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
Hansen organises a civil disobedience rally against global warming – it snows spectacularly.
Hansen gets himself arrested at a rally protesting against removal of mountain tops – Sarychev erupts spectacularly.
I do believe I can detect the birth of a trend here. Is there such a thing as the Hansen Effect? Jonah would be proud…
Oh, I forgot. That image is pretty spectacular too. Can’t wait for Redoubt to shake off that lava dome.
Like Al Gore said: “The Earth is running a fever.”
I guess that was a big Earth sneeze… Gesundheit!
REPLY: so what does that make lava bombs?
Snot rockets…as any cyclist would know!
Tell me please……could an event like this be a non-human cause for “global-warming”?
Other way around. Big eruptions near the equator can put a lot of ejecta up into the stratosphere. If enough material gets up there it can spead around the globe and cause a slight amount of Global cooling – not warming. Read up on the 1815 ” year without summmer – eruption of Tambora Indonesia. Tambora’s eruption would have been up to 1000 times more powerful than the image as shown.
Although this is a spectacular image of a Volcanic eruption the event itself is only a relatively small one.
Caldera forming eruptions are the ones considered to really interrupt the climate.
Chaiten in Southern Chile is still very active. The eruption and ongoing activity are unprecedented in volcanological written history. It’s been continually active for over a year and is getting larger and larger daily. There is a possibility that this could erupt and reform a caldera. If this happens there could be some very interesting developments.
susema (05:00:05) :
“Tell me please……could an event like this be a non-human cause for “global-warming”?”
Absolutely not! I’ll make you a bet that within 48 hours if you do a google search, there will be some story of how this is a “result” of human caused global warming.
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?
>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
Cap and Tax this Mr. Waxman!
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?
I sure hope the Russians are going to pay carbon taxes on all this greenhouse gas their volcano is emitting.
Are you sure it is not a model of a volcano?
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?
@ur momisugly 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
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.
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.
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.
D2X.
NASA’s website here gives you the info.
The prior erruptions at Yellowstone were no small sneezes either.
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?…
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