I'm technically still in grading jail, with one class done and one class to go, but I thought I'd at least throw together of quick links to things I've seen while incarcerated that might be of interest:
I'm sure many of you have seen it, but the Atlantic's In Focus blog had an excellent collection of volcanic images from the year. Great fodder to think about your nomination for the 2011 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year (voting ends 12/28).
It sounds like activity continues to wind down at El Hierro in the Canary Islands. The latest report has the carbon dioxide emissions continuing to decrease, down to ~770 tons per day. However, the eruption is not "over" as low level seismicity continues, but right now, all things are fairly quiet on the south of the island.
I ran across a couple of odd articles about eruptions that aren't happening or might happen. One looked at a report on volcanic activity near Tamil Nadu in India. India isn't known for its volcanic activity - in fact, the Global Volcanism Program only has a single listing for an active volcanic in India, and that is even a suspect submarine volcano off the coast of Tamil Nadu. However as part of an assessment for a new nuclear reactor, the threat of volcanic activity needed to be examined. It does appear, though, the area might see a threat from tsunamis and earthquakes. Another article I ran across speculated on an eruption from California's Shasta. According to the article, USGS geologist say there is a 1-in-4 chance of an eruption of Shasta within our lifetime (which is actually pretty good odds in favor of an eruption). Most of the article looks at the potentially course of events and threat posed by Shasta and other northern California volcanoes, all of which have been quiet since the 1914-21 activity at Lassen Peak.
Finally, there has been a whole lot going on over at Kilauea in Hawai'i. A new ocean entry (see above) has started at east boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park at West Kaili’ili, so the Big Island is continuing to grow - and marks the first ocean entry in the park since 2007. The media did jump on the lecture at this year's AGU meeting on the explosive eruptions at Kilauea - hey, everybody loves the dark side of what is considered a fairly benign volcano - but really, the threat is minimal compared to the truly explosive volcanoes (like the aforementioned Shasta).
Also, remember that 2012 is around the corner and two big 100th anniversary will happen - the founding of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and the eruption at Novarupta in Alaska!
