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Sunny Weather Continues – Volcanoes

Posted on by MichaelV (Otsego)

One could not ask for better weather – the kind we have been enjoying over this past week.  High pressure over Ontario will continue to bring sunny conditions through Friday.  Winds will start to pick up from the east with gusts to around 25 mph this afternoon.

Chances of rain increase over the weekend with perhaps another quarter inch to add to our monthly total through Sunday.  Other than that there isn’t much to talk about.

We have no volcanoes in our back yard (thank God) like they to in Hawaii – On Wednesday, a magnitude 4.4 earthquake rattled the volcano’s main caldera, damaging roads and buildings in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Earlier, ash plumes led to an aviation red alert and raised the threat of acid rain and volcanic smog or “vog” from toxic sulfur dioxide gas that spews forth from the earth along with the lava.

Our closest volcano is in Yellowstone Nation Park – that one is considered a super volcano and if it were to ever go off it would affect the whole U.S. – for now it sleeps, hopefully for a long, long time.

The largest active geyser in the world (feature image) just erupted for a 5th time this year, puzzling Yellowstone National Park scientists and leaving more questions than answers as to the recent activity.

Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park is the world’s tallest active geyser in the world, able to shoot water more than 300 feet into the air in a powerful steam jet. Since March 15th the geyser has erupted five times, with the latest occurring on May 13th.

While the geyser eruption is nothing to worry about and does not indicate any increased chance of Yellowstone’s supervolcano erupting, the frequency has puzzled scientists. Yellowstone sits under a massive hotspot, a similar process which created the Hawaiian island chain. Hotspots are a constant upwelling of molten rock from the mantle, which acts as sort of a blowtorch underneath Earth’s crust. While Hawaii almost constantly erupts, the Yellowstone hotspot has tens of kilometers worth of lithospheric crust to burn through in order to erupt. This leads to more infrequent but potentially much larger eruptions at Yellowstone.

 

 

Category: Michigan Weather Forecast

10 thoughts on “Sunny Weather Continues – Volcanoes”

  1. What a gorgeous day!! I too am grateful for no volcanoes – I was watching someone explain how difficult it is, predicting where the lava flows will go, because they create their own dams/channels as they creep. I also thought I heard someone mention on the Weather Channel that there isn’t a link between the newly-awakened geyser and what’s going on in Hawaii – but you sure have to wonder…. As I’ve traveled around the United States, it’s surprising to discover how many of our “mountains” are actually old extinct volcanoes…..

  2. Another warm and sunny day. One low area of my yard is still soggy from all the rain. The grass is as green as it has ever been.

    1. Normal temps! I love ti! Anything but above normal would be awesome! 90’s = HORRENDOUS weather!

    1. 1 degree cooler than average? haha What a cold front! That could very well be warmer than some temps this week since the averages are increasing. I also don’t trust those models you follow. Weren’t they also showing a cold May?

  6. We have another beautiful day. I hope you all get out there & enjoy it!! I think I will head to the greenhouse today to get some tomato plants. 🙂

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