Monday Mulligans

It has been rather quiet on the volcano-front in the last week. Redoubt and Llaima (in spanish), after a few weeks of intense eruption, are both back on Orange Alert. News of the eruptions from Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai and Fernandina is rather sparse in the details. The news of volcanism in 2009 seems to have settled down.

A few tidbits I caught over the weekend:

Chaiten

Damage wrought by the eruption of Chaiten on the town of Chaiten in Chile, taken in early December 2008. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.

Don’t you feel like you’re read this sort of story before after other disasters: Government commissions the university experts to study and report on a plan to fix things after a disaster, only to ignore the findings and do their own thing? Well, that is what the Chilean government seems to be doing with the town of Chaiten (in spanish), which was made unlivable by the continuing eruption of the volcano of the same name. The controversy actually does not have much to do with the volcanism, but rather the nature (public or private) of the land being used to relocate the city. If any readers have a better grasp of the Chilean and local politics involved, feel free to chime in.

Kilaeua

I’m linking to this fluff travel piece from the Nashua Telegraph mostly for the excellent photo of the ocean entry of a Kilauea lava flow, showing tourists gawking at some impressive explosions. That and I can understand the desire to visit Hawai’i if you’ve just coming out of the winter in New England.

Fernandina

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for wildlife, but pretty much every article about the Galapagos I’ve read in the last few days have only talked about the effect on wildlife and left much to be desired about the volcanism. I guess the science journalism folks know what gets people reading, and that is cute animals, not basaltic fissure eruptions.