Eyjafjöll Eruption Update – April 3

Serial No  1,532. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

Fimmvörduháls Eruption May be Intensifying – A Second Fissure Has Appeared

A new volcanic fissure has appeared near Eyjafjallajökull in southern Iceland to the northwest of the original fissure on March 31. It may be a sign that the eruption at Fimmvörduháls is intensifying.

A pilot on a sight-seeing flight observed the vent at about 7:00PM  on Wednesday (local time). He saw a sudden flash of light followed  by a new rift, which opened up immediately after, a report said.

The natural-color satellite image (ALI on NASA’s EO-1) above shows a new fissure at Fimmvörduháls near Eyjafjallajökull ejecting steam. The vent, which appeared on March 31, is located  northwest of the original vent. Source: NASA

Map of the Lava flow. Click image to enlarge. Full map including flow data and legend available at Map of the lava flow from 21 – 31 March 2010 (by Eyjólfur Magnússon, pdf file)

Latest and the most spectacular video of the eruption:

• Eruption Footage

Earlier Videos

• Video by MBL
• Horfa á kvikmyndir frá Hvannárgili [26 march 2010]
• Horfa á kvikmyndir frá Hrunagili [26 march 2010]
• Eruption Caught on Video by Iceland Coast Guard (WMV) – 20 March 2010

• Hrunagil (video)
• Iceland TV RUC

Technical information:

• New map of the lava flow from 21 – 24 March 2010
• Latest Map of volcanic emissions 25 March 2010 (Icelandic)
  

Webcams – Volcanoes in Iceland

• Eyjafjallajökull
  • http://mila.is/um-milu/vefmyndavelar/eyjafjallajokull-fra-hvolsvelli/
  • http://mila.is/um-milu/vefmyndavelar/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/
• Hekla: http://www.ruv.is/hekla/
• Katla: http://www.ruv.is/katla/

Latest Images (RUV): http://www.ruv.is/flokkar/hamfarir

Related Headline News

• Iceland: New Craters open up. “We saw the Earth open up” [April 3, 2010]
• Icelandic Volcanic Outburst goes 100 Meters into the Air [April 1, 2010]
• Toxic Fumes at Source of Iceland Eruption
• Lava Flow Heads for Idyllic Iceland Valley
• Iceland Lava Flow Changes Channels

Related Sites in Iceland (English)

• Institute of Earth Sciences, Iceland
• Geophysical research at the Icelandic Meteorological Office
• Continuous tremor plots at the Icelandic Meteorological Office
• Earthquake location maps at the Icelandic Meteorological Office

Fire-Earth Links:

• Eyjafjöll Still Erupting
• Eyjafjöll Eruption – Images of the Day

• Eyjafjöll Eruption – LATEST
• Icelandic Volcano Erupts – UPDATE
• Volcano erupts near Eyjafjallajoekull, Iceland
• Icelandic Volcano Erupts – VIDEO UPDATE

• Volcanoes
• FEWW Volcano Links
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Oil Refinery Explodes in Washington State

Serial No  1,531. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

A Massive explosion at oil refinery kills at least 5 people

The blast struck the Tesoro Corp. oil refinery in Anacortes, about 110 kilometers  north of Seattle on Puget Sound, early Saturday morning.

A Tesoro Corp. refinery, including a gas flare flame that is part of the plant operations, is shown Friday, April 2, 2010, in Anacortes, Wash. An overnight fire and explosion at the refinery killed at least three people working at the plant. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren). Image may be subject to copyright.

Three male employees died at the scene and two female workers lost their lives later at a Seattle hospital. Two other employees with first degree burns were hospitalized at the Harvard View Medical Center near Seattle, WA.

“It was the largest fatal refinery accident since a 2005 explosion at a BP American refinery in Texas killed 15 people and injured another 170.” AP reported.

The company says the explosion occurred while maintenance work was being carried out and was extinguished in less than 2 hours.

The refinery was recently charged with safety violations and fined by the authorities “amid what federal watchdogs call a troubling trend of serious accidents at refineries.”

The blast reportedly shook homes and woke people as far away as 20 km.

“We could tell this was horrific, this was huge,” said Jan Taylor of La Conner, Wash., who felt the blast rock her motorhome at the RV park across the bay.

Map of Tesoro Corp Installations in the U.S. with the approximate location of Anacortes refinery encircled. Sourec Tesoro website. Image may be subject to copyright.

Anacortes refinery was acquired by Tesoro 12 years ago. It processes crude from Alaska North Slope and produces a total of about 120,000 barrels. “The refinery primarily supplies gasoline, jet fuel and diesel to markets in Washington and Oregon, and manufactures heavy fuel oils, liquefied petroleum gas and asphalt. It receives crude feedstock via pipeline from Canada and by tanker from Alaska and foreign sources.” Company website said.

Related Links:

• U.S. power plant explosion kills 50*
• 2010: Year One of Human-Enhanced Disasters
• Major Blackout Plunges Brazil into Darkness

• IF Nature Had a List of Extreme Dislikes
• Murphy’s law has no time vector!
• ConocoPhillips Alaska Head Killed in Avalanche

Peru Mudslide: 30 killed, 54 injured, 25 missing

Serial No  1,530. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

A giant avalanche of mud and rocks buries a village in NE Peru, killing at least 30 people, injuring 54 and leaving 25 others missing.

“As of 12:00pm [17:00UTC, April 2, 2010] the death toll stands at 30 people,” Civil Defense chief of the Huanuco region, Hipolito Cruchaga, announced.

Although he put the number of missing at about 25, some local reports have suggested “hundreds of people” may be missing in the village of Ambo.

Homes are submerged in earth after a landslide in the Porvenir area of Huanuco, Peru, Friday, April 2, 2010. Regional officials say heavy rains in northeastern Peru caused landslides that killed at least 25 people, injured 50 and another 25 people are missing. (AP Photo). Image may be subject to copyright.

“An entire village, some 400 people, has completely vanished,” Jorge Espinoza, a senior official in the Huanuco region, had earlier told N television.

“Some will be saved, but it appears the majority were buried,” he said.

“The bodies of some victims were plucked from the swollen Huallaga River downstream from the village of Ambo, while others had to be dug out of the mud, local media reported.” AFP said.

A photo of an earlier mudslide released by Peruvian Civil Defense.

The mudslide was triggered by heavy rains that caused a lake higher up a mountain to overflow into a ravine, officials were reported as saying.

Another mudslide claimed 5 lives near the town of Cancejos on Thursday, officials said.

The disasters came barely hours after the government announced Machu Picchu had been reopened following the deadly floods that had forced the closure of Peru’s Inca ruins in January.

On March 9, Fire-Earth Forecast:

More extremes of weather could affect western, northwestern and northern regions of  South America throughout the spring 2010, possibly extending into the summer.

Related  Links:

• 2010: Year One of Human-Enhanced Disasters
• Earthquake, Heavy Rain, Mudslides Strike Peru
• Deadly Landslides in Peru Causes Many Deaths, Injuries [December 2009]
• Magnitude 6.1 quake strikes southern Peru  [July 2009]
• Landslides
• Storms, Extreme Rain Events, Rising Sea Levels
• El Niño

More AP photos: Click here

Entire Rhode Island Now a Disaster Area

Serial No  1,529. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

The entire state of Rhode Island now a disaster area

A joint request by Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri and the the state’s Emergency Management Agency to amend a federal major disaster declaration has been approved by the President, declaring the entire state a disaster area. (Source: AP)

Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security Secretary, took a helicopter tour of Rhode Island on Friday, witnessing the extent of damage to the waterlogged state.

The ultimate cost of damage in RI could reach a billion, or more, at a time when the state has a budget deficit of nearly a quarter of a billion, with an unemployment rate of near 14 percent.

Related Links:

• Rhode Island: Step Nearer Collapse?
• US East Coast Inundated by Major Flooding
• A Dry Run for Climate Chaos Heading Our Way
• Global Weather Chaos
• 2010: Year One of Human-Enhanced Disasters
• Continued addiction to oil: More intense, faster paces of climate change

Dominican Republic Quake Report

Serial No  1,528. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

Correction:

An earlier report of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Dominican Republic that was posted on Fire-Earth was sourced from an automatically generated bulletin broadcast by the European Commission’s Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System – the report now appears to be FALSE

According to other monitoring sources, an 8.0Mw quake has NOT occurred in the region.

Details as they appeared on  EC’s Disaster Website:

Click image to enlarge.

Earthquake Details as Reported by USGS/EHP:

• Magnitude: 3.2
• Date-Time:
  • Friday, April 02, 2010 at 05:38:53 UTC
  • Friday, April 02, 2010 at 01:38:53 AM at epicenter
• Location: 19.226°N, 67.986°W
• Depth: 89.8 km (55.8 miles)
• Region: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC REGION
• Distances:
  • 102 km (63 miles) NE (48°) from Higüey, La Altagracia, Dominican Republic
  • 122 km (76 miles) ENE (65°) from El Seybo, El Seybo, Dominican Republic
  • 124 km (77 miles) NW (315°) from Aguadilla, PR
  • 136 km (85 miles) NE (49°) from La Romana, La Romana, Dominican Republic
  • 212 km (132 miles) WNW (293°) from SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
• Location Uncertainty: horizontal +/- 3.7 km (2.3 miles); depth +/- 4.8 km (3.0 miles)
• Parameters: NST= 14, Nph= 14, Dmin=124.8 km, Rmss=0.37 sec, Gp=202°,
• M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=0
• Source:Puerto Rico Seismic Network, University of Puerto Rico
• Event ID: pr10092001

The automatic report also generated a virtual tsunami automatically. Let’s hope no one was hurt!!

Click image to enlarge.