Looks like Papau New Guinea has refused to allow a volcano gap. :eek:
Obviously SOMEONE was jealous that his big brother was getting all the attention
How rare is it that two volcanoes erupt at the same time, halfway across the world? Does that mean something?
No, but that won’t stop the religious nutters from trying to make it “mean something”…
Actually, out of some 1500 volcanoes known to be active, at least 10-15 are in a state of eruption at any given time. Many don’t get much attention because either they’ve been doing it for years, they aren’t erupting violently, or they are tucked away somewhere even more remote than the Icelandic interior.
The one in PNG got noticed because it gave a fairly mighty belch. The one in Iceland is more a potential than actual hazard so far (last night’s minor eruption has been generally characterized as a ‘wet fart’); but a rifting event, with or without lava, that manages to cover 40km in only a week or so is nothing to sneeze at. As long as the system is still producing hundreds of earthquakes a day, which it is, a much bigger show may be just down the road.