Back to Masaya!

Hi All.

As you may now I am nearing the end of my eventful journey with the Open University and next February I will embark on my final module Science Project Course – Geosciences, or better known in brick universities as my dissertation.

Of all the things I have done along my journey, working with Earthwatch on Masaya has been the most inspirational and thought provoking. It has changed my view on how volcanoes are monitored and what we perceive to be a geohazard.

For this reason I am aiming to go back in 2017 and base my dissertation around the work done monitoring geophysical changes to the volcano versus the rate of degassing.

If you would like to help fund this research and the great work Earthwatch do on Masaya please do so below.

http://eu.earthwatch.org/expedition-fund/MasayaDissertationResearch

Thank you for all your help and support.

Mel

Today in Geological History; July 9th -Lituya Bay

People of our generation have had the word tsunami seared on to our brains with the Boxing Day Tsunami and Japans March 11th tsunami claiming the lives of over a quater of a million people in the past 20 years. But what if these waves didn’t have the space of oceans to propogate  and instead where funneled though a confined space?

Killing an estimated 250,000 people the Boxing Day Tsunami hit maximum heights of 30 metres (100 ft) as it wiped out many coastal areas around the Indian Ocean. Before this event

Mg 6.2 Quake Rocks Central Italy

At the last report 37 people have been killed by a Mg 6.2 earthquake which struck just southeast of Norcia in Central Italy at 03.36 this morning.

Before and After shot of a street corner in Amatrice.

The area is prone to large earthquakes due to shallow normal faulting along a NW-SE oriented fault which runs through the Central Apennines. The region is tectonically and geologically complex, involving both subduction of the Adria micro-plate beneath the Apennines from east to west, continental collision between the Eurasia and Africa plates building the Alpine mountain belt further to the north and the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin to the west. It is the same fault which caused the controversial L’Aquila earthquake in 2009, just 45 km south-southeast of last nights event, which left 295 dead and saw 7 scientists prosecuted.

The town of Amatrice taken by the local firebrigade.

The town of Amatrice has been mostly reduced to rubble although most of the dead have been found in the nearby town of Pescara del Tronto which has been completely levelled. Small towns like these are notoriously old or poorly built meaning even a weaker shallow quake can bring buildings crumbling down.

At least 39 strong aftershocks have hampered the rescue attempts many of which have be over a magnitude 4 and at least 1 reaching a magnitude 5.1

Italian president Matteo Renzi is currently addressing the nation saying that no area wil be forgotten in the relief effort.

I will add more as more information as it comes to light.

 

 

Figure 1; https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/aug/24/italy-terremoto-earthquake-buildings-collapse-amatrice-rome-people-trapped

Figure 2; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37171953

Yadnya Kasada Festival

Since the dawn of man people have seen volcanoes as expressions of the rage of the God’s, punishments for poor behaviour on Earth. This was really brought home to me while working on Masaya last year. A huge cross now stands where, mainly women and children, were thrown in to the lava lake below as a sacrifice to the gods to spare the towns on the volcanoes flanks. Luckily human sacrifice is a thing of distant memories in most cultures but this does not mean people do not still worship at volcanoes.

The Tenggerese people are an ethnic minority in eastern Java who claim to be the descendants of the Majapahit princes. Predomintaly Hindu they have also incorporated many Buddhist and Animis elements. Yesterday marked the 14th day of their yearly festival Yadnya Kasada. Thousands flocked to the crater edge of Bromo to ask for blessing from the main deity Hyang Widi Wasa and Mahadeva, the God of the Mountain (Mount Semeru) by presenting annual offerings of rice, fruit, vegetables, flowers, livestock and other local produce

On December 5th last year Bromo’s PVMBG raised the volcano’s alert status to “siaga” (alert), or 3 on a scale of 1-4, it has remained around this till now with ash emissions continuing at fluctuating levels. Currently an ash column towers just under 1000 metres above the main vent, a sulphurous order lingers in the air. None of this however swayed the visitors eager for blessings. Many who ventured right up to the crater rim can be seen to wear rags around their faces to protect from the fumes, no effort was made to prevent people from entering the area.
The days of virgin girls meeting a fiery death may be long gone and now mainly goats and chickens lose there lives, but it is still shows the connections and respect people have for our planet and its power. This festival is not the only one world-wide which has a similar theme and I feel no matter the scientific findings about the inner working of our planet it will never deter such worship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1; http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/2016/07/21/the-yadnya-kasada-festival-in-indonesia/87385912/

Figure 2; http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/2016/07/21/the-yadnya-kasada-festival-in-indonesia/87385912/

Figure 3; http://yourindonesia.arah.com/article/6681/upacara-yadnya-kasada-jadi-wisata-budaya-di-bromo.html

Figure 4; http://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/photos/in-pictures-the-yadnya-kasada-festival-in-indonesia

 

Today in Geological History; June 15th – Mount Pinatubo 1991

Figure .1 Mount Pinatubo 1991

Before the eruption in the early 90’s, Pinatubo was a rather unassuming mountain on the island of Luzon, Philippines. Standing only 2000 ft above surrounding peaks, it was almost obscured from vision. It’s flanks covered in lush green forest, without an eruption in memorable history, people never saw it as a threat.  This change in June 1991 when it produced the second largest eruption of the 20th century (after Novarupta 1912).

Figure 2. Damage from the earthquake in 1990.

In 1990, on July 16th a magnitude 7.8 rocked the island of Luzon. A strike-slip along the Philippine Fault System it caused a surface rupture oer 125 km long. Killing  over a thousand people it became the deadliest earthquake in Philippine history but may also have been the start of something much greater, geologists have long been convinced that it is linked to Pinatubo’s activity the following year. However it has never been proven if this earthquake stirred the sleeping volcano or if the reawakening caused the quake. For a few weeks after locals reported steam coming from Pinatubo, but when it was visited by PHILVOLC’s scientists there was only landslide evidence and not emissions.

Seismicity kicked off activity again on March 15th 1991. The north-west side of the volcano felt a swarm of tremors increasing in intensity over the next two weeks. On April 2nd a 1.5 km fissure opened along the summit with phreatic explosions dusting the local area in ash. seismicity continued to increase causing volcanologist to rush to its flanks to place monitoring equipment they had never thought to place while the mountain lay in slumber. The volcanoes eruptive history had very been studied before and they were surprise to learn it had large eruptions as recent as roughly 500, 3500 and 5500 years ago. On April 7th the first formal evacuations took place. With the Clark Air base just 14 km from Pinatubo the USGS aided PHILVOLCS in setting up 3 zones the first, a 10 km radius from the summit was the initial area to be designated unsafe and people were quickly evacuated to safety. Further zones from 10-20 km and 20-40 km were deemed safe for now but people were told to be alert to the possibility of evacuation if the mountain showed any sign of getting worse.

Figure 3.

Activity stepped up in May with sulfur dioxide emissions rocketing from roughly 500 t p/d at the beginning of the month to over 5000 t p/d by May 28th. At this point emission slightly decreased and inflation began to increase rapidly leading many to believe pressure was building with the magma chamber.

On June 3rd the first lava was noticed signalling that a magmatic phase of the eruption had begun which eased some people’s mind as activity seemed relatively effusive. The first large explosion cam four days later on June 7th. An eruption column towered 7 km above the summit prompting the second wave of evacuations with people in the 10-20 km zone being prompted to leave their homes. A lava dome began to grow dramatically in the next few days reaching in excess of 600 ft wide. Activity seemed pretty constant at a low-level until 03:41 on June 12th when a new, more violent phase of eruptions began. As explosions intensified over the next few hours the eruption column grew to over 19 km. Pyroclastic flows surged as 4km from the summit in some valleys. Ash and tephra rained down on the surrounding area as the intense explosions lasted over  . The final wave of evacuations was called for on the morning of June 13th as a small but intense earthquake swarm saw in a third phase in the eruption.

Figure 4. On of the most iconic images from the 1991 eruption.

People as far as 40 km away, and even further if possible, were urged to leave the area as quickly and calmly as possibly as Pinatubo showed no signs of slowly down its activity. The column peaked again, this time over 24 km high. Several more large explosions were recorded for the next 24 hours including one at lunch time on the 14th with saw another 21 km eruption column and more pyroclastic flows obscuring the view of the flanks.

From midday on June 15th the eruption reached its most climatic point. By 2.30 pm on the June 15th readings stopped being received from seismometers and other remote censoring equipment which the USGS had placed at Clark Air base indicating the area had been over some by the pyroclastic material still being ejected at a terrifying rate. An ash cloud covered an area greater than 125,000 km² bringing near total darkness to much of the island of Luzon and ashfall was recorded as far as neighbouring countries of Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam. By 10.30pm that night all fell quiet and Pinatubo’s fury seemed to be over.

Figure 5. Mapping the spread of the SO2 released by Pinatubo.

The VEI 6 eruption spat out over 10,000,000,000 tonnes of material and a whopping 17,000,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide. It was the later which signed Pinatubo’s fate in people’s minds as the SO2 emitted quickly covered the globe causing the mean global temperatures to drop by 0.5°C for the following two years. Sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere reflects the Sun’s radiation back in to space meaning the Earth’s surface received up to 10% less sunlight in the following year. It also meant an increase in ozone damage, with the hole above the Antarctic being at the largest it had ever been.

An estimated 847 people lost their lives (many from collapsing buildings under the weight of the ashfall),but problems continued past initial fatalities in the aftermath. Over 2.1 million people have believed to have been affected by the disaster. Agriculture was severely effected both my ash fall and then following effects of the climate. Lahars plagued the region for years after with each heavy rain fall. It is often put by the end of 1992 the eruption and resulting lahars caused the country losses in excess of 400 million US dollars.

Despite this, the events of 1991 are often hailed a volcanological triumph with quick responses, prediction and evacuation believed to have saved the lives of thousands. It enabled us to gain an insight to volcanic impacts on climate and how we monitor the risks.

Figure 1. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/welltraveled/features/2012/tempting_fate_in_the_philippines_/dennis_rodman_s_dad_and_the_eruption_of_mount_pinatubo_.html

Figure 2. http://xuwenewegu.webatu.com/earthquake-in-philippines-july-25-2011.php

Figure 3. http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/GCSE/AQA/Restless%20Earth/Volcanoes/Mount%20Pinatubo.htm

Figure 4. https://www.uclm.es/profesorado/egcardenas/pa.htm

Figure 5. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1510

Today in Geological History; June 10th – Tarawera

Today marks the 130th anniversary of Tarawera bursting back to life after 500 years of sleep. It was one of New Zealand’s largest eruptions in recent history and killed up to 150 people making it the countries most deadly since the arrival of the Europeans.

Tarawara was last active in 1315 and is believed to have had a great hand in the Great Famine of 1315-137 throughout Europe. In 1886 the mountain gave little warning of up coming events. On June 1st a series of waves were recorded on the surface of Lake Tarawera suggesting seismicity in the area although no one reported feeling quakes and there where no seismometers at this time. Tourists claimed they saw a phantom canoe floating across the waters with Maori warriors on board. Although there were multiple accounts on the sighting many believed it was simply a rogue wave caused by increased seismicity, tribal elders at Te Wairoa however claimed that it was a waka wairua (spirit canoe) and was a portent of doom.

All was quiet again in the following days and people though little of the complex. Many geologists at the time didn’t even consider the edifice to be active due to the lack of solfataric or fumarolic activity in comparison to New Zealand’s other volcanoes.

At 2am local time on June 10th this all changed. Locals where awoken by large tremors shortly followed by explosions heard as far away as Blenheim over 500 km to the south. by 2.30 all three peaks of Tarawera were eruption with fire fountains lighting up the pitch black, ash filled skies. The eruption began to the northeast side and spread rapidly along a fissure from Tarawera to Lake Rotomahana into the Waimangu Valley. The eruption was believed to be caused by a series of basaltic dikes which rose from depth and intersected the very active hydrothermal system under Tarawera and Lake Rotomahana, causing rapid steam/magma explosions, driving the plume that was observed and creating, by some accounts, fire fountains as tall as 2 km which explains the high explosively of a basaltic eruption.

The darkened skys were seen as far as Christchurch and was catapulted in the stratosphere where it lingered effecting climate for at least a year. The ash fall from the eruption – called locally the “Rotomahana Mud” – can be found into the Bay of Plenty almost 40 km away. This tephra covered 15,000 km² over the North Island and over 4,500 km² of the area with at least 5 cm of tephra.

The eruption itself produced at least 1.3 km³ of tephra (~0.7 km³ of dense rock equivalent), likely at a rate of higher than 6 x 10⁴ m³/s. It also produced a base surge that travelled over 6 km from the craters moving 40 m/s and were large enough to top hills that were 360 meters tall which buried several Maori villages.

The Buried Village Rotorua is now a popular tourist destination often branded New Zealand’s answer to Pompeii. As well as the human impacts it also buried the Pink and White Terraces.

 

 

Figure 1; http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11653679

Figure 2;  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1886_eruption_of_Mount_Tarawera#/media/File:Charles-Blomfield-Mount-Tarawera-in-eruption-June-10-1886.jpg

Figure 3; http://www.visualitineraries.com/VisitPoint.asp?location=419&title=Rotorua+Museum+of+Art+%26+History

Figure 4; http://www.nzonline.org.nz/nzo/business/the-buried-village-of-te-wairoa-rotorua

 

 

Today in Geological History; June 3rd – The 25th Anniversary of Unzen

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the pyroclastic flow from Mount Unzen which claimed the lives of 43 people.

Mount Unzen

Mount Unzen is actually several over lapping volcanoes on Japan’s island of Kyushu. It was the cause of Japan’s largest ever volcanic disaster in 1792 when a lava domed collapsed and caused a mega tsunami which killed nearly 15,000 people. After this even the volcano lay silent until beginning to stir in 1989.

Seismic swarms began in the November of 89 about 10 km west of the summit and gradually migrated eastward until the first phreatic eruption a full year later in November 1990. By May 20th 1991 fresh lava began to flow from the highly inflated summit area prompting the evacuation of almost 12,000 locals.

The threat of another eruption to the scale of 1792 brought journalists and scientists alike flocking to the surrounding area to monitor the activity of Unzen and its potential threat. Sadly this curiosity resulted in the deaths of 43 when on June 3rd activity peaked due to a possible lava dome collapse. This sent a huge pyroclastic flow surging down its flanks and funnelled in to a valley point in the direction where volcanologists and journalists had set up a base at what was thought to be a safe distance, over 4.5 km, from the summit.

Activity continued well in to 1995 and over 10,000 pyroclastic flows were recorded over this period. By the end of the eruption a new lava dome was in place 1.2 by 8 km wide. Its volume was approximated at 0.1 cubic km.  In total, about 0.21 cubic km of plagioclase-phyric dacite magma was erupted over the course of the eruption at peak effusive rates of 7 cubic metres per second in 1991. Over 2000 buildings were destroyed by these flows in Shimabara City alone. Matters were further complicated between August 1992 and July 1993 when heavy rains caused multiple lahars destroying a further 1300 homes along the Mizunashi and Nakao Rivers, requiring the sudden evacuation of several thousand residents.

Mount Unzen has been placed on the official decade volcano list and is one of Japan’s most highly monitored areas.

Maurice and Katia Krafft

The Krafft’s were French volcanologists and soul mates who met at the University of Strasbourg. Their love for volcanology almost reviled their love for each other. The specialized in documenting eruptions as best and often as close as possible, their end was almost inevitable.

Their most famed contribution was the documentation of Nevado del Ruiz which when shown to the Phillipine president Corazon Aquino who was then convinced to evacuate the area surrounding Mount Pinatubo before its catastrophic 1991 eruption almost certainly saving hundreds if not thousands of lives. 

Over a 20 year period, when volcanology was still a relativity young science, the married couple documented hundred of eruptions. They fillmed over 300 hours of footage, took thousands of photos and published multiple books.

While in the Philippines during Pinatubo’s early stages, Maurice was interviewed by a local news agency where he told the journalist  “I am never afraid, because I have seen so much eruptions in 23 years that even if I die tomorrow I don’t care.” From here they flew out to Japan where activity was picking up at Unzen. The pair perished together when they were overcome by the pyroclastic flow on June 3rd.

Harry Glicken

Harry was an American volcanologist who although was based at USGS was funded by outside organisations. He specialised in volcanic debris flows and was closely involved with research on St Helens with his doctoral thesis ‘Rockslide-debris Avalanche of May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington‘ being recognised as a leading paper on the event.

Glicken cheated death on St Helens as he was meant to be the volcanologist on duty May 18th however swapped with his then mentor David Johnston who was killed by the blast.

Figure 1; http://raredelights.com/top-28-worlds-important-volcanoes/mount-unzen-in-japan/

Figure 2; https://curiousmatters.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/curious-facts-31-of-the-strongest-volcanoes-known-to-man/

Figure 3; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Unzen

Figure 4; https://volcanogeek.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/maurice-and-katia-a-love-story/

Figure 5; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Glicken

Figure 6; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvjwt9nnwXY

 

 

 

 

Sinabung Claims More Lives

Sadly I awoke this morning to the news Mount Sinabung in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia had claimed the lives of three farmers working in the fields by the Gembar Village. This figure has since risen to 7 and is feared to continue to rise with several more critically injured and the Red Cross and army looking for further victims.

Mount Sinabung has been in a near constant state of eruption since late 2013. Pyroclastic flows sweep down its flanks on a regular basis which has lead to 4 km exclusion zone being enforced around the summit.  On February 1st 2014 people were killed by one such pyroclastic flows.

About 10,000 people have been displaced by activity at the volcano which has been on the highest state of alert for well over a year. Sadly the volcano is positioned in a relatively poor and over populated area of the world, many people have little choice but to continue to farm on the volcanoes fertile flanks. Officials have struggled to keep the people to stick the ‘red’ exclusion zones and it is unclear how many people were on the mountain at the time of the recent activity.

Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) Willem Rampangilei has instructed Karo Regent to take quick measures to vacate the red zones (Gamber village, Simpang Empat district and Karo Regency) but they know that this is easier said then done. The pyroclastic flows caused by partial collapses of the growing lava dome occurred in a series at 14:28, 15:08 and 16:39 local time on Saturday. Rescue attempts went through the night and in to Sunday morning. An ash column remained for hours, towering over the area darkening the skys and hampering the search operation.

The pyroclastic flow captured here to the left happened only a week ago on May 16th showing the power and regularity of such activity. On May 9th a lahar swept through  Kutambaru near the Lau Barus River killing 1 and leaving one person still missing now also presumed dead.

Sinabung lay silently for nearly 400 year until springing back to life back in 2010. It has now killed at least 25 people since its rousing. Volcanism on the island of Sumatra is caused by the subduction of the Indo-Australian plate beneath the Eurasian plate along the Sunda Arc which creates the andesitic-dacitic composition magmas which are prone to such explosive activity. Sinabung sits just 25 miles north-east of the Toba Super Volcano caused by the same tectonic motion.

 

Figures 1 and 2; posted to Facebook by SkyAlert.

Figure 3; http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/sinabung/news.html

 

Turrialba Eruption

Taking centre stage on many eruption blogs this week has been Costa Rica’s Turrialba volcano. It is one of the countries largest active volcanoes along side its neighbour Irazu.

Activity has been at moderate levels for a few weeks now with small explosions recorded daily and small lahars recorded on May 7th. At the begining of the week tremors appeared to decrease in both amplitude and frequency and the volcano appeared to be quietening down.

This quickly changed when a single explosion in the early hours of Thursday morning ejected a cloud of volcanic ash, gas and rocks from the volcano 30 miles east of the capital San Jose and saw local schools and businesses closed the next day. These have all since reopened however the alert remains at

Infrared video of eruption in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Figure 1; http://strangesounds.org/2016/05/turrialba-volcano-eruption-explodes-31-times-in-10-hours.html

Today in Geological History; April 25th – Nepal Earthquake

Today marks the one year anniversary of the Nepal Earthquake, sometimes referred to as the Gorka Earthquake where over 8000 people lost their lives. The initial quake, which struck approximately 85 miles west of the capital city, Kathmandu and registered at a magnitude 7.8. The shallow depth of the foci, just 8.2 km, lead to violent shaking which hit the maximum of IX on the Mercalli Intensity Scale.

Figure 1. Probably one of the most iconic pictures showing the rubble which was once a UNESCO world heritage site in Bhaktapur

The main earthquake struck at 11.56 am local time and was followed by a magnitude 6.6 just 34 minutes later. Aftershocks continued every 15-30 minutes for days with many hitting over Mg 4.5 hampering rescue efforts. Then on May 12^th an earthquake struck further east along the fault line registering at Mg 7.3 killing an extra 218 people.

The Indian plate is currently crashing in to the Eurasian plate at a rapid rate of 45 mm per year, this is the same motion which has given rise to our planets highest mountains; the Himalayas.

As the Indian plate underthrusts the Eurasian plate it can get stuck leading to build up of stresses in areas which are relieved in the motion of an earthquake. Great Kashmir Earthquake of 2005 which claimed the lives of 87,000 people was  and the 1833 Kathmandu earthquakes were both created by the same build up of stress due to the plate collision.

The earthquake was felt over a vast area spanning 5 countries, but it was rural highland areas of Nepal which were worst affected. Landslide caused some of the worst damage. The Langtang Valley was hit by the largest single loss of life with a avalanche nearly 3 km wide sweeping down and burring an entire village. Smaller settlements on the outskirts of Langtang, such as Chyamki, Thangsyap, and Mundu were also buried. It is thought over 300 people died in the avalanche. The onset of the monsoon season soon after the earthquake killed even more people as the unstable ground was unable to hold up under the heavey rains causing further landslides.

Figure 3. Collapse houses in Sankhu, on the outskirts of Kathmandu

The earthquake also set in motion the deadliest disaster on Mount Everest since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary in 1953. Everest is 220 km east of the earthquakes epicenter and was in the midst of its peak climbing season. Nearly a thousand people where on or around the worlds highest mountain at the time of the earthquake, including 359 climbers at Base Camp. Avalanches were triggered in several locations including one which originated on the nearby peak of Pumori which swept through South Base Camp through to Khumbu Icefall. 19 bodies were recovered from South Base Camp along with 61 stranded climbers. On 27 April, National Geographic reported the total killed on Everest was 24 although this figure has not been confirmed.

One year on Nepal is still struggling to recover. Thousands of homes were destroyed across many districts of the country, with entire villages flattened, especially those near the epicenter. 90% of the Napalese army were deployed to the region and within a week millions of pounds in aid arrived in aid from accross the globle, but after the initial rescue and clean up that appears to be the end of “relief”.

Table 1. Number of fatalities by county.

Rubble has been cleared and unstable buildings torn down, but virtually none of the 800,000 destroyed buildings have been rebuilt. According to the Red Cross over 4 million people are living in sub-standard temporary shelter.

With aftershocks still continuing and lack of outside aid it is fear life in the region will never fully recover. Nepal has always been known to be at great risk from tectonic activity in 2013, in an interview with seismologist Vinod Kumar Gaur, The Hindu quoted him as saying, “Calculations show that there is sufficient accumulated energy [in the Main Frontal Thrust], now to produce an 8 magnitude earthquake. I cannot say when. It may not happen tomorrow, but it could possibly happen sometime this century, or wait longer to produce a much larger one.”

Figure 4; The rescue workers ranged from locals to internation aid.

The Nepal earthquake was another stunning example of how some of the poorest countries fair the worst in natural disasters. With little or no building regulations cities like Kathmandu are left exposed and easily torn down by even relatively moderate quakes.

It could be generations before rebuilding truely begins in the region affected by the April 25th earthquake hopefully when the time comes lessons will be learnt and better measures be put in place.

 

Figure 1; http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/apr/26/nepal-earthquake-death-toll-exceeds-1500-rolling-report

Figure 2; http://reliefweb.int/map/nepal/nepal-epicenter-earthquake-25-april-2015

Figure 3; http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nepal-earthquake-you-cant-rule-out-more-earthquakes-come-1500883

Figure 4; http://abcnews.go.com/International/americans-nepal-describe-massive-earthquake-devastating-aftermath/story?id=30580024

Table 1; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2015_Nepal_earthquake

Kyushu Earthquake, Mt Aso and the Relationship between Volcanoes and Earthquakes.

In the past week the Japanese Island of Kysushu has be ravaged by earthquakes.

Japan is a highly seismic area with noticeable quakes in some areas occurring nearly daily.  But things began to escalate for the Kyushu region on Thursday night when a magnitude 6.5 quake brought several buildings down. As rescue efforts began the region had two more huge after shocks during the night, one over Mg 6 and the other > Mg 5. By midday Friday the death toll stood at 9 with over 800 injured and although the aftershocks kept coming many >Mg 4 people were still being pulled from the rubble. Sadly these events were quite possibly a precursor to something larger.

At 01.25 local time (15.25 GMT) a Mg 7.3 struck just north of Kumamoto just kilometers from the large earthquakes which had already occurred. Much of the seismicity in the Kyushu region is related to the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate at great depth. However this series of earthquakes have occurred at very shallow depths several hundred kilometers northwest of the Ryukyu Trench. They have been cause by strike-slip faulting within the Eurasian plate.

So far 22 more people have been reported dead but this is expected to rise in the coming days with at least 80 people known to betrapped in rubble. 11 of which are trapped in a Tokai university apartment in the town of Minami Aso.

 

The shallowness of the earthquakes means damage to the surface is high and it is not just collapsing building which are a hazard. People have fled the area down stream of a dam which collapsed soon after the earthquake. Landslides in the area have taken out roads and power lines and with heavy rain anticipated over the coming days JMA have advised mudslides will be a huge problem for rescuers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The seismic problems of Kyushu may have also set in motion another geohazard in the form of Mt Aso. Yesterday one of my favorite volcanology bloggers Eric Klemetti tweeted “Quite a few volcanoes on Kyushu and these earthquakes have been centered near Unzen, Aso, Kirishima. This is NOT to say these earthquakes will trigger any eruptions, but could be worth watching over the next year.” Several hours late JMA reported a small scale eruption at Aso. Smoke plumes have migrated 100 meters above the summit and it is not yet clear if the activity is magmatic (caused by movement of magma towards the surface) or phreatic (steam explosion caused by heating of groundwater).

Eruptions and earthquakes do not always come hand in hand but each one can contribute to the other or not at all depending on the circumstances. One indication a volcano is about to erupt is volcanic tremors; these low frequency earthquakes are usually caused by the migration of magma or changes to magma chamber. Although they are rarely higher than a magnitude 4. On the other side large earth quakes can cause faulting in bed rock which allows magma to exploit a new weakness and find a path to the surface it previously could not intrude on. The same can happen for ground water with faulting caused by a quake allowing it to seep in to geothermal areas it previously did not have access to due to the impermeability of the rock. When earthquakes hit volcanic regions volcano observatories always keep a closer eye on vulnerable or highly active volcanoes as a precaution but it is not always needed.

The Aso Caldera complex has one of the world’s largest calderas. It is comprised of a 25 km north-south by 18 km east-west Caldera and a central cone group comprised of Mt. Neko, Mt. Taka, Mt. Naka, Mt. Eboshi, and Mt. Kishima. Mt Naka where the eruption has just taken place is the most active with its most recent eruption taking place last October. Although much of Aso’s activity in the past century has been relatively small it has had a violent history with at least 4 VEI 7 events in the past 300,000 years.

It’s is not clear whether the earthquakes in the past few days did trigger the current current eruption but JMA are keeping a close eye on the situation and I will update this page as I know more.

 

 

Figure 1. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/

Figure 2; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36061657

Figure 3; http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-earthquakes-dozens-reported-dead-injured-second-quake-two-days-a6986931.html

Figure 4; http://mashable.com/2016/04/15/japan-earthquake-landslide-photos/