Yellowstone Super-Volcano

Mayon Volcano Legazpi City, Philippines

Yellowstone Super-Volcano Far More Dangerous Than Previously Thought

The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone super-volcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup.

A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.

The study's of Yellowstone's plume also suggests the same "hotspot" that feeds Yellowstone volcanism also triggered the Columbia River "flood basalts" that buried parts of Oregon, Washington state and Idaho with lava starting 17 million years ago.

Those are key findings in four National Science Foundation-funded studies in the latest issue of the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. The studies were led by Robert B. Smith, research professor and professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Utah and coordinating scientist for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

"We have a clear image, using seismic waves from earthquakes, showing a mantle plume that extends from beneath Yellowstone,'' Smith says.

The plume angles downward 150 miles to the west-northwest of Yellowstone and reaches a depth of at least 410 miles, Smith says. The study estimates the plume is mostly hot rock, with 1 percent to 2 percent molten rock in sponge-like voids within the hot rock.

by Mitch Battros - Earth Changes Media

This is not exactly the kind of news You want to hear, however, it is fact! While governments are gathering and fighting amongst themselves about global warming/climate control, "volcanos" are what they need to be paying attention to. If a "super volcano" like Yellowstone, Toba, in Indonesia, Krakatoa, Mt Vesuvius, or Mt Fuji, just to name a few, decided to have a major blow, it's pretty much game over. It's not a matter of "if", it's just a matter of "when"!

Here are links to other recent volcanic news and facts. Mayon Volcano Forces Evacuations in Philippines - Sphere News http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_16053/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=6OyvvmVa

"Wake Up and Pay Attention",

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Super Tsunami & You

West Coast Tsunami Threat Increases

The threat of a devastating tsunami hitting the U.S. West Coast might be higher than previously thought, scientists say, based on a new study of earthquake faults off the coast of Alaska.

Tsunamis are often triggered by earthquakes, as was the case with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which was sparked by the 9.3-magnitude Sumatra-Andaman subduction quake in the same ocean. The tsunami killed nearly a quarter of a million people.

The new research suggests that future tsunamis could reach a scale far beyond that suffered in a 1964 tsunami generated by the great 9.2-magnitude Alaskan earthquake — "the most devastating seismic sea wave to impact the northwestern coast of the U.S. in historical time," said study team member Ron Bruhn, a geologist at the University of Utah.

That tsunami killed about 130 people, according to official records: 114 in Alaska and 16 in Oregon and California, including several who heard it was coming and went down to the coast to watch.

Researchers looked at ancient fault segments off the coast of Alaska and determined that the rupture of an even larger area than the 1964 rupture zone could create an even bigger, more devastating tsunami.

While warning systems are in place on the West Coast of North America, the findings, detailed in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, suggest a need for a review of evacuation plans in the region.

Past temblors

A research team from Durham University in the United Kingdom, the University of Utah and Plafker Geohazard Consultants gauged the extent of earthquakes along the U.S. West Coast over the past 2,000 years by studying subsoil samples and sediment sequences at sites along the Alaskan coast.

The team radiocarbon-dated peat layers and sediments, and analyzed the distribution of mud, sand and peat within them. The data indicate that two major earthquakes have struck Alaska in the past 1,500 years — specifically, about 900 and 1,500 years ago. The results suggest that earthquakes in the region may rupture even larger segments of the coast and sea floor than was previously thought.

"Our radiocarbon-dated samples suggest that previous earthquakes were 15 percent bigger in terms of the area affected than the 1964 event," said lead author of the study, Ian Shennan of Durham University. "This historical evidence of widespread, simultaneous plate rupturing within the Alaskan region has significant implications for the tsunami potential of the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific region as a whole."

The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Tsunami trigger

Tsunamis can be created by the rapid displacement of water when the sea floor lifts and/or falls due to crustal movements that accompany very large earthquakes. The movement acts like a giant paddle. The shallow nature of the sea floor off the coast of Alaska could increase the destructive potential of a tsunami wave in the Pacific.

Tsunamis are not always a given though: In 1899 and 1979, large earthquakes occurred in the region but did not trigger tsunamis because the rupturing was localized beneath the land instead of the sea floor.

But a quake whose effect is spread out over a longer distance could have a devastating impact.

"In the case of a multirupture event, the energy imparted to the tsunami will be larger but spread out over a longer strike distance," Bruhn said. "Except for the small communities at the tsunami source in Alaska, the longer length will have more of an effect on areas farther from the source such as southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, and the U.S. West Coast from Washington to California."

Pacific Ocean tsunami warning systems, first put in place in the 1940s and improved in 2004 after the Indian Ocean tsunami, help, but tsunamis could still do considerable damage. (No comparison was made between the potential future tsunamis and the Indian Ocean disaster, which happened in a different part of the Pacific Ocean.)

"Earthquakes can hit at any time of the day or night, and that’s a big challenge for emergency planners," Shennan said. "A tsunami in this region could cause damage and threaten life from Alaska to California and beyond."

Do I need another reason to NOT live on the west coast? The bad thing about all of this, "it could happen at ANY given moment with NO warning"! As I always say, "pay attention".

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Volcanic Lightning In Eruption(Redoubt)

Go to http://news.aol.com/article/volcano-lightning/420325?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fvolcano-lightning%2F420325 for pics of Redoubt lightning. This pic is Chaiten!

Volcano's Lightning Captured in Photo

(April 8) - For the first time, scientists have been able to "see" and trace lightning inside a plume of ash spewing from an actively erupting volcano.

When Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano began rumbling back to life in January, a team of researchers scrambled to set up a system called a Lightning Mapping Array that would be able to peer through the dust and gas of any eruption that occurred to the lightning storm happening within. Lightning is known to flash in the tumultuous clouds belched out during volcanic eruptions.

The lightning produced when Redoubt finally erupted on March 22 was "prolific," said physicist Paul Krehbiel of New Mexico Tech.

"The lightning activity was as strong or stronger than we have seen in large Midwestern thunderstorms," Krehbiel said. "The radio frequency noise was so strong and continuous that people living in the area would not have been able to watch broadcast VHF television stations."

Lightning mapping arrays are increasingly being used by meteorologists to issue weather warnings, but have only been deployed at volcanoes twice before.

Thousands of individual segments of a single lightning stroke can be mapped with these arrays, and later analyzed to reveal how lightning initiates and spreads through a thunderstorm, or in a volcanic plume.

After setting up the arrays, researchers waited nearly two months for Redoubt's first eruption, but the wait was worth it.

"For the first time, we had the Lightning Mapping Array on site before the initial eruption," said scientist Sonja Behnke of New Mexico Tech.

The eruptions that continued to occur on March 22 and 23 provided plenty of data, and the arrays returned dramatic information about the electricity created within volcanic plumes, and the resulting lightning. As of today, Redoubt has erupted several times since its initial eruption on March 22.

"The data will allow us to better understand the electrical charge structure inside a volcanic plume," said scientist Ron Thomas of New Mexico Tech. "That should help us learn how the plume is becoming electrified, and how it evolves over time."

A recent study in the journal Nature found that volcanic plumes spin like tornadic thunderstorms, a finding which helps to explain the lightning storms, as well as the waterspouts and dust devils produced by some volcanic plumes.

The New Mexico Tech researchers plan to compare the Redoubt data with observations taken from Chaiten Volcano in Chile last year. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Redoubt hasn't finished making noise yet; after quieting down for a few days, Redoubt exploded again, with the last major eruption occurring on March 28. Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory expect the eruptions will continue periodically for weeks to months.

Volcanoes are probably the most amazing things on the planet. As terrifying as they are and can be, without them, we wouldn't have any land to live on. They are utterly fascinating!

"Volcanoes Rule This Planet",

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"Dead" Volcano Erupts Again

Chaiten Volcano Erupts in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile (Feb. 20) - More than 150 people who had returned to a Chilean town destroyed by a volcanic eruption last year were evacuated again on Thursday as the volcano roared back to life, spewing ash high into the air.

The explosion apparently rocked the dome of the Chaiten volcano and sent volcanic material down the mountain's slope, threatening to block a river and trigger flooding, said Paula Narvaez, a presidential delegate to the area in southern Chile.

Experts who flew over the volcano reported "large emanation of gas" on Thursday and said the situation is risky for the nearby seaside town of Chaiten because rains could trigger avalanches.

"The experts were unanimous in considering that no one must remain in Chaiten," Chile's Emergency Bureau said in a communique.

Narvaez said that as many as 160 people were evacuated from the vicinity of the 2,700-foot volcano.

More than 4,000 people were initially evacuated after Chaiten erupted on May 2 for the first time in an estimated 9,000 years.

On Thursday, increased seismic activity was reported and ash fell 100 miles away in Futaleufu.

Some residents of Chaiten, six miles from the like-named volcano, have strongly resisted government efforts to relocate them to a new settlement following the devastating eruption last year.

Residents opposed to the move in recent weeks staged protests in the town's ruins, amid houses buried under ash and volcanic mudflows.

Narvaez said the situation on Thursday "was exactly the kind of danger we were talking about when we decided to relocate Chaiten."

The relocation site has yet to be determined.

For the second time in less than a year Chaiten volcano has erupted after being dormant for over 9000 years. We will keep an eye on this volcano and story. People, "just pay attention to things that are taking place on the planet. A shift is coming and some things have already been set in motion".

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Rodan or What? It's Big!

Prehistoric Flying Reptile Was Bigger Than a Car

A fossil of a toothless flying pterosaur, with a body bigger than some family cars, represents one of the largest of these extinct reptiles ever to be found and has forced the creation of a new genus, scientists announced today.

Pterosaurs ruled the skies 115 million years ago during the dinosaur age. They are often mistaken for dinosaurs.

Mark Witton of the University of Portsmouth identified the creature from a partial skull fossil. Witton estimates the beast would have had a 5.5-yard (5-meter) wingspan. It stood more than a yard (about 1 meter) tall at the shoulder.

"Some of the previous examples we have from this family in China are just 60 centimeters [about two feet] long — as big as the skull of the new species. Put simply, it dwarfs any chaoyangopterid we've seen before by miles," Witton said.

The finding also is significant because it originated in Brazil and is the only example of the Chaoyangopteridae, a group of toothless pterosaurs, to be found outside China.

Witton has christened the new species Lacusovagus, meaning "lake wanderer," after the large body of water in which the remains were buried. The findings are detailed in the November issue of the journal Palaeontology.

He was asked to examine the specimen, which had lain in a German museum for several years after its discovery in the Crato Formation of the Araripe Basin in northeastern Brazil, an area well known for the its fossils and their excellent state of preservation.

However, he said that this fossil was preserved in an unusual way, making its interpretation difficult.

"Usually fossils like this are found lying on their sides, but this one was lying on the roof of its mouth and had been rather squashed, which made even figuring out whether it had teeth difficult," Witton said.

"Still, it's clear to see that Lacusovagus had an unusually wide skull which has implications for its feeding habits — maybe it liked particularly large prey. The remains are very fragmentary, however, so we need more specimens before we can draw any conclusions."

The discovery of this pterosaur fossil in Brazil, so far away from its closest relatives in China, demonstrates how little scientists still know about the distribution and evolutionary history of this group of creatures, Witton said.

Here we go again, gettting another step closer to finding a "dragon". All this one is missing is a tail, teeth and fire breath. Something new is being discovered all the time. What's next?

Animals Rule, Old & New,

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