Comments on: ISS has best balcony seat for volcanic eruption

By: Looker

Looker — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:54:00 +0000

Looks somewhat like Baraky Road Ice cream. Half chocolate, half vanilla, surrounded by nuts and flakes. Caution: the after taste is not what you originally thought

By: E.M.Smith

E.M.Smith — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:00:13 +0000

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.”

No no no… the proper usage is “more gooderer and most gooderest”!
;-)

So now that we have more volcanos going off anyone have any theories as to why that might be?…

By: noaaprogrammer

noaaprogrammer — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:29:10 +0000

The prior erruptions at Yellowstone were no small sneezes either.

By: Les Francis

Les Francis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:14:35 +0000

Leigh (09:17:29) : Does anyone have any information on the type of photo equipment that was used to capture this amazing picture (camera, format size, lens, etc.,?) Failing that, does anyone know where I can investigate this information?

D2X. NASA's website here gives you the info.

By: Bobby Lane

Bobby Lane — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:47:38 +0000

This makes for the second notable high latitude volcanic explosion this year; the other being Mount Redoubt in Alaska. That may not be unusual for any given year, but with the climate seemingly dipping into a slightly cooler period it is interesting to see what combined effects these eruptions into the stratosphere might have. One can only speculate, but it is an interesting thought.

By: Gary Strand

Gary Strand — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:08:49 +0000

JeffK (07:57:08) :
“If they do, they can’t do it accurately because eruptions are random events and each random event is unique in both the length of the eruption and the amoune of ash & SO2 ejected.”

I should have been more precise – climate models do represent (via sulfate injection) known volcanic eruptions. They don’t (and cannot) predict future ones.

By: Old PI

Old PI — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:35:39 +0000

Did anyone else notice the similarities between the photos from June 2009 and the ones from June 2000? There’s a difference in scale, but both the plume and the surrounding cloud cover are extremely similar. The initial photo from the 12th is a great catch, but the rest of the sequence seems to be rather routine for this volcano.

By: Robert van der Veeke

Robert van der Veeke — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:27:14 +0000

@ George DeBusk (10:59:48)

There is a index called VEI, the so-called Volcanic Explosivity Index wich runs from a scale from 0 to 8.

On the low-end of the index you find volcano’s like Mauna Loa and Stromboli with both scoring a 0 wich means, daily eruptions with around 10.000 cubic meters of material comming out of the volcano.

Mount Pelee wich erupted in 1902 and would get a 4 on the VEI, Mount St. Helens scores a 5 and Mount Pinatobu gets a 6, a VEI of 6 or higher means that that eruption has the power to change temperatures and weather conditions worldwide. Mount Tambora in 1815 exploded wich such force that it scores 7 on the VEI.

And the last time that a volcano erupted with a VEI of 8 was 73.000 years ago when the Toba super erruption took place and nearly wiped humanity of the face of the earth.

Most likely the Sarychev Peak score somewhere between a 3 and 4 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index

By: George DeBusk

George DeBusk — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:59:48 +0000

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is standing at Kalapana and watching Kilauea’s lava flow gently into the Pacific and 10 is Tambora blowing its top, where does this one rate?

By: Nasif Nahle

Nasif Nahle — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:15:35 +0000

Are you sure it is not a model of a volcano?

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:21:42 +0000

I sure hope the Russians are going to pay carbon taxes on all this greenhouse gas their volcano is emitting.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:17:29 +0000

Does anyone have any information on the type of photo equipment that was used to capture this amazing picture (camera, format size, lens, etc.,?)
Failing that, does anyone know where I can investigate this information?

By: Steve Keohane

Steve Keohane — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:42:03 +0000

Cap and Tax this Mr. Waxman!

By: JeffK

JeffK — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:57:08 +0000

>Nope. Climate models do represent volcanic eruptions. Where did you get your >information that they do not?

If they do, they can’t do it accurately because eruptions are random events and each random event is unique in both the length of the eruption and the amoune of ash & SO2 ejected. Any modeling would be a guesstimate or average. I mean, how can a ‘climate’ model accurately forecast a random geological event with 2 unique unknowns?

Just wondering…

Jeff

By: Alan the Brit

Alan the Brit — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:10:54 +0000

Isn’t Mother Nature wonderful? Just when we know how to control the climate with CO2 powered computer models, she goes & does something silly like that, no respecter of mankind I think. Fantastic picture.

‘Tis a pity JH wasn’t protesting on the top of this one at the time, it would have saved a lot of pain & heartache for everyone. Does getting onself arrested constitute an act of professional misconduct?