on its Web Site.

"We can't rule out that" an eruption is under way, Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, a geologist at the Institute of Earth Science with the University of Iceland, told national broadcaster RUV. "It's possible that magma is gathering underneath the mountain."

Gudmundsson said it was too early to say exactly what was happening at the volcano. Three earthquakes were measured in the Katla area after 7 p.m. local time, according to Iceland's Meteorological Office. The largest quake was about 2.0 on the Richter scale, the Met Office said.

Katla had two small eruptions in 1955 and 1999, neither of which managed to break the ice covering its 10 kilometer-wide (6 mile) caldera. The last major eruption in Katla began in 1918, when ash explosions from the crater didn't subside for more than five weeks.

Ash from Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano forced flight cancelations in Scotland, northern England and Germany in May. An eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in April last year caused the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights on concern glass-like particles formed from lava might melt in aircraft engines and clog turbines. Historically, Eyjafjallajokull has been known to erupt one to two years prior to Katla.