June
I started June by looking at how carbon dioxide could be a volcanic hazard in its own right after all the news of degassing at the Dieng Plateau in Indonesia – later in the month I looked at an EOS article the very clearly showed how volcanoes cannot be the source of the sharply increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, our attention was quickly taken by the massive eruption of Puyehue-Cordón Caulle in Chile (see above) that disrupted life in much of southern South America for the winter. There was some impressive footage of the thick pumice and ash from the eruption, including scuba divers swimming through pumice-coated lakes. Not long after the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption came news of an eruption in remote Eritrea. At first it was thought to be from Dubbi, but it was quickly realized through satellite images that it was, in fact, the Nabro caldera. Across the planet, Mt. Rainier in Washington reminded us that even when a volcano isn’t erupting, it can be hazardous. We also marked the 20th anniversary of the eruption of Pinatubo in the Philippines.
Image: The ash plume from Puyehue-Cordón Caulle punching through the clouds in early June, 2011. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.