Volcanic Eruption

[PierreR]

Finally after years of trying I got to see the very start of an volcanic eruption. The ground breaking moment this morning on the webcams in Iceland. They issued an eruption warning and I sat there because the smoke was slowly increasing and then wham. Pretty cool.

 

[C lectric]

Not for the people in its path. They have had a whole lot of volcanic activity causing wide spread destruction of the land.
I too am interested but I don't think it is cool.

 

[BruceK]

Years ago we visited the island of Tanna, in Vanuatu. It had an active volcano you could visit, with 2 teenage local "guides". We climbed the volcano, walking between lumps of lava rock, some still glowing, on the sandy summit. You could peer into the crater, red rocks were being ejected,it seemed not particularly angry but active nevertheless. The boys told us the local gods ensured no one was ever struck by a rock, but ran away nervously at every shower of rocks, to another area. I wondered, briefly, about H & S ramifications.

 

[Barking Sands]

Volcanic eruptions are hard to get your head around. Many years ago I was in the Marines and in the Philippines at Subic Bay when Mt Pinatubo Erupted in the largest eruption in the last hundred or so years. Amazingly it happened while there was a Typhoon as well..lol. Our hanger was one of the only ones not destroyed and our helos intact. So of course we were tasked with many duties.
Fly to Clark AFB to recover sensitive equipment. Clark was destroyed.
Just a couple days after the eruption I took some volcanologists into the crater for air samples and pictures.
Fly supplies to evacuees.
Evacuate many many people from Subic to the USS Abraham Lincoln

That day and the days that followed were pretty crazy. Especially since we were young, invincible Marines. Just prior to the eruption our main concern was to make sure we got out into town before they shut the gates...lol. That led to a nearly day long attempt to get back to base, up a large winding mountain road with 100 ft trees falling around us in 100% blackness. We had to wait for the small lightning bolts the were generated from the falling wet ash so we could momentarily see what was 20 feet in front of us...lol.

 

[sunchaser]

In 1993 six scientists were setting up seismic, ground movement and gas monitoring equipment around the Galeras volcano in Columbia. Galeras has shown to be an active volcano for over six hundred years. Oh oh, boom and six scientists perished.

It was not cool although at the time this tragedy was termed ironic.

 

[luna]

8:30 am May 18th 1980. Where were you when those 57 souls perished?

 

[dhays]

8:30 am May 18th 1980. Where were you when those 57 souls perished?

I was thirty miles away. The week prior I was on the summit of Mt Hood looking at St Helens smoking.

During the second eruption, I was on I-5 trying to get back to school in Forest Grove but faced with zero visibility conditions. Carried a mask in my glove compartment for years after that.

 

[BruceK]

The White Island New Zealand 2019 eruption is right up there with terrible volcanic explosions. Many died, many were horribly injured, and there are heroic but disturbing stories of evacuations by volunteers ferrying the burned victims to help by boat and helicopter. Sad but worth knowing about. Here`s a BBC report summary which touches on the issues.

White Island: Company found guilty over New Zealand volcano disaster

The judge criticises Whakaari Management for "astonishing failures" after the deaths of 22 people.

www.bbc.com

This CNN video from a Court hearing is frankly disturbing so take care whether you watch some or all of it.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/07/13/new-zealand-white-island-volcano-trial-lon-orig.cnn

 

[tpbrady]

While I was in the Air Force, we were in the office on Elmendorf and had a great view of Mt Redoubt when it erupted in 1989. One of the people in the office asked another what it looked like. The response was "30 megatons".

 

[PierreR]

Almost went into volcanology. Would have graduated in 1977 and been hard charging and invincible, Plus probably dead.
The photos from Pinatubo are stunning. Would be very scary to be in ash fallout.

 

[Barking Sands]

Almost went into volcanology. Would have graduated in 1977 and been hard charging and invincible, Plus probably dead.
The photos from Pinatubo are stunning. Would be very scary to be in ash fallout.

A few days after the eruption, when we flew the vulcanologist to the crater, you can see some of those hellscapes. All of those areas were lush green forests with 100 ft trees. As we approched the area some of the valleys were filled with hundreds of feet of ash and now leveled. There are some homes with people who refused to leave buried under 200, 300 feet of ash in some areas. Others near the epicenter that managed to escape reported objects the size of houses falling out of the sky. The Vulcanoligists likely saved 10s of thousands of lives. They called the eruption to the day. I think less than 1000 people died.

 

[sunchaser]

While I was in the Air Force, we were in the office on Elmendorf and had a great view of Mt Redoubt when it erupted in 1989. One of the people in the office asked another what it looked like. The response was "30 megatons".

TP
Was that the time when a 747 flamed out 3 engines due to ash ingestion?

 

[Hippocampus]

Cruising you don’t need a full scale eruption to ruin your day. There’s kick em jenny which is entirely under water. But when it releases gasses the water density falls. Sometimes it falls enough there’s not enough buoyancy to keep a boat afloat. It’s in the common path to Grenada just a few miles north. Most cruisers know to check its activity or just avoid the area as there’s nothing you can do to salvage the situation if caught in the low density water. Scary. They give two radii to the exclusion zone depending upon activity. Our habit was to just stay >5nm away from it at all times. Have friends who felt the fall in buoyancy when close but not in the current level of exclusion zone so turned around. Never wanted that avoidable risk so just stayed away.

 

[tpbrady]

Tom,

Yes it was. The flight crew managed to restart the engines after losing quite a bit of altitude. I recall the airplane sat around Anchorage for a little while waiting for new engines and other inspections and cleaning. It resulted in a major change in procedures in Anchorage Center as well as remote sensing of volcanic activity out the Aleutian chain. Now flights are routinely routed around volcanic activity in the Aleutians which at times seems to be almost continual.

Tom

 

[Barking Sands]

Couple more. Pretty far out, on our way towards the crater. Still massive devastation.

This one is scary. This a a massive area in view. Miles and miles. maybe 10 or 15. Very hard to tell. This area that is now leveled was just a few days prior, mountainous valleys and canyons with lush forests. Some of this ash is probably 200 to 400 feet deep. Some villagers remained in these areas and refused to leave.

This was approaching the crater. Very gusty and unpredictable. A few tense moments of shear that we were caught in, pulling us into a descent even though we had the collective up in the armpits. Any mechanical trouble here would not have been good.

 

[DNT99611]

I look at Mt Redoubt out my living room window. When it went up it was an amazing show that lasted for days. I will always remember watching lighting racing horizontal around the mountain. And it did look like a nuke had gone off at times. There was enough ash in the air to keep a lot of power equipment shut down for days. A large amount of days you can see the mountain putting out a steam cloud. Been that way for over 60 years that I know about.

 

[BruceK]

TP
Was that the time when a 747 flamed out 3 engines due to ash ingestion?

A BA 747 lost all 4 engines after ingesting ash from Mt Galunggung over Indonesia in 1982. They eventually restarted all 4 engines.