Friday Flotsam

Some volcano news before the weekend:

The Barujari vent at Mt. Rinjani erupting in May 2009.

Barujari, the small basaltic volcano located in the crater at Mt. Rinjani, is “spewing 200-meter-high lava“, at least according to recent reports. It is unclear if the eruption is, in fact, a fountain or merely strombolian activity throwing incandescent blocks that high (see above). My guess is that it is the latter, as that is much more typical for Barujari. Another report mentions a 600 meter “river of lava” (in spanish) that ends at Segara Anak lake. The volcano has been erupting all spring with no indication that the eruption is ending.

It looks like Mt. Erebus in Antarctica has quite handily won the vote for the next “Volcano Profile” with 43% of the vote. Look for it later this summer!

Popular Science (yes, the bastion of quality science journalism) has a piece of geothermal energy and its role in the economic recovery in Iceland. It actually does a decent job describing the benefits and difficulties of developing new methods to extract geothermal energy, especially in trying to harness “supercritical water” (more or less a water/steam mixture that is above boiling thanks to the pressure at which exists in the crust). No mention of unleashing a flood basalt due to drilling (thankfully!)