El Reventador

USGS/SI Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for May 5-11, 2010

eklemetti — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:00:22 +0000

USGS/SI Weekly Volcanic Activity Report for May 5-11, 2010

Ah yes, a reminder that there are other volcanoes erupting around the world than EyjafjallajÃ¶kull - but yes, it is true! Here is the latest USGS/Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcanic Activity Report!

Highlights (not including Iceland) include:

Another volcano in the Kuril Islands of Russia is showing signs of, well, something. Ketoi was noticed to be experiencing increased fumarolic activity according to satellite images. Ketoi hosts a Pleistocene caldera but has had three historic eruptions over the last few centuries, most recently in 1960, and all of which were explosive events around VEI 2.
It has been a busy spring at El Reventador in Ecuador, where ash plumes up to 5.2 km (17,000 feet) and small lahars were noted.
Another new entry into the report was Aoba in Vanuatu. Increased activity and a possible plume were noted, along with over 3,000 ton of sulfur dioxide being emitted per day. Aoba is actually a basaltic shield volcano with a summit lake filling the collapse caldera. Most recently, an eruption from Lake Voui in 2005 produced pyroclastic flows and evacuations of the local villagers.
Also in Vanuatu, Yasur continues to produce steam-and-ash plumes from three vents. It appears that strombolian activity has been common as well, with bombs in the crater area and explosions heard by the locals. Yasur has been erupting almost constantly since at least the 1770s.

eklemetti Wed, 05/12/2010 - 12:00

But the other volcanoes don't have cameras with internet connections on them! The ones in Kuril are only a threat to Siberian and Alaskan air routes (well, maybe northern Japan too) and the Vanuatu volcanoes are only likely to interfere with Australian air traffic.

Almost all North America to Japan routes are vulnerable to Large Kuril Island ash events, and depending on the winds, even New York/Chicago area to Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong could be affected.

Don't some European routes go over the pole?
Best!motsfo

Looking at google earth it seems to me that Vanuatu is a massive caldera with Aoba being at the center of it. Ive just never heard anyone else mention this and wondered what other people thought about this considering there is increased activity in a couple of places in Vanuatu now.

Aoba got my attention, as it is one several unusual subduction zone volcanoes that have erupted picrite.

@4, Chris, Vanuatu is a volcanic arc associated with a subduction zone. Several of the volcanoes in the arc have calderas, but the whole system is not one.

So much party going on and noone comments it ?

okay this stupid cloud, but E is able to manage that right now :D

Hi Erik, I have sent you an E-mail with some Information About Villarrica and LLaima Volcanoes in Chile. ;)

Have a nice Day

http://www.ruv.is/katla/ WATCH NOW !! watch the sky and watch and watch really !!

Vanuatu has some vulcanos that are continuously erupting. Because of prevailing westerly winds these eruptions do not affect Australia air routes that much. The occasional major eruption in Indonesia affects air travel more.

There are webcams for many of the worlds volcanoes you just need to look for them.

Took a gander at the cams, saw ash cloud, now it is to bed. :-( Got to get up early and I won't be on all day.... Boo!

Catch you all tomorrow afternoon. Late. PDT

Yes, yes, bring more volcanoes, more! (if this isn't addiction, what else should it be?) You can also look from Hekla cam (by switching Katla to Hekla on the address bar). To the right, you can see Eyjaf's plume from afar.

Plume is now heading east. Trouble to air flights...

It is good that Manuel sent you something about Llaima (with 'stomach noises') and Villarrica. There are new reports both on Sernageomin and Ovdas page. Also ChaitÃ©n looks like saying 'goodbye' based on the last OVDAS report.

Seems to be fair weather again this morning. The lava channel is steaming quite happily, so apparently it's gotten more ejecta during the night. The first time I saw lightning activity in the column, so that seems to be up again, as well. The cam at Thorolfsfell has a better frame rate than in a long while, although the picture quality sucks. Good conditions to veg away.

I tried my hand at depicting the latest EQ swarm. First of all, M$ Excel is not up to the job, at least my version of it is not. I did get graphs, but they just confirmed that one needs better tools than I have at hand to make decent 3D images out of the swarm data.

good to see a thermal cam has now been put up at the thorsvelli location :)
How about fireing a laser beam across the apex of the mountain,to keep track of its topography?

what is the frequency of explosive outbursts? i times 30 mins between the last two. & is there a wave plot of them?

When you searching for monitoring, you realise how fortunate Iceland, Europe and the US are when it comes to adequate surveilance of threats:

El Salvador has a Volcano Institute with a surveillance program - www.snet.gob.sv/ver/vulcanologia/vigilancia/programa+de+vigilancia/ - but it only covers one volcano adequately (Santa Ana) and to a lesser extent five more (San Miguel, San Salvador, Izalco, San Vicente & Ilopangao). El Reventador does not seem to be monitored? Judging from the picture of that corn field close to three large volcanoes, I feel sorry for the people working and living in their shadow. Would any of us "Fortunate Sons" accept such a situation?

For the Vanuatuans, the situation is even more bleak - www.sveurop.org/gb/articles/articles/vanuatu.htm - Thankfully, the SVE has made a thorough assessment and set up a "minimal surveillance" program and educated the locals (see bottom entry). As far as I understand the danger assessment (it's in French) - http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/griseli/01000… - there is no reason to expect a second Krakatau, as was proposed on a previous thread here. But evacuation of the entire population of almost every island is recommended in certain cases that do not seem to be overly "alarmist".

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-hvolsvelli/

That looks like its going very high...

Henrik: I don't know if you meant to imply it, but Reventador isn't in El Salvador, it's in Ecuador. Lack of monitoring is probably because of its remote location (as is the case for Sangay)

Doh! The drinks are on me. A good example of the danger in assuming the search engine comes up with the results you thought the paramaters you put up constrained it to. Google, aiming to please replied "Yes sir, we have no bananas" (Gerry Durrell). I stand corrected, thanks for picking it up so quickly. :o

I think we could use a little Robin Williams here: "Gooooood Morning Volcano Fans!"

Looks like the plume is going nice and strong this morning - what can be seen behind the clouds that is.

EyjafjallajÃ¶kull volcano eruption 12 May 2010 vodafone webcam time lapse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7H_VrcqcQ

"Bardarbunga, Hekla and Katla!!" (May I suggest: the only expletive allowed on this site when talking about Iceland's volcanicity problems?!)

Here is a little background on Iceland's geology and the significance of the spreading of the North American and European Plates. It is in plain-speak so particularly good
for any new enthusiasts.

http://iceland.vefur.is/iceland_nature/geology_of_iceland/index.htm

"People of da house!" There's no reference to Iceland and Icelandic volcanoes in Erik's list of categories at the top. Perhaps we should remain at the old thread out of respect for Guillermo, Manuel Humeres and others who may want to discuss volcanoes of more interest to them? ;)

#22 La Kat: very interesting article, thank you!

#23 Henrik: I think that is a good idea. It is also easier to follow the diskussion in one blog, as going back and forth between 2 blogs.

@23 Henrik, Swe

Apologies, Henrik et al, thought this thread was of a more general discussion on volcanology (i.e. this link is of much wider interest and NOT just on Eyjafjallajokull- not at all!). In any case, thought everyone had moved here now. (I'm learning, too!)

Morning everyone. It seems like Bardarbunga is moving a little bit today http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/#v…

Haven't seen mention of it, but KVERT has apparently been given another funding boost to continue monitoring and reporting operations through June 30th.

http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/updates.shtml

Thank-you, whoever you are (governments, private sector) that are providing provisional monetary support for KVERT!

No need to apologise least of all to me, La Kat. I am as guilty as the next person if not more. I just remembered that Guillermo has tried several times over the past month to give us information about Chaiten and we collectively, myself very much included, were too busy to take notice. After all, there are other volcanoes whose impact currently is far greater to other people than the mere travel inconveniences inflicted upon ourselves... ;)

I'm still learning from you, while I'm trying to reach my goals. I absolutely enjoy reading all that is written on your site.Keep the posts coming. I loved it

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SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Report for 2/17-23/2010

eklemetti — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:03:08 +0000

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Report for 2/17-23/2010

The flu has retreated and I'm getting back on track. Huzzah!

I'll get back to the blog by posting this week's new USGS / Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program Weekly Volcano Report. Looks like some interesting stuff in it ...

Looks like there were some small eruptions from Oldoinyo Lengai in Tanzania. The volcano is one of the few (only active?) carbonatite volcanoes in the world, erupting a lava composed primarily of calcium carbonate and sodium minerals with very little silica. It leads to the odd lava that erupt black (and cool ~ 500C) and cool to white, making it one of the strangest places on Earth.
El Reventador in Ecuador appeared to produce some ash and a thermal anomaly was detected as well.
Russia's Kliuchevskoi produced strombolian eruptions along with some phreatic (water-interaction) explosions related to a lava flow.
Back in Ecuador, Sangay produced an ash-and-steam plume that reached upwards of 7.6 km / 25,000 feet.
The level 3 (of 4) alert at Talang in Indonesia was reduced to Level 2 as seismicity has steadily declined since February 2009.

eklemetti Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:03

Those carbonatite volcanoes are very interesting. Every few years I go to the Kaiserstuhl volcano in the South of Germany. That volcano is part of the Upper Rhine graben (mentioned in the article Erik linked to) and although the rifting process still takes place there, the Kaiserstuhl has not been active for around 15 million years. It's still a nice place to go look for a big variety of volcanic rocks. The Limberg for example, is a small stratovolcano that's part of the Kaiserstuhl complex. It's the type locality of Limburgite. In the center of the Kaiserstuhl a big mass of carbonatite can be found. Carbonatic lapilli tuff can be found around places where there used to be craters.

Erik, glad you are feeling better.

@Gijs, what is Limburgite? Can you give a description of it? I may be a rock hound, but I sure don't know about a lot of rocks and minerals.

I think Oldoinyo is one of the weirdest places. I have seen films and pictures of it and it is something else. The lava, in the films I saw, just globbed out and also acted a bit like Stromboli, but on a very limited scale; like little burps of stuff and forming hornitos. Yeah, I know I am talking about what most of you know anyway, but it is cool to see what it does.

It's a rock that looks pretty much like basalt, but it contains no or almost no feldspar, and nepheline is also rarely found in it. Limburgite can be found in volcanic areas all over the world, although there are some differences in appearance depending on where it comes from.

My nicest specimen: http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2597/limburgietlimberggroeve.jpg

Glad you're feeling better!

Oldoinyo Lengai is one of my favorites. I flew over it in 2006 in a small plane and got a couple of good pictures. It's the only active carbonatite volcano left on the planet. The lava erupts much cooler than most volcanoes (500Â°C to 600Â°C), so it doesn't glow during the day. As it cools, it reacts with moisture in the air and turns white.

It's actually been experiencing a phase of explosive eruptions lately, which it does a couple of times a century, but they seem to be abating and the mountain is returning to its normal modus operandi. It'll be a good number of years before you can walk through the erupting crater again, though.

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Thursday Throwdown: Updates from Gaua, Reventador, Soufriere Hills, Mayon and Cleveland

eklemetti — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:51:59 +0000

Thursday Throwdown: Updates from Gaua, Reventador, Soufriere Hills, Mayon and Cleveland

I 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 precaution as activity at the volcano increases (in spanish).
Gaua in Vanuatu continues to rumble as well. The Geohazards Observatory in Vanuatu have warned residents of the island that lahars could be produced if volcanic material mixes with the lake waters from the crater lake on Gaua. They also raised the alert level to two (on a scale of five). Mount Garat, part of the caldera system, has been producing ash and sulfur odors for the past month. Local officials have also submitted a plan for evacuation if the eruption worsens.
Mayon in the Philippines has also shown signs it might be headed for a larger eruption - although it didn't stop people from doing the Mayon Trail Run, a 21-km run near the volcano. Most troubling, volcanowise, is the increase in seismicity and sulfur dioxide emissions. In the meantime, a non-eruption-triggered lahar came down the slopes of the volcano last week.
After Cleveland's brief outburst a few weeks ago, the volcano has settled back down again. The Alert Level as Cleveland was reduced from Yellow/Watch after nothing came after the explosion on October 2.
The NASA Earth Observatory posted another stunner of an image, this time of Soufriere Hills at Montserrat. The volcano continues to erupt after 10 months of quiet and in this image taken from the ISS, you can clearly see the ash-and-steam plume drifting to the northwest, along with the big volcaniclastic debris fans on the north and west sides of the island.

eklemetti Thu, 10/22/2009 - 03:51

Don't tell the Scientologists. They may think it's the end of the world. (What to do with all these frozen thetans, oh nooo!)

link is broken on the ISS image...

Link fixed!

That ISS photo is awesome.

FYI... The Reventador article says that 3 provinces were put on alert about the possibility of an eruption, they have not been evacuated yet.

Thanks for catching that, G Mayberry. Fixed.

So I attempted subscribing to your RSS .xml, and it outputted a "Malformed XML" error... Can you tell me if it's me or the internet messing up?

Vote for the next Volcano Profile

eklemetti — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:05:22 +0000

Vote for the next Volcano Profile

Things were relatively quiet, volcanically speaking, over the weekend and that reminded me, it is just about time to vote on the next in my Volcano Profile series. We've had two volcanoes featured so far: Rabaul in Papua New Guinea and Hood in Oregon. Take a look at the list below and vote for the next in the series!

eklemetti Sun, 05/10/2009 - 22:05

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 4/22-28/2009

eklemetti — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:19:59 +0000

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 4/22-28/2009

The weekly USGS/SI roundup is out. Highlights (beyond Slamet) include:

Explosions (some heard 25 km away) and incandescent blocks that started fires at Galeras, Colombia.
Ash and tephra being thrown tens of meters into the air and a 4-m tall spatter cone being built at Pacaya, Guatemala
Also in Guatemala, Santa Maria's Santiaguito dome produced ash plumes and explosions.
Steam, ash and sulfur odors from the continuing eruption at Redoubt, Alaska.
Increased seismicity, steam and ash plumes along with a thermal anomaly at El Reventador in Ecuador

eklemetti Wed, 04/29/2009 - 10:19

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 3/25-31/2009

eklemetti — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:53:18 +0000

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 3/25-31/2009

For those of you looking for real volcanic eruption news (no, there was no "Yellowstone eruption"), here is this week's SI/USGS Volcano Activity Report.

And speaking of April Fools Jokes, this is by far my favorite (mostly by its combination of volcanoes and baseball. How could you go wrong with two of my favorite things - hat tip to Fletcher for finding the article).

Highlights (beyond Redoubt) include:

Earthquakes, tremors and steam at El Reventador in Ecuador
12,000-15,000 foot (4-5 km) steam/ash plumes were spotted at Colima, the Mexican volcano.
A shockwave was felt 10 km away from Fuego in Guatemala, accompanied by ~4 km ash plumes and explosions.
Increased seismicity and small steam plumes from Anak Krakatau.
Lahars and 5-6 km ash columns from Tungurahua in Ecuador.

eklemetti Wed, 04/01/2009 - 10:53

Colima is active again?
Nice to hear..
I worked there 4 years ago
:)

I'm still learning from you, but I'm trying to achieve my goals. I absolutely liked reading all that is written on your blog.Keep the stories coming. I liked it

Sparks flying at El Reventador

eklemetti — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:23:39 +0000

Sparks flying at El Reventador

El Reventador, the composite volcano in Ecuador, has been producing explosions and ash for the last few days, so says reports from the country'sÂ Â Geophysics Institute. El Reventador is only 100 km from Ecuador's capitol, Quito, and in 2002 the volcano blanketed much of the city in ash. However, the eruptions currently occurring are much smaller and limited in scope, producing ash and throwing incandescent blocks out near the vent (see above). No evacuations are currently planned.Â These types of eruptions are typical for El Reventador since 2002, with increased activity every few years producing ash fall, lava flows and pyroclastic flows. Prior to that, the volcano has been quiet since 1976.

eklemetti Tue, 11/11/2008 - 08:23