THe Straits Times (Singapore): Inter-Korean volcano talks 'premature': Seoul official
JEJU - IT IS 'premature' for the two Koreas to hold governmental talks for a joint survey of a North Korean mountain to assess the risk of its potential volcanic eruption, a high-level Seoul official said on Sunday.
The remark came days after the two Koreas agreed to conduct a joint on-site survey of Mount Baekdu during a rare civilian-led meeting that experts say may help open the way for official dialogue between the two countries.
'We cannot rule out a possibility that the experts' meeting could develop further (into an inter-governmental meeting) if it goes well, laying grounds for dialogue. We, however, have no intention to utilize it as a formality to open the dialogue,' the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. 'The ball is in the North's court, not ours. The future of inter-Korean dialogue depends on Pyongyang's attitude.'
Mount Baekdu, the highest mountain on the Korean Peninsula, has been dormant since its last eruption in 1903, but experts have warned that it may still have an active core, citing topographical signs and satellite images.
The official also said that South Korea can send more civilian aid to the vulnerable in the North if transparent distribution can be ensured.
He, however, reaffirmed that his government has no immediate plan to send massive rice shipments to North Korea by saying, 'There is no change in the present government position.' -- THE KOREA HERALD/ANN
Monday, April 18, 2011
Philippines' Taal Volcano shows new life
CNN World: Philippines' Taal Volcano shows new life
(CNN) -- Volcanologists in the Philippines are closely monitoring a volcano on Luzon Island close to the capital, Manila, after a sudden spike in seismic activity.
Twenty one volcanic earthquakes were recorded at Taal Volcano from Sunday 8 a.m. to Monday 8 a.m.
One of the earthquakes was felt by local residents in Brgy Calauit at the southeast side of the island.
Scientists at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) say the quakes are an indication that magma is moving towards Taal's surface.
The main crater lake has been heating up since January.
PHIVOLCS Science Research Specialist Alex Ramos told CNN that scientists have seen "a slight intensification of steaming in the main crater lake."
He said emissions of carbon dioxide have risen from 1,875 tons per day in February to 4,670 tons at the end of March.
PHIVOLCS has raised its five step alert level to 2 around Taal and is warning people not to go near the crater lake or main Daang Kastila Trail due to the high concentration of toxic gases and a risk of steam explosions.
The popular tourist attraction is 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of the Manila.
An estimated 7,000 people live on the volcanic island which last erupted in 1977.
(CNN) -- Volcanologists in the Philippines are closely monitoring a volcano on Luzon Island close to the capital, Manila, after a sudden spike in seismic activity.
Twenty one volcanic earthquakes were recorded at Taal Volcano from Sunday 8 a.m. to Monday 8 a.m.
One of the earthquakes was felt by local residents in Brgy Calauit at the southeast side of the island.
Scientists at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) say the quakes are an indication that magma is moving towards Taal's surface.
The main crater lake has been heating up since January.
PHIVOLCS Science Research Specialist Alex Ramos told CNN that scientists have seen "a slight intensification of steaming in the main crater lake."
He said emissions of carbon dioxide have risen from 1,875 tons per day in February to 4,670 tons at the end of March.
PHIVOLCS has raised its five step alert level to 2 around Taal and is warning people not to go near the crater lake or main Daang Kastila Trail due to the high concentration of toxic gases and a risk of steam explosions.
The popular tourist attraction is 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of the Manila.
An estimated 7,000 people live on the volcanic island which last erupted in 1977.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Indonesia: Volcano's victims still unable to rebuild
Spero News: Indonesia: Volcano's victims still unable to rebuild
Mount Merapi erupted in November 2010. More and more people living on the slopes of the volcano have lost their homes due to the destructive force known as 'cold lava' where volcanic ash, stones and other material are brought down the mountain by the rivers.
Six months after the initial eruption, Indonesia's most active volcano still prevents people from returning home and rebuilding their lives on the dangerous slopes of Mount Merapi.
One of the most active of the 129 volcanoes in Indonesia, the November 2010 eruption of Mount Merapi caused the deaths of 322 people and led to the displacement of another 136,585. After the eruptions, more and more people living on the slopes of the volcano have lost their homes due to the destructive force known as 'cold lava' where volcanic ash, stones and other material are brought down the mountain by the rivers.
In addition to the 100,000 people who lost their homes to the volcanic eruption, a further approximately 3,750 were newly displaced as a consequence of the eruption's aftershock, cold lava. Shortly after the eruption in late October, JRS responded to the natural disaster providing emergency assistance in some of the 13 government-managed camps.
JRS provided food, medicine, sleeping mats, sanitary products and clothing through distribution points for displaced persons living outside of the official camps and directly to people sheltered in surrounding villages. With the help of 177 volunteers JRS assisted 75,957 IDPs and returnees during the initial four months.
The JRS response to the crisis has focused on providing to the most vulnerable displaced persons and offering support where other NGOs and governmental agencies were not present.
Follow-up advocacy
Although the government-established temporary shelters are located outside the evacuation zone – a safe distance from the volcano – thousands of people fled to surrounding villages and were taken in by locals. While many villagers said they were happy to assist those displaced, it was apparent they did not have the capacity or income to care for them.
Even though the JRS Indonesia emergency response has come to an end, staff continue to stay in contact with the displaced population there and share information on their needs and concerns in local coordination meetings with authorities.
Mount Merapi erupted in November 2010. More and more people living on the slopes of the volcano have lost their homes due to the destructive force known as 'cold lava' where volcanic ash, stones and other material are brought down the mountain by the rivers.
Six months after the initial eruption, Indonesia's most active volcano still prevents people from returning home and rebuilding their lives on the dangerous slopes of Mount Merapi.
One of the most active of the 129 volcanoes in Indonesia, the November 2010 eruption of Mount Merapi caused the deaths of 322 people and led to the displacement of another 136,585. After the eruptions, more and more people living on the slopes of the volcano have lost their homes due to the destructive force known as 'cold lava' where volcanic ash, stones and other material are brought down the mountain by the rivers.
In addition to the 100,000 people who lost their homes to the volcanic eruption, a further approximately 3,750 were newly displaced as a consequence of the eruption's aftershock, cold lava. Shortly after the eruption in late October, JRS responded to the natural disaster providing emergency assistance in some of the 13 government-managed camps.
JRS provided food, medicine, sleeping mats, sanitary products and clothing through distribution points for displaced persons living outside of the official camps and directly to people sheltered in surrounding villages. With the help of 177 volunteers JRS assisted 75,957 IDPs and returnees during the initial four months.
The JRS response to the crisis has focused on providing to the most vulnerable displaced persons and offering support where other NGOs and governmental agencies were not present.
Follow-up advocacy
Although the government-established temporary shelters are located outside the evacuation zone – a safe distance from the volcano – thousands of people fled to surrounding villages and were taken in by locals. While many villagers said they were happy to assist those displaced, it was apparent they did not have the capacity or income to care for them.
Even though the JRS Indonesia emergency response has come to an end, staff continue to stay in contact with the displaced population there and share information on their needs and concerns in local coordination meetings with authorities.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Volcanoes and greenhouse gasses
KOLD News 13: Volcanoes and greenhouse gasses
People who are fortunate enough to live in or visit Hawai`i, or even those who have seen the right television documentaries know that the majestic presence of erupting volcanoes attests to their raw power.
Don't try this trick at home, but if we took Kilauea (our own backyard volcano) and collected the lava that it erupted, just during the time it took you to read this sentence, there would be enough material to fill the gas tanks of about 1,000 Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs.) And though Kilauea is a medium-to-small-sized volcano, it has been discharging lava nearly continuously at this rate for the past 24 years.
Demonstrations like this one, or catastrophic eruptions like those of Mount St. Helens or Mount Pinatubo, understandably cause people to sometimes think that human-caused effects on the biosphere are small compared to volcanic ones. But, as the saying goes, "it ain't necessarily so."
At HVO, for instance, we are often asked about the influence of volcanic gas emissions on the atmosphere and whether these emissions dwarf those from human activity. Anyone who has stood downwind of Kilauea's vents, and sometimes even people who live in Honolulu, 250 miles away, know first-hand how these emissions can affect air quality and life on the regional scale. It's a fact that Kilauea has been releasing more than twice the amount of noxious sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) as the single dirtiest power plant on the U.S. mainland.
So it's also understandable that, with the emerging report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IGCC), some people want to understand how volcanoes might factor into the rise in greenhouse gas concentrations-specifically carbon dioxide (CO2)-that is being reported worldwide. The changes in global CO2 concentration during the past 600,000 years have mimicked the changes in global temperature. And, after all, volcanoes are awesome natural forces that release lots of carbon dioxide (CO2) right? Could volcanoes be a significant global-warming villain?
For numerous reasons, volcanologists have been interested in CO2 release from volcanoes for years and have been working to improve estimates on the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere and oceans by volcanic processes.
Carbon dioxide is released when magma rises from the depths of the Earth on its way to the surface. Our studies here at Kilauea show that the eruption discharges between 8,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each day. Actively erupting volcanoes release much more CO2 than sleeping ones do.
Gas studies at volcanoes worldwide have helped volcanologists tally up a global volcanic CO2 budget in the same way that nations around the globe have cooperated to determine how much CO2 is released by human activity through the burning of fossil fuels. Our studies show that globally, volcanoes on land and under the sea release a total of about 200 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
This seems like a huge amount of CO2, but a visit to the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) website (http://cdiac.ornl.gov/) helps anyone armed with a handheld calculator and a high school chemistry text put the volcanic CO2 tally into perspective. Because while 200 million tonnes of CO2 is large, the global fossil fuel CO2 emissions for 2003 tipped the scales at 26.8 billion tonnes. Thus, not only does volcanic CO2 not dwarf that of human activity, it actually comprises less than 1 percent of that value.
A short time ago (geologically speaking) the question "Which produces more CO2, volcanic or human activity?" would have been answered differently. Volcanoes would have tipped the scale. Now, human presence, activity, and the resultant production of CO2, through the burning of fossil fuels, have all climbed at an ever-increasing rate. On the other hand, looking back through the comparatively short duration of human history, volcanic activity has, with a few notable disturbances, remained relatively steady.
Volcanoes are still awesome, even though they don't produce CO2 at a rate that swamps the human signature, contributing to global warming. In fact, spectacular eruptions like that of Mount Pinatubo are demonstrated to contribute to global cooling through the injection of solar energy reflecting ash and other small particles.
There is now agreement at the top government level of the Earth's most prolific fossil fuel CO2 producer-the United States-that we need to reduce our dependence on oil in order to confront the challenge of global warming. As we work toward that goal, let's look forward to the day when volcanologists will give a different answer to the question "Which produces more CO2, volcanic or human activity?"
People who are fortunate enough to live in or visit Hawai`i, or even those who have seen the right television documentaries know that the majestic presence of erupting volcanoes attests to their raw power.
Don't try this trick at home, but if we took Kilauea (our own backyard volcano) and collected the lava that it erupted, just during the time it took you to read this sentence, there would be enough material to fill the gas tanks of about 1,000 Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs.) And though Kilauea is a medium-to-small-sized volcano, it has been discharging lava nearly continuously at this rate for the past 24 years.
Demonstrations like this one, or catastrophic eruptions like those of Mount St. Helens or Mount Pinatubo, understandably cause people to sometimes think that human-caused effects on the biosphere are small compared to volcanic ones. But, as the saying goes, "it ain't necessarily so."
At HVO, for instance, we are often asked about the influence of volcanic gas emissions on the atmosphere and whether these emissions dwarf those from human activity. Anyone who has stood downwind of Kilauea's vents, and sometimes even people who live in Honolulu, 250 miles away, know first-hand how these emissions can affect air quality and life on the regional scale. It's a fact that Kilauea has been releasing more than twice the amount of noxious sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) as the single dirtiest power plant on the U.S. mainland.
So it's also understandable that, with the emerging report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IGCC), some people want to understand how volcanoes might factor into the rise in greenhouse gas concentrations-specifically carbon dioxide (CO2)-that is being reported worldwide. The changes in global CO2 concentration during the past 600,000 years have mimicked the changes in global temperature. And, after all, volcanoes are awesome natural forces that release lots of carbon dioxide (CO2) right? Could volcanoes be a significant global-warming villain?
For numerous reasons, volcanologists have been interested in CO2 release from volcanoes for years and have been working to improve estimates on the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere and oceans by volcanic processes.
Carbon dioxide is released when magma rises from the depths of the Earth on its way to the surface. Our studies here at Kilauea show that the eruption discharges between 8,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each day. Actively erupting volcanoes release much more CO2 than sleeping ones do.
Gas studies at volcanoes worldwide have helped volcanologists tally up a global volcanic CO2 budget in the same way that nations around the globe have cooperated to determine how much CO2 is released by human activity through the burning of fossil fuels. Our studies show that globally, volcanoes on land and under the sea release a total of about 200 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
This seems like a huge amount of CO2, but a visit to the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) website (http://cdiac.ornl.gov/) helps anyone armed with a handheld calculator and a high school chemistry text put the volcanic CO2 tally into perspective. Because while 200 million tonnes of CO2 is large, the global fossil fuel CO2 emissions for 2003 tipped the scales at 26.8 billion tonnes. Thus, not only does volcanic CO2 not dwarf that of human activity, it actually comprises less than 1 percent of that value.
A short time ago (geologically speaking) the question "Which produces more CO2, volcanic or human activity?" would have been answered differently. Volcanoes would have tipped the scale. Now, human presence, activity, and the resultant production of CO2, through the burning of fossil fuels, have all climbed at an ever-increasing rate. On the other hand, looking back through the comparatively short duration of human history, volcanic activity has, with a few notable disturbances, remained relatively steady.
Volcanoes are still awesome, even though they don't produce CO2 at a rate that swamps the human signature, contributing to global warming. In fact, spectacular eruptions like that of Mount Pinatubo are demonstrated to contribute to global cooling through the injection of solar energy reflecting ash and other small particles.
There is now agreement at the top government level of the Earth's most prolific fossil fuel CO2 producer-the United States-that we need to reduce our dependence on oil in order to confront the challenge of global warming. As we work toward that goal, let's look forward to the day when volcanologists will give a different answer to the question "Which produces more CO2, volcanic or human activity?"
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Iceland’s Volcano: One Year Later
The Epoch Times: Iceland’s Volcano: One Year Later
Last April, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption was an economic and logistical nightmare for the millions of travelers in Europe. But one year later, European Union officials say they are amply prepared if the volcano—or one like it—blows again.
Even though “volcanoes and other aviation crises are by their nature unpredictable,” the EU has made headway in putting systems in place to prevent another travel disaster, said European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas.
Eyjafjallajökull continuously spewed out a miasma of ash for more than a month, resulting in the cancellation of roughly 100,000 flights, at a cost to the airline industry of about estimated $1.7 billion.
The troublesome volcano is now completely dormant and on April 14, which marks the one-year anniversary of the day it first erupted, a small visitor center is being opened for tourists—yes, tourists.
Those who wish to see source of the economic destruction that was wrought upon Europe can book a flight on Iceland Express, which is now capitalizing on last year's ordeal.
The main reason for the canceled flights was fear that large plumes of ash would clog airplane engines. The measure was mainly taken as a precaution since the airlines were not clear on the extent of the danger.
The EU said that airline engine manufacturers will now have to, by law, “provide detailed information about risk associated with volcanic ash exposure and tolerance levels of the different engines they produce.”
This fall, the EU said it will use this information to come up with a proposal to require engine manufacturers to tell airlines the risks associated with volcanic ash getting sucked into their engines.
Other systems that will also be put in place include better meteorological systems and new radar systems for enhanced modeling and thus, greater accuracy and prediction.
Such models can provide “accurate, timely and consistent information about the position, amount, composition, altitude, projected trajectory, and drift of volcanic ash,” the EU stated.
Last April, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption was an economic and logistical nightmare for the millions of travelers in Europe. But one year later, European Union officials say they are amply prepared if the volcano—or one like it—blows again.
Even though “volcanoes and other aviation crises are by their nature unpredictable,” the EU has made headway in putting systems in place to prevent another travel disaster, said European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas.
Eyjafjallajökull continuously spewed out a miasma of ash for more than a month, resulting in the cancellation of roughly 100,000 flights, at a cost to the airline industry of about estimated $1.7 billion.
The troublesome volcano is now completely dormant and on April 14, which marks the one-year anniversary of the day it first erupted, a small visitor center is being opened for tourists—yes, tourists.
Those who wish to see source of the economic destruction that was wrought upon Europe can book a flight on Iceland Express, which is now capitalizing on last year's ordeal.
The main reason for the canceled flights was fear that large plumes of ash would clog airplane engines. The measure was mainly taken as a precaution since the airlines were not clear on the extent of the danger.
The EU said that airline engine manufacturers will now have to, by law, “provide detailed information about risk associated with volcanic ash exposure and tolerance levels of the different engines they produce.”
This fall, the EU said it will use this information to come up with a proposal to require engine manufacturers to tell airlines the risks associated with volcanic ash getting sucked into their engines.
Other systems that will also be put in place include better meteorological systems and new radar systems for enhanced modeling and thus, greater accuracy and prediction.
Such models can provide “accurate, timely and consistent information about the position, amount, composition, altitude, projected trajectory, and drift of volcanic ash,” the EU stated.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Yellowstone volcanic plume much larger than expected
Ars Technica: Yellowstone volcanic plume much larger than expected
Yellowstone National Park hosts a variety of hot springs and geysers, all powered by a plume of molten rock under its surface. At times in the past, that plume has powered activity that was quite a bit less scenic: massive eruptions that have been capable of covering roughly half of North America with ash. Thus, understanding the structure and evolution of this hotspot has an immense practical value. Now, thanks to an array of sensors funded by the National Science Foundation and some new computing techniques, some researchers have produced a new image of the plume, one that suggests the area of elevated temperatures is much larger than previously suspected.
Yellowstone sits on the same sort of mantle plume that powers the Hawaiian volcanoes. Since it's located in the middle of a continental plate, however, the behavior is quite different. Instead of relatively steady flows of molten rock, mid-continent hotspots tend to produce rare, explosive eruptions. Yellowstone's major eruptions have been separated by hundreds of thousands of years, and have packed an astonishing punch, with each eruption being thousands of times more potent than Mt. St. Helens.
Past imaging efforts have used seismic waves to detect the border between molten and solid rock. These have indicated that the mantle plume originates somewhere deep under Idaho and slopes eastward as it rises to meet the surface under Wyoming.
The new picture roughly agrees with this, but suggests the area heated by the plume may be far more extensive than indicated by the seismic data. It relies on what is termed magneto-telluric (MT) readings, which register subtle changes in the Earth's conductivity and magnetic fields. These register differences in temperature and composition of the rock and fluids, as these change alter the conductivity of the crust.
MT data was a bit hard to come by, but the National Science Foundation's Earth Scope grid has produced readings from a regularly spaced network of sensors across the western US. The authors were able to get readings from hundreds of stations across most of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to image the plume underneath Yellowstone.
Converting subtle differences in conductivity into a detailed map of underground structures is a rather complicated task, and a large portion of the paper is devoted to describing the computational methods that made it possible. Most of these involved adapting known solutions so that they could be run in parallel and lowering the memory requirements for the production of a single volume of the Earth's crust. Both the generation of the cells used (which were 4km on a side) and the calculations themselves were parallelized, allowing the reconstruction to be run on a computing grid in a reasonable amount of time.
The resulting picture suggests that the molten rock of the mantle plume seen in seismic images is only the core of a much larger volume of hot crust. Although this area isn't molten, the high temperatures allow water to pick up elevated levels of salt, which enables its detection through the MT monitoring equipment. The plume itself seems to slope down a bit more gently, and extend much further under Idaho than the seismic data had suggested. The MT data also confirms suggestions that the rock within the plume doesn't become molten until it reaches a depth of about 250km.
The new data provides an alternate view of the mantle plume that powers Yellowstone, one that adds to the picture painted by existing seismic data. And the techniques developed here should be applicable to other areas of the US West as more data from the Earth Scope grid becomes available.
Yellowstone National Park hosts a variety of hot springs and geysers, all powered by a plume of molten rock under its surface. At times in the past, that plume has powered activity that was quite a bit less scenic: massive eruptions that have been capable of covering roughly half of North America with ash. Thus, understanding the structure and evolution of this hotspot has an immense practical value. Now, thanks to an array of sensors funded by the National Science Foundation and some new computing techniques, some researchers have produced a new image of the plume, one that suggests the area of elevated temperatures is much larger than previously suspected.
Yellowstone sits on the same sort of mantle plume that powers the Hawaiian volcanoes. Since it's located in the middle of a continental plate, however, the behavior is quite different. Instead of relatively steady flows of molten rock, mid-continent hotspots tend to produce rare, explosive eruptions. Yellowstone's major eruptions have been separated by hundreds of thousands of years, and have packed an astonishing punch, with each eruption being thousands of times more potent than Mt. St. Helens.
Past imaging efforts have used seismic waves to detect the border between molten and solid rock. These have indicated that the mantle plume originates somewhere deep under Idaho and slopes eastward as it rises to meet the surface under Wyoming.
The new picture roughly agrees with this, but suggests the area heated by the plume may be far more extensive than indicated by the seismic data. It relies on what is termed magneto-telluric (MT) readings, which register subtle changes in the Earth's conductivity and magnetic fields. These register differences in temperature and composition of the rock and fluids, as these change alter the conductivity of the crust.
MT data was a bit hard to come by, but the National Science Foundation's Earth Scope grid has produced readings from a regularly spaced network of sensors across the western US. The authors were able to get readings from hundreds of stations across most of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to image the plume underneath Yellowstone.
Converting subtle differences in conductivity into a detailed map of underground structures is a rather complicated task, and a large portion of the paper is devoted to describing the computational methods that made it possible. Most of these involved adapting known solutions so that they could be run in parallel and lowering the memory requirements for the production of a single volume of the Earth's crust. Both the generation of the cells used (which were 4km on a side) and the calculations themselves were parallelized, allowing the reconstruction to be run on a computing grid in a reasonable amount of time.
The resulting picture suggests that the molten rock of the mantle plume seen in seismic images is only the core of a much larger volume of hot crust. Although this area isn't molten, the high temperatures allow water to pick up elevated levels of salt, which enables its detection through the MT monitoring equipment. The plume itself seems to slope down a bit more gently, and extend much further under Idaho than the seismic data had suggested. The MT data also confirms suggestions that the rock within the plume doesn't become molten until it reaches a depth of about 250km.
The new data provides an alternate view of the mantle plume that powers Yellowstone, one that adds to the picture painted by existing seismic data. And the techniques developed here should be applicable to other areas of the US West as more data from the Earth Scope grid becomes available.
Mount Etna volcano calms down
UPI.com: Mount Etna volcano calms down
CATANIA, Italy, April 11 (UPI) -- Italian officials said 11,000-foot-tall Mount Etna, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, has calmed down after two days of activity.
But volcano experts said in an ANSA report Monday that Europe's tallest active volcano might have fallen back into a short-lived slumber and another "active phase may just be around the corner."
On Sunday, the volcano blasted lava and shards of magma more than 1,200 feet into the air and a plume of black smoke rose more than 2 miles above the crater.
The wind carried fragments of the eruption to towns southeast of the large eastern Sicilian city of Catania but flight operations at the city's airport were unaffected, the report said.
CATANIA, Italy, April 11 (UPI) -- Italian officials said 11,000-foot-tall Mount Etna, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, has calmed down after two days of activity.
But volcano experts said in an ANSA report Monday that Europe's tallest active volcano might have fallen back into a short-lived slumber and another "active phase may just be around the corner."
On Sunday, the volcano blasted lava and shards of magma more than 1,200 feet into the air and a plume of black smoke rose more than 2 miles above the crater.
The wind carried fragments of the eruption to towns southeast of the large eastern Sicilian city of Catania but flight operations at the city's airport were unaffected, the report said.
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