OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

The Predicted Volcanic Eruption

Members of the Volcanic Risks Solutions team at Massey University in New Zealand have successfully predicted a volcanic eruption.  

A volcanic eruption of their creation, that is...!

Picture: The Volcanic Risks Solutions team; Shane Cronin,
Eric Breard (top), Dr Gert Lube and Professor Jim Jones with the Tower of Doom.


This team, led by Professor Shane Cronin and Dr Gert Lube, has created the world's first research project to investigate pyroclastic flows.


Pyroclastic flows are flows of a mixture of hot gas and particles that are emitted during a volcanic eruption, particularly like the eruptions found in New Zealand. 

A New Year, A Continuing Eruption

 

Mount Sinabung, a volcano located on the island of Sumatra, in Indonesia, is still erupting.

 

sinabung map

 

As one of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, its current eruption started in September 2013 and has since erupted over several times a day. The initial eruptions of ash and lava have escalated into pyroclastic flows that have stretched kilometers out from the flanks of the volcano. 

Sakurajima Volcano in Japan erupts for 500th time this year!

Sakurajima Volcano, located in southern Japan about 950 km from Tokyo (see map below), erupted for the 500th time this August, 2013. The explosive eruption of Mt Sakurajima, a 1117-meter peak, left the city of Kagoshima covered with volcanic ash (see photo below), causing train delays and poor visibility, forcing the residents of Kagoshima to use masks and umbrellas to protect themselves from the ash. The eruption also resulted in a small flow that traveled 1 km from the crater. The eruption sent a volcanic plume 5000 m in the air, as seen in the photo below.