Post by Mad Scientist on Jul 18, 2017 6:34:18 GMT
Mountain of God' Volcano Eruption Imminent, Scientist Says.
A cone overflow at night from Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano on July 05, 2004 in Rift Valley, Tanzania. Scientists say the African volcano is now showing signs that an eruption is imminent. (Martin Rietze / Barcroft Media / Getty Images).
The "Mountain of God" is ready to explode.
So says Dr. Sarah Stamps, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech who is involved in a project monitoring Ol Doinyo Lengai, a 7,650-foot-tall peak in Eastern Africa that the local Maasai people call the "Mountain of God." Lengai is the only known active carbonatite volcano in the world, spitting out a type of lava made from igneous rock rich in carbonates such as calcite and dolomite.
The peak, known for its bizarrely thin, silvery lava, is a place of pilgrimage for the pastoralist ethnic group of Maasai, the International Business Times reports, who travel there to entreat their god Engai for rain, cattle, and children.
The “Mountain of God” has been rumbling for over a century. Its largest known explosion in 1940 deposited ash more than 60 miles away.
Now, scientists say, the mountain is gearing up for another big blow.
“There are increased ash emissions, earthquakes, uplift at small volcanic cones, and an ever-widening crack at the top of the volcano on the west side,” Dr. Sarah Stamps, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech who is involved in a project monitoring the volcano, told National Geographic. “These are all signs of volcanic deformation that will likely lead to an eruption sooner rather than later.”
Stamps partnered with local academics to install five positioning sensors around Ol Doinyo Lengai in June 2016 in hopes of tracking how magma’s underground churn is deforming the volcano’s surface, Nat Geo reports.
Stamps monitoring system collects data on the volcano’s activity in real time, and on January 17, 2017, she saw a flicker in the information streaming from one monitoring station — a sign that parts of the volcano were lifting upward, she told Nat Geo.
“Several subsequent signals were also seen in real-time with additional on-the-ground observations by our local technician,” Stamps said. “These signals prompted rapid responses by our team to install three new real-time stations”
Stamps and her colleagues are warning that an “imminent” eruption seems to be on the horizon.
“Imminent in our case means in one second, in a few weeks, a couple of months, or a year or more,” she told Nat Geo in an email.
Though the immediate area around the mountain is sparsely populated, the city of Arusha, home to half a million people in the city proper and surrounding district, lies about 70 miles to the east of the volcano and could see impacts from a massive eruption.
More at risk are several unique cultural sites - a collection a collection of 3.6-million-year-old hominin footprints in the Olduvai Gorge and a “dance hall” of ancient Homo sapiens footprints at a site called Engare Sero.
If a large eruption and a heavy rainy season were to coincide, the resulting debris flows could potentially harm Engare Sero and nearby sites, Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce, an Appalachian State University geologist and National Geographic grantee who recently led an analysis of the Engare Sero footprints, told Nat Geo.
“Historically, Lengai is capable of large debris flows and debris avalanches that reach the shore of Lake Natron,” she said, “and these could potentially pose a significant threat to the site and to all of the camps that are here along the lake edge.”
Source Link.
A cone overflow at night from Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano on July 05, 2004 in Rift Valley, Tanzania. Scientists say the African volcano is now showing signs that an eruption is imminent. (Martin Rietze / Barcroft Media / Getty Images).
The "Mountain of God" is ready to explode.
So says Dr. Sarah Stamps, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech who is involved in a project monitoring Ol Doinyo Lengai, a 7,650-foot-tall peak in Eastern Africa that the local Maasai people call the "Mountain of God." Lengai is the only known active carbonatite volcano in the world, spitting out a type of lava made from igneous rock rich in carbonates such as calcite and dolomite.
The peak, known for its bizarrely thin, silvery lava, is a place of pilgrimage for the pastoralist ethnic group of Maasai, the International Business Times reports, who travel there to entreat their god Engai for rain, cattle, and children.
The “Mountain of God” has been rumbling for over a century. Its largest known explosion in 1940 deposited ash more than 60 miles away.
Now, scientists say, the mountain is gearing up for another big blow.
“There are increased ash emissions, earthquakes, uplift at small volcanic cones, and an ever-widening crack at the top of the volcano on the west side,” Dr. Sarah Stamps, a geophysicist at Virginia Tech who is involved in a project monitoring the volcano, told National Geographic. “These are all signs of volcanic deformation that will likely lead to an eruption sooner rather than later.”
Stamps partnered with local academics to install five positioning sensors around Ol Doinyo Lengai in June 2016 in hopes of tracking how magma’s underground churn is deforming the volcano’s surface, Nat Geo reports.
Stamps monitoring system collects data on the volcano’s activity in real time, and on January 17, 2017, she saw a flicker in the information streaming from one monitoring station — a sign that parts of the volcano were lifting upward, she told Nat Geo.
“Several subsequent signals were also seen in real-time with additional on-the-ground observations by our local technician,” Stamps said. “These signals prompted rapid responses by our team to install three new real-time stations”
Stamps and her colleagues are warning that an “imminent” eruption seems to be on the horizon.
“Imminent in our case means in one second, in a few weeks, a couple of months, or a year or more,” she told Nat Geo in an email.
Though the immediate area around the mountain is sparsely populated, the city of Arusha, home to half a million people in the city proper and surrounding district, lies about 70 miles to the east of the volcano and could see impacts from a massive eruption.
More at risk are several unique cultural sites - a collection a collection of 3.6-million-year-old hominin footprints in the Olduvai Gorge and a “dance hall” of ancient Homo sapiens footprints at a site called Engare Sero.
If a large eruption and a heavy rainy season were to coincide, the resulting debris flows could potentially harm Engare Sero and nearby sites, Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce, an Appalachian State University geologist and National Geographic grantee who recently led an analysis of the Engare Sero footprints, told Nat Geo.
“Historically, Lengai is capable of large debris flows and debris avalanches that reach the shore of Lake Natron,” she said, “and these could potentially pose a significant threat to the site and to all of the camps that are here along the lake edge.”
Source Link.