Vanuatu prepares evacuation from rumbling volcano

Vanuatu prepares evacuation from rumbling volcano

news.yahoo.com

The Pacific nation of Vanuatu has made plans to evacuate nearly 3,000 villagers after a highly active volcano started spewing ash clouds, an official said on Monday.

The picturesque Gaua volcano, which has erupted 13 times since 1963 and has been exploding and rumbling for several months, is under close watch after a marked rise in activity in recent days.

"It's increasing in activity," said Peter Korisa, planning officer at the National Disaster Management Office. "A few days back a lot of ash clouds were released into the air. The activity isn't stable, it's

(visit the link for the full news article)

news.yahoo.com...

The volcano there has been showing increased activity for a few months now, they stopped tourists visiting a few days ago.

John Search recently spoke about the dangers of Vanuatu here (click on "Ready to Rumble" video link)

au.tv.yahoo.com...



news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Adds to the list of ones to watch....

How the earth is creaking at the moment.

Dark times ahead.....

Nice Find MoorfNZ!

S&F.
Volcanoes are the new black!

[edit on 19-4-2010 by grantbeed]

Additional source....

My bold/underline: wow, relocated for up to a year!

A Department of Internal Affairs meeting last Thursday concluded there was no alternative to evacuating the people of Gaua to Sola on Vanualava island. From Sola most would be relocated to Leon Bay for up to a year, on land owned by the Anglican Church of Vanuatu. Others would be dispatched to other islands in Torba.

www.rnzi.com...

Found a stunning aerial vid of the volcano in question... Gaua.

Isn't it beautiful...

www.youtube.com...

Wow...now that is a beautiful volcano. Rising majestically out of the jungle...I half expected to see dinosaurs or King Kong or something. The one in Iceland seems so far away from here (Australia), but this one is basically in our "neighbourhood"

I will be keeping an eye on this one.

Good find!

Concerns for other volcanic activity in the area increasing...

Several volcanoes in Vanuatu also worried

(translated)

PORT-VILA, 19 avril 2010 (Flash d'Océanie) – Les nombreux volcans de l'archipel de Vanuatu ne semblaient ces derniers jours donner aucun signe d'accalmie et auraient même tendance à gagner en activité, selon les dernières constatations des autorités locales. PORT VILA, April 19, 2010 (Oceania Flash) - The many volcanoes in the archipelago of Vanuatu in recent days seemed to give no sign of abating, and would even tend to become more active, according to recent findings of local .

Source: translate.google.com...

Most recent news on the situation:

Vanuatu officials still negotiating Gaua evacuation

Vanuatu’s disaster management office says almost 3,000 people will be ferried off Gaua island if the activity of its volcano increases. The Gaua volcano in Torba province in the country’s north began erupting seven months ago and there’s been an increase in mud flow, ash fall and more explosions in recent weeks. The water level in the crater lake has been rising and there’re fears that mud could flow from the lake to the populated areas. The disaster management office’s planner, Peter Korisa, says they had several meetings to discuss the issue. “We’re planning to move people to Vanualava. We’re still negotiating and working with people from the province to see if there’re possibilities in the areas that we could use as evacuation centres. But there’s no date [for the evacuation] yet, we don’t have a [final] plan.” Peter Korisa says at this stage the situation doesn’t warrant an evacuation.

www.rnzi.com...

[edit on 19-4-2010 by MoorfNZ]

Red Cross is concerned that ash fall from Gaua is now affecting the locals' food and water sources - I would imagine they'll have to put their evacuation plans into action soon... I'm amazed they've waited this long tbh.


www.rnzi.com...


It is also reported that the level of water in the lake of the crater has been increasing. This is accompanied by the danger that mud could flow down into the populated areas.


topnews.net.nz...

[edit on 20-4-2010 by MoorfNZ]

Latest - 23 April

Activity at the Gaua volcano in Vanuatu's northern Torba Province is continuing to cause concern for the local people. They have all moved to the east side of Gaua Island to avoid falling ash, mudslides and poisonous gases. Authorities in the capital Port Vila are urging people to stay calm as they monitor the volcano closely. Field observations reported by the geo-hazards officer in Gaua confirm thicker and higher emissions of ash columns but the alert level remains at Two out of a possible Four.

www.radioaustralianews.net.au...

Originally posted by MoorfNZ
Concerns for other volcanic activity in the area increasing...

Several volcanoes in Vanuatu also worried

I would love to give them something to calm their nerves, poor things. It is not good to be worried, especially when you are a volcano!

Somehow I don't think I could find a Valium big enough, and anyway getting a volcano to swallow is almost as difficult as giving a pill to a cat.

reply to post by PuterMan


Pepto-Bismol?

poleshift.ning.com...

reply to post by MoorfNZ


Its erupting right now!
hisz.rsoe.hu...

Some earthquake activity building up there.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/666f9677cfe7.jpg[/atsimg]

Last seven days worth

Date/Time UTC,Latitude,Longitude,Magnitude,Depth(Km),Location
28/05/2010 14:57:58,-13.6577,166.2901,4.90,68.70,Vanuatu
28/05/2010 13:44:25,-13.7528,166.6796,4.70,110.90,Vanuatu
28/05/2010 04:25:59,-14.0133,166.5845,5.70,34.00,Vanuatu
28/05/2010 03:14:42,-13.8206,166.8717,5.10,35.00,Vanuatu
27/05/2010 23:38:05,-14.0251,167.0703,4.90,35.00,Vanuatu
27/05/2010 20:48:00,-13.6413,166.7133,6.40,32.20,Vanuatu
27/05/2010 17:45:29,-13.6556,166.7804,5.20,35.00,Vanuatu
27/05/2010 17:24:23,-13.8935,166.6402,5.70,35.00,Vanuatu
27/05/2010 17:14:48,-13.7098,166.5066,7.20,36.10,Vanuatu
23/05/2010 20:19:40,-17.9138,168.7962,5.50,129.20,Vanuatu
22/05/2010 14:27:08,-14.0533,166.9687,5.00,34.70,Vanuatu

And of course since USGS only records 4.5 there are probably many more.

Still watching this one...

About 82 people remain in re-location centres while mudflow causes significant damage to crops with ash, volcanic gas and acid rain contaminating drinking water. "It has been continuously erupting since November last year," Manses told AAP. "We have evacuated communities from the west part of the island, we already evacuated them last year and they are still in re-location centres," he said. "The seismologists cannot tell when people can return to their original homes, so they are still there in re-location centres." The archipelago, which lies between Australia and Fiji and north of New Zealand, was rocked by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake last week, prompting a brief tsunami warning. Last year it copped three major earthquakes.

tvnz.co.nz...