Central and South American Volcanos

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In summary: I heard the plate that has caused the Rockies to rise from the sea is used up now and changes that occurred in the past have stopped. There are a lot of "dead" volcanoes in California as a... consequence.There is a lot of data on volcanoes and their effects on the weather, but it is difficult to gather because it is so variable.Volcanology is a very complex and constantly evolving field.
  • #1
Astronuc
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have been active.

Some really spectacular images (the first image is of Fuego in Guatemala)

http://www.wired.com/2016/06/central-american-volcanoes-let-spectacular-eruptions/

In addition to Fuego, volcano Turrialba in Costa Rica has been erupting. A strong explosive eruption occurred June 24 and 11 eruptions have occurred over the following weekend.

Fuego, Guatemala
http://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=342090

Turrialba, Costa Rica
http://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=345070
 
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  • #2
Is there any trend developing where we can anticipate some dormant volcanoes to come alive?
 
  • #3
jedishrfu said:
Is there any trend developing where we can anticipate some dormant volcanoes to come alive?
I don't know the answer, but there are several volcanos from Mexico down through Central America to Ecuador

In Mexico, Popocatepetl has been erupting since March 2016
http://Earth'sky.org/earth/popocatepetl-volcano-mexico-eruption-april-2016
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/popocatepetl/news.html
http://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=341090

Mt Tungurahua in Ecuador had a spectacular eruption in March 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-03-ecuador-volcano-towering-cloud-ash.html
 
  • #4
jedishrfu said:
Is there any trend developing where we can anticipate some dormant volcanoes to come alive?

The Yellowstone caldera is over due for a massive eruption. It is a super volcano that will wreak havoc on the NA continent when it erupts.
 
  • #5
Kevin McHugh said:
The Yellowstone caldera is over due for a massive eruption. It is a super volcano that will wreak havoc on the NA continent when it erupts.

I was thinking more of a domino effect which I guess would follow a fault line as it slips.

Yeah, I think we're in the outer edge of its range of destruction and could get an inch or so of ash.
 
  • #6
Do you have any estimates about these events have on the weather? Do you have any data on how many similar events occur on the seabed (which as you know is twice the area of the the land mass and one half the thickness)? It seems logical there must be a lot of undersea activity.
 
  • #7
jim meyer said:
Do you have any estimates about...the effects ... these events have on the weather?

Hi Jim
I assume there was supposed to be a ... the effects ... in there :wink:

there has been text written about both the Philippines, Mt Pinatubo eruption effects and well as the NW USA, Mt St Helens eruption

A bit of googling on those would most likely yield a few papers on the subject :smile:Dave
 
  • #8
Yea, I know my writing needs editing. What I am after is data indicating forces from the mantle of our lovely planet do indeed effect the weather.
 
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  • #9
jim meyer said:
What I am after is data indicating forces from the mantle of our lovely planet do indeed effect the weather.

yes, I understand that and hence why I suggested you google those 2 volcanic events
Pinatubo had a well established effect
 
  • #10
jim meyer said:
Do you have any estimates about these events have on the weather? Do you have any data on how many similar events occur on the seabed (which as you know is twice the area of the the land mass and one half the thickness)? It seems logical there must be a lot of undersea activity.
Land and ocean areas have very different geology so they have very different volcanic activity.

The Western American mountain ranges have volcanoes well inland that produce a thick acidic lava which forms steep cones, generates a lot of ash and generally behaves unpredictably, for example Mt. St. Helens. Those volcanoes form on continental crust, usually over what is called a subduction zone.

Oceanic volcanoes tend to be basaltic and produce a very fluid lava with little ash that makes shallow cones such as the Hawaiian chain. Underwater they produce pillow lavas at the oceanic spreading centre, the mid-oceanic ridge.

The major influence of the Earth's crust on the (atmosphere / weather / climate) is through high altitude fine ash clouds produced by continental volcanoes.
 
  • #11
It seems to me a lot of detail is missing about how the mantle effects the surface of our lovely planet. These flows of magma consist of more than mass in the form of rock, liquids and gas. There is a lot of energy never considered that is flowing out of the mantle mostly into the ocean because 2/3s of the Earth's surface is ocean and the ocean crust is only 1/3 as thick as the continental crust. This an important detail to everything we know and love about the surface of the planet which is our only home in the universe.
 
  • #12
Hey Astronuc... I've always wondered why, besides Mt. St. Helen's, why our volcanoes in the NW seem to take an activity break between California and northern British Columbia compared to Central and South America and even the rest of the 'Ring of Fire'. Is the Pacific Plate not as active as it is elsewhere? Or is the NA plate thicker? Or...? Thanks.
 
  • #13
I heard the plate that has caused the Rockies to rise from the sea is used up now and changes that occurred in the past have stopped. There are a lot of "dead" volcanoes in California as a result.
 
  • #14
jim meyer said:
It seems to me a lot of detail is missing about how the mantle effects the surface of our lovely planet. These flows of magma consist of more than mass in the form of rock, liquids and gas. There is a lot of energy never considered that is flowing out of the mantle mostly into the ocean because 2/3s of the Earth's surface is ocean and the ocean crust is only 1/3 as thick as the continental crust. This an important detail to everything we know and love about the surface of the planet which is our only home in the universe.
This is a science based forum. Hypothesising that there is some unidentified energy flow between the "lovely" Earth's mantle and atmosphere does not make it so.

You need to list the hypothetical energy flows that you believe are operating, and identify the observations that support your hypothesis. Without that supporting list of evidence your suggestion will look like a magical new age belief system, not a science.
 
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  • #15
jim meyer said:
I heard the plate that has caused the Rockies to rise from the sea is used up now and changes that occurred in the past have stopped. There are a lot of "dead" volcanoes in California as a result.

This is not entirely correct

The Juan de Fuca Plate is still alive and active. hence the volcanic activity in the NW USA, eg Mt St Helens and the 1000's of earthquakes a year as it subducts under North America

Juan_de_fuca_plate.png


What needs to be understood is that the Juan De Fuca Plate, is the remaining part of a much larger oceanic plate called the Farallon Plate. The Farallon Plate used to exist from Vancouver Is region, BC and right down to offshore Mexico and Central America and included what is now known the Cocos Plate off the central American west coast. Over the last 10 - 15 million years, the central part of the old Farallon plate as subducted beneath North America. This central section was subducted beneath California leaving the San Andreas fault system behind as the contact between the North America and Pacific plates

It's probably this central section that you are referring to in your comments that was responsible for the volcanics in the southern and central California regions.

cheers
Dave
 
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  • #16
But all those volcanoes aren't extinct are they? (We should be using correct terms, eh? Like extinct, dormant and active when describing volcano activity levels.) And there are quite a few NW volcanoes. Even in BC where I live there are a slew of volcanoes. I understood that many of them are dormant having erupted several thousand years ago, perhaps during the last interglacial. Just wondering why, if our local plate is as active as it is, we don't get more volcanic activity. (Although I have heard that Mt. Baker in N. Washington, which I can see in all its splendour from my window, puffs a little steam now and again.)
There must still be a lot of unknowns regarding plate tectonics and volcanism, I guess.
 
  • #17
ebos said:
But all those volcanoes aren't extinct are they?

which ones ?

Any of those in central and southern California pretty much are extinct as the subduction to fuel them is no longer occurring
Those to the north ... nthrn California, Oregon, and Washington states are still being fuelled by the Juan de Fuca subduction
and range between dormant to active ... Mt's Shasta, Hood, Ranier etcDave
 
  • #19
Baluncore said:
The volcano Concepción in Lake Nicaragua is still active, but appears to be on hold.

yup, one of many in Mexico and Central America that regularly burst into life

430px-Map_mexico_volcanoes.gif
camvolc.gif

Dave
ebos said:
Hey Astronuc... I've always wondered why, besides Mt. St. Helen's, why our volcanoes in the NW seem to take an activity break between California and northern British Columbia compared to Central and South America and even the rest of the 'Ring of Fire'. Is the Pacific Plate not as active as it is elsewhere? Or is the NA plate thicker? Or...? Thanks.
see my post ... #15
 
  • #20
The data for listing energy flows from the mantle has not been measured so all that exists is an understanding that is implied in plate tectonic modeling and studies of the mid ocean rift where sea floor spreading begins and what little data exists about black smokers. The fact that only 5% of the ocean is considered explored is a big problem.
 
  • #21
davenn said:
This is not entirely correct

The Juan de Fuca Plate is still alive and active. hence the volcanic activity in the NW USA, eg Mt St Helens and the 1000's of earthquakes a year as it subducts under North America

Juan_de_fuca_plate.png


What needs to be understood is that the Juan De Fuca Plate, is the remaining part of a much larger oceanic plate called the Farallon Plate. The Farallon Plate used to exist from Vancouver Is region, BC and right down to offshore Mexico and Central America and included what is now known the Cocos Plate off the central American west coast. Over the last 10 - 15 million years, the central part of the old Farallon plate as subducted beneath North America. This central section was subducted beneath California leaving the San Andreas fault system behind as the contact between the North America and Pacific plates

It's probably this central section that you are referring to in your comments that was responsible for the volcanics in the southern and central California regions.

cheers
Dave

Learn something new every day. Thank you very much for that, Dave.
I would imagine that the Farallon Plate will eventually melt away until it's part of the mantle again? Hopefully parts of it keep protecting us from the same volcanic activity they're experiencing in S. and C. America.
 
  • #22
jim meyer said:
The fact that only 5% of the ocean is considered explored is a big problem.
It is not sensible to claim that the ocean floor has not been studied since the area of the contact zones “explored” is only 5% of the total area. Regional measurements of gravity by satellite trajectory and magnetic mapping by surface vessels have categorised the ocean floor. Each category has been analysed.

We live in a universe of incompatible interfaces. We draw a line around an area, then study the path of that boundary line and the changes that appear across that line. If there were significant internal differences within the area, then several smaller areas would have been used for the classification.

The contacts between areas of tectonic plates are linear zones on the map. Study of the sea floor has focussed on those differential zones because that is where things change and the majority of the detailed information is found. It is not necessary to make detailed maps of large areas of monotonous sea floor unless you are looking for oil, or something like MH370.

jim meyer said:
The data for listing energy flows from the mantle has not been measured so all that exists is an understanding that is implied in plate tectonic modeling and studies of the mid ocean rift where sea floor spreading begins and what little data exists about black smokers.
You have that relationship backwards. The regional mapping of magnetic anomalies on the ocean floor lead to the wider acceptance of continental drift back in about 1965. Plate tectonics developed from that. The measurement of thermal gradients in boreholes, coupled with measurements of thermal conductivity of the core samples from those holes gives accurate estimates of heat flow. The plate tectonics models must agree with the plate boundary zone conditions and with the regional estimates of heat flow.
 
  • #23
The bore hole data does not include the magma flows that are known to exist and force seafloor spreading. As you know the seabed recycles or is renewed at a constant rate and magma flows from the mantle into the mid-ocean carries heat as well as mass not being estimated by anyone at this time. All I am saying is this energy has an effect on the surface of Earth.
 
  • #24
jim meyer said:
The bore hole data does not include the magma flows that are known to exist and force seafloor spreading.

they don't force the seafloor spreading alone. It's a combined effort between the subduction at the other end of the plate dragging the seafloor down.
This produces the extensional tectonics that allows the upwelling of magma along the ridges.
The process is reasonably well understood and estimates of magma extruded and heat losses along all ridges can be estimated
jim meyer said:
As you know the seabed recycles or is renewed at a constant rate

It is far from a constant rate. The rates vary dramatically along the ridges and subduction zones

you really need to start reading some good tectonics papers and learn about what is really happening :smile:Regards
Dave
 
  • #25
Well what I meant by constant rate was the 100,000,000 year cycle or so of the seabed. It could be 200,000,000 I don't know. It can indeed be estimated and included in the limited information we have about the seabed. I will guess it not a barren surface and will be full of surprises when it is explored.
 
  • #26
jim meyer said:
Well what I meant by constant rate was the 100,000,000 year cycle or so of the seabed. It could be 200,000,000 I don't know. It can indeed be estimated and included in the limited information we have about the seabed.

the seafloor around the world has been mapped very well over recent years with the advent of good radar mapping from satellites and ocean going ships.

here is one map showing relative ages of seafloor away from oceanic ridges

WorldCrustalAge.jpg


and Google Earth will show excellent mapping of seafloor terrain for almost anywhere in the world ... around the Guam area in the Western Pacific ... eg

upload_2016-7-14_12-40-7.png
pretty detailed looking to me :wink::smile:cheers
Dave
 
  • #27
Well, you know according to NOAA and people like the commander of the Alvin only a tiny amount of the ocean has been explored. Bouncing electromagnetic waves off the seabed a is very good start though. The flow of energy is not being mapped by this method and is energy flows from the mantle I want to know more about. When remote cameras look at the seabed they see living creatures where it was supposed nothing could live there. There is much more unknown than known about the ocean and most everything else as well.
 
  • #28
jim meyer said:
There is much more unknown than known about the ocean and most everything else as well.
If you spent less time claiming we have little information about the sea floor and more time reading scientific papers, on the subject of thermal gradients in the crust, published in geophysics journals, you could have a better grasp of the situation. You would then be complaining that there was too much data and not enough time to read it all.

Scientific research moves in phases, there are bursts of attention and activity in different fields over time. Geothermal heat flow studies blossomed about 60 years ago, from about 1950 through to 1960, studies of magnetic polarisation of the sea floor then took place in the period 1960 to 1965, followed by continental drift and plate tectonics.

Google ' Bullard Heat Flow ' for an entry into the subject of geothermal flux, then follow the references and citations back to Bullard's papers.
Ignorance is the deliberate denial of evidence.
 
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  • #29
I agree with you about the balance between the volume of available info and time anyone has to spare. I don't agree with your definition of ignorance. Not the issue here however. I'll look into the Bullard Heat Flow and I want to thank you for the sea floor map as well as this reference. The reason I believe this detail is important(you might object to my posting being a violation of the house rules)cannot be posted here.
 
  • #30
jim meyer said:
The reason I believe this detail is important(you might object to my posting being a violation of the house rules)cannot be posted here.

I had already figured you are into some sort of pseudo science rubbish from earlier posts you have made
And now you have fully confirmed that
I implore you to please get rid of any flat earth, hollow Earth or whatever other non-scientific stuff ( oddball personal theories) you cling to and start learning some real science

Baluncore said:
Ignorance is the deliberate denial of evidence.
jim meyer said:
don't agree with your definition of ignorance.

I do agree with Baluncore ... you are only harming your own growth in understanding if you continue to ignore the evidenceDave
 
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  • #32
Astronuc said:
That moment when you’re skiing on a volcano and it erupts
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...when-youre-skiing-on-a-volcano-and-it-erupts/

Chillán volcano has been active since about May and has been increasingly active during July.

WOW, reminds me of ski-ing on Mt Ruapehu in the central North Island of New Zealand. Another active volcano with ski fields on it

a Lahar down through the ski field

mt-ruapehu-28-09-2007-7.jpg


7428565.jpg


Dave
 
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  • #33
I've been expecting an eruption from "El Popo" lately, reports of ashing the neighborhood a few days back but it seems to have calmed down for the time being.
 
  • #34
1oldman2 said:
I've been expecting an eruption from "El Popo" lately, reports of ashing the neighborhood a few days back but it seems to have calmed down for the time being.
We didn't have to wait long!

UPI reports Popocatepetl erupted on Sunday, August 14. Apparently there were 4 eruptions in 24 hours.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/5b2ed453-4a9f-3758-bb13-c5c49d3f002c/mexico%26%2339%3Bs-popocat%C3%A9petl.html [Broken]

In Spanish (CENPRED reports) = http://www.cenapred.gob.mx/reportesVolcan/BuscarReportesVolcan?optBusqueda=1
 
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<h2>1. What are the most active volcanoes in Central and South America?</h2><p>The most active volcanoes in Central and South America are Popocatépetl in Mexico, Fuego in Guatemala, Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia, and Villarrica in Chile.</p><h2>2. How often do volcanoes in Central and South America erupt?</h2><p>The frequency of volcanic eruptions in Central and South America varies, but on average, there is at least one major eruption every year. However, some volcanoes may go decades without erupting, while others may have multiple eruptions in a short period of time.</p><h2>3. What are the potential hazards of living near a volcano in Central or South America?</h2><p>The potential hazards of living near a volcano in Central or South America include lava flows, pyroclastic flows, lahars (mudflows), ash fall, and volcanic gases. These hazards can cause damage to property and infrastructure, as well as pose a threat to human life.</p><h2>4. How do scientists monitor volcanoes in Central and South America?</h2><p>Scientists use a variety of methods to monitor volcanoes in Central and South America, including seismometers to detect earthquakes, GPS to measure ground deformation, gas sensors to measure volcanic gases, and satellite imagery to track changes in the volcano's shape and activity.</p><h2>5. Can volcanic eruptions in Central and South America affect global climate?</h2><p>Yes, volcanic eruptions in Central and South America can have a significant impact on global climate. Volcanic ash and gases can reach the upper atmosphere and block sunlight, causing a temporary cooling effect. Large eruptions can also release large amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to the greenhouse effect and potentially leading to long-term climate change.</p>

1. What are the most active volcanoes in Central and South America?

The most active volcanoes in Central and South America are Popocatépetl in Mexico, Fuego in Guatemala, Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia, and Villarrica in Chile.

2. How often do volcanoes in Central and South America erupt?

The frequency of volcanic eruptions in Central and South America varies, but on average, there is at least one major eruption every year. However, some volcanoes may go decades without erupting, while others may have multiple eruptions in a short period of time.

3. What are the potential hazards of living near a volcano in Central or South America?

The potential hazards of living near a volcano in Central or South America include lava flows, pyroclastic flows, lahars (mudflows), ash fall, and volcanic gases. These hazards can cause damage to property and infrastructure, as well as pose a threat to human life.

4. How do scientists monitor volcanoes in Central and South America?

Scientists use a variety of methods to monitor volcanoes in Central and South America, including seismometers to detect earthquakes, GPS to measure ground deformation, gas sensors to measure volcanic gases, and satellite imagery to track changes in the volcano's shape and activity.

5. Can volcanic eruptions in Central and South America affect global climate?

Yes, volcanic eruptions in Central and South America can have a significant impact on global climate. Volcanic ash and gases can reach the upper atmosphere and block sunlight, causing a temporary cooling effect. Large eruptions can also release large amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to the greenhouse effect and potentially leading to long-term climate change.

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