Geophysicist says Yellowstone volcano is not going to blow but has showed movement
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MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyoming — Scientists have measured rather large ground movement and a strong earthquake around the Yellowstone caldera in the last year, but they have seen nothing that raises concern that the giant volcano might erupt anytime soon, a geophysicist says.
U.S. Geological Survey scientist Peter Cervelli told a conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem this past week that ground sensors at Norris Geyser Basin last year were showing movement south and east at minute rates.
"This really caught my attention because of something else that happened right around that time, which was the eruption of Steamboat Geyser for the first time since 2005," Cervelli said.
However, the two events are likely unrelated, he said.
"In spite of the fact that I was really mesmerized by this coincidence in time, in retrospect it turned out it probably doesn't have anything to do — that is the Steamboat eruption is probably totally independent from this other observation," Cervelli said.
A few months later the Norris Geyser Basin started moving centimeters upward. The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory put out a statement to dispel talk of impending doom.
"Sometimes the most important thing we do is tell people when the volcano is not erupting," Cervelli said.
The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports (http://bit.ly/1yXr5Yx ) that in the following months the ground at Norris kept moving. Eventually it would move more than it had in the past 10 years.
Cervelli explained that the deformation at Norris was well below the surface and "not something that's going to cause a surface hazard anytime soon."
The movement at Norris ended up being reset by a 4.8 magnitude earthquake in April, the largest in 30 years.
Despite that, Cervelli said the earthquake was unremarkable.
"Really, it's kind of what we expected," he said. "Like the stock market, (the deformation) cannot just keep going. And eventually what we find is that it went down, and it went down really abruptly."
Nishino-shima volcano (Japan): old island has disappeared under fresh lava
The ongoing eruption had started as a submarine eruption almost one year ago, when it built a second island to the SE of the existing one. In early January this year, the growing new island had merged with the old one, and has been growing in size ever since.
Culture Volcan Blog posted the attached Landsat 8 photo from 8 Oct which shows that the old Nishino-Shima island has now disappeared under fresh lava flows.
Since late June-early July, the lava flows had been spreading northwards, covering more and more of the older land.
The surface of Japan's newest land is approximately 6 square km.
PAGASA alerts 4 areas near Mt. Mayon of ash fall
Four areas near Mayon Volcano in Albay were alerted on October 10 of possible ash fall in the next 24 hours if the volcano erupts.
The areas alerted includes; Malilipot, Sto. Domingo, Tabaco and Bacacay.
PAGASA said that the intensity of the effect will depend on the altitude, wind speed and direction, they also added that the area of Mt. Mayon will be cloudy, with light to moderate rain and thunderstorm.
On the other hand, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert level at Mt. Mayon area to level 3 which indicates that an eruption is most likely to uccor within days.
The Mayon volcano has stayed in silence for weeks now giving more worries to the authorities because aside from this Philvolcs spotted an inflammation near the base slope of the volcano, a sign that it has a powerful pressure inside and will erupt within days.
There were already about 12,000 families living within the Mt. Mayon area who were evacuated to schools outside the danger zone.
Image from mirror.co.uk
Luedita C. Rapadahttp://www.manilachannel.com/local/pagasa-alerts-4-areas-near-mt-mayon-ash-fall/
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