Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Aso (Kyushu): Overall, activity has decreased and incandescence has not been seen during the past nights. The current activity is dominated by strong steam and gas emissions from crater 1 and, to a lesser degree, from crater 2 in the western end of Nakadake crater complex. Intermittent small phreatomagmatic (magma-water interaction) explosions with typical cock-tail emissions of dark ash and blocks, followed by steam trails continue to occur from crater 1. Access to Nakadake remains restricted.

Sakurajima (Kyushu, Japan): A peak of activity occurred yesterday, with two strong explosions that produced ash plums that rose to 17,000 ft / 5 km altitude. The activity was followed by continues, noisy smaller explosions and ash venting which lasted and slowly decreased during the night. Today, two normal-sized explosions have taken place so far.

Lokon-Empung (North Sulawesi, Indonesia): An explosion occurred Wednesday (20 May) at 15:22 local time and produced an ash plume of approx 1.5 km height. The eruption was accompanied by strong explosion sounds, that caused concern in nearby villages and the town of Tomohon. After the initial explosion, mild ash venting continued for a while. The eruption came from two vents, both the Tompaluan crater and the new crater west of it that had formed in October last year. The eruption had been expected by VSI's volcanologists who noted changes in seismic activity since early May and saw a rapid increase in earthquakes 2-3 hours before the actual event.

Fuego (Guatemala): Activity at the volcano has increased during the past days. Strombolian explosions have been small, moderate and large and occurring frequently. Ash plumes rose to 1 km above the crater and incandescent jets 150 m above the crater. Most explosions generated shock waves and locomotive-like degassing sounds. Ash fall occurred in areas to the W and SW, in the villages of Morelia, Panimache, Sangre de Cristo.

Chaitén (Southern Chile and Argentina): The alert level of the volcano was raised to "yellow", after an increase in seismic activity was detected. Chaitén had a famous catastrophic plinian eruption in 2008, which followed centuries of quiescence and ended in the construction of a new lava dome.

Piton de la Fournaise (La Réunion): The eruption continues with stable lava effusion accompanied by stable tremor levels since Monday. Lava fountaining at the vent reaches up to 40 m height and the lava flow continues to move slowly towards the coast, from where it was still 3 km distant yesterday evening.