Volcanos

Roundup of Global Volcanic Activity

Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia): A series of small explosions occurred at the volcano yesterday. The first happened in the afternoon at 16:32 local time. The Manizales volcano observatory recorded a pulse in tremor and reported an ash plume that rose 1300 m above the summit. Similar explosions with ash emissions could be seen on webcam images at 18:15 and 18:40 (local time), before night obscured the view. No incandescence is visible from the crater. Light ash fall probably occurred in areas to the SW belonging to the departments of Quindío, Risaralda and Caldas.

Sangay (Ecuador): The Geophysical Institute (IGEPN) reported an increase in activity from the volcano since 5 March, when volcanic earthquakes started to become more frequent in number. Between 8 and 9 March, this activity picked up significantly and signs of small explosions (11 in total since 7 March) as well as small episodes of tremor appeared. This probably means that new magma has arrived to produce strombolian activity in the summit crater. A thermal anomaly visible on satellite data fits this interpretation well. Sangay is one of the country's most active volcanoes, but thanks to its very remote location on the southeast side of the Cordillera Real it is rarely visited and directly observed. However, there is evidence that it has been in semi-permanent activity since at least 1628. The last eruptive phase of the volcano had begun in January 2015 and lasted until mid April 2015. It produced two small lava flows that reached a few hundred meters below the central crater and moderately large ash plumes. No inhabited areas were affected (there are none very close either).