Up and Down and Up She Goes: ISCHIA ISLAND

“The island of Ischia seen from the sea, showing volcanic features”. Coloured etching by Pietro Fabris, 1776. (Iconographic Collections at Wellcome Images)

Ischia (pronounced: ‘Is-kyah) is a densely inhabited volcanic island in the Bay of Naples, on the mid-southwestern coast of Italy, some 30km from the Naples mainland. Most people know that the island of Ischia is of a volcanic nature. Many of them believe that it is just another extinct volcanic cone, layers over layers of lava, piled up throughout distant eruptive periods. Not so! The interesting thing is that it’s not your off-the-shelf volcano grown from a seamount before emerging above the sea surface. Ischia has a distinctly different geological history compared to the island volcanoes we know from subduction zones. And, of course, it is not extinct.

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June 22 Eruption at Raikoke, Kuril Islands

 

NASA ISS photo of Raikoke in eruption taken June 22. Active plume with water vapor collar at the base. Water vapor collar at the base may be due to ambient air sucked upwards with the plume. Alternately, it may be due to interaction of pyroclastic flows with surrounding sea water. Image courtesy NASA Earth Observatory.

Simushir Island – Nested Calderas and Secret Sub Bases, Central Kuril Islands

Simushir Island. Volcanoes named on the image. Photo courtesy Japan Space ASTER, Oct. 2004.

Quite Off the Beaten Track – ASCENSION I. 🇦🇨

View from Green Mountain across volcanic cinder cones, with Sisters Peak towering over the little town of Two Boats. (© BBC)

“The 7th June anno 1656. Att evening wee arrived att Ascention and anchored on the NW side of the iland. On our rightt hand was a faire sandy bay

Suwanose-jima, one of Japan’s Most Active Volcanoes

Suwanose-jima island and Otake volcano in its center. Flank collapse and new pyroclastic cone are clearly visible on the center and to the east of the crater. Image screen capture via Google maps.

Ongoing Activity at Sarychev Peak, Kuril Islands, Russia

ISS astronaut photo of Sarychev Peak eruptive plume June 12, 2009. 3 pyroclastic flows are visible at the base of the plume. Brown flow to the left toward the shoreline. Grey – white flow toward the bottom of the photo. Finally, a third dark brown flow to the right toward the opposite shoreline. Image originally courtesy NASA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarychev_Peak

Australia 4 – The Volcanoes of Victoria and Tasmania

Schematic of volcanic provinces in Victoria. Older volcanics are depicted in green, Newer in orange, and Macedon – Trentham in blue. Image courtesy Meeuws, et al. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264817216300605

 

This post will cover remaining volcanic activity in southern Australia.  The majority of it is in the southeastern state of Victoria.  The most recent activity has spilled over the border to the west into South Australia.  Finally, we will take a look at volcanic activity in the Bass Strait, the water separating Tasmania from the rest of the continent and a quick look at volcanic activity in Tasmania.

Rabaul Caldera – a Most Dangerous System

Tavurvur eruption in Rabaul Caldera. Image courtesy Mountain Forecast.com. https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Rabaul-caldera

Why is Akutan the Eighth Most Dangerous Volcano in the US?

Akutan Volcano looking west. Village of Akutan on the north side of the bay in the foreground. Image courtesy Vlad Karpayev, AVO, June 2018. https://avo.alaska.edu/images/image.php?id=117501

Activity Continues at Langila, New Britain, PNG

Langila Volcano. Crater 3 is to the right. Image taken in 1970. Courtesy Smithsonian GVP. https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=252010