Althouse: "Indonesia closed the airport on the tourist island of Bali on Monday and ordered 100,000 residents living near a rumbling volcano spewing columns of ash to evacuate immediately..."

November 28, 2017

"Indonesia closed the airport on the tourist island of Bali on Monday and ordered 100,000 residents living near a rumbling volcano spewing columns of ash to evacuate immediately..."

"... warning that the first major eruption in 54 years could be 'imminent.' The airport was closed for 24 hours from Monday morning, disrupting 445 flights and some 59,000 passengers, after Mount Agung, which killed hundreds of people in 1963, sent volcanic ash high into the sky, and officials said cancellations could be extended."

Reports Al Jazeera (which I chose from among several options for this story because it had the best photographs).

24 comments:

Rusty said...: That's not good.; 11/28/17, 6:22 AM
traditionalguy said...: Tales of the South Pacific redux.; 11/28/17, 6:32 AM
George M. Spencer said...: In 1815, the volcano Tambora also in Indonesia offered up the most massive eruption in recorded history. The top 5,000 feet of the mountain (38 cubic miles of dirt and rock) blew off into the upper atmosphere causing "The Year Without a Winter" the next year, causing famines, plagues, and revolutions around the world. It's little known because unlike Krakatoa int he 1880s modern communications didn't exist, and no one knew what was causing the vicious weather

In the U.S., crops failed across New England, due to freezing weather in the late spring and summer. The resulting starvation among New England farmers accelerated migration into the midwest with dying families fleeing for their lives.

The weather got back to normal in a year or two.

So much for global warming/cooling theories.; 11/28/17, 6:36 AM
lgv said...: Almost bought a house very close to Agung in Tulamben on the north shore. I have friends that live nearby. This could be much worse than the eruption in 1963. The airport is closed which will have a massive economic impact. Not sure how non-residents will get out as the nearest open airport is not very close.; 11/28/17, 6:40 AM
lgv said...: Also, if you head toward Agung from the north shore, you run into villages where there is virtually no outside contact. We were warned not to go there. Visitors are not welcome. I wonder if they have evacuated or whether they will remain isolated.; 11/28/17, 6:43 AM
Fernandinande said...: They better run away before they get vulcanized.; 11/28/17, 7:21 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Maybe if we sacrifice some more fetuses to the gods we will appease them!; 11/28/17, 7:35 AM
MadisonMan said...: The best article on that eruption is the one with plenty of satellite imagery.; 11/28/17, 7:41 AM
Sebastian said...: Peanuts. Just wait for the Yellowstone caldera to explode.; 11/28/17, 7:58 AM
FleetUSA said...: Thanks for the link. It is hard to find good footage on the web -- very surprising in today's tech age.; 11/28/17, 8:35 AM
CWJ said...: "Indonesia’s disaster agency has said Bali is 'still safe' for tourists except for a 7.5km zone around Mount Agung."

I sure hope that 7.5km is the radius and not diameter. Must be, since the volcano is 3km tall. Still, seems awfully small.; 11/28/17, 8:40 AM
Big Mike said...: @ George Spencer, I believe 1816 was called the “Year Without a Summer.” Reading about the impact of so much atmospheric dust and sulpher compounds from diaries and newspapers st the time is almost surreal. Rivers frozen over as far south as Pennsylvania in June. Hard freezes in upstate New York the entire month of May. No wonder there was famine.

But Tambora actually followed a string of large eruptions in 1812, 1813, and 1814, so it added its particulates and sulpher to an atmosphere that already was full of the stuff.; 11/28/17, 9:40 AM
lgv said...: More, better links:

Friend's blog:

http://www.underwatertribe.com/underwater-tribe-blog/

Volcanologist:
https://twitter.com/janinekrippner

Another twitter feed in Indonesian, but some photos and time lapse:
https://twitter.com/id_magma

CWJ, it is a radius, but the ash will be somewhat directional. Any lava flow will also be somewhat directional.; 11/28/17, 9:51 AM
CWJ said...: lgv,

Directional of course, but just for comparison's sake Pompeii was about 10km from Vesuvius.; 11/28/17, 10:03 AM
CWJ said...: Put another way, I'd personally not waant to be 8km from the volcano, even if I was told it was outside the danger zone.; 11/28/17, 10:05 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I’m reading on an iPad, so no way am I going to copy and paste urls. I recommend making links.

I liked the Al Jazeera photos because they showed the people who are threatened, the locals, not the tourists.; 11/28/17, 12:45 PM
Jim at said...: lgv,

Good stuff.
Thanks.; 11/28/17, 1:39 PM
Big Mike said...: I liked the Al Jazeera photos because they showed the people who are threatened, the locals, not the tourists.

What I’ve read is that many locals are reluctant to leave the danger zone because they’d have to leave behind their livestock. I guess they figure that if they lose their land and lose their livestock they might as well die because they’re going to starve. I feel for them.; 11/28/17, 1:42 PM
James Pawlak said...: Please look up the term "1815 And Froze To Hell". The eruption of one, large, volcano resulted in the beginnings of a Mini-Ice Age as did not continue.

If the three volcanoes now on the verge of major eruptions (And, perhaps, others) concurrently fill the atmosphere with various particulates, that might yield a real Ice Age. That would demonstrate that the puny efforts of humans are as nothing.

In such a case, all might hope for some "Global Warming".
I am checking out my "long johns"; You might do the same.; 11/28/17, 2:53 PM
Michael K said...: Big Mike beat me to it.

Year without a Summer. The Cretaceous Extinction Event was a bigger example. A lot bigger.; 11/28/17, 4:27 PM
The Godfather said...: Would you live near an active volcano? If so, why?; 11/28/17, 4:50 PM
MadisonMan said...: Would you live near an active volcano? If so, why?

If I were poor, and born there, probably.; 11/28/17, 8:00 PM
JML said...: Occasionally aircraft would fly through the ash and it would pit their windscreens so bad they could not see through them. It made for a sporty landing.; 11/28/17, 9:21 PM
Big Mike said...: @JML, in 1982 British Airways flight 9, a Boeing 747, flew into the volcanic ash plume from Mount Galunggong, lost all four engines and basically became a very heavy glider with nothing but ocean to land on. Fortunately once they were out of the plume the crew was able to restart all four engines, though one quit again as they were on final approach to Jakarta. I found the story on YouTube with a title something like “Mayday: Falling From the Sky.” Oh, did I mention that the aircrew couldn’t see out of the windshield? So sandblasted it was opaque, so the crew basically landed by ground proximity radar. “ Sporty” doesn’t begin to describe it.; 11/28/17, 10:10 PM