April 8 2021 - West Hawaii News - Vog Alerts

 

I wondered about the world news today and the first headline was West Hawaii News.  Hawaii is not a newsworthy place most of the time - its fame is its erupting volcanos.  Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983 and the last one was in December 2020.  So was the volcano erupting again?  It seems instead, there are emotional eruptions over how nervous people are to get their vaccinations.  Scolling further down to find their volcano news, the noteworthy item was the rapid rise of the lava lake.  Something like 10 feet an hour.  Here's the news from the official site. Activity Summary: Kīlauea Volcano is erupting. Lava activity is confined to Halemaʻumaʻu with lava erupting from a vent on the northwest side of the crater. This morning, April 7, the lava lake was 225 m (738 ft) deep and remains stagnant over its eastern half. SO2 emission rates remain elevated at 850 t/day, last measured on April 5. Activity over the past 10 hours has been characterized by three fissure vents on the north and northwest walls of the crater, the observatory said. Fountaining lava at these vents is estimated to be up to 82 feet high. The vents are feeding lava flows into the base of Halemaumau crater, which is being filled with a growing lava lake. This is a volcano under constant monitoring. The last update is yesterday at 6:30pm with the colour code Orange for aviation and volcano alert level of Watch.  What do they watch for? Sulfur dioxide emission rate, refill rates, lake observations of lava effusion. There are near-realtime webcam views of the lava lake here: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/webcams.  Go take a look at the vast amoeba on electrical-like fire.  In the hazard analysis is the monitoring of visible haze known as vog (volcanic smog).   The information above comes from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory,  one of five volcano observatories within the U.S. Geological Survey monitoring volcanoes and earthquakes in Hawaiʻi.  There's more information HERE.  Finding out all of this about volcanos gives vivid meaning to the expression "under the volcano." It seems to me that there are many volcanic sorts of images in the grunge and decay of our urban-built objects, particularly painted metal. Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April 9 2020 - Volcanoes Erupting

The Japanese Sakurajima volcano erupted on April 6th sending plumes of ashes into the sky.  I didn't even see it in the news.  There were 15 explosions between the 2nd and the 6th of April. It was in a report of weekly volcanic activity on the website Volcano Discovery.  What a website - packed full of stuff.  It does not have the look and feel of other websites, so I checked it out.  This is what it has to say about itself: "www.VolcanoDiscovery.com is a complex website with many facets:  - First of all, it represents the (very) small private tour operator company, founded by Dr. Tom Pfeiffer back in 2004, which offers geologic-interest walking and study tours and expeditions to active volcanoes world-wide.  - In addition, this website has grown a lot with a large section about volcanoes, volcano news, volcano photos and recently, earthquakes all over the world." I find out that there are 20 volcanoes actively erupting on any particular day in the world.  So far there have been 49 confirmed eruption during 2020 from 49 different volcanoes.  They are in France, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Philippines, Japan, United States, Russia, and so on. While it seems a lot, volcanic activity hasn't not been increasing over time. The authority on the subject is the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program - which is HERE.  They maintain a database of volcanoes along with activity.  While the Sakurajima eruption isn't listed on the activity page, the site message is that due to COVID-19 they are working from home.   I wonder about volcano jokes.  I can't imagine a topic without its own jokes.  Here are three for volcanoes. A man phoned to find out whether he could get insurance if the nearby volcano erupted. They assured him he would be covered. Scientists say that the Yellowstone super-volcano is overdue for an eruption. Apparently the volcano has eruptile dysfunction. What kind of dessert comes out of a musical volcano? Bach Lava I went looking through my database for any volcano abstracts.  There is quite a selection -  rust, peeling paint and scratches on all kinds of surfaces.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://www.blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Lavaland in St. Catharines

Today's images come from downtown St. Catharines.  These are a storefront window that has wear and tear on its window coverings.  The brilliant red made me think of lava - and so Lavaland came up as a title. Looking up Lavaland to check on the name brought forth a diverse group with lava lands all over the world - particularly the new world.  There is a Lavaland in Hawaii where there are tours of the active volcano.  There is a 's a Lavaland Elementary School in Albuquerque, NM. Alternately, one can go to the Lavaland RV Park in NM with the 'new platinum pull through' (ask about our new 135 ft long spaces). The one with the best pictures is 'Lost in Lava Land: The Church that Rose from the Ashes':http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/05/27/lost-in-lava-land-the-church-that-rose-from-the-ashes/ - located in Mexico.