Everything Science Forum

Hi Guys, long time no speaky.

I've been a bit out of it recently, had one of those times in my life when I wanted to chill out.

Anyhow, I'm back even if it is in a reduced presence.

Just thought I'd let you know that my local volcano, Mount Asama (the one I can see from my bedroom window) had a little eruption on Wednesday evening.  It shook our house a little (we are about 12km from the crater)  Unfortunately the mountain has been cloud covered for the last three days so no dramatic pictures are avaliable.

Read about it here

http://www.asahi.com/english/nation/TKY200409030151.html
http://www.asahi.com/english/nation/TKY200409020135.html
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040903a2.htm

This is a view taken from my bedroom window

Is this related?

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6153272

TOKYO (Reuters) - An earthquake measuring about 7.3 on the Richter scale shook western Japan on Sunday, the second strong quake to hit a area in five hours, and evacuations were ordered due to approaching tsunamis, broadcaster NHK reported.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but NHK said tsunamis measuring up to 3 feet were expected to hit the Pacific coast.

Residents of Owase City in Mie Prefecture were ordered to evacuate to higher ground to avoid the tsunamis -- water waves generatd by seismic activity.

Asamayama is located on the border of Nagano (west) and Gunma (east) prefectures where Nagano tucks under Gunma.  I put ithe approximate location of Asamayama on the Reuters earthquake map and I may be a few miles off to the NE.

It's difficult to say if the two are related - the whole region is seismically and volcanicaly active (Ring of Fire) and the two events are 200+ miles apart.

Nagano has various hot springs.

For some information on Asamayama, see - http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/ROF.php?name=Asama

That's pretty close Astronuc.

The major fault under Japan lies about 50km west of Asamayama, and Japan in general lies over the junction of three major tectonic plates.

Please bear in mind that those tremors are nothing unusual for Japan.

Asamayama has a very violent history and conctantly grumbles. 
http://www.bartleby.com/65/as/Asama-Mt.html
http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/reports/usgs/index.cfm?content=archive&volcano=asama
http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0803-11=
http://www.phenomena.org.uk/Fire1783.htm


Another article with some interesting facts and figures  http://www.asahi.com/english/opinion/TKY200409040125.html

It's an interesting mountain, but be careful - Asamayama might go like Mt. St. Helens, if it is a cinders and ash volcano.

Yesterday, and again today, numerous gas and ash eruptions took place.

This photo shows a steady stream of gas and smoke that continued all day

The buildings in the foreground are my company offices and factory

...then, while sitting having my lunch, I saw this ominous cloud appear over the factory roof...

...returning to the front of the offices, this is what I saw a couple of minutes later...

According to the evening news, up to 4 pm, a total of 18 eruptions had occurred throughout the day.  The mountain has been declared a level 3 hazard on the Japanese scale of 1 to 6 (raised from "2" after the earlier eruption a couple of weeks ago)

The last time it was this active was 1973.

Then, I took this photo just as the light was fading from my garden.

Just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

As a humorous aside, a recent Swiss visitor to our offices misheard the name of the mountain and thought it was "Asama" bin Laden

Laughing in the face of imminent danger.

Be careful Arch.  Fourtunately for your area, it looks like the winds are carrying the plume toward the northeast.  Not so fortunate for the population north of you.  But an explosion like Mt. St. Helens could do a lot of damage.

By the way, the Earth Observatory program monitors active volcanoes, but they don't have Asamayama yet!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?topic=volcano

Latest - 7:20am and it looks like the mountain did not relent all night.  Looks basically the same as yesterday with regular eruptions of smoke and gas.

Astronuc, all the cases on that site include images from satellite.  Could it be a political or military reason for not posting an image and therefore no record?  Or simply that they haven't had a fly-over?

Is this turning into a blog?

I'm at the office now.  As I left for work, I noticed my car had a very fine dusting of ash on it.  During the 15 minute or so drive into the office, I saw three separate expulsions of ash / gas.

The wind has shifted this morning further west and north so the smoke is being pushed approximately south east.  My house was lying in its shadow this morning.  Under the smoke stream, haziness is quite easily detectable which I assume to be ash particles falling out of the cloud.

Whereas yesterday at this time, the output could be described as a stream, today the word "billowing" would be closer to the truth.

As I arrived at my office, my elevation increases about 250 meters.  As I look back into the valley below, things are definitely getting murky.

Archie,  I don't know why the EarthObservatory is missing Asamayama.  It will certainly impact the weather in the N. Pacific if it goes, which will affect the western US.

The satellites are way high up there, so I can't imagine that they haven't done a flyover.  Maybe Asamayama is too recent.  I am going to contact them and mention it.  They even have a Russian volcano, so the satellite can't be too far away.

I suppose your original post has evolved into a blog - keep it up.

You should consider catching some dust and selling it on E-bay.   ;)  ;D

It's now 12:20pm.

Activity continues more or less as before.  Some clouds are forming so further observation this afternoon is going to detiorate.

Rain is forecast for tomorrow so I guess I won't be able to see what is happening until Saturday.

Hey Archie, your volcano was recently photographed by satellite.  Next time look up and smile.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12444

It may be a coincidence, but it showed up just the day after I emailed them with the coordinates.

It was also reported by FoxNews this evening...I doubt it was coincidence  ;)  Active for the first time in over 200 years?  (that's what was reported anyway)

I can't help but notice quite a few active volcanoes on the Ring of Fire, particluarly along the Western Pacific.  Mauna Loa is making some grumblings.  All of this has been happening since May 2004!  Why all of a sudden?  I have not followed this long enough to know if this is a typical frequency of volcanic events.

If a Cascade and/or Alaskan volcano starts going off, maybe we are in for something big!

Could it be the "Coming Global Superstorm" as Mr. Art Bell has long suggested?  Let's hope not.  Earthquakes, volcanos, mass-huricanes...something's going on IMO, maybe the pole shift is becoming evident...

Cassi, you may want to read this:

http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_earth.html#magflip

There is absolutely no fossil evidence to suggest any global disasters to biology during, leading up to, or after, a pole flip.  Migratory birds will be a little confused, and some of our technology will not function correctly, but things like hurricanes and earthquakes are completely unrelated phenomena to the Earth's magnetic properties.

The global-catastrophe conjecture that has so many people worried are myths propogated by cranks, just like the Planet-X armageddon predictions.

I have read it, the truth is, no one know what will happen because we've never witnessed it before.  Hopefully all will be well, and nothing disasterous will happen, and really, I'm with you, I trust science and its research...I just think something is evident in the events of the earth as of late.   :juggle