I've seen 10miles reported (50,000 ft) on a blog, but cannot confirm yet.

However high it is, it most certainly is more than 1600 ft:


Original Image: www.telegraph.co.uk

^^^Awesome pic....& if thats 1600ft...then Everest is like 1500

Yeah that is certainly more than 1600 ft high. I could piss 1600 feet high with a hard-on and I'm pretty sure that volcano packs a little more punch than I do.

thats still nothing to be ashamed of fatal...

and as of today, i believe it was still erupting.

how long did pinatubo erupt for?

it is in a remote area so at first they thought it was another volcano which might clear up the whole 450 yr thing.

Here is a way to find out who is a Google expert. What was the last volcano to erupt that hadn't erupted before in thousands of years? They say maybe 9,000 or 10,000. But lets just go back 5,000 years. What volcano was it and how big was the eruption?

First person to find a volcano that has erupted since 1990 but previously hadn't erupted for 5,000 years or longer gets 5,000 points.

Montserrat, West Indies

If you are talking about Soufrière Hills then not quite.

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1600-05=&volpage=erupt

Previous event was approximately 1630.

Tha answer is: There haven't been any eruptions of 5000 year dormant volcanos since 1990. Pinitubo had been dormant for 450 years. St. Helens in 1980 had been dormant for 123 years.

the caldera is 3.5 km wide according to this. . .
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1508-041&volpage=photos&photo=110054

By comparison, Pinatubo is 2.5 km wide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pinatubo

ready for great sunsets and, oh yeah, global cooling ??

just throw this in with the negative pdo and a quiet sun...things could be getting real interesting soon.

and according to volcanolive.com, the past eruptions on Soufrière Hills were the only ones in written history. there have been a few failed eruptions but no actual true eruptions.

http://www.volcanolive.com/montserrat.html

Vesuvius, Etna, Santorini ...
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/vw_hyperexchange/veiTables/europe.html

Tambora, Indonesia 1815
Krakatau, Indonesia 1883
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/vw_hyperexchange/deadly_volcs.html

The eruption of ash was certainly powerful. With the cloud reaching nearly 60,000 feet into the atmosphere there was obviously some force behind it.

So we are dealing with a volcano that was dormant long enough to potentially unleash a climate changing eruption at the same time we've entered a cool PDO phase and are in the middle of a solar minimum.

This eruption will be bad if it only reaches the level of Pinatubo.

Perhaps the only saving grace could be that this mountain is located in the southern hemisphere.

Dan, that picture ROCKS

Yeah there are some wicked ass pics on this page. 1-14 are incredible.


http://megagalerias.terra.cl/galerias/index.cfm?id_galeria=30734

and this one...

http://megagalerias.terra.cl/galerias/index.cfm?id_galeria=30769

Start with number 31 and go up. There are some way too cool pics in there. It really is quite beautiful.

just curious...but how much CO2 does a volcano such as this release???


& the pics are awesome

It blew up AGAIN today!!!

More on today's blast.

Satellite pic: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2008124-0503/Chile.A2008124.1435.250m.jpg

the scary thing is that this happened without any sort of warning.

I love this pic of the ash plume ... it's over 400 miles long!


Original Image: rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov

this is great, the ash should be arriving over us just in time for next winter, lol.

all joking aside, the is a good write up on www.icecap.us on the volcano and its possible effects.

I wonder how many cubic km of ash and stuff this volcano will put out?

Where on the VEI scale will it fall? I'm thinking a 5 or even a 6 if it decides to come unassed and blow its self up.

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/eruption_scale.html

Unassed? Is that even a word? lol. It is already a big eruption I think with it lasting 5 days. After being dormant for 9,000 years who knows how much stuff this thing could have built up.

yeah, well its listed as 450, 2000, 9000 ... seems nobody agrees on that.

but damn, if it goes nuke it'll put a buttload of ash in the air.

ok, so i think what happened was that the actual volcano hasnt gone since 9000. the problem was that when it first was reported, they reported it as another volcano in the area. that volcano last erupted 450 years ago. i believe the media didnt fact check, big surprise, and just combined all of those dates because they heard them tossed around at one point.

so heres the deal...when pinatubo went, there was a tropical system slamming into the island. so the question is, do weather systems help keep the ash up in the air and scatter it more widely or does the precip from this systems help keep the ash and gases lower to the ground and from spreading over larger areas?

BTW since we can't seem to get a clear answer on any historic volcanic eruptions I added 5000 points to Mikes account for having a realistic answer with Montserrat.

so the ash column is now being reported to over 100,000 ft...a little be higher than the 60,000 ft they were reporting.

im thinking vei 5...

If it made it to 100,000 feet then that is Pinatubo level... vei 6. Lets see what the rest of the week does.

thanks Indy

is it me or has the US new media paid no attention to this eruption? is it cuz there is relatively low population surrounding it? i guess they dont realize the implications it could have worldwide...or it goes against the global warming scare so its not newsworthy.

No one died. Or at least not as many as in Myanmar.

I haven't heard anything about except from here.

its all about the body count. one of the reasons I hate MSM.

well, al gore cant blame this on global warming so its not as newsworthy.

Al Gore = Ambulance chaser. It absolutely disgusts me that he uses the hurricane in Myanmar to further his agenda. The man is a spineless pathetic bastard.

agreed

supposedly not a whole lot of sulfur dioxide with this one...only a few thousand pounds so far as compared with pinatubo which put out 20 million tons.

i can see the headline next march now. "Volcano slows global warming for a winter"

right now, not a lot of sulfur dioxide released to cause any cooling but im sure the alarmists with blame the volcano to prolong their lie another year.

At this point, I don't think anyone has one farking clue what's going to happen.

i agree matt...they seem to be as good at forecasting the future as the IPCC, lol.

a higher state of activity
hmmmm, methinks the party's not over yet.

The image is about 2 days old but it shows the ash output from the volcano. It looked significant back then. Supposedly the eruption has ramped up quite a bit as of yesterday so I can only imagine what it looks like now.

excellent pic Indy.

Pics From Nasa

How much longer is this going to continue? Will this result in the collapse of the entire system when the chamber empties?

I moved this thread from "Climate Change" to Global Volcanism

On another thread, I saw this post:

On Saturday, April 12 (19,45 hrs), a huge fireball swept down over the Chacarilla Hills that encircle Santiago, Chile’s capital city. Researchers of these phenomena that witnessed the event were able to take photos, and promptly e-mail them to diverse forums. Then, I wonder...could this be related to the Chaitén eruption that began on May 2?

Reports from Chile indicate that the very same day a second volcano, the Mochimahuida, some 40 kilometers to the south of Chaitén, began erupting after having remained dormant for almost two centuries. The Chaitén had last erupted in 7420 B.C., or 9,370 years ago, according to the Chilean National Geological Survey.

More info at:

Cloud of ash and smoke above Michimahuida Volcano visible from Puerto Montt
http://www.emol.com/noticias/ingles/detalle/detallenoticias.asp?idnoticia=302742

Fireball over Chacarillas Mountains
http://noufa2.blogspot.com/2008/05/sorprendente-bolido-aereo-cerros-de.html

Things are really going crazy in that region. If the volcano does collapse I hope it is captured on camera. But I suspect it will happen at night like most great hurricane landfalls. It is like we just aren't entitled to good video :-)

Don't they say bad things happen in 3s?

Myanmar, China, Chili.

There ya go.

Dang! That thing is still erupting? The longer it erupts the more likely I think it is that this volcano collapses in the end.

what doom is next?

volcano - check
cyclone - check
quake - check

I'm thinkin heat wave...
or maybe giant solar flare

great depression

Krakatau-style?

we all hope NOT

what worries me is the type of volcano this is. Same as Yellowstone and Lake Taupo.

Those scientists who say this volcano won't have an impact on the northern hemisphere's climate are going to be surprised...that is, if the volcano has a massive eruption (like Lake Taupo).

I've been trying to find any clues as to the size of the magma chamber under Chaiten. A clue may have been found. Look at this link....

http://www.seablogger.com/?p=10708

Lets assume those 5 big quakes marked the outline of the magma chamber. You would be looking at an oblong chamber that is about 45km from one end to another and 30km from one side to another. Give or take a couple of km in length of width. Basically it would look like a stretched out oval. Using what little I remember from geometry I split the thing in half and calculated the area of a parabola. Each half would be 230 km^2. So total surface area would be 460 km^2. Calculating the volume would be a nightmare.

Looking at the number for Yellowstone they have it at 60km x 40km and 10km from top to bottom of the chamber. If a cube that would be 24,000 km^3. But it isn't. The USGS estimates the capacity at 15,000 km^3 or 62.5% of the cubed volume. Since the dimensions above were similar in shape I am going to apply their percentage to Chaiten. But since the chamber is smaller I am going to assume from top to bottom it is smaller as well. This calculation assumes 5km instead of 10km. So 45km x 30km x 5km * .625 = 4,219 km^3.

Of course this makes many assumptions and should in no way be looked at as fact. Just food for thought. If those quakes indeed mark the outline of the magma chamber when you can look at 4,219 km^3 as a pretty accurate representation of the chamber. You don't have to follow volcanoes very long to understand what that implies.

say we had a lake taupo sized eruption down there...how long would it take to change climate up in the states?

we have been talking about how next winter is going to be bad but with an eruption like some in this forum r suggesting, we will be worrying about summers also.

With this being in the southern hemisphere I wouldn't worry too much in the northern hemisphere.

good info and video
http://geology.com/events/chaiten-volcano/

I just don't see how anything VEI 6 or bigger does not effect the whole planet in one way or another.

Here is a good blog to watch.

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/

I think the world press forgot about this Volcano..there is little to no news. Anybody wanna pitch in and get us an update?

some great pics comparing st helens and this volcano r here:

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/

i know the site has been posted already but the pics r new. caldera sizes r just about the same size.

also, the site talks about how there were some new earthquakes 88 km north of the volcano. it was 22.4 km deep. a 5.4...they say that makes it tectonic but another shallower one was reported at 5.0 and at a depth of 9.8 km. what makes this a bit interesting was that these occured near or under 3 or 4 volcanoes with no historical evidence of eruption.

It has been a month now and the eruption of Chaiten continues.

yeah, but its certainly much smaller these days than at the beginning. does anyone remember if pinatubo had small eruptions afterwards for this long? i also wonder if anyone has found out how much sulfur dioxide has spewed out now at this point.

so it seems like we r out of the woods for any more major eruptions with this volcano in the near future. what do u guys think?

I disagree. You can never be certain with volcanoes...and earthquakes.

Just thought I'd update that Chaiten is still erupting. It was looking as if briefly the end of the eruption was near but since then two new vents have opened up and seismic activity has increased.

im still wondering if there r numbers on the sulfur dioxide amounts its emitted.

also, ive been looking for the number amount of how much sulfur dioxide humans emit. anyone know the numbers on that?

still, im not too worried.

This winter should be interesting.

last thing i heard though, granted it was last month, was that this had hardly put out any sulfur dioxide during the initial eruption. now, i havent seen any numbers since but i think it wont have too big affect on the winter.

Well, even if the Volcano doesn't noticably affect the climate, it still should be an interesting winter, w/ the Sun being so quite.

and another la nina...

Tambora took 3 years to completely blow it's wad. IT started reupting is 1812 and came unhinged in 1815.

and that would leave us at 2011 or 2012? hmm...

This is one of the Chaitén cams. It is still erupting.

did tambora start with a big bang though?

I used to keep track of everything that pointed to 2012...
now there's SO much, I gave up.

sounds like a lot of volcanoes though, matt.

How many of those started with a plume 1.5 times the size of St. Helen's eruption, after being dormant for 9000 years, and have a 2 mile caldera?

I'm not saying Chaiten is going to blow off big, just it's not a normal situation.

If this were anywhere in the Northern hemisphere - it would be big news.

good to continue watching this puppy.

The way it just blew to life w/o warning is spooky.

was it being monitored though...i wonder if it had had as much as say yellowstone or other big name volcanoes, if we would have had warning with it.

but on the other side of things, if it did indeed give no warning, whats really spooky r the yellowstone type eruptions if they can happen with no warning.

According to Fresh Bilge the seismic activity at the volcano has really picked up including more eruptions.

we'll see what happens. nobody is really covering it anymore.

Nobody was really covering it at any point.

volcano live was and that other site that was mentioned awhile back was but one went on vacation and the seemed to lose interest in it.

I checked the Chaiten web cam and the eruption is still going on.

oh man

Oh boy. I mean if that erupts...Temperatures could go down because of the ashes blocking out the sun. At least for a 500 mile radius.

Remind me again of the eruptive potential. What VEI is this thing capable of? IT's got a big damn caldera IIRC.

According to the Fresh Bilge blog Chaiten has blown.

Not really big enough to do much....yet....

we'll see. could do just about anything at this point.

According to the Fresh Bilge blog the plume height is reaching about 20,000 to 25,000 feet which is the highest level in quite some time.

http://www.seablogger.com/?p=11415

The eruption continues. Here is a web cam image from earlier today.

another volcano rumbled to life in alaska too.

I was reading update #51 on Fresh Bilge and it states the chemistry of the Chaiten eruption has changed. The report states the eruption now has a "lower silica content" which I assume to mean a higher SO2 content.

But the eruption continues and is now 3-1/2 months old and counting.

The Chaiten eruption unfortunately is alive and well.

Here is a webcam image taken around 2pm eastern time.

sweet creepin .... how long has this thing been going on ??

It started May 2nd I believe.