Nyiragongo

Busy ... so busy! I'll try to have more later today but the next 24 hours for me are super duper busy. However, I did want to pass along some news that was noticed by the Volcanism Blog that a volcano at Virunga National Park in the Congo erupted overnight. Now, I haven't been able to find much information beyond the single report in the Irish Independent - and that report doesn't even specify what volcano is doing the erupting - Nyamuragira or Nyiragongo. However, we've seen eruptions at the park earlier this year so the volcanoes are almost constantly degassing, so this should be a surprise…

Lots of little pieces of news I've run across ... time to play a little catch up. Stromboli: A volcano after Don Ho's heart. Every once in a while, my RSS feeds will dredge up some articles from years gone by ... and this week there were two New York Times pieces that are a few years old, but interesting nevertheless. The first is about research conducted by Dr. Robert Sohn at WHOI on explosive undersea eruptions. The second is work by Corr and Vaughan about finding subglacial volcanism in Antarctica. Both are interesting reads if you missed them (like I did) the first time around.…

Tourists hiking next to an active lava flow on Pacaya in Guatemala in 2006. I'm flying back to Ohio today after a successful few weeks of fieldwork/paper writing. Apparently I have a pile of tomatoes waiting in our garden in Granville ... ! On to news: To go with the news that lava flows from Kilauea creep ever closer to structures in Kalapana, the NASA Earth Observatory posts its first volcano image in a bit. The shot shows the steam-and-gas plume from the Halema`uma`u Crater in Kilauea's summit caldera. You can also see some video of the lava flows near Kalapana as they move along the…

The NASA Earth Observatory has been dazzling us with images from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption for months - but they have been dazzling us with volcanoes images for years! Here are two more images for those of you who love seeing volcanoes from above: Cleveland, Alaska As I mentioned earlier this week, Cleveland volcano likely had a small eruption over the weekend producing a small ash cloud. Cleveland is already known as an extremely picturesque volcano, both from the ground for its highly conical shape - a textbook andesitic stratocone - and from space. This new June 1 image is from almost…

Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Following up on a report earlier this week claiming that an eruption of Mikeno produced an avalanche that killed dozens, it appears that those reports were false. Current news claims that an overflowing river on Nyiragongo in the Congo produced an avalanche on the slopes of the volcano. This avalanche killed 46 people and have wiped out at least 200 homes and UN Peacekeepers in the Congo have been helping with the recovery from the avalanche. So, it seems that the landslide was caused by heavy rains rather than any sort of volcanic eruption…

News! Pakistan is home to the world's tallest mud volcano in the region of Balochistan - and its somewhat near the reports of an "eruption" earlier this week. Guess what? Since Wednesday evening, seismicity at Yellowstone has dropped precipitously. The last batch of earthquakes on February 3rd were also back to deeper levels - 8-9 km depth - compared to the potential shallowing earlier in the week. I'm sure the caldera will keep us on our toes, but as of now, it seems to have settled down a bit. Over in Pakistan, there is mounting evidence that the recent "volcanic" eruption reported as, in…

It didn't take long in the new year to get started! Nymuragira erupting in January 2010. Nyamuragira in the Congo erupted to start off the new year, producing explosions and lava flows. The flow are moving down the southern flank of the volcano. The eruption started with loud, concussive noises at 3:45 AM that startled rangers at the National Park that surround the volcanoes Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo. It appears that there was some part of the eruption that was either fire fountains or strombolian as the rangers describe the early events as "fire with sparks flying". The lava flows from…

Starting today and going until early August, you might see fewer posts on Eruptions than you're accustomed. This is because I'm in the process of moving to Ohio to get set up to start my new job as an assistant professor at Denison University. I'm excited about the move, but as you can imagine, trying to pull up stakes in California and trek two-thirds of the way across the continent will take up a lot of my time. I will miss the easy access to volcanoes here on the Left Coast, but I am excited to get (mostly) permanent employment, set up my own lab and to be able to teach geology again!…

You'll have to excuse the curtness of this post. An bad hop in softball will do that to you. Here's some news: Mt. Dempo in Indonesia Xinhua offers some nice pictures of the current activity going on at the summit crater at Nyiragongo in the Congo. Note the partially-crusted-over lava lake in the first shot. The Red Cross is updating the evacuation and mitigation plans for the area as the volcano shows increased activity. The alert level at Mt. Dempo in Indonesia was raised to the second highest level. There has been ash fall (as far as 10 km from the vent) and volcanic gas emissions. The…

Volcano news ahoy, today brought to you by Islands. Lake Kivu, located along the border the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda A gorgeous satellite image (brought to us by the NASA EO) of a steam plume and ash from the ongoing eruption at Shiveluch in Kamchatka. The ash distribution stands out remarkably well on the white snow, with the central circle of ash near the vent/dome and then the wind-aided ash blanketing the terrain to the northeast of the volcano (and a little bit to the south). Nature has a post reminding us that one of the big hazards at Nyiragongo/Nymuragira is not…

Redoubt emitting a large steam plume in April 2009. Image courtesy of Calvin Hall. A few snippets from the world of volcanoes: The current eruptive cycle at Galeras continues to go strong. Officials with INGEOMINAS, the Colombian Geology Survey, believe the volcano will erupt again in the next few "days to weeks". The volcano last erupted a few weeks ago (in spanish) and caused quite a bit of panic in the city of Pasto at the foot of the volcano. An Orange Alert has been issued (in spanish) for the volcano. Another volcano have is on the verge of a larger eruption is Nyiragongo in the DR of…

Things are busy - both volcanically and personally - so I'm going to just give you some links to a bunch of exciting/interesting/insane news: West Mata erupting on May 5, 2009 in the Lau Basin. According to a bunch of news sources, the eruption at Fernandina in the Galapagos is over (in spanish). That being said, the PNG noted that there is still a lot of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide being emitted, suggesting there is still a lot of degassing magma beneath the vents - at what depth (and will it erupt) is the question. There is a lot of speculation that Nyiragongo (DRC) is erupting or…

Nyiragongo as seen from Goma, Congo in 2002. There isn't much to go on so far, but there are indications that an eruption has started at Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Satellite images has found "thermal anomalies" at the summit and along a 3-km swath of the eastern and western slopes. The report mentions that these could be "fires and /or volcanic material" and more interestingly, noticed at least 6 times since April 10, 2009. From the sound of it, this might be multiple vents or a central summit vent with lava flows going to multiple sides of the volcano. The Volcanism…

Your weekly dose of volcanic activity. As a sidenote, you can now get placemarks for the weekly activity report via Google Earth. Select "Google Earth Placemarks" from the SI / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report page. Highlights of this week's report: New explosions at Ebeko. See my article today for more details. More evidence of increased activity at Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo, Congo. One interesting note is that scientists from the Goma Volcano Observatory noted that earthquake swarms usually precede eruption by 3-5 months. I've seen very little news about this, but Pacaya in Guatemala…

Ulawun Volcano, Papau New Guinea, one of the "Decade Volcanoes" There was some discussion earlier about the so-called "Decade Volcanoes", so I thought I'd elaborate a bit on them (doubly so in light of certain other lists.) These volcanoes are defined by IAVCEI - the International Association of Volcanology and the Chemistry of the Earth's Interior - and are part of a program whose aim is "to direct attention to a small number of selected, active volcanoes world-wide and to encourage the establishment of a range of research and public-awareness activities aimed at enhancing an…

Goma after the 2002 Eruption of Nyiragongo The activity at Redoubt has captivated a lot of us, but in the grand scheme of things, its eruption are more likely to caused inconvenience and property damage rather than dramatically loss of life (unless something huge and unexpected occurs). However, the same cannot be said if Nyiragongo and/or Nyamuragira (a.k.a. Nyamulagira) in the Congo were to erupt. These volcanoes are close to the city of Goma, a city of nearly 600,000, not including refugees from the fighting in the region. Eruptions of Nyiragongo in 2002 prompted the displacement of 400,…