Arequipa: Misti volcano is awake
8 Hours ago
Hillary Ojeda
The last eruption of great magnitude at Misti was 2,000 years ago, informs Peru's volcano authority.
Arequipa's majestic Misti volcano. (Photo: Publimetro/USI)
The iconic symbol of Arequipa, the Misti volcano, that gazes over the southern Peruvian city has long been considered 'asleep.'
However, studies by the Southern Volcano Observatory (OVS, Spanish acronym), reveal that it is awake and emitting gases, informs Publimetro.
It is currently considered the greatest risk in the South American country, as thousands of habitants reside near its crater.
"The gases that Misti emits are magmatic. This confirms that the volcano is active and is not sleeping, as many people think," VS engineer, Luisa Macedo, told AFP over the phone from Arequipa, according to Publimetro.
The volcano is located only 17 kilometers from the city.
The engineer informed that four weeks ago a group of researchers from OVS took images of the Misti crater. With their investigation were able to identify magmatic activity.
"The gases reach 500 meters and contain sulfuric acid, carbon and calcium," said Macedo. He informed that the distance prevents the nearby communities being affected by the emissions.
Another OVS specialist, Domingo Ramos, explained that although the volcano is active, it does not necessarily mean there is danger of a hazardous eruption.
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Azerbaijan's largest volcano awakes
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One of the largest volcanoes of Azerbaijan Akhtarma Pashali awoke in the country's Hajigabul region on the night of January 25.
The first eruption occurred at 07:20, when the fire rose to 120-150 meters in the air. The second was fixed 10 minutes later, when the fire rose to a height of 20 meters. The total area of the lava spill was 200-250 square meters.
The mud volcano has ceased erupting, according to the Chairman of the regional emergency commission Sahib Aslanov. No victims were reported, as no settlements are located around the area.
Akhtarma Pashali is located in 35 kilometers of the city of Shirvan. The diameter of the crater is approximately 10 square kilometers.
Aslanov emphasized the last eruption of this mud volcano occurred in 1963, while the first eruption of the volcano was reported in 1948.
Mud volcanoes are a fairly widespread geological phenomenon and over a thousand mud volcanoes are known to exist in the world.
The dissemination of mud volcanoes usually indicates the existence of large oil and gas basins, therefore oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan ranks first in the number of mud volcanoes in the world. The territory of Azerbaijan places 344 mud volcanoes and 133 of them are located in the country's Caspian Sea section.
The world's largest mud volcanoes such as Boyuk Khanizadagh and Turaghai are both located in Azerbaijan. Boyuk Khanizadagh, the diameter and height of which are 10km and 700 meters respectively, erupted in 2001, shooting out flames 300 meters in the air. It was the highest record for flames shot from a mud volcano.
Azerbaijan's rich fields of oil and gas condensate such as Lokbatan, Garadagh, Oil Rocks, and Mishovdag were discovered near mud volcanoes. The lava, mud, and liquid spewed by mud volcanoes are used as raw materials for chemical and construction industries, as well as pharmacology.
http://www.azernews.az/azerbaijan/92143.html
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There's A Massive, Icy Underworld Hiding INSIDE One Of Hawaii's Volcanoes
The "world's most isolated ice caves" could tell scientists a lot -- but they're disappearing rapidly.
- Chris D'Angelo Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii
It turns out Hawaii is a land of fire and ice.
In addition to having mesmerizing lava that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, Hawaii's Big Island is home to a surprising, rarely seen and extremely fragile geological phenomenon: lava tube caves with permanent ice.
Few people realize these icy underworlds exist -- and, according to a recent study, they might not be around for much longer.
Like Earth's polar ice caps and glaciers, at least one of these remote ice caves is melting at an alarming rate, and unsurprisingly, scientists say the most likely culprit is climate change.
Courtesy of Stephen Smith Scientists say the rare cave ice is potentially "extremely valuable scientifically." Norbert Schörghofer, a researcher and planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii, was studying permafrost on the Big Island's Mauna Kea when he first heard about ice caves on nearby Mauna Loa -- the world's largest active volcano.
"I followed up on these rumors and spent a lot of time tracking down whether they exist," he told The Huffington Post.
In November 2011, he and a small team, including Stephen Smith, a cave researcher and chair of the Hawaii Speleological Survey, finally relocated one of only two known ice caves on Mauna Loa, simply called "Mauna Loa Ice Cave."
Hawaii's high-elevation cave systems can be home to perennial ice because of the way air circulates inside of them.
Schörghofer said the lava tubes slope downhill, trapping cold air and acting as a kind of "ice cellar."
"As long as temperatures remain cold enough, there will be ice," he said.
Courtesy of Norbert Schörghofer The white floor and white lower part of the walls is where ice used to be in the Mauna Loa Ice Cave. But the Mauna Loa Ice Cave is losing ice at an alarming rate, according to Schörghofer and Smith.
From 2011 to 2014, their team made periodic visits to the remote cave to monitor temperature, humidity and ice levels. By comparing their own data to a survey conducted in the late 1970s, they found a "significant volume of ice has been lost" over the last three decades, including the disappearance of a 2,800-square-foot ice floor, described as a "skating rink."
In their study, published in the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, the team writes there's been a trend of warming temperatures measured at nearby Mauna Loa Observatory, suggesting the retreat of ice at Mauna Loa Ice Cave "may be due to climate change."
Another possible factor, Schörghofer said, is drought conditions on the island.
Courtesy of Stephen Smith Over the last three decades, a 2,800-square-foot ice floor, described as a "skating rink," has disappeared inside the cave. Mauna Loa Ice Cave and Arsia Cave -- a second ice cave, discovered by Smith in 2009 -- are both more than 11,000 feet up on the 13,680-foot-tall mountain's north flank. (With an annual mean temperature of 33.3 degrees Fahrenheit, Arsia is the coldest known place in Hawaii.)
The lava flows that created the caves are between 200 and 1,500 years old, which means the ice inside them could potentially contain biological matter dating that far back.
Scientists hope that by studying the rare cave ice, they might uncover clues about past environmental conditions on the island.
"The massive ice lakes may contain a climate record, and, given the lack of other century-scale paleoclimate records in the Pacific, they are potentially extremely valuable scientifically," Smith and Schörghofer wrote back in 2012. "Moreover, the ice caves on Mauna Loa are the world's most isolated ice caves, and thus interesting in terms of microbial communities."
Studying the cave ice could also have cosmic implication by shedding light on the development of microorganisms on Mars.
"Ice-filled lava tubes on Mauna Loa," the study states, "illustrate that cave ice can be found in extreme geographic isolation, and in geologic environments similar to those of Mars, where many lava tubes have been observed."
Courtesy of Stephen Smith Studying the cave ice could also have cosmic implications. In addition to being dangerous and difficult to access, Hawaii's ice caves are extremely vulnerable, making them off limits to the general public.
"Given the delicate nature of (Mauna Loa Ice Cave) and the risk of body heat causing additional melting, this cave is closed to visitation except for the bare minimum needed to access and download data from scientific devices," Smith told HuffPost.
Schörghofer considers himself fortunate to be one of the few people to experience Mauna Loa's wondrous ice caves first-hand.
"I never in my life expected that I'd be studying new places, new field sites, on Earth," he told HuffPost. "I thought they'd all already been explored."
Today, the race is on to understand these marvelous places -- before they disappear.
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