General Volcanic Activity Thread!

[john pike]

Etna volcano - eruption update

Ash emissions from NE crater

Update Sat 04 Jan 11:24

Again few days after the end of the last paroxysm at the New SE crater, weak ash emissions have started to occur from the North-East crater over night or this morning. Tremor is low.

Ash emission from Etna's NE crater this morning

Current tremor signal (ESLN station, INGV Catania)

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/etna/current-activity.html

[john pike]

Sinabung volcano (Sumatra) - increasing pyroclastic flows from lava dome

Sunday Jan 05, 2014 08:17 AM | BY: T

Pyroclastic flow from Sinabung yesterday

Seismic activity of Sinabung during the past weeks (VSI, annotated by Blog Culture Volcan)

 

 

As a response, authorities increased the exclusion zone from 5 to 6 km radius, with the implication that 2 more villages (Pintu Besi and Jeraya) are now being evacuated. The emergency status was extended to at least until 18 January, meaning that the currently over 20,000 displaced people will not be able to return to their homes any time soon. Large areas around the volcano have now been covered by ash and most vegetation including many important crop plantations in these are destroyed.

VSI published a new report about the activity since 27 December, which is partially summarized here (following the summary originally posted by Blog Culture Volcan):

Seismicity

- Hybrid earthquakes, resulting from the both rock fracturing and moving magma, i.e. directly associated with the currently growing lava dome rose to an average of 471 events per day.

- A large increase in signals caused by avalanches and pyroclastic flows was seen since 30 Dec, which corresponds to the time the lava from the dome could overspill its crater and start to form rock falls. Currently, VSI measures about 100 events per day.

Deformation

Since the lava dome started to produce rockfalls (or pyroclastic flows), in other words, loose some mass as well, part of the (upper) volcanic edifice started to show deflation. This would be explained by the decrease in pressure induced by the mass loss at the dome. As Culture Volcan mentioned, this is in a way a good effect because it decreases (but not eliminates) the risk of a larger explosion that can occur if too much pressurized viscous magma is trapped in the conduit or the dome.

The current eruption, characterized by the growing lava dome producing numerous explosions and pyroclastic flows, continues at increasing levels.

During yesterday, several (at least 5) pyroclastic flows (hot block and ash avalanches triggered by partial collapse of the unstable dome) traveled down on the southeastern side and reached lengths of up to 4 km, with associated ash plumes rising more than 4 km height to altitudes of 24,000 (7.3 km). The following video shows some of the flows through the VSI webcam:

 

 

 

[john pike]

Volcanoes Today, 5 Jan 2014: Sinabung, Santa María / Santiaguito, Pacaya, Fuego, Dukono, El Hierro

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

[john pike]

Volcanic activity worldwide 6 Jan 2014: Raung, Sinabung, Nishino-shima, Shiveluch, Cleveland, Sakura...

Monday Jan 06, 2014 15:47 PM |

Glow from Shiveluch's lava dome at night (KVERT webcam)

Comparison of Nishino-shima between 28 Dec and 6 Jan (Japanese Coast Guard)

Sakurajima venting ash yesterday (Tarumizu webcam)

Glow from the crater area of Suwanose-jima

The flat, cake-like lava dome of Sinabung (Photo: Sutopo Purwo Nugroho/BNPB)

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The volcano continues to extrude a viscous lava dome on the NW part of the older dome. Glow from the dome and hot rockfalls can be seen at night. Small to moderate ash explosions likely accompany this activity but are often undetected due to frequent cloud cover.

Nishino-shima (Volcano Islands, Japan): The new island that had "touched" Nishino-Shima has continued to grow and the two islands form now a coherent single one, with a interesting "butterfly" shape. This might of course change quickly again as well. There are now no traces left of the beach and the little colored lake that existed a week ago when the two islands started to merge.
The image shows a comparison of two aerial photographs taken on 28 Dec and 6 Jan by the Japanese Coast Guard.
Most of the island's growth during the past days was by lava flows that formed and enlarged the lava delta to the SW, the currently lowest-lying area (which is the most natural place for new lava flows to head to). It can also be seen that the two vents first observed on 26 Dec are still active. At the moment, it is unclear whether strombolian activity is still occurring, but this seems likely.

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): No significant discrete explosions have been reported since 26 Dec, which is one of the longest periods without vulcanian explosions in recent years.
The volcano, however, is still erupting. It produces low-level ash plumes, in an often near-continuous fashion. This could suggest that the conduit is currently relatively open and allows magma to rise and degas efficiently without building up large pressure, during deep-seated strombolian activity (webcam images show no or very little glowing material reaching the rim of Showa crater).

Suwanose-jima (Tokara Islands, Japan): Intense (likely strombolian) activity continues at the remote volcano in Japan's Tokara islands.
 

 

 

Raung (East Java): VSI raised the alert status from 1 (normal) to 2 ("Waspada", "watch") yesterday. The decision followed an increase in degassing as well as detected earthquakes and volcanic tremor observed during the past days.
The last confirmed eruptive activity of the volcano (which is one of Java's most active ones) was a phase of strombolian eruptions from the central crater during the past summer.

Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): Activity has remained high, with reported 60 explosions/pyroclastic flows today, according to Karo News. The size of the flows continues to increase gradually and approaches 5 km distance.
The largest pyroclastic flow day today at 16:49 p.m. (local time) reached 4.5 km and seems to have involved the whole southeastern slope.

Authorities extended the exclusion zone to 7 km on the southeast side where the pyroclastic flows are currently channeled. The number of evacuated is reported as 20,331.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Cleveland (Aleutian Islands, Alaska): Although no new eruptions were detected during the past days, the volcano remains at orange alert, as new explosions (potentially dangerous for aviation) could occur with little warning (in particular because there is no monitoring on the remote island).

Edited January 6, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Edited January 6, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Volcanoes Today, 7 Jan 2014: Sinabung, Etna, Kilauea

Tuesday Jan 07, 2014 12:03 PM |

Pulsating degassing at the North-East crater view from Bove Valley (Photo: Emaunela / VolcanoDiscovery Italia)

Ash plume from a pyroclastic flow this morning and the delta of the fresh pyroclastic deposits at th SE foot of Sinabung

 

Etna (Sicily, Italy): This morning, the North-East Crater appeared to be covered by ash deposits and strong, pulsating degassing activity continued from it. The volcanic tremor signal is still low.

Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): The activity of the volcano has remained similar with frequent, fortunately only small to medium sized pyroclastic flows and associated ash plumes.

[john pike]

Volcanoes Today, 8 Jan 2014: Fuego, Sinabung, San Miguel, Etna

Wednesday Jan 08, 2014 17:03 PM |

Ash emission from Etna's NE crater

Pyroclastic flow at Sinabung this morning

The lava flows on Fuego volcano this morning

 

 

The flows reach lengths of 2-4 km, but the risk of larger flows that would threaten the village in the foreground remains high. The exclusion zone in this area is 7 km from the summit.

Fuego (Guatemala): Another surge of (mainly effusive) activity occurred yesterday. The observatory detected an increase in tremor and lava flow emission, as well as moderate to strong explosions with shock waves felt in up to 15 km distance, where they rattled roofs and windows in Panimache, Morelia and other areas to the eastern side of the volcano.

Ash plumes have been rising to 4.2 km altitude (500 m above the crater) and drifted about 10 km to westerly directions.

This activity might increase further and produce significant lava flows and/or pyroclastic flows, especially due to collapse of the lava flows on the steep flanks.

San Miguel (El Salvador): Chaparrastique (the local name of the volcano) is still restless. SNET reports seismicity at (low) levels similar to before and after the eruption on 30 Dec, and a degassing plume of 100 m height, with a decreasing tendency. However, new eruptions with little or no warning could occur and authorities ask people not to approach the crater.

Etna (Sicily, Italy): Weak sporadic ash emissions have been occurring from the NE crater since yesterday. Tremor is slightly elevated with an overall rising tendency.

Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): The volcano's eruption remains essentially stable. The volcano continues to produce frequent pyroclastic flows - avalanches of lava rocks and ash mixed with gas and air, triggered by partial collapses of the growing lava dome. They continue to reach 2-4 km lengths and run down the SE slope where an extensive delta of pyroclastic deposits is formed

[john pike]

Volcanic activity worldwide 9 Jan 2014: Sakurajima, Santa María / Santiaguito, Pacaya, Fuego, Popoc...

Thursday Jan 09, 2014 16:33 PM |

Ash emission from Etna's NE crater this morning

GPS plots of stations in northern and western El Hierro (IGN)

Ash plume from an eruption at Suwanose-jima this afternoon

Glow from Popocatépetl at night

The lava dome of Santiaguito this morning

Seismic signal of Fuego today (FG3 station, INSIVUMEH)

Etna (Sicily, Italy): The activity of the volcano has remained similar to the previous days: so far, relatively weak but more or less steady ash emissions are occurring at the North-East crater, and tremor continues its slow rise. Whether this is a precursor to more vigorous activity (from the New SE crater?) remains to be seen probably in the coming days.

El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain): No new significant earthquake activity has occurred over the past week, and deformation has stabilized on all stations: the latest crisis can be regarded as over (but it is probably only a matter of time until the next one).

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): A series of ash plumes to altitudes around 20,000 ft (6 km) from the volcano were reported by VAAC Tokyo, suggesting that the lava dome is currently in a relatively active phase with frequent explosions and/or rockfalls / pyroclastic flows.

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): Following an unusually long interval with no real explosions, two small to modest vulcanian eruptions have again occurred on 6 January and today, with ash plumes reported to 10,000 ft (3 km) and 6,000 ft (1.8 km) altitude.

Suwanose-jima (Tokara Islands, Japan): Occasional stronger explosions at the volcano produce dark ash plumes rising up to 1-1.5 km altitude.

Rabaul (Tavurvur) (New Britain, Papua New Guinea): Rabaul caldera's Tavurvur cone was quiet during 16-31 December. White and occasionally blue vapor plumes rose from the crater. An explosion at 0732 on 22 December generated an ash-poor plume. Weak fluctuating glow was visible at night on 31 December. (Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report)

Ulawun (New Britain, Papua New Guinea): RVO reported that activity at Ulawun was low during 16-31 December; diffuse ash plumes rose from the crater during 51-21 December, and white vapor emissions were visible during 22-31 December. (Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report)

Marapi (Western Sumatra, Indonesia): The volcano (not to be confused with MErapi in Central Java) erupted again yesterday (Thu) morning, producing a series of small (probably phreatic?) ash explosions, with ash plumes that rose to a few 100 m above the crater.

According to local newspapers citing PVMBG, the new eruptions were preceded by an increase in seismic activity under the volcano since 1 Januaryt and there were 5 explosions at 05:34, 05:53, 05:59, 06:12 and at 07:14 am local time, as well as some weaker ash emissions at 08:07.

The current alert status of Mount Marapi, a popular climbing destination, still stays at level 2 (out of 4), but it is recommended not to approach the crater within a radius of 3 km.

Pagan (Mariana Islands): Low-level unrest continued at Pagan during 27 December 2013-2 January 2014; seismicity remained above background levels. A robust steam-and-gas plume was occasionally visible in web camera images during the reporting period. A small explosion was detected at about 0145 on 28 December.

It may have produced a diffuse ash emission, but the webcam was not in operation at the time to verify. The Aviation Color Code remained at Yellow and the Volcano Alert Level remained at Advisory. (Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report)

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Volcanic activity remains low. CENAPRED only counts few (2-5) weak explosive emissions per day. Glow and continuous degassing still indicate that magma is being supplied to the crater, and justify the continued alert level Yellow Phase 2.

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): Activity remains essentially unchanged. Small to moderate explosions are occurring at rates of 1-3 per hour, producing ash plumes that typically rise 300-600 m. Extrusion of viscous lava feeds several active block lava flows on the upper slopes of the Caliente dome. Their activity can be seen as near-constant avalanches.

Pacaya (Guatemala): The volcano continues to be in mild strombolian activity at the Mackenney crater.

Fuego (Guatemala): Activity remained elevated, but decreased a bit today, judging from the seismic signal. The volcano observatory reported moderate explosions with shock waves that ejected incandescent bombs to 200 m above the crater and left abundant incandescent avalanches on the upper crater. Associated ash plumes rose up to 1000 m and drifted 10 km before dissipating. The new lava flow towards the Ceniza drainage was 400 m long this morning.

[john pike]

Sinabung volcano (Sumatra, Indonesia) activity update

Saturday Jan 11, 2014 10:47 AM | BY: T

Pyroclastic flow at Sinabung this morning

 

 

 

 

The direction of the path of the latest pyroclastic flows has shifted a bit to the east (right) of the previous flow path, possibly due to the obstacle formed by the accumulated latest deposits themselves. These are the gray areas visible on the flank and at the base of the volcano, where a broad delta of hot deposits has formed (that has destroyed everything that used to be there - farmland, scattered houses etc).

The volcano continues to be very active with viscous lava extruded at the new dome, which frequently collapses to form hot avalanches (pyroclastic flows) that generate ash plumes rising up to a few km.

[john pike]

Pacaya volcano (Guatemala): strong increase of activity

Saturday Jan 11, 2014 09:30 AM | BY: T

Seismic signal from Pacaya yesterday night and this morning (PCG station, INSIVUMEH)

 

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=352367#summary

 

 

A strong increase in activity began last night at the volcano. Accompanied by steeply rising tremor, the so-far mild strombolian activity picked up to become intense enough to produce pulsating lava fountains that eject glowing material to several hundred meters height and is visible from tens of kilometers distance (e.g. the Pacific coast at 50 km to the west).

The new surge of lava (or paroxysm) has also generated a new lava flow, which for the time being is confined to the inside of the Mackenney crater, but might soon be able to pour outside of the cone.

As a response, CONRED has closed access to the park and civil aviation authority has limited the number of flights in and out of Guatemala airport because of the presence of ash plumes.

[john pike]

Volcanoes Today, 11 Jan 2014:Shiveluch, Etna

Saturday Jan 11, 2014 11:03 AM |

Ash plume from Etna's NE crater seen from Giarre

 

Etna (Sicily, Italy): Activity remains unchanged. The Northeast crater produces a weak ash plume currently drifting east. Tremor levels are fluctuating, but generally low.

...11 Jan:

Interestingly, a few shallow (6-7 km) earthquakes of magnitudes around 1.7-1.8 occurred along a W-E line over the past days.

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The volcano continues to extrude viscous lava, generating explosions and hot avalanches. An ash plume to estimated 23,000 ft (7 km) altitude and drifting east was detected on satellite imagery yesterday. Cloud cover prevents more detailed observations.

[Mokidugway]

Just like to say I enjoy reading your posts john, keep up the good work !!....

[The PIT]

Etna earth quakes are probably a bit of slippage.

[john pike]

hi pit

 

it looks that way

 

hi mokidugway

 

no problema and thanks

[john pike]

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/indonesia-s-volcano-erupts-24-times-in-a-day-469656

 

AFP Photo

Mount Sinabung spews volcanic ash and lava near Karo, North Sumatra on January 10, 2014

Jakarta:  Mount Sinabung, a volcano in Indonesia's North Sumatra province, erupted 24 times on Friday, shooting a column of ash about 4,000 metres to the sky and forcing further evacuation, an official said.

[john pike]

Volcanoes Today, 12 Jan 2014: Pacaya, Shiveluch, Sinabung, Etna

Sunday Jan 12, 2014 14:03 PM |

Etna this morning

Ash plume rising from Shiveluch volcano this morning (KVERT webcam)

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

Map of the lava flows from Pacaya today (CONRED)

Etna (Sicily, Italy): No significant changes have occurred. While the continuing unusually warm weather has stripped much of the snow on Etna's southern side, diffuse weak ash emissions are visible from the NE crater and tremor fluctuates at low levels.

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): An explosion or a pyroclastic flow from a partial lava dome collapse produced an ash plume rising to 28,000 ft (8.5 km) this morning. Views on the webcam show a plume but don't allow to see details what occurred at the lava dome. *********************************

Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): Activity at the volcano remains unchanged. Eruptions with frequent small to medium-sized pyroclastic flows (up to 4-5 km length) continue and more than 25,000 people are reported evacuated. Problems caused by the extensive damage to crops and structures, health and infrastructure problems caused by the ongoing crisis with ash everywhere are increasing.

Recommended: Check out some great photos of the glowing lava dome, incandescent avalanches and a superb shot by Sutanta Aditya of a pyroclastic flow and related mushroom-shaped co-ignimbrite ash plume (lighter ash rising from the main body of the pyroclastic flow immediately after its emplacement) taken on 7 Jan.

Pacaya (Guatemala): According to INSIVUMEH, the eruption has considerably slowed down since last evening around 19:15 (local time), although weather prevented detailed observations. Activity at the summit decreased to moderate strombolian explosions with ejections reaching 100 m height and degassing.

The tremor signal is still saturated, suggesting that the effusion of lava continues. A strong thermal anomaly, corresponding to the new lava flows, is now visible on satellite data.

...11 Jan:

The ongoing eruption of the volcano involved the opening of at least two effusive fissure vents on the northern and southern base of the Mackenney cone (this info according to images and maps published by CONRED, although CONRED / INSIVUMEH at the same time report 3 vents on the east, west and south flank).

These fissures feed two large (and possibly one smaller third) lava flows that have reached lengths of 3-5 km length and are several hundred meters wide at their fronts (up to 800 m on the western side). The lava flows have burned extensive areas of farmland and woods and are close to some villages.

In the meantime, moderate to violent strombolian activity continues at the summit.

CONRED declared orange civil alert and started to evacuate families living in areas close to the volcano.

[john pike]

 

Mount Sinabung sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a fault line in the Pacific Ocean that frequently experiences volcanic activity. Sinabung is one of 127 active volcanoes in Indonesia. It became active in 2010 after hundreds of years of dormancy.

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140109-volcano-mount-sinabung-erupting-indonesia-ash-lava/

[john pike]

got a swarm at cobb volcano a present

 

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/clear_lake-earthquakes.html

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/clear_lake.html

 

hard to call whether volcanic or plate movement

 

more info when available

 

 

 

http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/

 

strewth

Edited January 13, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Guatemala remains on alert after Volcan Pacaya showed increasing signs of activity. The National Disaster Reduction Commission (CONRED) declared an alert level of 'orange' as a means of ensuring the safety of residents in the south-eastern part of the country. The volcano is still showing medium signs of eruption, with strong lava flows and explosions with pyroclastic material reaching 150 feet. There are concerns that winds may carry debris much further afield. Alejandro Maldonado, who heads CONRED, revealed that lava was flowing at a distance of between 3 and 5 kilometers. People living in the area directly adjacent to the volcano have been asked to evacuate. Residents in the towns of Villa Canales, El Chupadero and Pacaya have relocated to San Vicente Pacaya, a town at a safer distance. An alert level of 'orange' means that all emergency systems should remain on high alert, while seismic and volcanic activity will be carefully monitored. CONRED has asked that residents stay up to speed on information provided by authorities and avoid spreading rumors which may cause unnecessary panic. Meanwhile, the National Insstitute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meterology and Hydrology registered an earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale in the province of Retalhuleu, however there have been no injuries reported.

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_update_read&edis_id=VE-20140112-42253-GTM&uid=14603

[john pike]

Volcanic activity worldwide 13 Jan 2014: Popocatépetl, Shiveluch, Nevado del Huila, Ambrym, Galeras...

Monday Jan 13, 2014 18:03 PM |

Ash plume from Shiveluch this morning (KVERT webcam)

Faint red glow from Nakadake crater of Aso volcano (Japan)

Glow from strombolian activity at Suwanose-jima volcano

Marum lava lake (Ambrym Island, Vanuatu)

Small ash emission from Popocatépetl yesterday

Ash emissions from Galera yesterday (INGEOMINAS)

SO2 plume from Nevado del Ruiz volcano (NOAA)

Shiveluch (Kamchatka): The volcano continues to erupt viscous lava and has frequent small to medium-sized explosions. This morning, it produced again an ash plume that rose to estimated 27,000 ft (8.1 km) altitude that drifted WSW, Tokyo VAAC alerted the aviation community.

Aso (Kyushu): The volcano had a small eruption from the Nakadake crater today. On the following webcam video for the past 30 hours, a strong increase in activity can be noted during the past 12 hours. The degassing plume possibly contains some ash and faint red glow is visible on some images of tonight (towards the end of the video):

VAAC Tokyo confirms a small ash plume that drifted south at approx 2000 m altitude. A small thermal anomaly is identifiable on satellite data as well.

 

 

Suwanose-jima (Tokara Islands, Japan): Activity remains elevated. Bright glow from what is most likely strong and near-continuous strombolian activity, a degassing plume and sometimes low ash plumes are visible on the webcam:

 

 

Sinabung (Sumatra, Indonesia): The number of refugees to this day is as much as 25,810, from a total of 8,040 households, in 38 refugee camps. The lava dome seems to have decreased its activity, as no more significant pyroclastic flows occurred over the past 1-2 days. However, seismic activity remains high and it is too early to predict a near end of the eruption. It could even be a precursor to more violent explosive activity if the apparent calm at the moment is simply due to the fact that the degassing / effusion process in the past weeks has become inhibited by a plug of more viscous lava under which pressure is building up.
Another major hazard, especially with the likely heavy rains in the coming weeks, will be lahars - mud flows of remobilized loose ash. In addition to that, the up to 8-10 cm thick ash layer covering vast areas around the volcano is causing major damage and caused logistic difficulty (roads become muddy and impracticable).

Dukono (Halmahera): Explosive activity - strombolian to vulcanian style - continues. VAAC Darwin spotted ash plumes rising to 10,000 ft (3 km) altitude and drifting 60 nautical miles to the NE this morning.

Ambrym (Vanuatu): Richard Henley (geology professor from Australia) posted a great video of the active lava lakes of Ambrym and strombolian activity in Yasur, taken in Aug 2012 during our Vanuatu volcano tour:

 

 

Popocatépetl (Central Mexico): Activity at the volcano has increased a bit. The number of steam/gas/sometimes ash emissions rose to 11 (from averages of 2-3). The strongest explosions produced small ash plumes rising up to approx 1 km yesterday. CENAPRED also recorded a small volcano-tectonic earthquake of magnitude 2.3 yesterday.
During some periods of the night incandescence was observed over the crater.

Santa María / Santiaguito (Guatemala): The volcano's activity has remained essentially unchanged. Small explosions, intense degassing and viscous lava extrusion, especially on the NE side of the Caliente dome were reported this morning.

 

 

Pacaya (Guatemala): Activity continues to decrease back to normal levels. Apart from weak activity left at the southern fissure, the lava flow emission has ceased and the flows are now cooling. Strombolian activity at the summit vent decreased as well back to mild levels with ejections rarely surpassing 50 m.
Video from the lava flows 2 days ago:


Fuego (Guatemala): Activity at the volcano is still elevated but slowly decreasing. The observatory reported 4 moderate and 13 weak explosions with ash plumes rising to 500-800 m height above the crater, glowing material thrown to 200 m above the crater. The lava flow on the upper southern slope decreased to 200 m length.
The explosions were often accompanied by rumblings and moderate shock waves. Ashfall occurred in the villages Panimaché, Morelia, Sta. Sofía, Panimaché II, Ceilán, Rochela and San Andrés Osuna.

Nevado del Huila (Colombia): Following a nearby magnitude 4.5 earthquake at 06:07 local time on 9 Jan, a swarm of volcanic-tectonic quakes was detected at 12-16 km distance NE of the volcano and at approx 10 km depth. During the first day, more than 600 small quakes were recorded. The swarm decreased over the past days and no other (visual, deformation etc.) changes at the volcano were observed.

Galeras (Colombia): The volcano emitted again small ash plumes yesterday. The rate of such small eruptions has apparently picked up. Pasto observatory last reported similar small ash emissions on 13, 26 and 31 December, and on 8 January.
No significant seismic activity accompanies these events which suggests that the volcano is currently not heading for more violent activity.

Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia): Over the past weeks, the volcano continued to have rather low seismic activity, mainly in the "usual" area S and SE of the Arenas crater at approx 8 km depth. At the surface, the volcano produces intense degassing with a plume sometimes reaching 1.5 km height.

Sotará (Colombia): Seismic activity remains above background and is mainly associated to internal rock fracturing processes. During the first week of the new year, the number of earthquakes increased slightly, with a magnitude 3.7 quake at 12:22 local time on 5 Jan. Edited January 13, 2014 by john pike

[john pike]

Sinabung volcano (Sumatra) - eruption increases again, large pyroclastic flows

Tuesday Jan 14, 2014 09:48 AM | BY: T

The probably largest-so-far pyroclastic flow at Sinabung this morning

 

 

After a few days of deceiving calm, the eruption of the volcano intensified again today and produced the so-far largest pyroclastic flows, reaching probably more than 5-6 km in length, and associated ash plumes that rose to approx. 25,000 ft (8 km) altitude:

It seems that the previous dome which grew at the summit of Sinabung, collapsed a few days ago, leaving a large crater breached on the side where the earlier pyroclastic flows had gone down. The temporary absence of a lava dome in the past days led to the cessation of pyroclastic flows. Now, the new dome has again surpassed the boundary of the breach and sheds pyroclastic flows into the deep ravine below. (Thanks to B. Behncke for the comment)

On the other hand, a strong increase in SO2 emissions and hybrid earthquakes indicate that a larger new batch of new magma has risen, which also explains the new more vigorous activity.

[john pike]

Aso volcano news & activity updates

Tuesday, Jan 14, 2014

Aso volcano (Japan): activity from 2 vents

Active vents of Nakadake crater, Aso volcano (Japan)

The volcano is active from 2 vents in the Nakadake crater. During the night, sometime strong incandescence, suggesting possible weak (strombolian-type) ejections of lava, steaming and minor ash venting are visible

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2014 by john pike

[Buriedundersnow]

found some cracking pics of Chilean Cordón Caulle volcano erupting

 

 

heres the article

 

http://petapixel.com/2014/01/14/jaw-dropping-photos-spectacular-volcanic-eruption-chile/

[gary1365]

fantastic pictures

[john pike]

a couple of quakes which are quite rare for this region

 

M5.2 - 228km E of Bouvet Island, Bouvet Island 2014-01-16 21:38:01 UTC

 

 

M5.2 - 233km E of Bouvet Island, Bouvet Island 2014-01-16 20:02:45 UTC

 

both 10km deep

 

 

near thompson island submarine volcano

 

http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/thompson-island.html

 

maybe just tectonic but interesting either way