GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Big Ben - Rare Australian Volcanic Eruption Captured On Film!

The still-smoking peak of Big Ben volcano, shortly after the eruption.© Pete Harmsen

February 4, 2016 - AUSTRALIA - Australia's only two active volcanoes have both erupted - and scientists on board a ship conducting research nearby caught the rare event on film. The Big Ben volcano on remote Heard Island in sub-Antarctica, almost 1800 kilometres north of Australia's Antarctic base at Davis Station, erupted a combination of poisonous gases and red-hot lava.

It was the first time it had done so in decades.

We witnessed the lava descending Big Ben interacting dramatically with the snow and ice cover of the mountain.

Richard Arculus, ANU volcanologist

The other volcano, on the neighbouring McDonald islands, erupted gas only. Scientists on board the CSIRO's RV Investigator were visiting the islands to conduct research into the concentration of iron in Antarctic waters.

"We witnessed the lava descending Big Ben as it interacted dramatically with the snow and ice cover of the mountain," said ANU volcanologist Professor Richard Arculus, who witnessed the eruption first hand.

"It is possible that a quenched carapace of glass is formed over the lava allowing the flow to descend considerable distances downhill, forming lava tubes." Big Ben volcano is one of the most active in the world. Changes in appearance of the lava flows on the summit of Big Ben during successive days indicate active eruptions have been taking place over the past week, Professor Arculus said.

The summit, Mawson Peak, of Big Ben volcano on Heard Island. © Pete Harmsen

Very high penguin rookery and smoke drifting out of the vent. © CSIRO

Volcanoes erupt when the Earth's magma, which is lighter than surrounding rock, rises and collects in subterranean chambers. Eventually some of the magma pushes through vents and fissures and erupts as lava on the surface.

"The lava types erupting from Big Ben are the end-products of extensive processes of selective crystal withdrawal from alkali-rich basalts within crustal magma chambers," he explained.

The end-product of this process is a lava type characteristic of other hot-spot volcanoes like Mt Erebus, Kilimanjaro and Gran Canaria. "The eruptions were once-in-a-lifetime events for scientists on board," said Monash University geologist Associate Professor Steven Micklethwaite.

© Brisbane Times

"Although it was difficult to do much more than watch and observe, the insights gained into the eruption behaviour of such a furiously remote volcano are important.

"Monitoring these types of eruptions tells us about how lava interacts with ice, which can be quite spectacular," Associate Professor Micklethwaite said.


WATCH: Big Ben erupts.

Expeditioner Jodi Fox, whose doctoral thesis is on Heard Island volcanism, said observing lava flowing down the flank of Big Ben over a glacier was incredible. "Given persistent cloud cover and generally foul weather, I didn't think we'd observe much of the volcano on this voyage," she said.

The team spotted the eruption while circling the islands to map the sea floor to identify hydrothermal systems driven by underwater volcanoes. Scientists believe these are driving the Southern Ocean ecosystem from the bottom-up.

They are testing the hypothesis that hydrothermal systems release iron, a fertiliser for planktonic blooms, which create half of the planet's oxygen.

The research sheds light on global fluctuations in nutrients. It will also help determine the merits of artificially seeding the oceans with iron in order to increase the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the main driver of climate change. - Brisbane Times.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Weather Anomalies - Scientists Film Rare Eruption Of Remote Antarctic Volcano! [VIDEOS]

Big Ben has erupted at least three other times in the past 15 years.
© Pete Harmsen

February 1, 2016 - HEARD ISLAND - Australian scientists have witnessed the rare eruption of an Antarctic volcano off the coast of the frozen continent.

The scientists, from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), filmed the volcanic event by chance while aboard research vessel "Investigator" studying the fringe of Antarctica's Heard Island.

The crew, working in conjunction with the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), were actually looking to study underwater volcanoes before the land-based variety caught their attention.

Heard Island, a remote sub-Antarctic region, is home to Big Ben, an active volcano which is believed to have only erupted three times since the turn of the century.

Given the island's isolation, viewing Big Ben - which is mostly covered in ice throughout the year - during an eruption is considered a geoscientific rarity. Often, satellite images provide the only evidence that an eruption has occurred.


WATCH: Heard Island volcano erupting.

Chief scientist aboard The Investigator, IMAS professor and geophysicist Mike Coffin, said on Monday it was a great thrill to film the 2,745-meter volcano in action, becoming one of the few people in human history to have witnessed it erupting.

"We have 10 excited geoscientists aboard Investigator, and our enthusiasm has spread to our 50 shipmates," Coffin said in a CSIRO press release on Monday.

The crew, based 4,100 km southwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, are only three weeks into their 58-day research voyage.

Despite the trip barely getting underway, the researchers claim to have already uncovered "50 potential underwater hydrothermal plumes," which may help establish whether active underwater volcanoes - which create these plumes - form the foundation for life in the Southern Ocean. - Shanghai Daily.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: More Than 60 Small Eruptions At Nicaragua's Concepcion Volcano!

View of the 1,610 meter high Concepcion active volcano located in the picturesque island of Ometepe, Nicaragua.

May 9, 2015 - NICARAGUA - Nicaragua's Concepcion volcano has experienced more than 60 small eruptions since early Wednesday.

"The volcano has spewed gases but no ash," said the coordinator of the Council on Communication and Citizenry, Rosario Murillo.

"Experts from the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, Ineter, are now analyzing this phenomenon," she explained.

Ineter reported two earthquakes of magnitudes 2.4 and 1.3 near the volcano shortly after the eruptions began.

Ineter investigator Armando Saballos said the volcano had shown signs of activity over the past few weeks linked to seismic activity, with small explosions of gas that tended to subside after a few days.

He added that although this was normal, seismic activity could increase in the coming days.

On April 27, Ineter announced that a group of volcanologists would analyze gases from the volcano after the increase in seismic activity was reported.

The 1,610 meter high active volcano is located on the picturesque island of Ometepe, with 36,000 inhabitants. - Latin American Herald Tribune.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Scientists Find Huge Magma Chamber Below Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano!

January 30, 2014 - HAWAII - Geologists say they've confirmed the existence of a previously unknown large, deep magma chamber below Hawaii's Kilauea volcano.

Credit: USGS

The discovery offers new insight into the largely unknown internal plumbing of volcanoes, scientists at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science reported Wednesday.

The finding at the world's most active volcano is the first geophysical observation that large magma chambers exist in the deeper parts of a volcano system, they said.

The scientists analyzed seismic waves moving through the volcano to understand the internal structure of the volcanic system, finding a lava chamber at least a mile in diameter and located at a depth of 5 miles to 6.8 miles.

"It was known before that Kilauea had small, shallow magma chambers," geologists and lead study author Guoqing Lin said. "This study is the first geophysical observation that large magma chambers exist in the deep oceanic crust below."

The magma reservoir below Kilauea is similar to those widely observed beneath volcanoes located at mid-ocean ridges, the researchers said.

"Understanding these magma bodies are a high priority because of the hazard posed by the volcano," said geophysics Professor Falk Amelung, the study co-author. "Kilauea volcano produces many small earthquakes and paying particular attention to new seismic activity near this body will help us to better understand where future lava eruptions will come from." - UPI.

GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Hawaii's Only Alpine Lake Is Now Shrinking At An Alarming And "Unprecedented" Rate - Lake Waiau Is ALMOST GONE!

November 08, 2013 - HAWAII - Lake Waiau, the tiny lake that sits at 13,000 ft. above sea level near the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii Island, is almost entirely gone.

USGS Photo, looking north, at what remained of Lake Waiau on September 26, 2013. The water area was just
15 meters (yards) wide at this time. Prior to 2010, the lake occupied the entirety of the now-dry lake bed,
which is about 100 meters (yards) wide. The astronomical telescopes at the summit off
Mauna Kea are visible on the skyline

The Aloha State’s only alpine lake has been shrinking at an “alarming” rate since 2010, say scientists with the United State Geological Survey. Rangers with the Office of Mauna Kea Management, working with the Department of Land and Natural Resources’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife – which manages the Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve where the lake is located – have been monitoring the lake closely and have tracked this remarkable reduction in the lake size with repeat photography. The changes have also been documented by cultural practitioners and environmentalists. The images of the unique lake slowly disappearing have been startling to long time visitors to the top of the mountain.

USGS photo.

In its weekly Volcano Watch article, scientists with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory discuss the vanishing lake, reporting that they have recently been watching these changes, as well. After all, Mauna Kea was once an active volcano.

“The results are compelling. Prior to 2010, the lake surface area fluctuated between about 5,000 and 7,000 m2 (1.2-1.7 acres), with the variability presumably due to recharge from winter storms balanced by loss due to evaporation. Sometime in early 2010, however, the lake surface area began to shrink and, by late September 2013, had declined to just 115 m2 (0.03 acres) – that is, about 2% of its normal surface area.

Geography professor Donna Delparte, formerly of University of Hawai`i at Hilo and now at Idaho State University, has also been monitoring the recent changes. Her group has made detailed measurements of lake geometry using advanced techniques, such as laser scanning and photogrammetry. Prior to 2010, the maximum depth of the lake was about 3 m (yards), but today the lake is less than 30 cm (1 foot) deep. This means that the current volume of the lake is less than 1% of its normal (pre-2010) value.

Using air photos to extend the time series of lake surface area back to the 1950s, we see no other drops of such scale. Historical photographs taken through the last hundred years, and written reports going back to the early 1800s, give no indication of the lake ever being as small as it is today. This suggests that the current reduction in size is unprecedented in modern times, but we cannot say this with absolute certainty, because there were large time gaps between the recorded observations in the 1800s and early 1900s. Nevertheless, the reduction in lake size that we see today appears to be highly unusual. ”

Some Native Hawaiians who frequent Mauna Kea and feel spiritually connected to the sacred mountain have wondered if the shrinking lake is a sign that the mountain is in peril. Many of the practitioners who visit the lake oppose the development of the summit for astronomy purposes. Pua Case and her ohana have been visiting the lake on a near monthly basis, photographing the changes and posting to Facebook.

A September photo shows Pua Case and her cousin Kanoe, who is seen kneeling by the vanishing
lake with spring water brought from Hilo, a gesture to “start to refill the lake”. 

In one message, Case wrote:

words written by my cousin Kanoe that I too believe in and will stand by, words of truth:Extreme decrease of our waters upon our Mauna, at lake Waiau, began in 2010. In three years time it has been rapidly dissipating, disappearing. Revelation was given that our kupuna who reside there would be leaving for there is no way that the spirits can dwell in this kind of capacity of overwhelming development. I believe in our kupuna, I believe! I will not leave them. We will stand with them until the time comes when they tell us otherwise! Me Ke aloha nui nui!Perhaps All will be restored when the mauna is in balance once again! I have much hope and I believe! 

The USGS is considering the shrinking lake as a symptom of a another change on the mountain.

“An obvious culprit would be the ongoing drought in Hawai`i that began in 2008. The Mauna Kea visitor center weather station shows very little precipitation for several consecutive months in early 2010, which may have been a trigger for the level drop that was sustained by low precipitation over the subsequent few years. The National Drought Mitigation Center shows that the drought across Hawai`i intensified in early 2010, consistent with this local weather data.

Could other factors be contributing to the potentially unprecedented nature of these changes? Lake Waiau is a “perched” water body, in which water is held in a depression by an impermeable substrate. This substrate consists of layers of silty clay, interbedded with ash layers, and it has been proposed that permafrost also underlies the lake.

It has also been proposed that permafrost surrounds the lake and provides a catchment that directs water into the lake. Could changes in the presumed permafrost have altered the water balance in the lake over the past few years? So far, there is no hard evidence to support this possibility, but we cannot yet count it out. We simply don’t know at this point, and more research needs to be done.”

The USGS asks that if you have historical photos of the lake that you are willing to share, please contact HVO (askHVO@usgs.gov).

“Given its cultural significance and its uniqueness, the disappearance of Lake Waiau would be a great loss for Hawai`i. The future is far from certain for Lake Waiau, and DLNR, rangers, and scientists will continue to watch this situation closely.”

- Big Island Video News.

FIRE IN THE SKY: U.S. Military's 'Space Fence' Shutdown - Will Weaken Orbital Surveillance Network!

August 18, 2013 - SPACE - The U.S. Air Force's decision to shut down a key component of its Space Surveillance Network will weaken the service's ability to accurately detect and characterize objects in Earth orbit, experts say.

This computer illustration depicts the density of space junk around Earth in low-Earth orbit. Image: ESA

The space fence shutdown, ordered by Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, also will reduce the overall capacity of the system, these experts said. At the same time, they suggested it could increase pressure on the Air Force to award a contract on a next-generation system, which has stalled amid a Pentagon-wide review of its acquisition plans.

According to two recent memos obtained by SpaceNews, the Air Force will shut down the aging Air Force Space Surveillance System, also known informally as the Space Fence, Sept. 1. The memos, from Austin Frindt, a contracting officer with Air Force Space Command, were addressed to Five Rivers Services of Colorado Springs, Colo., operator of the current Space Fence, which consists of a line of VHF radars stretching across the southern United States.

Deployed in the 1960s, the VHF Space Fence includes three transmitter sites and six receiving stations. It is responsible for approximately 40 percent of all observations performed by the Air Force-run Space Surveillance Network, which includes other ground-and space-based sensor assets, said Brian Weeden, technical adviser at the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to space sustainability.
"The Space Fence does a lot of heavy lifting," said Dave Baiocchi, a senior engineer at the Rand Corp., an Air Force think tank in Santa Monica, Calif. Without it, "you're missing some level of accuracy," he said.

In a memo dated Aug. 1, Frindt said the Air Force was not exercising its option for a fifth year of a contract to provide management and logistical support for the nine field stations.

Lori Thomas, president of Five Rivers Services, declined to comment and referred questions to the Air Force.

"This is your notice to begin preparing the sites for closure," the memo said. "A specific list of action items will be provided as soon as it is finalized."

A follow-up memo dated Aug. 9 asked Five Rivers for an analysis of what it would cost to close the Space Fence sites. This memo said the system would be turned off Sept. 1.

In an email Aug. 5 Andy Roake, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command, pointed to the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. "In this tough, sequestered budget environment, we're considering many options, but for FY14, no final decisions have been made," he said.

The memos suggest otherwise, asking for photographs of the closed sites, plywood on windows and weekly updates. Roake did not respond to follow-up questions by press time. A spokesman for the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the Joint Space Operations Center, referred questions to Space Command.

Though part of a broader surveillance network, the VHF Space Fence is crucial because it can track objects up to 24,000 kilometers away. Other ground-based sensors in the network generally track objects at altitudes lower than a few thousand kilometers, Weeden said.

"The Space Fence is very important as it gives an 'uncued tracking' capability," Weeden said. "Because it's constantly transmitting, it can detect objects without being tasked to do so. There are some other sensors in the network that can do uncued tracking to some degree, but the Space Fence is rather unique in the sheer size of the detection coverage it has."

The Space Fence, along with operators at the Joint Space Operations Center, can observe objects down to the size of a basketball and make precise determinations of their characteristics, location and movement. Each month the system is responsible for logging more than 5 million observations of space objects, according to an Air Force fact sheet.

Experts said without the Space Fence, the Air Force will have a harder time knowing when orbital collisions have occurred.

"It will be more difficult and take longer to detect and catalog new pieces of debris, especially those from large breakups," Weeden said. "And the loss of capacity likely means that we have less accurate orbits for a good portion of the space debris" in low Earth Orbit, he said.

In April, Shelton said two of the Space Fence's receiver sites had been placed in cold storage, one in Glennville, Ga., and one in Hollandale, Miss., reducing the overall accuracy and effectiveness of the system. The change was made as part of the Air Force's response sequestration, the across-the board-budget cuts that took effect in March.

In July, the Air Force released a request for proposals to operate the aging system beginning in September 2015 — one year after the Five Rivers Services' contract was set to expire. The request said the Space Fence "has been identified as a critical defense system and, therefore, shall be manned on a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year basis at transmitter sites and 8-hour, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year basis at receiver sites."

But as sequestration lingered, experts said, turning off the Space Fence may well have been the best of a bad set of options. Other sensors, they noted, have a dual mission that includes space surveillance and missile warning.

"Closing them down would have impacted those other missions and likely generated a lot more political heat from Congress," Weeden said.

Meanwhile, an overdue contract to build a next-generation Space Fence is on hold due to the Defense Department's recently completed Strategic Choices and Management Review, which examined the Pentagon's options under three different funding scenarios for the next decade.

Baiocchi said he expected the closure of the current Space Fence to increase pressure on the Pentagon and Congress to fund a next-generation system, consisting of S-band radars, that would be capable of tracking golf ball-sized objects.

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors of Moorestown, N.J., and Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems of Tewksbury, Mass., have developed competing designs for the new Space Fence.

Shelton said in July that engineers at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida were looking for ways to improve the current Space Fence as a contingency plan should the Pentagon elect not to go forward with the next-generation system. - Scientific American.

FIRE IN THE SKY: Two Large Meteor Events - Loud Booms Over Memphis, Tennessee And Amazing Meteor Over Canberra, Australia!

August 17, 2013 - SPACE - Two very large fireball events occurred over Memphis, Tennessee, USA and Canberra, Australia. However, nothing or not much was said about these two sky phenomena either on the news or by authorities. We are lucky this was not another Russian situation!

Large Meteor During Daytime In Memphis, Tennessee On August 14 2013

A loud boom accompanying this meteor was reported in Missouri. According to this same witness, the booms broke her windows. Look at this link for more information.


Amazing Meteor Over Canberra, Australia On August 13, 2013.

This report was submitted on the Lunar Meteorite Hunters website. It occurred at 9:36pm local time (Australia), and the fireball was flying in the SSW direction with a magnitude between -10 and -15

- Strange Sounds.

FIRE IN THE SKY: THREE Fireballs Filmed Over Sakurajima Volcano In Japan!

August 09, 2013 - JAPAN - The following footage appears to show three meteor/fireball/comet fragments falling through the sky over the very southern tip of Japan on July 20, 2013.

In the foreground we see Sakurajima Volcano, in Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture. The volcano has been very active lately, erupting several times in recent years.

WATCH: Fireballs over Sakurajima volcano.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Big Ben Is Rumbling Fiercely, Ready To Erupt - Lava Is Spilling From Australia's Only Active Volcano; NASA Images Reveal Lava Lake Has Overflowed Crater?!

May 01, 2013 - AUSTRALIA - New NASA photo reveals the lava lake on Australia's only active volcano has overflowed the crater, showing possible signs of eruption.

An image taken by NASA's EO-1 satellite shows the lava flow on Australia's only active volcano widening at the top.
Picture: NASA  

NASA's EO-1 satellite snapped the shot of Big Ben, which is located on the remote Heard Island, about 4,100km southwest of Perth, in the sub-Antarctic, on April 20.

When compared to another image taken on April 7, it appears the lava flow is widening at the top, NASA said.

The volcano's caldera appears to have filled with so much lava that some has since cascaded down Mawson Peak.

In October 2012, satellites measured subtle signals that suggested volcanic activity on remote Heard Island. These images, captured several months later, show proof of an eruption on Mawson Peak. By April 7, 2013, Mawson’s steep-walled summit crater had filled, and a trickle of lava had spilled down the volcano’s southwestern flank. On April 20 the lava flow remained visible, and had even widened slightly just below the summit. These natural-color images were collected by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.
Picture: NASA

Heard Island's remoteness and Mawson Peak's altitude of 2745 metres mean there's nothing to fear from the eruption, The Register reports.

No permanent human presence exists on the island, beyond an automated weather station. - Herald Sun.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: 4.6 Earthquake Strikes Near Mount Redoubt Volcano - Rattling Dozing Anchorage!

January 13, 2013 - ALASKA - A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck deep beneath the Alaska Peninsula southwest of Cook Inlet early Sunday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The 3:45 a.m. shaker hit some 80 miles underground just across the inlet from communities along the western Kenai Peninsula. Data from the University of Alaska earthquake center pegged it 55 miles west of Nikiski but only a few miles from Mount Redoubt, an active volcano in Cook Inlet that last erupted in 2009.

Despite its depth and distance it was strong enough to rattle dishware and trigger car alarms in South Anchorage, about 115 miles northeast of the epicenter, according to data from the earthquake center.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. - Alaska Dispatch.

GLOBAL VOLCANISM: Update on the Nyamuragira Volcano in DR Congo - New Satellite Images Show Active Lava Flows!

To the delight of our expedition group heading towards Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo tomorrow, the lava flows from Nyamuragira are still active. NASA Earth Observatory has released spectacular images from 3 January showing the vast lava flows from Nyamuragira volcano's current eruption.

Nyamuragira (also spelled Nyamulagira), is a massive basaltic shield volcano located north of Goma (DR Congo) and near the other active volcano, Nyiragongo, famous for its permanent lava lake. Nyamuragira is one of Africa's largest and most active volcanoes. Its current eruption started in November 2012 from a flank vent located in an uninhabited area about 10 km ENE side of the volcano's summit. - Volcano Discovery.

After bursting to life with 300-meter (1,000-foot) tall lava fountains in November 2011, the eruption of central Africa’s Nyamuragira Volcano continued into the new year. These satellite images show the volcano on the morning of January 3, 2012. In the natural-color image (top), an active lava flow snakes to the northeast, while the central vent and a volcanic plume rich in sulfur dioxide are also visible. According to volcanologist Erik Klemetti of the Eruptions blog, the orange color and narrow trace of the flow suggest that it is open to the air, unlike flows on Kilauea which are usually carried through lava tubes. Older flows and undisturbed forest are also visible.

The false-color image (lower) shows the summit of Nyamuragira and nearby Nyiragongo Volcano. The heat of the active lava flow causes it to glow in shortwave and near-infrared light, giving a bright red-orange appearance. A lava lake within the summit crater of Nyiragongo is also glowing. These images were acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. - Earth Observatory.