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Saturday, November 17, 2007

April 2007 volcano eruption lava flows

Posted by Unknown on 6:04 AM with No comments so far

Here a few photos from the lava flows of the April 2007 volcano eruption which we visited two days ago.

Reunion's volcano, Piton de la Fournaise, is one of the most active in the world (see here for a list of recent eruptions), erupting on average every year.

It's surrounded by the horseshoe-shaped Enclos Fouqué caldera, which is 9km (5.5 miles) wide and 13 km (8 miles) long.

Eruption map - thick red lines (right) indicate lava flows (source)

looking uphill

The eruption lasted for 29 days, starting at 10am at 600 metres altitude on April 2nd and lasting until May 1st.

Luckily for Reunion, la Fournaise's eruptions are of the Hawaiian type, meaning that they are relatively 'calm' (no explosions).

looking across the main road and lava field to the sea

This eruption was unusual in that liquid lava reached the sea only 12 hours after the start of the eruption. This of course cut off the island ring road.

looking towards the south edge of the Enclos (notice the burnt trees)

looking uphill, south edge of the Enclos on the left of the photo

Vast quantities of lava were emitted, estimated at 120 million m3 for the month the eruption lasted, and lava spouts reached more than 100 metres high.

looking north from the observation platform

It was an unusually powerful eruption, the like of which had probably never been seen since Réunion was inhabited. But given that the Fournaise is 500 000 years old, there have probably been similar eruptions in its past.

In any case six months later, you can still feel the heat emanating from the lava. (Update - still true in September 2012!).

Useful link:
This web page about the eruption is in French, but the photos speak for themselves.

April 2007 eruption, photo by Serge Gelabert

Grand Raid 2006

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Grand Raid from champacs on Vimeo.

Just imagine running eight marathons in a row! Completely crazy! And yet this is the feat the “diagonale des fous” finishers accomplish. When they are presented with the medal and the T-shirt emblazoned “I survived”, they have climbed 9000m which is equivalent to 25 Eiffel Towers.
From start to finish competitors climb 5 peaks culminating at about 2000m (the highest point being 2411m high). They skirt the volcano, touch the sky on crest paths overlooking deep ravines, the cirque of Cilaos, they walk through Mafate and wade ankle deep in mud in Kerveguen forest. The Grand Raid has become a myth: out of the initial 2500 or so, about 70% make it to the finish. The winner completes the race in about 23 hours while the last finisher is allowed 64!

If you want to know more about Reunion Island please click here and/or here.

Rodrigues - the smallest Mascarene island

Posted by Unknown on 6:03 AM with No comments so far

Rodrigues is, along with Reunion and Mauritius, the third and smallest island of the Mascarene Archipelago. Politically it is a dependency of Mauritius, which is about 600 km to the south west, and many of the island's visitors are Mauritian.

It has two 'claims to fame' - it is the part of Africa closest to Australia, and it is the furthest place where the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa was heard.