Look out for lava
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 26
RING OF FIRE DEP'T.
What's Going on With the Volcanoes?
VOLCANOES STILL SEEM to erupt on volcanoes' own terms. What else is left in the news that works like that? Hurricanes, floods, ice storms, firestorms, drought—these used to be incidents of nature (or God), but now they are stories about what humans have done. Plagues: mostly mismanagement, at this point. Earthquakes can be set off by fracking, or if the fracking industry insists on being pedantic, by the underground injection of the wastewater from fracking after the original fracking is done. But a volcanic eruption is just something that happens, not that someone should have prevented or controlled.
What are the volcanoes up to? Great Sitkin Volcano, on Great Sitkin Island, in the Andreanof Islands, out toward the far end of the Aleutian Islands, is listed at Orange, or Watch, under the Alaska Volcano Observatory hazard rankings, as lava slowly erupts from it today. Great Sitkin Volcano was also slowly erupting with lava yesterday, according to the observatory, and last month, and has been in that condition since the lava started flowing in July of 2021, after "a single explosive event in May 2021."
The Alaska Volcano Observatory also puts a hazard level of Yellow, or Advisory, on Mount Spurr, 78 miles northwest of Anchorage. Mount Spurr has experienced more than 2,700 earthquakes in the past 10 months, has inflated by 2.4 inches, and has developed a new five-acre lake of meltwater in the crater at its summit.
The observatory estimates that the volcano is equally likely to erupt from its flank, where it erupted in 1953 and 1992, or to fail to erupt entirely. A third option, a more violent eruption from its summit, last happened "more than 5,000 years ago," and the observatory rates it as "less likely." Even an eruption like the more recent ones, the observatory warns, would likely produce high-speed mud flows and possibly set off flooding, and it would "cut off air access to interior Alaska." In the 1953 eruption, the observatory notes, "An Air Force jet reported that it flew into the ash cloud for just a moment, but emerged with sandblasted paint and a frosted windscreen."
Axial Seamount, a highly active undersea volcano about 300 miles off the coast of Oregon with a peak nine-tenths of a mile below the surface of the Pacific, is expected to erupt "before the end of 2025," according to Oregon State University's Axial Seamount forecasting blog. The researchers note, though, that after that initial eruption forecast came out in July of last year, "both the rates of inflation and seismicity have moderated somewhat." It last erupted in 2015.
Kīlauea, on the Island of Hawai‘i, began spilling lava at a little after 10 this morning, local time, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports. This is the ninth episode in an intermittent eruption that began on December 23, according to the observatory.
The Cascades and California volcano observatories report no notable activity, as does the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. The Yellowstone Caldera, which last erupted some 70,000 years ago and which will probably not extinguish the human species if it has one of its larger eruptions, is quiet.
The volcano-built and volcano-blasted island of Santorini, in Greece, is under a state of emergency and residents are evacuating because of an outbreak of thousands of earthquakes over the past two weeks, but geologists do not believe volcanoes are to blame.
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, February 10, 2025
★★★ The morning was extra bright with the sun bouncing off the snow. The footing remained stable enough for a walk out to the trash can in slides without any ice touching the toes. Tangled shadows of branches lay gray against the white on a parked Nissan that hadn't been swept off. A young person tossed a snowball in the air and let it smash on the sidewalk. More snow and mirrorlike puddles covered the basketball court by the playground, and children's snow boots crunch-crunched along the icy slush beside the exercise equipment. A crow called from a cellphone antenna against the cloudless sky, then flapped off.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
HERE IS TODAY'S Indignity Morning Podcast.
Tom Scocca
Click on this box to find the Indignity Morning Podcast archive.
TOM SCOCCA
ADVICE DEP'T.
GOT SOMETHING YOU need to justify to yourself, or to the world at large? Other columnists are here to judge you, but The Sophist is here to tell you why you’re right. Direct your questions to The Sophist, at indignity@indignity.net, and get the answers you want.
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich selected from A Purin Free Dietary: Sample Menus and Recipes By Edna Alice Waite and Robert Ellsworth Peck, M. D., published in 1916, available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
Sandwich Cream Toast.
Take several slices of bread, toast thoroughly and slightly brown; spread generously with butter and grated cheese. Place two or three of these in a cereal bowl in sandwich form, one on top of the other, with the buttered side up. When ready to serve, pour over this a cup of hot milk. Part cream may be used if desired, but the butter and cheese make it very nourishing and appetizing.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.
