Eruption Update for November 19, 2012: Ruapehu and New Volcanic Images

The crater lake at Ruapehu seen in 1977, showing the persistence of the summit lake. The grey on the surrounding snow is likely windblown or reworked ash from previous Ruapehu eruptions. Image: Stefan Karpiniec / Flickr. So, here in the States, we're now in Thanksgiving Week. I'll be off to Chicago for much of the week, so this is likely the last new post until next Monday (unless something big happens - and I mean big as I'm only bringing my iPhone with me). Feel free to post any news/updates you find here in the comments. Some brief updates: New Zealand Everyone is still watching Ruapehu (well, everyone in New Zealand). There isn't much new information out there about what is currently going on at the volcano on the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone -- well, except for "very little is going on" if you check out the webicorders and webcam. There has already been some articles trying to link the earlier Tongariro eruption in August with these new rumblings at Ruapehu and although it is intriguing considering their close proximity, there is little evidence that the two volcanic systems are linked in terms of eruptive activity. Of course, nothing amuses/irritates me more than the fact that the media has to instantly connect any volcanic eruption on the North Island with Mt. Doom (even though it was neighboring Ngauruhoe that was the model volcano), but I suppose we're going to see this for decades to come (thank you very much Peter Jackson). Right now, the New Zealand government has put the summit area (2 km radius from the crater lake) of Ruapehu off limits during this period of unrest as an explosion could occur with little-to-no warning. Volcano Images There have been a few cool images of volcanoes that I've seen roll out over the weekend and today. The first is one of my doing, with a plume seen on this image of Chirpoi in the Kuril Islands. The NASA Earth Observatory posted an image today of a great cluster of volcanoes in Kamchatka, including Bezymianny, Kliuchevskoi and Tobalchik, all poking through low clouds. National Geographic has a collection of images of the lava lake on Erebus in Antarctica - one of the few active lava lakes on the planet.