Fearmongering Gets Started in 2012: Laacher See is Not “Ready to Blow” - Wired News

A quick post today about a tremendously terrible "article" in the Daily Mail this morning. The headline reads "???Is a super-volcano just 390 miles from London ready to blow?" It is, of course, referring to the Laacher See in western Germany – a caldera volcano that had a large eruption 12,900 years ago that covered a significant area of Europe with ash and tephra. Surely impressive considering how few people know about the caldera volcanism in central Europe.

Pumice and ash deposits from the ~12,900 year ago eruption of Laacher See caldera in Germany, seen very close to the main caldera vents. Image by Erik Klemetti, taken in 2007.

The article in the Daily Mail is about as substance free as you can produce – it starts off with the usual doom claptrap: "a sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up." Now, you have to look carefully for what their supposed signs are – all two of them.

1. " This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago, so it could blow at any time." No source for this recurrence interval and we all know that using poorly constrained recurrence intervals like we have at Laacher See is no way to say a volcano is (ugh) "due for an eruption".
2. "Volcanologists believe that the Laacher See volcano is still active as carbon dioxide is bubbling up to the lake's surface, which indicates that the magma chamber below is 'degassing'." Which, of course, Laacher See has been doing for centuries. There are stories of monks dying from asphyxiation due to carbon dioxide hundreds of years ago. I personally saw carbon dioxide bubbling when I was at the Laacher See 5 years ago (see below). Sure, it is a sign that magma is degassing, but magma passively degases all the time and is by no means, when presented as the only evidence, a sign of a volcano being "ready to blow". I love how the video at the bottom says that it "claims to show carbon dioxide bubbling in the lake in November 2011". Stunning considering you can go there anytime and see it (see below).

Look at the geologist tremble in fear at the carbon dioxide bubbling at Laacher See. Oh wait, no, they're not because its perfectly normal. Image by Erik Klemetti taken in August 2007.

And honestly, there is no more substance to the article beyond this – no source, no named "experts", nothing. So, the Daily Mail decided to run with a article proclaiming the imminent danger of the Laacher See based on it being supposedly "overdue" and that there are carbon dioxide seeps in the lake, something that have been there for hundreds if not thousands of years. This is the volcanic equivalent of the Daily Mail going out and saying "Massive hurricane to hit London?" because they looked out the window and saw a cloud. Irresponsible, lazy journalism at its finest.

The problem is that this kind of poor reporting with no sources spirals in today's internet media age. Another article today purports that "fresh activity near a dormant 'super volcano' in Germany has left experts worried about a possible eruption." The source? The Daily Mail article. I'm sure by the end of the day that more or more "news" sites and discussion boards will be citing the Daily Mail article as proof of the impending doom from Laacher See.

This is clearly pandering to the 2012 Apocalypse crowd – we're going to be seeing article after article about all the calamities that might befall the Earth during this year based on no scientific evidence whatsoever. Let me repeat that: There is NO scientific evidence for a "doomsday" in 2012. None. Sorry folks, look elsewhere and stop buying into this tripe. In the meantime, we'll try not to drown in the sea about terrible media reporting.