Pillars of Ash and Fountains of Fire: Volcanic Marvels Pictures
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During the seemingly unstoppable 1969-to-1974 Mauna Ulu eruption of the Kilauea Volcano, this 3-foot-tall "hornito" juggled gallons of glowing lava that pressed up from underneath the black rock all around. A hornito is a relatively small cone that forms when a modest flow of molten rock escapes up from under a cooled, hardened sheet of basaltic lava. To see more of these amazing glimpses of the unthinkable power lying under our feet, read on!
Image Credit: J.B. Judd/USGS
This view from Harry's Ridge, Wash., shows an ominous plume of ash burst emerging from the crater of Mount St. Helens. When this photo was taken in May of 1982, the dark cloud tumbling up from the cone must have seemed a gloomy reminder of the major eruption that had begun exactly two years before, on May 18, 1980. The smaller, inner dome that you can see above was created after the cataclysmic eruption of 1980 laid waste to the frame of the mountain as it had once been. To see that apocalyptic moment from 1980, check out the next image.
Image Credit: Lyn Topinka/USGS
Beginning in March of 1980, the area around Mount St. Helens, Wash., began to experience many small earthquakes and minor eruptions, which over a series of several weeks formed a crater 1,400 feet (about 400 meters) in diameter at the summit of the mountain, and helped to alert volcanologists that a major event was imminent. On the morning of May 18, 1980, churning and pressure underneath the formerly peaceful mountain released an earthquake of magnitude 5.1, and a sudden and devastating eruption poured forth from the American volcano's mouth. Above, you can see the steam, ash and volcanic gas billowing out of the crater on the morning of May 18. This eruption column was propelled with such force that it reached a height of 15 vertical miles (about 24 kilometers) within 15 minutes.
Image Credit: NOAA News Photo
But Mount St. Helens released much more than clouds of ash and burning gas. The initial eruption featured a massive lateral explosion, which caused much of the mountain to fall away as an enormous landslide. The heavy, rolling clouds of pyroclastic flow produced by Mount St. Helens reached the edge of Spirit Lake to the north. Along other rifts and valleys extending from the lower slopes, the volcano projected rivers of debris avalanche and ruinous mudflow. This house along the path of the Cowlitz River shows the damage caused by Mount St. Helens' lahars. A lahar is a brand of mudflow that contains pyroclastic debris and some amount of liquid water.
Image Credit: Lyn Topinka/USGS
By May of 1981, the worst of the destruction at Mount St. Helens was over, but the chemical clues left behind after the eruption painted a picture both fascinating and hellish. This rock, brimming with deposits of poisonous yellow sulfur, was photographed within the crater floor on May 12, 1981. Sulfur residue is commonly associated with volcanic activity. To see an even more impressive collection of the yellow element, check out the next image.
Image Credit: Lyn Topinka/USGS
Three possibilities: 1.) You're looking at a photo of the worst pollen season Hawaii has ever seen, 2.) Someone wrecked a truck carrying an industrial shipment of kosher salt and lemon zest, or 3.) This person is standing on the natural chemistry lab of an active volcano slope. This sulfurous mineral field blankets the cone of Mauna Ulu. Sulfur sublimates show where solid volcanic toxins have evaporated into the atmosphere and left behind brightly colored coats of residue. To see some of Hawaii's more violent volcanic activity, click ahead.
Image Credit: J.B. Judd/USGS
Orange fountains of molten lava boil and rill from these vents on the black sea of rock at the Mauna Ulu eruption. This photo was captured on the afternoon of Oct. 15, 1970. Take a look at the next image to see an unbelievable view of an underground cave of flames that was glimpsed just a few days later.
Image Credit: D.W. Peterson/USGS
This just might be the closest thing you'll ever see to the fires of Mordor and Mt. Doom here on planet Earth. Oct. 21, 1970, the Mauna Ulu eruption of the Kilauea Volcano had formed here a relatively cool surface of hardened lava, on which this brave soul could take a stroll over the roof of the glowing, blazing caverns underneath. Through this opening you can see the active flow of a still-hot lava tube, where rivers of molten rock drain toward stasis under the surface.
Image Credit: J.B. Judd/USGS
This is the Mount Peulik Volcano, viewed from a perch within the Becharof National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska. Mount Peulik is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the majority of the Earth's volcanoes reside. The Ring of Fire is a U-shaped trail of volcanoes and other seismic hotspots that traces the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Most of the volcanoes within the Ring of Fire pop up along the fault lines between the massive tectonic plates that carry the continents and sea floors on their backs.
Image Credit: R.J. Wilk/USFWS
Mount Veniaminof, shown above, is a stratovolcano in Alaska's southern peninsula. Like the previous peak, Veniaminof is considered part of that flaming Pacific silhouette. Stratovolcanos like this one can be identified by their relatively steep slopes and various layers of composition, showing strata formed by pyroclastic flows, lava flows and solid rock debris from different eruptions over the years. Check out the next image to see the southernmost active volcano in the world.
Image Credit: USFWS
Mount Erebus smokes gently in this aerial view from 2009. In the winter, the area of Ross Island, out of which this Antarctic volcano sprouts, reaches temperatures of -58 degrees Fahrenheit (-50 degrees Celsius), but these icy bounds are no match for the tangerine lava flows and occasional Strombolian eruptions that escape the ground from Mount Erebus' ancient crater. Get a closer look at this out-of-place hotspot in the next photo.
Image Credit: Nick Powell/National Science Foundation
Behind Mount Erebus' steamy, flaring pit, you can see several land masses, including the Razorback Islands and Inaccessible Island, locked in sea ice and dwarfed by perspective. Mount Erebus was discovered by the British explorer James Ross in 1841 -- the same Ross for whom Ross Island, the Ross Sea, and the Ross Ice Shelf are named. Next: Would you have the guts to climb inside an inactive lava tube? Sure, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity -- but what if the tube isn't as inactive than you thought?
Image Credit: Nick Powell/National Science Foundation
In this photo from 2010, two scientists explore an ice cave formed by the buried magma chambers of Mount Erebus. This particular passageway is known as Hut Cave. Volcanoes can form all sorts of spectacular tubes, tunnels and subterranean features -- check out another one from the frozen slopes of Mount Erebus in the next image.
Image Credit: Peter Rejcek/National Science Foundation
Looks almost as if the photo were taken underwater, doesn't it? Above, sunlight is strained through the gauzy blue effects of the ice in this view from a frozen fumarole on Mount Erebus. A fumarole is a gap in the Earth's crust that spews a combination of steam and superheated volcanic gases, such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. Many fumaroles accumulate sulfurous residue at their end points. In the next photo, you'll see an underwater version of this volcanic gas vent.
Image Credit: Aaron Spitzer/National Science Foundation
Volcanic vents don't spring up exclusively over dry land. This saltwater vent purges bubbles of black smoke into the ocean from the northwest caldera of the submerged Pacific feature known as the Brothers Volcano, which lies to the north of New Zealand. Many of our deepest-dwelling underwater neighbors rely on the heat produced by geothermal vents in the lower reaches of the ocean in order to survive. Get a look at some of these bottom-dwelling scrappers in the next image.
Image Credit: New Zealand-American Submarine Ring of Fire 2005 Exploration; NOAA Vents Program
These hydrothermal mussels cling with a merciless death grip to one of the walls of the Northwest Eifuku volcano in the Pacific Ocean. Nearby lies a water-warming white smoke vent, also known as a "champagne vent," on the ocean bed. Tiny arthropods crawl among the cracks and canyons between the mussels' shells.
Image Credit: Pacific Ring of Fire 2004 Expedition/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration/Dr. Bob Embley, NOAA PMEL, Chief Scientist
Though fuzzy microbial mats like these are common and healthy in areas where hydrothermal venting warms the waters and primes the rocks for life, the sight of all this thriving bacteria kind of makes you want to brush your teeth.
Image Credit: Pacific Ring of Fire 2004 Expedition/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration/Dr. Bob Embley, NOAA PMEL, Chief Scientist
This is one volcano within the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Southern Alaska, an American nature preserve that's home to more than its fair share of volcanic activity. On June 6, 1912, a peaceful valley in the Katmai region revealed the turmoil underneath when it suddenly exploded with unforeseen volcanic venting. Tons upon tons of hot, glowing ash rushed to the surface from underneath and formed a new landscape for the valley. Water trapped under this ash-land eventually became so hot that it broke through the surface in thousands of gushing fumaroles. Based on one observer's report of the valley's countless geothermal chimneys, it became known as the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.
Image Credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps
The untrained observer may believe that the greatest danger posed by a volcano is that of liquid lava, running in streams toward your home or city. If you believe the movies, which overhype the fire and undersell the mud, you might be inclined to agree. But much of the danger posed by volcanic eruption lies within clouds of toxic gas and ash, pyroclastic flow, and mudflows known as lahars. Many sources indicate that these streaming mudflows can contain such high concentrations of rock debris that they resemble fast-moving rivers of wet concrete.
Image Credit: USGS
This cinder cone can be found in Lassen Volcanic National Park in California. From this aerial view, you can see the white, brown and yellow contours of the lava flows extending outward from the base of the cone. Check out the next image to see a volcano that surprised everyone.
Image Credit: D.R. Crandell/USGS
This black-and-white photo captures an early eruption column and the thick, rolling lava flows of the cinder cone volcano Paricutin in Western Mexico. Paricutin is rather unique in the history of volcanic activity, in that it was the first time that humans were able to witness and document fully the inception of a volcano from nothing in 1943 (literally -- it sprang up out of a cornfield), its full life, and its death in 1952. It has been quiet ever since.
Image Credit: USGS
Here it is: Where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker crossed lightsabers one last time in an epic … Just kidding! Though it looks like a scene from an infernal alien planet, this glowing lava flow actually took place right here on planet Earth, at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where a USGS photographer captured this stunning lava-fall on Feb. 7, 1972. To see the real fireworks, check out the next image, where we'll say goodbye to the sun and glimpse a lava flow in the dead of night.
Image Credit: R.L. Christiansen/USGS
Cascades of incandescent liquid rock brim from the lip of the Kilauea Volcano's Iki Crater in the eruption of 1959. Next up: Have you ever seen the hair of a goddess fly in wisps through the mid-morning air?
Image Credit: USGS
Pele is the ancient Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, lightning and flames, and from the looks of her hair, she must give "Goldilocks" a run for her money. This clump of "Pele's hair" is from Hawaii's Mauna Ulu. Pele's hair is a volcanic phenomenon, produced when liquid basaltic glass from lava is warped out into ductile forms, eventually crystallizing as tiny, hair-like strands that can be caught in a breeze and blown away. Get a closer look at Pele's hair in the next image.
Image Credit: D.W. Peterson/USGS
This scanning electron micrograph shows the structure of Pele's hair closer to the molecular level. Though the strands of glass are predictably thin and long, their downy external texture is interesting. Next, you'll see the legendary home of Pele.
Image Credit: R.B. Finkelman/USGS
Halemaumau is perhaps the most famous crater in Hawaii, and not only because it is the traditional dwelling place of the violent and wrathful goddess Pele. Kilauea is one of the world's most continuously active volcanoes. In fact, its very name translates roughly to "spewing," indicating the extent to which it has been gargling lava and laying new sheets of volcanic land continuously for many decades.
Image Credit: C. Stoughton/USGS
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