Volcano thread

[bjdeming]

Afar TV got a really good video of MErapi (Java) doing its thing last night:




I learned while reading up on this Decade Volcano that, all around the world, volcanoes that push up real sticky lava which accumulates at the summit in a crumbly dome that regularly sheds pyroclastic flows are said to be having Merapi-style eruptions.

Merapi does this most of the time, in the midst of millions of people. The summit area is a no-go zone but sand miners go up there anyway because volcanic ash is a very good source of silica for electronic chips and poverty is widespread here. They frequently lose their equipment and sometimes their lives, but many are willing to risk it.

(PS: These days I'm not active at Patreon, despite the note at that link.)

 

[KakashiHatake2000]

Oh interesting

 

[bjdeming]

I have no idea who the author of this letter to the editor is, and a quick online search isn't helpful. Given the content -- an in-depth discussion of the tsunami risk from Kick-'em-Jenny, it sounds like someone who knows what they're talking about.

Note that the Gulf Coast isn't mentioned. <Layerson speculation> Certainly islands and other land close to the volcano are most at risk. The only context where I've seen the US brought in is for a Hunga Tonga-style megablast, but from other reading my impression is that volcagenic tsunamis, when recognized as a risk at all, aren't well understood; neither are submarine volcanoes.

For that matter, neither is Hunga Tonga's big boom. Until that is figured out, chances of another one at another submarine volcano that, like HT, is frequently active in a "normal" way, must be considered as not zero. </Layperson speculation>