Bul Le Tin of the Global Vol Can Ism Net Work
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Bulle tin of the Global Vol can ism Net work Vol ume 33, Num ber 2, February 2008 Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tan za nia) Explo sive erup tions of Decem ber 2007-March 2008; hazard warn ings .....2 Bar ren Is land (In dia) Satel lite imag ery of ash plume, 23 De cem ber 2007 ....................7 Talang (In do ne sia) Ash emis sions in March, June, and Novem ber 2007 .....................7 Batu Tara (In do ne sia) Sat el lite ther mal anom a lies in di cate that near-daily erup tions con tinue.........7 Lokon-Empung (In do ne sia) June 2007-March 2008, variable seis mic ity and minor white plumes .......8 Langila (Pa pua New Guinea) Inter mittent ash emissions in May and August 2007 ...............8 Garbuna Group (Pa pua New Guinea) Ash emis sions during March 2008....................9 Bulusan (Phil ip pines) Ash ejec tions con tinued to at least late 2007 ......................10 NW Rota-1 (Mariana Is lands) Visit on 24 Febru ary 2008 found eruption plume and acous tic signals .....11 Suwanose-jima (Ja pan) Small (~ 1 km) plumes noted during late 2007-early 2008 ..............11 Cleve land (USA) Ther mal anom a lies and mi nor ex plo sions con tinue through Feb ru ary 2008 ........12 Ed itors: Rick Wunderman, Ed ward Venzke, and Sally Kuhn Sennert Vol un teer Staff: Phumtham Limwattananon, Rob ert Andrews, Hugh Replogle, Michael Young, Paul Berger, Jacquelyn Gluck, Margo Morell, Stephen Bentley, Antonia Book binder, Jeremy Book binder, and Ludmila Eichelberger Global Vol canism Program · National Museum of Natural History, Room E-421, PO Box 37012 · Washing ton, DC 20013-7012 · USA Tele phone: (202) 633-1800 · Fax: (202) 357- 2476 · Email: [email protected] · URL: http://www.vol cano.si.edu/ The text of the Bul le tin is also distrib uted through the Volcano Listserv (vol [email protected]). 2 Ol Doinyo Lengai Smithsonian Institution — Bulletin of the Global An acci dent last August high lights the haz ards of sum- Ol Doinyo Lengai mit access. On his 21 August 2007 ascent, Chris Weber’s group evac u ated a local Maasai por ter who had fallen into Tan za nia, East ern Af rica an ac tive lava flow (around 500°C) in the crater. The por ter 2.764°S, 35.914°E; summit elev. 2,962 m had managed to get out of the lava, but with both legs and All times are lo cal (= UTC + 3 hours) one arm seri ously burned. Initial treatment at an Arusha hospi tal was fi nanced by Weber's tour com pany. As of Jan - The previous re port on Ol Doinyo Lengai (BGVN u ary 2008 he was bedrid den in his home near Engare Sero, 32:11), often sim ply called Lengai, sum marized seismic ity ex pe ri enc ing pain and mus cle wast ing. Celia Nyamweru and ener getic ash emissions during 2007. The devel op ment (see web address below) has appealed for fi nancial support of a sin gle large cone with a prom inent venting crater sig- to assist the young man during his recov ery. nifi cantly changed the crater morphol ogy. Keller and Klaudius fieldwork, Decem ber 2007. Sub- This re port dis cusses field ob ser va tions by var i ous in di - se quent to pub li ca tion of BGVN 32:11, we received an un- vidu als dur ing Decem ber 2007 through March 2008. The published re port by Joerg Keller and Jurgis Klaudius on reports and pho tos from visi tors provided by Freder ick their fieldwork during 5-11 Decem ber 2007. Accord ing to Belton on his website form the source for much of which them, the 4 Septem ber eruption ended a period of about 25 fol lows. Ta ble 1 sum ma rizes the ob ser va tions from De cem - years of activ ity domi nated by the effu sion of highly fluid ber 2007 through March 2008. natrocarbonatite lavas within the sum mit crater. The deep Brief ob ser va tion(s) (Key: CV= climbed vol cano; A=ae rial ob ser va tions/ Date(s) Ob server(s) photos from crater over flight; F = flank obser va tion) 7 Dec 2007 Joerg Keller, Jurgis Klaudius (CV) Geolog i cal sam ples collected; ash eruption with plumes rising to sev eral thousand meters above vol cano (see text) 25 Dec 2007 Jens Fissenebert, Paul Johns (A/CV) Ob serva tions of crater from heli cop ter and ground (see text) 31 Dec 2007 Ra phael Wolf (CV) Volcano “shook 3 times as my guide and I were climb ing”; vent of new cin der cone steam ing 6 Jan 2008 Paul Johns (A/CV) Heli cop ter landed in S crater, group walked to sum mit; eruption during flight to crater and 15 minutes after they left; large rocks (bombs?) had been thrown into the S crater 14 Jan 2008 Vegard Laukhammer (CV) Ex pe ri enced erup tion (see text) 17-21 Jan 2008 Tom Pfeiffer, group from Volcano (CV) (See text) Dis cov ery 18 Jan 2008 Thomas Holden (CV) New climb ing route on the SE described 19 Jan 2008 Bernhard Donth, Thomas (CV) Occa sional rain of fine gray ash and small white pebbles during as cent; Schulmeister, William (Maasai guide) small ash jets from the ac tive crater 04 Feb 2008 Mi chael Dal ton-Smith (F) (See text) 12 Feb 2008 Michel Picard (A) Photo graphed a dark ash cloud 13 Feb 2008 Walt Bilofsky (A) Ash rising from sum mit crater 15 Feb 2008 Gerrit Jan Plaisier, Rob Alakaposa (A) Plume over Lengai to al titude of 11 km 15 Feb 2008 Benoit Wangermez (pilot) (A) Sum mit crater heavily cloaked in fresh ash; ash cloud rising from crater; movie of erup tion on Celia Nyamweru’s website 20 Feb 2008 Nigel D’Aubrey (A) Plume over Lengai 21 Feb 2008 KLM pi lot (A) Erup tion 24 Feb 2008 Claude Humbert (CV) Party of 11 peo ple at tempted to climb the S side, but ter mi nated the climb about half-way up due to erup tion 27 Feb 2008 reported to Mi chael Dal ton-Smith (F) Eruptions getting stronger; ob served from Gol, massive cloud 27-28 Feb 2008 Flight crew (A) Ash emissions at 1030 and 1200 on 27 Feb and 0530 on 28 Feb; ash cloud moved SW and dissi pated 27-28 Feb 2008 Dave Rhys (F) Eruptions observed from the Serengeti Plain and Ngorongoro Crater 3; single ash plumes rose rap idly follow ing each eruption (none contin u ous) and dispersed S (thin ash coating on leaves around the rim of Ngorongoro crater) 01 Mar 2008 Max Voight (A) Photo of ash plume rising late Feb 2008, 1-2 Mar 2008 Benoît Wilhelmi (pi lot) (A) Photos of ash plumes 03 Mar-05 Mar 2008 Tony Drummond-Murray (F) Massive erup tions (see text) 05 Mar 2008 Benoît Wilhelmi (pi lot) (A) Plume to al titude of ~15.2 km 11 Mar-12 Mar 2008 Benoît Wilhelmi (pi lot) (A) Strong ash erup tion (see text) 18 Mar 2008 Benoît Wilhelmi (pi lot) (A) Pho tos of crater (see text) 22 Mar 2008 Benoît Wilhelmi (pi lot) (A) Pho tos of new crater (see text) 25 Mar 2008 Paul Westerman, friend, and Maasai (CV) Walked to the top of the ash cone and heard the tremen dous roar; no guide sulfur smell but some heat 26 Mar 2008 Paul Westerman (F) From shore of Lake Natron observed some smoke and ash fall (on the downwind side) start ing around 0930 Table 1. Sum mary of selected observ ers of Ol Doinyo Lengai from Decem ber 2007 through 26 March 2008. Obser va tions for 2007 were re ported in BGVN 32:11. Most of list is cour tesy of Freder ick Belton. Volcanism Network, Volume 33, Number 2, February 2008 Ol Doinyo Lengai 3 pit crater from the 1966/67 eruption period had gradu ally Dawson (re ported in BGVN 32:11), who ana lyzed the min- filled by about 1999/2000. Accord ing to the report, the last eral ogy af ter the 24 Septem ber 2007 eruption, and their days of August 2007 were char acter ized by Weber as dis- sugges tion that at the onset of the explo sive eruptive period play ing seem ingly in creased lava out put. A on 4 September 2007 a sil icate com po nent be came involved natrocarbonatite lava, col lected by Weber dur ing his as cent in the eruptive activ ity. Mitchell and Dawson concluded on 23 August, was an alyzed by Keller at Freiburg Univer - that “in lacking clinopyroxene, the mantling ash is not sity and was close to the aver age or standard compo si tion nephe lin ite or melilitite and is un like any other magma type for natrocarbonatite from the last 20 years. previ ously recorded from the vol cano." During their field work on 5-11 De cem ber 2007, Keller During the Decem ber fieldwork, Keller and Klaudius and Klaudius ob served in ter mit tent but im pres sive ex plo- col lected samples and ex am ined cross-sec tions of the 4 sions with ash plumes rising to several thousand meters Sep tem ber 2007 ash. Prox i mal (near-source) ac cu mu la tions above the volcano.