• 5 years ago, mighty Hawaiian volcano blew its top

    USGS

    On March 15, south winds permitted clear views into the south portion of Halema'uma'u crater, which is often obscured by thick fumes. The bright orange area is the location where lava at the surface of the lake sinks back into the system.

    By Becky Oskin
    LiveScience

    On this day in 2008, molten lava blasted through the summit of Kilauea volcano at 2:58 a.m. Hawaii time.

    The blowout built a lava lake in Halema'uma'u crater, itself the remnant of a past explosion. After five years of close study, scientists think the lake is like no other place on Earth. The lava is as light as water. The lake level rises and falls by the minute, the hour, the month. Watchers who study the pit's "breathing" can forecast coming eruptions, because the gaping hole is a direct conduit into Kilauea's magma reserves.

    "It is one of the most dynamic lava lakes on Earth," said Matt Patrick, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaii Volcano Observatory. "It's a very beautiful sight, and it's a really nice reminder of how active Kilauea and Hawaii's volcanoes can be."

    Frothy lava lake
    The near-permanent gas plume rising from Halema'uma'u crater hints at the unusual lava filling the lake. It is filled with gas bubbles, so the lava is very low density, Patrick said.

    "It's about half or a third of what solid lava rock density would be, and this is the first time we've been able to quantify that," he told OurAmazingPlanet. Kilauea's lava lake is one of the few places on Earth where geologists have access to an active summit eruption.

    When the lake is high, the gassy lava surface flares with small explosions throughout the day, as seen on the Volcano Observatory's 24-hour webcams. At first, researchers thought that giant, bursting gas bubbles caused the explosions, Patrick said. But high-speed video revealed falling rocks from overhanging crater walls collapse onto the lake surface, sparking the bangs. The flares launch volcanic bombs and blocks from the lake, which land on the now-closed parking lot where people once left their cars for a peaceful stroll.

    "That visitor overlook is now totally broken and burned," Patrick said. Visitors can still peer into the pit and caldera from several spots on the crater rim in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and hear the lake rumble.

    Tourists also flock to Kilauea's East Rift Zone eruption, where lava pouring from Pu'u 'O'o crater and other fissures marked a 30-year anniversary in January. [Explosive Images: Hawaii's Kilauea Erupts for 30 Years]

    Kilauea's two eruptions are in sync, Patrick said. For example, before the big Kamoamoa eruption in 2011 on Kilauea's east flanks, the summit lake levels rose and small earthquakes shook the mountain.

    "The summit lava lake is like a fluid pressure gauge, a manometer," he said. "These lava lake fluctuations correspond to lava level fluctuations in the East Rift Zone. We can look at the lava lake and if the level is really high, it means the system is pressurized."

    Vog changes island life
    Though the five-year-eruption has been a boon for scientists and tourists, there have been negative effects for island residents. The sulfuric acid from Halema'uma'u's gas plume creates vog, or volcanic fog. Just like pollution, vog is hard to breathe for residents with respiratory problems.

    "I've heard anecdotes of people downwind having to move because of breathing problems," Patrick said.

    Farmers and ranchers have also suffered since the summit eruption began in 2008, Patrick said. Vog corrodes iron fencing and damages crops, including flowers and vegetables. While vog has been a problem for the Big Island since Kilauea first began its current eruption in 1983, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a disaster zone for farmers in 2008, and renewed the declaration in 2012.

    "There have been some major hardships in many ways for local residents because of the vog," Patrick said.

    Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @OAPlanet, Facebook or Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

    Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Aftermath of volcano eruption seen from space

    NASA Earth Observatory

    Kizimen Volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, spotted March 12.

    By Becky Oskin
    LiveScience

    Ash, lava and debris cloak the snowy slopes of Kizimen volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula after a series of eruptions early this month.

    NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite spotted the eruption's aftermath on March 12. A gas plume still rose from the summit, while snow covered a lava flow on the volcano's eastern flank.

    Kizimen is a stratovolcano, a 7,795-foot-tall (2,376 meters), cone-shaped mountain similar to Japan's Mount Fuji or Washington's Mount St. Helens, before the latter's earth-shattering eruption in 1980, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia is home to 29 of the world's active volcanoes, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.

    Kizimen's eruption started in February 2011. The volcano unleashed an explosive eruption after a series of earthquake tremors that started in July 2009, indicating magma was moving underground. Ash plumes spewed about 2 miles (4 kilometers) into the atmosphere.

    After two years of on-and-off activity, in January 2013, pyroclastic flows (superheated clouds of gas and volcanic debris) sped down the volcano's flanks when a lava dome collapsed at Kizimen's summit.

    The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team, which monitors volcanic activity on the peninsula, noted that Kizimen produced incandescent lava extrusions, along with gas and steam eruptions in early March 2013, NASA's Earth Observatory reported.

    Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @OAPlanet, Facebook or Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

    Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Sun eruption supercharges northern lights displays

    ESA & NASA/SOHO

    The European Space Agency and NASA Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured these images of the sun spitting out a coronal mass ejection on March 15, 2013.

    By Tariq Malik, SPACE.com

    A massive eruption on the sun Friday unleashed a wave of intense solar particles at Earth that may spark a geomagnetic storm and boost weekend aurora displays.

    The Earth-directed solar storm occurred Friday at 2:54 a.m. EDT (0654 GMT) in what astronomers call a coronal mass ejection — or CME — a sun eruption that can release billions of tons of solar material into space. The particles typically take between one and three days to reach Earth, where they can pose a hazard to satellites and electronic systems in orbit and on the planet's surface, NASA officials said in a statement.

    The solar particles from the Friday eruption were expected to reach Earth Sunday.

    "High-latitude and possibly even middle-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend," the website Spaceweather.com, which tracks space weather and stargazing events, said in a weekend alert. [Amazing Auroras Photos of 2013]

    The Friday sun eruption sent a wave of solar particles streaking toward Earth at about 900 miles per second, according to observations by NASA and European spacecraft. That is the equivalent of a mind-boggling about 3.2 million miles per hour (5.2 million km/h).

    According to NASA, this "is a fairly fast speed for CMEs. Historically, CMEs at this speed have caused mild to moderate effects at Earth."

    The solar eruption should not pose a threat to satellites and spacecraft around Earth, but it may pass NASA's Messenger spacecraft orbiting Mercury and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, agency officials said. NASA alerted the mission operation centers for both missions.

    "There is, however, only minor particle radiation associated with this event, which is what would normally concern operators of interplanetary spacecraft since the particles can trip on board computer electronics," NASA officials said.

    An alert by the Space Weather Prediction Center operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the Earth's geomagnetic field could be at "unsettled to major storm levels" once the CME particles reached Earth Sunday. There was a 70 percent chance of a geomagnetic storm today, the Spaceweather.com alert added. 

    When the sun fires off an eruption in Earth's direction, the charged solar particles that reach the planet are funneled to the Earth's poles by its magnetic field. When the particles interact with the Earth's atmosphere, they can cause a glow visible from the ground: the northern lights.

    Northern lights displays over the North Pole region are known as the aurora borealis. Their southern counterpart is known as the aurora australis.

    The sun is currently in the midst of an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle and is expected to reach its peak activity in 2013.

    Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of the northern lights in the night sky, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

    Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

    Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

     

  • Mount Etna roars to life in new eruption -- and it's all on video

    Europe's tallest active volcano, Mount Etna, put on a stunning display on Tuesday night with red hot lava spewing into the night sky. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Becky Oskin
    LiveScience

    Italy's Mount Etna sent lava and gas shooting toward the stars on Tuesday morning, the first big eruption for the volcano in 2013.

    The famous Sicilian volcano burst to life overnight, sending a fountain of fire into the air. The dramatic scene was captured in a video by Klaus Dorschfeldt, a videographer and webmaster at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

    Mount Etna, one of the world's most active volcanoes, had emitted signs of an imminent paroxysm in recent weeks. On Jan. 22, lava and strong flashes in the volcano's New Southeast Crater were clearly visible from the Sicilian foothills; these often herald a new paroxysm: short, violent eruptive bursts.

    Dorschfeldt said he knew Mount Etna's recent signals could precede new activity.  "(I've) followed the activity of Etna for many years, and with time you learn to know it as if it were your friend," he said in an email interview. "Following it constantly (you) learn to be a keen observer and a minor change can lead to something important," he said.

    The tallest volcano in Europe, Mount Etna is almost constantly spewing gas or lava. Its Bocca Nuova crater also erupted earlier this year, from Jan. 10 to Jan. 20. In 2011, Etna's violent bursts were spotted from space.

    Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. 

    Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    This story was originally published on Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:44 PM EST

  • Satellite spots Indonesia volcano's eruption

    NASA Earth Observatory

    The recent eruption of Paluweh volcano (also known as Rokatenda) in Indonesia left scars visible from space.

    By Becky Oskin
    LiveScience 

    Fresh ash coats the flanks of remote Paluweh volcano in Indonesia in an image from space captured Tuesday by NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

    The stratovolcano erupted on Feb. 2 and 3, sending superheated gas and rock -- a fast-moving plume called a pyroclastic flow -- racing to the sea. The flow's brownish-gray scar is visible in the natural-color image snapped by the satellite's Advanced Land Imager (ALI). A tongue of debris extends into the sea at the base of the flow.

    Paluweh volcano (also known as Rokatenda) is on the northern part of Palue Island. Most of the island remains covered in green vegetation, but ash ejected during the eruption has destroyed many of the island's crops, NASA's Earth Observatory reported.

    The island has about 10,000 people, living in eight villages. Several of the villages are threatened by the eruption, according to VolcanoDiscovery.com. The report cites an analysis published by the Indonesian Volcanological Survey that concludes the eruption caused the collapse of about 25 percent of the volume of the volcano's dome, about 35 million cubic feet (1 million cubic meters). Should the dome continue to grow, a future collapse could send a pyroclastic flow into the villages, the report concludes.

    The volcano's last eruption had been in 1985, according to the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program. Beginning last October, the volcano sent out warnings, with an increase in small earthquakes and ash ejected from the summit, the Earth Observatory said.

    Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

    Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Lava lake on Hawaii's Mount Kilauea hits a record high

    USGS

    The lava lake in Halemau'ma'u crater at the summit of Kilauea volcano on Jan. 10.

    By Becky Oskin
    Our Amazing Planet

    The orange glow atop Hawaii's Mount Kilauea was a little stronger Tuesday than it has been in recent weeks. The volcano's lava lake lapped over the inner ledge of its vent, reaching a new high and bring molten rock closer than ever to the floor of Halema'uma'u crater.

    The level was about 80 feet (25 meters) below the crater floor, the highest level reached since the summit vent blasted open in March 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The lava lake last surged on Oct. 23, 2012, when the high mark was measured at 100 feet (31 m) below the crater floor.

    Since fresh lava appeared atop Kilauea in 2008, the lake level has varied from near the crater to out of sight, more than 650 feet (200 m) beneath the crater floor. The lake sits in a vent, which is actually a pipelike crater within the smaller crater called Halema'uma'u. And Halema'uma'u is also a crater within a crater — the giant Kilauea caldera, the bowl left behind when the volcano blew its top about 1500 A.D.

    The USGS also reports that activity is up at Pu'u 'O'o crater, 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the summit in the volcano's East Rift Zone. The crater was awash with lava flows in recent days, and lava overflowed from its northeast lava lake and north spatter cone, the USGS said in a statement. At the coast, oozing flows continues to slowly drop into the ocean.

    This month marks the 30th anniversary of the eruption at Kilauea's East Rift Zone. The volcano's longest continuous rift zone eruption since the 15th century, the massive upwelling has created more than 500 acres of new land.

    Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.