General Volcanic Activity Thread!

[john pike]

Volcanic activity worldwide 18-19 Jul 2013: Tungurahua, Sabancaya, Popocatepétl and more

Friday Jul 19, 2013 04:47 AM |

Map of recent earthquakes at Mt Churchill volcano in eastern Alaska

Map of recent quakes at the Long Valley caldera (California)

Aerial view of the crater of Popocatepetl on 15 July (CENAPRED)

Moderate explosion from Santiaguito early on 18 July

Current seismic recording at Telica (TELN station, INETER)

Seismic recording from San Cristobal volcano (CRIN station, INETER)

Current seismic recording from Turrialba volcano (VTUC station, OVSICORI)

Last night's seismic signal from Tungurahua (RETU station, IGPEN)

Recent earthquakes near Sabancaya volcano

 

Sakura-Jima volcano news

latest (Apr-Jul 2013) | Jan-Mar 2013 | Sep-Dec 2012 | archive

Friday, Jul 19, 2013

Sakurajima volcano (Japan): ash plume to 20,000 ft (6 km) altitude

An ash plume at 20,000 ft (6 km) altitude was reported this morning at 03:08 GMT (12:08 local time). This would be the largest explosion of the volcano in at least 1 year.

 

 

Nyamuragira volcano (DRCongo) activity update: steaming/degassing from pit inside summit caldera

Thursday Jul 18, 2013 13:21 PM | BY: T

NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using Landsat 8 data from the USGS Global Visualization Viewer. Caption by Robert Simmon.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using Landsat 8 data from the USGS Global Visualization Viewer. Caption by Robert Simmon.

Recent NASA satellite images from 11 June 2013 show a thick steam and gas plume rising from a pit crater in the summit caldera of Nyamuragira volcano. No evidence of lava close to the surface was found, while the lava lake in neighboring Nyiragongo remains well active and visible on the same images.

Nyamuragira's plume was rich in water vapor — which condenses rapidly in the humid tropical air — and sulfur dioxide, which lends a blue tint in natural-color satellite imagery. Carbon dioxide, fluorine, and chlorine gas are also found in Nyamuragira lavas and likely present in the gas plume.

Located near the eastern boundary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nyamuragira is one of Africa’s most active volcanoes.

If degassing magma was near the surface, then the intense heat would cause a bright red glow in shortwave infrared light. No such glow is visible atop Nyamuragira, but it is present on neighboring Nyiragongo Volcano, which has featured a lava lake for more than a decade.

The images were collected on June 11, 2013, by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8. In natural color (top), the rainforest is dark green, clouds are white, and the sulfur-rich volcanic plume is very light blue. Barren land at Nyamuragira’s summit and lava flows are brown or black. In false-color, clouds are mostly white and volcanic plumes are cyan. Forest and other vegetation is bright green. Fresh lava flows from the 2011–12 eruption of Nyamuragira are black, and older lava flows appear as brown tendrils running down the mountain's flanks. Agricultural fields in the southeast (lower right) corner of the image also appear brown.

 

 

 

Churchill (United States, Eastern Alaska): A seismic swarm with magnitudes up to 3.5 has been occurring in the Wrangell Arc about 40 km NE of Mt. Churchill volcano during the past few days. The intensity and frequency of the quakes has calmed down yesterday.

While some few of the quakes are near the volcano, most are not, and the swarm is probably not linked to the volcanic system of Mt Churchill volcano.

Long Valley (California): Normal seismic activity with numerous tiny earthquakes continues to occur at the southern and western parts of the caldera as well as under Mammoth mountain. There are no signs of a possible eruption in a near future.

Colima (Western Mexico): Although the volcano is no longer making much news, a lava flow continues to effuse as a viscous flow on the upper eastern flank of the volcano (source: pers. communicataion).

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Activity has been comparably low with an average of 1-2 emissions of steam and gas, sometimes some ash, per hour during the past days. The strong explosion from 12 July has effectively destroyed the new lava dome, an aerial inspection via helicopter on 15 July showed.

In the past 24 hours, a number of volcanic-tectonic quakes have appeared, which could indicate that a new batch of magma is currently intruding, and lead to another phase of increased activity soon. The alert level remains unchanged at Yellow Phase 3.

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): Not much has changed in the generally weak activity. Occasional explosions, sometimes moderately large, occur at irregular intervals. One yesterday morning at 05:59 local time produced an ash plume of 700 m height and ash fall in areas to the SW. The lava flow on the southern flank of the dome remains active and produces small rock avalanches.

Pacaya (Guatemala): Mild strombolian activity from the Mackenney crater continues.

Fuego (Guatemala): The lava flow on the southern side has remained active and was about 250 m long this morning, producing near-constant rockfalls towards the Taniluya canyon.

At the summit, there are occasional strombolian explosions with incandescent material ejected to 100-125 m height above the crater.

Telica (Nicaragua): The swarm of small earthquakes continues with little changes over the past days.

San Cristobal (Nicaragua): Some elevated seismicity was recorded at the volcano during recent days and continues. This includes phases of harmonic tremor and long-period events.

Turrialba (Costa Rica): The seismic swarm continues but has decreased in strength during the past day.

Tungurahua (Ecuador): After the strong vulcanian explosion on 14 July, the volcano calmed down first, but resumed activity on 16 July which has been characterized by ash venting and small to moderate explosions and is continuing.

This activity was accompanied by the appearance of tremor and long-period earthquakes indicative of fluid movements. In addition, inflation is measured at the NW flank, suggesting that more magma is rising, and could lead to new powerful explosions similar to the one from last Sunday.

... [read more]

Sabancaya (Peru): A strong seismic swarm has occurred during the past days under the volcano, culminating in a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on 16 July. The swarm consisted almost entirely of volcanic-tectonic quakes, that relate to rock fracturing due to rapid pressure changes and might be caused by an intrusion of magma. IGP reports that up to 1500 earthquakes were recorded per day.

At the moment, the swarm still continues, but is decreasing. No changes of activity have been noticed at the surface. The number of long-period quakes (thought to correspond to internal movements of magma, gasses and other fluids) has remained low.

Volc

[john pike]

[john pike]

GNS Science says minor volcanic activity is occurring at White Island in the Bay of Plenty. It says there are small steam explosions happening in the lake, similar in nature to the activity seen earlier this year. Volcanologist Brad Scott says the volcano is in a period of unrest, so the potential for larger eruptions is always present. He says there is no reason to believe the increase in volcanic activity is related to the Cook Strait earthquakes that began last Friday and included a 6.5-magnitude tremor on Sunday. GNS Science says the volcano alert level for White Island remains at 1, but the aviation colour code has been raised to yellow.

[john pike]

Heard volcano (Australia, Southern Indian Ocean) activity update

MODIS hot spot data (past 7 days) for Heard volcano (ModVolc, Univ. Hawaii)

A single hot spot is again visible at the summit crater. It is not known what activity exactly occurs there, but it could be that there is a small lava lake or strombolian-type activity from the crater at Dawson Peak.

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/heard/news.html

Volcanic activity worldwide 25 Jul 2013: Pacaya, Stromboli, Santa María / Santiaguito, Fuego, Popoc...

Thursday Jul 25, 2013 17:07 PM |

MODIS hot spot data (past 7 days) for Heard volcano (ModVolc, Univ. Hawaii)

Stromboli (Eolian Islands, Italy): Activity has been at relatively low to moderate levels recently. Explosions of small to medium size occur regularly from the "usual" (mainly the eastern and western) vents.

Tolbachik (Kamchatka): KVERT reports no changes in the ongoing mainly effusive eruption; tremor has remained stable (3.3 mcm/s).

No significant changes were reported for either of the other currently erupting / restless Kamchatkan volcanoes:

... [read more]

Chirinkotan (Northern Kuriles): A thermal hot spot and steam plume remain visible on satellite images (when there is no cloud cover), indicating that some activity continues at the remote volcano.

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): The IAVECI 2013 conference over, activity has dropped a bit, it seems. The volcano still has a few vulcanian explosions per day, but smaller in size, and phases of near-continuous ash emissions have become a bit weaker and shorter when observed last night.

Lokon-Empung (North Sulawesi, Indonesia): An explosion occurred Monday (22 July) morning at 05:06 local time, producing an ash plume of about 1200 m height.

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Emissions have been up to 2 per hour on average, but remained very small. A volcano-tectonic magnitude 2.3 quake occurred at 00:47 (local time) yesterday.

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): The lava dome has been very calm during the past day. No explosions and no movement at the previously active lava flow (on the southern slope) were observed.

Pacaya (Guatemala): Seismic and surface activity have increased during the past days, characterized by the appearance of continuous tremor and more frequent strombolian explosions, the latest special bulletin of INSIVUMEH notes.

This suggests a batch of fresh magma is currently rising. The Guatemalan scientists think that it is likely that strombolian activity will increase and perhaps a lava flow will appear on the flanks of the volcano in the coming days.

... [read more]

Fuego (Guatemala): Activity has remained low. INSIVUMEH reports only few and weak explosions (producing ash plumes up to 400 m height) and the active lava flow decreased to 50 m length.

Telica (Nicaragua): Seismic activity has decreased a bit, although small earthquakes are still frequent.

Galeras (Colombia): A magnitude 3.2 earthquake occurred under the volcano yesterday morning. The quake was felt by some nearby residents.

Reventador (Ecuador): Activity remains at high levels, characterized by small explosions and the likely effusion of lava flows. Unfortunately, near-constant cloud cover makes direct observations difficult.

Tungurahua (Ecuador): An increase in activity has occurred since yesterday. For 24 July, IGPEN reports an eruption column of steam and ash reaching 5 km above the crater drifting into westerly directions. During the past night, a further rise in activity has likely occurred, as the increasing tremor signal suggests.

Weak to moderate explosion sounds could be heard overnight and ash fall was reported from El Manzano, Choglontus, Puela, Cahuaji, and in the sectors of Cevallos, Quero and Mocha.

Sabancaya (Peru): Seismic activity has picked up. A number of earthquakes in the magnitude 2-3 range have appeared recently.

Heard (Australia, Southern Indian Ocean): A single hot spot is again visible at the summit crater. It is not known what activity exactly occurs there, but it could be that there is a small lava lake or strombolian-type activity from the crater at Dawson Peak.

Back to news / to previous page

Previous news

Volcanic activity worldwide 24 Jul 2013: Popocatépetl, Veniaminof, Raung

Edited July 26, 2013 by john pike

[john pike]

Sheveluch (Shiveluch) volcano news and updates (Kamchatka)

Shiveluch volcano (Kamchatka) activity update

Activity has been elevated during the past days. Several explosions and / or dome collapse events have sent ash plumes to about 20,000 ft (6 km) elevation during the past days.

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/kamchatka/sheveluch/news.html

[john pike]

Volcanoes Today, 1 Aug 2013: Pacaya, Heard

Thursday Aug 01, 2013 11:04 AM |

Seismic recording from Pacaya on 30 July (2), showing the end of the eruption (PCG station, INSIVUMEH)

MODIS hot spot data (past 7 days) for Heard volcano (ModVolc, Univ. Hawaii)

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcanoes/today.html

 

Pacaya (Guatemala): A surge in activity with increased strombolian explosions and the effusion of a lava flow occurred during 4 hours on 30 July, similar to the event from 30 May.

Explosions from the Mackenney crater reached heights of 250-300 m and a new lava flow started to flow onto the south side of the mountain through a deep notch in the crater.

... [read more]

Heard (Australia, Southern Indian Ocean): Recent satellite images suggest that a lava lake is most likely currently active in the summit crater of Mawson Peak.

NASA satellite infrared images show a very hot circular object of about 100-150 m in diameter that plausibly could only be produced by the strongly heat-radiating surface of a lava lake. Currently, no lava flows seem to be present on the other hand.

[john pike]

Volcanoes Today, 2 Aug 2013: Etna, Avachinsky, Yellowstone, Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Friday Aug 02, 2013 13:04 PM |

Location of recent quakes at the TFZ

Location of recent quakes under Avachinsky (blue dots) (EMSD)

Etna (Sicily, Italy): A cluster of earthquakes of magnitudes 2-3 occurred yesterday under the eastern flank near Sant Alfio, at depths around 7-8 km.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone (North of Iceland): A (probably tectonic) swarm of earthquakes has been occurring since yesterday in the eastern part of the TFZ, about 10-15 km north of the shore at various depths mostly below 15 km. It includes more than 100 quakes yesterday including 6 above magnitude 3 (up to 3.8 yesterday morning).

Avachinsky (Kamchatka): A (so far small) seismic crisis has started about a week ago. The earthquake hypocenters are currently located at depths around 30 km SE of the volcano.

The new quakes superimpose to the normal seismic activity at shallow depth. It is not clear whether this indicates that magma has started to accumulate at the mantle-crust boundary beneath the volcano, or whether the seismic activity there is purely tectonic and related to the subduction of the Pacific Plate.

... [read more]

Yellowstone (Wyoming, USA): The famous Steamboat Geyser erupted again during the past night breaking a 8 years period of dormancy. Known as the currently largest geyser in the world, its jets are known to reach up to 90 m height.

It is located in the Norris Basis in the northern part of Yellowstone. Its eruptions are very irregular, with intervals ranging between several weeks (29 eruptions in 1964) to decades (record was 50 years pause with no eruption).

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcanoes/today.html

Edited August 2, 2013 by john pike

[john pike]

a bit more re the yellowstone geezer

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/01/us-usa-yellowstone-geyser-idUSBRE9701B820130801?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

 

 

plus more discoveries

 

Researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) has discovered hundreds of volcanoes in the deep sea around Norway.

 

http://www.tnp.no/norway/tech/3893-norwegian-scientist-have-found

[john pike]

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/36118/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-5-Aug-2013-Shiveluch-White-Island-Paluweh-Santa-Mara-Santiaguito.html

 

Volcanic activity worldwide 5 Aug 2013: Shiveluch, White Island, Paluweh, Santa María / Santiaguito...

Monday Aug 05, 2013 18:14 PM |

Current webcam image of Sheveluch (KVERT webcam)

SO2 plume from Ulawun volcano (NOAA)

SO2 plume from Raung volcano (NOAA)

SO2 plume from Ambrym volcano (NOAA)

SO2 plume from Popocatépetl yesterday (NOAA)

Current seismic recording at Telica (TELN station, INETER)

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The volcano has been increasingly active during the past days. This morning, an explosive eruption produced an ash plume rising to 21-22,000 ft (6.5-7 km) altitude which drifted ESE. The eruption lasted about 20 minutes, KVERT writes.
Glow is visible from the lava dome at night, suggesting that a phase of more vigorous growth is in the process.

Ulawun (New Britain, Papua New Guinea): An SO2 plume visible today indicates that some activity has been taking place at the volcano.

Raung (East Java): A weak SO2 plume (which could be from Ijen and/or Raung volcanoes) is visible on today's satellite data. Recently, mild strombolian activity was observed in the summit crater, which might still be continuing.

Paluweh (off Flores Island, Indonesia): A partial collapse of the lava dome occurred yesterday and produced an explosion and (probably) pyroclastic flows. An ash plume rose to about 3 km (9,000 ft) altitude.
Our friend Aris who visited the area after the event reported that bombs were ejected to up to 1 km distance and estimates that the collapse removed about 20% of the dome.

Ambrym (Vanuatu): An elevated SO2 plume from Ambrym shows up regularly on satellite data, suggesting that lava continues to arrive into the vents, maintaining active lava lakes in Benbow and Marum.
A series of smaller explosive eruptions seems to have occurred around 26 July, GeoHazards mentioned, based on seismic signals.

White Island (New Zealand): Activity in the main crater has decreased and the Aviation Colour Code has been lowered to Green.
GeoNet reports: "The bursts of steam, gas and mud clearly seen last week are no longer visible through the volcano cameras. Volcanic tremor that was high at the end of last week has now decreased to near-background levels.
... [read more]

Veniaminof (Alaska Peninsula, USA): Seismic activity continues to decline, but remains above background levels. Clouds have obscured observations of the volcano in satellite and web camera images for the past week, so it is unclear whether low-level eruptive is continuing. (AVO daily update)

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): A trend of slowly increasing activity has been apparent over the past days. For the 24 hour interval of 3-4 Aug, CENAPRED recorded 93 emissions, i.e. about 4 per hour, and seismic activity has been stronger recently as well.
Interupting the relatively small emissions of mostly steam and gas, the volcano produces some more significant explosions of stronger size sporadically, with ash plumes typically 1-2 km height. The following webcam image video compiled by Canal Volcan shows such activity beautifully on 2 Aug:
... [read more]

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): No changes in activity need to be reported. The lava dome continues to produce occasionally small explosions and feeds at least one weakly active block lava flow on the southern slope of the dome.
Insivumeh warns of possible lahars that the current heavy rains could trigger.

Pacaya (Guatemala): After the short surge of activity last week, the volcano has been very calm. INSIVUMEH reports no explosions, but this is probably partly due to cloud cover preventing observations.

Fuego (Guatemala): The level of activity has remained low, characterized by weak strombolian activity and a small lava flow on the upper southern flank.

Telica (Nicaragua): Seismic activity with frequent volcanic-tectonic quakes remains above background. A series of small earthquakes with magnitudes up to about 2 has been occurring recently directly under the volcano.

[john pike]

Indonesian volcano Mount Rokatenda erupts, hot lava kills six people sleeping in village

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/indonesian-volcano-mount-rokatenda-erupts-hot-lava-kills-six-people-sleeping-in-village/story-fndir2ev-1226694874436#ixzz2baFop2UH

[john pike]

Sheveluch volcano (Kamchatka): elevated explosive activity

Monday Aug 12, 2013 09:49 AM | BY: T

The volcano has apparently entered a phase of elevated explosive activity. Over the past days, several explosions have occurred from the growing lava dome and produced ash plumes rising to up to about 23,000 ft (7 km) altitude. Small block avalanches and pyroclastic flows accompany the process as well.

Canal Volcan posted the following time-lapse webcam video illustrating the activity during 10-12 August on youtube:

 

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/view_news/36224/Sheveluch-volcano-Kamchatka-elevated-explosive-activity.html

 

 

Volcanic activity worldwide 13 Aug 2013: Veniaminof, Santa María / Santiaguito, Pacaya, Fuego, Popo...

Tuesday Aug 13, 2013 17:36 PM |

Map of recent earthquakes under El Hierro (IGN)

Extension of Kilauea's lava flows on 26 July 2013 (HVO)

Steam and ash plume from Veniaminof volcano yesterday (FAA Perryville webcam)

Ash plume from an explosion from Popocatépetl yesterday morning

Seismic recording yesterday morning at Nevado del Ruiz (OLL station, INGEOMINAS)

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/36299/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-13-Aug-2013-Veniaminof-Santa-Mara-Santiaguito-Pacaya-Fuego-Popo.html

 

 

El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain): The number of earthquakes has increased from averages of 5-10 to about 30 during the past few days. The location of the recent quakes is in a N-S elongated layer about 10-12 km depth in the western part of the island under the El Golfo bay. So far, no quakes above magnitude 3 have occurred.

Tolbachik (Kamchatka): KVERT reports continuing lava effusion, but the slowly decreasing trend of tremor (2.1 mcm/s today) suggests that an end of the eruption is (slowly) approaching.

Kilauea (Hawai'i): The eruption continues with no significant changes; lava continues to flow into the ocean.

The lava lake inside Halema'uma'u crater at the summit caldera remains active with fluctuating levels.

... [read more]

Veniaminof (Alaska Peninsula, USA): A surge of activity seems to be taking place. Both visual and seismic activity have increased over the past 24 hours. An intermittent steam and ash plume has been observed rising to about 12,000 ft (3.6 km) asl. yesterday drifting into westerly directions.

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Activity has remained more or less at similar levels during the past days. During 11-12 August, CEAPRED reported 88 mostly weak emissions and a stronger explosion yesterday morning that produced an ash plume rising about 2.5 km above the crater.

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): Activity remains relatively elevated with occasional explosions producing ash plumes up to about 1 km height. Fine ash fall occurs in areas downwind in up to 10 km distance. The risk of lahars (mud flows) triggered by rainfall remains high.

Pacaya (Guatemala): INSIVUMEH reports weak strombolian activity.

Fuego (Guatemala): A slight increase of activity has occurred over the past dayss. The INSIVUMEH volcano observatory reported 11 strombolian explosions during the past 24 hrs interval with plumes rising up to about 600 m above the crater, and incandescent fragments ejected to 100 m above the crater, creating avalanches on the upper flanks.

Two lava flows remain active towards the Taniluya and Ceniza drainages on the southern slopes, with 300 and 400 m length, respectively.

Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia): Since the last update, the volcano has been relatively calm with only internal unrest in the form of fluctuating seismic activity. Manizales observatory reports a slight increase during the past week, with earthquakes clustered in the usual location (presumably an area of magma storage) about 3.5 km NE of the Arenas crater at depths between 4-7 km.

[john pike]

Volcanic activity worldwide 14 Aug 2013: Marapi, Tungurahua, Popocatépetl, Shiveluch, Ambrym, Yasur...

Wednesday Aug 14, 2013 17:16 PM |

SO2 plume from Sakurajima volcano (NOAA)

Satellite image of the craters Benbow and Marum of Ambrym volcano from 9 Aug 2013 (NASA Earth Observatory, annotations by Robert Simmons)

Glowing bombs on the northern flank of Yasur after an explosion on 13 Aug (image GeoHazard, annotated by Culture Volcan)

Current seismic recording from Popocatépetl

Current seismic signal from Tungurahua (RETU station, IGPEN)

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/36351/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-14-Aug-2013-Marapi-Tungurahua-Popocatpetl-Shiveluch-Ambrym-Yasur.html

 

 

El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain): Earthquake activity has been calmer today. So far, only 9 tiny quakes (all below magnitude 2) have been recorded under the island.

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): Explosions continue to occur frequently. Several eruptions during the past 48 hours produced ash plume rising to about 20,000 ft (6 km) altitude.

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): Explosions have been averaging to about 2-3 per day over the past week. Many of them have been moderately large with plume heights reaching 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude.

An SO2 anomaly from this activity is visible hovering above the Kagoshima Bay and Sakurajima volcano.

Marapi (Western Sumatra, Indonesia): The volcano continues to produce small explosions every now and then. Local press reported two small eruptions this morning.

The first one occurred at 7:49 am (local time WIB), producing an ash plume of 300 meters height, and the second at 8:32 am with an ash plume rising 600 meters.

... [read more]

Ambrym (Vanuatu): The lava lakes inside the Benbow and Marum craters continue to be active, a recent NASA satellite image shows.

Yasur (Tanna Island, Vanuatu): Strombolian activity has been decreasing according to GeoHazard, and the volcano could soon be placed back to alert level 1. However, bombs are still often being ejected outside the crater during larger strombolian eruptions, as the attached webcam image shows.

Gaua (Vanuatu): A tendency of increasing seismic activity has been observed since June and GeoHazards keep a close eye on the volcano, which still remains at alert level 1 (on a scale of 4) for the moment. Areas within 3 km from the crater and the summit area should not be approached, today's new volcanic activity bulletin reads.

Satellite images show what is most likely a weak degassing plume from the volcano's main vent, Mt Garet on the shore of the caldera lake. The presence of the lake increases the risk of (usually sudden) phreatic explosions.

... [read more]

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): At 19:02 h (local time) yesterday, an phase of strong ash emissions occurred accompanied by strong volcanic tremor. Due to cloud cover, the eruption was not observed directly, but fine ash fell in areas west of the volcano, including the towns of Ozumba and Tepetlixpa in the State of Mexico.

Tungurahua (Ecuador): Since 2 August, surface activity has decreased significantly, but seismic and deformation monitoring suggest the arrival of a new batch of magma from depth in the near future.

Visually, no more explosions have been observed since 31 July and no ash emissions since 3 August. Gas emissions have been declining as well.

... [read more]

[john pike]

Skaftárkatlar cauldrons full of water [updated]

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Jón Frímann

 

According to recent pictures and from Rúv News it appears that both Skaftárkatlar cauldrons are full of water at the moment. They might burst at any moment and create glacier flood, the right cauldron has not flooded for the past three years according to Rúv News, while the left cauldron flooded last year. When they might flood is impossible to know, but it is expected to happen in next days to weeks.

Update 1: Icelandic Meteorological Office has now declared that Skaftárhlaup glacier flood is going to happen soon. A glacier flood can start at any time without warning. The risk comes from gases in the water, along with the floodwater it self as it can reach up to 1500 m3 at peaks levels. There is also a risk the flood might go into new rivers and those rivers has bridges that might not be able withstand such glacier flood.

Details in Rúv News

Mikið vatn í eystri Skaftárkatli (Rúv.is, pictures)
Video of the Skaftárkatlar cauldrons in Vatnajökull glacier.

Skaftárhlaup vofir yfir og skapar hættu (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

Information in Icelandic from Icelandic Meteorological Office

Yfirvofandi Skaftárhlaup og möguleikar á hlaupi í Hverfisfljóti (vedur.is, Icelandic)

Blog post updated at 18:04 UTC on 14-August-2013.
Blog post updated at 19:04 UTC on 14-August-2013.

 

http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/?p=3787

 

info through jon frimann re iceland blog

Edited August 14, 2013 by john pike

[john pike]

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

Quake 2.7 and very shallow

3.3km from katla

Worth watching as a few quakes have been occuring lately in this area.

[john pike]

AK Beat: Veniaminof volcano still rumbling away

Volcanoes behaving badly: Mount Veniaminof, an 8,225-foot peak 25 miles southwest of Chignik Lake and 485 miles from Anchorage which first rumbled to life in early June of this year, is again showing signs of elevated activity, spitting at least one cloud of ash and steam into the air earlier this week and featuring higher levels of seismic activity and surface temperature. One plume on Monday rose to a height of about 12,000 feet, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Meantime, NASA recently flew over the volcano and snapped a spectacular satellite picture showing the way that fresh ash is painting the peak, topping off the snow falling at the higher elevations of the mountain.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130814/ak-beat-veniaminof-volcano-still-rumbling-away

 

 

 

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=81751

[john pike]

New strombolian eruption has started at Pacaya on Thursday evening (8/15). Not a lot of information out there about the eruption, but the report from INSIVUMEH mentions a ~500 meter plume that is depositing incandescent blocks on the slopes of the volcano. The Washington VAAC also mentions a hotspot on the volcano starting earlier this afternoon as well. The volcano remains at Yellow Alert status with this new explosive activity and elevated seismicity.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=VE-20130816-40526-GTM

[john pike]

Volcanic activity worldwide 16 Aug 2013: Pacaya, Copahue, Karymsky, Veniaminof, Batu Tara

Friday Aug 16, 2013 19:02 PM |

MODIS hot spot at Veniaminof volcano (past 7 days, Univ. Hawai'i)

Last night's seismic signal from Pacaya (PCG station, INSIVUMEH)

Incandescence from Copahue volcano on the evening of 14 Aug (CIS webcam, via Blog Culture Volcan)

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/36412/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-16-Aug-2013-Pacaya-Copahue-Karymsky-Veniaminof-Batu-Tara.html

 

Karymsky (Kamchatka): An explosion probably occurred last night (inferred from seismic data), and might have produced an ash plume of up to 20,000 ft (7.5 km) elevation, Tokyo VAAC reported.

Batu Tara (Sunda Islands, Indonesia): Strombolian activity, sometimes strong, continues. A plume rose to 5,000 ft (1.5 km) altitude and drifted 70 nautical miles to the west earlier today (VAAC Darwin).

Veniaminof (Alaska Peninsula, USA): The eruption continues with lava effusion from the intracaldera cone, accompanied by strong tremor, AVO reports.

Pacaya (Guatemala): Another paroxysm with strong strombolian explosions and a lava flow occurred last night from the Mackenney crater. Starting at about 19:15 (local time), eruptive activity increased accompanied by volcanic tremor. Strombolian explosions ejected bombs and blocks to a height of 500 m above the crater and showered the outer flanks.

VAAC Washington issued a bulletin but was unable to identify the height of the ash plume from satellite data. Ash fall was reported from nearby villages such as El Rodeo and El Patrocinio. At the height of the eruption, a lava flow issued from the west flank and reached a distance of 500 m.

... [read more]

Copahue (Chile/Argentina): Incandescence was observed last night from the crater. SERNAGEOMIN has not commented on possible renewed activity or changes at the volcano, but maintains alert level yellow.

Since early July, seismic and degassing activity had decreased and the last eruptive activity noted was weak ash emission on 6 July.

[john pike]

Kverkfjoell volcano (Iceland): glacial flood and small phreatic explosion (Icelandic Civil Protection)

Saturday Aug 17, 2013 12:03 PM | BY: T

Aerial photo of the NE rim of the Kverkjökull glacier with deposits of the flood and ash from the phreatic explosion (

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/kverkfjoell/news/36423/Kverkfjoell-volcano-Iceland-glacial-flood-and-small-phreatic-explosion-Icelandic-Civil-Protection.html

 

Kliuchevskoi (Kamchatka): A new eruption began at 06:30 UTC on 15 August, KVERT reports. Accompanied by strong tremor, strombolian activity has been taking place in the summit crater.

Incandescence at the summit of the volcano's summit were observed at night and a gas-steam plume containing small amounts of ash rose up to 18,000 ft (5.5 km) a.s.l. and drifted to the north-east of the volcano on August 16. Satellite data showed a big and bright thermal anomaly over the volcano on August 15-17. (KVERT weekly update)

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): Eruptive activity continued all week with explosions producing ash plumes that rose up to 16,400-22,960 ft (5.0-7.0 km) a.s.l. and extended to the east and north-east of the volcano.

A viscous lava dome continues to extrude on the north-western flank of the lava dome, accompanied by strong and moderate degassing, incandescence, and hot avalanches.

... [read more]

Reventador (Ecuador): Eruptive activity continues at moderate levels. There are occasional ash explosions with plumes of a few 100 m height and possibly minor lava ef

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-activity/news/36445/Volcanic-activity-worldwide-17-Aug-2013-Kliuchevskoi-Kverkfjll-Shiveluch-Reventador.html

 

 

plus at present there are quite a few quakes appearing around katla

 

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/#view=table

 

see link above for list

 

images thanks to iceland met office

A small phreatic eruption seems to have taken place yesterday at the ice-covered Kverkfjoell central volcano. The steam-driven (no fresh magma involved) explosion followed a small glacial flood on 15 August the Kverkjökull glacier released into the Volga river and was probably a result of the pressure release during the flood.

[*]All news about: Kverkfjöll volcano

[*]Information about: Kverkfjöll volcano

[john pike]

Sakurajima, one of Japan's most active volcanoes, experienced one of its most powerful eruptions in decades Sunday, sending an ash plume thousands of feet into the air. The volcano, located in the far southwestern part of Japan's mainland on the island of Kyushu, began to erupt at 4:31 p.m. local time Sunday (3:31 a.m. EDT U.S. time). The smoke plume eventually reached a height of 5,000 meters (approximately 16,000 feet), according to the Kagoshima Local Meteorological Observatory. Public broadcaster NHK reported it was the volcano's tallest ash plume since records began in 1955. Visibility in the city of Kagoshima, where the volcano sits, deteriorated quickly as ash spread into populated portions of the city of 600,000 residents, according to the English-language NHK World website. NHK World said a pyroclastic flow, a fast-moving current of gas and rock, was observed along a one-kilometer (0.6-mile) swath on the southeast flank of the mountain.

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=VE-20130818-40573-JPN

 

http://www.weather.com/news/volcano-japan-sakurajima-eruption-20130818

see link above for photos

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH12gKEcWSA&feature=player_embedded

 

http://newsblogged.com/video-sakurajima-volcano-eruption-kyushu-japan-18th-august-2013

Edited August 18, 2013 by john pike

[karyo]

That's impressive and the column of ash seems higher than 5,000 metres to me!

 

Karyo

[john pike]

That's impressive and the column of ash seems higher than 5,000 metres to me!

 

Karyo

 

That's impressive and the column of ash seems higher than 5,000 metres to me!

 

Karyo

 

hi karyo

 

i thought the same as well

 

maybe tomorrow there might be more info on this

[Coast]

maybe tomorrow there might be more info on this

 

Indeed there is:

 

 

Sakurajima volcano covers Japanese city in ash

 

A clean-up operation has begun in Japan after an eruption at a volcano covered an entire city with ash. Footage shows Mount Sakurajima spewing the dark plume 5,000m into the air. It's the 500th eruption this year. Residents of the nearby Kagoshima city used masks and umbrellas to protect themselves, as ash fell from the sky on to the streets below

 

 

Video here:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23751191

http://youtu.be/hlRkbPVH4i0

[john pike]

) Iliwerung (Lesser Sunda Islands): A submarine eruption has likely occurred this morning in Indonesia. VSI raised the alert level of Iliwerung volcano from 1 (normal) to 2 (watch) following increased seismic and visual activity from an underwater flank vent called Gunung Hobal.
Iliwerung volcano forms a peninsula on the south coast of Lembata (Lomblen) Island (East Indonesia). Mount Hobal (Gunung Hobal) is a submarine flank vent of Iliwerung located about 800 m from the coast. It has had several historic eruptions during which several temporary islands were formed.
... [show less]
The latest bulletin of VSI describes that the water around Hobal has recently shown significant color changes to yellow, intense bubbling and white steam plumes rising up to about 1000-2000 m from 7:14 local time this morning. Half an hour later, from 7:46 am, glow even began to be visible.
Strangely, no plume or other strong evidence of an eruption have been available so far from satellite data, except tiny spots visible on the latest images of the area which could be floating pumice.mmmm

 

 

White Island (New Zealand): A small phreatic or hydrothermal eruption occurred at in the active crater earlier today (10:23 on Tuesday 20 August 2013 NZ local time). The explosion lasted for about 10 minutes and produced a steam plume mixed with small amounts of ash that rose about 4 km a.s.l.
The activity at White Island has now returned to levels of high hydrothermal activity as before this morning's eruption.
... [show less]
The vent of the eruption was in the same active crater area that has been experiencing very small mud eruptions in recent weeks.
The eruption threw mud and rocks a short distance from the source, and produced large volumes of white steam. Weather radar observations show that a small proportion of volcanic ash was carried with the steam.

 

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcanoes/today.html

 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/469749/new-zealand-volcano-lets-off-steam

Edited August 20, 2013 by john pike

[john pike]

http://www.ruv.is/katla

 

katla webcam

 

http://www.floodwarn.co.uk/iceland_katla_volcano.htm

 

a very informative site re iceland volcanoes  ( not suitable for phones)

[john pike]

Previously, oceanographers thought the Atlantic Ocean seafloor didn’t spit out as much iron as other regions. However, a recently discovered plume of iron billowing from the depth of the Atlantic Ocean suggests the seafloor may be pumping iron like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The oceanic iron cloud spreads for more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) across the Atlantic from west of Angola, Africa, to northeast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The iron-rich waters flow 1,500 to 3,500 meters (4,921 – 11,482 feet) beneath the surface of the ocean. The complete extent and shape of the iron plume remains to be discovered.

 

http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/atlantic-ocean-floor-unexpectedly-pumping-iron-130820.htm

 

watch the video on the link above

 

fascinating