Fundraising update: $10 for Guatemala

Geologizing is still on hold for a bit (it's amazing how hard it is to get your brain back into 'work' mode after field work happens), but here's an update on the fundraising drive for the Santiaguito Volcano Observatory in Guatemala. Donations have started to come in, but this is the official kickoff, and guess what? The International Volcano Monitoring Fund has made it incredibly easy (and affordable!) to help support volcano monitoring in Guatemala. Want to know more? Here's a message (and a flier) from IVM-Fund President Dr. Jeff Witter:

(Click on the flier for a bigger version!)

"Today we launch the first official fundraiser for the International Volcano Monitoring Fund. Please take a minute to read the attached flyer, which highlights the great volcano monitoring support program we have recently established in Guatemala. Please consider making the requested $10 donation. With your help, along with the support of the geology and scientific communities at large, we are hoping to raise $10,000 for Guatemala volcano monitoring. With this money, the IVM-Fund will help outfit the Santiaguito Volcano Observatory with volcano monitoring equipment so that Guatemalan scientists can keep watch on one of Guatemala's most active and dangerous volcanoes. The IVM-Fund Guatemala program intends to make a meaningful impact, improving safety at Guatemalan communities near Santiaguito volcano.

"A sincere thank you in advance for your support and for the continued support of those of you who have already donated. 

"Please contact me (Dr. Witter) directly or check out the specific project webpage for more detailed information on how we're supporting Guatemala: http://www.ivm-fund.org/guatemala/. To make a donation, please click on the DONATE NOW button at: http://www.ivm-fund.org/donate/."

Ten dollars for volcano monitoring is something that even a grad student can afford, and I hope that everyone who reads this will consider helping with a donation!

The Santiaguito Volcano Observatory needs your help!

While I was in Guatemala working at the Santiaguito lava dome complex, my field group had a lot of help from the Instituto Nacional de Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Metereologia e Hidrologia (INSIVUMEH). And when I say a lot, I mean "helped organize every logistical detail of the trip and gave us a place to stay at the Santiaguito Volcano Observatory". I could never have done any of this work without their help, and now I'm going to try and help them out in return.

The Santiaguito Volcano Observatory needs our help.

Unlike the geological organizations in the U.S. and Europe, INSIVUMEH doesn't have a lot of money to throw around. The scientists and observers at Santiaguito (and at other volcanoes in Guatemala) don't have the equipment they need to easily and accurately monitor active volcanoes. It's not a matter of needing big pieces of high-tech instrumentation; the folks at the Observatory don't even have the basics that we all take for granted - such as digital cameras, radios, and GPSs. What's more, even though they have a seismic station collecting data about the Santiagutio domes, there's no way to receive or process the information at the Observatory, because they don't have the computers to do it. 

In light of the recent large eruptions at Santiaguito and Pacaya, this is dismaying. The people who live and work around Santiaguito depend on the Observatory to help keep them safe, and INSIVUMEH's scientists don't have the basic tools they need to do their work. I've talked about the hazards of living near an active volcano in the past, and the key to doing it safely is to have diligent, well-equipped scientists monitoring volcanic activity. The INSIVUMEH volcanologists and observers are incredibly dedicated to their work, but there's a point when equipment needs simply hamper their ability to be effective. Because the average person in Guatemala lives on US$2 or less a day, there's no way they can afford to spend their own money to supplement their equipment. But we can, and that's why I'm making this announcement - and asking for your help.

Donate to the International Volcano Monitoring Fund!

The International Volcano Monitoring Fund (IVMF), which was created by Dr. Jeff Witter, has been set up specifically to help volcano observatories in developing countries. Dr. Witter has agreed to extend their current endeavors to purchasing equipment for the Santiaguito Observatory, and has just launched a new webpage where you can find out how to help: http://www.ivm-fund.org/guatemala/. He and I have been working with Gustavo Chigna, the director of INSIVUMEH's volcanology programs, and Rudiger Escobar, a Guatemalan PhD student in volcanology at Michigan Technological University, to develop a list of what the Santiaguito Volcano Observatory needs.

The equipment they've requested runs all the way from smaller items like tape measures and rock hammers to more expensive things like desktop computers (to receive and process seismic signals) and laser rangefinders. Each item comes with a dollar amount needed to purchase it and a description of how it will be used. You don't even have to purchase the whole item - like the DonorsChoose campaign that the geobloggers participate in every year, every little bit helps. The IVM Fund is a non-profit organization, so you can be assured that as much of your donation as possible will be going toward funding Guatemalan volcanologists.

Please, help my colleagues in Guatemala do their work! I'm incredibly lucky that I don't have to worry about being able to afford my equipment, and I want to make it possible for the volcanologists at INSIVUMEH to do their work without the same problems. Because any fundraising effort is a long-term endeavor, I'm going to place a permanent link on the blog and periodically update you all as the IVM Fund collects enough to start purchasing equipment. (I also think that t-shirts may be in the works for the future - you'll be able to donate toward volcano monitoring efforts and add to your geologic wardrobe!)

Eruptions - especially the ones that we've seen this year - remind us all that it's necessary for volcanologists to keep a close eye on active volcanoes. Like any scientist, they need the proper tools to do that. When they have them, volcanologists can do a lot to help safeguard peoples' lives, livelihoods and homes. If you think you can spare a little money, please help the volcanologists at the Santiaguito Volcano Observatory do just that!

Volcano "spiders"

Most of us hate the thought of an infestation, but in the case of volcano-monitoring 'spiders', it's a safe way to gather information about active volcanoes. A number of recent articles have been talking about a new NASA program to drop instrument-loaded tripods on Mount St. Helens, putting monitoring equipment in areas that are dangerous for scientists to visit or just plain inaccessible. (See additional coverage on the Volcanism Blog, National Geographic News, and Geology News, and a photo of one of the new NASA instruments above.)

Many of you will remember "Spiderlegs" from the movie Dante's Peak, which was a shining example of a waste of money - at least the way the scientists in the movie were using it. Trying to get a robot to climb over piles of shifting, jagged rocks is pretty hard, and if it keeps breaking while you're trying to use it, it's not worth the effort of dragging the thing to the top of a mountain. (I also suspect that NASA truly would not have appreciated Spiderlegs being kicked around - literally - during the repair process.)

As it turns out, however malfunctional their creation was on film, the moviemakers were working from reality - both NASA and the USGS have been using various 'spider' incarnations to monitor volcanoes for more than a decade. NASA tested two robots (Dante I and II, in 1992 and 1994, respectively) in volcanic craters which were real life versions of the Spiderlegs that showed up in the 1996 movie. Both were tethered robots which descended into volcanic craters - Mt. Erebus in Antarctica for Dante I, and Mt. Spur for Dante II (seen at left) - with varying success. According to the 1994 article on NASA's website, the robots were a joint effort on the part of NASA, Carnegie Mellon, and the Alaska Volcano Observatory. The article also says that

"NASA's goals with this project were to test and demonstrate robot exploration, communications and computer technologies which may be needed for future space exploration missions. Carnegie Mellon's interests include extending the results of this demonstration to other more practical Earth-based applications, including additional volcanic exploration, mining and mine safety operations, large-scale agricultural deployment and hazardous environment operations for industrial and municipal organizations. The Alaskan Volcano Observatory's goal is to obtain information on the chemical and temperature properties of the crater floor, and a higher resolution video survey map of the crater interior."

The first deployment of a 'spider' on Mount St. Helens was in 2004 (see more images at the CVO's website). These spiders were a nonmobile but portable bundle of instruments - GPS, seismic, etc. - that can't be installed permanently because of the terrain or conditions. They're relatively expendable, which more expensive instruments and scientists are not, and they function without human oversight.

The first helicopter deployment of an early spider in October 2004 (CVO Photo Archives).

A "tilt-leg" spider on the north face of the Mount St. Helens lava dome in January 2005. (CVO Photo Archives)

The early spiders only consisted of one or two instruments apiece, but new models have multiple sensors (and have spiffy software that can sort out what's important enough to send on to scientists). According to NASA's website,

A team of engineers, students, volcanologists and geologists put the system together. The team includes the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascades Volcano Observatory staff, who designed and built the "spider" hardware; Washington State University in Vancouver, where the sensor network software was written; and NASA, which developed software to make the spiders able to detect events to trigger space observations by the EO-1 satellite.

All in all, exciting new stuff - and a big improvement from the poor ungainly contraption that Pierce Brosnan was trying to coax down a bouldery slope on an imaginary volcano.

Sweet irony

Guess who isn't commenting on the eruption of Mount Redoubt?

Sometimes nature has really perfect timing.

A letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal:

To say that I was shocked, appalled and dismayed on hearing the "volcano monitoring" comment in your speech following President Obama's address to Congress would be a massive understatement.

You, and anyone who thought that including that comment in the Republican rebuttal was a good idea, are guilty of the dangerous and pervasive attitude of willful ignorance about science that has sadly pervaded the government of this country in the past eight years. It is extremely frightening that you, the governor of a state that recently experienced a major natural disaster, think that the paltry amounts spent on volcano monitoring in our country are a waste of money.

It is simply appalling that you cannot be bothered to educate yourself about some of the most basic knowledge that geologic science has to offer. Volcanoes are extremely dangerous and costly phenomena. The people of states like Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California, depend on volcano monitoring to preserve their lives and livelihoods.

Perhaps you think that $140 million is too high a price to pay for the thousands of lives that were saved by volcano monitoring during the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption? Or the millions of dollars in commerce and countless lives that are preserved by monitoring Alaskan volcanoes which lie in the flight paths of major shipping and passenger airlines? Are you the least bit aware that a major volcanic eruption could produce enough ash to reach even Louisiana, disrupting or shutting down air traffic for thousands of miles and crippling our country's airline industry? Or that an eruption or collapse of Mount Rainier could kill or displace tens of thousands of people with ash falls, pyroclastic flows and mudflows?

Lack of monitoring and communication caused the needless deaths of 23,000 people in the 1985 eruption of Nevado Del Ruiz volcano in Columbia. Would you prefer that we, a technologically rich country with the expertise and resources to prevent such a disaster, should eliminate the very monitoring programs that enable us to do so just because politicians like you can't be troubled to learn about why they're so important?

Your attitude toward volcano monitoring as a representative of our country's government is irresponsible and potentially deadly. If you suggest that we should discontinue volcano monitoring simply because you refuse to make the effort to understand it, then you are making yourself personally accountable for the lives, property and money that will be lost in volcanic eruptions. I am sure you will be happy to explain to the American citizens who will suffer from your recommendations why your state deserves funding to monitor and mitigate the hazards associated with flooding and hurricanes, but their homes and lives are unworthy of protection.

$140 million is a small price to pay to prevent the millions, possibly billions of dollars in property and commerce and tens of thousands of lives that will be in danger in the event of a volcanic eruption in the United States. Even now, Redoubt volcano in Alaska is showing signs that it may soon erupt, and the effects of such an eruption will not only impact the people of Alaska, they will affect the oil, fishing, and airline industries as well. Saying that we should discontinue volcano monitoring in the midst of a potential volcanic crisis is stupid, irresponsible and ignorant.

Blind adherence to politics is one of the reasons that America is in the middle of an economic crisis today. Don't make it worse by adding natural disasters to the mix.

You have, in your callous, ill-educated and ill-considered words, grievously insulted the men and women of the geologic community who have dedicated their lives to protecting others from natural hazards such as volcanoes. They do their work for the sake of ordinary Americans who, on their own, have no way of understanding or preparing for volcanic eruptions. You show enormous disrespect for the scientists who safeguard the safety of those who live in the shadow of active volcanoes.

I am truly frightened by anyone who claims to represent American citizens in public office by making such irresponsible and, frankly, stupid statements about scientific endeavors that he has made no effort to understand. You, and anyone who supports you in this statement, are unworthy of being responsible for the safety of the American public, and I hope that those in charge of our nation's budget will rightly ignore your hideously bad ideas.


Update: There are a lot of people that feel just as strongly about this as I do.

Maria Brumm at Green Gabbro (and again)
Garry Hayes at Geotripper
Ralph Harrington at The Volcanism Blog
Eric at The Dynamic Earth
Phil Plait at The Bad Astronomy Blog
Dave Schumaker at Geology News (and again)
Anna at Adventures in the world of Geology
Andrew Alden at About Geology
Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous
Short Geologist at Accidental Remediation

Taking a volcano's temperature

While running through my RSS feed, I came across this National Geographic article about using thermal infrared imaging to monitor and forecast volcanic eruptions. I'm currently working on a project that involves using satellite imagery to detect and map hydrothermal alteration products in a volcanic dome, so I was definitely interested, especially because the scientists involved are using data from the same instrument that I am.

First, I have to give them props for using the term "forecast" rather than "predict". I know a number of volcanologists who are touchy about using "predict", because any conclusions about what a volcano may or may not do are necessarily based on probabilities, just like a weather forecast. When people start thinking that we can say for certain when a volcano will erupt, we get the blame when it doesn't, and they have to deal with the consequences of precautionary evacuations - or if it erupts sooner and takes everyone by surprise. It's very important that people know that no scientist can be 100% sure when a volcano will erupt and what it will do - voclanoes are simply too complicated.

I also like the bit about volcanologists being "courageous scientists". I suppose that even though we're very aware of the danger involved in our work, we don't really see ourselves as courageous. It's just another aspect of a job, and for the most part a calculated risk when we venture onto an active volcano to observe eruptions. That said, if there are alternative ways to get the same information with less risk of getting injured or killed (or having to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort getting to hard-to-reach places), I'm all for them.

Anyway, the article discusses how Michael Ramsey and Adam Carter of the University of Pittsburgh are using a combination of ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite images and FLIR (Forward-Looking Infrared Radiometer) camera pictures to monitor active volcanoes on the Kamchatka peninsula. This area of Russia is of major concern to both volcanologists and the aviation industry, because there a number of airplane flight routes go directly over this area. Erupting stratovolcanoes can create ash plumes that rise up to 50 km, far above the normal crusing altitute of a jet. The worldwide Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers already keeps a watch on these volcanoes using the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer). MODIS detects the thermal signatures of eruptions, and TOMS detects the gases - usually SO2 - associated with plumes.

(ASTER image of Bezymianny volcano lava flow from NASA Visible Earth image archive)

Ramsay and Carter (together with U.S. scientists at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and Russian experts at Kamchatka's Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) worked at Bezymianny volcano, using the FLIR to record temperature increases in the lava dome just days prior to an eruption. They were able to correlate their ground data with data from NASA's ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) instrument, which records several bands of thermal infrared data. This is particularly significant because it means that for volcanoes with fairly well defined thermal precursors to explosive eruptions, scientists can use satellites to monitor them, rather than traveling to remote locations with expensive, cumbersome equipment.

There are a few caveats. Any thermal satellite image records not only the temperature at any one time in a location, but the temperature history. Thermal emissivity varies with the amount of energy a surface absorbs, and with the rate that the surface re-emits that energy. Some surfaces absorb lots of energy but lose it quickly; some absorb energy and emit it slowly; others don't absorb much at all. All of this shows up in a thermal image, which should be treated more as a time exposure than a single snapshot. The article sums it up pretty well:

"Because the satellite images capture an average temperature reading for the entire volcano at a given moment, the scientists knew the reading in some areas was probably many times higher."

This must be taken into account when analyzing satellite data. A single "bright" ASTER image can mean that temperature increased suddenly, or that temperatures increased steadily over the course of hours or even days, depending on how quickly the lava's surface loses heat. Several images, taken hours or days apart, however, would prove very useful. Unfortunately, obtaining even one line of ASTER data - or data from any satellite that records in the thermal band - is expensive, and requires a special requisition process. Additionally, most thermal data comes from instruments on satellites that also serve other purposes; finding a way to dedicate any satellite entirely to recording thermal imagery of volcanoes would be difficult and expensive (again). Still, it would be extremely useful - and it's exciting research even without that.

The research is being partially supported by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. A Bulletin of Volcanology article about their work can be found here.