Karymsky Volcano, Russia

Karymsky: funny name, serious volcano.  Karymsky is a very active stratovolcano located on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.  The Global Volcanism Program calls it the most active volcano of Kamchatka's eastern volcanic zone and describes its eruptions as vulcanian or vulcanian-strombolian. In late April or early May the volcano burped out enough ash to leave a beautiful, black, ash fall on the snow-covered landscape.  Landsat 8 snapped a picture of the area around the volcano on May 20, 2013, and that image was subsequently featured on NASA's Earth Observatory website.

The following gif shows the Landsat 8 image from May 20th and a previous, snowless image (which Google Earth lists as April 9, 2013 though I'm not sure I believe that...)

For some great photos of Karymsky follow these links:

• View from the north
• View from the south

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:     54°03'N    159°25'E  

More info from sources referenced: Wikipedia, Earth Observatory, Global Volcanism Program

Check back for more in two weeks!

Lakewood, Wisconsin

Well folks, I was caught off guard by the US Government shutdown and lost access to some of the websites I frequent for this blog.  I had planned on taking some data from NOAA for this post but unfortunately those pages are closed until the government gets back up and running.  I do have some limited information from wikipedia so I'll be using that.  Feel free to be skeptical of what you read here until I can come back and edit this post with the NOAA data.

From June 6-8 2007, a tornado outbreak occurred in the Northern Plains and Great Lakes regions.  On June 7, the largest tornado of the outbreak cut a path through Northeast Wisconsin as an EF3.  No one was killed and only a dozen buildings were damaged but the scar it left on Wisconsin would make you think otherwise.  From the imagery provided by Google Earth, a 40-mile-long (64 km) treeless path can be seen stretching linearly through the forest.  The path is close 3/4 of mile (1.2 km) wide at the widest point.  According to wikipedia, 14,000 acres (57 km sq) of forest were toppled by the tornado.

The following gif shows December 2005, September 2008, and November 2010:

Zoomed out for reference

Still images from the area can be seen here.

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:     45°13'N  88°30'W  

More info from sources referenced: Wikipedia

Check back in two weeks to explore a giant wildfire!

Devils Lake, North Dakota

Devils Lake is an endorheic lake in North Dakota.  Endorheic is the term for a lake or drainage basin with no outlet to an external body of water.  Because the lake is endorheic, it can vary wildly in water levels in a period of a few years or decades.  The water level in the lake is currently at about 1454 ft which is up 53 ft from the 1401 ft level in the 1940s.  At 1446 ft, the lake overflows into nearby Stump Lake.  This occurred at the turn of the century.  If the water level reaches 1458 ft, the water will naturally flow into the Sheyenne River (this is only 4 ft higher than the current level).  In the last decade, a man-made channel was constructed to connect the lake to the Sheyenne river, allowing relief during floods.  Some of the reasons why Devils Lake has risen to high levels in recent times include increased rain during the 1990s and the altering of land for farming that in-turn increases the runoff rate.

The drainage basin around the lake covers roughly 3,800 square miles (9,840 square km) as shown in the image.  The Devils Lake drainage basin is shown in purple.  Image source: savethesheyenne.org

Historical Lake Level from USGS

The animation below shows 22 years from July 1990 to April 2012:

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:     48°N  99°W  (Simple enough?)

More info from sources referenced: Wikipedia, USGS

Check back in two weeks to see a drastic summer/winter change!

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii

First, a thank-you message for my readers: 

For the first year of running this blog, most of my audience were friends and followers on Google+, or those that follow the Geoblogosphere community (geology bloggers).  I would normally average about 100 views per post and had amassed 6,000 views by the one-year anniversary of this blog.  Last week a funny thing happened.  My latest post apparently caught the eyes of some folks who tweeted it around, leading to a rapid surge of retweets and shares on various message boards and online communities.  You can only imagine my surprise when I logged in the next day to see that my views had skyrocketed.  At first, most of my views were coming from the science community on twitter who had linked to my blog, but not long after, websites Slashdot and Instapundit posted links to me and popular bloggers Maria Popova and Ed Yong both shared my post as well.  In about 4 days, I went from 6,000 views to 70,000 views.  I am of course, very very ecstatic to have reached this feat.
There are a few people that really deserve recognition in helping me achieve this overwhelming popularity.  Charles Carrigan, Caroll Karns, and Ron Schott were some of the first readers of my blog, all of whom are bloggers themselves.  They shared encouraging words and constructive feedback that really helped me get started.  My best friend Phillip Kissell, spends a lot of time on Google Earth, perusing the globe with me.  He even wrote a guest blog for me.  My mom is probably my biggest fan and routinely brags about my blog to everyone.

So to all the friends, family, professors, online geology community, Google Plussers, and readers,  Thank you for everything!

Now, it's time to get back to business.

This week's post features the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii, an active volcanic hot spot and one of two states that I still have yet to visit.  The Pu'u O'o crater shown below is a cinder cone associated with the Kilauea Volcano and according to Wikipedia, it has been erupting since 1983.

The animation below shows the years: 2002, 2005, 2010, and 2011.  Some of the things to  observe here are:
The western end of the crater showing the most noticeable changes of shape.
The glowing lava visible in the 2011 image.
The addition of flows and cinder build up on the southeastern slope. 

I decided to try this animated gif version instead of the previous, image by image layout.  I don't particularly like how this limits the time you can spend looking closely at an image, but I post the coordinates at the bottom so you can copy paste them into Google Earth yourself.  I like that the animated gif condenses the space taken up by the blog and accentuates the change in details between each image.
However, I'm not sure how well the gif works on the smartphone view, so I may end up switching back to the old format if this becomes a big issue.  Just let me know I suppose.

Anyways...

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:     19°23'15.61"N     155°06'21.55"W

More info: Wikipedia: Pu'u O'o

Check back next week to celebrate the 2012 Olympic Games in Google Earth Time Machine style!

Carhué, Argentina

During the early 20th century, Villa Lago Epecuén, Argentina was a popular destination for tourists because of the many spas that the town had to offer.  The town resides by an inland salt lake where many people believed the water had healing properties.  On November 10, 1985, Lake Epecuén began to overflow its banks into the town.  By 1993, some parts of the town had been submerged by ten meters.  In 1989, nearby town, Carhué, was dry and above ground so people began to relocate there.

By 2009, a dry spell greatly receded the waters of the lake.  This helped expose the ruins of the old town.  The photos of the ruins are fascinating,  I highly recommend turning on the photos layer on Google Earth and exploring this place yourselves!  It is quite an interesting place.

January 3, 2003

February 28, 2011

February 28, 2011 (From a Wider View)

February 28, 2011 (Zoomed In- Villa Lago Epecuén)

February 28, 2011 (Zoomed In- Area West of Carhué)

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:      37°09'41.11"S     62°46'08.44"W

More info (and sources I used):

• http://www.termasdecarhue.gov.ar/historia.php (Spanish)
• http://atlasobscura.com/place/villa-epecuen (English)
• http://www.termasdecarhue.gov.ar/analisis.php (Spanish, but translates well)

I highly recommend that last link to the Geochemists!

Check back next week to see something I've been trying to find on Google Earth for a very long time!

El Portal, California

In April of 2006, a rock slide began on Highway 140, one of a few routes route into Yosemite National Park.  From the articles I found on the slide, it sounds like it began in late April and lasted through May.  No one was injured or hurt but businesses along the highway suffered economic losses when tourists had to find other ways into the park.

While researching further, I found a blog post by Gary Hayes who runs the blog Geotripper.  He also experienced a rockslide in April 2011 while traveling on this same highway.

I'd love to be the one putting a hazard map together for this highway!

December 31, 2004

May 24, 2009

Notice the bridges across the river that re-route the highway around the landslide.

Topo

YouTube

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:     37°39'23.41"N     119°54'07.64"W

More info: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2006-06-19-yosemite_x.htm

Check back next week to see the shrinking sea!

Happisburgh, UK

Happisburgh is a small town in Norfolk County, England.  It is currently facing some pretty severe coastal erosion.  The tides have been cutting into the cliffs and slowly moving them inland towards houses and other structures.  According to the British Geological Survey, Happisburgh never used to be a coastal town, because at one point there was a whole parish between it and the sea.  The town is unfortunately sitting on layers of glacial till that do not hold up well against pounding waves.

December 30, 1999

July 1, 2009

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:       52°49'23.11"N       01°32'20.53"E

More info: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/landslides/happisburgh.html

Check back next week to see the largest (supposedly) text in the world.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, FOLKS!

Daisetta, Texas

The town of Daisetta, Texas sits happily upon a salt dome.  Unfortunately, this means that it is at risk for sinkhole formation.  In 2008, a sinkhole opened up and swallowed some construction equipment and part of a facility.

November, 2006

March, 2010

It eventually filled in with water and formed a gross looking lake.

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:   30°07'15.19"N  94°38'51.26"W

More info:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsF_G5qLasM&feature=relmfu

Check back next week to see a neighborhood that sank underwater!

Bonus Picture!!!
I was looking at Google Mars (a feature of Google Earth) and saw this nifty looking landscape:

Pretty cool, eh?