Volcanoes I Have Known
by Paul A. Roales
As a Geologist I have always been fascinated by volcanoes. In my vacation trips over the years I have been fortunate enough to photograph several volcanoes in eruption and decided to assemble a few of those photos on this web page. I decided that only photos of ash eruptions or major steam eruptions would be posted here. Several volcanoes I visited over the years (such as Kilauea in Hawaii) were only venting minor steam plumes when I was present, so they are not shown on this page. It is interesting that two of the four eruptions I illustrate on this page were photographed from an aircraft. I always try to get a window seat when I fly and I keep my camera handy. You never know what you may see.
The first series of three photos is of an ash eruption at Arenal volcano (5358') in Costa Rica. I took these shots in April of 1997 from the base of the volcano near the Tabacon Resort. Arenal began its current phase of eruptions in 1968 and has been in constant eruption ever since. When I was there a minor eruption occurred about every 5-8 minutes and a larger one (such as the one shown) occurred about every 20-30 minutes.
During the larger eruptions you would hear a loud boom as the gray cloud of cinders and gas erupted into the sky.
Lava would flow over the rim of the crater and solidify almost immediately. Lava blocks would then break off the solidified lava flow and tumble down the sides of the volcano. You could hear these blocks bouncing and watch their paths down the sides of the volcano by the dust clouds they raised (some of this is visible in the third photo of this sequence). I remained at Arenal until after dark and the eruptions at night were even more spectacular. The eruptions would send red streamers into the sky and illuminate the nearby smoke clouds with an eerie red glow. As the red hot lava blocks broke off the lava flow and tumbled down the flanks of the volcano they would leave long trails of red sparks in their wake. Unfortunately, I was unable to photograph the night time display...it requires fast film speed and long time exposures.
The other erupting volcano I filmed on this same trip was Momotombo (3907') in Nicaragua. As I was flying back home from Costa Rica in April 1997 I saw this volcano in eruption out the window of the aircraft. It was completely unexpected, as I did not know the volcano was currently erupting (but this was later confirmed by news reports). Lake Managua is next to the volcano which displays a large steam plume at its peak. Old lava flows are clearly visible down the north flank of the volcano.
On an earlier trip to Guatemala in May 1993 I photographed Fuego volcano (12,346') in eruption. This photo was taken from the "Old City" portion of Antigua. The "Old City" part of Antigua was nearly destroyed in 1541 when an earthquake caused the collapse of the crater rim of nearby Agua volcano. The crater was full of water at the time and the resulting flood devastated the town. I took several shots of Fuego, but this is the closest I got to the volcano.
Finally there is Mt. St. Helens (8365') in Washington State. This has always been my favorite volcano. I climbed Mt. St. Helens prior to its 1980 eruptions, back when it was called the "Mt. Fuji of the U.S.". I visited the mountain often and was there only one week prior to its major eruption of May 18, 1980. I have returned to see the volcano often, but only once have I caught it during an eruption. I was flying out of Portland, OR in May of 1981 when I photographed the south side of Mt. St. Helens with a huge steam eruption pouring from its crater.
I hope you have enjoyed my views of erupting volcanoes. When ever I view another erupting volcano I will add it to this page. In the mean time, if you have any questions feel free to E-mail me and I will attempt to answer them. You can email me from my homepage here. While you are there visit my other web pages by clicking on the links you will find there. You might also want to visit my 1934 photos of Mt. Vesuvius erupting here.