Tag Archives: Undersea Volcano

Quake off Oregon Coast – Undersea Volcano

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Another 4.0M earthquake off the coast of Oregon near UNDERSEA VOLCANO

Just as we were expecting, after a series of dormant volcanoes showed activity in Arizona, Utah, and California —- now another noteworthy earthquake has occurred off the shores of Oregon.

oregon 4.0M earhtuquake june 3 2015

We should also make note on the location of these Oregon earthquakes.

The swarm of large earthquakes which is currently occurring off the shores of Oregon (West coast US) falls at the undersea “Cleft volcanic complex”.

The undersea Cleft Volcanic field is located at the South tip of the Juan De Fuca fault zone (South of the newly erupting Axial Seamount volcano by 100 miles… and 4 miles from the nearest undersea volcanic cone).

undersea volcano cleft segment june 2 2015
Above: Screenshot of the largest Oregon earthquake from the swarm (5.9 magnitude on June 1 2015) , which struck 4 miles from what is clearly an unnamed undersea volcano.

 

Currently there is an eruption occurring at the Axial Seamount Volcano.    The media announced that new lava flows were occurring off the shores of Oregon at this Axial seamount location (100 miles North of the current Earthquake swarm).

With this NEW swarm of earthquakes occurring about 100 miles South of the Axial Volcano, and the fact that the events are falling directly on the flanks of a large undersea volcanic cone, this means the Oregon movement should be considered volcanic related.

Add in the other dormant volcanoes showing earthquake activity in the past 48 hours across California, Arizona, and Utah, and we can begin to get a greater picture of what type of activity to expect going forward.

Each time we see pressure showing at the dormant volcanoes on the West coast, we see follow up activity to the NORTHWEST of the dormant volcanoes which show movement.   The more movement we see at the dormant volcanoes = the larger magnitude of the coming West coast earthquake.

When you see a flurry of 2.5M to 3.0M+ earthquakes at the dormant West coast volcanoes, expect at least a single 4.0M+ in the Northwest off the coast of North California, Oregon into Washington State (Gorda Escarpment to Juan De Fuca region).

If you see a flurry of larger 3.0M+ to low 4.0M+ earthquakes at dormant volcanoes on the West coast.. watch for an even larger 5.0M to 6.0M in the Northwest United states.

Unless something changes, I will be applying this “new rule” to the earthquake forecasts going forward.  There appears to usually be a 1-2 day window between the dormant volcanoes moving, and the larger event off the West coast happening.

A 1-2 day possible warning for West coast movement?!  Looks like it might be so! :)  Only time will tell, and several repeat events to document before I can say for certain.

I was watching for new movement to hit Oregon again due to the dormant volcanoes moving over the past 48 hours.

Oregon quieted off over the past 24 hours,  and now it was hit again after those dormant volcanoes moved.   Thus, this dormant volcano / West coast earthquake “connection” needs to be monitored to see if it’s just coincidence, or does it happen almost every time?

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Information on the magnitude 4.0 off the coast of Oregon, from the USGS:

M4.0 – Off the coast of Oregon

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002lm4#scientific_origin:us_us20002lm4

Magnitude/uncertainty 4.0 mb± 0.1
Location/uncertainty 44.512°N 129.830°W± 11.1 km
Depth/uncertainty 10.0 km± 2.0
Origin Time
Number of Stations –
Number of Phases 43
Minimum Distance 479.67 km (4.31°)
Travel Time Residual 0.57 sec
Azimuthal Gap 203°
FE Region Off the coast of Oregon (30)

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from:    http://dutchsinse.com/

Mysterious Lights over the Pacific Ocean

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Mystery glow over the Pacific Ocean: Pilots left baffled by strange orange and red lights spotted in the dead of night

  • Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka
  • The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska
  • The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen
  • Dutch pilot van Heijst ruled out squid-fishing-boats as the origin 
  • He says the cause may have been an underwater volcano
  • An ongoing investigation is taking place to find out what happened 

By Jonathan O’Callaghan for MailOnline

Published: 07:24 EST, 26 August 2014

A pilot and his co-pilot have spotted a mysterious orange and red glow over the Pacific Ocean.

The strange lights were spotted south of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka during the flight of a Boeing 747-8 from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska.

And while no explanation has yet been given, it’s thought that they may have originated from the explosion of a huge volcano under the surface of the ocean.

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Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka (image by Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst). The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska. The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen

Strange lights have been spotted near the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka (image by Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst). The sighting was made by pilots flying from Hong Kong to Alaska. The glow came about 20 minutes after a vertical lightning bolt was seen

WHAT CAUSED THIS MYSTERY GLOW?

After the initial vertical lightning bolt it was thought the phenomenon could have been a thunderstorm, but that was ruled out when none were reported in the area.

The predominant theory at the moment is that the lights were caused by an underwater volcano.

Such eruptions are not unprecedented; on 21 November 2013 an submarine volcano famously created a new ‘island’ off the coast of Japan.

Another explanation is they were caused by lights from fishing boats.

Last week astronaut Reid Riseman was left baffled by a similarly bizarre green flurry of lights (shown below) off the coast of Bangkok.

It is thought those lights were in fact created by fishing boats. The offshore illumination comes from enormous arrays of bright green LED lights used to attract squid and other sea life to the surface.

However that explanation has been ruled out for the latest mystery glow, as more than 50 boats would be needed to produce light of this magnitude – but no fleet of fishing boats was thought to be operating in the area.

Dutch pilot JPC van Heijst explained on PBase how, five hours into the ten-hour flight, they spotted an intense flash of light like a lightning bolt, directed vertically up in the distance.

This was then followed by a deep red and orange glow 20 minutes later.

And the experience left van Heijst somewhat perturbed, owing to the lack of an explanation for what happened.

‘Last night over the Pacific Ocean, somewhere South of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka I experienced the creepiest thing so far in my flying career,’ he said.

There were no thunderstorms on their route or weather-radar, suggesting the lightning did not originate in a storm.

The glow is also a mystery; similar lights have been spotted from squid-fishing-boats, but van Heijst says this ‘would not make sense in this area’.

‘The closer we got, the more intense the glow became, illuminating the clouds and sky below us in a scary orange glow, in a part of the world where there was supposed to be nothing but water,’ he continued.

‘The only cause of this red glow that we could think of, was the explosion of a huge volcano just underneath the surface of the ocean, about 30 minutes before we overflew that exact position.’

He was then nervous of encountering an ash-plume in the middle of the night, but fortunately they did not encounter anything of the sort.

Before the flight they had heard via radio about earthquakes in Iceland, Chile and San Francisco.

But despite their being a few volcanoes on their route, they had had not been alerted to any new activity – although this doesn’t necessarily include unseen underwater volcanoes.

The strange lights (shown at the pink dot) were spotted south of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka during a flight from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska

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The strange lights (shown at the pink dot) were spotted south of the Russian peninsula Kamchatka during a flight from Hong Kong to Anchorage, Alaska (flight path in blue)

Van Heijst ruled out squid-fishing-boats as the origin. He says the cause may have been an underwater volcano. An ongoing investigation is taking place to find out what happened

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Van Heijst ruled out squid-fishing-boats as the origin. He says the cause may have been an underwater volcano. An ongoing investigation is taking place to find out what happened

Together with his co-pilot van Heijst says they felt ‘everything but comfortable’, while no other aircraft were nearby to confirm the sighting.

‘We reported our observations to Air Traffic Control and an investigation into what happened in this remote region of the ocean is now started,’ he added.

‘Now I’m just hoping that if a new island has been formed there [from the eruption], at least it can be named after me as the official discoverer.

‘That would be pretty cool!’

Undersea Volcano off Canary Islands

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Canary Islands Eruption

Undersea Volcano Now Just 70 Meters from Surface

Photo Gallery: The Growing Undersea Mountain off El Hierro

Fotos
DPA/ IGN

In the Atlantic Ocean, off the Canary Island of El Hierro, 20-meter high jets of water are being spat into the air as the sea boils amid the stench of sulfur. The undersea volcano, which is set to create new land, is growing ever-nearer to the surface — but is the existing island at risk from the explosive eruptions?

The monster rises out of the water”, screamed the Spanish newspaper La Provincia. Scientists, meanwhile, are being a bit more level-headed about the undersea volcano south of El Hierro in the Canary Islands; they now believe it is in the third phase of its eruption — fountains of water have been shooting out of the Atlantic up to 20 meters in the air over the last few days. On Tuesday, some local residents even saw stones being catapulted out of the sea.

A seething maelstrom, dozens of meters across, is bubbling away in the ocean. Measurements show that the vortices are significantly warmer than the surrounding water.

So far, the volcano has only shown its explosive power beneath the water. But now the outbursts to the south of El Hierro are frothing up the surface, as if the ocean had hiccups. The lava is piling up on an underwater mountain. That the eruption is capable of firing jets of water into the air shows that this mountain is growing — the center of the eruption is approaching the surface. Geologists believe that new land could soon emerge from the sea, and islanders are alreadylooking for a name for the new territory. There are only 70 meters to go until the mountain reaches the surface, experts from Spain’s National Geographic Institute (IGN) have reported.

But how big is the risk to nearby residents? Last weekend, hundreds of people had to leave their homes in the southern part of El Hierro as streets were closed. And locals can quite literally smell the danger — stinking sulfur fumes are drifting across the ocean. The Volcanology Institute of the Canaries, Involcan, has reported a three-fold increase in carbon dioxide levels — a warning signal that further volcanic activity can be expected.

Clear Sign of Impending Eruptions

Seismic disturbances on the seabed have also been spreading. Since July, more than 10,000 minor earthquakes have shaken El Hierro, but since Oct. 22, the tremors have become increasingly stronger with some even surpassing four on the Richter scale. The quakes are showing a pattern typical of flowing magma, the so-called harmonic volcanic tremor — a clear sign of impending eruptions.

And scientists have been warning since September that if and when those eruptions do occur, they could well happen on land. In recent days, the tremors have shifted from the south to the north of El Hierro. Because most of the quakes there had occurred at a depth of ten kilometers or greater, there was probably no immediate risk of an eruption in the area, the local authorities had said. The magma had been confined to the deep.

But it has now started moving upwards — the most recent earthquakes have been shallower.

There could soon be eruptions in or near the El Golfo valley on the northern coast, the IGN has warned. And an outpouring of lava could prove dangerous not only if it happens on land, but also in shallow water, where it could result in large steam explosions, says Ramon Ortiz, scientific adviser to the local government.

Hot Spot Volcanoes

Off the southern coast, meanwhile, pumice stones and a massive sea of ash are drifting across the water. An initial analysis of the material produced by the volcano so far has surprised experts: It provided “clear evidence of the explosive potential” of the volcano, geochemist Domingo Gimeno Torrent of the University of Barcelona told the El Hierro Diaro newspaper.

Most so-called hot spot volcanoes, like those in the Canaries, produce basaltic magma with a relatively small proportion of silicon dioxide (SiO2). SiO2 acts like a glue, producing very viscous magma, leading to a buildup of gases which results in an explosive mixture. The Geochemist Torrent said the El Hierro volcano, however, is feeding off two supplies of lava; a less volatile basalt magma and a much more explosive, SiO2-rich magma.

 

The risk of large, explosive eruptions in the Canary Islands “should not be neglected,” warned geoscientist Rosa Sobradelo from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Barcelona in a report in the “Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences” journal. How often such events happen is unknown. But even the most momentous explosions of the past few centuries remained localized.

And there are no fears of large eruptions on land, according to the IGN. The only risk is in the immediate vicinity of the eruption site, where there may be lava flows and rocks flung into the air.

from:    http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,796612,00.html