VolcanoWatch Weekly [8 January 2010]

VoW: Turrialba

Turrialba has been quiescent since a series of explosive eruptions during the 19th century that were sometimes accompanied by pyroclastic flows. Photo by Federico Chavarria Kopper, 1999. Caption: GVP.

Volcano Details

• Country: Costa Rica
• Volcano Number: 1405-07=
• Volcano Type: Stratovolcano
• Last Known Eruption: 1866 (see below for latest report)
• Summit Elevation: 3,340 m
• Latitude: 10.025°N  (10°1’30″N)
• Longitude: 83.767°W  (83°46’1″W)

SI /USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report
(30 December – 5 January 2010)

New activity/Unrest:

• Galeras, Colombia
• Mayon, Luzon
• Nyamuragira, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion Island
• Rinjani, Lombok Island (Indonesia)
• Tungurahua, Ecuador
• Turrialba, Costa Rica

Volcano News (Source: GVP)

An explosive eruption from Galeras on 2 January prompted INGEOMINAS to raise the Alert Level. An ash plume rose to an altitude of 12 km (39,400 ft) a.s.l. Ejected incandescent blocks ignited fires.

Nyamuragira erupted on 2 January from a fissure on the SE flank. By 3 January, the lava flow had traveled 4.6 km and had burned about 10 hectares of forest.

On 1 January, an ash plume from Tungurahua rose to an altitude of 5.9 km (19,500 ft) a.s.l. and drifted NW. Slight ashfall was reported the next day in Manzano. On 3 and 4 January, incandescent blocks were ejected from the crater.

On 5 January, OVSICORI-UNA reported that an eruption from Turrialba produced ashfall in local areas, particularly in areas to the SW. (SOURCE: GVP)

Ongoing Activity

Barren Island, Andaman Is;  Chaitén, Southern Chile;  Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka;  Kilauea, Hawaii (USA);  Kliuchevskoi, Central Kamchatka (Russia);  Nevado del Huila, Colombia;  Rabaul, New Britain;  Sakura-jima, Kyushu;  Sangay, Ecuador;  Santa María, Guatemala;  Shiveluch, Central Kamchatka (Russia);  Soufrière Hills, Montserrat;  Suwanose-jima, Ryukyu Islands (Japan).

The Weekly Volcanic Activity Report is a cooperative project between the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program and the US Geological Survey’s Volcano Hazards Program.

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• Arabia Shakes
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [28 Oct 2009]
• VolcanoWatch Weekly [26 Oct 2009]

More Links:

• Messages From Earth’s Powerhouse
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 19 March 2009

• A New Era of Intense Volcanic Unrest May Have Begun
• Tonga’s Metis Shoal may be erupting
• Rumble III Volcano “blew its top!”
• Volcanoes
• Earthquakes

FEWW Volcanic Activity Forecast

• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts
• Sumatra’s Mt Kerinci Erupts
• Volcano Watch Weekly: 23 April 2009

• Weekly Volcano Watch: 16 April 2009
• Weekly Volcano Watch: 2 April 2009

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Other Related Links:

• U.S. Volcano Status Map
• Elevated Activity Page
• U.S. Volcano Webcams

Air New Zealand Jet Windscreen Cracked Midflight

Submitted by TEAA

An Air New Zealand jet windscreen cracked midflight between Auckland, New Zealand and Cairns, Australia

The plane carrying 118 passengers was forced to divert to Brisbane airport for emergency landing.

Air New Zealand Passenger Jet.

An Australian passenger was reported as saying:

“There was a moment when the airplane suddenly slowed down and we lost a lot of altitude,” she said.

“The seat light came on.

“The air hostesses were very firm in telling us to go back to our place and put the rubbish away and clear the path.

“It was enough to wake my child up – she was sleeping.”

It took  another long, heart-stopping 40 minutes before the diverted plane finally made an emergency landing in Brisbane.

“We were going very slowly at very low altitude when we landed – he’d dropped right down to below the clouds,” she said.

“We saw the windscreen when we left the airplane – they let us have a look out the front and it looked like an enormous slug trail across the windscreen with a Y shape.

“It was on the left hand side of the plane … it was a fairly scary looking crack, that’s for sure.”

Air New Zealand have not confirmed whether the passenger jet was an Airbus.

On June 2, 2009 MSRB said:

The probability remains that the next major air disaster would occur as a result of an Air New Zealand Airbus crashing into the sea [with a certainty of 0.74]

Related Links:

• Top 10 Most Dangerous Airlines in 2009/2010
• How Air New Zealand Killed 257 People …
• Air NZ won’t apologize to Erebus families for negligent homicide
• Flying Coffins
• Air New Zealand Flying Coffin Crashes in the Mediterranean

• Pilot Error Downed Air New Zealand Airbus!
• Another Near Miss For Air NZ Flying Coffins
• Bend Over, Spread Your Legs and say Baa . . .
• Propeller falls off New Zealand plane
• An Air New Zealand Flying Coffin Forced to Land