I can’t ever recall seeing a more stunning image of a volcanic eruption. The ash plume from it has spread quite a bit. What effect will it have?
From NASA Earth Observatory (h/t to “Tamara” on the new WUWT Tips and Notes Page)
A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Ash from the multi-day eruption has been detected 2,407 kilometers east-southeast and 926 kilometers west-northwest of the volcano, and commercial airline flights are being diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake.
This detailed astronaut photograph is exciting to volcanologists because it captures several phenomena that occur during the earliest stages of an explosive volcanic eruption. The main column is one of a series of plumes that rose above Matua Island on June 12. The plume appears to be a combination of brown ash and white steam. The vigorously rising plume gives the steam a bubble-like appearance. The eruption cleared a circle in the cloud deck. The clearing may result from the shockwave from the eruption or from sinking air around the eruption plume: as the plume rises, air flows down around the sides like water flowing off the back of a surfacing dolphin. As air sinks, it tends to warm and expand; clouds in the air evaporate.
In contrast, the smooth white cloud on top may be water condensation that resulted from rapid rising and cooling of the air mass above the ash column. This cloud, which meteorologists call a pileus cloud, is probably a transient feature: the eruption plume is starting to punch through. The structure also indicates that little to no shearing wind was present at the time to disrupt the plume. (Satellite images acquired 2-3 days after the start of activity illustrate the effect of shearing winds on the spread of the ash plumes across the Pacific Ocean.)
By contrast, a cloud of denser, gray ash—probably a pyroclastic flow—appears to be hugging the ground, descending from the volcano summit. The rising eruption plume casts a shadow to the northwest of the island (image top). Brown ash at a lower altitude of the atmosphere spreads out above the ground at image lower left. Low-level stratus clouds approach Matua Island from the east, wrapping around the lower slopes of the volcano. Only about 1.5 kilometers of the coastline of Matua Island (image lower center) are visible beneath the clouds and ash.
Previous Image in this Event
June 10, 2009
Sarychev Eruption Generates Large Cloud of Sulfur Dioxide
Next Image in this Event
June 18, 2009
Ash Plume Overlying Clouds at Sarychev Peak
View all images of this event
Sarychev Peak Eruption, Kuril Islands
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Magnificant picture. You can see the vapour condensing at high altitude.
That “steam bubble” looks to me to be a Pilius cap like you see over a thunderstorm tower when it rises very rapidly and pushes upper level air above the LCL.
http://www.stormeyes.org/tornado/SkyPix/pileus.htm
Larry
Beautiful!
I wonder how much cooling this will be good for?
Very cool picture. I think it’ll be my new desktop background. 🙂
Photography gets gooder and gooder.
This of course feeds CO2 into the atmosphere. It also can generate heat for the Ocean currents and influenfce the PDO. In the “climate models” these events are totally disregarded.
Yes, how big is this eruption? Is it so big that all cooling will be blamed on this volcanic eruption(including the amount that’s already happened?)
Now that’s a big boom.
So much the ’09 GSG allocations.
Notice how that high cloud right in the center is heating the ground.
Damn nice of that ring of clouds to open up so you could see the ground melting.
Yes I think I’m convinced clouds do heat the ground.
I wonder how much hot air is rising from that ground the cloud is heating up.
Beautiful picture; Gaia is very happy I can see.
You are right, that is a stunning picture.
I’d be interested in comparisons between an event like this and a nuclear explosion. Except Nukes don’t put the huge volume of particles into the atmosphere. How big is this cloud? What megatonnage would be required to make a similar sized cloud? How can greenie-types compare their nightmares of nuclear winters with natural events like this? How can AGW proponents simultaneously believe that nuclear winter is possible, but natural cooling periods from volcanic activity or an inactive sun are not?
Anyway, BEAUTIFUL picture! I’m printing an 8×10 to frame.
@PaulH
Desktop? I’m going to print this out and put it on the wall behind my PC!!!
Wow.
Ah ha! One of the world’s big polluters going off I see. Just in time for Hansen’s debate. Nice of mother nature to put on such a big show….the fireworks are fantastic!
With Obama saying “At a time of great fiscal challenges, this legislation is paid for by the polluters who currently emit the dangerous carbon emissions that contaminate the water we drink and pollute the air we breathe,” (from Tom Nelson’s blog) then surely Congress and the EPA need to find a way to cap all the active volcanoes to stop their emission of that well known contaminant and pollutant CO2.
By the time we’ve all stopped breathing out and all the plants have died there’ll be no-one left to drink all the Coca Cola, Pepsi, Dr Peppers, 7UP, beer, cider, champagne……et al. Way to go folks!
“gooder and gooder”
not to be the grammar police, but i am fairly certain you meant “more gooder and more gooder.”
In ’91 I flew by Mt Pinatubo’s eruption on a flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong. The volcano had erupted just after we took off. We were at 30,000ft (10,000m) and the cloud extended above us further than I could see from my window seat. The dark cloud had lightning flashes going on. The pilot never said a word and we veered away and flew around it. I didn’t know what it was until we reached HK and saw the local newspaper.
Joel (12:52:49) :
Wow.
Yeah… Wow! The description of the volcano features is quite clear and accurate. I only have a comment about the upper left and central left quadrants of the photo: the cloud seems to be dispersed brown ash and water vapor. Am I right?
Can we request the EPA visit the site and issue fines and reprimands?
I have a friend that works on Sakhalin Island doing refinery work for a co venture with Exxon.
Must be rather dark during the day.
“As air sinks, it tends to warm and expand; clouds in the air evaporate.”
LOL
markinaustin (13:03:51) :
“gooder and gooder”
not to be the grammar police, but i am fairly certain you meant “more gooder and more gooder.”
In my bit of England-land we say “gooderer and gooderer”.
what a pic, how its punched through the cloud and the water vapourising at the top. Cool
Good thing Hansen got arrested. This is Gaia’s submission to the Mountain Top Removal debate, which is fairly unanswerable.
This shouldn’t be looked at in terms of a nuke but rather as a tornado/supercell thunderstorm. Understanding the hyper-meteorology of geothermal fed tornados (Tambora) or red-spot scale hyper-hurricanes (any self-respecting flood-basalt) is something that’ll require cross-fertilization of vulcanology and meteorology.
“Gaia is very happy I can see.”
Happy???? Watchoo talkin’ bout, Willis?
Just look at that mushroom cloud!!! Gaia done dropped the big one on us, man!!!
WOWZER!
“gooder and gooder”?
“more gooder and more gooder.”??
“gooderer and gooderer”???
In summary then – “the goodest”?
the most goodest?