Friday Flotsam: Kanlaon seismicity, the media loves Yellowstone and none like it hot.

Lets get right to it!

“Manmade volcanoes”: can they solve global warming?

It does indeed seem that something is happening beneath Kanlaon in the Philippines. PHIVOLCS reports that the volcano experienced 257 volcanic earthquakes from August 23 to September 1, well above the usually “background” level of ~20-30 a week. Most of this seismicity is centered on the northwest slope of the volcano, suggesting that if magma is moving, it is moving up under this side of the system. However, the seismicity doesn’t necessarily have to be magma moving up to erupt. It could very easily be moving up in the system, but not to the surface, or it could even be fluid (i.e., water/gases) under the volcano (or heck, even a fault). PHIVOLCS has not changed the status of Kanlaon, however it keeping a close eye on what the seismicity will do.

If you need something to watch on Tuesday evening, you could try Yellowstone: Land to Life, a short film about the geologic features in the Park and the life that surrounds it. Oddly, the film has already been shown to visitors in one of the Park’s interpretative centers, but with all the attention on Yellowstone lately, I suppose PBS felt left out.

And maybe call me crazy, but “manmade volcanoes“, outside the realm of Hank Scorpio, seem like a bad idea. Then again, climate change makes a lot of people very uppity. Not to say that we need to be concerned with what might be happening to the planet, but sometimes we need to let nature take its course (that is the geologist in me speaking) … then again, I think we already have a solution to stop global warming.