Friday Flotsam: Eyjafjallajökull, Chilean volcanoes and the Syfy "super eruption"

A weekly collection of thought-provoking articles on tech, innovation, and long-term investing from Nightview Capital’s Eric Markowitz.

Time to play a little catch up …

nEyjafjallajökull erupting in early May. Image by and courtesy of Martin Rietze.

A brief update on our friend Eyjafjallajökull – the eruption plume from the volcano was considerably taller yesterday, reaching 6-9 km (20,000-30,000 feet), but prevailing winds meant the ash hazard was confined to areas in the middle of the North Atlantic and northern parts of the British Isles. However, even as the ash hazard for Europe wanes (for now), you shouldn’t forget the amount of ash being dumped on parts of Iceland. If you want to see some stunning images of the eruption, Eruptions reader Martin Rietze sent me a link to his gallery of images and video from a recent summit climb of Eyjafjallajökull. He got some up and close shots of the volcano erupting (see above and the check out the link). You can also check out the daily timelapse of activity at the volcano or another gallery of shots from the volcano.nUPDATE 11:30 AM EDT 5/14/2010: Nice article on Live Science about the ash plume interacting with a front passing through the North Atlantic.

Another Eruptions reader, Manuel, sent me some news about activity in Chile over the last week. ONEMI declared an warning around Villarrica after the SERNAGEOMIN determined that the lava lake at the summit was becoming increasingly active. Tourists are being warned to avoid the popular summit hiking trails. You can check out a bevy of webcams of Chilean volcanoes on the SERNAGEOMIN website.Argentina is also on alert for potential ash from a number of Patagonian eruptions that may be in its future.

One other volcano that is almost always in some state of unrest, Popocatepetl, also has a webcam you can watch. Over the last few years, the volcano has had an almost constant steam plume with minor ash – and remember, Mexico City sits in the shadow of this volcano.

And if you’re been concerned that we haven’t seen many volcano-related movies lately, your wait will be over soon … sort of. Syfy announced they have started shooting a movie called “Super Eruption”, where (you guessed it) Yellowstone erupts. It is, of course, being shot in Bulgaria and if it is run by the same types who decided “Syfy” was a good name of a TV network, we know its going to be great. (And as a sidenote, can’t we have a different large caldera system erupt in a movie?)

And remember, the thirtieth anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens is next week, so send me your memories. You can find a lot of articles commemorating the eruption already.