Earth news: Volcano Ejects Fine Ash Into Stratosphere

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Last weekend, a volcano in New Guinea exploded suddenly and ejected a plume of fine ash that is now spread across the entire stratosphere. This changes our sunrises and sunsets and more onimously, our weather.

This eruption was totally unexpected.

Rabaul Volcano Tour, November 12, 2006 -

A large eruption occurred at Rabaul volcano on Saturday 7th October 2006, with ash to 60,000 ft.
The eruption shattered windows in the town, and lava flows reached the sea.

Rabaul has had major eruptions 3500 and 1400 years ago. An eruption of Rabaul in 1994
forced the evacuation of Rabaul city, the largest town on New Britain Island.

This is a tall ash plume. Volcanic eruptions that aren't explosive create local ash conditions but ones that have 'ooph' behind them end up blanketing the world with fine white ash, microscopic in size. This eruption has altered jet flights because the fine ash can cause serious problems being sucked into the engines as well as sandblasting the windshields.

More descriptions of this event from the Courier Mail of New Zealand.

PNG's mining department today reported doors slamming, windows rattling and ash falling as far away as Kokopo across the harbour from Rabaul.

"People are spontaneously evacuating from areas of heavy ash fall and those exposed to the worst of the air blasts. These are quite alarming," the report said.

A PNG Mining Department statement said the ash column was around 5,000m high with thunder and lightning within it.

In 1994, large eruptions of Tavurvur and nearby Vulcan destroyed much of Rabaul.

'Spontaneous evacuation' is a cute term for 'run for your lives.' This sudden blast was not expected.

Mt Rainier just had an interesting 4.5 quake that was most onimously at only 3.5 km deep which is above the regular 10 km deep of the average earthquake.

There was a small earthquake at Mt. Rainier, and the question that leaps immediately to mind is whether we will all soon be flash-cooked alive like the residents of Pompeii or something.

The last major geologic event at Mt. Rainier was about 5,000 years ago: the Osceola Mudflow, when the top 1,600 feet of the mountain went on a day trip to Puget Sound. If such an event happened again, Wikipedia doesn't like our chances:

This week's eruption in New Guinea should give everyone in Seattle pause. There was no warning at all. Not even a concerto buildup of microquakes and minor eruptions. The New Guinea one was very similar but in a smaller fashion to the mighty Krakatoa explosion: lightning, the borometer drops suddenly and doors slam and ears pop, repeated loud blasts as the gases violently eject matter.

Unlike the recent eruptions in the region, this one didn't have most of the ash billow downwards. Instead, it shot high, straight up. and according to the pictures, there was no powerful prevailing winds that could cut it off at the top so the dust poured into the stratosphere.

Yesterdat evening, as Chris and I drove home from picking up huge logs for chopping up and turning into firewood, I noticed the sky was very different. It was a pellucid, clear day yet the sky, instead of being a brilliant azure was milky white. 'Hey, it looks like the dust from that volcano has reached the northern hemisphere!' I said.

Then, as the sun set, it was a classic volcano event: the whole sky lit up more and more. The East was a brilliant, mother-of-pearl glossy curtain and the lower horizon was a dark, shadowy blue and the dividing line was very stark. In the zenith, it was lit up so bright, my husband thought the truck headlights were broken because even though the forest was dark, the ambient light was so bright, the road reflected this.

The west was buttery golden and the brilliance went all the way up to the zenith. As the sun set, the lower horizon turned blood red.

The picture above today shows how, at sunrise, the sky is completely white. We do have local fog but that is sitting in the valleys, the white sky is due to the volcano.

For some bizarre reason, the news never talks about the other side of this equation: volcano shoots fine dust into the higher stratosphere=sunlight cut down=cooler temperatures+ lots of snow and rain. One would think such information is important. You can bet, my husband and I are now stepping up the cutting and storing of firewood! I am now going to spend the next two weeks moving forwards, all my 'bad winter' projects.

When the volcano in the Philippines blew up in similar fashion back in the early 90's, I was living in the tent. The previous two years were hysterically warm. We had butterflies in March. When the volcano erupted, within two months, the weather totally changed. We have a video of my son and I running around the mountain with the sled dog (thank god we had a sled dog!) in late June wearing winter coats!

The following winter was very brutal and we had so much snow on the ground, the tent was totally surrounded by snow to the top of the roof. The National Guard had to dig out the mountain people. My son's school used up all the 'snow days' and had to extend the school year.

This eruption wasn't as long as the Philippino volcano so I don't think we will have a dramatic 2 degree drop in world temperatures. But this is a warning shot. As I said before, after Great Quakes, volcanoes waken. And this process takes about five years.

The side issue is the suddeness of this eruption: Mt. Rainier could easily and probably do the exact same thing. It has not only a history of violent eruptions vs the kind Hawaiian volancoes have, for example. It is also one of the 'great volcanoes' which means it is very tall and very tall volcanoes have this habit of suddenly blowing off their tops and becoming calderas. It might not for the next 50,000 years but this is all about gambling. We are already in the timeframe for such an event.

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