Friday Flotsam: More Mayon evacuations, an alert at Batur, how to predict Halema`uma`u and Roland's Yellowstone

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We’ve arrived at Friday. The local time is 8:45 A.M. Set your watches accordingly.

Batur, Indonesia

Some news!

More evacuations have been authorized near Mayon as the volcano continues to show signs of significant eruption. Activity has quieted some since Tuesday’s explosion, but PHIVOLC still expresses concern that an eruption in impending within weeks. I’ll also add a link to this story on Mayon, not because it has new news, but because it has quiet possibly the worst accompanying photo for this story I’ve seen so far. I mean, really, couldn’t you have found some stock picture of Mayon instead of using what looks like a still from Krakatoa, East of Java? It is like posting an article of President Obama and throwing a picture of Bill Pullman from Independence Day in with it.

Speaking of being annoyed, there is a video about how Roland Emmerich produced the Yellowstone eruption in 2012. Really nothing to do with volcano science, but you could revel about all the wrong things in the portrayal of the eruption.

There was a very brief note about a special alert for Batur in Indonesia after seismicity increased at the volcano, which hasn’t erupted since 2000.

If you’re like me, Friday is a great day to look at pretty pictures – and Seed posted a great gallery called “Earth on Fire” of volcano-related images by Bernhard Edmaier. Striking stuff.

Somehow I forgot to post this week’s USGS/SI Weekly Volcano Report, so here it is.

Finally, Hawai’i 24/7 has an article on the activity at Halema’uma’u and whether it can be predicted. Not a lot of news in there, but it is interesting to see how dynamically the crater vent system and lava lake behave.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people