Talk:2011 Nabro eruption

2011 Eritrean eruption
It's an on going eruption, that's fact http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/eruptions/news.html

Stop deletion.

--Bentaguayre (talk) 11:49, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Afd was closed with keep Talk:2011_Eritrean_eruption though the article got renamed. EdwardLane (talk) 09:29, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Confirmed eruption
This eruption has been confirmed to be from Nabro by the ash cloud. This volcano is remote with no historical eruptions, GVP information on Nabro volcano. This article should not be deleted, but it needs to be updated. As this eruption is real. The ash cloud ls also creating problems for Egypt and other nearby countries in the area. Jonfr (talk) 20:18, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Keep it for now as this is a confirmed eruption and is from a volcano which has never erupted within recorded history. If in the end scientists find it was not Nabro and ends up being a minor event, then the article might need to be merged with the article about which volcano erupted. --Rapier108 (talk) 03:37, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

The Nabro volcano is remote and it is hard to get to. It has also not been studied a lot over the past decades due that fact. Because of this it is also going to be awhile until the extend of this eruption is fully known. But given the ash cloud that was observed by satellite data that this was no minor eruption. It might however be an short one, but that is an common thing with large eruptions. Press however has the wrong volcano named (an common mistake). Jonfr (talk) 13:04, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

more info
Loads of information on this website including a video of the ash cloud from the Eumetsat weather satellite and a short newscast covering the info available up to 8am June 14th.

It looks like quite a good source - and will presumably keep updating :)


 * That link reports a strong Magnitude 5.5 earthquake on 17th June 2011 at 9.16am, suggesting more volcanic activity from Nabro.
 * From USGS: 5.5Mw, 09:16:12 UTC, 12:16:12PM Local
 * Epicentral Location: 13.307°N, 41.668° with a hypocentral depth of 10km.

EdwardLane (talk) 13:37, 17 June 2011 (UTC)


 * a link from that site to this nice explanation of the general trends in that area and hypothesis of possible dike intrusion


 * Reasonable speculation here that the 15km lava flow and the appearance in the video means a basalt lava - still poses questions about the earlier explosive aspect of the eruption.EdwardLane (talk) 18:11, 22 June 2011 (UTC)


 * some of Nasa's Lance Modis images for the eruption in true colour or false colour can be seen here the link shows false colour on 16 june - but can scrolled to different dates or toggles to different colour options. I picked this image because the eruption is pretty obvious to spot. EdwardLane (talk) 10:22, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Importance for a large region
Dear folks - not everything what is remote s unimportant! I am living in Mekelle, the capital city of the Regional state of Tigray, which was thinly covered by black volcanic glass "ashes" on Monday morning. All flights had to be stopped. There are rumors from the nearby Afar Regional state, in the lowlands, that villages nearby the volcano had been destroyed. The cloud has already had a certain effect on the climate, since Tuesday it became very cold, much colder than usual for the beginning rainy season. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.55.76.18 (talk) 20:32, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

Lack of coverage
It appears that journalists are rarely if ever allowed into Eritrea - which looks to be a bit of a media black hole. That's probably why there are no films/photos of the eruption from ground level yet Eritrea.

Finally a couple of bits of footage of the eruption from ground level. from the site mentioned above originally news from Eritrean TV (Eri.TV) which has been been rebroadcast by EastAfro.com and now appear on youtube showing a Lava flow - and a bit of earthquake damage. Commentary is not in a language I recognise - only words I think I caught were Nabro, lava and kilometer. And another clip

I presume these are not possible to add to the article for copyright reasons but the reporting in them might be possible to cite (if someone understands the language?).
 * I'm almost 100% certain that the language is Tigrinya. Ask Merhawie, whom I believe is a native speaker of Tigrayan. -- llywrch (talk) 18:36, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

more stuff here in tigrigna (just audio and a picture with text describing the content). Apparently the voice reports the following ''no less than 3500 directly hit, the number of people affected by the still active Nabro Volcano is expected to reach 9000. Mr. Alem Kibreab, told Voice of America Tigrigna program yesterday, including massive loss of livestock and property. Also claims of providing tents, and basic necessities to the victims including a medical unit on spot.'' But the article itself is clearly not NPOV so I'm not sure how reliable that is. EdwardLane (talk) 18:30, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Political fallout
According to this article an eritrean opposition group is asking for international support. But according to the article the eritrean government doesn't want international agencies involved - so may be endangering its own people. That link also suggests troops were withdrawn from the vicinity of Nabro prior to the eruption but that civilians were not evacuated. If that is correct I would not be surprised to see some political fallout, so perhaps this article will need a political fallout section for the eruption.EdwardLane (talk) 06:40, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Seriru and Sireru
are Seriru and Sireru the same (just variations on spelling?) and is the 15km of lava that headed north west from Nabro (as seen by satellite) the same flow as reported by the government in Seriru? Or is that the effect of the 'smaller eruption' ? EdwardLane (talk) 16:53, 23 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Transliteration of words written in the Ge'ez script into English is not standardized. (This is a problem I've wrestled with for a long time with Ethiopian placenames.) Go ahead & treat Seriru & Sireru as the same place until the evidence begins to show otherwise. -- llywrch (talk) 18:36, 23 June 2011 (UTC)


 * There is a Well called Pozzo Sireru here 13.33972°N, 41.475°W according to this source. (Pozzo is italian for Well) and that's about 40/50km west-south-west of Nabro. Interestingly it's just outside of Eritrea - so its seems slightly odd that the eritrean government would report a lava flow there (perhaps that was in error) - or perhaps the 'sireru area' only just touches the well, or perhaps that plot is not quite accurate (unlikely I think)- or perhaps it's the wrong sireru (seems unlikely).

Also of interest Lake Afambo is about 200kms due south of Nabro (which apparently gives it's name to the) Afambo district where a second eruption was reported is well outside of the area I had expected to find people being evacuated. Is that the correct afambo (ie Afambo Ethiopea - rather than some similarly named Afambo in Eritrea)? EdwardLane (talk) 11:14, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Effects
The source http://www.addisfortune.com/Eritrean%20Volcano%20Erupts%20Economic%20Mayhem%20for%20Ethiopia.htm may be incorrect, as sulfur dioxide in the air contaminates water with so-called Sulfurous acid (sulfites and bisulfites); sulfur trioxide (present also?) produces sulfuric acid.69.72.27.186 (talk) 09:42, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Not the largest detection
The article asserts that this is the largest detection of sulfur dioxide from space. This is incorrect. The volcanos of Io (moon) emit a lot more sulfur dioxide, more or less continuously, and this has been detected from space. From both Jupiter probes and from earth-orbiting satellites such as Hubble. I'm not sure how to address this. -Arch dude (talk) 14:37, 25 June 2011 (UTC)
 * good point - the article needs 'largest detected on earth' EdwardLane (talk) 15:32, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Sulfur dioxide
The article states that the volcano: "emitted the highest levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) ever observed from earth orbit." Does this mean the most concentrated sulfur dioxide or the most total amount of sulfur dioxide? Will this cool the earth? Paul Studier (talk) 03:31, 26 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Check out the Nasa images on this page and you can see the density and distribution for yourself.


 * Total area by 26th of June is 1,225,951 km2 but I think they were talking about the total mass of SO2. the quote from the ref (which is apparently a quote from Nasa on 17th of June) is "According to NASA, "the volcano spewed ash and large amounts of sulfur dioxide gas—the highest levels ever detected from space"" EdwardLane (talk) 19:43, 26 June 2011 (UTC)


 * You ask about the effect on temperature - well the initial estimated height of the ash cloud was ~13.5km, according to the VAAC, which might just about put the emissions into the stratosphere but by the 14th the height was reported as only 6.1km, so the large amount of sulfur dioxide is probably too low at this stage to have any big longterm climatic effect - but it's still not nice stuff to have lots of in the lower atmosphere. EdwardLane (talk) 09:43, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Earthquakes
looking here I see several shallow earthquakes this on the western inner flank of the nabro caldera depth 1.2 km magnitude 3.8

this one] depth 0.7km magnitude 4 in the nearby Mallahle caldera

Anyway just to point at this site this site really if someone wants seismic activity info for the region. EdwardLane (talk) 10:01, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

is the eruption over
looking at the SO2 maps it appear that since the 18th of July there have been no more SO2 emissions the ash phase of the eruption already looked to have finished. There are still a few local earthquakes but unless it's just a lull in the activity I think the eruption is probably over. I suppose Lava could still be being erupted but that doesn't look to be showing up as hot spots on the modis images so I think that can be ruled out. EdwardLane (talk) 11:00, 27 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I just found this which says that the last thermal anomally from Nabro was on august 31st  - but that a period of several days without thermal anomally had occured in august, (and perhaps between augst 31st and sept 6 a blanket of cloud cover is/was preventing detection) so we still need to wait a little longer to determine whether the eruption is "actually" over - or if the lack of detected thermal anomally has been caused by something else. EdwardLane (talk) 10:40, 7 September 2011 (UTC)


 * more earthquakes in the region

shows 9 sept a magnitude 3.5 quake in mallahle's caldera 10 sept a magnitude 4.3 quake in nabro's caldera and a mag 2.7 just on the northern edge of nabro 11sept shows mag 3.1 on the southern edge of nabro depth only 0.6km EdwardLane (talk) 09:56, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Ash locally got to waist height
interesting pdf from 17th of July says this the ash depth and casualties and also says

"Afar Region’s most vulnerable – those living in the drought-belt - were hit with an additional crisis on June 12th when a volcanic peak erupted in Eritrea scattering ash over a wide east - west frontier from Sudan to the Arab Gulf. The 3 eruptions happened along the farming valley of Siddalu that is (p)art of Bidu, Ethiopia’s border woreda that extends into Eritrea. Over a month on from the first eruption, the 3rd volcano, Ra'a is still putting out lava and gas while Kulkuli and Basa’a have now died down."

Presumably Ra'a is a synonym for the main vent of Nabro as it was still erupting on the 17th of July according to all the satellite info. Not sure where the Kulkuli and Basa'a sites are. I'll see if I can find sources. EdwardLane (talk) 10:30, 3 August 2011 (UTC)


 * this suggests that on 13 June (when the eruptions started) it was thought to be in the Teru Wereda, but I see no mention of the Teru woreda on the page they suggest is a source, so perhaps they know the names of the regions that include sireru, afambo etc ??
 * .pdf this] suggests Nabro is in the Biru district of eritrea - might just be a typo for bidu but I'm not sure. EdwardLane (talk) 10:08, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Courtesy of Kmusser at WikiProject Maps - here's an old map that might have some of the missing names

activity ongoing
28 September 2011 - satellite pictures still showing vent, and hot areas presumably lava flow 1300m south of the vent (reported here


 * January 2012 - possibly still ongoing activity here

this french link reports 30 January 2012 - a new thermal anomaly is reported by MODVOLC - it is located (like it's predecessors) inside the caldera an dpermits them to suggest there is currently some activity.

It also reported on the 8 January 2012 that toulouse VAAC that there was activity at Nabro - with a 'member of Air France' reporting they had observed 'yesterday' a plume (probably of gas only) to an altitude of 3000m - that would fit with the further report from 7 January 2012 that there were thermal anomalies which probably were continuation sof the events of June 2011. EdwardLane (talk) 16:23, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Nothing since feb 13th according to that site now - and that was just a fresh thermal anomaly with no sign of gas/ash - so assuming they have not missed anything that makes nearly 2 months with no activity. EdwardLane (talk) 03:24, 6 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Interestingly the eritrean government have said here that there have been earthquakes caused by moving magma in/under Nabro as recently as 12 March 2012 and that they have set up 8 additional instruments there. EdwardLane (talk) 15:43, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

20000 displaced
This article] suggests that 20,000 people were displaced by the Nabro eruption, and were still displaced on 26 september 2011 EdwardLane (talk) 21:40, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Possible lava lake?
this french report suggests that the ongoing thermal anomaly might perhaps be a lava lake. EdwardLane (talk) 15:57, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Recent paper published
This links to the paper showing photos and describing lava type, depth, location (Sireru on the SW part of the caldera) etc. Which then has a further link to a Clive Oppenheimer and Pierre Wiart paper titled Large magnitude silicic volcanism in north Afar: the Nabro Volcanic Range and Ma’alalta volcano EdwardLane (talk) 09:46, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Asian Monsoon effects
This suggests that the plume height of the SO2 cloud was assisted by the asian monsoon. EdwardLane (talk) 11:30, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Bulletin of Volcanology October 2015 about this eruption
this article can fill in a bunch of information. EdwardLane (talk) 21:11, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

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