Pages

Sunday 31 August 2014

Possible plume?

Between the 27th and 30th August, I noticed what appeared to be a possible plume originating from the Mount Michael volcano on Saunders Island while looking at the EOSDIS website. Because the view was mostly obscured by clouds, it was difficult to determine or verify whether or not it was clearly a plume nor what was going on. If it's a plume then it wasn't easy to tell whether it was an eruption or just a gas plume either. Or it could've simply been a wind current.

What appears to be a plume on the 27th August 2014. SOURCE: NASA.

What appears to be a plume on the 29th August 2014 drifting northeast. SOURCE: NASA.


Sunday 17 August 2014

Weak thermal hotspots on two islands

The thermal imagery of 16th August 2014 shows some weak heat sources on Montagu and Bristol islands. On Montagu Island, a weak heat source is present on Mount Belinda Volcano. But on Bristol Island, 2 weak heat sources are present on Mount Sourabaya and a crater-like structure between Mount Sourabaya and Mount Wales at the centre of the island. The image in normal colour did not reveal anything unusual, but thermal imagery from 12th May 2014 showed the heat sources in exactly the same spots except that they were weaker. So this indicates that the temperature of the heat sources had recently slightly elevated but overall, the heat sources indicate either steady fumarolic activity or elevated ground temperatures in the craters.

Meanwhile on Saunders Island, degassing activity is present on Mount Michael as of 16th August 2014.

Slight heat source on Mount Belinda. SOURCE: Landsat 8/USGS/NASA.

Slight heat sources present on Bristol Island. SOURCE: Landsat 8/USGS/NASA.

Steam plume present on Mount Michael. SOURCE: Landsat 8/USGS/NASA.

Monday 11 August 2014

August news

On 1st August 2014, I noticed a grey area to the west of Saunders Island on the EOSDIS Worldview website taken by Terra/MODIS. There's a possibilty that it could've been an ash plume from a short lived eruption which drifted away in the winds, or it could just simply be a colouration in contrast with the sea and ice which is hard to identify given the low quality satellite image.

Images from the 7th August 2014 on the Earth Explorer website showed a slight degassing from the summit crater of Mount Michael on Saunders Island. Upon checking the thermal image of Saunders Island from the same date, I discovered that the thermal anomalies which were visible inside the two craters of Mount Michael on 22nd July 2014 were no longer visible. In the thermal image of Candlemas Island from the 7th August 2014, a thermal anomaly is present on Lucifer Hill on the northside of the island. This is likely to be nothing more than fumarolic activity.


Was that an ash plume drifting away from the west side of Saunders Island on the 1st August? SOURCE: NASA.

Just a little steam or gas emission from Mount Michael's summit crater. SOURCE: Landsat 8/USGS/NASA.

Thermal anomaly on Candlemas Island. SOURCE: Landsat 8/USGS/NASA.