Another Indonesian volcano erupts

The last eruption in Indonesia was just a couple of weeks ago.

Indonesia volcano eruption sparks evacuations and airport closures

Mt Kelud spews ash and sand over six-mile radius, grounding flights and affecting 200,000 people

the Guardian,

14 Febraury, 2014

A volcano erupted late on Thursday night on the heavily populated Indonesian island of Java, sending a huge plume of ash and sand 10 miles into the air and forcing the closure of three airports.

Mt Kelud is 85 miles (140km) south of Indonesia’s second biggest city, Surabaya, a major industrial centre. The cloud from the eruption was seen far to the west and forced the shutdown of airports at Surabaya and the cities of Yogyakarta and Solo. Airlines in neighbouring countries including Australia said they were cancelling flights to the affected areas and destinations further afield such as Bali, Christmas Island and the Cocos due to the dangers to aviation from the volcanic ash cloud.

“Areas to the west of Mt Kelud, including central Java, Yogyakarta, Cilacap, Magelang, Temanggung and Boyolali are still experiencing showers of ash because last night the biggest eruption ... threw sand and ash 17km into the air to the west,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Nugroho said by telephone.

Cilacap is home to a major oil refinery but there was no immediate word on whether its operations had been affected. Its refineries supply about a third of the country’s fuel needs.

The agency later said the cloud was dissipating and the volcano was no longer erupting.

Nugroho said the agency was still trying to confirm reports that two people had died. “We don’t have data yet on how many people have been evacuated in total. We can say 200,000 people were affected. We received reports of deaths but we have not verified them yet,” he said.

The eruption caused minimal damage to buildings, Sutopo said, but had left 3-5cm of ash and sand on roads. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he planned to visit the area near Kelud.

An estimated 200,000 people live within a six-mile (10km) radius of Mt Kelud, one of nearly 130 active volcanoes in the world’s fourth most populous country. Many of the people who had evacuated were returning to their homes to clean up, authorities said.

At least 11 people were killed earler this month in the north of the island of Sumatra when Mount Sinabung erupted. The volcano has been spewing lava and ash for months, forcing thousands to flee the area and destroying crops.

Earth changes in Pacific

Scientists Image Deep Magma Beneath Pacific Seafloor Volcano

Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from?

 The deep melting region where magma is generated in the mantle beneath the mid-ocean ridge volcano. Green to red colors show regions of partially molten material created by upwelling due to the divergence of the Pacific and Cocos tectonic plates. This image was made by analyzing data collected by an array of seafloor electromagnetic instruments, shown as inverted triangles. Shaded colors in the upper panel show the seafloor topography around the survey region. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - San Diego)

Science Daily,

27 March, 2013

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego now have a better idea after capturing a unique image of a site deep in the Earth where magma is generated. 

Using electromagnetic technology developed and advanced at Scripps, the researchers mapped a large area beneath the seafloor off Central America at the northern East Pacific Rise, a seafloor volcano located on a section of the global mid-ocean ridges that together form the largest and most active chain of volcanoes in the solar system. By comparison, the researchers say the cross-section area of the melting region they mapped would rival the size of San Diego County.

Details of the image and the methods used to capture it are published in the March 28 issue of the journal Nature.

"Our data show that mantle upwelling beneath the mid-ocean ridge creates a deeper and broader melting region than previously thought," said Kerry Key, lead author of the study and an associate research geophysicist at Scripps. "This was the largest project of its kind, enabling us to image the mantle with a level of detail not possible with previous studies."

The northern East Pacific Rise is an area where two of the planet's tectonic plates are spreading apart from each another. Mantle rising between the plates melts to generate the magma that forms fresh seafloor when it erupts or freezes in the crust.

Data for the study was obtained during a 2004 field study conducted aboard the research vessel Roger Revelle, a ship operated by Scripps and owned by the U.S. Navy.

The marine electromagnetic technology behind the study was originally developed in the 1960s by Charles "Chip" Cox, an emeritus professor of oceanography at Scripps, and his student Jean Filloux. In recent years the technology was further advanced by Steven Constable and Key. Since 1995 Scripps researchers have been working with the energy industry to apply this technology to map offshore geology as an aid to exploring for oil and gas reservoirs.

"We have been working on developing our instruments and interpretation software for decades, and it is really exciting to see it all come together to provide insights into the fundamental processes of plate tectonics," said Constable, a coauthor of the paper and a professor in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps. "It was really a surprise to discover that melting started so deep in the mantle -- much deeper than was expected."

Key believes the insights that electromagnetics provides will continue to grow as the technology matures and data analysis techniques improve (last week Key and his colleagues announced the use of electromagnetics in discovering a magma lubricant for the planet's tectonic plates).

"Electromagnetics is really coming of age as a tool for imaging the earth," said Key. "Much of what we know about the crust and mantle is a result of using seismic techniques. Now electromagnetic technology is offering promise for further discoveries."

Key also has future plans to apply electromagnetic technology to map subglacial lakes and groundwater in the polar regions.

In addition to Key and Constable, coauthors of the paper include Lijun Liu of the University of Illinois and Anne Pommier of Arizona State University.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Seafloor Electromagnetic Methods Consortium at Scripps.

7.0 quake in New Zealand

Quake shakes NZ but no damage reported

The major earthquake off the south Taranaki coast was the largest to hit the North Island for some time, a seismologist says

Radio New Zealand,

4 June, 2012

GeoNet says the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck at 10.36pm on Tuesday. It was centred out to sea, 60 km south of Opunake and 170 km northwest of Wellington.

The quake was felt from Napier to Dunedin, but there have been no reports of damage.

Residents in the North Island have described it as a long rumbling sensation and a jolt, followed by more rolling.

A magnitude 4.6 aftershock occurred in the same area at 10.45pm, centred 70 km south of Opunake and 160 km north-west of Wellington.

For article GO HERE