Almahata Sitta meteorite study: Volcanic activity on early small asteroids

The Almahata Sitta meteorite number 15 in-situ on the desert floor during its find on 2008 December 8, much as it fell on October 7 earlier that year. Credit: P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute

Examination of one of the Almahata Sitta meteorites (aka, ALM-A, found in Sudan in 2008) by a team of space scientists working in Germany has revealed a volcanic past.

In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team describes how they dated the meteorite to just a few million years after our solar system was born and uncovered evidence that it suggests it was produced by volcanic activity.

The meteorite is but one of a collection that came from 2008 TC3, the first asteroid to ever have its collision with Earth tracked by scientists.

When it exploded over the Nubian Desert, debris was scattered over many kilometers, over 600 meteorites from it have been found thus far.

In this latest effort, the researchers focused on ALM-A, studying it using optical and electron microscopy, they found the rock contained minerals that were rich in a kind of silica that to date has been found to only be producible by certain types of explosions or volcanic action.

The rapid crystallization, the researchers claim, could only have come about due to an explosion (not the kind that happens when an asteroid enters an atmosphere) or because of the sort of rapid cooling that occurs when extremely hot lava seeps out of the ground.

Because it is unlikely that conditions would have ever existed on the asteroid that could have led to the type of explosion capable of producing such crystallized silica, the only option is that the asteroid from which the meteorite came, had at least one volcano on it, at some point.

If so, that would mean that volcanic activity existed in our solar system much earlier than scientists have thought.

But that's not the whole story, the researchers believe the asteroid that broke apart when it collided with Earth's atmosphere was part of a different asteroid that was nearly destroyed close to six and a half million years ago when it collided with another asteroid.

After that there were likely other collisions, some of which resulted in melding with other asteroids, which would explain the uniqueness of the Almahata Sitta meteorites, they host a variety of minerals not ordinarily found on just one specimen.

More information: Trachyandesitic volcanism in the early Solar System, Addi Bischoff, PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1404799111

W. M. Keck Observatory: Extreme Volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io

These are images of Io obtained at different infrared wavelengths (in microns, μm, or millionths of a meter) with the W. M. Keck Observatory's 10-meter Keck II telescope on Aug. 15, 2013 (a-c) and the Gemini North telescope on Aug. 29, 2013 (d). 

The bar on the right of each image indicates the intensity of the infrared emission. 

Note that emissions from the large volcanic outbursts on Aug. 15 at Rarog and Heno Paterae have substantially faded by Aug. 29. 

A second bright spot is visible to the north of the Rarog and Heno eruptions in c and to the west of the outburst in d. 

This hot spot was identified as Loki Patera, a lava lake that appeared to be particularly active at the same time. 

Credit: Imke de Pater and Katherine de Kleer, UC Berkeley.

Three massive volcanic eruptions occurred on Jupiter's moon Io within a two-week period last August, leading astronomers to speculate that these presumed rare "outbursts," which can send material hundreds of miles above the surface, might be much more common than astronomers thought.

"We typically expect one huge outburst every one or two years, and they're usually not this bright," said Imke de Pater, professor and chair of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of one of two papers describing the eruptions.

"Here we had three extremely bright outbursts, which suggest that if we looked more frequently we might see many more of them on Io."

Io, the innermost of Jupiter's four large "Galilean" moons, is about 2,300 miles across, about the size of Earth's moon.

Aside from Earth, is the only known place in the solar system with volcanoes erupting extremely hot lava like that seen on Earth.

Because of Io's low gravity, large volcanic eruptions produce an umbrella of debris that rises high into space.

Images of Io were taken in the near-infrared with adaptive optics at the Gemini North telescope tracking the evolution of the eruption as it decreased in intensity over 12 days. 

Due to Io's rapid rotation, a different area of the surface is viewed on each night; the outburst is visible with diminishing brightness on Aug. 29 & 30 and Sept. 1, 3, & 10. 

Credit: Katherine de Kleer/UC Berkeley/Gemini Observatory/AURA

De Pater's long-time colleague and coauthor Ashley Davies, a volcanologist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., said that the recent eruptions match past events that spewed tens of cubic miles of lava over hundreds of square miles in a short period of time.

"These new events are in a relatively rare class of eruptions on Io because of their size and astonishingly high thermal emission," he said.

"The amount of energy being emitted by these eruptions implies lava fountains gushing out of fissures at a very large volume per second, forming lava flows that quickly spread over the surface of Io."

All three events, including the largest, most powerful eruption of the trio on 29 Aug. 2013, were likely characterised by "curtains of fire", as lava blasted out of fissures perhaps several miles long.

The papers, one with lead author Katherine de Kleer, a UC Berkeley graduate student, and coauthored by UC Berkeley research astronomer Máté Ádámkovics, and the other coauthored by Ádámkovics and David R. Ciardi of Caltech's NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, have been accepted for publication in the journal Icarus.

More Information: Near-infrared monitoring of Io and detection of a violent outburst on 29 August 2013 - Authors: Katherine de Kleera, Imke de Patera, Ashley Gerard Daviesd, Máté Ádámkovicsa: DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.06.006

NASA Messenger: Mercury Mission - 10 Years in Space

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of its launch, the MESSENGER team released this movie showing a flyover of Mercury. The movie is sped up by a factor of seven for ease of viewing.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Ten years ago, on August 3, 2004, NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a risky mission that would take the small satellite dangerously close to Mercury’s surface, paving the way for an ambitious study of the planet closest to the Sun.

The spacecraft traveled 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers), a journey that included 15 trips around the Sun and flybys of Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury three times, before it was inserted into orbit around its target planet in 2011.

“We have operated successfully in orbit for more than three Earth years and more than 14 Mercury years as we celebrate this amazing 10th anniversary milestone,” said MESSENGER Mission Operations Manager Andy Calloway, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

“The MESSENGER spacecraft operates in one of the most challenging and demanding space environments in our Solar System, and we have met that challenge directly through innovation and hard work, as exemplified by the stunning discoveries and data return achievements.

Our only regret is that we have insufficient propellant to operate another 10 years, but we look forward to the incredible science returns planned for the final eight months of the mission.”

MESSENGER captured the images in the flyover movie during this flight path over Mercury's north polar region.

Image Credit: NASA

MESSENGER is only the second spacecraft sent to Mercury. Mariner 10 flew past it three times in 1974 and 1975 and gathered detailed data on less than half the surface.

MESSENGER took advantage of an ingenious trajectory design, lightweight materials, and miniaturisation of electronics, all developed in the three decades since Mariner 10 flew past Mercury.

“It was quite challenging to design and execute a trajectory that could culminate in Mercury orbit,” said Mission and Spacecraft Systems Engineer Dan O’Shaughnessy, of APL.

“Designing an attendant spacecraft that was light enough to carry the necessary propellant to execute such a trajectory with enough room left over for a payload capable of global characterisation of the planet is an impressive accomplishment.”

Additionally, he said, “the team’s concept of operations that streamlines planning while optimizing the use of our payload. despite substantial thermal and power constraints, is an amazing feat.”

MESSENGER Deputy Principal Investigator Larry Nittler, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said that the mission has rewritten scientists’ understanding of the planet “and given us plenty of surprises.”

“Geochemical measurements have revealed a surface poor in iron, but rich in moderately volatile elements such as sulphur and sodium,” said Nittler.

“These results rule out some long-standing theories put forward to explain Mercury’s anomalously high density compared with the other planets in the inner solar system,” he explained.

“Maps of elemental abundances show that the interior is highly chemically heterogeneous, providing important clues to the early geological history of the planet.”

“MESSENGER observations have also shown that Mercury’s surface was shaped by volcanic activity, identified unique landforms shaped by loss of volatile materials, and confirmed the presence of large amounts of water ice protected from the Sun’s heat within permanently shadowed impact craters near the planet’s poles, said Nittler

Infographic with statistics on the MESSENGER mission.

Image Credit: NASA

“We have found that the complex interplay of the interplanetary magnetic field with that of Mercury results in a remarkably dynamic electromagnetic environment surrounding the planet, including unexplained bursts of electrons and highly variable distributions of different elements in the thin exosphere,” Nittler added.

“Over the next few months, MESSENGER will observe Mercury at lower altitudes and thus smaller spatial scales than ever before, and this is sure to result both in exciting scientific discoveries and new puzzles about our solar system’s enigmatic innermost planet.”

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of its launch, the MESSENGER team has released a movie acquired during an early stage of MESSENGER’s low-altitude campaign.

Messenger narrow-angle camera (NAC)

The movie provides a bird’s-eye view of what the spacecraft sees as it flies over the planet at close range and was assembled from 214 images taken by the narrow-angle camera (NAC) on June 8, 2014.

The NAC’s field of view looked toward the horizon along the direction of MESSENGER's motion as the probe crossed the terminator into night.

Scott Murchie

“This view is what a traveller on the MESSENGER spacecraft might see during low-altitude operations in the coming year,” noted MESSENGER Co-Investigator Scott Murchie of APL.

“During the final phase of its mission, MESSENGER's science instruments will use low-altitude operations like this to explore the surface and subsurface of Mercury at unprecedented resolution.”

The image frames were taken once per second while MESSENGER was at altitudes ranging from 115 to 165 kilometers, traveling at a speed of 3.7 kilometers per second relative to the surface. The movie is sped up by a factor of six for ease of viewing.

Read the full article here

Nasa Cassini: Origin of the Equatorial Ridge on Iapetus

Raw image from Cassini space probe of the equatorial ridge on Saturn's moon Iapetus. 

Image: NASA

A combined team of researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island and the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas is suggesting in a paper they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv, that an equatorial mountainous ridge on Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons, has an exogenic origin.

They are basing their theory on 3D models of the moon they've created and an analysis of the types of peaks present.

Iapetus, the 3rd largest of Saturn's approximately 60 moons, is distinct for two reasons.

One is its odd two-tone colouring; the other is the back-bone looking mountain range straddling part of its equator.

Scientists have been puzzled by the origin of the mountain range as the moon doesn't have other geologic qualities that could have given rise to it, such as shifting plates or volcanic activity.

Thus, some have suggested that the mountains came from above, rather than below, or in other words, they have an exogenic origin, meaning they came from somewhere else.

To gain a better understanding of the mountain range, the research team built a 3D model of it on a computer in their lab, faithfully replicating the 12 mile high by 12 mile wide by 800 miles long range in miniature, using data from the Cassini space probe.

Once created, the team set to work measuring the shape of the peaks, which they believed should offer clues as to their origin.

They found that the majority of the peaks sat in what is known as their angle of repose, which is the maximum angle at which material can rest on a peak without falling down to its base.

Normal geologic activity tends to create peaks that are shallower and have less uniformity.

This suggests, the researchers claim, that the mountains did not form due to geologic activity but more likely are part of a ring of material that once circled the moon and was pulled down to the surface.

A ring around the moon would most likely have come about due to a collision, either between another body and the moon, or two other bodies nearby.

The resulting material would have formed a ring around the equator which over time, would have been pulled to the surface by gravity.

Such a theory, the team notes, would also explain Iapetus's asymmetrical orbit and also why it orbits with the same face pointing at Saturn all of the time.

More information: Topographic Constraints on the Origin of the Equatorial Ridge on Iapetus, arXiv:1404.2337 [astro-ph.EP] arxiv.org/abs/1404.2337

NASA EO-1 Image: Overhead View of Batu Tara Volcanic Eruption

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured an ash plume from one of the frequent eruptions of Indonesia's remote Batu Tara volcano on Aug. 15, 2012.

CREDIT: NASA

NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite caught a crystal-clear image of a small ash plume emanating from a tiny volcanic Indonesian island.

The volcano, called Batu Tara, is located on the island of Pulau Komba, and has been experiencing frequent, mild eruptions since mid-2006, according to a NASA release.

While much of the island appears green thanks to tropical vegetation, one side of the island is noticeably free of plants and appears grayish.

This barren area is a scarp that drops from the summit of the volcano to the ocean, a distance of 2,454 feet (748 meters).

The scarp is created by the frequent eruptions, which send rocks and ash barreling down the slope.

The volcanic island is located in the Flores Sea and is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands.

The first recorded eruption of the volcano, which happened from 1847-52, produced explosions and lava flows, according to the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program.

Batu Tara is a stratovolcano and the frequent eruptions is has experience recently are called Strombolian, after the archetypal Stromboli volcano in Italy.

Strombolian eruptions are intermittent and feature explosive activity and lava fountaining, sometimes sending so-called "volcano bombs" into the air.

Stromboli even has a scarp, called the Sciara del Fuoco, that resembles the one on Batu Tara.

Jupiter's Moons: Mapping Io's volcanic heat

The most active volcanic body in the Solar System is not playing ball with scientists, as new mysteries emerge surrounding the internal heating of the moon Io.

A new study on Jupiter’s moon Io has yielded a map of hot spots which show the range of heat being emitted by the highly active volcanic body.

The volcanic eruptions on Io are immense, and dwarf the volcanic activity seen on Earth.

The volcanic activity of Io gives it its yellow surface colour which is frozen sulphur.

Io’s extravagant volcanism comes as a result of tidal interactions with the giant planet Jupiter and a complex orbital interplay between Europa, Ganymede and the parent planet.

Io’s slightly elliptical orbit around Jupiter means that the direction of the tidal bulge is constantly changing, effectively stirring up the molten material within the moon.

"The fascinating thing about the distribution of the heat flow is that it is not in keeping with the current preferred model of tidal heating of Io at relatively shallow depths," said Ashley Davies from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory "Instead, the main thermal emission occurs about 40 degrees eastward of its expected positions."

Hot spots on Jupiter's moon Io. Larger spots correspond with greater areas of thermal emission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Bear Fight Institute
 
The unusual pattern of the heat distribution suggests that there are complex heating processes deep within the Jovian moon.

"What we see indicates a mixture of both deep and shallow heating," said JPL’s Dennis Matson.

Another oddity that emerged from the study is that the volcanic activity only accounts for 60 per cent of the heat that emanates from Io.

"We are investigating the possibility that there are many smaller volcanoes that are hard, but not impossible, to detect," said Glenn Veeder of the Bear Fight Institute. "We are now puzzling over the observed pattern of heat flow."

Connecting the dots between Io’s internal heating and thermal emission will also help to further understand another Jovian moon, Europa, which could potentially harbour life in the oceans beneath its surface.

The study used data from NASA’s Voyager and Galileo missions, as well as using infrared telescopes on Earth. Galileo was a mission to Jupiter that launched in 1989 was the first to directly measure the gas giant’s atmosphere.

The Galileo probe was deliberately destroyed in Jupiter’s crushing atmosphere in 2003 to avoid a collision with the potentially life bearing moon Europa.

Jupiter's Moon Io: Watery Alien Planets Might be Stripped Dry by Gravity

Two sulphurous eruptions are visible on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io.

CREDIT: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA

Alien planets might experience tidal forces powerful enough to remove all their water, leaving behind hot, dry worlds like Venus, researchers said.

These findings might significantly affect searches for habitable exoplanets, scientists explained. Although some planets might dwell in regions around their star friendly enough for life as we know it, they could actually be lifelessly dry worlds.

The tides that we experience on Earth are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. Our tides are nothing compared to what we see elsewhere in the solar system — the gravitational pull Europa experiences from Jupiter leads to tidal forces roughly 1,000 times stronger than what Earth feels from our moon, flexing and heating Europa.

Heat is a major factor in how capable a planet might be of supporting life as we know it. What scientists call the habitable zone of a star is defined by whether liquid water can survive on its surface, given that life exists virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth.

New Island Born in Red Sea: NASA (PHOTOS)

The yet-to-be-named island has formed in the Zubair archipelago, a collection of small islands off the west coast of Yemen, and lies between Haycock Island and Rugged Island, according to NASA.

The new island was first revealed in a photograph by NASA's Earth Observatory's satellite on Dec. 23, in which white ash plume was seen rising from the sea, indicating an eruption. 

The undersea eruption occurred in a region which is part of the Red Sea Rift, which is "where the African and Arabian tectonic plates pull apart and new ocean crust regularly forms", according to scientists.

In early January, a new satellite image revealed that the submarine eruption had risen completely above the water surface and a fragment of land surrounding the eruption was spotted, indicating the formation of a new island.

According to scientists, the landmass has now grown to about 530 by 710 meters (1,700 by 2,300 feet) in size.

"In contrast to the fragmented rock that forms when lava interacts directly with water, lava that solidifies on land is tough, so this new island is likely to stick around," the scientists added.

New satellite images, taken on Jan. 15, indicated the eruptions had stopped and the island had already formed, as a part of the Zubair archipelago, which is about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the coast of Yemen.

The photographs released by NASA, which are reproduced below, show the formation of the new island:

The Zubair archipelago consisting of Haycock Island and Rugged Island in the Red Sea, off the west coast of Yemen, as seen on Oct. 24, 2007. Image courtesy EO-1/NASA

A volcanic eruption is see in the Red Sea in this satellite image taken on Dec. 23, 2011. Image courtesy EO-1/NASA

The satellite image, acquired Jan. 7, 2012, suggests that the eruption had risen completely above water and a land surrounding the vent had grown. Image courtesy EO-1/NASA

The new island formed on the Red Sea is seen in the image taken on Jan. 15, 2012. Image courtesy EO-1/NASA

GeoThermal Energy Project: Pouring water into volcano

In May 16, 2008, Newbery Crater project drilling manager Fred Wilson stands near a drilling rig at the Newberry Crater geothermal project as he describes the work near LaPine, Ore. 

Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of the dormant Central Oregon volcano this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)

They hope the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that isn't dependent on sunny skies or stiff breezes - without shaking the earth and rattling the nerves of nearby residents.

Renewable energy has been held back by cheap natural gas, weak demand for power and waning political concern over global warming. Efforts to use the earth's heat to generate power, known as geothermal energy, have been further hampered by technical problems and worries that tapping it can cause earthquakes.

Even so, the federal government, Google and other investors are interested enough to bet $43 million on the Oregon project. They are helping AltaRock Energy, Inc. of Seattle and Davenport Newberry Holdings LLC of Stamford, Conn., demonstrate whether the next level in geothermal power development can work on the flanks of Newberrry Volcano, located about 20 miles south of Bend, Ore.

"We know the heat is there," said Susan Petty, president of AltaRock. "The big issue is can we circulate enough water through the system to make it economic."

The heat in the earth's crust has been used to generate power for more than a century. Engineers gather hot water or steam that bubbles near the surface and use it to spin a turbine that creates electricity. Most of those areas have been exploited. The new frontier is places with hot rocks, but no cracks in the rocks or water to deliver the steam.

To tap that heat - and grow geothermal energy from a tiny niche into an important source of green energy - engineers are working on a new technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems.

"To build geothermal in a big way beyond where it is now requires new technology, and that is where EGS comes in," said Steve Hickman, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.

Wells are drilled deep into the rock and water is pumped in, creating tiny fractures in the rock, a process known as hydroshearing.

New Volcanic Island forms in Red Sea

A new island is forming in the Red Sea. About 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the coast of Yemen, an undersea eruption began in mid-December 2011.

This satellite image suggests that the eruption has risen nearly completely above water.

A plume of steam, other volcanic gases, and ash spews from a distinct cone. The land surrounding the vent has grown, and is now about 530 by 710 metres (1,700 by 2,300 feet) across.

In contrast to the fragmented rock that forms when lava interacts directly with water, lava that solidifies on land is tough, so this new island is likely to stick around.

Picture: NASA / AFP/Getty

Underwater Volcanic Eruption Canary Islands: New Island Formsimes

(Photo: REUTERS / Gobierno de Canarias)
An aerial view shows a stained area in the sea caused by submarine eruptions on the southern coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands of Spain on Oct. 13.

A new island off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands of Spain is forming as an underwater volcano spews magma 20 meters high.

The lava is being cooled by seawater and solidifying to create the land mass, which is now only 70 meters from the surface.

Seismic activity began in the area on July 17 and was followed by more than 10,000 tremors. 

Since then, underwater fissures have released an almost continuous flow of sulfurous gases, hot rock, and smoke.

Witnesses say explosions from the underwater volcano sometimes blasted as high as 20 meters above sea level.

Last week, the village of La Restinga was evacuated, and shipping has been banned in the area. The gases being released are also giving off strong sulphurous smells.

People have also reported seeing dead fish floating in the water, which were believed to have been killed by the toxic gas.

The southern tip of El Hierro was hit by a magnitude-4.3 earthquake on Nov. 5 as the volcano began spewing magma.

Unique volcanic complex discovered on Moon’s far side

NASA/GSFC/ASU/WUSTL, processing by B. Jolliff

Map of the abundance of the element thorium on the Moon made with data from the Lunar Prospector, a space mission launched in 1998, shows that most of this radioactive element is concentrated in a region on the Moon's near side (left).

But there is also a small hot spot called the Compton-Belkovich Thorium Anomaly (labeled C-B in the map) on the side of the Moon that faces away from Earth.

Analysis of new images of a curious “hot spot” on the far side of the Moon reveal it to be a small volcanic province created by the upwelling of silicic magma. The unusual location of the province and the surprising composition of the lava that formed it offer tantalizing clues to the Moon’s thermal history.

The hot spot is a concentration of a radioactive element thorium sitting between the very large and ancient impact craters Compton and Belkovich that was first detected by Lunar Prospector’s gamma-ray spectrometer in 1998.

The Compton-Belkovich Thorium Anomaly, as it is called, appears as a bull's-eye when the spectrometer data are projected onto a map, with the highest thorium concentration at its center.

Recent observations, made with the powerful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) optical cameras, have allowed scientists to distinguish volcanic features in terrain at the center of the bull's-eye.

High-resolution three-dimensional models of the terrain and information from the LRO Diviner instrument have revealed geological features diagnostic not just of volcanism but also of much rarer silicic volcanism.

The volcanic province’s very existence will force scientists to modify ideas about the Moon’s volcanic history, says Bradley Jolliff, PhD, research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, who led the team that analyzed the LRO images.

“To find evidence of this unusual composition located where it is, and appearing to be relatively recent volcanic activity is a fundamentally new result and will make us think again about the Moon’s thermal and volcanic evolution,” he says.

The work is described in the July 24 advance online issue of Nature Geoscience.

Read more at Washington University St Louis

Thrillseekers rush to volcanic eruption: Fimmvorduhals volcano on Eyjafjallajokull glacier

This picture taken on March 27, 2010 shows tourists gathered to watch lava spurt out of the site of a volcanic eruption at the Fimmvorduhals volcano near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier some 125 Kms east of Reykjakic.

With lava still gushing, a small Icelandic volcano that initially sent hundreds fleeing from their homes is turning into a boon for the island nation's tourism industry, as visitors flock to catch a glimpse of the eruption.

Volcanic meal cooked over hot lava outside Reykjavik
A group of Icelandic chefs this week offered customers a unique gastronomical experience: a gourmet meal cooked over hot lava and served near an ongoing volcanic eruption, one of the chefs said Wednesday.

"My philosophy is that if someone says that something is impossible, I feel the urge to try it," Fridgeir Eiriksson told AFP. When Eiriksson heard about the eruption at the Fimmvorduhals volcano in the middle of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland on March 21, he began planning to "cook a delicious dinner at the volcano."

On Tuesday, Eiriksson and three colleagues at the gourmet restaurant of Reykjavik luxury hotel Holt drove supplies and "lots of champagne" up to the foot of the mountain in two four-wheel-drive trucks.

They set up a make-shift dining area near a lava field with a red carpet, a small table and two bolstered chairs for a couple of restaurant regulars flown up by helicopter.

"We did not know what to expect when we would approach the volcano, so we brought welder masks and gloves since we wanted to cook the food on the lava itself," Eiriksson said.

"We did not use any of the gear since we were never dangerously close to the glowing lava, but it was hot around the lava field and we even had to take off our winter coats when we started cooking on the lava itself," he added.

With wind-chill, temperatures at the mountain have in recent days dropped as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit), and despite the glowing fresh lava around them the diners remained bundled up throughout the meal.

On the menu: lobster soup, ollowed by flaming lobster and monkfish and lava-cooked shallot onions, swafllowed down with Veuve Clicquot champagne.

The chefs had intended to exclusively serve their two customers, who each shelled out around 60,000 kronur (350 euros, 470 dollars) for the helicopter trip and meal, but had also offered some curious tourists a taste of the lava-cooked food, Eiriksson said.

The chefs had not planned any more volcanic cooking expeditions, but Eiriksson said a Hollywood television producer had called to ask if they would give a repeat performance.

ESA - Observing the Earth - Congo receives help from space after volcano eruption - images

ESA - Observing the Earth - Congo receives help from space after volcano eruption


Congo receives help from space after volcano eruption

On 2 January, Mount Nyamulagira in the Democratic Republic of Congo erupted, spewing lava from its southern flank and raising concerns that the 100 000 people in the town of Sake could be under threat.

Fears were also triggered in Goma as rumours circulated that an eruption was imminent at the nearby Nyiragongo volcano, which devastated the city in 2002.

Following the eruption, scientists and local authorities have been using a long series of space images from ESA’s Envisat, together with seismic and helicopter data, to monitor the situation and calm fears of the local population.

Dr Nicolas d’Oreye of GORISK, which is in Congo assisting the Goma Volcano Observatory to collect and process satellite observations and field data, said the satellite images are very useful for managing the crisis.

"As well as helping to validate information from different datasets, the satellite images are providing invaluable information about the situation, such as the details about the lava flow and the fact that the Nyiragongo volcano is not showing any signs of abnormal activity.

	Path of lava flow

"This has been of great importance for the local authorities and the Goma Volcano Observatory, who are holding daily crisis meetings, to reassure the local population and humanitarian agencies that Nyiragongo will be unaffected by the eruption of Nyamulagira."

Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province, is situated along the southern margin of the lava fields from these volcanoes. Lava from the Nyamulagira (height 3058 m) eruption has been flowing in a direction south and southwest of the volcano, raising concerns that lava could cover the Goma and Sake road within weeks, causing widespread chaos and threatening the local economy.

"Lava flows from Nyamulagira are usually not a direct threat for the population and the infrastructure except when it develops southwards, as it is in this case," explained Dr d’Oreye, a senior scientist at the Geophysics/Astrophysics Department of the National Museum of Natural History in Luxembourg. "In this situation, it is crucial to monitor the flow size, direction and speed for the authorities to be able to make timely decisions."

Lava flows can be mapped by comparing satellite radar images acquired before and after the eruption. In the images, old lava appears bright white. If an area appears white in before images and black in after images, then the ground has changed between acquisitions by the flow of new lava.

ESA: ExoMars Methane Detection

The priority for the ESA ExoMars is mission is to map trace gases in the atmosphere of Mars, distinguishing individual chemical species down to concentrations of just a few parts per billion.

Of these gases, one in particular attracts special attention: methane. Discovered on Mars in 2003, it happens to be a possible ‘biomarker’, a gas that is readily produced by biological activity.

Understanding whether the methane comes from life or from geological and volcanic processes takes precedence. “The methane is the anchor point around which the science is to be constructed,” says ESA spokesperson Vago.

Adding to the mystery is that methane was found to be concentrated in just three locations on Mars, and then disappeared much faster from the atmosphere than scientists were expecting.

This points to an unknown destruction mechanism much more powerful than any known on Earth. It may also indicate a much faster creation process to have produced such large quantities of the gas in the first place.

Sun, moon causing tremors deep in San Andreas fault

The faint tug of the sun and moon on the San Andreas Fault stimulates tremors deep underground, suggesting that the rock 15 miles below is lubricated with highly pressurized water that allows the rock to slip with little effort, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists.

"Tremors seem to be extremely sensitive to minute stress changes," said Roland Burgmann, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science. "Seismic waves from the other side of the planet triggered tremors on the Cascadia subduction zone off the coast of Washington state after the Sumatra earthquake last year, while the Denali earthquake in 2002 triggered tremors on a number of faults in California. Now we also see that tides - the daily lunar and solar tides - very strongly modulate tremors."

In a paper appearing in the Dec. 24 issue of the journal Nature, UC Berkeley graduate student Amanda M. Thomas, seismologist Robert Nadeau of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and Burgmann argue that this extreme sensitivity to stress - and specifically to shearing stress along the fault - means that the water deep underground is under extreme pressure.

"The big finding is that there is very high fluid pressure down there, that is, lithostatic pressure, which means pressure equivalent to the load of all rock above it, 15 to 30 kilometers (10 to 20 miles) of rock," Nadeau said. "Water under very high pressure essentially lubricates the rock, making the fault very weak."

Though tides raised in the Earth by the sun and moon are not known to trigger earthquakes directly, they can trigger swarms of deep tremors, which could increase the likelihood of quakes on the fault above the tremor zone, the researchers say. At other fault zones, such as at Cascadia, swarms of tremors in the ductile zone deep underground correlate with slip at depth as well as increased stress on the shallower "seismogenic zone," where earthquakes are generated. The situation on the San Andreas Fault is not so clear, however.

"These tremors represent slip along the fault 25 kilometers (15 miles) underground, and this slip should push the fault zone above in a similar pattern," Burgmann said. "But it seems like it must be very subtle, because we actually don't see a tidal signal in regular earthquakes. Even though the earthquake zone also sees the tidal stress and also feels the added periodic behavior of the tremor below, they don't seem to be very bothered."

Nevertheless, said Nadeau, "It is certainly in the realm of reasonable conjecture that tremors are stressing the fault zone above it. The deep San Andreas Fault is moving faster when tremors are more active, presumably stressing the seismogenic zone, loading the fault a little bit faster. And that may have a relationship to stimulating earthquake activity."

Seismologists were surprised when tremors were first discovered more than seven years ago, since the rock at that depth - for the San Andreas Fault, between 15 and 30 kilometers (10 to 20 miles) underground - is not brittle and subject to fracture, but deformable, like peanut butter. They called them non-volcanic tremors to distinguish them from tremors caused by fluid - water or magma - fracturing and flowing through rock under volcanoes. It was not clear, however, what caused the non-volcanic tremors, which are on the order of a magnitude 1 earthquake.

To learn more about the source of these tremors, UC Berkeley seismologists began looking for tremors five years ago in seismic recordings from the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas Fault obtained from sensitive bore-hole seismometers placed underground as part of the UC Berkeley's High-Resolution Seismic Network. Using eight years of tremor data, Thomas, Burgmann and Nadeau correlated tremor activity with the effects of the sun and moon on the crust and with the effects of ocean tides, which are driven by the moon.

They found the strongest effect when the pull on the Earth from the sun and moon sheared the fault in the direction it normally breaks. Because the San Andreas Fault is a right-lateral strike-slip fault, the west side of the fault tends to break north-northwestward, dragging Los Angeles closer to San Francisco.

NASA: Earth Observation of Volcanic Activity at Kilauea

Volcanic Activity at Kilauea

Volcanic fog—vog—swirls around the Hawaiian Islands in this satellite image. Vog is formed when sulphur dioxide gas emitted from a volcano reacts with oxygen and water vapour.


The reactions form tiny drops of sulphuric acid and other sulfates, which create a visible haze. Since March 12, 2008, emissions of sulphur dioxide (the gas that forms vog) from Kilauea volcano have been elevated: 800 metric tons (1,800,000 pounds) per day in early December 2009, compared to a 140 metric ton per day (310,000 pounds) average from 2003–2007.

The (MRIS) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer