Up close and personal with an active volcano

Up close and personal with an active volcano
12:34 27 April 2011

Environment

Sandrine Ceurstemont, video producer

Few people would venture up close to an erupting volcano. But photographer Dr Richard Roscoe specialises in capturing volcanoes in action so he was eager to be one of the first to spend a night on the rim of Mount Bromo in Eastern Java, Indonesia. Since November 2010, the volcano has entered an unusually long active phase, displaying strombolian activity, towering ash columns and occasionally powerful shockwaves. Roscoe managed to film examples of different types of activity from the crater rim and a neighbouring inactive cone (see video above). He says:

"From the deep pit at the bottom of the crater, incandescent material was frequently hurled high into the air. Sleeping would have been too risky and was anyhow impossible due to the tremendous roaring noise often coming from the crater resulting from powerful degassing and frequent explosions."

In some shots of the ash eruptions, shockwaves are visible rising up the plume. When they propagate, it leads to transient condensation of water in the cloud overhead.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/04/close-up-and-personal-wit...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLf3fy8Wpm0