A few words on earthquake "prediction", which is again much en vogue after the horrible disaster in Turkey and Syria. I will explain why this is not a thing, really. Two days before the earthquake, a self-declared, Netherlands-based "expert" warned that "sooner or later" there would be "a magnitude ~7.5 earthquake" in that very area. While at first sight this sounds like a perfect prediction, "sooner or later" is NOT a prediction.

So Mauna Loa volcano on the Big Island of Hawai'i is erupting, after more than 38 years of quiescence (@USGSVolcanoes webcam image below). In order to try and keep false info from spreading, here are a few facts about this volcano and the new eruption. Firstly, it is not "exploding", as some web sources report. Mauna Loa generally produces very little explosive activity, but instead rather voluminous flows of very liquid lava that can travel quite fast, and low to moderately high lava fountains.

So, some of you may have found my tones regarding the spreading disinformation on #Krakatau somewhat annoying, for which I am sorry. What is far more annoying, though, is that people create and start divulging false and alarmist information ... ... which, especially in our current situation, is not doing anything good for anybody. Volcanologists (as scientists working in many other disciplines) have to fight a constant battle about uncorrect or plainly false information. Unfortunately ...

THREAD: After a few hours of minor phreatic and then phreatomagmatic explosions, #Taal volcano on the Philippine island of Luzon has entered into a major explosive eruption. Taal has been quiescent since a small phreatic eruption in October 1977.

https://twitter.com/ABSCBNNews/status/1216322269670064129

#Taal, one of the most active and notorious volcanoes of the Philippines, lies on an island in a large caldera lake (Lake Taal, formerly also referred to as Lake Bombon), about 50 km south of the Philippine capital, Manila. It is often called "the lowest volcano on Earth" ...