Category: News

James DeGraff (GMES/EPSSI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $83,995 research and development cooperative agreement with Western Michigan University. This project is titled, “Bedrock Map, Dickinson County Quadrangle and Portions of Quadrangles, Earth MRI Project (Carney Lake, Felch, Foster City, Vulcan, Waucedah, Faithorn, and Cunard, 7.5 Minute Quadrangles), Central UP Michigan.”

Aleksey Smirnov, (GMES/EPSSI) and Chad Deering (GMES/EPSSI) are Co-PI’s on this potential two-year project.

Simon Carn (GMES) was quoted in the article “Map shows Taal Volcano spewing sulfur into atmosphere,” in the Philippine Star. Carn was also quoted in “Taal volcano eruption: NASA satellite scans reveal TOXIC sulphur clouds spewing from Taal,” in the Express (UK).

Although the levels of SO2 released by Taal have so far been tolerable, Michigan volcanologist Simon Carn fears more of the toxic gas could be still be released.

He said: “However, it is possible that the Taal eruption could continue and produce more SO2 in the coming days.”

Read more at Express (UK), by Sebastian Kettley.

In the News

Simon Carn (GMES) was quoted in the story “Huge Taal volcano eruption is seen from SPACE by Japan’s satellite,” in the Daily Mail (UK).

Carn was quoted in the story “The Taal Eruption Looks Even More Massive When Seen From Space,” in spot.ph.

Shiliang Wu (GMES/CEE) was quoted in the story “Climate change, inversions, and the rise of ‘super pollution’ air events,” in Environmental Health News. The story was run on several outlets including The Daily Climate.

PITTSBURGH—Residents of the Mon Valley, a cluster of townships along the Monongahela River 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, endured some of the stinkiest and most polluted air in the nation this Christmas.

Some experts say that trend is likely to continue, and that cities around the world could see an influx of similar “super pollution events” as Earth continues to warm.

“For the last at least 60 years we have data for, we can clearly see a trend of increasing temperature inversions in midlatitude regions,” Shiliang Wu, an atmospheric chemist and associate professor at Michigan Technological University, told EHN. “I believe this trend will continue in the coming decades, which will likely lead to an increase in extreme air pollution episodes.”

Read more at Environmental Health News, by Kristina Marusic.

In the News

Shiliang Wu (GMES/CEE) was quoted in the article “Climate change has led to more temperature inversions and the rise of ‘super pollution events,’ in GreenBiz.

In early August, sailors in the southwest Pacific Ocean began to see their environment transmogrify. As far as the eye could see, the ocean turned from an azure delight into a colossal gathering of clinking, floating rocks. And then came the foul, sulfurous odors.

Satellite images—plenty of which were shared on Twitter by Simon Carn, a volcanologist at Michigan Technological University—showed a giant pumice raft twisting and warping in the open ocean, pushed around by the winds and waves. The raft covered an area a bit larger than San Francisco.

Read more at Gizmodo, by Robin George Andrews.

Rudiger Escobar-Wolf (GMES/EPSSI) is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $294,662 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. The project is titled “Collaborative Research: Lahar Dynamics and Monitoring: A Multiparametric Approach Grounded in Infrasound.” This is a potential three-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Extract

Lahars, or volcanic mud flows, produce infrasound (low-frequency acoustic energy) that can be detected from distances of many kilometers. As such, it is possible to remotely characterize these hazardous mud flows by tracking their flow positions and energetics through time.

This work seeks to develop infrasound analytical tools to locate where lahars initiate, how far and fast they move, and estimate their mass flow.

Toward these goals the project will deploy and maintain seismic and infrasonic instruments at Fuego Volcano (Guatemala), where lahars are common during the rainy season (April through September). Rain gauges and time lapse cameras will be installed at locations along the lahar paths to understand how lahars initiate and to validate flow characteristics through direct observation.

This award is cofunded by the PredicMon of and Resilience against Extreme Events (PREEVENTS) program.

Read more at the National Science Foundation.

Thomas Oommen (GMES/EPSSI) is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $39,999 research and development grant from the US Department of State. The project is titled, “Developing and Improving Disaster Management Studies Course in India.” This is a one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.