More volcanic footage of Pu'u Ō'ō

In a follow up to this story on the collapse of Pʻu Ōʻō crater, part of the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island, here's some cool AP video:

Kilauea volcano's Puʻu Ōʻō crater collapses and shoots lava 65 feet

Here's the story on the collapse of Puʻu Ōʻō from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the world's premier newspaper for reporting on Hawaiian volcanic events. I guess this might mean more vog will come our way.



Okay, if I was right in front of this with a video camera and saw the ground cracking, I'd be taking off in the opposite direction. And I wouldn't stop running until I reached Old Navy so I could get myself some fresh underwear.

And I sure as heck wouldn't get in a helicopter and fly over it.

UPDATE:
More cool video.

Monster Iceland

The Los Angeles Times has some real cool pictures of some rather monumental volcanoes around the world, starting with everybody's favorite Icelandic air traffic stopper and then moving on to Washington State's Mt St Helens (which I visited as a kid right before it erupted; it took years of therapy before I stopped blaming myself in a personal conflict I called "'Bo versus the volcano").

The slideshow includes such ash heaps of history as Mt Mazama, which erupted thousands of years ago to form Oregon's Crater Lake [below], or the Greek islands of Santorini, which may have been the inspiration for the myth of Atlantis.

Meanwhile, the LAT also has an article on how volcanoes below ice, such as Iceland's Eyjaquiviksostuugeklw3wwugi*%, might be able to tell us about the relative thickness of ice when various volcanic eruptions occur, going back thousands or even millions of years, which may in turn give us more insight into climate change.

Say what you will about South Korea, but at least all the volcanoes are extinct.

Why does the picture below remind me of a Peter Jackson movie?

This pictures looks way cool, but I might feel a little differently if my home were somewhere near the bottom of this lava-spewing volcano. Still, this view of the 8000-foot Mayon volcano would be neat to witness in person at least for an hour. After that, it's get the hell out of Dodge, or at least out of Legazpi, which is what local residents within five miles of this Philippine volcano.