Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Karymsky (Kamchatka): Ash plumes from the volcano drifting east at estimated 23,000 ft (7 km) altitude were reported by VAAC Tokyo yesterday.

Nishino-shima (Volcano Islands, Japan): The volcano continues to erupt and is approaching its anniversary. It started with the birth of a new island offshore the old Nishino-Shima island on 23 Nov 2013, which by now has joined and completely covered and greatly enlarged the older one. The latest survey of the Japanese Coast Guard on 17 Nov showed that although lava effusion continues at slow rate, thickening the flow field in the interior of the island, they no longer reach the shores and the island's total surface has decreased a bit due to wave erosion from 2.67 in September to now 2.63 square km. Strombolian to vulcanian-type explosions occur from the main vent, sometimes strong enough to project bombs of meter size into the sea, i.e. to more than 1 km distance.

Shishaldin (Aleutian Islands, Alaska): No anomalous activity at Shishaldin has been observed in satellite data since weakly elevated surface temperatures were detected on October 16. Low-amplitude seismic tremor continues but is not considered to be indicative of an active eruption. AVO is therefore downgrading the status of Shishaldin volcano from aviation color code ORANGE to YELLOW and from volcano alert level WATCH to ADVISORY. (AVO / USGS)

Colima (Western Mexico): Intermittent explosive activity continues with little changes.

Cotopaxi (Ecuador): The volcano's activity remains low, with intermittent small ash emissions and continuous steaming. Weak glow can sometimes be observed at night. According to IGEPN, seismic activity remains moderately strong.

Tungurahua (Ecuador): Today and yesterday, the activity at the volcano has been lower and emissions much reduced, after a phase of near continuous degassing and ash venting, producing columns of up to 3 km height during 18-19 Nov. In this period, 1-6 mm of ash fell in areas to the NW, including Cotaló, Chacauco, Pillate, Chontapamba, Chonglontus, Cusua, Juive, and Bilbao where it caused significant damage to vegetation and some infrastructure.

Copahue (Chile/Argentina): An increase in activity occurred at the volcano during the past two days. Starting Thursday evening, a new pulse of volcanic tremor was detected and ash emissions began during the night Thu-Friday around 3 am. At 03:40, a larger explosive event and emission took place that produced a plume of ash rising approx. 1 km. Also, some incandescent material was seen ejected. Until now, mild ash emissions seem to continue as near-continuous.

Erta Ale (Ethiopia): The lava lake in the southern pit of the caldera, 30-40 meters in diameter, remains very active and approaches again levels close to overflowing the margins of the pit, being only a few meters below the floor of the caldera.