Mt. Fuji Volcano In 'Critical State' After Quakes 151
An anonymous reader writes: Mount Fuji, in addition to being a picturesque landmark and an important part of Japanese culture, is also an active volcano. Its last eruption was just over 400 years ago, but its location — where the Eurasian, Pacific, and Philippine tectonic plates meet — mean it will always have potential for eruption. A new study (PDF) has examined the pressures around Mount Fuji in the wake of several recent earthquakes, including the magnitude 9 tremor that unleashed the destructive tsunami in 2011. The researchers now say the volcano is in a "critical state." According to the study's lead author, "The volcanic regions are the ones where the fluids trapped in the rock – boiling water, gas, liquid magma, which cause an eruption when they rise to the surface – exert the greatest pressure. The seismic waves add to this pressure, causing even more disturbance." They have no way of predicting when an eruption might happen, but the potential seems greater than ever.
Re:Great (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm leaving for Tokyo later this month. At least is easier to pronounce than Eyjafjallajokull.
Eyjafjallajökull let's not forget the umlaut...
Re:racist html (Score:2, Interesting)
Your inability to correctly interpret simple anaphoric references would make you fail a Turing test.
Mt. Miyajima? (Score:5, Interesting)
Mt. Fuji is more well known, but I wonder how all this seismic activity is affecting Mt. Miyajima in the southern part of Japan? It's another active volcano, one I visited in the 90's. It was actively smoking at the time, and surrounded by lava beds.
Re:Fukushima (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmm, a quick bit of research finds that MOX fuel rods are basically PuO2, which doesn't do the pyrophoric thing - it's stable in dry air, heats up slowly in the presence of water vapor.
Which at least suggests that the panic at the thought of a Pu fire is a bit exaggerated....
Note also that spent fuel rods have rather less Pu in them than you might think, since most of it has been burned in the nuclear reactor before it became "spent".
Re:Relieve pressure? (Score:5, Interesting)
Part of the problem with trying to relieve the pressure is that many eruptions occur because of gases suspended in the magma. Once the pressure drops enough, the gas ceases to be soluble in the magma and it's the expansion of the gas that causes the violent eruption. It follows that relieving the pressure could easily trigger the eruption you are trying to prevent in this case. Whether this is the actual cause of an eruption in a specific case is dependent on the volcano, I believe, and is implicated in the more explosive ones, as opposed to the gentler flowing eruptions found with others.