Mt. Baekdu volcano

[ginnycat5]

Have there been any references to a volcano in Korean dramas? Is Mt. Baekdu one of the locations in historical dramas? It sort of sounds familiar, but then Baek is not unusual as a name. Imagine 1.2 meters of ash covering the landscape!
www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/113_66491.html

I copied some posts from scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/05/eruptions_in_indonesia_and_cos.php#comments
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14
Mt Baekdu, China/North Korea, shows signs of an eruption "within years".
www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/113_66491.html
Salient points: A M7.3 eq hit in 2002 and since then the mountain has gained 10cm in altitude and there are almost a hundred small quakes every day. In 2006, a Russian satellite recorded an increase in temperature and evergreens have begun to wither on its slopes.
According to the article, geologist Yoon Sung-hyo at Pusan National University says an eruption is "imminent" and tentatively sets a time frame of a couple of years.
(Isn't Google wonderful!)
Posted by: Henrik, Swe | May 25, 2010 1:08 PM

15
@14 Interesting. It appears that Mt. Baekdu generated a VEI7
[[VEI en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Explosivity_Index ]] eruption around year 1000AD. So anything could be expected from this volcano.
Posted by: Mr. Moho | May 25, 2010 1:15 PM

16
Since that massive eruption, there are six (partly suspected) minor eruptions. Looking further back, it seems this volcano has a major eruption once every thousand years or so going back to 2160BC (+/-100years). If you look for it at the Smithsonian GVP site, it's listed under "Eastern China" as "Changbaishan" while Wiki has it as "Baekdu Mountain".
Posted by: Henrik, Swe | May 25, 2010 1:26 PM

17
For those interested in "hard science", there's a paper from the Department of Earth System Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, concerning the 3mm per year inflation from 1992-98 available at:
earth.esa.int/workshops/fringe03/participants/123/paper_Fringe03_kim_full.pdf
Posted by: Henrik, Swe | May 25, 2010 1:31 PM

19
Combining two topics from this thread; here's John Seach#s take on Baekdu/Baitoushan:
www.volcanolive.com/baitoushan.html
It would be interesting to know (any history experts out there?) if the Baekdu and Billy Mitchell eruptions around the start of the 11th Century had any noticeable short-term global climate effects, e.g. historic records describing an unusually cold and wet summer
Posted by: mike don | May 25, 2010 1:56 PM

20
@mike don, #19. The Baekdu (Baitoushan) eruption, which occurred sometime around AD 1000 (dates range from ~970 to 1200 AD), is said to have had a strong but short-lived global climatic impact.
References:
Horn, S. & Schmincke, H.-U., 2000. Volatile emission during the eruption of Baitoushan Volcano (China/North Korea) ca. 969 AD. Bulletin of Volcanology, 61: 537-555; dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004450050004
Zhengfu, G., Jiaqi, L, Shuzen, S., Qiang, L., Huaiyu, H., Yunyan, N., 2002. The mass estimation of volatile emission during 1199—1200 AD eruption of Baitoushan volcano and its significance. Science in China, 45: 530-539; dx.doi.org/10.1360/02yd9055
Posted by: Boris Behncke, Catania, Italy | May 25, 2010 2:35 PM

(Boris Behncke is studying Mt. Etna. He's written some good educational posts on Erik Klemetti's blog on Eyjafjallajokull..... [by the time I learn to spell it, it's over ]

[ajk]

Mt. Baekdu played a major role in Dae Joyoung; it was the area where the Goguryeans retreated after their kingdom collapsed, and built a new base of support.

[firearrow]

Wasn't that where the opening of Dawn of the Empire was shot.?
Rememer the princes scaling some icy crater and being able to look out over the land. When the drama ran there was alot made of the fact part was filmed in North Korea.

[Soju]

Firearrow - that's right. They were able to film there on a rare clear day. Because the weather is so often cloudy, the museum at the summit has pictures of what it looks like, in case you can't actually see it when you visit.

There have been reports of a "Loch Ness Monster" type sightings in the lake, which are believed to actually be boulders of volcanic pumice that are so light they float on the water.

[mothsdream]

The guys of 1 Night 2 Days went there a couple of years ago. It seems like such a beautiful place.

1n2dfansubs.wordpress.com/episode-list/episodes-060-070/

[ginnycat5]

Photo of Mt. Baekdu caldera with its lake.
Also comments by Dr. Klemetti. I wonder where on the mountain those people are living, and will they be in the path(s) of any flow?
scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/06/friday_flotsam_plume_images_an.php#comments

From what I've read, the presence of a lake in the caldera means that if the eruption has a lot of ash, it can mix with the water and become a fast-moving pyroclastic flow. Here's a photo of Mt. Unzen in Japan, after its eruption. You can see the gray muddy-looking remains of the flow. Forty-three people including vulcanologists died because they were too close, and the flow covered them. I saw some video tape of the flow on tv news at the time.
hakone.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/unzen/uznfg21.GIF
www.ourgeojapan.net/PREFNAGASAKIUNZEN.html

[ginnycat5]

New report from South Korea:
english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=040000&biid=2010092754168


"A volcanic eruption on Mount Baekdu will cause massive floods not only in North Korea but also in neighboring Chinese territory, a report released Sunday said.

South Korea will suffer no direct damage but will see indirect damage, including cancellations of flights.

Rep. Lee Myung-soo of the minor conservative Liberty Forward Party, who is also a member of the parliamentary public administration and security committee, acquired Sunday a study on the effects of a volcanic eruption on Mount Baekdu for parliamentary inspection of the government from the National Institute for Disaster Prevention.

The report warned that an eruption will spawn massive damage with a Volcanic Exclusivity Index of six.

An index of six is a magnitude 10 to 100 times that of the Iceland volcano in April, which registered a five, causing massive disruption in aviation. A reading of four or higher is considered a massive explosion.

The institute said, "A volcanic eruption on Mount Baekdu will entail floods, earthquakes, the ejection of lava, and the emergence of volcanic gases and volcanic ashes." [snip]"
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That's a mistranslation of VEI; it's explosivity not exclusivity.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_Explosivity_Index

A VEI of 6 is not even "worst case". I don't know if they had a reason to choose that level of eruption. People and governments should work to be prepared, but there's no way to predict when a volcano will erupt, and no way to predict how explosive an eruption might be, because volcanoes all behave differently, and any volcano can have different behavior at different times. (So I've learned at the Eruptions blog, when every earthquake in the area was getting us excited about more activity at Ejyafjallajokull (or maybe even Hekla!! take a deep breath), and the experts tell us to calm down....LOL) There's the Saudi Arabian volcano that in 2009 erupted to within 2km of the surface, then stopped. bigthink.com/ideas/24214

[ginnycat5]

Comment at Eruptions blog:
"William M Boston on September 27, 2010, 12:34 PM
RE: Baekdu .... For a major eruption, tephra (ash) fall out would greatly exceed the flooding as a disaster. ..............."If the eruption is major in scale, it would bring about massive consequences to the two Koreas as well as the surrounding states, including China, Japan and Russia." ................... "The amount of volcanic ash from the most violent eruption nearly 1,000 years ago was enough to cover the entire the Korean peninsula to a height of 1.2 meters," he said, citing scientific studies." .................... "Baekdu's caldera contains nearly two billion tons of water. If it evaporates into the air all of a sudden mixed with volcanic ash of a major eruption, it would be blown to the east and consequently engulf Vladivostok in Russia and Hokkaido in northern Japan." .... koreatimes.co.kr .................................. I wonder what thought has been given to draining the lake? Removing the pressure of 2 billion tons of water may spur the magmatic eruption, but may be overall better by mitigating against the explocivity of the eruption, preventing wet ash, and avoiding disastrous floods. ....................... If the eruption matches prior VEI 7 ones (946 A.D., 83 to 117 cubic km of volcanic ash), the entire world will likely face higher food prices."
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Later commenter doesn't expect this caldera to erupt any time soon, because the last one was so recent, in geologic time. Good. Higher food prices would be only one in a long list of problems.

[TheBo]

AAAAAK AAAAAK!

[ajk]

Interesting article in the New York Times this week about Mt. Baekdu on the Korean peninsula. Baekdu figured prominently in the Dae Joyoung series.

I've copied the article text here but I'd encourage people to go read the article on the Times website. The website has a few photographs to accompany the text and they're beautiful. Here's a link:

www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/world/asia/korea-china-baekdu-changbaishan.html?_r=0

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For South Koreans, a Long Detour to Their Holy Mountain

By CHOE SANG-HUN September 26, 2016


CHANGBAISHAN, China — The thick fog that had enveloped the mountain all morning suddenly dispersed, unveiling a crater lake of emerald water and setting off a buzz of excitement among the hikers gathered at the summit.

“I can see it! I can see it!” some shouted.

Park Jae-hee, 50, a South Korean author who in the fog of morning had climbed the mountain, known as Baekdusan in Korean and Changbaishan in Chinese, took a few tentative steps toward the cliff overlooking the lake, her eyes misting over.

“The moment I saw it, I felt like choking up, fighting back tears welling up in my eyes, something hot coming up from my heart,” Ms. Park said. “Only Koreans will understand how I felt.”

At 7,185 feet above sea level, the 3.8-square-mile caldera lake, called Cheonji in Korean and Tianchi in Chinese, was created a thousand years ago in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in history.

Like Loch Ness in Scotland, the 1,260-foot-deep lake is also home to a mythical monster. People in China have reported sightings of giant seal-like or scaled and horned creatures swimming in the lake, though scientists say the water is too cold for large animals.

But for Koreans from both North and South, Cheonji and the 9,029-foot-tall Baekdusan are much more than natural wonders. They are viewed with a near-religious reverence and are considered the spiritual home of their respective nations.

North Korea sends party cadets and soldiers on pilgrimages to the mountain to swear their loyalty to their leader, Kim Jong-un, who claims to be of a “Baekdu bloodline.” The lake also looms large in the North’s propaganda. When Mr. Kim’s father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, died in the winter of 2011, the North Korean news media claimed that the thick ice on the lake cracked “so loud, it seemed to shake the heavens and the Earth.”

In South Korea, the national anthem opens with a reference to Baekdusan, and walls of government offices are decorated with panoramic pictures of Cheonji. Baekdusan regularly tops lists of places South Koreans wish to visit before they die.

But for decades after the Korean War in the early ’50s, which ended with Korea divided by a sealed border, South Koreans were barred from visiting by North Korea and China, the North’s Cold War ally. Under their 1962 border treaty, North Korea and China each owns roughly half of the mountain and Cheonji.

The door opened only in 1992, when China and South Korea forged diplomatic ties.

South Koreans began rushing to Baekdusan, climbing the Chinese slopes of the mountain. Barring the reunification of the two Koreas or a sudden decision by the North to open a land route across the Korean Peninsula — both prospects distant, given high tensions on the peninsula — the route through China is the only way for them to visit their “holy mountain.”

Once on the mountaintop, many South Koreans are moved to display their national flag, chanting hurrahs with arms raised, and singing their national anthem — raising the hackles of North Korean border guards nearby. In 2008, a cast of celebrities in a popular South Korean reality TV show traveled to Baekdusan with bottles of water collected from remote corners of South Korea and poured them into Cheonji in what they called a symbolic gesture of making the divided Korea whole again.

Today, local guides, mostly ethnic Korean-Chinese, recite a strict Chinese government ban on such activities.

“Please no national flags at the top,” one of them said. “This is not your Mount Everest.”

The stunts have largely come to an end in recent years, with many Chinese national park officials around at the scene to enforce the ban.

“There is something about Baekdusan that makes all Koreans patriotic,” said Lee Byong-chul, senior fellow at the Institute for Peace and Cooperation in Seoul, who visited the mountain last year with a group of former South Korean government officials and scholars. “There, Koreans feel they have come to their roots.”

Planes from South Korea usually land in Yanji, the seat of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China, which is home to a large ethnic Korean community, most of them descendants of Koreans who fled Japanese colonial rule in the early 20th century. In Yanbian, all store signs are both in Chinese and Korean. The South Korean won is as welcome as the Chinese renminbi.

In Yanbian, the South Korean tourists visit historic sites linked to Korean patriots who fought for national independence from Japanese colonial rule or to ancient kingdoms in northern China that Koreans see as part of their history.

While they are not allowed to go near their own country’s heavily armed border with North Korea, South Koreans in Yanbian can also gaze at the North lying just a stone’s throw away. In Tumen, a town on the river border with North Korea, tourists from the South take pictures of themselves with the North as a background.

Across the narrow river, Mr. Kim’s late father and grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who had ruled before him, smiled from large portraits hung on a riverfront building. Behind them, the North Korean town of Namyang slumbered in decrepitude. Little human activity was visible.

“Taking pictures, throwing items or shouting to the North Korean side is strictly forbidden!” read a sign posted in Korean by the Chinese authorities, a warning to the Korean tourists who take $20 boat rides down the river to get closer to North Korea and are known for throwing food and dollars to North Koreans.

Park Jong-ae, 29, who is Korean-Chinese and makes a living guiding South Korean tourists to Baekdusan, said recent warnings by the South’s government of possible terrorist attacks by the North have reduced the number of South Koreans traveling to Baekdusan. These days, a vast majority of people disgorged from a fleet of buses or 10-seat Mercedes vans to hike the last short stretches to the mountaintop are Chinese, she said.

Ms. Park, the author, said her country’s recent tensions with China over the South’s decision to deploy an American missile-defense system — and rumors that China might tighten visa restrictions for South Koreans — prompted her to hurry.

Besides, she was embarking on a new career as a travel writer. She wanted Baekdusan’s blessing.

“The older I got, the more I wanted to visit Baekdusan,” she said. “So I hurried before it gets too late. There is no guarantee that I can come and see Cheonji again before I die.”

[sageuk]

Apparently there's a theory saying that the eruption of this mountain caused the downfall of Balhae.

A volcanic eruption in Korea? If it does happen, I have concerns. I wonder how it would affect South Korea, if at all.

Still, for those South Koreans, must nice seeing a mountain that's a significant icon in history in a country where no average Korean citizen would want to live in.