Best Volcano Footage in the World

June 29, 2009

This is the most insanely interesting volcanic footage I have ever seen! Watch it all the way through because it gets closer up and more intense towards the end. Amazing stuff!
-Larry O'Hanlon

Kuril Volcano Sprays North America with Sulphur Dioxide

June 24, 2009

The dramatic and ongoing eruption of the Sarychev volcano in the Russian Kuril Islands has released a lot of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere which has already reached North America, as this satellite image shows (click to enlarge). -Larry O'Hanlon

Russian Volcano Shocks the World

June 22, 2009

In the pantheon of awesome images of explosions, this has got to rank pretty high. Astronauts floating high above earth in the International Space Station snapped this shot of Russia's Sarychev Peak volcano in the Kuril Islands busting through the atmosphere on June 12 (click on the image for full-size and see the movie they made here).

As NASA scientists M. Justin Wilkinson writes, conditions had to be perfect to get this shot -- there must be almost no wind for the plume to shoot so high into the atmosphere undisturbed.

The white stuff at the top of the ash cloud is probably condensing steam. And that halo of clouds surrounding the eruption is what happens when a powerful explosion rips into the atmosphere -- the shock wave literally pushed the cloud cover out of the way.

(Image: NASA Earth Observatory)

-Michael Reilly

Eye of the Volcanic Storm

June 16, 2009

Here's an even more intriguing satellite image gathered yesterday of the eruption from Sarychev Peak in the Kuril Islands. That brown donut shaped cloud is the volcanic ash erupting into the stratosphere, high above the clouds directly above the volcano.

Click on the image for a much larger view. To see more images like this of the eruption, they are at NASA's Earth Observatory.

More info about the eruption is in today's earlier post.
-Larry O'Hanlon

Kuril Eruption Continues

Another ashy day in the far northwest Pacific Ocean. A good day for planes to stay clear of the 45,000-foot high ash clouds (which tend to wreck aircraft engines of all sorts). Pretty tricky flying, I imagine, for some flights out of China.

And no, this ash has nothing to do with the cooler weather being seen in North America. Not this time, anyway.
- Larry O'Hanlon

Redoubt in View

April 21, 2009

For the first time since Mt. Redoubt erupted last month, residents of Anchorage have had crystal clear views of the smoldering volcano to their southwest.

For now, at least, it has ceased erupting, and is emitting nothing more noxious than steam. Alaskans are cleaning up the ash the volcano dumped on them (making it wet before sweeping is good, taking a leaf blower to it is not), even as the Alaska Volcano Observatory classifies Redoubt as "Code Orange" - in lay terms, "Don't relax just yet."

But even as Redoubt simmers down, at least for now, elsewhere the cycle begins anew.  Ecuadorian officials have expressed concern for wildlife on the Galapagos as the La Cumbre volcano erupts for the first time in four years. Volcanic activity in Mount Kerinci, the highest mountain in Sumatra, has been intensifying. Nearby, some coastal residents near Anak Krakatau have evacuated their homes voluntarily following increased volcanic activity.

And so it goes. Just another week on the ever-rumbling Planet Earth. - Kieran Mulvaney

(Photograph by Dennis Anderson. Source: Alaska Volcano Observatory. http://www.avo.alaska.edu/image_full.php?id=18081).

Redoubt from Space

March 27, 2009

Two startling images of Mount Redoubt's effects as seen from space. One is of the ash cloud punching up to 65,000 feet and to the edge of space, captured by a meteorological satellite (see that little black finger? That's it. Click on the image to enlarge). The other is a graphic representation, also based on satellite data, of the sulfur dioxide plume from Redoubt. The plume has now reached as far south as Arizona! In case you haven't got the idea yet, this is a BIG ERUPTION.  -Larry O'Hanlon