My own experience of palaeovulcanology is cautionary- modest as the number of active and dormant volcanoes may be , very few have recorded eruptive histories.
Investigating an Olmec lithic source in the geologically young mountains of Guatemala, we noted a maar a few kilometers distant and a spectacular volcanic cone - Volcan Jumay dominating the southern horizon. Riding up, we encountered volcanic bombs atop one of the summits overlooking the source area, we were naturally curious as to which crater ejected them, and when- nothing brings closure to archaeological site dating better than a good old fashioned Pompei. No such luck. Unfortunately, nobody had mapped the maar, and nobody in the province of Jalapa , or the geological survey offices in the capital, had any catalog of eruptions of Jumay- absent going back to dig for datable materials, there was no telling whether the volcanic fallout was centuries or eons old . Such records as existed pertained to only a handfull of the two dozen active volcanoes in the nation, largely those within sight of the old and new capital cities. It would be nice if every volcano became a thesis topic , if only to get de minimis carbon dates for their holocene eruptive sequences , making life a lot easier for climate modelers as well as archaeologists. On Friday, July 19, 2013 11:59:34 AM UTC-4, Fred Zimmerman wrote: > > 1. In a major eruption many predeployed sensors may not survive (IIRC > this occurred at Mt. St. Helen's). Nearby cities, airports, universities > may be totally incapacitated. High-res satellite imagery will be available > almost immediately via the civil vendors. At Fukushima, rhe arrival of > specialized sensors took 24 to 96 hours for approvals, loading, transit, > and deployment. Planning can reduce these vulnerabilities, but getting the > right sensors collecting at the right locations *promptly* is always going > to be a challenge. > > 2. Some of the major pain points in information gathering after Fukushima > were human-behaivor driven, i.e. the confused and obfuscatory reporting > emanating from the plant operators. The Italian seismologist case > illustrates that in the aftermath of a major volcanic event officials would > not be completely irrational to exhibit some "CYA" behavior about access to > disaster area and government observations. If I remember correctly, there > was also some "will to disbelieve" lag involved in gathering data related > to the Icelandic ejections that disrupted jet travel a coujple of years ago. > > 3. If a major eruption occurs 5 or 10 years from now, all the following > will be inescapably present in much larger quantities: drones, cellphones, > autonomous floats & divers, citizen observers, 3-D printers, wireless > appliances, and on and on,. Scientists should be thinking about how to take > advantage of these developments. > > > --- > Fred Zimmerman > Geoengineering IT! > Bringing together the worlds of geoengineering and information technology > GE NewsFilter: http://geoengineeringIT.net:8080 > > > On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 4:20 PM, Ken Caldeira > <kcal...@carnegiescience.edu<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> With respect to learning more about potential consequences of solar >> geoengineering, what kinds of observing systems do we need in place to >> take maximal advantage of the next big volcano? >> >> What would we want to have in space (and why)? >> >> What would we want to have in airplanes (and why)? >> >> What would we want on the ground (and why)? >> >> How would these assets be utilized when there is no big volcano? >> >> Are there any high-quality reports or studies that address this issue? >> >> - >> >> >> -- >> _______________ >> Ken Caldeira >> >> Carnegie Institution for Science >> Dept of Global Ecology >> 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA >> +1 650 704 7212 kcal...@carnegiescience.edu <javascript:> >> http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab @kencaldeira >> >> *Caldeira Lab is hiring postdoctoral researchers.* >> *http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab/Caldeira_employment.html* >> >> Assistant: Sharyn Nantuna, snan...@carnegiescience.edu <javascript:> >> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "geoengineering" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to geoengineerin...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to geoengi...@googlegroups.com<javascript:> >> . >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
