ash plumes
eklemetti | December 2, 2009We get a new update from the Smithsonian/USGS Global Volcanism Program ...
Highlights (not counting Soufriere Hills or Gaua) include:
The Weekly Report mentions the mystery eruption/noneruption of Karkar in PNG. Specifically, they report:
The report also stated that ash had merged with a thunderstorm cloud and had become unidentifiable.
Two ash plumes (11/25, 26) that reached at least 9.1 km / 30,000 feet were reported by the Darwin VAAC ... but as we know, it is far from clear that anything actually happened at Karkar last week.
Activity has quieted significantly at Chaiten in Chile, with…
eklemetti | December 2, 2009
An ash plume from Soufriere Hills on Montserrat, taken from the ISS on October 11, 2009.
If you ever wonder what might happen to the U.S. if a large volcanic eruption, lets say from Rainier or Long Valley or Shasta, occurred, you can look at the island of Montserrat for some of the potentials problems. The renewed activity at Soufriere Hills (video link) that started in October is causing problems with the power infrastructure of the island - specifically the ash from the eruption is falling on power lines and damaging them. Ash has a minor electrical charge, so it will coat anything with a…
eklemetti | November 18, 2009The latest news from the USGS/Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcano Report ...
Highlights (not including Mayon) include:
Strombolian eruptions and small pyroclastic falls at Arenal in Costa Rica.
3 km / 10 000 foot ash plume from Bagana on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea.
Rumbling noises, ~4.5 km / 14 000 foot ash plumes and incandescence were all reported coming from Fuego in Guatemala.
Steam-and-ash from Popocatepetl near Mexico City reached 7.4 km / 24 300 feet.
Satellite images of Shiveluch revealed a large thermal anomaly - the new lava dome - along with multiple…
eklemetti | November 11, 2009
Mayon volcano in Albay province, Philippines.
Yesterday, Mayon in the Philippines, which has been showing signs that it might be headed towards a significant eruption, produced an ash plume that reached as high as 3.5 km / 12,000 feet according to some reports. Evacuations of villages near the volcano have begun, while many other towns have been supplied with wireless announcement systems to help with evacuating if the volcano continues to show signs that it will experience a significant eruption.
Last week, there were reports that a new dome was forming at the summit of Mayon and if this…
eklemetti | November 5, 2009The latest of volcano news from around the world, brought to you by the USGS and Smithsonian Institute Global Volcanism Program (and especially Sally Kuhn Sennert!)
Highlights this week include:
Karangetang in Indonesia produced a couple 3 km/10,000 foot steam-and-ash plumes according to reports from pilots.
Soufriere Hills on the island on Montserrat has had quite a few pyroclastic flows over the last few weeks since the volcano started erupting again. Mix that with some heavy rainfall and lahars were produced as well.
The alert level is still at Orange at Karymsky in Kamchatka, which…
eklemetti | November 1, 2009All the news to start the week:
Galeras with a grey ash-and-steam plume behind Pasto, Colombia.
Well, after my article on Friday about Colombian volcanoes, Galeras must have decided it was left out. The volcano has been placed back at alert level Orange/II (eruption in days to weeks). An increase in seismicity and sulfur dioxide emissions (in spanish) prompted INGEOMINAS to put Galeras back on higher alert, but now the country has two volcanoes (Galeras and Huila) that could be erupting in the near future.
Back in the Philippines, there is new evidence that Mayon has a new dome forming at…
eklemetti | October 30, 2009There has been news over the last few days of a number of volcanoes in Colombia, so I thought I'd try to gather it up here:
The steaming summit of Nevado del Huila in Colombia
Nevado del Huila has been ramping up its ash emissions, potentially pointing towards new eruptions from the crater dome. The NASA Earth Observatory posted a new image of the grey ash plume from the volcano poking its way up through the clouds. This plume made it all the way to ~11 km / 36,000 feet, so it definitely isn't insignificant. This comes after an increase in seismicity (up to 1,000 earthquakes in the last…
eklemetti | October 29, 2009The SI/USGS GVP site is back up and running - and they've posted a new weekly volcano activity report. Enjoy!
Highlights include:
Nevado del Huila in Colombia has been showing signs that a new eruption might be starting. Seismicity has increased and minor ash fall has been reported, leading to an increase in the alert level at the volcano to "orange" (high).
Ebeko in the Kuril Islands off Russia and Japan produced a ~8.8 km / 29,000 foot ash plume.
Thermal images of the crater at El Reventador in Ecuador show that hot material is filling in the dome complex - this followed ash-and-steam…
eklemetti | October 28, 2009I'll be giving a talk this afternoon here at Denison on rhyolite generation, so I might be a little brief this morning.
Undated image of Mayon in the Philippines.
The province of Albay in the Philippines is on alert for both a typhoon and a volcano (that country seems to be hit with that 300,000 may need to be ready to evacuate if the volcano continues to show signs that it might erupt - in fact, Mayon is producing ash as of this morning, albeit only one minor ash explosion.
Lava flows from Kilauea are drawing crowds as they inundate a road in Kalapana. There is a nice video link to the…
eklemetti | October 22, 2009I did an excellent job of forgetting my notes from GSA 2009, so no wrap up on the meeting until tomorrow, but we do have some new volcano news to digest:
The crater of El Reventador in Ecuador in an undated photo.
Ecuadorian officials have called for evacuations around El Reventador. The Ecuadorian Geophysics Institute says that the volcano's "activities were measured at a level considered high, with permanent seismic signals indicating explosions while the southern side of the volcano crater could be seen as incandescent.". Three provinces near the volcano were put on alert evacuated as a…
eklemetti | October 15, 2009Before we get to the latest SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (WVAR), I wanted to draw your attention to some nifty NASA Earth Observatory images from the current activity at Soufriere Hills in Montserrat. After a few puffs last week, the volcano is now releasing a relatively constant stream of ash and steam, this after ~10 months of quiescence. The two images, one on October 12 and one on the 13th, suggest there is a lot of a variability, day to day, in the plume. See the latest WVAR for more info on Soufriere Hills.
On to the Report!
Highlights this week (not including Soufriere Hills…
eklemetti | October 9, 2009Somehow I missed a week of the SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Reports and almost missed another. Here is this week's update!
Highlights (not including Chaiten, Soufriere Hills or Cleveland) include:
The alert level at Galeras in Colombia was raised to Red after an explosion on September 30 and returned to orange ... and then yellow ... after activity tapered.
Sakurajima in Japan produced 1.8-4.3 km / 6,000-14,000-tall ash-and-steam plumes, along with incandescent tephra that was thrown almost two kilometers from the vent.
Multiple steam-and-ash plumes reached 4.3 km / 14,000 feet at Langila…
eklemetti | October 7, 2009Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the mountain of remote sensing (or not so remote) images that get released on the internet. Over the last few days, the NASA Earth Observatory has released a bunch of images/videos of current eruptions, so I thought I'd round them all up here for you to peruse.
Soufriere Hills releasing puffs of ash-and-steam on October 6, 2009. Image courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory.
Four new images in the recent past:
A nice, clear picture of an ash-and-steam plume from Rabaul in PNG was captured by the Terra satellite's MODIS imager on September 30, 2009. The…
eklemetti | October 5, 2009Two volcanoes that have been rumbling and rocking for a while now made some noise today:
Kliuchevskoi Volcano in Russia.
Soufriere Hills on Montserrat had a relatively impressive explosive event, producing a ~3 km / ~11,000 foot ash plume - its first eruption in 10 months. This was after a sharp increase in seismicity at the West Indies volcanoes since Sunday. This is a bit of a surprise as the eruptive period at Soufriere Hills was seen to be coming to an end - however, this eruption isn't really anything out of the ordinary according to James White Jr., the acting director of the…
eklemetti | October 4, 2009And not because the Indians' season is finally (mercifully) over (zing!)
Cleveland steaming away in a 2008 AVO image.
Cleveland (the volcano) erupted on Friday, producing an ash column that reached 4.5-6 km / 15,000-20,000 feet. The full report from AVO:
Satellite data indicate that Cleveland volcano erupted briefly this morning at ~0730 UTC (2330 AKDT) 02 October 2009, producing a small, detached ash cloud that drifted northeast of the volcano at maximum altitudes of 15,000' to 20,000' (4.5 - 6.1 km) .
AVO has no real data seismic data right now for Cleveland, so only satellite imagery…
eklemetti | September 23, 2009I missed the weekly report last week (sorry), but here is the new USGS/SI volcano activity report.
Highlights include:
Shiveluch in Kamchatka is still erupting away, producing ~7 km / 20,000 foot ash columns as the lava dome grows. There has also been pyroclastic flows spotted emanating from the new lava dome.
There was a report of a ~7.5 km / 25,000 foot ash-and-steam plume from El Reventador in Ecuador.
More small plumes and incandescent lava bombs were spotted at the Tavurvur Crater at Rabaul in Papau New Guinea
eklemetti | September 15, 2009
Mayon in the Philippines, taken in 2007
There has been a lot of waiting over the summer to see if Mayon in the Philippines was going to begin a new eruption sequence. This morning, the volcano had its first "eruption" since August 2008, producing a very small (~700 m / 2000 foot) ash-and-gas column that drifted to the southwest. PHIVOLCS reports that the plume had very minimal ash, but it is still worth noting. No new evacuations were called, but the 6-km "danger zone" and 7-8-km "extended danger zone" are still in effect.
Mayon is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines,…
eklemetti | September 14, 2009Monday is here again already ...
A pyroclastic flow from Soufriere Hills heading towards the ocean. Note the large volcaniclastic debris fan being formed by repeated flows. Dated March 2006.
The "Science Advisory Committee" at Montserrat in the West Indies suggests that the current eruption of Soufriere Hills on the small island could be drawing to a close. This is mostly based on the ever-decreasing seismicity under the volcano and that the volcano has not experienced any new dome growth or explosions over the last 6 months. Gas emissions have remained relatively constant over the last 18…
eklemetti | September 11, 2009
Undated photo of Shiveluch volcano in Russia.
In case you haven't seen the report yet, Shiveluch in Kamchatka has gone, as they say, "non-linear". KVERT has raised the alert level at the volcano to "Red" with reports of many strong explosions and an ash plume of >32,800 feet / >10 km. This all suggests that the volcano might have experienced [WARNING SPECULATION] a massive dome collapse followed by rapid decompression of the magma under the dome - causing the plinian eruption that seems to be underway. The size of this eruption plume will definitely have some effect on air travel over…
eklemetti | September 11, 2009To the updates!
Batu Tara volcano in Indonesia. The volcano is currently producing small ash plumes.
I was distracted enough by trying to figure out a way to teach about Miller Indices that I plum forgot to post this week's USGS/SI Weekly Volcanic Activity Report. It was a fairly quiet week so you didn't miss much. Enjoy it at your leisure.
Rabaul must be positioned on the globe in such a way that NASA's Aqua satellite always gets a good shot at it. The Earth Observatory posted a new image of the plume from Rabaul and it looks thicker and more ash-laden than the image posted a few weeks ago…