Talk:Vog

Vog

This article lists "vog" as a portmanteau of "volcanic” and “fog," designed to elicit comparisons to “smog.” It may be more appropriate and cleverer to list it as a portmanteau of ‘volcanic” and “smog,” preceded or followed by the point that this is a portmanteau of a portmanteau, but I did not feel strongly enough about this to change the main article. -- Paul

It would be a portmanteau of volcanic+smoke+fog then. I'm not keen on portmanteaus - isn't there a better scientific term for this fairly common phenomenon? --MacRusgail 18:15, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Haven't found a better term, but I solved the problem by defining the term. By the way, I live near the Kilauea volcano, and it's common knowledge that "vog" is derived from "volcanic" plus "smog" [not 'fog'] (because it's so very similar to smog, and equally as toxic, and even more hazardous to one's respiratory health, and is a major health hazard for residents of this island), so I changed that as well. Softlavender (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 03:36, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

We are on the Kona coast so also breath a lot of this stuff. I think a couple details however are misleading in the article. It is not the "vog" that is emitted, but the Sulfur, I would say. And the later mention of Nitrogen probably should also be Sulfur too, right? There might be NOx also but the main danger seems to be from the Sulfur Dioxide. Also should mention the damage to crops (e.g. Kona Coffee does not seem to mind, but other crops can be damaged). Also I have read about prposals to create arificial vog to combat global warming, and of course there are controversies around them. Need specific references. W Nowicki (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 19:04, 3 April 2009 (UTC).

I always thought it was a portmanteau, but recently I've heard people argue that it's actually an acronym from a geologic term: Volcanic OutGassing. Has anyone else heard this? Should we add this alternative definition to the article? Probably part of the reason it's popular as a word is that it works as both... but AFAIK, they're both folk etymologies. I haven't seen an authoritative origin for the term. From looking at a google search, "volcanic + smog" seems like the most popular etymology among geologists. Indeterminate (talk) 14:29, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Globalize?

User:Gilgamesh added a complaint that it is too US-centric. The question is if the term is in use anywhere except Hawaii? Perhaps there are too many of us transplanted Californians here. Not sure if there are other volcanoes that release as much SO₂ on such a long erm basis, and it they call the resulting condition "vog" or not. If it only happens in Hawaii, then what can we really do to make it global? W Nowicki (talk) 17:48, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

Agree that it is US-centric, but I doubt the term is in use elsewhere. As the talk page photo shows, vog is not limited to Kilauea.Lfstevens (talk) 02:12, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

I have a photo taken in early December 2009 from Maui showing a sun at sunset that is shaped like a snowman (small circle above alarger circle.) I would be pleased to see it added to the images in this article. Can anyone tell me how to accomplish that? (logged in user JimMayo) —Preceding unsigned comment added by JimMayo (talk • contribs) 01:49, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

It's definitely US-centric, or at least English-centric, but I'd love to see some words from other languages. I'm sure any country with an active volcano near an inhabited area has had to come up with a word for this type of air pollution. Use of the term "vog" isn't restricted to Hawai'i, though. NASA's Earth Observatory has used it several times with other active volcanoes, like Yasur Volcano in Vanatu and Sierra Negra in the Galapagos, so I think it's in common use among vulcanologists. Indeterminate (talk) 14:29, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

In Germany we use the word "Smog" for smog, too, and we don't discern smog and vog. We don't have active vulcanoes here but in the decades before the innergerman wall fell we had lots of problems with sulfur dioxide from coal burning factories. We mostly dealt with not the aerosol but with the acid rain that fell and the dying woods because of that. Today we don't burn that much coal anymore and we have better filters. So, in short, I doubt there's a need to translate this term into German. --84.176.225.26 (talk) 22:36, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Old conversation, but I will chime in anyway. This particular air effect requires some specific volcanic conditions that are fairly rare: outgassing without heavy fluorine (Iceland), explosive magma (most stratovolcanoes), or ash (typical of most eruptions). The volcanic SO4 and related gases must interact with the atmosphere without ash getting in the way -- and that is extremely rare outside Hawai'i. Atmospheric inversions would magnify the effect, winds direct it, but the non-explosive volcanic event already keeps the SO4 relatively close to the ground. - Tenebris 03:40, 31 October 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.91.170.20 (talk)

Apparently a recent major vog hazard in Iceland's capital Reykjavík, blown downwind of the ongoing Fagradalsfjall eruption, and reported here at Just Icelandic. The video also compares it to the Mist Hardships that accompanied the Laki eruption, which, if I'm not mistaken, can be considered a historic cataclysmic vog event. So far I haven't found additional references, like in Google News, and I'd really be interested in corroborating reports. I was thinking it could help us globalize this article beyond just Hawaiʻi. - Gilgamesh (talk) 00:32, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

@Gilgamesh~enwiki: There are Global Volcanism Program reports that mention vog for Taal Volcano in the Philippines and Anatahan in the Mariana Islands. Volcanoguy 11:43, 14 July 2021 (UTC)