I’m a Filipino, so I can’t help but notice, you got the town near Mayon Volcano wrong. It’s “Legazpi”. Also, it’s a city.

@Uncle Al: Wait, I’m confused. I thought a nice big volcanic eruption would counteract GCC.

Well the BA notes in another volcano post ‘Remnants of a violent past’ posted November 24th, 2010 & linked above, moderation permitting :

Krakatau, or Krakatoa, an active volcano in Indonesia … [Snip!] … this particular hill decided to throw something of a hissy fit in 1883. In fact in four separate monstrous explosions the volcano detonated with the energetic yield of about 200 megatons of TNT — several times the energy of the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested. The explosions tore the island apart, and killed tens of thousands of people. It threw so much ash in the atmosphere that the global average temperature dropped over a degree. As a solution to global warming it leaves something to be desired.

Actually volcanoes *both* add to Co2 levels by emittting the gas and *also* temporarily reduce our planet’s temperature by emitting *other* gases and reflective particles. Their exact impact on our climate, I gather, varies based on the precise type & size of the eruption and also, I think, changes over time; ie. once the initial cooling particles fall out of the atmosphere, then the warming impact of the Co2 which stays around longer kicks in.

For details & more info. speak to your nearest friendly climatologist and/or vulcanologist – of which I’m neither, just an interested layperson who reads a lot.

As for shutting Mt Etna down to prevent it emitting Carbon Dioxide into the air – good luck with that!

We can only really control our emissions NOT nature’s.

You mean this one :

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/10/sunrise-eruption/

Of Russian Kamchatka volcanoes taken by NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite, erupting posted back on the 10th January at 7 a.m. & also with a gallery? Yes , its a similar type of post and image but I for one am not complaining.

Comparing the two, I think the Etna one’s better.

It even beats the Krakatoa image mentioned below :

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/11/24/remnants-of-a-violent-past/

Although that volcano wins for eruption scale methinks!

Yes. Although most pictures are taken near nadir, the satellites can and sometimes do point considerably to the side.

From Rick Wakeman’s album “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”
I’ll have to check the book version… once I find it.

Actually, the three explorers in Verne’s story actually came out of Stromboli, an island/volcano to the north of Sicily.

Awesome blog by the way. Just found it… wandered o’er here from cosmic variance.