Volcanology/Geology questions

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Ecuador is known for being seismic, although I never been there to see an eruption , the cities near Tungurahua volcano have been warned of it's activity which began in 1999. 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/tungurahua/news.html is a better site to use for accurate information that a does not change like wiki.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

The understanding of seismic activity and reading  stations around volcanoes is tricky for those who have no experience, now we can never tell when the next eruption will be when activity does increase. You can never tell how big an eruption is, we just watch and calculate them. The  height of the ash-cloud tells us how big the eruption is. The higher the cloud the higher one the VEI scale the eruption is. Some eruptions last for months depending on activity is going on in the lava chamber.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Most common question asked when there are more than one active volcano in an area, 

Is this supposed to happen? Is it normal? 

Answers are YES it's normal all volcanoes have their own chamber of magma, in many volcanic regions there will always be more than one. All activity is different and will not be raised until observed and noted that there is enough activity to raise awareness of a possible eruption. All eruptions are different in every volcano, all magma is different and timing of  eruptions are different. 

http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/book/export/html/130

 

[SorryNotSorry]

What would happen if an oil well type drill bored into a magma chamber?

[ChillaKilla]

6 hours ago, Woodworker1968 said:

What would happen if an oil well type drill bored into a magma chamber?

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Theoretically if that was possible it would not really do anything to the chamber, it would be like a very small pin prick. It would not really do anything to the chamber.

[daveb]

Also, I think it's very unlikely to happen. They don't drill willy nilly, but do lots of geologic research first. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but oilfields and places with lots of magma that close to the surface don't typically coincide.

[Skycaptain]

My personal opinion is that if a magma chamber was that active seismic activity would probably distort the shaft sufficiently that the drill would fail to function. 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

On a typical note both are correct. Some chambers are really active such as Yellowstone which is classified as a "breathing caldera" 25 quakes a week and every 12 years the north part of the park goes up and down. Places like Yellowstone the chamber is vast..... parts of the park are weak. Drilling over all in a seismic place over all is avoided if possible.

[coyote55]

On 2/11/2017 at 1:46 AM, Woodworker1968 said:

What would happen if an oil well type drill bored into a magma chamber?

I'm not aware of any oil wells that have hit magma, but a geothermal well drilling operation in Iceland did encounter magma at shallow depth some years ago. They got a little more energy than they were expecting.

 

My "vote" for the most likely volcano to erupt next in the continental U.S. (other than a 3rd reawakening of Mt. St. Helens) is Mount Hood, in Oregon. It has a well recorded history of eruptions in the past few hundred years, and is currently both seismically and hydrothermally active.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Iceland uses  energy from the geothermal  activity too, while half the land is populated the other part has over 30 ocean rift volcanoes making it inhabitable since there is always activity. Mount Hood is pretty dormant and is classified as high threat potential  if it erupts. There are many monitoring systems used to watch for any sign and ground change. 

[Sally]

What a lovely thread.  

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

1 minute ago, Sally said:

What a lovely thread.  

Feel free to ask any questions if you have any. 

[Sally]

I don't know enough to ask questions -- although I greatly enjoyed Mt. St. Helens' eruption in 1980 (except for the deaths).  There were a crapton of little paperweights and christmas ornaments made from the ash.  

[ChillaKilla]

5 hours ago, Sally said:

What a lovely thread.  

2good2pure

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

6 hours ago, Sally said:

I don't know enough to ask questions -- although I greatly enjoyed Mt. St. Helens' eruption in 1980 (except for the deaths).  There were a crapton of little paperweights and christmas ornaments made from the ash.  

That was a direct lateral eruption, if Rainier goes the area where the deposits from the last eruption will have to be evacuated the west flank might be the part to go on Rainier and well....... considered the US's most dangerous volcano due to all the ice.

[coyote55]

8 hours ago, Sally said:

I don't know enough to ask questions -- although I greatly enjoyed Mt. St. Helens' eruption in 1980 (except for the deaths).  There were a crapton of little paperweights and christmas ornaments made from the ash.  

Ash-as-cash was a common idea back then, the stuff was such a nuisance it made sense to at least try to make money off it!

My favorite vendor was the Husky truck stop in Ellensburg, WA, which sold small glass jars of it for a few dollars... when you could walk to the field next door and collect bucketfuls for free.

 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Subduction Zones

Where two tectonic plates converge, if one or both of the plates is oceanic lithosphere, a subduction zone will form.  An oceanic plate will sink back into the mantle.  Remember, oceanic plates are formed from mantle material at midocean ridges.  Young oceanic lithosphere is hot and buoyant low density when it forms at a midocean ridge.  But as it spreads away from the ridge and cools and contracts becomes denser it is able to sink into the hotter underlying mantle.  There is a deep ocean trench where the oceanic plate bends downward. If volcanoes are on top of these zones Such as Krakatoa the eruptions can be devastating and could be large enough to change climate weather by a degree.

 

Volcanic Arcs:  The basaltic ocean crust contains hydrous minerals like amphiboles, some of which formed by hydrothermal alteration as seawater seeped through hot, fractured, young ocean crust at the midocean ridge.  As the ocean crust sinks deeper into the mantle the pressure increases the temperature of the ocean crust rocks increases more slowly because rocks are poor conductors of heat.  At depths of around 100 km beneath the surface, the pressure is great enough for the hydrous minerals to undergo metamorphism.  The resulting minerals are denser and they don't contain the bonded water.  This metamorphic dewatering process liberates water from the descending crust.  The water gradually seeps upward into the overlying wedge of hot mantle.  The addition of water to the already hot mantle rocks lowers their melting temperature resulting in partial melting of ultramafic mantle rocks to yield mafic magma.  Melting aided by the addition of water or other fluid is called flux melting.  It is somewhat more complicated than this, but metamorphic dewatering of suducting crust and flux melting of the mantle wedge appears to account for most of the magma at subduction zones. 

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)

Some volcanic eruptions are thousands, or even a million times more explosive than others.

Measuring the size or strength of natural events has always been a challenge for natural scientists. They developed the Richter Magnitude scale to estimate the amount of energy released by an earthquake, the Saffir-Simpson scale to estimate a hurricane's potential, and the Fujita scale for rating the intensity of hurricanes. These scales are valuable for comparing different events and for understanding the amount of damage that events of different size can cause.

Measuring the strength of a volcanic eruption is more challenging than collecting wind speed data or measuring ground motion with an instrument. Volcanic eruptions produce different types of products, have different durations and develop in different ways. There is also a problem that some eruptions are explosive (rock materials are blasted from the vent), while other eruptions are effusive (molten rock flows from the vent).

What Eruption Has the Highest VEI?

About fifty eruptions have been rated VEI 8 because they are thought to have produced an amazing 1,000 cubic kilometers or more of ejecta. This would be a mass of uncompacted ejecta ten kilometers in length, ten kilometers in width and ten kilometers deep. Eruptions at Toba (74,000 years ago), Yellowstone (640,000 years ago), and Lake Taupo (26,500 years ago) are three of the 47 VEI 8 sites that have been identified.

The VEI 8 eruption with the greatest volume of ejecta known is the Wah Wah Springs eruption that occurred in what is now the state of Utah, about 30 million years ago. It is estimated to have produced over 5500 cubic kilometers of ejecta in about a week.

Eruption(s) at the Paraná and Etendeka traps igneous province had an eruptive volume of over 2.6 million cubic kilometers. However, these are thought to be effusive eruptions producing fluid basalt lava rather than explosive eruptions producing ejecta. The Paraná and Etendeka eruption(s) occurred about 128 to 138 million years ago. Their lava flows span from eastern Brazil onto the western portions of Namibia and Angola. They occurred when Africa and South America were connected.

Super eruptions happen every 600,000 years.

( No need to worry about Yellowstone) 

Yellowstone is dormant and is monitored closely.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Why Does the Scale Stop at VEI 8?

The largest explosive eruptions that have been documented to date have been rated at VEI 8. Could eruptions larger than Toba, Yellowstone, and other VEI 8 events occur? Does Earth have the ability to produce a blast capable of launching the 10,000 cubic kilometers of ejecta needed to rate a VEI 9 eruption?

It is possible that evidence for a VEI 9 eruption exists and is buried in the geologic record. Eruptions that large would be very rare events, but it is impossible to say that eruptions that large have never occurred. If an eruption that large were to occur in the future, it would be a significant threat to life on Earth.

 

There are many more questions that are asked than just this one, I've heard it before, I've explained it to those who have asked, I have not seen it here yet so here is an answer for those who ever thought of asking. 

 

[ChillaKilla]

Do you think a VEI 9 could have contributed to the dinousaur' extinction? Of course, the meteor was at least partially responsible, but it's possible that it wouldn't do them all in at once.

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

It may have if one happened, it  has been noted that a  massive eruption could have caused it. There is evidence larger eruptions happen yet, one has yet to happen again.

[ChillaKilla]

Just now, Shieldmaiden WinterDragon said:

It may have if one happened, it  has been noted that a  massive eruption could have caused it. There is evidence larger eruptions happen yet, one has yet to happen again.

Looks like we geology nerds have got some digging to do, and some layers to analyze!  

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

1 minute ago, ChillaKilla said:

Looks like we geology nerds have got some digging to do, and some layers to analyze!  

I would start near Yellowstone and back to it's old eruptions, there have been 15 and 3 large maybe 4. New ones are being found going west while the land moves east  if one is found it will be the best find known in history.

[ChillaKilla]

2 minutes ago, Shieldmaiden WinterDragon said:

I would start near Yellowstone and back to it's old eruptions, there have been 15 and 3 large maybe 4. New ones are being found going west while the land moves east  if one is found it will be the best find known in history.

My family and I are gonna try to go to Yellowstone next year, so we can see it (hopefully) before it goes apeshit  Not gonna lie, it's a terrifying prospect...

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Just now, ChillaKilla said:

My family and I are gonna try to go to Yellowstone next year, so we can see it (hopefully) before it goes apeshit  Not gonna lie, it's a terrifying prospect...

I'm going this summer for 6 months, I have a thread started on it already. I can not wait to see how it is there. I know I'll be into the geological features for sure and the rest of the land. It will be worth going to as well. The whole caldera is mostly in Wyoming. 

[Marrow]

This may be a long shot but....have you ever heard about the whispering of yellowstone?

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

1 minute ago, Marrow said:

This may be a long shot but....have you ever heard about the whispering of yellowstone?

If you're referring to the rumors of it " YELLOWSTONE IS GOING TO ERUPT SOON" rumor....... yes and I'm telling ya.... She is nowhere near that point. Although the going goes up and down every 12 years in the north due to the magma coming into chamber from under the mountains as some studies prove, It's not going to happen.....yet. It MIGHT in our life time but there will be increase in activity before it does. The ground however in the park raises 6 cm a year which is normal.

[Marrow]

1 minute ago, Shieldmaiden WinterDragon said:

If you're referring to the rumors of it " YELLOWSTONE IS GOING TO ERUPT SOON" rumor....... yes and I'm telling ya.... She is nowhere near that point. Although the going goes up and down every 12 years in the north due to the magma coming into chamber from under the mountains as some studies prove, It's not going to happen.....yet. It MIGHT in our life time but there will be increase in activity before it does. The ground however in the park raises 6 cm a year which is normal.

No not that, it's a appearently a faint whispering/humming that can be heard sometimes near the lake; kinda like an Erie song