Earthquakes and volcanic eruption in Ethiopia

UPDATE: I’ve updated the sat IR image below, plus added some Google Earth imagery below. The ash plume has hit the stratosphere and has now extended to more than 1000 miles from the point of origin. It looks more and more like the volcano is Nabro, which has not erupted in recent history. – Anthony

Eruption under way in N Ethiopia and Eritrea region. Think Nabro or Dubbi. Moderate earthquake swarm up to 5.7 ‘s going on there today. Latest sat photo showing eruption:

Source: http://www.sat24.com/zoomloop.aspx?ir=true&region=af&lat=16&lon=46

Here’s the USGS Earthquake Map:

Here’s the 5.7 magnitude Earthquake Details

  • This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude 5.7
Date-Time
Location 13.530°N, 41.625°E
Depth 9.9 km (6.2 miles)
Region ERITREA – ETHIOPIA REGION
Distances 133 km (82 miles) WNW of Assab, Eritrea

200 km (124 miles) SW of Al Hudaydah, Yemen

233 km (144 miles) E of Mekele, Ethiopia

353 km (219 miles) SE of ASMARA, Eritrea

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 17.1 km (10.6 miles); depth +/- 2.8 km (1.7 miles)
Parameters NST=113, Nph=114, Dmin=320.6 km, Rmss=0.88 sec, Gp= 72°,

M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6

Source
  • USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc00045xc

More on the earthquake swarm in the region:

http://earthquake-report.com/2011/06/12/unusual-series-of-moderate-volcanic-earthquakes-in-eritrea-and-ethiopia/

Commenter Brian D. writes in Tips and Notes:

With two 5.7′s just before the eruption, and a sat image showing a rather tall plume in the equatorial region, wonder how high and strong this bad boy is. Nabro has no known modern eruptions. Dubbi has 2(1861, 1400). Man, did this one come out of nowhere.

Also h/t to Okie333

UPDATE: Here’s Google Earth imagery of Nabro

==================================================

I’ve checked MODIS Terra and Aqua imagery and there’s no good imagery yet, if anyone spots any, leave a comment.

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jorgekafkazar
June 12, 2011 9:47 pm

rbateman says: “How interesting: Sun just went blank again.”
Ut-oh.

Graham C
June 12, 2011 9:52 pm

Christchurch NZ have had 15 aftershocks so far today (13 June) – highest 6.0 on the scale. They have had 7285 since the Sep 4 quake, 2857 since Feb 22 and 57 in last 7 days. You can see them all at http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz .

R. Gates
June 12, 2011 9:52 pm

rbateman says:
June 12, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Volcanoes occur at a higher rate in times of low solar activity.
We should be expecting this.
Has absolutely nothing to do with climate.
——–
Sources for the link between low solar activity and volcanoes? Or are you just blowing ash?

TedM
June 12, 2011 10:07 pm

Thanks for the link CROSSPATCH ……interesting

dbleader61
June 12, 2011 10:10 pm

Well. Mother Gaia has provided 3 major volcanic eruptions for the warmists to point to if her temperature fails to rise as they modeled/planned/hoped for in 2011.

Barry L.
June 12, 2011 10:12 pm

RE: Sources for the link between low solar activity and volcanoes? Or are you just blowing ash?
Read ‘conclusion a.’
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/2003ESASP.535..393S/0000395.000.html
Makes one go hmmmmmm

Patrick Davis
June 12, 2011 10:15 pm

I have actually been to Aksum, Ethiopia, which by my reckoning is about ~200km away to the west. I’d imagine the town will be receiving a light dusting.

June 12, 2011 10:22 pm

Litotes are lost
on a few, apparently.
Cheers, Jeff and Fred Nerk.
My irony and
hyperbole, it would seem,
could do with some work.

June 12, 2011 11:29 pm

Well I be a damn Razorback. You have to go all the way back to the 1930’s to find as many eruptions as we’ve been having since 2008.
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/find_eruptions.cfm
And what was happening back then?…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
If you read up on what climate conditions were like right before the droughts, it sounds like NOW!

June 12, 2011 11:50 pm

Actually reading up on the cold waves and heat waves during the 1930’s shows a perturbed pattern resembling what we have now, in my opinion.

Patrick Davis
June 12, 2011 11:51 pm

“Barry L. says:
June 12, 2011 at 10:12 pm”
Interesting read, and I did exactly as you…hummmm.

Al Gored
June 12, 2011 11:54 pm

Ed Mertin says:
June 12, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Yes Ed. The 1930s were undeniable proof that even much lower CO2 levels can cause the dreaded Climate Disruption.
“The 1931 Central China floods or the Central China floods of 1931 were a series of floods that occurred during the Nanjing decade in the Republic of China era. It is generally considered the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded, and almost certainly the deadliest of the 20th century (when pandemics and famines are discounted) and in China. The human deaths are estimated from 145,000, to between 3.7 million to 4 million.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_China_floods

Al Gored
June 13, 2011 12:03 am

Patrick Davis says:
June 12, 2011 at 11:51 pm
“Barry L. says:
June 12, 2011 at 10:12 pm”
Interesting read, and I did exactly as you…hummmm.
———
Another hmmmm here. Very interesting. So while the ultra-convenient claims that the Planetary Fever could cause increased volcano activity are clearly ridiculous, increased volcano activity, driven by solar variations, actually could cause climate changes. How marvellously inconvenient!

SSam
June 13, 2011 12:04 am

@Joshua Science
“Two volcanoes making headlines at once, on the heels of Iceland a couple weeks ago…”
And don’t forget that semi-ominous plume of SO2 that showed up over Iceland several days after Grimsvotn shut down. No additional plume, no monster quakes, just foom.
06 June 2011 (Grimsvotn was over on 28 May)
http://so2.umbc.edu/omi/pix/daily/0611/loopall.php?yr=11&mo=06&dy=06&bn=iceland
Likely all of this was tropospheric… I think.
@Snake Oil Baron “…the depression, I seem to recall, is basalt like that of the Atlantic rift forming the new plate material as the Atlantic expands, I am not sure what the mountains between the depression and the Red Sea are.”
Erta Ale, the tourist attraction and featured on many programs, is a shield volcano. Mostly basalt, runny, not very scary. It in the center of the rifting area. Nabro and Dubbi are both stratovolcanoes and have a higher silica content. The makes their lava more sticky and prone to explosive events.
Neither Nabro/Dubbi (dunno which yet) or Puyehue-Cordón Caulle were expected. I think Puyehue made its presence known about 24 hours before it went pop. It still up in the air, but some of their volcanologist are indicating that the crater formed in the river Nilahue. More than likely in the rivers headwaters. Not as bad, but still not good. Water and magma don’t get along so well. Grimsvotn on the other hand, erupts about every four to seven years. It was just a matter of time before it or it’s brother Bardabunga erupted. (just as large and just as consistent).
Things to watch… Taal, Popocatépetl and the Dieng Volcanic Complex. Oh yeah, Kizimen erupted again.

Mooloo
June 13, 2011 12:35 am

James Allison says:
. Further to what you say the only guy who has had a modicum of success at predicting future earthquakes in NZ since Sept 3rd 7.1 quake is a Kiwi fella called Ken Ring.

Ken Ring is a class A crackpot. He is only “accurate” in that way that anyone who makes enough predictions is accurate: by sheer luck. He is also a public nuisance because he detracts attention away from real experts.
For every Galileo battling against the status quo there are a thousand loonies. Ring’s dismissal by the media is a good sign. It is a win for science.

tallbloke
June 13, 2011 12:44 am

J says:
June 12, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Is there some metric for total volcanic activity or intensity? Is it graphed over time somewhere? Seems like we might be on some sort of spike on that metric.

Yes, VEI, the Volcanic Explosivity Index.

DN
June 13, 2011 1:01 am

Deadman,
I guess some people
Simply don’t appreciate
A clever haiku.

June 13, 2011 1:09 am

Current update on number of earthquakes and geomagnetic activity (I started 3mths ago)
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/EQr.htm
Degree of certainty is uncertain.

Arizona CJ
June 13, 2011 2:23 am

This is troubling.
First, we have a southern hemisphere volcano in Chile cook off, and that ash column went so high that it’s causing flight delays in Australia! That ash plume had to mostly reach the stratosphere to make it to OZ that fast, and it had to come the long way; across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. (the prevailing winds, especially at high altitude, mean it could not have come the other way).
Now, we have what looks like a huge eruption at Nabro, in Eritrea, which is in the northern hemisphere. From the look of it’ calderas, and what little I’ve found, it looks like a big one, capable of infrequent but massive eruptions.
If we do have two massive eruptions, one in each hemisphere,(and it looks like both have at least the column height needed) is there a risk that this might cause a Pinatubo-scale cooling event?

John Marshall
June 13, 2011 2:44 am

Earthquakes are associated with the eruption and magma moving in the vent. This magma is fairly viscous, due to high silica content, so causes more movement.
Volcano caused by continental extension, the African rift valley and its continuation through the Red Sea which eventually will become a new ocean. (100 Ma or so)

FergalR
June 13, 2011 3:11 am
biddyb
June 13, 2011 3:38 am

Husband’s cousins all live in NZ, one in Christchurch. When the first earthquake hit last year his house was condemned and he and his wife moved in with one of their children and grandchildren, crammed into a small flat. Cousin and wife then found a flat to rent and moved out, pending the rebuilding of their house. The quake yesterday caused a fire in the son’s flat, so he and his wife and children have now moved into the flat with his parents. A right old merry-go-round. How they manage to stay cheerful, I do not know, but they do and are to be admired for their resilience and love of their family.

Robertvdl
June 13, 2011 3:42 am

Not much news on the normal news channels. At least not in Europe.

Editor
June 13, 2011 4:25 am

Deadman says:
June 12, 2011 at 10:22 pm

My irony and
hyperbole, it would seem,
could do with some work.

Finally – something we can all agree with. 🙂