Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Etna (Sicily, Italy): After gradually increasing the already mentioned strombolian activity from Voragine during the evening of 2 Dec, it escalated into a short, but very violent phase of lava fountaining (paroxysm), with high lava fountains and an eruption column several kilometres high. The climax of the paroxysm occurred between 03:20 and 04:10 local time, (local time = -1) or so, when a sustained lava fountains reached heights of over 1km; some jets of hot material reached the height of 3 km above the summit of the volcano. The strombolian activity in the Voragine crater that started about a month ago has today increased its intensity. While until yesterday the explosions were too small to reach the top of the crater rim, now they are large enough to be seen from the various Etna webcams. Due to poor visibility the glow from Voragine was incorrectly attributed to the New SE crater earlier. The New SE crater however did show some weak ash emissions this afternoon.

Batu Tara (Sunda Islands, Indonesia): Impressions of strombolian and vulcanian activity from Batu Tara volcano observed during our recent expedition from 23-26 Nov 2015.

Erta Ale (Ethiopia): During our recent volcano expedition to the Danakil depression, we have observed the active lava lake of Erta Ale - which had been at very high level just a few meters before overflowing - for three continuous days (19-21 November 2015). Upon our arrival on the morning of the 19th, the lava lake was only about 2-3 m below us. Our local guide explained that the lava lake had been very active in the past few weeks and risen so highly for the first time since its overflow in late 2010. Standing on the rim of the active vent within the large Erta Ale caldera, we observed a second terrace no more than 1 m below us. The fresh black pahoehoe lava of this level had been erupted and solidified a few days before.